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Overnight by ferry to Tasmania

As we were queuing to board the car ferry, Spirit of Tasmania, I couldn’t help thinking about a few folk songs that commemorate ferry tragedies of the past 150 years or so. If that seems neurotic, bear with me.

We booked our car and caravan on the ferry in November, probably the last opportunity to book a return ticket for March/April 2022. At the time, we had no clear indication we’d be able to go, pending the Covid state of play at the time. We knew that had the trip been cancelled/postponed, we’d be able to redeem the booking at a later time.

She Who Hitchhiked Around Tassie in 1967 has now been to various parts of the island state three times. My one and only flirtation with Tasmania was a trip to the Longford Folk Festival in 1981. I’d won a song-writing competition with a tune about the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. I got there via an overnight bus from Brisbane to Melbourne and a cheap stand-by flight to Launceston.

Apart from spending a few hours walking around Launceston while waiting for a flight to Brisbane (no more 36-hour bus rides for me), that was my total exposure to Tasmania.

In March 2022, I’m looking forward to the next 18 days touring around. But first I had to suppress the emerging panic attack in our cabin once the ship’s engines kicked in. The goal was to overcome anxiety and reignite my love affair with the sea.

My first experience at sea was a big one – a six-week voyage from Tilbury docks in London to Wellington New Zealand in 1955. I was six going on seven and dogged in my determination to avoid being confined to the ship’s nursery. I was eventually released into Dad’s care on the condition that I was not allowed to wander around the ship unsupervised.

Dad and I shared a two-berth cabin, while Mum and the girls were in another cabin downstairs. I seem to recall being taken up on deck by my sisters while Mum and Dad ‘spent time together’ in our cabin.

I got the travel bug as an adult, starting with a trip to Europe in the 1970s – a combination of a sea cruise and international flight. We sailed on a small Greek ship popular with backpackers for its cheap fares. The route was Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Fremantle and Singapore where we stayed a couple of nights and then caught a flight to Athens.

My memories of that trip include observing crew members patrolling the ship armed with rifles as we navigated the hundreds of Indonesian islands between Fremantle and Singapore. Pirates ruled those waters then, as they still do today. Sailing adventures in the 1970s included an overnight crossing to Crete on an old, overcrowded ferry which segregated men on one side and women on the other. I still have no clue what that was about. Over the years, I have sailed on a variety of ferries – a mix of adventures and misadventures, including Dover to Calais before the Chunnel (seasick).

I’ve crossed Cook Strait between Wellington and Picton a few times and it is always turbulent to one degree or another. Kiwis who are old enough to remember would not forget that stormy night in 1968 when the inter-island ferry, The Wahine, capsized in Wellington Harbour with the loss of 157 lives. I was 20 at the time and itchy to travel. But I found that tragedy very sobering and it quite often influenced whether or not I boarded a dodgy ferry in the Mediterranean.

The main reason we remember maritime tragedies is the folk songs that have been written about them (Gordon Lightfoot’s Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald for starters). The late Roy Bailey wrote one about the Herald of Free Enterprise, a vehicle ferry which capsized and sank in Zeebrugge Harbour in Belgium with the loss of 193 lives. The tragedy on March 6, 1987 occurred not long after the ship sailed. An inquiry found that the main reason for the accident was the bow doors of the roll-on roll-off ferry were not raised before it sailed.

New Zealand folksinger Anna Leah had a minor hit in 1968 with her song about the Wahine, still New Zealand’s worst maritime disaster. The Wahine capsized close to shore, but the storm was so ferocious rescue efforts were greatly hampered.

Last year, I wrote a folk ballad about the 1896 sinking of the Brisbane cross-river ferry, The Pearl. It’s a tragic but true story.

Maritime tragedies linger in our memory because of the media attention (always dredged up again at 10, 20 and 50-year intervals). There have been far worse ferry tragedies in Asian and African countries, with a far greater loss of life. Some of these accidents involved collisions and fires. Some claimed 1000 lives and more, largely because of overcrowding. But our insular media rarely report these tragedies, (unless there was an unlucky Australian on board).

Despite my experiences as a sailor, I was in some trepidation about the Tasmanian ferry until I did some research on the Spirit of Tasmania.

The latest Spirit of Tasmania, launched in 2002, is the third ship to carry the name since the Melbourne to Devonport voyage was established in 1985. There are plans to replace these vessels in 2023-2024 with even larger ships (bearing the same name, as is the tradition). These vessels (also built in Finland) will each carry 1800 passengers.

The Spirit of Tasmania sailed late, at 11.30. We found the bar for the obligatory rum and coke (and a lime and soda for Bob) and then retired for the night.

After turning out the cabin light and settling in, I did a few ‘this is just a passing thought’ exercises to quell the anxieties and then slept fitfully. At some point I woke and the ferry was barging its way through heavy seas and rolling a little. But by first light we had entered calmer waters.

The previous evening when I watched the ferry cruising into Station Pier at the Port of Melbourne, I realised that this vessel is larger than the Rangitiki, the ship we sailed on from Tilbury (UK) to Wellington, New Zealand in 1955.

The Spirit of Tasmania (there are two of them) were manufactured in Finland. They have bars, restaurants and cinemas and a range of cabins for all budgets. The process of embarking and disembarking was very thorough (Tasmania has strict quarantine rules and the company has rules about what can and can’t be taken on board).

My only complaint was a lack of facilities (toilets) for those queued for hours in their vehicles. I told She Who Hitched Around Tassie in 1967 I had a great business idea for some enterprising young person. who in ScoMo parlance wants to become a Lifter rather than a Leaner. The Comfort Station operator would cruise up and down the queues of vehicles on a bicycle towing a two-wheeled cart loaded with sterilised urine containers. (Comfort Station would also offer containers not unlike those provided to female soldiers when they are out on jungle patrols – Ed: they are called Shewee). The cart operator would make the return trip down the other side of the queued vehicles (collecting full bottles and tips).

If you have seen that Mel Brooks movie, The History of the World Part 1, where the servant follows the King around with a gold bucket, you will get the picture.

People without lists are listless Part II

lists-listless-ocd — Bob’s latest shopping list – fuel, ah, fuel

This week let’s turn to the universal topic of lists and list-making.I instinctively feel that readers are ripe for a light-hearted look at something that’s not about Russia, the threat of nuclear war, the price of fuel or a new Covid strain.

I take issue with the medical journal articles that define excessive list-making as an indication of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The fact that I re-wrote these two paragraphs 10 times is no real indication.

List-making is a solid aid to achieving goals and being efficient. Crossing items off the daily list is not a case of clinging to a way of remembering things. I just find it useful. What is not useful is when you are leaving the house (with list in pocket) and your partner calls out “get some gluten free bikkies that don’t have soy in them”. Never going to happen. It wasn’t on my list in the first place so doesn’t qualify.

Since the last time I wrote about list-keeping (2018), I have tried keeping separate lists relevant to the five or six key interests in my life, but that system became completely shambolic after a while.

