Hung Parliament

Last weekend there was a Federal Election for the House of Representatives and half of The Senate. The result after one week of counting is Labor 72, Coalition (Lib/Nats) 73, Independents 4 and a couple of other seats yet to be determined. Result is a hung Parliament.

Not for 70 years has Australia found itself with a hung parliament. It was at the beginning of the Second World War, 1940, and this country was in turmoil. It has taken a long time to reappear on the political scene, but it has and it's taking a lot of uncustomary negotiating to establish some form of workable government.

Hung parliaments are the norm in Europe, but not in this country. Our system has produced a two sided approach to politics, with left of centre and right of centre holding sway. I say this deliberately, since there is no way our two major parties significantly disagree on most major aspects of public policy. If there is any dissension, it is played out for media and public entertainment - since they both manage to 'drop' these contentious issues literally at the drop of a hat (or poll!).

We're not talking 'Reds under the beds' type Socialists v The Establishment anymore. There's not much to separate them at all when it all boils down to it. One side wanted work place reform, and fought like there was no tomorrow to have it introduced. Later, when pressured by The Polls, dropped it as if it wasn't worth it in the first place. The other side pushed for climate change legislation with carbon trading policies to the fore. They fought, and fought THEN....just dropped any reference to it overnight. We had Fuel Watch, then Grocery Watch, loads and loads of issues that took up kilometres of column space and days and days of TV coverage and analysis....and they were all dropped overnight.

The result was, and is, complete distrust of both major sides of politics. Those of you abroad will understand little of this because in a country with just 6% of GDP owed in borrowings and the country being the only OECD country not to slip into recession last year, headlines scream 'Labor Sends Country Broke' and nobody cites the USA at 28% and UK at 32% or Greece at 48% making our bill to lenders seem totally unnecessary to worry about.

Enter the Independents and Greens. They've always been around, but now they have representation not only in The Senate but also the Lower House. The Greens will have (come July next year) a 9 member block to really influence the deliberations in the upper house. What will the next week bring I wonder? Whatever the result, it is certainly an exciting and fascinating period where the prospect of real democratic reform is not just a possibility but a certainty.

Some of my pictures from Cairns last weekend

Some performers at the 2010 CIAF travelled days to get from their isolated island homes to Cairns. One group we saw perform live on an island just 6km from Papua New Guinea.

An example of the colourist art from Lockart River. Most pieces on display were already in gallery collections. I think five galleries had the best of the Lockart River paintings on display to sell.

The festival parade was a local affair, full of local organisations and businesses. It got dark soon after it started.

This Gay Pride float and its ancillary support acts won the first prize giving the organisation $3000 towards next year's float. Good on ya' guys!

I took this shot to show the dashboard screen I work on. I think I need a change, so I'm thinking either a new blog site or a new appearance to the interface. What do you think?

A film crew from BBC2 in England was also in town to shoot the festival for a show on indigenous art hosted by popular Welsh comedian, writer, actor and television personality Griff Rhys Jones. We came across him interviewing an Indigenous painter in one of The Tanks, and it was such a surprise to firstly recognise the voice, then the person. I must say, he was looking rather handsome with perfectly groomed salt and pepper hair and quite trim too.

Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair 2010

Last weekend we went to Cairns for three nights primarily for the 2010 Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair. It coincided with the annual Cairns Festival and; surprise, surprise, the Cairns Gay Pride. We had lots of art, lots of food and drink, lots of people to meet plus a parade and huge fireworks over the sea to end the weekend.

The Festival has another week to go, but three nights was enough for us. We really enjoyed viewing the art works on display, meeting lots of people connected with the indigenous art world plus seeing performers from both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

It was very hot and (surprisingly) humid, especially on the Friday when it reached 30C. Locals explained that this winter had been very warm with minimum temperatures only touching 16 twice, whereas it ought to be 12. Daytime maximum temperatures have been 2-4 degrees higher than usual too.

The CIAF 2010 was held in The Tanks, a group of five converted WW2 oil tanks. The cavernous cement walls (now covered and lined) made for great exhibition spaces plus a symposium venue on the Saturday. It is situated about 4-5 km from the City centre, beside the botanical gardens. Although there were shuttle buses provided, on the Saturday afternoon, following the symposium, we both walked back past our hotel to The Pier for several well earned beers, before heading back to the room for a shower and change ready for the parade and fireworks. Best beers? At the Drop Zone Bar - great bartender too (he's a Pom!). Cheapest great beer? Blue Sky Brewery, Lake St Cairns. Best seafood? The Raw Prawn, The Esplanade.

