The Visodate was a vintage inspired timepiece that was upgraded with sapphire crystal and ETA 2836-2 automatic movement. Whilst the latest versions feature the Powermatic 80, I like the ETA version better. Whilst I am aware the typical watch purchaser wants a longer power reserve of 60 to 80 hours and I am willing to forego accuracy to achieve this, I prefer a higher frequency 4Hz compared to 3Hz with a 38 hour power reserve.

I like modern incarnations of vintage watches, they have new materials such as sapphire crystal, silicon balance springs and incorporate quality assurance principles. The styling of a Visodate with a scratch resistant sapphire crystal is hard to beat. The inclusion of high-tech materials in the movement is great, the addition of a display caseback to view the automatic movement is a definite improvement on modern watches.

So a vintage inspired Visodate with modern materials is a vast improvement. This is the great advantage of re-releases of vintage inspired timepieces, they incorporate modern watchmaking principles on classic and proven designs. The Powermatic 80 is an upgrade over the older movement, yet I contradict myself frequently. I like the ETA 2836-2 movement reference T1184301627100. I love the older style Tissot logo on the upper section of the dial and Visodate Powermatic 80 in the lower section of the dial.

So revisiting the Tissot Visodate, the day/date display is an interesting addition. Generally, I am not a fan of the date function, when possible I prefer a model without a date. My preferences are clear as I cannot read the date without putting my glasses on, so it is more of an annoyance to me, I can see the day display on the Visodate so this is a function I actually like. The sapphire crystal is a welcome addition to modern watchmaking, whilst the crystal can still be broken if I drop my watch, the chance of scratching the crystal is virtually eliminated.

So this was liberation day, there were plenty of people thinking Donald Trump was just talking big, he would back down at the last minute like he has bben known to do. So when the tariffs were formally announced, it did take many by surprise. This was thought to be a classic Trump hard sell and turn around. Not exactly a typical bait and switch tactic, but not a great negotiating tactic nonetheless.

As a result, the sharemarket tanked, the boom Trump has promised Americans was now closed down. Elon Musk was running riot with DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency was firing government workers en masse, in some cases then rehiring them weeks later when they dawned on them that services would be shut down. This is a classic Elon Musk move, he pulled the same stunt at Twitter, now renamed and remarketed as X.

When the sharemarket tanked, the correction was large and investors were cutting losses and fleeing equities. There was concern all round, following the US lead, share markets around the world corrected with trillions of shareholder value destroyed. The markets were correcting firstly on fear, secondly on revised earnings based on tariff hits to earnings and profitability. I watched my retirement savings decline for no real reason, I am sure Americans watching their 401(k) decline were raising similar concerns.

Whilst this sharemarket was correcting, the bond market was also in turmoil. The bond market is viewed as less volatile than the sharemarket, considered a safe haven when equities are correcting. This was not the case here, investors were also fleeing the bond market as well, US government treasuries were being sold off too. US bonds have been viewed as the defacto bond, the standard that all other national bonds are priced against. Whilst borrowing costs are lower for US bonds, the riskier the nation, the higher the bond yields and subsequent repayment costs to governments. The US was raising its own borrowing costs and that of other nations.

So when Trump came out and stated “I thought that people were jumping a bit out of line … they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid” you know he had been told to address the issues and get this problem under control by his financial advisors. This failed tariff strategy was sending equity and bond markets down in unison. The United States has a number of economic ratified agreements in place with numerous nations, this is including a free trade agreement with Australia.

What this states, the message it sends is Trump is unwilling to honour previously negotiated and ratified free trade agreements, this is difficult to justify as the US/Australia free trade agreement offers a surplus to the US. Generally, Trump claims any trade with the US where a nation has a trade surplus with the US, then they are ripping them off. Here, the US has a trade imbalance with Australia when the US enjoys a trade surplus.

Typically, equity markets offer greater returns at greater risks, bond markets whilst offering a lower return is considered a safer option. So when equity markets soar, funds are transferred to the higher returns from equity markets. Likewise, when equity markets decline, we see fund inflows into the safer bond market. What we saw during the Trump Slump was equity market wealth destroyed and funds flowing out of bonds. This is a highly unusual situation that has everyone concerned.

The Russian-Ukrainian war rolls on, what I noticed is Europe has failed to adequately support Ukraine. Yes, Europe has provided resources to Ukraine but many would argue it is too little, too late. European nations have been remiss in their somewhat wishy washy support of a nation under attack by what should be branded as a rogue nation. Many non-European nations such as Japan, South Korea, Canada and Australia have supported Ukraine. Whilst a non-European nation, the United States under the Biden Administration has provided Ukraine with weapons and support.

Europe is hopeless in some regards, it was clear there was a presidential election in 2024 and the Biden Administration was faltering. So there was a very good chance Donald Trump would be elected, European governments had plenty of time to plan. Furthermore, NATO has been aware of Russian aggression for three years now so they have had plenty of time to increase military expenditure. Europe should have been increasing production and capability supplying weapons and intelligence support to Ukraine.

