Vol. 3 No. 10 December 1993-January 1994 $5.00

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CONTENTS

4 42 COMMENT SPORTING LIFE Peter Pierce surveys the Spring Camival's 6 tracks and hacks. LETTERS 44 11 ASK NOT WHAT YOUR CONSTITU­ CAPITAL LETTER TION CAN DO FOR YOU ... It's time for a rewrite, argues Ross McMul­ 12 lin. SCHOOL'S OUT Shane Maloney meets the students who 46 miss out under Victoria's new education REPORTS regime. Greg San Miguel on Chilean immigrants in Australia; Bill Tyler on the Burdekin report 15 (p48); Jacinta Forbes on a test case for the ARCHIMEDES Cambodian boat people (p49). Eureka Street wishes 16 50 WAYNE'S WORLD SYRACUSE TOO FARAWAY its readers all the Margaret Simons looks at the man at the Margaret Coffey asks Franco Cavarra about blessings of the helm of Australia's fastest-growing state. Christmas and traditions. Christmas season. 20 51 BEST BUYS AND HOME BRANDS IN MEMORIAM In the changing game of electronic-media Franco Cavarra pays tribute to Federico ownership, what happens to Australian Fellini. content, asks Mark Skulley. 52 21 SHOWING THE NATION LIVING WITH THE LAND Geoffrey Milne goes to Canberra's National Campbell Thomson reflects on white and Festival of Australian Theatre. Aboriginal attitudes to the land. 54 Cover photo: Christmas crib, Rome, FLASH IN THE PAN by Luigi Bussolati; 24 CHRISTMAS FICTION Reviews of the films Ethan Frome, The Age Photo pS by Andrew Stark; Nugget by Michael McGirr, Unperformed of Innocence, Red Rock West, Lost in Cartoons pp7, 9, 20 by Dean Moore; experiments have no results, by Janette Yonkers, Rising Sun, Boxing Helena and Photos pp 12-15 by Bill Thomas; Bad Lieutenant. Photo p21 by Campbell Thomson; Turner Hospital (p27); The cat, the goose Graphics pp25, 30-31, 35 and the uneducated youth, by Trevor Hay Peter Malone casts a critical eye over cine­ by Waldemar Buczynski; (p34). ma's way with Jesus (p56). Graphics pp42, 44, 50 by Tim Metherall; Graphic p48 by Michael Daly; Cartoon pSS by Peter Gale. 37 58 QUIXOTE VOICEBOX Eureka Street magazine Jesuit Publications 38 59 PO Box 553 WILLOW PATTEN SPECIFIC LEVITY Richmond VIC 3121 Tel (03)427 7311 Robin Fitzsimons profiles the Governor of Fax (03)428 4450 Hong Kong. EURI:-KA SfRI:-ET COMMENT A magazine of public affairs, the arts and theology MICHAEL M c GIRR Publisher Michael Kell y SJ Editor Morag Fraser Production editor Ray Cassin Design consultant John van Loon Production assistants The Bethlehem John Doyle SJ, Paul Fyfe SJ, Juliette Hughes, Siobhan Jackson, Chris Jenkins SJ. Contributing editors Adelaide: Frances Browne IB VM Games Brisbane: Ian Howells SJ Darwin: Margaret Palmer Perth: Dean Moore Sydney: Edmund Campion, Andrew Riemer, Gerard Windsor. European correspondent: Damien Simonis US correspondent: Thomas H. Stahel SJ INn ~ ' 'Mm HOU" of Fdd•y, 24 Septembe<, I w" "Syd­ Editorial board ney's Circular Quay, waiting to hea r the announcement of the Peter L'Estrange SJ (chai r), city to host the 2000 Olympic Games. The night was alive, the Margaret Coady, Margaret Coffey, crowd humming. Only one other cause had ever brought m e Madeline Duckett RSM, Tom Duggan, out to the Quay at such an ungodly hour-a man called Franky. Trevor Hales, Christine Martin, Franky used to live in the public toilet under Circular Quay Kevin McDonald, Joan Nowotny IB VM, railway station. He was confined to a wheelchair, which he Lyn Nossal, Ruth Pendavingh, occupied like a throne, and he used to bark mercilessly from it John Pill FSC, at the few stray people who might still be out and about. The Peter Steele SJ, Bill Uren SJ schoolkids who came with me on these occasions used to cope Business manage r: Mary Foster with Franky much better than I did. They called him 'Cranky Advertising representative: Tim Stoney Franky' and simply got on with the business of changing his Editorial assistant: Jon Greenaway clothes, giving him a wash and then taking his mug over to Patrons one of the trendy cafes. The young waiters would recognise Eureka Street gratefully acknowledges the the chipped mug, ask after Franky and send the mug back with support of C.L. Adami; the trustees of the estate a cappuccino and three sugars. No charge. Then the railway of Miss M. Condon; A.J. Costello; D.M. Cullity; attendant would lock Franky in the toilet for the night and he F.G. Gargan; R.J. and H.M. Gehrig; would be safe. I'm sure th.is must have been against the mles. W.P. Gurry; J.P. O'Brien; In the midst of such attention, Franky was impeccably mde. A.F. Molyneux; V. J. Peters; But all these people seemed to have warmed to him. Anon.; the Roche family; Anon.; There was no sign of Franky on the night of the big an­ Sir Donald and Lady Trescowthick; nouncement. The quay was a different place. John Williamson Mr and Mrs Lloyd Williams. got up and sang True Blue, and then told the crowd that most of them were younger than his next number, Old Man Emu. Eureka Street magazine, IS N 1036- 1758, Australia Post registered publication VAR 9 1- 0756, He was right. It was a young crowd, mostly teenagers. It was is published eleven times a year not a crowd that expected to win. At 4.15am, the presenters by Eureka Street Magazine Pty Ltd, were pleading with us to behave ourselves if the announce­ 300 Victoria Street, Richmond, Victoria 3 121. ment went against us. 'The world will be watch.ing,' they said. Responsibility for editorial content is accepted by Sure enough, the escalators on m y left were banked with the Michael Ke lly, 300 Victoria Street, Ri chmond . TV cameras of the world. Suddenly their lights burned in my Printed by Doran Printing, face. I guessed that a camera had already whisked me away 4 Commercial Road, Highett VIC 3 190. from my private hole in the crowd and flashed my face before © Jesuit Publications 1993 an audience somewhere in Malta or Brazil. By this time the big The editor welcomes letters and unsoli cited manu­ screen showed the Chinese vice-president of the IOC taking scripts, including poetry and fiction. Manuscripts will the stage in Monaco. He was booed. They expected him to win. be returned onl y if accompanied by a stamped, self­ The crowd disregarded all instructions and hissed like a addressed envelope. Requests for permission to reprint punctured lung. material from the magazine should be addressed in I'm not sure why the crowd finally erupted as it did. May­ writing to: The editor, Eureka Street magazine, be it was the surprise. Maybe it was the prospect of 155,000 PO Box 553, Richmond VI C 3121. jobs and a $7.3 billion boost to the economy. Maybe it was the

4 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 fireworks already breaking overhead. At all events, peo- anne Atkinson, to the 15-member Sydney organising ple were lifted out of themselves. A kid near m e turned Committee of the Olympic Games, I'm even less sure on a poor hot dog seller and demanded green and gold than I was then. sauce. It wasn't a joke. He was demanding. He could The Olympics may seem to eclipse the celebration have anything he wanted now. A grey suit on the ter- of yet another Christmas. There's a lot more tinsel race of the Park Hyatt, the hotel that snakes strangely around the Sydney Games. But in seven years between around the harbour now and then, foreshore, shouted .------.... every young per- that the Australian son in that crowd dollar had gone up. at the Quay will I think he was jok- know disappoint- ing buthewas bran- ment. They will dishing a mobile follow stars that phone to suggest splutter and fade. otherwise. Perhaps At times, they will he'd been in touch be numb in heart. with somebody They will be lone- somewh ere. The lier than the Quay balconies of the at dawn in winter. Hyatt were becom- ~ With any ing dotted with luck, they will guests, all of them '!i'

Three years up

W HEN WE FIRST BEGAN PVBLISHJNG Eureka Street, in ic justice, Australia's war history and ways of identify­ 1991, there was formal talk about 'where we'd be in ing what we hold sacred, the Papal encyclical, sexual three year's time'. The talk was muted, because there equality and the response of Australian churces. was a war going on and we were all too aware of the But the other factor has been the sheer quality of ironies of five and ten year plans and great leaps for­ writing, photography and graphic art we have been able ward. After all, the 20th century dance has been the to publish. Eureka Street began with a commitment to confident two-step forward fo llowed by the deep col­ independent journalism in a market that was shrinking lapse backward. So there were plans but no clarion calls. and dominated by monopoly players. We have been over­ This issue marks the end of our first three years. whelmed by the response of Australian writers, jour­ With the support of an increasing and diverse reader­ nalists and graphic artists, all seeking an outlet for their ship, they have been successful years. And during the work, all wishing to have a a voice in the conversation last four months we have received more encouragement about this nation's culture. and- the cm cial measure-a higher subscription rate For Australia, this has been one of the most impor­ than at any other stage of the magazine's brief history. tant years since Federation, and the matters set in train The interest has been generated by the issues we have by the High Court and by Government require sustained covered extensively, among them Mabo, constitutional scm tiny and informed public debate. That is our role. • refonn and proposals for a Australian Republic, econom- -Morag Fraser Ph oto: Andrew Stark

V OLUME 3 NUMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 5 LETTERS

Finding room Eurcha Street welcomes letters I sincerely wish to point out to Bish­ from its readers. Short letters are op George Pelland others who share his to disagree more likely to be published, and view that Jesus himself criticised the all letters may be edited. Letters church authorities of his day if he be­ lieved they were placing harsh burdens must be signed, and should include (however sincere they may have been) From Philip Ahem a contact phone number and the on the people of his clay. The Catholic I was extremely concerned with some of writer's name and address. the comments made by some people on community in Australia will no doubt the Four Corners program that discussed be celebrating the first Australian to be the recent papal encyclical Veritntis raised to the stature of sainthood in the Splendor. My concern is not with the ve1y near future. Does Bishop Pell real­ encyclical itself, as I have not read it and ise that Mary McKillop criticised the I understand that it is, on the whole, a church of Adelaide in her clay to the beautiful document. point that she was silenced and excom­ My concern was with many municated? Yet history, and indeed the comments that the auxiliary bishop of church, has vindicated her. Melbourne, George Pell, made. He im­ The New Te tament tells how the plied, if not explicitly stated, that there religious authorities felt threatened by a was little room for discussion and de­ new group that had emerged within head of the church but nor is it to be seen bate concerning any part or all of this Judaism. But a wise Pharisee named as infallible (immune from error), con­ document. It was revealed that he bad Gamaliel advised his colleagues not to 'warned' a jesuit priest about ever disa­ trary to popular opinion. Church teach­ silence these first Christians. He said 'I ing and an individual's conscience must greeing with the document, and in one tell you do not take any action against be seen as partners in a relationship. part of the program even said that the these men. If what they have planned faithful simply 'must conform their con­ They should dialogue with each other and done is of human origin it will and respect each other. Both must be science' to the teaching contained in disappear but if it comes from God you given serious attention. According to this encyclical. cannot possibly defeat them. You could Catholic social teaching, however, it is Bishop Pell must surely see that if find yourselves fighting against God.' conscience that must reign supreme. the role of the conscience is nothing Perhaps Bishop Pell and people of like Pope Pius stated emphatically in more than a psychological rubber stamp XII mind could take these words to heart 1945 that the dictates of one's conscience for church teaching what need is there next time they state that there is little or were 'clear and incontrovertible' and of a conscience at all? If conscience is no room for discussion concerning non­ that the church held in honour'the laws nothing more than a carriage that is to dogmatic teachings of the church. of individual and social living written in be pulled along by the train of the hier­ Philip Ahern the hearts of men'. Vatican in its archical church, where docs that leave II, Glcnunga, SA also free will, one of God's greatest gifts to Declaration on Religious Freedom, upholds the value and primacy of con­ his people/ If the Christian is always science. How does Bishop Pell reconcile obliged just blindly to submit to church How the Pope this with what he was saying and doing teaching, this would be taking the re­ on Four Corners? reads his letter sponsibility of moral decision-making There are many principles of Ca tho­ away from the individual and giving it lie social teaching that appear to con­ From Fr Tony Kelly CSsR. lecturer in to an external institution. Surely Bishop flictwith Bishop Pell's stance. The Cath­ theology, Yarra Theological Union. Pell does not subscribe to this view. The olic Church acknowledges the principle The Holy Father gave a talk on Sunday, Second Vatican Council made it quite of personalism. This teaching upholds 7 November (see L 'Osserva tore clear that real teaching authority comes the dignity and independence of every 45/ 1315, 10 November, pl), from the whole Body of Christ, for we Romano, human being. It states that any institu­ which provides an interesting gloss on are all the 'People of God'. Authority in tion (and presumably the church is one some aspects of Veritatis Splendor. He the church is more properly understood such) exists to promote the growth of its stresses-had someone been supposing as 'power with' as opposed to 'power individual members, and not vice versa. otberwise?-that he 'had not failed to over' the faithful. This includes the right to freedom of emphasise the central value of con­ This attitude to teaching authority thought, of speech and of criticism. In science'. is best exemplified in the person of Saint trying to stifle discussion and debate on He goes on to say, 'In fact, the moral Cyprian, an early bishop, who wrote to the encyclical Bishop Pell seems to be his priests: 'I have made it a rule, ever law and conscience are not alterna­ displaying scant respect for this princi­ tives' (his emphasis). True, this is not an since the beginning of my episcopate, to ple, which our current Pope has reaf­ unusual inference among those not ac­ make no decision merely on the strength firmed time and time again (the speech customed to think too deeply about of my own personal opinion without he gave to the UN especially comes to ethical issues. It is supposed that the consulting you and without the appro­ mind here). A natural follow-on from more one exalts conscience, the less one bation of the people.' By listening to the this basic principle is the value the can share a common or public system of laity it may be said that the hierarchical church places on pluralism. According values. Or, alternatively, the more we church is alerting itself to any move­ to this principle, unity is created not recognise a shared moral order, the less ment prompted by the Holy Spirit. through the imposition of uniformity room there is for personal conscience. A papal encyclical is not merely to but through the integration of eli versity. In other words, it is not a question of be treated as a personal opinion by the

6 EUREKA STREET • DECEM BER 1993-JANUARY 1994 either/or, but of both/and: if you start 3. That 90 per cent of the encyclical the majority of Catholics have no signif­ with conscience and proceed to a moral would be agreed to by Catholics. icantvoice within this organisation and, law-from 'the inside out', so to speak, The reaction of many Catholics to perhaps more importantly, the policy of or treat morality more from 'the outside these observations is: keeping Catholics' beliefs privy only to in'. This latter, I would suggest, is what l. Since Vatican I 11870) the position Catholics has all the hallmarks of the most would presume to be the emphasis of the Catholic Church has been that cult, the ghetto and the siege mentality. of the recent encyclical. what a pope states about morals and Bi hop Pell previously appeared on But here is the important point. The dogma is certain to be free from error if another television panel, which dis­ Pope goes on to say: 'Conscience is the heformallydeclare itexcathedra. Ver­ cussed the concept of women priests. proximate norm of conduct, and as such itatis Splendor ha s not been issued ex Listening to his words I fe lt sad that my it should be followed, even in the case cathedra. The degree of solemnity at­ voice of Christianity !the Catholic of error due to invincible ignorance' tached to a statement by a pope should Church) should be represented by some­ jmy emphasis). It seems that a greater be matched by the degree of seriousness one whose vision seemed blinkered. Hi dignity is being accorded the confused with which it is received by Catholics. reliance on arbitrary legalisms and tra­ conscience than was the case in the But a statement which is not ex cathe­ ditions contrasted sharply with the type encycl ical. This is a point worth ponder­ dra cannot be presented as infallible, of Christianity expressed by several sen­ ing; and one likely to have marked pas­ and to propose a category of 'nearly­ ior Catholic nuns who also spoke. toral consequences. infallible' is both silly and Certainly, 'conscience needs to be dangerous. nurtured and educated' !original em­ In any event, many phasis) since it is a 'delica te voice', often Catholics do not now ac­ 'overpowered by a noisy, distracted way cept that the phrase 'infal­ of life', to say nothing of its being 'suffo­ libility of the pope' has any cated by a long-lasting, erious habit of u efulmea ning when tak­ si n'-as, presumably, we all know. en literally. They regard it But, another point: How should con­ as a phrase that is being science be nurtured and educated to live transmogrified, by a tortu­ up to fundamental dignity? The answer ous shift in interpretation, given in the Pope's talk is rather disam1- into something rather dif­ ing, compared with the more stentorian ferent from its original pronouncements of the encyclical: 'the meaning. preferred way to form it, at least for 2. Bishop Pell asserted those who have the grace of faith, is to that the Pope is simply re­ relate it to the biblical revelation of the peating the message of moral law, authoritatively interpreted Christ. Concerning contra­ with the help of the Holy Spirit, by the ception, to call this asser­ magisterium of the church,' !my em­ tion naive would be the phasis). most charitable option A minor gloss, some might think. available. The question But it does indicate how the Pope him­ being asked is, 'How should self is reading his own huge letter to the Christians apply the mes­ bishops. Hence, a handy reference. sage of Christ to this mat­ Tony Kelly ter? ' The bishop begged this Kew, VIC question. Such episcopal teaching is one facet of what alienates many Catholics and present-day Catholics. Most Australian Catholics do not be­ Many Catholics feel alienated from their church lieve that 'artificial' contraception is their church because of the functioning intrinsically evil or immoral. The re­ of the existing Vatican administrative cent encyclical is unlikely to change system. Unfortunately, this sense of al­ From fohn Benecke their opinion. ienation can ea ily progress to aliena­ On a recent Four Comers television 3. Virtually all Ca tho lies would agree tion from Christianity. Such problems program it was encouraging to hear that more than 90 per cent of the encyc­ do not arise from the contraception de­ someone of the status of Fr W. Uren SJ, lical expresses the Christian way of life. bate alone, they have roots in the Vati­ dissent from some aspects of Veritatis It is the remaining small percentage can's admi nistra tivc/theological/philo­ Splendor. On the same program Bishop that may need further thought rather sophical 'mindset', which Fr Uren re­ Pell supported the encyclical without than blunt assertion. ferred to on Four Corners. Much of this reservation. Some of the points the bish­ I was deeply disappointed when I mindset is not an integral part of Chris­ op made were: heard Bishop Pell say that matters such tianity but only an historical coinci­ l. What the Pope wrote should be ac­ as the Catholic view of contraception dence which i , regrettably, often pre­ cepted as true by all Catholics. should not be discussed within the wid­ sented by the Vatican as if it is Christi­ 2. That the Pope is repeating what Jesus er Australian community, butonlywith­ anity itself. Chri t taught. in the church organisation. Farone thing, Matters such as the prohibition of

VOLUME 3 NUMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 7 women priests or married priests are did not have

8 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 The church's ' just war' teaching has ke-Petersen foiled the plan by advising Verbal differences become a 'no war' teaching, a classic the Governor to reissue the writs for five illustration of Newman's concept of Senate vacancies before Gair's formal From George Ringer doctrinal development. The fact that no resignation could be accepted. The Gair I am writing to complain of the vulgar, modern war can fulfil the requirements vacancy would thus be filled as a casual coarse, ribald language that is on p39 of of the 'just war' doctrine was confirmed vacancy, by the Queensland Parliament. Eureka Street, vol. 3 no. 7. I know you by Pope John Paul when he condemned The matter became academic when did not write the article, but you printed the Gulf War and has, I understand, been Whit] am, armed with the necessaty leg­ it. Surely this magazine is above the use incorporated into the new catechism. islative grounds, called a double dis e­ of those sorts of words. Michael Tate' conversion to non­ lution in response to Senate threats to George Ringer violence in the late 1960s was part of a upply. In the ensuing full-Senate elec­ Pooraka, SA centuries-long pilgrimage by the whole tion, Labor won only four out of lO church that has now received official places in Queensland and one of those The 'language' referred to was u ed in confirmation. I suspect that Tate's un­ four, Bert Milliner, died in June 1975. quotation and reference to the poetry of ease about the Gulf War is related both It was then that Bjelke-Petersen, ig­ Philip Larkin. Eureka Street does not to his well-known personal integrity noring convention (as usual), nominat- seek to shocl<, but neither does it make and his excellent knowl­ a habit of bowdlerising. -Ed. edge of church teach­ ing. I am awaiting with 'Just wars' just baited breath the full and joyful submission aren't on to the magisterium on this issue by certain From Paul Mees high-profile Catholics Michael Tate's concerns about the mo­ who strongly supported rality of the Gulf War sit more easily theGulfWar, but whose with Christian teaching than Peter Col­ disdain for dissenter lins (Eureka Street, October 1993) ap­ from papal teachings is pears to realise. That a war be fought to well known. In fact, I prevent evil is only one of the condi­ have been a little sur­ tions of the 'just war' doctrine; the other prised at the tardiness requirements include proportionality so far shown, but doubt­ and not harming non-combatants. less the release of the Although church authorities have English edition of the frequently only meekly asserted the tra­ catechism will be the ditional teaching, it has appeared over occasion for this public the centuries in, for example, the medi­ act of fidelity. eval papacy's attempt to outlaw new Paul Mees killing technologies such as the cross­ Fitzroy, VIC bow, and Pope Pius Xll's condemnation of the killing of non-combatants at Hi­ ed the wretched Albert Field. Field's roshima and Nagasaki. right to sit in the Senate was challenged The circumstances of modem war­ and he was unable to participate in Sen­ fare make it impossible to fulfil the ate proceedings. Hence, he never voted requirements for a 'just war'. With the What really made for the coalition's budget deferral (as advent of conscription at the time of the alleged by Collins), but the absence of French Revolution, the size of armies up the Gair affair that one Labor vote (vice Milliner's) and thus casualties has escalated, and ensured the success of the coalition's even soldiers can be unwilling partici­ strategy. pants in a war (when the just-war doc­ From Paul Rodan Paul Rodan trine was formulated, soldiers were Peter Collins (Eureka Street, October East Malvern, VIC mercenaries). Modem killing technolo­ 1993) is inaccurate in his recollection of gy also ensures widespread casualties, the Gair affair and the consequences in PSYCHOLOGIST and makes it impossible to exclude ci­ the Senate. Gair resigned in Aprill974, vilians from this toll. to be ambassador to Ireland, not the Annie Cantwell-Bart! This was clearly illustrated by the Vatican. (Posting Gair to the Holy See Reg.nurse,reg. psychologist coun­ high death toll among the largely con- may well have prompted a papal selling within a spiritual frame­ cript Iraqi army. Remember the 'tur­ encyclical, Pro repulso Gairi. ) work. Specialising in personal key shoot' on the road out of Kuwait Whitlam'sstrategy was that the half­ issues, relationships, illness, City, and the thousands buried alive in Senate election in Queensland would addiction, grief and concerns of their trenches? And the civilians incin­ then be for six senators rather than for women. erated by a 'smart bomb' in the infa­ five, and that Labor would win three ph (03) 376 7955 mous Baghdad bunker? seats (rather than two out of five). Bjel-

V OLUME 3 NUMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 9 those people who gave him the strength understanding. It should make the read­ On the subject of and faith to persist until his monumen­ er aware of what previously he had seen tal work was finished. Among those 'through a glass darkly'. It should turn Manning Clark m entioned were Patrick White, Helen the mind oft he reader towards the things Garner and David Malouf, that energet­ that matter'. In this sense he was not an From Ross Fitzgerald, associate profes­ ic iconoclast Humphrey McQueen and, empiricist, but an historical polemicist, sor of histoq and politics at Griffith significantly, Geoffrey Blainey. Al­ like the great Thomas Carlyle. Clark UniveTsity. though Clark dissociated himself from saw himself not merely as a propounder Let me put my cards on the table. Apart Blainey's views on immigration, it n ev­ of historical truths but, as Michael Cath­ from Geoffrey Bolton and Donald Home, er occurred to him to deny Blainey's cart recently pointed out, 'an artist who I admire Manning Clark more than any great contribution to the study of Aus­ posed those fundam ental questions recent historian of our nation. tralian history-as disgracefully hap­ about the human condition that defy Quite unusually in Australia, Clark pened with many members of the pro­ easy resolution. His purpose was both to combined the writing of fiction and of fession. enrich and to trouble a new society by hi story. In all his works, and especially Clark's courage, humanity and abil­ giving voice to its tragedi es, to tell his his great six-volume History, he con­ ity to forgive were linked with a lifelong fellow Australians who they were, and stantly supported the realm of freedom struggle to understand our national iden­ what they might becom e'. and the spirit against the petty people tity, and his own. He had a great love for As befits a person who wrote fiction who often inhabited Australian indus­ Australia and Australians. The past, and non-fiction with equal faci li ty, one try, politi cs, burea ucracy and, most of present and future of our beloved, ex­ of the many devices Clark employed all, academia. ploited and abused country was his en­ was to mix up tenses: past, present and Clark m anifested a keen interest in duringpassion. Although he m

10 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBE R 1993-JANUARY 1994 Dropping the grand plan

LABOR ABANDONED ITS REFORM PROGRAM? The have some advantages: the process of picking the pieces obstacles, not least the Senate, have made some in the up from the floor is good for shaking up the complacent govemment think that everything is 'too hard' and not and for reviewing tl1e conventional wisdom. worth the agony of consultation and negotiation. Their But, as some of the pragmatists who no longer have instinct is to skip hard issues, such as the necessary the zeal for this type of 'reform' have leamt, it also has economic restmcturing of Australia, in the hope that its costs. The massive dismption, wasted energy, and the economic recovery and the Opposition's intemal ill will caused by a decade of almost continual reorgan­ contradictions will take Labor across the line in 1996. isation in the public service (including the destmction That view is held by at least one faction in Cabi­ of some careers) have probably more than balanced any net, led by the Treasurer, Jolm Dawkins. Fresh from the supposed gains in efficiency. Budget debacles, the Treasurer is now gloomy about Labor in govemment, thanks to Jolm Dawkins as whether his colleagues have the fibre for the fight, Minister for Finance, now has a 'more responsive' pub­ whether they are still willing to gamble that good poli­ lic service, but not a few of his colleagues are now wor­ cy makes good politics, and whether they retain a fun­ ried about the quality and objectivity of some of the damental commitment to the messy task of reshaping advice they get from people who have leamed that they the nation. This pessimism-which Dawkins must have don't get rewards if they do not please. Those same re­ unguardedly discussed with some joumalists, since it fonns have given the government a model of publicly led to several sympathetic and virtually identical think owned trading enterprise that has caused more than a pieces by some of the opinion formers in the press gal­ few problems, especially in transport and communica­ lery- may prove to be the start of a useful alibi. tions. The Treasurer's attitude was prompted by the defeat There are now few in the govemment who will in Cabinet of proposals for the reorganisation of science praise the Dawkins 'reforms' of education or the uni­ policy and administration, which were being promoted versities either. And, if some will salute in him a per­ by Dawkins' factional ally, Chris Schacht. The Schacht sisting naive idealism, there are not many, after the plan would have combined the Commonwealth Scien­ Budget debacles, who have much respect for his judg­ tific and Industrial Research Organisation with the ment. Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisa­ Both cynics and tme believers might be forgiven tion, and merged hived-off sections of the CSIRO with for wondering what has happened to Labor's wider agen­ other groups to fonn a new marine-science institute. da for reform, rather than for mere reorganisation. The By Dawkins' account, most of the Cabinet was in­ republic may be a light on the hill, but tl1e reinvigorat­ tellectually convinced of the merit of these proposals, ed economic advisers are trying to lock the govemment but they jibbed because they were afraid that they could into strategies which assume that only 'natural' growth not get it through the Senate. Well, it's a useful alibi, can produce jobs, and that we will have to live with an but one is entitled to a bit of scepticism: there is precious tmemployment rate of at least eight per cent until the little evidence that the Schacht plan was central to end of the decade, and perhaps beyond. Has a decade of microeconomic reform. Labor mle made welfare function effectively, especially To most observers, it looked rather more like a for that eight per cent and their families? naive but ambitious minister trying to leave an impres­ One of the little-noted decisions of the Budget was sion and to assert some power. The scheme was his the establishment of more than 20 interdepartmental alone, developed in the face of bureaucratic advice and committees to conduct reviews of almost every area of without consulting those affected. It dealt rather casu­ health, education and welfare spending and policy. The ally with the portfolio responsibilities of ministers big­ reports of these committees should be appearing in Jan­ ger and uglier than Schacht. His claims that savings were uary, as preparations for the next Budget get under way, possible convinced no one, and the minister's case that and the betting is they will be rather more focused on the component parts of his organisation were inefficient saving money than on improving opportunities for all. or incompetent was based on anecdotal information. Not And this is happening at a time when even senior a few of the 'pragmatists' in Cabinet who voted against bureaucrats in the Finance Department, that tradition­ it did so because they thought Master Schacht had made al scourge of govermnent spending, say that the era of a goat of himself. cutting spending should be over and that the primary Perhaps just as significantly, the plan looked sus­ way of repairing the govemment's finances should be piciously as if it were on the Dawkins' model for reform. by raising taxes, particularly indirect taxes. It's the toss-everything-up-in-the-air model. Take any The problem may be that Labor has so long been organisation or policy function-education, say-and confusing rearrangement for reform that it might have completely reorganise it: centralise anything which is forgotten what real reform is. • decentralised, decentralise anything which is central­ ised, and assert political control or patronage over any area of funding or policy discretion. The procedure does Jack Waterford is deputy editor of The Canberra Times.

