Shaun Wilson

The ever-present and common Australian pipit can be seen cheerfully skipping along dirt roads ahead of your car in rural areas. And they often pose beautifully, like this one near Wilmington.
Fun fact: These are closely related to wagtails, whereas willie wagtails are not true wagtails at all.

We’re out in force at Macquarie University today because management’s cuts are destroying jobs, slashing courses, and undermining the future of our university.

Join us today: nteu.au/join

A message from ACTU Secretary @sallymcmanus.bsky.social for NTEU members at MQ!

We support all union activists and will advocate against these redundancies. Join us to fight for what’s right: nteu.au/join

@damiencahill.bsky.social

Most Australians agree there’s a housing crisis. But they differ on what’s causing it – and how to fix it New research shows older voters believe immigration is crunching housing supply, while young voters blame high interest rates and low wage growth.

What do voters think about the housing crisis? Just out in @aunz.theconversation.com our piece (w @shaunwilson.bsky.social @alistairsisson.bsky.social Kristian Ruming and Adam Stebbing) for MQ's Housing and Urban Research Centre exploring #Housing attitudes
theconversation.com/most-austral...

Want to lift workers' productivity? Let's start with their bosses Business has the biggest influence on productivity – a much bigger impact than workers, who are typically blamed when things go wrong.

Want to lift workers’ productivity? Let’s start with their bosses

www.thenewdaily.com.au/work/2025/08...

Universities such as mine are making poor decisions, and we’re not allowed to know why UTS has announced a “pause” on enrolments in 100 courses. Vacating these critically important areas diminishes not only the brand of UTS but the state it was designed to benefit.

"Australia has the second-lowest public expenditure on tertiary education institutions in the OECD…This has resulted in an endless chase for dollars (international students & “the next big thing”) rather than thinking about what an educated Australia should look like” www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...

with what's been going on at ANU, UTS, Macquarie, etc. seems like an appropriate time to again post this 2021 study. Gives some good hints as to where some alternative savings might be found
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

UTS academics describe ‘culture of fear’ as enrolments put on hold for nearly a fifth of courses The freeze comes as the university pursues $100m in cost cuts and after it announced in April it could axe 400 jobs * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Academics at the University of Technology Sydney have described feelings of stress and a “culture of fear” after the educational institution temporarily paused student enrolments for nearly a fifth of its courses, leaving staff wondering if their jobs will be among the hundreds set to be axed. The university has stopped taking in new students for 120 of its 615 courses, including masters degrees in teaching primary and secondary education. More than 50 of the affected courses were international study options attached to other degrees. The pause will last until the end of the autumn 2026 semester. Continue reading...

UTS academics describe ‘culture of fear’ as enrolments put on hold for nearly a fifth of courses

Europe Sees Dangerous Heat Wave as North America Sets 3,000 Temperature Records This comes as GlobalChange.gov was taken down, along with information on how global warming is affecting the US.

"Europe Sees Dangerous Heat Wave as North America Sets 3,000 Temperature Records" via @truthout.org: truthout.org/video/europe...

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act isn't a solution to economic inequality or for managing immigration and asylum procedures — it's a blueprint for cruelty.

The US deserves a health care system that fulfills everyone’s human right to health, and a budget that makes this possible.

SEIU California | Republican Senate Vote to Terminate Healthcare and SNAP for Millions Americans Exposes MAGA’s Big Lie: Trump’s Bill was Always for Billionaires, Not Working People Republicans in the U.S. Senate today voted for the biggest cut to healthcare and nutrition in our nation’s history in order to deliver on Trump’s campaign promises of tax cuts for the mega-rich.

Unbelievable. Senate Republicans just voted to TERMINATE healthcare & SNAP for millions — all to funnel more billions to billionaires.

This vote exposes Trump’s MAGA agenda: always for billionaires—not for working families fighting for care, food, dignity.

seiuca.org/press-releas...

First Peoples’ Assembly set to become permanent voice to Victorian parliament with crossbench support Exclusive: Advisory body will be renamed and granted statutory powers after Labor secures numbers to make it permanent

Excellent news. Great work from the ALP, Greens, Animal Justice & Legalise Cannabis parties.
Of course, the LNP refuses to come out of the 1950s.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

SAVE SOCIOLOGY AT MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY We urge Macquarie University management to reverse this decision and preserve the vital disciplines of Sociology and Politics. Sociology has a key place in the social sciences as the broadest and mos...

Please sign and share - a worthy petition to protect Sociology at Macquarie and, more generally, to protest the declining commitment by university managers to strong social sciences in Australia. Their value cannot be over-stated.

www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/sa...

SAVE SOCIOLOGY AT MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY We urge Macquarie University management to reverse this decision and preserve the vital disciplines of Sociology and Politics. Sociology has a key place in the social sciences as the broadest and mos...

Please sign and share - a worthy petition to protect Sociology at Macquarie and, more generally, to protest the declining commitment by university managers to strong social sciences in Australia. Their value cannot be over-stated.

www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/sa...

