After a jaunt to his old hometown Melby, PB offers his Top 5 “Melbourne v Sydney” feelings on arriving in either of the two “Bigger Smokes” of OZ…

Ok, ok, I already sense you rolling your eyes and saying to yourself, “Here we go again, yawn-orama, another Melbourne v Sydney thing, pass me another soy, decaf cappuccino with honey” (oh, by the way, stop talking to yourself…)

No, it’s not going to be like that, I promise. Mostly.

This particular version of Melbourne v Sydney is not about which is better or which is worse – it’s just a quick grab of my observations as I flew into and then wandered through the streets of both of these great Aussie towns…

 Melbourne

1. Bikes. I’d forgotten how bikes rule the roads in Melbourne. Within 30 seconds of hitting the streets of the CBD,  flocks of cyclists were zipping past me – one v.cool chick in a floppy brown hat (oops no helmet, shhhhh), flowing skirt and Audrey Hepburn sunglasses swanned past me, destination Cools-ville (ie probably Brunny). I can imagine the drivers amongst you cursing right now, but I’m in the opposite camp – cyclists somehow make a city…less angry…more human…more open…
2. Coffee. Oh that first, delicious brew – a 3/4 latte @ my fave Melbourne cafe, Journal. It’s not a cliché, it’s a given. Melbourne does the coffee thing like no other city in OZ. Enough said.
3. Grid City. I know the U-turns do most visitors’ heads in, but these aside, Melbourne being a grid city gives it that international flavour reminiscent of the famous grid cities of the world.
4. Food. While Melbourne’s “Foodie-Capital” status is probably less set in stone than it once was, there is still something breathtaking about the variety available. I hadn’t been to Melbs in six months but even in this short absence I was astounded with more offerings on every other corner of the city…down the lane-ways…in the new shopping spaces like the Emporium. Bloody delish. #spoiledforchoice
5. Integrated, multi-modal public transport. One thing PT planners got right (although it will always be a work in progress as the city grows) is an integrated system. While Sydney is playing catch-up with this, Melbourne remains decades ahead in the Melbourne v Sydney public transport stakes, and the question will always hang over Sydney – WTF were they thinking when they pulled up the tram lines??? Big DOH for Sydney, massive thumbs up for Melbourne.

Flying back into my now-hometown, these were my reverse observations of…

Sydney

1. Flying into Sydney. Pretty pretty. Flying in over Sydney and seeing some iconic images – the Bridge, the House, the Harbour, the beaches – would no doubt make any newbie to OZ feel like they’re arriving to their dreamy idea of the country at the end of the rainbow…and make every local proud to be coming home.
2. Training into Sydney  from the airport. (Do you get the impression I’m a total PT victim – Ok yes I am, it’s a choice, and it’s more environmentally friendly, right? And I hate cars anyway, so sue me already.) Sydney got it soooooo right by building the Airport link. Less than ten minutes to Central straight from the airport? BOOOH YEAH. Melbourne has been trying to do this for 750 years and still can’t get it together. Sydney = WINNER.
3. Weather. The Sydney version of Melbourne’s coffee cliché in the Sydney v Melbourne stakes is the climate but you just can’t deny it. Blue skies (ok, with occasional mad outbursts of the wet stuff – like today for example), but those extra few degrees most of the year and blue horizons more often than not are bloody great.
4. The City Circle. This one is going to make people scratch their heads but big deal. I love the smell of the City Circle. It’s a funky brew of rubber, diesel, steamy dank water and other unmentionable odours. As I breathe in that lofty nasal soup, I am suddenly in the Subway in New York…the Underground in London…the Metro in Paris. Seriously. Love. The. Shit. (Check out this cool site on Sydney’s unfinished underground, which you’ll enjoy if you’re a nerd like me.)
5. Thongs. (For our international readers, I am NOT referring to personal underclothing of the uncomfortable and revealing kind but rather flip flops.) On a simple level I love that it’s more warm the year around in Sydney and thus offers you the opportunity to let your feet breathe in a shoeless state. And yet on a semiotic level, thongs, especially when seen on Sydney residents right throughout even the chilliest bits of winter (you know, those 5.7 days), speak to me of some unbound optimism and confidence about Sydney and its people. No one else probably reads them that way but weirdly I do.

So…that’s it in the Melbourne v Sydney thing from me. I think I managed to steer clear of too much nastiness and also maybe made you think differently about different aspects of these two remarkably, spectacular cities of OZ.

We would love your thoughts on your own cities in a similar fashion and also your take on where you live (Similar to Michael Burrill’s great piece on Redfern – so get writing and join the TBS community of writers now!

(for those who didn’t get the headline reference…I present…)

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Moving to Melbourne isn’t about livability or friendliness or even a change of scene for Oscar Hedstrom – it’s more like a system reboot…

Some of you may have read PB’s Melbourne v Sydney: Torn between two cities – feeling like a fool… piece on TBS in follow up to his recent visit to his old hometown Melbourne (if you didn’t, read it!)

Quite randomly, in the week following this, Melbourne was voted as both the world’s friendliest city in a survey undertaken by Conde Nast Traveler magazine and, for the fourth year running, the world’s most liveable city in Economist Intelligence Unit‘s liveability survey of 140 cities.

Following this we did a shout out to our writers as a challenge to put their own cities up for contention…and today Oscar Hedstrom pleads the case for Melbourne, although for him it’s not about the city, it’s about you.

Melbourne. The promised land. The mighty Yarra. Capital of the “Garden State.” Culture. Transport. Parks!

United by real footy, real coffee and real art, the people of Melbourne cycle around their flat, clean, suburbs in their bike lanes grinning from ear to beer. From centre to periphery, small businesses choose the smallest streets to throw out milk crates and re-purposed anythings to serve somethings on. The girls are down to earth and gorgeous. The guys have interesting interests. Friendliest city in the world, take me away!

God, I was sick of it. One by one, pals subbed out of Sydney. Less people to surf with. Less people to eat with. Gone to “study” or just a change of “scene.” Change of scene? Are you kidding? If you want a change of scene move to Ulaan Baatar, not the single most similar city to exist on the whole entire planet. It’s the same. It’s like a boring dream. The same banks, new corners. They play cricket, drive cars. There’s an Elizabeth Street. A Surry Hills. There’s a Chinatown with good dumplings. The pho in Richmond is pretty good. Different radio stations, same bands. Big Day Out. St Jerome’s. In Melbourne, it’s NOVA 100 not 96.9. That’s about accurate – a 3.1 percent difference. Same beer, smaller glass. Get real.

It’s not about Melbourne or Sydney.

It’s about you.

You’re running away. What is more alluring than same same but different? You, but slightly improved? People get paralysed by this idea that we’re all full of this unbridled potential we’re on the verge of realising if only, if only the circumstances were tweaked a bit. Then – then, we could truly become what we know we’re capable of. That’s what Melbourne offers the Sydney-sider. A second chance. A real-life computer game where we can restart the level and have another crack. We’ve learnt from our mistakes but the page won’t refresh. The safest reinvention you’ll ever see.

If it all goes wrong, if it doesn’t work out, if you miss your shitty friends and all the people “holding you back” well, no worries, there’s always the “Jetstar Pricebeat Guarantee.” The flight’s quicker than the L90 to Palm Beach.

So fuck it.

Move to Melbourne.

(DISCLAIMER – I moved to Melbourne six months ago. Good times.)

If you missed our other city profiles, catch up here: 

Tim Chandler – All Tim is saying, is give Perth a chance

Paris Portingale – Sydney, Paris Style

Yassmin Abdel-Magied – Viva Brisvegas

Katerina Bryant – Adelaide: Get some fine southern hospitality

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Suraj Varma’s negative view of Melbourne public transport system has not been altered by the promises made my Daniel Andrews prior to becoming Victoria’s latest Premier in the recent election.

Transitioning into a sustainable transport system was inevitable for Australia given the rising fuel prices and rapid growth of transport-related emissions, with the transport sector accounting for the lion’s share of energy consumption per sector.

A transition such as this is effective only when it is phased-in as unobtrusively as possible. It starts with advocating to minimise travel as much as possible and switch modes of travel by walking, cycling and using public transport. But this is possible only when there is sufficient infrastructure in place, so as to make the transition voluntary and that doing which does not diminish, if not improve the quality of life.

Back in 2010, the Melbourne public transport system, then in its infant stages of adapting into a more sustainable transport model, had plenty of initiatives, although most lacked thoroughness and foresight. It’s hard to press charges, as only after few stumbles and reform will even the best of the technologies and initiatives start to deliver efficiently.

One of the important community initiatives was the encouragement to use cycles within the Melbourne CBD through the “Bike Share” program — a brilliant idea emulated from the cycle-friendly countries of Europe, but mostly a failure in Melbourne! One of the primary reasons why this $5 million initiative failed in the Australian context was a small glitch – the bike banks rented out bikes without helmets! Unlike European cities, which have separate cycling lanes making it unnecessary to wear helmets, here in Australia, cyclists still need to wear one. Although, the cost of the cycle rentals itself was a deterring factor to many, the need to carry helmets was what defeated the initiative.