So as per past habits of managing a busy life, I rely on a paper diary, an electronic task list and a small red notebook in which I list everything I’m meant to do that day.

If you too keep lists as a way of getting things done, having you noticed how the distasteful or low-priority tasks slip to the bottom or even off the page? Give dog bath usually gets skipped for a few days (added the un-completed tasks to the next day’s list).

As the subject of lists is up for review, I’d have to say they are essential when planning a lengthy caravan trip.

Fair dinkum, you’ve no idea. First you need the 10-point leaving and arriving check lists (ours is in 20-point text and laminated), so you don’t drive off with the stabilisers down or the power cable still connected to the box. Stuff like that.

Then you need a laundry list, a pantry list, two personal clothing and effects lists, a gadget list, and an ‘essentials’ check list which includes checking tyre pressures, making sure the gas cylinder is full and that there are matches and toilet paper in the van (not much use left at home on the kitchen bench). It also helps if you take the ‘dongle’ that allows you to do electronic banking along the way.

Most of you are familiar with the term ‘bucket list’ which was invented by the tourism industry to encourage people to try skydiving, bungee jumping or going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

It took no time at all to find a list of bucket list songs swirling around on the bottom of that virtual music bucket, Spotify. Here you will find examples by songwriters including Charles Beckerson and Owen Moore. I’d never heard of them and I’m sure they have never heard of me.

Sunshine Coast songwriter Karen Law’s ‘Bucket List’ starts with motivational line – “I want to write one good song before I die”.

(Already achieved several times, in my opinion.Ed)

Writer Sasha Cagen took list-making to the wider world, first with a blog and then with a book, To-Do List: From Buying Milk to Finding a Soul Mate, What Our Lists Reveal About Us. As Cagen explained to NPR’s Diversions radio programme, it started in 2000 when she started publishing a magazine called To-Do List.

“The idea was to use the to-do list as a metaphor for all the things that we have to do to feel like we’re grownups.”

She asked readers to send in their to-do lists and in no time had about 5,000 to-do lists of all kinds, such as things to do before I die things to do before I get pregnant. She then decided to share them in a book.

Cagen was interviewed in 2007, the same year Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson starred in the dreary Bucket List, a film by Rob Reiner. The story involves two terminally ill men (from opposite sides of the track), with six months to live. They decide to explore life and make a bucket list.

Popular culture aside, the website ocdtypes.com has some pertinent things to say about the tendency for people with OCD to keep excessive lists to remind them of their daily routines.

“Research has shown that people with OCD do not have memory problems, so the lists are actually unnecessary. List-making would be considered a compulsion because the list reassures the person with OCD and helps them to feel temporarily better.”
I suppose this depends on your definition of ‘excessive’; for example ‘brush teeth, floss, polish shoes, iron shirt, put ironing board and iron back in cupboard, transfer lunch box from fridge to briefcase, kiss wife, leave’ is a wee bit over the top. You could in theory do all of this without having a list (although you left the ironing board sitting in the laundry).

A lot of lists are about people competing to reach the top of the list. Most domestic lists, by comparison, are about the efficient running of a household and equitable division of labour.

Other people’s lists (like a list of parks and reserves the local Council may or may not sell), can have a detrimental impact on our lives.

English writer and poet A.S Byatt once said ‘lists are a form of power’. More pointedly, Ahmed Yassin said: “there are many resistance movements in the world, like the IRA for instance. But it is only Islamic resistance movements that are put on the terrorist list”.

Despotic leaders have their hit lists and dispatch assassins with poisonous umbrellas and marker pens to cross their enemies off the list.

There is a top 10 endangered world heritage sites list – unsurprisingly most of them are in countries that have been split asunder by civil war. Australia managed to get on this list, however, by not taking care of the Great Barrier Reef. It’s not as if we didn’t know.

The entertainment industry absolutely loves lists, and if you are ranked number one, they will create a whole industry around you (until someone else becomes Number One). The same goes for pop music, professional sport and politics.

The world is enslaved to lists if you think about it; grand literary contests like the Booker Prize go from long lists to short lists, ditto the Academy Awards and song writing competitions. Panels appointed to review job applications or ministerial candidates also use the list system.

The traditional ‘bucket’ list usually contains travel adventures, dare devil pursuits and sometimes unattainable goals. Here’s a verse from my song, Another Year with You. How many of these things have you crossed off your list, eh?

My friends are doing marathons or they’re jumping out of planes,

The rich ones flew to the Kimberley; the poor ones caught the train;

Some heard Pavarotti sing that famous aria in the park

Swam naked with the dolphins, went croc-spotting after the dark;

Climbed Uluru at sunrise, dived for pearls at Broome,

Asked women far too young for them to come back to their room.

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Discrimination in the 1960s, by an unofficial feminist

Despite being ranked equal first for educational attainment, Australia came in at 44^th overall in the Global Gender Gap Index 2020 rankings, slipping five places from the previous year. But things are better than the discrimination evident in the 1960s and 1970s*.

discrimination-gender-equity-feminist — She Who Rides Trail Bikes

By Laurel Wilson

In 1965, Merle Thornton and her friend Rosalie Bogner walked into the Regatta Hotel in Brisbane and chained themselves to the Public Bar as a protest about the discrimination which forbade women from drinking there (instead, relegated to the ‘Ladies’ Lounge’ to drink their Shandies).

At the time, I remember wondering why any self-respecting woman would want to drink in the noisy, smelly, smoke-filled drinking pit that was the usual Public Bar. But then I was just a naive teenager, content to wear the black stockings, gloves and hat that my school rules required, even in the midst of a Brisbane summer. That same school had a rule in which the girls were not allowed to talk to the boys – the playground was separated into the girls’ section and the boys’ section. It seems a ridiculous rule now, and I thought the same at the time. I do remember attempting a small rebellion at one stage, encouraging the girls to sit on one side of the dividing path and the boys on the other, but it came to naught, so my incipient reputation as a ‘stirrer’ was saved for another day.

Then on to University, where it was often rumoured that the women were in danger of being harassed for ‘favours’ by some of the male tutors and lecturers. I didn’t experience this myself, but it seemed to be common knowledge who to avoid.

Prior to graduating, I came to the realisation that because of discrimination, women were officially paid less than men for doing the same job, apparently under the assumption that men needed more money in order to provide for a family. The flaws in this ‘logic’ are too gaping to bother elucidating. I decided at the time that I wouldn’t seek any employment that had such a discriminatory policy. By the time I was in my last year of University, the female wage for teachers was 90% of that for men and there was equal pay by the time I graduated. The requirement that women resign on marriage had gone by the board some time previously (see time-line below).

