Monthly Archives: June 2017

Sky Views: Rebel Corbyn has become traditional – Sky News

Posted: June 15, 2017 at 9:09 pm

Lewis Goodall, Political Correspondent

One of Jeremy Corbyn's biggest acolytes, Matt Zarb Cousin, wrote convincingly in the Guardian on Wednesday that one of the keys to the success of his former boss in last week's General Election was people recognising that he was a "different kind of politician, that he genuinely wanted to take on the establishment".

He's not wrong. I've clocked up over a thousand miles over the course of the election but not once did I meet a voter who thought that Mr Corbyn was a traditional politician. Along with the occasional salty remark, whatever most voters thought of his views, they were largely united in seeing him as different, a firebrand, a renegade even - a break with the past.

But for my money, the great secret of the Corbyn leadership is just how much of a traditional Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn has become, at least in the domestic policy arena.

Through the development of his own political antenna and the Labour Party's structures slowly taming him, the man we think of as the most radical leader in the party's recent past has in deed if not in diction become reliably middle-of-the-road and represents continuity with the recent past.

Gone is the doctrinaire campaigner of old, to be replaced by a man who, yes, has principle, but chooses his battles.

He accepts policies he doesn't much care for because he knows what is politic and what isn't. He might occasionally say something he doesn't believe for party unity or to serve his wider political aims. He has become, in other words, a politician and a successful one at that.

The proof of this particular political pudding is in Labour's manifesto - the first since 1983 written with the Left broadly in control of the party's levers.

But few on any side of the party, even the Blairite right, had any complaint when it was published. Yes, the nationalisations might not have been every candidate's cup of tea but their implementation was so staggered and piecemeal that few bothered to care.

The policy on austerity, despite the fanfare, was much the same as Ed Miliband's, as were many other policies. Even tuition fees, perhaps the most striking inclusion, finished a journey which Mr Miliband had begun.

Most astoundingly, the Labour leadership quietly accepted the Government's changes to welfare benefits. The Labour manifesto didn't even mention the Government's welfare benefits freeze up to 2020 and the party seemed unclear as to whether to change it.

Much of the document was redolent of microwaved Millibandism or good old-fashioned bread and butter New Labourism: policies on school meals, 10,000 new police officers, more homes, childcare - put them on a pledgecard and any self-respecting New Labour apparatchik would have happily brandished it. The word "socialism" didn't appear once.

And whatever his reservations, this former vice chair of CND stood on a manifesto with a commitment to renew Trident at its centre. He may have squirmed when asked about the promise but the Labour Party hierarchy made sure it was there and, should another election come, it would be there again.

But something has changed. Because, unlike 2015, Labour is gaining seats. Uncomfortably for a man who values substance over style, I suspect it's more the latter which boosted Labour last Thursday.

After all, for the mansion tax alone, I think the 2015 manifesto has some claim to be at least as radical than its 2017 successor. But I don't think it would have made any difference to Ed Miliband if he had stood on every word of it two years ago.

It was actually Mr Corbyn's mix of meat and potato, moderate Labour policies with his personal brand of radicalism and rhetorical style which created an electoral sweet spot for Labour. It married traditional Labour voters with a burgeoning cultural, youth-led movement which taps into the zeitgeist.

You could walk down the streets of east London or hop on the tube and see people wear Jeremy Corbyn t-shirts or badges. In saying you're part of his tribe, you're saying something about yourself - an instant cultural signifier.

You couldn't say that of Ed Miliband.

Mr Corbyn is a vinyl politician who reeks of authenticity, even if the end result isn't pitch perfect. Redolent of a different age, a slither of an imagined more authentically Labour past. He is therefore perfectly placed for a generation who crave "authenticity" above all else.

And here's the rub: neither part of this Labour 2017 jigsaw would have worked without the other.

Mr Corbyn unbound and unrestrained would have been anathema to the electorate and a traditional stack of Labour bread and butter middle-of-the-road policies presented by a traditional middle-of-the-road Labour politician like Owen Smith wouldn't have worked either without Mr Corbyn's personal zeal.

Ironically for someone who so eschews free markets, Mr Corbyn has a brand. And this, mixed with a traditional retail, not especially radical Labour offer, made a potent cocktail.

Mr Corbyn called the 2017 manifesto "radical but responsible". Not half. We didn't know it then but it beats "strong and stable" every time.

