Robin's Room

Week beginning 19 July 2021

Both books reviewed this week were provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Daniel Talbot In Love With Movies Columbia University Press 2022

Daniel Talbot’s In Love With Movies is a delight, from the first chapters about the early years in independent theatres; though Those Who Made Me Laugh in Part 2; Part 3 which, in Unsung Film Pioneers, covers collectors, early distributors and exhibitors; part 4, Acquisitions is an engrossing wander through some of the films shown in Talbot’s theatres; Directors In My Life, enumerates those such as Yasujiro Ozu, Nagisa Oshima, Ousmane Sembene, Roberto Rossellini, Jean-Luc Gordar, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders, and Werner Herzog; Parts 6, 7, 8 and 9 with ‘a memory project’, includes more directors, Criteria and Reflections; Portraits, including friends and legendary a film critic, in Part 10; followed by more on independent theatres in Upper West Side Cinemas; and an epilogue written by Toby Talbot who edited the book. There are excerpts from Dan Talbot’s Festival Notes, an interview between Talbot and Stanley Kauffmann, and an intriguingly titled, Dreams on My Screen. Books: Reviews

George Thomas Clark They Make Movies BooksGoSocial 2021

They Make Movies is a combination of fiction, real events, and interpretations of the protagonists’ attitude towards the films in which they appeared or directed. Some of the events are seemingly told by the subject of the chapter, others appear to be based on reality or the author’s interpretation, described as if they are addressed directly by the subject. The stories are told with humour and, at times, sharp impact. The process is clever, providing researched topics and events, with the aid of fictional devices. Authenticity is supported by the list of film sources, although there are no footnotes to disturb the flow of the account – or to clarify what material is accurate and what might be fictional. As exciting as this presentation could be, I found that I could not warm to the execution of this style in They Make Movies, although some of the observations are well made. Books: Reviews

The information which appears after the Canberra Covid report: masks for Covid 19; UK Tory leadership, Tom Watson; Trump and presidency – a startling admission; Bob McMullan – a thoughtful article on the US Senate mid term elections, first of a series; Democrats and fundraising; Cindy Lou has coffee in a paper cup.

Covid in Canberra since the end of lockdown

Parrots in a tree, seen from my balcony, on a Canberra winter’s day.

Vaccinations – 80.6% : 1 dose, ages 5 – 11; 69.4 % 2 doses, ages 5 – 11; 97.4 % 2 doses , aged 5+; 77.5% boosters, making 3 doses , aged 16+. The rules for boosters have recently changed, and pharmacy waiting times have increased as people take advantage of the availability of additional doses of vaccine for the expanded age groups. Fourth dose take up is not as yet being recorded.

14 July – New cases reported, 1,367; people in hospital, 137; people in ICU 5; people ventilated, 3.

15 July – New cases reported, 1,208; people in hospital, 135; people in ICU, 4; and 3 ventilated.

16 July – 1,104 new cases; 4 people in ICU; and 3 people ventilated. 17 July – 956 new cases; 167 people in hospital; 6 people in ICU; and 3 people ventilated. 18 July – 887 new cases; 171 people in hospital; 5 people in ICU; and 3 people ventilated. 19 July – 1,221 new cases; 170 people in hospital; 6 in ICU; and 3 ventilated. 20 July – 961 new cases; 160 people in hospital; 4 in ICU; and 2 ventilated.

I noticed that more people are wearing masks in shopping centres today. The photo below looks even better.

UK Tory Leadership Comment from Tom Watson

The Penny Mordaunt Special*

Tom Watson Jul 16

I disappoint myself being glued to Twitter. Two and a half years after leaving Parliament, a Tory leadership race has reduced me to scrolling an iPhone for news a thousand times a day.

It looks like Penny Mordaunt is doing so well that her ministerial colleagues can’t afford to let her get on the ballot paper. As the current rules only allow Conservative party members a choice between two candidates, backroom deals will trade votes to squeeze her out. If I were Rishi Sunak, that’s what I’d be doing.

For election strategists, Penny Mordaunt is to Boris Johnson what Cillit Bang was to Mr Muscle. He sacked her from the Cabinet. She owes him little loyalty. Vote Penny? Bang, and the dirt is gone.

To voters, she’s a blank canvass. She can paint a fresh and new picture of conservative Britain. As she doesn’t have much of a record, she offers an unprecedented opportunity for the Conservatives to renew in office that it looks like they’re about to squander.

My former parliamentary colleagues in Labour will be praying for a Rishi Sunak/Liz Truss run-off this week.

* why the asterisk in the subject line?

The fresh new start argument also applies to Tom Tugendhat but looking at his numbers, he is doubtful to make the cut. It’s a pity because he is a brave and honourable man. **

**Tom Tugendhat (along with Kemi Badenoch) has now been eliminated, and the race has been reduced to three candidates, Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.

What ?

And now for a thoughtful article about American politics! This is the first of a series about the mid-term elections.

Trump may save the Democrat’s Senate bacon in November.

Bob McMullan

All the signs point to a disastrous result for the Democrats in the House of Representatives in the mid-terms in November.

Inflation, the unpopularity of the president and the usual mid-term set-back for the incumbent President’s party should combine to deliver a comfortable majority for the
Republicans in the House. After all, the Democrats have only the slimmest of majorities to begin with.

The extent to which the reaction to the Supreme Court decision in overturning Roe vs Wade will change the electoral equation in the House is unknowable at this stage but may prove to be a mitigating factor in November. This may reduce the losses but it is very hard to see
the Democrats holding on in the House.

However, the Senate may paint a different picture. In the state-wide races like Senate seats (and Governor’s races) candidates are more exposed and their merits count for more. And Trump has delivered some candidates of very
doubtful quality which should give the Democrats a chance to hang on and perhaps even to make gains.

By way of background, the 100 member Senate is currently split 50/50 with the Vice president having a casting vote. In 2022 35 Senate seats are up for election. It would normally be only 34 but a Senator from Oklahoma is retiring early even though he is only 86!

Of the 35 seats in contest the Republicans hold 21 and the Democrats 14. This means that the continuing Senators are 36 Democrats and 29 Republicans. However, many of the Republican held seats up for election this year are rock solid Republican strongholds, including the special election in Oklahoma.

The influential Cook Report suggests as many as 16 of the 21 Republican seats can be considered safe. This is substantially correct, but there may be interesting issues to watch in four of the “safe” seats.

This would mean 12 certain extra seats, taking the Republicans to 41.

The other four usually safe seats are Iowa, Missouri, Utah and Alaska.
In Iowa, the Senator seeking re-election for a six year term, Senator Grassley, will be 89 on election day and 95 at the end of the term he is seeking! Early polling was very strong for Grassley but since the Democrat primary in which they chose Michael Franken the most recent polling has seen the gap narrowing. It is difficult to see Grassley losing but it will be
worth watching on the night.

In Missouri the problem the Republicans have is a potentially very controversial candidate. Eric Greitjens is a previous Governor who lost office as a result of a series of scandals. At the moment he is leading in the polls for the August 2 primary, although only narrowly. His potential candidature has mobilized senior Republicans in the state to support an Independent Republican. It would not be unprecedented for the Republicans to lose the
Senate seat in Missouri due to the selection of an unacceptable candidate. Should Greitjens win the primary it will be another worth watching on the night.

In Utah the interest is generated by a strong Independent candidate, Evan McMullin. He has managed to persuade the Democrats not to run for the seat and as a consequence has an outside chance of beating the incumbent Republican, Mike Lee. Lee was an early critic of Trump but signed on to the “Big Lie” about the stolen election.

The Alaska Senate election is interesting because it is a contest between Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who voted to impeach Trump, and a Trump loyalist Kelly Tshibaka. The interesting question is, should Murkowski lose the primary will she still contest the election as an Independent or take advantage of new voting system in Alaska which will allow the top four candidates in the primary ballot to compete in a ranked choice election in November. I think Murkowski is most likely to win in November.

Should any of these potential Independents win they would not necessarily deprive the Republicans of a majority but they would create more opportunities for negotiation about legislation and appointments.
Nevertheless, the wise thing to do is assume that the Republicans will win all four seats in one way or the other. This would take them to 45 seats.

The Democrats have 42 “safe seats” and four others they are likely to win: Illinois; Colorado; Connecticut and Washington state. If we assume that the Republicans are likely to win 45 seats and the Democrats 46, that leaves 9 to be fought over:

Arizona (D)
Georgia (D)
New Hampshire (D)
Nevada (D)
Pennsylvania(R)
Wisconsin (R)
North Carolina(R)
Ohio (R) and
Florida (R).

I intend to assess the prospects in each of these states and follow-up on them and any other developments of interest in the Senate race on a regular basis.

Arizona
Trump’s support for Blake Masters as Republican candidate for the Arizona Senate seat appears to be a blessing for the Democrat incumbent Mark Kelly. The primary will be held on 2 August but polling suggests Masters is leading the internal Republican race by about 7%. However, he does not appear to be the strongest candidate for the general election. At this stage the polling suggests that Kelly is leading Masters by 9-10%. This would be a very
difficult gap to close by November.

Georgia
The situation here is similar. Herschel Walker, the Trump endorsed Senate candidate, staggers from one crisis to another. This does not mean he cannot win in what is still a slightly Republican state but it makes it harder for the Republicans than it otherwise would be. A recent poll had the Democrat incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock, ahead by 10%. This is an outlier and probably wrong. The RCP average of polls has Warnock ahead by 1-2%.
Given the numerous vulnerabilities of Walker I think Warnock has a better than even chance of pulling off another unlikely victory.

New Hampshire
The situation in New Hampshire is not clear. The Republican primary is not until September and there is no current sign that I have seen of a Trump-endorsed candidate in the field, The incumbent Democrat Senator, Maggie Hassan, is a former Governor and seems a strong candidate. She won very narrowly last time but should win this time unless national trends count too strongly against her. The lack of a Republican candidate means there in no useful polling data to serve as a guide to the likely outcome. Such current data as there is suggests Hassan is ahead of any of the Republican contenders by more than 4%, but this is likely to change once the candidate becomes clear.

Nevada
The Republicans seem to have selected a reasonably good candidate in Nevada in Adam Laxalt to run against the incumbent Democrat Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. Recent polling suggests Cortez Masto has her nose in front but it is likely to be a close contest in November.

Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is another state where Trump’s influence in the Republican primary has opened the door for the Democrats to have a chance of making a gain in the Senate. Trump supported Dr Oz, because he always said nice things about him in his (Oz’s) TV programs! Oz is handicapped by the impression, probably true, that he actually comes from New Jersey, and the extreme positions he had to take up to win the Trump endorsement and
then to win the primary. Early polling has the Democrat candidate, John Fetterman, ahead by between 4 and 9%. This would be a gain for the Democrats because the retiring Senator is a Republican. The key question is whether the national trends will be sufficient to enable Oz to close the gap.

Wisconsin
The opportunity for the Democrats in Wisconsin is generated by the apparent weakness of the incumbent Republican Senator, Ron Johnson. His approval numbers are very low (37%) and he does not poll well against any of the Democrat alternative candidates. The Democrats will choose their candidate on August 9 and there does not appear to be a clear favorite. They all poll well enough against Johnson to suggest a close race in November. It is hard to believe that an incumbent Republican Senator could lose in the electoral climate in the USA in 2022, but if anyone can do it Ron Johnson can.

North Carolina
The Senate contest in North Carolina is close at the moment between the Republican candidate Ted Budd and the Democrat Cheri Beasley. However, Budd has been consistently ahead by between 3 and 4%. Despite the narrow margin and some signs of improved prospects for the Democrats in recent national polls it is not clear what path to victory Ms. Beasley has. The incumbent Republican Senator is retiring.

Ohio
Ohio is a state which is going steadily more Republican but in which the Democrats have an opportunity to make a Senate gain in 2022. With the retirement of popular Republican Senator Portman and the subsequent decision to choose a Trump backed candidate, JD Vance, the Democrat Tim Ryan is currently leading in some polls and is competitive in all of them. It would be a surprise if Ryan were to win in 2022 but it appears to be a realistic
possibility.

Florida
It is hard to see incumbent Republican senator, Marco Rubio, being beaten, Trump won Florida easily and Ron de Santis is running for re-election as Governor which should help the Republican turnout. However, intelligent observers suggest that it is a seat to watch and the Democrats have put up a strong candidate in Val Deemings. Current polling has Rubio ahead by at least 5% and up to 9%.

The Democrats have to win four of these nine states to maintain their 50/50 status which would enable them to continue to use the Vice-President’s casting vote. As they are currently leading in five of the states the evidence suggests that Donald Trump’s control of the Republican party has given the Democrats a realistic chance of maintaining Senate control from 2022-2024.

Some good news for Democrats

Cindy Lou comments on a casual coffee and delicious bread

While I waited for my Indian take away (by the way, the advertised 10% deduction for pick up is not operating although advertised on the menu) I had a coffee and delicious savoury sweet bread close by.

Simple seating, trays and tongs for collecting your bread, pleasant coffee in a takeaway cup – a nice place to wait for your takeaway.

And certainly a great place to collect all sorts of delightful treats…

And there is much more …

Week beginning 13 July 2022

Two books are reviewed this week, both were sent to me by NetGalley as uncorrected proofs in exchange for an honest review.

Maggie Smith Truth and Other Lies 1016 Press, 2022.

Maggie Smith has written a novel that resonates with some of the most important issues affecting understanding events today. Truth and lies are seemingly acceptable alternatives, with the coining of the phrase ‘alternative truth’ becoming a part of the language of media stories and acceptance of news coverage. The narrative touches on these issues in a story that brings a young journalist into the aegis of a famous journalist, as well as her connection with a political figure. The three women carry the story, becoming the vehicle through which important issues are raised, at the same time as they are developed as women with personal attachments and aspirations. Books: Reviews

Kathryn Warner London, A Fourteenth-Century City and its People Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword History, June 2022.

Kathryn Warner has taken a fascinating topic and provided a wealth of information in her book of numerous short chapters. A copious amount of material augurs well for the value of the completed manuscript. There is a glossary, a brief introduction which includes a comparison with the present-day population, sources used, and descriptions of the appendices. There are informative end notes for this and each chapter. Graphics include an 1870 City of London Ward Map and various other visual explanatory material, historical and contemporary. Appendices provide information on fourteenth century given names/nicknames; London place names; mayors of London and abbreviations. There is a bibliography. Books: Reviews

Information after the Covid report: a new production of Looking for Alibrandi; Gough Whitlam quote about the media; Margaret Atwood quote; Joanna Penn – writing.

Covid in Canberra after lockdown ends

Australia has moved into a new phase of dealing with Covid and the new variations. Fourth doses of vaccine (two boosters) are being being made available for people 30 – 49; it is recommended that people over 50 have a fourth dose; and people over are expected to have two boosters. Eligibility for medication (anti viral drugs) is now available to more Australians.

