Vol. 6 No.5 June1996 -" ~~~ ~ ·~ $5.95
Jon Gr The Burma of hopeful imagining: in reality a refugee camp, Mae La, on the Thai-Burma border, photographed by Mathias Heng in December 1995. Burma today is a mixture of SLORC brutality (SLORC is the ironically titled State Law and Order Restoration Council), an ongoing struggle to re-establish democracy, opportunistic trade relations with the West (in which Australian business is playing a part), refugee movements, and land mines. But there are still young Burmese who find time and heart enough to listen to The Cranberries singing about the Troubles. Kerry Murphy visited the border country and met the people. See Burmese bind, p18.
2 EUREKA STREET • JUNE 1996 Volume 6 Number 5 !URI:-KA STRI:-ET June 1996 A magazine of public affairs, the arts and theology
CoNTENTS
4 26 COMMENT DO NOT PASS GO Marie Louise Uhr on the ordination 7 of Catholic women. CAPITAL LETTER 31 8 POETRY LETTERS Christopher Brennan 1870-1932, by John Tranter; 11 Modern Times and Water, COUNTERPOINT by Chris Wallace-Crabbe. Paul Chadwick on the case for the national broadcaster: as simple as ABC. 32 I HAVE MULCHED THE PATCH WHERE 12 MY FATHER LIES BURIED THIS CHANGE MAY BE NO HOLIDAY Fiction by Wayne Macauley. Brian Toohey accuses Canberra of mix ing its economics metaphors, and worse. 34 BOOKS 13 Lincoln Wright reads Lester Thurow on capi INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION talism; Megan Gressor gets inside The Oxford Jon Greenaway on the brave new History of the Prison (p36); Andrew Hamilton world of Industrial Relations . follows the wars over the historical Jesus (p39); Margaret Simons reviews Robert Manne's Th e 17 Culture of Forgetting (p41 ); Ngaire Naffine SPARKY enjoys The Brush Off from Shane Maloney Andrew Riemer stands corrected. (p44). 18 45 BURMESE BIND THE PLAY THAT GOT AWAY Kerry Murphy looks at Burma and Math Geoffrey Milne goes to see Heretic and decides Cover: Sydney Harbour Bridge ias Heng takes the photographs. that David Williamson was robbed. painters Photograph by Andrew Stark 22 47 Photographs pp2, 18, 20, 21 TELL ME WHO YOU ARE FLASH IN THE PAN by Mathias Heng Moira Rayner pays tribute to Aboriginal Reviews of the films Othello, Fargo, Lillian's Photographs pp1 3, 15, 44 by Story, Primal Fear, Trains potting, War Stories Andrew Stark. lawyer and activist, Rob Riley. Graphic p11 by Siobhan Jackson. etJ Hoop Dreams and Twister. Cartoons pp12, 13- 16, 35 23 by Dean Moore. ARCHIMEDES 50 WATCHING BRIEF Eureka Street magazine Jesuit Publications 25 PO Box 553 FROM BOTH SIDES NOW 51 Richmond VIC 3 121 Edmund Campion and Chris McGillion SPECIFIC LEVITY Tel (03) 9427 73 11 Fax (03) 9428 4450 mix it with the church and the media.
VoLUME 6 N uMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 3 COMMENT
ANDREW HAMILTON A magazine of public affairs, the arts and theology Publisher Michael Kelly SJ
Editor Morag Fraser What's in a Consulting editor Michael McGirr SJ Assistant editor mandate? Jon Greenaway
Production assistants: Paul Fyfe SJ, Scott Howard, Juliette Hughes, Chris Jenkins SJ, I?uncAC eH>TOR> C AeOuT MANOA m is like the rit u' I p ulfed ~ Siobhan Jackson, Dan Disney out chest confrontation at the beginning of Grand Finals. It Contributing editors is all very impressive and threatening; everyone claims the Adelaide: Greg O'Kelly SJ biggest one; when the game begins, it all signifies little. Brisbane: Ian Howells SJ Popularly, a claim to a political mandate seems to imply Perth: Dean Moore a licence or a right to do what you want without being pre Sydney: Edmund Campion, Andrew Riemer, vented. Etymologically, however, a mandate is a command, Gerard Windsor and that may be a more helpful way to think about its polit European correspondent: Damien Simonis ical use. In Australia the government's primary mandate is the Editorial board command from the people to govern. The scope of this com Peter L'Estrange SJ (chair), mand, however, is deliberately and carefully limited by the Margaret Coady, Margaret Coffey, working out of the Constitution. The Government must pass Valda M. Ward RSM, Trevor Hales, legislation through both houses of Parliament, and its legis Marie Joyce, Kevin McDonald, lation may be subject to judicial review. A Government Jane Kelly IBVM, Peter Steele SJ, Bill Uren SJ thwarted in the Senate can ask for a double dissolution. Governments can also be said loosely to have a man Business manager: Sylvana Scannapiego date to try to fo llow in government the policies which they Advertising representative: Ken Head proposed at the election. This mandate is relatively weak, Patrons for otherwise no government would be entitled to change Eureka Street gratefully acknowledges the support of Colin and Angela Carter; the its mind in the light of circumstances. Still, it does have a trustees of the estate of Miss M. Condon; moral imperative to try to keep its word. Denis Cullity AO; W.P. & M.W. Gurry; For the same reason, oppositions have a loose mandate Geoff Hill and Janine Perrett; to try to influence government to follow the policies which the Roche family. they proposed. This mandate is no less nor more binding than that imposed on the Government to follow its policies. Eurel 4 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 COMMENT: 2 F RANK B RENNAN Native Title on pastoral leases now you see it, now you don't You had the misfortune of occupying 'unoccupied land'. lease required the leaseholder to permit the natives You had to correct your gross error. continued access to their gardens and plantations. The court was not required to determine the validity or You fought here for your country. effect of the leases. But, in passing, three judges said Wh ere are your monument ! the grant of the leases by government would have Th e difficulties we have in belonging extinguished any native title rights. Any continued - these, these are your cenotaph. native right of access to the land would have been fr om Bruce Dawe's For The Fallen derived from the terms of the lease. Two other judges said the leases would have no effect on native title. On June 11 , for the first time, the court will be EsT V OLUME 6 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 5 the security of their titles and the delays that might be involved Comm onwealth Government would have the constitutional in new development projects on native title land. All parties power to take away those rights except on payment of compen negotiated on the assumption that native title was extinguished sation. No state government could take away those rights un on pastoral leases. The Aborigines won three concessions. The less the Commonwealth Parliament first amended the Racial Native Title Act would not itself guarantee the extinguishment Discrimination Act and the Native Title Act and guaranteed of native title on pastoral leases. The presumption would merely payment of just compensation to the Aborigines by the state. be stated in the preamble. The matter would be left to the court. Mr Howard is right to await a High Court determination which Meanwhile Aborigines would trade on the uncertainty. A land in all probability will show that the miners and pastoralists acquisition fund would be set up for the purchase of pastoral never had anything to worry about. If Parliament were to act leases on the open market. The legislation would permit a before the High Court, the residual doubts would simply be revival of native title on pastoral leases once purchased. transferred from the pastoralists and miners back to govern The pastoralists won their concession. They would be able ment which would have to assess compensation for a right to continue their pastoral operations and renew their leases which may not have existed in the first place. without having to negotiate with Aborigines. But the miners Of course, the antics of Wilson Tuckey and his National were left in the dark. Until the law was certain, they did not Party colleagues have suited Mr Howard, who can turn to Abo know if they would have to negotiate with local Aborigines rigines looking reasonable as he then shifts from the pastoral before getting access to white pastoral properties. Lawyers for lease sideshow to the main game: he wants to take away the the Keating government in later litigation submitted that native Aboriginal right to negotiate at the exploration stage, giving title was extinguished on pastoral leases. Aborigines nothing in return. If Mabo as interpreted, applied and developed by the new This time around, the Aborigines, rather than the miners, ly constituted High Court extinguishes native title on all pas will be the only losers. It's called a change of government. How toral leases, that is the end of the matter. Pastoralists and miners fickle is the Australian just and proper settlement. need deal only with government when changing the use of pas toral leases. And so it has been assumed by all key negotiators Frank Brennan SJ is at Uniya, the Jesuit Social Justice Centre. since 1993. If native title were held to exist on at least the pas His latest book is One Land, One Nation, University of toral leases reserving continued Aboriginal access rights, no Queensland Press, 1995. COMMENT: 3 M rcHAEL McGIRR Aftermath TNow A>T" THE MASSACRE at Pmt Anhm I was in Bal Ironically, the core values of our community may well be larat. I was visiting a factory and was told proudly that the clarified and affirmed as a result of what happened at Port company has a policy of locating in regional areas because of Arthur. The ABC's 7.30 Report ran an interview with a nurse the proven loyalty of those communities. On the way home, I Lynne-who happened to witness the tragedy. Lynne realised stopped for a quiet moment in the cathedral. The building was what was happening sooner than most and took cover behind a dark, cold and empty. I idly picked up something on the seat stone parapet. She also knew she was one of the few people beside me and found that I had put my hand on the funeral likely to be able to help, so, leaving her camera and handbag booklet for Mary and Mervyn Howard, two of the victims at with her sister, she moved out from her place of sanctuary. Port Arthur. They had been buried from a crowded cathedral Whatever unaccountable evil was stirring in the gunman, it earlier in the week. I had never met them. Never seen a photo was matched by the good that was stirred in response. until I looked at the pictures in the booklet. But sitting in that This is surely cold comfort to the Howards and to many empty cavern I powerfully felt their absence. others who mourn. Except that we have seen an entire nation, At different points, the coverage of Port Arthur reached a community, on its knees. We have seen our leaders at prayer. saturation. Even so, there were moments of lucidity. On the Now they are attempting a legislative response. Sunday night, when the gunman was still at large, Richard As the community returns to its normal clutter of Flanagan, a Tasmanian, responded by lamenting an understand competing interests, as John Howard wades into industrial ing of society 'as only an aggregate of consuming individuals.' reform, trimming the economy, shedding jobs from the public Later in the week, Andrew Bolt wrote in Melbourne's Herald service, deporting asylum seekers and rethinking land rights, Sun that 'we not only mourn the dead, we fear the living. In new gun laws may be at least one thing to remind us of the doing that we risk contributing to the next such disaster.' Both resilience of an Australian community. Bolt and Flanagan are asking what a tragedy like this says about the state of Australian community. Michael McGirr SJ is the consulting editor of Eurel 6 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 In the holding paddock I HN HEwsoN, OE coURSE, had Fight they would be tomorrow (a current Canberra definition of an back!. It was even better documented optimist is a public servant who irons five shirts on Sunday than the famous Program of Gough Whitlam-an answer for night) have battened down in discretionary spending. Even their everything and a timetable for achieving it. 'We spent so much departments, desperate to save on running costs, are not order time working out what we were going to do once we got into ing routine supplies. Morale in many departments is at rock government that we forgot that we had to get into government bottom. Private sector service industries, particularly in law, first', a disillusioned Hewson fan once remarked. accounting, computers and communications, are shedding staff This had a spooky effect on the Howard team. Everyone because of the collapse in demand. was a little bit self-conscious about planning a transition. Even Yet Canberra will survive. It stands to lose about one in the policies-carefully sculptured to offend no one-were four of the jobs which must, it is said, be shed-perhaps 3000 deliberately vague and fuzzy about the edges. Labor could by the end of the epidemic. But the Canberra economy is not as scream there was a secret hooked on growth as it was agenda-probably Fight during the last great exodus back! itself; Howard could A current Canberra definition of an optimist in 1976-when, on top of suavely promise that he is a public servant who irons five shirts about the same cuts in num meant no such thing. Bar a bers, about 6000 people in few specific commit on Sunday night the building industry lost ments-in industrial rela jobs as well. Today the build tions, and the Telstra-environment nexus-there would be ing industry is only about 2000 strong, and demand should sop hardly any changes at all. Certainly nothing that would hurt. up the housing supply by about Christmas. The biggest prob Now no-one could pretend that Howard's massive victory lem is uncertainty. By August, when the scope of the changes did not give his government a mandate to do something more becomes clear, most Canberra public servants will than simply preside over the economy and tidy up industrial breathe a sigh of relief and be out with the credit cards relations. But he must also be highly thankful that he discov again. ered the great 'black hole'-a well-known repository for spent atoms and items of unspeakable denseness-to give everyone L E BIG IMPACT OF THE cuTs will be in regional towns or cities the impression of a post-electoral flurry of purposeful activity. which will suddenly lose, say, 30 families when a CES office The real question is whether he has much of an agenda at all. closes, plus the services which were provided and the value of And, if he has, whether he has yet much of a program for achiev the children in the local schools and the wages cheques at the ing it. supermarket counter. Universities will be hard hit-some small The black hole-whether a product of Labor overspending er ones, such as the Catholic University in NSW, will not sur or changing economic activity-certainly helped galvanise the vive the cuts at all. public service. But in a service which has been the subject of To what purpose is not yet clear. Even senior and general pretty tight expenditure review for several decades, there are in ly sensible public servants believe darkly that there is a secret any event few easy options without highly conscious changes agenda involved. I have my doubts. The zeal for cost-cutting, to policies and programs-in the goods and services which gov and natural tendency to silliness by some of the parvenus such ermnent actually delivers to the citizens. Once the impression as Amanda Vanstone, betrays more an obsession with the bot gets abroad that one might actually be sacked, however, ideas tom line than a desire to have their departments or programs come more readily, even if the political costs in reduced services go anywhere in particular. Certainly if they have agendas, they are clear enough. are not articulating them. In some respects it started off well. Only a handful of min Just where John Howard wants the public administration isters-such as Alexander Downer, Peter Reith, Richard Alston and Australia to be is not at all clear. He seized the moment and Peter Costello-were given responsibilities they had previ well with Port Arthur and deserves some credit for stitching ously shadowed in opposition. Although the department of up the deals before the moment had passed. And since then, he Finance was relatively early in setting a broad agenda of cuts, it has flicked, if with some effort, a number of revolts from his was not, initially, being very prescriptive about how they might own backbench, not least from the northern and western rumps be achieved. Rather there were statements of the kind: 'Your who tend to twitch reflexively when Aborigines or guns are department has to cut $1.5 million (Education Employment and mentioned. Training, and Social Security) or $1 billion (Health) and let us But the real sport will come from hitting sixes off the know how you mean to do it.' Opposition. Whether Labor will disappear into the black hole For several months, however, most public servants have is not so clear-particularly if Howard's double dissolution been in a blind panic and the Canberra economy has been in strategy involves a horror budget in August. • free-fall. The housing market, already desultory, has almost vanished for want of buyers. Public servants, unsure of where Jack Waterford is the editor of the Canberra Times. VoLUME 6 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 7 LETTERS invincible) legion is a white kepi. Wrong way, Eureka Street welcomes letters Having thus declared my P.C. from its readers. Short letters are Wren-inspired affection and admira go back more likely to be published, and tion for the nation that all decent Aus all letters may be edited. Letters tralians are supposed to loathe, I would From Elizabeth Bleby must be signed, and should also like to respond to a letter and a An article entitled 'Push to build more include a contact phone number critical essay in the May edition that, jails' (Adelaide Advertiser, 16 March and the writer's name and address. in different ways, reflect on national 1996) made worrying reading, but has If submitting by e-mail, a contact ism, imperialism and their artistic apparently raised little comment. It phone number must be included. effluvia. said, in part:'The number of prisoners John Ganlan (Letters, p8) takes Address: [email protected] .au in metropolitan jails could double by Juliette Hughes to task for lamenting the year 2000 and, on present calcula that Sense and Sensibility (Emma tions, the State's prison population Thompson's screenplay) departs from overall is expected to more than dou the plot of Sense and Sensibility (Jane ble by 2010.' Austen's novel). Hughes' complaint, It went on to say that the govern Gartlan says, 'is as shallow as ment is negotiating for the construc / ~ condemning one of Shakespeare's tion of another jail, and that this historical plays because Shakespeare 'would probably ... be privately built gets his history wrong.' and run.' Why should we suppose it shallow There is nothing in the article to to condemn Shakespeare's history say what information is behind the plays on such groundsl In the same projected figures. This in itself is a edition of Eureka Street, John worry, together with the apparent funds to the successful Keeping Fami Carmody (Opera, pp42-44) reviles the complacent acceptance that this will lies Together program are being dras racist spirit of Wagner's operas while be so. The South Australian Govern tically reduced at the end of this conceding that the composer wrote ment is cutting welfare services. The financial year. 'gloriously inspirational music'; simi well-respected Para Districts Counsel What sort of reasoning encourages larly, it is possible to judge that ling Service has already closed. And the social and economic costs of crime Shakespeare put gloriously inspira and punishment? It is much m ore tional verse at the service of low propa cost-effective to resource good welfare ganda, and that the quality of the verse services than to build more jails, and does not re deem the propaganda. The it shows far more respect for human hero of his second tetralogy, Henry V worth. This seems not to be a factor of England, was in fact a priggish, sanc in our government's reasoning. What timonious, rapacious, imperialist thug. does seem to attract it is the prospect Would we find a play or film prais of profit-driven correctional institu ing, say, Hitler or Pol Pot, less repel tions. Whose profit/ Apart from the lent if it were devised by a writer of morality of making a profit out of any geniusl On the contrary, I suspect we social wrongs, the profit goes to the would judge it even more harshly. overseas companies who are winning Consider Leni Riefenstahl's vile the tenders for private prisons. Triumph of the Will: the fact that There do not seem to be any strong Riefenstahl is such a good filmmaker voices of protest. Must we just accept is part of what makes it stomach-turn the apparent prevailing reasoning that ing. And so it should be with Henry V, if it makes money it has to be good? for with it Shakespeare did for the Even jails? Lancastrian-Tudor ascendancy what Elizabeth Bleby Riefenstahl did for the Nazis with Millswood, SA Triumph of the Will and Olympia. Whatever the merits of A truth universally Thompson's adaptation of Austen's novel, there is nothing shallow about acknowledged making an ethical evaluation of a work of art. Jane Austen, whose art consisted From Ray Cassin precisely in a subtle tracing of the line The compiler of 'Product of the aments of the ethical life, understood Month' (Eureka Street, May 1996, plO) that very well. opines that 'they can't be making Ray Cassin legionnaires the way they used to. ' In Moonee Ponds,VIC deed they can't, if the object pictured Editor's note: The kepi came from a is meant to be a Foreign Legion kepi. catalogue of military toys and memo The shape is right, I grant you, but the rabilia we received as a byproduct of Female prisoners in Brixton, 1862. From The Oxford colour is not. The official headgear of an inadvertent subscription to Read History of Prisons (see Megan Gressor's review p. 38}. the immortal (I wish I could say ers' Digest. They leaves the · off l 8 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 others who disagree with him. such a momentous issue could appro (7) Celibacy and the Magisterium priately be raised and put on the agenda. are not 'genuine and characteristically (Cf. the English-Welsh National Confer Christian'. ence of Priests' recent establishment of (8) The solution to this whole, gen a committee to study the issue of celi eral problem is to be found in: bacy from all angles, as reported in The (a) the pressure currently exerted Tablet, 16.9.95). by many ex-priests; PS is so exaggerated and vague that This month, (b) many of the laity and clergy it does not deserve comment, except courtesy of Penguin Books, hanging in there; to say that if the Church does not serve the writer of each letter we (c) us 'rediscovering the real nature the needs of either the laity or the publish will receive of priestly and ministerial leadership'. clergy, then why, it must reasonably