Previously on Sky Views: Sam Kiley - Cutting immigration may crash economy

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One-Man Play Shines Brightly – Laguna Beach Independent Newspaper

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He wore bright colored capri pants, telling all that capri stands for capricious rather than the Italian isle. He extolled the usefulness of little black dresses to women and was described as a gifted and imaginary actor with jazz hands.

Leonard, the lead character in The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, also expressed an idiosyncratic fashion sense by gluing layers of rainbow colored flip-flops onto the soles of black Converse athletic shoes, turning them into platform booties.

He was 14 and, given the stuffy Jersey Shore where he lived, a loner.

And, one day he went missing.

The one-act, one-man play Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, written and performed by James Lecesne, is on the Laguna Playhouse stage through June 25.

The one-act, one-man play written and performed by James Lecesne and in performance this month at Laguna Playhouse is based on his young adult novel Absolute Brightness.

As a one-man performer, Lecesne is brilliant and completely believable, affecting variants of a New Jersey accent while impersonating a cop, a beauty parlor patron or a teen-age girl.

Working against an elegantly spare stage set designed by Jo Winarski, he keeps his audience on edge for roughly 80 minutes with nary a pause for breath. He nimbly pivots between Chuck DeSantis, a Shakespeare quoting, old-school detective; Ellen Hertle, the self-described aunt Leonard lived with; her introverted teen daughter, Phoebe; and the effete British owner of a local drama school.

He also becomes Gloria Salzano, a mobsters widow who finds one of Leonards signature platforms floating on the lake. Adept at fishing, she also distinguishes a variety of knots, a crucial skill, it turns out.

Humor emerges when she lectures DeSantis on the real persona of a mobsters wife, grills him on matters of faith and so gives the audience insight into the rough-edged cop who ultimately becomes as moved by Leonard as the people he queries.

The story begins when Ellen comes to the police station reporting Leonard missing for 24 hours, actually 19 hours and 47 minutes, and wants DeSantis to do something immediately.

Through his investigation, including interviews with the aforementioned characters, we find out who Leonard is or was. The missing youth meanwhile remains wordless, a shadow on a screen or represented by symbols such as a set of fairy wings.

Lecesne lets everyone describe Leonard, sometimes humorously, sometimes baffling, but always with affection and respect.

Its noteworthy that all descriptions of Leonard, save for those by Phoebe, come from adults who marvel at his persona while also cautioning against excessive flamboyance. Tone it down, honey, says Marion, the salon patron, but Leonard counters that if he stopped being himself, the terrorists would win. And, he does not own a cellphone but carries a pocket watch.

Affected by Leonards vibe as well, DeSantis nonetheless dryly describes the video-game addled bullies who lure him into a wooded area and ultimately kill him.

He also has scant words for the lawyers who defend the louts who claim gay panic, meaning that Leonard may have made a pass at one of them.

Disaffected, alienated and bullied teens, some gay, some not, have driven a plethora of story lines, with the latest being Dear Evan Hansen. The musical revolves around a teenager with social anxiety and a schoolmates suicide. Written and composed by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the production premiered in 2015 and received six Tony Awards this past Sunday, June 11. One reviewer called the storys moral ambiguity a sign of the current zeitgeist.

There is no such ambiguity in Brightness. Leonard is a good-natured, gifted kid who only transgressed by being himself. How everyone whose life he touched came to appreciate this and change their own entrenched ways will not be revealed here.

In 1994, Lecesne had created Trevor as part of the award winning show Word of Mouth, which he later adapted into a screenplay for a short film. After winning an Oscar for best live action short film, Trevor grew into a national movement initiated by Lecesne and the films producers Randy Stone and Peggy Rajski.

The project is a lifeline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youths in crises between age 13 and 24. The Trevor Life Line at 1-866-488-7386 is available daily. TrevorSpace connects LGBTQ youths world wide.

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It’s Time IT Process Automation And Manufacturing Meet – Manufacturing Business Technology

Posted: at 9:07 pm

Manufacturing thrives on automation. Media outlets constantly tout the latest in robotics and other automation technologies, and we continue to eagerly soak up every efficiency-promise therein.

Yet, when it comes to IT process automation, the good energy fades as many long-term, highly-skilled IT employees see process automation as less an ally and more a threat to their job security.

