Andrew Leigh

I wrote a column for the Chronicle newspaper recently on the rollout of the National Broadband Network.

Superfast Broadband
The Chronicle

I was 11 years old when I bought my first computer. It was 1984, and the machine was an Aquarius. It had rubber keys, a cassette tape drive, and 3.5 kilobytes of memory. I used it to write simple programs in the BASIC language. Later that year, I upgraded to a VIC-20, with a whopping 5 kilobytes of memory. At about this time, Sydney Morning Herald computer editor Gareth Powell said that there was no advantage to any program in going beyond 16 kilobytes of memory.

The fact is, we’re not particularly good at forecasting where technology will take us. When I sent my first emails in 1996, they were text-only. In fact, most of us thought that email would be like the telegrams that previous generations had used, just faster and cheaper. Today, photos and video comprise most of the traffic flowing around the globe. Emails of 16 kilobytes or larger arrive in my inbox every few minutes.

So it’s little wonder that some critics of the National Broadband Network can’t imagine it as being anything more than a way getting faster access to YouTube and Facebook. Unfortunately, this just repeats the same mistake as previous decades: failing to imagine how a new technology will transform life and work.

The government’s current plan is to provide 93 percent of households with speeds of 100 megabytes per second. But in a recent trial of the network at Broken Hill, we saw speeds of 100 gigabytes per second: one-thousand times faster than hoped for.

But even at 100 megabytes per second, it will be possible to use the internet in fundamentally new ways. As anyone who has used Skype on a current connection will know, the jerky picture is better than nothing, but hardly ideal. The NBN will enable high-definition video-conferencing: letting patients speak with a medical specialist from home, allowing students to participate in distance learning from afar, and permitting teleworkers to participate in team meetings while working from home.

Starting in Gungahlin, the NBN will be progressively rolled out across the ACT over the next few years. We can’t predict all the ways it will transform our society for the better, but I expect that within a few decades, I’ll look back on today’s internet with the same wry amusement that I look at my old Aquarius.

Andrew Leigh is the federal member for Fraser. For more information on the timing of the NBN rollout, see www.nbnco.com.au.

Pat Boldra from Friends of Plan Australia has asked me to let you know about their charity art and craft show, which I'm happy to do... even though it's a smidgin south of the electorate.

Our charity art and craft show which will be held at the Weston Creek Community  Hall on 25th-27th November? Each year the Friends of Plan Canberra group selects a Plan overseas aid project to support with all funds raised from our efforts.  So far we have raised over $2,500 this year towards clean water and improved sanitation in East Timor and we are well on the way to raising another $2,000 from the art and craft show and raffle of paintings donated by a local artist, Eleanor Inns.  The Ambassador for East Timor, His Excellency Abel Guterres, has agreed to open the show at 6pm on Friday 25th November and the raffle for Eleanor's paintings will be drawn at 3pm on the last day of the show, Sunday 27th.  In-between we will have on sale art and craft by local people in support of the project, much of it ideal as Christmas gifts.

With summer nigh upon us, it's a good chance to hold a summer street party. And to make it easy, here's a template:

This year, we’re holding a summer street party, to get to know the neighbourhood.

Our address is: _______________________________

Time: _______________________________

Date: _______________________________

RSVP by phoning: _______________________________

Please bring something to eat or something to drink.

We look forward to seeing you there.

To hold your own street party, just fill in the blanks on this template invitation and pop it in the letterbox of people in your street. There are plenty of ways to tailor it - one thing we've done is to look up the person after whom the street is named in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and tell your neighbours a bit about how much that person loved socialising with friends.

In the final chapter of Disconnected, one of the things that I advocate is 'reclaiming the footpaths', as a way of building civic connectedness. Reading this passage, local resident Neville Hurst sent me a delightful account of his regular walks around Lake Ginninderra. He's given me permission to post it here.

WALKING
By Neville Hurst

Walking is one of the great privileges of life – just ask anybody who has lost the ability, whether permanently or temporarily, to walk easily.  For those who have the good fortune to be able to “take a walk”, it is still freely available, not yet commodified.

Like many others, I am committed to a regular walk.  Every Saturday morning – no shirking because of the odd cyclone or heatwave – I walk around Lake Ginninderra; a comfortable canter of about 7 km.

The benefits are manifold.