Although down here in the South East corner the slump in overseas tourists has been mild, up there in Far North Queensland the drop in (notably Chinese and Japanese) tourists has been significant. The GFC has brought about a decline of something like 40% in overseas tourists. To make matters worse, the healthy Australian dollar has meant more Aussies travelling overseas for holidays rather than staying home and touring.

I really like Cairns. Sadly it is a 2 hour jet flight from Brisbane, let alone 3 hours from Sydney. It is just a bit too far from anywhere, but having said that I met lots of lovely folk who just love living there. Last weekend I realised that I am a Brisbane Boy now, after having moved here from Toowoomba five years ago this month.

Winter is almost over

This is the back corner of our garden, just 18 months old. This is the last week of what has been a milder and wetter winter than usual. The garden continues to thrive with very little attention.

The poinsettia, bought as a small table decoration 18 months ago, has grown well and provides some stunning winter colour. I will prune it back in the spring to ensure it doesn't get too large.

A slightly longer view of the back terrace. Clicking on these pictures allows a better view, but the general impression is one of depth and colour in what is basically a very small yard.

The neighbouring palms also contribute to the lush feel of what was, just a short while ago, a very barren piece of earth.

The pictures below were taken in March of 2009, a mere year and a half ago. No, we don't do much to the garden, but it does get watered if it's dry and weeds are occasionally collected and the larger shrubs have been pruned for shape and to encourage thicker growth. That's all though - between us we have one yellow thumb verging on gangrenous.

Ambassador Dinner

Last night Rene and I attended the annual Appreciation Dinner put on by Southern Queensland Tourism and the Brisbane Airport for all the Airport Ambassadors. It was very pleasant indeed - held in the River View Hotel on Kingsford Smith Drive. I'm still organising the BBQ fundraiser for prostate cancer next month. This is taking up some time for now, so I'm off shift at the airport for the next two weeks - which includes the three nights in Cairns. It's always 27C - 29C all year round in Cairns, so it'll be a nice change from the colder south, although tonight/tomorrow here in Brisbane is 15-25, so perhaps it won't be all that different? Queensland is a great state to live in.

Toowoomba Visit

I had a very busy and quick visit up to Toowoomba last Thursday (it was a school holiday here in Brisbane) and managed to see and chat with a number of friends. The major reason was to do my tax with my accountant, but I also managed to visit the school I left seven years ago, and found quite a few old staff still there. Morning tea was wonderful, and the banter interesting. I had lunch with my brother and sister in law (delightful) then followed that up with a former colleague putting on a delicious high tea in her home. Debbie was great, as usual, and it was lovely to see her husband Andrew again plus Rhonda - a friend from my time in Toowoomba.

The city seemed to be very prosperous and was a hive of new building and renovation. It was very cold and extremely windy - but not unusual for Toowoomba in August.

One week to go...

The election rolls along. Rene and I have already voted by postal ballot since we'll be in Cairns next weekend. It quite possibly will be a knife edge result. Those of you in countries where it takes months to form a coalition government following a general election (eg Netherlands and Belgium) you might like to know that the final result and the new prime minister almost always is known before going to bed. We compared our voting two days after mailing our votes, and (would you believe) Rene and I both voted exactly the same for both the House of Representatives and The Senate. My vote is no secret to my friends - Labor in the Lower House and The Greens in the Upper.

Langdale Pikes

I was searching for more family stuff when I came across this photograph from the Lake District in north western England of the Langdale Pikes. They are near Great Langdale and Little Langdale - two charming villages in that beautiful part of the world.

Our Dad on the Net

My brother Mark found this photo on the net of our father at the 1956 Edinburgh Military Tattoo - he is two left from the conductor, Sir Vivien Dunn. At 32 he was already the Band Sergeant of the Royal Marine Band performing that year. Clever of Mark to unearth this photograph. (click for large picture)

We have borers at the bottom of our garden!

Yes, borers! Two of them! 200m long and worth a cool $48m each! We toured the work site two weeks ago to see Australia's longest and largest tunnel project and found the whole exercise quite amazing.

It's the annual Royal National Exhibition (known as 'The Ekka') currently and this week I have two days off for the show, so I'm only working half a day today and Tuesday. On Friday I have one shift, then Rene and I are attending the annual Airport Appreciation Dinner for the Ambassadors.