But its not like the industrial revolution, where automation was designed to replace workers. Instead, IT process automation can fuel growth, automating tedious manual processes and allowing your technical resources to focus on more strategic, growth-oriented initiatives.

Make Automations Value Apparent

The best way to address hesitation to automate is to recruit an automation champion. This individual, whether yourself or someone else from your IT team, can help drive the internal conversations needed to begin changing process automation perceptions.

Kick things off by having your automation champion proactively schedule one-on-ones with department heads. During these meetings, the two parties can discuss the benefits of process automation, such as simplicity and time-savings, specific to that individuals department.

But whats most important to discuss during these meetings is how automation impacts your customer. Because in the end, its the customer who most benefits from accelerating efficiency to helping meet rigorous quality standards.

Aim for the Moon, not Mars

As these conversations occur, the automation hype should follow. If not, its time to put your automation where your mouth is. For that, youll want to choose the proper process to automate.

Initially, you may find yourself tempted to tackle a complex process bogging down the business. However, much like running a marathon, its best to train with smaller sessions before tackling the full thing.

For example, my team recently worked on a project with our companys quality department. Previously, any and all approvals faced a lengthy list of signatures, all in a specific order, needed to garner full approval.

Knowing the process was far from simple, we met with the quality department and talked through the complexities, keeping an eye on ways to shortcut the process and simplify where possible.

Through this collaboration, we mapped a shorter approval process and developed an automated workflow for it, setting up activity-triggered notifications and updates. This pushed the approval process along faster, while also keeping a record of approval statuses in real time.

For your own efforts, its best to start small, learn and grow. Even simple processes can deliver huge returns on time once automated. More importantly, each successful initiative builds your credibility and grows positive sentiment in your organization, enabling even greater success in the future.

Broaden Automation Initiatives, Develop a System

As your automation teams reputation begins to grow, its likely other departments across the organization may begin to request automation initiatives of their own. While an exciting notion, these future initiatives will tend to be more complex in nature. To put your team in a position for success, its important to map out a process for the automations themselves.

For example, before any automation actually occurs, both the automation team and the department receiving the helping hand should meet to rigorously review current processes.

Specifically, the parties should brainstorm ways to streamline and accelerate the process up for review. After all, automating an inefficient process only makes you inefficient at a quicker pace.

As the projects come in, encourage your team to continue strengthening its own processes, finding a system that works regardless of the challenge at hand. By taking on new initiatives while focusing on your own process improvement, your team will soon be a well-oiled automation machine.

Strive for Continuous Improvement

Speaking of future success, to maximize the benefits offered by process automation, its important to create a mentality of continuous improvement. Automating a process should not be the end goal. Instead, automation should spur the ongoing enhancement of your organizational processes.

The automation team should keep the conversation going by scheduling check-ins with various partner departments every three months for the first year after automation. After the first year, keep the door open for further improvement with semi-annual check-ins.

Ready to start automating? If youre still wondering where to start, first, do your shopping for an automation provider. Some platforms will cater toward code-heavy teams. If youre looking for a low-code automation platform, youre likely to go with someone like PMG.

Whatever solution you end up going with, just remember establishing automation is a marathon, not a sprint. But once youre running the race, youll move much faster than you were before.

Jon Jenkins is manager of IT business process automation at Kautex Textron.

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5 Ways Marketing Automation Helps Startups Succeed – Entrepreneur

Posted: at 9:07 pm

Lets face it: It can be overwhelming to keep up with newdigital-marketing strategies, social media, drip campaigns and all the other emerging opportunitiesin the world of marketing technology. There's so much to choose from, it now has its own blended term-- martech.

While the worlds biggest corporations dedicate entire teams to social-media monitoring and feedback, startup leaders must runmuch tighter ships. The Chief Marketing Officer often is the same person as the CEO and the CFO. Those challenges make it more difficult to stay on trend when it comes to marketing outreach -- much less effectively adopt and implement these strategies.

Still, martechholds tremendous growth potential for startups whose leaders can make time to explore it. The only caveat: People choose small businesses for a reason. Dont begin to rely so heavily on marketing automation that you lose your personal touch.

In the bigger picture, the time startups invest in marketing automation will streamline operations and help companies grow faster (and often in profound ways). Here are a few reasons to consider making the move to integrate automation in your marketing plan.