There has been a reduction in the reinfection period for people who have had Covid -19 from 12 weeks to 28 days. There is increasing evidence that prior infection wit hCovid-19 provides relatively limited protection against the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 variants. These sub-variants are expected to become Australia’s dominant strain in July and are more transmissible than earlier variants.

7 July – new cases recorded, 1,292; people in hospital, 135; people in ICU, 6; and 2 people are ventilated.

8 July – new cases recorded, 1,701; there are 137 people in hospital; 4 are in ICU; and 3 are ventilated.

9 July – new cases recorded, 1,120; there are 138 people in hospital; 5 are in ICU; 3 are ventilated.

10 July – new cases recorded, 945; people in hospital, 134; 5 are in ICU; and 3 are ventilated.

11 July – new cases recorded, 1,143; 136 in hospital; 5 in ICU; 3 Ventilated.

12 July – new cases recorded, 1,174; 140 people are in hospital; 3 are in ICU; and 3 ventilated.

13 July – new cases recorded, 1,345; 142 people are in hospital; 4 are in ICU; and 3 are venilated.

Three lives were lost over this period.

A New Production of Looking for Alibrandi

Looking For Alibrandi was a favourite on the reading lists for schools in the 1990s. A new stage production is a welcome addition to the film that was made in 2000.

Looking For Alibrandi at 30: ‘There’s a white-hot shame about sticking out’

Chanella Macri stars as Josie Alibrandi, in a new play written by Vidya Rajan – with Marchetta’s blessing.

Chanella Macri stars as Josie Alibrandi in a new play adaption of Looking For Alibrandi written by Vidya Rajan – with Melina Marchetta’s blessing.

Photograph: Kristian Gehradte

A new stage adaptation of Melina Marchetta’s classic spins the Italian Australian experience into a universal story of otherness, family and freedom

Walter MarshThu 7 Jul 2022 03.30 AEST

Chanella Macri was in her early teens when she picked up her older sister’s copy of Looking For Alibrandi. Despite her own Italian heritage, she couldn’t quite understand why being a third-generation Italian migrant in 1990s Sydney caused 17-year-old Josie Alibrandi – the protagonist of Melina Marchetta’s 1992 novel – so much grief.

“I grew up in a very different world from Josie,” says 25-year-old Macri, who will play the character in a new stage adaptation this July. “By the time I was growing up in primary school, high school, being Italian wasn’t such a negative thing. Being half Samoan, being brown, was much more of an issue for me growing up.”

But that feeling of otherness, and the urge to belong, resonated beyond the references to “tomato day”, rosary beads and slurs such as “wog”. “I grew up in the Blue Mountains, which in the late 90s was very white, a sort of gated community. That desire to be white, to be educated, to be wealthy – to just fit within the mould of what is beautiful and successful – was so strong … I remember how embarrassing it is to be different, to be big, to not look the right way, to have parents that speak differently, a strange accent. There’s such white-hot shame about sticking out.”

I was determined to keep my distance, so that Vidya Rajan and Stephen Nicolazzo could make Alibrandi their own

Melina Marchetta

Since its publication 30 years ago, the novel and Marchetta’s 2000 film adaptation have become one of Australia’s seminal coming-of-age stories, and a staple of high school English curriculums. Marchetta adapted the book in 1995 for a small Pact theatre production, but since then has turned down proposals to revisit Alibrandi. This production – shared between Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre and Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre – marks the first time in two decades she’s said yes.

“I think I needed distance from both the novel and the film that have very much defined my life,” Marchetta says. Part of what helped director Stephen Nicolazzo win her over was the “very funny and honest and smart” writing of Vidya Rajan, a playwright and comedian who has appeared on SBS’s The Feed and the ABC’s At Home Alone Together. “I was determined to keep my distance, so that Vidya and Stephen could make Alibrandi their own,” she says.

Rajan had a similar reaction as Macri the first time she read the book. “To me Italians were just white, or Australian, especially in the suburbs of Perth,” she says. “One thing that was a little bit surprising to me was realising that there has been this whole history with the [internment] camps,” she says of the estimated 5,000 Italian men and women living in Australia who were dubbed “enemy aliens” and sent to camps during the second world war. “It wasn’t really taught to me in school.”

It was decided early on to retain the mid-90s setting for the play and allow the “similarities and echoes” between Josie’s experience and the cycle of othering and assimilation experienced by successive waves of non-Anglo migrants in Australia to speak for themselves. (Coincidentally, Alice Pung’s 2014 novel Laurinda, which explores similar themes of migrant families and private school drama, is being adapted by Melbourne Theatre Company in August).

The three women in the film adaptation of Looking for Alibrandi.

‘I could just imagine them letting a wog be prime minister,’ joked Pia Miranda as Josie in the film Looking For Alibrandi. Thirty years after the book was published, Anthony Albanese is in office.

Photograph: Beyond/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock

For Rajan, the intergenerational bond between the three Alibrandi women – Josie, her mother Christina (Lucia Mastrantone), and her nonna Katia (Jennifer Vuletic) – remains the heart of the story. “That felt very familiar to me from my cultural background – that domestic space being this kind of lodestar you return to, to understand yourself and your culture.”

It’s a thread Macri has also appreciated: “I think there’s this really rich complexity of seeing these women who are so alike, but so shaped by their different generations, the times they grew up in and what was expected of them when they came of age.”

‘I grew up in a very different world from Josie’: Chanella Macri. Photograph: Kristian Gehradte

Spanning hurtful shouting matches and moments of vulnerability and understanding, these tumultuous relationships were vividly captured on the page and screen by Marchetta. For Rajan, it meant Looking For Alibrandi isn’t just a coming-of-age story for the teenage Josie, but all three Alibrandi women who find liberation in their own ways.

“That word ‘emancipation’ is really interesting,” Rajan says. “When I was adapting it I was in Perth with my mum, and she used the word randomly; she was talking about a cousin, she was like, ‘You know, she really needs to emancipate herself’, and I think there’s something in that idea of freedom, and the complexity of it.

“For a lot of migrant girls, and the first generation of any age really, you often feel that the freedom you’re seeking is away from whatever the home space is, and whatever culture that represents. I think that’s something that she has to come to terms with.”

For Josie, that freedom initially means trying to imagine a place for herself among an Anglocentric, private school-educated establishment that is toxic in myriad ways – personified by her crush John Barton, the troubled heir to a Liberal party dynasty. In the film Josie (played by Pia Miranda) wistfully jokes: “I could just imagine them letting a wog be prime minister” – a line that hits differently in 2022 even if the toxicity remains.

“It’s been interesting with [Anthony] Albanese being elected and people being like, ‘It’s our first ‘diverse’ prime minister – he’s Italian!’” Rajan reflects. “And like, yes and no. I think it says more about Australia that it’s happening now in 2022.”

Marchetta was elated to see Albanese elected – but not because of his Italian surname. “The previous party in power had let us down on so many levels especially with regards to issues of the environment and gender and violence towards women,” she says.

“Part of Josie and her grandmother’s experience, 50 years apart, is about feeling alienated, being bullied, dealing with ignorance and passive racism and trying to work out her identity in a country that is still inherently racist regardless of how many times we say the word ‘multicultural’. Our experiences may not be the same, but that feeling of not belonging is a coat we’ve all worn.”

Looking For Alibrandi runs 9–31 July at the Malthouse’s Merlyn Theatre in Melbourne, then heads to Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney from 1 October

A reflection on the media and its approach to Labor in the past, and the current Murdoch Press criticism of PM Anthony Albanese’s overseas trips:

Gough Whitlam: “If I walked across lake Burley Griffin the headline next day would be Gough Whitlam can’t swim!”.

Writing

Joanna Penn was an interesting contributor to a writers weekend run by the Guardian, UK, which I attended several years ago. Her talk was one of those about writing and publishing, and her contribution was made alongside the representatives of trade publishers.

Joanna Penn writers’ alert

Hello, Creative.

I’m Joanna Penn. I’ll teach you how to write, publish and market your book — and make a living with your writing.

I’m an award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with over 30 books. I’ve sold over 600,000 copies in 162 countries and 5 languages.

I’m a podcaster, international speaker, and award-winning creative entrepreneur.

But it hasn’t always been this way!

I’ve made many mistakes on the author journey, and I share everything on this site so you can save time, money, and heartache on your path.

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The blog

Writing For The Long-Term With Tess Gerritsen

JOANNA PENN

JULY 11, 2022

CONTINUE READING WRITING FOR THE LONG-TERM WITH TESS GERRITSEN

Self-Publishing And Crowdfunding Special Print Editions with John Bond and Chris Wold from White Fox

JOANNA PENN

JULY 8, 2022

CONTINUE READING SELF-PUBLISHING AND CROWDFUNDING SPECIAL PRINT EDITIONS WITH JOHN BOND AND CHRIS WOLD FROM WHITE FOX

Different Kinds Of Editing, And How To Find An Editor With Kristen Tate

JOANNA PENN

JULY 4, 2022

CONTINUE READING DIFFERENT KINDS OF EDITING, AND HOW TO FIND AN EDITOR WITH KRISTEN TATE

Writing Twists And Marketing As A Traditionally Published Author With Clare Mackintosh

JOANNA PENN

JUNE 27, 2022

CONTINUE READING WRITING TWISTS AND MARKETING AS A TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED AUTHOR WITH CLARE MACKINTOSH

Thanks for visiting The Creative Penn!

Most of the information on this site is free for you to read, watch or listen to, but The Creative Penn is also a business and my livelihood. So please expect hyperlinks to be affiliate links in many cases, when I receive a small percentage of sales if you wish to purchase. I only recommend tools, books and services that I either use or people I know personally. Integrity and authenticity continue to be of the highest importance to me. Read the privacy policy here. I hope you find the site useful! Thanks – Joanna

Week beginning 6 July 2022

Ruth Ware The It Girl Simon & Schuster (Australia) 2022.

Thank you, NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review.

Ruth Ware is a writer whose books I enjoy. They are smart, with characters who develop over the period of the plot, which, by the way is usually good and topical. The It Girl fulfills these criteria.

The settings are Oxford in the past, and present day in Edinburgh. Chapters ‘before’ and ‘after’ are related by Hannah, now living in Edinburgh. Before, is the heady academic year she lived with April, the ‘it girl’ of the title, in Oxford student accommodation. Hannah has admired and followed April from the time they meet in the two bedroom/ living area, space they have at the top of the stairs in a beautiful Oxford building. The introduction to the two young women is dramatic – Hannah recalls, or perhaps she dreams, the night she finds April dead in their rooms. Books: Reviews

Articles and information after Covid report: NAIDOC Week; Ketanje Brown Jackson sworn in to the US supreme Court; Jocelynne A. Scutt: Roe v Wade – Gone, But How Much Better Off are Women in England and Wales?; Visit to the NGA; The Atlantic Daily – Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide for Donald Trump’s chief of staff, provided a key piece of evidence connecting Trump…; News from the British Labour Party re Brexit; PM Anthony Albanese in Ukraine.

Covid in Canberra after the end of lockdown

1 July – 1,169 new cases; 138 in hospital; 4 in ICU; 1 ventilated.

2 July – 1,392 new cases; 131 in hospital; 4 in ICU; 1 ventilated.

3 July – 1,031 new cases; 130 in hospital; 4 in ICU; 1 ventilated.

4 July – 1,134 new cases; 2 in ICU.

5 July – 1,199 new cases; 136 in hospital; 2 in ICU.

6 July – 1,477 new cases; 135 in hospital.

Two lives were lost over this period. The total number of lives lsot since March 2020 is eighty one.

NAIDOC Week (/ˈneɪdɒk/ NAY-dok) is an Australian observance lasting from the first Sunday in July until the following Sunday. The acronym NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.^[1] It has its roots in the 1938 Day of Mourning, becoming a week-long event in 1975.

NAIDOC Week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The week is celebrated not just in the Indigenous Australian communities but also in increasing numbers of government agencies, schools, local councils and workplaces.

NIVIT – Australia’s national Indigenous television and media organisation, part of the SBS network. 2 JUL 2022 – 10:27PM.

Ash Barty named NAIDOC Person of the Year

The Ngarigo woman recorded a video message after being told of her win, saying she can’t wait to continue her contribution to children’s education.

By Jodan Perry

Source: NITV 2 JUL 2022 – 10:27 PM PDATED 2 JUL 2022 – 10:27 PM

Former world no.1 tennis player Ash Barty has been named the 2022 NAIDOC Person of the Year at the annual awards ceremony.

The Ngarigo woman, who retired from the sport earlier this year after claiming her third grand slam title, recorded a video message congratulating all the winners and also saying she cannot wait to continue contributing to children’s education.

Barty has released a series of children’s books called ‘Little Ash’ which she says are inspired by her niece and nephew.

She is currently in the United States playing in the Icons Series golf tournament. Her family, including mother Josie, sister Sarah and father Robert were in attendance at the awards ceremony in Melbourne.

In the acceptance speech, Robert Barty spoke of how much the Wimbledon and Australian Open wins meant to Ash, and highlighted her relationship with mentor Evonne Goolagong-Cawley.

“It was a perfect storm, 10 years since Ash won junior Wimbledon, and it was NAIDOC Week, and she ended up winning Wimbledon,” he said

“Fast forward 6 months she gets to the Australian Open and we had an inkling that tennis was not guna be around for a long time for Ash and she wanted to go out as high as she possibly could.”

Mr Barty went on to articulate how special it was for his daughter to have her mentor on hand to present her the championship trophy in Melbourne and also the moment she got to share after, with both Evonne and Cathy Freeman.

“She thinks that is one of the best photos she has got in her album,” he said.

Little Ash: Barty’s new books inspired by niece and nephew.

A Positive for the US Supreme Court in a bleak few months

Judge Ketanje Brown Jackson is sworn in to the Supreme Court

Roe v Wade – Gone, But How Much Better Off are Women in England and Wales?

Dr Jocelynne A. Scutt

RBG ON ROE V WADE

The former US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg (appointed to the Court in 1993) once criticised Roe v Wade, saying the right to abortion should be founded firmly and unequivocally in the principle of equality and women’s rights to personhood, rather than in the more ambiguous privacy principle. Her criticism has been taken up with immense duplicity in the majority judgment overturning the almost fifty-year precedent set by that landmark decision.

Roe v Wade set out a ‘trimester’ system, dividing the nine-month pregnancy term into three stages, each stage regulated by the development of the foetus. For the first trimester (up to viability of the foetus) – the decision lay principally with the pregnant woman. During the second trimester, state
regulation was allowed as legitimate where introduced to preserve a woman’s well-being, to comply with medical standards, and to protect potential human life. For the third trimester, the state was entitled to legislate against abortion, making it illegal unless its purpose was to preserve a woman’s
health. Ruth Bader Ginsberg considered that this prescriptive legislative direction by the Supreme Court had generated and underpinned the orchestrated attacks on Roe v Wade from the outset.