two of the Let us now examine these propo be asked, are so many of their lives so Penguin 60s Classics sitions, one by one. influenced by it? P1 is a truism, but the author over When one considers the extensive looks the fact that the sam e crimes achievem ents of the present Pope, P6 have been committed, and are being is clearly mean-spirited and unjust reported, by married clergy from other far more vindictive itself than John denominations and religions. Paul's alleged treatment of some theo Point counter P2, in the absence of evidence, can logians. easily allow alternative interpretations P7 is clearly an historically fa lse point to do, e.g., with complex Christian statement. beliefs about judgement, charity, the P8(a) is an assertion that many From R.F. Holt interests of the victims, etc., (The 'in would contest. Indeed, rather than re When reading my March edition of stitution' has, of course recently con futing celibacy such ex-priests are in Eureka Street I was disturbed by the ceded that its strategy was wrong in terpreted by many as having acted in quality of Paul Collins' article, 'Com the past, but this is not the same as the most appropriate m anner when ing Clean'. Paul Collins' argument, in conceding conspiratorial motives) . they found they could not live up to essence, is as follows: P3 is a charge of such gravity that, their vows. 8( b) is too vague to com ( 1) Recently, sexual crimes by clearly, the reliability of Sipe's esti m ent on and (c) naively assumes that Catholic priests and brothers against mate needs to be questioned, as does 'real' is meaningful. children and adults have been promi the author's simple extrapolation to Paul Collins, finally, makes much nently reported in the m edia. Australia. Also, it strikes one as odd of the virtues of the free m edia; what (2) The Church as an institution - even devious - that such a huge, a pity that in both our everyday expe has 'cosseted these child molesters' destructive charge is only made as a rience of the m edia and also in his because keeping such scandals secret kind of aside, as if it were not worth article so little responsibility accom enhances its power. commenting on, as though its only sig panies that freedom. (3) Another related power- enhanc nificance were the fact that it rein R.F. Holt ing area of sexual secrecy concerns the forces the notion of 'secrecy'. Ashmore, Queensland non-observance of celibacy by priests; P4 makes a bald assertion that, in an American author, Sipe, maintains the absence of any evidence, might or Paul Collins replies: that 60% of priests in the US do not might not be the case. Worse, it assumes The reductio ad absurdum is an lead celibate lives and the same 'is that some sort of public debate (hosted, argumentative device well known to probably true of Australia'. by any chance, by Phillip Adams1?) is priests trained in the very useful scho (4) A 'public appraisal' of priestly the proper mechanism for changing a lastic logic common in pre-Vatican II celibacy would conclude that celibacy tradition that is sixteen centuries old. seminaries. R.F. Holt has either not should be optional but the Vatican will Surely, one could expect from the author heard of the reductio, or is deliberately not allow this, nor will it allow theolo far less vague suggestions about how engaging in it. He turns Coming Clean gians to express support for optionality. into a series of simplistic and incom (5) Therefore, the ins titutional plete statements which he then con Church is 'dysfunctional', it is racked Counselling veniently proceeds to demolish. by the disease of 'narcissistic clerical If you or someone you know Since he has so inaccurately sum ism' and rotten to the core, serving the could benefit from marised the article I have no intention needs of neither the laity nor the reli of arguing the specific issues raised in gious; this 'dysfunctionality' is like the professional counselling, his letter. Rather I would prefer to 'dysfunctional family' which is artifi please phone Martin make som e substantiating comments cially held together through fa lse loy Prescott, BSW, MSW, on Coming Clean. alty to an abusive, bullying father. MAASW, clinical member Firstly, the history of celibacy: the (6) In fact, the present Pope is this of the Association of assertion of John Barich (Letter, Eureka abusive father personified; he is try Street May 1996), drawing on Roman ing to impose his personal theological Catholic Psychotherapists. Chiolj's book Clerical Celibacy in East agenda, he lacks 'connection with the Individuals, couples and and West, that celibacy has a doctri mainstream of the Catholic tradition families catered for: nal base that can be traced back to the of theology and ministry' and he is vin Bentleigh (03) 9557 2595 apostles, would not be accepted by any dictive towards some theologians, and informed historian of the period. V oLUME 6 N uMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 9 Talking points The history of clerical celibacy is extrapolated to other developed coun From a speech, Saint Catherine And The Emperor well established. In the New Testa tries- like Australia. Penguins, by Toby O'Connor, National Director, m ent it was seen by Saint Paul basi Thirdly, I have spent a lot of time Australian Catholic Social Welfare Commission: cally as a gift given to a few, including working on the pontificate of Pope The Church h as both th e righ t and th e duty to himself, but he stresses that 'about John Paul II, and have two books on participate in the p u blic forum on issues of social remaining celibate I have no directions the theology and history of the papacy importance. The Australian Catholic Bishops are aware from the Lord ' (I Corinthians 7:25). being published over the next 12 of current debate about the righ t of ch urches to enter There were calls for compulsory celi months. In the light of that work I bacy for the clergy from local (mainly would argue strongly that he is an the public arena on social policy issu es. Cardinal Clancy Western) synods from the fourth cen extraordinarily powerful pope and that addressed this matter in his presidential address to the tury onward. The motiva tion for these his clearly articulated agenda has recent meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops thus: calls was founded on fears of the stymied the renewal of the church as The Church does not have a political program, but that notion of ritual impurity (the fear that it struggles to face the key ethical, does not mean that her mission will never touch the a priest may have had intercourse with theological and spiritual issues that political process; and it do es not mean that Christians his menstruating wife before celebrat arise from our culture and the process should put aside their faith when they become political ing the eucharist), and in the latter part of the contemporary ministry. ly involved. The making of public policy is not some of the first millenium of the danger of alienating church property by passing abstract game, but something that affects actual human it on from priest father to priest son. lives. Christians in a democracy do not merely have a While ritual impurity is found in the Not bad boys right to participate in that process, they have a duty to Hebrew Scriptures, it is basically a do so. Their faith and what it tells them about justice pagan notion based on the fear of dia From G. Kearney and human rights, about compassion, truth and love, can bolical pollution of the menses. I am writing in response to Paul and should inform their political activity. That does not However, celibacy was not univer Rodan's letter (Eurel 10 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 Right on target These are times for journalism to ABC on the grounds that it was there. used0 to '"'""pre-emptive m Mm>A strikes. 'oun Less "' state its role with confidence, and In this current period of media flux, common are pre-emptive defences. then to try to fulfil it. Let it con nothing is self-evident. One of those seems necessary right sciously differentiate itself from So, some arguments for main now if we are to maintain the Aus those who merely barrack, coo and taining the public broadcaster in tralian Broadcasting Corporation in amuse. health: public ownership. I do not believe this more spa 1. Scarcity, while ending, has not In this multi-channel era, covet cious conception of journalism can ended yet. The concentration of ous eyes are being cast over its audi be delivered by market alone. The ownership and control of the media, ence, program library, facilities and national broadcaster must be main which inhibits the journalism I en goodwill. Unloved by politicians tained in public ownership as a sepa visage, remains. The introduction of because they fund it but usually can rate vessel for the carriage of pay TV has not ameliorated it and in not control it, the ABC must be con journalism. Not because the ABC is some respects has made it worse. We sidered a prime candidate for full or necessarily better than commercial cannot expect scarcity to turn to partial pri va tis a tion. media, but because it is different. plenty, and to lower the barriers to My argument for the ABC is based Not because this will guarantee entry, for some time. on the narrow ground that public that my touching conception of jour 2. New commercial entrants are broadcasters are critical to the health nalism will be realised. But because unlikely to have a paying audience of journalism. I hope others will de it will or an advertising base sufficient to velop other aspects of the case. support the kind of journalism I have As media evolved, from the press outlined. through to cyberspace, they have 3. The non-commercial culture always been vessels for journal of the ABC by itself favours the ism, but each medium affected its chances of better, or at least differ journalism differently. Reading, ent, journalism. Being commer listening and watching are dif cial does not inevitably prevent ferent experiences. Methods and the best journalism, but it can costs of entry into media differ, inhibit it. The combination of as do the funding bases of each both commercial and non-com- medium. One consequence has mercial media cultures been the struggle of journalism to improves the chances of a bet be independent: of owners, of ad ter net result. vertisers, and of governments. 4. The large size of a media But what is that independence vessel like the ABC can help its for? journalism because: it can face down It is to assist the practice of jour threats of costly litigation, or with nalism conceived as something big increase t h e stand it when it ensues; its disclo ger than propaganda, entertainment chances that it will be approached. sures go wider, so its impact does and advertising. Of course all three And it will pull against the opposite too; its separate institutional iden are inevitable, but they are not suffi trend that currently prevails. tity makes it less vulnerable to gov cient. Pre-emptive defenders must ernment pressure, if the ABC's The 'something bigger' is jour anticipate the cry that the onus is on leadership is deft. nalism as: the ABC to show why, in the era of 5. The ABC is free and universal, A sentry who watches and warns; selling assets and shrinking govern contributing to equity at a time when a guide who searches, maps and ex ment, it should not be privatised and the gap is growing between those plains; a scribe who listens and sent away to seek and serve niche with access to the raw material of records; a witness with courage to markets. the Information Age (and of demo speak; a host to debates amongst Defenders should accept the chal cratic life) and tho e without. others; an advocate for the weak; a lenge, because the climate is vastly 6. The cultural role of the ABC is keeper of the collective memory. different from earlier times. Rem em- unique. I suppose it sounds idealistic or ber when the then Communications 7. The ABC is a public institu quaint or old-fashioned. I don't apolo Minister, Gareth Evans, tried to ini tion that still works, while others, gise. Especially in Victoria, we live tiate debate about the future of the including parliaments, falter or in a time when some of the formerly ABC in 1988? Yes, I'm sure the mo metamorphose into private ones. • settled elements of the Australian tives were mixed, but in hindsight brand of democracy are being shaken. that was an opportunity, not just a Pa ul Chadwick is the Victorian In Lillian Hellman's language, it is a threat. Then, people seemed to rest coordinator of the Communications 'scoundrel time'. their case that we should keep the Law Centre. VOLUME 6 NUMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 11 VIEWPOINT BRIAN TOOHEY This change may be no holiday E CONOM 12 EUREKA STREET • JuN E 1996 Industrial revolution M AY 1969o the "c VoLUME 6 NuMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 13 is on these two issues that the legislation is being government-and particularly Prime Minister most fiercely contested. Already it appears that unions Howard-has been at pains to stress that no worker will dig in for what could become a long fight, partic would be any worse off in the new regime. ularly for the right to represent those in the so-called Industrial Relations Minister, Peter Reith reiter greenfield sites who have never had union ated that these reforms were not about declaring war membership, and which many see as crucial on the union movement, but about more efficient and This system is to the union movement's survival. But before versatile workplace relations. If unions are to be dis predicated on the legislation can be passed, the government advantaged, Reith argues, it is because their role in must negotiate its passage through the Senate. the old industrial relations system has obstructed notions of trust. The Democrats present the main obstacle greater efficiency and versatility. (and should continue to do so, given that the 'You had everybody in the union, you had prefer Trust on the part of coalition are unlikely to have the vote of ence clauses and compulsory unionism, where em the government in Tasmanian Green Dr Bob Brown when he ployer organisations had responsibility for certain comes into the Senate next month), with Sen sectors of the economy,' Reith observes. 'It was all the ability of ator Cheryl Kernot protesting loudest over the mapped out and there was a place for everything and employer and reduced role the Act allows for the Industrial everything in its place. Relations Commission. 'But that whole idea has broken down with the employee to come Indication enough of what is at stake in external pressures on the Australian econo this dispute is the zealous language employed my and the need to be more efficient.' to agreements by those party to it, each desperate to prose without the lytise public opinion. The Government justi I PLACE OF NEGOTIATED FEDERAL awards bargained for fies the changes with the libertarian notions by the relevant unions and employer groups and vetted intervention of a of the right of the worker to negotiate his or by the Industrial Relations Commission, there will her own wages and conditions, and the prin be individual Australian Workplace Agreements union. Trust on the ciple of freedom of association. Unions argue negotiated between employers and employees with part of the that the reforms represent the dismantling of out input from a union or reference to the IRC. Unions a system which has existed since the 1907 will only be able to enter into negotiations where they employees that the Harvester judgment. The Democrats, true to have been invited by the workers and the employer boss will do the their credo, believe that Australian industri to help strike a certified agreement. With certain al relations cannot operate fairly without an specified exceptions, the IRC will only have power to right thing by them. independent umpire. But at the heart of the arbitrate in relation to 18 core award conditions. The dispute between unions and the government legislation will allow individual agreements to is the question of what represents the mo t supersede federal awards through the use of the cor- \SEE -1 GET LONG€VIf'r', porations power. AND HAVE cV€1<.'( PUASJI 14 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 proportion of workers who belong to a union has in restricted to unions who have been invited by two or the last decade seen its sharpest decline since the more workers on site. The expanding service and 1930s. Unionists now represent only a quarter of those clerical sectors represent a challenge to the union employed in the private sector. Outside of the min movement with their extremely low rates of unioni ing, manufacturing, construction and waterfront sec sation. Many shops and offices would be without a tors, where a strong presence has been maintained, union member. Even if unions get around the access the decline leaves the union movement ill-equipped restrictions, they still have to be invited by the to answer Laurie Carmichael's clarion call. employer to the bargaining table. Add to that the In May, the NSW Labor Council released the find removal of the 'conveniently belong' and 'preference' ings of a poll conducted amongst some 1200 Austral restrictions and it will be difficult enough for the un ians-both union members and not-in which a ion movement to keep hold of the members they do variety of questions were asked to gauge their appre have, let alone expand membership. ciation of unions. The results showed some encour However, amongst all the rancour in the union aging signs: 67 per cent believed movement over the Workplace Australia would be worse off Relations Bill, there is recog without unions, and 54 per cent nition that changes to the rules of young people would rather be covering organisation could be in a union than not. However of some benefit. The sam e only 43 per cent of respondents provisions that will allow en thought unions were looking terprise unions to emerge after their members effectively, will also permit unions and, significantly blue-collar that have been amalga 'Certainly those workers were more dissatisfied mated with larger un than white-collar workers. ions to disamalgamate stronger sectors The Labor Council secre from their host. As well can negotiate good tary, Peter Sams, says that the as acknowledging that intention of the poll was to unions were not seen to outcomes, but shake people up so that unions deliver better wages would develop recruitment ·- - __ _. F during the Accord era, they could do that strategies accordingly, irrespec - ·-' - - some unionists con in any system. tive of what was happening in Hi=i\{DS: (JFf cede that the superun Canberra. But the prospect of :r HE. ions did not respond to What we have to the Howard Government's leg their members' needs. do as unions is islation gives added urgency. u~ \0~1 ~- Such reforms could 'No matter what the legis help unions to get back recognise that the lation says, we would have had a continuing prob in touch. But in the meantime, the majority of lem,' Sams suggests, 'though some have argued that Australian workers will enter into individual vast bulk of people the current hostile environment will make it a little contracts with no thought of union represen out there who easier to recruit.' tation, and only a select minority will bargain The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union collectively. can't negotiate secretary-elect, Doug Cameron, is one of those who It is this select minority that Dr Steve from a position of sees opportunity to re-energise the union movement Dowrick, senior fellow in economics at the in the change of government. While he believes that ANU's Research School of Social Sciences, strength have blaming the Accord and 13 years of Labor in power believes will fare best under the Reith reforms. for the decline in membership is too simplistic, He argues that there are two main strategies traditionally relied Cameron does recognise that workers may set greater to achieve wage harmony in the workplace. on the unions to store in belonging to a union under a coalition gov One is the high regulation that we had with ernment: the accord process. The other is to deregulate, do that for them.' 'I'd rather we didn't have this legislation,' he says, push unions out of the picture, and have 'but it does represent a challenge to workers' wages everyone on individual contracts along the -Peter Sams, and conditions and this is where the union movement lines of the New Zealand model. With the Secretary of the comes in. Howard Government moving in this direction, 'It is difficult to get to those new areas of low he argues that it will not be possible to remove New South Wales union membership but steps are being taken to address unions entirely from the process of wage bar Labor Council. that.' gaining. As a result, Dowrick predicts a mixed Even if workers feel a greater need to join a union industrial relations system with its winners now than they did under Labor, provisions of the and losers: Workplace Relations Bill will inhibit moves to 'By trying to m ove in that direction, but not increase union membership. Right of entry will be managing to achieve full decentralisation and full VOLUME 6 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 15 competition in the labour market, you end up with a half Howard's promise that no worker will be worse off. And way house of a partially decentralised system. to ensure this is the case, the IRC will concentrate on guar 'You've still got unions who are major players and they anteeing that these conditions are maintained: still have enough allegiance in the workforce for the work 'We are changing the role of the Commission, that's ers to have them negotiate wage outcomes on their behalf, true,' he says, 'so that it focuses on the lowly paid, so that and those unions are not held together by the collective we have a proper and fair set of minimums for those lower responsibility of the accord process. The experience of the in the labour market in terms of their pay. past is that those are exactly the conditions that are ripe 'In that sense we're strengthening it and giving it a for inflationary wage rises.' more modern and up-to-date role for the future. ' 'There are going to be a lot of losers,' Dowrick argues. The legislation will also establish the Office of Em 'Groups of workers will be less well set up, less well ployment Advocate, which for administrative purposes will protected in bargaining on their own, particularly when be placed in the Department of Industrial Relations. It will you think of part-time workers, women, immigrants, and police the individual workplace agreements. The intention workers in vulnerable sectors of the economy.' is that this body will wear a number of hats: it will act as Peter Sams agrees with Dowrick, despite recognising an umpire, ensuring agreements comply with regulations; that, in some cases, individual contracts are more appro as an advisor to both employer and employee, and a type priate than collective outcomes. It is where there is an of union for non-unionists by assisting workers to prose unequal bargaining position that problems will occur. He cute breaches if appropriate. This, Reith assures us, will points to the US experience as an indication of the direc provide the environment for employers and tion the new legislation would take us: employees to enter into contracts in good faith. 