V OLUME 3 NUMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 11 From one Northland School's out to another: jorme1· Northland Secondary "'TWO NoRTHUNOS neighbours, joined and sepa­ Education, Northland's scattered students have rated by a vast swathe of asphalt, and, like any neigh­ been told, is a service like any other: measurable, com­ bours, their relationshlp is more subtle, complex and parable, driven by the exigencies of the marketplace. diffuse than merely geographic. A year ago, it was around All you 12 and 14 and 16-year olds, you are now cus­ the Northland Shopping Centre's public-transport hub tomers. Shop around, like we do in the private sector. that the school's 500 students revolved, often travelling Pick and choose. Come and get it. You can have any considerable distance to seek out its special programs. colour you like, except black. And if you don't like it It was the centre's shops that provided them with work that way, if you have special needs or don't quite fit, experience and where they found part-time employment, you can just take your snotty nose off the window, kid, where they shopped after classes and took in movies at or you'll be ejected from the whole glittering arcade. the weekend. And now that their school has been closed, Judges' decision final, no correspondence entered into.

12 EUREKA STREET • D ECEMBER 1993- JANUARY 1994 Kylie used to go to North­ Aboriginal participation in tertiary education. land, the school. She was doing At the time of closure, 62 of Northland's 500 Year 11 when the first round of students were Kooris. Of these, 14 are now enrolled in closures came. According to the the unofficial classes being run at the school by volun­ plan armounced at the time by the teer teachers as part of the continuing occupation of Education Minister, Don Hay­ school premises. Twenty are estimated to be attending ward, she would be slotted effort­ other local schools. A handful have left Melboume. 'The lessly into a nearby school. Two rest,' says Dedrie Bux of the Melbourne Aboriginal schools later Kylie has dropped Education Association, Incorporated, 'are out, one of the more than 1300 AWOL.' students lost in the wash in the inner-western subregion alone, A LL OF WHJCH was quite predictable, according to according to the Victorian Sec­ the group of parents and students who have approached ondary Teachers Association. the Equal Opportunity Board in an attempt to force a Kylie now spends a lot of rescinding of the closure decision. They argue that the time at Northland, the shopping specific educational needs of Aboriginal children are by centre. She is young-looking for now so well established and documented that for the her age, quietly spoken, almost Victorian Department of School Education to have shy. She doesn't know much closed the one school in the state catering to them con­ about these union statistics, but stitutes a racist act. Professor Colin Burke, dean of the she knows a fellow fanner North­ faculty of Aboriginal and Islander studies at the Univer­ land student when she sees one. sity of South Australia, put it to the board like this. 'Ur­ 'There's one, and there, and ban Aborigines share common Aboriginal cultural there.' characteristics-extended family structures, high mo­ Six in ten minutes she spots, bility, the involvement of many different relatives in ambling through the mall at two the children's upbringing, the use of Aboriginal English, on a Tuesday afternoon, mid­ attitudes to mutual responsibility and sharing-which term. can create difficulties for children in regard to school Back at college Kylie had attendance and work, which in tum requires a particu­ done the retail skills program, run lar sort of educational environment.' in collaboration with several of Or, as Brian Derum, a former Northland teacher the shopping centre stores. It went well and she landed put it, 'you don't call yourself the student welfare co­ a part-time sales job, a little pin money on the way to ordinator when to a substantial part of your communi­ tertiary studies. Now it is her career, the Reject Shop, ty "welfare" means people who steal your children'. $75-a-week, less $40 for board. Among those who did what was required of them 'At Northland if we had a problem at home affect­ by the govemment were 14-year-old Eban and 16-year­ ing our work we could always discuss it with the teach­ old Amos, sons of musicians Ruby and Archie Roach. er. But these other schools had a different culture. If The Roach family are high achievers by anyone's stand­ you had a problem, that was your problem. We were ards, their lounge-room mantlepiece a trophy cabinet seen as outsiders, coming in from a closed-down school, of sporting, music and commtmity awards, not all of not knowing anyone, potential trouble. They didn't give them by any means won by the adults. The kitchen us a chance.' cupboards are tagged with identifying words in the boys' Not that she blames the teachers; well, not entire­ mother's language. When Northland was shut down, ly. When you're facing increased class sizes, the admin­ Eban and Amos were duly enrolled at Kingsbury, their istrative overload of ingesting dozens of staffing changes, allocated replacement school, a bus trip away. the withdrawal of traditional remedial support programs, 'I did the right thing by the government,' says Ruby. the possibility of being named 'in-excess' and packed 'But there was always this feeling that the Aboriginal off to join the 4000 of your colleagues already jettisoned, kids had to be watched all the time, like they were more your tolerance for problematic new students likely to be trouble.' is likely to be low. Ten months later, Amos and Eban are back at Northland, illegal students at an illegal teach-in. M YBE THE SPEClAL WlLLINGNESS of the teachers at The official response to such attitudes is unforgiv- Northland to deal with the domestic aspects of student's ing. lives, often cited by the Northland MIAs, is an example In September, when music teachers from the re­ of what the Victorian Treasurer, Alan Stockdale, means gion were organising this year's annual Grand Youth when he refers to 'wasteful and unproductive teacher Concert, an annual showcase for music programs in work practices'. It was certainly a key element in the northern and western suburban schools held in the school's attraction and retention of Koori students, Concert Hall, they decided to invite Northland's Koori feeding in tum the state's top position nationally in dance troupe. The group had appeared last year; North-

VoLUME 3 NuMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 13 CCI make protecting your land at one time had 15 per cent of the state's home and family VCE dance students, and it was, after all, the International Year of Indigenous People. The as easy as Directorate of School Education's reaction was swift and to the point. Northland was no longer a school. If the dancers appeared, all funding calling for the concert would cease. The dancers did not appear. At the cul­ 008 011 028 mination of the concert 700 young students sang a song in an Aboriginal language, not a Call 008 Oll 028 now and find out Koori among them . more about CCI House and Of course, it is not only Koori students Contents and Childrens' who have special needs, nor Northland that Accident Insurance. You'll find caters to them. The historic increase in reten­ the service personal and attentive, the rates competitive and making a tion rates past the lega l school-leaving age claim easy right from the start. means that literally tens of thousands of kids For honest protection for your home are staying on at school well beyond their par­ and family call the Church's own ents' level of education- and not always with insurance company - CCI Insurances. a hom e environment attuned to their needs. As well, considerable motivation is needed by CCI Insurances specific groups of students- girls from partic­ Cathol•c Chu rch Insurances Ll m11ed A C N 000005 210 ular ethnic backgrounds for example- to un­ 324 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, 3004 dertake the workload of the VCE. Whatever their backgrounds, exact num­ bers for those Missing In Action as a result of the first round of school closures remain elu­ sive. According to Education Line, a telephone LIYINIJ IJO/J~ FAMILY information service featured in full-page news­ paper advertisements placed by the Victorian THE CHRISTMAS BOWL government, 'all students from closed schools are now enrolled elsewhere'. Any information Christian families giving to the World family to the contrary is 'rumour-mongering.' through the Christmas Bowl Appeal. Clearly, no one from the Directorate of Sc hool Education has played pinball in the northern suburbs on a weekday afternoon lately.

ITIS UNLIKELY that this rigorous optimism will be chal­ lenged by the arrival of empirical data from the field. Schools, after all, have a vested interest in maintaining the fiction of their nominal enrolment figures, since it is total student numbers that determine staffing levels. The reality is that nobody seems to know the real drop­ out rate, and few, aside from the parents and kids con­ cerned, seem to care. The only real hard MIA research done to date was the monitoring of 300 students dispersed by the closure of Coburg North Secondary College, by a group of par­ ents describing themselves as 'six mothers of 14 school­ age children'. According to surveys carried out by the "Last year the Australian churches were able to help us in group since the school was closed down in November southern Africa tremendously thanks to the Christmas Bowl 1992, almost 40 per cent of the displaced students have Appeal. Your support is much appreciated. " dropped out of the education system entirely, some too Desmond Tutu young even for the dole. Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town When you're in the middle of your teens and your school is eliminated at the stroke of a pen; when your TO GIVE A DONATION OR FOR FURTHER INFORMATION peer group is broken up and you are shunted off to a CONTACT YOUR LOCAL CHURCH OR RING 008 025101 new institution with an unfamiliar ethos and values, AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF CHURCHES where your presence is easily construed as the incursion

14 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-)ANUARY 1994 Double Pioneer

N JNETY YEARS AGO THlS MONTH, Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre, along with Henri Becquerel, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their discovery of radioactivity. Eight years later, Marie won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for her discovery of radiwn. Marie Curie was the first person to win two Nobel prizes, the first woman to hold a professorial chair in France, and the first woman nominated to France's Academie des Sciences. Unlike her daughter Irene, who was also a Nobel laureate, she did not set out to pave a way for women in science. Marie was a deeply private person, delighting in intellectual challenges and, particularly, in scientific knowledge. She was born in Poland in 1867, and grew up full of nervous energy and possessed of exceptional talent. As a teenager, she questioned the Russian oppression of Poland and, at 16, declared herself a positivist and was active in an underground 'floating university'. In 1891, having spent ix years as a governess to pay for her studies, Marie entered the Sorbonne. She had been barred from university entrance in Poland because of her lack of proficiency in classical languag­ es. Despite having to live as a pauper, she attacked her studies with single-minded zeal. Although she barely spoke French, she came first in physics and, a year later, second in mathematics. In 1897, soon after the birth of her first child, Marie began work on her doctorate in science-a degree which at the time had not yet been awarded to a woman in Europe. Her thesis concerned the strange 'rays of un­ known nature' spontaneously emitted by uranium salts. They had been first observed a few years earlier by Hen­ Amos Roach, Anthony and Chris Welsh Photo: Bill Thomas ri Becquerel. Marie had trouble obtaining laboratory of an uninvited loser, where the teachers are hard-pressed space and worked in terrible conditions: the tempera­ and unfamiliar with your home set-up, and where the ture often dropped to near-freezing, healthy neither for dole beckons, or where you can wag it with impunity, an experimental physicist nor for her sensitive equip­ chucking it all in starts to look like an informed choice. ment! Nan1ing the phenomenon they were studying 'ra­ 'If you're a girl,' says Kylie, 'having a baby can begin dioactivity', Marie and Pierre claimed to have discovered to seem like a good idea. You don't lose your sense of the existence of two new elements-radium, now used the future like you do on the dole, but the money's better. in treating cancer, and polonium. Their Nobel prize was It's valued work, you feel like there'll be something to awarded six months after Marie received her doctorate. show for the effort. There's somebody to love and to The Curies' claims, like most great discoveries, love you back. And at least you're seen as having a role. were initially received with scepticism. The notion of Not just being a nobody with nothing.' spontaneous emission of radiation challenged existing 'There's one now,' she points. 'She and I used to be theories of the composition of matter, and the new ele­ in Year 10. Cute baby, eh ?' • ments had not yet been isolated. But in 1902, after another six years working in an old shed, Marie and Shane Maloney is a freelance writer. Pierre isola ted a precious decigram of radium and deter­ mined its atomic weight. Even the avowedly empirical A Place called The Way chemists were convinced. Marie Curie gave much to science and to hwnani­ The Way is a small, la y-centred ecumenical commtmity ty. Tragically, after surmounting obstacles as a woman whose spirit ca ll s us to meet Jesus in some of the most and as a scientist, when she died in 1934 it was as one of marginalised, isolated people: alcoholi c, homeless men. the first victims of radiation poisoning. Pioneers always If you would be interested in joining The Way commu­ seem to have to pay a price, and Marie was doubly a nity, or finding out more information, feel free to call pioneer. • Ca th Devine or Margaret Fogarty on 03 417 4898. -Sascha Surgey is this month's guest columnist.

VoLUME 3 N uMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 15 THE NATION: 2

MARGARET StMONS Wayne's world

IND'"'M"" 1989, >ftenhc Quoon,. gives better access and more land ALP's first victory in 32 years, attention to mining than did Wa yne Goss addressed his victorious Bjelke-Peterscn,' says Pin­ MPs. The mood can barely be imag­ nock. 'There is almost an ined. There was no one in the room open invitation on any issue who could rem ember the taste of pow­ for us to go in and say what cr. What was Goss' message? 'You we think.' should all go away and take a cold Pinnock says the Goss shower,' he said. Some would suggest government ca me in on a 'green' tick­ quent negotiations, the Queensland that the Goss govcmmcnt has yet to et. That, combined with its declared bureacrats who were handling the em erge from that cooling torrent. policy of introducing land rights, wor­ matter were accompanied by Comal­ There has been no rush of blood to the ried the industry but now: 'One of the co lawyers when they arrived at meet­ head, and no fire in the belly. key issues on Mabo was mining leas­ ings with Canberra bureaucrats. The At 42 years of age, and after a m ere es, and the government gen erally Coma leo representatives were allowed 10 years in Parliament, Wayne Goss is moved toaccommodate us. We'd want to sit in on the discussions. now the country' longest-serving to give full marks to them. Goss supporters put the best fa ce political leader. He is also one of the 'It upsets a lot of people here when on his closeness to industry. They most popular. Only a few months ago, I say it, but in the last three or four describe it as a movement in his per­ his satisfaction rating in the polls was years of the Bj elke-Petersen govern­ sonal politics from a concern with at 68 per cent. His constant refrain has m ent we had considerable difficulties 'lawyers' matters', uch as civil liber­ been that if his government is to and some quite nasty situations be­ ties and constitutional rights, to 'tra­ achieve lasting change then it has to ca use we weren't involved in the con­ ditionallabourconcems', such as jobs. take the electorate with it, rather than sultation process. The National Party A backbencher put it differently. 'He getting too far ahead of community saw they had a constituency in farm­ seems to be quite fascinated with the aspirations. ing and in mining and sometimes the process by which jobs are created, and Many of those who had pinned two collided. The cooperation we got he Listens to winners and those with their hopes to the new government was great from some ministers and money to invest, rather than to the feel deeply betrayed. Conservation­ awful from others. We had a lot of run­ wider community.' ists and civil libertarians, who were ins with the National Party in the last People who know both Keating the main force of opposition in the few years. We have had few- and Goss suggest the bad chemistry state for much of the Bjelke-Peterscn er with the Labor Party.' between them is at least partly be­ era, are rarely consulted, and when cause they arc each other's eq uals in they arc consultation tends to be per­ G oss' CLOSENESS to mining inter­ arrogance. But whereas Keating be­ emptory. ests, and the conservative bent of his lieves it is a leader's role to have vi­ On the other hand, industry, in government in general, recently bc­ sion, and to lea d community opinion, particular mining, boasts that it has cameissueson the nationalstage when Goss was quoted immediately before never enjoyed such good access to he and the Prime Minister, Paul Kea t­ the last state election as saying: 'I government. Michael Pinnock, the ing, got involved in a slanging match think this vision stuff is for prime bead of the Queensland Mining In­ over the Queensland govemment's re­ ministers and people who shop at x­ dustry Council, gives the Goss gov­ sponse to the High Court's Mabo de­ pcnsive stores.' Govemment, he said, ernment strong endorsement. 'Goss cision on native title. In the subsc- was about managing the economy,

16 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1 993-JANUARY 1 994 Industry, in particular mining, boasts that it has never enjoyed such good access to government. Michael Pinnock, the head of the Queensland Mining Industry Council, gives the Goss government strong endorsement. 'Goss gives better access and more attention to mining than did Bjelke-Petersen,' says Pinnock. 'There is almost an open invitation on any issue for us to go in and sa y what we think. ' 'I think this vision stuff is for prime ministers and people who shop at degree to which Goss' refonns had expensive stores': Wayne Goss and his wife, Raisin. Photo: T he Age. disappointed their electorate. The way and keeping things on an even keel. other state of which this is true. Goss pushed through the landrights In the same interview, by Th e There is another, new, thing about legislation was, as landrights activist Australian's Roy Eccleston, Goss said Queensland that marks it out fro m Frank Brennan SJ has commented, the that one of the main strengths of his the rest of Australia and which has big point which marked Goss' 'formal government's first term was that it implications for politics. Each week, abandonment, or at least selective use had managed to introdu ce som e re­ more than a thousand people are mi­ fro m now on, of the Fitzgerald pro­ forn1s-freedom -of-information legis­ grating to Queensland-and that is cesses of public consultation, discus­ lation, a legally recognised right to the net figure, aft er those travelling in sion and accountability.' public assembly and changes to the the other direction have been deduct­ Hom osexu al-law reform was police force structure-with­ ed. This means that each year, Queens­ achieved, but in a half-hearted way. ~ out 'scaring the horses'. land is taking in the equivalent of a New anti-discrimination legislation city around the size of Albury. More has loopholes that, unions believe, l.HERE IS ONE THING that anyone on this later. could be used to prevent gay teachers with an interest in Queensland poli­ Labor came to power on the back­ from holding their jobs. Abortion law tics should keep constantly in mind. wash from the Fitzgerald inquiry. reform is not on the Goss govern­ Goss has never allowed himself to Within the party, there was a deep ment's agenda, and in spite of a strong forget it. More than any other state, conviction that the bush was natural­ recommendation from the Criminal Queensland is a collection of region . ly National Party territory, and that if Justice Commission that prostitution To those in the big regional centres Labor wanted to be more than a one­ should be legalised, Goss has ruled it north of the Tropic of Capricorn and term government it would have to out. west of the Darling Downs, Brisbane m ove cautiou sly. H en ce Goss' Even before the CJC had released is a remote and largely irrelevant cap­ instructions about the cold shower. its report, Goss had made it clear that ital, and the southern cities of Canber­ Land-rights legislation was intro­ bro thels would remain illegal. Under ra and Sydney seem like the centres of duced after maximum consultation the laws he passed, it is legal for wo­ a foreign power. More than half of all with mining and pastoral representa­ men to work singly as prostitutes fro m Queenslanders live outside the capi­ tives, but with minimal input from private premises, but brothels and or­ tal. If a party in Queensland wants to Aborigines. Not a murmur was heard ganised prostitution are illegal. The gain power, it must win over the vot­ fro m industry when the legislation significance of this issue should not be ers in the bush. Gerrymander or no went through Parliament, but blacks underestimated. It was prostitution gerrymander, lose the bush and you ri oted and knocked down the gates of and the corruption which attached to lose government. Tasmania is the only Parliament. It was a measure of the it which sparked off the Fitzgerald

VOLUME 3 N UM ilER lO • EUREKA STREET 17 inquiry. T he new laws arc as much of found evidence of journalists being background. Wayne Goss grew up in a laughing stock as the ones presided rewarded and punished with informa­ Inala, a western suburb of Brisbane over by the Bjclke-Petersen Govern­ tion. The extraordinary thing about that gives the lie to the sunny person­ ment, when the notorious Bubbles the inquiry was the parliamentary ality Queensland would like to project. Bathhouse in Fortitude Valley had an press gallery's complacent submission, Underserviced and full of resentment, illegal CPeter Beattie and Dennis Mur­ plain his stand. Public used to boast about his collection of phy, urged him to nm for a state seat. lawyers. His opinion polls indica ted Phantom comics, and his member­ Politics appealed as a way out of law. that decriminaliscd ship of the Phantom Club. In the days Ironically, Beattie, once one of personality was forged prostitution would be when he was a breath of fresh air in a Labor's most influential officials, has accepted by the elector­ parliamentary party made up of tired suffered under Goss. Beattie chaired in a battle to escape ate. A Goss watcher and factionalised old men who had the parliamentary committee that comments: 'He is a bit cut their teeth amid the sweat and oversaw the work of the Criminal his background ... of a puritan. I think he is singlets of the Australian Workers Justice Commission (CJC), which was genuinely shocked by Union, Goss had a cutout of Super­ set up to continue the work of the InaJa is the sort of prostitution.' man, fist raised, in full flight on his Fitzgerald inquiry. Goss' relationship Ask people who office wall. with the CJC during his first term was place where going work closely with him In those days, Queensland's abysmal, largely because the govern­ what WayneGossislikc, factional warfare m ade the rest of the ment was wounded by a commission down to the shopping and the same words tend Labor Party look like best buddies. report which showed that Labor MPs to recur-discipline and Goss was out of the mould. At the had, in opposition, misspent parlia­ mall is the only conservatism. Goss is a time, I wrote in a report for The Age: 'It mentary funds. jogger and a hard work­ is likely that in the southern-states Beattie vigorously defended the entertain1nent. er. He does not drink Labor parties, Wayne Goss, with his commission at every turn, taking a heavily, or smoke. As legal background and civil libertarian principled, if tactless, stand. He paid one of his former staff says: 'He actu­ commitments, would not appear to be for it. Once a strong contender for the ally doesn't have much fun at all.' exceptional. In Queensland, he stands ministry and even, one day, for leader­ Goss' attitude to the media is said out. As well, he is free of factional ship, he has been sent to the back­ to be at least as insidious as the old baggage. He is not the m ost liked bench. Bj elke-Petersen 'feeding the chooks' potential leader, but he is probably the One of the MPs named in the CJC days, although a supine media is large­ least hated.' report, former Police Minister Terry ly to blame. Last year the Electoral But time has shown Goss to be a Mackenroth, is back in Cabinet, how­ and Administrative Review Commis­ different sort of person from the south­ ever, in spite of concerns over his sion (EAR C) compiled a report on the ern yuppie lawyers. His personality integrity and what can only be de­ government's use of the m edia, and was forged in a battle to escape his scribed as disgraceful behaviour, fun-

18 EUREKA STREET • DECEM BER 1993-JANUARY 1994 damentally damaging to the Fitzger­ the party. His poor relation­ ald reform process. Mackenroth ship with the federal gov­ resigned after the CJC found that he ernmentis unlikely to help. had used taxpayers' money fo r h.is In a generally optimis­ private expenses. Apparently intent tic background paper writ­ on bringing others down with h.i m, he ten for a conference on the made a series of allegations against Queensland economy, the the police commissioner, Noel Newn­ chief econ om ist of the ham, who had been brought in as an Queensland Industry Devel­ 'honest cop' to reform the force. Mack­ opment Corporation, Ham­ enroth's allegations proved to be ish Bain, said that in other groundless, but the ensuing investiga­ states, paying interest on tion howed up other discrepancies in debt was stifling growth be­ Newnham's travel expenses. Newn­ cause it meant less money ham's career was gutted. was available for basic serv­ Later, Goss revealed to Parliament ices. But too much conserv­ the origins of the feud between Mack­ atism might mean that enrothandNewnham .Newnhamhad Queensland lost its advan­ come to see Goss privately with a tage. 'The need is to believe transcript of conversations between that Asian- tyle growth is two men regarding a donation to Mack­ within reach of Queensland, enroth's 1989 election campaign. Goss providing the state can be later wiped his comments from the administered with a sensi­ Hansard record on legal advice that ble degree of flexibility ... the matter was before the courts. Queensland will have to Mackenroth is back, unscathed and lose some of its extreme highly influential. Newnham is gone, conservatism in administra­ Beattie is in the wilderness and the tion, but this is a small price local media, feel regularly so long as to pay, ' Bain said. they don't get out of line, have hardly Min.ing, which has al­ raised a peep. The idealism that ways underpinned the Queensland ford says. 'That meant you didn't get 'Goss is a jogger followed Fitzgerald has tak- economy, is on the decline. Mount Isa the real! y good people coming here. and a hard worker en a battering. Mines is actually closing or trying to Now we attract companies here be­ ... As one of his ell off some of its operations. And cause they want to be here and they former staff says: 0 NE OF Goss' ELECTORAL STRENGTHS there are some flies in the ointment of know the government will help them "He actually is that Queensland's economy is Queensland's other big earner, tour­ on a fair and square basis.' doesn 't have much stronger than that of any other state. ism. Professor Bill Faulkner, from Queensland's rate of growth for fun at all". ' In keeping with his conservative style, Griffith University's tourism manage­ the past six years has consistently - l'lwlO: The Age Goss has refused to increase the al­ ment department, says that Queens­ been ahead of other states, and Queens­ ready low level of government debt. land depends heavily on one market­ landers looking south can only make He wants the state to build its reputa­ Japan. The state gets proportionately comparisons that are favourable to tion as a solid, low-tax place to invest. fewer visits from Australians on holi­ the Goss government. Brisbane seems The sou them states have nothing day, and those visits are declining. destined to become Australia's second­ to be smug about-most Premiers Since domestic travel still accounts most important city, after Sydney. would give their eye-teeth to be mn­ for three-quarters of the overall tour­ After the shame and upheaval that ning a state in as good financial shape ism market, in the long run this fact accompanied the end of the Bjelkc­ as Queensland. But even in that re­ might leave Queensland gasping for Petcrsen regime, Queenslanders feel spect, Goss' conservatism could serve the dollars it now takes for granted. they have something to be proud of the state badly in the long term. The bright spots arc that small again. Queensland's massive population industries, many of them export-ori­ There are rumblings of disquiet growth has big implications for gov­ CI1ted, are growing strong! yin Queens­ about Goss' failure to consult-par­ ernment. Jon Stanford, a member of land. Boat building is one example, ticularly over plans to close down the University of Queensland's eco­ with small companies exporting to country railway lines. But, for the nomics policy unit, says the enor­ Hong Kong and Indonesia. In the past moment, the Goss gloss is likely to mous migration will drastically in­ 18 months, Stanford says, half of the remain. • crease the need for basic services­ state's employment growth has come schools, roads, hospitals and the like. from such small enterprises, which Traditionally, government has bor­ are starting to d.isplace tourism as the Margaret Simons is a freelance writer. rowed money forthese things but Goss main earner of export dollars. Her novel, The Ruthless Garden, won refuses to borrow, and instead is hop­ 'The Bjelke-Petersen regime tend­ the 1993 Angus and Robertson Book­ ing the Commonwealth will come to ed to do favours for its mates,' Stan- world prize.