I had a Holden Ute and a trail bike which I used to race on the dirt track at Tivoli near Ipswich. Of course I had to have a full set of leathers. I had a red leather jacket and black pants (with red hearts on the knee patches). As I was wearing a full-face helmet, it was sometimes a bit difficult to tell there was a female on the bike, except that I was pretty slow. There were a couple of other women racers as well. We’d race in the same races as the men, but there was usually also a ‘ladies’ race’. I didn’t think of it as pioneering anything at the time, but I guess it was a bit unusual.

I asked an artistic friend of mine to paint a red Suzuki ‘S’ on the driver’s side door, which he duly did, but added an embellishment of his own by painting the Women’s Lib sign on the tailgate. I don’t think that the rather conservative principal of the school where I was teaching was favourably impressed with that.

After some years teaching, I took a break for a while then applied for a job with the Probation and Parole Service as it was then called. There was a vacancy in Toowoomba, which would require travelling to towns further west from time to time One of the interview questions asked was what I would do if I got a flat tyre. My reply was that I would lift the bonnet and wait for someone to give me a hand. That seemed to satisfy them, as I got the job. I’m not sure how many other women were doing that job at the time, but we were definitely in the minority. I believe it was somewhat grudgingly accepted that women employees were needed as there was a growing number of female probationers and parolees. Not that we were confined to supervising women only, so I guess you could call the Service an equal opportunity employer.

Being a State Government job, it was quite well paid, and in those days, a permanent position. I assumed that there would be no problem obtaining a loan to buy a house (for the princely sum of $17,250 – a three-bedroom weatherboard on a large block near the Showgrounds in Toowoomba.) I had quite a good deposit, and as I’d been banking with the same bank since I was at school, I assumed I’d have no problem obtaining a loan. Not without a male guarantor! I withdrew my money from the bank and never darkened their doors again. I’m looking at you, Commonwealth Bank!

Tuesday 8^th March was International Women’s Day. According to an article from the BBC that I read, the date of 8^th March was formalised after a strike in Russia in 1917 in which Russian women demanded “bread and peace”.

The strike began on the 8^th of March and after four days, the Tsar was forced to abdicate.

We can only hope history repeats itself!

Discrimination against women in Australia 1960s-1970s

Despite the introduction of the Federal Sex Discrimination Act in 1984, women continue to be disadvantaged. In case you forgot, the Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexism, homophobia, transphobia and biphobia, as well as sex, marital or relationship status, actual or potential pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status or breastfeeding in public.

TIMELINE

1956: Until this year women were prevented from teaching full-time after marriage. The Temporary Teachers Union lobbied for this restriction to be dropped;.

1961: Women could buy the contraceptive pill but initially it was only available (on prescription) to married women and carried a 27.5% ‘luxury item” tax;

1966: Australia lifted the legislated marriage ban, which prevented married women from holding permanent positions in the public service;

1971: The Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac) became the first Australian lender to lend money to a female without a male guarantor;

1969: First abortion rights granted (with limitations);

1972: The right to equal pay introduced (see note at end);

1972: The newly-formed Women’s Electoral Lobby made the contraceptive pill more freely available;

1972: Gough Whitlam introduced a single mother’s pension. It was later broadened to a single parent pension (available to men and women);

1973: Commonwealth employees were granted 12 weeks paid maternity leave and 40 weeks unpaid leave;

1974: The minimum wage was extended to cover women;

1975: No-fault divorce introduced, formation of women’s refuges;

1979: Women were granted 52 weeks unpaid maternity leave;

1983: Married women could apply for an Australian passport without needing an authorisation from their husbands;

1991: the marriage age in Australia of females was increased from 16 to 18 (the same as males;

2011: Federally-funded paid parental leave introduced;

2020: Gender pay gap between men and women confirmed at 13.8%;

2022: Despite the 1972 equal pay declaration, Australian typically earn about $25,000 a year less than men (Workplace Gender Equality Agency).

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Armageddon out of here

little-deeds-armageddon — The Almost Armageddon Waltz by Bob Wilson

Here’s an anti-war anthem I wrote in 1979-1980 when Russia invaded
Afghanistan. Then as now, people were terrified it would lead to nuclear war. Instead it led to a futile, nine-year battle between the State of Afghanistan and Russia against the guerrilla group Mujahideen.

The song won an award and I was invited to Longford in Tasmania to
sing it at a folk festival. The lyrics and sheet music were published in a
long-defunct magazine called Stringybark and Greenhide. Anyway, this
is the only known recording of the song, from the live album, Little Deeds (1998), which is no longer in circulation.
As I said in the intro, this song is so old it refers to the Holden
Kingswood as the family car. I always meant to update it, add a contemporary verse or two but it never quite gelled.

I’m chuffed that Eric Bogle has seen fit to keep the theme going in 2022 with his song, The Armageddon Waltz, from the new album, The Source of Light.
It’s a lament for all the things we have lost and are yet to lose to climate change. And as is the Bogle way of never obscuring the message, the refrain is “it’s the Armageddon Waltz, folks, and were all going to die.”
Good one, Eric.

Ukraine, refugees and compassion fatigue

ukraine-refugees-compassion — Image of girl with Ukraine flag by Lewin Bormann www.flickr.com

People who feel moved to support refugees in their time of need are prone to a syndrome known as ‘compassion fatigue’. This post-traumatic-stress type condition sets in as events like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unfold.

Compassion fatigue is just that – an overwhelming sense of hopelessness as yet another refugee crisis occurs with few answers in sight. It’s not much of a comparison, but consider Queenslanders told to evacuate their homes on Sunday due to flooding. The difference being is they can return to their homes (with buckets and mops), once the crisis is passed and water levels fall.

No such reprieve for the tens of thousands of Ukrainians who last week packed suitcases and set off for the Polish border. It seemed the first and most obvious place to go, as there are already about one million Ukrainians living in Poland. Unlike some governments I could name, the Polish authorities so far have put no obstacles in their way, but the influx will put huge pressure on their social systems and infrastructure.

As Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Haddad reported last Saturday, 120,000 people had already fled Ukraine into Poland and other neighbouring countries, mostly to Poland and Moldova. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said cars were backed up for several kilometres at some border crossings (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova). These countries have mobilised to receive Ukrainians and provide shelter, food and legal help. Global News Canada forecast yesterday that the tally will be 500,000 and rising by the end of the week.

In landlocked Europe, people from Ukraine fleeing tyranny are not the first and certainly won’t be the last to seek safe haven in neighbouring countries. Australia looks on from afar, safe in the knowledge that its tough border policies will maintain the status quo. To misquote John Howard circa 2012: “We will decide how many Ukrainian refugees come here and the manner in which they come.”

For readers aged under 40, Australia did not always have a hard-line attitude to people seeking asylum. Australia has accepted 900,000 refugees since 1947.

The first wave of post war migration from 1947 to 1953 saw 170,000 ‘Displaced Persons’ come to Australia after their countries were destroyed by war. Between 1953 and 1975, the Australian Government assisted a further 127,000 refugees to Australia.