Another major initiative that was underway in late 2010 was making Swanston Street a car-free zone. Although, that in itself wasn’t enough to seal the deal, it certainly looked promising at the time.

Come 2014, and especially for a person like me who was away from Melbourne for three full years, some fixes were in place. Among the most obvious ones was addressing the helmet issue at bike sharing ranks and the almost car-free Swanston Street. Even the public transport system had undergone several changes, with the introduction of E-class trams that boast a capacity of over 200 passengers; and work is underway to improve efficiency of Metro trains to city fringe areas.

Though, it’s reassuring to see some promises kept and flaws addressed, Melbourne still has long way to go before it can be featured as a city that embraces sustainable transport. I’m a champion of public transport and try to plan my things in a way that lets me live sustainably.

Except on the rare occasions when I have to leave the city and visit friends living in the fringe areas, I’m more than happy to walk and use public transport as a means of getting around. And there is a reason for that. Public transport is still notorious and undependable if one needs to travel to some of the newly developed suburbs of Melbourne.

The long time of travel is only secondary to the strain of planning the journey, which involves bus travel on alighting at the railway station. And if one happens to travel on a weekend, the connecting buses from the railway station are spaced an hour apart. When winter is in full swing and with a scantily canopied bus stop to wait in, one needs to plan meticulously to avoid misery.

Last Sunday, my wife and I had to travel to one such suburb, Narre Warren, situated about 40 kilometres to the south-east of the Melbourne CBD. Untimely train delays on weekends are almost certain. So we planned to take an earlier train out from Flinders Street railway station to reach our destination in advance, if not on time. On alighting at the Narre Warren railway station, we took the bus to our friend’s place. While planning the journey, Public Transport Victoria’s website had indicated the bus stop for us to alight. Having travelled on Melbourne buses in the past, I knew that it was impossible to identify most bus stops in the suburbs by their names. So in addition to informing the driver to let us know, I used the GPS on my phone to locate ourselves as we neared our stop. When I noticed we were quite close, I pressed the “stop” button, although our bus driver took no notice. He drove another half a kilometre and made a roundabout before bringing the bus to a halt. We were a good 400 metres away from the stop we intended to get off at. I didn’t realise at the time that he was driving on to make the roundabout only to come back to our stop! Added to the sporadic bus frequency on weekends and now the obscure bus stops, why people prefer cars instead is reasonable. And this is the case with every suburb located more than 30 kilometres from the CBD.

In a move to reduce the public dependency on road usage, the new Victorian Government has stalled the works of the $6.8 billion East West link road project. The Labor Party has made the previously sensitive business case publicly available for scrutiny and also as a step to gain support from the masses. The flaws of the project and its low rate of return in terms of cost–benefit ratio are being debated with a lot of fervour. This said, the compensation for scrapping this project at this stage could also be quite high.

Another new development has been the amalgamation of the zones of travel on the public transport map, with the CBD becoming a free travel zone on trams. Although reduced fares might appeal to some of the travellers, for people who have absolutely no means of availing public transport in fringe areas, the change is quite insignificant. Low fares will also undoubtedly increase the congestion on trams in the city. With a growing majority living in suburbs, a truly “sustainable” transport model is still a pipe dream in Melbourne.

The post Why Melbourne Public Transport is still woeful! appeared first on The Big Smoke.

The Melbourne Star Wheel has Derryn Hinch calling it out for what it is — Melbourne skyline’s “white elephant” — and despite the Wheel  being built…and rebuilt…people still won’t come.

It’s white and the owners claim there is no resemblance to a pachyderm.

So why is the Melbourne Star Wheel – this southern city’s slowly-revolving and evolving giant wheel – universally mocked as a white elephant?

There it towers over what Franco Cozzo used to deride as “Foot-is-cray”, the container-strewn Docklands and an industrial wasteland. Every half-hour its expensive pod-cabins do a circuit and a mellifluous voice tells passengers about the wonders of the Victorian capital…”the MCG, the Arts Centre, the city’s artistic arcades.” The problem is you can’t see any of them…even at the zenith of the Melbourne Star Wheel’s ride. You have to take the announcer’s word for it. You get much better views and more value for money on the 78th floor of the Eureka Tower and a ride out on “The Edge“. You can actually see the things they tell you about on the Star from Eureka.

That has always been the problem for the Melbourne Star Wheel. They ignored the real estate mantra: location, location, location. The London Eye doesn’t dominate that skyline by fluke. Likewise, the other member of this international ferris wheel trifecta in Singapore.

And that’s on top of the Melbourne version’s disastrous debut when, due to structural or design faults (it started developing ominous, embarrassing, cracks), it had to be pulled down and rebuilt.

That exacerbated the problem. The locals got so used to it being in Meccano-wreck pieces or frozen in the city skyline, that they ignored it. For years.

I remember, four or five years ago, when on 3AW I read the predictions about how the Melbourne Star Wheel would attract a million visitors a year to the windswept and troubled docklands region. That’s 20,000 a week!

“In ya dreams,” I thought and said so on the wireless.

That was even before the big wheel started, and abruptly stopped, turning.

Beleaguered shop owners in the cockily titled “Harbourtown” apparently believed the hype and locked themselves into crippling leases.

“Build it and they will come” may be a line out of a Hollywood movie, but it certainly didn’t apply to Harbourtown. Mercifully, their lawyers managed to negotiate free rent for several years after the shutdown, but I went back to check on it last week and it still resembled another movie set.

Like the last days in On the Beach or a Will Smith sci-fi disaster flick.

The unintentionally self-mocking slogan is still up: “Harbourtown – A Town Like No Other.” That’s no lie. It’s akin to one of those ghost-like shopping malls that have been shut down in the United States.

Downstairs, in this deserted mall, we found discount store after discount store. Windows filled with signs offering up to 70 percent off and “two shirts for $20.” A long, eerily-quiet escalator ride to the second floor revealed, well, nothing much. Shop after shop window plastered over with incongruous cheery montages of happy people having fun…but no real people.

The few windows that weren’t obscured had dressed mannequins, display cabinets and shelves stocked with clothes, but also padlocked doors, no staff and closed signs everywhere. Spooky.

Sadly, to be brutally honest, I don’t know if this project will ever fly. I know I’ve made my first and last visit there. But I am grateful for one thing.

As we drove away, my partner, Natasha, convinced me to stop off at a nearby area called South Wharf because “C’mon, it’s on the way home.” She introduced me to a riverside gem. It was a Wednesday night with a real European feel and with a thousand times more people than at Harbourtown. Interesting walkways to tapas restaurants. The Yarra edge lined with bars and noshhouses reminiscent of the strip at Woolloomooloo, and the city lights glinting across the water.

No elephants in sight.

White or otherwise.

Image: Natwick Photography

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Carole Lander attended the recent FGFP (Fair Go For Pensioners) rally in Melbourne, where she encountered Anne Learmonth, a long-time campaigner for human rights and remarkably crafty woman…

While you would expect to see a crowd of older citizens at a rally organised by Fair Go for Pensioners Inc. (FGFP), on Wednesday 20 May, a group of all ages gathered on the Victorian State Library steps to protest the punitive measures served up by the Federal, and to some degree, the State budgets. The banners on display were a reminder that someone receiving a pension might well be unemployed or a single mother, as well those on the aged pension.

A closer inspection of those banners revealed the fine needlework of Anne Learmonth, a long-time campaigner for human rights and also a skilled craftsperson. Learmonth prefers to call herself a maker, not an artist, and what she makes (with fabric, wool and other threads) has been exhibited widely for four decades. In 1975, she was chosen to be in the first ever craft exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. “Yes, it was the seventies when macramé ruled, but I’m proud to say I’ve never made a string pot-holder!” Learmonth jokes.

Learmonth followed in the footsteps of parents who had a strong social conscience. She recalls joining in their discussions at the end of World War II about how to set up a United Nations. Her mother worked as a clerk to help support the family and send her two daughters to university in the 1960s. Even when Learmonth married and started her own family, she took it as a given that she too would pursue a career. Community arts became her choice of work, which enabled her to share her creativity with many community organisations. She has been a member of a variety of groups demanding social justice and now is treasurer of FGFP.

Standing under the FGFP banner that Learmonth created, Emma King, CEO of the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS), opened the rally, titled “Stop the war on the poor.” Under another of Learmonth’s banners, Kerry Davies expressed the view of the Council of Single Mothers and their Children (CSMC). They are appalled that cuts to single income family payments mean that women parenting alone, who have absorbed successive budget cuts from both sides of government, stand to lose another $58 per week. Budget 2015’s childcare package relies on this cut to vulnerable families, reducing existing childcare entitlements and increasing out of pocket costs for low-income parents.

“This is shortsighted, cruel legislation, which effectively shuts more single-mother families out of the labour market and makes it easier for non-resident parents to dodge their financial responsibilities, leaving women and children in danger of greater poverty,” said Davies.