Oh god yes, the next time I read (incl from uni peak bodies) that unis are a leading export industry Ill throw up!
Among other things they are key to boosting productivity.
Won’t happen if corporatised production line approach persists.

🔥 FINAL HOURS!
Early Bird registration for #TASA2025 closes at midnight tonight!

Be part of Australia’s leading sociology conference and connect with scholars, researchers & change-makers from around the country.

🎟️ Register now and save: www.tasa.org.au/content.aspx...

#DeadlineDay #TASA2025

I think the new universities regular ATEC should make a rule — every time a university kills off a course like music or politics or sociology, they should also have to reduce the salary of the vice-chancellor by $100k

‘A kind of monster’: Why does everyone hate universities? Neither side of politics is giving universities the love they need, but the unis need to smarten up – for all our sakes.

‘Academics are leaving, exhausted by stifling workloads…Students are unhappy…paying through the nose for an insipid version of the…experience their parents enjoyed. We’re so busy beating up universities…we forget what a disastrous own goal we’re kicking…’ www.theage.com.au/national/a-k...

Universities aren’t pizza joints; stop treating them that way Policymakers must set aside the fiction that universities are just another industry that can generate its own funding and that academics can be turned into entrepreneurs.

www.afr.com/policy/healt...

Universities aren’t pizza joints; stop treating them that way Policymakers must set aside the fiction that universities are just another industry that can generate its own funding and that academics can be turned into entrepreneurs.

University policy has been broken for 40 years. ‘Our policymakers must be brave enough to argue that education is unequivocally and intrinsically a public good, vital to the interests of the nation, and therefore worth funding properly.’ www.afr.com/policy/healt...

We must oppose the reductive logic underpinning the Macquarie proposal. The HASS fields, including sociology, remain crucial to the international standing of Australian universities, and are a drawcard for our students. We note that the Job-Ready Graduate Package has done nothing to deter students’ interest in HASS. The contention that HASS courses are financially unviable is simply not born out by indicators of teaching and research income. Despite this, the management of Australian universities has been reduced to forms of ‘strategic planning’ that amount to cherry picking (and often guessing at) the most profitable fields – and restructuring accordingly. This reflects an inability to envisage and enact innovative institutional responses to national and global developments shaping higher education. It fails to uphold a vision of the contemporary university as one that balances income and profit with intellectual contribution, social purpose and cultural impact. We urge the senior management of Macquarie University to revise their current restructuring proposal and adopt a more constructive and future-orientated vision. We extend this plea to other Australian universities currently reviewing their programs and staffing. Our collective task is to strengthen what our universities are and can be, not deplete them.

Maq Uni restructuring is symptomatic of the rot infesting university mgmt throughout the land (and elsewhere). Just when you think the hollowing out has to stop somewhere it accelerates into new disciplines. #Sociology now at risk there due to pitifully small thinking

#AcademicSky #SaveHASS

Statement of Concern - Proposed staff & course cuts at Macquarie University The History Council of NSW expresses concern about the proposed staff and course cuts to History at Macquarie University.

Will History fall silent?

We are extremely concerned to hear about the planned downsizing of academic positions in the Arts Faculty

Please read our statement of concern on the proposed staff and course cuts at Macquarie University via the link below

buff.ly/8ThbLgf

Proposed Macquarie University restructure will ‘hollow out’ humanities, academics say Macquarie blames prospect of international student caps and ‘uncertainty’ about domestic student numbers for proposed academic job cuts, fewer arts courses

It’s heartbreaking to read about the dissolution of the Politics Department at Macquarie University along with the decimation of Sociology - so many brilliant scholars livelihoods being destroyed www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Yes to this but why stop there? Let’s go for full comprehensive universities established on co-operative principles. VCs to be elected by staff, paid the same as other professors and rewarded for the burden of their 4 year stint with a sabbatical afterwards. Local govt on the board too.

Penny Wong, 2003: "I say suspicion is not enough. To justify going to war we need more than suspicion. What sort of world would we live in if suspicion alone was justification for participation in unilateral military action outside the auspices of the UN? "

From the edge of extinction Spain and Portugal were able to save the world's most endangered cat from the brink.

We have the solutions. Implement them.

#ActOnClimate #climate #energy #nature #rewilding #GreenNewDeal

Impressive work - The number of recognised genera of Australo-Papuan treefrogs has just been increased from 3 to 35!

academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

A message from Bernie as we head into the final weekend before the election.

TASA is deeply dismayed by Macquarie Uni’s proposed restructuring that would decimate sociology. The social sciences matter — they help us navigate a complex world. Our full statement & call to action here: www.tasa.org.au/docs.ashx?id...

#Sociology #HigherEd #SupportHASS

Education minister refers ANU concerns to regulator Jason Clare has intervened around issues with governance and leadership at ANU, writing to the vice chancellor and referring concerns to the regulator.

Thank you, @jasonclaremp.bsky.social! The minister has taken the extraordinary steps writing to ANU leadership asking them to explain themselves and referred to the university regulator. I hope the government inquiry into university governance is extended. www.afr.com/work-and-car...