The most obvious is physical.  Just to move freely after a confined week is a joy.  I can vary my speed, responding to how my body reacts, sometimes coasting and sometimes pressing harder.  I can be overcome by a feeling of atavism -–as if I were a hunter setting out for a foray.  And then reality takes over – an elderly, effete modern man pretending to physical capability that his muscles tell him he doesn’t have.

The Lake Ginninderra walk is an environmental cornucopia – through open bushland, round the natural peninsula, over the two bridges, reluctantly passing the coffee shop, past the buildings at the southern end and finishing by the parkland.  Each week is different – when it is freezing, the lake may be steaming in the sunlight, fallen trees appear from time to time, the wattle stands come suddenly into bloom, the old “Sizzlers” transmutes into a modern Thai restaurant.  Sometimes hot-air balloons sneak quietly in to land, and I can watch the people struggle out of the basket.  I have to come to terms with major changes – a large apartment complex to the south west, and a new housing development near Ginninderra Drive; but the overall integrity of the circuit is not threatened.

The interaction with people is a highlight.  Early on a Saturday morning, there is a well-defined culture of Lake “encirclers”.  We all know that we are engaged in a serious, albeit enjoyable, enterprise.  This culture has its structure – at the pinnacle are the cyclists who whizz past, sometimes ringing their bells and sometimes not, without any acknowledgment of the lesser breeds.  Then there are the runners – some very good (for example, Phil McGilvray) and others clearly struggling; they all tend to be self-absorbed.  It is the fellow-walkers that I warm to, again a variable tribe – groups of women, individuals with dogs or pushing prams, lone individuals like myself.  I make more contact with strangers in this hour than throughout the rest of the week.  There is a real art in exchanging greetings – one must look elsewhere until one gets within about three metres, and then one is entitled to make eye-contact and essay a cheerful “Good morning”; only rarely is it not returned.  When passing somebody walking in the same direction, the etiquette seems to be to keep quiet; there may be some deep-seated concern not to be seen as gloating!

I could write a monograph on the etiquette of social contact while walking.  Hardly a PhD thesis, but perhaps a tract.

And then there is the opportunity for thinking.  I can choose the themes as the mood takes me:  one day it might be theology, another football.  The regular “one-two” movement helps to put a structure on problems that might have seemed difficult up till then.

More fancifully, one can think of the circuit of the lake as an allegory for life.  The start is all  eagerness, re-learning just as a child does the skills from the week before.  Soon, one is in the thick of things, at the peak of performance and looking forward to the challenges ahead.  Then, tiredness gradually takes over, and the last kilometre or two can be a real challenge.  When the end comes, it is a relief.  Even the car ride home can fit into this allegory - the magic chariot that translates one away towards a heightened reality.

However, it is really just a walk.  But it is a marvellous privilege available to us here in Canberra, and one that everybody who can should consider engaging in .  I wish I had started thirty years ago when the Lake was opened - I guess I’ll just have to plan for the next thirty.

I'm holding a foreign aid forum in the Griffin Centre at 12.30pm today (details). In that spirit, here's a column I wrote recently for the local Chronicle newspaper.

Overseas Volunteering Benefits Canberra Too
The Chronicle

Some kids who grow up with parents in the military refer to themselves as ‘army brats’. As a child whose parents worked on AusAID projects, I like to think of myself as an ‘aid brat’. Living in Banda Aceh, in the north of Indonesia, I had the experience of being the only white kid in the class, appreciating the generosity of local villagers, and seeing the indignity of poverty. As your federal MP, they’re memories I regularly draw upon.

On 28 September, I had the chance to farewell the latest crop of Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development on behalf of Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd. The AYADs are leaving to work for a year in a developing country. Headed for countries such as East Timor, Cambodia, and the Solomon Islands, they’ll be doing everything from teaching school children to building houses.

Having helped raise living standards abroad, our overseas volunteers will come home to enrich Australia. This tradition goes back to the pioneer of Australia’s international volunteering programs, Herb Feith, who worked in Indonesia in the 1950s. A Jewish refugee from Austria, Herb was the kind of person for whom volunteering was part of a life fully lived. In Indonesia, he rode a bicycle and ate simply.

Returning home, Herb wrote to the Australian Prime Minister and Indonesian President suggesting the establishment of an international volunteering program. In 1952, when the bilateral agreement was signed, Herb was just 22 years old. Later on, he was active in campaigns to abolish the White Australia Policy, and to encourage deeper engagement with Asia. I like to think that Herb is one of the reasons that my eldest son attends a primary school where he will learn Indonesian.