ROE V WADE DOOMED

Yet whatever Justice Blackmun (who wrote the principal Roe v Wade judgment, with Stewart, Douglas and Burger concurring, White and Rehnquist dissenting) had said in that 1973 judgment, nothing would have saved women’s right to abortion under the current US Supreme Court line-up.

On 24 June 2022, in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization Alito’s majority judgment (in which Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett joined, with Thomas, Kavanagh and Roberts writing concurring judgments), overturned Roe v Wade, leaving the lawfulness or otherwise of abortion up
to the states. That is, each state can now decide its own standards for determining this operation lawful or unlawful, the woman undergoing it, the practitioner doing it, or the medical supplier of abortifacients law-abiding or criminal.

THE MINORITY – (NO) JUSTICE FOR WOMEN

Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan began their strong dissent by acknowledging that for some fifty years Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey ‘protected the liberty and equality of women’, Roe holding, Casey reaffirming, ‘that the Constitution safeguards a woman’s right to decide for herself
whether to bear a child’. Further: Roe held, and Casey reaffirmed, that in the first stages of pregnancy, the government could not make that choice for women. The government could not control a woman’s body or the
course of a woman’s life: It could not determine what the woman’s future would be …

Respecting a woman as an autonomous being, and granting her full equality, meant giving her substantial choice over this most personal and most consequential of all life decisions …

Balancing the state’s legitimate interests in health and life, and a woman’s rightful interest in her own destiny, meant that Roe and Casey addressed differing community views on abortion. In discarding that balance, they said, the majority in Dobbs v Jackson now assert that ‘from the very
moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of’. States can:

 force a woman to bring a pregnancy to term, whatever the cost;

 restrict pregnancy termination ‘wherever rational’.

ABORTION – BANNED … BANNING ‘RATIONAL’

That the majority deemed protecting foetal life is ‘rational’ leaves states free to limit abortion however they choose. In Dobbs, the Mississippi law in question bars abortion after the fifteenth week of pregnancy. The Dobbs decision means a state could ‘do so after ten weeks, or five or three
or one—or, again, from the moment of fertilization’. The minority judgment observed that states have ‘already passed such laws, in anticipation of today’s ruling’.

Thirteen states ban abortion from the time of fertilization – ‘trigger laws’ – Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Abortion is banned between six and 15 weeks of pregnancy in five of these states. There are no exceptions for rape or incest in 11 states and no exception for the
pregnant woman’s health exists in six states. Eight states are predicted to enact abortion bans promptly now the Supreme Court has ruled, meaning (Carrie N Baker of Ms Magazine reports) ‘much of the South and Midwest of the United States’ will be covered, and even where life or health
exceptions to bans exist, significant barriers to abortion access remain.

SUPREME COURT SUBMITS WOMEN TO 17th CENTURY RULE

The majority relied heavily upon historical sources, including a pages-long list of eighteenth and nineteenth century laws from every state outlawing pregnancy termination. They cited with approval England’s Chief Justice Hale’s Laws of the Crown – ready for publication 1680, first published in 1736, and Blackstone’s Commentaries, appearing (again England) over the years 1765- This is put forward to confirm that the US Constitution does not include the right to abortion, which Roe v Wade saw as inherent in the 14 th Amendment (added to the Constitution in 1868) as a
right to privacy and due process. Hale’s misogyny is ignored. Sitting on the last witch trial in England, he said witches were real because their conviction in his court proved it, and the Bible said so, anyway. He accused women and girls of being innate liars, meaning warnings should be given to
rape juries – concluding either rapists did not exist, or fearing rapists would be rightly convicted. ‘Rape shied statutes’ have been introduced in most common law jurisdictions, including the US, attempting to establish that lying is not a sex-linked characteristic. He said rape in marriage was no crime, a diktat accepted by law in the United Kingdom and Australia as true until the English House
of Lords came to their senses in R v R in 1991 and the Australian High Court in R v L the same year.

In Dobbs v Jackson the majority deplored ‘fabrication of the Constitution’. Roberts, the Chief Justice in a separate judgment justifies his concurrence by saying Roe v Wade does not ‘need to be overruled all the way down to the studs’. Discard the right of a woman to decide for herself, by ‘discarding the viability line’, but ‘leave for another day whether to reject any right to an abortion at all’. Yet this leaves the right up to the states – knowing that many have already proposed, drafted, or passed laws violating that right by elevating a fertilised egg above a woman’s personhood.

BRING ME YOUR POOR, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES?

Roe v Wade proponents are now turning to state legislatures or Congress. Yet winning every state House is realistically doubtful – untenable, and the prospect of a Republican revived majority banning abortion altogether may be more likely than a federal law supporting a woman’s right. Even
were Congress to act, the Supreme Court numbers remain. The prospect of the Senate removing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) time limitation and the ERA surviving the Supreme Court faces that same challenge.

So now African American and Latino women, poor women, and women otherwise disadvantaged are most likely to die or bear children despite their not being ready to do so, or having been raped at home, in a college dorm, a dark alley or on a date. And realistically, all women are at risk.

NO WOMAN SECURE, NO WOMAN SAFE

Yet is the right to women’s bodily autonomy safe or secure elsewhere? For England and Wales, abortion remains a crime despite, or rather because of, the 1967 Abortion Act. This Act, upon which women of the United Kingdom (apart from Northern Ireland) relied for some semblance of bodily
autonomy denies women’s equal rights: in no other operation is a patient legally obligated to have two doctors’ approval and risk criminal prosecution if she doesn’t. Few if any women realise, in England and Wales, that obtaining an abortion means that a lengthy report of it goes from their medical practitioner to the Chief Medical Officer of England or Wales. And how many know the irony that abortion is no longer illegal in Northern Ireland (just difficult to secure in the absence of abortion clinics or hospital facilities), though it remains subject to criminal provision in England and
Wales? In 2019 the United Kingdom Parliament repealed the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 provisions criminalising abortion, so they no longer apply anywhere in the country. Yet as the Abortion Act of 1967 has never applied to Northern Ireland, section 5 of this Act – that makes
abortion criminal in England and Wales unless carried out strictly according to the Abortion Act provisions – does not apply there.

The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is reported as deploring the US Supreme Court decision. ‘It’s a big step backwards,’ he says. So, will he stand up for women’s rights, introducing a Bill to decriminalise abortion for England and Wales – as has been done in jurisdictions elsewhere – making pregnancy termination an operation for a woman and her doctor, not for intrusion by the state?

Jas © June 2022

Exhibitions at the NGA

A visit to the NGA is always a great activity during school holidays. The view from the gallery is a joy, and the exhibitions always abounding with extraordinary new acquisitions. And familiar favourites.

Tom Nichols CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Yesterday, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide for Donald Trump’s chief of staff, provided a key piece of evidence connecting Trump to an attempted coup after the 2020 election. We will learn more in the days to come, but we know the most important things now.First, here’s more from The Atlantic.A withering indictment of the entire GOP This fall will be a vaccination reboot.The evidence for a possible criminal case against Donald Trump is piling up.

News from the British Labour Party on Brexit Signals a forthright approach to one Tory mess

Labour List, July 4, 2022.

Keir Starmer will today set out Labour’s plan to “make Brexit work”. In a speech to the Centre for European Reform think tank, the Labour leader is expected to say: “There are some who say ‘we don’t need to make Brexit work, we need to reverse it’.” Starmer will stress that he “couldn’t disagree more” with this viewpoint, arguing: “You cannot move forward or grow the country or deliver change or win back the trust of those who have lost faith in politics if you’re constantly focused on the arguments of the past.” He is expected to declare that a government under his leadership would not seek to rejoin the EU, the single market or the customs union or to reinstate freedom of movement. The Labour leader will tell attendees that his plan will instead “deliver on the opportunities Britain has, sort out the poor deal Boris Johnson signed and end the Brexit divisions once and for all”.

Labour List 5 July, 2022.

“It’s realistic.” That was Emily Thornberry’s assessment of Keir Starmer’s announcement yesterday that a Labour government would not seek to rejoin the single market. Speaking to Sky News this morning, the Shadow Attorney General described leaving the EU as a “one-way street”, stressing that the UK would be unable to rejoin on the same terms. She told viewers that she is a “pragmatic politician”, adding: “In 2019, we were defeated. We had to leave. And so now that we’ve left, we have to look after our country and make sure that the right decisions are being made.”

The Labour leader told attendees at the Centre for European Reform think tank event that his party would not seek to rejoin the EU, the single market or a customs union. He argued: “Nothing about revisiting those rows will help stimulate growth or bring down food prices or help British business thrive in the modern world.” Starmer also confirmed that Labour would not restore freedom of movement – despite having vowed during the Labour leadership contest that he would look to bring it back after Brexit. He instead set out five steps to “make Brexit work”, including a new veterinary agreement for trade in agri-products between the UK and EU, a scheme to allow low-risk goods to enter Northern Ireland without unnecessary checks and a new security pact with the EU.

Some have suggested that the statement was partly intended to quell pro-EU voices within the Labour party. But the primary focus must surely have been reaching out to Leave-voting seats, especially those in the ‘Red Wall’, assuring them that Brexit would not be reversed or watered down under a future Labour government.

It’s not a sudden U-turn for the Labour leader. In January 2021, following the hard Brexit deal struck by Lord Frost, Starmer said: “I don’t think that there’s scope for major renegotiation. We’ve just had four years of negotiation. We’ve arrived at a treaty, and now we’ve got to make that treaty work.” But it is also a far from uncontroversial move, with the SNP accusing Starmer of “embracing the Tories’ hard Brexit”.

Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, in Ukraine bing.com/news

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised Australia will provide further military aid to Ukraine after visiting war-ravaged towns near Kyiv.

Mr Albanese visited the towns of Bucha and Irpin, as well as Hostomel airport — known sites of brutal mass killings committed by Russian forces that have been examined by war crimes investigators.

Accompanied by the Governor of Kyiv Oblast, Oleksiy Kuleba, Mr Albanese appeared disturbed by the destruction.

“Here we have what’s clearly a residential building,” he said.

“Another one just behind it, brutally assaulted.

“This is a war crime,” the Prime Minister said.

Week beginning 29 June 2022

After the beach reads reviewed last week I am pleased to make a change and review a non fiction book. NetGalley and Sword and Pen provided me with Dr Vivien Newman’s Changing Roles Women After the Great War. I am reading The Times They Were a-Changin’ 1964, the Year the Sixties Arrived and the Battle Lines of Today Were Drawn by Robert S McElvaine for review. However, this is a lengthy and dense read and I have not finished it yet. A few weeks ago I mentioned a book that began in a way that inspired me to think it could be a great read. Unfortunately I was disappointed in The Trivia Night by Ali Lowe.

Dr Vivien Newman, Changing Roles Women After the Great War, Pen & Sword History, 2021.

How I loved this book.

Dr Vivien Newman incorporates the familiar accessible nature of the Pen & Sword publications with academic thoroughness; where appropriate, a deftly comic touch; and a range of interesting, arresting women whose post WW1 activities make a wonderful read.

The introduction sets the post WW1 scene – a time of claims about the wonders women had performed during the war, and the bitter reality they faced as they were expected to return to their former pursuits. Some of the women who refused to do so changed roles. As social innovators they also changed other women’s lives. Their stories are told in Chapter 3, Changing Others Lives. Other women made their impact in a less socially conscious way. For example, Chapter 4, Murder Most Foul, includes writers, Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, and, from the Thomson and Bywaters Case, Edith Thompson. See the full review at: Books: Reviews

After the Canberra Covid report: American politics – Heather Cox Richardson and Roe vs. Wade; Nick Pearson and impact of Supreme Court decision on voting in the mid terms; Australian politics – comment on Independents and Bob McMullan – Where Did Zed Lose?; Cindy Lou eats at two rather different cafes – Melted and Walter.

Covid in Canberra after the end of Lockdown

New cases recorded 23 June – 1,134; 88 in hospital; 1 in ICU.

New cases recorded 24 June – 1,038; 99 in hospital; 1 in ICU.

New cases recorded 25 June – 1,116; 105 in hospital; 1 in ICU.

New cases recorded 26 June – 819; 116 in hospital; 1 in ICU. New cases recorded 27 June – 927; 119 in hospital; 1 in ICU. New cases recorded 28 June – 1,159; 121 in hospital. New cases recorded 29 June – 1,458; 116 people in hospital; 1 in ICU; 1 ventilated.

American Politics

Heather Cox Richardson

June 26, 2022 (Sunday)

States and the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade

Defenders of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade insist that Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health does not outlaw abortion but simply returns the decision about reproductive rights to the states.

“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote. He quoted the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote: “The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations, upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting.” This, Alito wrote, “is what the Constitution and the rule of law demand.”

The idea that state voters are the centerpiece of American democracy has its roots in the 1820s, when southern leaders convinced poorer Americans that the nation was drifting toward an aristocracy that ignored the needs of ordinary people. The election of 1824, when established politicians overrode the popular vote to put John Quincy Adams into the presidency, seemed to illustrate that drift. Supporters of Adams’s chief rival, Andrew Jackson, complained that a wealthy elite was taking over the country and, once in charge, would use the power of the federal government to cement their control over the country’s capital, crushing ordinary Americans.

The rough, uneducated Andrew Jackson, who promised to break the hold of northeastern elites on the government and return democracy to the people, began to articulate a new vision of American government. He insisted that democratic government should actually look like a democracy: it should be formed by the votes of local people, not those from some far-off capital, and it should be made up of those same ordinary voters, not eastern elites like Adams, whose wealthy president father, John, had reared his son to follow in his footsteps.

Jackson’s new vision made ordinary Americans central to the democratic system. Democratic government put the power into the hands of individual voters. Local and state government was the most important stage of this system; the federal government always ran the risk of being taken over by an elite cabal that could override the will of the people. It must always be kept as small as possible.

But there was a power play in this argument. By the time Jackson was elected president in 1828, white southerners already knew they were badly outnumbered in the nation as a whole. In that year, quite dramatically, a congressional fight over tariffs ended up with a strong bill that hurt the South in favor of northern manufacturing. Outraged, southern leaders with Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina at their head claimed the right to “nullify” federal laws. (Jackson later said that one of the two regrets he had at the end of his term was that he “was unable to…hang John C. Calhoun.”)

