Wikileaks - friend or foe of the public interest ?

Recent statements from the Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency describing Wikileaks as a 'non state hostile intelligence service' should not altogether be dismissed. A cursory review of the material released on the website reveals that the vast majority of the content constitutes intelligence leaks from Western democracies with no documents sourced from Russia or from China. There is some documentation about the Church of Scientology (but very old), some from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen but not much else in terms of other nation states with totalitarian regimes. Wikileaks is therefore quite biased in terms of what it releases or what it is able to obtain. Perhaps the potential threats from China and Russia, both of whom have counter-intelligence capability in cyber warfare is enough to deter Wikileaks from disclosures about those regimes or perhap's its more of a case of not biting the hand that feeds you.

Earth Hour 2017 - Saturday 25 March

Once again it's Earth Hour - continuing environmental awareness, now in its tenth year. From 8.30pm to 9.30 pm. In this age of energy consciousness, the relevance is greater than ever. The website link is: Earth Hour website

CRISPR - genetic engineering has arrived

                                                                                          Shutterstock

The ability to precisely alter, delete and rearrange the DNA of any living organism, including humans - once the realm of science fiction or futurists it has become a reality with the development of the biotechnology known as CRISPR or in its extended form, CRISPR-Cas9. The non abbreviated version is 'clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats' with the Cas9 part referring to a particular enzyme. CRISPR has a number of existing and potential applications such as:

• disease control and discovering the DNA sequences for viruses, thus opening the way for new treatments.
• influencing ecology by introducing disease-resistant genes into wild populations of parasitic insects reducing pathogen transmission to humans.
• adding climate and pest resistant characteristics into food crops.
• editing hereditary disease susceptible genes in humans.

CRISPR operates by using a cellular scalpel, an enzyme Cas9, to cut DNA. The enzyme is guided to its destination by a RNA guide that ensures that Cas9 cuts out the target nucleotides of DNA allowing the insertion of a different chain of nucleotides which were included in the CRISPR package. The potential changes as a result of this biotechnology are profound and in many cases hard to accurately foresee. Vectors for diseases could be genetically altered and rendered harmless (such as mosquitoes), food crops could be made climate change and pest resistant, threatened species of animals could be made hardier to survive and human hereditary health conditions prevented.

There are also dangers with this biotechnology - the risk of the unknown: for example, inadvertently shifting viruses and other pathogens from one species to another thus creating diseases for which there is no known protection or treatment. But will the advantages gained outweigh the risks ?

Mosquitoes - the threat expands with a warmer climate

The Summer warnings in NSW in early 2017 of the potential for an outbreak of Ross River Fever again underscores the risks posed by pathogens carried by mosquitoes who readily benefit from warmer and moister weather. Ross River Fever was first isolated in the Ross River region near Townsville, Queensland, over half a century ago. Since that time the condition has been identified as being fairly endemic across Australia in warmer regions and in near neighbouring countries such as Papua New Guinea. During periods of colder temperatures the risk is minimised as the carrier mosquitoes are limited in their breeding cycle however with milder temperatures, longer Summers and intense periods of storm activity with higher humidity, the mosquito's geographic range is expanded. Matched with a longer breeding season due to these same conditions, the propensity for greater disease outbreaks is very real.

Across the planet similar concerns are being expressed in relation to various species of mosquito which are vectors for a range of dangerous pathogens either endangering life or causing serious debilitating effects.  Only a handful of the known 3,500 species of mosquito feed on human blood and these are only female as male mosquitoes live off plants. This handful are, nonetheless, devastating in impact for diseases such as malaria alone kills over 400,000 people a year. The chief culprits are listed on the table below: 

Mosquito species	Pathogens carried
Aedes aegypti Found in cities, this species feeds almost exclusively from human blood.	Zika virus Chikungunya Yellow Fever Dengue Fever
Aedes albopictus An aggressive, adaptable species which can colonise the habitats of other mosquitoes.	Zika virus Chikungunya Dengue fever
Haemagogus A major carrier of yellow fever, they can be identified by their metallic sheen.	Yellow Fever
Anopheles This species has long front feelers and is the only genus that transmits malaria.	Malaria Lymphatic filariasis
Culex quinquefasciatus Common around the world, this species are night feeders and lay their eggs in dirty water.	Lymphatic filariasis West Nile fever

Zika virus has become the most recent addition to the list of dangerous pathogens in North and South  America but it is not alone. In Brazil, Mayaro, a monkey virus is now infecting people in the North West of that country as a result of mosquito transmission. As much of the debate on climate change focusses on energy generation and adaptation technology and design, an equal amount of effort is needed on examining the public health ramifications across a range of impacts. Ultimately these may have a much earlier effect.