The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that it is unreasonable to expect 300 million Americans to defend 500 million Europeans against 140 million Russians. That is a very astute comment; however, to be fair Russia is nuclear armed and the majority of European nation with the exception of France and Britain. If Russia wishes to engage in a conventional war, it would like be a series of tank battles supported by artillery. The time is now, Europe must unite to present a force to deter Russian aggression against NATO nations.

I prefer action-learning projects as both a learning activity and an assessment process. As action-learning projects are workplace-based where knowledge and skills that are gained are transferable to actual workplace scenarios. Instructional design is a profession, the old chalk and talk aligned to rote learning well and truly history for the new skill-sets required by contemporary learners. 

So now I am designing new learning strategies, writing the learning resources aligned with these strategies and the assessment documentation is interesting for me too. So ok, where does this take us? Contemporary workplaces recognise the requirement for a skilled and productive workforce and are willing to take proactive steps to achieve workplace competency.

Workplace learning is an important facet of a multi-structured learning strategy. Modern workplaces are hiring instructional designers to develop and implement structured workplace events to ensure learning actually takes place. It is absolutely imperative learning events are designed to maximise on-the-job projects. Learning must align to workplace tasks with skills matching workplace requirements. Engineering trades require both knowledge and skills with behavioural training principles embedded in programs. 

The wash-up from the 2025 election is a disaster for the Liberal Party, they were within striking distance of booting the one term Albernese Government out of The Lodge to electoral wipeout. Could this have been avoided? You bet, this was one of the poorest federal election campaigns in living memory. Instead we watched this trainwreck of an election campaign unfold right in front of us.

Clearly the Liberal Party under performed, to blame this election defeat alone on the Trump factor will set the Liberal Party back a decade. Yes, I do concede there was an anti-Trump sediment for conservatives, but this factor alone could not secure the election rout brought about by the tight Labor Party messaging and ad hoc Liberal Party promotions. The Liberal Party under Dutton’s leadership even knocked back a tax break for wage earners, even whilst a relatively small tax reduction in the scheme of things, seriously?

The first disaster was to try to force federal government workers off of work from home arrangements and send them back into the office full-time. Whilst this policy was dropped in the first week of the election campaign, the damage was already done from spruiking this ridiculous policy. Then, closely following was the announcement of wanting to lay off 42,000 federal government workers, this was just pure lunacy. These people are voters, their family votes and they have friends that vote. This also ties the Liberal Party into Trump style DOGE policies at a time when any astute politician would be seeking to distance themselves from such policies.

The defeat had to stand at the feet of Peter Dutton, as Opposition Leader he ran a terrible campaign. No doubt buoyed by the success of The Voice to Parliament campaign to stop the change to the constitution based on racial grounds, Dutton thought he could replicate this groundswell in the following election. There was no real policy formation, the media releases came across as disjointed and misaligned.

I am not against nuclear energy, but once again, a cohesive marketing strategy failed the electorate, now we are shackled to higher energy costs and availability. I am certainly not against renewables, but we need to educate people that sun and wind energy is not free energy, it comes at a considerable cost. Renewable energy should be in the mix, but proper accounting practices used to educate users. I certainly believe in research, this is where a government spends money to provide the funds for studies, small experimental plants, and analytical driven data.

Policies and costings were released in the final week of the campaign, just days before we headed to the polls. Postal voting was well under way, up to a third of punters had pre-voted so that was a lost opportunity. The Liberal Party has a women problem, Sussan Ley was not wheeled out, nor were any of the female shadow ministers. Then in the final week Dutton got embroiled in the “Welcome to Country” debate, a complete misdirection pushed by the “Trumpet of Patriots” party, just leave it alone Peter, these issues are divisive and just a distraction.

Clearly internal polling was flawed, whilst it was well known Dutton’s seat of Dickson was under threat, the Liberal Party believed it to be safe, instead of shoring the seat up, they redirected funds to outer city seats they thought they could win from Labor. Ultimately, with Peter Dutton losing his seat, this is a positive insofar as his personal failures are gone, the Liberal Party can reset with less right-wing conservatives and promote more centre-left, and centre-right moderates who are more liberal and not conservative. This election loss must be dissected and recommendations implemented, the Liberal Party can turn this around but are unlikely to be competitive at the next election. This will take the Liberal Party at least two elections to be swept into government.

Regardless of whether Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was going to lose his seat or not, there was always to be a leadership spill in the Liberal Party. Could Peter Duttonhave held onto his position as Opposition Leader? Possible, but unlikely probable. With Peter Dutton losing his seat in the election, this is the best outcome as he can now longer influence the party direction. Sussan will come in without the shadow of Peter Dutton in the party room, she has the opportunity to take control and lead the Liberal Party in a new direction.

Ok, so the Liberal Party requires a new leader and I suggest Sussan Ley is the best possible candidate. Yes, I have a high regard for Andrew Hastie but he did not even put his hand up for the role so he was never considered. Like Andrew holding the seat of Canning in Western Australia, Sussan holds the New South Wales regional seat of Farrer. The Liberal Party has a women problem, former leader Peter Dutton certainly had a women problem, whether real or a figment of Labor Party messaging, the perception was real so made Dutton unpopular with women. Angus Taylor speaks well, but he could also a liability if he wanted to keep the Liberal Party on the current direction.