Congress lowered the tariff and the southerners backed down, but the idea that states were superior to the federal government only gained strength among southern enslavers as they felt the heat of a growing movement to abolish slavery. When it became clear that the U.S. might well acquire territory in Latin America, Democrats sympathetic to the South pushed back against the national majority that wanted to stop the spread of slavery into those lands by insisting on the doctrine of “popular sovereignty”: permitting the people who lived in a territory to decide for themselves whether or not to permit enslavement in it (although Mexico had outlawed enslavement in 1829). The U.S. acquired the vast territory of the American West in 1848, and two years later, Congress turned to popular sovereignty to try to avoid a fight about enslavement there.

The issue turned volatile in 1854 when Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas pushed through Congress a law overturning the 1820 Missouri Compromise and organizing two super-states out of the remaining land of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. Rather than being free as the Missouri Compromise had promised, those huge states of Kansas and Nebraska would have enslavement or not based on the votes of those who lived there. This, Douglas insisted in his debates with Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln in 1858, was the true meaning of democracy:

“I deny the right of Congress to force a slaveholding State upon an unwilling people,” he said, “I deny their right to force a free State upon an unwilling people…. The great principle is the right of every community to judge and decide for itself, whether a thing is right or wrong, whether it would be good or evil for them to adopt it…. It is no answer to this argument to say that slavery is an evil, and hence should not be tolerated. You must allow the people to decide for themselves whether it is a good or an evil….” “Uniformity in local and domestic affairs,” he said, “would be destructive of State rights, of State sovereignty, of personal liberty and personal freedom.”

A strong majority in the U.S. opposed the extension of enslavement, but Douglas’s reasoning overrode that majority by carving the voting population into small groups the Democrats could dominate by whipping up voters with viciously racist speeches. Then, in the 1857 Dred Scott decision, a stacked Supreme Court blessed this plan by announcing that Congress had no power to legislate in the territories. In our system, this would mean that states taken over by pro-slavery zealots would eventually win enough power at the federal level to make enslavement national.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand,” Lincoln warned Americans. “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new—North as well as South.”

After the Civil War had proved the power of the federal government to defend the will of the majority from the tyranny of the minority, Congress found itself once again forced to override the will of state governments. When state legislatures put in place the Black Codes, which created a second-class status in the South for Black Americans, Congress passed and the states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, overriding the Dred Scott decision to make Black Americans citizens, and establishing that “[n]o state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Almost 80 years later, it was this amendment—the Fourteenth—to which the Supreme Court turned to protect the rights of Black and Brown Americans, women, LGBTQ, and so on, from state laws that threatened their health and safety or treated them as second-class citizens. In using the power of the federal government to guarantee “the equal protection of the laws,” it made sure that a small pool of voters couldn’t strip rights from their neighbors. It is this effort today’s Supreme Court is gutting.

When today’s jurists talk of sending decisions about civil rights back to the states, they are echoing Stephen Douglas. “Citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting” is indeed precisely how democracy is supposed to work. But choosing your voters to make sure the results will be what you want is a different kettle of fish altogether.

Wishful thinking? When 40% of Americans support the actions of the Supreme Court, it seems to me that it well could be.

Roe v Wade has just turned the next US election on its head

Nick Pearson Nine News

Ever since Joe Biden was elected as president of the United States, it has been assumed the Democrats would lose power in the next midterm elections.

Almost every US president in recent memory has had their party lose a mass of seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate in the subsequent election, costing them most of their power.

But an earth-shaking decision unconnected to elected politicians may turn those elections back in the Democrats’ favour.

On Friday the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, the 50-year-old law enshrining abortion as a constitutional right in the US.

And today several polls have shown Democrats may not only keep their control of Congress, but make substantial gains.

Morning Consult has found Democrats have a 45-42 per cent advantage on the generic ballot. A week ago the parties were tied in the same poll.

The difference was even more stark in a Marist College poll. Democrats led 48-41 per cent. An April poll by Marist showed Republicans with a three-point lead.

Australian Politics

Independents and Party Responsibilities to their Electors

The article below is local and possibly of greatest interest to ACT readers.

However, it does raise the relevance of Members of Parliament responding to their constituencies, within the legitimate concern with their party affiliation.

In the context of a historical number Independents being elected to the Australian Federal Parliament in the 2022 election, there is a debate to be had about this issue. Independents go to the election claiming that they have their constituents’ demands at the forefront of their fight to be elected. Of course, this is utter nonsense – how can any one person represent the diverse views in an electorate?

At least the Independents who ran in 2022 were clear about one issue – their commitment to climate change. Some were focussed on the introduction of a Federal Integrity Commission, as well. These Independents did not run on an unfocussed promise to represent their constituents, in comparison with what some independents claim to be the major parties’ failure to do so. Major parties, including the Greens, have platforms setting out their promises and principles by which they will govern if elected. Voters choose the platform that most closely meets their needs and aspirations. They know what they are voting for.

Zed Seselja represented a particular wing of the Liberal Party rather than representing the views of the majority of the ACT electorate. Independents were able to demonstrate that they were more likely to represent a majority of the ACT electorate on issues that are important to this electorate – not all electors, that is as impossible as it is for the major parties. An independent won.

Once elected, it is essential that an Australian Government do its best to represent electors. The government has a responsibility to govern for all, not just those who voted for it. At the same time, voters have been told clearly what the principles are that govern a Party representative, the policy platform on which they run, and the individual’s personal aspirations for governing.

In the case of Zed Seselja not enough voters liked the latter at the same time as they preferred to elect a Labor Government nationally.

Where did Zed lose?

Canberra is still reckoning with the extraordinary result in this years Senate election. For the first time in our almost fifty years of electing two Senators one of the major parties has failed to win a Senate seat in the ACT.
Some are celebrating, others are sad, but the result is there for all to see.

Now that the result is confirmed, although it has been clear for some time, it is possible to begin the analysis of what happened. Many people will have theories about why Zed Seselja was defeated and David Pocock won.
As a first cut at a statistical analysis of the results I have looked at the fall in the Liberal vote by electorate and across some of the range of polling booths across Canberra.

The first reflection on the result is that Zed lost everywhere.
In the southern seat of Bean, where he might have expected to do better, the Liberal vote overall was 27.17% compared to 34.84% in 2019. A fall of 7.67%.
In the central seat of Canberra, where the Liberals traditionally do badly, the Seselja vote was a mere 20.25%, a fall of 7.48% from the 2019 level of 27.73%.
The northern seat of Fenner saw a similar fall. In 2019 the combined Liberal vote in this seat was 34.37%. In 2022 it fell to 26.92%, a decline of 7.45%.
This shows a remarkable similarity across Canberra at the large scale of electorate-by electorate. David Pocock’s vote showed a pattern not far removed from this. His vote ranged from 19.02% in Fenner to 21.33% in Bean and 23.11% in Canberra. This shows he was taking votes from the Greens and Labor as well as from Zed Seselja directly.

At the more local level, on a booth-by booth analysis, the variation is greater, although the pattern of decline in support for former Senator Seselja is common across all booths and regions.
What the statistics appear to show is that some of the biggest swings against the former Senator occurred in some of the Liberal party’s strongest areas.
In Conder, where the vote for the Liberal Senate ticket was over 40% in 2019 the result in 2022 was a massive 10% drop in support and in Gordon the decline in support was from 44.7 in 2019 to 35.2 in 2022.
These were not he biggest swings against the Liberals in Bean in 2022, that title goes to Mawson with a more than 11% swing (unless you count Norfolk Island where for some reason the swing was 22%).
The apparent pattern becomes clearer when the booth figures in Canberra and Fenner are examined.

In the leafy suburb of Deakin, which bears some resemblance to the “teal” suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne, the drop in support for the Liberal Senate ticket was 12.5%!

In Fenner, the usually strong Liberal polling booths at Forde and Nicholls showed swings of more than 10%.

The swings against Zed Seselja in the strongest Liberal areas do not tell the whole story. There was a substantial swing everywhere.

In the traditionally strong Labor booths in the Inner North there were not many votes for the Liberals to lose. But lose votes they did. The lowest vote for the former Senator was in Lyneham, where his ticket polled a mere 12.3%, a drop of 4.6% from a pretty dismal result in 2019.

Of course, some of the credit must go to David Pocock. It appears that he did not fall for the trap of focusing his campaign in the anti-Liberal areas like the Inner North. He did well there and won votes from all the other parties in a way which helped him stay ahead of the Greens.

However, the figures reinforce the anecdotal evidence during the campaign that he campaigned effectively all across the ACT, and he appears to have done particularly well in the Weston Creek area.

Major electoral upsets always have a number of causes. In this case there was a national mood for change and there was a very appealing Independent candidate. Without these factors there would not have been a change.
However, the magnitude and location of the big swings in the ACT Senate election in 2022 reinforce the view that Zed Seselja was the main cause of the Liberals failure for the first time to win a seat in Canberra.

Cindy Lou eats out in Canberra

Melted

Melted is a relatively new caravan eating place in O’Connor. It has always looked as though the customers, seated at wooden tables under umbrellas, were having fun. We decided to join in on a grey Canberra day when we just wanted a coffee and something simple to eat. We enjoyed ourselves. My friend had a tremendous toasted melt, full of savoury beef, cheese, pickles and slaw . Mine was a little less exotic – tomato, cheese and pesto, but also really delicious. The coffees were good. Service was friendly and efficient.

Walter Cafe Regatta Point

This was the first time I have eaten at Walter, although I have heard really good things about it. My feelings are mixed. The site is wonderful, with plenty of pay parking, and if you think you can eat a cream scone in an hour, free parking. There is seating inside and out. On this occasion we sat inside. However, hardier Canberrans (for who else would brave the cold? ) sat outside where it was indeed cold, but sunny with magnificent views.

My fritters with salmon and additional pleasant flavours were good. However, the eggs were overcooked, as they were on my friend’s dish of poached eggs. The coffees were generous and exactly right.

Service was mixed. The meals all arrived at the same time. The water glasses were filled as soon as needed. The waitperson was charming. However, some additional training is needed. Instead of moving around the table to deposit plates and cups of coffee, the constant leaning across in front of us was a real problem. This is not unique to Walter, it happens at other establishments. But, how lovely when it does not!

Week beginning 22 June 2022

I realise that I have a few fiction books – easy reads for the beach or for relaxing with on winter days – that I have reviewed, but not posted here. The reviews have already been posted to NetGalley, Goodreads, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram as part of the commitment to writers who make their uncorrected proofs available on NetGalley. When the books are published the reviews are posted on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, or other publishing sites chosen by the authors. The NetGalley process has provided me with a wonderful range of fiction and non-fiction books, some of which I would not have read otherwise. Although the books must be given a star rating for NetGalley I do not use that here. So many books need that extra half star that cannot be applied under the ratings, and I think that discussion of the book provides better information to other readers.

To catch up, the following books are reviewed this week: The Girl She Was by Alafair Burke; The Guilty Couple by C.L. Taylor; and Jane Corry’s We All Have Our Secrets;. The uncorrected proofs were provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for honest reviews.

Alafair Burke The Girl She Was Faber & Faber 2022.

The Girl She Was works smoothly as a standalone detective story, while bringing to fruition some of the queries that have haunted detective Ellie Hatcher about the past. Readers of previous Alafair Burke novels will recognise her. However, new readers are given the necessary information in some deftly devised plot lines. Clever links are drawn between the Hatcher siblings and new characters, Hope Miller and Lindsay Kelly.

Hope Miller is the name taken by the victim of a car crash, who for fifteen years has lived in the small town of Hopewell, contriving to build a life anew after having lost her memory of anything before the crash and her recovery. Lindsay Kelly is a lawyer who befriended Hope from the time she found her having barely survived the crash. The women are linked by friendship and interdependence. Hope, telling Lindsay that she hopes to forge some independence from her past fifteen years, where the common understanding is of her as a victim, moves to East Hampton. See Books: Reviews for the complete review.

C.L. Taylor, The Guilty Couple Avon Books UK, Avon June 2022.

I was disappointed in this novel, perhaps unwisely comparing it with C. L. Taylor’s The Last Holiday which I found such an excellent read. However, despite my reservations about this one, I shall certainly read her next. One disappointment should not impact too heavily on reception of a good writer’s work.

The premise of The Guilty Couple is interesting as there are several couples, some obvious, and others cleverly hidden. Olivia has been imprisoned for five years, having been found guilty of planning her husband’s murder. Her daughter, Grace, is disaffected, believing that the charge was justified, as after all, the jury found her mother guilty. On her release, Olivia must develop a new relationship with Grace, as well as investigating who framed her. The clues with which she must work are the lie Dani, her former personal trainer told on the stand, and the smirk with which her husband, Dominic, greeted the guilty verdict. Books: Reviews

Jane Corry We All Have Our Secrets Penguin 2022

Jane Corry dares to end her often complex, character driven novel with satisfyingly pleasant endings. To accomplish this in a way that is plausible, keeping the characterisation intact and maintaining the story theme is what has brought me back to Corry, from my first reading of her work. I have mixed responses to my previous experiences, really appreciating The Lies We Tell, and feeling less enthused about I Made a Mistake. However, We All Have Our Secrets, gathers all the best aspects of her writing. Corry has devised particularly complicated characters for this novel and uses a compelling mix of show and tell to achieve her aims. Observation of characters’ convolutions while they interact with other characters and during their brief internal monologues as they measure their and others’ behaviour works well with authorial intervention. The plot is intricate but devoid of holes. Past, present and future are brought together in an engaging narrative that sustains interest to the last word. Books: Reviews

Covid in Canberra after the end of lockdown

June 16 – 1,015 new cases; 89 people hospitalised; 2 in ICU; and 1 ventilated.

June 17 – The strong demand for flu and covid vaccinations has led to expanded opening hours for three weeks at the Access and Sensory vaccination clinic on Saturdays from 8.30am – 8.30 pm. This is a specialised service for people who might need additional support to get their vaccinations.

New cases recorded – 962; cases in hospital – 87; and 2 are ventilated. Six lives lost were recorded, including 5 historical cases that occurred during May 2022, affecting women and men over 70, with 3 over 90.

June 18 – 865 new cases were recorded; 86 people are in hospital; and 2 are in ICU. June 19 – 809 new cases were recorded; 90 people are in hospital; and 2 are in ICU. June 20 – 837 new cases were recorded; 89 people are in hospital; and 2 are in ICU. June 21 – 869 new cases were recorded; 87 people are in hospital; and 1 is in ICU. Three lives were lost, one in his 70s, one in his 80s, and one in his 90s.

Today, 22 June, the reported new cases have again increased – to 1,085; hospitalisations are 85, with 1 in ICU.

Heather Cox Richardson – January 6 Committee findings June 16 2022

On CNN this morning, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a member of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, said: “New evidence is breaking every single day now. Suddenly, a lot of people want to tell the truth.”

After the committee’s third public hearing today, we can see why. The window for getting onto the good side of the investigation by cooperating with it is closing, and the story the congress members are laying out makes it clear that those sticking with Trump are quite likely in legal trouble.

