canberra citynews july 15-21, 2010

CityNews July 15-21 �

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� CityNews July 15-21


“LAST time round, GetUp! ran a very sustained campaign target-ing me, trying to dislodge me as a Liberal Senator,” Gary Humphries said.

The counter-culture political lob-by group has announced its inten-tion to target the ACT Senate race at the impending Federal election.

“I’m very cynical about them, they’re a device to corral people into supporting left-wing parties,” said Humphries.

Famous for subversive advertis-ing, witty photo-shopped movie trailers and winning a Tony Abbott surfing lesson auction with a refu-gee, GetUp! claims to be about more than entertaining media stunts and grabs.

It wants to educate voters about party policies and, thanks to our fickle Senate margins, it will be do-ing it here in Canberra.

ACT Greens Senate candidate Lin Hatfield Dodds was more relaxed. “My experience of GetUp! is that when they’re running campaigns they’re promoting accurate mate-rial,” she told “CityNews”.

“If you’re a politician promoting

evidence-based policy you have nothing to worry about.”

Likewise, Labor Senator Kate Lundy is pleased GetUp! will be focusing on the ACT.

“GetUp! provide a really good presence online and it really encour-ages people to get involved. I think it’s a wonderful way to activate the community’s interest in politics.”

Communications and campaign di-rector Sam McLean told “CityNews” GetUp! will be focusing on three issues in 2010 – refugees, climate change and mental health.

“Issue-priming is how we roll,” McLean said.

“This is more an election of issues than personality, the last election was a referendum on John Howard and his tenure.

“We’ve chosen Canberra, the ACT, because it’s a really tight Sen-ate race and a really strategically important Senate race for the par-ties.

“That doesn’t mean that we’re here to get a certain person elected, it’s just that where races are tight and important for politicians, they pay attention to their voters.”

“We find them more receptive in tight marginal seats than anywhere else and the candidates in marginal races have a direct line to their lead-ers that can really influence policy decisions. The ACT fits that very well.”

McLean says the ACT Senate margin has dropped from 10,000 to 1200 since 2007, with the votes Labor loses set to determine the second seat, making it a three-way race.

“Our hope is that we can push the parties to have better policies, par-ticularly on those three issues that we’re focusing on and we believe

that in an election context the best way to do this is to have voters walk-ing into the polling booth thinking about the issues.

“So that’s going to be online stuff, like the enrolment video, getting young people on the roll, we’ll be do-ing more TV ads, Canberra’s a great place for us to do them.

“We think that if the last thing someone sees before they walk into a booth is a smiling face in a GetUp! t-shirt talking to them about mental health, that they’re more likely to vote for the party that has a better mental health care policy or simi-larly climate change policy.

“We think that voters are smart enough to draw those links them-selves and it’s just a matter of knowing how the parties stand on these issues. That’s why we hand out score cards that show different policies.

“Last election we were at the polling booths handing out fortune cookies, with little messages inside like, ‘today you will vote for a better climate’. We had pencils we were handing out as well when people were walking in that said ‘a pencil like me could ratify Kyoto’.

“We, kind of, have a license to be a little bit more fun than the parties.”

GetUp! communications and campaign director Sam McLean... “issue-priming is how we roll”.

ELERI HARRIS gets alongside GetUp!, a political lobby group that’s targeting the ACT’s tight Senate race.

GetUp! gets up Gary’s nosenews

Michael Moore: How the Greens can’t win an ACT Senate seat, Page 9

brieflyGallery gets faceliftTHE Australian War Memorial is spending $4.5 million to redevelop the Hall of Valour, which features the world’s largest publicly-held col-lection of Victoria Crosses. To be completed by December, the refurbished gallery will feature the 63 VC medals and tell the individual stories of all 97 Australians who have been awarded the VC.

Super scannerA NEW-generation magnetic resonance imaging scanner, the first of its kind in the ACT and one of only a few in Australia, has been installed in Canberra Imaging Group’s refurbished Garran clinic at a cost of around $2 million. It promises patients greater comfort, shorter exam times, higher quality images and significantly reduced waiting times than a conventional MRI.

Food, wine and pamperBRASSEY House, Barton, is hosting the annual “Winter, Wine and Unwind” afternoon in its ballroom on Sunday, August 1. The event, in aid of Karinya House for Mothers & Babies, features wine and food tasting, relaxation and rejuvenation, with pampering activities such as massage and manicures. Tickets at $20 are available from Jackie Gallagher on 6241 8427 or at [email protected]

Impressions of warA new video and photographic art installation by award-winning artist Shaun Gladwell has been launched at the Australian War Memorial as a part of the memorial’s Official War Art Scheme. The installation represents Gladwell’s response to the technology, landscapes and soldiers he experienced in Afghanistan. Gladwell was recently featured in Art 41 Basel, an international art show in Basel, Switzerland.

Editor: Ian Meikle, [email protected] reporter: Eleri Harris, 0414 618493 [email protected] editor: Megan Haggan, 6262 9100 [email protected] editor: Helen Musa, 0400 [email protected] and photography: Silas Brown, 0412 718086Designer: Joran DilucianAccounts manager: Bethany Freeman-Chandler [email protected] and circulation: Richard Watson, 6262 [email protected]

Phone 6262 9100 Fax 6262 9111 GPO Box 2448, Canberra City 2601www.citynews.com.autwitter.com/city_newsfacebook.com/canberracitynews

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Ian Meikle, of Suite 1, Level 1, 143 London Circuit, Canberra.

General manager: Greg Jones 0419 418196, [email protected] advertising executive: Melissa Delfino, 0415 137660 Advertising sales executives: Jonathan Hick, 0415 177345 Sebastien Kriegel, 0438 198701 Mara Stroppa, 0431 245130 Lyn Cram, 0458 028990Advertising sales co-ordinator: Rebecca Darman, [email protected] advertising sales: Ad Sales Connect, 02 9420 1777

INDEXJuly 15-21, 2010 Since 1993: Volume 16, Number 28

FRONT COVER: Stress Down Day advocate Petrina Stamenkovic. Story Page 25. Photo by Silas

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CANberrA raiders’ supporters are calling for coach David Furner to be sacked with the club languishing near the bottom of the ladder.

He won’t be dumped, he has another year to run on his contract, he has the support of the board and the raiders have never sacked a first-grade coach. There is also the possibility that things may turn around. After all, fortunes change quickly in sport.

Knowing David Furner as I do, he is extremely competitive and would be as disappointed as the most passionate fan with the way things have turned out so far this season.

To get to the bottom of the raiders’ problems you don’t have to look too far. The club banked heavily on Todd Carney becoming a decade-long halfback, but as we know, that came unstuck just as the raiders were starting to get dividends on their investment. Carney is now playing with another club and the raiders are back to square one in the development of its next halfback.

experienced halfbacks are the most sought-af-ter commodity in the NrL; the top teams are well led by their halves. The raiders at the moment lack direction. Having watched the team train, it is obvious that plenty of work is being done on last-tackle options, but on game day the inexperi-ence shows and much of the responsibility is left to Terry Campese.

What the club needs is a foil for Campese, but it could take a couple of seasons to get back to where it was when Carney was directing play. Josh McCrone, Michael Picker, Sam Williams and Marc Herbert are good players, but they need time to develop.

The raiders has been sounding out experienced

halfbacks keen for one more season to guide the McCrones, Pickers, Williams and Herberts in the art of being a first-grade half. but there are few experienced halfbacks on the market and the raiders have struggled to find a match-winning halfback since ricky Stuart.

Calls to sack the coach are nothing new and make little sense.

Tim Sheens took the raiders to back-to-back premierships in 1989 and 1990, but after losing the 1991 grand final, the salary cap took a bite out of the club and a number of the top players left. 1992 was a lean year and there were calls for a new coach. Commonsense prevailed and Sheens coached the team to the premiership in

1994. Matthew elliott was another who came under fire during his stint with the raiders. Panthers’ fans also called for his sacking a couple of years ago, once again he was backed by the board and his side is now one of the pre-miership front runners. There were also those who believed Wayne bennett’s time as a coach had come to an end when the broncos were struggling.

Just like the players, coaches need time to develop. David Furner is only in the second year of his first-grade coaching career and I think he deserves a fair go. You have only to look at Mal Meninga. He came under fire from fans during his stint as coach. Like Furner he was one of the club’s greatest players, as a coach he was expected to deliver instant results, but there was little patience from supporters.

History will now show that as Queensland coach he has led the Maroons to five series wins in a row.

By shereen charlesWHAT started off as plans for a road trip to Aus-tralia’s biggest music festival amongst 10 friends, has turned into a campaign to raise awareness for men’s health issues.

For the past two months, ray Ali, Tish Karu-narathna, Dylan King, Sam Colman, William Power, Jonathan bills, Chris Patz, Francisco Naismith, Hugie Thorton and Nick elmitt have been making calls to various businesses and or-ganisations hoping to find sponsorships for their road trip to the Splendour in the Grass music festival in Queensland.

The boys, known as the “Mo Splendour boys”, were driven by ray’s experiences watching his father suffer from prostate cancer and later, los-ing him to some other complications. In a bid to honour ray’s father, and sufferers of other men’s health issues, the boys decided to use the road trip as a means of bringing information on such illnesses to the masses.

“In our age bracket, we don’t really consider men’s health issues such as these illnesses. Men tend to have that sort of ‘we are invincible’ thing. So after we saw it happen to my family,

we thought it’s a good idea to get around. We’re all going to this festival and we thought, why not do something worthwhile to help out?” ray told “CityNews”.

The five-day road trip to Queensland is scheduled for July 24. According to Dylan King, the group will make nine pit stops from Wagga Wagga to byron bay where they will use public spaces to hand out flyers, set up donation boxes and share information.

All proceeds will go to Movember, an organi-sation that raises funds and awareness for men’s health.

Closer to home, the boys will be holding a fund raising event at The Front in Lyneham on July 23.

Admission is free and there will be donation boxes for those who want to contribute.

For more information on the Mo Splendour Men’s Health Road Trip, visit www.mosplendour.com or email to [email protected].

Trivia night for SIDSSIDS and Kids ACT is holding a Trivia Night at Rydges Lakeside from 7pm on July 23. Tables of 10 cost $35 per head (of which $20 is donated to SIDS and Kids). SIDS and Kids is dedicated to saving babies’ lives through research and education programs and supporting families who experience the death of their child. For further information, or to book a table, call 6287 4255 or email [email protected]

Rare atlasA SEMINAL ATLAS by the first British Astrono-mer Royal, John Flamsteed, of particular significance for Australia and the Pacific, has been acquired by the National Library of Australia. Curator of maps Dr Martin Woods, said the atlas was one of the “big four” star atlases to come out of Europe’s golden age of celestial cartography, a period which spanned roughly 1600 to 1800 coinciding with the European discovery, charting and early settlement of Australia.

Netball nice guySPORTS Minister Andrew Barr is again the Canberra Darters netball team’s No.1 Ticket Holder for this season. Netball ACT President, Kim Clarke said it recognised the Minister’s support for the sport. The Darters’ first home match in the Australian Netball League will be against local rivals the Australian Institute of Sport at the AIS Arena on July 23.

briefly

news

WHO in their right mind would want to coach a professional sporting team? When its doing well, the critics say it’s because of the players, but when the side struggles, the fans call for the coach’s sacking, says TIM GAVEL

Why the Raiders won’t dump coach David

The “Mo Splendour Boys”, from left, Ray Ali, Tish Karunarathna, Dylan King, Sam Colman, William Power, Jonathan Bills and Chris Patz. Photo by Silas

Mo Boyswith amessage


news

I JUST can’t come at brains, eating them that is. Kidney and liver (unless in pâté) don’t do much for me, either.