Australia Post - how much are its Executives worth ?

Following the revelation that the remuneration of the now departed Chief Executive of Australia Post, Ahmed Fahour, was $5.6M, the organisation has released a remuneration report showing that three other current executives of the organisation also earn over $1M per annum.  A fourth who has since retired earned $1.2 M per annum. These are staggering amounts for a Public Sector agency and are greater than salaries and benefits paid to Heads of Commonwealth  Departments and State Government Departments.  The CEO of Australia Post was revealed to be highest paid head of a Postal agency in the world.  

Australia Post Executives earning more than $1M per annum

Name	Base salary and fees	Short term incentives	Non- monetary benefits	Superannuation	Total $
Chris Blake	781,514	521,500	-	19,308	1,322,322
Robert Black	883,426	585,000	-	19,308	1,497,734
Christine Corbett	767,305	677,500	-	82.350	1,527,155
Ahmed Fahour	1,971,152	2,342,933	73,985	1,239829	5,627,959

 Two other Executives earned well over $900,000 per annum.

These remuneration levels stand in stark contrast to the performance of Australia Post with a rising tide of complaints received by the Commonwealth Ombudsman which also has had the role of Postal Industry Ombudsman since 2006. Delivery issues account for 30% of all complaints regarding Australia Post with failure to deliver, failure to use safe drop procedures and failure to obtain a signature on delivery being the main concerns. With rapidly declining retail surface mail business, the public are right to ask why the level of Executive remuneration is so high and why was the Federal Government been caught so flat footed. If this situation had occurred in an ASX listed company, the shareholders would have had an opportunity to vote down the remuneration report - a device which general taxpayers in contrast do not have.

Does the definition of nascent dictator fit Trump ?

Donald J Trump - President of the United States

Much has been said and projected with comparisons between Donald J Trump and the Great Dictators of the first half of the 20th Century (Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Franco and to a degree, Chiang Kai-shek). The characteristics and circumstances are very different between the 21st Century United States and the countries where each of these leaders arose. In the case of Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain and China, a monarchical system had been displaced or was disappearing as a result of the Great War or internal civil war and new institutions were struggling to gain a foothold in the new nation. Substantial economic disruption had commensurately occurred as a result of this conflict which included the after effects following the end of World War I. The Great Depression also ensured the tearing of the social fabric in each country. There is no comparison with the United States in 2016 and 2017 which has none of these characteristics.

The Great Dictators were far more a product of their era than Trump. Each of them also galvanized and gave voice to the political structures which they led. The Nazi Party, the Italian Fascists, the Communist Party of Russia, the Nationalists of China  and the Nationalists of Spain were partly or totally designed by their leaders. The Republican Party in the United States is not a product of Trump and both they and he, are almost functioning independent of each other (for now).

So although Trump tries to control the media, makes promises to build walls, rattles sabres on defence, tries to alter trade negotiations, etc he does so with the other arms of Government (the Legislature and the Judiciary) fully functional. There is no Enabling Act or equivalent which cedes him power from the Legislature which was a feature of the early 20th Century in Europe.

Annual General Meetings - Corporate Australia's itch

Under the Australian Corporations Act, public companies are required to have Annual General Meetings annually and no later than 5 months after the end of the financial year. It's not surprising that in October 2016, the Australian Institute of Company Directors [AICD] issued a checklist of possible questions which might arise from the floor of Annual General Meetings of Australian companies.  A raft of negative media stories about the franchising sector, (many of which are part of publicly listed companies) Board and executive remuneration and increasing class action litigations have left many companies working overtime to deflect public criticism.

So what did the AICD recommend as a question checklist ?

Of the 21 major questions suggested, 15 were on Chief Executive remuneration, 3 on Board remuneration and 3 on Board diversity. It's plain to see where the main focus of attention was directed. Questions included  were: Why is the CEO's remuneration so high when the company's performance over the last 3 years has not shown any significant improvement ? What has the CEO done to deserve the "bonus" you have paid him or her ? Why is the new CEO paid more than the previous CEO ?

The AICD also pays considerable attention to question involving the proportion of Short Term Incentives (STI) and Long Term Incentives (LTI) included in CEO contracts. Quite often a higher proportion of bonus payments have been placed in the STI category not the LTI one. In contrast, the Australian Shareholders Association continues to argue that greater incentives, such as share options should be placed in the long term incentive category to prevent CEOs making short term focused decisions (such as asset sales) giving the impression that a company is doing well when in fact, its normal operating results are poor. Perhaps the AICD would be better placed to ask companies to do some self examination to determine why these type of questions are necessary in the first place.