Learmonth’s two daughters are working adults, but she has plenty of experience of being a single mother. Living alone now and existing on a pension, Learmonth struggles to cover expenses. When asked to make a piece of craft for an exhibition she is always grateful if the cost of materials are paid by the organisers, as they were for a recent one at Gasworks Arts Park in South Melbourne (see image). As for housing, she bought an old shop with accommodation attached back in the day when inner-city suburb Northcote was definitely not popular and did not attract the high council rates of today. Learmonth is typical of many pensioners whose only assets are tied up in their dwelling. She empathises with Jeff Fiedler, Manager of Housing for the Aged Action Group Inc. (HAAG), who also spoke at the rally. He expressed gratitude that the Andrews State government has funded their Home at Last service for older people at risk of homelessness for another four years, but said, “Unfortunately the State budget did not provide any funding for urgently needed expansion of new public housing stock and the Federal government doesn’t even acknowledge that there’s a housing crisis!”

The Unemployment Union also stood under a banner created by Learmonth. Marilyn King, volunteer president of Willing Older Workers, commented, “Coming from a group who have members aged 50 and over, we find that being long-term unemployed has led to people becoming homeless and ill.”

Learmonth needs a regular therapeutic massage to alleviate her arthritis, but her private health insurer recently dropped its rebates for this service. When combined with budgets that make the future of the elderly even more bleak, this sort of cut makes people like Anne Learmonth feel very vulnerable. Despite this, she is determined to battle on, and marched determinedly (walking stick in hand) from the State Library to Fed Square to end the rally. People looked admiringly at the embroidered banners, a cut above the usual ones cobbled together on cardboard. But then, Learmonth has always produced craft of which she can be proud.

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The Reclaim Australia rally protestors, amidst all the pushing, just wanted to get their point across. They’re certainly not racists.

It occurred suddenly at the Melbourne “Reclaim Australia” rally, where banner-waving, slogan-shouting protestors were clashing with police and a whole movement of counter-protestors that the people of the Reclaim Australia “movement” realized that everyone around them might just think that they’re racists.

“I don’t understand how they could think that of us,” a swastika tattoo-laden man said, SS lightning bolts going up his neck and meeting in a big Third Reich eagle on the back of his shaved head.

“We’re a really inclusive movement, we have people from a lot of different backgrounds rallying with us against the onslaught of immigrants that are destroying the fabric of Australian society. I just don’t get how they think we’re racists!”

With appearances from an assortment of people with a surprisingly wide variety of backgrounds, and after properly thanking the traditional owners of the Australian land which these protestors are desperately trying to reclaim, the Reclaimers thought that their motives were very clear.

“We’re obviously not trying to Reclaim Australia from those traditional owners we thanked,” staggeringly racist person Martha Jennings said while waving a “Fuck Off We’re Full” flag fashioned into daywear, complimenting boldly with her “Ban the Burka” banner.

“Our ancestors took this land fair and square and we’re never giving it back. They’re joking if they think that’ll happen.”

Reclaimers said they want Australia “back” for “real, true blue Aussies”. When pressed about the definition on “real Aussies”, however, most Reclaimers just melted into a chant decrying Chinese investment in the country’s real estate.

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Yalei Wang has tried, but she’s had enough. She’s leaving Melbourne…and this time, it’s for good.

Dear Melbourne,

You’ve been good. There’s something about you that no other cities have. You’ve got the sheen of any international city, but you’re petite enough to fit into the fold of my hand. You really are a jewel. You produce individuals who excel, who boast international careers, but will still go to the milk bar to buy a meat pie. You roll with the big guns and people know who you are. I belonged here for the years leading up to this breakup.

But I’m leaving in September and I’m never coming back.

Here’s what’s wrong with you. You never gave me a chance to be that person that I dreamed of being. You favoured the looks, the talents, the offerings of everybody else and ignored the person who loved you in the beginning. Being with you feels like being ground into the dirt by your red high heel. You are so good at giving people what they want, but you excel at making them feel like they can’t leave. That you are the best they can do. People say you’re the most liveable city in the world, but that’s just your good looks. Underneath that, your personality is…bland, uninspiring, provincial.

All my friends say it. The ones who don’t fall under your spell anymore. When you’re good, you’re so good. You’re like that feeling between tipsy and drunk when the ridges of life blur and living feels like the smoothness of chocolate melting on the tongue. When you’re bad, you can shatter even the most iron-clad optimism.

People are impressed with the fact that I am leaving you. To get as far away from you as possible. To those who love this city and think I’m talking crazy, good for you. I mean that…because you’re lucky to not have this dim, grey cloud of pure helplessness hang over your head like a hat every morning.

We’ve been together too long.

You might be OK with it, but I’m definitely not.

The thing is, I’d stay if you would just listen to me more. If you’d just look me in the eye and let me know why things became so awry. But you trail off with the others down Little Collins after too many wines avoiding confrontation. You’d do anything to avoid getting to the bottom of things.

So I’m saying this to you now. You’ve ruined it. You’ve ruined us. You’ve neglected me for far too long. No more rejected job applications, manuscripts and missed opportunities. I know that Tokyo will appreciate me more than you ever did. I really did open up my chest and offer you my heart on a silver platter.

But it didn’t mean anything to you. And now you mean nothing to me.

The post A breakup letter to Melbourne appeared first on The Big Smoke.

Proud second generation Australian Rob Idol was left disgusted with the Australian Border Force fiasco, not only for his country, but for his family.

Like a large number of people my age, I am a proud second generation Australian. My paternal grandparents made the arduous journey to our country to escape the Second World War. Hailing from a country that provided a strategic benefit to both the Russians and the Germans, at different points during the war it was occupied by both. Approximately 25% of the population of this country lost their lives during the war. That alone makes it easy to understand why they made the decision to start a new life on the other side of the globe.

I’ll never truly understand what they went through. The fear of occupation and potentially losing their lives, while not relatable, is an easily understood fear. But there was persecution that I could not fathom nor understand. In fact, I can’t even get details of what it was, such is the fear almost a century later.

I recall doing a school project on WW2 when I was a teenager. I chose to interview my paternal Grandmother as she had seen it firsthand. She was prepared to give me surface level answers, particularly focussing my attention towards the affinity she developed for her adopted homeland whilst indicating a sense of loss towards her birthplace. Then I asked about Nazis. She went very quiet, and her eyes widened with fear. I asked again, and she refused to answer. Her reluctance wasn’t a flashback to the persecution she may have endured, it was a present and very real fear that it was still not safe to talk about what she had experienced or witnessed.

It also gave me a fantastic understanding of why she has so much pride in Australia. It didn’t just represent escape, it represented a safe haven where the things she had been exposed to in Europe would never again happen; to her, her son or her grandchildren. Her life in Australia hasn’t been devoid of persecution. She experienced her fair share of racism as an Eastern-European with a heavy accent; my Father did also in early life. I never have. I’ve been blessed to have never been targeted or discriminated against based on my ethnicity. I’m very aware of how lucky I am; and the history of my family has ingrained a passionate desire to speak out against this type of discrimination or persecution wherever it rears its ugly head.

It is for this reason I can’t stay silent on what was proposed and almost happened in Melbourne last Friday. As I’ve maintained in all of my writing, I firmly believe that most of the major issues in this country have their solutions in the middle; an area where the focus is on fair and reasonable solutions devoid of ideological rhetoric. Unfortunately the proposed actions of the Australian Border Force in Melbourne last week were a slap in the face to every single victim of persecution that has made Australia their home based on the promise that it represented; the promise that the level of oppression, persecution and fascism that they witnessed or experienced would never be repeated. There is no balanced argument on measures like this; everyone from the Right, Left and Middle need to make it very clear that this almost crossed a very dangerous and unacceptable line.

The Australian Public were overwhelmingly shocked and appalled by an announcement last week that Abbott’s newly formed “Australian Border Force”, the armed upgrade to our Customs Department, would be patrolling the Melbourne CBD with the Victorian Police, “speaking with any individuals we cross paths with”. That’s right, in 2015 in Australia, we were going to have armed government employees on the streets of one of our largest cities randomly asking members of the public to prove that they were legally entitled to be in this country. It wasn’t a stretch to see some terrifying parallels between this and certain regimes of the past that were in the habit of asking people on the street for their “papers’.

Unsurprisingly, and hearteningly, the Australian public mobilised immediately in protest. Within hours, a mass protest was underway in the Melbourne CBD sending a clear message. Social Media was filled with a combination of pleas and memes comparing Abbott to Hitler and Stalin. Memes that not long ago would have been the most extreme form of satire, but now were not that far from the truth. The Australian public ferociously echoed a sentiment that the Government should have already known to be true…..never again. The operation was cancelled within hours.

We were told that it was just a big misunderstanding. No-one was going to be randomly checked; it would only be those that were already identified as “persons of interest”. We were then told that the press release was badly worded with the blame being shifted onto low level employees; the governmental equivalent of blaming faceless middle management.