It appears that the former president thinks the same thing. Before today’s hearing, he wrote: “I DEMAND EQUAL TIME!!!”

But it seems unlikely Trump wants to tell his version of what happened around January 6 under oath, and if he were misled by his advisors, who can doubt that he would already have thrown them under the bus?

And, so far, the committee has used testimony and evidence only from those high up in Trump’s own administration. Today was no exception. The committee covered the former president’s pressure campaign against his vice president, Mike Pence, to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Instead of following the law, codified in the 1887 Electoral Count Act, Trump wanted Pence to use his role as the person charged with opening electoral votes to throw out the votes that gave Democrat Joe Biden victory, or at least to recess the joint session of Congress for ten days to send the electoral slates back to the states, where pro-Trump legislatures could throw out the decision of the voters and resubmit slates for Trump.

In interviews with Pence’s former counsel Greg Jacob, as well as retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig, formerly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the committee established that this plan, advanced by lawyer John Eastman, was illegal. Indeed, Eastman himself called it illegal, first at length in October 2020, and then in both written and verbal admissions after the election. And the committee established that Eastman, as well as others, told Trump the plan was illegal.

The hearings today hammered home that the centerpiece of our government is that the people have the right to choose their leaders. That concept is central to the rule of law. And yet, Trump embraced an illegal and unconstitutional theory that, instead, the vice president—one man—could overrule the will of the people and choose the president himself. Such a theory is utterly contrary to everything the Framers of the Constitution stood for and wrote into our fundamental law.

And yet, by early December 2020, after their legal challenges to the election had all failed, Trump’s people began to say that Pence could throw out the electoral slates that states had certified for Biden, or could send those certified electoral slates back to the states for reconsideration so that Republican-dominated legislatures could then submit new slates for Trump. Judge Luttig hammered home that there is nothing in either legal precedent or historical precedent that gave any validation to the idea that one man could determine the outcome of the election.

Still, on December 13, the day before the Electoral College met, lawyer Kenneth Chesebro wrote to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani arguing that Pence could refuse to count the votes from states that had “alternative” electors (we also know that he wrote about this idea for the first time on November 18, so that might have been the chatter Pence was hearing). At the time, the scheme to create second slates of electors was underway.

Eastman then took up the cause, saying that seven states had submitted “dual” slates of electors. When Jacob dismissed that claim, Eastman just said that Pence could just call them disputed anyway and throw the votes from those states out. Luttig reiterated that these fake electors had no legal authority whatsoever and that there is no historical or legal precedent at all to support the idea that the vice president could count alternative electoral slates to the ones certified by the states.

Both Pence’s counsel Jacobs and his chief of staff Marc Short believed that Eastman’s plan was bananas, and an avalanche of White House advisors agreed. According to today’s testimony, those agreeing included Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Trump lawyer Eric Herschmann, and Trump advisor Jason Miller, who testified that people thought “Eastman was crazy.” Herschmann testified that even Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani agreed on the morning of January 6 that Eastman’s argument wouldn’t stand up in court.

Nonetheless, Giuliani went out in front of the crowd at the Ellipse on January 6, insisted that the theory was correct, and lied that even Thomas Jefferson himself had used it.

Meanwhile, beginning in December, Trump had been pressuring Pence to go along with the scheme. Pence had refused, but Trump kept piling on the pressure. At rallies in early January, he kept hammering on the idea that Pence could deliver the election to Trump, and in meetings on January 4 and 5, he kept demanding that Pence overturn the election. When Pence continued to refuse, Trump appeared to try to lock him in by tweeting on January 5 that he and Pence were “in total agreement” that Pence could act to change the outcome of the election.

By then, Short was so worried about what Trump might do on January 6 that he told the Secret Service he was concerned about Pence’s safety.

On January 6, Trump called Pence on the phone and, according to witnesses, called him a “wimp” and a “p*ssy.” Pence then issued a statement saying it was his “considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.” Trump then went before the crowd at the Ellipse and added to his prepared speech sections attacking Pence.

After Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows told him that violence had broken out at the Capitol, Trump tweeted that “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what needed to be done,” and violence ratcheted up. The committee showed rioters claiming they were there because Pence had let them down. “Pence betrayed us…the president mentioned it like 5 times when he talked,” one said. That 2:24 tweet was “pouring gasoline on the fire,” one White House press member told the committee. At 2:26, Pence and his family were evacuated to a secure location, where he would stay for more than four hours. The rioters missed the vice president by about 40 feet. A Proud Boy told the committee that if they had found Pence, they would have killed him.

Even after the crisis ended, Eastman continued to write to Pence’s people asking him to send the electoral slates back to the states. Herschmann advised him to “get a great effing criminal defense lawyer. You’re going to need it.” Eastman then put in writing that he wanted a presidential pardon: “I’ve decided I should be on the pardon list,” he wrote. When he did not get a pardon, he took the Fifth Amendment before the committee, asserting his right against self-incrimination more than 100 times.

There were lots of places where Pence and his team were no heroes. They could have warned any number of people about what Trump was up to long before January 6, and Pence’s apparently noble stance was undoubtedly informed by a realization that if Pence did as Trump asked and it went wrong—even Eastman acknowledged the scheme was illegal—Pence would be the one holding the bag.

But the committee left all that unsaid. Instead, it went out of its way to make a very clear distinction between Trump, who was out for himself and damn the country, and Pence, who risked his own safety to follow the law. Indeed, that theme was so clear it appeared to have been carefully scripted. Today’s testimony highlighted the principles of Jacob and Short and their boss, Mike Pence. It even took a deliberate detour to let both Jacob and Short talk about how their Christian faith helped them to stand against Trump and do what was right, an aside that seemed designed to appeal to the evangelicals supporting Trump. And it highlighted how Pence continued to do the work of governing even while he was in the secure location, which looked much like a loading dock according to new photos shown today.

The committee seems to be presenting a clear choice to Republicans: stand with Trump, a man without honor who is quite possibly looking at criminal indictments and who is trying to destroy our democracy, or stand with Pence, who embraces the same economic and social ideology that Republicans claim to, without wanting to destroy our democracy.

The appearance of Judge Luttig today was in keeping with this theme. Luttig is such a giant in conservative legal circles that he was talked of for the Supreme Court in place of Samuel Alito, and his words bear extraordinary weight. Luttig hammered home that Trump’s scheme was an attempt to overturn the rule of law and to destroy our democracy. And, he warned, the danger is not over. Trump and his supporters remain “a clear and present danger to American democracy.”

Luttig’s testimony was powerful, but even more extraordinary was a statement he released before today’s hearing. Luttig, for whom both Eastman and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) clerked, warned that “January 6 was…a war for America’s democracy, a war irresponsibly instigated and prosecuted by the former president, his political party allies, and his supporters.”

That is, Luttig laid the responsibility for today’s national crisis at the door of the Trump wing of the Republican Party. He went on to warn that only it could reject the attempt of the president and his supporters to undermine the faith in our elections that underpins our democracy: “[O]nly the party that instigated this war over our democracy can bring an end to that war…. These senseless wars…were conceived and instigated from our Nation’s Capital by our own political leaders…and they have been cynically prosecuted by them to fever pitch, now to the point that they have recklessly put America herself at stake.”

Luttig urged Americans to remember that the fate of our democracy is in our hands and to reject the fever dreams of the Trump Republicans in favor of “a new vision, new truths, new values, new principles, new beliefs, new hopes and dreams that hopefully could once again bind our divided nation together into the more perfect union that ‘We the People’ originally ordained and established it to be.”

“The time has come,” Luttig wrote, “for us to decide whether we allow this war over our democracy to be prosecuted to its catastrophic end or whether we ourselves demand the immediate suspension of this war and insist on peace instead. We must make this decision because our political leaders are unwilling and unable, even as they recklessly prosecute this war in our name.”

Chair Bennie Thompson closed today’s hearing by asking anyone who might be on the fence about cooperating with the committee’s investigation, please to reach out.

Indian Pacific trip – Western Australian tours

The Indian Pacific trip included some additional tours, and we chose a lunch time cruise on the Swan River; a tour to Margaret River; and another to The Pinnacles. Each tour included additional activities, including lunches at interesting stops such as a winery, a lobster fishing site, and of course, lunch on the Swan River cruise. This was a relaxing tour, before Anzac Day, when there were no additional activities arranged. Fortunately the delightful Mr Walker restaurant was open for lunch, and Cindy Lou reported on that last week. Cape Leewin was included in the Margaret River tour, which was quite a marathon, with the Mammoth Cave, lunch at a winery, the drive to Cape Leewin, and walk through the Margaret River shopping precinct, before a late night return to the hotel.

Cape Leewin – the Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean

Cape Leewin is the most south-westerly point of Australia. The Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean meet here.

The Pinnacles tour included lunch at a lobster catching facility, and an amazing walk through the thousands of weathered limestone pillars. Wikipedia tells us: Some of the tallest pinnacles reach heights of up to 3.5m above the yellow sand base. The different types of formations include ones which are much taller than they are wide and resemble columns—suggesting the name of Pinnacles—while others are only a meter or so in height and width resembling short tombstones. A cross-bedding structure can be observed in many pinnacles where the angle of deposited sand changed suddenly due to changes in prevailing winds during formation of the limestone beds. Pinnacles with tops similar to mushrooms are created when the calcrete capping is harder than the limestone layer below it. The relatively softer lower layers weather and erode at a faster rate than the top layer leaving behind more material at the top of the pinnacle.

The Pinnacles

The Pinnacles walk was followed by another drive in the four-wheel drive to the sandhills. This part of the trip involved a lengthy deflating of the tyres before the ride over the sand dunes – and an even more lengthy inflating of the tyres for the drive back to Perth. Everyone was remarkably resilient and good natured about the latter!

It was quite an experience to be with other older people being thrown around as the four-wheel drive surged over sandhills at an amazing pace and tilt! Very youthful indeed – I think.

A great read from Women and Literature, June 22 2022.

IN PRAISE OF NANCY DREW – AND THE WOMEN IN MYSTERY WHO SAVE THEMSELVES

Tracy Gardner on a lifelong passion for strong women and mystery fiction

JUNE 17, 2022 BY TRACY GARDNER

VIA CROOKED LANE BOOKS

My first hero as a kid was Nancy Drew. My English teacher dad had handmade bookshelves in the den (1970s word for study or office) where he’d grade papers and work on lesson plans, and they were filled with hardcover Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene novels. He also had most of the Hardy Boys mysteries and tons of classic literary fiction, but from the first few pages of The Hidden Staircase, I was hooked. I know now that I read the second book first, but it didn’t matter at the time. Accompanying Nancy Drew on her secret, compelling adventures, I reveled in the idea that a girl could take it upon herself to solve mysteries while aiding her dad in the process. A girl. Nancy was originally written as sixteen at the beginning of the long running series, but was then aged up to eighteen, which now seems more appropriate to my fifty-two-year-old brain. See the full article at Further Commentary and Articles about Authors and Books*

Week beginning 15 June 2022

One fiction, and one non-fiction book are reviewed this week. Both were sent to me as uncorrected proofs by NetGalley in exchange for honest reviews.

One aspect is conveyed by this cover – but the novel has more to offer

Victoria Scott Grace Head of Zeus, Aria, 2022

Victoria Scott approaches several difficult topics with sensitivity and meticulous attention to detail. The parallel stories of Michelle and Rob, the birth parents of Grace, and Amelia and Piers, Grace’s prospective adoptive parents, are more complex than is immediately apparent. Their apparent focus is their fight over Grace and her future parenthood.

However, by digging deeper into the relationships, as Scott does so skilfully, it becomes clear that the couples have more in common than initially realised. Linking the couples through their private relationships with each other as well as their public personas is masterful. So too are the observations made about social services and legal systems. Graphic descriptions of the characters’ clothing and hairstyles, which could possibly be seen as a frivolous aside in this novel packed with serious social commentary, are a valid recognition of why and how roles are adopted and understood through image. All these factors add layers upon layers of understanding and complexity to the question to be decided by the court – who should be baby Grace’s permanent parent/s?Books: Reviews

Jenny Main Ethel Gordon Fenwick Nursing Reformer and the First Registered Nurse Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword History, 30 Jun 2022

A common feature of this series is the accessibility of the written material, and the well-researched nature of the content. Jenny Main’s biography of Ethel Gordon Fenwick has these features in abundance. The background and context material are impressive, providing an instructive and engrossing read through the whole period of Gordon Fenwick’s life. The environment into which she was born, grew to adulthood, educated, fought for the well being and careers of nurses, and her own amazing journey to recognition for her work is laid out, making an intriguing biography even more informative. A reader of this book learns so much about the society in which nurses sought to become prestigious members of the medical profession, and the background against which they had to prevail. I particularly enjoyed Main’s way of bringing to life the Victorian era, and later, so I felt I was reading a history of the time as well as learning about a figure who starred in her nursing profession. Books: Reviews

Covid in Canberra since lockdown ended

On June 9 there were 775 new cases reported; and 87 people with covid were in hospital; on June 10 the new cases reported numbered 824, with 83 people in hospital, and 1 in ICU.

New cases reported on June 11 – 696, with 79 people in hospital, and 1 in ICU.

June 12 – 643 new cases ; 80 in hospital; 2 in ICU.

June 13 – 572 new cases; 86 in hospital; and 2 in ICU.

June 14 – 633 new cases; 93 in hospital; 3 in ICU; and 1 ventilated.

June 15 – 983 new cases; 97 in hospital; 2 in ICU; and 1 ventilated.

June 16 – 1.015 new cases; 89 in hospital; 2 in ICU; and 1 ventilated.

Vaccinations at June 16: 80.6% 1 dose ages 5 – 11; 68.5% 2 doses ages 5 – 11; 97.3% 2 doses, aged 5 +; and 77.0% 3 doses, aged 16+.

January 6 Hearing ratings compared with those of the former President’s favourite shows and other popular televised events; Oh Dear!!

The Guardian News Website

Island in the energy price storm: renewables help ACT cut power costs

ACT is the only jurisdiction bucking the trend of soaring power bills now plaguing the rest of Australia

Get our free news app; get our morning email briefing

Williamsdale solar farm in the ACT. The territory has benefited from long-term contracts with suppliers of renewable energy. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Peter Hannam Mon 6 Jun 2022 18.07 AEST

The ACT will cut electricity prices this year, bucking a trend of soaring power bills for the rest of Australia, as the territory benefits from long-term contracts that locked in low-cost renewable energy.

Basic tariffs will fall by a minimum of at least 1.25% from 1 July, the ACT’s independent competition and regulatory commission said on Monday. “This is equivalent to a real decrease of 4.93% after excluding inflation,” it said.

