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Tanya Monro: “I’d always loved maths. From a very young age I saw it as patterns and beauty.”

This woman is using science to defend us – but she can’t talk about it

After a stellar career as an academic researcher, Professor Tanya Monro now heads Canberra’s top-secret Defence Science and Technology Group.

  • Julie Hare
Jasmine Werneburg says doing the international baccalaureate was more academically rigorous than her university degree.

Poor kids who choose the IB do better than rich kids who don’t: study

Jasmine Werneberg says the International Baccalaureate she did at high school was more academically rigorous than her business-law degree at university.

  • Julie Hare

Government contracts on the line if gender targets not met

Companies like BAE Systems, Microsoft, SAP and the big consulting firms stand to lose billions in government contracts if they can’t prove they’re meeting targets.

  • Hannah Wootton

Bosses want upskilled workforce? Pay your way, says Suncorp

Employers haven’t thrown enough into staff skills development and paid time must be allotted to boost productivity, chairwoman Christine McLoughlin says.

  • Liam Walsh

Crackdown on ultra-early uni offers in Year 12 to boost enrolments

Universities have been told they have to rein in the practice of making early offers of a guaranteed place to Year 12 students.

  • Julie Hare

Unions’ 5pc wage claim will keep interest rates high: business

Employers say the ACTU’s bid for a 5 per cent increase is “an open letter to the RBA to keep interest rates higher for longer”, while economists warn it will have an inflationary effect.

  • David Marin-Guzman

Recent columns

Drug use at work isn’t biohacking. It’s workaholism

Even if anecdote-driven reports oversell the problem, it’s clear that the “just say no” and “this is your brain on drugs” eras are a relic of the past.

Sarah Green Carmichael

Contributor

Independence isn’t the power the ‘directorati’ would have us believe

The irony is the skills needed to secure invitations to join boards from the king- and queen-makers of corporate Australia are the antithesis of what’s required to monitor and test management.

Gabriel Radzyminski

CIO Sandon Capital

Gabriel Radzyminski

Lee rebukes TWU’s monopoly

The court cases involving Uber and Qantas raised different questions about legalised business and union monopolies.

The AFR View

Editorial

The AFR View

Unions target small business through women

Inflexibility over work hours and the right to disconnect will hit women and their small business employers the hardest of all.

Amanda Rose

Women's advocate

Amanda Rose
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This Month

Why this CEO is happy to admit he is ‘not particularly smart’

Intrepid Travel chief James Thornton says he did “OK” at school and isn’t that smart. But he was CEO by the age of 35.

  • Sally Patten and Lap Phan
Cindy Nguyen, 19, says high quality careers advice turned her on to mechanical engineering as her future career.

Study shows why kids drop out of school

Schools need to respond to early warning signs and provide individualised support if high school dropout rates are to be averted, a study says.

  • Julie Hare
ACTU secretary Sally McManus argues 5 per cent will not affect inflation given CPI declined after last year’s record-high increase.

Union push for 5pc minimum wage rise sets up pay showdown

ACTU secretary Sally McManus will argue the pay claim for 2.9 million workers will not drive up inflation.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Andrew McKellar said the commission needed to correct errors in past decisions.

Keep minimum wage rise to 2pc, says employer group

Business group ACCI will argue that the Fair Work Commission overcompensated for inflation last year with its record high minimum wage rise and must correct it.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Former Cranbrook headmaster Nicholas Sampson has hired a top silk.

Emails revealed as ousted Cranbrook head hires top silk

If Cranbrook governing council thought a quick resignation from headmaster Nicholas Sampson would bring about a swift end to its media agony, it was wrong.

  • Kylar Loussikian and Julie Hare
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Melbourne University

Economist sacked for student misconduct sues university over ‘ageism’

A 68-year-old professor accused of inappropriate behaviour with a student at the University of Melbourne has claimed he was fired because he was “decades older” than her.

  • David Marin-Guzman

Australia’s highest-paid directors revealed

Women now account for more than 30 per cent of directors on ASX 200 companies – but they still don’t perform as well as their male colleagues in the money stakes.

  • Updated
  • Patrick Durkin
Difficult coworkers undermining you in meetings is not an uncommon occurrence.

Too many meetings stalling your work? Here’s what you can do

More than half the respondents in a survey say they do catch-up work at nights because of the amount of time spent on attending meetings each day.

  • Euan Black

Teals back cutting HECS indexation

Independent MPs are pushing for reform of the student loans system ahead of the May budget.

  • Julie Hare
Solai Valliappan, partner at venture capital firm Scale Investors

How this actuary became a venture capitalist

Welcome to our new AFR series featuring professionals who have made a big career leap into the unknown.

  • Tess Bennett
Employers are seeking a new classification of worker in service industries such as hospitality.

Business seeks new category of part-time worker

A peak employer group has proposed a new “flexible ongoing employee” where part-timers in hospitality and retail would be paid more to get rostered at their boss’ discretion.

  • Updated
  • David Marin-Guzman
Catherine Livingstone

Slash nine-year terms, end gender box-ticking: Livingstone

Catherine Livingstone has called for six-year terms for directors to help refresh boardrooms and urged a focus on diversity beyond the usual box-ticking metrics such as gender.

  • Patrick Durkin and Hannah Wootton
Kester Black founder Anna Ross.

Equity traps in the growing pool of share schemes

Anna Ross crowdfunded capital to get her beauty empire off the ground, but some small-time investors have become desperate to get their money back.

  • Patrick Durkin
Canva’s Charlotte Anderson says dropping degree requirements from job ads has helped the software giant hire more people from diverse backgrounds.

No degree required: Canva, WiseTech and Culture Amp’s new workforce

Companies are relaxing or eliminating such qualifications from their job ads to access deeper talent pools.

  • Euan Black
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Best career advice? ‘Get some feathers on your wings’

Damien Nicks, the chief executive of giant electricity and gas supplier AGL Energy, answers our CEO Q&A.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
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Aged care

RBA to watch for ‘spillover’ from aged care pay rise

Michele Bullock will be alert to the effects from the “very worthy” 14 per cent wage increase but says this is unlikely to shift forecasts for inflation.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Bupa launched a nine-day fortnight trial a month after Medibank started experimenting with a four-day week.

Hundreds of workers trial nine-day fortnight at Bupa

Private health insurer Bupa has joined the growing ranks of white-collar employers experimenting with a nine-day fortnight.

  • Euan Black

Drug use at work isn’t biohacking. It’s workaholism

Even if anecdote-driven reports oversell the problem, it’s clear that the “just say no” and “this is your brain on drugs” eras are a relic of the past.

  • Sarah Green Carmichael
NAB chairman Phil Chronican has warned of conflicts of interest.

Independence isn’t the power the ‘directorati’ would have us believe

The irony is the skills needed to secure invitations to join boards from the king- and queen-makers of corporate Australia are the antithesis of what’s required to monitor and test management.

  • Gabriel Radzyminski

How this CEO cuts hour-long meetings to just five minutes

Justin Graham of advertising firm M&C Saatchi also says he wants to compete on Survivor, but suspects he might be thrown off the reality TV show early.

  • Sally Patten and Lap Phan