VOLUME 3 NUMllER 10 • EUREKA STREET 19 THE M EDIA

MARK SKULLEY Best buys and hoine brands

1980s SHOWED that it is indeed than imports. The catch is that they also ings of the expensive Snowy. The net­ possible to go broke running a brewery in cost more. A fiv e per cent increase in the work is still above the quota for elrama, in Australia. The Seven and Ten television cost of the Seven network's Australian part because of the truly dreadful Para­ networks also slumped into receivership programs reportedly takes $10.3 million dise Beach, which has overseas sales and and Bond Corporation's mountain of debt off its operating profits, while the same investment. Seven, the leader in com ­ fo rced the sale of Nine. Australia's econ­ increase on overseas programs only takes mercial drama, has a cop show with a omy is fragile and television fa ces in­ $3.4 million off the bottom line. bush fla vour, Blue Heelers, to replace A creased competition from direct market­ David Lyle, presenter of The Golden Country Practice. The network's director ing, but the networks still won $1.2 bil­ Years of Television, says the start of Hom­ of broadcasting policy, Sean O'Halloran, lion of the $2.7 billion spent on advertis­ icide in the early 1960s was a turning says Seven does not want to reduce Aus­ ing in Australia last year and they are on point for local content. 'Ever since then tralian content, but the drama quota the up. Australians have made it quite clear with should be relaxed so that new series such The best local performers are our the ratings that they like to watch Aus­ as Blue Heelers do not have to be 'rushed home-grown soap operas, which earn at tralians. Now, as non-soapie drama be- through'. The Ten network appears hap­ least $50 million a year in exports. The PY with Neighbours and its line- up of leader is Neighbours, whi ch is sold to 52 tabloid US shows and the odd telemovie, 1\1 fAI'W Wfl(O t-1.€. tl~ AN AUS'5lE. countries. It has a British audience of 18 1'o '"51 x roof L l f€-S1'Y~E. S~ A50U1 and even lined up A Country Practice million viewers a day, and Home and DoW~ UNDEII."/ BE1"46 D~ AI) ! aft er it was axed by Seven. Away has 10 million. Bruce Gyngell, J A survey by the Australian Film Com­ executive chairman of the Nine network, 1 mission has found that independent TV attributes this success to the cast being produ ction was almost static in 1992-93. bronzed, blond and sunny. 'Both (s hows) Interestingly, given the hype surround­ represent a society which existed in Brit­ ing The Piano, local film output was ain in the 1960s, before people began down 30 per cent. arriving from the Caribbean and Africa. There are also imponderables, like The Poms delve into it to get their quiet what happens to the local-content quota little racism fi x.' Donald Hom e reckons if the GATT agreem ent is signed. The Neighboms may be rubbish but that 'at draft gu idelines that require 10 per cent least it's our rubbish'. local content on pay-TV reportedl y have Australia's non-soa pie drama is the more holes than Swiss cheese. The Grun­ worry.The generous 1980s tax conces­ dy Orga nisation- produ cer of Neigh­ sions, which paid for quality mini-series bours, Australia's Most Wanted and nu­ such asBodyline, have been wound back. comes too frighteningly expensive, by merous gam e shows-is helping to make Funding of the Film Finance Corpora­ and large, each station has one mini­ a New Zealand soapie called Slwrtland tion-which backed shows such as Brides series a year ... and I think "infotain ­ Street, which may have to be classified as of Christ-was cut by $5 million to $57 ment" has go ne up at the same tim e.' local con tent in Australia under the' clos­ million this year, dropping to $50 million Lyle, executive producer of Nine's Our er economic relati onship' between the in two years. FFC funding also requires House and Getaway, believes the info­ two countries. pre-sales and the newly-frugal networks tainment trend has yet to peak. The ubiquitous Reg Grundy, 70, who are loa th to match the high prices they Many industry observers expect the lives in Bermuda and is reputedly worth paid in the 1980s. The cash-squeezed networks to cry poor once pay-TV starts $140 million, has a thrivi ng business ABC is still in there, making new shows and seek a relaxation of the local content repackaging US game shows fo r Europe­ with co-production partners, but most rules, despite the fact that the Australian an nations, but are these shows then people still watch commercial television Broadcasting Authority's role in enforc­ 'local'? The Grundy Orga nisation also most of the time. ing local co ntent has been strengthened replicates US-s tyle soapies in countries The commercial networks are re­ by the new Broadcasting Services Act. like Holland and Germany, using local quired to broadcast at least SO per cent The authority's chairman, Brian Johns, actors and locations, and is looking to Australian content, including repea t pro­ says the networks know that Australians start up elsewhere. grams, between 6am and midnight. There prefer local programs if they have a choice, Bob Wells, president of the Screen are also minimum requirem ents fo r first­ but that broadcasters have to be shown Production Association of Australia, says release drama/di versity programs and how to do this economically. He suggests that the world-wide trend is towards local children's drama. 'Diversity' programs 'creative co-operation' within the film programing. 'The global village that include social documentaries, arts, sci­ and television industry, with more em­ McLuhan talked about is true, to an ence, news and current affairs specials, phasis on exports. extent, but there is another movement, variety shows and new concepts. The Nine and Seven networks also another feeling, that we should not Movies, like Pretty Woman, Ghost insist that their Australian-ness is their ignore.' • and ET, were the top-rating shows this trump card over pay-TV, although Nine year, but Australian programs ra te better was badly burned by the moderate rat- Mark Skulley is a freelance writer.

20 EUREKA STREET • D ECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 THE NATION: 3

CAMPBELL THOMSON Living with the land Recognition of Aboriginal title is the legal reflection of changing attitudes to the land among white Australians. But beyond this is the deeper question of what Aborigines may have to teach other Australians about caring for the land itself.

ON16 Aucu'T 1975, Gough back in Melbourne, I went to Port English, the turtles were their prop­ Whitlam went to Wave Hill, in the Douglas for a holiday. erty. The locals may well have felt Northern Territory, to hand the In February, George Quaid Hold­ that they had allowed outsiders to fish pastoral lease back to the Gurindji ings had placed an advertisement in their waters and the rules of reciproc­ people. Vincent Lingari, a Gurindji The Wall Street Journal, announcing ity meant that the catch be shared. elder, said in response: Ngura ngu­ that 460,000 acres in eastern Cape For 204 years the ideas of reciproc­ ngala-ngkudu ke-nya ngu-lu linka­ York were for sale for $US18million. ity received no official acknowledg­ ra ka-nya lurpa ... ('They took our Local Aboriginal people had joined ment in Anglo-Australian law. The country away from us, now they have forces with the Wilderness Society to Mabo decision permits the writing of brought it back ceremonially' ). prevent the sale and pressure the gov­ another history. In the north-east, in Cape York, eimnentinto handing back the land to The European conquest of Cape the Director of Aboriginal and Island­ its original owners. This essay reflects York really began with the discovery er Advancement ceremonially agreed on the mining, ownership and use of of gold in the late 1860s. Guerrilla to the terms of a mining lease on 4 land in Cape York. warfare alternated with pitched bat­ December 1975. The lease allowed tles. About 500 Aboriginal warriors mining companies to enter the Abo­ Some history were killed at Battle Camp in Novem­ riginal reserve at Arukun to rnine baux­ In March 1606 the Dutch ship Duyf­ ber 1873. But Aboriginal resistance ite, without Aboriginal approval. l< en, commanded by Willem Jansz, led to the abandoning of the mining On 11 November 1975, I flew home made a land-fall at Cape Keerweer on town of Gilberton by both Chinese to Cairns from Melbourne, after my the west of Cape York. Keerweer is and European miners. The local MLA, first year atuniversity. I leamtofKerr's Dutch for tum around. That is exactly Hodgkinson, asked the government dismissal of the Whitlam government what the local Wik people made them for compensation. The motion failed. from a Sun poster at the airport. My do. This victory is still part of Wik oral Hansard records that on 11 June father had recently won National Par­ history. There were further Dutch 18 7 4 Hodgkinson said: Th e manner in ty preselection for the seat of Leich­ landings, which led to the capture of which (his motions) had been received hardt. In 1974 Gough Whitlam had some Aboriginal people in 1623 and would show the people in the North­ planned his May election campaign at 1756. There is no record of what hap­ those people on whom the prosperity the Reef House, a rambling bungalow pened to these captives. of the country so much depended­ on Palm Cove, north of Cairns, which In 1788 James Cook was forced to that they must shoot every black my family had converted into a hotel. beach the Endeavour at what is now fellow they found, in spite of the pseu­ My father made no secret of the fact Cook town. Joseph Banks recorded the do-philanthropists. that he had voted for Whitlam in 1972 Guugu-Yimidhirr word Gungurru as In 1874 the police magistrate and and admired the man. But he felt the 'kangaroo'. The Guugu-Yimidhirr the land commissioner at Norman­ Labor government was out of control. thought the white visitors were the ton, in the Gulf country, reported con­ Soon after arriving in Cairns, I was ghosts of the dead, and lit fires around tinuing warfare. In language like that on a light plane flying round the elec­ Cook's camp to purify the country. of American commanders on kill ra­ torate, which ran from Innisfail north This action was misinterpreted as ag­ tios in Vietnam, they estimated that to Papua New Guinea and west to the gressive and led to the shooting of 30 blacks were killed for every white. Northern Territory. It was bigger than some Aboriginal people. They also reported that: The steal­ Mossman Gorge, Texas. Another cross-cultural misunder­ ing of gins and children from the Far Noah Queensland. Eighteen years later, in August standing occurred when local people blacl

VOLUME 3 NUMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 21 custom in this district. to keep Europeans out of the Arukun water. Film which is meant to record An ancestor of mine had a gold reserve which was created in 1921. meetings with local dignitaries is mine at Georgetown in the 1890s, In September 1972, this was stuffed in the wet back pockets of called the Bobby Dazzler. His letters Queensland government policy: The carefree kids. plead with the government to build a Queensland Government does not I am reminded of the stories of railway so that he could transport ore. view favomably proposals to acquire Killoran, an Aboriginal and Islander There is no mention of his relations large areas of additional freehold land Affairs bureaucrat, tossing sweets to with the local people. or leasehold land for development by both adults and children on visits to In March 1892 the Cooktown Aborigines or Aboriginal groups in reserves. Flo Bj elke-Petersen was magistrate reported that two drunk isolation.' handy with scones, Jo dispensed beche-de-mer fishermen were seen All of the above is fragmented, crumbs to the media chooks. fighting over an Aboriginal girl kid­ white man's chronological history. In Norman ton, my father is bailed napped from Hinchinbrook Island. The Aboriginal story is yet to be told. up by a cow-cocky who has heard that The prospectors did not have it all With the death of the last speakers of Malcolm Fraser is sympathetic to their way. Aboriginal oral history many languages, it may never be fully Aboriginal land rights. He can't be­ records the exploits of an Aboriginal told. A spatial history, in Paul Carter's lieve that anyone could think of giv­ warrior known as Old Paddy, who sense, would create a further perspec­ ing land to those drunken bums on sit­ speared several miners north east of tive. down money. He resents the fact that Coen. The Rocky River goldfield was greater welfare resources seem availa­ abandoned as a result. Campaign fragments bl e to blacks than whites. After the miners came the pasto­ I was the campaign photographer in At Port Douglas, in the Court ralists. By this time, syphilis and the December 1975. House Hotel, a bloke with long hair Snider .5 77 breechloading rifle had One snap is of my father in mole­ and beads asks me if I know where I'm devastated the Aboriginal population. skins, short-sleeved shirt and bush at, when I tell him I'm studying poli­ Missionaries gathered those they could hat walking with the then Queens­ tics. Down the road, at the cemetery, persuade onto missions such as Tru­ land Minister for Aboriginal and a tombstone reads 'killed by blacks'. banaman on the Mitchell River. Islander Affairs up a dusty orange road At the Mitchell River Reserve, we In 1896 part of the Bowman pasto­ towards theDoomadgeeMission. The wander around trying to talk to local ral lease was excised to provide land minister wears a safari suit. He calls people. A group of blacks sit under a for the Trubanaman Mission. In 1910 the locals primitive. My father quotes tree playing cards after lunch. They do Frank Bowman was boundary riding Blainey's The Triumph of the Nomads not even look up when we try to with a stockman, James Mcintyre. on the sophistication of barter trade introduce ourselves. They saw grass burning on the mis­ routes across the continent. Election day is wet. My brother sion boundary. Some Aborigines from At Edward River a quietly-spoken and I hand out how-to-vote cards at the mission were hunting tortoises in black guides us round the crocodile Yarra bah, the Aboriginal Reserve near the swamp, which was just on Bow­ farm. In my memory are more recent Cairns. During a quiet moment, the man land. Bowman and Mcintyre shot television images of crocodiles leap­ young black scmtineerfor Labor shows some of the Aborigines' dogs and ing out of rivers to chomp lumps of me around. A bare house, scrupulous­ chased the people back towards the meat suspended from tourist boats. I ly clean, remindsmeofWalker Evans's mission. From court documents, it is sense that there is no enthusiasm for photographs of the houses of share possible to reconstruct whathappened. the crocodil e farm project, which no croppers in Oklahoma in the Depres­ A pistol shot from Bowman hit a black doubt initiated in Brisbane or sion. known to the court only as 'Jimmy'. Canberra. Jimmy hit Bowman in the eye with a At Weipa, dusk, drinking with the Quaid and Starcke spea r. Mcintyre killed Jimmy with his blacks at their canteen. Someone is On 26 February 1993, George Quaid rifle. Bowman died three days later. explaining how the mining operation Holdings advertised in the Wall Stl"eet Mcintyre was never charged. has relocated two disparate commu­ [omnal, offering '60,000 acres coastal I have a photograph of my grandfa ­ nities together so that there is contin­ freehold land plus 400,000 acres 40- ther, jackarooing in the Gulf country ual low-level conflict. The mine em­ year government leases' of eastern before World War I. He is holding a ploys only a token couple of blacks. Cape York for sale at $US18 million. magpie goose which he has shot. Mid-morning, dazzling sun, Morn­ The land 'would suit a frontier tourist The Amkun Mission was founded ington Island. Dick Roughsey, (Goo­ development based on hunting, fi sh­ by Moravian missionaries in 1904. balathaldin) artist, writer and respect­ ing, adventure tours and possible world The most important European figure ed elder, wears a big grin and a Bill standard game park' and is 'virgin for­ at Arukun has been the Reverend W. Woods T-shirt. Woods is the Labor est': land as a female to be hunted and MacKenzie, who was superintendent candidate for Leichhardt. We are ravished. from the 1920s to the 1960s. He learnt picked up by a truck at the airstrip and The advertisment prompted an Wik-Munkan, the local language, and taken to the school. I wander off to the inquiry by the Trade Practices Com­ was traditionally initiated. He is ap­ creek with ome children

22 EUREKA STREET • D ECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 for $30,2 75, during the dying days of age rainforest. He built another road, fish became used to a non-predatory the Bjelke-Petersen government on 21 from Wangetti to Southedge, through human presence, they were easily September 1989. The Wilderness So­ World Heritage land. At Southedge, speared by the unscrupulous. Walk­ ciety has independent legal advice on he clear-felled the land and shovelled ing through the forest on Snapper Is­ the propriety of the deal, having ob­ the timber into the Mitchell River. land, it was obvious that boot traffic tained relevant documents under the The Queensland government passed was causing erosion. Freedom of Information Act. an act to stop anyone doing anything While taking care not to tread on Another area of contention is Oc­ like this again. live coral on the reef, it was obvious cupational Licence 573, 18,500 hec­ that in walking over it to examine it, tares on the coast between Cape Land as resource, or womb we were breaking up its fragile Melville and Altanmoui National North Queensland has been used by structure.It is a dilemma for the envi­ Parks. This land was severed from the Europeans to mine gold and bauxite, ronmental movements and one that Starcke lease for assessment as a pos­ graze cattle, grow sugar and tobacco could be solved by greater consulta­ sible national park. The Queensland and marijuana, and provide timber for tion with Aboriginal people who have Department of Environment and Her­ housing frames, woodchips and chop­ lived in this co untry for 50,000 years. itage recommended its acqusition as a sticks. There is a tourist park on the edge national park. However, the Lands The land is valuable only for its of Port Douglas where a rainforest Department seems willing to rein­ utility in the market place. As Eric habitat has been created artifically state this land as part of the Starcke Rolls has described at length, the agri­ and covered with mesh to stop the pastoral lease. It could be resumed as cultural practices brought to Austral­ birds flying away. Wa lkways enable crown land with 3 months notice. ia in the 19th century have led to visitors to wander through the high The original Starcke holding con­ salinisation, erosion, the disappear­ canopy. During 'Breakfast with the tains a rich variety of habitats: man­ ance of top soil, rivers full of phos­ Birds', rainbow lorikeets wander across grove, melaleuca forest, freshwater phates, the extinction of many flora the tables, and small wallabies non­ wetlands, tidal flood plains, sand dunes and fauna species and problematic fire chalantly hop around. and patches of remnant rainforest. To regimes. As a theme park, it is akin to the the east lies the largest seagrass pas­ North Queensland has its own Japanese construction of a miniature ture off Australia's eastern coast, with unique ecological disaster in the cane Eiffel tower and other monuments on Australia's largest dugong population. toad. Introduced to devour the cane the outskirts of Yokohama. Perhaps Fringing coral reefs hug the coast. The beetle, it is spreading south and west, the building of simulacra allows the traditional lands of two Aboriginal destroying native amphibians, reptile 'originals' to be preserved. groups, the Guugu -Yimidhirr and and marsupial species. Perhaps virtual reality machines Guugu-Gambiil-Mugu, lie within the The Wilderness Society advocates will make tourism obsolete. Starcke lease. return of the Starcke holding to its The Queensland government is Because most of the land has been original owners. These people see enthusiastic a bout ecotourism. alienated from the crown, and the themselves as part of the land, not Michael Lee, the Tourism Minister, people shifted from it to Hopevale separate from it. Jimmy Jacko, a Guu­ quoted in the Cairns Post of 15 May Mission, most areas cannot be claimed gu-Yimidhirr elder, says that his peo­ 1993, said that the Cairns region was under mooted Mabo legislation that ple will run cattle on the land if it is 'at the forefront of demonstrating that will amend the Queensland Aborigi­ returned to them, but in a sustainable environmental protection and tour­ nal Land Act. The national parks are way, in consultation with environ­ ism could profitably co-exist'. With available for claim. Elders from the mental groups. 'for sale' signs prominent along the two groups still visit the land to 'care Bloomfield-Daintree Road, this re­ for country' by voluntarily policing Ecotourism mains to be seen. vandalism and poaching. The four park In his letter in response to inquiries rangers who are responsible for the about the Starcke sale, Quaid said Conclusion whole of Cape York cannot do this. that, 'George Quaid Holdings has held Cape York is one of the world's last The local people hunt and fish on the the land since 1971 as a future land­ wildernesses. The Bj elke-Petersen land as they have always done. bank for eco-tourism or eventual res­ government was happy to let develop­ Some conservationists regard the idential development'. ers and miners do what they like to hunting of dugo ngs with horror. But Being a tourist in Port Douglas make a profit from it. The Goss gov­ because this hunting is not for profit, made me question the notion of eco­ ernment's position is not clear. Histo­ there is little likelihood of the species tourism. My partner and I went with ry shows that Aboriginal knowledge being threatened, as would be the case our baby son on a small boat to Low and title has been ignored. with, for example, a commercial w hal­ Island, where we snorkelled, and Snap­ The next decade will show if we ing operation. per Island, where we walked through are able to learn from history and be Quaid's record in 'caring for coun­ the forest, and then on a piece of reef more careful with our country and its try' speaks for itself. He subdivided exposed at low tide. There were no big first owners. • rainforest in theDaintree area for hous­ fish off Low Island, where fishing is ing blocks. He built the Bloomfield to supposedly prohibited. When I asked Campbell Thomson is a freelance Daintree Road through World Herit- our skipper why, he said that once the writer.

VOLUME 3 N UMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 23 fiCTION

MICHAEL M cGIRR Nugget

L oNG BEFORE DAD RETIRED FROM RELIGION and became a connoisseur of human eccentricity, he was part of what he called The Great God Rush. His first wife, Rosa, sent him an ecstatic card and invited him in on it. She said they were virtu­ ally kicking converts over as they walked the streets. You didn't have to dig for them at all. 'She was lonely,' dad said later, 'that was all. She just wanted me there.' Dad went anyway and promised Rosa that he would call his first convert Nugget as a sign that the highways were ready to be paved in gold as the first fruits of The Book itself.

When I met Nugget, 22 years later, he was already an old man, or he seemed old for his years. I got off a broken-winded bus in Mandaya, the largest town in the hills, and separated myself from the crowd until I could cast an eye around and see if anyone had got my letter. Nugget approached me from the other side of the street, doing up the buttons on his shirt as a mark of respect or misgiving in the presence of my father's heir. I recognised the hero and the villain of all dad's stories. 'Nugget?', I asked. 'Peter, Andrew, James and John Nugget, ' he owned with a slip of a grin as he manhandled my pack into the sidecar of an ancient motorbike. Dad had quite possibly just stepped out of the saddle. With­ out another word, Nugget pointed to my place and kicked the motor over like it had never been cold. It then grunted and squealed for three or four hours as he fough t a route up into the hills behind Mandaya where the road was suddenly amputated by a river. All the nerve ends of traffic were caught up into a small stump of a town. This was Dandon. It was as far as Rosa had accompanied clad. Much to his surprise, and in later years to his amusement, she stood on the bank to supervise the safe passage of 200 roneoed copies of The Book across the water. She then reminded him that every living creature upstream on the other side had been entrusted to his care. But before he had struggled half way over himself, she was already thundering back towards Mandaya without so much as a backward glance. She had cut him off. I suppose that news came back to her from tirne to time like sensations from a missing limb, but Rosa disciplined her mind. She dealt only in matters of hard fact. There was a rope bridge now at Dandon. Nugget and myself threaded ourselves over and began the 15-kilometre hike along the other side to San Isidore. Dad spoke often of these 15 slow kilometres. It was along here, passing to and fro with supplies, that he had panned for ideas. He had planned his lessons here as well as designed the temple, the assembly hall and the ark of renunciation. He had also pondered some of the more oblique pages of The Book. 'The problem was,' he said, 'that whole pages had been omitted from the roneoed copies and some parts were smudged. So I had to make stuff up. I turned around virtually the whole of San Isidore without even knowing what the seventh to four­ teenth prophecies were about. That took some doing.' I was hoping as we went along that Nugget would find something to say. But he held his tongue. Now and again I was on the point of recognising some place or other that dad had sketched during his regulation quiet time and I would have liked to have asked Nugget for confirmation. But I was uneasy. I had no idea yet where I stood with him. Dad felt safe, I know, pushing on for the first time towards San Isidore. There had been mission­ aries through here before, the travelling sales folk of a thousand lifestyles, and the word around was that they could expect a pretty good reception. Plus crime was totally unknown in the area. Dad knew that he could get away for a few hours and always come back and find his house as neat as a pin. Even during the early weeks when they left him well enough alone, two or three of their boys would go through the place when he was out, sweep it and leave a meal prepared for him. They wouldn't come near the house when he was in it, that was all. Otherwise, you couldn't fault them. Admittedly, they were hardly falling over themselves to enter in upon The Book and dad was concerned that the coarse

24 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 paper of his 200 copies would decompose in the humid­ was as soft as leather under the sweat of his palm, his ity before they could be received and understood. 'But name eddied and swirled for a moment in print, broke what could I do? A prospector needs patience. You have up beyond recognition and finally disappeared under a to be prepared to work the same seam over and over skin of water. again, going back to the places you think you have failed.' 'Even so/ said dad, 'I managed to get the basic ide­ Nugget was a breakthrough. One day, as dad told as of The Book through to young Nugget.' He went on it, he came back to the house ahead of time to escape a sardonically: 'He ended up holding them much £inner storm. The yotmg men had been and gone but Nugget than I did myself.' He paused breathlessly like he did was loitering, turning over the pages of a copy of The when he was explaining the facts of life. 'As you must Book which dad had left like flypaper on his table. He know yourself by now/ he said. But I didn't know. was rubbing the pages between his fingers and smelling At the end of the day, when we got to San Isidore, I the black stuff that had come off onto his skin, unsure felt that I had reached the white perimeter of one of the as to whether it was some kind of dmg or poison. Dad's small snapshots that dad used to send back to the cen­ wits had been honed to a keen and angry edge by nights tre in Sydney. He sent them principally to gladden the of sharing his loneliness with mosquitoes. He caught at heart of the chronic depressive whom he revered for once the sharp glint in Nugget's eye. It was not a glint having composed or taken down The Book years before. of curiosity or wonder. It was covetousness. The first By the time dad got around to sharing the photos with experience of greed, of wanting not what belonged to us, however, he used to chuckle at the up-tempo mes­ another but of wanting to be what the sages he had emblazoned rather in­ other was. It was the basis, while it nocently on the back. 'From small lasted, of their shared faith. begitmings,' said one. 'Rome wasn't I followed Nugget along the river built in a day/ said another, perhaps to San Isidore with the silent good faith more pointedly. I half expected the of a disciple. After a while, he took off town to be built in black and white his shirt and I watched the way that and mostly blurred, such was the sweat worked along the corrugations hold of these photos on my imagina­ of his back. It gathered in the nape of tion. I expected orderly groups to be his neck and fell from contour to con­ sitting in front of the temple or the tour like rain running along the ark, the men wearing black ties and branches of a dead tree until it drops the women black scarves. Instead, to the next level and finally to the the place was a chaos of vivid colour ground. He also had crosses tattooed and deserted. Even at dusk, the onto his biceps, two on each ann, and brightness of San Isidore burnt the these shone under a patina of sweat. I eye. There were odours of cooking became more absorbed in the way Nugget moved than rising above the small number of houses. But not a in following the details of the Isidore Valley. Sure sound. Not so much as a barking dog. enough, dad had built shrines along here, had piled up Nugget lived alone in the very house that dad had stones, and maybe some of them still stood. But I was built with the help of the townsfolk I recognised it, of following Nugget, cornered by his muteness, course. It had been on the cover of a magazine called at the same time wondering if I were tmsting The Book that used to circulate among adherents. too far. Nugget, it appeared, lived alone. He pointed me to a screened-off section where I could sleep in private and D AD TAUGHT N uGGET TO READ. 'He took time learn­ then worked on the fire so we could have something to ing his letters/ dad said, 'he learnt them hard.' Dad used eat. to close Nugget's fist tight over the burnt stump of a 'Your father?' he asked at last. His eyelids moved pencil and push it hard into the paper until Nugget got like butterflies, breaking the tension of his face. For a the idea. Dad wanted him to be able to sign his own moment, he was no longer absent. name on the passenger list for the ark of renunciation 'Dead. Long dead.' and persevered with him until he had mastered it. The 'Good.' It was final. yellow card was the first permanent place Nugget had I had difficulty reconciling the loneliness of these ever left his name properly-as opposed to the artwork circumstances with dad's stories of Nugget. I had imag­ he had always called his signature for government pur­ ined somebody whose life would be as tangled and vi­ poses. When Nugget had finished carving into the card brant as the jungle itself. Dad spoke with real warmth with the pencil, he looked at the words and could hard­ about the time Nugget had landed himself in jail. 'He ly recognise them. They weren't familiar to him. He got carried away at fiesta time,' said dad. 'That was the kept staring at them, hoping that some aspect of his beauty of The Book It never stopped anybody being name on the page would come out of hiding and give human. He had his pranks, same as any kid.' itself up to him and say, 'OK, I'm yours.' Like he was I had always seen Nugget's time in jail as the till­ giddy and waiting for the landscape to slow down and ravelling of dad's faith. That was why, on the other side Graphic by right itself. But once his hand lifted from the card, which of belief, he spoke with such delight about the unac- Waldemar Buczynski