The reduction in the regulated tariff will shave $23 off the annual power bill for average households using 6500 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, and $88 for average non-residential users.

“ACT is the only jurisdiction in the national electricity market where regulated tariffs will decline in 2022-23,” senior commissioner, Joe Dimasi, said in a statement. Standing offers are now cheaper than those offered in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, he said.

“The price decrease is driven by a decline in the ACT government scheme costs this year, which more than offset the increase in wholesale electricity costs,” Dimasi said.

Wholesale prices in the national electricity market more than doubled in the March quarter from a year earlier, and have risen more since. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent global energy costs higher while regular outages by Australia’s ageing coal-fired power stations have lately added to the local price spike.

Electricity prices will rise by as much as 18% from July in parts of the national electricity market after wholesale prices increased 49% in Queensland and 41% in NSW, the Australian Energy Regulator said last month when it released default market prices for the 2022-23 year.

Long-term contracts devised by the ACT government to enable it to reach 100% renewable energy have served to shield its energy users from the higher prices faced by other regions.

The ACT’s deputy chief minister and energy minister, Shane Rattenbury, said average household bills for this coming financial year would be about $800 lower than those in neighbouring NSW.

“It’s underlined how fossil fuels are subject to the vagaries of geopolitics, that are completely out of our control,” Rattenbury said. “Locally produced renewable energy is entirely within our control.”

The territory’s wholesale price had averaged about $90 a megawatt-hour, well below the $200-$300MW/h other states would have been paying, he said.

Simon Corbell, the architect of the ACT’s scheme when he served as the territory’s climate and energy minister, said “some form of contracting is beneficial to consumers, beneficial for renewable energy development and beneficial for emissions reductions.

An artist’s impression of the proposed ‘solar skin’ tower in West Melbourne

“ACT energy users will be protected during this period of very high prices because of the fixed prices they pay for their renewable energy,” said Corbell, who now heads the Clean Energy Investor Group.

“They will be in a better position compared to consumers around the country, no doubt, and there’s the complete offset of the emissions profile of the electricity sector, a very important outcome,” he said.

The ACT reached 100% renewables in 2020.

The method of auctions in the ACT that fixed a price for renewable energy was a lifeline for the renewables industry in Australia after the arrival of the Abbott Coalition government in 2013 chilled investor confidence in the sector.

Other states, including Victoria and NSW, have since taken up the approach to encourage more clean energy supplies.

“The ACT is a renewable energy trailblazer, not just at home but abroad too,” said Richie Merzian, director of the Australia Institute’s climate and energy program. “It was the first major jurisdiction outside Europe to reach 100% renewable electricity status.”

“Switching to renewables is not just good for the climate but good for wallet, with Canberran’s enjoying cleaner and cheaper power,” Merzian said.

Cindy Lou eats at Akiba, Canberra

Akiba is a lively venue, close to public transport, and a short walk from most of Civic. The restaurant has a mix of seating. There are stools at bar tables along the windows, and set back from them, in the hub of activity. Booths are available for four or six people, if available when requested. Staff are excellent- informative, efficient, and friendly. The menus are extensive, and cover what seemed to be all dietary eventualities. We had three meals from the street food, and found them very generous. I began with a coffee , as I had arrived early, and finished with a peppermint tea. There is a vast range of teas!

Initially I wondered how I would find the bar stool. However, it was very comfortable, and made a great prop for displaying my rather attractively lined coat. There was room on the table for my bag which was useful – I do wonder whether the generous table spacing is usual, though.

The food was pleasant, but not stunning. Above are the Japanese fried chicken bun, the miso dengaku eggplant and the agadashi fried tofu. My food experience is contrary to my friends’ reports on the food at Akiba, so I am going to return, and order a combination of the above and some other choices. I wrote a review for the restaurant, and received a lovely response. So, overall, I had a pleasant time on the day, enhanced by the excellent company, and expect to have a great food experience on the next occasion.

Indian Pacific Trip

After the arrival in Perth, we had an evening to ourselves, before joining a tour to Margaret River the next morning. This was a comfortable trip with several stops on the way. One such stop was at Busselton, a coastal town with a pleasant beach and the trees familiar on various beaches along the Western Australian coast.

Busselton Beach

Lunch at a winery was the next stop.

One of three choices for lunch – an Asian salad. The others were a huge pizza (vegan) and a succulent hamburger. I think that my salad was the best! The tofu was excellent.

There was time for a scenic walk after lunch, before driving to the Margaret River area Mammoth Cave.

The trees around the caves are impressive, although they do not reach the heights of the Karri forests further south.

Mammoth Cave signage is clear and explanatory, although this photo is a poor rendition.

Walking inside the caves was easy with well organised pathways, bridges and easily climbed stairs. Although there was an additional area to be explored, some people chose to do this, and others remained in the area that required less climbing.

Ground foliage around the caves is also attractive.

Then we were off to view the meeting of the Southern and Indian Oceans. And more of that, next week.

Week beginning 8 June 2022

Carlene Bauer Girls They Write Songs About Farrer, Strauss and Giroux 2022.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review.

Carlene Bauer’s novel is a modern approach to women’s friendship. However, where I think of women’s friendship novels as underpinned by a notion of sisterhood that includes warmth and supportiveness, this friendship seems to be spiky, sharp elbowed and verging on envy that I found difficult to appreciate. I read 25% of the work, dipped into a section on the way in which the marriage and motherhood of one woman impacted on her and the friendship, and read the end. The feature that I did find completely charming is the role of literature (Archie comics and Anne of Green Gables amongst the large range) feminist ideology (Betty Friedan and Shulamith Firestone feature, as well as ‘second wave’) and song, with Anne Frank as an imaginary advisor in the developing relationship. All of these impacted on the women’s conversations and understanding of events. See Books: Reviews .

After Covid in Canberra: Cindy Lou at Perth restaurants; art school in Perth; Brilliant and Bold; Tom Watson, Lose Weight 4 Life and congratulations and memory – PM Anthony Albanese; Gay Huzzar with Zoe Fairbairns.

Covid in Canberra

June 2: New cases reported, 874; hospitalised, 82; in ICU, 4.

June 3: New cases reported, 729; hospitalised, 81; in ICU, 1.

No records for this weekend, and Monday 6th June with apologies from ACT Health citing an IT issue. Free flu vaccinations are available for concession card holders. Pharmacies are continuing to provide Covid vaccinations, as well as flu vaccinations.

New Covid cases reported on 7 June – 722, with 92 people in hospital suffering from Covid. Vaccination rates continue to increase, with 97.3% of people over five having had two doses, and 76.8% of people aged 16+ having had three doses.

June 8: new cases reported – 821; there are 89 people in hospital.

One life was lost this week.

Cindy Lou visits Perth restaurants

Mr Walker, South Perth

It is easy to alight from the ferry from the city and walk straight to the restaurant. The staff are friendly and the food delicious.

On the last occasion I was at Mr Walkers we had a delicious and disgusting dessert – quite a major event on the plate. However, this time we enjoyed the prawns, cauliflower, lamb dish and courgette flowers. The dishes make delightful sharing meal, and it is lovely to have companions so as to be able to partake of a variety of options on offer. One problem is that everything is so delicious it is difficult to forgo favourites for something new.

Balti Restaurant, Perth

Balti is a fantastic Indian restaurant in St Georges Terrace. It is a particularly inviting restaurant , and a pleasant for groups as couples. The atmosphere is friendly, mild curries are served with as much panache as the hotter ones, the serves are very generous indeed. I was carried away with the choice of entrees so ordered one too many. This meant no dessert, and unfinished meals. However, the flavours were worth it – and if I had not been staying at a hotel I would have been able to accept the offer of a doggy bag.

Arbi’s Riverside Café and Bar, Swan River

Morning coffee at Arbi’s Riverside Café and Bar is always a pleasant experience. The black swans on the Swan River are beautiful to pass on the way to the café. The river venue itself provides indoor and outdoor seating which allows for really taking in the atmosphere of dining by the Swan River. The service here is very efficient, and although I have had only my morning coffee, the menu offers a good choice of meals.

Covid measures were in place when I visited, but were hardly onerous!

San Churros, Midland

I was fortunate to be part of a large family gathering in a shopping centre in Midland where there is a variety of food outlets. They are family oriented but warm and friendly rather than noisy. We began at Dome, where the menu seems to go on forever, but does not impact negatively on the food. My Asian squid salad was delicious. After Dome we walked the short distance to San Churros, where the children had churros with chocolate sauce (some added sprinkles) while the adults had excellent coffee.

A wonderful memory of art school days in Perth

Most enjoyable was outdoor sketching in the gardens in St Georges Terrace. Sadly, the huge Morton Bay Fig is no longer there, and the gardens are rather pristine instead of being the mysterious haunts of my childhood, or even those of rushing from James Street to the gardens to sketch. I still have my drawing board, full of drawing pin holes for attaching sketching paper!

BRILLIANT & BOLD – BOLD & BRILLIANT CONVERSATIONS WITH ‘ORDINARY’ & ‘EXTRAORDINARY’ WOMEN

Sunday 12 June 11.00 am UK time

Brilliant & Bold! with Brilliant & Bold! women speaking on ‘Come the
Revolution – What Next for Women!’ … and please note, this is not a ?
but a ! … Women are real, not a figment of anyone’s imagination, and our
exploits, our efforts, our vigour in claiming our rights in the struggle
for the rights of all women are real!

Come for words of wisdom from –

Ahlem Akram of Basira – outspoken and speaking up for women’s rights
against the impositions of culture and religion …

Jennifer Bradley – staunch unionist and fighter for women’s industrial
rights, long experienced in government and union office and activism

– and more to come!

Jocelynne Scutt’s zoom meeting will be live on Facebook.

Lose Weight 4 Life Tom Watson

Tom Watson was a Labor Member of Parliament and Deputy Leader of the Party from 2015 – 2019. (As a member of the British Labour Party, I had the pleasure of voting for him!) He retired from Parliament, and the following is one of the activities that is filling his time.

Chapter Two of my Sunday Times best-selling book, Downsizing.

Tom Watson May 25

Living with a morbidly obese junk-food addict can’t have been easy. A couple of years before my diabetes diagnosis, I’d struck up a relationship with Steph – she worked for a trade union – and we’d moved into a terraced house in the West Midlands town of Cradley Heath.

I would catch the train up from Westminster most Thursday evenings (I often had constituency duties the following day) and, more often than not, Steph would drive over to collect me from the station since the half-mile, seven-minute walk was way beyond my capabilities.

My weight frequently brought about some awkward moments in our household. I remember breaking numerous G Plan dining room chairs, the wooden frames buckling and splintering under the strain of my 22-stone bulk. Once, to my eternal shame, I even cracked the bath, the plastic base caving in as I attempted to haul myself out.

Steph had a healthy relationship with food, and had generally tried her best to curb my wayward appetite, but her efforts were often in vain.

She would despair as the kitchen cupboards were emptied within days of the Tesco ‘big shop’, shaking her head as she watched me demolish a jumbo bar of Dairy Milk or an entire tube of cheese and onion Pringles.

I’m sharing a chapter from Downsizing every Wednesday, exclusively with subscribers. It’s an account of what worked for me on the journey to losing 100lb, reducing my blood pressure and reversing my type 2 diabetes. If you’re new here, subscribe!

Subscribe now

More from Tom Watson …

Congratulations Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

Congratulations to Labor leader Anthony Albanese, Australia’s new Prime Minister. He looks fantastic, having cut out beer and carbs and shedding 15kg. I’ll have to send him a copy of my new book when it’s published later this month!|

I have a very fond memory of Albo on a visit to the UK. Michael Foot’s birthday party was in the greatly missed Gay Hussar restaurant, Soho.* Revellers had consumed much wine to the bemusement of our sober and jet-lagged Australian guest of legendary former MP Fraser Kemp.

At one point in the evening, spin doctor Charlie Whelan decided to lift his kilt, in what at the time, I believed to be a derogatory and insulting fashion. There is a memory of a scuffle, a hazy mental picture of journalists Paul Routledge and Kevin Maguire intervening.

Fraser Kemp, ever the host and diplomat, persuaded Labor’s future Prime Minister and me that it was a good time to adjourn to a more civilised environment, Little Italy in Frith Street. They now do delicious keto recipes as well as their fabulous pasta.

*When Zoe Fairbairns (author of Stand We At Last, Daddy’s Girls, Benefits, Closing, Here Today, Other Names, short story collections, and more recently Write Short Stories and Get Them Published, invited me to a dinner there, I did not realise that our new Prime minister had been there before me. There were no kilts at our dinner – a bevy of writers and publishers.

I don’t mind having gone to the same restaurant, but I certainly do not want to copy this feat.

PM Anthony Albanese and President Joko Widodo.

Week beginning 1 June 2022

**A wonderful beginning to this week’s blog.**

I review two murder mysteries this week, Andrea Carter’s The Body Falls, and Jane A. Adams’ The Girl in the Yellow Dress. Both uncorrected proofs were provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jane Carter The Body Falls Ocean View Publishing October 2022.

The Body Falls is told in the first person. Ben O’Keefe (those who know her, call her Ben, those who do not, Benedicta) has been working in an American legal firm, has enjoyed it, and the firm wants to maintain ties with her when she returns to her business in Ireland. Ben appreciates the confidence in her skills but is keen to return to her own legal practice, her parents, and an unresolved relationship with a person known only to the new reader of what I understand to be a series, as Molloy. See Books: Reviews.

Jane A. Adams The Girl in the Yellow Dress Severn House 2022.

The Girl in the Yellow Dress is the second book I have read in Adams’ Henry Johnstone mysteries. The first was Bright Young Things and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to read another of Jane A. Adams’ excellent mysteries. There are six previous novels, and I intend reading them. I shall enjoy catching up with the background to the fascinating relationship between Chief Inspector Henry Johnstone and Sergeant Mickey Hitchens, partners in this novel, but with the possibility of the latter’s promotion providing another layer to their friendship and partnership.

Adams is adept at ensuring that the reader new to the partnership has all the necessary information to understand the complexities and benefits arising from their past interactions. However, the reader is never overburdened. This skilful writing also enhances the way in which background information, tips about the environment, social and geographical, and the relationships between the classes are fashioned in the novel. Every point made by Jane A. Adams is slipped into the text with a lightness of touch that ensures that the information is imparted but does not become a litany of her knowledge. Adams leads the reader into thinking about the moral values that impede the investigation, the class and money driven society in which a community hides important information, and the differing expectations of women. She deals with the enormity of some of the utterances based on questionable moral values with wonderful subtlety. See Books: Reviews for the complete review.

After the report on Covid in Canberra: Cindy Lou at Sydney restaurants; Kos Samaras comments on the Liberal response to some of their voters in seats traditionally conservative; Bob McMullan writes on early lessons from the 2022 election; Billy Bragg comments on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s quote; the seat of Tangney is represented by Labor again; Linda Burney is sworn in.