New startups often feel like minnows trying to outswim and outsmart sharks in a game of survival.Reports reveal thatnearly half of small-business owners manage marketing efforts on their own, all while carrying out other dutiesfrom human resources to sales. Marketing automation helps bring some balanceby offering incredibly savvy and sophisticated tools that also are incredibly easy to use and set.

Dont know much about analytics or lead-nurturing?"Thats OK. Companies such asGetResponse and Act-On do, and they can help reach out, clear outand make marketing decisions for you. Best of all? Those decisions happenautomatically, based on specifications you set during your onboarding process. That can add hours to your day, not to mention thousands (or millions) in sales when well-utilized.

Related:7 Tools to Automate Your Marketing Tasks (Without Blowing the Budget)

The information gathered during marketing automation goes far beyond contacts and potential customers. It's actual data -- big data.It's the type of knowledge that can help you make smarter decisions about how to move your business forward.

Marketing automation can help you determine which style of language or toneworks best with different audience segments, which audiences are more likely to buy certain productsand when your customers are most likely to shop. It even can help you understand where you might be losing customers who drop off during their digital journeys. Why do they abandon their shopping carts? How can you give them more incentive to complete the sale and drive conversion-rate growth?

Basically, its like employing a full-scale marketing agency. Except its a lot cheaper, and its always at your disposal -- no matter how small your company is right now.

Related: 5 Misconceptions Small-Business Owners Have About Big Data

Are you nurturing your prospects? If youre running a startup, chances are good you dont have time for this crucial business-development function. Nurturing your leads requires more than an ongoing touch-base or check-in. It means helping steer your prospect toward your desired goal or outcome.

Nurtured leads show a 20 percent increase in sales compared to non-nurtured leads. Marketing automation can help you manage redirects when someone has left an item in an online shopping cart and even send product discounts or other incentives if a customer fails to buy after your first reminder. It's all based on a series of simple "if/when" statements you establish when you create your campaign.

In essence, automation turns you into a savvy marketing professional with an endless number of hands to hold tight to your customers throughout their buying journeys.

Related:How to Automate Your Social-Marketing Efforts

In todays fast-paced business world, its nearly impossible to reach out to potential business partners manually -- at least not efficiently. Marketing automation can help here, too.

Once you create your list, marketing-automation tools can do much of the work for you. They even can help create content and determine its effectiveness for future campaigns. That means no more hiring freelancers, working with mail servers or responding to individually to every inquiry.

Martech can handle those tasks -- and a lot more -- starting around $50 per month. Once you see its benefits, you'll want to move on and allow Martech tocreate custom forms and landing pagesas well as manage your responses to leads generated by those assets.

Related:9 Ways to Save Time and Money With Marketing Automation

It probably goes without saying, but like many other cloud-based services today, marketing automation is scalable. You can pay based on your current number of contacts, and the service will grow along with you.

Related: 9 Tools to Run and Scale Your Marketing Agency

Marketing automation holds tremendous potential for any startup. Ultimately, marketing automation should help customers better understand your brand, your visionand your products. Its one more way to extend your presence and keep the big fish circling elsewhere.

Dan Newman is the president ofBroadsuitewhere he works side by side with brands big and small to help them be found, seen and heard in a cluttered digital world. He is also the author of two books, is a business professor and a...

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Why automation driven by cloud technologies is becoming more critical for organisations – Cloud Tech

Posted: at 9:07 pm

More than half of respondents in a survey carried out by managed cloud provider 2nd Watch say at least half of their deployment pipelines are automated, with 63% saying they can deploy new applications in less than six weeks.

The study, which garnered responses from more than 1,000 participants from US companies with at least 1,000 employees, found that companies embracing cloud automation were able to deploy new applications and workloads faster and more frequently.

Alongside the almost two thirds who said deploying new applications took less than six weeks, 44% said deploying new code to production took a day or less, while 54% say they are deploying new code changes at least once a week. A similar number (55%) say they are measuring application quality by testing everything, while two thirds argue at least half of all their quality assessments, such as lint and unit tests, are also automated.

The survey results reiterate what were hearing from clients and prospects: automation, driven by cloud technologies, is critical to the rapid delivery of new workloads and applications, said Jeff Aden, 2nd Watch co-founder. Companies are automating everything from artifact creation to deployment pipelines and process, which includes metrics, documentation and data.

The result is faster time to market for new applications, and less application downtime.

