This week, I have been attending the OzBio 2010 conference at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, and have been utterly impressed with the striking architecture of the new Melbourne Convention Centre component.

The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre is Victoria’s largest convention centre. The first component of the complex (the “Exhibition Centre”) was built in 1995 and is colloquially known as Jeff’s Shed, so named on account of its unappealing exterior and the controversial Premier who abandoned plans for a museum in favour of a conference venue.

The newer component (the “Convention Centre”) was completed in 2009 and cost a reported $1 billion to construct. For that price, one should expect some decent architecture and I am pleased to report that the venue delivered.

As I walked in, I was immediately impressed.

Somewhat boldly, vivid orange has been used to colour the walls on one side of the foyer. Complimenting that is a timber-clad ‘edifice’ which forms the basis of the mezzanine above. Aside from the orange walls on one side, the only other colour comes from the steps which are also orange, making them very easy to locate. Muted tones are used across the rest of the space, and a large floor-to-ceiling window provides ample natural light as well as a view to the Yarra River.

The orange of the foyer hints at what lies upstairs. Making one’s way to the mezzanine above, the walls, floors and ceiling are coloured in the same vivid orange. So whilst it sounds absolutely hideous, it works exceptionally well. I think the boldness of the colours work where a more restrained application of colour would have seemed almost tokenistic.

Clearly the architects and interior designers don’t want to over-do it, so only the mezzanine uses such a rich colour scheme.

Of course, the centrepiece of the Melbourne Convention Centre is the 5000-seat auditorium, which can be divided into acoustically-independent smaller sections. The auditorium is beautifully fitted out with comfortable chairs in various shades of earthy green reflecting the colours of the Australian bush. The upper walls and ceiling are clad in timber. As would be appropriate in such a venue, the designers have steered away from vivid colour in a space where people need to feel comfortable but can also concentrate on the speakers or performance.

In terms of utility, the stage can be clearly seen from all sections of the auditorium and for the purposes of a scientific convention, the acoustics were good. (I cannot comment about its suitability for musical performances or other applications).

I have just two criticisms about the design of this building.

My first criticism relates to the entrance, or rather the section that joins it to the older “exhibition centre”. This space is pierced from the posts supporting the balcony of the older building. I find the entrance narrow and pokey, but perhaps this was the intention of the architect but I don’t think it works well.

My other criticism is of the meeting rooms which, whilst comfortable, are aesthetically bland – a disappointment after experiencing the impressive design elsewhere!

^{The mezzanine (right) with foyer below.}

The Melbourne Convention Centre was designed by Woods Bagot and NHArchitecture and built by a consortium led by Brookfield Multiplex and Plenary Group. The centre has a 6-star rating and has won multiple architectural awards. Deservedly so, in my opinion!

Great architecture makes for a great venue, so I am pleased that I have now had the opportunity to see the inside of Melbourne’s newest conference venue.

After an arduous 17 days of political uncertainty, where the spectre of a hung parliament has dominated our collective conscience, we finally have an election result.

The Australian Labor Party will form a minority government with the support of the Australian Greens, Tony Windsor (Member for New England) and Rob Oakshott (Member for Lyne). The other key independent Bob Katter (the Member for Kennedy) decided to support the Liberal/National coalition.

This is the first minority government to govern Australia since 1939.

It was clear before the election that Labor had lost its way.

The rot started when Kevin Rudd’s abandoned the Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) proposal, a key Labor policy that had been a vote-winner for Labor in 2007 . Things only got worse following Julia Gillard’s middle-of-the-night party room coup against standing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a move that shocked a large percentage of the population.

Of course things weren’t much better on the Liberal side. Arch-conservative Catholic MP Tony Abbott had become leader of the Liberal Party by mounting a coup of his own against his leader Malcolm Turnbull, after Turnbull had agreed to support Labor’s ETS. Such moves are not so uncommon within Opposition, and compared to Gillard’s ‘knifing’ of Rudd, Abbott’s ‘knifing’ of Turnbull paled into insignificance. From there, Mr. Abbott worked tirelessly to promote his party as an alternative government with promises to ‘stop the boats’, cut the debt and abandon Labor’s ‘socialist‘ National Broadband Network.