No-one is suggesting that the potential consequences of being found breaching border protection laws were akin to those of being identified as Jewish by the SS. The truth is, it doesn’t matter. The parallel is simply too close for comfort. The intention and the method were eerily similar to those from one of the darkest chapters in human history. Let alone the fact that our detention centres, a potential destination for offenders, are only a slightly more PC version of internment camps.

Border protection and supposed “illegal” immigration is not a black and white issue. It is a multilayered problem without a clear solution. We have to balance our own needs with our basic human requirement and duty to help those in need. However, the operation that almost went ahead on Friday is not multilayered, it’s not grey; it is unequivocally wrong.

Anyone walking down the street in Australia has the basic right to not be singled out and harassed without strong cause. No innocent person in this country should ever be faced with the fear that was still so present in my Grandmother’s eyes. The fear of an armed officer singling them out and asking them to prove the validity of their presence without justifiable cause. The reality is, no matter how the Government try to spin it, innocent members of the public were going to be subjected to exactly that. If there was justifiable cause for any of the “persons of interest” to be suspected of breaching border protection law, then they could have been investigated and prosecuted in the normal way. The way that our system of justice is supposedly built on; where innocence is presumed and guilt has to be proven. This kind of operation stinks of Fascism, it stinks of Persecution, it stinks of Racism and it stinks of Bigotry.

Quite frankly, it just stinks.

The post Australian Border Force threatens to repeat the worst part of history appeared first on The Big Smoke.

New TBS writer Lucy Barber-Hancock sets out to find, once and for all, where Australia’s art capital truly lies.

Comparing Melbourne and Sydney is like comparing apples and air conditioners. Though there may be those that point out the thriving underground arts culture of Sydney’s Inner West, or the massive potential for blockbuster success in Melbourne, the real “cultural capital” of Australia is far harder to pin down.

Basically, the difference between the respective cities’ art scenes comes down to Sydney’s aversion to risk taking and the intrinsic way in which we value art based on the revenue it generates.

Sydney’s best-known contributions to the arts scene are usually some combination of huge, flamboyant or expensive. Festivals like Vivid Sydney, the Biennale on Cockatoo Island and Sculpture by the Sea, which all started as fairly low-octane events, are now internationally attended having blown up exponentially to become tourist events. True, these festivals are all compelling and creative and provide incredible cultural and creative insights; however, one can’t help feeling that they’re also carefully curated so as to ensure maximum financial return. We are home to one of the most iconic theatres in the world, the Sydney Opera House, conveniently located a stone’s throw away from the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Museum of Contemporary Art, both of which are considered some of the prize jewels in Sydney’s artistic crown.

Sydney’s slavish worship of well-established art institutions does begin to make some sense in the context of broader legislation. In May last year, the federal budget revealed that arts funding was to be cut by $100 million over the next four years, with a particularly heavy blow to Screen Australia’s funding, which saw a single cut of $38 million. George Brandis justified this with the (somewhat terrifying) statement that “I’m more interested in funding arts companies that cater to the great audiences…than I am in subsidising individual artists responsible only to themselves.” It’s no wonder, then, that Sydney is jumping on the easy-to-market bandwagon in terms of the arts. With less money to throw around, the Government is less prepared to risk revenue on emerging creatives.

Importantly, the money that is funnelling into the arts industry is quarantined for top-tier companies with pre-established audiences and guaranteed revenue generation. When in 2013 James Packer generously provided $60 million to arts in Sydney, almost half of that entire sum went to the Sydney Theatre Company and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, two well-established and tourist-friendly institutions. What with the Government drawing its purse strings in terms of arts funding, it’s no surprise that the art boards are becoming increasingly money-oriented, becoming what Queensland Theatre Company’s Wesley Enoch describes as “extensions of corporate Australia.”

But how does Sydney’s awkward relationship with the arts translate when compared to our sister city? Melbourne, it seems, is simply more willing to take risks in the art scene. For one thing, arts funding is a lot more lenient in Victoria. Last year, the Victorian Government announced a $44.9 million increase in funding to the arts sector; in contrast, the NSW arts budget has remained static at $311 million. But even within this funding, allocation of money is drastically different between the two cities. Sydney arts powerhouses like the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, or the Sydney Festival, routinely have the Government provide a significant chunk of their revenue (36 percent and 34 percent, respectively) and still turn respectable, even sustainable profits. On the flipside, their Melbournian counterparts in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra or the Melbourne Festival have a higher Government funding allocation and yet have less of a successful return on revenue, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra still plagued by a $840,000 deficit from 2013. Sydney, it would appear, is willing to fund money into already-established arts institutions because we as a city know it will pay off. But when it comes to investing in young or emerging talent without guaranteed money back? That’s when we start to get cold feet.

Conversely, Melbourne’s sheer proliferation of artist-run spaces and initiatives, like Bus Projects and West Space (both of which are non-profit), demonstrates a willingness to support and nurture emerging artists. Melbourne became Australia’s capital of independent theatre with the 1967 opening of the La Mama playhouse and the scene has continued to flourish ever since. Alternative theatre companies such as The Rabble, Sisters Grimm and Red Stitch – just to name a few – thrive in Melbourne as they never could in Sydney, because, in Melbourne, independent theatre-makers carry as much credence as subsidised theatre companies.

And don’t even get started on the street art scene in Melbourne. In what other city would street art be not only tolerated, but actively encouraged, funded by the State Government and sponsored by the likes of Melbourne Design Guide and the Melbourne council? It’s a city that celebrates the overlap between public and private space, and questions whether or not a price tag is what gives art its value.

Despite all this, Melbourne is still a hard place to live for up-and-coming artists. A wealth of galleries and creative spaces, coupled with a thriving creative community, means over saturation of the art market – and thus, less money to be made. Street artist and head of creative space The Blender Studios, Adrian Doyle reiterates that Melbourne is an “incredibly tough” place to make it, ominously advising artists “don’t be afraid of the struggle.” Doyle is quick to emphasise the inclusivity of the artistic community in Melbourne, one which is famously open and experimental, and thus demonstrates the famous catch 22 of a flourishing arts scene: Although the community is thriving with creative people, it’s impossible for any one individual to squeeze money from their creative endeavours. In terms of maximising exposure and networking, Melbourne may be one step ahead of its rival city, but in terms of providing fiscal security to its creatives, it’s as bad as Sydney is.

At the heart of it, Australia just seems to have a weird, awkward relationship with the arts, primarily because we haven’t yet figured out how to reconcile art with money.

Maybe that’s what causes the fundamental difference between the two cities:

In Sydney arts equals revenue, whereas in Melbourne art just equals art.

The post Sydney or Melbourne? Finding Australia’s true art capital appeared first on The Big Smoke.

Melbourne is hailed as one of the most “liveable” cities in the world, but can your average student survive there?

Pop quiz, hotshot. It’s 1am, you’ve had a full day of classes and you’ve just finished work at your shitty bar job that pays peanuts per hour. You’re hungry, your nose won’t stop running, and you just remembered you have an essay due at 8am; so what do you do?

Well I’ll tell you what to do; you accept that you’re in the midst of something commonly complained about, something known as the “student life”.

For those suffering under the crushing wheel of tertiary education, here’s a real life survival guide for all those sleep deprived Melburnians. May our P’s forever get degrees and our bank accounts remain forever low.

1) Eating

The removal of pretence is the first step. Once I ate baked beans for a week. It was horrific. Another time I ate canned tuna with rice for a month, on and off. I stopped having breakfast completely when I realised my internship was at a place that had free toast and coffee. I started eating a bit better when I found the food discount vouchers in my student planner from uni. Not only did I find myself trying different foods and going different places as per the vouchers, I did it for super cheap. Most fast food restaurants will give students a free medium-to-large upgrade on either chips or a drink if they show their student card. As well as this, my friends and I all jumped at any chance to have a shared meal or cook together. We worked out if we pitch in $10 each, we can cook a three-course meal, have leftovers for lunch the next day and even have extra for a bottle of Aldi’s finest.

2) Drinking

In my first year of uni I found myself in a very difficult position. I had been torn away from my creature comforts of home, more specifically, I had been towed away from my parents’ supply of alcohol, which I was able to syphon off into drink bottles every Saturday night at no expense to me (without counting the damage to my liver). Suddenly, I had been dropped into an environment without an alcohol cupboard, a level of income that could not support my drinking abilities and a university student’s burning desire to drink, which was stronger than Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 80s. Thus, I had to develop the skills and knowledge to be able to survive in my new environment. My number one tip – buy a flask and a jacket or a bag that you can take out with you. My number two tip would be to check out any of these spots: The Worker’s Club in Fitzroy has $2 pots on Mondays, The Provincial Hotel in Fitzroy has happy hour from 4-7pm every weekday, New Guernica has $2 pots of beer and $3 ciders on Thursday nights. Workshop Bar is in the city and very conveniently located within 3 minutes’ walk from my university. It has $2 coffee for students, good music, good espresso martinis and a cool outdoor, tree house style drinking area.

