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Ailing Australia • Peter Sheehan's Failed Camelot • Need, Greed and the Market • WA Inc's Bright Golden Lure PHILOMENA CORNU & STAFF

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Ailing Australia • Peter Sheehan's Failed Camelot • Need, Greed and the Market • WA Inc's Bright Golden Lure PHILOMENA CORNU & STAFF Vol. 1 No.2 Apri11991 $4.00 rims, less pr Ailing Australia • Peter Sheehan's failed Camelot • Need, greed and the market • WA Inc's bright golden lure PHILOMENA CORNU & STAFF A DIVISION OF INTAlR TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL PTY LTD -b ..-----,j _. ) 1. 7 'r I.J.- '?)6 ~ L ~ /;;::-- (THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHINA) Just how is the Church faring in China today? Dr Paul Rule, head of the department of religious studies at La Trobe University, will lead our 2nd 'RICCI' TOUR OF CHINA (ex Melbourne) visiting Shanghi, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Beijing. 18DAYS This tour is not for the 'China tourist', but for the person with a genuine interest in seeing at first hand $3860 how the Church is coping in China today. per person (share twin, Departing 8 September 1991 inc. all meals) 4 QUEENS AVENUE, HAWTHORN, VICTORIA 3122, AUSTRALIA Tel: (03) 819 6889, 819 6890 Fax: (03) 819 6891 INCORPORATED IN VICTORIA: LIC. NO. 31248 This space could be yours FLASH To advertise with [-tJRJ:-KA STRI:-ET FOR PRESENTATIONS contact AND SUBMISSIONS Michael Kelly SJ Tel: (03) 427 7311 THAT SELL Fax: (03) 428 4450 Or call into Jesuit Publications, COLOUR AND BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTING. DIRECT PHOTOGRAPHIC COPIES TO A I SIZE. LASER COPIES. PLAN PRINTING. 300 Victoria Street, SLIDES, PHOTOGRAPHY. TYPESETTING & ARTWORK, LAMINATING. FILM PROCESSING, MOUNTING, BINDING. EXHIBITION & DISPLAY Richmond, Victoria . (Postal address: PO Box 553, FLASH GRAPHICS.(02) 555 70 II Richmond, Victoria 3121.) Volume 1 Number 2 • April1991 Cover photo: Afghan refugees in Peshawar, by Irie Duane RSM (sec story, p. 17) Graphics by Tim Metherall, Dean Moore and K. Weedon. COMMENT The way to Easter 4 FEATURES Ailing Australia :the fallout from WA Inc, Victoria's collapse and the free-marl<et debate Mark Skulley All that glisters 6 Richard Curtain In search of ties that bind 9 Margaret Simons Hard times for local heroes 13 Refugees: too many, and nowhere to go Mark Raper Sanctuary too far away 17 Peter Pierce The once and future bookie 21 Morag Fraser Cross-referencing Leunig 24 REPORT How the Vatican sanl< an admiral William Scobie Papal manoeuvres 39 FORUM Adrian Lyons Crossing over- a stl.ldent and and three teachers tall< about the 28 Kate Lindsey transition from Year 12 POETRY Vincent Buckley Last Poems 37, 41 QUIXOTE Tilting at credit cards Ray Cassin The road to ruin is now debt-free 16 CAPITAL LETTER Is the Defence Force worth its keep! Jack Waterford Swords into peaceshares 23 BOOKS AND ARTS Samuel Beckett revisited M.J. Crennan Beckett after Bair 34 Morag Fraser Interview with Deirdre Bair 35 Of theology, Rushdie, divas and the Bard Eric Hodgens Paul the pragmatist 38 Ann Jungman Telling stories 40 Bruce Williams The ABC of opera 42 Gerard Windsor For whom the Bell? 44 ULTERIOR MOTIFS 46 SUBSCRIPTIONS MANUSCRIPTS AND REPRINTS To begin a subscription or notify an address altera­ The editors welcome letters and unsolicited manuscripts, tion, please write to EUREKA STREET Magazine, including poetry. Manuscripts will be returned only if accom­ PO Box 553, Richmond, Victoria 3 121 , or telephone panied by a stamped self-addressed envelope. Requests for (03) 427 7311. If changing address, enclose a label permission to reprint material from the magazine should be from your postal wrapper. Subscribers should allow addressed in writing to: The editor, EUREKA STREET four weeks for changes to take effect. Magazine, PO Box 553, Richmond, Victoria 3121. C OMMENT Publisher Michael Kelly SJ Editor Adrian Lyons SJ Associate Editor Morag Fraser Production Editor The way to Easter Ray Cassin Design Consultant John van Loon Contributing Editors Perth: Janette Gray RSM Adelaide: Frances Browne IB VM TH' Rcs ume>lON ffAST, <how< <ign< of cegaining Sydn ey: Edmund Campion, Gerard Windsor E ASTeR, its prime place in the Christian calendar. The 'feast of feasts' Brisbane: Ian Howells SJ marks off the followers of Jesus, yet in popular Australian Darwin: Margaret Palmer culture Easter has been overshadowed by Christmas. And while Australia's culture since European settlement has often been European correspondent called 'Christian ', the lack of a focus on Resurrection queries Damien Simonis that description. North Am erican correspondent Christian visual art, literature and song generally centre Michael G. Harter SJ on Jesus as the suffering one-the Christ who turned the other cheek, dying as an innocent at the hands of people he prized. In a world riven by innocent suffering, and by the violence Editorial Board and intransigence of the powerful, Good Friday remains a William Uren SJ (Chair), powerful