If you’d like to volunteer abroad, check out www.ausaidvolunteers.gov.au. Whether you’re a tradesperson, an entrepreneur, or fresh out of school, there’s a volunteering opportunity that’s right for you.

When volunteers return, all of us in Canberra benefit from their new skills and ideas. One of the things I love about Canberra is our internationalism. Ours is a city where your local school’s Mandarin teacher may have worked in Shanghai, your local travel doctor may have practiced in Hanoi, and the worker who supports newly arrived refugees may have lived in Rangoon. International volunteering supports the maxim ‘Charity begins at home – but doesn’t end there.’

Andrew Leigh is the federal member for Fraser.

One of the things that many people don't realise about academic economics is how slowly the research pipeline moves. Since leaving the ANU in July 2010, virtually my only research activity has been to revise a few papers for publication, incorporating referee comments. Yet in 2011, I've had half a dozen papers appear in journals (partial list here), and there will be probably be a few more in 2012.

However, there is one new piece of research I've done, which comes out of a keynote talk I gave for an economics of education conference in Munich, organised by Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessman. It gave me the chance to survey the burgeoning literature on the economics and politics of teacher merit pay.

I'll be giving a talk tonight at the Grattan Institute, drawing on the paper. In case you're interested, here's a copy. Feedback most welcome (particularly if it sparks off the content of the paper, rather than just the title).

A few links that have caught my fancy lately.

Eclectic

• Malcolm Gladwell on Steve Jobs' real genius (HT: DH)


• Adam Gopnik on decline (and Thomas Friedman, and the Republicans)


• A sister's eulogy for Steve Jobs (warning: you may cry)


• A special issue of Social Science Quarterly on genetic research


• Mark Kleinman on crime & enforcement


• The merits of birth control


• Bowling Alone but Tweeting Together (I disagree with the conclusion, but love the title)

Education

• A long-run view of Australia's university gender gap


• A critical view of financial education


• The long-run effect of being conscripted to fight for Australia in Vietnam - evidence from random lotteries


• Smarter ways to learn languages


• Diversity and public goods - evidence from France (HT: NG)


• Napster didn't diminish the quality of pop music

Politics

• Damien Hickman on politics and parenthood


• Bad policy wrapped in a 'security' blanket


• George Megalogenis on lupine leadership (HT: DA)


• How lasting is voter gratitude?


• The economics of determining the PM's party


• In Argentina, more government advertising means less coverage of corruption scandals

Environment

• The social costs of carbon


• A splendid analysis of the economics of energy (HT: DG)


• Climate change and mortality

Economics

• How do house prices affect the decision to have a baby?


• The effect of bottle deposit laws on income


• The regressivity of Herman Cain's tax plan


• The impact of road spending and public transport spending on congestion


• The Keynes-Hayek rap (I could mention that the Hayekian script writers omit to include a recession, but that'd be churlish)


• A 'Productivity Masterclass' from two Productivity Commission researchers

Development

• A mega-review of schooling and development


• What's become of AusAID's ODE?


• Low-emissions development


• Bill Whittaker on better HIV prevention (HT: BB)

I spoke last night to the fundraising dinner of the Australian Orangutan Project.

Australian Orangutan Project ACT Annual Dinner
11 November 2011

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet tonight. I'd also like to recognise the real expert here tonight: primatologist Colin Groves. Thank you to Therese Lewis for the invitation to address this group.

It’s quite well known that great apes have an impressively sophisticated system of language.

Chimps, gorillas, and of course orangutans are all capable of communicating complex ideas to one another, and often to humans, through vocalisations and through body language.

For example, a gentle tap on another’s hand is a direction to stop. An invitation to play is expressed by a gentle bite, a somersault, a tug or the hair, or a raspberry.

Indeed, some of this behaviour doesn’t sound so different to Question Time.

When I received the very kind invitation from the Australian Orangutan Project to speak tonight, I thought I should read some more about the wonderful animals your organisation is working tirelessly to protect.

In doing so, I learnt that it’s not just ‘talking’ which makes orang-utans so special and so relatable.

Research findings don't just reveal how apes communicate  -  they also shed light on the origins of human speech millions of years ago.

It has been found that orangutans respond to being tickled with soft squeals – leading some researchers too suggest that this behaviour may be the ‘evolutionary root of human laughter’.

