‘Mum & Dad just got home… ’

Aussies can be forgiven for failing to appreciate exactly how and why Harris and Walz have had such a massive and immediate impact.

The psyche of Aussies and Yanks is similar yet different. A difference that is well reflected in the sorts of people who run for president and the way that they commonly present themselves. Or it has been up until Clinton v Trump.

Prior to the arrival of Trump, American Presidents were not just a political figure. For all of the modern era (until recently) the US president was expected to not only act as the head of state but also act as the defacto daddy for the country. Their family was considered by most to be a living, breathing example for how a good wholesome traditional American family should behave.

This is why the President and his family would enact their Christmas, Easter and other celebrations in a very public and orchestrated fashion. Where Aussies commonly see this as being cheesy, Americans lap it up. It talks to both their love of country and their common mythology in a way that is largely opaque to the rest of us. When they look at their First Family smiling for the cameras it evokes an appreciation that Mummy and Daddy are in the White House, the fire is burning in the hearth, the garden is well tended, the table set, the great republic continues to dominate the world, so we can all kick back and relax.

The covid crisis caused all sorts of emotional and financial problems and many, many deaths. But Americans are harder than us pussies in Aus. They are used to a dog-eat-dog society. Guns are everywhere. Gun deaths are common. War is an accepted and eternal part of the American way of life. So, the real gut punch to the American psyche that has been inflicted by the recent years of political and social argy-bargy has little to do with covid, or political unrest, or January 6, or even the overturning of Roe. American politics went off the rails for two presidential terms simply because their political leaders veered wildly off-script.

Both Hillary and Bill Clinton lost because Bill couldn’t keep it in his pants. Slick Willy Clinton commenced his incumbency as an overtly traditional family man – as with every other presidential hopeful before him. And for him as with all before him, the test for a President was as much a moral as a policy challenge. This is because the job of being the national American Daddy has always been considered as one that can be filled by only the most moral and ‘normal’ sorts of people. (People who don’t strap dogs to the top of cars when they go on holidays. Or keep a mistress. Or order criminals to burgle an office.)

So, when Hillary fronted to try and ‘crack the glass ceiling’, while there is no doubt that the American public were ready for a woman to be President, they were not ready to elect a ‘failed wife’. When you look at the figures, Trump beat Hillary on the votes of the suburban women of America. Trump was a strong virile man while Hillary was somehow insufficient. Her Daddy was playing the field. And fractured marriage would simply not work…

Then suddenly the real Trump appeared out of the haze of the election and the American political argument was suddenly ungrounded. Where once the excesses of the executive were restrained by the requirement to model a perfect family for the rest of the country, Trump decided that all of this was hoo-ha and could be dispensed with. Slavishly, the conservative media followed him. But the rest of the American polity and press were suddenly caught flat-footed.

The Republicans had unilaterally declared that the rules had changed. They were all now stating and constantly reiterating the proposition that the ends do justify the means. That a President need not be a ‘good guy’ at all. As long as he was strong and ‘one of us’.

And so we arrive where we are today. President Biden won because he resembled a good helpful grand-dad, not because anyone cared a jot about what he believed. By the time that the last election had arrived, that huge group of middle America who do not really pay much attention to politics were dead sick of twenty-four-hour Trump. His cult was as strong as ever, the Dems were still in disarray, but middle America turned against him. Not his policies but rather his chaos. The country decided Grandad Biden would do because he was a recognizable person.

Yet this still left the American Presidency detached from the traditional ethos of the leadership. Then when Joe started faltering, it so hurt the soul of middle America because they were watching their national GranDaddy failing. The charge that Joe is too old for the Presidency bit so deep and bled so readily simply because every person watching could empathize with the charge. We have all watched people we love being slowly reduced as they age.

Then suddenly, the events of the last few weeks seem to have caused a lot of middle America to once again engage with their political traditions and mythologies. This sudden and massive re-engagement has occurred simply because they have once again been provided with a model of a loving family to emulate and empathize with. The Stories being told in the convention are recognizable and uplifting. The candidate loves her husband and he loves her dearly. They both smile a lot. Everyone is happy.

In simple terms, America has so rapidly reacted to the arrival of Harris and Walz simply because they appreciate it as a return to tradition. A return to something that is immediately recognizable. Normality has once again started to reassert itself.

I have the popcorn out and I am huddled on the couch. For the last few outings I was really confused. Nothing about the unfolding drama was recognizable. Odd things were happening, for reasons that were unclear, all over the shop. But this time – along with millions of Yanks – I am really enjoying the show.

Right now, it looks like Mommy and Daddy are preparing to move back into the White House, and everyone is smiling, but this plot is moving quickly. I may have to duck out for more snacks…

Cool bananas

By Noel Wauchope

The latest news from Germany really shows up this problem. IF conditions are ideal a decision on a site for Germany’s underground nuclear waste repository could be made by 2074.

• That’s – 50 years to find a site.
• Then 20 years to build the underground dump.
• Then many decades for transporting and storing thousands of casks.

By Andrew Klein

One of the most dangerous, evil myths permeating western culture is the idea that good things happen to good people and bad shit happens to bad people. This mindset is rarely questioned; it’s become an integral part of the western world view.

Hand in hand with the callous indifference created by the neoliberal philosophy and the fiction of the free market bringing about ‘good’ outcomes, it is a simpletons view of the world that ignores the influences of state and non-state actors who actively engineer social outcomes.

The moment we see a disadvantaged individual, a homeless individual for example, there are plenty who immediately assume that the individual has failed, is flawed and was an active agent in their own suffering and disadvantage. With the ‘you must have done something to deserve this’ attitude, the observer moves on not questioning the factors involved. They can be dismissed.

Gaza and the ongoing slaughter of countless innocent and the failure of the west to take steps to end the slaughter and encourage steps that would benefit both sides in the long term is an example.

The suffering, the ongoing slaughter is dismissed out of hand. They, the obviously very different, must have done something to deserve it, and the butchery continues.

Careful examination of history and current political events are avoided. They ‘must have done something to deserve it’ is fed by crafted misinformation and lack of context. That none of this would be possible without the support of western powers is ignored. Political ideology and religious history are conflated and brutal partisanship is enforced.

It speaks to the cognitive dissonance created in the west; it may even speak to the level of violence we see in our own communities: The victims of domestic violence, the number of women killed whilst in relationships. The historic treatment of rape victims.

The victim is used to re-enforce the dangerous myth. The victim must have contributed to their own demise or suffering.

If you can look at any victim, the mutilated bodies or the homeless and food insecure in our own country or any other, and snub them because “bad shit happens to bad people”, then you are complicit in perpetuating this evil myth.

By Kerri Lynn

The bystander shot at the Trump rally was Corey Comperatore. From what we know:

“Corey Comperatore, 50, was a family man who loved to fish. He worked at a plastics manufacturing company, volunteered as a firefighter and went to church.”

What of the listed 5 character defining qualities of this poor man bears any vague resemblance or even similarity to the character of Donald Trump?

One has to assume the Trump MAGA followers see something in the orange man that supports their way of life and belief systems, and yet the two values systems could not be more polar. To me this defines the Trump/MAGA brigade as a cult. They believe him to be something he isn’t.

It is very sad that this man was killed while following a lying, cheating megalomaniac and felon, who screws money and support out of people to further his filthy rich lifestyle, but how on earth does any country draw back those gullible lost souls to reality?

1. Trump as a family man!? He told Ivana, when Don Jr was born that he didn’t want the baby named after him because “what if he turns out a loser?”

2. He lusts after his first daughter and seems to forget the second daughter. He sought time out of his court case to attend Barron’s graduation. And then didn’t.

3. Can anyone seriously envision Trump even eating fish, let alone catching one.

4. Manual labour is for losers in the Trump playbook as his treatment of the workers of Atlanta would attest.

5. Volunteer work means no income and as for running towards danger to help others!?

And we all know that Trump believes church to be a place that you stand still in front of and hold up a book for a press photo op.