When I was growing up, my mum loved serving up her crumbed lamb brains and fried livers and she had a fondness for tripe, ox tail and jellied lamb tongue. These were the foods she had grown up with and they were no more strange to her than risotto, quiche or lasagna is to my family today.

But I could never come to terms with offal. I remember being made to sit in front of a heap of rapidly cooling brains lovingly prepared by my very conscientious mum and being told I would get nothing else until I consumed them. Of course, my mum argued that all this was full of wholesome goodness and that kids in Ethiopia would die to get a sniff for my dinner. Inevitably, I went to bed with a growling tummy, just hanging out for my breakfast Weetbix.

I was reminded of my food phobias the other day. My seven-year-old boy is still boycotting just about all vegetables (at least those I don’t stealthily puree and mix into other things to stave off scurvy). To simplify things he’s colour-coded his menu with anything green, orange, or yellow on the “do-not-eat” list. Every now and again his forensic examination of each spoonful de-tects some vegetable trace and the

horror on his little face is something to behold.

My four-year-old loves her veg-etables. It’s meat she has a problem with. She is highly suspicious of eating anything that once “pooped” as she puts it. Fortunately ham, chicken nuggets and frankfurters are currently okay because I have convinced her that they are quite artificial, which with at least two of three is probably pretty true.

But I reckon as long as children are healthy, have lots of energy, weigh a normal weight and are growing at a normal pace, parents probably have little to worry about. Otherwise, every meal time turns into a food fight with mum and dad trying to force the kids which certainly won’t turn them into the happy little eaters us mums dream about.

I figure if I just persist with serving up good, healthy food, they will eventually try something on their “no go” list and find out that it’s not so bad after all.

A recent episode of “MasterChef” suggests to me that lambs brains might be coming back into fashion. But in fairness to the kids (and me), offal is never going to be on our menu. There are parts of childhood one never wants to revisit.

By Eleri HarrisLOCAL singer, songwriter, poet and historian David Mey-ers has pulled out the nitty gritty of Canberra’s colonial past with his new book “Lairds, Lags and Larrikins: A His-tory of the Limestone Plains” detailing the land grabbing squatters of the 1820s.

“It was almost like the wild west of America because nobody could really own land,” said Meyers.

“The authorities couldn’t get here fast enough to arrange for the sale of land before people settled, so they were all squatters on this land, sometimes they fought, sometimes they didn’t. It was pretty wild area and as I say, most of them were either convicts or ex-convicts. They lived hard.”

Launched at Government House by the Governor Gen-eral’s husband Michael bryce, Meyers began work for the book in the 1980s as a history student at ANU.

“It’s a snapshot of life in this whole Canberra area at around about 1828 when the first NSW census was put out,” Meyers said.

“When I was doing my degree at ANU I used to have to listen to a lot of taped lectures because I worked in the day-time. It was really boring, so to get away from the boredom I grabbed this NSW census from 1828, which was about 700 pages, and I started extracting all the people that lived here on this Canberra plain.

“In the 1820s there were 70 people, 65 of those were con-victs or ex-convicts and five of them had come to Australia free.

“It was a fairly interesting time. There were no real facili-ties here, no doctors, no nurses, no law.”

Using sources at the National Library, the Canberra and District Historical Society and the Queanbeyan Library, Meyers hoped to fill a gap in ACT local history through an examination of the lives of farming families in the area and the local indigenous population.

Author David Meyers... “It was almost like the wild west of America because nobody could really own land.” Photo by Silas

The nittygritty ofour past

Offal memories of foodMUM In THE CITyBy Sonya Fladun


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AS a student, Michael Gersbach had to use braille in school. It took him time to feel the dots on the page, recognise the symbols and then translate it into words. by the time he did that, the teacher would have already moved on to the next page.

However, today, studying is made easier for students who are blind or have low vision thanks to a new vi-sion-assist device known as Digital Accessible Information System (or DAISY) players.

Text, in various forms, such as books and newspapers, is convert-ed into audio recording and stored in CDs. each CD can store up to 16 hours of recording. DAISY users simply have to place their request for which CD they want with the Vision Australia library.

The DAISY player is touted as the next-best thing since braille. Manager of Vision Australia, eileen Muscat, believes that clients love the freedom they get with car-rying around a small device.

“braille books are really thick – they’re heavy and cumbersome.

The mobility of DAISY is what is excellent, and it is easy to navi-gate,” she said.

What sets the DAISY player apart from the rest of its counterparts, is that it allows the user to replay specific lines, words and chapters without the hassle of replaying the file right from the start.

Graham Templeman, adaptive technology consultant at Vision Australia, believes that this is one of the most valuable features of the device.

“You have instant access to any part of the recording. It is espe-cially useful for textbooks when searching for bits and pieces you want to go through or when you want to bookmark a page,” he said.

Although Michael did not have access to such a device while he was still at school, he believes that such a device would make a great difference to students.

“braille is far easier to write than it is to read. You need a cer-tain amount of concentration read-ing braille, which distracts from your ability to study properly. but

with a DAISY disk – you just put it in there, away you go,” he said.

However, not everyone is eager to jump on to the DAISY bandwagon. There are still “braille purists” who are adverse to this change, Ms Muscat told “CityNews”.

“braille will never truly be replaced. There are things that braille does that DAISY will never be able to do. but DAISY has defi-nitely opened up new doors for the blind or people who have low vi-sion,” she said.

THE GADFLyBy Robert Macklin

Should lives be ruined forjust watching?THE recent arrest of “Collectors” host Andy Muirhead brings into focus an issue that has troubled me for some time: the law that makes it illegal to watch something – anything – on your home computer.

Pedophilia is of course detestable. All those attacked are scarred for life. And what makes it even more terrible is that some of the children preyed upon can themselves become victims of the condition. Even if only a very small percent-age of those attacked are so affected the spread becomes exponential. So the community is right in demanding an uncompromising response from the authorities.

But attacking children is different from watch-ing kiddie porn on a computer, however despica-ble we may find the practice. The argument that by doing so the viewer becomes a participant in the crime has merit. I presume it costs money to access the sites and that rewards the vile creatures who create the material. It might even be said that it encourages them to seek out new victims.

Moreover, the viewers know they are breaking the law and have to use roundabout methods to access the sites.

Nevertheless, I do feel uncomfortable with the concept that some pathetic characters among us – victims of a psychological compulsion and probably the survivors of pedophile attacks themselves – should have their lives destroyed as a result of watching something on their computers.

For that is certainly what has happened to Muirhead, whom thousands of us have welcomed into our homes, and even our own Canberra Grammar School invited him to speak to the boys about “success”. His life is effectively over. He might as well top himself right now. Yet there is no evidence so far presented that he ever interfered with a child.

So I wonder if there might not be a more measured – and effective – way of handling the issue.

Apparently, the police have a highly sophisticat-ed method of tracing these passive participants in the crime despite the sneaky barriers they erect. So having been alerted to their proclivities, would it not be more effective to put them under secret surveillance? If they are “active” pedophiles, then they can be arrested and tried in open court.

But if their crime is only to watch, I suggest that is of a different order of criminality, one that does not deserve the effective ending of a life. In that case, I suggest, it would be preferable to develop a system whereby the offender is confronted by the police in confidence. He would suffer a very substantial mandatory fine and be required to reveal all aspects of his internet ring. He would also be warned that he was under surveillance. Any further offences and he would be charged in open court.

Alternatively, he could opt to fight the case in the public courts.

A Supreme Court judge would be appointed in each State and Territory jurisdiction to oversee all aspects of the police procedure.

I do hope this is not seen as going “soft on pedophiles”; but it is quite important in our society that the punishment fits the crime. I am concerned that there is more than a hint of witch burning surrounding the issue and in that atmosphere injustice is the rule rather than the exception.

I wonder if we are mature enough to open the subject for discussion?

[email protected]

POLICe have warned about conmen offering painting or plumbing work to elderly people to gain entry to their houses in the inner suburbs.

There have been reports of men of-fering to fix plumbing or paint house numbers on driveways for an amount of money.

In the first situation, the offender will claim to be a plumber, check the toilet by flushing it and inform the elderly resident that there is a prob-lem that can be fixed for an amount of money. Once the money has been paid, the offender leaves without carrying out any work.

In the second, the offender offers a “special” driveway paint that will not fade. On payment, the offender claims to have no change or increases the price if more than one number is painted.

A third scam involves a man pre-tending to be working with police. He carries a folder with a police insignia on it and claims to need a signature. Upon entry, the offender may assault the victim before leaving with money.

Superintendent Kylie Flower, of the crime prevention team, says: “Do not

let a person you do not know into your home.

“If the person is claiming to be a police officer then ask to see identi-fication. If you are unsure, then call Police Operations on 131444.

“If a person does illegally enter your home, comply with them if they ask for your wallet or handbag. Take note of the offender’s appearance; clothing, features, vehicle, registration, direc-tion of travel and anything you con-sider may assist police, although do not put yourself in danger to get this information.

“The most important thing to re-member is that if something should happen to you, such as a robbery or attack, don’t be embarrassed. It’s im-portant that you tell someone who can help you as soon as possible.”

ACT Policing has recently launched its revised “Home and Safety book-let”, which provides important safety information, including how to ef-fectively secure your home, what to do when going on holiday and how to protect your personal safety in public. Copies can be obtained online at www.police.act.gov.au

Police warn of inner-city conmen

SHEREEn CHARLES gets a closer look at a new device hailed as the next-best thing since Braille.

A small devicebrings freedom

Michael Gersbach and his DAISY device... “Braille is far easier to write than it is to read.” Photo by Silas

All about Canberra, all the timetwitter.com/city_news


ON the doorstep of our nation’s capi-tal the fickle Federal electorate of

eden Monaro sits waiting for Labor to drag over the ballot boxes, with the budget belted out, a new PM installed but an election date yet to be set.

The Liberal Party has preselected former journalist, Howard staffer and communications consultant David Gazard to take on incumbent MP Dr Mike Kelly, military man and pres-ently Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support.

No Government has won power without eden Monaro since it was time for Gough in 1972 and both candidates have made it clear the election will be a serious battle.

“You can never be overconfident in an electorate like eden Monaro,” Kelly said, “It’s always going to be a knife-edge place. It’s not a place for the faint hearted. You just have to live with that reality and be prepared for the worst.”

“It’s always a tough seat,” Gazard admitted, “It’s always been a marginal seat and I’ve just got to make sure that

I demonstrate to people I’m going to be a good choice.”

How exactly he does this will be worth watching with Opposition Lead-er Tony Abbott’s “natural attrition” public service pledge sitting uneasily with constituents close to the border, who cross daily in their thousands to work in Government departments.

Kelly has already started playing the public service card, calling Ab-bott’s plan a “kick in the guts” for the ACT and Queanbeyan’s intertwined economy, leaving Gazard to argue jobs are not being cut, “we’re not cutting jobs, we’re just not filling them after people leave”.

both candidates agree healthcare reforms are needed, but while Kelly supports his party’s plans for a Nation-al Health Network, Gazard is in favour of bumping up the status quo, keeping

regional hospitals open and construct-ing more accessible facilities.

earmarking the renewable energy industry as a key issue for the elector-ate, Kelly is dismissive of the Liberal Party’s climate change credentials.

“I’ve been driving hard to attract renewable energy industries and promote them within eden Monaro,” Kelly said.