VoLUME 3 NuMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 25 countable pulse of life that ran through the cells. They 'Your father was greedy and impatient,' said Rosa were crowded, mostly with young men who had lost 'He wanted to make his fortune quick. The Book doesn't their thread somewhere in Mandaya and been picked work like that. He forgot the golden rule.' up. Petty thieves and vandals. Nugget was the only tribal. Dad had told Nugget that the people of San Isidore The only one from way up there. Even so, he was popu­ would be better off dead if they rejected The Book. It lar. He was good at telling stories. Missionaries used to was only a way of speaking. But, when the fiesta came hunt in packs around the prison, scavenging for the around, Nugget lost his mind to the local rice wine and remains of human souls that had stuck like bits of dust turned on his sister. He savaged her with a coconut knife. in the bright eyes of the law. He had taken dad at his word and sacrificed his sister in In Mandaya prison, Nugget had been baptised four her own bes t interests. He believed she was better off different times by four different Christian sects. Each dead. In all his endless prattle, it was something dad time he took a new Christian name and scored himself had never mentioned. Rosa had been sent for and arrived aT-shirt and five pesos, the standard reward at the time next day to see the village, ga thered and speechless, for accepting the indelible impress of salvation under wondering what to call this kind of thing. She hadn't one's flesh. Plus Nugget delighted his cellmates with just been killed, she had been butchered. The murder the dramatics of each conversion, always culminating was the first crime ever listed from San Isidore, from in the moment at which he planted his new name at the whole of the area on the other side of the river. the foot of a written pledge. All this happened quickly, 'At first,' Rosa said, 'Nugget revelled in his celebri­ before his case came to trial. 'He was Peter, Andrew, ty.' It was even better when dad explained that 'better James and John Nugget before he even knew where he off dead' was only a way of speaking. He hadn't meant was,' said dad, carrying on with his stories manfully in it. Dad kept at him and at him and gradually closed his the face of absurdity. I always imagined that once dad mind around that stump of an idea. So each time Nugget had seen the funny side of Nugget's conversions for him­ was baptised, the new name became his only in a man­ self, his own commitment started to fray. ner of speaking. His signatures were, as he'd always I was caught out, therefore, by the loneliness of suspected, nothing to do with him at all. When the po­ Nugget's present life. I had hardly expected a parson's lice advised him to give himself up and brought him a study, but there was barely a thing in the house. As a confession to sign, he worked his name into the paper mark of hospitality, I was offered the only cot. When with the meticulousness of a goldsmith padding his the time came to sleep, I went off behind the screen and existence with elaborate and finely wrought fictions. Nugget curled up in a pair of tom shorts in the middle If I do believe anything, I believe now that dad's of the floor of the big room. He didn't want a blanket or humour, his stories, were a form of grieving. He was a mat. His skin was as pliable as linen. As the moon sad not for Nugget, nor for Nugget's sister, but for the rose and defined the shapes on the other side of the faith he'd lost. And mine with it. There was never a screen, Nugget's skin seemed to bunch up on his chest copy of The Book anywhere in our place when I was like bed covers. Later he turned over and I waited for growing up. It was often spoken of. But I never saw it. the pattern pressed into his buttocks to iron itself out There wasn't even much belief in matters of honest fact. with the returning circulation. But it stayed as it was. It Everything was irony, evasion and escape. Dad's word set hard. His fl esh had been somehow rubbed out of was as slippery as worms. But I did take one hard image shape or eroded. His mouth swung open and let odd back with me down from San Isidore. Old Nugget, turn­ words out past a few dark teeth, rolling them over the ing over and over like a well thumbed book, keening all wide expanse of floor. I also counted seven toes on him. night in a pair of paper thin shorts, was a vision of dad's Total. That was all he had. There must have been an guts. This was what he was like inside. accident or gangrene at some stage. I wondered 'I don't suppose you still keep a copy of The Book how far I could ask. around these parts?' I asked in the morning as Nugget breathed life into a can of hot ashes. B ACK IN MANDA YA, three clays later, I had an appoint­ As one of his final gestures towards m e, Nugget ment with clad's first wife, Rosa . She met me in her office led me out behind the house, beyond the half-dozen oth­ under a ceiling fan that had long since given up the ghost. er houses that remained of the town, to where he'd piled There was an awkwardness between us. up a large cairn. A spasm of pain passed along his back 'I really came up to meet Nugget,' I said, wanting as he lifted the first few rocks. There, between the stones, to shift the focus. 'And I just wondered if you were still were the mortal remains of 200 roneoed copies, unread­ around.' I eased her out of her suspicion. able now, turning to mulch, creepers and grubs 'Oh, Nugget,' she said. 'Did your father ever tell competing for the few last words of life. you about Nugget ?' Rosa entered into the full story like 'That's them,' said Nugget, with a slip of a grin, a mathematician demonstrating every theory she had regaining his balance on uneven feet. ever held about dad and being pleasured at the outcome. 'Nugget had it rough after the trial,' said Rosa later Nugget had been taken in at fiesta time, that was right. as a matter of fact. 'Did you see the signs of torture in But not for any prank. He had murdered his sister. his hide?' It was true enough. He'd been blooded and Nugget's sister had refused to adhere to The Book. She scourged. His flesh had been mined until real was real. had scoffed at the idea. •

26 EUREKA STREET • DECEM BER 1993-JANUARY 1994 FICTION

JANETTE TuRNER H osPITAL

Unperformed experiments have no results

You coULD SAY IT BEGAN with the man in the canoe rather than with the dream, though I can no longer be certain of the sequence of events. It is possible, after all, that the letter arrived before either the dream or that frail and curious vessel, though I do not think so. I used to be without doubts on this matter. Chronology used not to be even a question. But since the disappearances, trying to catch hold of any kind of certainty has been like catching hold of water.

Sometimes, when a tradesman or a parcel delivery man comes to the door, I have to restrain myself, by a fierce act of the will, from grabbing him by the lapels or by the denim coverall straps and demanding: 'What do accidents mean, do you think? Do you have an opinion? Are you a gambling man? Have you ever been spooked by coincidence?' The truth is, I have become obsessed with the patterns of chance-the neatness of them, the provocation such neatness gives-but chance is a subject that very much resists scrutiny, and the more I ponder random conjunc­ tions of events, the more intensely I try to focus my memory, the hazier things become. You cannot, as the physicists keep telling us, engage in the act of close observation without changing the thing observed. Of course I resort to such analo­ gies because it is Brian who is dying.

Nevertheless, though it may or may not be the first cause, I will start with that afternoon on my dock and with the man in the canoe. It was a late summer afternoon and very humid, and the fore­ cast- for thunder storms-was sufficient to keep most boats in marinas. There were white-caps on the lake and the river. When I looked east, I could see the pines on the tip of Howe Island bending like crippled old men in the wind. Westward, past the Spectacles, past Milton Island, I thought I could just see one of the ferries, veiled in great fans of spray, crossing the neck of the lake. Wolfe Island, directly opposite, was invisible, or almost so, behind a billowing indigo cloud that threw the whole head of the river into twilight, although it was only about four o'clock in the afternoon. I was right at the end of my dock, and I had a book propped on my knees, but the wind kept buffeting my light aluminium deck chair to such an extent that I began to wonder if it was aerodynam­ ically possible to be lifted up on a gust and dumped into the water. I kept looking up over the page, partly to assess my chances of staying dry, but mostly to enjoy the extravagant theatre of wind and water. And then, startled, I thought I saw a canoe emerging from the bateau channel between Howe Island and the shore. I'm imagining things, I decided, rubbing my eyes. Who would be so foolhardy on such a day? Or so strong, for that matter. Here, the currents are swift and ruthless. Every summer, bits and pieces of our ageing dock disappear, and end up, no doubt, somewhere around Montreal; every winter the pack ice

VOLUME 3 N UMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 27 brings us splintered paddles and fragments of boats bear­ shore. His arms are giving out, I thought. He is going to ing registration marks fro m Toronto, Niagara, and even, try to beach on this stretch. Now that the canoe was once, from Thunder Bay. I shaded my eyes and squint­ close enough, I could see that it was neither fibreglass ed. Nothing there. Wait ... Yes, there it was again, a ca­ nor aluminium, but birchbark. It wasn't until the next noe, definitely, with a solitary paddler, heading upriver day that I was struck by the oddness of this, and by the against all this mad seaward-running energy. fact that I had never seen a bark canoe before, except in It is by no means impossible to paddle upriver- ! photographs and museums. At the time it seemed quite have done it myself-but even without a hea dwind it is unsurprising, or at least, not significant. I merely noted very hard work and is rarely tried solo. Astonished, I it, wondering exactly where the canoeist would reach kept my eyes on the paddler. He must have muscles shore, and if he would manage this before capsizing. like steel ropes, I thought. His chances of capsizing And then, gradually, it became clear to me that the seemed extraordinarily high. Clearly, he was someone paddler had no intention of trying to land. He's crazy, I who liked danger, som eone who was excited by risk, thought. Shoulders hunched forward, hea d slightly perhaps even someone who got a certain kick out of down, eyes on the prow of his craft, he was bent on pain, or at any rate, out of enduring it. But for how long, defying the current and continuing upriver, parallel to I wondered, could his arms take so much punishment? shore and now only about 30 feet out. It seemed incred­ Do not undertake anything unless you desire to ible. He was all manic energy and obstinacy, and I fan­ continue it; for example, do not begin to paddle unless cied I could hear the pure high humming note of his you are inclined to continue paddling. Take from the will above the general bluster of the wind. His strength, start the place in the canoe that you wish to l

28 EUREKA STREET • D ECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 stant to stop time unwinding itself, but I could neither than sleep. I dream of flying. I have languid wings. I can speak nor move, the resemblance to Brian was so eerie. feel updrafts of wam1 air, like pillows, against my breast I was experiencing something like vertigo, and a pain feathers. like angina in my chest. Shock, I suppose. 'Mmm,' I murmur drowsily at last, 'I love this heat. I was dimly aware that my book had fallen into the I could lie here forever. How come the water's so cold, water and that I was on my hands and knees on the when it's so hot here on the rocks? ' dock. I watched the canoe draw level a third time, and 'I'm not even going to answer that, Philippa,' Brian the paddler and I stared at each other (he was very pale, says lazily. 'It's such a dumb question.' and there seemed, now, to be no expression at all on his 'Piss off,' I say. I inch forward on my stom ach and face), and then he, Brian, I mean the man in the birch­ peer over the lip of the falls. I can't believe we have bark canoe, turned away and lowered his head, and re­ climbed them . I watch the solid column of water smash sumed paddling more fiercely than ever. itself on the rocks below. I feel queasy. I can see four I watched until he disappeared from sight, which years of high school shredding themselves, all the parti­ seemed to take hours. I have no idea how long I stayed cles parting, nothing ever the same again. 'Where do on my hands and knees. I know that when I tried to you reckon we'll be five years from now?' I ask him. I climb the steep steps up our cliff, my legs felt like jelly have to shout. My voice falls down into the rift and los­ and kept shaking so badly I had to stop and rest several es itself in spray. times. Brian crawls across and joins me. Side by side, we stare down ravines and years, high school, adolescence, childhood, we've climbed out of them all. There is just * * * w1iversity ahead, and then the unmapped future. E PLE CLIMBING MOUNTAINS and cliffs hyperventilate, 'Where will we end up, d'you reckon?' this is common knowledge. They see things. Visitations 'Not here,' Brian shouts. 'We won't be in Brisbane.' alight on them. 'But even if we aren't, we'll come back. Let's do Between the fiftieth step and the fifty-first, the past this every year for the rest of our lives.' distended itself like a balloon and I climbed into it. I 'Not m e,' Brian says. 'After uni, I'm never coming could feel its soft sealed walls. back.' Trapped, I thought. And simultaneously, pleasura­ The shouting takes too much energy, and we crawl bly: home. I could sm ell the rainforest, smell Queens­ back to the relative hush of the flat rocks ringed with land, feel the moist air of the rich subtropics. I am here fems. again. Home. 'So where will you be?' Brian is a few feet ahead of me, both of us drenched, 'I don't know. Cambridge. Japan, maybe. There's both feeling for handholds and footholds, both of us (I some interesting research going on in Tokyo. Wherev­ realise it now) equally scared, but too proud to admit it. er's best for the kind of physics I'm interested in.' (This would have been our last year in high school, 'What if you don't get into Cambridge?' I ask, and this was something we did every year, spend a day although I know it's another dumb question. It's like in our own bit of rainforest-we thought of it that way­ asking: what if you don't get to the top of the falls? on the outskirts of Brisbane, climbing the waterfall. But Brian doesn't bother to answer. our last year in high school was the year of the floods. I 'I'll probably still be here,' I say. think we both gulped a little when we saw the falls, but 'No you won't.' neither would ever have been the first to back out. We 'You're such a bloody know-it-all, Brian.' were both given to constant high anxiety, and both tem­ 'I know you and me.' peramentally incapable of backing away from our fears.) 'You think you do.' So. Every handhold slips, every foothold is algae­ 'Philippa,' he says irritably, with finality, 'I know slick. My fingers keep giving way. My heart thumps­ us well enough to know we won't stay in Brisbane. You'll thud, thud, thud-against its cage. Delirium, the salt end up somewhere extreme, Africa, Canada, som ewhere flavour of panic: I can taste them. Just inches above my crazy.' eyes, I see the tendon in Brian's ankle. If I were to touch 'You're nuts,' I say.' Anyway, wise guy, wherever I it, it would snap. I tilt my head back and see his shoul­ am, you can bet I'm going to stay close to water.' der blades, corded tight, lift like wings, pause, settle, lift 'Yes,' he says. 'You win that one. We'll both be near again. He reaches and pulls, reaches and pulls, he is a water.' machine of bodily will. The energy field of his determina­ tion- pulses of it, like a kind of white light, bouncing off him-brush against me, charging the air. This keeps * * * me going. INTHE DREAM, I am at the end of my dock, reading, At the top of the falls, we collapse. We lie on the when I notice the most curious light over Wolfe Island. flat wet rocks. We do not speak. Our clothes give off The whole island seems burnished with gold leaf, and curls of steam that drift up into the canopy, and creep­ there is an extraordinary clarity to things, to individual ers trail down to m eet them. We float into sleep, or per­ trees, for instance, as though each detail has been out­ haps it is merely a long sensuous silence that is sweeter lined with a fine-tipped black brush. I can see vines,

V OLUME 3 NUMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 29 orchids, staghorn ferns against the tree trunks. I can see though, so he's all right.' that Wolfe Island has gone tropical, that it is thick with E-mail! I never remembered to check mine, I used rainforest, that lorikeets and kingfishers are flashing it so rarely. I plugged in the modem on my computer, their colours on the StLawrence banks. keyed in my password, got into the system, and opened Then I note that there is a suspension bridge, the n1y 'n1ailbox' on screen. catwalk kind, with wooden planks and drop sides, the There was only one m essage, undated. kind sometimes stnmg a hundred and fifty feet up in Philippa: I'm going away and wanted to say good­ the rainforest canopy to allow tourists to see the aerial bye. Remember the falls~ garden running riot up there. This bridge starts at the Those were the good old end of my dock

30 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 to Tokyo, can you believe thaU You know he used to phone her once a week from wherever he was~ Well, he's stopped doing it. She's quite depressed and quite frightened. I thought maybe you could get him to phone her, poor dear. Or maybe you'd like to write to her yo mself~ She must be awfully lonely since MI Leckie died. We thought perhaps we should invite her for Christmas, but it's hard to tell whether she'd enjoy this or not. Ma ybe you should write to her, Philippa. You know her much better than we do. Every day I would begin a letter in my mind. Dear Mis Leckie: Remember when Brian m1d I used to go on rainforest treks and get hom e ham s later than we planned~ You used to worry yom self sick and my parents too. But we always did show up, remember! Brian' just off on another trek, he's lost tra ck of time, that's all ... N o. Begin again. Dear Mis Leckie: Brian 's gone on a journey, as we always knew he would, from which (both you and I have a hunch about this), he might not retmn. He car­ ries everything he needs inside his head, and always has. In his own way, he misses us. I promise I'll visit when I'm in Brisbane next year. How is your frangi­ pani tree! Rem ember when Brian and I ... ! I never sent these unwritten letters. I began to ask m yself whether I'd imagined the man in the canoe. Or whether I'd dream ed him. Or whether I'd dreamed the e-mail m essage which had vanished into electronic ether without a trace. For my night-time reading, I followed records of lost trails. The Relation of 1673, for example, written by Father Claude Dablon : He had long premeditated this Lllldertaking, influenced by a most ardent desire to extend the l

V OLUME. 3 N UMBE.R 10 • EUREKA STREET 31 went on a journey to Alpha Centauri, a few light-years birchbark canoe that washed up ... and police out, a few back, we'd come back younger than our great­ inquiries .. . great-grandchildren. Got that? And we've moved light­ I had a peppermill in my hand at the time, and I years from Brisbane, haven't we? So it figures. The ground it slowly over my salad. I took careful note of trouble with you arty types is you don't know your rel­ the sharp pleasing contrast made by cracked peppercorn ativity ABCs.' against green leaf. I looked discreetly around the table. Dear Mrs Leckie, I could write. Brian's in orbit. Who had spoken the words? Had they been spoken? He's simply lost track of time, it's all relative. We could I could hear Brian say irritably: 'Honestly, Philip­ go backwards, and swing on your front gate again. We pa, you never verify things. You live inside this vague could unclimb the waterfall. We could go back through world of your mind, you make things up, and then you the looking-glass and watch the future before it comes. believe they're real.' 'But so do you. You make up a theory, and then you set out to prove it's real.' *** 'There's the crucial difference,' he says. 'My hypoth­ I sENTOUTDAILYE-MAIL MESSAGES to Brian's number. Past eses are verifiable, one way or the other. I chase details, calling the future, I signalled. Brisbane calling Far Tra­ I nail them down. I won't stop until my theory is either veller. Please send back bulletins. I miss you. P. proved or disproved. If I can't do either, I have to discard I tried to goad him into verbal duelling: Which it.' clock time are you travelling on! Please report light-year 'Same with me,' I say. 'I put riddles on one side, deviation from Greenwich Mean. and come back to them. I do realise the birchbark canoe Every day I checked my 'box'. There was nothing. could have been a figment of my mind and my bedtime I called Brian's secretary in Melbourne again. 'When reading. I'm checking around. What's the difference?' you said you were still getting his e-mail,' I asked, 'how 'I'm not even going to answer that question,' Brian often did you mean? And where is it coming from? ' says. 'You never know where e-mail is coming from, ' 'But don't you ever come back to your discards?' his secretary said.' Actually, we haven't had any for sev­ 'Of course I do. Some problem sets have been passed eral weeks, but that's not so unusual for him. Once he on for generations. The trick is, you have to approach went silent for months. When he gets obsessed with a from a new angle every time. Half the battle is how you new theory ... ' frame the question. Unperformed experiments have no 'How long has he been ill?' I ask. results.' 'I didn't know he was ill,' she said. 'But it doesn't 'Exactly,' I say. surprise me. We're always half expecting all our research­ And over the candles on a dinner table at the other ers to drop dead from heart attacks. They're all so driv­ end of the world, I hazarded cautiously, flippantly: 'Did en.' someone just say something about a birchbark canoe, I think of the last time I saw him, in Melbourne. or did I imagine it?' 'Why don't you slow down a bit?' I asked. 'How many Seven pairs of eyes stared at me. more prizes do you have to win, for God's sake?' 'Sometimes, Philippa,' my husband joked, 'I swear 'Prizes!' He was full of contempt. 'It's got nothing you put one part of your mind on automatic pilot, and to do with prizes. Honestly, Philippa, you exasperate the other part is God knows where.' me sometimes.' 'It's true,' I said disarmingly. 'So did I hear some­ 'What's it got to do with then?' thing about a birchbark canoe, or didn't I?' 'It's got to do with getting where I want to go.' I 'The one washed up on the ferry dock,' one of the could hear our beer glasses rattling a little on the table. guests said. She waved a ringed hand and smiled, cour­ I think it was his heartbeat bumping things. He couldn't teously tolerant. ('Bit of a flake, isn't she?' I could imag­ keep still. His fingers drummed a tattoo, his feet tapped ine her saying to someone later. 'Where does she get to, to a manic tune. 'I'm running out of time,' he said. I between the crackers and the cheese? ') 'The one the would have to describe the expression on his face at police are making inquiries about. I was just telling ev­ that moment as one of anguish. eryone that I'd had to go down to the station and make 'You frighten me sometimes, Brian. Sometimes, it's a statement. And John did too, didn't you, John? Didn't exhausting just being with you.' you see him? Yes, I thought so, I was talking to Milly Brian laughed. 'Look who's talking.' on the phone. So that mal

32 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 knew where he was from, and no one was very happy The joker comes up every time. Any riddles for re­ about it, but that's who it must have been. I mean, they cycling? he grins. Any letters for uncertain destinations? said he had a birchbark canoe and it's not as though you Any unperfonned experiments to go? see them every day. I'm not even going to answer that, I say. • And then he just up and disappeared. The Burketts gave the police a h1ll description and they're putting out a trace, you know, for next of kin.' 'I expect they'll find the body eventually,' John said. 'I wouldn't mind buying the canoe, she was a real beau­ ty. I suppose she'll go up on police auction sooner or later. ' Author's note on the 'Won't they have to hang onto it as evidence until the body is found?' someone asked. Jesuit Relations 'I expect so,' John said. 'Yes, I expect so. Still, soon­ er or later. The police boats are out dragging every day.' 'I hope they don't find him,' I said. Everyone looked at me. L E 'JESUJT RELATIONs'-reports from the missionary priests in North America- began in 1611; they were published annually in Paris from 1632-1673, for fund­ * * * raising and recruiting purposes; and continued more S oONER OR LATER, I think, evidence of one kind or an­ sporadically until the late 18th century, when French other will cast itself up: a dream, a letter, an item in the power in N ew France was broken first by British con­ newspaper. Every day, I read the 'Police and Fire Watch' quest (Wolfe defeated Montcalm in the Battle of the column in the local paper. Every day, I am relieved that Heights of Abraham at Quebec City in 1759); and then no body has been found. Of course this is ridiculous, by papal suppression of the Jesuit order, 1773. and I know it. There's a nam e fo r it: sympathetic m agic. I first becam e aware of the Relations when I was And there's that other matter too, for which Brian teaching a course on Canadian literature in a federal had a word: synchronicities . prison here. There are extracts from the Relations in What do they m ean ? I ask myself. What do they Canadian literature anthologies at both high school and m ean' college level. The stories, especially the martyrdom of In the evenings, I read of doom ed voyages. Brebeuf, described in vivid and gruesome detail, have a The Relation of Christophe Regnaut concerning the strong hold on the Canadian imagination. The poet E.J. martyrdom and blessed death of Father de Brebeuf ... Pratt wrote a lengthy narrative sequence in blank verse: captured on the 16th da y of March, in the morning, 'Brebeuf and his Brethren'. More recently Canadian nov­ with Fath er Lalemant, in the year 1649. Father de elist Brian Moore used the Relations as the basis for his Brebeuf died the same da y as his capture, about 4 novel Black Robe, now a feature film. o'clock in the afternoon ... I saw and touched the top of Various translations and selected editions of the his scalped head ... Relations are available. Since they are detailed accounts The Relation of 1702: Father Bineteau died there of what was frequently the first European contact with from exhaustion; but if he had had a few drops of span­ indigenous peoples, they are of extraordinary historical ish wine, for which he ask ed us during his last illness and anthropological interest. They are also, quite simp­ ... or had we been able to procure some Fresh food for ly, very lively reading. The Relation of the martyrdom him, he would perhaps be still alive. Father Pinet and of Brebeuf was actually written back in France 30 years Father Mare t are wearing out their strength; and they after the event, though the writer, Christophe Regnaut, are two saints, who take pleasure in being deprived of was indeed in Quebec at the time and did observe everything ... But they do not fail to tell m e and to write Brebeuf's mutilated body. Nevertheless, it is clear that m e that I m ust bring some little comforts for the sick ... mythologising has set in, and that iconography and hag­ For m y part I am in good health but I have no ca ssock, iography have imposed their fo nnulaic shape on mem­ and I am in a sorry plight, and the others are hardly ory. For example: Th e barbarian .. . took a k ettle full of less so ... boiling water, which he poured over (Brebeuf's) body I rea d also of survival against all odds. three different times, in derision of Holy Baptism ... During all these torments, Father de Brebeuf en­ The Relation of the First Voyage made by Father dured like a rock .. . His zeal was so great that he Marquette toward New Mexico in 1673: ... his Canoe preached continually to these infidels ... [this after be­ having been upset below the sault, where he lost both ing beaten hundreds of times; dowsed in boiling water; his m en and his papers, an d whence he escaped only branded with hot tomahawks, wrapped in pitch-coated by a sort of Miracle ... bark and roasted] ... His executioners were enraged I check my e-mail every day, I send out messages, I against him for constantly speaking to them of God ... wait. I spin theories and discard them . I shuffle sequences To prevent him from speaking more, they cut off his as I might shuffle a pack of cards. tongue, and both his upper and lower lips. .. •

V O LUME 3 N UMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 33 FICTION

TREVOR HAY The cat, the goose and the educated youth Adapted and translated from a tale told by Chen Shen

/GAo YoNc' rs NOT MY FRJEND's REAL NAME. Rather typically, he started calling himself this some time ago, when he was contributing articles to Chinese-language journals in Sydney and Melbourne. I don't know if he was being cryptic because of a lifetime Chinese habit of keeping his head down, or whether he fancied himself with a nom de plume. In any case, he couldn't resist coming up with a clever-dick sort of name-so much so that any one who knew him would recognise his style immediately. But then the name backfired on him. He chose 'Gao Yong' because it means 'high wall', and I suppose he thought he was not only hiding himself, but encoding himself in a way-being highly literary. But unfortunately, the editor of one of his magazines left a radical off the character for 'wall' and the meaning was transformed into something like 'vulgar'-so my highly abstn1se friend became a highly vulgar friend. And to add salt to the wound, one of his stories was rejected. So I asked him to learn a lesson from this, abandon his allusive, lapidary technique and simply tell me the story in a natural, colloquial mmmer. Then we would see which style worked best. Now a good Chinese dish has all kinds of attributes, including sOlmd, and Gao Yang's Changzhou accent is as stimulating as the hiss and spatter of rice crusts splashed all over with a steaming hot broth. Unfortunate­ ly, you cm1't hear all that in translation, but the aroma may still'tug at your nostrils' as the Chinese say.

