Work Choices is only the latest change in Australia’s industrial relations landscape. Charles Sturt University (CSU) industrial relations expert Dr Bill Robbins will discuss the first industrial relations revolution that began in October 1907 with the Harvester case during a free public lecture on Thursday 18 October. The case created a legal decision which became one of the most famous in the industrial, social and political history of Australia, and which also introduced the world’s first significant minimum wage. “On the centenary of the Harvester Living Wage case, it is worth reflecting on how industrial relations can affect the quality of life of the majority of Australians," said Dr Robbins, a senior lecturer in management and industrial relations with CSU’s School of Business & Information Technology. He has researched the management of Australian labour from Australia's convict origins to the contemporary Work Choices environment. The lecture, entitled A World First: the centenary of the Harvester case, starts at 6pm in the CSU Nowik Lecture Theatres, Guinea St, Albury.

Two innovative Charles Sturt University (CSU) research projects will focus on delivering improved education to the population of rural Australia. CSU researchers, lead by senior lecturer at the School of Teacher Education, Dr Linda Harrison, will conduct research into improving and maintaining quality and access in centre-based, government-regulated child care in Australia. Of major concern to CSU researchers is improving the adverse outcomes of poor quality child care, especially for more vulnerable children. A second CSU research team, headed by Professor Jo-Anne Reid, Associate Dean at the Faculty of Education, will focus on renewing rural teacher education and sustaining schooling for sustainable communities, in an attempt to avert a national crisis in attracting teachers and other professionals to rural areas. The two CSU research projects will receive over half a million dollars over the next three years under the Federal Government’s Discovery grant scheme.

A leading Charles Sturt University (CSU) and NSW Department of Primary Industries researcher is warning of dire consequences for Australia’s land, environment, farming industries and rural and regional communities in the face of the crippling drought. Professor Deirdre Lemerle, Director of the EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, says, “The current drought is having huge negative impacts on the Australian environment, its people, and our capacity to feed ourselves. Lack of water has drastically reduced local food production and food prices will go up for consumers.” Professor Lemerle also warns that “Australian farmers are highly skilled at drought management, but the droughts of the last few years are amongst the worst on record and are severely testing farmers' resilience. Drought is reducing land managers capacity to protect the environment and make a profit from production. Social and economic effects are causing depression, family disintegration and many other social costs. Government and industry must support land managers if Australia is to be self-sufficient in food production and for agriculture to remain environmentally sustainable," says Professor Lemerle.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) students and staff are being encouraged to roll up their sleeves and support the Wagga Blood Bank’s first ever Club Red Corporate Challenge, a corporate blood donor program designed for businesses and community organisations in Wagga Wagga. The Club Red Corporate Challenge is aimed at rallying everyone in the Riverina business community throughout 2007 to help save lives. The challenge runs until Monday 31 December 2007. ”Each blood donation could save up to nine lives,” says CSU spokesperson Roxanne Loche, “and giving blood is an ideal way for us to get involved in a vital community service”. Appointments to donate blood are available by calling 13 1495.

Competing views on the role of God will be the subject of a public lecture in Orange next week. Titled Richard Dawkins’ burka – is his world view too narrow?, Professor David Goldney, Adjunct Professor at Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Rural Management, will discuss The God Delusion, by British scientist and academic Professor Richard Dawkins. Although both are scientists, Professor Goldney is a self-described ‘Christian in the evangelical-orthodox tradition’. Professor Dawkins is an atheist, who currently holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. “In the lecture I will examine Professor Dawkins’ major arguments and what I see as the common ground between Dawkin’s and my views, as well as areas where there is significant disagreement,” Professor Goldney said. “I will also chart a way forward to ensure that this debate will be constructive and life-changing, rather than vitriolic and life-denying.” The public lecture will be held at the conference room, CSU Orange Campus, Leeds Parade, at 6pm on Wednesday 24 October. CSU wine and cheese will be served after the lecture.

Can farm productivity and the environment benefit from the innovative use of ecological pest management rather than the use of genetic engineering? Professor Geoff Gurr from the Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Rural Management in Orange will present a seminar entitled "Ecological engineering for sustainable pest management" on Thursday 11 October. Professor Gurr says “Ecological engineering is about manipulating farm habitats, making them less favourable for pests and more attractive to beneficial insects. Though they’ve received far less research attention and funding, ecological approaches may be safer and more sustainable that their controversial cousin, genetic engineering”. The seminar, which is being hosted by the E H Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, will take place in the Conference Room of the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute from 3.30pm, Thursday 11 October.  

An exhibition of striking jewellery and objets d’art, designed and hand crafted by the three inaugural winners of The Kaiserman Prize, including a Charles Sturt University (CSU) graduate, will go on exhibition in Melbourne this month. Relocating to the Victorian capital from Wagga Wagga in regional New South Wales has influenced the work of CSU graduate Ms Sarah Lugton whose work is featured in the exhibition. Ms Lugton , who recently completed her Bachelor of Arts in Jewellery at the CSU Wagga Wagga Campus, has taken her inspiration from Melbourne’s architecture, landscape, people and culture to create a bold silver and gold ring with pink sapphires set in resin. The creation will be on display from Wednesday 17 to Tuesday 30 October at the Kaiserman showroom, 586 Church Street, South Yarra. The exhibition will feature over 30 pieces of original, hand made jewellery.  

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) research project aims to estimate the number of people aged 55 to 75 years with respiratory disease in the Federal electorate of Calare. Dr Debbie Burton, a senior lecturer and Associate Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences at CSU’s Orange Campus, says the project will screen a sample of people for asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). “People generally know if they have asthma but because the loss of lung function occurs slowly and progressively with COPD many people don’t know they have the problem until their lung function is reduced to 50% of normal. They put their shortness of breath down to ageing or lack of fitness,” Dr Burton said. “The delay in diagnosis of COPD increases the risk of also getting heart problems, but once a diagnosis is made, people can be managed medically, so the quality of life can be improved and the diseases progresses at a slower rate”. The results of this study will be used to identify ways to more easily screen people in the age range most likely to have COPD so as to detect the disease earlier. If you are aged 55 to 75 years, live in the Calare electoral district and are interested in participating in the lung health screening project, please call Dr Debbie Burton on (02) 6365 7828 or Ms Natalie Milic (02) 6365 7774.

Healthy and physically active men aged between 18 and 35 are required for Charles Sturt University (CSU) research into the central nervous system and exercise. The research is being carried out by Ms Katrina Onus, a PhD student at the University’s School of Human Movement Studies in Bathurst. Ms Onus said that her study will investigate fatigue and athletic performance and how to possibly overcome or delay the onset of fatigue. “This research is important because the findings may be relevant to other areas such as diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Parkinson’s disease, as well as the military and industry. Any men interested in participating in the research must be available for five weeks from late October until December 2007. They need to be physically active at least three times per week. Ms Onus can be contacted on (02) 6338 4161.