speaking fearlessly

This is about my confidentiality clause and why I've decided to breach it.* Long story but I made an equal opportunity complaint against the then Labor Premier and Deputy Premier, and the Premier's chief of staff, in 1999. I was dismissed from my job as researcher/adviser in early 1999 and I lodged the complaint later that year, after the Victorian election in which Labor formed government. The case was eventually settled before hearing about two years later. I agreed to a confidentiality clause, although I didn't want to. I've decided to breach it because of the #MeToo movement. Confidentiality clauses are an important reason why sexual harassment and similar issues have been hushed up for so long. I've often pushed the boundaries with mine, but until now I haven't formally and publicly breached it. The fact that I'm nearly at retirement and fairly financially secure also makes it easier to do so now. Theoretically I could be sued. I don't think I ...

I changed the blog name from 'speaking uncivilly' to 'speaking fearlessly' because I think that expresses better what I'm trying to do. There's complex issues about honesty vs truth, I'll try to explore it later but I have to go to the community garden now. 1.58 pm Back from community garden but have to do some gardening here now! So quick thoughts. A lot of people are pretty direct on twitter, including some academics eg Ben Eltham. But I think a lot of us feel constrained. It’s like someone said in the research project (the other blog) - political issues and evidence based issues are seen as different. If it’s ‘just political’ it’s ‘just a viewpoint’. Well every statement comes from a viewpoint, but we still have to respect evidence. From my viewpoint, the evidence is that we are approaching crisis. Climate change and other kinds of environmental degradation are happening very fast. Inequality is increasing. These things are interlinked. I can spend t...

this is just the start of this blog. I'll try to polish it up a bit as I go. I felt a bit constrained in what I could say on my other blog fairgreenplanet because it's directly linked to my research and my job as an academic. Obviously I'm still a researcher and academic, but the purpose of this one is to say stuff that I think is important as global citizen. The fact that that seems to conflict in some way with my work as an academic is clearly a BIG problem, which I hope I'll be able to untangle as I go. I don't think it's just me. I suspect a lot of academics, and others, like journalists, aren't saying what we really think because of some vague and ill-specified ideas about civility and objectivity and the proper conduct of public debate. I think this is contributing to the disastrous global mess we are in with climate change, environmental degradation and increasing inequality. Please bear with me while I try to figure this out. Warning: I'v...