'Chairman Mao said that all us "educated youth" must go down to the countryside and up to the mountains, to be re-educated by the poor and lower-middle peasants. So, what choice did we have I I was just a kid in 1969, after graduating from high school, and with three other kids like myself I ended up in a little village in Northern Jiangsu, a place where even a demon would not lay an egg, as my mother used to say. Every da y we planted or ploughed, ploughed or planted, on the slopes of a barren, rocky hillside. In this place almost no rain fell in summer and we had drought; then in autumn the heavens opened and we had floods, and all our poor dirt washed away down the hill and into a mosqui­ to-infested marsh. One way or the other, you couldn't get crops out of that hillside any more than you could get ivory out of a dog's mouth. We toiled like water buffalos, just for a few work points to be allocated by the commune administration- it worked out at about ten fen a da y, 10 cents in Austral­ ian money. 'The worst of it was hunger. On that kind of money there was no way we could buy much food, and certainly not mea t, even if we had the time to walk 10 kilometres into Chrysanthemum Village to buy it. So we ate qingcai, a sort of green vegetable, a leafy little cabbage that tastes like the baby spinach you get here. We had a chicken- but it was in no danger at all from us. We depended on it to lay an occasional little nugget of hope in our path. Every day we watched that hen's arse like hawks, waiting for an egg to appear. But we couldn't even ea t all the eggs, since most of them had to be exchanged fo r sa lt and soy in Chrysanthemum Village. The commune kept a few pigs, but only the cadres got to eat pork, and then only for the Spring Festival. So we ate our wretched qingcai and dreamed of spicy bean curd, batter twists, eels, pickled snail and greasy, fat slices of pork. 'You know, the work was exhausting, but none of us really minded that. We got used to it pretty quickly. It was the hunger-we were young, and still growing. So, at night after work, in our hut, we

34 EUREKA STREET • D ECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 talked and talked about food, about ways to come up alist reactionaries. I mention this because, for a little with something else to eat. During one of these desper­ while at least, we all suspected each other of the crime, ate little plenary sessions someone suggested that, in­ and regarded it as a contradiction between the people. stead of waiting to accumulate enough cash to buy a But then, as the panic subsided and reason prevailed half-grown rooster, in order to wait for it to mature and among us highly sophisticated secondary school gradu­ sire some spare chickens which might in time consume ates, we thought of the scrawny white cat that hung enough of our miserable grain rations to be worth eat­ around our hut, hunting for mice. We decided there was ing, we might persuade the production team leader to an external enemy to be dealt with, and so, throughout part with a goose, in exchange for a mortgage on our our long-awaited banquet, for which we used the liver, future work points. The plan was greeted with acclaim. feet, intestines and blood, we discussed nothing but the 'So we did a deal, and bought ourselves a goose, best method for catching cats. So began a vigil which which we fattened up for months, for New Year and the lasted throughout the entire five days of our holiday. Spring Festival holi­ But there was no sign days. It spent its days of a cat. By the time we without care in a little went back to work we flock composed of eve­ had relaxed, and the ry one else's New Year discussion turned to banquet, watched over . the best place for hang­ by one of the younger ing the goose for cur­ commune members ing, so that we could and fed with precious cut an occasional slice grain collected from to supplement our the various house­ pickled vegetables holds. Every one knew his own goose by sight and was throughout the cold, hungry weeks ahead before the able to point it out, like a proud father watching chil­ 'Waking of Insects'. For the time being we left our treas­ dren in a playground. For weeks before the Spring Festi­ ure in the pot. val holidays almost the only topic of conversation in 'The first day after the holidays, when we returned our hut was this bird. We were all looking forward to from the fields, we went straight to the pot again. Aiya! our holiday so much. Another leg missing! Tlus sent us into a frenzy. How 'Chairman Mao had said we should have a "revo­ did that thieving bastard of a cat get in I We'd carefully lutionary" Spring Festival that year, and go out to work, locked our doors and windows before going out that ju t as usual. Any peasant could tell you there was noth­ morning, just in case he came back. Then we remem­ ing to do at this time of the year, but we prayed for snow bered our old dog. We used to have a black dog with a to cover the ground-and in the process provide us with tiny little curly tail, a very loyal, helpful, old fellow. We a cover for staying indoors. Finally, the night before New taught him to fetch our key for us when we were about Year's Eve, we killed our goose. By now it was a fine to lock up the hut. One day we locked ourselves out, strong bird, not easy to kill, so we gave it plenty of sor­ and old shrimp-tail jumped through the window and ghum liquor first, to slow it down a bit. Then we gath­ got our key. After that we made a small hole in the side ered around it, fussing and chattering all at once, and of the hut and he used to nip through and bring out our lingering over every moment of its cleaning, cooking key every t1ight when he saw us trudging back from and salting. We drained the blood into a pan of cold water work. I don't know what ever happened to our little and salt, then steamed it for soup. And to make our joy mate, he just went missing one day after he followed us complete, snow began to fall outside the window! We out to cut bamboo-but the hole remained, and that put the goose in a great cast iron pot on the table in the obviously explained how the cat made his entry. So that middle of our little kitchen and store room, and just sat night we patched the hole. We also decided it would be around by the light of our kerosene lamp, star- safest to hang the goose from the ceiling, because we / ing fondly at it. thought the cat could not possibly get up there, even if he found some new way into the hut. L E SNOW KEPT UP THROUGH THE NEXT DAY, and we 'But next night, we found the goose's head was came home early, laughing and singing and throwing gone!-it had not only been hung, but decapitated! By snowballs at each other. As one, we headed for the pot now this devil-cat had left us with scarcely half a goose. and peered down into it-only to find that our goose But before we could get over our outrage and humilia­ had one less leg than it had the night before. Chairman tion, a white furry blur made a clash for our half-open Mao had taught us well about the likely sources of strife door. Xiao Wang flung himself at the door and slammed in any human community. In his great essay On the it shut, and then we all took to chasing the creature Correct handling of Contradictions Among the People round the room, flailing at it with a broom, a shoulder he had analysed two sorts of contradictions- those pole, a fire poker, and a shovel. It screeched and wailed which were 'internal', that is between the people, and and hissed and spat, and flew round the room, and even those which were between the people and some exter­ up the walls, while we yelled and cursed, missing with Graphic by nal enemy, like landlords or US imperialists or Nation- every wicked blow we aimed at it. Finally it darted into Waldemar Buczynsl

V O LUME. 3 NUMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 35 me small no1e m our oncK stave wnere we rea m tne enuy somemmg oaa naa oeen seen noanng m tne pona wheat straw for the fire. We thought we had our tor­ and the peasants had fished it out to have a look. Obvi­ m entor at last! But he wriggled his way up the flue, ously there had been foul play, because the ca t had been climbed out onto the roof and leapt gracefully to free­ found with string dangling round it. Well, there were dom, like a Shaolin monk doing a martial arts demon­ some very nasty moments with the brigade leader, I can stration. tell you. He didn't care much for these smart-arse city 'After that, several days passed without any fur­ kids, and he was not at all swayed by our passionate ther mutilation of our goose- but we could think of declaration of innocence. Everybody knew we'd been at nothing else but this arrogant, marauding, dare-devil our wits' end about some cat or other for some time bandit of a white cat. In fact, come to think of it, it had now, and things looked very grim indeed when the lit­ taken our minds off our hunger altogether! Then one tle boy who tended our geese said he'd seen four educat­ day when we cam e home, we heard a rustle in the stove. ed youths beating a cat to death with fann tools outside Without even checking the state of the goose, we all their hut. But to our great relief, he said the cat he had grabbed our weapons, ran outside, and waited for the seen was a black one. Years later, when I was back in cat to descend from the tiles. I will draw a veil over the the city, in political study class, I laughed at Deng grisly and shameful scene which followed- let m e just Xiaoping's saying "It doesn't matter what colour the say we fixed that little 'contradiction', good and proper. cat is, as long as it catches mice". I puzzled my col­ Then we took a good look at the object of our fury. By leagues by adding, "That's right, but it certainly does now it was not a white cat at all, but a very black one, matter what colour the cat is if it catches aft er spending so much time up our flue. In fact, it was geese".' not even white underneath, but yellow-'ginger', you would call it. The White Raider had not only escaped I GAVE GAo YaNG a nice old second-hand copy of Rob­ but had created another problem for us, a much more bie Bums some time after he told me this story, just to serious one than the shrinking goose! The production show how much poetry there is to be found in com­ brigade leader had a ginger cat, and very fo nd of it he monplace and vulgar things. Now there was a poet for was, too-said it was the best mouser in Liyang Coun­ you, a man who could write immortal words about a ty. Obviously the word had got around among the local toothache, or a haggis, or a louse on a lady's bonnet in cats and our goose had been entertaining more than one church - and, like Gao Yong himself, he was a plough­ admirer. man. To my delight, next time I heard Gao Yong tell 'Well, late that night we wrapped the ginger corpse his cat story to a group of Chinese friends, he ended it up with a couple of bricks in an old newspaper, tied the not with Deng Xiaoping but with Robbie Bums. Scots bundle with string and slunk down to a nearby pond. dialect and Changzhou dialect are about as rough and We tossed the cat out into the middle and went home, confusing a blend as the liquor they gave that poor goose, feeling very relieved. But two days later, while we were but I think this is what he was struggling to pronounce: working in the fields, a little girl came running towards us, shouting something about a cat, and the production I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve; brigade leader wanting to see us immediately. Appar- What then! poor beastie thou maun live! •

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36 EUREKA STREET • D ECEMBER 1993-J ANUARY 1994 Retrospectively spealting

/& woN'T CAST. Not with a death's-head smile 'Retro.' like that. In fact, smiles of any kind are a bit of a liabil­ 'Yeah, retro.' The chief sub, who tries to dress and ity for Australian politicians, even when they're kiss­ talk like the modish young reporters but is a little too ing babies. Or especially when they're kissing babies. In old to do so credibly, looks up from tl1e blank layout this country a politician's smile is about as credible as a sheet over which she is puzzling. She has risen through used-car salesman's handshake.' diligence rather than flair, and she hates the old man 'Or a journalist's word?' even more than the reporters do. She also depends on The old man grins, managing to produce a reason­ him to push copy through when there is a late-breaking able likeness of a death's head himself. He tilts his swivel story, because he is faster and more accurate than the chair so that he can place both feet on the subeditors' rest of us. He stares her down and repeats the word, desk, and then produces a cigar. He is about to light it with distaste. 'Retro. Senator Death's-head is a recycled when he remembers that he is now working in a smoke­ Antipodean version of that other Death's-head with less office, which is something he manages to forget at pearls, the one who was Pommy PM. And everyone least twice a night. He enjoys brandishing the cigar, even knows it, which is why she's a damn fool for inviting though he can't smoke it. It irritates the modish young the comparison. People will justlook at her, think "Mag­ reporters who are glowering at him across the news­ gie" and then think "Yesterday".' room. He tosses the magazine into a wastepaper basket. They resent him because he is anything but mod­ 'That's the difference between packaging politicians and ish, and because he is usually right. He is one of very packaging musicians, Sonya,' he says, addressing the few Australian journalists to have correctly predicted chief sub. 'In politics, retro never sells.' She ignores his tl1e result of the last federal election, and he was right comments and offers him work instead: 'I've just about that because he relied on the folk wisdom of old dumped a story into your queue, Bob. Could you do it hacks rather than the gallery gossip of young hacks. He now, please?' is also much too old ever to have taken notice of such The old man smirks at me and taps away at his modishly silly things as opinion polls. His prediction, keyboard. 'I think your mob will be in for some time, delivered after reading a report of a speech by the hap­ mate, if the best our lot have to offer is Dr Foot-in-Mouth less Dr Hewson, had been announced thus: 'You can and Senator Death's-head. Mind you, I expect that hid­ always tell which party is going to lose an election.' eous grin will be witl1 us for some tin1e, too. We've noth­ 'Yes?' ing left to play with. But it's all a commentary on how 'Yeah-it's whichever party criticises the media bad things are, not on how they might improve.' first.' He had chuckled at his own cynicism, enjoying He hooks his head around the side of the terminal tl1e disapproval of others on the subs' desk who remem­ so that the chief sub won't see him slacking off, and bered that he had once edited a newspaper noted for its adopts his truant-schoolboy look. 'In fact, y'know, I partisan coverage of events. They shouldn't have wouldn't be surprised to see ol' Death's-head show up sneered. For one thing, although he and his former news­ in all sorts of odd places. Like with your other mob, for paper favoured the party now led by John Hewson, alle­ instance. She'll go chasing votes there.' giance had never made the old man describe a failure as 'My other mob?' a temporary set -back. And for another thing, he had been 'The micks, mate, the micks. Look, you lot are try­ right. Again. ing to get someone up as the first Australian saint, right?' So I am not disposed to dismiss the old man's judg­ 'Mary MacKillop, yes.' ment on the presumed rival to John Hewson's leader­ 'So there's going to be lots of functions and cere­ ship of the Liberal Party, the senator with the monies, pamphlet-and-book launches, that sort of thing. death's-head grin. This grin and its wearer adorn the And I'm sure Death's-head would be more than happy cover of a glossy magazine propped up in front of the to go on inviting comparisons-"I'm an Australian wom­ old man's VDT. He is flicking through its pages, har­ an pioneer, too." Something like that.' rumphing at all the corny lines that he first heard-and 'Mmm, maybe.' Bob may be right most of the time, probably used-more years ago than even he is prepared I reflect, but sometimes he is just a garrulous old man. to admit. Across the newsroom someone chortles. It is the He tilts back in his chair again, staring at the ceil­ literary editor, on his way out of the office. 'Just look at ing. It is the quiet tin1e of the night, with the first edi­ the bizarre invitations I get,' he says, tossing a letter in tion already on the presses and the changes for the second front of Bob. The old man reads it and then passes it to still a matter of haggling between the night editor and me without comment. It is from a publisher, who 're­ the printer. The old man begins to speak, knowing that quests the pleasure of your company at the launch of he has an audience even though people are pretending Mary MacKillop, An Extraordinary Australian by Paul to be otherwise occupied. Gardiner SJ, to be launched by Senator Bronwyn Bishop'. 'It's all just a political version of ... what's that word Damn. The old bastard was right again. • she uses about music?' he said, jabbing a thumb in the direction of the chief sub. Ray Cassin is the production editor of Eureka Street.

VOLUME 3 NUMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 37 THE R ECIO

R OB IN FtTZSIMONS Willow Patten

Dean Inge remarked that 'the nations which have put manl

tropical garden; very Somerset were announced to the Legislative Maugham. The governor's two terri­ Council on 7 October last year. hina ers, Whisky and Soda (s he who denounced them. Hong Kong people famously was lost and fo und), guard supported them (so too did people in inset photo: Chris Patten the door. southern China, who heard his speech He is va ri ously described as 'a on television). But many business­ master of the English language' (by men, worried about Chinese reprisals, Marga ret Thatcher), 'the most con­ were wary. The Hong Kong Business summatecommunicatorthat has ever and Professional Federation opposed E ARCY TH" "" newly minted been in GovernmentHouse'(by fanner Patten, and argued for 'convergence' coins, minus the Queen's face, ap­ Hong Kong Govem or Lord MacLe­ with China's policies. Other business peared in Hong Kong. I used some in a hose), 'the most gifted politician of people and the Hong Kong Economic coffee shop. Suddenly, laughing young our generation' (by numerous British Journal supported Patten. In Au tral­ waiters and waitresses ga thered in ex­ commentators), and a 'whore and a ia, both Labor and the coalition strong­ ci tement. Then their faces tumed to prostitute' (by the Chinese media). ly support moves for democracy in sadness. The new coins were a poign ­ The liberal-democratic beliefs that Hong Kong. ant symbol of a coming and disturbing Patten has brought to Hong Kong are Threa ts to Britain's hina trade in reality-the changing sovereignty of spelt out in his prolific writings-the response to Patten's plans have been Hong Kong. manifes tos, the speeches (Thatcher's overt and covert. Their use imputes to But how disturbing will the 1997 included), the sermons, the journal­ Britain a peculiar system of ethics. For change be? Hardly at all, if Hong Kong's ism and the book (The Tory Case, Britain to use her trustee status to her Govemor, Chris Patten, achieves his 1983 )-published since he became MP own financial advantage at the expense twin goals of maintaining Hong Kong's for Bath in 1979. of the rights of those she is charged to way of life and creating a lasting dem­ Oxford trained him as an hi stori­ protect would be to commit what, in ocratic polity. But first, he must soothe an. He is deeply aware of the influence fiduciary con text, defines ancient Chinese suspicions of the Brit­ of the past, both personal and nation­ major crime. ish. al, and of the constraints placed on his I had last een Patten in action as present job by the 'ink of intem ational M UCHTHOUGH rr UPSET the many the thoughtful and formidable opera­ agreements'. Quotations from T.S. liberals who believe he has kowtowed tor who master-minded last year's Eliot and Karl Popper are scattered to China, Patten ingeniously crafted Conservative election victory-a vic­ throughout his essays. his proposals for vastly expanding the tory, he says, that 'everyone thought The 1984Sino-BritishJointDecla­ electorates for indirectly elected Leg­ as impossible at the time.' ration and the consequent Basic Law co seats in a way that would be con­ The cenery is now different, the (promulgated by China in 1990) affect sistent with the controversial Basic task before him even greater. Patten, Patten's every move, but, most espe­ Law. But China still claimed that arguably Britain 's most reformist co­ cially, his modest plans to increase Patten's proposals caused 'the three lonial governor since Lachlan Mac­ democratic participation in Hong violations'-of the Joint Declarati on, quarie, occupies Hong Kong's Gov­ Kon g. of the Basic Law, and of secret 1990 ernment House. It resembles a com­ His own initial proposals-and Sino-British 'understandings'. The fortable English country home set in a invitation for alternative proposals- Australian Foreign Minister, Gareth

38 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-JA UARY 1994 Evans, was one of many western ried that democracy would crea te in­ cratic, which is elected by a narrow lawyers who considered such objec­ stability bypolarisingKuomintangand base, will be susceptible to China's tions to be legal nonsense. Beijing supporters. But, after an appar­ influence. We are fighting for the legal Patten's community consultation ently humiliating trip to Beijing in andjudicial systems, for human rights, and subsequent announcement to the 199 1 to sign a memorandum of under­ which includes the right to freedom of Legislative Council- without much standing for a new airport, the British expression and free interplay of mar­ warning to Beijing-was a response to Prime Minister, John Major, is be­ ket forces. These are fundamental pil­ criticism s that Hong Kong people had lieved to have resolved that Hong lars of our free enterprise system .' been excluded from discussions about Kong's last governor should be a Robert Skidelsky agrees. 'Why I sup­ their own future. pro-democracy politician, port Chris Patten is because it is pm­ A furious China, feeling snubbed, '"T"" not a British mandarin. dent to have a stable political system declared it would not tolerate a 'three­ in place (after 1997). Too many Hong legged stool'-i.e. a voice for Hong .1. HE JOINT DECLARATION guarantees Kong businessmen are political inno­ Kong as well as for Beijing and London Hong Kong a 'high degree of autono­ cents'. in talks on the colony's future. The my', m eaning that it will trade as an George Orwell and the inhabit­ metaphor is an odd one, given the entity separate from the Peoples' ants of Animal Farm would have rec­ instability of two-legged stools. When, Republic. Hong Kong can be an inde­ ognised the strange coalition of big in April, China finally agreed to (so far pendent party to GATT and the Mul­ businessm en and Chinese 'Marxists' unsuccessful) talks with Britain on tifibre Agreement, for example. who oppose a Tory democrat. Nor elections in Hong Kong, she tried to It also guarantees that Hong Kong's would they have been surprised by prevent representation from the un­ legal system will be based on English T.S. Lo, a form er executive councillor wanted 'third leg', Hong Kong itself. common law for 50 years. But there and possible future chief executive, To understand the conflict, and are fears that the power of the legal whosepro-Beijingmagazine, Window, the magnitude of Chris Patten's chal­ system will be lessened by negotiated complain s that Patten's democracy lenge to Beijing, it is necessary to attrition or Chinese misinterpretation. proposals will lead to 'blue-collar dic­ consider how Hong Kong's hopes for Once the distant support of Westmin­ tatorship'. democracy have waxed and waned in ster is removed, an eff ective and Business concerns are not the sole tandem with historical agreements independent Hong Kong legislature determinant of Patten's beliefs. He and misunderstandings, especially will be essential to prevent the courts has been much criticised by such es­ since 1984. and the common law being cotmter­ tablishment figures as Lee Ku an Yew Many people ask why democracy m a nded by executive ac tion . and Lord Geddes for bringing ' an Occi­ has been delayed for so long in Hong Martin Lee, the leader of Hong dental mind and a Westminster ap­ Kong. 'More than anything else,' says Kong's United Democrats and a Chi­ proach' to 'an almost entirely Orien­ theeconomic historianRobert Skidel­ nese bete-noire, points out that if he tal situation'- Patten's response, typi­ sky, it is 'the result of the mind-set of were now to be locked up without cally, has been to paraphrase Shylock, the old colonial system .' Noone doubts trial, there would certainly be ques­ as when he recently told an audience that, until recently, paternalist colo­ tions askedin Westminister. But mem­ of Tablet readers in London that 'If nialists have been alive and well in the bers of China's National Peoples Con­ you're beaten by a policeman, it feels Foreign Office in London. When the gress never question the treatment of the same in Asia, in Africa, in An1er­ colony's Legislative Council refused dissidents in Tibet. The concept of a ica, in Europe. If you're locked up to accept a decision by the Sino-Brit­ separation of powers between the ex­ without trial, the results are the same ish joint liaison group on the compo­ ecutive and the judiciary has no place wherever you are'. sition of the post-1997 Hong Kong in Chinese thought or government. He told a London Tory meeting Final Court of Appeal, Sir Percy e ra­ So, however strongly som e busi­ that 'we should not drop our own dock (former ambassador to Beijing ness elem ents resist democracy in value system on the assumption that and chief fo reign policy adviser to Hong Kong and lobby against it in they (in Asia) don't share those values. Margaret Thatcher) complained: 'The Westminster, there is also a formida­ Do we make a distinction between two pilots agreed', and then 'the crew' ble array of business and political fig­ the woman (Aung San Suu Kyi) who rebelled. ures (including Margaret Thatcher, won the Nobel prize for leading civil Another reason for delay was that Jocelyn Chey and a prominent Legis­ resistance in Burma and those who the relatively benign British regime lative Councillor, Christine Loh) who have been applauded as dissidents in meant that few people in Hong Kong argue that Hong Kong's prosperity will Eastern Europe?' actively demanded the additional pro­ depend on a stable mle of law, demo­ Dr John Wong, a Sydney Universi­ tection of democracy. All that changed cratically maintained. ty historian, educated in Hong Kong after Tiananmen Square, and as Chi­ Christine Loh does 'not see the and Oxford, reminds those who claim nese will to interfere in Hong Kong call for greater democracy as a roman­ that democracy is a peculiarly West­ became apparent. tic exercise. There are sound business ern concept that Mencius, the great­ Many Sino-British traders felt that reasons for ensuring that we can indeed est disciple of Confucius, held that cosy relationships might be threat­ have" one country, two system s". The emperors must obey the goven1ment, ened by Hong Kong democracy and, in debate on democracy is about autono­ and that the government must listen the 1970s, Governor MacLehose wor- my. A legislature which is less demo- to and obey the people. Deeply Confu-

VOLUME 3 N UMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 39 cian societies such as Taiwan and plethora of successful women in Hong Hong Kong in 1991 , detailed reasons South Korea, Wong points out, are Kong public life, for example, hardly why it believes the Basic Law to be also evolving democracies. ta llies with Chinese tradition. incompatible with the International But he adds a rider: Confucian ide­ The very novelty of recent reso­ Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, als, or perversions of them, have al o lute British opposition to Beijing pol­ which is incorporated into Hong Kong led to the Chinese concept of 'rule icie has apparently confused the Chi­ law by virtue of the 1991 Bill of Rights. from above' by the all-powerful 'virtu­ nese. Combined with ancient nation­ The Basic Law provides that the chief ous'. The 'virtuous' officials have been alisms, it has prompted reflex hostili­ executive of Hong Kong will be ac­ deeply distrusted by ordinary people. ty and talk of betrayal. Martin Lee sees countable in part to China, and that it as 'thefirst fight (which, the National Peoples Congress (not as in a marriage) is always Hong Kong courts) will determine The colony that kept on growing the most terrible fight, be­ final interpretation of this ca use it then determines mini-constitution. I N 1840 BRITAIN wENT TO WAR with China because of a dispute over the future'. It is why he the opium trade. Britain won. believes that unwavering JOH NDown , a former NSW Attorney Captain Charles Eliot persuaded the Chinese to cede in perpetu­ support for Hong Kong General, was a member of the delega­ ity a tiny island called Hong Kong. The British government promptI y democracy is now crucial. tion and wanted Patten to push for dismissed Eliot for acquiring a useless rock, inhabited by a few China supporters who more democracy. Unlike the gover­ fishermen. Treaty misunderstandings and more wars followed, and argue that Patten's propos­ nor, he docs not see the Basic Law as Kowloon peninsula was ceded to the British in 1860. The northern, als have not 'converged' immutable. 'That is an assumption of agricultural'New Territories' were leased to Britain in 1898. with the post-1997 provi­ two colonial governments, namely sions of the Basic Law can­ Great Britain and China, that you can That 99-year lease expires in June 1997. Meanwhile, the once­ not ignore the far more ignore democracy.' Dowd believes that despised rock has become a centre for world trade. Hence Britain's serious charge, brought by the Basic Law could be open to legal dilemma. How can she honour both her property dues to China and lawyers, legislators and challenge within Hong Kong. and her moral duty to protect the rights of the people of Hong Kong? historians that the Basic Dowd worries because Patten has The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong appeared to Law itself is incompatible said nothing about electing a govern­ solve the problem. Britain agreed to return to China not only the with the Joint Declaration. ment, and has merely talked about New Territories, but also Hong Kong island and Kowloon. In For the Joint Declara­ how to elect a legislature. Patten told exchange, China guaranteed that for 50 years Hong Kong would tion came with promises me that he was trying to increase his retain her freedoms and her way of life. She would enjoy a 'high of democracy, from both personal accountability, and that of degree of autonomy'. China would be 'one country, two systems'. Britain and China. Rich­ the colony's government, to the legis­ ard Luce, a Foreign Office lature, especially in response toques­ Hong Kong would be governed according to English common minister, told the House tions asked in the Legislative Coun­ law, which has so successfully oiled the wheels of commerce. Only of Commons in Decem­ cil. This is ironic, considering the way defence and foreign affairs would be matters for Beijing. The British ber 1984 that 'we fully ac­ many Western politicians have at­ Government promised a democratic Hong Kong. So too did the cept that we should build tempted to diminish the accountabil­ Chinese Prime Minister. up a firmly-based demo­ ity of the executive to Parliament. But democracy did not come. In 1990 Beijing pronmlgated 'the cratic administration in In 1972, at the behest of China, Basic Law', a mini-cons titution for post -1997 Hong Kong. It specifies HongKong(by) 1997'.And whi ch had just been welcomed into democratic goals, but places constraints upon the pace of democratic Martin Lee told me that the UN General Assembly and Secu­ development. Many lawyers think that it conflicts with the Joint when in 1984 the Hong rity Council, Hong Kong was quietly Declaration, and profow1d concerns were expressed about excessive Kong University Students deleted from the UN's list of colonies Chinese influence on Hong Kong. Union asked China's then to be granted self-determination. Brit­ Prime Minister, Zhao Zi­ ain did not object. Dowd and Wong Nevertheless, Britain established policies that would 'converge' yang, whether Hong Kong believe that Hong Kong's histmy might with the Basic Law. Democrats argue that 'convergence' meant would be rule by democra­ have been very different if Britain had 'appeasement'. China had expected to take over Hong Kong with the cy after 1997, he replied objected. The news filtered through to British colonial system intact. Last year, Cluis Patten arrived in 'Of course by democracy. Hong Kong people some time later. Hong Kong. His moves towards democracy have revived all the How else ca n you do it?' Chris Patten has come under sus­ hopes and all the fears of the past. • 'The Basic Law has ef­ tained and vituperative attack from fectively wiped out the China. I asked about the relevance of possibility of the existence his past ministerial experience, par­ But, because Patten is a Western pol­ of democracy and the rule of law as ticularly in the Northern Ireland and itician his instincts will be to consult provided in the Joint Declaration,' ar­ Overseas Aid portfolios, to his current and to seek legitimacy from the peo­ gues Wong. 'The sophists in Beijing job in Hong Kong. ple. To the Chinese government this now contend that the word" electi ons" 'All of u arc an aggregate of the is demeaning; it is 'looking down' and (in the declaration) do not imply one­ experience we have had in previous cannot be comprehended. China is person, one-vote elections-' jobs. And I think those two jobs did Marxist in name only. The International Commission of mark me-particularly those two jobs. However, societies change. The Jurists, which sent a delegation to The Northern Ireland job involved me

40 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 in some pretty sensitive and exposed Europe' is clearly obnoxious. Patten work. I had quite a tough time for one no longer talks about Britain and the period when I was the subject of European Exchange-Rate Mechanism, rigorous campaigns and denunciations but about linkage of the Hong Kong from the extre me Protestant and US dollars. Unionists. So that was a preparation.' Hong Kong refl ects the evident So too was the Overseas Aid job. 'I success of 'one country' /'two cul­ negotiated the last m ajor concession­ tures'-the hint of classicism in the a] financing agreement between Brit­ Orient, the barristers' chambers that ain and China. In those days I used to look and feel like those in Oz, the get a better press from the pro-Peking tunic-and-tie-clad schoolchildren, the newspapers.' Nor are rumours that he Tea Museum. But learning, to borrow is a closet socialist correct. As he told a Patten m etaphor, is 'a two-way Hong Kong's business community, his street'. The governor, his wife Laven­ 'own past includes being chairman of der and their daughter Alice have im­ the Conservative Party in a general m ersed themselves in Hong Kong life: election which we won largely because they have a love of Chinese art, and we argued the case for low taxes'. Low Lavender and Alice Patten are learn­ taxes are, he believes, one of the best ing Cantonese. The governor hopes to incentives for business investment. do so, too. Ploughing some surplus cash back in Patten avoids comment on his fu­ to the community is desirable; spend­ ture career. But should he find his way ing money not yet earned, a grave to Downing Street, expect to find mistake. Number 10 kitted out with the 'Chi­ Patten's strong support for a mar­ nese furniture, Chinese art, Chinese ket economy com es with caveats, as pots' that so delight him. It will be the he explained ina 1991 sermon in Great Orient which he brings to the Occi­ St Mary's Church, Cambridge. 'The dent. • market is not an end in itself. It pro­ Robin Fitzsimons is a physician and vides the best way for increasing and writer. allocating resources. (It) is a means, no more. A framework of laws within W RINKLES IN T IME which market forces are allowed to BY G EORGE S MOOT apply is affected by our sense of com ­ Who are w e ? Where do w e munity-of fa irness'. com e from ? In the same sermon, Patten, who Where are w e is a devout Roman Catholic, quoted going? These are the Anglo-Catholic T.S. Eliot: 'What­ the big questions ever reform or revolution we carry cos m o l ogy out, the result will always be a sordid wants to answer. travesty of what human society should - Little, Brown be'. A politician m ight simply 'try to &Company. Please send a free copy of make the travesty a bit less sordid'. $29.95 hardback Eurel