Provided that place has been gutted by fire and you have never read the book you hold.

America has a lot of issues with its politics which stem from its self-image.

Trump seeks to rewrite that self-image as a nation of winning victims versus losing elites.

When realistically he is dividing the nation into gullible, blind faith followers and those who question or seek to find truth or are well educated to know the truth and whom Trump calls elites because they are smarter than him. Of course, the irony of Trump’s self-portrait is rarely missed by anyone who doesn’t wear a red cap.

This persistence to divide in order to conquer in a pressure cooker country with more guns than people and more people who have learned to handle a gun, through military service, than have an ongoing job is the powder keg into which Trump, like the little box with the lady with artificially red hair is a match waiting to be lit.

By Tracie Aylmer

The US Supreme Court has just given full unprecedented immunity to the President of the United States. No matter what criminal activity he does or wants to do, nothing will be declared as evidence.

As the Supreme court is GOP aligned, they are expecting Trump to win. He has already declared that if he becomes president again, he will enact revenge. America’s civil war will be very short. Trump will be the dictator that everyone fears.

He will fight dirty. We have already seen what he is capable of. There will be no saving America if he gets in charge.

Everyone asking about his convictions? They will be wiped if he gets in. He will be accountable for literally none of his actions, past, present, or future.

It has been noted by some of the more astute media observers that Rupert Murdoch attended his fifth wedding wearing a conventional lounge suit and ‘sneakers’. Has Rupert gone punk asked one observer who suggested that this attire was more in line with the rebellious streak one would expect from Keith Richards or perhaps Sir Rod Stewart who have been known to challenge conventional dress standards from time to time. Perhaps Rupert is setting a new fashion style for the ninety-year-old celebrity man-about-town or maybe he thought he was going for a jog or an outing to the beach : who knows ?

To the casual observer it may seem that Rupert’s upmarket plimsolls may have just been for comfort and balance which instantly brings Joe Biden to mind as he is also known to sport [orthopaedic] sneakers on odd occasions when you would expect a pair of polished Oxfords as more appropriate to set off his besuited ensemble.

It has also been noted that Joe is frequently seen to be surrounded by stocky people these days when he is out and about : some say that this is possibly a take from Weekend at Bernie’s but that could be a tad unfair – more likely these solid folk surrounding POTUS are there to step in with a helping hand when he stumbles periodically or to nudge him back onto the straight and narrow should he stray.

But let’s be honest, us old codgers are generally more comfortable in a pair of favoured slippers or our comfortable sneakers and when you are on your fifth marriage, as the old coffin dodger is, I suppose it’s not such a big deal and his bride, in her sixties, should she wish to be carried over the threshold of their love nest will require her stud to demonstrate stamina and a sound footing.

Each to their own !

By Maria Millers

Over the last decade, we have seen social media grow rapidly in use and importance. Marketing and advertising has shifted away from its traditional home of TV and newspapers to social media and a new profession that of the influencer has emerged: a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending it on social media.

It first began with celebrities such as film stars endorsing products but has shifted to social media using people who have built a large following. And increasingly they are children and predominantly young girls.

Last week’s ABC Four Corners program was uncomfortable watching. To see young children, or kidfluencers as they are called, used as pawns in promoting products with questionable outcomes for the child’s future wellbeing. In his poem, The Rainbow, Romantic Poet William Wordsworth reminds us that early experiences and emotions shape who we become as adults when he wrote the much-quoted line, The Child is father of the Man.

There was a feeling of exploitation of childhood, that the young people featured were being robbed of their innocence and that this was made possible by the complicity of parents, well-meaning or otherwise. Were the parents living unrealised dreams vicariously through their children? Were the children used to bolster family income?

In our culture we view childhood as a hallowed period of innocence, but it was not always so and the concept of childhood is only a recent invention which for generations did not exist, and children were not afforded special care. Since Christianity believed that everyone was born with original sin, until the 17th century children were not regarded as innocent, but as fallen angels. This is why many of the largest denominations who believe in original sin practice infant baptism.

In fact, going back in history to pre-Enlightenment times and depending on your social ranking, children were more likely to be over-worked, terrorized, abandoned and sexually abused. And since seven out of ten children didn’t survive to adulthood, inhumane as it may sound, parents did not invest sentimentally in a relationship with their children. Even privileged children were left in the care of others.

Even though a new view of human nature and children has evolved since the Enlightenment, even as late as the Victorian era children were still neglected and abused; working in appalling conditions in factories and mines. Think of all the neglected, poverty stricken and abused children in Dickens’ novels, and in poetry as well. In The Chimney Sweeper William Blake writes:

When my mother died I was very young,

And my father sold me while yet my tongue

Could scarcely cry ” ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!”

So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.

Today we regard childhood as a distinct and important period in human development, but that is not to say that for many millions of children life is far from picture perfect.

Today as we shop for what has become known as fast fashion, slave child labour is present in almost every step of the supply chain: from the harvesting of cotton balls to repetitive tasks like beading, trimming etc. carried out in fetid sweat shops. The cheap prices we pay come at a human cost to the future of these invisible children.

But what was troubling in the Four Corners program was that we were seeing very young children who were even not legally allowed to have an online account or a job, become fully immersed in promoting products and themselves. The extent and intensity of these kidfluencers raises concerns about potential harmful impacts on the future physical and emotional health of these children.

And because there appears to be more young girls than boys the disturbing unintended consequence of promoting themselves is that many encounter a dark underworld of the internet dominated by men, including paedophiles.

There was even a frank admission by the mother of Ava – one of the featured girls – when queried about possible dangers of such exposure she freely admitted that Ava was not allowed to go out to the shops or travel on public transport on her own!

The program left you with a feeling of child exploitation, indeed perhaps even abuse. And all done with parental consent. In fact, a high level of parental involvement

But what about informed consent on the part of the child?

The lure, of course, is predominantly money, and parents always say the money is being held for the child’s future needs, such as laying down the foundations for a career or creating a healthy bank balance for future security. And the financial rewards can be staggering. Toy reviewer Ryan Kanji’s family is reputed to earn US$25 million a year

But who audits this? And who monitors the physical and mental welfare of these children?

There has of course always been anxiety associated with new technologies from the printing press to radio and TV and now computers, often seen as undermining the cultural landscape and encouraging vice and unnatural behaviour. However, it’s undeniable that the internet is central in our lives, from education to socializing to daily transactions such as paying bills and ordering groceries, and is increasingly regarded by some as a human right.

Before social media, those seeking the limelight might have got an agent and pursued acting or modelling, but now influencing is a way to cut out the middleman and reach audiences directly.

Governments all over the world are increasingly recognizing the growing need to protect children online. In Australia the Online Safety Act 2021aims at countering online bullying, image-based abuse and harmful content, but the Act does not focus on specific risks for children’s online participation in influencer activities.

So far, the French government appears to be the only one that has taken tangible action to regulate the labour of child social media influencers. Under French law, children below age 16 can only work limited hours, and their earnings must be safeguarded in an account made accessible when they turn 16.

In the US, the Coogan Act (named after child star Jackie Coogan) was signed into law in 1939 to regulate child labour in the entertainment industry, but no equivalent laws have been enacted for child social media stars.

We like to believe that parents always act in the best interests of their children but what we are witnessing with kidfluencers on social media is that this may not always be true. Children need more protection from not only the dark side of the internet but also sometimes from the actions of those who should be safeguarding their physical and emotional wellbeing. The challenge to lawmakers is how to control abuse and exploitation when the new workplace may be the family kitchen.

From the 4 Corners program we can see that this should be an urgent priority to avoid a generation of damaged young people. Surely we have evolved from those past eras when children had no rights and protections to one where we owe our future generation a duty of care to become physically and emotionally well-balanced adults and citizens.

This be the Verse

“They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.” (Philip Larkin, High Windows)

This article was originally published on the Ferntree Gully Star Mail.

By Frances Goold

He asked if we had anything planned for Anzac Day.

“A big rest” was all I could come up with. “What about you?”

