Some negotiations are simply too difficult and complicated to solve traditionally. If the negotiations you're involved with have come to a stalemate, the "indaba" technique makes it easier for all parties to find common ground and resolve things fairly.
At least there's one not-entirely-terrible side effect of last week's US presidential election result. Over the weekend, the Obama administration conceded that with the incoming Republican president-elect an avowed enemy of globalisation, it would effectively abandon the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
This is a free trade agreement between the US, Australia and 10 other Pacific Rim countries with a wide range of implications including making Aussie ISPs liable for the copyright infringement of their users, enforcing geo-blocking, and potentially raising the price of tech in this country. The upshot of all this is that internet pirates, VPN users and technology addicts can all rest a little easier.
Brexit already brings much economic damage to the UK, and will do so to global economic growth as a whole. The UK’s coveted AAA credit rating has now been downgraded by Standard & Poor’s; uncertainty is hitting sharemarkets; and the pound sterling is at a 31-year low. Impacts are not restricted to this. Australia has about 1500 UK-based companies as a "springboard" into the Single Market, using the UK due to close linguistic, institutional and historic linkages. Our best option right now is to form a trade pact with the EU. Here's why.