V oLUME 3 N uMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 41 S PORTING LIFE

P ETER P IERCE Carnival of cliche

'LERAC E THAT STO PS A NA TION' Caulfield. Traditionally dogged by bad almost always occasion s was became in the space of 200 seconds an weather, its three days in 1993 were compounded by the indigestion com ­ 'inten1ational race', when the 'hit­ held on fast, true track . There was an mercials sent out over the course and-nm' horse from Ireland, Vintage arctic shower on Guineas Day, news broadcasting system. Crop, won the Melbourne Cup. Punt­ of an impending hail storm before the Mercihd relief of a different sort ers were given much besides cliche to Caulfi eld Cup was ru n, but nothing to came in the Caulfield Stakes, as so ponder. According to an earnest offi­ interfere with the worthy, but not often a greater weight-for-age contest cial who monitors power consump­ very exciting racing which took place. than the much-vaunted Cox Plate, or tion for the NSW Electricity Commis­ Splendidly refurbi shed, Caulfield the Mackinnon Stakes. Another Freed­ sion, the nation certainly slows down hou es the Australian Racing Muse­ man horse, the supposedly wilting for the Cup, if it does not actually stop. um. There, before the first, one can Naturalism, drove between two broth­ And what of the transformation of a wander among evocative remains: the ers-The Phantom (aged eight) and race known since 1860, with splendid skeleton of Carbine (a New Zealand- The Phantom Chance (fo ur)-to win. parochialism, as the Melbourne ~---:~:::;~:..=~;:;:;::;~~~ Their turns were soon to come. Cup ? For a start it has been First the Phantom, which was sponsored by an intem ational returning aft er three yea rs' ab­ brewing group for almost a dec­ sence through injury, was un­ ade. Overseas horses have won luckily bea ten in the Caulfield on a regular basis. Most have Cup by the 30/ l shot Fraar. been New Zealand-bred, but Trained by David Hayes to prove others (such as the very ordi­ that the stable could win big nary 1980 winner, Bel dale Ball ) races at Caulfie ld, 'the moody were foaled in America. Der­ galloper' Fraar was bred in Amer­ mot Weld, trainer of Vintage Crop, bred champion who went to England ica and is owned by a sheikh. He was exaggerated pardonably when he sa id and sired a Derby winner, an interna­ ridden by Peter Hutchinson, in dis­ that no horse had ever come further to tional escapade as noteworthy as Vin­ gra ce with the stabl e after narrowly win a race, but appea eel a generous tage Crop's); the pocket watch used by losing the Coongy on Maraakiz, but crowd by m entioning 'Banjo' Pater­ Fred Foulsham to time hi s ga llopers; now restored to favo ur as the winner son in his victory speech. the blac ksmith's hammer of Harry of a race that eluded his fa ther, cham ­ For once, the Melboume Cup was Bamber, who owned and trained Riv­ pion jockey Ron Hutchinson. A few the genuine climax of racing at the ette, given to him when he enlisted in days later H utchin on was in hospi­ spring carnival. In the past it has been the Light Horse; one of Bobby Lewis's tal, out of the spring ca rniva l, out of upstaged by the demented over-pro­ lea d-bags; and the umbrella that Wal­ the saddl e for three months with a motion of the Cox Plate, by grea t ter Hickenbotham opened and shut to cracked vertebrae from a fa ll during racing on Derby Day and by what get the canta nkerous Carbine to move track work. looked to be an irreversible decline in along. The carnival shifted to the am phi ­ the quality of fie lds for the race. Cru­ T he centrepiece of the fi rst day's theatrical Moo nee Va ll ey, and the tire­ cia ll y, that las t fac tor has changed. racing was the Caulfield Guineas, a some Cox Plate routine began. A new We ights have been compressed and venerable event whi ch has ceased to jingle- 'Va ll ey Peoplc'- stained the the Cup is now a 'quality handicap' be won by high-quali ty horses. Abari­ airways. Familiar questions were within the scope of the best horses, dy, Cent ro and Chortle hardly went posed: would top handicapper Golden rather than being run to the advantage on to that dream place which race­ Sword (win ner of the Epsom and of average performers with ligh t caller Bill Collins styled 'equine im­ Toorak at his last two starts) be give n weights. Once agai n it is a race often m ortality'. The 1993 Guineas res ult a place in the field without weight for won by top gallopers, such as Alma­ promised better. Lee Freedman trained age fo rm I T hi s was tough on a horse raad, Ki ngston Rule, Le t's Elope and the quinella: Mahogany won authori­ that had never started in such an event, Vi ntage Crop. The latter had won nine tatively from thefine-lookingcoltPort but the fie ld fe ll away, Golden Sword of 15 coming into the Cup, including Watch. Maybe these were horses took his place and ran a fi ne third. We the Irish St Leger at his previous start whose names would be spoken a year watched the race from the top of the six weeks before-and a couple of hence without derision. The second stra ight, in fro nt of the charmless Tab­ hurdle races. This preparation, strange Group One event of the day was not a ret, not far fro m that fa mous 'school' to Australian eyes, ensured a start at 'the time-honoured' Toorak Handi­ (Moonee Ponds Centra l) where many over the odds. cap but a race ingloriously renamed jockey commence their run . From The spring carnival is a tale of 'the Quick-Eze'. The indignity and this va ntage last yea r we saw hea d-on courses, as well as cl iches. First is travesty of tra dition that sponsorship the fa ll that put the favourite, Natu -

42 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-JANUA IVeandercross, who finished fur­ took the Dalgety (Hotham Handicap ther back with each race he contested that was) on the Cummings- trained in the spring, was sixth. The New Tenne see Jack, thus securing for it a Zealander, Solvit, set an honest pace start in the Cup. and held on for second. The Phantom Before the stopping of the nation, Chance ga thered him in near the tum however, another serial reached its and won with conviction. It was anti­ climax. The Freedman-trained 'inter­ climactic, although the best horse on national' horse Runyon had returned the day won b fore the biggest crowd a positive swab after winning the An indispensable companion for every journalist since 1977. Craiglee in September. On Cup eve researcher in the media who wants to keep pace with To Flemington, whereDerbyDay's the inquiry concluded. Freedman was the latest information services in Australian libraries. 50,000-plus attendance was the larg­ suspended for two months with a stay est since 1960. At last the spring rac­ to allow his horses to compete on Cup MASTERING THE MAZE- ing generated the true chill of excite­ Day. What had looked like an inexora­ • describes online & CD-ROM databases and what's in them ment. 'International' jockey Brent ble progress up the ranks of trainers • lists which CD-ROM products are in which libraries and Thomson won the three-year old sprint had received its first severe check. l<>,mboinc CD-ROM search techniques on Dancing Dynamite, in time nearly And then it rained. Two inches 'in helps you unearth government documents & newspaper as fast as the Hayes horse Alishan, in the old' fell on the track. Car parks the Gadsden Rheem. This is hardly a flooded. The Maribymong rose. Fast­ articles quickly name to conjure with, but as the Cra­ track form assessments were ditched. • helps you make sense of the multimedia landscape that is ven 'A' this great race down the Bob Hawke came on television to modern library Straight Six was long ago one of the change his tip. But the track swiftly first sponsored events. Next the Der­ dried to no worse than slow. Before • SEND $1 0.50 to the Australian Centre for Independent by, a race whose quality, like the the Cup the plunge came for the other Journalism , University ofTechnology , Sydney , PO Box 123 Caulfield Guineas, has appeared re­ imported horse, Drum Taps, but Vin­ Broadway NSW 2007 • Telephone 02 330 2488 cently to have fallen away. Mahogany tage Crop always had the race in con­ enjoyed the lavish support in the ring trol. Lengtheningstridesharply, it gave of his part-owner Kerry Packer, and Te Akau Nick fiv e lengths start at the started favourite. Since the Guineas, furlong and beat it by three. The run­ Mahogany had run an unimpressive ner-up, trained by Tommy Smith's third at Moonee Valley. Now he raced daughter, Gai Waterhouse, started at handy to the lead, kicked seven lengths 160/ 1, the third horse, Mercator, at clear in what seemed an instant, was 125/1. It was almost the longest-priced eased down by Greg Hall to cane a line finish in history, and the trifecta paid of horses by six lengths. While beating $56,000. little of quality, he'd won like Sobar. Next morning, cliches clotted talk­ T his was Freedman's first back radio. Callers whinged about rr Victoria Derby. unfair advantages, of losing 'our' Cup to inva ders, of a Kea ting plot. Mean­ .1. HE W AKEFUL STAKES FOLLOWED. time, Vintage Crop was being readied Down from Hong Kong for the Flem­ to go home, in preparation for an im­ ington stage of the carnival, Darren probable second tilt at the Champion Gauci rode a superb front-numing ra ce Hurdle at Cheltenham. Dittrnan be­ on the poorly performed Alcove, only gan a suspension. Freedman looked to to be caught on the line by Arborea, appeal. Retired jockeys such as Ron which had come from last. Many Cup Quinton and John Letts brea thed eas­ horses now m et in the Mackinnon ily, for it would be many months before Stakes. Reputations punctured. Vean­ they would have to don My Favourite dercross failed again. The Phantom Martian headgear and mount up to The ecstatic music of Hildegard \'On Bingen and Peter Chance and Solvit had been flattened interview winning riders for the ben­ Abelard, performed by the Australian group Viriditas. by the Cox Plate. Naturalism finished efit of television viewers around the These 12th century composers tested the hwnan voice to honestly, but Fraar came again to beat world. Reassured by the rhythms of a its limits of technique and expression. Viriditas interprets him for second. Both were well adrift Melbourne spring, the recurrent pat­ their music in contemporary fra mes while remaining terns of loss, punters just looked hope­ of The Phantom, which won com­ faithful to the spirit of the music. CD $26.95 mandingly by three lengths. Now he ful, and ahead. • would be among the favourites for the CO (out on Spcclrulll) o/Jtainablcjrolll jcsnit Publications , PO Cup, a race in which he was fourth in Peter Pierce is Eureka Street's turf Box 553, Ric/nnonrl, V IC.3121. Postage & lumdlins $3.50 for 1989, second the following year. Mick correspondent. 1st itcn1a11Li $1.50 for mel! additional itcn1 .

V OLUME 3 N UMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 43 THE NATION: 4 Ross M cM uLLIN Asl< not what your constitution can do for you

M oN"mm Hm cwMm ty, which had by then proved itself had taken place after the crisis over that an overhaul of the Australian capable of governing effectively in its the powers of the House of Lords, and Constitution would be unwarranted own right. During the 1890s' debates after Labor had fully emerged in and even risky, because the constitu­ about Australia's constitutional struc­ Australia, the Australian Constitu­ tion has served Australians well. These ture, Australian Labor was in its in­ tion would have been significantly are very dubious claims, yet they have fa ncy as a political force, and there different. As well as overlooking the scarcely been challenged. was no tradition here or anywhere fact that the constitution was shaped It would be churlish to deny that else of ordinary working people hav­ by a quirk of historical timing, monar­ there was something public-spirited ing an accepted role in activities like chists have adopted a conveniently and worthwhile about the nation­ legislating and constitution-making. shallow view in assessing its effec­ building movem ent of the 1890s, The constitutional conventions tiveness. It has given us 'stability', which culminated in Australia's fed­ during the 1890s included only one they argue, trying to make a virtue of eration. That does not mean, howev­ delega te who could be arguably classi- the constitution's notorious inflexi­ er, that the constitution-makers go t it bility, which has not been conducive right for all time and in every particu­ to effective government in Australia. lar, especially considering the mas­ Having been saddled with a defec­ sive social and technological changes tive Constitution, Austra lians have at affecting the activities of various critical times indicated their government that have oc­ dissatisfaction with it. Wh en Robert Menzies curred since then. The best-known instance occurred was Australia's In fact, if federation had in 1975, when the warnings about the occurred only a dozen years Senate's excessive power made by Attorney-General, later our constitution would Labor representatives in the 1890s have been significantly dif­ were clearly vindicated. In October he felt so frustrated ferent. By that time, the fi ed as a Labor representative, W.A. 1975, forthesecond time in 18 months, about the national great tussle in London be- Trenwith from Victoria, and he was opponents of the Whitlam government tween the House of Lords only elected because his drift away sought to use their majority in the government's inability and the elected chamber, the from his Labor origins to a more con­ Senate to force an elected government House of Commons, had serva tive position was sufficiently out of office, even though it possessed to govern effectively, been decided, with the Lords advanced for him to be recommended a secure majority in the lower house. because of the being deprived of their pow­ by the pro-Liberal campaigners. (Clear In no other parliamentary democracy er over money bills. confirmation that Trenwith had dis­ in the world could an upper house constraints imposed As outlined in the Re­ owned his initial political orientation have taken such action, asserted the by Australia 's public Advisory Commit­ came in 1900, when he became a min­ then Prime Minister, Gough Whit­ tee's illuminating report­ ister in a Liberal government in Victo­ lam, who refused to call an election. cumbersome three­ which includes an extensive ria.) Genuine Labor representatives, Instead, he embarked on a cam­ and useful coverage of other then, did not get elected to the consti­ paign to intimidate the Opposition tiered governmental nations' governmental tutional conventions, and they were into backing down, and evidence then structure, that he structures-since 1911 the critical of the draft constitution that and later indicates that he was on the House of Lords has been 'an emerged from the delegate's debates. verge of success when the Governor­ made several public upper house with very little Their criticisms were spot on. They General intervened. Although the power'. In view of the all- contended that the proposed constitu­ Whitla m governme nt was very statem ents decrying embracingBritish influence tion would prove too inflexible be­ unpopular with uncommitted voters the 'vigorous clanking then prevailing over the cause the mechanism for changing it in mid-October 1975, opinion polling Australian way of govern- was inadequate, and they highlighted during the con s titutional crisis of the parish pump'. ment, it is inconceivable other shortcomings, including the Sen­ revealed around 70 per cent support that we would have estab- ate's excessive power. By 1912, with forWhitlam 's stanceon thefundamen­ lished a powerful upper house in our La bar already forming or about to form tal question at issue. own national parliament after a crisis governments all around the nation, It was the shortcomings of the that had such a profound and perma­ the Australian people would have been Australian Constitution that enabled nent impact on Britain's governmen­ more receptive than they were in the that crisis to arise, and under that tal institutions. 1890s to Labor's criticisms of the draft constitution another 1975-type crisis Moreover, by 1912 Australian document that became Australia's is still possible. Nevertheless defend­ politics has been transformed by the Constitution. ers of the status quo are eager to prop­ rapid rise of the Australian Labor Par- So itis very likely that iffederation agate the notion that Australians have

44 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 been well-served by their constitu­ a compelling case can be made for the ple,' he said. But this old catchcry 'no tion. Would the 70per cent ofAustral­ states' removal from Australia's gov­ more power to Canberra'-although ians who supported Whitlam during ernmental stmcture. Consider the vast the Constitution has in fact endowed the constitutional crisis in 1975 have savings to be made, not just in the our national government with much agreed with this dubious notion ? Of salaries and pensions of the politi­ less 'power' than is exercised by com ­ course not. cians and their advisers, but in the parable national goverrunents over­ Another revealing episode legal and other costs incurred when­ seas-essentially refl ects hostility to occurred dming World War IT, when ever one government uses the Consti­ a remote government, which applies the very existence of Australia as an tution to take action in the courts (or with no less force to the capital cities independent nation seem ed under obtains advice about whether to take where state governments are based. threat. At that critical time, when such action) against another govern­ Coming from a Perth-based politician, political perceptions in this country ment in order to achieve its political it would have sounded pretty hollow were stripped back to essentials and objectives. to residents of Broom e-and their the decisive measures in the crisis When Bob Hawke called for the counterparts in Cairns, Cobar and were taken overwhelmingly by na­ abolition of the states recently, there Casterton no doubt feel much the tional political figures like John Cur­ were some predictable responses. Jeff same. tin and Bert Evatt, a Gallup poll inves­ Kennett declared that no politicians The debate should be about what tigating attitudes to the abolition of would ever vote them selves out of a is the best system for Australia, not state governments found that no few­ job, yet that is precisely how Queens­ about spouting hackneyed slogans like er than 60 per cent were in favour of land's Legislative Council was abol­ 'no more power to Canberra'. Having abolition and only 22 per cent wanted ished. Queensland has been without a two-tiered stmcture, with the na­ the states retained. an upper house for over 70 years now, tional government supplemented by Som e years earlier, when Robert and has managed perfectly well with­ beefed-up councils or authorities at Menzies was Australia's Attorney­ out one. There is a lesson there for the local or regional level, would sure­ General, he felt so fmstrated about the government in the rest of Australia. ly be a more effective system . Its sim­ national government's inability to In the debate on the republic, con­ ilarity to the two-tiered stmcture in govern effectively, because of the con­ servatives are fond of saying 'if it ain't England should appeal to those Aus­ straints imposed by Australia's cum­ broke don't fix it'. But they can't have tralian traditionalists who are fo nd of bersom e three-tiered governmental it both ways : the shambles in Canber­ British ways of government. stmcture, that he made several public ra over the Budget is ample evidence But even if that sort of change is statem ents decrying the 'vigorous that the Senate certainly needs 'fix­ unlikely to be politically feasible for clanking of the parish pump.''In great ing'. The Senate long ago gave up even some time, let's have no more of this vital issues', said Menzies, 'there was the pretence of representing the states, specious cant from anti-republican s no room for the purely state outlook.' which is the role it was crea ted to about the Constitution being a flaw­ Half a century later, the national perform. less jewel that has served us well. It interest is still being undermined by Rich ard Cou rt's respon se to isn't, and it hasn't. • blinkered provincialism at state level. Hawke's call was som e hearty Can­ Ross McMullin is the author of The The most glaring contemporary in­ berra-bashing. 'We want to get deci­ Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor stance, of course, concerns Mabo, but sion-making back closer to the pea- Party 1891-1991. there are other recent examples. The obvious need for uniform national ed­ ucational standards had almost been met, aft er a lengthy consultative and deliberative process, when it was scut­ Education for Ministry tled at the last minute by parochial • upholders of 'states' rights'. And there was the Victorian government's noto­ Otira provides educational opportunities for people to reflect on Christian faith rious backdown after nationwide in the context of Australian culture. agreement had been reached on the issue of health wamings on ciga rette Day and half day seminars as well as longer courses are offered in both packets. metropolitan and country areas. These courses encourage participants to learn This sort of conduct, together with through a variety of techniques including presentation, role play, group work the proliferation of overlapping bu­ and individual reflection. reaucracies that so fru strates the busi­ ness sector, makes it easy to appreci­ Phone or Fax us for our free brochure ate why many Australians, aware that they are over-governed, feel that the Phone 853 2000 Fax 853 5263 states are an anachronism . Although Otira College, 73 Walpole Street, Kew 3101 the useful functions they facilitate, Otira is an agency of the Uniting Church Synod of Victoria like state-of-origin football and Shef­ field Shield cricket, could be retained,

V OLUME 3 N UMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 45 R EPORT:!

GREG SAN MIGUEL

Chile: out of sight, never out of mind

T mu'."'' TmM of Pc, idont By the earl y '80s, however, the quest at full voice, then returned to a Patricio Aylwin of Chile draws to a visa applications were motivated as pl enary session with short dramas or close this month. It has been a self­ much byeconomicas by political con­ pencil drawings: 'We use the dynam­ styled 'transitional government' that cerns. The regime placed the econo­ ics of Paolo Freire,' Michel remarked. has had to tiptoe between the promise my under the direction of a group of He was the coordinator, and worked of popular rule and the requirements C hicago-trained tech no era ts, and his way thro ugh the group, mucking of Realpolitil<. The country continues Chile became a laboratory forthe kind around with kids and making sure to be governed under a constitution of monetarist experiment that ad vo­ that any new faces were brought in draft ed by Aylwin's predecessor, Gen­ ca tes of Reaga nomics elsewhere could fro m the cold. eral Augusto Pinochct, the parli ament onl y dream about. Industries closed The following Sa turday night the includes a bloc of Pi nochet appointees down, and unemployment soared. hall was filled again, this time with and the general himself remain at the The people took to the treets, and the strai ns of banned poets and song­ hea d of the army. on protest days up to a million con­ writers. Sapos, lookouts, kept gu ard These obstacles notwithstanding, verged on Santiago's main pmk, unit­ for signs of the cops. An older couple Aylwin, an avuncular 70-ycar-old, has ed in the hzcha, 'the struggle'. Pinoc­ gave a testimony of the loss of their secured the politica l prestige of his hct's security ap para tus kept him in three sons in skirmishes with security offi ce and his centrist Christian Dem­ power, but the opposition fo rged a forces. When they finished spea king, ocratic Party's claim on it. The elec­ coalition of 17 centrist and leftist par­ Michel made his way to the platform torate is expected to tra nsfer the man­ itcs that ultimately triumphed in a and led a slow, pregnant chorus of We tle to his party colleague, Eduardo 1988 plebiscite on Pinochet's ru le, shall overcome in Spanish. Later, in a Frei, in elections on 14 December. and again the following year, when lighter mood, the hall ventured into a Bu siness is also impressed. With Aylwin was elected president. favourite ditty: Adios, Gen eral! annual growth rates of about 10 per No doubt to Pinochet's chagrin, T hese were the cl ark days of cent, Chile is busy projecting itself as the economy was by then offering a Pinochet's military regime. Unem­ the 'Asian-tiger' economy of Latin pay back in profi ts, if not in jobs. In the ployment in Michel's poblacion was America. post-Cold Wa r world, the Ay lwin gov­ about 60 per cent. Of those with work, In October Aylwin fl ew into Aus­ ernm ent, pursuing the regi m e's a significant percentage was engaged tralia a part of an Asian tour, and rPaul Keating, Aylwin has with Whitlam's. month. Not much, but enough for the geo-economic designs: Chileans speak regime to acquire some forced loyalty. of the 'Pacific basin', nominating M ISA EL (' M ICHEL ' ) PA CHECO The carrot and the stick: there themselves as necessary members of comes fro m what in Australia would were nightly military patrols through it, and Australia is Chile's fourth-big­ be called 'Labor heartland': a dusty the poblaciones, and pro test days gest source of foreign investment. barrio Ith e Chilean word is poblacion) would inevitably mea n bullets fired There arc 30,000 Chilean immi­ on the southern outskirts of Santiago, up and down the streets. One year grants in Australia, clotted around the and he was part of the lucha. they hit a French Catholic priest suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne. He now lives in a one- bedroom fl at through the forehead; he had been Many of them were political or eco­ in the Melbourne suburb of Springva l c. praying in his home. In Michel's street, nomic exiles, and the president' visit We first met in the poblacion on a th ey hit a 14-year-old boy, Manuel no doubt kept them musing about the bitterly cold and wet Monday night in Rodriguez, on his way to a football paradoxes of the past. 1987. I shook his hand in the dark­ match. The following yea r we held a The aft ermath of Pinochct's 1973 ness-the area was blacked out-as small roadside vigil, holding candl es coup has been well documented: the we pa cked into a wea therboard hall. to remember him. That too ended up Socialist president, Salvador Allende, Despite the conspiratorial air, this with the police firing shots, and Michel was murdered, and thousands of his was a history class: 20 or 30 exuberant and I scrambled away over the fe nce, supporters 'disappeared'. By decree of local kids wanting to supplement the ending up at his parents' place. the new president, many more were schoolroom by turning out in num­ 'You can't get away from fea r,' he bundled onto planes leaving the coun­ bers for a weekly session with the told me. 'You just have to learn to live try . Others took refuge in foreign em­ local youth pastorate. In discussion with it.' Michel, then 24, worked out bassies in Santiago, seeking asylum. groups they debated the Spanish con- of the chapel-an almos t sa fe refu ge

46 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBE R 1993-JANUARY 1994 in Catholic Chile-as a remarkably .ing off staff. Michel spent 13 rnonths President Aylwin's focus on energetic and creative presence in the sitting at home, an unenthusiastic growth, investment and trade, and area. English student, caring for a new baby Michel's suburban life in Melbourne, Fanny led the social justice discus­ and hoping for work. Yvonne took day are both a long way from the lucha. sion. Antonio had the political skill to classes and did better. They knew no Michel told me that in Chile he had get the funds together. Jorge organised one but Michel's aunt and family, and been a member of the MIR, the leftist the 'baby football': soccer played on the people they nodded to in class. revolutionary movement, a tightly sm all, dusty lots about an eighth the 'People live in their own world i.n organised group with a broadly Marx­ size of a normal pitch. Domingo could Australia. You can spend weeks with­ ist agenda. Membership alone was an tum his hand to anything: he patched out even seeing your neighbours. Life offence in Pinochet's Chile. up houses before the winter wet; We are at a small ga thering his artwork appeared behind the in North Carlton, commemo­ altar at the annual Te Deum, a rating the 20th anniversary of patriotic thanksgiving service Pinochet's coup.ln the fra ctious with a subversive rnessage; and way of community politics, the his guitar- plucked and North Carlton 'action'-put on strummed, and tapped on the by the Chilean Human Rights wood like a drum-was brought Group in Victoria-was vying out for penas .in the hall or over with a separate commemora­ the dregs of a pisco bottle. tionin a city church that evening Each summer they organised by the local branch of the So­ the poblacion's 'youth encoun­ cialist Party of Chile. Pepe Mi­ ter', ga thering hundreds of school randa is singing .in Spanish to a kids on their holidays for a week darkened hall: of games, classes, discussion, 'I know that I am alive, be­ sport and workshops. Michel was cause your pain is running a gifted leader, with the ability through my veins; because eve­ to animate the most lifeless ry person who is caged shortens groups. He came to be responsi­ my brea th; each act of torture ble for these eniupos throughout ea ts away at my body.' Santiago, working for the Youth There are about 30 people Pastorate of the Catholic Church. present, who wander to the can­ The work meant one pay day teen for beers and hamburger . in four. For regular m oney, A couple attend a table of liter­ Michel had a mobile stall at the ature on human rights in Chile, Saturday markets, where he sold mementos of Allende and pam­ glasses of fruit juice. Like most phlets denouncing the failure of in the pobla, he got by on odd· Aylwin'sgovernmenttobringthe He scarcely earned enough to sup­ 'People live in their own world military to justice. Michel and I port his partner, Yvonne, and her in Australia. You can spend weeks call it a day. son, even though the three of them How to address the past is the lived with her family. without even seeing your running sore of Aylwin's coali­ But, unlike his mates, he had neighbours. Life in the suburbs tion government. The left-and an aunt .in Melbourne and, with the relatives of the disappeared­ an offer of work in a Dandenong struck me as cold and want the officers responsible to factory, enough points to emigrate individualistic.' be prosecuted. The right wants to to Australia. He decided to move close the book and move on. Ay 1- for the family. The news that he -Michel Pacheco win's government has called for wasgoingcamelikea boltoflight­ 'truth and reconciliation', com­ n.ing to those who had regarded Michel in the suburbs struck me as cold and missioningan investigation into what as synonymous with the pobla. individualistic.' happened and to whom, but conced­ Like President Aylwin, Michel Michel and Yvonne split up 12 ing it is hamstrung by a 1978 amnesty Pacheco's agenda was strictly econom­ months ago, so Michel is living alone. law passed by Pinochet that it lacks ic. The Chilean image of Australia He has found work. He has two clean­ the authority to annul. More than was of Alan Bond, INXS and the har­ ing jobs, and starts one at 7am , one at that, Aylwin foreshadows that prose­ bourside mansions featured on late 3pm, then heads off to English classe cutions would unleash years of social '80s' telemovies. Michel's own expec­ at 6pm. The weekends are spent with trauma and political tension. The left tations, he says, were modest but by custody of the kids, or at home. He is deeply su picious of his caution. the time he arrived Alan Bond was in still does a bit of youth work, although It is perhaps the ultimate paradox decline and so was the Australian econ­ he finds that he's competing with that Aylwin headed the opposition to omy. The Dandenong factory was lay- apathy. Allende in 1973, and welcomed Pino-