'Recent survey material indicated that unionised work ers on average received 3 7 per cent higher pay than non U P UNTlL THE lNTRODUCTION of the bill, the union move union workers and yet union membership continues to ment had, for the most part, been cautious in its comments. decline. ACTU President, Jennie George, bracketed her rejection 'You 'd have to argue that a person would join a union of the Government's intentions to shift industrial relations if they thought they were going to get higher wages, but in away from collective bargaining to individual contracts, fact that doesn't happen. There's a whole regulatory proc by recognising the coalition's mandate to make the chang ess in the United States which is anti collective bargaining. es. However, when aspects of the legislation were released 'Certainly those stronger sectors can negotiate good prior to the tabling of the Workplace Relations Bill, she outcomes, but they could do that in any system. What we came out of her corner swinging. On the Thursday before the tabling, the Financial Review published de tails of the legislation. On the following Sunday, appearing on Channel Seven's Face to Face, George raised the prospect of a challenge in the High Court. She was disgruntled with the prospect of junior wages for the young and restricted access to workplaces, but it was the use of the corpora tions power to enable the Australian Workplace Agreements plan which drew most of her ire. The individual contracts will allow state awards to over-ride the federal system. Her foreshadowing of a High Court challenge has received the sup port of unionists from both the right and left. But it will be some time before the legisla tion has its day in court. First will have to come the bargaining in the Senate. On the day of its in troduction, the Senate referred the Bill to a com mittee sight unseen. In the interim, there is the stand-off between unions and the government on the waterfront. have to do as unions is recognise that the vast bulk of peo The Maritime Union of Australia was, at the time of ple out there who can't negotiate from a position of strength writing, preparing for the passage of the Shipping Grants have traditionally relied on the unions to do that for them.' Bill-legislation which would withdraw assistance to Peter Reith doesn't agree that workers without union Australian shipping. The Government also intends to end coverage will be disadvantaged under the new system. He cabotage-the system that reserves coastal and trans-Tas argues that the establishment of 18 core conditions which man trade to ships registered here, and manned by locals. relate to relevant awards-covering matters such as casual All this, according to the union, will result in the intro rates, annual and sick leave and equal pay for equal work duction of flag of convenience ships and an attendant de without discrimination based on sex-will deliver John terioration in standards. 16 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 The Maritime Union is posi tioning itself to mount an indus trial campaign against these reforms. MUA's industrial officer, Tony Morison, recognises that changes to industrial relations would hamper the campaign : A FEW WEERS A!a~ ~~oe~y:~:~~ce~~~o~~~~anual dJew atten6on 'If you look at cabotage, it [the to a wonderful new feature: Grammar Check. So, of course, I couldn't resist clicking the legislation] has the significant appropriate icon after finishing an 800-word book review. The results were not encouraging. potential for emasculating our un Grammar Check told me that I was much too fond of long sentences, the passive voice, ion's capacity to have an influence ungrammatical structures and gender-specific expressions. Gloom and despair. Then it on safety standards around the occurred to me to find out how the following would rate. place and maintain wages.' Significantly, the MUA has It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be recently agreed a strategic alliance in want of a wife. with both the AMWU and However little known the feelings and views of such a man may be on his first entering a CFMEU. It could well be that neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is reform of the waterfront will result considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters. in secondary boycotts around the 'My dear Mr Bennet,' said his lady to him one day, 'have you heard that Netherfield Park is let country before Parliament has at last?' passed the Workplace Relations Mr Bennet replied that he had not. Bill. Potentially the legislation, 'But it is,' returned she; 'for Mrs Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.' which would make secondary boy Mr Bennet made no answer. cotts illegal, could come into 'Do you not want to know who has taken it?' cried his wife impatiently. operation while such disputes are 'You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.' in train. Tony Morison sees break This was invitation enough. ing the Maritime Union as a prior Grammar Check found this much more acceptable: it scored 79.5 out of 100 for 'reada ity of the Howard Government: bility', whereas my piece came in at a disappointing 52. 7. Furthermore, you need to be in 'The coalition's real mission grades 10-12 of the US education system to understand my book review, whereas it seems here is to break unions. They think that grades 6 to 8 would find little difficulty with the other wtiter. Nevertheless, the pro they're going to do it by breaking gram suggested certain improvements, most of which could be put in place by simply click the Maritime Union first. But we ing the mouse. Here is the emended version: will come through here no matter what goes on.' It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single person in possession of a good fortune must While the attention of the be in want of a spouse. nation will be taken up by negoti People may know little about the feelings and views of such a person on hi arrival in the ations and conflicts as the strong neighbourhood. Nevertheless, the surrounding families believe this to be o true that they con er unions band together to defend ider him the rightful property of someone or other of their daughters. their patch, the non-unionised 'My dear Mr. Bennet,' said his person to him one day, 'have you heard that Netherfield Park is masses will quietly look on and let at last?' usher in the core of the Reith Mr Bennet replied that he had not. reforms. It is these people-clerks, 'But it is,' returned she; 'for Mrs Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.' shop assistants and shift work Mr Bennet made no answer. ers-who will be the operative 'Do you not want to know who has taken it?' cried his spouse impatiently. cogs of the new industrial relations 'You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.' system, not national institutions This was invitation enough. and large, structurally supported Who is to say that this does not represent an obvious improvement, even at the cost of organisations. a decline in 'readability' of almost four points to 75.6? It may be a quiet revolution As an afterthought, I decided to try this: but its ripple effects could change the Australian workplace forever. This is Peter. This is Jane. This is Spot the dog. This is the garden. Peter and Jane are playing in If unions want a stake in the the garden. Peter throws a ball to Spot. 'Run Spot, run,' says Jane. 'Run Spot, run,' says Peter. future, they will have to find a way Spot can't find the ball. 'Find the ball, Spot,' says Jane. 'Find the ball, Spot,' says Peter. Spot finds to recruit those who until now the ball. have had difficulty finding good The result? A score of 100 for 'readability', though the program insisted that one of the cause to belong. • sentences should be recast as 'Peter and Jane is playing in the garden'. • Jon Greenaway is assistant editor Andrew Riemer, computer correspondent for June, is also one of Eureka Street's Sydney of Eureka Street. consulting editors. His most recent book is The Demidenko Debate. VoLUME 6 NuMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 17 T HE W ORLD K ERRY M URPHY & MATHIAS HENG Burmese bind Burma, December / C Hcc,', SAw ANNOUNCeD. 'It will be check Over 90,000 refugees live in camps along the 1995. Forced labour mate in 3 moves'. He predicted accurately. 'You made Thai-Burma border. The camps are built like tradi is used in the no strategic moves'. tional villages. There is room for people to grow crops construction of I had not played chess in some years, so was not in and keep animals, such as chickens and pigs. Some roads, buildings practice for my two games with the Karenni deputy camps have schools attached, usually from kinder and airfields. Minister of Education in a refugee camp on the Thai garten through to year 10. There is nothing available Burma border. The Karenni are an ethnic minority in for students after year 10. Recently there were attacks Photograph: Burma seeking independence from the Burmese mil on some camps on the border (as a result local au Mathias Heng itary government, known as SLORC-the State Law thorities often force the refugees to move their camps) and Order Restoration Council. The camp is about so there is little stability in the life of these refugees. three hours' drive in a pick-up from Mae Hong Son, One refugee camp in the Mae Hong Son area in in northern Thailand, through jungle and rivers. northern Thailand was turned into a tourist attraction 18 EUREKA STREET • Ju NE 1996 by the authorities, who brought in some of the Fa of democratic government. SLORC oppresses minor dang (the long-necked women), for the tourists. In ity groups in Burma in a variety of ways. Numerous town, the tours advertise visits to a refugee camp to human rights abuses have been reported by Amnesty 'see the long-necked women'. Loss of dignity International and the US-based human rights group, is another burden for refugees. Human Rights Watch-Asia. Forced labour is a common problem. Refugees on H owEVER, THE ATTRACTION the region holds for the the border have experienced SLORC troops entering West extends beyond tourism. The presence of mul their village and forcibly taking people to work on tinationals within Burma's borders has become the road-building or as porters for the military. The roads focus of recent protest by human rights groups, who will aid the establishment of a gas pipeline across have been encouraging the boycott of companies that Burma into Thailand. Total and Unocal are develop do business with SLORC. Levi Strauss closed down ing the pipeline for SLORC but this is achieved their production in Burma following consumer pres through the use of forced labour. Some people Refugees on the sure in the US. Pepsi recently announced that they escape this form of slavery and live in the refu will reduce their role in a bottling plant in Rangoon. gee camps in Thailand. Their stories are of tor border have Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Companion in the ture and abuse of people, especially of women, Order of Australia, Aung San Suu Kyi, supports such by the military. experienced protest even though it will affect the livelihood of Another threat comes from landmines. people inside Burma. Her argument is that the need Landmines are used by SLORC and some of the SLORC troops to change the rule of SLORC and to end human rights ethnic groups fighting SLORC. Reports from the abuses is a higher priority than the need for econom border indicate that civilians are used not only entering their ic development of Burma. This approach is supported as forced porters for the military but also in by ethnic minority groups as well, especially where mine clearance. Injured civilians are unlikely village and it concerns overseas aid.The Burmese critics of to receive medical treatment and there are re SLORC claim that if overseas aid were given to the ports of the execution of injured civilians. Vil forcibly taking military government, SLORC would use the fact to lage livestock are also destroyed by landmines. claim legitimacy from the West. The aid that they do SLORC will seek compensation from a village people to work on encourage is aid across the border to the refugee com for the loss of a mine when livestock are killed munities. This, they argue, is essential for survival. by it. There is no equivalent compensation from road-building or Aid provided through SLORC is reduced because the SLORC for the loss of village and fam- Burmese government takes a percentage of aid for their ily livestock due to mines. as porters for the own purposes. The largest item of expenditure in the military. SLORC budget is for the military. sLORC LA vs MINES but, for security reasons, Recent Burmese history has yielded little peace does not advise the villagers where they are laid Total and Unocal for its 45 million people. In 1988 there were student because mines are also used by the ethnic protests for democracy in Burma, but SLORC arrest opposition and SLORC does not trust the loy are developing the ed democratic leaders and crushed the student move alty of villagers. When a SLORC vehicle is de ment. Many students fled to the jungles to take up stroyed by a mine, or ambushed, SLORC forces pipeline for arms. Some are still fighting. Democratic elections nearby villages to pay them compensation. were held in Burma in 1990 and were won by the They send conscripted porters in front of their SLORC but this National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung military columns, like sacrificial canaries. In Sang Suu Kyi. Although the NLD won the elections, areas where roads are being built for the mili is achieved the military refused to hand over power. SLORC held tary, the civilians are again the innocent vic Suu Kyi under house arrest from 1989 to 1995, when tims. Village ox carts or SLORC trucks are through the use of she was released following international pressure. Her forced to load up with rocks and children and continued public criticism of the military regime puts drive along a road. If a mine detonates, the vil forced labour. her at risk of renewed arrest. Currently there is a con lage is blamed and forced to pay compensation. stitutional proposal that candidates for election must Villages are forced to relocate and houses are have lived in Burma for a substantial period of time. destroyed if they fail to pay. This would render Suu Kyi, who lived in the UK for The Thai authorities are trying to balance sever some years (her husband is English) ineligible for elec al competing factors in dealing with SLORC and the tion. refugees. SLORC has a powerful army which Thai Within Burma, there are a substantial number of land does not wish to antagonise. There are econom ethnic minority groups, some of whom are seeking ic factors, like trade, and the pipeline which Thailand independence, while others are willing to accept a wants for its own development. Logging is common federation within Burma. The civil wars have been along the border and provides another valuable trad ongoing since Burmese independence in 1948. ing commodity. But Thailand has traditionally al The common aim of the ethnic minorities is the lowed the refugees sanctuary within its borders removal of the military regime and the establishment despite not being a signatory to the international V oLUME 6 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 19 conventions relating to refugees. Although the camps working illegally in Thailand. Once arrested, the are not the best possible, the Thais allow some inter women are detained and then deported. There are few, national Non Government Organisation assistance for if any, people able to help people with HIV I AIDS once the provision of food and health services. they are back in Burma or on the border. These competing factors can create conflicting There are many young people in the camps. policies. Earlier this year, the Man people were told Isolation does not dull their enthusiams. Talking with they would be required to return to their traditional the Karenni Prime Minister, I heard the latest record lands inside Burma. The Man have lived in camps in ing of the Irish Rock band,The Cranberries, playing southern Thailand for some years and were irregularly in the background from another hut. Above: a blind Karen forced to move their camps by the Thai authorities. My chess has still not improved but, reflecting refugee who lives alone Although the Man indicated they were afraid to re on my visit, I realised that I can afford to lose at chess in a makeshift wooden turn to Burma for fear of SLORC, they felt they had and make no strategic moves. The refugees have no hut. no option and the repatriation will go ahead. such luxury when dealing with the military Govern- Far left: A Karen The treatment of malaria is a major health need ment in Burma. Their moves and decisions must be villager chopping wood in the camps. A growing problem is that of HIV I AIDS strategic in order for them to survive. • for daily use. is another, particularly for young women who are forced into prostitution in Thailand. Some women are Kerry Murphy is a lawyer and coordinator of the work Photographs, both sold into prostitution there, others becom e involved of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Australia, based at taken in December because of the poverty of their families. The risk of UNIYA, the Jesuit Social Justice Centre in 1995, by Mathias Heng. infection is high and they also face possible arrest for Kings Cross, Sydney. VoLUME 6 NuMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 21 IN MEMORIAM MorRA RAYNER Tell me who you are You don't stop fighting for justice simply because those around you don 't like it. You keep on fighting. -Rob Riley, 1995 0 N MAY DAY, 1996 Rob He toured the country pro The only work he got after Riley hanged himself in a Perth moting the concept of ATSIC, saw that was with an Aboriginal cen motel room. Sixteen days later he a pale shadow of his vision falter tre at Manguri-what used to be was buried by his people in the and crumble under internal bick Sister Kate's, where he uncovered land of his ancestors, but in a white ering and, finally, a new paternal evidence of what happened to the man's cernetery. ism. He was an adviser to then black children of WA's establish He never had a medal or a Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Gerry ment families. The irony was not permanent public service job. You Hand. He headed the Aboriginal lost upon him. won't find his name in Who's Who, Issues unit of the Royal Commis Rob Riley was a generous man though most Aboriginals and just sion into Aboriginal Deaths in with a wicked sense of humour about every WA public servant, Custody, dealing daily for three and a quick and lively wit. Because politician, journalist and cab years with the grief of the bereaved he was such an effective media driver knew who he was, and many families. He was to observe, with voice for Aboriginal people he of Perth's rednecks had offered to some bitterness, every Australian regularly received death threats. kill him. government's ignoring of its rec Because h e could not change Rob Riley was one of the ommendations. More than 30 of Australian society, even by play 'homies' from Sister Kate's, an the dea ths in custody the Commis ing according to the white man's institution for the stolen children, sion investigated came from West rules, he was regularly and bitterly raised with love and good inten ern Australia. Now, six years after criticised by his own community. tions, but as orphans by white cot the Commission reported, Aborig Perhaps his greatest shame, tage parents and the Presbyterian inal people are more grossly over one which should never have been Church. He found out, at twelve, represented in that State's prisons caused, came from the police that he did have an Aboriginal than when the Inquiry began, and media unit's release-to Perth family and that they loved him. He jailed at 35 times the national commercial TV stations-of an went to live with them in the average, while both the Coalition official video of his angrily resist slums of East Perth and on the government and ALP opposition ing his second arrest. He may have Pingelly reserve. vie for votes with 'tough on crime' felt that he had lost all moral Rob Riley became an activist. rhetoric. authority and purpose, After three years in the Army he His last full-time position was along with his position. became deeply involved in Aborig as head of theWA Aboriginal Legal inal politics, finally chairing the Service, but its Aboriginal manage T HE SAME TV STATIONS inexpli National Aboriginal Conference ment committee sacked him last cably learned of his death that May the 'toy parliament'-when he October, after he was first convict Day afternoon, hours before police wasn't yet 30. Bob Hawke scrapped ed of drunk driving then, 3 months made contact with his family. the Conference in 1982. later, dabbed in then arrested for On his personal dies irae Rob Riley exhausted himself in driving without a licence. The first Riley didn't go home to his wife the long negotiations for Aborigi conviction came a few days after and their three teenage daughters, nal land rights, which saw the then he disclosed that, as an 8-year-old, because his marriage had paid for WA Opposition leader, soon-to-be he had been gang-raped by three his pursuit of justice. Life ended Premier, Brian Burke, commit his teenagers while he was in Sister for him a few days after the last government to land rights legisla Kate's. The second came when Port Arthur slaughter-not the tion-then welsh-and the post someone rang the police when he greatest mass killing in Tasmania Mabo native title legislation fail to drove after dark to an Aboriginal or in the memory of the Aborigi deliver a single acre to his people. family in need. nal people-one week after WA's 22 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 latest death in custody and a week before he was to give his evidence to the Human Rights and Equal L HNowcv ~ro !rr~L~L~G ~ar?. s 112~ll ~Fc~ ese The former is Opportunity Commission's Stolen grounded in practical research and produces inanimate systems and devices; the latter is Generations Inquiry. grounded in ideas and philosophy and produces ways of managing human affairs. Nowa Rob Riley had been treated for days the two are often forced together. anxiety and depression: he had Take the establishment of cable-TV in Australia. What has emerged looks lil V oLUME 6 N uMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 23 THE CHURCH & THE FOURTH ESTATE Media and church institutions have more in common than they will usually admit. Edmund Campion and Chris McGilJion, who l:cnow both worlds ins1de out, detail the history and trode secrets. 