3) Night Life

So now that you have adequately fed and watered yourself it’s time to take your abilities to a new arena – night life. The night is no stranger to a lubricated university student, but in order to survive you must be thrifty.

Most clubs will let you in for free before 10pm and if you’re a girl you will probably be able to get in for free anywhere at anytime, which isn’t exactly fair but it’s the way it goes. Survival of the fittest; am I right ladies? Melbourne is amazing for free drinks and ladies’ nights. Turf Sports Bar has a great uni night on Mondays and PA’s on Wednesday nights is always packed to the brim with university students. Better yet, if you are having pre-drinks at someone’s house just suggest that they turn it into a house party.

Don’t fall into the trap of hosting your own house party; it will be a messy and expensive endeavour.

4) General Living

Otherwise known as “lifestyle”, a student will most definitely encounter numerous issues when they attempt to lead a healthy and balanced lifestyle, which usually results in most uni students not living a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

In order to survive in the hectic world that is the 21^st century, one should aim to live as well as one can, despite the obstacles they may encounter (e.g. lack of money, motivation, sleep). Now, enough theoretical talk, if you want to afford a good quality of life you must obtain a student card. A student card in Melbourne is like a gold pass. You just flash it over the counter and things are half price. Most shops will take a percentage off the total cost if you’re a student. Major electronic retailers will give you “the best price they can” if they know you’re a student and you can travel on a concession fare on Melbourne’s public transport system if you are a student. Places like Strike Escape Rooms will also accommodate for larger numbers of people in one group to ensure that the total price is cheaper for each person if they know you’re a student.

5) Health

Keeping healthy is key to staying in uni and staying in uni is key to living this student life we all complain about, but secretly love because it means we can get away with all sorts of unruly behaviour. So my number one tip to maintaining your health is to get ambulance cover. Yeah.

I moved to Melbourne with a friend, and I had moved into our share house before her. I was alone in our new home and I woke up in the middle of the night because I had a pain in my chest. To cut to the chase, I thought I was having a heart attack and I called an ambulance. Ambulance Victoria invoiced me a week later (I didn’t have a heart attack don’t worry) and it was going to cost me $2,500 for a 15km journey. It could have, but didn’t.

Beyond that, Melbourne’s recreation centres bow to you if you are a student. I swim at the Fitzroy Pool most days for just $2.80, and if you buy a 10 swim pass it works out to be $2.30 (or around that) for each swim. I don’t use the gym, but it’s cheaper for students to use the gyms at all of the City of Yarra leisure centers too. As well as this, it’s really important that you remember to go to the doctor if you’re feeling sick. MedicalOne is a bulk billing doctor’s office franchise located around Melbourne that offers free services to students, even if it’s just a prescription renewal. Yew.

When all is said and done, I pretty much just weigh up things with the amount of pre drinks, prior to finding myself in the club. For example, if I have one more pre-drink on the tram on my way to the club instead of buying a drink there, I can reasonably afford to go to the pool twice more the following week, or buy a burger for lunch while I’m drunk on Thursday etc. etc.

It’s just simple mathematics really.

So next time you hear someone whine about the cost of Myki concession prices, please slap them in the face with their student diary full of free food coupons.

The post The realist’s survival guide to Melbourne student life appeared first on The Big Smoke.

Witnessing the weekend’s clash between the anti-racism and anti-Islam protestors, I truly couldn’t tell the difference between the two.

The other morning I awoke to a video of a clash between anti-racist protestors and anti-Islam protestors in Coburg.

For the first three minutes of the video I was watching these predominately young, white men and thinking, “Yeah, these angry, aggressive racists are a disgrace!”

In fact, it wasn’t until I saw a sign which read, “No room for racism” that I realised I was castigating the group I should have been cheering for.

Cloaked in masks and heavily covered, (not because they were actually Muslim and not necessarily because it was cold,) these self-righteous anti-racist “heroes” also chose to march with their right arms raised up and in front of them in what I think they thought was a gesture of solidarity, but which to me seemed to be only a few degrees away from that salute.

It saddens me because as someone who supports the sentiment of inclusiveness and multiculturalism, I feel they are taking the original message and distorting it into something accessible only to those who to see the means justify the ends.

In a galling reverse, in choosing to use violence and aggression to promote equality and diversity, they have become just like those they despise.

Also on The Big Smoke

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Which brings me to the question I want to ask. How did it come to this? How has the ire become so acidic that the language of violence is the only spoken dialect.

What do they think it will achieve?

Do they think that naked aggression toward those they oppose will change their opponents’ minds? Do they believe that the war can be won in the traditional sense, namely making your opponent bleed more that you?

If that is the case, I have news for them, the anti-Islam groups think their violence and aggression will have the same effect and not the reverse.

I don’t say any of this to undermine those who did hope to march peacefully, and I definitely do not say it to support those who are a part of the United Patriots Front or other similar groups.

But those who are using violence to forcibly stamp out racism need to examine long the sword they swing, for it represents the polar opposite of what they treasure the most.

If anything, because it is getting more and more media coverage, they have tied the message of anti-racism directly to actions of violence and closed-mindedness, and are preventing others from entering the discussion; those who dislike racism, but also dislike the idea of black eyes, broken teeth, and capsicum spray.

Furthermore, the raising of awareness at the end of the knife, may even turn the “undecided” people against them, who may now see those who seek inclusion as the antagonist.

That thought will likely spur more of these scenes, as they again take the message to the streets to win the hearts and minds of ears they’ve already closed with the klaxon of violence.

The post Fighting ire with ire: The misdirected ethos of the anti-racism crowd appeared first on The Big Smoke.

Merry Christmas to you and yours. For those looking for a dash of reality on the grandest day of all, he’s what happened in the week that was.

The post Current Affairs Wrap: Berlin Christmas attacker closure, Leia’s trip to the dark side and our take on the tinsel appeared first on The Big Smoke.

The week that was, was one of closure. Baird took his bow and Trump took his oath. Also, moth testicles.

The post Current Affairs Wrap: Start of Trump, end of Baird, and moth balls? appeared first on The Big Smoke.

Today, the general feeling is that just like Man Haron Monis, we had a terrorist and we let him go. However, the reality of the situation is that the solution is not that simple.

We awoke this morning to news of a 29-year-old refugee, Yacqub Khayre, committing an act of terrorism in the streets of Melbourne last night. His history of violence and drug abuse were quickly revealed, however, the most alarming and frustrating of revelations were confirmed when it was publicised that the Roxburgh Park man was out on parole.

“This terrorist attack by a man only recently released on parole, is a shocking, cowardly crime.” @TurnbullMalcolm on #BrightonSiege pic.twitter.com/7AoYkjYq47

— ABC News (@abcnews) June 5, 2017

It’s a question that the Prime Minister, I’m sure, will have more information on than the majority of we the horrified public. Unfortunately, the problem with the parole system – and the prison system in general – is that it is fundamentally flawed. That is not the say that it cannot be improved, but unless you delve into far-right-wing politics and start taking away basic human rights, the issue is unlikely to be resolved proper.

And if you think it can be, then why hasn’t it already?

The news of Yacqub Khayre’s parole comes two and half years after Australia’s other act of similar terrorism, when Man Haron Monis held the Lindt Café in Sydney hostage in 2014, before he was shot and killed by police. He too, was out on parole.

On occasion, I think about all the information that organisations such as ASIO, ASIS and the AFP must have that is never revealed to the public in fear of it causing complete and total moral panic. The amount of terrorist attacks that must be foiled per year in Australia alone is something you immediately push our of your mind.

How often, when an event of terrorism takes place anywhere in the world, are there dozens of arrests made within an extremely short period of it taking place? Surely much of this is to show that the police are actively doing something to help make the community feel safe; they must be seen to be handling the situation. But the fact that these are unlikely to be arbitrary arrests attests to the fact that our intelligence organisations know who the bad people are; they know who is involved in terrorist plots; they know who the ISIS sympathisers are; they know who has ties to extremist organisations in the Middle East, who travels to and from high alert countries.

The authorities and intelligence organisations know who is doing what, yet it remains a mountainous task to stop it.

So when Khayre was investigated over a planned attack on the Holsworthy army base in Sydney, I fail to believe that he wasn’t placed on every single watch list ASIO and ASIS has. However, as he was acquitted of those charges – as in, under our democratic judicial process, there was insufficient evidence to warrant a conviction beyond any doubt – what more could the police do? No doubt those involved in the attempted conviction and ultimate acquittal of Yacqub Khayre are feeling a wide array of emotions today. The facts of his involvement in the foiled terrorist plot in Sydney remain unclear, so it is easy to deduce that police found maps, weapons, bombs, drawings, plans, pictures et al, but his being acquitted would suggest that his links were far more tenuous than that. You would hope so anyway.