V OLUME 3 N UMI\ER lO • EUREKA STREET 47 I

R EPORT: 2 li

chet into office. It was only some BILL T YLER years later, with Pinochet entrenched in power, that Aylwin changed sides and called for democra cy . 'You go tta forget the past,' says Michel's uncle. He, too, has a story to tell. An active trade unionist, he was imprisoned for 12 months by the Normalised evils Pinochet regime before obtaining ref­ Th e Burdekin report and the dignity of the m entally ill ugee status to emigrate to Australia in 1975. He is proud that his children are educated and 'doing well'. 'You need to be able to make a life fo r yourself. In Australia, yo u can still work and get ahead. You have to con­ centrate on that and leave all that T,B uWWN system work. In the real other political stuff behind.' report into Austral­ world, poli cies must And that might just be what is ia's mental health take account of the fac t happening to the Chileans: unpre­ services has dispelled that housing and pro­ ccndcnted growth, the firs t taste of the 'post-institution­ fessional services are consumerism in the poblaciones, and al' myths of commu­ deli vered thro ugh mar­ a kind of psychic numbing to terms nity- based m ental­ kets. 'Normalisation' such as 'protest' and 'the past'. No one health care. The re­ rhetoric presupposes under 20 was alive at the time of the port tells a shameful that markets will be coup. The polls suggest human rights story of th e degrad­ dri vcn by needs of suf­ is now a relatively low-order issue. ing and exploitativf ferers, and that com­ I a ked Pepc Miranda when the conditions unde1 munity interests will denuncia would finish: when would which n1 any of th( dominate those of self- the Chilea n left speak up forthe future? 'deinstitu tionalised eeking individuals. 'How can we be free if we don't come mentally ill have t( Ye t Burdekin's ac­ to grips with the past ?' he replied. live, and of the lacl count indica tes not Maybe he is right. Eduardo Frci of upport by go vern onl y that the offi cial has no particular claim on the job, ments. But we al model is not working, except that hi fa ther was also the share the bla me­ but that something like country's president, fro m 1964 to 1970. governments, community orga nisa­ the reverse of it is true. Unregulated There is a sense of security among the tions and individuals-for accepting markets dominate and distort supply middle class, with a centrist Christian the myths that have concealed the and demand for mental health care in Democrat in power. Yet the last Frei magnitude, and the terrible banality, both the city and the bush. Psychiat­ government (which was supported by of the neglect of the mentally ill. ri c services, subsidised by Medicare, the right against Allende) is oft en cred­ Burdekin's account of community are diverted to the lesser ills of the ited, because of its inertia, with hav­ strategies for care and rehabilitation urban rich while 'dcinstitutionaliscd' ing stimulated the popular radicalism of the mentally ill contrasts starkl y patients popul ate the streets and un­ that bro ught Allende to power. with the offi cial version, which tells supervised boarding houses. The men­ It is a drizzly Sa turday in of a 'quiet revolution' in the trea tment tally ill are circulated as commod­ Springvale. At Michel's place, yo u ca n of mental illness since the mid- 1950s. ities, and oft en exploited as cheap hear the noise of the crowd from the According to the received m yths, labour or abused as sexual objects. footy finals at AFL Park. Michel is impressive developments in medica­ Community orga ni sations speak inside, playing a cassette that has ar­ tion are supposed to have been accom ­ mainly for the middle class and the ri ved fro m the poblacion. It was taped panied by a change in social attitudes articulate, and governments prefer to at Antonio's wedding. Interspersed that has destigmati sed mental illness. listen to professionals, to well-placed with guitar music, there are greetings 'Communi ty care' has replaced insti­ co mmunity group and to other gov­ from old colleagues from the youth tutional care, supposedl y resulting in ernments. In much of rural Australia, group. Domingo talks soulfully of their 'empowerment' of the mentall y ill. mental-hea lth services are virtually fri endship. An update-pessimistic yet 'Normalisation' at all levels is the goal non-existent. The following cases, tak­ strangely m a tte r-of-fact-on the of mental health policy. The disabling en from the records of a ca pital-city political situation. And something effects of segregation, prejudice and men's night shelter run by the Society new: the street in the pobla have fea r are being replaced by a new toler­ of St Vincent de Paul (with names bcenpavcd. • ance and openness. That, at least, has changedL arc typica l. Greg San Miguel is a lawyer and jour­ been the rh etoric. David nalist who worked in Santiago, Chile, But good intentions and libera l David has a long tanding paranoid from 1986-1990. rhetoric are not enough to make a schizophrenic condition. He i either

48 EUREKA STREET • D ECEMBER 1993-)ANUARY 1994 treatment-resistant or insists on taking system would have to recognise at services. Unless mental-health care is lower doses of medica tion than he least two features of mental health based on a prior recognition of the actually requires. His condition is com­ provision: (1) Many m entally-ill peo­ dignity of the indivi dual, rather than plicated by poorly managed diabetes. ple, because of their condition or be­ on the utilities of profit and behav­ He uses a range of accommodation ca use of years of institutionalised de­ ioural control, the contra dictions of and rarely repays credit. As a conse­ pendence, lack the self-a wareness or community-based schemes will soon quence, he is frequently barred from sense of personal responsibility to becom e apparent. services. maintain an effective regime of self­ Such a recognition involves more David chooses to live this way medication; and (2) unregulated mar­ than a formal expression of human even when he is well. His transience kets do not serve the interests of the rights and more than a radical strategy has made it difficult for care providers powerless, the poor and the inarticu­ of empowerment, although it is not to build a relationship with him. He late. inconsistent with either. It requires uses at least three clinics or doctors Such considerations do not, how­ policies based on humane concem , for medication and his transience ap­ ever, shape mental-health policies. and the allocation of priorities in ac­ pears to outpace their ability to liaise. Civil libertarian and radical consum­ cordance with such policies. The When he i at the shelters he often er groups oft en take a 'politically cor­ present machinery is clearly breaking disregards house rules and can be ag­ rect' line that emphasises the formal down and, as Burdekin has shown, gressive and verbally abusive. One rather than the actual capacities of the m any h elpless people are being agency has considered taking out an mentally ill to survive as independent crushed. • administration order for David, in the citizens. And vested interests have absence of an identified case manager. compounded the problem by oppos­ Paul ingmoves towardsgreatermarketreg­ Bill Tyler is a member of the Society Paul is a 36-year -old man on an invalid ulation or towards a diversion of re- of St Vincent de Paul's national com­ pension. He has come from interstate. ources from hospitals to community mittee of support for the mentally ill. He has a psychotic disorder and can be very aggressive and unpredictable. He REPORT:3 also has a history of IV drug usage. He is transient, denies having a psychiat­ JACINTA fORBES ric problem and refu ses any medica­ tion. Hospitalisation has apparently Judge cautions politicians over refugees been of little use in the past. During his stay at the shelter Paul was aggres­ sive, occasionally screamed in the yard L AST MONTH's FEDERAL CoURT DECISION in the test case for the Cambodian boat people and became involved in fights with would have given no solace to the Immigration Minister, Nick Bolkus. In his mling, Justice other guests. He was playing out a Keely fm.md that the public servant delegated to decide whether a Cambodian woman, Ms number of roles, and heard voices from Mok, was a refugee, had misapplied the relevant law and had failed to obtain up-to-date God and the Devil. A community material on developments in Cambodia that would affect the claim. Thus far, the decision mental-health team was involved but is a textbook review by the courts of government conduct. But the sting in the tail, for the they decided to leave him. They ad­ minister, is in the judge's comments on political influence on the refugee process. He said vised the shelter manager to callthe that s ta temen ts by politicians had created in Ms Mok 'a reasonable apprehension of bias'­ police if he become a problem again. a concern tl1at her clainl might not be decided with a fair and open mind. fohn This was largely, the judge said, because of the comments that the Prime Minister at the John is a 38-year-old man on an invalid tin1e, Bob Hawke, had made on prime-time national television-that Ms Mok was one of pension. He experiences persistent a group who had simply decided to 'pull up stumps get in a boat and lob to Australia', and psychoses but has few acute relapses. that he would be forceful in ensuring his views were followed. The judge said that it was He will not comply with his m edica­ 'grossly improper' for Australia's senior public figure to have made such statements before tion regime. Although rarely aggres­ his government had considered any claims by the arrivals. Bolkus will have won no favours sive, he is typically restless and de­ for drawing such judicial disapproval of Hawke and of the Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans, manding of staff time. He tries to who expressed similar views. maximise his disposable income by Comments by the court also cast shadows on the Parliament's conduct in the matter. staying at night shelters and some­ In this there are echoes of concerns previously expressed by the High Court that legislation times walks all night if he has no cash to detain boat people compulsorily, passed the night before a release application, was an and cannot get credit. He spends most attempt to 'clothe with legislative authority .. . a custody that might have been brought to of his money on food and cigarettes. an abrupt end once a court ascertained that the custody was unlawful'. John has a strong institutional de­ At the end of the day, courts cannot decide whether a refugee claim has m erit. The pendence on the shelter and has lived government has reserved that role to itself. The court can suggest solutions, as Justice there m ore or less pennanently for Wilcox did in a similar case in Sydney, outlining a humanitarian option that the minister five years. chose to ignore. Justice Keely also points towards m eans for achieving a just result. One Why have community-based poli­ hopes his comments are given due consideration. • cies so abysmally failed these and oth­ er mentally ill peopl e? An effective Jacinta Forbes is a solicitor and chairperson of the Refu gee Advice and Casework Service.

V OLUME 3 N UMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 49 fESTIVALS

MARGA RET COFFEY

Syracuse too far away

WNF"wco c"""' w" ' located in places. Migrants have in­ exile. Exile- to borrow a phrase-has boy his mother baked special Christ- variably an ambivalent relationship become their home. mas pastries in the shape of a hen. In with place-either the one they have Exile is also the home of the sec­ the middle of each pastry she would left or the one to which they have ond and the third generations. Franco put an egg and the thing was to eat come-so inevitably the fate of their Cavarra teaches stagecraft to tertimy around the biscuit so that the hen saints was dislocation, not just across drama students and when he comes would do its bird-like thing. This year the miles but in meaning and va lue. across new students with Itali an sur­ Franco will spend Christmas with his There is a church in Melbourne names he likes to play a kind of party mother, his sister and her family but which Franco CavatTa describes as trick. Oh yes, he will say, that's a there will be no promising pastries. looking like a Chinese joss house. In it Pugliese name and they say, how did There haven't been pa stri es for many a proliferation of cow led monks, shep­ you know? What is your mother's yea rs : some traditions live on, others herd s, name, he will ask, ... Oh, so she is from di e. and ... (well, another part of Ital y). It ca n It's almost 40 years since the onl y happen here, he says. Cavarra family came to Melbourne In the Italy of their parents' gener­ from Sicily, from Syracuse province ation it would have been unlikely on the eastern side of the island. that a Sicilian woman would marry Archimedes(' ... have a look at him, a Venetian man (even an Eastern he's in the bathtub learning how to . Sicilian someone from the West). swim') came from Syracuse, but so First, they would never ha ve met did Franco's late father (a nurse), and econdly the two cultures bis mother, his sister and himself. were so different that they were There is a link there, for certain. more likely to marry someone When Franco Cavarra turns to the from another co untry. You mar­ west of Sicily it appears alien: the ried someoncfrom yo ur own area, architecture, the music, even the Franco says, because you knew attitudes, it seems, bespeak the cen­ what yo u were getting. In the third turies of Islamic influence. generation names don't have the Eastern Sicily looked towards the same carrying capacity. The associa­ mainland. In the 'Greater Greece' that tions and therefore the meanings have preceded the Roman empire, Syracuse go ne. was a Greek colony to which writers, vir­ Christmas is actuall y not a very poets and orators were drawn. You gin s have found un­ good time for an Ital ian to consider the can tread in their fo otsteps in places comfortable sanctuary. They look as burden of tradition. As feasts go it is Like Syracuse and Agrigcnto, in the if they don't belong there, Franco says. not as notable as Easter; much more in very forums where they lived their Once upon a time they were, each of the way of tradition hangs on Easter public lives. To Franco's mind the them, a rallying point. His mother's Day. (Not ju st food traditions either. Graeco-Roman spirit lives on. It is town, Pachino, rallied around St They are not as long lasting as we arc tangible in the culture but not neces­ Joseph, his father's, Rosalini, around led to believe by the equation of sarily as rationality, empiricism, de­ the Madonna Assunta, and the city of culture with the way people ca t. votion to purity of line. Here we're Syracuse honoured St Lucia. One or What's the point of cooking special dealing with pastries which lay eggs. two 'Italian' churches in Melbourne foodstuffs in a co untry where you can Traditions are curious things : what maintain the traditions but in real get th em every da y of the gives them continuity across centu­ life-second generation life-the yea r?) ries, and now, across continents? When saints are done for. the ancient Greeks colonised Syra­ Was it distance that did them in? N EVERTHELESS, TI-llS YEAR IS a good cuse, they brought with them their Do gods and saints travel badly? Is year for Franco Cavarra to consider household gods. When postwar Sicil­ there a future for them that is yet trad iti on. Early in the New Year he ians came to Australia they carried undiscovered? Or was it simply that will enter the scm in ary. At the age of the images of their local saints. While leaving Sicily in the 1950s was to 45 he is leaving a career as a free-lance gods had reciprocated the loyalty of leave the ancient world for the rnod­ opera and theatre director to pursue individual households, the sai nts were crn world? Whatever, the saints suffer an idea that ca me to him ten yea rs ago.

50 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 IN M EMORIAM

He was sitting then in the 'Met' in New York. He had 'made it' as assist­ ant to the composer-and SpoletoFes­ Federico Fellini,1920-1993 tival director-Gian Carlo Menotti. (They were working on Puccini's Manon Lescaut.) In that holy of holies E DERJ o FELLIN! WAS BORN in the Ernilian seaside resort of Rimini, but as a young he was struck by the vanity of vani­ man he moved to Rome to study law. The wide-eyed young provincial was fascinated ties-the lying, the cheating, the con­ by the Eternal City, which would feature significantly in his life's work. He was soon niving that got people places and the drawn into its bohemian fringe of performers, writers and actors-a world he found discovery that it wasn't really up to more congenial than any academic pursuit. much when you finally arrived, quite For a time he worked as a cartoonist for a satirical monthly, and collaborated on tawdry in fact. several screenplays with neo-realist directors, including Roberto Rossellini (Rome What a dark view of the arts, I said, Open City 1945). In 1950 he was able to co-direct, along with Alberto Lattuada, when so much is expected of them in Variety Lights, a film about provincial show people. A year later came his own first the way of spiritual insight and suste­ feature, The White Sheik, a classic neorealist tale of shattered hopes and dreams. nance. But, it turns out, it is not that Fellini's third feature, I Vitelloni (1953L about a group of young layabouts he gives them up as a dead loss-he is desperately trying to fill the void of provincial life with all sorts of pranks, brought not going to give up opera, theatre or him critical and popular success for the first time. I Vitelloni (The Wastrels) won the music. It is more that he expects some­ Silver Medal at the Venice Film Festival. This was the first of many awards that thing else out of life and it has taken Fellini would receive in the long career that followed. 10 years to come finally to a decision La Strada (1954) which starred his wife, Giulietta Masina, won for Fellini an not to pursue his opera career at all American Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. His next project after this costs but to find out what that some­ international success was The Nights of Cabiria, a morality tale about pimps and thing else is. In entering the seminary, prostitutes. The film was ready to go into production but the Italian censors would Franco Cavarra is not doing the tracli­ not approve the script, because someone in the Vatican objected to its subject matter. tional thing. For the same reason that But the Archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Siri, spoke up for Fellini and the completed Easter-the feast of fecundity-is film, again starring Giulietta Mas ina, went on to win yet another Oscar. Fellini was major amongst Sicilians, priesthood now firmly established as a leading international filmmaker. is not, at least under current rules and As an artist, Fellini was fasciilated by the bizarre aspects of popular Italian piety­ regulations. To be 'complete', a man fake miracles, superstitions and the more extreme forms of ecclesiastical eccentric­ requires a wife and children ity. But he came to depend on the continued support of more enlightened Italian If Franco's parents had come from Catholics who understood his genuine compassion for the human condition. During the long-industrialised north of Italy, the furore unleased by La Dolce Vita (1960) the fesuits of the Centro San Fedele in their anti-clericalism would have been Milan rallied to his support, biinging a more reasoned tone to the debate about the influenced by Marxism. As Sicilians, film's 'immorality'. while they required the priest's minis­ In the autobiographical 8 ~ (1963 Labout the mid-life crisis of a film director, there trations for baptisms, weddings and is a frail and remote cardinal, whose only counsel to the confused and bewildered funerals, they didn't want a priest director are the words, 'Outside the church there is no salvation'. The finale of the actually in their own family. So says film, a parade of all the disparate elements in the director's life, seems to imply that Franco Cavarra . Bear in mind, he adds, he is not prepared to accept the cardinal's prescription. that the Sicilian experience of priests With fuliet of the Spirits (1965), Fellini reached the pinnacle of his artistic and up to modem times was often of cor­ commercial success. Satyricon (1969L Rom a (1972) , Am a cord (19 74), and Casanova rupt clerics who oppressed the poor (1976) are the classics of his artistic matmity. and who used their spiritual authority City of Women (1980) ushered in the final phase of his career, which included the as a hold on the people. apocalyptic And the Ship Sails On (1983 Land Ginger and Fred (1985 La nostalgic trip 'Why do yo u want to throw away for two aging performers and an opportunity for Fellini to hit out at the outrageous a good life', Franco's mother asked, vulgarity of Italiru1 television. His last film, The Voice of the Moon, was a touching 'and lock yourself in some monas­ plea for silence runic! the cacophony of distractions in contemporary culture. tery? I won't allow you to waste your Fellini was a religious man, though not in the conventional sense. He was vastly life.' He can't say that he has entirely amused by the superficial trappings of religiosity-particularly the Italian sort-yet succeeded in convincing her but he took other superstitions seriously. He was reluctant to go to Hollywood last fuly, to has made the point that the priest­ receive the special Academy Award for a lifetime of achievement; he felt certain it hood is none of the things- remote, would be some kind of epitaph. immmed-which she imagines. That In his last ilh1ess, before he lapsed into a coma in the hospital at Rimini, Fellini anyway, in these times the ro le of the asked to see a lifelong friend, Cardinal Silvestrini. We shall probably never know priest is undergoing radical redefini­ what they talked about, but some words of Fellini to a fesuit priest a few years before tion and 'who is to say what the priest may hold the clue: 'Beyond the sea and the sky, through terrible suffering, perhaps of the future is going to be like?' • in the reliefthat tears bring, God can be glimpsed-his love and his grace not so much as a matter of theological faith, but as a profow1d need of the spirit.' Margaret Coffey is an ABC broadcast­ Addio, Federico! er and producer. -Franco Cavarra

V OLUME 3 NUMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 51 THEATRE

G EOFFREY MILNE Sadness (i n the suitably intimate 120- seat Courtyard Studio in the Canberra Theatre Centre) . Yang'ssoloshowwas followed in the second week by anoth­ er in the same venue: Bronwyn Cal­ Showing the nation cutt's Disenchantment, a sharply ob­ served and stylish performance piece with music, about a woman's gradual decline into the well of disillusion and subsequent fight back towards self­ T, N AT>DN" F'mVA c oc 1994, so let us at least say that this is esteem. Australian Theatre began in 1990, a national festival on a cyclic basis. Magpie Theatre's Funerals and when Marguerite Pepper and the doy­ I stress this point fo r several rea­ Circuses (from South Australia) ar­ en of Australian festival directors, sons. The first is that a festival staged rived from the Melbourne Interna­ Anthony Steel, approached the Can­ in the nation's capital clearly ought to tional Festival to win many Canber­ berra Theatre Trust with the idea of refl ect the nation in its content. There rans' hearts and minds with its per­ getting up an annual showcase of is also some chance that this sort of suasive powers of script, performance mostly small-scale theatre perform­ showcasing could well lea d to greater and promenade-staging in the splen­ ances drawn from all over Australia. possibilities for national and even did little foyer and the suitably wide That first festival featured drama, international touring. stage of the Playhouse. dance and mixed-media events from Thirdly, most of the festivals in At the same time, Melbourne's evety state and territory. Bran Nue state capitals tend to stress their inter­ Play box Theatre took Michael Gurr's Dae from Western Australia, the national content, often to the detri­ award-winning Sex Diary of an Infi­ Queensland Ballet, and the then local ment of the 'local', or other Austral­ del into the Canberra Theatre, which Meryl Tankard Dance Company were ian, content. At least, publicists and is too big by about 300 seats for most among its better-known drawca rds. marketing campaigns do so, and the of this kind of work. On the other The festival was followed by a public tend to buy tickets to interna­ hand, Western Australia's Chrissy second in 1991 but there was a hi atus tional attractions in preference to some Parrott Dance Company, with its ec­ last year, partly because of uncertain­ Australian ones. The Canberra festi­ lectic-and often electric-mix of ex­ ties about funding. For this year, Ro­ val, however, gives priority to Aus­ citing contemporary dance styles, was byn Archer was appointed artistic di­ tralian-made work and enables it to be very well suited by that large space. I rector, with funding support from the seen in a purely Australian context. find this energetic and intelligent Australia Council (for certain specifi c There is no need or opportunity for young company increasingly impres­ projects), the federal government's arts odious comparisons between, say, for­ sive and Life, Love and Beauty was no touring fu nd, the ACT government's eign Shakespeare productions and the exception. Similarly, I imagine the Cultural Council, from Playing Aus­ inevitably doomed local versions. vigorous 'new circus' group of acro­ tralia, and-crucially-from Optus Finally, the way programming has bats from Sydney, Legs on the Wall, Communications. turned out, these national festivals would have looked vety good in that There has also been useful support are giving us a chance to evaluate same thea tre with All of Me. The from other state and territory govern­ where we are going as a theatre-mak­ show, written by Mary Morris, is one m ents (presumably to help produc­ ing nation in an intense but intimate I desperately wanted to see but it tions from within their boundaries to environment. I felt, during my four finished before I could get travel to the festival), from the ACT's days at the second week of this year's to Canberra. Health Promotion Fund and from oth­ festival, more as though I was at a er corporate sponsors. According to peer-gro up conference than in the pres­ RNCANBERRA'S CHILLY WEATHER Archer, the 1993 National Festival of sure-cooker atmosphere of a Mel­ smiled upon the festival: the local Australian Theatre was put together bourne International Festival or visual street theatre troupe, Splinters, for about $600,000. Adelaide Festival of the Arts. Robyn had at least one balmy night (a nd a Such has been the success-on all Archer has stmctured the events (as huge crowd) for its spectacular and levels, apparently-of the 1993 festi­ did Anthony Steel before her) in such (literally) explosive street theatre val that next year's is already going a way that participants have every event, Guardians of the Concourse, ahead, with Optus again kicking in chance of seeing each other's shows perfonned by upwards of forty people money and with Archer again at the and communicating with each other on the broad concourse (a nd in the helm. All this is as it should be, for this about their work as the days go by. pools!) leading from the Civic shop­ is a very good initiative indeed. As luck would have it, the materi­ ping precinct to the Canberra Theatre This year, the festival stuck pretty al she chose tllis year did not let the Centre. Young Canberrans also go t to closely to its 'national' identity, with concept down. The diversity of work strut theirstuffover at Gorman House work coming from all states and terri­ was fascinating, but there were some in an elaborate version of Gormeng­ tories except Queensland and Tasma­ interesting trends to emerge as well. hast, while the Canberra-based Vis-a­ nia. Rumour has it that at least one of From New South Wales came Wil­ Vis Dance Company gave perform­ these states will be featured again in liam Yang and his already widely-seen ances of its I< nee Deep in Thin Air in

52 EUREKA STREET • D ECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 the theatre of the ANU Arts Centre. the preparation onstage of penne al' is powerfully replicated in all its vio­ In one of Robyn Archer's typically arrabiata) is offset by an ever-present lence and misogyny in Jeziorny's bril­ inspired choices, the Indian-English choir of Italo-Australian women, Le liant design. Gradually, Tatiara's pup­ theatre director Jatinder Verma com­ Gioie della Donne (including Emma pets (Boyd's tall, mysterious and hand­ bined forces with Australian Aborigi­ Ciccotosto herself), who chime in with some Aboriginal and his pale win­ nal actors and other artists to explore, songs appropriate to the action. Out of some bride with the parrot-mouth) in a fortnight-long workshop, differ­ this poignantly local utterance, Angela come to life in their indigenous sur­ ent approaches to retelling The Odys­ Chaplin's direction and the musical roundings-especially in the stunning sey. direction of Kavisha Mazzella forge climax, when the dry lake floods and What is obvious here is that the a piece of theatre that addresses fills the land with life-and the Euro­ program is composed of a mixture of national issues with great clarity. This centred Punch and Judy are banished new events special to the National is community theatre in the foreverfrom the Australian stage. This Festival of Australian Theatre (though the very best sense of the was the most exciting and moving not only from local groups) and pro­ term. piece of puppet theatre I have seen in ductions which have been pre-loved 20 years of intoxication with that elsewhere in Australia and which I F EMMA ALONE WAS WORTH every kil­ heady medium. clearly deserve a national showing. ometre of the drive to Canberra, there Driving back to Melbourne, I The two productions which stood out was another treat in store and it came thought again about Robyn Archer's as my own festival highlights under­ from the festival's home town. Sky­ summary of her first National Festi­ line this point with some force. lark Puppet Theatre has provided bril­ val of Australian Theatre, as she Emma (from Deck Chair Theatre liantly educative in-schools theatre, expressed it at a lively forum on in Fremantle, W A) dates from 1990 for mostly very young children in the the final Saturday. Archer's view and although it has been seen a number ACT and southem NSW, for eight is that what is exciting in Aus­ of times in the West, this was its first years or so. Thecompany was taken tralian theatre at the moment is trip 'over east'. It certainly shouldn't over at the beginning of this year by not contained by the convention­ be the last. Like all of the performanc­ Peter Wilson, a Handspan Theatre al boundaries of dramatic forms; es in this year's festival, Emma is hard founding member and, while his vision there has hardly been a single to contain within any fixed generic for the company includes perform­ orthodox 'play', in the sense boundaries. Its story (based on Emma: ances for children, he decided to wid­ accepted by mainstream Austral­ A Translated Life, by Emma Cicco­ en its audience-base by scheduling a ian theatre companies, at any of tosto and Michael Bosworth, Freman­ piece of adult puppetry for this festi­ these festivals in Canberra. tleArtsCentre Press, 1991) is portrayed val. The result of this new vision for I agree with her and so, obvi­ in flashback as the eponymous Emma Skylark is In side Dry Water, scripted ously, do many of Australia's fes­ prepares for the wedding of one of her by Beatrix Christian, designed by the tival directors. But what differ­ children. Melbourne-based Richard Jeziorny, entiates this festival from many As she prepares food, presents and with lighting by Handspan's Philip of the others (especially the Mel­ decorations for the celebration, the Lethlean and clever, evocative music bourne festival) is the showcas­ onstage version of the central charac­ by Canberra's Cathie O'Sullivan. ing of Australian work that has ter (played with great presence and It was a fine piece of visual theatre already been polished and honed audience-engagement by Rosemarie in the Playhouse of the Canberra The­ to a readiness for public consump­ Lenzo) is surrounded by evocations of atre Company-and, with any luck, tion. Too often, arts festivals in her past life in the Abruzzi of her in any other venue it may get to play Australia pit world premieres of native Italy, during migration, and in in, if intelligent entrepreneurs else­ Australian works, and/or new the various parts of Australia to which where choose to pick it up. Inspired by productions of older, 'heritage' she and her extended family came in Arthur Boyd's Bride in the Bush paint­ works by Australian companies, the years before World War II. ings (and were there ever characters in against tried and tested produc­ This much of the action was played Australia's visual arts more obviously tions from visiting companies Migrant view: Emma on different levels of a multi-layered destined for a second life on the Aus­ from abroad. In that unequal contest, Ciccotosto (Rosemarie but simple setting in the cabaret-style tralian puppet stage than these?), this the visitors inevitably win. Lenzo) in Deck Chair location of the Canberra Theatre Cen­ remarkable production revealed a huge What's more, the National Festi­ Theatre's production of tre's club, adjacent to the Playhouse. degree of innovation, imagination and val of Australian Theatre in Canberra Emma at the National And a remarkable story it is, involving skill. has begun to emphasise the work of Festival of Australian a volatile marriage to the handsome In side Dry Water portrays a young women, Aborigines and Australians Theatre in Canberra, but temperamental Pietro Ciccotos­ puppeteer whose pathetically limp lit­ of non-English-speaking background October 1993. to, a quintessential love-hate relation­ tle rod-puppets refuse to come to life in a systematic way, which to date no ship with his mother Concetta, and tmtil she travels to the dry bed of Lake other major Australian arts festival the inevitable difficulties of immigra­ Ta tiara, in the Australian interior. Her has done. More power to its arm' • tion and bringing up a family in a new journey to the ' dry water' of the title is country. accomplished, but she is haunted by Something approaching super-re­ the visibly present ghosts of her dead Geoffrey Milne is head of the division alism (Graham Pitts' script calls for father's Punch-and-Judy show, which of drama at LaTrobe University.