Earlier this month, a report from Puppet found particular discrepancies between higher and lower performing organisations when it came to automation. Top performing firms automated 72% of all configuration management processes on average, while lower ranked companies spent almost half (46%) of their time on manual configuration.

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Wave of automation sweeping Canadian retailers – Toronto Star

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A man operates a forklift at the Sobeys Vaughan Retail Support Centre, equipped with robotics for automation in Vaughan, Ont., on Monday. ( Mark Blinch / The Canadian Press )

By Linda NguyenThe Canadian Press

Thu., June 15, 2017

Back in 2009, Sobeys found itself at a crossroads.

Labour costs were rising, employee productivity was waning and the grocer knew that it had to keep building bigger distribution centres to accommodate the growing number of items being sold in its supermarkets.

So instead of building out and hiring more workers, the national grocery chain built up and replaced many employees with robots.

The combination of labour costs going up and SKUs (stock keeping units) being on the rise kind of forced us to start thinking outside the box and try to find a technology to help us resolve those issues, said Eric Seguin, senior vice-president of distribution and logistics for Sobeys, during a tour this week at the companys largest warehouse in Vaughan, Ont.

Sobeys is one of a small number of Canadian retailers that have embraced robotics technology. Others have been reluctant to follow suit, experts say, due to a lack of investment, a lack of access to the technology and for a long time, a lack of competition.

Today, Sobeys operates four robotics distribution centres: two facilities north of Toronto spanning 750,000 square feet, another in Montreal and one in Calgary that opened earlier this month.

Unlike its 21 traditional warehouses, the mostly-automated centres rely on robotics instead of workers to pull items off the shelves and pack them onto pallets to ship to its 1,500-plus grocery stores.

The robots, which whiz up and down rows of stacked products piled up to 75 feet high for 20 hours a day, have resulted in reduced employee costs and quicker and more accurate deliveries, Sobeys says. Its also allowed the Stellarton, N.S.-based grocer to double the amount of items that can be stored.

One robot does the work of four employees, Seguin said.

The robots dont get tired, Seguin said.

They always show up the morning after the Stanley Cup final. They are always there the morning after the Super Bowl. It doesnt matter if its 35 (Celsius) and a beautiful weekend.

The company has spent between $100 million to $150 million on each of its robotics facilities. Seguin says retailers, especially those in the grocery industry, have been slow to adapt due to the high upfront investment costs.

But that attitude is changing and fast, says retail consultant Doug Stephens.

Retail in this country has enjoyed for many decades a bit of a dearth of competition, which is coming to an end now, said Stephens, who recently wrote a book called Re-Engineering Retail.

With the influx of U.S. players in the last decade and certainly with the presence and impact of Amazon, Canadian retailers are really having to awaken to the idea that if we dont adapt and change and compete were going to be in big trouble.

Behemoth multinational corporations like Amazon and Walmart have raised the stakes for Canadian retailers, offering lower prices, as well as quick and often free delivery or pickup services.

Last year, Canadas oldest retailer, Hudsons Bay Company, said it was spending more than $60 million in robotic upgrades to its 725,000-square-foot Toronto distribution centre. Online orders that wouldve taken up to 2 hours to locate and pack manually are being shipped out of the warehouse and onto a truck within 15 minutes.

Were really just on the cusp of the capabilities of these technologies, said Stephens.

While manual labour jobs are being lost in retail, the types of positions that survive the wave of automation will evolve and likely be more focused on loyalty and analytics, says Marty Weintraub, a partner in retail at consulting firm Deloitte.

Robots can be much cheaper to implement and execute, and they dont come with some of the challenges that humans would face such as making errors or having poor judgment, he said.

But technology cannot replace certain skills that computers cant do today, like jobs that require problem solving, intuition, the art of persuasion and creativity.

According to documents obtained by The Canadian Press in March, federal government officials were warned that the Canadian economy could lose between 1.5 million and 7.5 million jobs in the next 10 to 15 years due to automation.

In a report, Sunil Johal of the Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto estimates that the retail sector employs about two million people and between 92 per cent to 97 per cent of those who work in sales or as cashiers are at risk of losing their jobs.

Were just scratching the surface of how technology can affect the retail sector, said Johal. Thats a cause of concern.

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Americans split on impact of automation in the workplace – Robotics and Automation News (press release) (registration)

Posted: at 9:07 pm

Automation in the workplace is a polarizing issue for Americans, according to the results of a new American Staffing Association Workforce Monitor survey conducted online by Harris Poll.