Blue September

I have seen some quite clever cartoons for this election, and I really laughed at this one of Julia in the prime ministerial privy. The caption reads, 'Australia's first female prime minister begins a long process of change...'

I'm organising a fundraiser for prostate cancer at the airport. Next month is Blue September - Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Light blue is the colour of the prostate cancer campaign, and we all know that pink belongs to breast cancer. For September we (myself and fellow Airport Ambassadors) are aiming to raise a significant amount of money to donate for prostate cancer research.

On Friday September 17 we are having a BBQ plus morning tea delights from 10am until 1pm targeting the staff at International. There will also be a raffle. My hope is to exceed $600. It is not just here in Australia but across the world where males with prostate cancer die in greater numbers than women with breast cancer, yet early detection is very good, and the disease often is quite treatable. I've used the phrase; "49% of Australians have one, and 100% of Australians love or care for someone who has one". There are good ads on TV now featuring well known males who speak out about ignoring prostate checks. Light blue will be the colour of September everywhere in the world. Wherever you live, urge males you know and love to have a check up to ensure the current hold it has on statistics is diminished.

Films and Theatre

We've been a bit quiet lately in the entertainment area, apart from trivia every Tuesday. I saw 'Mother and Child' with Naomi Watts and Annette Bening. I really quite liked the film. I had had a friend from Toowoomba visiting and she was seeing it later that afternoon, so I tagged along (Rene stayed with the gallery). I was very glad Pam had talked me into going.

Last night we saw 'Ghost Writer' starring Ewen McGregor - Roman Polanski's latest film. I really enjoyed this film a lot, and as a thriller it maintained momentum right up until the end. No opening credits that I could remember, just a complete set at the end. I wanted to see if one of the female leads was, indeed, Kim Cattrall (of the infamous 'Sex in the City 2' fame). She did a quite good job, even leaving her legs together for the whole movie. Heavens! How I loathe remembering that awful vacuous film from a couple of months ago.

I'm going with friends to a gala fundraiser for people living with HIV AIDS to be held on August 23 at The Playhouse. It's called 'Hats Off BrizVegas' and will have the casts of Mama Mia and J C Superstar as well as many other performers donating their time for a most worthy cause.

Picture this...January 1975

A former pupil of mine from 35 years ago came up to the Visitor Information Centre at Domestic last Friday while I was on duty. He recognised my name and voice, and we had a lovely chat before he rushed off to check in for a Melbourne flight. He came back a few minutes later and introduced me to his lovely wife. Such a long time to still remember a teacher. I felt quite moved by this chance meeting. Being a teacher doesn't always produce immediate rewards, and one often feels that in the scheme of things a whole year in one's life is quite fleeting; but on Friday I met a man who, as a child, tested my patience beyond belief many times. He has evolved into this normal functioning adult, quite unremarkable if one would pass him by today, yet I still have memories of him with horns and a barbed tail, tempered now by the passage of time plus this chance meeting. Drew - it was a distinct pleasure meeting you.

Climate Change and Politics

I was driving home today listening to BBC World Service and they had people from the US, Greece and Russia talking about the current extremes in weather. 35c+ for the past three weeks in Russia has created serious fires and drought, impacting on people's health and the economy - the wheat crop is a failure and the price of wheat is already rising around the world. We are having a very mild winter, with us sitting on our deck until 10:30pm following a day of 27c and a balmy evening wearing just jeans and a T shirt. This last week has gone as low as 6, but mainly 10-12 with a maximum of 20-22. I'm sure there is a change in our global climates, but to what degree humans contribute to this is open in my mind BUT there do seem to be consequences and we ought to be limiting as much human contribution as possible.

Rene and I are off to Cairns in a fortnight, coinciding with the Federal Election. We have already voted by postal vote and the envelopes were mailed today. We have two polling booths set up at the airport from tomorrow until Election Day.

All the politicking is directed to 15-17 seats where it is knife-edged, and our electorate is not one of them. Frankly I'm over the whole thing, including being somewhat disillusioned with the two major parties. As for the media...if for just once we could have some objective, unbiased reporting of events. Many times the commercial stations are making the news as in the disgraceful Mark Latham interview in Brisbane yesterday - a pathetic scene where a former leader of Labor is trailing the current Labor PM and trying to twist every single opportunity into a maniacal attempt at self promotion. I can't believe I registered to vote for him whilst I lived in The Netherlands in 2004. What an unattractive individual he has turned out to be. Mind you, even the drover's dog could look good beside John Howard.