Archive for July 22nd, 2011

The Hon. Joe Hockey MP, Shadow Treasurer in the Australian Parliament and Federal Member for North Sydney, will give a public lecture at the University of New England’s Earle Page College on Wednesday 27 July.

The public lecture, at 8.30 pm in the Earle Page College Dining Hall, will be the 28^th in the College’s Annual Politics Lecture series. Titled “In Defence of Youth”, it will follow a formal dinner for College members and invited guests at which Mr Hockey will be guest of honour.

Each year, the College invites a prominent political figure to speak at its Annual Politics Lecture. Previous speakers have included Philip Ruddock, Julia Gillard, Bob Brown and Tony Abbott. “The Annual Politics Lecture is a very special event for Earle Page College, UNE, and the city of Armidale,” said Andrea Gledhill, Head of Earle Page College. “Over the past 28 years the lectures have provided an opportunity for thousands of people to hear and meet the nation’s leaders.”

Joe Hockey (pictured here) was first elected to the Australian Parliament in 1996 and, after his re-election in 1998, was made Minister for Financial Services and Regulation – one of the youngest Ministers in the history of the Commonwealth.  He has since held a number of Ministerial portfolios, including Small Business and Tourism, Human Services, and Employment and Workplace Relations.

Since the 2007 Federal Election, he has held a number of shadow portfolios.

Mr Hockey attended the University of Sydney, where he completed degrees in Arts and Law. Before entering politics he was a banking and finance lawyer with a major Australian law firm, and was also Director of Policy to the Premier of NSW.

Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, after whom the College and lecture series are named, was chairman of the advisory council for The University of New England College from 1938 until 1954, and then the University’s first Chancellor from 1954 to 1960. He was also Prime Minister for a brief period in 1939.

People seeking more information about the event, or wishing to register their intention to attend, may contact the Earle Page College office on 6773 5300, or e-mail epc@une.edu.au.

Students preparing for tertiary study travelled to the University of New England last Friday (15 July) to share their enthusiasm for science and how it relates to agricultural industries. They travelled to UNE from throughout the New England North West region: from Armidale, Gunnedah, Tamworth, Guyra, Glen Innes, Inverell and Walcha.

For many, it was a reunion with fellow scholarship recipients who spent their holidays last summer touring award-winning agricultural science enterprises, working with agricultural scientists, and finding out about the variety of science-based careers available in agricultural industries. For others – applicants for the next scholarship phase – it was a chance to meet the former participants and get insights into what they will experience in December 2011.

The annual Science-to-Industry Camp, and the five-day Industry Placement (working alongside scientists), are the components of Industry Placement Scholarships administered by the national Primary Industries Centre for Science Education (PICSE), which has one of its NSW activity centres at UNE. Susanna Greig, who coordinates activities for the UNE activity centre, said: “This reunion event allows us to provide students who have been selected for – and have completed – an Industry Placement Scholarship with a further insight into the broad range of science-based careers supporting primary industries. It also provides new applicants for UNE PICSE Scholarships with an opportunity to have a taste of the PICSE program.”

Ms Greig said that the students at last Friday’s reunion event had been challenged to find “buried treasure” with tools used by scientists in UNE’s Precision Agriculture Research Group – including GPS and electromagnetic sensors. They had also identified parasites in sheep, she said, and had met former PICSE Scholarship recipients who were now students at UNE to find out about courses and opportunities for study at UNE.

“Today’s secondary students have to realise that farming for the future needs to be smart,” said UNE’s Professor David Lamb, leader of the Precision Agriculture Research Group. “We need people with scientific skills in agriculture.”

Morgan Murtagh, a Year 11 student from O’Connor Catholic College who has applied for a PICSE Industry Placement Scholarship, said that the event on Friday had given him a great insight into advances in farming – including the use of advanced technologies such as GPS.

“Having lived on a property all my life, I wanted to find out about employment opportunities in agricultural industries, and available courses and scholarships for tertiary study in agricultural science,” Morgan said.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Morgan Murtagh (right) and UNE’s Derek Schneider. It was taken at the reunion event during an activity related to precision agriculture.