“It’s going to be one of the most significant economic dynamics for the future for our region. We’ve got about $1.2 billion worth of wind-power investment coming into the region and it’s huge. We’ve got options that we’re trying to explore on wave generation and on tidal generation – all of those options are there for us, even geo-thermal, bio-mass, we’re looking at bio-gas. We’re looking at bio-diesel, options for algal ponds, everything.

“The choice will be between that and a bloke who thinks that climate change is ‘absolute crap’.”

Greens candidate for eden Monaro Catherine Moore agrees with

Kelly.“There’s a huge propensity for

generating wind and solar here and I think it’s really important, it’s a win-win situation because not only are we addressing climate change but there are massive numbers of jobs in renew-able energy,” Moore said.

“We really need to have faith in our ability to move in that direction.

“renewable energy is an important issue not just for eden-Monaro, where there is much potential for renew-able power generation, but also for the whole country, and the sooner we get serious about it the better.”

but Gazard argues that renewable power is costly to constituents.

“I think we need to explore all sorts of renewable technologies, there’s no doubt about that, but I also am keen that the cost of living for people who live in eden Monaro isn’t going to rise astronomically as a result of that.”

From bungendore to Yambulla, eden Monaro is one big electorate, covering 29,499 square kilometres and a vast array of industry in coastal,

mountain, agricultural and urban ar-eas with nearly 100,000 constituents.

“You’ve got all sorts of communities with their own distinct flavours and issues and requirements,” Gazard said,

“There’s 15 newspapers in eden Monaro alone, from towns up and down the coast, and the mountains, each of them has their own pressing requirement.

“I go into politics with my eyes wide open, I know the kind of commitment it’s going to take.”

That commitment is a permanent political campaign, with Kelly wearily attesting to the time-poor life of the electorate’s MP.

“You don’t even notice the difference in eden Monaro, you’re going full-bore from the moment the gun goes off for the election to the moment you cross the finish line at the next election. It’s just a constant cycle, having to do the work in your electorate and your portfolio responsibilities. It’s always full on.

“What I’m confident in is that I know what’s of concern to my community, there were a lot of things that needed addressing in relation to health and education and infrastructure and all of that’s been tackled.”

but it’s the economy that’s moti-vated Gazard to run, steeply contrast-ing Kelly’s assertions constituents are happy with the Government’s fiscal strategy.

Gazard said: “One thing that has really motivated me was seeing every-thing unravelled that I thought I’d had a small part in at least over the last 12 years.

“So going straight back into debt, the budget going into deficit again after the previous government had worked so hard to build the economy and strengthen the economy and there’d been so much waste and mismanage-ment around that. It frustrated me. I felt like when people called me and asked me to stand in eden Monaro, I felt I should because those are things that are very important to me.”

ELERI HARRIS meets the candidates squaring off for the fickle Federal seat that always swings with the Government of the day

Battle of the bellwether frontier

Labor MP Dr Mike Kelly... “You can never be overconfident in an electorate like Eden Monaro.” Photos by Silas

Liberal candidate David Gazard... “I’ve just got to make sure that I demonstrate to people I’m going to be a good choice.”

news focus


opinion

UNTIL recently I’ve always had a soft spot for Canberra. redgum was hugely popular here in the late ‘70s and ‘80s and my band, the Vagabond Crew, still enjoys a healthy following among the good burghers. I worked in Canberra on a fly-in-fly-out basis for three years and I am a political junkie. Some good restaurants, a decent airport, the National Museum, the War Memorial – what’s not to like?

Well, I’ll tell you what’s not to like: Canber-ra’s parking regime. It is unspeakable and there does not appear to be a vein of fair play or justice anywhere in the body corporate of the Parking Infringement review Office. Allow me to rant.

On a cool, clear Canberra morning, I pulled into a sparsely occupied car park in Dickson. I’d never even driven in Dickson before so I was quite unaware of the parking situation. While I was more than happy to feed the machine as indicated on the signs I had absolutely no coins with me anywhere. I groped about down the back of the seats and even looked under the mats. Nothing. Not a razoo.

Knowing how enthusiastic local businesses are about giving people change for parking machines, I placed a note on the dash which identified the time by my watch (10.25 am) and said “Gone to get change” or something similar. I then scuttled into Woolworths to purchase a couple of small items to break a note. This took me about 12 minutes which, I suggest, is not an unreasonable amount of time for someone from out of town.

by my watch, I arrived back at my car about 10.37am or 10.38 am with the coins in my hand to see a parking officer standing by my car having just issued an Infringement Notice. Great. Just great.

I hurried over to explain the situation, show-ing him the coins and the note on the dash, which he admitted to having seen. It is fair to say that his cup of sympathy did not overfloweth. He claimed that having issued the said Notice on his hand-held computer, he was unable to rescind it. God forbid that humans could ever override a computer. I advised him that I would be writing to the Infringement review Office and I asked him to note my objection, the coins in my hand and the fact that it was 12 minutes from the time I left the note on the dash. He undertook to do so.

I then opened the ticket to find that the expia-tion fee was $72! Unbelievable. I expected a fee of something between $18 at the low end of the

scale and $36 at the top end, but $72? I don’t re-member entering into negotiations to purchase land in Dickson. I simply wanted to park my car for an hour.

As my intention was always to go off and attend to other business – and as I expected justice would prevail once I explained what had happened – I bought a ticket anyway for $2 and placed it on the dash. Fair’s fair.

I wrote to the Infringement Office and enclosed copies of my note and the $2 ticket I bought in good faith. With the speed of light, the ticket was sent back to my home in Adelaide with a letter rejecting my request for waiver. A very grumpy bride sent them a cheque by return mail. The grumpiness increased exponentially all round as I’d already made up my mind that I was going to jail before paying this fine – and by paying, the bride had cut the strategic ground out from under my feet.

When I got home, some weeks later, I wrote to the supervisor of the Parking Infringement review Office requesting that the matter be revisited. by this time, the money was not the issue: it was the principle.

I received a letter back explaining that the of-fice had no earthly intention of refunding me the $72. To add insult to injury, this woman, whose name escapes me, suggested that I’d parked without a ticket for 23 minutes, not 12 as I had stated. So as well as being down $72, my honesty in this matter was called into question.

by my calculations, the cost of engaging with me over the expiation fee would have far exceeded $72. And it’s remotely possible that this sort of bloody-minded behaviour does little to advance Canberra’s reputation as a friendly, laidback tourism destination.

Civil disobedience is an honourable political tradition in Australia. Many of the rights we have today were won by people breaking unjust laws. Over the years, civil disobedience has been necessary in the protection of democracy and our rights in the face of inflexibility and bureaucratic intransigence.

I’m not suggesting that parking fines are commensurate with the right to privacy, deten-tion without due process or the presumption of innocence. Still, I can’t help wondering what would happen if every time the Parking Infringement review Office abandoned fair play in favour of $72, people simply refused to pay the fine, instead opting for a few days jail or some community service.

Interesting thought. I’ll leave you with it.

Those who live in cities not subject to invasion by glib politicians and ambitious apparatchiks have been known, from time to time, to make uncharitable observations about Canberra, writes singer JOHn SCHUMAnn who, until

recently, was not among them. But then this happened…

Go park yourself, mean Canberra!

briefly Architects winHBO+EMTB has been awarded the Australian Institute of Architects (ACT Chapter) John Andrews Award for Commercial Architecture 2010 for the new commercial office building at 16 Marcus Clarke Street, Civic.

All about RieslingLOCAL wine identities Ken Helm and Trish Burgess have launched “Riesling in Australia”, the first book dedicated to only one variety of grape and wine in the 222 years of the

Australian wine industry. Taking three years to research and write, the book is published by Winetitles ($45).

Call for healthACT Health has launched the Get Healthy Information and Coaching Service, a free telephone coaching service “designed to help people make lifestyle changes such as eating more healthily, being physically active, and achieving and maintaining a healthy weight,” says Health Minister Katy Gallagher. More information at www.gethealthy.act.gov.au/ or call 1300 806258.


This year the Liberals have focused their energy on a two-pronged, sustained assault on Deputy Chief Minister Katy Gallagher and the

validity of the Greens-Labor agreement. But has it worked, wonders ELERI HARRIS?

Where are theLiberals going?

politics

WITH a Federal election in the air, it’s worth looking at the Green’s chances in the ACT.

At the last election, the Greens increased their vote by just over five per cent when the popular former MLA Kerrie Tucker mounted a formidable challenge for one of the two ACT Senate positions. However, things have changed. On the one hand, the Greens have been polling better than ever but, on the other, the drive amongst many swinging voters to get rid of the Howard Government no longer plays a role.

There is also a personal element that will make the campaign more difficult this time around. Although the current lead candidate for the Greens in the Senate has a strong profile, it is a mere shadow of the popularity and recognition enjoyed by Ker-rie Tucker when she stood as a candidate. This is not to diminish the achievements of Lin Hatfield Dodds, who has been an activist, head of UnitingCare Australia, a Churchill Fellow and an ACT Australian of the Year. The second candidate, Hannah Parris, has a PhD in public policy and has a background in economics. She has been a consultant and adviser to the Greens in the Senate.

An examination of first-preference votes at last election provides an indication of the challenge ahead for the Greens. The first person elected to the Senate for the ACT was Kate Lundy with a 92,018 grouped votes

for Labor. Gary Humphries was elected with a Liberal group vote of 77,058.

by contrast, the Greens received a group total of 48,384 with Tucker personally receiving 7.63 per cent of the vote. Coinci-dentally, this was identical to the personal vote of Lundy and Humphries combined. The Greens’ 21.47 per cent was a very re-spectable result, a substantial swing – but compared to the 40.84 per cent for Labor and 34.2 per cent for the Liberals, nowhere near enough to be successful. Another in-dicator comes from the ACT Assembly elec-tion in 2008 in which the Greens achieved 15.62 per cent of the first-preference vote.

This time the Greens can expect to face a barrage from their political opponents who would like to paint the party as self-right-eous and hypocritical.

There are some issues that will assist

the Greens. The vacillation of Labor and the bloody-minded approach of the Liber-als under the leadership of Tony Abbott on climate change will be motivation for many who believe in the importance of taking action now and who want to send an unambiguous message. The “pox on both your houses” attitude will continue to play into the hands of the Greens, particularly while there seems to be no other viable cross-bench alternative.

Since the last elections, the five Greens in the Senate have engaged effectively with the Government on many issues. The exception is on the issue of climate change. They were simply intractable on the issue of a price on carbon demanding that the Government go further or get nothing. They got nothing!

On other issues such as health, budget, social justice and Aboriginal welfare the Greens have illustrated that they are will-ing to work with Government to deliver better outcomes for ordinary Australians especially those in need. In these areas they have been strong and demanding ne-gotiators.

In Tasmania and WA the Greens won a single seat at each of the last two elections. As these jurisdictions elect six Senators they were able to achieve this result with just 18 per cent and 9.3 per cent of the vote respectively. In the ACT, with just two seats available, the Greens will need to substan-tially increase their vote. It is a big ask.

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an inde-pendent minister for health in the Carnell government.

Greens can’t win in SenateBy Michael Moore

Lin Hatfield Dodds... strong profile but.

WITH Katy Gallagher, the Chief heir-apparent, and the Greens holding the balance of power, the old strategy of divide and conquer may hold some weight, but how many of the Liberals’ tactics can be denounced as unconstructive or expensive opposition for opposition’s sake?

In June, the Liberals pulled out of the 2010-11 Budget estimates process, citing a lack of Government scrutiny from the Greens and choosing to write their own dissenting report on the Appropriation Bill.

Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur questioned the Liberals’ cries for scrutiny, arguing their method actually did the reverse.