About equal percentages of respondents say that automation for example, robots or artificial intelligence will be a good or a bad thing for the future world of work.

Specifically, 34 per cent of Americans say automation will be a positive development for the workforce in the next 10 years or morecompared with 31% who say it will be negative. A plurality (35 per cent) are neutral on the matter or just dont know.

However, more than four in five Americans think that increased automation will revolutionize work (83 per cent)and that this transformation is inevitable (82 per cent).

A substantial majority think that automation will fundamentally change the quantity (79 per cent) and types (68 per cent) of jobs available in the US. Seven in 10 (72 per cent) say its increased use will lead to higher unemployment.

But most Americans are in denial that automation will ever affect their work life. Nearly three quarters (73 per cent) do not believe that their work can be easily replaced by robots or artificial intelligence, and 85 per cent agree that the human factor outweighs any benefits from mechanizing their job.

Nine in 10 (90 per cent) say that there are some tasks that automation will never be able to take over from humans.

Richard Wahlquist, ASA president and chief executive officer, says: Automation is revolutionizing the who, what, where, and how people will work in the future.

The ASA Workforce Monitor found that nearly nine out of 10 (87 per cent) Americans believe that to succeed in this new world of work, additional training will be needed.

Harris Poll conducted the survey online within the US on behalf of ASA March 7-9, 2017, among a total of 2,133 US adults age 18 and older.

Results were weighted on age, education, race/ethnicity, household income, and geographic region where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the US population.

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Modern slavery risks in Australian agribusiness – Lexology (registration)

Posted: at 9:07 pm

Globally, 45.8 million people are estimated to be in some form of modern slavery. Two thirds of the 45.8 million are in the Asia Pacific. The prevalence of modern slavery and its predominant location explain why:

Supply chain monitoring and reporting requirements are gaining traction as a preferred method of top-down anti-slavery regulation. Top-of-the-chain businesses, perceived to have the ability and the resources to investigate and oversee supply chains, are the prime contenders to be the target of modern slavery regulation. These businesses also have an interest in avoiding the reputational damage that comes with being implicated in slavery-like practices.

As Australia looks abroad to guide its fight against slavery, the agribusiness sector would be wise to take a moment to consider labour practices both at home and in overseas supply chains.

What does modern slavery look like?

Modern slavery has various forms. It encompasses human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices such as servitude, forced labour and debt bondage. In the agribusiness sector, indicators of modern slavery may include underpayment or withholding of wages, excessive overtime, unfair recruitment fees, confiscation of passports or identity documents, restriction on freedom of movement and association, unsafe working environments, unsuitable living conditions and limited access to food and healthcare.

Unskilled and migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. These vulnerabilities are compounded by the difficulty of overseeing work in isolated areas of rural and regional Australia. Workers on farms, food-pickers and those working in processing and manufacturing are vulnerable to exploitation and forced labour. Businesses facing increased price competition, e.g. in the consumables sector, may feel compelled to tolerate modern slavery practices in their operations to remain competitive in the market.

The position in Australia a snapshot

Human trafficking, forced labour and slavery are comprehensively criminalised in the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth). These offences have extended geographical jurisdiction and include conduct occurring outside Australia provided the offender is Australian. Corporations can be held liable for committing any of the slavery offences but may be able to rely on a narrow defence if they can prove that they exercised adequate due diligence to prevent the conduct.

While the vast majority of prosecutions in Australia to date have concerned sexual exploitation, instances of forced labour and wage exploitation are sure to face increased scrutiny. The Inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia, launched in February 2017, is already drawing the spotlight onto these issues. The Inquiry will consider, among other things, the prevalence of modern slavery in supply chains of Australian businesses and whether legislation similar to the UKs Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA) should be introduced in Australia.

The Federal Opposition recently indicated it would propose a Modern Slavery Act for Australia requiring major Australian companies to report on measures they are taking to reduce slavery in overseas as supply chains or risk being fined or named and shamed in Parliament. The Business Council of Australia welcomed this step. If modern slavery legislation can secure bipartisan support, as was the case in the UK, we can expect a flurry of activity in this space as businesses work to ensure they are compliant.

