Brain Drain

Apparently I am officially on swat vac. I have been for a week.

This means i am preparing for my pending examinations and the submission of my rather large paper. However, it is late Friday night my head is hurting and i wonder if it has absorbed anything today, yesterday, this week or perhaps all semester (well apart from the sugar and caffeine hits resulting from the consumption of copious amounts of coffee, chocolate, peanut M&Ms, sushi, apples and carrots.)

I am not alone - brain drain is contagious.

This was bought to my attention when i bumped into my friend Louise. Then continued when I had dinner with Erin. They both showed symptoms of brain drain. Come to think of it Cate was showing side-effects of this sickness on the weekend. It is only in the last hour that symptoms associated with this illness have appeared and affected my disposition. I have taken some time out hoping that my immune system can overcome this potential problematic and very contagious illness. A few months ago the aches and pains of the flu passed around Campus, now the flu epidemic has subsided and drain brain has emerged as the 'it' illness.

I have Administrative Law and Employment and Labour Relations Law exams on Wednesday. Smack bang right after one another (thanks kindly to those thoughtful people who composed the examination timetable - so thoughtful.) I am hoping for a miracle. Or, in the alternative, the infusion of volumes of knowledge via mental telepathy, guardian angels, ESP or some similar means. Administrative Law is interesting. At this point in time I am finding it enjoyable. Employment Law on the other hand is simultaneously frustrating and puzzling. Why? The government decided that in the year of an election (and the year in which I have taken this elective) that the Workplace Relations Act (1996) wasn't good enough.

The federal government craved more power. It wanted to take the power from the states and implement a uniform federally administered industrial relations system. I can see the advantages of federal, rather than state, administration. However, what the government came up with - Work Choices - well it would be a dramatic understatement to say it isn't great.

The constitutional validity of these substantial amendments have been challenged in the High Court. The Judges of the highest Court in the country are presumably still mulling over their decisions. Their findings may be handed down until next year. To their credit these Judges are presumably considering many cases and working hard to ensure that justice prevails in this, the great land down-under.

Perhaps, one, two or even three of these learned individuals might like to fly up to the Gold Coast and provide me with some guidance on my pending examinations and how I could manage to obtain a 'decent' result. Actually, on second thoughts I wouldn't want them to waste their time.

Anyway I better see if I can broaden my horizons and learn more about these changes that have created considerable public outcry and animosity. I believe the key resources are recently published journal articles, loose leaf and internet resources. There has not been time to publish a substantial text on this subject and hopefully (if only for the sake of all the trees sacrificed to print a book) nobody will bother with this until the High Court makes its mind up.

Back to the books.
Watch out for the brain drain, apparently it can be deadly at this time of year......