“The Government are required to provide a response to the recommendations in the Estimates report, but not to the recommendations in the dissenting report,” she said.

“What the Liberal Party have done by taking their bat and ball and getting out of the process has, unfortunately, been to reduce the scrutiny of the Government, not increase the scrutiny of the Government.”

But Opposition Leader Zed Seselja was unequivocal in his personal criticism of ACT Greens leader Meredith Hunter, who chaired the Estimates committee.

“We had had concerns right through the process, particu-larly about the chair’s role and the way she was, in our view, trying to shut down scrutiny of the Government in a number of ways, really from start to finish.

“The Government does what the Government does, it’s not going to scrutinise itself. It’s going to tell us it’s doing a great job and how wonderful things are. Our job, of course, is to find out where it’s not and stand up for the community. The Greens claim to want to do that, but they are very much tied to the Government through their agreement and I think that’s where the conflicts are.

“The Greens aren’t getting much for this agreement and I think that part of it comes down to the leadership of the Greens at the moment is very close to the Government. They’re not in it, but they’re very much a part of an alliance, a coalition.”

Hunter rejects Seselja’s accusations, saying: “I think that sometimes it is difficult when you move into a new situation in a Parliament where suddenly we have three parties now, I think some people are finding that difficult to come to terms with.”

On the floor of the chamber it is clear that none of the parties are seriously aligned, with each voting on the details of the Bill at hand; sometimes the Liberals don’t even vote for their own motions once amended.

At the last sitting, the Liberals and the Greens voted together to push through the ACT Road Transport (Alcohol and Drugs) (Random Drug Testing) Amendment Bill 2009.

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope expressed feelings of being left out.

“The Liberals and Greens are working in tandem and aren’t interested in the Government’s view.”

But Liberal MLA Jeremy Hanson says this Bill should not be used to show the Greens are bipartisan.

“If you look at the evidence this really is an exception to the rule. It’s really quite clear that when it comes to the accountability of the Government Ministers the Greens will always back up the Ministers. That has been a consistent issue,” he says.

While the Greens and Labor are not technically in coalition, government in the Territory could not have been formed without their Parliamentary Agreement, but Gal-lagher insists there are no guarantees from the Greens.

“The two commitments they’ve given us is to always approve supply through the Appropriation Bill and always support, unless there’s gross misconduct, confidence in the Chief Minister. And those two things were about creating stability in the Parliament, not anything else.”

�0 CityNews July 15-21

But when problems arise, facility managers are the ones on call, says Sean North, Knight Frank’s ACT manager of property operations: fixing everything from stuck lifts to air-conditioning mishaps.

“It’s not a nine-to-five job,” he laughs. “Sometimes things go pear-shaped in the middle of the night, and so we come out to fix it – and sometimes it’s somebody stuck in an office lift on a Sunday.

“Every day we have some 18,000 people occupying our buildings throughout Canberra – and that’s not taking into account visitors to the buildings, or customers to our retail properties!

“The responsibility is demanding, and there’s something happening 24-7, which keeps you on your toes.

“Commercial buildings just don’t operate without all that we do happening behind the scenes – all the time.”

Something most of us take for granted, like a stable temperature in an office building, requires regular monitoring, Sean says.

“Sometimes here in Canberra, particularly due to our distinct seasonal patterns, maintaining air-conditioning at acceptable levels can be a little challenging, especially when we get those intense hot periods in summer and the opposite, of course, in winter,” he says.

“Generally, our quieter periods are in the transitional seasons. It’s in the depths of winter that things get more interesting, on these very cold mornings.”

No two days are ever the same for a facility manager, Sean says.

“Not only do the buildings need to look good, they need to perform as best they can from an engineering perspective and, of course, they must be a safe place to work or visit,” he says.

“A lot of time is spent dealing with higher-end things like energy management and occupational health and safety issues, which are critical issues these days.

“It only takes a little change in how efficiently the building operates, in terms of energy, waste and water management, to throw things right out, so it’s very important that we monitor energy efficiency and report regularly to our clients.”

Sean says facility managers work with tenants to look at ways they can all contribute to improv-ing the local environment.

“Sometimes, they might be very simple meas-ures, like helping a small tenant set up a recycling program. Every bit does help,” he says.

“We also have Canberra’s best building contrac-tors on our team.

“They know our buildings very well and make a significant contribution in making sure everything is operational and safe.

“Facility management is a role where you never know what you’re going to do each day – you’re always on call and you’re always challenged, which keeps life interesting.”

More information on www.knightfrank.com.au or call 6230 7855.

Knight Frank Canberra

Contact Dan McGrath at Knight Frank, Level 9, SAP House (Cnr Akuna and Bunda Streets), Civic or call 6230 7855.

Success for SeanIF everything’s going to plan, chances are that commercial and government tenants don’t give a lot of thought to their facility managers.

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CityNews July 15-21 ��

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Knight Frank’s ACT manager of property operations, Sean North... “Commercial buildings just don’t operate without all that we do happening behind the scenes – all the time.”

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�� CityNews July 15-21

letters

opinion

Paying pollies more won’t fix the problemTHE recent decision of a 3.25 per cent pay rise for Assembly politicians may not be the ideal opportunity to again call for an increase in the number of MLAs.

Nevertheless, the Chief Minister’s defence that higher remuneration is necessary to attract talent indirectly raises the issue.

Mr Stanhope suggested people will not put their future, or that of their family, on the line with the uncertainty of politics unless they are well paid. Given the salaries of the private sector and ACT public servants, the backbenchers’ rise to $118,000 still is insufficient, the Chief Minister reckons.

Liberal MLA Jeremy Hanson pointed out that a degree of altruism existed among existing As-sembly members because they weren’t there for the money, while the Greens selflessly lamented they could not apply some of the increased salary for staff use.

All cautious, unremarkable comments upon an

unpopular community issue – and all flawed.Mr Stanhope’s correct claim that people

of talent are not attracted to the Assembly, essentially because of the salaries, is simplistic. There are many other reasons why the talented do not nominate, including the risk of not being elected, the often frenetic lifestyle and its effect upon family life or being constantly under public scrutiny.

However, this is missing the point because no matter how much is paid to the existing number of members, we still will receive the same level of service because we’re not dealing with ability but the number: 17.

Similarly, Mr Hanson’s claim that members

aren’t there for the money does not take account of the capacity of these dedicated people to do a responsible job of representation, which I believe is not possible, particularly in the ministry, with only a 17-member Assembly, no matter what remuneration is paid.

The Greens, on the other hand, sell themselves short and, by implication, the ACT community by wishing more money could be applied to staff – which could lead to extra unrepresentative tails wagging still only a few dogs.

No matter how talented, a person cannot un-dertake multiple responsibilities, especially those involving the running or shadowing of several portfolios even with substantial staff backing and

no amount of salary will change this fact.It could be argued we pay our politicians too

much. However, this does not obviate the need for more elected representatives.

More members suitably remunerated so the position isn’t restricted to the wealthy would remove the public’s principal objection, pay, to any increase in numbers.

How much do you really need to be paid to serve your country, State or Territory? Why should politicians and senior bureaucrats receive large sums when others are not so rewarded?

If greed is not the motivation, then why not put altruism and public service to the test and see how many people of talent come forward to work as politicians for a reasonable salary – as do so many people in other public service industries such as the military, education, health and welfare.

After all, unlike the above, no training is required to be a politician.

GREG CORnWELL, a former Speaker in the ACT House of Assembly, says it’s not that we should be paying more to attract better people to politics, but that there should be more politicians.

JUST how much commercial parking needs to be provided in or near Parkes and barton before Fringe benefits Tax kicks in for office workers provided with free parking?A recent stroll around a small area of barton revealed paid parking availa-ble at the Wesley Centre, realm Hotel and the boeing building in blackall Street. The latter is a sensible attempt to make use of the large number of unused parking places in commercial buildings in the area.

FbT liability could push the park-ing problem out to surrounding resi-dential areas. There is already con-siderable parking pressure in the area during the week (especially around schools) and particularly when there are major fixtures at Manuka Oval. As a result, the valuable urban forest we all want to protect is damaged by parking on tree root zones and resi-dents are inconvenienced by careless parking. resources for parking en-forcement appear inadequate at peak times.

This situation is indicative of the need for a carefully thought out transport and parking strategy for barton and Parkes, ideally including Kingston and Griffith.

nick swain, Barton

Outrageous rip-offTHere was some lively discussion on AbC radio on (July 6) about the problems that potential home owners face in putting together the required 20 per cent deposit.

Callers criticised the fact that com-pulsory stamp duty is deducted from their deposit at the time of payment. They’d have been really livid if they’d realised that State and Territory stamp duty amounts are calculated after GST has already been applied to a transaction: In effect, a tax on a tax.

This is the case with all property and insurance transactions, unneces-sarily costing ordinary Australians hundreds of millions of dollars.

This double-dipping has been

perpetrated since the GST was first foisted on an unsuspecting public on June 28, 1999. even the media accepts that it was the result of a political agreement between Howard and the States and territories, and not a legal or constitutional issue.

In the context of tax reform, why isn’t something being done to correct this outrageous rip-off?

M J McGregor, curtin

Aint’ that terrible?Gee whiz, ain’t that terrible that bully boy Libs in the ACT Legislative Assembly are bullying the Treas-urer/Health Minister Katy Gallagher (CN, July 8), during the whole 39 days a year the Legislative Assembly sits?

Of 178 questions, a “whopping” (as your journo writes breathlessly) 75 went to the Treasurer/Health Minis-ter.

No wonder Gallagher looks so cranky in your pictures of her. Play-ing the woman and not the ball is a left-wing debating tactic. Are the male Libs closet socialists? And men are such utter, utter, utter, complete bastards. I should know. I am one. Have been all my life.

John cleland, Latham

Moore preachingMIICHAeL Moore is again preaching to the converted (“Mining the politics of greed”, CN, July 8). Surely most people would agree that the mining industry was not paying enough in tax and should be contributing more to the community. However, Michael could turn his attention to the way the rSPT was introduced, with limited analysis and consultation. The introduction was amateurish in implementation and light on detail. My attempt as an economist to model its impact on vari-ous sections of the mining industry, particularly those which would benefit the environment, was nigh impossible and so the claims and counter-claims of both Government and industry were difficult to substantiate.

My own feeling is that, as a com-munity, we have been severely disadvantaged by the way the rSPT was introduced and the attempts by Government to retrieve the situation. No win-win situation here!

Ric Hingee, Duffy

Where are councils?CAN Mr Patel (letter, CN, July 8) and his “Arabian Knight” friend John Hargreaves explain why there is no buddhist Advisory Council in the ACT, when there are more buddhists than Muslims, many of whom came as traumatised refugees and have spe-cial needs? Or why there is no Hindu Advisory Council, when Hinduism is the fastest-growing religion in Aus-tralia?

It all seems a bit one-sided to me; some would say discriminatory.

ang nguyen, conder

Welcome, JohnIN response to the letter “Mocking Islam?” (CN, July 1), Mr John Har-greaves MLA was dressed up in Ara-

bic clothes by myself as a chairman of the Islamic Council of the ACT in ramadan’s Iftar of 2009. The clothes were given to Mr Hargreaves as a goodwill gift for his ongoing support of multiculturalism and the Austral-ian Muslim community.

Mr Hargreaves deserves all the re-spect and admiration for his passion for multiculturalism and inter-faith dialogue for which we thank him very much.

Our message to Mr Hargreaves is that he will be welcomed with open hands in any Muslim country at any time.