In Malay, orang means "person" and utan is derived from hutan, which means "forest”, so orangutan literally means "person of the forest”

We share a massive 97 per cent of our DNA with great apes.  Orangutans are highly intelligent and are able to reason through problems and use basic tools.

Orangutans have been observed making simple tools to scratch themselves. They also use leafy branches to shelter themselves from rain and sun, and sometimes even drape large leaves over themselves like a poncho.

They have also been observed using branches as tools during insect foraging, honey collection, and protection against stinging insects, and to “fish” for branches or fruit that is out of reach.

In Sumatra wild orangutans use tools to extract seeds from a hard shelled species of fruit. In captivity an orangutan was taught to chip a stone handaxe.

Orangutans can live for over 60 years, and that a baby orang-utan with spend at least the first 6  years of its life clinging to its mother while she searches for food – a challenge the parents here tonight may be able to sympathise with.

Such prolonged association between mother and offspring is rare among mammals. Probably only humans have a more intensive relationship with their mothers. Primatologists believe that orangutans have such long “childhoods” because there is so much that they need to learn before they can live alone successfully.

Young orangutans learn almost everything from their mothers, including: where to find food, what to eat and how to eat it (sometimes this involves using special tools), and how to build a proper sleeping nest. Also, mothers probably protect young orangutans from predators such as clouded leopards and pythons in Borneo, and tigers in Sumatra.

Reserachers from the University of St Andrews have found that orang-utans in were able to learn to exchange tokens to food, grasping the basic concept of trade. Two orangutans - Bim and Dok - who live in Leipzig Zoo, Germany, were especially good at helping each other.

Initially, they were given several sets of tokens, and learned the value of the different types.

An animal could exchange one type for bananas for itself, another type could be used to gain bananas for a partner, and a third had no value.

Initially, Dok, the female, was especially good at swapping tokens to get bananas for Bim, the male. Sometimes Bim would point at the tokens to encourage her.

But he was less interested in trading tokens that would win bananas for her. As she became less willing to help him out, Bim responded by trading more and more, until their efforts were more or less equal.

Apparently, this research marks the first evidence of "calculated reciprocity" in non-human primates.

But it seems the most amazing characteristics are apparent when orang-utans are living in their natural environments. Earlier this year, a team of anthropologists in the UK found that orangutans have the ability to learn socially, and to  and pass lessons down through generations — evidence that culture in humans and great apes has the same evolutionary roots.

We know that, with humans, certain behavioural innovations tend to get passed down from generation to generation through generation. This trans-generational teaching and learning is the basis for the cultural development of a society, and it used to be considered one of the key factors that differentiates us from other animals.

About a decade ago, however, biologists observing great apes started noticing variations in behaviour based on geographical differences. This suggests that the apes were passing down certain innovations, just as humans do, creating distinct sub-cultures within ape communities.

In parts of Borneo, for example, orangutans use handfuls of leaves as napkins to wipe their chins, while orangutans in parts of Sumatra use leaves as gloves, helping them handle spiny fruits and branches, or as seat cushions in spiny trees.

Traveling around the forest and obtaining food is the main activity that orang utans engage in during the daytime. Some time ago it was suggested that they memorise knowledge of their habitats – and use this knowledge for travel, like a map.

They travel by swinging and often use the back-and-forth oscillation of the tree until they can catch another tree.

Deciding and following a potential route through a multitude of trees is a very difficult task. This is especially true for males who are quite heavy – the choice of a wrong tree would result in a fall and serious injury.

So to be successful in their travels they need to take the right decisions about which trees to use and which ones to avoid, pointing to a clear ability to plan ahead.

Yet disturbingly, there are fewer than 50 000 Bornean orangutans left in the wild today, and less than 7000 Sumatran orangutans.

Felling of forests for crop development, as well as degradation stemming from fire and drought, means that the habitat of the orangutans is rapidly diminishing. Left unchecked, extinction in the wild is likely in the next 10 years for Sumatran Orangutans, and not longer after for Bornean Orangutans.

The Australian Government currently funds  programs addressing deforestation in South-East Asia, and assists developing countries with sustainable agriculture techniques.

It’s heartening to know that organisations such as the Australian Orangutan Project are doing so much for this worthy cause, though supporting orangutan conservation, rainforest protection and reintroduction of orphans in order to save the species from extinction.

The work of the Australian Orangutan Project also has a great many flow-on effects that both protect other Critically Endangered Species, like Sumatran tigers, elephants and rhinos, while working with the as indigenous communities in the remaining rainforest in Borneo and Sumatra.

