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Author: Tim Hutton

  • AUSTRALIA

    Accepting uncertainty

    • Tim Hutton
    • 21 October 2021
    6 Comments

    The pandemic has been a clear demonstration that science is a method, not an endpoint. It is an ongoing process of hypothesising, testing, and interpreting the results of those tests through public policy. Though the hypothesis may be accepted or rejected, these interpretations are unlikely to be absolutely definitive statements or recommendations and are usually made with varying degrees of certainty.

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  • EDUCATION

    What's the point of schooling?

    • Tim Hutton
    • 29 June 2021
    62 Comments

    The question being asked, however, is one that puts the cart before the horse. The question of ‘What do you want to see in the national curriculum?’ presupposes the answer to another question: What even is the purpose of schooling?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Actually, my illness does define me

    • Tim Hutton
    • 01 October 2020
    9 Comments

    For many people, illness has a narrative: a clear beginning, middle and end. If we’re lucky, the ending is actually a fresh start where the illness is gone and our hero is returned to normal life, changed but stronger because of their ordeals. In the lives of those with chronic illness, however, those lines are blurred; our descent into illness may have been gradual and there might be no end in sight.

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  • EDUCATION

    Teachers asked to turn on a dime

    • Tim Hutton
    • 14 April 2020
    17 Comments

    I don't want to sound too ungrateful, because there isn't a playbook for this scenario, but if all it took to build a passable digital schooling ecosystem was a week of hard work, we'd have done it long ago. We haven't been asked to turn on a dime, we've been asked to pirouette.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Australia is the perfect size to lead on climate

    • Tim Hutton
    • 17 January 2020
    9 Comments

    Around 40 per cent of the world's carbon emissions are produced by countries with similar outputs to Australia. Collectively these countries can make a significant difference if each reduces their carbon emissions. While Australia can make a difference as part of a collective, our real ability to effect change actually lies elsewhere.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Climate paralysis and Morrison's fall

    • Tim Hutton
    • 07 January 2020
    43 Comments

    Here is why the Morrison government was so slow off the mark: to acknowledge the unprecedented nature of these fires is to concede that there is something happening to the climate. The only way to downplay the reality of climate change, was to downplay the severity of the fires themselves.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Greenies and miners don't need to be at war

    • Tim Hutton
    • 08 November 2019
    6 Comments

    Miners are not the enemy. In fact, those who once worked in mining are key to implementing change. After all, renewable energy isn't going to build and maintain itself. Our coal-fired power stations are starting to reach the end of their life cycle, and many countries are rapidly divesting from coal. We owe it to our nation’s workers to plan for the future.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Nuclear push is about ideology, not solutions

    • Tim Hutton
    • 17 September 2019
    15 Comments

    The problem with the discussion about nuclear energy is that it is a distraction; an ideologically driven misdirection by those who are more concerned with opposing renewables and the 'green-left' than solving our country's energy problems. Nuclear just doesn't make sense for Australia at this stage of the game.

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  • EDUCATION

    Better conditions, not better pay, for teachers

    • Tim Hutton
    • 14 June 2019
    9 Comments

    It's a common cry among progressives that teachers should get paid more. In some instances, this is true. What is, however, more pressing are the poor working conditions that force teachers to choose between students and their own wellbeing and lead them to leave the profession in droves.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Do drug users deserve to die?

    • Tim Hutton
    • 18 March 2019
    8 Comments

    Maybe I'm just a bleeding-heart lefty, but I hope that most people would answer this question with a 'no'. Unfortunately, if you read the comment section of any news story on the recent spate of drug-related deaths at music festivals you will find a mixed response.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Movember lessons about being men

    • Tim Hutton
    • 27 November 2018
    2 Comments

    Movember has a clear goal: stop men dying too young. The foundation aims, in particular, to reduce preventable deaths resulting from prostate cancer, testicular cancer and suicide. While the goal is noble, Movember is also a sad reminder of a truth not universally acknowledged: men are often our own worst enemies.

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  • EDUCATION

    How our universities are failing new teachers

    • Tim Hutton
    • 12 October 2018
    8 Comments

    Data published by the ABC has revealed the shockingly low threshold for entry into tertiary teaching programs. On one hand, there are some legitimate concerns here. But the problem isn't with who gets accepted to university; it's with what happens to them while they are there.

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