Mohammed Berjaoui, chairman, act Islamic council

Cold truths?WITH Sydney getting the coldest June temperature since 1949 and ballarat the coldest day for a decade, the pro-ponents of man-made global warming should be standing beside a warm log fire questioning their theory.

The invisible and odourless carbon dioxide gas has never been emitted so much and yet the earth’s tempera-

tures is not getting out of the histori-cally normal range. The earth is still cooler than 1998 and if anything get-ting colder.

Will a Gillard Government put Australia under a centralised world government based on false climate scares?

Will man-made global warming one day rival weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as the greatest embarrassment in politics?

If we vote in Labor and the Greens controlling the Senate, will we vote away our freedoms based on a bunch of climate lies?

Leon ashby, presidentthe climate sceptics,

Mount Gambier, sa

Cassowaries in crisisI WAS saddened to learn that there may be as few as 1000 Southern Cas-sowaries remaining in Australia. These ancient flightless birds are perched on the edge of extinction and if they go, so too would much of the rainforest ecology. The Wet Tropics depend on the Cassowary to disperse and germinate seeds of up to 150 rain-forest plant species as these majestic birds are one of only a few frugivores that can disperse large rainforest fruits and are the only long-distance dispersal mechanism for large-seeded fruits.

Yet Cassowaries are increasingly threatened by destruction and frag-mentation of their vital habitat by on-going development in the Daintree and Mission beach. Collisions with vehicles, dog attacks and difficulty navigating obstacles such as fences further threatens them.

The good news is that the Save the Cassowary campaign is urging the Federal Government to provide $60 million in funding to buy back the remaining undeveloped properties in the Daintree and Mission beach, vital primary habitat for the Cassowary.

readers can take action at www.savethecassowary.org.au and can request postcards that their friends and colleagues can sign and send to Minister Peter Garrett.

Ruth Rosenhek,nimbin, nsW

Need for a parking plan a dose of dorin


Fabulous Fyshwick

FySHWICK, today a thriving hub of industry with many speciality shops, wholesalers, furniture shops and more, has a secret past.

It is one of the oldest “settled” areas of Canberra having been the site of an internment camp for German and Austrian nationals at the start of World War I.

The camp was closed in 1919 and the streets that serviced it became the streets of Fyshwick, one of Canberra’s most significant industrial areas. Many of these streets are now named after industrial towns and regions.

Fyshwick takes its name from the Tasmanian politician, Sir Philip Fysh, who was one of those responsible for bringing about Federa-tion in 1901.

advertising feature

Living in a material world

Birthday Bags BAGS to Go has just celebrated its fifth year in business in Fyshwick, says the company’s Andrew Keogh, who says he loves doing business in the area.

“Since we originally opened in Fyshwick in May 2005, Fyshwick has become a bustling hub for all kinds of retail,” he says.

“We love operating out of Fyshwick because we are able to have a larger premises, to showcase a much larger range – and, of course, offer the public huge discounts that we wouldn’t be able to do if we operated out of major shopping centres.

“Of course, the free parking for both staff and custom-ers is also a plus!”

Creating wealth with propertyTHE years between 2011 and 2015 will see Australia’s next big property boom, says Starcopy Property Investment principal Peter Ingram.

Peter says that over any 10-year period, land has historically doubled in value, but the next boom will see land triple in value.

He says there are six critical points for building real wealth through property: land, timing, location, affordability, demand and finance.

Starcopy offers free personal resource sessions and weekly group workshops to explain the six critical points, along with an individual financial strategy and plans to assure maximum capital growth, rental yields and tax benefits.

More information on www.wpg.net.au, [email protected] or call 6162 1506.

Thriving hub has a secret past

FYSHWICK is an ideal, central location for a highly mobile business, says Rebekah Griffiths, owner of Material Pleasures Recycled Designer Clothing.

Every week Rebekah and her team load the company’s enor-mous vans with up to 1500 items of clothing, setting up shop at Gorman House Markets, Braddon (on Saturdays) and the Old Bus Depot Markets (Sundays).

“We have people ask us on Saturdays what different clothes we’ll have at Kingston the next day – and they’re amazed when we tell them that we pack up the entire lot and move it!” she laughs.

Operating at Gorman House since 1987, Material Pleasures

opened a store and workroom at Fyshwick in September last year.

The company sources high-quality, recent fashions (and a few well-kept vintage pieces!) from local and interstate sellers.

“My philosophy is to bring in things of good quality: first, I look for great fabric, and then I look for excellent design. I look for clothes that are interesting, unique – something different, but always something wearable.”

Material Pleasures offers a winter and summer collection each year. About a quarter of the stock is menswear, and there’s a smattering of kidswear, too.

For more information call 0412 182878.Rebekah Griffiths... “I look for clothes that are interesting.”


Something with a difference

Fabulous Fyshwick advertising feature

DECOR Living, in Gladstone Street, has been in Fyshwick since before the area really started to take off, says managing director Julie McPhail.

“We just about invented the place! It’s been 20 years or more since the busi-ness moved here. Everybody followed suit, and I think we’re very much an institution now.

From dream to realityTHE kitchen’s become one of the most important parts of the home in recent years, says Greg Thompson, manager of Kitchen Connection Fyshwick.

“The service we provide is basically taking the customer all the way from the dream to the reality of a new kitchen,” he says.

“We have a full show-room which gives them lots and lots of colours and combinations to look at – lots of ideas. We have sample doors and bench-tops, and we take people through the whole lot, all the way to appliances and cupboards.

“We can also give them a price indication and talk about how it’s all going to work together. We then have a designer go to the customer’s home for a full design appointment, which includes measuring the spaces – it’s a full design process.”

More information on www.kitchenconnection.com.au or call 6239 1620.

THE new Milk Cafe is a joint venture between two sisters, and has just opened up in the Home Ideas Centre, Fyshwick.

“We offer breakfast and lunch, and we’re open from seven to three,” says co-owner Jemma Goff, who many Fyshwick workers will recognise from Piccolo Espresso, her mobile coffee service (which still operates on weekends).

“We’ve both wanted to open a cafe for some time, so this is very exciting for us.We do a lot of cakes and muffins as well, plus quite a lot of catering for different func-tions.

“It’s great to get to know people in the area – everyone’s down-to-earth and really lovely to talk to.”

More information on 6280 6336.

Sisters in business

Large trunk, $395, small trunk, $280 and assorted cushions, prices vary.

“Essentially, we try to cater for people who are looking for something with a bit of a differ-ence – we try and find one-off pieces and decorator items, so our customers know they have something special.

“We’re also particularly customer-focused, and spend a lot of time with people to work out what they want to do in terms of decorating. We concentrate as far as possible on Australian-made, too.”

More information on 6280 7798.Lamp, $200, and Pineapple Crystal, $60.

Horse, $150 and small hall table, $320.

Milk Cafe sisters Aimee, left, and Jemma Goff.


scene invite us at [email protected]

At the Red Shoe Moët Party, Locanda Italian Steakhouse, Civic

Madeleine Bond, Lisa Ridgley and Tamara Bond

At Fred Hollows exhibition opening, Parliament House

Rebecca Jeremenko and Trisha Polak

Natalie Reid, Kate Bartlett and Cathie Koina Ruth Cid, Laura Oxley and Debbie Masri

Penny and Megan Ponder Tracy Vo, Joe Boughton-Dent, Jayne Azzopardi and Kerrie Yaxley

Arthur and Judy Ingle, Michelle Napoli, Penny Tribe and Tania Woolcott Gabi Hollows and Lyndy Dent

Sam Murthi, Ross MacDiarmid, Dom Appay, Prabir De, Arun Venkatesha with Vldimir and Jana Gottwald


TAKE a quick look at Tony Brazell’s teeth and you’ll see nothing out of the ordinary – yet Tony, from Manuka Smiles, is currently correcting his bite using the Invisalign system.

“I got hit in the face with a hockey stick when I was 14 years old, and I had some crowns put in back then, but they’ve worn over the years,” he says.

“I need to get more crowns done, and so I decided I’d improve my bite beforehand so that I’ll get a lasting result this time. I thought, well, I’ll start using Invisalign.”

Tony says that when most people think about orthodontics, their focus is on the cosmetic: straightening their teeth.

“A lot of studies indicate that people who have an attractive smile are more confident, and are more likely to be offered life’s opportunities, including jobs,” he says.

Aesthetic standards have changed, though. Problems that were seen as minor in the past, such as a single, crooked tooth, are now addressed.

And this is a positive step, Tony says, because it means less visible problems, such as an underbite or overbite, are now more likely to be addressed.

A less-than-ideal bite can cause uneven wear and tear on the teeth (or crowns!) over the years.

“It’s about improving function as well as asthetics,” says Tony. “In our later years, we may have worn or even broken teeth as a result of a bad bite and it’s entirely possible for somebody to have perfectly straight teeth, and a bad bite which will make it more likely that those teeth will become worn.

“In a world where it will be the norm for most of us to keep most of our teeth for life, we need to make sure we do the most we can to look after them.”

Adults as well as teenagers can benefit from orthodontics, Tony says: “It’s never too late to correct your bite or improve your smile. Our oldest patient was 73 years old, and we have a lot of patients in their thirties and forties.”

He says that Manuka Smiles is the region’s only Invisalign Platnium Elite Provider, an accolade only bestowed on the top Invisalign practices.

“I’ve been using Invisalign since February 2009, and it’s a very easy way to do the job,” Tony says. “It’s easy to get used to because there’s minimal discomfort, especially compared to traditional braces.

“You can take them out when you’re eating, or flossing your teeth, so you don’t have to worry about food getting caught in your braces. People don’t really notice you have the alingers in.

“We have three US-trained doctors and state-of-the-art technology such as 3D X-rays, which help with treatment, diagnosis and helping the patient view and understand their malocclusion.”

Manuka Smiles advertising feature

Smiling Tony practises what he preaches

Information nightMANUKA Smiles will hold an Invisalign information night on Thursday, July 22, at its Manuka premises. Northside residents are also welcome, as the practice also has a Belconnen clinic.

More information call 6295 7700 or visit www.manukasmiles.com.au

Say cheese.... practice manager Tony Brazell shows off his own Invisalign smile.


scene More photos at www.citynews.com.au

Finnish Ambassador Maija Lähteenmäki, Nestor Vargas and hostess Nuna Jaroszynska

At a poetry reading, Polish embassy, Yarralumla At the Museum Friends’ welcome to Andrew Sayers

Phillip Hinton, Marcel Weyland and Polish ambassador Andrzej Jaroszynski

Prof Anna Wierzbicka, John Ves Besemeres and Maria Tarlowski Jarek and Malqosia Anczewski

Phoebe Bischoff, Wendy Dodd and Helen Ulrich

Joe Johnson, Sharon Casey and Helen Lundy

Fiona Spencer, Mary Constable, director Andrew Sayers, Philip Constable and Carolyn Forster Ally and Steve Pickard

Margaret and David Williams with Meredith Hinchliffe


all about living arts | cinema | dining | fashion | body | puzzles | horoscope

ONE of my vivid school-day memories is of our teacher, having decided there was too much noise in the classroom, ordering “Hands on heads!” We obeyed at once. We would then be instructed to resume our work, this time quietly.

Where was this? Well, dear old Ainslie Primary, and not long after the end of World War II. Schools were run on “discipline” then. School uniforms were everywhere, and the cane was in steady use. I’m sure some would like a return to those days. I’m not one of them.

On a recent visit to that stamping ground I heard the entire school sing a song, quite a hard one, in my view, and together, and well. Six hundred voices! It was an intensely moving experience for me, since I think that making music is one of the key human attributes.