“We’ll go to the Dawn Service.”

“Kids too?”

“The kids have been coming with us to the Dawn Service since they were babies. Later there’s a few of us will head off to the two-up game. The ring’s sandbagged, there’s refreshments, it’s a big tradition here.”

We’d been hanging pictures when I noticed the tat on his arm. It didn’t seem like the usual macho array so I asked if he would show it to me.

He nodded, “Sure”, raised his sleeve, and turned his arm over.

I was so moved that for a second or so I couldn’t speak. Suddenly the only picture in the room was his.

“It’s for my Pop”, he said, “he was a Rat of Tobruk. He’s passed now.”

“How was he when he came home?”

“He was fine… but he’d been wounded, hit by shrapnel, so he had that.”

“Did he talk about his experiences?”

“No, he never spoke of it, and he lived till he was 98.”

The Rats of Tobruk were soldiers of the Australian-led Allied garrison that held the Libyan port of Tobruk against the Afrika Corps during the Siege of Tobruk, which began on April 11, 1941 and ended on December 10. The port continued to be held by the Allies until its surrender on June 21, 1942.

Between April and August 1941, some 35,000 allies, including around 14,000 Australian soldiers, were besieged in Tobruk by a German–Italian army commanded by General Erwin Rommel. The garrison, commanded by Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead, included the 9th Australian Division (20th, 24th, and 26th Brigades), the 18th Brigade of the 7th Australian Division, four regiments of British artillery, and the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade.

According to the Australian War Memorial online archive, the Australian casualties from the 9th Division from 8th April to 25th October numbered 749 killed, 1,996 wounded, and 604 prisoners. The total losses in the 9th Division and attached troops from 1st March to 15th December amounted to 832 killed, 2,177 wounded and 941 prisoners.

The Australians held out for almost eight months against the German siege, which was abandoned by the Germans after 242 days when, on December 7, 1941, Rommel made the decision to fall back to Gazala. However, on June 21, 1942, Rommel began a second offensive that finally captured the fortress.

According to Colonel Ward A. Miller, “the Australians’ epic stand at Tobruk had a major impact on the war because the Germans suffered a serious and unexpected reversal. The Tobruk garrison demonstrated that the hitherto successful German blitzkrieg tactics could be defeated by resolute men who displayed courage and had the tactical and technical ability to coordinate and maximize the capabilities of their weapons and equipment in the defence.”

My proud assistant’s grandfather served in the 9th Division.

Although it’s that time of year when profound and raw emotions are held and privileged by collective remembrances across the nation, I wasn’t anticipating such a whack of it whilst hanging pictures at home.

“Every picture here tells a story”, I had said to him while we measured, drilled, and hung the first few, then suddenly here was his.

Later, while he was packing up, I asked on impulse if I might take a photograph of the tattoo, maybe write something respectful.

It wasn’t simply that I wished to capture the moment when a young married man and father of two small children paused in his work to share with me something of immense pride for him and his family, but I felt compelled to record a small, perfect work of remembrance inscribed into his flesh that both embodied and symbolised the spirit of his soldier-grandfather – as if it were a talisman I needed to hold unto myself for a little while. Revealed by his outstretched arm was a loving pride and authenticity of feeling with which I had somehow lost connection and was determined not to have disappear as soon as it had arrived.

There are memories that are suppressed, and remembrances that go on, and there are reminders of the things we are losing or have lost.

That tattoo was a reveille of sorts and a little tap toe for which I am grateful. And it’ll be that much harder to ignore the day.

By Maria Millers

For many the long-stablished story of the Gallipoli landings and to a lesser extent the Western Front remain the defining moments for our country. Just minted as a new nation in 1901, but still very British, our other achievements were put aside to lay the foundations of our national identity based on our participation in a war that ended up costing us so much in human terms: the injured and damaged, the toll on families and the disruption to our society

So why then have we not given the same importance to other aspects of our history? After all, the coming together of six British colonies as a new nation was an enormous achievement. Equally impressive were the pioneering social reforms that this newly federated nation was able to achieve ahead of many other countries: from granting women the right to vote and stand for elections, to social reforms like the old Age pension in 1909.Significant industrial and welfare reforms followed establishing Australia as ‘a path breaking new nation.’

Instead we have been made to accept war as a defining moment of our entry into nationhood.

War correspondent Charles Bean was most influential in creating the myth we have come to accept uncritically. His writing was often far from the reality of what it was like on the ground or mud at Gallipoli and the Western Front and he wrote what he thought the public back home wanted to hear. His writing also reflected the opinions of Officers in the AIF and the politicians back home.

But as political historian Benedict Anderson once said, national identity is a product of the imagination, and the stories we choose to tell ourselves about our past are the ones that define us. We have created an idealised sanitised version of a tall, khaki clad man with a slouch hat against a backdrop of some defining war image.

Yet among the first ‘Anzacs’ there were also Indigenous Australians, Australians of German descent, and Asian Australians. Some 1000 Indigenous Australians are thought to have served in the AIF, on Gallipoli and the Western Front. And 3000 Australian women enlisted in WW1 as nurses, doctors and in other supportive roles.

Another contentious issue is that our reflection of our military history never acknowledges the unspoken wars: The Frontier Wars between settlers and the Indigenous. The official Anzac story however has been nurtured and elevated to the status of a national myth. And myths are always preferred to historical accuracy.

The first Anzac Day march took place in 1916 and was very much about recruiting for the ongoing war. The first Dawn Service was in 1920 and by 1927 Anzac Day became a public holiday in all states and territories.

The horrendous loss of life in WW1 impacted on Australian society in so many ways. In a country of around 5 million 62000 had lost their lives. The ongoing focus on the moment of battle ignored the post war suffering of this huge number of men (and women) who returned shell shocked, wounded, disabled and disfigured. Equally impacted were the families who cared for them.

But politicians soon realized that there was political mileage in promoting the Anzac story, particularly when there was an unpopular war to prosecute. Prime Ministers from Hawke, Howard through to Gillard and Rudd have all used the Anzac story for political reasons.

Not that there was no criticism about what some called ‘legislated nostalgia’ that came to surround Anzac Day and its commemoration. Writers like George Johnston and playwright Alan Seymour challenged this approach to our military history.

Seymour’s play revolves around a father son conflict. The son, Hughie a university student refuses for the first time to attend the dawn service which traditionally was then followed by a day of drunkenness, illegal gambling and the inevitable brawls and public vomiting.

Alf his father has served and is an embittered man. This play which was so controversial back in the 60s is eerily relevant as it looks at so many issues we still grapple with today: immigration, health services, substance abuse, family violence and the recent rise of jingoism that has crept into our commemoration of Anzac and other wars we have been involved in.

Similarly, writer George Johnston in his autobiographical novel My Brother Jack brings us face to face with the reality for those tens of thousands who made it back alive, but damaged, Who can forget his description of the hallway of the Meredith home: a gas mask on the hall stand, sturdy walking sticks, artificial limbs propped up against a wall and the inevitable wheelchair, all powerful symbols of the impact of the war on those who served. And these were just the obvious physical injuries and not the mental ones that haunted so many then as well as those from recent conflicts such as the Vietnam War.

In the 1960s and 70s some Australians returning from the Vietnam War felt, as attitudes to the war changed, that their service during a decade of conflict 1962- 1972 was not appreciated by the public and that they were excluded from the Anzac tradition. They chose not to participate in Anzac Day events until October 1987 when a special Welcome Home Parade was held. Tragically 523 had died, 3000 were wounded and many still carry psychological wounds.

A more recent commentary comes from Iraq and Afghanistan veteran James Brown in his book Anzac’s Long Shadow where he argues that Australia is spending too much time, money and emotion on our obsession with the Anzac legend at the expense of current serving men and women. He dismisses any suggestion that criticism of the Anzac myth is ‘unaustralian.’ And he pulls no punches in calling out the clubs, charities and corporations that exploit the Anzac theme for commercial gain.

