September 10, 2019

UOW expert commentary this week (10 - 14 September)

UOW academics provide expert comment, opinion and analysis on a range of ongoing and breaking news stories.

US-TALIBAN PEACE TALKS

Professor Theo Farrell is available for interviews about the collapse of peace talks between the US and Taliban. Prof Farrell is Professor and Executive Dean of Law, Humanities and the Arts at the University of Wollongong. Previously he was Dean of Arts and Social Sciences at City, University of London. Prof Farrell has published several books on military and strategic affairs.

 

WELFARE REFORM – DRUG TESTING

Dr Ben Mostyn can provide comment this week about plans to drug test welfare recipients. Dr Mostyn is an expert in drug law and policy. He opposed this idea when he made a submission to the Senate for the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Drug Testing) Bill 2018. He said of the 52 submissions only one was in favour of the trial. Dr Mostyn says forcing people to take drug tests and then forcing them into treatment against their will may contravene human rights laws.

 

ENTERPRISE BARGAINING REFORM

Professor Paul Gollan is available for interviews about employers calling for reform to enterprise bargaining after problems have plagued new agreements by Hungry Jack’s and Kmart. Prof Gollan is a Senior Professor of Management in the Faculty of Business.

 

BUSHFIRES

Dr Philip Zylstra can provide comment on fire burning areas of rainforest in Queensland. He is an expert in flammability and fire behaviour. Dr Zylstra is from the Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions.

 

Dr Robert Ogie can also speak about the importance of emergency communications for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. Dr Ogie has been working in collaboration with the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) on EmerCALD - a project to create tailored emergency warnings in languages that are best understood by CALD communities. Dr Ogie is from the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences.

 

MEDIA RESOURCES

The University of Wollongong has an in-house Globelynx camera for TV interviews. This means we can facilitate reliable, live and high-quality television interviews from our Wollongong campus.

 

MEDIA CONTACT

Kate Mayhew, UOW Media & Public Relations Coordinator

M: +61 475 388 887 | E: kmayhew@uow.edu.au 

UOW academics exercise academic freedom by providing expert commentary, opinion and analysis on a range of ongoing social issues and current affairs. This expert commentary reflects the views of those individual academics and does not necessarily reflect the views or policy positions of the University of Wollongong.