V oLUME 3 NuMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 53 exhilaration, liberty and death- the expectations of life and art. Red Rocl< classic mix of American tragedy. The West is one of them. It uses all the acting is startling, each character peel­ elements of the road movie to spin an ing back layers of surprise. entertaining ya rn about what happens Scorsese's The Age of Innocence is when a series of coincidences narrows a more ambitious film, more saga than your options to a choice between the fable. It is visuall y faithful to Whar­ bad, the very bad, and the much, much ton's taxonomies of social class. Scors­ worse. esespentafortunc reconstructing 18 70 The film is rc pcctful of its genre: New York domestic ballrooms, draw­ there is a taciturn good guy (Nicolas ing rooms, dining rooms; his charac­ Cage), a psychotic killer (Dennis Hop­ ters are exq uisi tel y clad and the acting per), a femme fatale (Lara Flynn Boyle) suitably classy. What the film lacks is and the femme fatale's venal, schem­ the filter of Wharton's irony. Joanne ing husband (J .T. Walsh ). The good Woodward is dropped in as offscreen guy starts off as a poor drifter and ends nanator but there is simply not enough up a destitute drifter, but of course, his of her to shade the spectacle. As the is the moral victory. Everyone else would-be, mustn't-be lover, Newland gets their come- uppance, but the Archer, Daniel Day-Lewis overflows femme fata le is allowed to be morall y his part-as Sean Connery would play­ ambiguous for ju st long enough to ing Clark Kent. Mi chell e Pfeiffer and permit some dalliance with our hero. Winona Rider, as Archer's beloved, Dahl and hi s brother, Rick, who Stop it, I like it Ellen, and wife, May, are more con­ co-wrote the screenplay for Red Rocl< tained and convincing New Yorkers. West with him, arc also careful to get Ethan From e, dir. John Madden (inde­ -Morag Fraser their visual cues right. The poor-then­ pendent cinemas) and The Age of In­ destitute drifter arrives in an old V8 nocence, dir. Martin Scorsese (Hoyts). Eureka Street and leaves in a railway freight car; the Edith Wharton spent much of her life Film Competition exhilaration of the opening frame, with esca ping Puritan American society, In Batman RetLUns, shearmounced its vista of prairie pierced by two- lane but carried it with her in her fiction . 'I am Catwoman, hear me roar! ' As black top, is countered by the visuall y Madden and Scorscsc scrupulously the Countess Olenska in The A ge depressing pile that is the town of Red recrea te the Puritan repressions that of Innocence, Michelle Pfeiffer does Rock; and the film 's denouement, in Wharton, who was a close friend of nor roar. Caption the above still an old cemetery, is a wonderful paro­ Henry James', understood so well . But with something as witty as the dy of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. while the two fi lms may represent a Catwoman line, however, and we Watch out, Joel and Ethan Coen, the change of pace in American movie will award two tickets, to the film brothers Dahl arc on your patch. making, they don't signal a radical or your choice, for the answer we -Ray Cassin shift .In past movies Scorscse particu­ like best. Send your answers to: larly has explored explosive violence. Eureka Street Film Competition, Family furore These fables of constraint are the oth­ PO Box 553, Richmond, VIC 3121. er side of American excess. The winner of October's film Lost in Yonl

54 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-)ANUARY 1994 l>idnt 1ou have any childlike. She is also in love-with idea how nwth .lamase 3kjs and one feels slightly constricted about Johnny (David Strathairn), a simple­ of Reindeer poo coufcl do Jropyins letting out a guffa w when the five minded usher at the cinema where ~m JO,ooo feet onto a other patrons, mostly rain-coated, are Bella gets her regular fix of escapist uowcled moforway !!? so grimly intent ... fantasy. And an escape it is, fro m a The plot, for want of a better word, tyrannical mother who has learnt how has a wimpy English surgeon becom­ to survive life's misfortunes but not ing obsessive about a girl called Hele­ how to love or laugh. na, who has all the charm and person­ Grandma (Irene Worth), is the dark­ ality of a funnel-web with PMT. Sher­ ness against which the colours of Si­ i!y n Fenn, looking more than ever like mon's characters shine. A sad figure a descendant of Elvis, smirks, smoul­ who boasts that she has never cried, ders and snarls her way through the she is a powerful matriarch. Only one m ovie as though she were taking it of her fo ur surviving children has ever seriously. stood up to her- Louie (Richard Drey­ When a fortuitous traffic accident fuss), a quirky, Cagney-like bagman killer. Although the film has some delivers Helena into the surgeon's pow­ who has stolen the goods from Holly­ rousing action sequences, and titil­ er, he amputates her legs to keep her wood Harry and has com e home to the lates with gratuitous use of the naked from escaping. When she gets under­ candy store to hide out. female body, it becom es a talkfest, as standably miffed about this and decks The candy store? That's where the Japanese know-all Connor explains hin1, he removes her anns. It seem s drama is played out, in Grandma's everything to Smith, even wh en he almost unnecessary to add that he candy store where good things are doesn't want to know. Sherlock Hol­ owns a life-sized statue of the Venus displayed but never enjoyed. It's a mes at his worst never patronised Dr de Milo. The only surprise is that potent symbol that underscores the Watson more. there isn't a clock in its stomach. story's fairytale nature, evoking Han­ Whenever the murder investiga­ The scenes with the truncated sel-and-Gretelimagery with the witch­ tion gets the staggers, Kaufman mixes Helena shrieking abuse at her captor like grandma. It speaks of people in Jap-bashing (in the mouth of tough­ rem ind me of the scene in Monty searching for life and love, with some cop Graham, Harvey Keitel) and the Python eJ the Holy Grail when John fi nding it and som e losing it. It's a utterly unnecessary cross-racism in­ Cleese, as the lunatic Black Knight, recurring story the world over. People volving blacks and Japanese. has all his limbs removed by King get lost all the time, and not just in By tampering with the book 's end­ Arthur, but yells 'It's only a fl esh­ Yonkers. ingKaufman causes some striking fac­ wound!' The main insult Helena hurls -Brad Halse tual and philosophical inconsisten­ at the surgeon is about his sexual cies. The female characters, except for prowess-an excuse for some ludi­ a computer-whiz jingo played with crous soft porn along the way. Solar eclipse style by Tia Carrere, are left as sex Rising Sun, dir. Philip Kau fm an objects with no character develop­ (Hoyts), which is based on but signif­ ment. THE AUSTRALIAN A.I.D.S. FUND icantly departs fro m Michael Crich­ I suspect this movie won't do big ton's best-selling novel of the same business in Japan. (VIC. DIV.) INC. name, has go t into the wrong hands. -Gordon Lewis Kaufman 's involvem ent virtually I HAVE HIV/AIDS ... WHO CARES FOR ME? guarantees a movie of more than two hours, and the editors must have gone Basinger 1, Fenn 0 For some yea rs I have managed to hide my condition to a protracted lunch during the final from those who have been nea r me, but grad ually I cut. Boxing Helena, dir. Jennifer Cham ­ couldn't any longer. M y fa mily has slipped away from In a stylish opening a young wom ­ bers Lynch (independent cinemas). I me and in my shame I am now alone in a single room, an is fo und dead, and apparently raped went to see this film with an honest ba rely furnished and to which no loved one comes. I am and murdered, on the boardroom ta­ effort at open-mindedness. After all, wea k now and fri ghtened. Soon I' ll no longer be ab le to ble in a Los Angeles offi ce tower owned when an actor has ended up paying look after myse lf ... even to cook and to clean is an in­ $12 million not to be init, you wonder by a massive Japanese corporation. creas ing effort. M y legs hurt and I kn ow they'll become The murder has been recorded by hid­ a bit. The whole thing was complicat­ more painfu l and I'll struggle to wa lk. My sight is affect­ den security cameras, but the killer's ed by the fact that the actor was Kim ed and there' ll be the risk of blindness not fa r away. Under identity is obscured by shadows. Basinger, not hitherto noted for her The investiga tion becomes a con­ stern commitment to artistic quality. my clothes, my body is becoming disfigured. I am a young frontation between two cops, Japa­ Fifteen minutes into the m ovie I man, approaching dea th, but I am lucky I haven't been nese expert Connor (Sean Connery) was hissing desperately to my com­ abused or physica ll y harassed as well, like another young and his assistant Smith (Wesley panion. 'No, I can't leave now-I have man whose bed was flung out into his backya rd and Snipes), and the all-seeing, all-know­ to give the thing a chance.' We should burned, publicly humiliated. I live in Melbourne and I ing Japanese corporation as it tries to have left then. There were som e need your love to support me as I face th e li ttl e time frustrate their efforts to identify the laughs, but none of them intentional, th at's left to me ... (see p56)

V OLUME 3 N UMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 55 BLACKFRIARS Kim, it was worth the money. Even He is also deeply corrupt, abusing the Greta Garbo's career wouldn't have power that his badge gives him in survived a turkey like this. order to extort money; this in turn -Juliette Hughes allows him to procure the drug-fuelled 8("£01<'"' sexual adventures that are his chief Dominican distraction from menacing mundane Retreat & Conference Centre Sight-seeing reality. PHI LLI P AVENUE, WATSON, ACT Bad Lieutenant, dir. Abel Ferrara (in­ The instrument of the lieutenant's dependent cinemas), is a crooked-cop­ redemption is a cardboard-cutout nun The Retreat & Conference Centre is part of Blackfriars finds-redemption story that rises above (Frankie Thorn), who is raped by two Dominican Priory, situated in pleasant surroundings its genre via an intriguing, and some­ youths intent on trashing and looting in North Canberra. The spac ious building includes a times entrancing, operatic quality. the church in which she is praying. peaceful enclosed garden w ith plenty of walking Like an opera by Leoncavallo or The lieutenant hopes that if he can space. The Mount Ainslie-Majura Reserve is w ithin Mascagni, Bad Lieutenant has a bare­ ca tch the rapists, for whom a reward walking distance of the Priory. ly plausible plot that depends heavily has been offered, he will be able to pay on stock characters. But, as with an off the Mob and live, if not happily It provides single-room accommodation for 60 peo­ opera, to quibble about such things ever after, then at least a little longer. ple (or 90 people with shared accommodation), with would be to miss the point- they are To find the youths, he must in­ hot/cold water and central heating in each room, and merely a framework for what one duce the nun to reveal their identity. a large conference room holding up to 100 people, as hopes will be a bravura peformance by She refuses-she has forgiven her well as severa l small rooms. There is additional space whoever takes the role of the central attackers-and only advises him to for sma ll group work. Individual and organized group character. And Harvey Keitel, as the pray. He does so, in an astonishing Retreats are ava i !able. bad lieutenant of this film, turns on scene that runs together personal one of the best performances of his breakdown and remorse-driven, All enqu iries are welcome and shou ld be directed to: career. hallucinatory religious anxiety. It is The lieutenant is deeply in debt to worth seeing Bad Lieutenant for this The Co-ordinator the Mob, with whom he has placed a scene alone, which sets a new register PO BOX 900, DICKSON ACT 2602 series of unsuccessful bets on the re­ of intensity even for the famously Phone: (06) 248 8253 Fax: (06) 247 6892 sults of a baseball championship series . manic Mr Keitel. -Ray Cassin

THE AUSTRALIAN A.I.D.S. FUND FINAL T AKE (VIC. DIV.) INC. PETER M ALONE WE'll CARE FOR HIM (HER) ... Good 'ol celluloid Jesus BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP TOO LeFavour, the Watch and the screen in English-language films for The sadness, the shame, the rejection, the hosti I ity, the Very Big Fish-and a Jesus figure1 about 30 years, during the '30s, '40s anger and the bitterness are being offset by those w ho Doesn't sound likely, but it's there. and '50s, when reverence for the di­ are quietly caring for those struggli ng to li ve with HIV/ Jeff Goldblum plays a depressed musi­ vine/human figure led to suggestions AIDS. cian who lets his hair grow longer in of his presence-long shots and back prison and, on release, looks like a views, as in The Robe (1953) or Ben Through its supported accommodation project house in holy-card Jesus; so much so that a Hur(the William Wyler version, 1959). Melbourne, SAN MICHEL, the Australian AIDS Fund has photographer (Bob Hoskins) employs The '60s brought many cultural ca red for more than 50 such lives, seeking to soften and him for Gospel portraits. Eventually, changes, one of which was the free­ comfort. But in the absence of any government funds, the musician believes that he has heal­ dom to show Jesus again, this time as we have constantly to search for funds and helpers. W e ing powers and ... the human/divine figure, e.g. Jeffrey are a Catholic agency devoted to this work in Melbourne. This 1992 Ben Lewin film high­ Hunter in King of Kings (Nicholas Donations are tax deductible. lights how screen images ofJesus have Ray's remake in 196 1) and Max von Yes, I would like to help changed in the 100-history of the cin­ Sydow in Th e Greatest Story Ever ema. We are all familiar with the rev­ Told (1965 , dir. George Stevens). Pier Name ...... erent, pious images, enhanced by the Paolo Pasolini chose a non-profession­ postures of the Jesus of silent films a! actor to play Jesus in his starker Address ...... such as Cecil B. de Mille's King of Gospel According to Matthew (1964). State...... Postcode ...... Kings (1927). After all, popular reli­ Whatever the relative merits of gious art at the time of the invention these Jesus figures, they were based on I would like to make a donation of$ ...... of the cinema was mostly of the plas­ a quite literal interpretation of the by cheq ue/money ord er to: ter-statue type, so that is what audi­ gospels, although Zeffirelli's Jesus of The Australian AIDS Fund, ences expected. Perhaps they still do. Nazareth ( 1977) attempted a more PO Box 1347, Frankston, VIC 3199 In fact, the face of Jesus was off- nuanced view. By the end of the '60s,

56 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 however Jesus had turned into a At the opening of Clint Eastwood's Superstar, and more stylised figures The0utlawfoseyWales(1976 ), Wales' becam e acceptable. Godspell was wife and son are killed, and his farm especially successful in encouraging destroyed, by post-Civil War raiders. Christians to accept that modern As Wales buries them, he kneels at the modes could dramatise the gospel grave with stick cross and prays 'Lord Jesus. gives, Lord he takes away'. He bows in During the '80s filmma k ers grief, and the cross falls on his shoul­ favoured using images of Jesus, rather der- the first of a series of gospel allu­ than offering presentations of the gos­ sions that give a deeper m eaning to pel story. Thus at the end of A Prayer this film in the fonn of a revenge for the Dying (1987, dir. Mike Hodg­ western. es), the IRA gunman played by Mick­ Taking our cue from the presenta­ JOURNAL OF THE MELBOURNE ey Rourke embraces a huge crucifix. tions of Jesus in the gospels, we can COLLEGE OF DIVINITY (Rem ember Don Camillo, who, in a see Christ figures as redeemers, sav­ lighter vein, used to chat with the iours or liberators. Editors crucifix in his church ?) But there were The redeemers are those who are Ian Breward, Mark Coleridge, still retellings of the gospel story: prepared to lay down their lives for John Hanner, Francis J. Moloney, Muriel Porter Martin Scorsese's The Last Tempta­ others-even undeserving others­ tion of Christ (1 988 ) tried to present and som etimes do. Billy Budd is a Pacifica is Australia's leading theological journal. Begun an earthy, fictionalised Jesus, andfesus classic redeemer figure and so are the in 1988, Pacifica provides a lively forum for theological of Montreal (dir. Denys Arcand, 1989) martyrs. InHombre(1967, dir. Martin research and discussion in the West Pacific region. Pacifi­ offered some remarkably effective Ritt), whose title might in English be ca includes full length articles, topical discussions, re­ Passion Play sequences. rendered 'Everyman', Paul Newman views and notices, and is published in February, June Recently Harvey Keitel, as the Bad plays an Indian stagecoach guide. The and October of each year. Lieutenant (see review opposite), saw, passengers are a motley lot, who don't in drug hallucination, the crucified seem worth saving when they are in Contributors include Tony Kelly, Gustavo Gutierrez, Jesus standing in a church aisle, and danger. What is the hombre to do? Jiir gen Mol trnann, John Thornhill, Gerald Gleeson, Elaine desperately prays to/abuses him. Job, On the other hand, Jesus the Risen Wainwright, Andrew Hamilton, Aloysi us Pieris, Brendan the Lawnmower Man, battles his sci­ Lord is also a healer, teacher and sav­ Byrne, JohnMacquarrie, Dorothy A. Lee, Norman Habel, entist m entor with virtual reality iour, som eone who enables others to Tony Campbell, Johann Metz, Denis Edwards .. . ga mes, placing him on the cross and find new life. It is easy to see this kind attempting to destroy him. And in of figure in the popular-myth movies Leap of Faith, fai th-healing huckster of the past 15 years-Star Wars (1 977, For a free sample copy, write to Steve Martin peddles his religion un­ dir. George Lucas), Superman (1978, The Manager, der a large crucifix. dir. Richard Donner ), Mad Max (1 979, Pacifica, P.O . Box 271, There are many verbal Jesus fig­ dir. George Miller) and their numer­ Brunswick East, Victoria 3057. ures-the discussions in The Name of ous sequels, and ET( l 982, dir. Steven the Rose (1986, dir. Jean-Jacques Spielberg). One can find saviour fig­ Subscriptions: Annaud) for instan ce, about whether ures in a lot of the popular films of One Year: Insti tu tions $AUD40.00 Jesus laughed or owned his own recent years. What of Kevin Costner's Inctividuals $AUD35.00 clothes. This perhaps, has an echo of soldier in Dances with Wolves (1990 ), the Pythons, whose Life of Brian (1 979) Susan Sarandon's intense m other Two Year: Institutions $AUD76.00 reminded us of the pompously ridicu­ searching for a cure for her son in Inctividuals $AUD66.00 lous side to biblical epics. Lorenzo's Oil (1 992, dir. George Mill­ For most modern audiences, how­ er), or Robin Williams eliciting poetry ever, the credibility of Jesus on screen from the Dead Poets Society (1989, To the Manager: (ti ck where appropriate): is stronger when characters are made dir. Peter Weir) I wish to subscribe to Pacifica significantly and substantially to re­ But also in recent years, especially semble Jesus. An appropriate nam e in Latin American settings, the liber­ for one year ...... for two years ...... for these characters is 'Christ figures'. ator figure is emerging. The obvious Obviously, m ost writers and directors examples are Romero (1989, dir. John individual...... institution ...... do not consciously intend this com­ Duigan) and The Mission (1986, dir. parison, but the Jesus story, whether Roland Joffe). Name ...... or not it is believed in Christian faith, Exploring the development of is part of the culture. It provides sym­ Christ figures offers a more credible bols that are frequently used by poets, religious dimension to the cinema. • Address ...... artists, writers and cartoonists-and audiences, appreciating the text and Peter Malone MSC is the editor of ...... P ostcode ...... texture of the art, make the connec­ Compass Theology Review and author tions. of Movie Christs and Anti-Christs. I enclose a cheque (payable to Pacifica) for $ ......

V oLUME 3 N uMBER 10 • EUREKA STREET 57 Barking up the wrong tree

T ., '" um of htuou' way' to Marshall-Thomas followed her dog broadcasts from station to station until categorise radio shows, but the most ('a very strong, capable dog') on a bi­ it found one that nobody knew about'. useful division I find is this: programs cycle for several years to see where it But luckily they still make a note of consist either of someone who knows went and what it did during the day, the juicy bits and broadcast them on what he or she is talking about telling and developed the results into a global Radio National's Th e Parliament Pro­ the listeners something interesting, theory of dogs. They grow up, fall in gram. or of the listeners trying to tell the rest love, get 'married' and have kids, she Most of the juicy bits come during of the world something completely discovered. All they really want is question time. Or as the Speaker, inane. 'friends and a nice territory and people Stephen Martin, put it recently: 'Of­ Two different types of phone-in to admire them and a bit of peace and ten it seems in recent times in the heat show make the distinction clear. One quiet'. In fact, it's really only their of debate there are statements made ... is the traditional vox-pop style, which lack of opposable thumbs that distin­ which in some instances can cause gives the caller 30 seconds (or 30 min­ guishes them from humans. great offence.' He asked the honorable utes if it's late-night) to explain exact­ Now for all I know that may be members to 'have cognisance of those ly where the govemment has gone true (although personally I've never particular concems in debates in this wrong over Mabo, with predictably found that dogs make very satisfact­ chamber'. Of course, as the presenter unenlighteningresults. The other puts ory dinner-party guests) but it's scarce­ of The Parliament Program, David the callers in what I would argue is ly a more valid opinion than that of Bamett, drily noted, they did not. In their rightfully subservient place. your average eccentric who rings up to the very same week Labor's Peter Unfortunately, while any opinion vent their spleen about the budget or Duncan referred to National Party about Aboriginal land rights is appar­ the republic. It only gets more space leader, Tim Fischer, as 'the Grand ently taken to be as valid as any other because it's been worked up into a Wizard' (i.e. oftheKuKluxKlan)amid in tenns of radio time, respectful ques­ book which has sold 260,000 copies in accusations of racism over Mabo. tions requiring an authoritative an­ America-which probably says more The problem with question time swer are generally restricted to topics about America than the book does is that in theory it's structured as such as pets, gardening, health prob­ about dogs. I can't help thinking that though thegovemment were Dr Hugh. lems and do-it-yourself house repairs. Byrne's background (60 Minutes) The opposition is entitled to ask ques­ The key to this second format is to should have given her a taste for hard­ tions in order to elicit factual informa­ prevent callers from indulging their er stories, and for more incisive com­ tion on specific issues, and they should natural inclination to reveal irrele­ ments than 'I'm very excited to hear expect a concise and infom1ative re­ vant and interminable information that your next book is going ply. In practice, of course, debate (if about their private lives. No one is to be on cats.' that's the right word for it) takes place more adept at this than the president on the same global level as Elizabeth of the RSPCA, Dr Hugh Wirth, who is SOMEW HERE IN BETWEEN THE Marshall-Thomas's flights of fancy. the undisputed star of Saturday mom­ authoritative and themerelyopinion­ John Hewson doesn't really want to ings on Melbourne's 3LO. He deals ated there is a third category of radio know how the govemmcn t intends to with any disobedience from his call­ broadcasts. It's called Parliament. The stop Rover chewing carpet slippers­ ers in much the same way as he relationship between Parliament and he's out to expose Labor's fundamen­ instructs them to deal with their re­ the media has always been a slightly tal misconception of canine psychol­ calcitrant pets. Firm but fair, don't uneasy one. Everyone agrees that run­ ogy as a whole. stand any nonsense, always keep them of-the-mill parliamentary debates are Hence question time (as relayed on a tight leash and, whatever you do, a necessary thing, something that no by The Parliament Program ) is only don't feed them from the table. civilised society should be without­ more entertaining than the average The opposite attitude-encourag­ but then so is a functioning sewage bigoted phone-in show because the ing all and sundry to litter the air­ system. It doesn't mean that anyone antagonists are supposed to represent waves with their opinions like a spoilt actually wants to know how it works something other than just themselves, puppy-is common to most other on the inside in any intimate detail. and because they're allowed to indulge phone-ins, but it also pops up all too As a result, the ABC's statutory in much more robust personal abuse frequently with some of the more obligation to broadcast Parliament has than most radio stations would nor­ esoteric guests during the ABC's sometimes weighed heavily on an mally tolerate. As far as providing mellow daytime book-plugginghours. organisation that is increasingly una­ insight or information goes, there's Take an interview by Jennifer Byme ble to ignore the ratings. As Richard little to choose between the two. • on Sydney's 2BL, with Elizabeth Ackland wrote in the Sydney Morn ­ Marshall-Thomas, who has just pub­ ing Herald earlier this year, the ABC Mike Ticher is a Sydney freelance lished a book called, coincidentally, went to a good deal of trouble 'devis­ writer. His dog was expelled from obe­ The Hidden Life of Dogs. ing ways of moving the parliamentary dience classes.

58 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1993-JANUARY 1994 Eureka Street Cryptic Crossword no.19, December 1993-January 1994

Devised by Joan Nowotny IBVM ACROSS The sort of regime in which, for example, I have to iron again all my uniforms can be called despotic. (10) 6 Return drinks to bowl like this. (4) 9 Fresh enthusiasm, and the country appears. (3,7) 10 Sounds as if we control the weather. (4) 12 Paradoxically, the greatest can be worst. (4) 13 It's just no go' Smile, anyhow, at the new coinage. (9) 15 The picture of Liz and Ed beside the pig-pen was given conventional form. (8) 16 Rare steak, cooked about right, will go like a flash. (6). 18 Somehow, my open title was derived from my name. (6) 20 Right after the love affair, the story-teller recounted it. (8) 23 Even in emotional stress, we hear, purpose is manifested. (9) 24 I ran wildly in the downpour. (4) 26 By the sound of it, I'll go to the place of Dogs for my holiday. (4) 27 If tucker's a trouble, try these Christmas goodies. (10) 28 A month with love in the county. (4) 29 The decision to resign at 10, unfortunately, starts it off. (10)

DOWN 1 To accumulate these this season is the aim of 9ac and lldn. (4) 2 Dope mixed with wry expression can easily be sprinkled. (7) Solution to Crossword no.18, November 1993 3 In the competition for cooking, I choose frying as the most thrilling -and possibly shocking! (12) 4 The sort of group that could shatter the party. (8) 5 He requires that five finish or else 'caveat emptor'. (6) 7 The basic assumption on which you base your argument is mere persiflage to begin with. (7) 8 Monk's snore, unfortunately, became worse when he joined these socially aware people. (3-7) 11 Ah, if tours can alter the conditions in the country, this team will play 21dn successfully. (5, 7) 14 Hermit, for example, is mastering initially this abstemious way of life. (10) 17 Including addition, but not substraction possibly (8) 19 The aim of 9ac and 11dn is to do this to Australia as well as each other. The outlay is about a penny! (7) 21 A game insect! It proliferates in the summer. (7) 22 Reflect the image. (6) 25 The goddess certainly exists. (4)

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