Then followed a controlled system of assisted migration, ‘Ten Pound Poms’ and others who took up the government’s offer of assisted passage on the understanding they would stay in their sponsored employment for two years. That’s my Dad and his brood, escaping Scotland’s rationing, a struggling economy and notoriously cold climate.

Migrants came from all over and initially had to endure prejudice by Australians who disparagingly called them ‘Refos’ or ‘New Australians’.

They copped the abuse, lived in hostels, took on menial jobs Australians wouldn’t do and helped create the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme.

According to the UNHCR, 82.4 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes, the majority of them internally displaced. Among them are over 26 million refugees, the highest population on record. Of those, 68% come from just five countries – Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar (the Rohingya) and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Even when Australians recognise that there are as many refugees in the world as there are people on our own continent, it is hard to empathise.

Even with some of the stark images replayed to us by 24/7 media, we remain inured by our remoteness. Trouble, whatever it is, happens ‘over there’. Australia is a vast continent surrounded by oceans, monitored by an over-zealous system set up in 2012 to discourage people from trying to reach our shores by boat.

It’s ironic, as the Norwegian Refugee Council observes, that at a time when a record 82.4 million people are being displaced, wealthy countries (Australia is named, alongside Denmark and others), are engaged in a ‘race to the bottom’. They are tightening their refugee policies, forcing displaced people to make dangerous and difficult choices. Once liberal countries like Sweden and Denmark have wound back their refugee intakes as anti-immigrant sentiment prevails.

The NRC says there are three things wealthy countries can do to bring about change; number one is the need to work together to protect refugees. When the Syrian conflict erupted a decade ago, neighbouring countries including Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Liberia took a disproportionate number of refugees compared to Saudi Arabia. Unlikely countries such as Uganda, Columbia and Lebanon take large numbers of refugees every year. But some of the richest countries in the world do almost nothing. Some, like Denmark, have wound their refugee intakes back to almost nothing.

“Japan has the world’s third largest economy and a population of 126 million. Nevertheless, it has received just 1,394 refugees in the last ten years. South Korea is at a similarly low level. Saudi Arabia is at a similar level to Japan and the other Gulf countries are not much better.

“For most of the last decade there has been a brutal civil war in Syria, where several of these countries have been indirectly involved. It is therefore particularly inexcusable that they have not given proper protection to more of the victims of the war and taken some of the burden from neighbouring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.”

Admittedly, the Gulf countries have taken in a large number of Syrians as labour immigrants, but these people have not been granted refugee status.

Australia’s tough border policies seem overkill when held against the relatively small numbers of people they do allow in.

According to the Red Cross, Australia granted refugee status to 14,993 people in 2019-2020. This was done either through resettlement from other countries or by granting protection to people who had applied for asylum in Australia.

Compare that to Bangladesh, which in 2019 continued to host 854,782 people from Myanmar in a refugee-like situation . Likewise, Turkey granted temporary protection to 397,600 refugees from Syria in 2018. Soon Poland will be on this list for its welcome to people from the Ukraine.

Last Friday, I emailed FOMM reader Peter Willasden, who has travelled extensively in Eastern Europe. I confessed that although I felt moved to write about Ukraine, I lacked knowledge and insight. He did not take the ‘guest blogger’ bait, saying, after some observations about Vladimir Putin’s state of mind and the nuclear threat, “Sorry, I have yet to come up with a useful thought.”

Nonetheless, I did like his ‘big picture’ view:

“Stand back from the Ukraine and it highlights still something quite contrary to the expectations of only a decade ago. The end of the Soviet era, the ubiquity of social media, the economic networking of the globe led to the prediction of the rise of national, democratic movements, such as broke out of the Soviet system or led to the Arab Spring. The real consequence, seen not only in Russia but also the USA, UK, Poland, Hungary, Brazil, Turkey, China has been the rise and rise of male autocrats, tyrants and dictators. There have always been dictators but these have, uniquely, arisen using the tools of democracy or what could at least be presented as a democratic process. And Australia too is far from immune from it.”

As Peter says, the world order is now increasingly controlled by “a small number of old white men accumulating more and more unilateral power on very questionable pretexts.”

How did we get to this point he asks, and can anything be done to reverse the situation?

Let’s check back in a year or so, Peter.

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Spreading the word about U3A

U3A-birdwatching-education — (Photo by Bob Wilson): U3A Warwick birdwatchers checking out the shallow end of Storm King Dam while on a recent excursion.

One of the positives in retirement is that it allows one to volunteer with valuable community organisations like U3A. It’s not that uncommon to meet people who have never heard of the University of the Third Age (U3A), an international organisation with broad aims of helping educate and entertain its 450,000 members, who are now in their ‘Third Age’ of life.

U3A originated in France in 1973 as an extramural university activity. This was significantly modified in the UK where it was recognized that most people of retirement age have something to contribute. The UK model, which Australia has adopted, emphasises sharing without formal educational links, that is, ‘study’ without the pressure of homework or exams. Membership is open to people who are winding down to retirement or are already retired.

Australia’s first U3A began in Melbourne in 1984 and has grown to 250 U3As with about 100,000 members. These metropolitan, regional and rural chapters develop programmes of teaching and learning over a wide range of subject areas, dependant upon the membership’s own expertise, knowledge and skills.

For example, in our local Warwick U3A, the retired principal of Scots PGC College, Neil Bonnell, tutors two courses – China Today and the Bible as History. Mr Bonnell, a much-travelled senior educator, taught at well-regarded schools in England, Uganda and Australia, finishing his career with a year in China. Last year he started writing his memoirs, which have been published in the Warwick U3A Emag and quarterly newsletters. The final chapters can be found here.

In 2003 Neil began tutoring and giving bridge lessons for U3A Warwick. He is a founding member of Warwick Bridge Club and past-president and a long-serving committee member of U3A.

I started attending Neil’s up to the minute and insightful class “China Today” this year. The advantage of being a member of a U3A course or class is that you can sit back and soak up someone else’s great knowledge and experience for a very modest annual subscription. All tutor and committee roles are voluntary. Local U3A chapters are supported by State and Territory Networks; organisations which help local committees with more complex issues (like developing a Covid policy).

Queensland U3A Network president Gail Bonser reflected on the struggle to keep U3As going through the pandemic and restrictions which saw some classes postponed or cancelled.

“Managing a U3A during the COVID epidemic has been taxing for many. Quite a few U3As have experienced a reduction in numbers and with it a reduction in their income. All were closed for several months during 2020 and because of their special circumstances, some did not reopen during the remainder of that year.

“During the shutdown, the Network formed a communication group which enabled U3A Presidents or their representatives to keep in touch and to share ideas, experiences and management techniques. Once Level 3 restrictions were introduced, it became possible for U3As to recommence classes and activities and members of the group exchanged documents such as COVID Safe Plans.”