Later, talking to one of the teachers, I asked what happened if she felt that the classroom was getting too noisy and rumbustious. “Oh,” she said, “I just say to them ‘Let’s sing a song!’ They love to do it, and it changes the mood in the room.”

We’ve come a long way since the 1940s. My

generation were reluctant to sing, and many were told that they had no voice, or couldn’t sing. I hope no one says that today. Colin Slater, the founder of Sing Australia, will tell you that while some can sing better than others, anyone who wants to sing can do so, and be trained to do it much better, too.

Indeed, that simple principle is true of all skills – tennis, mathematics, painting, gardening, writing – you name it. Over the last half-century we’ve discovered that every baby born is equipped with a bucket-load of potential, in every area. Of course, some have more than others, and there is nothing like encourage-ment, training and motivation to make a child seem extraordinarily talented.

But we all have the capacities, inside us. And

what saddens me is that we are so reluctant to build our education system around developing those potentials in every child. Though there has been a great advance over the past 10 years or so, why doesn’t every school have a music program like Ainslie’s? And a painting program? And a program in anything that you, the reader, really like?

Well, there’s a straightforward answer, and my father, a schoolteacher himself, once gave it to me: There are only so many hours in the school day. What are you going to chop out? One response is to extend the years of school-ing, and of course we’ve done that.

But the problem of timing doesn’t really go away. Children and adolescents learn so fast and so well that we try and pack everything into

those years, just because they are the best years for learning.

The tough-minded want children to learn skills that will get them a job; as they see it, kids can pick up music and painting later. And the cry of “Jobs!” is so omnipresent that it is hard to argue against it.

But when I hear of random violence and destruction delivered by young men and women, of vandalism, and of binge drinking, I wonder whether we would see that behaviour had those involved been able to develop their innate creativity in music, sport, art, writing, theatre or whatever.

I don’t have a solution, but I hope that the trend to develop creativity in everyone, which I think I can see, continues in the years ahead. And there is hope, if you had no chance at school: there are adult classes in almost everything!

Don Aitkin, political scientist and historian, served as vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra from 1991 to 2002.

Singing the praises of creative kidsDOn AITKIn is saddened by our reluctance to build an education system around developing the creative potential in every child

IT can be distressing for a parent to realise that their child is not reading like everyone else. Their concerns are invariably placated with a “wait and see” approach. So they wait and see but the problem persists. Sound familiar?

Hoping and praying that your child will “get it” will not rectify a reading difficulty.

The “they’ll come good” approach is neither a reliable, nor a satisfactory solution. It is a debunked theoretical term, known as “developmental lag theory” or colloquially as the “late bloomer”. Studies conducted over sev-eral years have shown that students, who begin to “lag” behind, usually end up “lagging” behind their peers for the rest of their schooling.

Cognitive scientists can still be befuddled as to why a human brain cannot read and, unless you are a reading specialist, you will not be unable to “unlock the key” to reading, nor should you be expected to.

There have been three major inquiries into the teaching of read-ing in Australia, the UK and the US. Every review concluded that “poor phonological awareness” contributed to reading difficulties and the most effective way to teach reading is with explicit, synthetic phonics instruction.

“Phonological awareness” is the ability to distinguish units of speech.

They are the “sounds” we hear when we speak. Phonemes are the smallest parts of speech. For example, the sounds in the word “cat” can be broken into three separate units, /kuh/ /a/ /tuh/.

Older students have already been taught that letters go with or match certain sounds. This is known as

phonics. Unfortunately, the 26 letters of the alphabet do not have a neat 26 matching sounds. There are actually 44 phonemes or sounds that they can correspond with. Think of the sound /k/ which can be c (cat), k (kangaroo), ck (clock), ch (school).

Older, struggling readers commonly recognise whole words, which is why

it appears that they can read well for a certain time. But when they come to an unknown or challenging word, they do not have the tools to work it out. These struggling readers frequently do not move on from single-sound letter correspondences, which can be why they “sound out” the beginning of a word and then guess at the ending.

It is common for a student around the Grade 3 level to fall noticeably behind their peers. One reason for this is that the vocabulary starts to become more complex and the classroom sees a shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”.

These students will need ex-plicit instruction to learn how to read. Explicit instruction is the opposite of implicit instruction, which can be known as “discovery learning”. Most struggling readers will not be able to “discover” the key to reading on their own. These students need to be taught the rules of phonics. “Synthetic phonics” is starting with the parts of a word, such as /kuh/ /a/ /tuh/. This is the bottom-up approach, rather than initially taking the word “cat” and then breaking it apart. This is known as “analytic phonics”. Research has shown that synthetic phonics helps students more.

So, what can you do? Keep reading with your child. Even a simple picture book contains words that we rarely use in our spoken language, “The magnificent magician bowed to thunderous applause!” You continue to expand your child’s vocabulary when you read with/to them.

It is not known exactly why most of us learn to read easily, yet some of us don’t. But a struggling reader can be taught the skills. It may be an effortful process and one that will need plenty of encouragement and support. Some may come good without intervention, but it is best if you don’t “wait and see”.

Jo Whithear is a reading specialist and director of the Canberra Reading Clinic.

Hoping and praying that your child will “get it” will not rectify a reading difficulty, says JO WHITHEAR

Hope won’t help a child to read


arts&entertainment

By Helen Musa

IT’LL be girl, girl, girl and girl in The Street Theatre’s “Made in Canberra” series when Dianna Nixon, Leah Baulch, Hanna Cormick and Hannah Ley bare their innermost souls in (you’ve guessed it) “The Girls”.

Naturally, the cabaret set is designed by a girl, artist Sarah Kaur, who has recreated a kind of dressing room for the onstage girls, filled with flowers and personal items.

“Each girl brings her individual experi-ences, desires, strengths, and memories to the dressing table,” we are told. Nixon is a director and drama coach, Baulch is a well-known Canberra actress, Cormick acts but is best known as a cross-art theatre maker

and Ley is a hoofer, actress and one-time child star from England.

The girls, we learn, will celebrate and shout. They will be frivolous and serious, “mad, sad, strong, angry, beautiful, raw, naïve, and utterly feminine.”

But, boys, there is relief in sight. As well as performing presumably girlie numbers

by Edith Piaf and Carole King, there will be performances, cabaret style, of songs by Nick Cave, Samuel Barber, Bertolt Brecht and Tom Waits and, the last time I heard, the latter four were all blokes.

“The Girls”, Street 2, July 28 to 31. Book-ings to 6247 1223 or www.thestreet.org.au

“THE KARATE KID” (M)

DUTCH director Harald Zwart’s 140-minute remake of John Avildsen’s 1984 hit would have taken no harm from a more rigorous editing.

Afro-American mom Sherry Parker (Taraji Henson) relocates from Detroit to Beijing. At the school her son Dre (Jaden Smith) attends, a quartet of Chinese teenagers led by Cheng (Zhenwei Wang) takes an instant dislike to him. Those kids also attend martial arts classes conducted by Master Li who trains them to show no mercy.

The janitor in the Parkers’ apartment block is lonely Mr Han (Jackie Chan) who happens on the gang of four giving Dre a beating for becoming friends with music student Meiying (Han Wen Wen). Chan still has speed and agility, although Han’s lesson to teenagers about not bullying a smaller, younger child may not sit comfortably. Han and Dre do a deal with Li for Cheng’s group to stay away from Dre until a forthcoming martial arts tournament. This sequence sets the film’s real tone – the relationship between Dre and Han, who agrees to prepare Dre to compete.

The film works best when Chan and Smith are together. I have a warm spot for Chan who starred in some fine martial arts comedies in his younger days. Jaden Smith,

who looks not physically developed enough to take on an adolescent thug like Cheng, may well have a future as both actor and martial arts performer.

Responsibility for the moments when the film works least well lies with writers Chris Murphey and Robert Kamen, who wrote Sherry as a typical American mom slow to understand Chinese customs and values.

Travelogue moments, particularly sequences on the Great Wall and when Han and Dre take a train and climb to a monastery on a mountain peak, are quite handsome. Suburban Beijing is less lovely to the eye, but nonetheless an interesting mirror on contemporary Chinese urban life.

At all cinemas

“PREDATORS” (MA)

THIS is asserted not to be a remake of John McTiernan’s original “Predator” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which I’ve inten-tionally not seen. But I went in and came away wondering on what grounds producer Robert Rodriguez considered it necessary or desirable. Box office takings, perhaps?

Director Nimrod Antal’s film postulates a group of well-armed but otherwise unconnected toughies including one Israeli woman, unaware how they got to some-where they don’t know where. They trudge around jungle, bush and savanna looking for an explanation. They mount a fire-fight defence against a pack of aggressive animals unlike any earthly creature. Eventu-ally, Royce (Adrien Brody) works it out. They’re the quarry in an extra-terrestrial game reserve.

Only a Hollywood art director could love the film’s thrill-killer predator hunters, ugly, unlovable, part animal, part machine.

With “El Mariachi” in 1992, Rodriguez showed the cinema establishment how to get value from a $US7000 budget. But “Predators” is less of a film, less of a justification of its budget (the size of its special effects team screams big dollars).

You might sense that the screenplay by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch designed its human protagonists as metaphors for people whom humanity would not be greatly diminished by being without. But that stretches imagination rather far. Nothing about its humans, predators, motivations, plot or visual effects makes us care who remains alive when the end credits roll.

At Dendy, Hoyts and Limelight cinemas

Karate film needs chopCInEMABy Dougal Macdonald

“The Girls”, from left, Leah Baulch, Hanna Cormick, Hannah Ley and Dianna Nixon... “mad, sad, strong, angry, beautiful, raw, naïve, and utterly feminine.”

Girls just wanna...


arts&entertainment

Stonefest goes stellar with double the ticketsBy Eleri HarrisTHE old man of Australian music festivals, Can-berra’s own Stonefest is set to double its crowds with a stellar line up this coming November, for the first time joining up with the Frontier Touring company to celebrate 42 years of semester’s-end party time at UC.

“It’s grown to a much more professional level, gaining attention nationally, which is where we want to take it,” Stonefest organiser Anna Wallace says.

“With 12,000 tickets on sale we’ll be doubling the capacity of last year’s festival, restructuring the site to make it a lot bigger.

“We’re definitely confident we’ll sell better than any other year.”

With acts such as Pendulum, Bliss n’ Eso, Airborne, Bluejuice, Clare Bowditch, The Panics,

Operator Please, Boy & Bear and Last Dinosaurs performing on one main stage, it won’t be a big surprise if they sell out.

UK electro-rockers Does it Offend You, Yeah, will be playing their only Australian show at Stonefest and Australian music royalty Spiderbait will hit the stage for their own 20th anniversary.

“It will be really cool for them [Spiderbait] to play Stonefest,” Wallace says.

“They don’t play many live shows any more, so we’re pretty excited about that one.”

Up-and-coming Blue Mountains indie-pop group Cloud Control are looking forward to playing for their Canberra fans.

“Any festivals affiliated with unis are lots of fun, the line-up’s pretty good for Stonefest and we love playing festivals,” drummer Ulrich Lenffer says.

“We’ve only played in Canberra three times, each time it’s been getting bigger and better, they’re really nice people, you get all sorts.

“We’ve been touring our album for the last few months so they can expect a pretty tight set at Stonefest.”

New to Stonefest this year will be the Silent Party hosted by Funktrust DJ’s, a festival staple around the country where the headset wearing dancing crowd can tune into two different DJ’s playing simultaneously.

“Two DJ’s vying for the attention of the punters is definitely fitting in with the Stonefest elements, it’s a novelty and it’s cool,” says Wallace.