0 Net u'oN A T•M t tht dud JOb of tht 'Piti t hi' wti tm wmktd fot nothing, h>ppy from the universities. By the beginning of religious affairs roundsmen of the daily to engage in the venture that with The the 1950s, university chaplaincies were reso papers was to cover the Sunday sermons. Observer was changing the face of Austral- nating with the insights of Joseph Cardijn, Their big day was Monday, when the papers ian journalism. Look at the Australian press whose Jocist movement became the key lay would carry columns and columns of before and after the fortnightlies and you element on 20th century Catholicism. In sermons. Each Sunday, on his way out to will notice immediately how successful they part this enthusiasm for Cardijn grew in open a church or school, Archbishop Duhig were in their objective. They opened public opposition to B.A.Santamaria, whose inter of Brisbane would drop his speech in to the life to fresh ideas and more robust debate; est lay in colonising the university in the Courier-Mail, where it would appear the they were sceptical in their assessments of service of extraneous objectives. It is a next morning. That was a long time ago. the would-be great; and they had pretty, melancholy fact that Santamaria, the most Once upon a time Catholic writers were irreverent wit. significant Catholic layman in Australian deferential to bishops. Episcopal words and Both fortnightlies were interested in history, has never succeeded in nurturing pictures dominated the church press; and religion. As his first three volumes of auto- intellectuals or independent writers. Why the opinions of bishops were treated with biography and other books made plain, this should be so, is an open question. By the respect elsewhere reserved for Saint Donald Horne was a textbook secular contrast, the Jocist-s t yle chaplaincies Augustine. If laypeople had doubts about humanist, a child of Sir Henry Parkes and produced an abundance. Jocist movements the sagacity of their leaders, they kept these Sir George Higinbotham. Nevertheless, as a developed critical intelligences which, while thoughts private. Very occasionally-as in public intellectual he recognised the force rooted in Catholicism, were comfortable Christopher Brennan's grumble in his Cur- of the religious idea in Australian life; and with the liberal ethos of the universities. In riculum Vitae about Archbishop Michael he set out to explore it in a candid way. the chaplaincies undergraduates were Kelly's opacity-you might hear the voice Tom Fitzgerald, on the other hand, came formed to use their intellects as critical of the toad beneath the harrow. Most of the from a strong Catholic background. A regular tools at the service of both the gospel and time, however, loyalty to the church communicant (as he told Ken Inglis), with a the university. It was a servant, rather than encouraged a strict Sicilian observance of personal devotion to the face of Jesus, he a colonising, Catholicism; one which ener the code of omerta. Such subservience was took charge of the religious upbringing of gised the life of the mind, and so produced reinforced by a feeling that we Australian his younger brothers and sisters, who re- writers. A decade before the formal opening Catholics were living in an unfriendly soci- main observant, even fervent, Catholics. of the Second Vatican Council, here was the ety. With the Sydney Morning Herald and He read Catholic newspapers and was a Vatican II generation stirring to life in the Argus, to say nothing of the history founding m ember of the Austral- Australia. departments in the universities, ready and w ian Catholic Historical Society. The harbinger of change was an attrac willing to attack our church, we kept our tive university paper, Prospect. Produced by secrets to ourselves. EN HE MARRIED, his bride was a daily the circle which formed around Vincent In 1958 two remarkable fortnightly communicant. By the time he started Buckley, it appeared in 1958 and made an magazines appeared in the newsagents: The Nation, however, all that was in the past. By immediate mark. 'There is no contradiction Observer and Nation. Frank Packer had set then, in the objective canonical sense of the in being both Christian and intellectual,' up The Observer to engage the full talents of word, Tom Fitzgerald was an apostate. What- the first issue announced. Subsequent issues Donald Horne; and for a time it functioned ever the reasons for this, it did not abbrevi- made good on this claim by taking seriously under the umbrella of Packer's lowlife Week- ate his interest in the church- to the end of the questions of the day, that is, by not end, which Horne also edited. After three his life he liked to hear news of Catholic acting as if there were an easy solution to years The Observer m erged with The Bulle- scholarship, especially about that deep well, every problem- if only one could locate the Lin, when Packer bought that antique prop- John Henry N ewman-and he opened his relevant papal encyclical. Here was a paper erty for its real estate holdings. Nation was pages to anyone writing intelligently about which was neither clerical nor overtly different in kind. Its founder and editor, religion. Like Donald Horne, he thought it ecclesiastical; and yet it was manifestly Tom Fitzgerald, was a financial journalist bad journalism to ignore som ething of major Catholic. Outside their own ranks it at whose ambition was to start such a maga- concern to many Australians. tracted writers as diverse as A.D. Hope, Ian zine before he turned forty. His only asset When it came to religion, the two fort- Turner and Sam Lipski. Half-way through was a suburban home, which he mortgaged nightlies found a school of young writers its seven years' existence it printed a list of in order to bankroll his dream. In the sam e who had caught the new waves coming financial supporters; the names included 24 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 two archbishops (O'Brien and Young) but would remain under clerical scrutiny). in this State-that the Wood Royal also Donald Horne and Manning Clark. As •Paul Stenhouse's new-look Annals in its Commission has belatedly revealed, and the Prospect group found its feet on univer proactive period, which left the dead to bury the media has merely reported-can be dis sity questions they began to chance their the dead and jumped into the future. missed as so much 'bad press'). arm on church comment. They won their • Priest Forum, where relevant ideas got a Journalists live in a world of abbreviated colours first as lay intellectuals before speak free airing and the infant National Council English and symbolic representation. When ing in the household of the faith. Today of Priests found nourishment. it comes to Catholics, there is a short list of those early essays read like rehearsals for • Report, where you could find international about four types that they seek out. Vatican II. news that was missing in the diocesan press. The first is the official Catholic. This Ahead lay: •the sound of individual voices beginning one is distinguished by his (or her) title (a nd, •the grown-up Catholic Worker, which to speak from their own experience in in the visual media, by the clerical dress or would lose its timidity before minatory venerable magazines like Messenger of the other obvious message-laden props). The glares from the cathedral and trike out Sacred Heart and Madonna. more impressive the title, the greater the independent lines on church matters. •and church roundsmen who now did more credibility. So a cardinal outranks a priest, • the impact of the National Catholic than report the Sunday sermons: Ursula but a priest outranks a nun, and both out Reporter from the USA, whose free-for-all O'Connor on the Sydney Morning Herald, rank a lay person with a Catholic institu journalism was dynamite around the Mark Baker in the Age, and Graeme Williams tional background. The official Catholic is English-speaking world. in the Australian. meant to give the line on an issue- which •the opening up of the Letters pages in the 'Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive may be sought for the purpose of informing diocesan press to debate, especially Michael But to be yo ung was very heaven.' • the public or to set a context for further Costigan's Advocate, the opinion-maker of coverage/comment (a process often referred Australian Catholicism (for decades the Edmund Campion is Chair of the Literature to as 'the setup'). Letters page of Sydney's Catholic Weekly Fund of the Australia Council. The second type is the ratbag Catholic. What makes a ratbag is something said or done out of the ordinary. But what makes the media interested in a rat bag is the influ I 'vE OFTEN HEARD IT SAID that the model the ence he/she is imagined to be able to mus m edia u se for understanding religious ter. And so rank, title, uniform is important institutions is borrowed from political again in ranking. A cardinal makes a better reporting: we categorise key characters as ratbag than a priest .. . and so on. insiders or outsiders, as power holders or A ratbag is usually different-which is those who would take power from them . why the media are interested in them. That We look for dark motives behind peoples' may also mean controversial but it may actions, and we always suspect that we' re simply mean interesting or amusing. not being told the whole truth and that we The third type is the celebrity Catholic. (on behalf of our readers/ viewers/ listeners) HOOKER A celebrity Catholic is a public figure and have a right to know the whole truth. almost always a lay person. He or she doesn't There's some truth in all of this. But let's have to be particularly well informed or balance it with a refl ection on church mod PRIEST well briefed but must be well known and els for dealing with the media. If you want to NUN preferably well liked. The celebrity Catholic know what these are, ask yourself why you is usually required to be inspirational in a bother with the media at all. given context or to provide the 'colour' in a We could sort the answers to that ques particular story. Sometimes, of course, tion into two batches. The theme of the first celebrities misplace the script and can pro batch would run along these lines: we deal SLUR; duce their own share of controversy. with the secular mass media in order to get The last type is the expert or specialist the message across. The implicit assump than to conceive of it as also a community, who may or may not even be Catholic. This tion here is that the media can be a useful a tradition, and a body of teachings and is someone with a knowledge of, and feeling tool for evangelism. Disappointment and insights. These other dimensions only for, issues and nuances involving the church frustration often result when the m edia complicate the issue and can confound edi and, most importantly, an ability to com don't play along. tors in search of the story. municate an idea quickly, succinctly and in The econd batch would share the theme: It i easy for people in the church to view a fashion that will interest a broad audi we ignore the media at our peril because the the media as either unfulfilled potential or ence-not all of them by any means Catho less we know about them, the more they'll as enem y because then the failings are all on lics. Experts are prized, and almost as rare be able to do us over. The assumption here is the other side: imaginations don't have to as cardinals who are ratbags. • that the media are hostile. This is oft en the be stretched, responsibility can be off-loaded, stuff of self-fulfilling prophecies. and excuses can be found. (Only recently I Chris McGillion is the opinion page editor There are various reasons why each group read a report about NSW police criticising of the Sydney Morning Herald. hold to its model, but I suspect that the the media for undermining their public im Both articles were originally given as most compelling of them comes down to age and their morale: there is a feeling among addresses to the first Catholics in Media ease of habit. It is much easier for a reporter officers, it seems, that the culture of corrup Consultation, held in Sydney in March. to approach the church as an institution tion that the cops have allowed to develop The posters are from Eureka Street's hoa rd . VOLUME 6 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 25 ) E ACH YeAR, THC VAT,CAN occcA> 26 EUREKA STREET • JUNE 1996 way she led us. And I shall never forget the ordinariness; simply a Eucharist at which the cele brant was a woman. Nothing could convince me that Jesus was not present at that Eucharist. Nothing, after that, was likely to convince me that Jesus prohibited the ordination of women. In 1993, I decided that continuing to talk of changing structures, doing away with hierarchy, creating a society of equals was not enough. Rather, as Vaclav Havel learned in occupied Czech oslovakia, it is necessary to work for 'specific concrete things' and not indulge in 'vague ideolog ical debates'. And as MOW found in working for change in the Anglican Church, the ordination of women is such a 'specific concrete thing'. It is not thebe-all and end-all of changes needed. But it acts as a focus for many of the issues of equality or opportunity, justice, ministry, God and us. Moreover, the very passion with which the case against women's ordination is argued by the Vatican indicates to me at least that they understand its importance very well. F oR OVER TWENTY YEARS, the Vatican has been insisting, with increasing force, that it cannot ordain women. With concern over women's ordination growing after Vatican II, Pope Paul VI asked the congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to set out Catholic teaching on the issue. The Congregation produced its Declaration on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Min isterial Priesthood in 1976, in which the Congregation concluded that the church did not have the authority to ordain women. As this statement did not stop calls for women's ordination, in 1994 Pope John Paul II issued the apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to resolve uncertainty and to foster unity. He restated the Congregation's conclusion and declared that it was to be held 'defini tivel y' by all the faithful. Discussion and calls for women's ordination have continued, so, in late 1994, the congrega tion for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a responsum to a question, or dubium, in which they said that not only was this teaching part of the deposit of faith, but added that it was taught infallibly. The Vatican gives two main reasons for why it claims-with great force and determination that the church does not have the authority to ordain women. One is from scripture and one from tradition. On summary, the Vatican insists that the institution of an all-male priesthood is founded on the words and actions of Jesus recorded in the Gospels which, it claims, show that Jesus called a group of m en known as 'the twelve' to be the founders of an all-male priesthood. Moreover it believes that this interpretation is upheld by 2000 years of tradition. This reading of scripture is challenged by scholars on a number of grounds. For instance, the gospels do not record Jesus ordaining anyone, male or female, to the priesthood as it is understood today; the 'twelve' can be understood as representing a re-establishment of the twelve tribes of Israel as sign of the reign of God which Jesus proclaimed; nowhere in scripture are 'the twelve' seen as leading the Eucharist: and there is little evidence of their leadership after the resurrection. In fact, when the Vatican commissioned the Pontifical Biblical Commission to examine the ques tion, the Commission concluded (a conclusion ignored by the Congregation in writing its 1976 Declaration), as did the American Catholic Biblical Association in 1979 and the Catholic Biblical Association of Australia in 1995, that there is no biblical evidence to support the exclusion of women from the priesthood. The second argument used by the Vatican is that from tradition: the church has never ordained women and therefore never should. This conclusion too can be strongly challenged. The biblical evidence for women's leadership in early Christian communities, along with increasing historical evidence for women's ordained leadership on Christian communities over the first six centuries, makes the blanket statement that women have never been ordained difficult to substantiate. Moreover, women such as Ludmilla Javorova assert that she and other women were ordained in the clandestine church in post-war Czechoslovakia (The Tablet, November 1995). The official church responds to Javorova's claim of her ordination by insisting that since women cannot be ordained, any such ordination would have been not only illegal but invalid. Since women's ordination cannot happen, it has not happened, and therefore has never occurred. Around we go. E VEN 11' ALL ucH ORDINATIONS ARE IGNORED there still remains the question of the general atti tudes to women held by church leaders throughout the last 2000 years. The writings of notable Patristic churchmen are replete with descriptions of women as the 'devil's gateway' (Tertullian); as 'so inferior to men that the only reason for their creation was procreation' (Augustine), and as 'made in the image of man and not of God' (Ambrosiaster). In the Middle Ages, Aquinas' writings both encapsulated contemporary understandings and shaped Catholic teachings for the next eight centuries. The Supplement to the Summa Theologiae states that women cannot be ordained VOLUM E 6 NUMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 27 because 'women's state of subjection makes it impossible for the female sex to signify any emi nence of rank'. A 1957 seminary text book proclaims in like vein: 'The reason why a woman cannot receive holy orders is because the clerical state demands a certain superiority since it involves ruling the faithful, whereas a woman by her very nature is inferior to man and subject to him ... ' (Noldin 1957 vol III n465 31st ed, prepared by G Heinzel SJ). The Vatican today does not put forward this long-standing argument about the subordina tion of women to support its claim that women cannot be ordained. The climate has changed. Now the same conclusion (No to women's ordination) is being asserted but for different reasons. The Pope is not shy of making pronouncements on the nature of woman. In fact, like a man on an inner journey trying to make sense of women, he seem s driven to release statements on who and what we are. And his overall conclusions, which we are not invited to discuss with him, are that women are comple When the Vatican com1nissioned the Pontifical Biblical C01nmission m emary to men and here to help them . In his Papal letter to exmnine the question, the Con1n1ission concluded ... as did the of 1995, he thanks women for their ' dignity'; says the American Catholic Biblical Association in 1979 and the Catholic church wants to contribute to upholding women's civil Biblical Association of Australia in 1995, that there is no biblical rights; admires those who have fought for basic social, evidence to support the exclusion of women from the priesthood. economic and political rights even when that was consid- ered to be a sin; and deplores obstacles which prevent women from being fully integrated into civil life. He apologises if church members have, in the past, treated women unfairly; but makes no apology for today' s church and today's subordinations, and promises no restitution. He sees women not so much as human beings, but as beings fulfilling a series of 'roles'-the first and most important of which is that of mother. Women are made to give help to men. 'For in giving themselves to others each da y women fulfil their deepest vocation.' (Papal letter, June 29 1995) He stresses the complementary natures of men and women. There are good reasons for women to have a healthy suspicion of the notion of complementarity. Historically, complementarity has been invoked whenever social theories stress the equality of women and m en. For example, emphasis on the difference in male and female nature emerged after the Greek aristocratic period with the introduction of Athenian democracy, when State political and legal structures were excluding freeborn women from citizenship. C OMPLEMENTARITY BEC AME A POPULAR THEORY again in the eighteenth century, a time of powerful political moves for democracy and equality (of all men). It provided a solution to threats men felt to traditional power and privilege. The Pope's late 20th century brand of complementarity is used as a bulwark against demands from women from all over the world for equal participation in the church. The present Vatican tells women who we are, thanks us for our 'femininity', bids us take part in civil life, and then not only declares that women cannot be ordained but forbids us to discuss the very question. We cannot discuss it with the Vatican. Nor can we discuss it with the Australian Conference of Bishops, who replied to our request by stating that such a meeting would be quite inappropriate'; and that an essential factor in the whole question is the proper role and authority of the Pope' (letter to OCW from Fr W.J. Wright, Acting Secretary replying for Cardinal Clancy, October 10, 1995). Banning open discussion is a strange way to reach the truth. Particularly as, at the sam e time, the official church proclaims the rights of all people to free and open discussion of civil matters. This tension between what the official church encourages in civil society and secular press and what it fo rbids in Church and church publications is highlighted by the ordination question. A classic example of the force with which discussion is stifled occurred recently in Canberra. A Canadian delegation of the recent assembly of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organisa tions, had put forward a resolution that women's groups continue to debate women's ordination. On the opening da y of the assembly the Pro-Nuncio Archbishop Brambilla told the president general that the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano, insisted that the resolution was inadmissible. If it were not dropped, the Union would jeopardise its recognition by the Vatican as an official Catholic organisation. The resolution was withdrawn. 