So I’d like to thank the Australian Orangutan Project for inviting me tonight – you’ve brought a fascinating creature to my attention, and you’ve alerted me to the real challenges that they face. Congratulations on your achievements to date and I wish you the very best with your continuing conservation efforts – your hard work and passion for this cause is inspiring.

Sources:

• “Orangutan culture develops like human culture” - Wired UK: Olivia Solon: 24 October 2011


• “The ape dictionary: How our cousins use 40 gestures to communicate” - Daily Mail: David Derbyshire: 18th June 2010


• “Orangutans most energy efficient primate” - ABC Science – Discovery News: 3 August 2010: Jennifer Viegas


• “Human Laughter Echoes Chimp Chuckles” - Wired News: Lizzie Buchen : 6 June 2009


• “Orangutans learn to trade favours” - BBC News Science: 24 December 2008


• http://www.orangutan.org.au/orangutan-facts


• http://www.orangutans.com.au/


• http://www.orangutan.org/orangutan-facts/orangutan-behavior


• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-562236/Orangutan-attempts-hunt-fish-spear.html

Thanks to Claire Daly for her assistance preparing the speech.

The 'new fellows' induction into the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia on Tuesday was a fascinating affair, conducted in the Harry Potter-esque surroundings of ANU's Great Hall. I particularly enjoyed the chance to re-connect with my former politics teacher Lisa Hill, who works on compulsory voting and Adam Smith.

And in an interesting coincidence, it turns out that because ASSA was formed in 1971, I'm the only current fellow who's younger than the Academy. (A fact that's sure to be overturned soon, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.)

The Prime Minister announced today that the Government will provide $2 billion to deliver a pay rise to the social and community service sector. It's worth having a look at Julia Gillard's excellent speech announcing the equal pay commitment.

ACT COMMUNITY SERVICE WORKERS CLOSER TO EQUAL PAY

 

Federal Labor representatives for the ACT, Senator Kate Lundy, Gai Brodtmann and Dr Andrew Leigh, today welcomed the announcement that more than 3,000 ACT workers in the social and community sector are a step closer to achieving equal pay after the Gillard Government announced it will provide $2 billion to deliver an historic pay rise to workers in the sector.

“These workers, many of them women, are in critical jobs caring for people with disabilities, counselling families in crisis, running homeless shelters and working with victims of domestic or sexual assault,” Ms Brodtmann said.

“They make a difference every day and deserve to be properly rewarded for their efforts.

“This historic commitment from the Government will help 150,000 Australians, including 120,000 women, achieve the equal pay they deserve.”

The Gillard Government will submit a joint proposal with the Australian Services Union to Fair Work Australia which, if accepted, will help close the pay gap between men and women and fund the Government’s fair share of wage increases for workers in the social and community services sector.

Nearly two thirds of community sector workers have post-school qualification, compared to just over half of workers in other industries, yet the average full time wage is just over $46,000 per year, compared to the average wage of $58,000.

Senator Lundy said the Government’s announcement will help deliver an historic pay rise to workers in the community sector, including more than 3000 people in the Australian Capital Territory.

“Workers in the industry have long been undervalued because their work has traditionally been seen as being associated exclusively with women,” Senator Lundy said.

“In 2011, it is unacceptable that women in full-time work earn on average one fifth less than men. This means that over the course of a calendar year women work nearly seven weeks for free.

“The Gillard Government is committed to achieving a fair outcome for workers in this sector whose work has long been undervalued.”

Dr Andrew Leigh said workers in organisations like Canberra Rape Crisis Centre will benefit from the Government’s proposal.

“Community service workers such as those at Canberra Rape Crisis Centre are delivering critical services to vulnerable Australians who need it most,” Dr Leigh said.

“If the Government’s submission is supported by FWA it will not just mean fair pay, it will mean tens of thousands of working people and their families will take home a bigger pay packet at the end of the day.”

Executive Officer of the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, Chrystina Stanford welcomed today’s announcement.

“The Canberra Rape Crisis Centre is overjoyed at the historic announcement today regarding equal pay,” Ms Stanford said.

“The women’s services sector has given so much to the community, and been the advocates for so many vulnerable groups in our community, yet up until today have worked tirelessly in poorly paid positions, meaning that a good quality of life has never been able to be attained,” Ms Stanford said.