The term Anzackery was coined by historian Geoffrey Serle to draw attention to inflated rhetoric that has built up around Anzac Day celebrations. He would have found it disturbing to see how a jingoistic tone has crept into the commemorations. Add to that the ever-expanding range of Anzac merchandise from badges, oven mitts, Tshirts, poppies and other kitsch mementoes and Gallipoli cruises. It is hoped that some of the proceeds flow to making life easier for the veterans.

Myths and legends reflect the values of the societies in which they exist and at the core of the Anzac tradition is the belief that nations and men are made in war. This prevents us from asking important questions about who we are and what kind of society we want to live in.

Many Australians, while respectful of our war dead, are uncomfortable with the way we now remember them. Families will always mourn their loved ones and respect memories of their ancestors without the need for exaggerated sentimentalism.

Australia is a very different country today and choosing Gallipoli as the foundation moment for our nation is fraught with problems of leaving out so much of our rich and complex history from the national narrative. We should also remind ourselves of the reality of all wars, so vividly expressed in the following poem by Wilfred Owen:

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

Notes: Latin phrase is from the Roman poet Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”

‘Mental health’; a broad canvas that permits a highly misinformed landscape where anything goes, particularly ignorance and social stigma. Can’t we do better than this?

I wondered how long it would take for the mainstream media to blame the public mental health system and I am very disappointed SBS is leading the charge with journalist Charis Chang and SBS Editors running the headline: ‘Bondi attack puts spotlight on ‘ramshackle’ mental health system, experts say‘.

As for the two ‘mental health’ experts cited in this article, Sydney University professor Anthony Harris and National Mental Health Consumer Alliance chair Priscilla Brice, both should join their ranks as professional opportunists gathering the limelight all too ready to once again stigmatise people with mental illness, blaming it almost entirely on the public mental health system. It may not have been their intention, but they are intelligent enough to know this is the way it will be used or interpreted by the media, and perceived by politicians and the general public, looking for someone or some organisation to blame just two days later.

The act of one man, whether they have a mental illness or not does not make the public mental health system liable inasmuch as in a court of law, someone else is not ordinarily culpable or liable for an act perpetrated by another – that is mob mentality, it is speculative at best and has no causative relationship, it is reckless.

Once again it falls to consumers and carers such as NSW resident Dorothy Cross to remind us that people with a mental illness or indeed schizophrenia are more likely to be victims of society than perpetrators. Statistically speaking the public are more at risk from people with fundamentalist religious or political beliefs, extremists, people with means, criminals, gangs, those with extreme ideological beliefs, little or no ethical, moral or social values, conscience or judgment more commonly found in the general population than people with mental illness. In fact, it is people with mental illness that will suffer as a result of this kind of insensitive, poorly nuanced, motivated and timed (though I’d like to brand here) rubbish journalism. Not what I’d expect from SBS, and certainly not prematurely from our two ‘so called’ experts.

There are a number of elephants in the room

Did it ever occur to either of the two ‘mental health’ experts that the man here who carried out this horrific and dreadful act in Bondi Junction mall was or may NOT have been a recipient of the public mental health system, and was hidden from view by private psychiatry, socially and politically backed by society itself. It would appear closer examination of the initial facts emerging, that for last 18 years he had been seeing private psychiatrist/s in Queensland, which had kept him out of the purview of the public mental health system even in his own substantive State of residence. As such you cannot then blame lack of public mental health services, access, funding, follow up, care coordination or even lack of consumer financial capacity in paying for continuing medication which might keep him well (if he is able one way or another to afford a private psychiatrist, but perhaps that too became the operant factor). Nor indeed if a private patient chooses to cease seeing their private psychiatrist and later move inter-State beneath the radar.

Where is the connection here between private psychiatry and the public mental health system? Disturbingly it is the unhealthy opportunistic if not symbiotic-parasitic relationship that private psychiatry exerts on the public mental health system, removing a ‘patient’ from the more comprehensive and effective umbrella of the public mental health system and then abandoning their responsibility when their ‘client’ no longer turns up. Where is the bridge for follow up, where is the net without someone to cast it?

Yet our two experts here, choose to jump on the bandwagon with SBS, so soon after this tragic event, and blame this on a ‘ramshackle’ public mental health system in another State – That is the headline and I see no counter argument to it in this article. I find this quite outrageous and it does a huge disservice to people with mental illness, family and carers, to mental health staff of our public mental health system (with all its faults, funding, political and institutional problems), further stigmatising mental illness, mental health and de facto, if not by poor judgment misleading the general public, strengthening the reactionary and ignorant arm of politicians and health ministers who are in fact part of the problem for legislating and creating this apartheid, enmeshed privileged and blind private – public mental health divide in our society.

While psychiatrists always come out on this misguided defence of their practice and ironically blame the public mental health system or its funding, they fail to recognise their overarching conservative institutional involvement in it and the covert private psychiatry they avariciously defend sucking the energy and capacity on elitist salaries out of our public mental health system, as well as leaving it blind. Perhaps Professor Harris should consider this as a frontline social, political and broader institutional problem alongside the impact of his voice in this article on the pliable discourse of public perception at the beckon mercy of our ill-informed and largely privately owned mainstream media (hence why I am seriously disappointed with SBS, who as an uncertain private-public broadcaster entity should nevertheless know better).

As for the National Mental Health Consumer Alliance which strongly advocates for more private sector psychologists, they are only adding to this misadventure by putting their faith in another private sector establishment and powerful institution, echoing the same blunted path, ‘business model’ and self-interest of private psychology. And the chair of this self-appointed conglomerate has her expert mental health background, self-described as ‘neurodivergent’, and graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), an MBA in Social Impact from the University of NSW, and a substantive career in racial equity. Perhaps the chair of this organisation might do better to likewise consider the consequences of her general speculation before the facts pertinent to this event are fully known, given her expert brush with social inequality in our society.

Last but not least has any mainstream media reporting on this event considered to distinguish between mental health and mental illness, noting the repeated unchallenged reporting (of which the ABC and others have been complicit), where NSW police have frequently and exclusively referred to this man and his ‘mental health background’, note not ‘mental illness’ but ‘mental health’? Mentally healthy people do not behave this way, and while mental health is not the antithesis of ‘mental illness’, nor do people with ‘mental illness’ typically behave this way – distinct and subtle nuances not mentioned by way of balance in the cited article or any other live broadcast or ‘newsworthy’ report I have read or heard to date since this event unfolded.

We have no reliable facts of ‘substance’ here, no mention or ruling out of alcohol or substance use, character profile, personality disorder, criminal behaviour, hatred, bitterness and vengeful, institutional/social alienation, or plethora of other potential and accumulative variables, factors and reinforcers at play previously mentioned; or the impact, social consequences and risks of any of these – But as usual like sheep jumping absent fences, straight to ‘mental health’, a broad canvas that permits a highly misinformed landscape where anything goes – but particularly ignorance, social stigma, poor journalism and disappointing commentary from ‘so called’ experts.

By Jane Salmon, voluntary refugee advocate for over 11 years.

Introduction:

The facts are obvious.

As Senator Meereen Faruqi has written, this Bill would:

• Create a travel ban on certain countries (it is not clear which ones).
• Send people to jail for at least 1 year if they don’t cooperate with the Government in their own removal to a country they fled.
• Allow any Immigration Minister to overturn visas of refugees who have already been provided protection.

It may also fracture families further.

Immigration matters are growing ever more complex. It’s not like there is going to be a reduction in people fleeing wars any time soon. Stop-gap, kneejerk, partial, piecemeal or reactive solutions are inadequate.

Mechanisms are missing. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Immigration Administration Authority are not fully operational at this time. The Administrative Review Tribunal or ART intended to replace AAT is not yet up and running.

The whole Immigration system needs a comprehensive independent review before other measures are put in place.

Global and domestic Immigration challenges took time to evolve. They require commensurately comprehensive, integrated and detailed solutions.

Immigration decisions must not be based on discrimination, the clumping of individuals together by nationality or arrival mode.

