Dr Brian Owler gives his reasons for fronting a road safety campaign and the next issues in his sights.

The AIDS awareness campaign was the first graphic public health campaign of its kind — the Grim Reaper playing ten pin bowling with children, parents and old people.

Since then there’s been dozens more, targeting everything from anti-smoking to domestic violence. Associate professor Brian Owler is the face of the RTA’s “Choose Wisely” campaign.

He rejects the suggestion that these ads constitute a “nanny state” agenda and tells 3Q why more needs to be done on issues like building and pool safety in order to protect children.

Peter Lewis says the public no longer believes that mining has personal benefits – despite an expensive ad campaign from the industry.

The long-running ‘This is our story’ campaign is the soft side of the anti-mining tax’s shock-and-awe bombardment of 2010 that delivered the head of a prime minister and a windfall approaching $20 billion for its sponsors.

But in the intervening 18 months, the national tone has changed from one where the mining industry’s success was seen as central to the national interest to one where the question appears to be: is this ‘our’ story or just theirs?

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3968928.html

Ken Morrison says the time for talking is over — the Federal Government needs to take action on planning our cities.

Every 87 seconds a new Australian is added to our heavily urbanised population.

That Aussie is mostly likely to end up in the big smoke – being a boon on productivity but also a drain on housing, infrastructure and services.

Our growth is not nearly as explosive as China where a new city the size of Adelaide is being built every five days.

But Ken Morrison from the Property Council of Australia tells 3Q that COAG’s criticisms of state governments’ failure to plan are justified, as the PCA’s CEO Peter Verwer told the Press Club recently.

Mark Delaney explains how super funds are delivering good returns through investing in infrastructure.

We all rely on energy, communications, transport and dozens of other public utilities.

Traditionally it’s been the role of governments to fund such vital infrastructure.

But the costs involved mean governments are increasingly handing that role to the private sector — and that includes super funds.

If you’re a member of AustralianSuper, you may already be investing in new energy production, airports, ports and the like.

Mark Delaney, Deputy CEO and Chief Investment Officer at Australian Super, tells 3Q that the long term nature of infrastructure funding and the solid returns make it an attractive investment.

Ben Pearson says the move to sustainable cities may be expensive in the short term but will reap benefits for the future.

We live in one of the most urbanised nations on Earth, with the bulk of our population in our major cities.

While high density cities make us more efficient, innovative and engaged, the growth of cities is putting pressure on the environment, our health and our well being. So how do we make them more liveable and sustainable?

Ben Pearson from Greenpeace heads a 3Q discussion on future cities like Masdar City in Abu Dhabi.

He explains why we love city living and what needs to change to make it sustainable.

Peter Lewis presents polling that shows public opinion is turning in favour of the $40 billion national broadband network.

Until now the NBN has been an abstract debate about national building and future proofing the economy on one hand, and a misguided venture designed purely to waste taxpayers’ money on the other. Now it’s about to shift from rhetoric to reality, with roll out plans for about a third of households and businesses released last week.

Paul Bastian explains how Australian trade unions are leading the call for a global ban on asbestos.

Asbestos is a word that strikes fear into the heart of many. Once only thought to cause illness and death to miners and builders, it’s now on its third wave — the general public. Paul Bastian, the acting National Secretary of the AMWU, tells 3Q of plans to clean up public and private buildings by 2030. But the bigger aim is to have the toxic substance banned worldwide.

Australia has some of the highest levels of exposure in the world. However, we lead the world in a positive sense, in that our courts recognise the direct link between exposure to asbestos and the development of mesothelioma. Other countries are only just coming to this conclusion.

A third of the world’s countries still use asbestos and Canada and Russia are still exporting it — even though its use is banned in their own countries. Countries like Vietnam and India are still using asbestos in construction – often without any protective gear. The AMWU is part of a network that is campaigning for a total ban on the use of asbestos worldwide.

Paul Bastian talks about the AMWU’s involvement in the campaign that delivered justice for victims of asbestos exposure by getting billions of dollars in compensation from James Hardie (despite attempts to restructure overseas so its assets were out of reach of victims). Bernie Banton, who became the personal face of mesothelioma sufferers, was a former AMWU member.

The AMWU is calling for the establishment of a National Asbestos Authority representing three tiers of government, asbestos support groups, experts, unions with powers to report on and instigate asbestos removal from private and public buildings, especially schools, by 2030.

Find out more:

This TV report details how India is sitting on a toxic time bomb through asbestos imported from Canada.

The 7.30 Report recently ran this report about the risks to home renovators.

Watch this 1959 clip from the US Bureau of Mines explaining the properties of the mineral fibre.

Anna-Maria Arabia says our scientific innovation is world class but is at risk if the government and private sector stop investing.

Australia loves its sport champions, actors and writers. But we rarely sing the praises of our scientific innovators.

Yet Australia is amongst the world leaders in medical science and astronomy just to name a few.

Australian scientists invented our indestructible dollar bills, the iconic Aeroguard, the bionic ear, and the life changing wi-fi technology used in computers around the world.

Funding for science is well below the OECD average and with growing international competition Australia stands to fall further behind the pack.

As Anna Maria Arabia, the CEO of Science & Technology Australia tells 3Q’s Sarah Macdonald, Australian innovation will not reach its full potential if we don’t adequately invest in the development and commercialisation of Australia’s world class research.

Find out more.

Check out S&TA’s website Respect the Science which gives an insight into the science research process and to show the importance of the work scientists do.

Anna-Maria explains that rather than boosting innovation and entrepreneurial activity one of the key government programs that supports early stage venture capital is drawing to a close.

She also tells 3Q about a recent summit that brought together the superannuation industry and the science sector to investigate potential investment opportunities to support Australian innovation.

The Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Bill Shorten, will lead a trade mission to Israel with superannuation and science representatives to better understand Israel’s innovation system that has lead to more start-ups than Japan, India, Korea, Canada, the UK and Australia.