28 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 Although this caused great tension at the conference, the official Sydney archdiocesan paper the Catholic Weekly, which had previously declared that it would print no letters or discussion on women's ordination. ignored the incident. They excused this omission of any reference to something about which many Catholics were talking by referring both to their previous ban and to their Good News policy. W EN BISHOPS DECIDE THAT THEIR LOCAL PAPER will not print letters on an issue, the people of the church are officially prevented from taking part in public, in-house discussion. This banning of correspondence is an oppressive act and must be named as such. In addition, when the Catholic Weekly supports such a ban with the phrase 'The Catholic Weekly, as an archdiocesan newspa per reflecting the attitudes of the church ... ' (Catholic Weekly June 5 1994) it is clear that, at least in its view, the voice of the Vatican is the voice of the church. Cardinal Clancy seems clearly opposed to public discussion. After the recent use of the word 'infallibly', he was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald as insisting that if debate would not stop, then any further discussion should be limited to professional theologians writing in learned journals and not in the public press (SMH Dec 15). Such attempts by members of the hierarchy to block people expressing their thoughts ignores the fact that it is the laity who are principally concerned about this issue, and seems to assume that the laity have nothing of value to contribute to debate. Bishop Ullathorne's query 'Who are the laity?' received from John Henry Newman the sharp rejoinder 'the Church would look foolish without them'. It still would. One immediate effect of Catholic press bans is that groups such as OCW receive greatly increased publicity in the secular media. For this media coverage we are grateful, even while we remain cautious about how we and the issue are represented, not wishing either our cause or the wider church we love to becom e objects of ridicule. The rights of Catholics to discuss religious matters are included in the official documents of Vatican II (in Gaudium et Spes n62) , affirm ed by the A 195 7 sezninary LexL book proclaims: 'The reason 1971 Synod of Bishops which spoke of 'legitimate diversity why a woman cannot receive holy orders is because within the church' (para 41), and enshrined in the 1983 the clerical staLe den1ands a certain superiority since code of Canon Law (2 12,3) . Nevertheless, at present, what it involves ruling the faithful, whereas a W0111011 by can be discussed is severely limited to what fits the her very nature is inferior Lo znan and subject to hin1. ' present Vatican's definition of 'objective truth'. The present pontiff, when Archbishop of Krakow, insisted on freedom for polit ical dissidents to dissent. Under his pontificate, bishops have been stood down from their dioceses; theologians have been silenced and removed from their posts: editors of Catholic papers have been sacked by the Vatican. It is not surprising then, that most people employed by the Catholic church, bishops and journalists and teachers, are afraid to write or speak their minds. The Vatican insists that it alone knows the mind of God on questions that many committed Catholics see as outside the central credal deposit of faith. It is convinced, too, that it has the God-given authority to make rulings on these questions, without open discussion, for all people and for all time. Women, coeliacs, recovering alcoholics have all recently been barred from ordination. Divorced and remarried are barred from Eucharist. The emphasis is on excluding, on controlling. L aOFT EN T HE CHURCH JS PREA C HI NG a Gospel message of justice, equality, human rights and freedom of conscience, while at the same time equality, conscientious dissent and due process are being denied its own members. The double standard produces a serious problem of credibility. Over its 2000 year history, the official church has pronounced with authority, and often in error, on 'matters as global and major as official anti-Semitism, usury, the Inquisition, slavery, the nature of the universe, and meat on Fridays' (to use Joan Chittister's lovely list), so it is hard to believe that our concern for the full humanity of all people can be seen as an error of faith. By baptism women join the priesthood of all believers as priests, prophets and pastors. Those who feel impelled to work for the ordination of Catholic women are being called to live now, I believe, above all as prophets, to awaken the church to its present limitations. V o LUME 6 N uMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 29 It is the time for a Hannah speaking boldly in the Temple: the time for an Esther, determined to go to the king and speak-'eve n if it kills m e'; the time for the Syro- Phoenician woman, refusing to be silenced by the male disciples trying to protect Jesus from the troublesome woman. 'But', she said. 'But', we must keep saying. We must speak-and speak boldly. We are working to incorporate women into a nonhierar chical ministry of women and men, to create a church in which all are equally able to express their varied gifts. We have to confront the power and control of a hierarchy with its androcentric dualisms of clergy/ laity, of sacred/profane, of male/female which are used to hold women in subordination. It is a time to act. We must take strength from the courageous actions of our biblical foremothers; like the woman anointing Jesus before his death, going into the house where he was surrounded by those trying to drive her away, to carry out the political action of anointing him as king. We have to stand in the streets, stand outside our churches when m en are being ordained, stand outside when only male priests are celebrating their priesthood, stand up in spite of the insults that may be levelled, in spite of the hurt that may ensue. W NEED TO RECALL LEONARDO BoFF's woRDs: 'The new church, as in all renewal movements, first appears on the periphery. Given the power structure at the centre, the periphery is the only place where true creativity and freedom is possible.' Around the edges of the church, marginal people, resident aliens are creating new life. The Vatican may prohibit women from celebrating Eucharist in official church liturgies, but, as many of us have experienced, women gather in small circles to break bread together in memory of Jesus. And many women are leading whole communities in liturgical thanksgiving. Women have always brought and will contin ue to bring Christ into the world. No power on earth can stop this. I long for Christian ministries to be open to women and to men, to single, married, celibate, divorced; to people chosen from their communities for leadership regardless of sex, gender, race, or class; ordained for life or for limited periods; for universal ministry or for a small community: not just bishops, priests and deacons, but prophets, apostles, teachers, healers, workers of miracles, administrators, helpers. I long for a church which creates and celebrates whatever form of ministry liberates the whole community, a church in which all work together in true co-discipleship for the empowering reign of Sophia-God in our world. • Marie Louise Uhr is National Convenor, Ordination of Catholic Women. This is an edited text of an address given at University House, Canberra, on May 8, 1996. Challenge of Faith in Today's World Public lectures by Hofbauer Centre Guest Speaker Father Benedict J. Groeschel C.F.B. Internationally known Franciscan Priest at StMary's College, Melbourne University (Tin Alley) • Monday 8 July: Faith and Modern Psychology • Tuesday 9 July: When Life does not make any sense • Wednesday 10 July: Religous Experience and Private Revelations Commencing at 7.30 pm- Admission: $25.00 per lecture Father Benedict Groeschel: *D irector of the Office for Spiritual Development of the Archdiocese of New York *Director of the Trinity Retreat Centre for the Clergy of the Archdiocese of New York *Professor of Pastoral Psychology at Iona College, New York *Professor at St Joseph's Seminary of the Archdiocese of New York *The Founder of the Community of Franciscan Friars of Renewal, following the Capuchin Tradition Advance bookings can be made by mailing cheques to the Hofbau er Centre Lecture Secretary, 93 A lma Rd, East St Kilda 3182. P lease include your name, address and phone number and which lecture or lectures you wish to attend. SP ECIAL DISCOUNT: 3 LECTURES FOR $60 30 EUREKA STREET • J UNE 1996 P o ETRY Christopher Brennan (1870-1932) Modern Times He spoke German, Th e bombs which have abraded flu ently, and French. a Sarajevo summer One he got by study, spell out the failure the other from an inclination to drink of our species to learn absinthe, like the poets who were always writing an ything from history, among the cafes and the bottles and the crowds of women. a sk errick from scien ce or a whit from high morality. How do they doW He liked women, though they seemed a little too German, W e've squirmed out to be at times, invading the domain of writing neither a jot and buggering up his whispered amatory French nor a tittle pacific, the way that a few too many drinks dry competition would ginger up but addle the study the name of the death. What will technology of his volumes of foreign verse. In the study bequeath to our faint he worked at a huge monument to women footling d escendants ~ for an hour or two, then had a drink. Ph ew! Like a good German Landmines in Cambodia . he had a method for everything, and like the Fren ch he wasted it on writing Chris Wallace-Crabbe poem s about fe eling like writing all through the night. His study lamp glowed out across the Quad. Famous French poets wrote to him, once or twice. Women Water from one end of Europe to the other admired his German manners. Ah, Heidelberg! Mu t be time for a drink Ah, but language feels to m e rather like the taste of water, Bacl< to the heatstnzck colonies. God, a drink a flavour frankly beyond all naming, would go down well, eh~ Those oafs writing it is so gen eral, clear and rea dy gibberish and hoping for a pass in German to flow out, Romantic literature, look at them, as though study filling our every need. were enough! What about in spiration ~ The women of Sydney are not really suited to modern French You cannot burn language or put paid to words in their glittering. poetry. And now Mallarme:s gone loony-too French, Smog may well smudge over us all if that were possible. One last drink until those waters rise again, In a sheep-farming province, young women pellucid, eloquent who wish to develop the discipline of writing and swirling should take up the study of German ... like a suite of beautiful drawings. It can drown you, too, He yearned to dream in Fren ch, but all h e h eard was German. th e taste becoming a gra ve He inclined to drink, and trudged through a torrent of study which is yet the root and wh en he reach ed for women, they became his writing. of every other sensation. John Tranter Chris Wallace-Crabb e. V OLUME 6 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 31 fiCTION WAYNE MACAULEY I HAVE MULCHED THE PATCH WHERE MY FATHER LIES BURIED I HAve MUCCHW me CATCH WHtR< MY 'AT""' ms wmo and hope to "ise anothe< in his likeness. He died ten years ago now-it has taken this long to put the idea into practice-and I would prob ably have put it off again this year but for the fact that I've missed him so badly of late. It is autumn, the leaves on the Liquidamber at the front gate are turning yellow; I live on my own in a tiny shack an hour or so out of town. They are extending the freeway soon so I'm told and the drive will then be cut by half; but that is no concern of mine, my car is on its last legs, I only drive to the shop and back and then only twice a week; soon I'll go nowhere, certainly not to town; my lungs are bad, the city stinks, I want no m ore of that. I'll leave the mulch to rot through winter, dig it in in early spring, by Christmas I should see the results of m y work. The patch is down by the back fence, near the sprawling blackberry bushes; I've cleared them a little to stop them interfering with my father's remains, but not too much, I like to pick the fruit when it ripens-they fall into your hand like jewels-and I've even baked a pie or two and turned them into jam. When I cleared the weeds before mulching it I found the remnants of the cross I'd made, two sticks and a piece of rotting tring, and the old jam jar that held the first season's flowers. I worked with my shirt off, carrying grass clippings and leaves, and never doubted the wisdom of my plan. It's piled high now, rich, moist and earth-smelling, a foot thick at least; if you bend down low you can almost hear the first cells breaking down and sinking into the soil. I wonder should I add a handful of lime?-but I dare not ask m y nurseryman lest he ask m e what for and think m e a lunatic when I tell him. I've lived with that, it wouldn't be the first time, I'm a lunatic all right, and people are entitled to consider me as such. If I hadn't come up here I'd be locked away by now; god knows what the papers would have said. I didn't read them then, haven't read them since, accept the title of lunatic with equanimity and do what I can now to live the part. On fine mornings I sit and shoot birds with my pistol. They ga ther at the feed box I made; all kinds of birds, big and small, dull and brilliant, they don't mind me, they are almost tame, I have only to pick off one of their number and five minutes later they are all back again. I don't know where the bodies go, I never move them myself; I go inside for lunch and when I come out later the lawn is clean save for a feather or two and a tiny drop of blood. Life is a conundrum, you can't 32 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 escape it. At first I thought it was the cat, but I've discounted that theory now. No, what happens is thi : the bird falls from the tree and mulches the ground and while I eat my lunch a new bird flies up from the spot, a replica of the first, to take its place at the feed box with the others. And it was this small and in the end perhaps imbecilic discovery that first turned my thoughts in a new way to my father and his patch. I remember little of the death. To be honest I don't understand the concept and never really have. One nurse took a shine to me though, I remember that, though for the life of me I can't understand why; she only ever aw me in my white cap and gown and I must have looked ridiculous. But I could tell by her mile and her friendly questions that, even dressed as I was like an idiot, there was something about me that impressed her. Perhaps it was my manner, for I was strange even then-though not quite lunatic-and could often be found wandering the corridors reading the paper while Death as they say hurried ahead of me like a shadow, dropping in on various wards and whisking the tired souls away. I read the sports page mostly, and occasionally the comics; the great events on the front page all but passed me by. There was something about Israel, or was it Lebanon? I can't remember. Peacefully in the night was the way they put it, and I still enjoy the expression even now. I'll often lie awake in my bed while the earth sighs softly beneath me and the black sky rolls around like a languid whale and say it over in a whisper to myself: peace '"r fully in the night, peacefully in the night. Apparently they were telling me he was dead . .1. HE REST WAS ALL TOO EASY . The coffin was open for viewing; the last members of the immediate family had left the chapel weeping; three grey-suited men stood off to one side, hands cupping their genitals, waiting for me to go. I looked over the edge of the coffin into my father's bloodless face. They'd parted his hair on the wrong side, I don't know why, it was parted on the side he'd always parted it on the last time I'd seen him alive, when the nurse in question had led me in I could almost say by the hand. One of the three men coughed lightly and another shuffled his feet. Another said softly leaning forward that I should really leave the chapel now as too long spent with the departed would only do more harm than good. I said they'd parted his hair on the wrong side and he apologised with a blush. I said I was not used to death and he said he understood. Then with the upper hand I asked him could I stay a little longer alone with my father and might I close the coffin lid? There was of course some dispute about this, it not being formal practice, but eventually he relented, took a screwdriver from his companion, handed it to me, and all three then bowed and left. I drove out west with the sun in my face, my father strapped into the passenger seat beside me; mile by mile the suburbs thinned and gave way to burnt-brown paddocks. Huge steel pylons marched beside us. Dead gums dropped their branches as we passed. Cows looked up, their jaws frozen sideways. Starlings escaped from the fences. For hours I drove, I wasn't sure where, a vague half remembered map in my head, until, somewhere far from the city, I turned off the highway onto a narrow dirt road. Behind me the car threw up great clouds of dust, enormous and eerie, billowing in the fading light. I saw a track between two huge pines and fo llowed it for a mile until I came to a gate. In the high-beam of the headlights I could just make out the shape of a small broken-down shack and some cleared land beyond. I took a shovel from the boot and walked down into the dark. I told my mother I'd taken my father and she seemed to understand. I was standing in a phone box in the middle of the night a few days later and only had one more coin. You're a funny one, she said. I had to laugh. Then I wept. A crescent moon against an ink-black sky. She said don't worry love, it's all right, you do what you have to do. I told her I had to own the earth where my father now lay or the thing wouldn't be complete, that he wasn't dead but merely resting, that I must stand vigil until he wakes again, that he will need slippers, a newspaper, cold beer and tablets. Don't worry love, she said, I'll see what I can do. The red light flashed and the phone went dead. I must have looked strange out there in the dark, sitting on a con crete-slab floor in a box of white light, my head in my hands, weeping. The documents were sent care of the local post office and I took possession of the shack soon after from the uncle in town who'd forgotten he owned it and didn't need it anyway, since he had, so he said, two more by the beach as well. It is August, the last of the winter rains are falling outside. I sit by the fire and toast bread on a fork. The fridge is stacked with beer, soon my father and I will drink it cold from frosty glasses as we sit on the veranda watching sunsets and dawns. Down by the back fence, where the first buds are already forming on the blackberry bushes, something warm, alive and thirsty is stirring in the earth. • Wayne Macauley was the 1995 winner of the Melbourne Age short story competition. VoLUME 6 N uMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 33 B OOKS L INCOLN W RIGHT Money matters The Future of Capitalbm, Lester Thurow, Allen &. Um\ 111, NSW, 1996. I'll 1 xoHH 1ox o 1')(1' S29 9::, FOREIGN POLICY ANALYSTS around ism: a combination of policy flex- the world have been trying to map a ibility with a strong affection for the NewWorldOrdereversinceFrancis material powers of American capi- Fu kuyamawrappeduptheColdWar talism. T h urow has a similar with the End of History and the m indset. omnipresent triumph of liberal capi- To Thurow's credit as a political talism. Will China be the new glo- econom ist, he characterises the prob- bal power? Will Japan break away lem of first-world nations in ceo- from the United States< Can West- nomicandpoliticalterms.Dcclining ern Europe cope with Eastern Eu- real wages and increasing inequality rope) What will replace containment are unacceptable in democratic as America's main security strat- societies that still have economic cgy1 A re-evaluation of national eco- growth. T he reader is dazzled with nomic competitiveness has also startling facts about real wage de- occurred as a result of th e security cline in the US and increases in debate. wealth inequality over the last two Internationally, Japan's eco- decadesorso,andalsothattherehas nomic superpower status, the emer- Lester Thurow been no growth in European em- gencc of Chinese capitalism, the ployment levels for 25 years. prosperity of the Asian Tigers and positivism of the standard non-fie- Between 1973 and 1993, for exam- the vitality of a German-led Europe tion economic thrillers. ple, real average median earnings for have watered down US economic Yet Thurow is not what the Aus- males in the US fell by 11 per cent, clout. Domestically, this has been tralian poli tical world would describe with the reductions becoming larger reflected in high American budget as a 'wet' or a 'left-wing intervcn- for lower income earners. Real wages deficits, 7 million unemployed, and tionist'. Far from it. His writings arc fell by nearly a quarter for workers in a growing current account deficit. littered with positive references to the lowest 20 per cent. And about 64 Moreover, there are now around 34 'hardnosed' capitalist calculations per cent of all the gains in male earn- million unemployed in the OECD about costs and benefits and the logic ings during the 1980s went to the top nations. of the marketplace. And when he 1 per cent. By the turn of the century, In an attempt to increase eco- does make the case for government Thurow estimates that American nomic growth, Western govern- assistance, mainly in the form of workers will earn what their pred- ments have embraced global trade, expenditure on education, infrastruc- ecessors did in the early tighter budgets, deregulation and a ture, and research and development, w 1950s in real terms. rollback of the social welfare state. it is defensive and excessively at pains This is the free market alternative to combat the anti-state arguments EALT tt t'\ C()UALITY has also re - t hat has dominated Western advanced by conservative econo- turned to levels not seen since the bureaucracies since the late 1970s. mists. 1920s. In the early 1990s, the share A more pragmatic solution, en com- Lester Thurow belongs to the of wealth of the top 1 per cent of the passing both Left and Right, has same generation as some of the key population- about 40 per cent- was been to advocate a degree of state economic officials in President nearly double wl1<1t it had been in intervention in the economy- on Clinton's Administration, namely the mid-1970s. What has kept the equity and productivity grounds. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, and male American worker going is that In his latest work, The Future of Chairman of the National Economic women have entered the workforce Capi talism , MIT's Professor Lester Council Laura Tyson. to supplement household income- Thurow has attempted to chart this They are pragmatic thinkers who but the downward trend continues. new global economic order by sid- know the world has changed and have The backdrop for this de eli ne is a ing with those who look to govern- responded by writing unorthodox world where both technology and ment for the keys to successful economic books about the New Glo- ideology have changed. Transport business competition. He does this bal Economic Order. Unlike their and telecommunications have stylishly and in a cosmopolitanfash- free m<1rket opponents, their think- revolutionised business relations and ion, quite removed from the banal ing is characterised by a certain dual- led to the decline of the Keynesi<111 34 EUREKA STREET • }u c 1996 national econom y an d effective top of the species list because they T o fund these investments, systems of regulation. Waning US were better adapted to a system of governments must cut back budge t global power no longer unifies the 'punctuated equilibrium'. deficits that reduce the level of global capitalist system, leading to Just as dinosaurs are thought to national saving, a fa miliar argument ethnic rivalry and genocide, have been ill-a dapted to the clouds to Australians aware of the Howard and regional-power rivalry. of deadly sulphur gas that saturated governmen t's aim to cut $8 billion the atmosphere after a comet hit the fro m the federal budget. At more C OMPARATIVEADVA TAGE is dead. earth, so seekers after econ omic than 15 per cent of GDP in the mid- Global m arkets m ean anything can wealth in the postCold War world 1970s, the OECD savings rate is now be produced anywhere, and coun must learn the new conditions of at 7 per cent of GDP, a situation tries once reliant on relative superi prosperity. brought about by lower public saving, orities in their supply of labour or Thurow agrees with John consumer credit and the high spend capital, mineral deposits or agricul Maynard Keynes that capitalism is ing rates of the elderly. This has tural fecundity, fi nd their situation not a self-regulating m echanism: crowded out the opportunity fo r pro challenged. T hrough fac tor price 'Wh en capitalism 's n ormal du ctive i nvestment-a standard equalisation, the vast supplies of decision-m aking processes are used, fiscal argument. cheap, well-educatedlabourfrom the ca pitalism never looks more than 8 Where Thurow differs from the old communist world and immigra to 10 years in the future and usually Howard government's thinking is tion have put downward pressure on looks only 3 to 4 years ahead. Capi that he believes the private sector first-world wages. Trade and skill talism desperately needs what its will not take up the extra savings intensive shifts in technology have own internal logic says it does not released by budget cuts to invest in added to this. have to do.' brainpower industries. Why? Because In a global economy, what counts Unlike Keynes, Thurow does not the market's time-horizons are is the national willpower to create believe a return to prosperity can be skewed too much to the short run to competitive advantage and an ener achieved using government expendi ensure the right level of investment getic elite to pursue it. Thurow ture financed with budget deficits. in skill-creation. makes use of a philosophy of history Since the late 1970s, strong growth Thurow does not spell it out, but to describe the forces behind eco has been deliberately stymied by behind his ideas is the strong drum- nomic change, which he sees stem anti-inflationary fiscal poli- ming from the interaction of cies and tight money. Fiscal technology and ideology. It is a phi and monetary policy alone MY GoD- You M£AN losophy that mixes biological with cannot generate the develop- A W{PtRf'oL£ Pfl..\VE;N geological metaphors on the assum p ment of industries in biotech Rf C. C.SSION ? tion that economic laws are hidden nology, robotics, software, or ../ and slow, but decisive and objective. aircraft-all the areas Japan's Ideology and technology are compa Ministry for International rable to the geological concept of the Trade and Industry nominated I 'magma', which drives the ' tectonic as the ones of the 21st cen- plates' that move slowly but gener tury. ate enormous natural wonders such Instead, structural incen as volcanic eruptions. tives need to be put in place to The crisis of the Mexican peso in create new skills and to nurture 1995 is an example of such an erup new industries where really tion in the social world. The run on durable wealth lies. The policy the peso originated not merely in the problem of the 1990s, then, is day-to-day decision-m aking of Me xi the relation between the skills can policym akers or N ew York mu required to run the brainpower tual funds m anagers, but in the long industries of the future, the drip of global structural change costs of developing these skills brought about by shifts in the tec and how the system must be tonic plates. changed to do this. bea t of the Japan Model of state The tectonic plates of our own 'In an era of manmade brainpower guided economic growth, and even time are the end of communism, the industries,' Thurow argues,' capital the example Germany has set in what vast and competitive wealth offered ism is going to need some very long he labels the 'Rhine Model' of eco by brainpower industries, the gen run communal investments in nomic m anagement. The problem is eral ageing of the population, global research and development, educa even if the US adopts a program of labour and capital markets, and the tion, and infrastructure. skills-creation and strategic indus end of American dominan ce. The 'Knowledge has become the only trial targeting, who is to say other situation of first-worl d economies is source of long- run sustainable com countries will not fo llow ? In a global likened to that of the dinosaurs be petitive advantage, bu t knowledge system even this type of political fore their extinction. T he end of the can only be employed throu gh the knowledge about economic organi dinosaurs left the mammals at the skills of individuals'. sation becom es globalised. VoLUME 6 N uMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 35 BooKs: 2 M EGAN GRESSOR The Future of Capitalism also harks back to the traditional values John Howard feels comfortable with, like hard work, saving to invest, and individual discipline-but with greater understanding of how 'ideol ogy' fits into the wealth-creation Penal process. This is nicely shown in Thurow's call for a new ideology to 'excite' the populace, to legitimise government expenditure and to create a motivated and disciplined workforce. During the Cold War, infrastruc turpitude tural and educational investments were made in America with cleverly disguised legislation like the GI Bill, the National Defence Highway Act and the National Defence Education Act. In the name of defending the W ,~"ON? ie the pmvoe> Th~ Oxford Hi,tory of T h~ West from the Soviets, these acts of tive question posed by the editors of Prison, Norval Morris .md state intervention stimulated this book. When you come to think DJvid J Rothnun icds I, e mployment and increased the about it, it's a pre tty peculiar Oxton! Univcr~Itv Press, Jl)l)() number of PhDs in science and engi institution. 'No matter how empa lSI\'-' (). J<) :-.0()1 ')):; R~l' S.N l)') neering. Thurow argues that we need thetic one may be to the reformers' more state intervention, justified impulse to find a substitute for gar with the need to deal with a growing with a new 'builders' ideology. rotting the condemned, the funda army of vagrants, saw the rise of the Yet the call for a new ideology of mental question still remains: why bridewell, or house of correction. work seems a little fanciful and invent a system ofincarceration, why Bridewells were distinguished by preppy-something to impress a substitute confinement in segregated their purpose of reclamation as well graduate seminar at MIT, perhaps, spaces and design a routine of bell as punishment, due to the influence but to cause only a few laughs on ringing punctuality and steady la of England's most influential re Wall Street or the at the Treasury. bour1' writes editor David Rothman. former, John Howard, whose 1777 Surely such ideologies are not in 'Why channel the impulse to do good book The State of The Prisons in vented in any direct sense by state into something as strange as the England And Wales pushed prisons officials, academics or popular think prison, a system that, over 150 years to centre stage at the expense of ers. They are historical and unique. later, can still prompt an inmate to more traditional punishments. His Thurow himself believes we al want to meet the man who dreamed proposals that criminals be classi ready know the right policies to turn it all up, convinced he must have fied according to their crimes, kept back inequality. What we need is an been born on Mars? ' in cells and put to work under strict 'awareness' of a crisis situation. What The prison system has been go discipline resonate to the present is absent from his analysis is just why, ing for such a short time? That's clay. Yet despite his best efforts (and as he admits, the major political par right-far from being a constant, the those of Quakers William Allen and ties in the US are doing nothing to notion of imprisonment as punish Elizabeth Fry to abolish physical address the real economic problems. ment per se (as opposed to a staging punishment in favour of saving His own philosophy of history post for those awaiting sentencing, felons' souls), change came slowly. accepts the role of politics in the execution or transportation) is a rela Well into the 19th century, trans economy. Economic policies are not tively new one. While incarceration portation was still seen as a cheaper implemented on purely rational has been practised since Biblical alternative to building penitentia grounds alone or apart from consid times, punishment has historically ries, leading to the strangest episode erations of power. If the US fails to been more likely to take the form of in the entire history of confinement: provide the right incentives for execution [whether by garrotting or the convict colony. 'brainpower' industries, it might more exotic methods, such as pre 'Only once have convicts been have more to do with the impedi cipitation- being chucked from sent to found the society in which ments to effective state action by cliffs-or lapidation-stoning), they were to endure their punish powerful business interests than the torture, exile, slavery, ritual humili ment,' writes John Hirst, the sole enlightenment of in eli vidual citizens. ation, branding, whipping or fines, Australian contributor to The Ox Understanding that will require a to name but a few instances of the ford History Of The Prison. ' .. . It different book. rough justice meted out to malefac (Botany Bay) is a ociety without tors through the ages. parallel, a strange late flowering of Lincoln Wright is finance editor of But by the mid-18th century, the ancien regime in crime and pun the Canberra Times. more enlightened attitudes, together ishment.' And, according to his 36 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 Gaols are hellishly expensive an economically rational solution might be to offer offenders half the cost of imprisoning them as an incentive to stay on the straight and narrow. latter part of this cen tury has also seen a hard ening of attitudes towards convicts, par ticularly in the United States, a country with the second highest rate of imprisonment (after Russia) in the world. It has culminated in the most radically retro grade innovations in the history of penology: the private prison, embraced in recent years by sev eral Australian States despite the dubious mo rality of a system which deprives citizens of their liberty only to surren der responsibility for them to operators with a vested interest in in creasing rather than re ducing the prison populations; whose sole account, a strangely benign one. Con rule of law for all, imposed no raison d'etre-however efficiently victs, who comprised three-quarters disability on ex-convicts, and gave or humanely executed-is making of the colony's original population, them the opportunity for economic money out of warehousing human had legal rights denied to prisoners success through employ- beings. elsewhere; they could give evidence ment of convict labour.' All of which begs the question of in court, own possessions and sue to what should be the raison d'etre of protect them (the first civil case in FTER THE ABOLITION of trans imprisonment. Why prison indeed? A Above left: a nineteen New South Wales was brought portation, gaols became places apart, What is the point of banging people year-old inmate of against the master of a transport by increasingly remote from the public up with their chamberpots for years Stateville Correctional two convicts whose luggage was lost mind. They continued to evolve on end, as Rumpole would say? Center, a prison near en route to the colony!); they formed throughout the 19th and 20th centu Deterrence? While prison may deter Joliet, Illinois. the mainstay of the colony's police ries, with the creation of separate some from wrong-doing, it only The photograph was force and they were not confined, institutions catering for the crimi teaches others how to be more effec tal VOLUME 6 NUMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 37 while, but you've got to let them out locked up than to supervise their fascinating discursions, such as W. some time, and then what? (Although labours. 'The mood and temper of B. Carnochan's chapter on the writ to follow this idea of protecting soci the public in regard to the trea tment ings spawned by imprisonment, in ety to its logical conclusion, you'd of crime and criminals is one of the cluding Boethius' The Consolation never release anyone, even-or es most unfailing tests of the civilisa of Philosophy, Bunyan's Pilgrim's pecially- petty offenders such as tion of any country,' as Churchill Progress, D ostoevsky's Memoirs shoplifters who are demonstrably famously told the House of Com From the House of the Dead, Victor m ore likely to re-offend than, say, mons in 1910. So what does that say Hugo's Th e Last Da y Of A Con murderers.) Retribution ? Once about us? demned Man, Wilde's The Ballad Of Reading Gaol and De Profundis, Jacopo Timerman's Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number, and virtually every thing Genet wrote ... prompting the thought that prison re form will ulti mately be literature's loss. Eve n de Tocque ville's seminal De mocra cy in America was inspired by a tour of America n prisons, as was Charles Dick ens, who had this to say of incarceration Am erican -s t yle: ' I hold this slow and daily tampering with the m ys teries of the brain to be immeas urably worse than any torture of the body.' T HERE IS ALSO the Penology on the you've abandoned the Talionic con T his and other questions remain problem, as this roll call of writers Ta sm an Peninsula, cept of an eye for an eye, how do yo u unanswered by The Oxford Book of suggests, of imprisonment's role as a 1845: this narrow establish the equivalence of a Prisons, which (as it must, given the a means of social control and necl< of land burglary, rape or murder to nature of its subj ect) raises more suppession of dissent. While gaols connected the a stretch in stir? problems than it resolves. While house the worst, they have also been Peninsula to Van penal practices in South America, occupied by some of the best and Diem en's land. It A NO IT'S NOT JUST PRISONERS who the Middle East and China are m en brightest, including Thomas More, was guarded by a pay for their crimes; gaols are hell tioned in Aryeh N eier's chapter on Bertrand Russell, Gandhi, Martin line of dogs and ishly expensive, prompting the sus political prisoners, this volume by Luther King, Sakharov, Ho Chi Minh, illuminated at night picion that an economically rational and large confines itself to the West, Wei Jinsheng and Aung San Suu Kyi. by oil lamps. solution might be to offer offenders in particular Britain and the United Yet with all that they've got going half the cost of imprisoning them as States. The 13 scholars, m ostly against them, prisons are increas Lithograph by an incentive to stay on the straight American, who contributed its 14 ingly popular: 'The irony is that the C. Hutchins, after a and narrow (not that one wishes to chapters do not attempt to give a less effective the prisons are in s l< etch by Captain appeal to economic rationalism on comprehensive overview of the phi reducing crime, the higher the C.S. Hext, circa 1845. this issue, or we'll return, as the losophy of punishment as such, nor, demand for still more imprison (From fohn Hirst 's Yanks are doing, to the cheapest despite the title, is this a history ment,' writes co-editor Norval Mor chapter 'The option of all: capital punishment). proper. The concentration camp ris. Perhaps the question shouldn't Australian The obvious solution-m aking pris that m ost egregious example of m ass so much be why prisons, as what is Experience') oners work for their keep (or, as is imprisonment in the 20th century a feasible, effective and humane the practice in some Scandinavian is signally missing from this study. alternative? • countries, to recompense their vic Instead, it offers detailed analy tim s) is largely ignored, simply be ses of various aspects of modern pe Megan Gressor i a Syd ney-based cause it's chea per to keep crims no logy, toge ther with some journalist. 38 EUREKA STREET • Ju E 1996 BooKs: 3 ANDREW HAMILTON All the way with LTJ The Real Jesus. The mhguided quest for the historical Jesus aud the truth of the traditional Gospels, Luke T imothy johnson, Harper, San Fr VOLUME 6 NUMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 39 corrupted, and ecclesiastical author pels are shaped by the interests and Teachers of Scripture, therefore, ity imposed the Jesus Christ of the distortions of their communities is would do better to accept the docu Gospels and Creeds. They pursue also doomed to failure because the ments of the N ew Testament at their historical enquiry to reverse this Gospels provide the only source of face value- as documents that pro process and reveal the features of the information about their communi claim faith in the risen Jesus Christ, real Jesus. They prefer to the New ties. For the same reason, to separate and discipleship based in obedience, Testament document sources like a strands in a scholarly construct like service, sacrifice and love. Christ is dissected Q and the Gospel of Tho Q is like dissecting a ghost. The known in faith, and is not comm mas. results will reflect the prejudices of ended by historical research, but by Their reconstruction ofJesus usu the investigator. Furthermore, with the lives of those who accept him as ally has two stages. First, they out knowledge of the communities, Lord. It is right to be critical of the deconstruct the Gospels and other the authors, location or time of com N ew Testament documents, point early Christian texts, and show how position of the Gospels, it is difficult ing out areas where they fail to do the approach to Jesus Christ there appropriately to subject them to justice to the faith they proclaim. has been influenced by the situa psychological or sociologi- But any attempt to find a historical tion, needs and interest groups in T cal methods of analysis. Jesus free from later corruption the communities in which they should be abandoned. arose. J OHNSON THEREFORE argues that these I find the negative part of Secondly, they seek a key to free ventures produce a fictional Jesus, Johnson's argument persuasive. The Jesus from his captivity in the Gos and not the real Jesus. The latter is academic jungle which he defoliates pels. They find similarities with the risen Lord who is known in faith is shown to house some very irregu Cynic philosophers or Jewish mira in the Gospels. He accordingly finds lar soldiers. If his labours mean that cle workers, reformers or religious in the claim to discover the real each Christmas and Easter, report visionaries, and then sift the Gos Jesus behind the Gospels a mixture ers will no longer take theologians pels to identify Jesus as belonging to of immoderate pretension, faulty from our prayers to ask comment on one of these groups. The face of the m ethodology, and dominant theo some new and dubiou s theory about true Jesus thus stands revealed. logical prejudice. Jesus, we shall all be in his debt. Johnson argues that this process Johnson's book is significant, I was less persuaded, however, by the reach of Johnson's polemic against the use of history. It is important that faith not be unrea sonable. It would be unreasonable if there w ere gross discontinuity between the description of Jesus' ministry in the Gospels and the actual shape of Jesus' life. Johnson himself provides arguments for this coherence, and historical analysis of the Scriptures carries on the sam e necessary, if secondary, detailed conversation with the texts. Secondly, historical writing is flawed because it is impossible to however, because this target is wider serves an important function within go behind the Gospels. The priority than a group of popular religious christian faith. It performs in con of Mark's Gospel, the composition writers. He argues that the root of temporary western culture the func of the Gospels from small oral units, their error affects the teaching of tion that stained glass windows, and theories about the editing of the Scripture in the church. Church devotional lives of Christ, series of Gospels form part of conventional scholars have generally accepted the m editations on the Gospels and wisdom, but are nonetheless hypo presupposition of modernity, namely devotions like the Rosary or the thetical. Even when handled punc that empirical historical knowledge Sacred Heart, have done in other tiliously by scholars like John Meier is privileged over other forms of cultures. These things have provided in Jesus, The Magical Jew, the judg knowing. Historical analysis does a powerful narrative image of Jesus ment of the authenticity of particu not nourish faith. It inhibits minis Christ, which captures the imagina lar sayings can yield no more than ters raised on it from speaking to the tion by setting the story of his life probable conclusions. Nor does the deeper religious predicament of their vividly and credibly within a recog sum of the words attributed to Jesus people. Thus he is concerned toques nisable world of the Gospels and by this method yield a more satisfac tion also the preference given to his against the believer's own world. As tory picture of Jesus than might a torical m ethod in scriptural exegesis. we say, Jesus Christ comes to life. collection of legal documents, For that reason churches where it is Without such a hold of Jesus Christ stripped of friends' reminiscences, dominant are weak, wllile groups on the imagination, faith and disci give of ourselves. that resist modernity uncritically pleship are relatively weak and tend The effort to show that the Gos- grow in numbers and influence. to be interpreted simply in terms of 40 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 right belief or in moralising behav consequences and demands of makes larger claims than its method iour. Indeed, it is arguable that the following him. allows; it dogmatically omits what need for such images gave birth to We are entitled to expect, then, the Gospels say about Jesus' Sonship the Gospels in the first place. that scholars who speak of disciple of God and future judgment; its re In modern culture the creation of ship will instantiate its claims in construction is highly speculative. powerful and credible narrative im ages is done best by the style of historical reconstruction. The sty listic devices of shifting evidence and describing