There is a tendency by Governments and voters to scapegoat vulnerable immigrants for economic challenges arising from poor domestic policy or planning. They must be protected from this.

A few criminals seeking protection are no excuse for taking measures that risk treating all refugees harshly.

Governments and political trends change. We cannot trust that the legislation will always be applied in a benign, consistent or reasonable way.

Overall, Department of Immigration needs to replace unaccountable, vague or generalised processing mechanisms. The solutions are broader still than a catch-all Bill that extends Ministerial power without delivering reciprocal responsibility.

Five-year jail terms followed by fines and/or forced deportation for deportation refuseniks is excessive.

Double or triple jeopardy for law breakers (in the form of indefinite detention after a court prescribed sentence and deportation) already discriminates against non-citizens harshly. They’ve already done their sentence time.

“Fast Track” is not fast. Its victims have been through legal ordeals for a decade or more. They paid tax and lawyers while living with uncertainty and while being separated from other relatives. How about an amnesty?

This Migration Act Amendment Bill 2024 exposes systematic problems. It presents the Senate with the opportunity to require higher standards of the Immigration Department while also protecting human rights.

Meanwhile, in Melbourne …

On 11 April 2024 Kalyani Inpakumar, represented the Tamil Refugee Council, participated in a crucial discussion addressing the Migration Legislation (Removal and other Measures) Bill 2024.

Main Argument:

The 2024 Migration Amendment Bill is Risky Yet Fixes Too Little

The Immigration system is already quite arbitrary and a bit of a patchwork.

The Bill is general and sweeping. It might catch out folk who have done their best to stay within the rules.

It would be cruel to tell the most tenacious and their offspring to push off and take their problems elsewhere after over a decade of putting them through the wringer in court after court. They’ve adapted. They studied. They’ve worked. They’ve paid lawyers. We need an amnesty for these people.

Sometimes the most stubborn people are the most afraid. They are not economic migrants seeking a shortcut. How do we distinguish between them?

Golden Ticket Migration is Unfair

A mature nation addresses inequity rather than scapegoating poorer groups and building up elites.

Wellbeing arises from equal opportunity, not class division. This applies to refugees and migrants too.

We’re better than this. The “Fair Go” should start (or stops) at the Australian border.

Certainly, working within the Department of Immigration is hard. People keep coming. Few of the arrivals fully understand the situation they’re in. (There are quite a few faux refugees that can be annoying or worse. Folk fly in on student visas, accept front line jobs and then apply for protection. Criminals need rehabilitating regardless of background. If you truly fear death, don’t take a holiday back home).

Arbitrary Rulings Are Not Fair

Cabinet Ministers occasionally intervene to let iconic families through to Permanent Residency. This seems arbitrary when Government ignores the majority that arrived the same way under similar circumstances and demonstrate the same love of Australia in their commitment to local community. Precedents are not consistently recognised or followed through.

Missing Mechanisms

The Administrative Review Tribunal or ART is not yet up and running. It is intended to replace the AAT:

“On 7 December 2023, the Australian Government introduced legislation which will abolish the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) and replace it with a new body called the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART).

“All cases currently before the AAT will continue. Many cases currently before the AAT will be decided or finalised before the AAT is abolished. All decisions made by the AAT will remain valid and final.

Once the new body is established, any remaining cases will transition to the new body. If you have applied to the AAT for review of a decision and your case is transitioned to the new body, you will not need to submit a new application for review to the body.”

Why care?

When human rights shrink, human authenticity becomes less safe. The happiest nations are the fairest and most equitable. Or so studies tell us.

Second generation children should not be punished lifelong for sub-optimal choices made by their parents.

What Emergency?

Iranian activist Arad Nik, who is grateful to have Permanent Residency already, says:

“We unite with a single voice, calling on politicians to halt the impending Migration Amendment Bill 2024, slated for next month. This bill, in its current form, threatens the fabric of compassion and understanding in our immigration system.”

Mr Nik adds:

“The Bill is being touted as a solution to a false emergency. It implies that all people seeking protection visas are gaming a broken application mechanism. If that were so, most would have given up after twelve hard years.”

This sudden Bill does not fix problems that have been around for decades. It papers over 20-year-old failings of previous governments. It punishes applicants for gaps in the refugee admissions process.

It certainly doesn’t deal with the individuals left behind simply because a harried lawyer missed an appointment.

The Bill is far reaching. It’ll certainly give the Minister power to toss away the few bad apples (to who knows where). But what of innocents caught in the same mess?

With notable exceptions, the politicians and public servants who have bumbled and bungled their way through decisions (for which they are not held accountable) still collect salaries and pensions. Improving accountability will help everyone.

The only “emergency” is the potential for further Government embarrassment in the High Court. Measured, comprehensive, far-sighted and mature responses are needed. Media and politicians should be challenged over their part in exacerbating such drama.

What is really at stake? Only our nation’s future.

Kids of blocked asylum seekers are punished for parental decisions. Kids of blocked asylum seekers end up in a form of purgatory. It is hard on developing minds.

They work hard to learn in a new language. They see their ambitious school peers go on to uni but they generally cannot afford the international fees they would be charged if they manage to qualify.

On Thursday 11 April 2024, some overlooked children of people lacking permanent resident status spoke up outside the Home Affairs Minister’s Oakleigh electoral office, seeking “A Fair Go”.

These vibrant young folk are brimming with potential and want tertiary study opportunities: not dead ends. Few get scholarships if their visa status is tenuous.

Australian high schools have raised a group of young people capable of becoming doctors, but then we deny them affordable access to university. Blocking their ability is not good for them. Nor is it efficient for the nation and education system that helped raise them to adulthood.

More video interviews are available.

Challenges in Assessing Individual Circumstances

It is hard to assess all the variables from behind a desk, yet that is what we ask Immigration staff to do. We do not necessarily hold them to account for those choices either.

Are they adequately trained to preside over life and death decisions? This is not like getting a development application or a pet permit.

How do we measure the risk to individuals?

We are aware of nations with the death penalty for homosexuality, but what of unofficial penalties in apparently more relaxed countries. When honour killing is a practice only applied by some religious groups or families, who gets to decide what the real risk is?

What if your close relatives demanded your death after a marital conflict?

What if you had to jump your back fence in the middle of the night to escape the same armed raiders who threatened and then murdered your father and brother?

How do you retrieve and preserve evidence of those threats? You are not a documentarist in that moment, but a fugitive. Perhaps you a really nice one. But no one knows or cares.

How do asylum seekers present evidence when phones are filtered, removed, damaged (let alone replaced with more basic models as they are on Nauru).

Case Studies

Some refugees I meet make a lasting positive impression. They’re not always the most charming, slick or talented of their cohort, but they are the ones that have struggled on heroically, maintained positivity. They dream of short, regular reunions with whatever is left of their families.

They’ve ignored most “othering” and gotten on with work, volunteering and contributing tax. They’ve studied to improve their employability: even when higher education costs them the earth. They’ve dealt with cultural and language transitions while relatives are threatened back home. They do not receive the supports that full citizens of Australia take for granted. They must live from visa to visa or one paperwork hiccup to the next.

Case 1:

There is the bright Iranian mum running a business while she hoists and helps her lovely son with cerebral palsy and an IT qualification. Her back aches. The family is denied NDIS. She helped her daughter afford international uni fees for a Masters in radiography by running a pizza shop. Yet she pays the same tax as any Aussie. She does online training and keeps on keeping on. She has done it harder than most, but also acknowledges the struggles of other young non-disabled migrant kids coming to the end of secondary education. She’s still got empathy.

Case 2:

There is the sweet, sad chap whose lawyer didn’t show up at court. He has no visa. His mates from the same region were granted Permanent Residency in court that very day. They just picked a different lawyer. They are a strong group, and he lives by their charity while volunteering; but where will the Bill leave him? He has been failed by Fast Track. Some immediate family members were recently killed back in his province. Officially, his nation is not at war. In practice, his ethnicity, regional politics, religion and family history make it hard to stay alive there. His minority status means he doesn’t get the chance to move to a distant capital. Nor do his qualifications seem to help his situation.