Canberra Covid

Three lives were lost to Covid this week bringing the total to sixty six lives lost since March 2020.

There has been a total of 130,664 Covid cases in Canberra since march 2020.

Vaccinations at 29 May 2022 ; 80.6% Vaccinations (1 dose, aged 5 to 11); 67.8% vaccinations (2 doses, aged 5 to 11); 97.2% Vaccinations (2 doses, aged 5+); 76.4% Boosters (3 doses, aged 16+). Fourth doses are now being offered to people over 70 or those with other health issues. These additional doses are now available through pharmacies rather than all GPS.

New cases reported on 26 May – 911; hospital numbers – 85; in ICU – 1.

New cases reported on 27 May – 849; 83 in hospital; 3 in ICU; 1 ventilated.

New cases reported on 28 May – 822; 77 in hospital; 2 in ICU, 1 ventilated.

New cases reported on 29 May – 583; 82 in hospital; 2 in ICU; 1 ventilated.

New cases reported on 30 May – 607; 88 in hospital; 3 in ICU; 2 ventilated.

New cases reported on 31 May – 673; 93 in hospital; 4 in ICU; 2 ventilated.

New cases reported on 1 June – 832; 84 in hospital; 5 in ICU; 1 ventilated.

Cindy Lou visits restaurants in Sydney, Perth and Canberra – and dines well at all of them.

Cellinis Sydney

Cellinis is in the Victoria Building in Sydney, and has an interesting menu for breakfast and lunch. The meals we had were the Basil Thai Beef Salad and the Half and Half, which is a soup and focaccia. Cellini’s environment is attractive with stained glass windows and a soaring roof. Service was friendly and attentive. The staff were particularly helpful with the ten people seated behind me, answering their many questions about the menu, and dealing efficiently with placing a walking frame safely and ensuring that the owner was happily seated. Our order came promptly, was hot, and flavoursome. It is particularly pleasant to find a place to eat with a variety of tastes and meal sizes on offer.

Grace Hotel and adjacent pizza and pasta Sydney

The Grace Hotel is as elegant as ever, with large rooms, pleasant staff, comfortable beds, and a lovely bathroom. The hotel environment, with its gracious balconies and seating made the stay there a good choice. However, the room service is now limited to takeaway offerings, both of which are adjacent to the hotel. The pizza and pasta choice was lively, quite noisy and very casual. It would be great for families, and, although an environment that usually would not suit me, I found the atmosphere friendly, the service efficient and the food tasty. A large pizza and fresh salad made a lovely light meal.

I have found several Perth restaurants to which I gladly return each time I visit Western Australia. One of the most interesting is Mr Walker, in South Perth. Next week I review it, and other Perth restaurants – Balti, Arbi’s Riverside Café and Bar and San Churros in Midland.

Follow up commentary on the 2020 Federal Election

Bob McMullan

Early lessons from the 2022 election

The famous American writer, economist and political activist, John Kenneth Galbraith said in 1967:” This is a year when the people are right and the politicians are wrong”.

In 2022 he might have said: “This is the year in which the people are right and the commentators are wrong.”

The counting of the election is not over yet although the result is now clear. Reflections so far have been at a superficial level.
There is obviously a need for serious consideration of the longer term meaning of apparent trends. But we need more time to consider which are ephemeral effects and which are enduring.

However, some things are obvious.

First, the polls got it right again, as they did in Western Australia and South Australia. It appears so because they all picked the winner. But the real lesson is that they got within 1-2% of the two-party preferred voting outcome. It looks like the final numbers will be approximately 52:48 in favour of Labor.

Second, women candidates again did relatively well. It is not useful to do a national average as I did for the SA election because state by state factors are so important on this occasion, and because there were a large number of seats in which the Labor Party did not actually wish to win any votes. I will come back to the significance of that.
However, of the 10 seats which the ALP has won from the Liberals, female candidates won 7. We also saw the obvious impact of female candidates in the Teal seats.

A more significant (but less noticed so far in the media} fact is that it appears that in every state the largest swing to Labor was won by a woman:

Greenway (NSW)
Chisholm (Vic)
Lilley (QLD)
Sturt (SA)
Pearce (WA)
Franklin (Tas).

The polling also suggests that the biggest swing against coalition candidates was amongst female voters. This is a trend which will need some further analysis as there were obviously short-term factors at play, but the voting pattern has been moving this way for some time.

Third, there has been much emphasis on the extremely low primary vote for the ALP. This was taken to extreme levels in the sadly inadequate ABC coverage of the election results. I was amazed that Tanya Plibersek was so polite to some of her interlocutors.

The low vote needs to be qualified by the large number of seats in which either the Labor Party did not actively campaign or there was evident tactical voting by what would otherwise have been Labor voters. In many cases it was both.

On a brief initial analysis, it is possible to identify at least 15 seats in this category, and there are probably more. That is at least 10% of the seats in the House of Representatives in which the effective support for Labor was understandably suppressed by tactical voting. This is not the first time such a thing has happened but in 2022 it occurred at an unprecedented
level. Adjusting for the impact of this would provide a more realistic assessment of the Labor vote. This would probably lead to figure roughly equivalent to the coalition vote of 35- 36%.

Nevertheless, it is obvious that the major parties have recorded an extremely low proportion of the vote in the House. This trend was evident in a much more extreme manner in the recent French presidential election.
There is no reason to believe that this is a problem for democracy or progressive policies, although it will cost both parties a significant loss of public funding.

Nor does it undermine the legitimacy of Anthony Albanese’s victory. The preferential system allows voters to express their effective choice as to who they want to see form the government between the realistic alternatives while voting for the extremes of right and left or for Independents.
However, it is an important sign of what may be major issues in the future and warrants closer attention over the next few months.

A fourth assessment is that the Nationals are kidding themselves if they believe they did well at this election. It is true that they held all their seats, and this is quite an achievement.

However, in the main it was built on the back of the tremendous margins which were generated in Queensland seats last time. On this occasion there was a swing of 4% away from the Nationals in those seats, and 3% nationwide.

The only state in which they did well was Victoria. After this election at least four of the Nationals seats are within striking distance of Labor or an Independent. This sets aside the disastrous impact Barnaby Joyce
had on the chances of city-based Liberals. “Vote Sharma/Zimmerman etc, get Barnaby” was a very powerful message.

A fifth factor to consider is that while the Liberal Party did not win any of their outer metropolitan target seats, they did get swings to them in seats such as Lindsay and McEwen. This is another example of a potential re-alignment of political support across the country which the major parties and Independents will need to heed.

A sixth lesson from this election is that although the Labor Party did not suffer the extensive ravages of the Liberals in the inner-city seats it is clear that they face challenges in future. It is likely that Sydney and Grayndler will be hard to hold when Tanya Plibersek and Anthony Albanese choose to retire as Melbourne was when Lindsay Tanner retired. This is not necessarily an irreversible trend but it will be a challenge to both Labor and the Liberals.

Unless the Greens face the awkward realities of government some time in the future they will continue to prosper because they can promise the undeliverable without risk.

Finally, the major take away from this early assessment is that the Labor Party calibrated their campaign very well. They did not stack up huge majorities in safe seats while scaring off the key voters in marginal seats. Nor did they lose any seats to the coalition. The two-
term strategy which Anthony Albanese has outlined makes sense. Promise as much as you can deliver in the first term and build the case for more change over the three years up to the next election.

Both major parties will need to reflect on the medium-term implications of what has occurred at this election. In the interim I would caution against rushing to judgement based on any assumption that the future will be a straight-line extrapolation from the recent past.

From Billy Bragg, posted to Facebook

Woke up this morning to find that the new prime minister of Australia had quoted my lyrics in his first press conference: “Just because you’re going forwards, doesn’t mean I’m going backwards”. Here’s my response to that welcome news.

**Follow up to last week’s comment on the Labor win in Tangney** –**Sam Lim and Penny Wong**

Linda Burney becomes the first indigenous woman to become Minister for Indigenous Australians. It is reported that she received the longest acclamation upon being sworn in.

Week beginning 25 May 2022

“I want Australia to continue to be a country that no matter where you live, who you worship, who you love or what your last name is, that places no restrictions on your journey in life.”

Anthony Albanese spoke in Sydney with Labor on the cusp of returning to power for the first time since 2013.

Election night – a Better Future

Little can compare with the joy of this Labor win so I am going to indulge myself and concentrate on that.

Anthony Albanese sworn in as Australia’s 31st Prime Minister

I was fortunate enough to be sent some photos of the swearing in of the 31st Prime Minister of Australia on the Monday after the results showed that Labor would govern. Grace Arndt sent the following:

Photos by Jake Sims

Four Labor Members were sworn in on the same occasion. Penny Wong , the Foreign Minister, accompanied the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, to the Quad meeting in Tokyo. Katy Gallagher is the Labor Senator from the ACT, and Finance minister.

Election Day in Canberra

But, to go back to election day: the democracy sausages, cake stalls with political cookies, handing out how to vote cards, queues, candidates’ posters and Tshirts…and dogs.

Watching the ABC coverage in trepidation – 2019 was a salutary experience – and we are cautious, as well as having lots of dessert available to help deal with the wait.

For my American friends – remember that Labor is red. The Western Australian results came in late in the night , but were marvellous. So many seats changed from Liberal to Labor.

My favourite was Tangney where in 1975 I trudged from house to house door knocking for Labor in an election that we lost . It was 42 degrees most days, we were rather unwelcome, and we lost the seat.

A great result this time. Sam Lim is now the Labor Member for Tangney Sam was born in Malaysia where he served for two years as a Police Constable with the Royal Malaysian Police Force, before leaving to become a dolphin trainer, and then running several small businesses. Sam must have been an interesting candidate – I would have welcomed door knocking for him, particulary as the election was not held in December heat.

Canberra Covid

And now the bad news about Canberra and Covid with an increase of new cases on May 22nd.

New cases on 19th May numbered 504, with 82 people in hospital, 4 in ICU two ventilated and one life lost.

On the 20th May there were 552 new cases with 84 people in hospital with Covid, 4 in ICU, and 2 ventilated.

On Saturday 21st there were 758 new cases reported, bringing the total number of cases in the territory during the pandemic to 125,220. There are currently 5787 active cases in Canberra.

On May 22 Covid hospitalisation rose above 90 for the first time and hit a record high for the fourth day in a row, There are now 92 patients in hospitals with the virus, including four in intensive care, and two receiving ventilation. The day before there were 89 patients in hospital with three in intensive case and two being ventilated. Elective surgeries have had to be postponed because of the the impact on health services from new cases.

New cases for 24 May were 394, with 90 people in hospital, 3 in ICUand 2 ventilated.

The new cases for 25 May were 944 new cases, 88 people in hospital, one in ICU, and one ventilated.

Minka Kent Unmissing Thomas & Mercer, 2022 was sent to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Once again Minka Kent has written a thriller with enough twists to keep readers engrossed and prepared to try a little bit of investigation of their own to work out the plot. Although I suspected one twist, the others were well hidden, and such suspicion is not necessarily justified. With their hidden motives and duplicitous behaviour, the characters are also reasonably complex. None makes it easy to identify wholeheartedly with their aims and behaviour, their motivation creates interest throughout the novel. As the main character ruminates, she is seen as a victim to be helped – but the assistance she is offered really focussed on her needs, or based on the helpers’ own inadequate lives? The complete review is at Books: Reviews

NGA EXHIBITION

KNOW MY NAME: AUSTRALIAN WOMEN ARTISTS 1900 TO NOW

PART TWO

12 JUN 2021 – 26 JUN 2022

Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now showcases art made by women. Drawn from the National Gallery’s collection and loans from across Australia, it is one of the most comprehensive presentations of art by women assembled in this country to date.

Told in two parts, this exhibition tells a new story of Australian art. Looking at moments in which women created new forms of art and cultural commentary such as feminism, Know My Name highlights creative and intellectual relationships between artists across time.

Know My Name is not a complete account; instead, the exhibition proposes alternative histories, challenging stereotypes and highlighting the stories and achievements of all women artists.

Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now is part of a series of ongoing gender equity initiatives by the Gallery to increase the representation of all women in its artistic program, collection development and organisational structures.

Image gallery thumbnail — Yvonne Audette, *The long walk,* 1964, purchased 1993

installation photo of sculptures of humans and objects made from woven, crocheted and knitted materials

flat weaving of natural and brightly dyed pandanus grass — Margaret Rarru, Liyagawumirr people, *Pandanus mat*, 2009, purchased 2010

KNOW MY NAME: AUSTRALIAN WOMEN ARTISTS 1900 TO NOW
PART ONE14 NOV 2020 – 9 MAY 2021
THE BOOK
With more than 150 artists profiled, the Know My Name book celebrates art by women from across Australia.
ABOUT KNOW MY NAME

Week beginning 18 May 2022

The books reviewed this week are one non-fiction – Marc Schapiro’s Beatle Wives: The Women the Men We Loved Fell in Love With and a novel by Joan Long, The Finalist. Both were provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Marc Shapiro, Beatle Wives The Women the Men We Loved Fell in Love With Riverdale Avenue Books 2021.

Marc Shapiro has been effective in providing more of the stories of the women who became part of the Beatles’ lives, as wives, lovers and supporters. Although the Beatles’ contribution is quite an important part of the material, they do not take over. Shapiro has been effective in giving the women a voice. Their voices are heard through others’ interviews with the women and reports, rather than first-hand through Shapiro. However, despite the shortcomings of this method – personal interviews (where possible) would surely provide a livelier text based on Shapiro’s own questions, responses and follow up research – this is a useful collection of information about women whose lives were impacted by their relationships with the famous men whose music and lyrics were such an important part of the music world. See the full review at Books: Reviews.

Joan Long The Finalist Level Books, 2021

Joan Long’s murder mystery is an ideal beach read, although the beauty of the island setting, with white sands, comfortable cottages with themes such as Oasis, and luxurious meals served with plenty of alcohol might pall as a woman wandering the sands is violently murdered. When another character is shot in his sleep perhaps one might look up from The Finalist, relieved that the beach on which it is being enjoyed is well populated, people are happily picnicking and children making sandcastles. In contrast, The Finalist takes place in a closed setting, the Thrill Seeker having made a lengthy sea trip from Florida to deposit five finalists at the island then making a quick getaway, to return in a week. See the complete review at Books: Reviews

After the Canberra Covid report: Anthony Albanese and Voice to Parliament; Bob McMullan – update on 2022 Federal Election comments, plus an addendum not previously published; Heather Cox Richardson comments on Jen Psaki’s retirement from the White House; Strictly Ballroom; Indian Pacific; Ukraine and Eurovision 2022.

