The Melbourne Newsroom

The Oceanic Viking asylum seeker issue has barely caused a ripple of interest in Indonesia, where all the eyes are focussed on the biggest government corruption scandal in years, says Professor Tim Lindsey.  "It’s a little bit like America's Watergate scandal."

Leading construction expert Professor Paolo Tombesi will examine the dynamics of technical progress in construction, and consider the steering role public planning can play in a public lecture at the University of Melbourne on Tuesday.

Dr Sam Wylie says that IMF predictions of a growth phase in the world economy in 2010 are off the mark, and says Australia should expect a long but shallow recession. 

"The financial crisis is going to take between $40-$60 billion out of Government revenues.  We should expect to see big defecits in Australia, with total government debt around $200 billion at the end of 2012, where at the moment its about $50 billion."

Australia well prepared to face swine flu outbreak, says Director of the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne, Professor Graham Brown

Professor Brown says he is not surprised that the World Health Organisation has called the recent outbreak of swine flu a public health emergency of international concern.

This has been noted as an epidemic of potential concern as the World Health organisation want to act early; because the flu has traveled outside Mexico, there is a risk of it becoming a pandemic, he says.

Associate Professor Mark Crosby from the Melbourne Business School says the Chinese Governments decision to increase investment overseas is a sign that China wants to be more closely integrated in the world economy.