Ms Bonser said associations were hoping for a COVID free start to 2022 but the Omicron spike intervened. Most U3As cancelled their January Enrolment Days, made alternative arrangements and/or delayed the resumption of classes to early February.
“Thankfully it seems that U3A members have largely avoided the worst effects of the disease. That may have been one of the few positives.”

I joined the Warwick committee at the time we were looking for someone to edit the quarterly newsletter. The former editor had been producing a monthly Emag as well as quarterly newsletters. I took the job on the proviso I’d phase out the monthly magazine. Since then, my role has been extended to include updating our website and posting new content as appropriate.

Our chapter hosts outdoor activities including Tai Chi, bush walking and birdwatching. There are language classes, card groups, art and craft classes, meditation, music appreciation and this year, two new dance classes – Line Dancing and Scottish Country Dance. A new gardening group was formed in 2022 and retired teacher Stephen Jackson is next term resuming his popular opera class. Some courses are so popular there is a waiting list (wood crafting, for example).

Two of the four groups I joined require getting out of bed early – bush walking and birdwatching. Both activities depend on what the weather is doing at the time. Last year, our bush walking group’s expeditions included a day at Girraween National Park and a visit to Cunningham’s Gap nature reserve. The birdwatching group also travel afield and in February visited a private property at Storm King dam near Stanthorpe.

I was recently talking to a younger friend in Brisbane (late 40s) and mentioned U3A. He had not heard of the organisation but after I gave him an overview, he said it sounded like something his Mum would enjoy.

U3A members are from all different backgrounds, but it is not uncommon to meet people who have had a university education and a professional career. Perhaps that is why we have not one but two book clubs. One is a formal book club (everyone reads the same book and then the group critiques it). A new course started this year involves re-reading old Australian classics, starting with Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang.

Our U3A has about 125 members and is currently running 27 courses, so there is a lot of choice. There is also provision for members to take part in other activities through U3A Online.

As for volunteering in general, I recommend it for older people (70+) as a way of keeping your brain sharp and sharing your life experience with others. I started volunteering in 2021 as an occasional tour guide at Glengallan Homestead, a grand country home from the 1870s that was rescued from ruin. Then I joined a local refugee support group and along the way stepped up my involvement with U3A. In a way, volunteering is like one of the main aims of the organisation – to encourage people to try something new.

As someone remarked after I accepted the position of chair of the Southern Downs Refugee and Migrant Network – “You’ll grow into the role, Bob.”

The only problem with U3A (if like me you have a 40-year-old brain), is that you only ever meet people your own age (early 70s) or older. While that firmly cements me in the demographic to which I belong, it can also be a gratifying experience. Those of us who lost our parents relatively early in life can always benefit from the wise counsel of an older friend.

The message today (for readers under 50) is to subtly suggest to your parents (or grandparents) that they check out U3A. A year of absorbing activities and new friends for the price of a pub lunch. As for my peers, you don’t have to just sit there and watch daytime TV or play Solitaire on your computer. Go for a regular walk, join a seniors’ gym class, interact with grandchildren and look into U3A. Do as I say, not as I do (says he, flexing his ab). As they say, physical and intellectual activity can enrich and prolong life in one’s later years – just ask me!

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Pork barrels and billboards ahoy

pork-barrels-billboards — Image: Welcome to Queensland – an apolitical billboard

You can tell there is an election looming when the government promises to reduce the price of beer – a classic example of ‘pork barrelling’. The move to halve the excise on draught beer would save beer drinkers 30 cents on the price of a schooner (a New South Wales term for three quarters of a pint of beer).

Pork barrel, or simply pork, is a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localised projects, usually designed to bring money to a representative’s district.

According to Investopedia, the phrase ‘pork barrelling’ harks back to the 1770s when people who owned slaves gave them pork in barrels as a ‘reward’. Before refrigeration, pork was salted and preserved in large wooden barrels.

But in the cut and thrust of 21^st century politics, the phrase now means trying to win votes by appealing to voters’ basest instincts.

Social media, being the untamed beast it is, was quick to condemn the wafer-thin beer excise promise. What about spirits and wine, they asked (not unreasonably). Sexist, said others. DISCRIMINATION, said another post (words in capital letters means shouting).

As pork barrelling goes, 30 cents off a schooner of beer amounts to little more than a head of froth. More to the point, we could use some excise relief on the cost of fuel, don’t you think?

On a five-day round trip towing a 14 ft caravan through New England and back last week, we totted up a $350 fuel bill . The most expensive diesel was sighted at Wallangarra on the Queensland/NSW border ($1.79.9 cents a litre). In Brisbane this week $1.85 seemed to be the going rate.

I’m surprised the government would even risk attracting attention to the $46 billion it earns through excise and custom duty on petroleum, alcohol and tobacco (budget projection for 2021-2022).

Election campaigns are usually fought over relatively lightweight matters such as the cost of beer or fuel. But as we all should know, there are more pressing matters, domestic and global.

Mike Scrafton, writing in Pearls & Irritations, says the media can play a role by simply not repeating the trivial utterances devised by politicians to seduce voters.

“Election campaigns never rise much above budgetary baubles, three-word campaign slogans, pork barrelling, name-calling and personal slurs, and straight-out deceptions. The electorate and the media have been conditioned to expect nothing more profound or visionary from their leaders.”

Scrafton, a former senior bureaucrat in the Victorian Government, was commenting on Scott Morrison’s National Press Club speech, which “typically infantilised voters and kept the focus on economic growth”.

“We’re facing a climate calamity, yet the PM believes Australians are more focused on the next holiday than threats to their children’s future.”

Scrafton says the federal election should be about global warming, increasing wealth inequality, irreversible environmental degradation, widespread species extinction and the seemingly inexorable march to great-power war.

FOMM feels obliged to add to this list the most immediate social issues of our times – housing affordability and our appalling treatment of refugees/asylum seekers.

Pork barrelling aside, even in these early stages, with the election yet to be called, the major parties are throwing out none-too subtle hints about what to expect.

In late January, Labor’s leader Anthony Albanese promised $440 million to help teachers and students navigate the challenges mounted by Covid-19. He is also promising a Royal Commission of Inquiry or similar into the handling of the pandemic. An Albanese government would also tackle Federal reform. At the time, Albanese skilfully scooted around questions about whether this would include an overhaul of the tax system.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will continue to pledge financial support for smart technology, particularly that which can help meet our net zero climate change targets. The big question is can he keep to a 2019 promise to establish a Federal Integrity Commission? Ironically, Morrison was roundly defeated over an election promise he tried hard to deliver.

We can expect some kind of a re-run of the Religious Discrimination Bill, whichever party wins the election. It was Labor’s amendments (protecting the rights of trans students), that saw the bill shelved indefinitely. (Some wag suggested that ‘Scomo’ had suffered splinters from his own wedge. Ed)

Election promises often return to haunt the leaders who made them. The most egregious of broken promises was former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard’s distinction between ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ promises to explain why they did not materialise.