Exclusive: The #brighton gunman was Yacqub Khayre, once accused of taking part in an Islamic terror plot to attack an Australian army base pic.twitter.com/EFfxdVEoS9

— Paul Tatnell (@PaulTatnell) June 5, 2017

It is being reported that Khayre was imprisoned in 2013 following a violent, ice-fuelled home invasion and then was released on parole in November 2016. So what should the courts have done? Should they have denied Khayre release on the basis that he has a violent past and is suspected of links with terror organisations? That may be the opinion of a lot of Australians today. It may even be my opinion too. However, given that he was only convicted of the home invasion, his terrorism-links would have been near redundant when assessing his eligibility for parole. Is this what needs to change? Do we say that anyone who is imprisoned and who is also suspected of terrorist links is ineligible for parole?

If so, how long do you keep a man imprisoned for? The prisons are full. Global statistics show that offenders who are sent to prison are more likely to reoffend on the basis of networking in prison with other criminals. There is huge conjecture as to the benefits of prison and if it even achieves its long-term objective of deterring criminal activity.

If not that, should Khayre have been deported? Would he then have immediately gone to fight in the Middle East under the banner of religious extremism, thus the government would be accused of boosting ISIS’ ranks? Does that make us feel safer because it’s in a foreign land and not in a Brighton apartment?

Probably. Out of sight, out of mind.

There is an indelible feeling that this, along with the Sydney Siege, could have been prevented. The overwhelming feeling of “we had him and let him go” pervades the collective psyche. Unfortunately for civilised society and for the millions of people of every race and culture who are just trying to enjoy their lives under the Australian sunshine with friends and family, there are thousands and thousands of very bad, disenfranchised people in our society. And it appears that it is increasingly difficult to track every single one of them.

The post In mind, out of reach: Melbourne terrorist highlights flaws in legal system appeared first on The Big Smoke.

According to some, the reason why parents are taking their kids out of public schools is that they don’t want them next to immigrants. The reality is quite different.

“We have taken D* out of our local primary and enrolled her in St Catherines,” said AJ, during our usual visit to the MCG to barrack for the Tigers.

Why?, I asked, surprised. They had only just moved to Fitzroy from Kew East, and enrolled their daughter at the strongly multi cultural local primary school. The school year was only two terms in, and they were not hankering to send their daughter to a private school.

“I had no idea what D was doing at school over the two terms, and then when I attended the Parent-Teacher meeting, I was told that she is by far the best student in class,” he said. “If she is the best in the class, the standard is not very high, obviously.”

Now, The Age would go to town on AJ’s decision. Last year, they did an exposé on how white middle-class parents were taking their children out of public schools of Inner Melbourne. The only students left at the schools were migrant children, often black and of refugee background, who lived in the nearby housing estates.

This was just another step towards the ghettoisation of refugee migrants, the piece feared. They live in certain areas, study in certain schools and have limited interactions with Melburnians outside their milieu. How do we expect them to integrate with wider Australian culture when we are not ready to share classrooms with them, study alongside, learn their culture and teach our own to them?

The Age presented the problem as racism, the vestiges of the white Australia policy. It argued that the parents were taking their children out because they didn’t like to see their children studying alongside black children from an alien culture. They even called the phenomena “white flight”, bringing colour to the forefront of the argument.

The answer to their curious decision is more prosaic than some would like. They took their daughter out of the school because she wasn’t being challenged enough.

The reality on Melbourne streets is entirely different. Both AJ and his wife are of Indian origin. His wife is a lawyer, a strong advocate for multiculturalism in Australia, who volunteers her time and expertise to several not-for-profits promoting the cause. They don’t fit into any of the frameworks by which we define conservatives in Australia: they are both of immigrant background, AJ is his daughter’s primary carer, and as a family, they are well travelled and well read.

The answer to their curious decision is, unfortunately, more prosaic than some would like. They took their daughter out of the school because she wasn’t being challenged enough. While at her previous school, she was participating in online math competitions and reading challenges, the general achievement level of the class in the Inner Melbourne school was too low for the school to be able to meaningfully participate in these competitions.

The socio-educational background of most parents at the school meant that the children were starting school behind. The school’s challenge was to bring them at par with other Victorian children without support from the home front. A task made harder still by the tensions and anxieties of a refugee home that the children brought to school with them. The teachers and school were too busy trying to pull the median performance of the class to standard to worry about how to ensure that better-performing students were challenged to excel.

Of course, AJ’s case is anecdotal. Maybe his worries are unfounded and children are simply hardwired to perform at a certain academic level, regardless of the average performance of the class. However, research says otherwise. Grattan Institute’s report “Widening Gaps: What NAPLAN tells us about student progress” clearly support’s AJ’s anxiety. High performing students in schools with generally low academic achievements lose out the most in terms of student progression between their first NAPLAN test and their final NAPLAN test. In simple terms, their trajectory of achievement doesn’t rise as students of similar abilities in higher performing schools

What the report also points out is that colour has little to do with student performance or school’s academic achievement. Some of lowest academic achievements in Victoria can be found in white working class neighbourhoods of Frankston North and Northern Geelong.

This is not to suggest that the problem of integrating refugee families into Australian mainstream should be overlooked or that it is not our responsibility. It is to point out that there is more to the problem than meets the eye. Integrating refugees comes at a cost, but is it fair to ask children from middle-class backgrounds to pay that cost by way of their own academic trajectory?

Would we not be better off organising greater support, volunteers and resources for the refugee children, ensuring that migrant children do not end up in few schools near housing estates, but are more evenly spread across schools in Melbourne?

None of this is easy to execute. However, they are far more likely to bear a result that asking parents to ‘roll the dice’ on their children’s future. By crying racism, instead of identifying parent’s anxieties regarding their children’s academic journey, all we are doing is to make parents indifferent to the accusation.

The post Black, white, not well read all over: Melbourne’s public school problems one of curriculum, not racism appeared first on The Big Smoke.

The last work week of the year would unfortunately not go quietly, as Donald Trump eviscerated the taxation system, complicated violent sped through the Melbourne CBD and history was made at the end of a cuff.

Merry Christmas Eve to TBSers everywhere and welcome to this week’s Current Affairs Wrap. We’ve had the Trump Tax Plan receive the rubber stamp, continuing horrors in Myanmar, a horrific pre-Christmas incident in Melbourne and a win for Border Force.

International

US President Donald Trump has finished the year with a victory, getting a tax overhaul through that many didn’t believe would pass. At the same time, he also managed to pass a short-term spending bill to allow the government to exceed its approved debt ceiling and subsequently avoid a potential government shutdown.

The big selling point is a major reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Whilst many see this as a boost to the big end of town, Trump argues that America has the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world and that such a cut will boost the economy. As much as it pains me to admit it, he’s probably right. It also represents Trump being able to fulfil a campaign promise to reduce corporate taxes, and fulfilling campaign promises has been something he’s largely struggled to do.

The bill also provides tax cuts for most individuals with families on wages between $US50,000 and $US75,000 receiving average cuts of $890 per year and those on $100,000-$200,000 receiving a cut of $2,260 on average. However, the big end of town, those making more than $1 million per year, will receive a cut of $70,000 on average. The tax cuts at the lower end are also temporary with an expiration in 2025, but those at the upper end will continue to receive the cuts after that time.

On the topic of healthcare, Trump also managed to strike a blow against the policy he has been desperate to destroy, the Affordable Care Act, more colloquially known as “Obamacare”, including in the bill a provision which repeals the requirement for all Americans to obtain health insurance. The move is expected to cause insurance premiums to rise (around 10% in most years over the next decade) and result in around 13 million people losing coverage by 2027.

The environment has also been hurt by the bill with a provision being included allowing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to be opened up for oil and gas exploration, which will result in oil and gas drilling being allowed on approximately 1.5 million acres of currently protected coastal plain areas.

Unlike Trump’s performance to date, the bill actually contains some bold and unpopular moves that could have long-term positive effects on both the economy and the job market. Like all of his other performances, the welfare of the most vulnerable and the environment have been stomped on yet again.

Also on The Big Smoke

• Current affairs wrap: Democrats take Alabama, Alexander takes Bennelong, Star Wars takes a risk
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Aung San Suu Kyi, the defacto leader of Myanmar, could face charges of genocide according to the UN’s top human rights official, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein.

Countless Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State have been systematically expelled and killed in what the UN have described as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. The government and military of the primarily Buddhist nation have flatly denied the accusations. Military leaders have claimed that all moves have been part of legitimate counter-insurgency operations, however with around 660,000 Rohingyas having fled to nearby Bangladesh since late August, it’s hard to believe them.

Zeid has indicated he personally spoke to Ms Suu Kyi, warning her to stop the killings earlier this year but according to him, the advice has been left unheeded. Zeid cited a long list of atrocities that have been reported to the UN by Rohingya who have managed to escape to Bangladesh which he described as “acts of appalling barbarity”.

“They include deliberately burning people to death inside their homes, murders of children and adults, indiscriminate shooting of fleeing civilians, widespread rapes of women and girls, and the burning and destruction of houses, schools, markets and mosques.” Zeid had also previously reported that Myanmar’s military had been accused of planting landmines in the path of Rohingya Muslims trying to flee.