Lessons from the UK

The private sector is seen as a key player in the fight against modern slavery. In the United Kingdom, businesses with a turnover of 36 million or more are required to produce an annual slavery and human trafficking statement describing the steps the organisation has taken, if any, to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in its business or any of its supply chains. The UK legislation is predicated upon a model that encourages businesses to actively and voluntarily seek out and eliminate modern slavery in their operations, rather than turning a blind-eye. On this view, the fight against modern slavery should not be seen as a corporate box-ticking exercise.

The UKs Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner recently visited Australia to speak to the taskforce overseeing the Inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia (Taskforce). The Commissioner reiterated his view that the MSA has been successful by pushing modern slavery up the business agenda and into the boardroom but that more can be done.

The Taskforce will be sure to closely scrutinise the UKs experience. There is a very real possibility that the Inquiry will recommend adopting similar legislation requiring transparency in supply-chains and possibly imposing comparatively more rigorous reporting requirements on Australian companies.

Find out more in UK Modern Slavery Act - seven things businesses in Asia need to know.

Transparency in supply chains

Top-down supply chain regulation like the MSA is designed to encourage large, consumer-facing businesses to exert downward pressure on their supply chains.

This presents particular difficulties in the agribusiness industry. Agricultural supply chains can be complex, fluid and transnational. The practices of tier-two suppliers who supply the tier-one suppliers are often opaque. Modern slavery in such multi-layered and extended supply chains can be near-impossible to detect. Australian businesses with regional supply chains need to be particularly vigilant as two thirds of the estimated 45.8 million people in modern slavery have been identified as being located in the Asia Pacific. It will be essential for businesses to implement robust ethical sourcing policies and due diligence procedures. As greater regulation and transparency requirements in the modern slavery space loom on the horizon, Australian agribusinesses need to consider whether their practices, and those in their supply chains, can withstand scrutiny.

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President, Speaker Trade Barbs Over Georgia’s Draft Constitutional Changes – RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

Posted: at 9:07 pm

As the process of adopting amendments to the Georgian Constitution enters what is intended to be the final phase, the level of recriminations between parliament speaker Irakli Kobakhidze, the constitutional lawyer who chaired the commission that drafted the changes, and Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has reached a new level of intensity after confidential interim comments on the draft amendments by the Council of Europe's Venice Commission were leaked last week to the Georgian media.

Kobakhidze publicly blamed the president's office for that breach of confidentiality. Then, when Margvelashvili's parliamentary press secretary, Ana Dolidze, denied that Margvelashvili had ever received those comments, first deputy parliament speaker Tamara Chugoshvili said she had e-mail confirmation from the Venice Commission that the comments had indeed been sent to the president's office.

Meanwhile, five civil-society organizations and two extraparliamentary political parties have made a last-ditch appeal to postpone the parliamentary debate on the amendments until the autumn parliamentary session, the website Civil.ge reported on June 8. They expressed doubt that it would be possible to hold an in-depth discussion of the Venice Commission's recommendations and reach the maximum consensus in the limited time available.

Kobakhidze and Margvelashvili have been at odds since the process of drafting the amendments got under way late last year, trading accusations of insincerity, intransigence, and ignoring the interests of democracy and the Georgian people.

Margvelashvili announced at the outset that he and his staff would boycott the work of the constitutional commission because he had not been named to co-chair it. Instead, he launched his own personal campaign under the slogan "The Constitution Belongs to Everyone." While the stated aim of that campaign was to elucidate public attitudes to the proposed changes, the primary focus was on tapping into public indignation over the proposed abolition of direct presidential elections, and to a lesser degree on the risks Margvelashvili claimed were inherent in the proposed abolition of the National Security Council subordinate to the president, which he heads.

Those controversial changes were among several proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, whose members dominated the work of the constitutional commission. Others related to the anticipated transition from the present mixed proportional/majoritarian electoral system to a fully proportional one in which all 150 lawmakers will be elected on the basis of party lists -- a change for which opposition parties have long been lobbying.

Opposition politicians nonetheless objected vehemently that two other proposed changes effectively negated the anticipated benefits of switching to the proportional system. The first was the abolition of election blocs while preserving the existing 5 percent barrier for parties to qualify for parliamentary representation that, the opposition argues, effectively leaves small parties with no chance of winning any seats. Kobakhidze's stated rationale for that change was that it would contribute to the emergence of half a dozen strong parties rather than the survival of a multiplicity of small ones.