In 2014, Crikey compiled a list of the worst ‘porkies’, (as opposed to Pork Barrels. Ed) that is, political promises made and not kept. It is worth repeating that in 1995, John Howard said there would “never ever” be a GST then introduced one in 1999. This list makes fascinating reading at a time when we are being asked to trust what politicians tell us. The ‘porkies’ include then Health minister Tony Abbott’s promise before the 2004 election not to change the Medicare ‘safety net’ (This is meant to limit the annual amount a person must spend on medical treatment and medications before paying a subsidised rate- currently about $6 for a prescription.) After the election, the Coalition raised the ‘safety net’, leaving Abbott to say, “I am very sorry that that statement back in October has turned out not to be realised by events.”

Even further back, Bob Hawke’s 1987 pledge – “by 1990 no Australian child will be living in poverty” didn’t happen and still hasn’t happened.

Crikey’s investigative unit recently compiled a ‘dossier of lies and falsehoods’ – an analysis of 48 statements made by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. It’s here if you have the time and inclination. There has been no comment from the PM’s office.

As history shows, it is easier to offer voters something they will like, or promise not to do something they will hate, than it is to reveal complex policy ahead of the vote.

Honest politicians who come out with carefully costed plans to introduce necessary but controversial legislation don’t win elections. Remember John Hewson, who as Opposition Leader in 1993 lost the election to Paul Keating, after trying to sell a plan for a GST? Likewise former Labor Opposition Leader Bill Shorten paid the price in 2019 for campaigning on a long list of complex policies.

I am not expecting Anthony Albanese to fall into the same trap. Thus far, his modus operandi appears to be to criticise and rebut most things the government does or tries to do. The problem with that strategy is that voters don’t really know what he stands for, as this week’s Four Corners programme tried to establish.

While I was trying to escape to the bush and disengage from media, the Canberra protest filtered through via the all-pervasive ABC and social media. It did not surprise to learn that Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party has hitched its wagon to that loose collective. If you travel through the backblocks of New England, it is hard to miss the yellow and black colours of the UAP on billboards set in paddocks along the highways and byways.

“Freedom…freedom” is the common slogan. I’m pretty sure there is no link between that and the song by Beyonce and rapper Kendrick Lamar (the lyrics of which empower black women).

Nevertheless, the billboards are out there, spreading the gospel as understood by anti-vaxxers, sovereign citizens, religious zealots, conspiracy theory followers, ‘preppers’ and genuine if misguided people whose lives have been severely disrupted by Covid-19 controls and mandates. It falls to me to remind readers that protests like the one in Canberra last week happened simultaneously in places as far removed as Ottawa (Canada), Wellington (NZ) and Paris (France). Van Badham’s overview of the global movement is required reading if this issue troubles you – and it should.

Why we need an annual twins day

As a Dad of one, it quite does my head in when I read about blokes whose wives presented them with twins, triplets or more. Such fun!

It seems that if you are good looking and in good shape when you hit late teens, there’s no end to the opportunities in the US when it comes to music, movies and TV series.

A recent post by Insider ranked 15 sets of twins by their achievements in film and television (and professional wresting). Typically the post focused on American celebrities, although you are probably already saying, “what about the Veronicas?”

Not that I watched too many episodes of the series Full House (1987-1995), but I was never aware that the child role of Michelle Tanner was played alternatively by identical twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. The sisters went on to star in movies and sit-coms and lent their names to a range of merchandise. They are quite wealthy.

Twins Oliver and James Phelps played the Weasley twins in all eight Harry Potter films, Good work if you can get it. Identical twins Aaron and Shaun Ashmore are so difficult to tell apart I can’t say for sure which brother played the role of Jimmy Olsen, Clark Kent’s best friend, in four seasons of Smallville.

There is even a sit-com called Sister Sister featuring real-life sisters Tia and Tamera Mowry.

And it may not be widely known that Elvis Presley had a twin, Jesse Garon Presley, who was stillborn.

When you’re a fraternal (non-identical) twin, it doesn’t always follow that you align to your brother or sister’s life. For example, former Federal Opposition leader Bill Shorten has a twin brother, Robert, who is an investment banker.

Actress Scarlett Johansson is one of a set of fraternal twins. Her brother Hunter starred with her in one movie, but left show biz to work for Barack Obama as a campaign advisor.

The topic arose as my sister in New Zealand prepares for her quota of great-grandchildren to be doubled overnight. The new twins are expected next month, so there’s great excitement in an extended family which so far has no experience of multiple births.

Twins are the most common of multiple birth events. In Australia they represented 98.7% of multiple births in 2019. The Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed there were 4,501 multiple births (1.5% of all births in Australia). There were 4,446 pairs of twins and 55 sets of triplets and higher order multiples born in that year.

One of my younger friends in Brisbane told me in 2007 that his wife was expecting twins. It was their first attempt at having a family and Marcus was quietly freaking out.

“At the first ultrasound I remember the doctor saying, ‘There’s a heartbeat’ and I got a big smile on my face. A few seconds later the doctor says, ‘Hang on, there’s another heartbeat’. I was still smiling. The doctor then says – ‘I will just check for another’”.

Always an early riser, Marcus well remembers adjusting his work life to starting at 5am or earlier so he could be home to help at the other end of the day.

The couple had fraternal or dizygotic twins (a boy and a girl), which results from the fertilization of two separate eggs during the same pregnancy. Fraternal twins may be of the same or different sexes and are not identical.

“They don’t have the same connection as identical twins, but because they’ve been together from the start, they are very close,” Marcus said.

“We were fortunate with our two (now 14) as they were placid babies.

“We’d always talked of having three or four children. But the intensity of having two at once changed our thinking.”

Marcus admits to having a ‘bond’ with other parents of twins and is immediately drawn to them.

“If I see someone with a twin pram, I almost always fall into conversation with them.”

Identical or monozygotic twins occur when a single egg is fertilised then splits into two, creating identical babies with the same genes, physical features and sex. There is also such a thing as ‘mirror twins’. According to www.twinstrust.org, one child could have their hair parting on the left and the other child on the right. They may also have birthmarks on opposite sides of their body or be right and left-handed. The chances of having identical twins are about 3 or 4 in every thousand births.

Australia also has celebrity twins, including the aforementioned musical duo, The Veronicas, Lisa and Jessica Origlias. Although the sisters spend most of their time in the US, they were raised in Queensland. Identical twins Alanna and Alicia Egan are part of the Australian folk and acoustic music scene and are regulars at folk festivals.

The Morris brothers (Brett and Josh) were high-profile rugby league players for more than a decade before retiring last year. The identical twins started off playing for the same team (Canterbury Bulldogs). It wasn’t until they were older and playing for different teams and their hair started thinning that you could tell them apart. Both played for their State and National teams and were prolific try scorers.

Celebrity twins are thin on the ground in New Zealand, although the internationally known entertainers, The Topp Twins, might disagree. More recently, Amber and Sarina Shine have become known on social media as the ‘wild twins’ for their daredevil outdoor adventures.