With Bangladesh seriously overwhelmed by the influx, the central Queensland Rohingya community have called for help from the Australian Government but it has unsurprisingly fallen on deaf ears so far. Under the current Australian policy it’s all but impossible for any of the Rohingya refugees to make their way here despite being legitimate and stateless. The Rohingya have had their citizenship stripped by the Myanmar government, leaving some languishing in refugee camps for decades, unable to leave now being citizens of nowhere. Little hard to come in through official channels in that situation…and we know how the government feels about them coming by boat.

Domestic

The Melbourne CBD was home to a shocking attack earlier in the week which has seen 19 people injured, several of them critically.

The chaos began at around 4:40pm on Thursday afternoon when a white Suzuki SUV accelerated through the intersection of Flinders and Elizabeth streets, deliberately mowing down anyone in the path of the car. Witnesses have described the car as travelling at around 70km/h when it hurtled towards up to 100 people crossing the intersection at the time.

Apart from the injured, the 15-second incident has shaken all that were there to witness it. Some talked of people “flying into the air”, others described the audible thumping sound of the car hitting people. Many were left shaken, crying and feeling helpless.

The perpetrator, who was arrested on the spot by an off duty police officer, has been identified as Saeed Noori, a 32-year-old Australian citizen of Afghani descent. Police have indicated that while investigations are still proceeding, they do not believe that the incident has any terror-related links. Mr Noori, they have indicated, does, however, have a history of drug use and mental illness, suggesting that one or both may have been a factor.

The response, of course, has been polarising. For many in the public at large, the response is sympathy and sadness, particularly at this time of year. For others, it’s an immediate excuse to try and link the incident to a terror group without any evidence (ISIS are pretty good at claiming things that they had nothing to do with, we hardly need to assist them). Then there are those connected to mental health who are desperately trying to stop its inclusion as a factor lest it tarnish the many Australians suffering from a variety of mental health issues.

Accusations have been shot at Victoria Police for playing politics with the incident by indicating that no terror link had been found yet and indicating that the offender had a history of mental health and drug issues. For some reason, the police reporting the actual information they have so far and not postulating is suddenly considered playing politics. Questions like “How can Victoria Police dismiss the terror angle before speaking to the alleged attacker?” suggest a fundamental misunderstanding of police procedure as well as a complete unwillingness to listen to the actual words said by the police publicly. These aren’t questions being posed by the public on social media; these are questions being posed by journalists who should know better at a time when tensions and emotions are going to be extremely high.

Jeff Kennett, former Vic Premier and former chairman of Beyond Blue, was also quick to point the finger at police for blaming mental health for the incident. They haven’t done anything of the sort of course; they’ve simply stated the facts which are that Mr Noori has a documented history of mental health issues and is currently on a mental health care plan.

Kennett goes on to rightly point out that millions of Australians suffer from mental illness and that very few of those are a risk to society, and that we do mental illness and those suffering mental illness an injustice by blaming antisocial behaviour and criminal acts on their affliction. I, like many, would empathise with Kennett’s intention here but his delivery is misguided and dangerous while emotions and tensions are running high. No one is using mental health as a justification for the atrocities, but if it was a factor then it was a factor. Trying to exclude people from the mental health banner is unbelievably counter-intuitive.

Apologies, TBSers, for editorialising a little bit here, but when things like this happen in our backyard it creates a very visceral reaction in most of us. I used to live in Melbourne. I worked in the city. I used that crosswalk more times than I could possibly remember and I have probably used it at that exact time of day more times than I can remember; and like many others, I have dozens of friends that could have easily been there on Thursday afternoon. Emotive and particularly angry responses to this are understandable and most of the time, justified.

But when I see that emotion being manipulated and taken advantage of by those in the public eye who should not only know better but also, due to their positions, have a basic ethical responsibility not to throw petrol onto a large bonfire, then I have no choice but to go off script and call it out. When we actually know what happened in full, then the debate can start. Right now, we should direct our emotions towards sympathy and care for the 19 injured victims, their families and every poor soul that had to witness it. At this time of year, rather than using it to divide or justify hate, why not do as I plan to and use it as a timely reminder to cherish the time we have with our friends and family. Hug your family, hug your friends and share a laugh. Regardless of the yet to be discovered motivations behind an incident like this, that’s the best and most Australian response we can have.

Also on The Big Smoke

• While you were asleep: Street art criticises Streep, truck goes for a swim, Trump does his job
• While you were asleep: Mal’s cabinet shuffling, local arrested on terrorism charges, Damon commits social suicide
• While you were asleep: Barnaby Joyce promoted, Prince George becomes a revolutionary, Pam calls out Dutton

Australian State and Federal Police have been credited with Australia’s biggest ever methamphetamine bust as the result of a joint operation in Geraldton, WA.

A pre-dawn raid on a 16 metre vessel late this week was the culmination of the operation and resulted in the seizure of a whopping 1.2 tonnes of the drug with an estimated value of over $1 billion.

Three occupants of a van that took delivery of the drugs from the boat were arrested, all from NSW aged 33, 52 and 38. The three men on the boat were also taken into custody, a 45-year-old man from the NSW Central Coast and two men from South Australia aged 48 and 44.

Around 20 search warrants were also executed at residences in Sydney, the NSW Central Coast and Adelaide. Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner of operations, Leanne Close, has indicated police believe the drugs originated in China and the shipment came from a “mother ship”.

Two further arrests occurred later of a pair of 37-year-old men from South Australia at a hotel in WA. The charges against all the men include importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug and possessing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug reasonably suspected of having been unlawfully imported.

Wacky and wonderful

No Wacky and Wonderful for you this week, dear readers. Instead, I’d like to wish you and yours a very merry Christmas on behalf of the entire team at The Big Smoke. We hope your Christmas is filled with good food, good cheer and fearsome, spirited debate amongst family and friends.

The post Current Affairs Wrap: Trump’s taxing move, Melbourne CBD attack, Australia’s biggest meth bust appeared first on The Big Smoke.

Melbourne’s African gang problem won’t leave the news. But does the data back up the rhetoric?

According to the recent media beat-up, Melbourne is yet again suffering a wave of “African gang violence”. This is despite Victoria deputy police commissioner Andrew Crisp recently stating that there was “no evidence or intelligence to suggest” a string of recent crimes was gang-related.

At a New Year’s Day press conference, prime minister Malcolm Turnbull begged to differ. The PM said he was “very concerned at the growing gang violence and lawlessness in Victoria”. He went on to say it was a failure of “the Andrews Labor government”.

Federal health minister Greg Hunt then stepped up to the microphone, stating, “We know that African gang crime in some areas, in particular, is clearly out of control”. The minister proceeded to say the problem was not the police who’d “dropped the ball”, but premier Daniel Andrews.

In his typical fashion, home affairs minister Peter Dutton appeared on 2GB radio the following day and backed up his colleagues. Dutton claimed Victorians were too scared to go out to dinner at night for fear of “African gang violence”.

Of course, it comes as no surprise that this is an election year in Victoria. And the federal Coalition ministers are starting in early on their “tough on crime” critique of the state Labor party. They even choose to launch their assault at a time when premier Daniel Andrews was on leave.

Over the last couple of months, the Herald Sun has been running a series of articles about the rise in crime committed by African gang members, the majority of whom are said to be of Sudanese and South Sudanese origin.

Several incidents brought the debate to a head over the last month. On December 13, a group of youths were involved in what was initially a street brawl at St Kilda Esplanade, which later broke out again at a local McDonald’s.

An Airbnb property was trashed in Werribee on December 20, after a party that was held at the residence got out of hand. When police showed up at 3.30am, people inside the house pelted officers with rocks.

And on Boxing Day, a Victorian police officer was kneeling on the ground trying to arrest a youth for an alleged shoplifting incident at Highpoint Shopping Mall in Maribyrnong. The officer was then surrounded by a group of youths, before being kicked in the face by a 17-year-old male.

And while no one is denying that these incidents occurred, there is some dispute as to whether they amount to what could be referred to as gang-related crime.

It’s not organised crime

In response to the federal ministers’ comments, Victorian police minister Lisa Neville and Victoria police acting chief commissioner Shane Patton addressed the press on Tuesday. Mr Patton outlined that the police were dealing with each of the three incidents that occurred over recent weeks.

On the subject of gangs, the acting chief commissioner said that “from a Victoria police perspective…what we traditionally view as organised crime gangs are those high-level organised crime gangs.” He mentioned an outlaw motorcycle gang as a group that would be classified as such a gang.

In regard to the small cohort of African youth offenders, he prefers to refer to them as “networked offenders”: individuals who come together at certain times, but with “no real structure around them”. And he said he doesn’t want to “elevate” these “young thugs” to the level of a gang.

Mr Patton further stated that Victoria police are allocating extra resources to deal with these offenders, and they’re also working in collaboration with the African community. He stressed that police were well aware that there was an over-representation of African youth offenders.