The second was the proposal that all the parliamentary mandates that remained unallocated as a result of votes cast for parties that failed to surmount the 5 percent hurdle should go to whichever party garnered the largest number of votes. Opposition parties construed that provision as intended to ensure that Georgian Dream preserves indefinitely its current constitutional majority. (Georgian Dream won the October 2016 parliamentary elections with 115 of the 150 mandates.) In light of that repeated criticism, prominent Georgian Dream lawmaker Gia Volsky suggested in late May that it might be preferable to preserve the existing mixed system.

In early May, civil-society groups and NGOs had appealed to the Venice Commission of expert constitutional lawyers to rule on whether the proposed amendments are appropriate and acceptable in the Georgian context, even though Kobakhidze has said repeatedly over the past few months that parliament will not endorse any amendment that the Venice Commission deems inappropriate.

And during talks with Georgian officials in Berlin later in May, Venice Commission experts were quoted as expressing overall approval of the proposed amendments while at the same time stressing the need for unspecified minor changes and to reach the maximum consensus.

The Venice Commission was scheduled to unveil its formal assessment of the planned changes on June 16, after which the parliament was to vote on the amendments in the first and second readings before the end of the spring session in late June. It therefore seems likely that the interim recommendations the Venice Commission sent to Tbilisi last week were intended as both guidance and gentle pressure on the Georgian leadership to tone down the most controversial proposals in time to meet that deadline and thus save face.

Venice Weighs In

As quoted by the website Interpressnews.ge, the Venice Commission's experts concluded that the proposed changes constitute "a positive step forward that will strengthen democracy, the supremacy of the law, and constitutional order." At the same time, they noted that Georgia "lacks a lengthy tradition of independence of the judiciary." They further registered the risk that the majority will continue to dominate the parliament and called for a system of checks and balances to preclude that, such as establishing a bicameral parliament and strengthening the role of the parliamentary opposition.

As for the proposed transition to a proportional system, the commission described it as a positive step but went on to argue that taken together, the 5 percent hurdle, the proposed abolition of electoral blocs, and the proposed allocation to the winning party of all unapportioned mandates "limit the influence of the proportional system to the detriment of pluralism and the smaller parties."

The commission therefore recommended considering alternative variants, such as that the unallocated mandates either be divided among all the parties that garner 5 percent of the vote in proportion to the percentage they received, or that an upper limit be placed on the number of unallocated mandates the winning party would be entitled to, or that the barrier for parliamentary representation be lowered to 2-3 percent.

With regard to the office of the president, the Venice Commission reportedly warned that the transition to the indirect election of the president by an electoral college comprising the 150 parliament deputies and 150 regional representatives "should not lead to the constant election of the presidential candidate proposed by the majority."

The commission's experts reportedly did not offer any recommendation with regard to the National Security Council. Just days before their interim evaluation became public knowledge, the Tbilisi Strategic Discussion, a forum convened by Margvelashvili, released a communique arguing that the proposed constitutional amendments, including the abolition of the National Security Council, would further weaken Georgia's defense capacity insofar as they do not provide "a full-fledged and coherent legal and institutional framework for security policy formulation, planning, execution and oversight." The 27 signatories, among them two former defense ministers, three former deputy defense ministers, and a former deputy foreign minister, therefore called for revising the time frame for passage of the constitutional amendments in order to allow for a detailed analysis of the threats the country faces, Civil.ge reported.

The Georgian parliament is unlikely to heed that warning, however. Kobakhidze has already gone on record as saying that "all the Venice Commission's comments are acceptable [to us]. We have promised that they will all be taken into consideration." He added that Georgian Dream was discussing the optimum limit on the number of unallocated parliamentary mandates to which the winning party would be entitled. At the same time, Kobakhidze noted that the Venice Commission did not reject outright either the proposed abolition of electoral blocs, or the 5 percent hurdle for parliamentary representation, which he pointed out was characteristic of the electoral systems of most EU member states. Those remarks suggest the party is unwilling to yield on those points.

Georgian Dream is even less likely to revise its proposal to switch to the indirect election of the president. It has already made one concession by agreeing that the new mechanism will go into effect only in 2023, thereby preserving the possibility for Margvelashvili to run for a second term next year.

How the tensions between the Georgian Dream-dominated parliament and the president's office will play out in the coming weeks after Kobakhidze publicly accused the president of lies, sabotage of the reform process, and systematic attacks on the parliament can only be guessed at.

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