There’s a serious side to the topic of multiple births. Twins Research Australia (TRA) undertakes and supports twin research in institutes and hospitals across Australia and globally. TRA, based at the University of Melbourne, has 75,000 twins as members.

An example of TRA’s work is the project started in 2020 to identify the prevalence of breast cancer in identical or fraternal twins.

TRA is working with volunteers to clarify the genetic and environmental risks of developing breast cancer among one or both twins.

Melbourne identical twins Raie Moss and Judy Kohn joined a study which seeks to explain why only one twin in a pair develops breast cancer, or if both twins are diagnosed, why one twin does so earlier.

Six years after Judy was diagnosed with breast cancer at 59 in 2013, her identical twin Raie received the same news.

“We’ve been able to support each other through some very dark times,” Raie said. “When we found out we could help others like we helped each other, we jumped at the chance.”

Most Australian twins would know about the annual Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg Ohio, which in 2021 attracted 16,000 sets of twins. Brothers Moses and Aaron Wilcox were instrumental in the town’s name change from Millsville after moving there in 1819. The summer festival has been running since 1974, albeit with a year off in 2020.

TRA’s Lynette Walker said the Ohio festival was “amazing”. TRA has previously organised similar events including the 2015 twins and other multiples festival, held at Caulfield racetrack in Melbourne. In 2021 they took the event on-line to celebrate the organisation’s 40^th anniversary and to raise funds.

The interactive evening included performances by Australian musical twins and a video message from TRA’s International Patron, HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (herself a mother of twins).

As for the world’s biggest twins festival in Ohio, Marcus is already making travel plans!

Sport as opium of the masses

YouTube video – Ash comes back from 5-1 down

On Sunday night, as Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev drew level at two games each in the first set, we decided that tennis as a spectator sport was intrinsically boring to watch.

We adjourned to the dining room table to resume the great summer scrabble tournament. Earlier that day while vacuuming, I had found an F lurking beside a leg of the dining room chair. Now it was back inside the green cloth bag, I felt my luck was about to turn.

As the game progressed, faced with a dismal collection of letters and a cramped board, I tentatively offered RAFA. She Who Usually Wins at Scrabble snorted: “Good try, Bob”. I ended up winning that game (which took 1 hour and 11 minutes with no tie-break). ZOO and OM on a triple word score did the trick. In between moves one of us would slip into the lounge to see how the men’s final match was progressing – whack (grunt), whack, whack, whack (grunt) whack.

Scrabble over, we went back into the lounge and switched to Muster Dog, an ABC reality series fast overtaking all but the tennis in the ratings. Yes, we could have watched it later and persisted with the tennis. But really, how many hours can you spend watching two blokes, neither of them Australian, whack a ball back and forth across a net?

I realise this is cognitive dissonance and counter to the prevailing Australian obsession with sports of all persuasion. But as February looms – the brief hiatus between summer and winter sports begins.

The end of the Australian Open is a sign we are all about to be dragged back to an albeit-postponed new school year and all that entails. The ever-spiralling Omicron case numbers might finally penetrate our sports-soaked brains. The total number of cases in Australia since February 2020 is 2.29 million. As of February 2 there were 345,027 active cases. In those two years 3,987 people died, most recently musician and promoter Glenn Wheatley.

But gee, Rafa’s got a great forehand slice, eh!

Across the decades, various academics and writers have twisted the famous Marxism that sport is the ‘opium of the people’. Marx actually said that of religion, back in 1843. Marx, being opposed to all things important to the ‘system’, said religion was like a drug, causing people to experience an illusory form of happiness.

Politicaldictionary.com says the original intent of Marx’s thinking has been paraphrased and twisted over the years. The term ‘opiate of the masses’ has been hijacked by people trying to make a case about professional sport (in cahoots with television), replacing religion in an increasingly secular society.

What Marx actually said 179 years ago was this:

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

Marx’s opinion was that religion dulled people’s minds and preventing them from improving their lives. Many pundits have since argued that spectator sports, politics or even television itself also distract us from confronting the real issues in life.

For example, Western Kentucky University political scientist Eric Bain-Selbo argued that sport (in this instance college football), was the opium of the people.

“Sport functions to preserve the status quo, to maintain the position of the “haves” vis-à-vis the “have nots”. To do this, sport must act as a kind of “opiate” for the “have nots”, so that they will accept the inequities and injustices of the social system.”

I did the basic research for this while half watching Nadal sweat his way through the fourth and fifth game of the third set. As the game seemed about to go to five sets, I cleaned up the kitchen, turned on the dish washer and went to bed to read three more chapters in a devilishly well-written book by William Boyd. Armadillo is about an idiosyncratic chap who has found his niche in life practising the dark arts of a loss adjuster. Then I checked my emails, scrolled through Facebook to find that few of my friends were watching the final (as opposed to Saturday night when 4.25 million people saw Ash Barty win the Australian Women’s championship). Ah, but that was different, eh? She’s one of ours.

The above demonstrates how much one can get done in five hours and 24 minutes, which is how long it took Rafa to wear down the Russian and win his 21^st grand slam.

You have to give it to the old pro, who, like Ash Barty, came from well behind to take an impressive victory. The match was watched by 1.58 million television viewers, although there are no statistics available on how many of them gave up and went to bed.

On Saturday night, a record 4.25 million people tuned in to Channel Nine to watch Ash Barty defeat Danielle Collins in two sets.

Later, after the official presentation and a victory lap, Barty made her way to the Channel Nine studios where an excited James Bracey waited. In the interim, Bracey waxed enthusiastic about the win, sharing the euphoria with co-commentators and former tennis stars, Casey Dellacqua and Alicia Molik.

“You dream of this as a broadcaster. Our whole Wide World of Sports team has been willing this on,” Bracey said, having earlier acknowledged how badly the country needed a (psychological) lift.

Near the end of the interview (YouTube video above), a crew member pushed a mixed basket of boutique beers on to the presenters’ table. This shameless product placement left Ash with nowhere to go but choose one (by name). It is commercial TV after all.

I note there is now an edited version of this video reducing it to a beer ad, which has produced a stream of comments castigating Nine for taking advantage.

If you saw the original interview, you could not fail to be impressed with Ash’s genuine, modest nature. When Bracey asked her about her trove of tennis trophies, she revealed she does not keep them at home but instead shares them around to family members. Nice.