Covid Canberra

Vaccinations look great on 12 May with 80.6% of children between 5]five and eleven having received one dose; with 66.5% in this age group having received two doses. 75.7% of people over sixteen have received three doses.

The case numbers are not so good, with 1,132 new cases; 74 people in hospital; 5 in ICU and one ventilated.

The check in app is no longer mandatory. however, health facilities will now be able to use an updated app as a health screening tool on a voluntary basis.

The new cases on 13 May number 1,217; with 74 people in hospital; 4 in ICU; and one ventilated.

New cases on 14 May were 1,oo1; with 71 in hospital; 5 in ICU; and 2 ventilated.

On 15 May there were 885 new cases; 75 in hospital; 6 in ICU; and 2 ventilated.

On 16 May the ACT Government was able to announce the closure of one of the mass vaccination clinics as the vaccination rate in the ACT is so high. Free vaccinations will remain available.

There were 887 new cases; 75 people in hospital; and 5 in ICU.

On 17 May there were 1,129 new cases; 80 people in hospital; 5 in ICU; 2 ventilated; and one life lost.

New cases on 18 May – 1,098; people hospitalised – 74, with 4 in ICU and one ventilated.

Covid Vaccinations: 80.6% one dose (5 – 11) ; 67.2% two doses (5 – 11); 97.2% two doses 5+; 76.1% Boosters (three doses, aged 16+).

Bob McMullan

Probability websites are picking Labor to win

I am much too scarred by the 2019 experience to make an election prediction in 2022.

However, as I remain fascinated by the prospects and challenges in the remainder of the election campaign, I have studied the two websites I am aware of which are trying to assess the probabilities of various election outcomes based on polling and, in one case, other data.

The poll bludger website provides the best overview of polling data but does not attempt to use it to make forecasts.

In a recent edition the poll bludger referred to two websites which are attempting to do just that for this election.

Their methodologies are different but their results are remarkably similar.

The first website, Amarium Interreta (AI) which uses polling and other data to make their predictions suggests that there is a 68% chance of a Labor majority government and 16% chance of a hung parliament.
Their track record in calling the South Australian and West Australian elections was quite good. They forecast that the Liberals would win between 1 and 9 seats in WA, which was quite a bold call at the time.

Amarium Interreta data suggests on a seat-by-seat basis that Labor will win 8 seats: Longman; Robertson; Pearce; Braddon; Lindsay; Boothby; Bass and Swan.

This is not a prediction by AI but rather the net outcome of 100 sample runs for each seat. I have chosen the seats not held by Labor in which they suggest the ALP came out ahead on more than 50% of the runs. There were no Labor held seats which came out as losses on this basis and no new independents were up to the 50% mark, although some were close.

The alternative site, Australian Election Forecasts, is more poll-based.
It predicts a 70.8% chance of a Labor majority outcome, with 10.5% chance of a Liberal majority and 18.7% of a hung parliament. On the individual seats, AEF also suggests Labor is likely to win eight seats, although the 8 are slightly different: Chisholm, Braddon, Reid, Robertson, Pearce, Bass, Swan and Boothby.

It also suggests no Labor losses and no additional independent victories.
The net outcome they both predict would be: ALP 77; LNP 68; Independents and minor parties 6.

If one looks to the other type of probability assessment, the bookmakers, it shows a very similar result. On TAB they have a Labor government at $1.33 while the possibility of a Liberal victory is priced at$3.20. A majority Labor government is $1.80. Interestingly, on a seat by seta basis TAB has Labor
as favorites in 8 coalition held seats (notice a pattern here?): Chisholm; Reid; Longman; Pearce; Swan; Boothby; Bass and Braddon. This set of predictions differs from the others in that TAB expect two “teal” independents to win, Zoe Daniels in Goldstein and Allegra Spender in Wentworth.

The TAB probabilities would result in an election outcome of; Labor 77; LNP 66; others 8.

The significance of these predictions is that they are intended to predict the outcome on the 21 st , rather than merely suggesting the current situation with two weeks to go as polling attempts to do.

That all three suggest an ALP majority government with 77 seats does not move me to make a prediction. I am not even convinced that the five seats listed in all the forecasts (Pearce; Swan; Boothby; Braddon and Bass) are sure things. The evidence on Pearce, Swan and Boothby seems compelling. However, I think most of the assessments about seats in Tasmania are not much more than guesswork.

What is clear is that the coalition has only a very narrow path to majority government. Should they lose the three seats in WA and SA they will be reduced to 73 seats even without any impact of independents. Then they need to win 3 seats to deliver a majority. It is hard to see where they will
come from.

Therefore, the forecasts about the probability of a Liberal/ National majority government seem about right. Not impossible but very difficult. They could rely on Bob Katter to support them in minority but could not count on any of the others, although some might be possible.

The ALP has a more credible path to majority but the seats are not easy to find. If Labor is in a minority but is the largest party, they should be able to rely on Wilkie and Bandt to provide supply and confidence but would not want to have to rely on any of the others.

All in all, it is still all to play for over the next two weeks. The number of people voting early continues to rise, so that may suggest an early lead is worth more than it used to be. But it is still too difficult for a partisan to be brave enough to make a prediction.

First published in Pearls and Irritations.

Addendum

Probabilities addendum 16 May

The key elements of the previous analysis still hold. The result must still be in doubt, but it is very difficult to see a path for the coalition to majority government.

The probability websites have moved even further towards Labor, but they retain the residual possibility of a minority Liberal government supported by Katter and Sharkie and the outside chance of either a majority coalition victory or a hung parliament in which the government is unclear.

The AI analysis now shows a possible 10 seats for Labor with the addition of Reid and Chisholm. It also suggests that Kooyong, Goldstein, Ryan, Brisbane and Banks are now very close.

AEF at this stage suggests that in addition to the previous 8 seats Goldstein, Lindsay, Banks and Hasluck are in play.

Simon Jackman, on the basis of an Implied Probability of Winning (IPOW) derived from Sportsbet’s odds suggests Labor are favorites in 78 seats, the coalition 65 and others 8.

A major polling exercise by YouGov indicated up to 11 new seats for Labor.
A counterweight to all this optimism is recent polling by Utting as published in the West Australian which, while it shows Labor still winning Swan and Pearce, suggests a major falling off from the very big swings suggested earlier.
I fear that the probability indicators are over-estimating the Labor vote and that the result may be closer on the day than the current projections indicate. However, the probabilities do indicate a likely Labor win, however close it may be.

Anthony Albanese and a Voice to Parliament

Labor leader Anthony Albanese would work quickly to establish a Voice to Parliament for Australia’s Indigenous people should he become prime minister after the federal election.

He says it is not about a third chamber for parliament but establishing politeness and good manners so that if there is an issue that affects the health, education, housing and lives of First Nations people they should be consulted.

“This is a change that has been a long time coming. We’ve been talking about it since at least the end of last century,” Mr Albanese told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

“I will consult with First Nations people about the timetable. I will reach out across the parliament … to try to secure support as much as possible.”

He said it should be recognised in the constitution that Australia’s history did not begin in 1788.

“This is a nation changing moment. Just as the apology to the stolen generations made our country stronger, this is a generous offer for First Nations people,” he said.

Heather Cox Richardson – Jen Psaki, press secretary, leaves the White House

May 13, 2022 (Friday)

Today was White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s last day at the White House after 15 months. She set out to restore truth, transparency, and accountability of the administration to the press, and to that end she has held 224 press briefings—together, all of former president Trump’s press secretaries combined held only 205 in his four years in office. Psaki gave her first press conference on January 20, 2021, the day of President Joe Biden’s inauguration, telling the press, “I have deep respect for the role of a free and independent press in our democracy and for the role all of you play,” before answering questions.

Psaki’s tenure has been notable for her ability to parry loaded questions, turning them into opportunities to provide facts and information. Her quick answers to leading questions have been labeled “Psaki bombs,” and they have enabled her to redirect the conversation without engaging in the hostility that former press secretaries sometimes fell into. Her conduct and evident respect for reporters has been an important corrective to the disrespect with which the press has often been treated by lawmakers in the recent past.

When she finished today’s briefing, she thanked members of the press. “You have challenged me, you have pushed me, you have debated me, and at times we have disagreed. That is democracy in action. That is it working.” She continued: “Thank you for what you do. Thank you for making me better. And most importantly, thank you for the work every day you do to make this country stronger.”

Karine Jean-Pierre will take Psaki’s spot as the White House press secretary. The first Black woman and openly LBGTQ person to serve as press secretary, Jean-Pierre has a background as a political analyst and worked as chief of staff for Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2020 presidential campaign…

This is the start of Heather Cox Richardson’s post for the 13th May, and speaks for many of us who have enjoyed Jen Psaki’s ripostes and thoughtful press conferences. She has been an absolute star, and the videos of her appearances are always inspiring to watch. I wonder where she will appear next, and hope that I shall be able to see her in action again.

Thirty years after Cannes premiere of Strictly Ballroom, the fully restored Aussie classic returns

The circle of life. Strictly Ballroom heads back to Cannes, where the Baz Luhrmann journey started. Photo: Mary Evans Picture Library

Louise Talbot

Entertainment Editor

It’s time for a bit of nostalgia.

The year is 1992. Paul Keating was prime minister. The Reserve Bank cash rate hovered around 6.50 per cent. A loaf of white bread was $1.50 and Billy Ray Cyrus’s Achy Breaky Heart topped the ARIA charts.

And, ballroom dancing was considered a suburban, culturally quirky sporting contest.

Enter director and co-writer Baz Luhrmann and his heart-warming, low-budget, coming-of-age movie in August of that year, Strictly Ballroom … and everything changed overnight.

Presenter Margaret Pomeranz from SBS’s The Movie Show was on a waterfront location after the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France, where she interviewed the stars of the show.

The reception for the $3 million film (it grossed $80 million worldwide) at Cannes was overwhelming.

It received a seven-minute standing ovation, won the festival’s Award of the Youth for Foreign Film, and the surprise hit suddenly “signalled the beginning of a new era in Australian cinema”, according to the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA).

“In my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined what happened last night, happened.

“We could not get out of the cinema … people started to dance at the end of the film in the aisles,” Luhrmann, who went on to make classics such as Moulin Rouge (which opened Cannes in 2001) and The Great Gatsby in 2013, said that morning.

“We have one singular great asset in our country and that is originality. We don’t have this ready-made culture of the European film market,” he said, still reeling from the enormously warm reception.

Star of the show Paul Mercurio, these days a Shire councillor and judge on Seven’s Dancing With The Stars, told Pomeranz at the time the audience reaction was “magical”.

“I was actually in shock …” he said.

Now, 30 years later, the film has been restored by the NFSA and is the first Australian film selected for Cannes Classics since Wake in Fright (1971) in 2009.

It has also been selected to premiere at the 69th Sydney Film Festival.

Paul Mercurio, Baz Luhrmann, Tara Morice and Gia Carides at the Australian premiere in 1993. *Photo: Getty*

‘Beyond my imagining’

Luhrmann, reflecting on the Cannes Film Festival being the launching pad for his “little film”, is heading back to where his career exploded.

“It would have been beyond my imagining 30 years ago when our little film was plucked almost magically to be screened in Un Certain Regard at the 12 o’clock screening, that exactly 30 years later I would be returning to the Festival de Cannes, having previously opened the festival twice with my films, and now this year with Elvis,” Luhrmann said in a statement on May 11.

“I always remember on that terrifying first screening of Strictly Ballroom when, at the end, a crowd gathered around us and a security guard reached over to pull us out.

“He said to me ‘Monsieur, from this point on, your life will never be the same again’.”

Luhrmann praised the “diligent efforts that led to the restoration of the original Strictly Ballroom to this glorious new high-definition cinema presentation”.

NFSA chief executive officer Patrick McIntyre said the restoration program gave audiences “an opportunity to re-engage with favourite movies and re-appraise their impact”.

“It allows us to shine a light on the incredibly diverse achievements of Australian filmmaking over time,” he said.

“We couldn’t be more excited that the restored Strictly Ballroom will feature at Cannes alongside the premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, illustrating a truly extraordinary career arc.”

Adds their chief curator Gayle Lake: “In 1992 the film signalled the emergence of an incredible creative originality coming out of Australia which has consistently exploded on international screens over the past 30 years.”

Those marvellous Strictly Ballroom moments

Not that we need reminding of the classic quotes and performances in Luhrmann’s first breakout feature, but thanks to Screen Australia, let’s go down memory lane as we prepare for the relaunch.

As Luhrmann said this week about being told his life would never be the same: “Indeed, he was right. Thank you, Cannes.”

Indian Pacific

What did we miss overnight? The terrain has changed markedly as we move through the Western Australian wheatbelt and pass country towns.

Breakfast and lunch were served on the train before our arrival at East Perth Railway station.

Upon arrival we scanned our 2G2 passes – which are now redundant -collected our large luggage, and boarded our coach to the hotel. The Indian Pacific trip was over, but Perth has plenty to offer and that part of the journey will be described next week.

Although we enjoyed the Ghan trip more, possibly because our destination, Uluru, has been on agenda for years. Lamentably, only Covid restrictions brought it to the top of our list. We are so glad to have this experience.

The Indian Pacific trip suffered a little from another Covid related feature – a lot of new inexperienced staff had to be employed to replace those that had left when Covid shut down the service. They were all personable and keen to please, so what we missed in smooth service was replaced by enthusiasm. The meals were excellent, the beds comfortable, and there was always room in the lounge for a drink, nibbles and a chat. Some people set up their laptops or read their kindles/books. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly.

The meal service was different from our Ghan experience, as on that train social distancing was an important factor, and we sat two to a table. On this occasion we shared our table with another couple of people, each time a different pair, for each meal. This was a pleasant experience, and quite illuminating – a wide range of people shared our interest in travelling on the Indian Pacific.

A walk down St Georges Terrace, Perth was familiar but new flower beds have joined the concrete kangaroos in the street scape.

Ukraine won Eurovision 2022.

I was impressed with the following comment on Facebook, completing Leanne Michelle’s astute commentary throughout the competition:

“I know we all know the result by now, but honestly, the first time I heard Ukraine’s song when it was announced as their Eurovision entry, I knew it was going to be a contender.

It’s a winning formula – sung in their native language, using a mix of traditional instruments and electronic equipment, a catchy tune, plus it’s just quirky enough to fit the Eurovision love of all things slightly offbeat without being outright weird. (Norway, we’re looking at you).

Politics may have played a part, but honestly, this was always going to do well.”

Leanne Michelle

Covid in Canberra since the end of lockdown

UK Tory Leadership Comment from Tom Watson

The Penny Mordaunt Special*

* why the asterisk in the subject line?

What ?

And now for a thoughtful article about American politics! This is the first of a series about the mid-term elections.

Trump may save the Democrat’s Senate bacon in November.

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