What do we know about Sussan Ley? She was born in Nigeria as her father was working for British Intelligence before moving to Australia as a teenager. Sussan has a pilot’s licence, was a stock mustering pilot, worked as an air traffic controller, and even a shearer’s cook. Sussan studied hard and landed a senior role at the Australian Taxation Office before entering politics in 2001. Sussan has a pretty decent CV, she has broad experience and holds the Liberal Party free enterprise and small business focus.

The 2025 was a disaster for the Liberal Party, the party has become too conservative and Sussan is more centralist hopefully pulling the party back to the centre of Australian politics. The policies were poor, this is where Sussan cannot escape examination here, she already held a senior role. However, it appears Dutton was making too many leader’s decisions, known as Captain’s calls. Sussan needs to take a greater collaborative approach and that can only be a positive. I am looking forward to watching Sussan as the first female leader of the Liberal Party, it is a difficult trip back, but hopefully she keeps the Albanese Government accountable and gets the Liberal Party competitive in three years time for the 2028 federal election.

So if the object of superannuation is to provide an income in retirement, and to replace the age pension for those who are in a position to do so, why does the government keep changing the rules to disadvantage those who make the effort to save for their retirement?

Patronage is typically described as the practice of rewarding allies and supporters with important positions based on their partisan loyalty. This is generally aligned to political appointments where department heads are appointed based on political persuasion, favours owed or to engage in the stacking of organisations with compromised people who will pursue a political agenda.

In a workplace setting, especially in government departments, patronage may be described as awarding supporters positions of power without meeting selection criteria. These rewards are offered to individuals who will consolidate a power base to the appointer. Typically, these are not the most competent individuals, they are rewarded for their loyalty to the appointer. These individuals are selected to a degree for their ability to do anything to keep their role, they will execute the instructions of their benefactor without question or remorse.

They offer a degree of support, or as a favour owed and will do the dirty work for their master in return for the gifted position. The appointee will exert proxy power through their hand selected cronies, this provides a fairly high degree of power to be exercised for these individuals within the department where they operate. When an organisation has a mission, values and vision statement, the appointer can keep at arm’s length to claim they have not breached any standards.

Generally these individuals are unlikely to progress on their individual merits, they are typically not a threat to the authority of the leader. As such, the leader does not feel concern for their position, whilst they may have the ambition, they typically do not have the knowledge, skills or abilities to pursue independence. They follow the directions of the appointer, they are not chosen for their abilities, they are appointed into a role where they act under the authority of appointer.

These appointees are generally aware of their limited abilities and know they can be replaced with another person offering absolute loyalty should they get a little too ambitious or display rebellious ideas. They enjoy the power they exert through the authority they are entrusted, they are offered protection as reward for their efforts so the appointer can typically claim to operate with some level of integrity. This is a difficult concept to grasp for many of the staff in these departments as they are ridden roughshod over, they know the truth.

My worst business decision by far was to enter into a business partnership with a friend  – never again will I trust a partner with my financial future. Naturally I had my concerns in the planning stages, I heard all the warnings and I viewed the behavioural changes first hand. My business partner was lazy, I already knew that so I should have been better prepared for the inevitable – not so.

Openness and trust cost me not only the direct funds I invested in the business, it almost cost me my retirement savings and my financial future. It also cost the non-financial aspects of extreme personal stress and definitely damaged my professional reputation. My credit rating was affected almost to the point of beyond repair so I have to respectively disagree with Felipe; never again will I trust a business partner with my financial future.

The Suunto Stinger was a pretty decent wrist worn dive computer, it was exceptional at the time. I really liked the look of the Stinger, it made a diver fashion statement to identify a diver well before dive fashion brands took off. Plenty of people wanted a Suunto Stinger as their dive computer and daily wearing watch, it is a pretty big daily wearer watch though.

The Vyper took off at the same time, just about every divemaster and dive instructor had either the larger wrist mounted plastic Vyper dive computer or the smaller stainless steel case and bracelet Stinger watch/dive computer. The newer range of Suunto dive computers sported the RGBM algorithm, a series of profiles I was not so enthusiastic about, what was great at the time was the safety stop timer – that was a real hit.

Then Suunto came up with the D4, D6 and D9 dive computers with rubber straps and eventually the Stinger went out of production. I knew a German dive shop owner who requested to Suunto that they offer the Singer to him. Suunto were happy to reopen the production line again for 100 units that he promptly sold through his chain of dive shops.

My former partner now living back in Japan was interested in snapping one up as well. She was pretty stylish, she knew what she liked and had the disposal funds to purchase quality products. I missed my chance and ended up with the D6 computer, good for single dives only and was harsh on batteries. The Stinger is not an easy battery change either, it is pretty expensive and based on my D6 experience, the batteries do not last all that long so I am not keen on the Suunto battery life.