historical background through m etaphors drawn from sociology or anthropology, do not guarantee the verity of the image, but they can contribute to verisi militude. They enable believers to transcend, not traditional faith, but stale images of Jesus Christ. They present Jesus vividly against a well imagined world of his day, and im plicitly against our own world. The terms of their public world. For they But it has merits which Johnson's theological defect of the works which are the beneficiaries of a world in account lacks. It depicts powerfully Johnson attacks is not that they are which education is increasingly the conflict between Jesus and some reconstructions, but that they sup privileged. It is also supported by of the institutions of the day, presents plant rather than support the Christ technological developments which him as a man of prayer, and conveys known in faith in the Gospels. extend further the division between vividly some of the demands of dis Thirdly, I found passionless the rich and poor within societies on the cipleship in Jesus' day and our own. description of faith and discipleship basis of education, and further Johnson, then, takes out his which Johnson commends. So busy marginalise the destitute in nations targets but, as once did another is he to excoriate politically moti where there is no access to educa Johnson, he risks losing the battle vated deconstructions of the figure tional resources. What might for minds and hearts. I do not grieve of Jesus, that he seems to make faith Johnson make of discipleship in such for those attacked, but I anticipate and discipleship a matter of indi a world is unclear. But some of the that Johnson's own positions will be vidual attitude and destiny. But the works which he criticises do recog attacked massively in return. Gospels present in circumstantial nise the challenge. detail the public character of Jesus' Marcus Borg's Jesu s: A new • ministry, its significance for his vision, for example, has many of the Andrew Hamilton SJ lectures at the public world, and the public defects which Johnson points out: it United Faculty of Theology, Melbourne. BOOKS: 4 MARGARET SIMONS Selective amnesia The Culture of Forgetting, Robert Manne, Text Pubhshmg Co mpany, Melbourne, 1996. ISBN 1 875847 26X RRP $14.95 R OBERT MA NNE BELIEVES that all human beings ... ' he writes. rewarded for this denial due to 'a we live in a universe imbued with The book's title resonates with seductive fluency in her, and an al- absolute and inherent moral values. Auschwitz survivor, Primo Levi's most inexplicable paralysis of moral Historical events hold moral mean- tale of a recurring nightmare in which critical intelligence or attentiveness ing, and when the event is as rna- he is talking to his family and friends in her elders'. men taus as the Holocaust, failing to about his experiences, only to find Several times Manne uses an odd grasp and heed that meaning is at that they do not follow him, and are but telling little phrase: 'moral tact'. best stupid, and at worst evil. indifferent to his story. Th e Hand that Signed the Paper and 'I had assumed that we all knew The Demidenko affair brings to its author lack such tact, he claims. that no one worth reading would life Levi's prophecy of the world's It would be wrong to take this dare to write about the Holocaust forgetting and indifference, Manne use of the word 'tact' as implying a without humility and high serious- says. Demidenko's book denies not breach of mere social consideration ness, without a recognition of what the Holocaust itself, but its m ean- and nicety. For Manne, the rules of was at issue here not for Jews but for ing- its evil. The horror is, she was good behaviour are far more impor- V oLUME 6 N uMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 41 tant than that, and his criticism goes described as a good marriage. Her in moral philosophy. much deeper. His dismay about this books tend to end with the heroines' Rather, Manne attempts to dem book and its clutch of awards is pas marriage ceremony. The established onstrate the unacceptable conse sionate. He believes that in a truly marriages portrayed are deeply quences of nihilism by an analogy. civilised society, the book would flawed. What if a novel had been written not have been published. The More importantly, it seemed to about the murder of the Tasmanian Demidenko affair, he argues, is evi m e that Manne was blind to the Aborigines, from the paint of view of dence of a culture that has run adrift irony and bitterness with which the men who led the hunting par from its moorings. Austen wrote about a society in ties? What if this novel won major It can be hard to review a book which a truly good m arriage was out awards? Would it be the case that with which one fundamentally of the reach of most women, and yet this novel was worthy simply be agrees. While I suspect Manne's view was their only escape from lives of cause it demonstrated that there was of the moral moorings of our culture intense emotional and intellectual no moral view point from which the differs from my own, there was little frustration. murders could be condemned? And in either his emotional reactions to In these two newspaper columns would the descendants of the mur 'The Hand' or in his arguments it seem ed to me that Manne took the der victims, when they protested, be concerning its worth which material that served to reinforce his accused of conducting a witchhunt, did not echo my own views. opinions, and ignored or was blind to as Demidenko's critics have been? a great deal else. He did not seriously Repeatedly, Manne assumes that I N PARTICULAR, his reactions on first entertain points of view that con fiction should serve a broad moral reading the book struck a chord. flicted with his own understanding purpose. He criticises 'The Hand's' I experienced the gulf between my of the 'moral moorings', even to argue reviewers for never asking 'what reading of 'The Hand' and that of against them . human purpose' was served by others as puzzling, dismaying and It is of course unfair to use two diverting sympathy from Jewish vic disorienting ... I was physically re pieces of short journalistic polemic tims to Ukrainian perpetrators. lieved when I discovered that friends as a basis for criticising a book which It is not the attempt to write responded as I had. I could feel my is far more considered, better argued, about the Holocaust from the point relations temporarily cool with and better researched. However, of view of the evil-doers that is wrong, those ... who read it differently. given that my own reaction to 'The Manne argues. The thing that is So perhaps it was good, given my Hand' m.eant that I was apt to cheer wrong with 'The Hand' is that the sympathy for Manne's conclusions, Manne on as I read, the articles gave narrative sen ibility is one of 'terri that while I was reading this book I me some perspective on the book's ble indifference' and 'absolute cold- also happened across two pieces of possible faults. ness' in the face of the evil Manne's journalism on topics where Manne argues lu cidly and brought to life in the story. he and I fundamentally disagreed. convincingly that it is appropriate to The first was on the Northern bring historical criticism to bear on H AD DOSTOEVSKY ATTEMPTED tO Territory's euthanasia legislation. 'The Hand', and that it fails both as write about the Holocaust, Manne The second was on the reasons for history and as fiction. says, we would have been brought the revival in popularity of the works Yet on the fundamental philo into the presence of evil, but we of Jane Austen. sophical m oral issues-of the kind would never have been in doubt Manne is against euthanasia for of moral universe in which we live, about the moral ground on which much the same reasons that he is and the duties owed by a writer of the author stood. This moral horrified by 'The Hand'. He reveres fiction to society's moral values stance-the fact that we share moral the sanctity of human life, and is Manne does not argue. He assumes. ground with the author-is, Manne revolted by organised, state-endorsed Here Manne is at variance with seems to be saying, what makes moves to end it. However, his news Andrew Riemer, who in his earlier Dostoevsky fine, and Demidenko paper column arguments focused on book on the affair entertains moral vile. nit-picking early drafts of the legis nihilism as a respectable literary Clearly this is a view out of step lation. He did not attempt to argue position. Riemer wrote, and Manne with contemporary literary criti the fundamental moral point. Rather, quotes him: 'To tell the story of one ci m, but then I agree with Manne he proceeded with leaps from narrow of the greatest acts of genocide the that contemporary literary criticism points to general ones. world has known from the perspec emerges from the Demidenko affair In the other article, Manne argued tive of its perpetrators may perhaps looking shabby and flabby. that one of the reasons for the have been no m ore than an acknowl More importantly, I suspect this renewed popularity of Austen's edgement that there are no absolute characterisation of Dostoevsky's works was a growing recognition of values.' explorations of evil, and of the whole the importance of good marriages, Manne does not attempt to argue issue of fiction and moral responsi which was also, he said, Austen's against this point of view directly. bility, is as much an oversimplifica preoccupation. The clash between those who be tion as it is to say that Jane Austen I found this argument rather lieve in moral absolutes and those was in favour of marriage. staggering, given that Austen hardly who do not is, after all, one of the So much for my reservations. In ever portrays anything that could b old est and m ost irresolvable conflicts general, I found Manne's book the 42 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 m ost penetrating and lucid account before m oving on to the book's cen arguments.But as far as the public of the Demidenko affair and its im tral historical thesis. 'The Hand' were concerned, there was scarcely a plica tions published so far. misrepresents, not only through its ripple on the peaceful literary pond. Largely this is because Manne is characters but also in its narrative It was only when the book won the the first author on the topic who has voice, the history of Ukrainian anti Miles Franklin Award and began to gone beyond personal opinion, and Semitism, and the extent of Jewish be read by those outside the literary actually done som e research. What a responsibility for Bolshevism and the world that any of what are clearly difference a little legwork makes. Ukrainian fa mine. Within this con the key issues were publicly raised. The book is divided into two. text, it fabrica tes claim about his Manne argues that this shows The first part is a fac tual account of torical characters, with the claim the cultural unpreparedness of the the genesis and publication of 'The that Ivan the Terrible's fa mily were liberal literary world to recognise Hand', and the controversy that fo l killed by Jews being only the m ost and deal with such big lowed its publication. The second obvious and obnoxious example. issues. It is hard to disagree. part is Manne's argument about the In other words, 'The Hand' dis book. The division is deceptive. torts history in order to serve what M ANNE, IN SPITE of his research, Reportage and argumen t bleed into Darville herself has claimed in in is hobbled by a vaguely contradic each other. Manne never pretends to terviews to be her primary purpose: tory stance. In his preface he claims be impartiaL N evertheless, we learn that he has not been concerned with new facts of importance to the Demidenko-Darville's private life, debate. nor with why she chose to turn her Manne has established that the self into Helen Demidenko. Yet a text of the book as submitted to few pages later in the prologue, he Allen and Unwin contained even acknowledges that the question he more blatantly anti-Semitic mate had to begin with was 'what were rial than the published version. the cultural forces that had drawn Manne also presents convin cing Helen Darville in to becoming Helen evidence that far from being fearful Demidenko, and rewarded her for of criticism, Darville-Demidenko doing so?' both sought for and expected 'seri I suspect that the truth is that ous strife' over her book, and experi Manne's forays into Demidenko's enced some sense of anti-climax history were limited more by time when its initial reception was so and publishing deadlines than by bland. principle about prying into her We find out that when guests personal history. He did not shirk were invited to the Darville home, to depict war crimes trials as venge the work of interviewing her past Helen maintained her Ukrainian ful and wrong. Manne is devastating teachers and her ex-boyfriend, for persona in front of her parents, who in describing the almost universal example. appeared only slightly discomfited, blandness of the initial reviews of It seems to me that if we are to politely changing the topic or leav 'The Hand'. These reviews, looked understand the most important ing the room. Manne also provides at in retrospect, are enough to de aspects of this controversy then we the first cogent analysis and debunk stroy any shreds of faith one might do indeed need to know more about ing I have seen in print of the histori have had in the critic's craft. Darville's motivation and hi tory. cal accuracy of the belief that Jews It is hard to believe, but not one In spite of all the words that have were responsible for the Ukrainian the early reviewers raised the issue been written, in spite of Natalie Jane famine. of anti-Semitism. Not one reviewer Prior's breach of Darville's trust, and To what extent should a novelist queried what responsibility, if any, a in spite of Riemer's strangely unpro be subject to historical criticism? novelist has to historical fact. Not ductive interview with Darville, Manne attacks the abstract way in one reviewer mentioned the incon there remains a frustrating opaque which this question is normally sistencies of voice throughout the ness about the person at the centre posed. The answer, he says, depends book. The reviews, with one or two of this affair. on the circumstances. We will be exceptions, were mildly favorable, This is an honest, rigorous and more critical of historical inaccuracy bland, blind, and devoid of any sort closely argued book, but the ques in a book which deals with recent of intellectual rigor. tion Manne acknowledges as events than with one set long ago. It is true that behind the scenes central- what cultural forces drove In the case of 'The Hand', which what might be described as the liter Darville to reinvent herself, and deals with such recent and momen ary establish ment was divided. rewarded her for doing so-remain tous history, and which offers a Stephanie Dowrick at Allen and unanswered. • didactic and highly questionable U n win h ad, after some in i t ial history lesson, historical criticism en cou n t ers, refu sed to h andle Margar e t Simon is free lance is not only appropriate but essentiaL Demidenko or her book. Brian Castro jou rnlist . Her second novel, The Manne then goes on to list and Lynn Segal refused to edit it. Truth Teller, is published this month numerous pedantic historical errors, There were other battles, and other by Minerva. VoLUME 6 N uMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 43 BOOKS: 5 NGAIRE NAFFINE Straight Shooting 'I," w" ' <>m< wh 44 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 D "'" w,u. V OLUME 6 NUMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 45 breathy piece about the way 'Aus This is an adventurously struc crucial scene with his boss. He is tralia's most popular and prolific tured play of important ideas and referred to once or twice as the ape playwright continues to satirise there are increasing signs that man, so what does Harrison give us? those he sees as excessive or preten Williamson is breaking technical A hapless Peter Carroll done up in tious'. There were quotations from shackles in search of a new form. He garish green tartan trousers and flam Williamson about 'the 'animal' in hasn't altogether succeeded, but it is ing red shirt, scratching his armpits humans which .. . cannot be exciting to see him going for it. There and chest while whimpering and gib conditioned out of us.' Sonia is probably too much reliance here bering like a camp chimpanzee. Any Voumard's article gave barely a hint on third-person, past-tense narration, serious sense of the biology/ anthro of the controversy that was to follow, for example; whereas Money and pology debate is utterly and bewil although the casual Qantas reader Friends doubled one of the central deringly lost to the cheap laugh. might have spotted that among the characters with a narrator figure, Then, to complete the rout of a play 'foibles and excesses of the middle Heretic has no fewer than four such of ideas, the scene ends with the class' that the playwright is satiris figures. On the other hand, I felt Head of Department swinging across ing here is one of his favourite recent that, despite the apparent champi the back of the stage on a rope, clutch betes noires: political oning of the heretic Freeman, the ing a bunch of bananas, en route to correctness. dice are less loaded in favour of one his refuge in the technicolor protagonist than in some recent plays palmtree. ('Talk about telegraphing A NUMBER OF Williamson's re (such as Sanctuary). Mead gets a lot the joke', I groaned audibly. 'Shush' cent plays have tackled the Big Ques of stage time and space to argue her went the Opera House tourists.) tions. Heretic goes straight to the case. Or perhaps this apparent level In the midst of this meretricious question of what constitutes human ling of the playing field is a result of mayhem, actors like Robin Ramsay nature: are we determined predomi Wayne Harrison's production ... (a last-minute replacement for the nantly by our biological and genetic And what a production it is! I ill Simon Chil vers, as old FreemanL nature or by environmental and cul haven't seen one in years so wildly Paul Goddard (as young Freeman), tural forces? The play is set out as inappropriate to and out of sympathy Jane Harders (as Monica) and Eliza battle of wills and minds between with the spirit and ideas of its play. beth Alexander (as Margaret Mea d) the Australian anthropologist Derek I know it's a dream-play, but John do what they can to salvage some Freeman and Margaret Mead, who Senczuk's Escher-inspired set is so sense from it all. Henri Szeps is an as a very young researcher in the lurid that it all looks like a bad acid appealing and at times amusing nar Samoan islands- published 'proof' trip. His Samoa, for example, is rator while Peter Carroll (one of the that we are culturally and environ represented by a purple palm-tree finest actors in the profession today) mentally constructed on the basis of with bright yellow fronds against a is obliged to run through half a dozen her rather anecdotal evidence that dazzling ultramarine-blue sky. This campy cameos like a stylish per there was no sexual shame or com is seen through a rhomboidal picture forming seal. Not even good actors petitive jealousy among young peo frame opening at the back of can wrest a potentially fine play from ple in that island paradise. Freeman's fearsomely raked study, the grip of a director who manifestly Williamson shows how Mead's views which is in turn floored with black has no faith in it and little sense of became the dominant ideology in and-white tiles whose irregular the subtleties of its argument. anthropology, leading inexorably to perspective is designed to Don't be surprised to see, some the love-ins and sexual liberation of drive us to distraction. time in the future, a David the swinging sixties. He also shows Williamson play satirising the ex the extreme difficulty experienced PRODU CTION'S approach i a cesses and pretensions of a certain by Freeman (the heretic of the ironic throw-back to the cartoon style of thea tre director (fictitious, of course). title) in his scientific and scholarly Nimrod's 1970s heyday. The whole But it's an odds-on bet it won't be attempts to refute Mea d's widely show is tarted up with bizarre gim premiered by the Sydney Theatre followed theories. mickry. At the first (and indeed any) Company! • In one telling scene, Freeman's mention of the 1960s, we are treated somewhat neanderthal head of to a microphoned chorus dressed as Geoffrey Milne teaches theatre and department lays down the law by refugees from Hair singing 'This is drama at the School of Arts and Me announcing stolidly that anthropol the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius' dia at LaTrobe University. ogy is the study of the social and other hits of the era. At one Heretic is doing the rou nds at: Glen behaviour of humans, not an inves point, young Freeman announces Street Thea tre, Sydney, 28 May-8 June; tigation of animal life. 'That is biol that 'We're going to London', so a Canberra Theatre Centre, 12-15 June; ogy', he says; 'there is too much pop-up cut-out caricature of a red Perth, 20 June-6 July; Bun bury, 9-10 biology in your work.' Elsewhere, London bus (destination: Carnaby July; Kalgoorlie, 12-13 July; Melbourn e we are shown how Freeman'sgenetic St, where else?) parades across the Theatre Company 18 July-24 August; theories could be exploited by the back of the set. At another, Freeman Monash University's Alexander Thea racist and xenophobic right. It seems turns up in a yellow submarine! tre, 27 August-4 September; Geelong clear that Williamson is on the side But the crowning (clowning?) Performing Arts Centre 6-7 Septem of the heretic, although it is not easy glory of these opportunistic embel ber; Gold Coast Performing Arts Cen to tell in this production. lishments comes in young Dere k's tre 11-14 September. 