The Stonefest team will also unleash a freshly packaged green festival strategy for recycling and butt collection.

Tickets on sale now at Ticketek Stonefest 2009. Photo by Stephen Box.

By arts editor Helen MusaLEE Kernaghan has happy memories of Canberra. He has performed here with Slim Dusty and he also got the words “Scotty is a mountain man/Hard as stony granite” for the song “Missin’ Slim” from some Snowy Mountains kids who came here to hear him sing.

Such fans are, he says, “the beating heart and soul of my music”.

Kernaghan will be back in Canberra on July 23 as part of his “Planet Country” tour with sister Tania Kernaghan, new country music talent Jasmine Rae and rising star Markus Meier.

He will do all the classic songs that won him the “Hit Maker of the Decade” title in 2000 and will also play the hits from recent albums “Electric Rodeo”, “The New Bush” and “Spirit of the Bush”.

While he’s in the middle of the big east coast tour, he’s already looking ahead to 2011, when he’ll take his show to remote regional areas. “I’ll call it the ‘Pubs, Clubs and Carparks Tour’,” he says.

He got the notion of “Planet Country”

in 1998 in Yaraka, Central Queensland, where he was doing a fundraiser for the bush medical clinic. Former Premier Peter Beattie, whom Kernaghan judges to be “a top bloke,” flew in for the concert and joined the locals. Armed with a can of Bundy and Coke, Beattie wrote the words “Yaraka, Centre of the Universe” on the pub wall. That metamorphosed into the idea of “Planet Country.”

It comes as a surprise that the all-round, good, bush bloke, king of country music and former Australian of the Year is a keen fan of social networking.

“The whole social media network has been a revolution and a blessing,” Kernaghan tells me. “It allows me to engage one-on-one with the people who are my lifeblood. I spend hours on Facebook every day.”

It all serves his primary aim, “to build into the DNA of the country things that will uplift and galvanise people.”

And what does he chat about daily with his fans?

“Pretty much what I talk about in my

songs – life, love, family, getting through the tough times… I aim to capture the pulse of the country,” he says. And by that he definitely means country Australia. Forget Nashville, where he sometimes records. “I’m proud to say that you can’t buy a Lee Kernaghan recording outside Australia.”

Lee Kernaghan’s “Planet Country”, Royal Theatre, July 23. Bookings to 132849.

Lee Kernaghan... “I’m proud to say that you can’t buy a Lee Kernaghan recording outside Australia.”

Country king holds court on the internet

ARTS In THE CITyBy Helen Musa

IT’S Canberra, the music capital, in the coming week...

THE Australian Youth Orches-tra’s international tour starts in Canberra on July 17 at Llewellyn Hall and ends up in Amsterdam on August 3. This year is the 20th anniversary of the AYO Interna-tional Tour and will showcase 89 talented musicians performing in Europe and China. The conduc-tor is Sir Mark Elder and other artists include mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova and piano soloist Alexey Yemtsov. Bookings to 132849.

BARITONE Jeremy Tatchell will sing Bach cantatas and songs by Schumann under the double-barrelled title “Sacred Genius – Tortured Soul” at Wesley Music Centre at 3pm on July 18. But why, one wonders, does the Canberra-trained artist, son of two Canberra musical luminaries, bill himself as “NZ-born baritone Jeremy Tatchell”? Bookings to 6232 7248.

THE Griffyn Ensemble will con-jure up “Tales from Heaven and Hell” in the Belconnen Arts Centre foyer, 5pm-7pm, on July 24. The ensemble will also perform “The Klezmatics: A Dybbuk suite” and the world premiere of artistic director Michael Sollis’s “Perelan-

dra Piccolo Concerto”, written for his flautist wife Kiri Sollis who, incidentally, reached the second stage of the ABC Young Perform-ers Award this year performing the work. Bookings to 6173 3300.

DAVID Pereira Cello Series Program 3, “Brahms, Beethoven & Bach”, will feature Pereira on cello, Natsuko Yoshimoto on violin and Timothy Young on piano. In addition, two new works by Australian composers will also be performed, Alicia Grant’s “Night Spell” and John Peterson’s “Race Against Time”. It’s at the Wesley Music Centre, at 7.30pm on July 23 and 3pm, July 24. No bookings necessary. ART Song Canberra will present “Hugo Wolf’s Italian Songbook” in Wesley Music Centreat 3pm on July 25. It fea-tures soprano Tanya Aspelmeier, tenor Knut Schoch and Alan Hicks on piano. The singers are Lieder specialists, visiting from Germany. Seats at door.

ROCK band The Choirboys have been confirmed as headline act for the Tuggeranong Festival on Saturday, November 27.

The hills are alive...


DInInGBy Wendy Johnson

arts&entertainment

Quick sushi with a smileIT’S a tiny establishment that cranks it out from the minute it opens ‘til the minute it closes. I’m talking about Mee’s Sushi in Manuka, which many claim offers the best sushi in Canberra. It certainly is in the top echelon.

Mee’s understands its niche: Fresh, quality ingredients; value for money; quick service; no-fuss décor.

We grabbed one of the half-dozen, silver, round tables scattered outside and watched the line of customers stretch to 20, shrink to a handful and then stretch out again. This pattern repeated itself over and over during the hour we sat in the winter sun enjoying our meal.

Mee’s has a small amount of indoor seating (nondescript wooden tables), but if you like a bit of elbow room do not sit at the tables immediately to the left as you walk in. You’ll find yourself competing for space with those waiting to order.

Mee’s sushi is excellent, made fresh

throughout the day and reasonably priced. You can order platters, or sushi and roll boxes as well as three types of udon – soups made with a miso base and yummy thick noodles. Individual sushi rolls are excellent value at just over $3 each and they just walked out the door. The regular salmon and avo, tuna, California and chicken teriyaki rolls are all available, but so too are unagi (eel) and a chilli tofu.

As I waited to get to the cash register, I noticed how many bento dishes were being ordered ($15). Same with the bibimbap ($9.50 or $11 with a fried egg) – a healthy serve of rice topped with in-season veggies and chili pepper paste.

Our Mee’s experience started with crumbed prawn tempura ($2.50 each)

– light as can be and just enough to get our taste buds craving more. Next, we shared a Mee’s “Meal of Pride” (with miso soup), three options which range from $9.50 to $13. Our special chicken rice was loaded with chunks of meat – no skimping with main ingredients at Mee’s – served on a large amount of fluffy rice.

Our fresh sushi hit the mark. This is healthy food, served fast and your ability to digest is aided by the total lack of pretension at Mee’s. It’s refreshing to dine at an establishment that knows its position in the marketplace. You show up how you like. They take you for who you are. And you are always served with a smile.

Mee’s Sushi only accepts cash. Soy sauce, wasabi and ginger pickles are 10c or 20c each.

Mee’s Sushi, Shop4/ 1, Flinders Way, Manuka, call 6295 7442. Open Monday-Sat-urday (public holidays excepted), 9.30am to 9.30pm.

By shereen charlesANTHONY Ferraro likens the experience of eating just a tiny slither of truffle to opening presents on Christmas morning.

“The first time I tasted truffles was in Italy, and I couldn’t believe the aroma and the taste of it. It’s a totally different experience,” said the restaurant manager of Locanda Italian Steakhouse.

He hopes to share this experience with diners at Locanda now that it’s truffle season in Canberra again.

The season, from June to August, has already caught the imagination of many individuals and restaurants.

According to Fred Harden, who runs the Truffle Festival in Canberra, this elusive fungus that costs at least $2.50 a gram, intrigues many.

Finding these little nuggets of “black gold”, as they are affectionately known, is not easy, says Mr Harden. Only specially trained dogs and sows can sniff out the truffles, which have a distinct scent.

“There’s a certain mystique to truffles. Even if you knew where you’ve planted the oak trees, there’s no guarantee you’ll find them there when you look again. You still have to hunt for them. They’re definitely a luxury item,” said Mr Harden.

The highly prized food is a glutamate, which enhances the flavour of any dish that it is used in, but must be handled properly in order to truly enjoy the truffle dish, says Mr Harden.

One such person who has had years of experience with handling truffles is executive chef of Locanda, Paolo Milanesi. Having held his first truffle when he was 11, he tells “CityNews” that the secret to enjoying them is in the preparation.

“You can’t wash a truffle or use a knife to cut it. You also can’t cook a truffle. If you cook a truffle, you will ruin it,” he says. He added that truffles are best served shaved on to dishes, or infused into them

“A truffle is a way to express yourself in a cuisine. When you cook something with

truffle, you’ll find something special for yourself. It gives you a chance to under-stand a different side of your personality,” he said.

Under the culinary direction of Chef Paolo, Locanda will be holding a six-course truffle dinner on July 28.

Fungus packs a pricey punch

Chef Paolo Milanesi with $800 worth of truffles... “A truffle is a way to express yourself in a cuisine”. Photo by Silas

Truffle festival organiser Fred Harden... “There’s a certain mystique to truffles.”


fashion

STAND-OUT jewellery is still a huge trend, says Jane Brown, from Jane Brown Pearls in Yarralumla.

“Making a statement with our jewellery is important, particularly in winter when we’re all wearing a lot of black!” she says.

“People want to have fun with their jewellery and also be able to take it from work to play: Wear it at the office, and then to dinner or drinks.”

Another strong trend is toward classic styles, Jane says – but with a modern twist.

“There’s a lot of black, white and red in fashion at the moment, which is a very classic style.”–Megan Haggan

Stand out from the crowd

1. Freshwater pearl, crystal and mother-of-pearl necklace, $275 and 9 carat gold seashell pearl hook earrings, $295 from Jane Brown Pearls. 2. Black, grey and white seashell pearl necklace, $345, and matching bracelet, $85, from Jane Brown Pearls. 3. Blue and brown pearl twisted necklace, $140 and pearl earrings, $145 from Jane Brown Pearls. 4. Red cinnabar and silver bead necklace, $195, and matching bracelets, $65 each, from Jane Brown Pearls. 5. The Eye of Aphrodite ring, $117, from Trollbeads. 6. The Mix Chandelier earrings, $430 from Devine Goddess. 7. The Moonstone Cuff, $645 from Devine Goddess. 8. Amber Resin Ring, $11 from La Bella Creations. 9. Elephant necklace, $19.99 from Equip.

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body

Crossing the lineLIQUID liner’s all the rage in Hollywood, says Stephen Gaskett, national make-up artist at Elizabeth Arden – “and it goes right back to the screen sirens of the ‘40s and ‘50s.”

Stephen says using a liquid liner over a pencil allows us to create the flattering almond eye shape, resulting in a sexy look with the illusion of cat eyes.

“Apply a base product to create a smooth canvas and improve the wear of eye make-up – it’s particularly good for locking in a liquid liner,” he says.

“Next, use a nude eyeshadow base across the entire eyelid for an understated, natural finish.

“Finally, steady the eyeliner and line the eye from corner to corner with a gentle flick out on finishing the stroke. Aim for the application to be as close to the lashes as possible for a slick, clean effect.”

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Estee Lauder Double Wear Zero-Smudge Eye-liner in Brown, $40.

Napoleon Eyeliner in Raw Denim, $24.

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L’Oreal Paris Contour Khol in 162 Chrome Silver, $14.95.

Benefit Automatic Eyeliner Duo

Pencil in Lana (Call me nutty), $34.


body

PETRINA Stamenkovic is no stranger to stress, but it’s how she deals with it that counts.

Technology has made it harder for us to connect with our friends and family, says Petrina, who’s newly back in Canberra after living in London for several years, and now heading up Lifeline’s Stress Down Day campaign.