A Ministerial Intervention application is his only hope, but will the Minister even get time to read it?

Case 3:

Medevacced Kurds from Manus are in a similar position. They are discriminated against by their country. And that is a nation that will not accept repatriation. Why should industrious and creative individuals be punished for international diplomatic failures or their mode of arrival across decades. When is enough?

Gentle Tamils and Rohingyans have also suffered offshore.

Case 4:

All the young adults who grew up here without the comfort or rights that accompany permanent residency. They cannot afford international tertiary fees for tertiary courses. They have earned the marks but cannot readily raise the fees while undertaking demanding study. Indeed, we are literally missing out on doctors.

Alex, age 20:

“I have lived in Australia for 10 years. Since completing year 12, I have completed a Diploma in Construction. I want to go on to do a degree in Construction Project Management. My teachers were keen to organise a scholarship for me. However, I can’t do this now, as I got a letter from Home Affairs in December last year to say my visa has changed, and I no longer have study rights.”

“My younger brother is doing Year 12 this year. He wants to study sports science, but now he does not have study rights, he won’t be able to enrol in University. So now he’s starting to lose interest in school.” (Source: ASRC).

Where Does Australia Start or End?

Oversimplifications like the fear-based “sovereign borders” doctrine will not stem the arrival of people trying to flee crowded and squalid refugee camps. We need to extend and improve regional processing.

Using Nauru as an offshore centre paid for (but not run by) Australian Government seems convoluted. We need to protect workers and detainees under Australian laws rather than play shell games with an ever-changing array of contractors.

More and Better Regional Processing Centres May Slow Boats

How do people get here when they are already on the run?

Process people nearer the source of crisis.

Orderly, secure assessment for Immigration intake requires calm queues at checkpoint where individuals can recover, study intake rules and then pull together and translate their case data.

There are instead overcrowded, squalid refugee camps like Cox’s Bazaar where disease, floods, fire, hurricane, bad sanitation and inadequate power make every single week even more arduous for Rohingyans fleeing massacre in Myanmar.

There is a long wait for UNHCR recognition there or in Malaysia and Indonesia.

An Amnesty for Fast Track Victims is essential.

“Fast Track” is broken and slow. They got cursory assessments. The remaining “Fast Track arrivals” who have floundered through several courts across a decade need to be allowed to stay, not punished further. They are already working and adapting. Living in perpetual flux is damaging. Noone can afford so much litigation. There are only around 10,000 of them. It is hardly an inundation.

Policies influenced by international trends in handling refugees or national security need to be reviewed for objectivity.

An amnesty for those who were Medevacced here from offshore will not start boats. In fact, the boats never completely stopped. Many vessels are turned back. Moreover, planes bring many more people daily.

Accountability in Detention:

Offshore detention on Nauru entails management proxies free from press or impartial police scrutiny. The previous iteration of detention on Nauru offered health care that was substandard, conditions that were squalid, minimal protection and justice that was absent. Now we learn that even access to family WhatsApp chats and online human rights information is filtered.

By Jane Salmon

If The Jackboots Actually Fit … Why Does Labor Keep Tripping Over Its Own Feet?

On Tuesday, a bunch of bright young refugees went to parliament to talk about their community contribution, their quest for permanent residency and what more they could give the nation if granted domestic tertiary study rights.

They were to meet with independent members of parliament and senators, alongside sector organisers like Jana Favero of ASRC. Interacting with politicians and representing the sector seemed positive enough.

But instead of sharing their dreams, these young people ended up addressing the nightmare of deportation, in the light of proposed Amendments to the Migration Act.

The actual bill seems not only hasty and loose, but an over-reaction.

Just who are these measures intended for? Dare the Government even say?

By Callen Sorensen Karklis

Many Australians are heard saying that they’re feeling the pinch, especially at the checkouts! Gone are the days of Australia being the lucky country! Australia is well and truly amid a crippling cost of living and housing crisis because of excessive greed and bad policy. As Dorothy says in the Wizard of Oz, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…?” These same words would now apply to many in land of Oz under the Southern Cross: “I don’t think we’re lucky anymore” …. “This isn’t the Australia I remember”.

How did we get to this point? Believe it or not the supermarket giants weren’t always this way. Inflation is playing a big part mixed into the current economic climate. This is due to the aftereffects of the Covid–19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, but also particularly due to excessive greed. Greed exacerbated since the 1980s neoliberal reforms globally under all sides of politics, and the failures of learning from the GFC in 2007–2008.

First, we must understand history and politics. In Australia, much like the United States, the country bolstered a strong agricultural market during its colonial era which grew and flourished. Agrarian socialism mixed in with the fight for workers’ rights in the minerals market in a flourishing gold mining boom led to the foundation of the early Australian labour movement in the mid-late 19th century. And with it the Australian Labor Party in 1891.

Believe it or not it wasn’t always the Country or National Party that was the party of the farmers. Labor today is always coined as the party for the worker, but Labor was also the party for the farmers. Farming co–ops were becoming the norm in early Federation in many regional and local localities and this was boosted by early Labor Premiers like Ted Theodore in QLD who established an Agricultural Bank, while encouraging fruit produce production and orderly marketing and controls on price fluctuations while developing this space for farming. In simple terms, fair prices for fair work made for all. Pure socialism! But it worked!

Areas like where I come from (the Redlands) were the salad bowls of their state like in South–East Qld. This is how the Tingalpa Shire Council (now part of Redlands, Logan, and BCC) and a majority of South Eastern municipalities in Brisbane and places like Gympie (nowadays dominated by conservative rule) were dominated by the early Labour movement from early federation until the mid-1950s. Tingalpa Mayor such as JD. Collins advocated openly Labor Party candidates at a state level in the mid-1930s who had clear links to the farming co-ops of the day.

Wesfarmers was one example of another co-op that evolved gradually into a conglomerate corporate shopping chain, while others later sold the farm to build developments. Since the 1970s the supermarkets have been burdened by their own success which has today led to a culture of greed within the industry. (Former Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci stormed out of an ABC Four Corners interview when questioned over high prices at the checkouts).

My great grandfather (four generations before me) James Wilson Hughes, was a grocer in Gympie, the son of an Irish miner, later mining manager and seamstress small business owner and immigrants who operated his own family business. He turned to insurance and politics becoming the longest serving city alderman of his day from 1919–1959. As working directly with farmers (the producers) and with the community bred the perfect way forward to become politically engaged. My forebear in true Boardwalk Empire style became an influential figure in the mining agricultural working-class town as its Town Treasurer funding projects and works during the Great Depression and establishing emergency services while building ties to local community groups and sports groups, he later became the Deputy Town Mayor in his final days.

The same could be said of Arthur Coles who established what we know today as Coles Supermarkets in the working-class suburb of Collingwood in Melbourne. Coles, like my ancestor, was a smart businessman anx ndependent conservative who made a quick rise selling cheap products and became the Mayor of Melbourne in 1938–1940 from this success and would serve two terms as federal MP for Henty, playing a crucial role in deciding the government during the hung parliament of outbreak of World War 2, Henty was temporarily a member of the Coalition and was pragmatic in his thinking and sided with the ALP handing the Prime Ministership from Nationals Arthur Faden to Labor’s John Curtin.

Curtin delivered a post war economic boom which the nation transformed drastically under his successor Ben Chifley which the Coalition leader Bob Menzies took full credit for. Regardless who takes the credit much would not have been possible without Coles’ decision making. Never a minister but influential, Coles was appointed the Chair of the Commonwealth Rationing and War Damage Commissions, Australian National Airlines Commission (Trans Australia Airlines now known as Qantas) and Chair of the Melbourne Olympic Games Committee.

