ON THE WALLABY- 20th January 2006

”Economic rationalists often label people as human resources, assets, intellectual capital and so on. They fail to recognise that people are individuals and deserve to be treated as such. A $1 coin has the same value as any $1 coin. People are different” – Dr Allan Hawke Chancellor of the Australian National University

PEOPLE AND THE RECOGNITION THAT THEY ARE NOT COMMODITIES

I read with great interest, and agreement, with Doctor Hawke’s comment reproduced above for in my keynote address of “Success starts with a Dream” ,it is a point that I also make strongly.

All too often in these days of pressure cooker commercialism and the “dog eat dog” attitude that is all too prevalent in business, people as such are either overlooked or dismissed.

Admiral Grace Hopper USN (Ret’d), the lady who brought the huge US Navy into the computer era some 5 decades ago, once said “You don’t manage people. You manage things. You lead people”.

Truer words were never said and yet business proprietor or manager, one after each other, treat their people as “things” and then wonder why they never attain goals they have set.

My friend and mentor, Sergio Carlos Maresca, once described leadership to me as “having others do what you want for their reasons” and it is one of my big goals for this year, both on and off the speaking platform, to try and convince more and more business people of the errors of their way in this area.

Time and time again, when having meetings with business people, I ask them what various employees interests are, about their families etc, I am met with “dunno” and yet on the other hand they expect these same people to work their clackers off to make more money for them, the bosses.

With no knowledge of what makes their employees tick, is it any wonder that many flounder and never attain their full potential?

DAVID HICKS – WHEN WILL THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT HAVE THE GUTS TO SAY ”ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”

I don’t know if David Hicks, now in his fifth year of imprisonment as Guatanamo Bay in Cuba, is guilty or not. Quite frankly, that is for the Court to decide but that Court must be above board and be transparent in its decision making which, to my way of thinking, the Military Commission certainly will not be.

How our Federal Government can just sit there whilst an Australian citizen, with that supercilious smirk that regularly crosses Attorney General Phillip Ruddock’s face, is an absolute disgrace.

The British Government had their citizen out ages ago and yet “we” sit by whilst an Australian bloke spends Five years, much of it apparently in solitary confinement in that gaol!

What were you doing five years ago from the time you are reading this OTW? How would you like to have spent that time, without charge (the initial charge was thrown out by the US Supreme Court), sitting in an 8’ by 8’ wire cage with little or no outside contact?

David Hicks attorney, US Marine Major Michael Mori, deserves enormous credit for how he has, I would think, put his military career well and truly on the block over his defence of his client. I just wish Howard and Co had the same courage!

VALE SIR JAMES KILLEN KCMG – A MAN WHOSE TYPE IS FAST FADING FROM POLITICS

Yesterday saw the State funeral in Brisbane of a man I have long admired in Sir James Killen KCMG, a former Liberal Party Federal Minister.

His funeral was attended by no less that 3 former Prime Ministers (Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke), the current Prime Minister (John Howard), a former Governor General in Bill Hayden and the current Governor General Major General Michael Jeffries.

So what brought these political opponents together to honour this man?

Simple really.

Jim Killen was a man of conviction and compassion and whilst his and my views on the Republic issue are 180 degrees apart ( I am for one, he was against), he held strong views on the power and stature of Parliament as an institution and railed against the growth of Executive Power in this country.

He was an Orator of the “old school”, like Gough Whitlam, former NZ Prime Minister David Lange and others of that ilk, and when he spoke, people listened.

None of this whimpy “read from the pages” stuff. When Killen rose, it came flowing forth, straight from the heart and given his upbringing in the Darling Downs wheat town of Dalby, his employment as a jackeroo knocking about Queensland as a young man followed by his service with the RAAF in the Second World War , it is easy to see why he was the man he was.

Sadly, his ilk is fast disappearing from Parliament to be replaced by, in the main, plain and colourless men and women who simply “talk the talk”, look for the 30 second TV grab and hope to retire with a nice superannuation payout.

Where are the characters???

Carpe diem

Tony

Tony Fountain

Professional Speaker, auctioneer and author

Sydney NSW Australia

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