“I don’t think we communi-cate one-on-one any more,” she told “CityNews”.

“Once upon a time we used to ring our friends, but now we’re so busy that all we do is send them a text or an email.

“It’s harder to catch up with friends, because they’re busy, too; so catching up becomes all about the planning.”

Australians are more stressed than Americans, according to Lifeline’s annual stress poll, with 90 per cent experiencing stress in their lives compared to 75 per cent of Americans.

Canberrans are more stressed in 2010 than they were last year, the poll found.

The biggest stressor in our lives is work, closely followed by fears for the future.

Petrona says she’s part of the 90 per cent.

“I have my ups and downs! I

actually think a little bit of stress is good for the body; but we need to be extremely aware that prolonged stress can lead to serious detrimental effects on our wellbeing,” she says.

“I do zumba dancing, which is a Latino style of dance that mixes exercise with dance. I make sure I catch up with friends at least once a week and we’ll do something we enjoy; and I get a massage when I find time.”

Lifeline is asking Austral-ians to take a day off from being stressed on Friday, July 23. Funds raised will go to helping Lifeline manage its huge workload: around a million Australians contact the service every year through its telephone, face-to-face and other support services.

Petrina urges us to use Stress Down Day to make some positive lifestyle changes.

“Use it as a day to get out of a stressful rut. If you’re not leading a healthy lifestyle, use it to start eating better, to get some exercise – even just going for a walk reduces stress.

“Catch up with your friends, and spend some quality time with your family members.”

ABOVE: Petrina Stamenkovic... “I don’t think we communicate one-on-one any more.”

Photo by Silas

COVER STORYStress Down Day can’t come soon enough in Canberra if Lifeline’s survey figures are to

be believed. MEGAn HAGGAn reports

Turn off, relax and float away

Joe says no to techCANBERRAN and former Brumbies player Joe Roff says stress is very different to the pressure we feel to succeed professionally: “My stressful periods in life have been internal, always coming from a desire to be better at whatever it is that I am doing – and then getting down on myself and frustrated when I am not achieving all I want to,” he told “CityNews”.

“I step back at those times, relax and appreciate that life is good. Stress is very different from pressure, which is what professional rugby provides.”

We need to realise that it’s okay to turn off our phones, Blackberries and computers for a while, he says.

“I am currently wary of technology that builds an expectation that work, friends and colleagues can always get in touch with you, at all times.

“In general, Canberrans have more balance in our lives than those in other cities, and I believe we’re very fortunate to live here.

“As a city we are big enough to have facilities that ensure our time to ourselves is valuable: museums, bike lanes, restaurants, galleries and walking trails; and yet not so big as a community that we can get lost in our workplace and allow stressful environments to take over our lives.”

On Friday 23 July show your support for Lifeline by wearing your slippers, dressing up or dressing down.

All funds raised will be used to support Lifeline’s 13 11 14 crisis support service.

Register your workplace or school and start raising funds now!

www.stressdown.org.au

Throw us a lifeline and help our volunteers like

Lenny answer more calls.

Throw us a lifeline!

More information at www.stressdown.org.au. Lifeline’s Crisis Support

Service number is 131114.


No. 270Across4 What is another term for bombs?7 One who marries again whilst a valid prior marriage subsists, is a what?8 Which word describes that which is rectangular?9 Name a variety of the Welsh corgi dog.11 What are account books?13 Which Australian river also becomes known as the Dumaresq, Macintyre and Barwon?15 What is the flower of a plant?17 Which word means not the one or the other?20 Who was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo?23 To be especially gracefully slender in figure is to be what?24 We use a sprat to catch which fish?25 What is the fifth day of the working week?

Down 1 Name the capital of Peru.

2 What do we call someone who deliberately damages property, etc?3 Which dynasty ruled China from 1368 to 1644?4 Name the imperial unit of mass equal to 14 lb.5 What is a speech delivered in praise of a deceased person?6 What is a commercial steamship?9 What is the name of the greenish elongated English apple used for cooking?10 Which mathematical art includes letters and other symbols?12 Which type of fish swims upstream to spawn?14 To be impassive or unemotional is to be what?16 Which metallic element has the symbol Ag?18 What is a young eel called?19 Name an alternative term for an adversary.21 What is a mischievous demon?22 What is a chamber for baking?

Solution next week

your week in the starsWith Joanne Madeline Moore July 19-25

ARIES (Mar �� – Apr �0)You’re keen to take the initiative and show others how to do things. Rambunctious Rams can be very bossy but remember that a true leader guides by example. Saturn visits your partnership zone for the next 27 months, so your ability to commit yourself to a serious relationship will be put to the test. Singles – it’s time to find lasting love.

TAURUS (Apr �� – May �0)Calling all Taurean couch potatoes! With Saturn moving into your wellbeing zone, you need to take a more disciplined approach to your health and fitness. Give fried foods and cream buns the flick and replace them with fresh produce and lots of physical activities in the great outdoors. And are you up-to-date with all your medical checks?

GEMInI (May �� – June ��)Gung-ho Geminis - you’re running around madly multi-tasking all over the place (and talking a lot) but are you actually achieving anything? As birthday great Ernest Hemingway observed: “Never confuse movement with action.” It’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work – with a spring in your step and a smile on your dial.

CAnCER (June �� – July ��)Are you obsessed with someone? Can’t get them out of your head? Expect fanatical fantasies and over-the-top obsessions to increase this week, as the Moon, Jupiter and Pluto all fuel your private passions. For less compulsive Crabs, avoid getting drawn into power plays at work, as no one is likely to win. Friday favours fun and freedom.

LEO (July �� – Aug ��)Money matters are on your mind as you weigh up the pros and cons of spending verses saving. Lions appreciate the finer things in life (you are a happy hedonist) but, in the current economic conditions, you’ll have to reign in your love of luxury and learn to live on less. On Friday, you’re in the mood for adventure and an adrenaline rush.

VIRGO (Aug �� – Sept ��)Are your finances in a monumental mess? The next two years are the time to develop strong new money muscles, as penny-pinching Saturn shakes up your money zone. If you can’t make substantial changes yourself, then utilise the services of an experienced professional. Thrifty is the new black and (if you’re smart) you’ll be wearing it!

LIBRA (Sept �� – Oct ��)Serious Saturn transits into your sign on Thursday, where it stays until October 2012. So it’s time to show the world your responsible, disciplined, hard-working side (it’s there, somewhere). You can’t get away with being a Libran lightweight anymore! Be inspired by Ernest Hemingway (born on July 21): “Courage is grace under pressure”.

SCORPIO (Oct �� – nov ��)Revise and refine your goals for the future, as Saturn prepares to leave your hopes and wishes zone. Pluto squares up with Jupiter on Sunday, so you’ll feel even more intense and driven than usual. Just make sure you don’t trample over others on your climb to the top! Communication and compromise are the keys to lasting Scorpio success.

SAGITTARIUS (nov �� – Dec ��)Sagittarians love to mix and mingle. It’s a great week to socialise with work colleagues but don’t blot your copybook by being too blunt and boisterous. You’re in the mood to overdo just about everything (especially food and drink) so pace yourself. You’ll feel extra restless on Friday but don’t fly the coop until you’ve finished all your work.

CAPRICORn (Dec �� – Jan ��)Saturn (your ruling planet) cruises into your career zone on Thursday – for the first time in 27 years. This will boost your ambitions and increase your workaholic tendencies. Between now and October 2012 is the time to display your talents and professional accolades are likely to come your way. No one said it was going to be easy though!

AQUARIUS (Jan �0 – Feb ��)Are you bored to bits with your regular routine? Wednesday or Friday are the best days to step out of the daily grind and do something unpredictable or unusual. You don’t need to travel to far away places for excitement and adventure. There’s plenty of fun, friendship and good fortune to be found within the boundaries of your local community.

PISCES (Feb �� – Mar �0)With Venus and Mars in your partnership zone, it’s the perfect time to look for a new love or reboot a tired old relationship. Pisceans are sentimental souls but avoid the temptation to be drawn back to the past. Ditch regrets and focus on the here and now. As birthday great Carlos Santana reminds us: “The present is where everything begins.” Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2010.

general knowledge crossword

Sudoku medium No.36 Solution next week

Crossword No.269 Sudoku hard No.35Solutions

7

9

13

17

23

25

1

18

2

14

3

19

20

24

10

11

15

4

8

21

5

16

6

22

12

O B E R O N A O CI U A R B O R D A Y

S N I P E R E A RG E C A L E N D A R

B O L E R O G FU T O L U E N E SK I I O

P R E F A C E S VA I T R E A T Y

E T H E R E A L A OT S R E G R E T S

C A R T O O N S L EN A S S E S A M E


Iconic city cafe siteheads for hammer

all about propertyIT’S a myth that property buyers don’t go looking for homes in winter, says Scott Crossman, director of residential sales at Ray White Canberra.

Ray White is hosting a “Winter White Out” on Thursday, July 29 at the National Convention Centre, where it will auction up to 25 residential and commercial properties.

“I think a lot of agencies look to the spring flush to do a lot of their auctions,” he says.

“There’s a prevailing idea that buyers won’t go out into the rain or the cold to look at properties, so vendors wait till spring to put property on the market; but that’s just not true.

“There are buyers around all year who want to look at stock, and in my experience that’s exactly what they do. It’s actually a strong time of year.”

Auctioning a range of properties at the same event will offer buyers, particularly investors, a

wider range of opportunities, he says. “I’m really looking forward to it – it’s going to

be a great event.”More information on www.rwcanberra.com.au.

Village recognisedVILLAGE Building Co. has been recognised by

the ACT Commissioner of Sustainability and the Environment for taking the initiative to set up its own recycling plant to manage 95 per cent of all waste from its building sites.

The recycling plant, at Macgregor, recycles construction materials including masonry (bricks, concrete, tiles), timber, plasterboard, metal, hard plastics, cardboard and polystyrene.

‘White Out’ set to disprove winter sales myth

LONG-TIME Canberra residents may remember The Blue Moon Cafe, which in 1946 was Canberra’s first stand-alone commercial restaurant outside of the Hotel Canberra and the Hotel Civic.

It continued trading until the 1980s and for many years was one of few places where alcohol could be bought legally in the ACT.

Its original site, which has seen various tenants since then, is for sale as a retail/com-mercial investment.

The four-level property at 112 Alinga Street is part of the historic Sydney Building complex and comprises a total of 514sqm of retail and office space. It is currently fully leased to three tenants at a net rental of $187,200 per annum. The most recent lease was signed in Febru-ary when the ACT Government decided to consolidate its ticketing outlet and a services shopfront into the ground floor. The Territory Government committed to the 105sqm of space on a five-year term and and fellow ten-ants are The Barracks (146sqm) on the ground floor and AIVL (291sqm) on levels 1-2.

According to selling agent Andrew Smith, director at Ray White Commercial Canberra, 112 Alinga Street is expected to be bought by either a private investor looking for a solid

income stream or a self-managed super fund operated by a successful local business person.

“The owners have set a realistic reserve, which will be below $1.85 million, representing over a 10 per cent net return,” he said.

“The exact reserve amount is still to be finalised, but the intention is for a sale to be achieved at auction on the July 27. So far, market interest has been positive”.

The property was last sold in 2005 for $1.675 million which at the time represented a 9 per cent yield.

Tim Humphrey is editor of Property Daily, a market news and intelligence service focused on commercial property markets nationally. www.propertydaily.com.au

COMMERCIAL PROPERTyBy Tim Humphrey

The four-level property at 112 Alinga Street... to be auctioned on July 27.

canberra citynews july 15-21, 2010

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