I happened to text my sister in New Zealand at some point in the Barty/Collins match to ask if she was watching. I’d forgotten about the three-hour time difference. Next morning it transpired she’d been otherwise occupied, celebrating the first birthday of her tamahine mootua (great-grand daughter). My sister and her family are mad about cricket though, so I sent her an abridged version of Ash Barty’s achievements in cricket, golf and tennis. Meanwhile, we now have to sweat our way through February, 28 days of humidity, storms, possible cyclones, probable heat waves (Feb 1 was a stinker), floods (see SA), and continuing supply chain issues. As for sport, there’s always the six nations rugby tournament or the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Shame about the Matildas (women’s soccer team). Then there’s the first rugby league game of the year, to be played (Covid-willing), on Saturday February 12. The Indigenous All Stars meet the New Zealand Maoris in a televised event which promises to be a spectacle, if only for the pre-match entertainment. The Maori team will demonstrate a haka, while the Indigenous team will hopefully reprise the ‘war cry’ that Bangarra Dance Company founder Stephen Page and indigenous leaders produced for last year’s contest.

No scrabble game that night.

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Extreme weather reminds us of Black Summer

black-summer-extreme-weather — Photo: View from our veranda, Yangan November 2019 (see after photo below). BW

As Australia Day passes by, is it safe yet to say the eastern seaboard of Australia has dodged a ‘Black Summer’ in 21/22? This typically runs from December to May in most parts of Australia. Too soon?

The 2020-2021 bushfire season so far is relatively subdued due to the effects of La Nina and the wet winter and spring it brought in many parts of Australia.

We’ve seen some freaky weather, though, including heat-waves, a cyclone and hail storms. Reports of bush fires from far away Western Australia this month may have sparked anxiety in those who suffered through Black Summer in 2019.

The WA coastal town of Onslow sweltered through a 50.7C day this month, equalling a 62-year-old record set in Oodnadatta. The ABC observed that if confirmed, this will be only the fourth day over 50C for an Australian location since reliable observations began.

It is apparent that climate change will rank among the top three issues debated in the upcoming Federal election.

There is concern at the top end of town, with a survey by Deloitte’s revealing that 77% of business executives think the world is at a “tipping point”. The global survey found that businesses are starting to take action, but the level of action often doesn’t match the scale and urgency of business and moral concerns expressed in the survey.

Whatever we as individuals think about how the Federal Government is handling climate change policy, the world has already judged us.

Australia’s latest climate policies are failing to “take advantage of its potential” and it ranks last among nations surveyed, according to the 2022 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI).

Advocacy group Germanwatch ranks the performance of 63 nations and the European Union on each country’s progress working towards goals in the Paris Agreement.

Australia slipped from 54^th place overall to 59^th, well below other developed countries. Australia was rated last on the climate policy table (64^th), the worst of the bottom 15 countries rated as “very poor”.

“The (Australian) government does not have any policies on phasing out coal or gas, but CCUS (carbon capture, utilisation and storage) and hydrogen are being promoted as low-emissions technologies,” the report said.

Experts consulting to the report said Australia’s international standing has been damaged by climate denialism by politicians. A “lack of ambition” and refusal to recommit to international green finance mechanisms. https://ccpi.org/

The Climate Council’s extreme Weather Communication Guide, available in 10 different languages, explains how cyclones, flooding, bush fires, heat waves, and poor air quality are being supercharged by climate change.

The Climate Council’s Nathan Hart said Australians were already paying the price for more frequent and severe extreme weather.

He cited floods in Maryborough, QLD, and the Top End, fuelled by ex-tropical cyclone Tiffany.

The independent, not-for-profit Climate Council was launched not long after incoming Prime Minister Tony Abbott scrapped the Australian Climate Commission in September 2013.

The Climate Council’s chief councillor is Professor Tim Flannery, who also chaired the ACC. Prof Flannery and Climate Council councillor Greg Mullins (former Commissioner, Fire and Rescue NSW) are the faces behind an award-winning documentary, Burning.

The climate change documentary was first shown at the COP26 conference in Glasgow and was released on Prime Video and distributed to 260 countries.

The documentary about Australia’s devastating Black Summer was directed by Australian film-maker Eva Orner. The film recaps the Black Summer bush fires that scorched Australia in 2019-20. More than 450 Australians were killed, either directly by the fires or from the toxic air that covered three of Australia’s major cities for weeks. The fires burnt over 18 million hectares, destroyed 3,113 homes and killed 3 billion animals. Former Fire Commissioner Greg Mullins features in the film.

“I’ve never seen fires like it and I hope I never will again,” he said. “Sadly though, we are going to see more Black Summers – and even worse. Despite the extreme danger we face, the federal government refuses to ramp up emissions cuts this decade or to embrace Australia’s incredible renewable potential.

“Not long after the flames had settled, the COVID-19 pandemic rolled in and the world moved on. But for survivors, fire-fighters, business owners and mental health workers, the road to recovery was only just beginning.”

In some small way we count ourselves among the millions of Australians who suffered physical and mental anguish during the Black Summer fires.

I recall going to see a GP in late 2019 about some unrelated complaint. He scrolled through my records and asked if my asthma was worse than usual. A Monash University study found there were 6% more weekly emergency department presentations for respiratory disease and 10% more cardiovascular presentations compared to the previous two fire seasons. The study was the first to look at the impact of bush fires on actual ED attendance numbers.

In Australia, during the 2019-20 season, the density of particulate matter in the air peaked on 14 January – at fourteen times more than the historically highest level previously recorded. According to Monash’s Professor Yuming Guo, it is known that PM1.0, PM 2.5 – the two most common particle-sized matter in smoke – can cause respiratory disease, chronic obstructive disease, pulmonary disease and asthma.

“The results indicate that the unprecedented bush fires led to a huge health burden, showing a higher risk in regions with lower socio-economic areas and more bush fires,” Professor Guo said.

Hence my GP asking about asthma. At the time we were living at Yangan, 18 kms from Warwick in the foothills of the Dividing Range. Long-burning bush fires in the hills shrouded the valley in smoke most days. On occasions, it was so bad it drifted into town (Warwick). Asthma aside, the constant pall of smoke, the visible fires (at night) and the unpredictability of bush fires made us anxious.

The University of Western Australia conducted a survey of professional and volunteer fire-fighters after Black Summer which reveals the extent of mental anguish among those who battled the blazes.

The survey identified a third of volunteers and a quarter of employees had felt there was a time when their life was threatened by the fires. Some 4.6% of volunteers and 5.5% of employees had since shown very high psychological distress indicative of serious mental illness.

A study published last October found the physical and mental impacts of exposure to smoke from the black summer fires was likely greatly underestimated by official health statistics.

Prof Iain Walker of the Australian National University surveyed 2,084 adults affected by the bush fires close to Canberra.

“Virtually all of them – 97% – said they had experienced at least one physical symptom attributed to the smoke. Half of respondents reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as sleep loss.

“Only one in five people sought medical attention for their symptoms, suggesting the breadth of health impacts was far greater than the number of cases officially recognised by the health system,” Walker said.

“A much wider segment of the population was exposed to bushfire smoke than bush fires directly.”

Yes, and how we still remember that late afternoon in 2019 singing Christmas carols in Warwick’s main intersection. A sudden change of wind brought clouds of bushfire smoke rolling into town like a London fog. We all ran for our cars, forced to put the lights on to drive home.

But then, after some rain…

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