What the voters were treated to was the dullest and least inspiring election in living memory, a sharp contrast to 2007. With that in mind, the electorate decided to give both Labor and the Liberals a swift kick up the posterior.

A clear message was sent to both major parties.

Following the election, the ‘three independents’  found themselves in a great position of power. And suddenly, everyone wanted to win their favour, as they collectively had the crucial votes on the floor of Parliament to decide whether Labor or the Liberals would be able to form government.

To their credit, the three independents handled their power responsibly. Windsor, Katter and Oakshott sought briefings from the Labor and Liberal parties as well as department heads, enabling them to make a clear and informed decision about which party to support. Individually, each member presented a ‘political wish list’ to Gillard and Abbott, and provided each leader with an opportunity to explain how their respective parties would respond to the matters raised.

Bob Katter, an agrarian socialist, was concerned about the future of agriculture and demanded better support for rural industries, including protectionist tariffs. Many commentators scoffed at his Protectionism, but one cannot deny Katter’s genuine concern for his northern Queensland constituents.

For Tony Windsor, another rural member concerned about agriculture, it was the National Broadband Network and equity for rural communities in the digital age that mattered most to him. Rob Oakshott was more concerned about parliamentary procedures and reform, and it is perhaps he who has been most successful in swiftly getting his demands met.

So what does this episode teach us?

1. There is a country-city divide in Australia: Perhaps I have been naïve, but the divide between rural and urban Australians in both a cultural and political sense has never seemed so stark. To me this is a great tragedy, but possibly stems from years of political neglect and a long drought. Perhaps in a similar manner to former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, who described country Victoria as the state’s “toenails” and suffered a subsequent election loss, the federal politicians need to learn not to take rural constituents for granted. Tony Windsor made this apparent in his speech today.

2. The arrogance of political parties has to cease: Clearly the electorate is tired of the spin, the lies and the cynicism that seems to form some sort of modus operandi for Labor and the Liberals. The massive lift in the Greens’ and National Party’s primary votes is surely an indicator of this sentiment.

3. We live in a robust democracy: The Australian system of Westminster parliamentary democracy and responsible government is our greatest asset, and has served us all very well. For whilst many nations would descend into chaos with such an uncertain outcome, our democratic institutions have ensured that we’re able to work through these political difficulties in a calm, civilised and productive manner. To this end, I think we can all be very grateful to live in such a lucky country and have parliamentarians of all persuasions who respect democracy above all other values.

What happens from here is anyone’s guess.

Whether Labor can progress their legislative agendum within the Commonwealth Parliament will depend largely on what they have learnt from this election, and how they deal with the minor parties and independents. This narrow victory will either mould a strong, productive and enlightened Labor party or condemn them to the political abyss in 2013.

The people of Australia have performed their duty, now it’s time for their government to perform its.

Today sees the launch of the my ‘new look’ Australian Radio Online website. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here!

Australian Radio Online is a unique website that provides a one-stop point for people who want to listen to Aussie radio stations over the net. The portal was started in 2001, and has grown to be the most popular part of my website. Every day, thousands of people pay a visit, so it gives me great satisfaction to provide a service that people will appreciate.

Aside from a sleeker presentation, the new-look website has some exciting features including a new jQuery-dependent dynamic table system that allows visitors to sort radio stations on any criterion they desire. In addition, new interactive features such as a Twitter feed have been incorporated.

On a technical level, the new design represents two small milestones for me.

Firstly, Australian Radio Online is the first of my websites to abandon table-based design in favour of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Website designs based on CCS are quicker to load, easier to adjust and the CSS system provides a lot more design flexibility and consistency. I have been using CSS as a support for tables-based designs for years, but have never built an entire website with CSS-based design before. Building  a site from scratch using CSS has been very hard work, but I have learned a great deal and am confident that I can use those skills for updating other parts of my website as the need arises.

The second milestone is that the entire website is 100% compliant with the XHTML 1.0 Transitional web standard. Standards compliance ensures that websites will render correctly in as many browsers and under as many operating systems as possible. Standards compliance also ensures that visually impaired website visitors who use screen readers will be able to enjoy the website as much as everyone else.

You can access the refurbished Australian Radio Online website at http://www.adonline.id.au/radio/ If you like the website, why not subscribe to it on Twitter @AustraliaRadio.