Other policy makers with similar roots were James Scullin – a grocer – had the misfortune of becoming Prime Minister during the Great Depression and unsuccessfully led the charge to adopt Keynesian stimulus in response to the crisis with his Federal Treasurer Ted Theodore. It was during this period that the original retail union Shop Distributive and Allied Association (originally called the Shops Assistants and Warehouse Employees Federation of Australia prior to 1972).

Initially advocating for reduced working hours per day from 14 to 12. It was run by staunch Irish Catholics which gained considerable power in both the industrial and political wing of the Australian Labour movement, becoming one of the biggest sectors of the movement. So much so that this group that would later become known as the Industrial Groups factional bloc in the ALP in the 1940s and 1950s. This group became increasingly socially conservative due to religious influence blurring the lines between state and religion. Never a smart choice to avoid secularism in Labor’s case it cost it dearly by splitting over the issue of communism during the height of the Cold War and prevented Labor from governing for 23 years from 1949–1972 until the rise of Gough Whitlam to the Lodge.

Many farmers also became skeptical of socialism despite their own interest and sided gradually with the Country Party and later the Nationals. The Labor infighting encouraged by the Groupers only helped the conservatives, which was not properly meandered until Bob Hawke, the great conciliator, became Prime Minister hailing from Labor’s right factional blocs. Unfortunately, the union became run by greedy bureaucrats who benefitted dearly as their workers paid the ultimate price as the retail bosses gradually stripped the rights of their workforce under the veil of the Accords between the ACTU labour movement, business community and the government of the days during the Neoliberal reforms of the 1980s.

This only became worse during the Howard era by stealth with the SDA forsaking penalty rates award agreements on certain weekends for their workers: doing the opposite then what a union should do! Well deserved credit is due, however, on opposing the draconian WorkChoices but the SDA became an institutional part of the framework opposed to militant convictions of other unions. This in turn has led to the rise of the RAFFWU union which has fought for some of the first strike actions against employers in history in the retail sector. One of RAFFWU’s own become elected as Federal Greens MP in Brisbane in Stephen Bates during Apple strikes and industrial disputes as an ex-employee.

Unfortunately for us, all the supermarket giants have become completely mad with power, ignorance, and vanity by now charging excessive prices gradually over the decades until the post-Covid inflationary period has seen prices sharply skyrocket. While this isn’t quite a 1929 crisis point, it’s clear to groups like the Australian Greens who have advocated for an investigation into price gouging.

This has forced the Albanese Government to swiftly consider a review of all ACCC rules and protocols regarding how pricing is administered by the private sector, especially as a growing number of every day Australians struggle more and more to pay for the simplest of everyday goods.

It’s clear that the supermarket giants also don’t provide enough satisfactory benefits to their staff as not enough superannuation is allocated and hours are cut (to cut costs) as an emphasis is put on younger staff to work more as older workers become expensive despite their skillsets, making it more competitive for people looking for work and less stable as many become underemployed struggling to make ends meet while attempting to meet productivity. This was the case with me after seven years working in retail at both IGA and Coles. This is why automation such as self – services machines and KPIs can become a liability not an asset as it’s made out to be. Especially so when the human factor and empathy is taken out of the situation as profits are weighed above the human contribution but instead focused on human costs.

The moves away from social connectivity to the community have created a culture of toxic insular thinking in the management of corporate Australia, particularly in the supermarket giants (including the SDA). One could argue that this was the reason why same sex marriage took so long to get off the ground until the Turnbull period due – to the influence of the SDA during the Rudd/Gillard era (2007-2013) and being one of the largest contributors in donations in union funds generated from retail and fast food worker fees. This is why it’s imperative to change the insidious nature of how we can get our supermarkets to play ball again and get back to basics! If the SDA became truly democratic and unions grassroots based like RAFFWU and actively pressured bosses in this space to change their ways, it could make all the difference for all!

While the cost-of-living crisis isn’t all affected by everything outlined above, much of it has also been affected by a shortage of supplies since the economy restarted exporting and importing goods since the pandemic, but also because of the building and construction industry going bust as a result and a housing market buckling under considerable strain. As somebody who has overseen tax in the corporate and government in recent months, worked in retail and assisted unions in this space I can say this is a part of the problem, but life can be made so much easier without the excessiveness of corporate greed, especially as dream to live in a fairer just society.

We must encourage supermarkets to find the means by pressure and new laws to reduce the prices for common goods. I know all of this from personal experience as I worked at Coles in all departments from my teens until early 20s while leaving high school to enter into university studies.

Ironically, I joined the SDA after leaving McDonalds (as one of my first jobs) while transitioning to Coles when I was 15. I left Coles to work in sales, odd labour jobs, union jobs, call center work, while also joining the Labor Party, inspired by the election of Kevin 07 and the platform he campaigned on, especially the Apology as a First Nations man. I left the ALP disillusioned by party infighting on environmental issues and lackluster efforts to do more in the retail space for workers. Also being an LGBTIQ man I found it extremely confronting that Labor didn’t do enough due to the SDA’s influence.

Former Labor leaders tried in their own way to make up for it as did Turnbull on the Coalition side. As more and more of my generation are accepting of ourselves in a more open environment its clear there is a sizeable LGBTIQ number in retail and fast-food workforces, which has ironically backfired on the social influence of the SDA in many ways and is a lesson to get back to what members actually want; not what ideological driven despots taking on positions of union organizers that should be filled by those that ultimately care about their workers and members.

Of course, not all in the SDA fit the mold and there are some good delegates who do the hard yards in any union. While this is increasingly a minority, there are genuine organizers no matter the union they hail from. Members of RAFFWU, for example, just want improved working conditions, better break times, and increased pay rates. Considering the huge wealth of the supermarket industry these requests are not unreasonable. But there is considerable lessons to heed from not only my personal experiences put forward, but history itself as well.

References:

ABC News In – depth (2024). Four Corners. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoo6XVxpiU8> accessed 26/03/2024

Australian Parliament. (2015). Patmore, G. Balnave, N. Consumer Co – operatives in Australia: Past, Present and Future. A Submission to Inquiry into cooperative, mutual and member – owned firms, Senate Economics References Committee, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT, Australia, 2600.

Bahr, Jessica (2023). SBS News. How much have grocery prices increased in Australia? <https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/how-much-have-grocery-prices-increased-in-australia/ocrfv5zut> accessed 22/03/2024.

Barber, S.M. (2007). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Sir Arthur William Coles (1892 – 1982) <https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/coles-sir-arthur-william-12334> accessed 22/03/2024.

Dyrenfurth, N. Bongiorno, F. (2011). A Little History of the Australian Labor Party.

Karp, P. (2024). Anthony Albanese announces year – long investigation into supermarket prices by ACCC. <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/25/anthony-albanese-announces-year-long-investigation-into-supermarket-prices-by-accc> accessed 22/03/2024.

Nellist, I. (2023). Supermarket workers take historic ‘superstrike’ Green Left Org. <https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/supermarket-workers-take-historic-superstrike> accessed 22/03/2024

Redlands Libraries| Redlands Coast Timelines Council. (2021).

Stan Grant points out in his book The Queen is Dead that “… I cannot but see in China what White nations have done the world over. Genocide is genocide. Under their flags, nations committed to Whiteness have erased entire populations, mine included. They have not been held to account. No, genocide is a word they reserve for others” (page 29). As Grant points out, those who accuse China of genocide are beneficiaries of the fruits of colonialism on which European and American economic dominance was achieved, and a close look at that history shows that genocide was a major means of acquiring the lands which produced that wealth.

Accusations of genocide are being levelled against Israel now as mass starvation of Palestinians is beginning to take its toll, as truckloads of urgently needed supplies are waiting for approval to deliver their lifesaving cargoes into Gaza, but waiting, seeming endlessly for permission to enter the sealed off region. The accusations are slowly rising to a crescendo, but ever so slowly as the feed of information is being stifled, as reporter numbers have been decimated, so many counted among the collateral damage of the war zone. Those who remain find it all but impossible to access signals for their phones to operate, or even to be able to recharge their phones.