symbol of God's solidarity with the earth and its Margaret Coady, Margaret Coffey, people. Whenever we set out in quest of God, or look for peo­ Madeline Duckett RSM, Tom Duggan, ple who can provide credible images of God, it is not to the Trevor Hales, David Hawke FSC, powerful that we look first. Those attracted to Christmas, and Christine Martin, Kevin McDonald, this includes many non-Christians 'of good will', instinctively Joan Nowotny fBVM, Ruth Pendavingh, know this. Wendy Poussard, Peter Steele SJ During the Gulf conflict, the faces that revealed the greatness of humanity with intensity were not those of the Business Manager military, nor those of the politicians. Among thousands of tel­ Louise Metres evision images, the rawest and most appealing were those of Accounts Manager parents prying their children's bodies free from bomb shelters, Bernadette Bacash and of Palestinians viewed through chain-wire fencing, crying desperate for peace and a home. For anyone whose mind is Patrons etched with images from the Scriptures, Jewish and Christian, Eureka Street gratefully acknowledges the these tragedies cry out with the anguish of God, anguish en­ support of the trustees of the estate of tangled in our own. Miss M. Condon, D. M.Cullity, W.P. Gurry, That said, Easter announces that more is to be said and T. Molomby, V.J. Peters, Sir Donald and Lady done than our own last word and deed. That 'm ore' is not our Trescowthick and C.L. Adami. own but God's. But first we must remember, and then recount, the tragedies. Publicly in the press, and privately in our con­ EUREKA STREET Magazine, ISS N 1036- 1758, versations, we m ust tell the stories of failure (along with the Australia Post registered publica tion VAR 9 1-0756, others). is published eleven times a yea r In Australia,some confident voices declare that the reces­ by Eureka Street Magazine Pty Ltd, sion will be over by 1992, but it is doubtful whether our eco­ 300 VictOria Street, Richmond, VictOria 3121. nomic and political problems admit of any swift and predictable Responsibility for editOria l content is accepted by resolution. No ordinary cyclical upturn can distract attention Michael Kelly, 300 VictOria Street, Ri chmond. from longer-term trends, including the worsening terms of Printed by Doran Printing, 4 Commercial Road, trade, the decline of manufacturing (see 'In search of ties that Highctt, Vi ctoria 3 190. bind', p.9 ); a lack of clarity about national goals and the role of © jesuit Publi ca ti ons 199 1 government ('Hard times for local heroes', p.l 3); and catastro- 4 EUREKA STREET • A PRIL 1991 phes in banking and financial institutions whose effects legitimately begin to look nurture expectations again will be felt into the new century. Even that emblem of while the national mood is sombre and our luck seems Australia the plucky gambler-the bookmaker-appears to have run out? A decade ago, professionals who worked destined for the museum ('The once and future bookie', to rehabilitate teenagers in trouble liked to speak of their p.2l). Ailing Australia seems to have lost even its finan­ methods as 'tough love'. Ours is a time for tough hope. cial vaudevilleans. Sunny optimism will not serve. What is needed is alert­ For all that's said against the 1980s as a decade of ness for chinks of light at the prison window. greed and irresponsible ambition, those years still have The stories of the survivors among us, refugees and their instructive lessons. It was a decade in which sec­ others, are not yet well enough known in the wider tions of the community-most notably unions and Australian community. We have in our communities employer groups through the prices and incomes many whose spirits have been tested to the limit and accord-recognised that emerged the greater. By Australians need to work no means all interpret cohesively if they are to their experience in work at alL It was a dec­ Christian terms. Many ade in which the rheto­ express their hopes by ric, if not the fact, of beginning again with disciplined hard work Australian-born chil­ was the key to productive dren. effort. And it was a dec­ Much of the time, ade in which persistent Australian-born adults voices emphasised our sell themselves short in solidarity with those be­ the realm of the spirit. yond our shores, espe­ The understated, no­ cially those in acu te need fuss, laconic approach ('Sanctuary too far away', to tragedy-born of in­ p.17). articulateness about If the Christian births and deaths-has account is to be believed, its attractions. Ours is Good Fridays past and a culture with its feet on present are never the end the ground. Australians of the story. Once the do not readily fall for period of grieving is al­ pretence or enthusi­ lowed for, the power of asms. the Resurrection can be­ But our traditional gin to work again its stoic resistance to time miracle of hope. and despair (while ad­ Nietzsche's quip mirable) has never rep­ that Christians should resented the fullness of look more redeemed is Christianity.
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