46 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 He's thwarted by his But the real star is the effects depart psychotically violent ment. It's wonderful to see a mar friend, Begbie, who riage re-ignited and the idealism of tracks him down and, science suitably extolled against the with Spud and Sick evil men in black Range Rovers. But Boy, ropes Renton in even better to see a herd of cows for one more throw of thrown across a road, a petrol tanker the dice. tossed effortlessly away and the best Ultimately , darn flying house since the Wicked Trainspotting is not Witch of the East copped it in The a challenging film, Wizard of Oz. Funny to see a film despite the fact it de about the vagaries of nature in which picts heroin users as everything works out just so per intellectuals. Its pur fectly. pose is to entertain -Michael McGirr SJ but with an unusual source for the jokes. It doesn't create mar In cold blood tyrs. In many ways, Trainspotting is like a revision of Fargo, dir. Joel Coen (independent Express yourself the freak show at the country fair, cinemas). It can seem a funny thing with the bearded lady and two to try and tell a 'true' story in the Trainspotting dir. Danny Boyle headed goat in the audience laugh cinema. But with the Coen brothers (independent cinemas). Mention the ing at the nuclear family up on stage. doing the negotiating even a celluloid words 'heroin addict' and you are -Jon Greenaway half truth makes a damn good yarn. guaranteed a reaction of disgust or Tracing the actual events of a pity. The drug is so demonised that 1987 crime, Fargo drops you into the it becomes difficult to avoid think Shake it baby cold heart of a Minnesota winter, ing of users as desperate people liv w here snow has obliterated even the ing in depravity. By dispensing with Twister dir. Jan de Bont (Greater horizon line. We find Jerry the well used addict-as-victim for Union). This is one hell of a way to Lundegaard (William H. Macy) so mula, Trainspotting creates a differ save a marriage. Bill Harding (Bill ent portrayal of users in a story that Paxton) is an expert on tornadoes. EUREKA STREET is darkly funny, and-strangely He wants his estranged wife, Jo FILM CoMPETITION very hip. (Helen Hunt), to sign divorce papers Here's oneforthe Cary Grantfans. It's Edinburgh during the so he can marry a therapist (Jami If you can come up with a suitable Thatcher era and a group of no Gertz). Jo is also keen on Tornadoes. caption for this scene from the hopers, freaks and junkies are nego Bill catches up with her on the plains flyboy-flick Only Angels have tiating life by assiduously avoiding of Oklahoma as the sky is about to wings, you and a friend will be it. Renton (Ewan McGregor) can't unleash some decent 'Twisters'. Her winging it off to the movies with see any point in choosing a vacuous team has developed a machine called $30 in the pocket. lifestyle while he can have a 'sincere Dorothy to measure the movement Many outstanding entries were and truthful junk habit' instead. He of tornadoes, hopefully with a view received for the April competi tries to give up but is forced to go to predicting their behaviour. But in tion, however the indefatigable back to using- not because he craves order to work the machine has to be Tony Baker of North Adelaide has the stuff but because the banality of put right in the eye of the storm, not taken it out again with this synop life is too much to handle straight. an easy task. Bill is like an old surfie sis of The Monster and the Girl: Many of his friends share similar who finds himself unexpectedly at 'What's left of the Labor front views. Spud and Sick Boy are the beach. He rolls up his sleeves. bench endeavours to rescue their comitted users, the latter only get The therapist and the divorce papers nominal female from the dread ting off the horse to annoy Renton will just have to take a back seat for clutches of the swinging voter.' by showing him how easy it is. For the moment. others, however, it's less of a game. H elen Hunt's unmelodious voice Allison has a child to one of the is familiar from Mad About You, a guys-she's not sure which one claustrophobic sit-com set largely in but it dies in the cot. Tommy, the a small flat. Bill Paxton has previ only fit and adventurous one of the ously faced challenges to ingenuity lot, starts to use after his girlfriend and determination in Apollo 13. I dumps him. suppose between the dark side of the Renton detoxes amidst an hallu moon and a three-room flat, the wide cinated daze, and tries to make a open spaces of Oklahoma are pretty clean breakby leaving for London. much the half way meeting point. V OLUME 6 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 47 deep in financial trouble that he hires institution, Kings Cross streets, two thugs (Steve Buscemi and Peter Bea bop taxis, the courts and prison, shops. Stormare) to snatch his wife, calcu Angel Baby, Cosi and, now, lating that his wealthy father-in-law Lilian's Story dir. Jerzy Domaradzki Lilian's Story, with Australian hu will cough up enough to pay off both (Hoyts and independent). Lilian's mour and pathos, have recently con thugs and creditors. But as quickly Story is an adaptation of the novel by fronted us with what it is to be as a picturesque snowscape can be Kate Grenville which, in turn, is normal. They raise questions but come a howling blizzard, the scheme based on the Sydney character of don't give answers. careers out of control. Little wonder, decades ago, Bea Miles. The film's -Peter Malone MSC given that Jerry lacks leadership Lilian is released from a mental in qualities, the father-in-law's a mon stitution after 40 years and experi ster and the thugs as stupid as a bag ences an awakening and the Tell it like it is of rocks. Chief of Police Marge possibility of an acknowledgement Gunderson, seven months pregnant, and healing of memories. But the War Stories dir. Gaylene Preston and and hot on the case, runs rings around experience is 'fractured' because we Hoop Dreams dir. Steve James (inde the lot of them. learn, only gradually, what is behind pendent). Social documentary does It's characterisation that carries Lilian's pain. not usually make a big impact in the this film. Frances McDormand, as Lilian's Story is a finely crafted cinemas. The odd piece might get a Chief Gunderson, goes a way to film. Polish director Jerzy run during an obscure film festival wards renewing one's faith in the Domaradski (whose previous Aus before it ends up on the ABC at 10:30 depiction of professional women in tralian feature was the Gary on a Saturday night. However two the cinema. Macy brings restrained McDonald comic drama, Struck by recent efforts deserve better. sadness to his role as the hapless Lightning) brings a particularly con War Stories features seven New Jerry Lundegaard. Buscemi and tinental sensibility to this Sydney Zealand women whose stories of lov Stormare, as the mismatched thugs, story. In interview, Domaradski rel ers and husbands, of death, dishon provide startling portraits of stupid ishes talking about universal themes our and sacrifice, and of extraordinary ity and pathology. while offering quite particular deeds, effortlessly pour out onto the Joel and Ethan Coen's script high insights into life in Sydney. Cin screen. Each of the women seem to lights the regional dialect and ematographer Slawomir Iclziak have the disarming air of someone rhythms so faithfully that Fargo, chimes with DOmaraclski's style. who is not quite sure that these primarily a story about a crime, also Devotees of Kieslowski's Veronique things really did happen to them. A yields the Coen brothers' unique and theThree Colours trilogy will favourite of mine was Aunty Jean, a view of their Mid West, even includ notice similarities of lighting, filters Maori woman who was both washer ing the restaurant where Ethan Coen for the past, and the lightning en woman and camp mother at a sta washed dishes in his youth. hanced character portraits. tion through which 46,000American Ruth Cracknell as the soldiers passed. With a backbone the ~~&~@~hf!WrJI!fJ~~ older Lilian dominates the size of an overgrown brontosaurus CONF~CiiONeRY SERvE:O screen, overwhelming the and an unselfconscious sense of hu JUS! L I KlO- '(OlJP. Mo\1-\eR audience as well as other motu, she's easy to imagine as the V5E.D -rot characters. Her Lillian re matriarch of a camp of homeless cites a great deal of Shake young men. speare, in a declamatory Neva lost two fiances to the war, manner rather than in an was sent overseas as an Army interpretative style. Toni servicewoman, and was lucky to Collette is much more self avoid being raped in Palestine. When effacing as the younger she returned, her neighbours all Lilian. The contrasting per thought she had been on little more formances of the actresses, than an extended holiday. The his reveal what 40 years of re tory of war extends well behind the pression can do, crushing front lines. yet steeling determination Inner city Chicago in the '90s is a within. long way from wartime New Zea Barry Otto has a double land, but the two young basketball With all Fargo's real-life refer role. He is the respectable but shock heroes, who share four years of their ences and local accuracy one could ingly violent father and the brother teenage lives with the film-makers, almost believe it to be true. But it's who has retreated into meekness. display the intensity of people who a wise person who doesn't believe John Flaus brings his impeccable have been forced to struggle. Arthur everything she sees at the movies Ocker accent to a nicely contrasting Agee and William Gates both dream and a wiser one still who is alive to sketch of Lilian's former beau. The of playing in the NBA. Their lives the alternative truths to be found in supporting cast contribute to the cross at St Joseph's College, the the heart of fertile imaginations. 'fractured' atmosphere, the different former school of Isiah Thomas. While -Siobhan Jackson worlds of Lilian's story: the William is an instant star, Arthur 48 EUREKA STREET • JUNE 1996 must leave during his first year be Both War Stories and Hoop general's hold over one court plus a cau se his parents can no longer pay Dreams take care with their subject garrison full of wily, treacherous the balance of his fees left after his matter. By doing so, they reveal the Venetians. It's a compelling film. partial scholarship. From then on, greater depths of human experience. Shakespeare it ain't, quite (Parker their basketball careers take differ - Jon Greenaway pares the play of half its words), but ent paths. the surgery makes this a more plau- William, a shy and retiring soul, Broad church must carry the expectations of those around him- particularly his fam Primal Fear, dir. This a film ily- that he is destined for great to please the punters: a lit things . Self-conscious off the court, tle murder, a little intrigue, he plays with tremendous confidence a little courtroom drama, a on it until injury dents his self-as little sexual tension; add to surance. Arthur constantly has to this a couple of chase scenes, fight his lack of discipline and frac corrupt government offi tured family life. His father leaves cials, lawyers worrying hom e at one stage when hjs drug about their moral fibre habit gets out of control. N ot blessed that's the irony bit, some with the natural talents of William thinly veiled digs at the Gates, he makes up for it with a Catholic church, the psy burning desire to be like his idol, chiatric profession and the Isiah. legal system, a gasping twist The documentary's mark of qual at the end and there you ity is the way it pulls back the cur have it- a great 'formula' tain of hype. Talented black kids for a movie. sible version than its cinematic pred- Laurence Fishburne from the ghettoes are dragooned onto It would have looked great on ecessors. It's less troublesome. The as the Moor. the production line from the age of paper and, to befair, it's not a illsaster intractable bits have been lobot- 12 and 13 and filled with dreams of on screen eith er. omised away. Fishburne's erotic success. The vast majority don't Richard Gere plays Martin Vail, Othello is indeed a man m ore sinned make it and are cast aside like empty a publicity hungry attorney who de against than sinning. His Desdem ona Gatorade bottles. fends Aaron Stampl er (Edward (Irene Jacob, Krzysztof Ki eslowski's Norton) on the charge of murdering star of Three Colours, Red) is strong the much loved Bishop of Chicago. and loving (but also so smart that I want to invest . with co nfidence in Janet Venables (Laura Linley) is Vail's you rather wonder why she hangs . ex-lover and coincidentally State around after the willow scene) . over 70 different . Prosecutor in the case . The films multi-accented cast N orton gives a fine performance gives a depth to the tale-you actu e-thical as the simple Kentucky altar boy ally believe in the Duke (Gabriele destined to hang for the murder. Ri Ferzetti) and in Brabantio, the be investments! chard Gere is-well- Richard Gere, trayed father (Pierre Vanek ). Their You@!! invest your savings and superannuation in: and Laura Linley, an actor growing performances have a dimension of in stature with each performance, puzzlem ent that Shakespeare might • Saving Habitat and Rare Species gives a nicely measured performance. have coveted in his English cast. • Low Energy Technologies • Clean Water Primal Fear is not, as some have Shooting in the Castle of Bracciano, • Affordable Housing suggested, anti-Catholic. H owever, north of Rom e, Parker uses the lav • Recycling its one-dimensional use of sexuality ish loca tion sparingly, and lets the and earn a competitive fina ncial return from and child abuse in th e clergy as the words (the ones left in) work. investing in tlze Australian Etllicnl Tru sts: back drop for a courtroom-murder And th en there is Ke nne th • conveniently • with confidence mystery- drama, is a bit insensitive. Branagh- the best !ago I will live to • for a competitive return Especially at a time when these is see. Branagh makes his mouth a black • with as little as $1,000 sues are cau sing great pain to many cavern tha t spills su ave • monthly savings plan option people. -Nick Grace blandishment one second and hell For full details, make a free call to 1 800 021 227. the next . His exchanges with the ludicrous Roderigo (' Put m oney in Till' Au~ t mfirm Etltic:nl Tru!<- l f. nrr mana,'{rd by Aw;/rafinll Ethical ltwr!'lntl'lll I..ld, ACN tNJ3 188 930, u,liicll Wrlf. Othello, again thy purse') are electric and absurd rt:.la11lisltrd in 1986 /n 1•nnl invrslnr !'IWinRf. to l'n'tt k 11 morr this is cranky, unaccommodatable Jairnlld sllsluitw/llrsoc iffy. lll l11'S I I1trll/ 0 111 mtfyf•r madt'tlll tllr llf'f'licntiou form h01md into thr IOflgrd and rrgis lcn·d Othello, dir. Oliver Parker (Hoyts). great art. Branagh is well met in his prosl'rc:tus .latcd 24/ h Ortobrr, 1995, availahlfjrom: A nip here, a mighty tuck there, and wife: Anna Patrick's Emilia (sh e A11stralian Etl!icallnvestment Ltd cast Laurence Fishburne as the Moor: looks like Cher, and has an English S rtilc 66, Canberra Business Cenlrc Oliver Parker's debut version of tongue to match ) gives focus to the Rrndficld S trrct, Dow11 er A CT 2602 Othello has en ou gh glamour to rush and rhetoric of the final act. for investors, society render entirely credible the black -Morag Fraser and the environntent V OLUME 6 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 49 WATCHING BRIEF I Hyping reality I T's A coMMON TillNG m• ACTORS in soap reality is packaged, presented and often distorted. operas to be accosted in the street or shops Mercury's agenda is, I suspect, a little more focused, by members of their audience, who address its roman a clef aspect even more pronounced. them unselfconsciously as the characters Do the politicians, spin doctors and media bandit they portray. It can be hard for the baddies barons care about the picture that is made of them? they are frequently taken to task for their fic Not as much as they ought, I think. tional misdeeds. It would be messy for a Victorian politician, say, The line between reality and illusion is getting to sue the producers of Mercury: so many implica thinner these days. Words like truth and fiction col tions to be spelled out-better to let the program lan lapse into each other when we rely on virtual experi guish among the chardonnay-drinking clients of the ence. And television, the virtual experience we have single-figure-rating ABC than to splash a juicy and all had over the last forty years, creeps into your mind tricky defamation case all over the tabloids for the saying, I am truth, you have seen it with your own swinging voters to see. The educational effect of both two eyes. But what are we seeing? programs is maybe needed more where they will never There are people who spend a great deal of their be seen: on the commercial channels, where the mix time subscribing to the internet newsgroup alt.tv.x of fact and hype is so potent. files, where fans of the show debate over its themes The crisis over Today Tonight's temporary and symbols and general connectedness to the busi pulling of its investigation into Victorian Premier Jef ness of life as read by conspiracy theorists. They note frey Kennett's business contacts was one example of throwaway lines and in-jokes, argue with each other how things can go wrong with a commercial current over what was the best episode and swoon over the affairs scoop. Hardworking producers and journalists stars, Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. There were aghast as the cliched kibosh was applied (you'd is another newsgroup, however, for people who find think they'd never seen the first episode of Mercury, that level of enthusiasm too low. These are the the way the poor dears carried on). A rather brave ges devotees of alt. tv. x-files.creative. And the key word ture was made; Helen Wellings and Jill Singer were here is creative. instructed by the executive producer, Warren Wilton, The posters to this group are keen to display their to tell the truth: that 'senior management' were skills as alternative scriptwriters, so much so that the responsible for the ban, not the anodyne 'legal advice'. rules of the group demand a total abrogation of When the program was run the next day, the scoop potential copyright should the writers of the actual was lost: all the newspapers in the state had run the show inadvertently use one of the group's ideas. But story, probably using files they'd been sitting on for most of them aren't here to sharpen their literary ages, a la Mercury. It was of course unthinkable that skills, although some are obviously better than others: the six stories pillorying the Paxton family would have no, the biggest subgroup here is known as 'relation been pulled by Channel Nine senior management on shippers'. It isn't enough for them to swoon over the grounds of good taste, truth or even plain Anderson and Duchovny: they love Scully and decency. Mulder, the two characters in the show. There is a great deal of cyberspace taken up with their frenzied A NO WHILE ONE IS THINKING of decency, something imaginings of Scully and Mulder getting it together, was all wrong about the Ruby Wax documentary on although there is a fervent sub-subgroup that con Imelda Marcos. Interviewing Marcos was like structs steamy encounters between Mulder and his shooting fish in a barrel-she was always going to (male) boss, Skinner. betray her monumental narcissism and moral imbe The line between life and art gets smudgier and cility, even if the interviewer were benign. The only wavier when we think of the 'real' life we see on the surprise in the program for me came when I realised I flickering box in the corner of the room, and yet the wasn't enjoying this at all. I was embarrassed by Wax's quest for hardhitting 'fact' has never been more pub posturings and deceptions, her glitzy all-girls-together licised. bonhomie that conned that silly, horrible old woman 'Reality' gets a sort of cross-fertilisation from into thinking that she had found a friend. shows like Mercury and Frontline: both programs To treat Imelda Marcos as a postmodern farce work hard to alert the viewer to the constructs that might please the cynics, but I'm afraid I couldn't abide are placed on the news. Viewers become cannier, a program that had me almost sympathising with one perhaps, as behind the scenes at the news desk is of the worst people on the planet. • dramatised for them. Frontline was good for showing those who didn't already know, how their dose of Juliette Hughes is a freelance writer and reviewer. 50 EUREKA STREET • JuNE 1996 Eureka Street Cryptic Crossword no. 44, June 1996 Devised by Joan Nowotny IBVM ACROSS Others mixed up with North and you, say, get angry about the Eureka flag. (8,5) 10 Hydrogen reactors reshaped for chamber or, possibly, symphony. (9) 11 Month English leader comes to NSW town. (5) 12 The courage of Jules Verne, perhaps. (5) 13 Chief I initially teach every conceivable trick about building designer. (9) 14 Is 'cat' CIA code for the pain of 12-across? (8) 16 & 18-down The shortest day, under 1-across, occurs in the season when the sun may shine on ice on the street. (6,8) 19 Stairs which do not include lifts, to start with, can cause conflicts. (6) 20 New Guinea scores unusual conference. (8) 22 Weird radio rats provide more heat than light. (9) 24 Many an irritation can bring about a fall. (5) 25 Eve gives the OK. So why not call her up?. (5) 26 Defying fate or Karma, Erin unexpectedly called on a performer of special rites to break the drought. (9) 27 You may speak of being homogeneous, yet the Eastern region suffers from the opposite- a total unrelatedness. ( 13) Solution to Crossword no. 43, May 1996 DOWN 2 Happening to pass the RSPCA place, I asked the officer in command to call about dog. (9) 3 Initial topic he gave me. (5) 4 Enchanted doorway leads to that garden. (8) 5 Re-create 'Sister Ace' making it a shade different from 'Sister Act'. (6) 6 Showing delight about Jo icing the birthday cake. (9) 7 Because evil came to the Common Era, we have suffered from that time on. (5) 8 Questions raised in the assembly may be for Rod to step in and remove to the other chamber. (6,2,5) 9 See poor Ern, awash with tears, in this dry and desert land. (7,6) 15 Private conversation about a repetition of notes, perhaps. (4-1-4) 17 Where there is a trading opportunity for stock, possibly. (3 ,6) 18 See 16 across. 21 Australian slang version I have waited for so long. (6) 23 Bird of peace about righ t for moving the crowd. (5) 24 English hairdressing item found in old English valley. (5) Please send two free copies of Eureka Street to: Name ...... Address ...... ...... Postcode ...... My name is ...... Address ...... Postcode ...... Tel ...... EURI:-KA srm:-er & Text Publishing Special book Offer The Brush-Off by Shane Malo.ney 'Maloney is a literary writer who some will feel is wasting his time in the detective business. He takes characters that are stereotypes (the public serv ant, the minister, the arty type) and depicts them with subtlety and original ity and compassionate humour. He also writes a ripping yarn.' -Ngaire Naffine in this month's Eurel Thanks to Text Media, we have a dozen copies to give away of one of the funniest and most insightful books of the year, each worth $14.95. Just put your name and address on the back of an envelope and mark it 'Eureka Street June Book Offer'. Send your entry to Eureka Street, PO Box 553, Richmond, 3121. CCI makes Australian protecting your Book Revie"' home and family the essential magazine for Australian books as easy as calling In our June issue: 1800 011 028 an essay by Don Miller Call 1800 011 028 now and find out and reviews of: more about CCI Home Building, Home Robert Manne's The Culture of Forgetting Contents and Children's Acciden t Insurance. You'll find the service personal Margaret Wertheim's Pythagoras' Trousers and attentive, the rates competitive and making a claim easy, right from the start. Anne Coombs' Sex and Anarchy For honest protection for your home and family, call the Church's own insurance [The Almost Late] Gordon Chafer company- CCI Insurances. l~ and an essay by Meaghan Morris l"> CCI Insurances NEW SUBSCRIBERS - $44 FOR TEN ISSUES C ISSN 1036-1758 05 9 771036 175017