The genocide Stan Grant refers to is the decimation of indigenous populations through the time of European colonial expansion, beginning with Columbus leading the way into the Caribbean and Americas as Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French and British established plantations producing sugar and tobacco to satisfy growing demand in their homelands and establishing remote prisons either to use the convicts as cheap sources of labour or to place them far from home, to be out of sight and out of mind and if the prisoners wouldn’t work, kidnap people from Africa and enslave them to do the work.

European colonisers brought with them their faith, their beliefs, their Christianity. As they stole the lands, raped indigenous women and killed those who stood in their way, they preached the gospel of Grace through Christ, introducing Biblical law. Somehow there was nothing ironic in on the one hand stealing the land, raping women and killing those who stood in the way and preaching a faith which has a foundational law creed set out in the Ten Commandments which include the laws not to kill, steal or commit adultery. Christian Europeans after all are ‘God’s People’.

The tone deafness of Israeli leaders and the slowness of American and European leaders to acknowledge the humanitarian crisis in Gaza (and the West Bank) is equally disturbing. Women and children are dying, effectively being starved to death as aid is being held up. And those who object to the measures being taken in response to an attack on Israel which took 1200 lives and a 240 hostages is charged with being antisemitic. It took South Africa to first raise the charge of genocide, a nation which suffered under and emerged from the yoke of colonialism.

Judaism, the religion of Israel has the same laws; laws given to Moses and central to the promise of the land to their forebears. The books containing those laws are common across Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

But those laws are interesting in that it seems they only apply to those people who claim to be ‘God’s People’. When we consider the first of the Ten Commandments it becomes clear that they really are about ‘God’s People’. The first four deal with the relationship with God, exclusively worship only that one God, make no idols or use His name in vain and reserve the Sabbath as a holy day devoted to the worship of the only God. Next follows commandments of the relationship within the body of ‘God’s People’.

The laws were received and very shortly after, according to the Biblical book of Exodus, that same God instructed the people to exterminate the Amalekites (Exodus 17:14) and the Israeli Prime Minister referenced that as a rationalisation for the severity of the attacks on Gaza after October 7.

It seems the laws given were for ‘God’s People’, those who were not included became fair game, the laws apparently do not apply to them. Further, the promise of God to Joshua as he replaced Moses as leader of the ancient Israelites was that the land being given would “… extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the great river, the Euphrates – all the Hittite country – to the Mediterranean Sea…” (Joshua 1:3-4). From the river to the sea is the stated aim of Netanyahu, Israeli territory will be from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean… or did he mean the Euphrates?

It is not surprising that Palestinians are treated as contemptouosly as they are when they are clearly not defined as ‘God’s People’.

The disregard for indigenous peoples by colonial powers was equally contemptuous, the rapacity for land unbridled greed, lands stolen, people killed and missionaries followed close behind to wipe out indigenous cultures replacing it with adoration for Jesus. The laws did not apply to the conquered, only to ‘God’s People’.

But it is worthy of note that the Declaration of Human Rights, written in 1948 was written as a response to the horrors of the Holocaust during which over six million European Jews were killed for no other reason than they were Jews, and we should also recognise that several million Gypsies suffered that same fate and did various other groups; homosexuals, people with mental disabilities, and others who were in one way or another marginalised. But then, that declaration is aspirational. Not law.

Gaza. Palestinians. Israel. Genocide. Taylor Swift? This odd cobbling of words is the extent celebrities make a mockery of serious conversation, even in such middle-brow outlets as Australia’s Radio National. Admittedly, it was breakfast, and the presenter a seasoned impressionist of journalism, but surely listeners did not have to know that Swift’s private jet had just arrived in Melbourne, making it an occasion of national significance?

Ground had already been tilled, and seeds scattered, by desperate academics keen to draw gold dust from the Swift worship machine at Melbourne’s Swiftposium 2024. Seriousness was not the order of the day and papers such as “Taylor Swift and the Nuremberg Effect on Teenage Girls” were never going to feature on any panels. Instead, it was an event to give academic circuitry – and sophistry – its deservedly bad name. “We thought we’d be having a small conference with 50 researchers in two rooms in our Faculty,” remarked Eloise Faichney, chair of the Swiftposium Steering Committee. “Then, when we ended up in publications like Rolling Stone and The Guardian, demand from the academic community to take part was like nothing I’ve ever seen before for an academic conference.” Faichney evidently knows little about the bandwagon effect of the academic scavenger, always engaged in a futile quest to find false novelty among the same bones of an argument.

And they were not the only ones. Members of the fourth estate, and many offshoots of that once revered profession, have fallen for the Swiftian rhetoric, be it in terms of the harmony effect or economic stimulus. Forget monetary or fiscal policy; get Swift to do a tour and she will add tens of millions of dollars to the country’s cash registers. Take, for instance, the following, near shameful selection of predicted returns, which the Australian historian, Humphrey McQueen, valuably gathers for us: the Australian Financial Review, A$140 million; the Daily Telegraph, A$130 million to New South Wales; the Herald-Sun, a staggering, fanciful A$1.2 billion for the state of Victoria alone.

A less noted fact is that the Swift phenomenon is costly, inflationary and exploitative. As The Daily Telegraph reported in January, airlines such as Virgin, Qantas and Jetstar were all cashing in on spiked prices, hoping to squeeze every little bit of cash from passengers, Swifties or otherwise. A one-way flight from Brisbane to Sydney with Jetstar would cost anywhere between A$399 to A$460 on the planned Sydney tour date on February 23, as compared to A$92 to A$123 the week prior. Hotels were hardly going to miss out either on the lucrative bonanza: the Marriott Sydney Harbour’s prices, for instance, rising from the pre-Swift level of $A589 to an unforgivable $A1039.

All of this served as the teaser for Swift’s mid-February arrival. Bulletins, even of such self-professed, serious news hounds as those at the twenty-four-hour ABC network, would furnish updates on the songstress’s movements. Every banal detail became significant, the fans worthy of top billing as interviewees.

Political maturity and cultivated disinterestedness also went out the window, expelled with glee. Here was a chance to get close to the phenomenon and cultivate voters – current and future – and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was not going to miss out. In an interview with Hit WA FM, he professed his delight and anticipation in attending one of Swift’s shows. “I am going to Tay Tay,” he sighed. In cringingly shallow fashion and for pure effect, he even suggested that opposition leader Peter Dutton might have a preference for the Canadian rock band Nickelback, a truly wicked contrast. “Or, the angry death metal stuff.”

Newspapers such as The Guardian Australia even urged the PM to get with the Swift program, as her “ubiquity in a fragmented world might carry some broader lessons for a man with a more modest megaphone at his disposal.” She offers, for instance, lessons in collaboration. She had “used her fame to build a network of grassroots support that has its own power, energy and agency.” And, in case you were not listening, Mr Albanese, she offered a “sense of shared joy” instead of privileging conflict.

On the other side of this gushing sludge, the Swift phenomenon manifests as a brooding presence for reactionaries worried that her influence is clandestine and planned by a politburo central committee. Or, perhaps, the Pentagon. Steady yourself, warn the likes of Jesse Watters of Fox: he has evidence that “the Pentagon psychological-operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset.” In some GOP circles, the singer is a deeply embedded psyop with collusion from the NFL. The lunacy comes full circle and Swift is very happy to tease it, telling The Washington Post in 2022 that she, and her legion of fans, have “descended into color coding, numerology, word searches, elaborate hints, and Easter eggs.” Threatening stuff.

This Styrofoam performer, this master of magisterial vacuity, who is all machine, promotion and blare, has perfected the insubstantial, promoted a competent formula and boosted it. In some ways, she has the hallmarks of Tony Blair and the New Labour experiment: start solidly, proclaim a genre, an ideology – then subvert it, discarding most of it on the way. Sincerity evaporates in the heat of its confection. Her success lies in her ability – and that of the Swift dissemination army – to mobilise the image of Swift. Everything else is just costumery, flying private jets, victimising people who monitor her flight paths, and being given stock market advice by Daddy.