The youth crime wave

Back in November 2016, there were reports about a youth crime wave that was sweeping the state. However, over the last decade, youth crime rates have actually fallen, and the crime rate in Victoria has just had its biggest drop in 12 years. Figures from Victoria’s Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) reveal that over the 12 months ending in September 2017, the overall crime rate dropped by 6.2 percent. This was largely due to a fall in car thefts and aggravated burglaries.

CSA figures show that in the year 2007-2008 50 percent of crime was perpetrated by people under the age of 25, whereas in 2015-2016 that figure had dropped to 40 percent.

And while Sudanese youth are over-represented in the crime figures, they only account for a small fraction of the overall crime rate, when compared with the amount of crimes attributed to youth of Australian and New Zealand backgrounds.

People born in Sudan only make up 0.1 percent of the population in Victoria, while in 2016, they accounted for 1.5 percent of the overall crime rate; out of 14,479 crime incidents, 222 were attributed to Sudanese people, which is still a relatively low figure overall.

Fake news

The recent focus on African youth crime began after the March 2016 Moomba festival riots. A brawl broke out between two rival groups in Melbourne, and most of the blame was pinned on the so-called Apex gang.

Apex was said to have formed in 2014 in the outer Melbourne suburb of Dandenong. The street gang was reported to be of Sudanese origin. However, following the Moomba riot, police outlined that the group was also made up of Caucasians, Pacific Islanders and Indians.

However, there was speculation in the press at the time that the Herald Sun had actually made up the Apex gang, and after the recent incidents in December, that very same News Corp tabloid is reporting that a new African gang has formed.

Based on the evidence of some graffiti found at the Airbnb residence, and a few other sites, Menace to Society is evidently the new gang in town.

Avoiding the real issues

But, behind youth crime in Victoria is a group of young people who are suffering extreme social disadvantage. And this is regardless of these youths’ countries of origin. These are people disengaged from the rest of the society, who need a path in.

A quarter of Victoria’s adult prisoners come from just two percent of the state’s postcodes, and half are from six percent, and those young people who grow up in these marginalised areas are more likely to share the same fate as they get older.

So, while privileged politicians continue to argue the tough on crime stance in the hope of gaining points in the polls, they’re doing nothing to better the situation.

The post Factcheck: Is Melbourne really under attack from African gangs? appeared first on The Big Smoke.

Well, it seems the “impossible” has happened. With the housing market in Sydney actually set to drop, it’s forcing a bit of a rethink from a certain generation.

We millennials are kept by two universal truths. The housing market will always be beyond us, and we shouldn’t bother. However, it seems that house prices are actually set to fall in both Sydney and Melbourne, dismissing the previous projections with a wave of the hand.

Instead of the predicted price surge by at least 4 to 8 percent, with Sydney actually sent to drop by a similar margin.

SQM Research

Which is as mindblowing as it is crestfalling. Housing prices can dip? Wha? SQM, the author of the study, believes they know why. The primary reason, they believe, is that the Sydney and Melbourne property markets are overvalued by at least 45 percent.

SQM’s managing director (and author of the report), Louis Christopher pointed the finger at many factors stating: “Leading indicators such as auction clearance rates, total aggregated property listings and asking prices suggest further deterioration in market conditions in recent weeks”.

As many markets are subject to, we find ourselves at the far edge of the bubble, as the meteoric Sydney property listings (those that have surged by 34 percent) have a historic parallel. The prices, according to Mr Christopher, “…are now at similar levels recorded in 2011 — a point in time when Sydney dwelling prices fell 3 percent for the year”.

So, the deepening domicile gloom that has enveloped Sydney since as long as my people have become woke might be very slowly dissipating. Which is great. Unless you happen to be one of those millennials who only see the broken housing market as an avenue to ferry their complaint.

Although, to be fair, it’s always raining for those people.

The Australia dream is on life support, but it isn’t dead. Let us party…by saving our pennies.

The post Sydney and Melbourne house prices set to drop shocking analysts, millennials appeared first on The Big Smoke.

While what happened to Eurydice Dixon has shocked the nation, this an everyday reality we women face. So don’t ask us to “be safe”.

My heart hurts, and I’m not alone. The shocking discovery of Eurydice Dixon’s body has left us reeling in its sheer naked senselessness.

Eurydice was 22 years old and by all accounts in, or just about to hit, the prime of her life when she was set upon by a man who is yet to be named by police. He is 19, had never met her before, and I’m assuming he just saw her walking home as an opportunity.

It’s horrific. It’s abhorrent. It’s petrifying.

This, sadly, is the society we live in, and history tends to repeat. For as long as I’ve been doing things as an adult female, I’ve walked with my keys propped between my fingers as a ready defence. I know women who carry their worst perfume in their bag as a makeshift mace in case of attack. I’m not alone in this. What is also common is the response. When tragedy strikes, the media outlets and government organisations remind women all the things they need to do to keep themselves safe.

Don’t go out alone. Don’t jog with headphones in, or if you do, keep the sound right down. Don’t dress too feminine. Don’t dress too skimpy. Keep your phone on you. Make sure people know where you are. Get your keys out before you leave an establishment so you’re not distracted. Don’t let your drinks out of your sight.

I could be here all night listing all the really good suggestions to ‘help’ women stay ‘safe’. The Age tweeted this earlier:

BREAKING: Police are urging people to take responsibility for their safety when walking alone in Carlton North, after a woman was found dead there overnight. “Make sure people know where you are and if you’ve got a mobile phone carry it.” https://t.co/PjmsInGSEs

— The Age (@theage) 13 June 2018

Interesting that it is somehow the victim’s fault for not being careful enough, and not the person who raped and murdered them. How infuriating.

Being a woman in Australia is frightful. We have extremely high instances of violence against us. Destroy The Joint has counted as of this week 30 women have been murdered by violence in Australia. Thirty.

Don’t talk to strangers. Go out with a male in your company for protection – but also be careful when you’re alone with men. Stick to well lit areas.

Sadly, what happened to Eurydice prompted bad memories of previous horrors we’ve lived through. I called  Melbourne home during the time that Jill Meagher disappeared, I was 21 and living in a city 1200kms away from my family and most of my friends. I did most things alone, and that week was one of the most tense of my life.

Every morning I would wake up and listen to the radio, hoping for some kind of clue as to where she was, or who was responsible for her disappearance.

As the week got to Thursday and police were led to her body by her perpetrator, I felt a cavity in my chest. The next morning on the 64 tram into the city was one of the most morose moments I’ve ever experienced.

Nobody looked each other in the face for too long, and there was a literal separation of the genders on the tram.

It was unspoken but understood. The women didn’t feel safe and the men didn’t want to make them feel worse.

There are so many rules to being a woman and being allowed out on the street, rules that must be followed if you want come home that night. But because all of them are a part of our lives, it doesn’t make it any more terrifying.

Believe me, the danger is real. The danger is always real.

Being at work isn’t safe, Stephanie Scott proved that. Being a block from your home isn’t a sanctuary, Jill Meagher is a testament to that. Walking out the front of the school, filling up your car with petrol, being in a shopping centre or a well lit city street, it doesn’t matter because the fear is as real as the possibilities.

We need to focus on those who perpetrate these acts, not those who they harm.

Stop telling women we need to be safer when in everything we do, we are trying to live to see another day.

The post Don’t ask women to be ‘safer’, Eurydice Dixon is all of us appeared first on The Big Smoke.

We might have recently lost Mirka Mora, but to me, she is inexorably linked to the past, and the memories of home that never waver.

If I close my eyes, I can smell the briny air skimming on the Saint Kilda Pier.

It’s a Sunday in 1994, and I am balancing on the cement barriers that separate the fishermen from the tourists and rollerbladers.

I am about to be gifted a strawberry milkshake whilst looking for penguins, even though I am told they are sleeping.

After walking up the esplanade admiring the shells with glued googly-eyes, and with wind chimes painting the air with sound, I see a new addition to my weekend journeys. I stand on a raised mosaic platform, perfectly whimsical, colourful and familiar.

It’s Mirka Mora’s map of St Kilda, and to this day, when I think of my home, I see this exact map.

Mirko Mora’s mosaic on the Esplanade at St Kilda

At eight, I became fascinated with expression through artwork (of all forms). It is, in so many ways, the purest and most human way to release those feelings that are oftentimes impossible to articulate.

Life as we know it is brightened by the voices of our creative elders, and the beauty of art is that it remains, in a profound and tangible way, long after the artists leave us, allowing the echoes of fingerprints and colour choices, sketches and movement, to be felt.

Being a granddaughter of the Holocaust, I often ruminate on how many brilliant visionaries have been taken too early by war – but perhaps it is also the war that allows the visions.

Mirka Mora was one of the lucky ones.

She was silently removed from the horrors of Nazi Europe, which she experienced in its darkest form, and as a young bride, landed on the shores of Melbourne.

She said herself that she “missed Auschwitz by one day”, as her family were in-amongst the first of the Jews to be deported from their homes.

If it were not for her father, who fought in the French resistance alongside her future husband, Gorges, she would have been another number.

Also on The Big Smoke

• Artist Interview: Juliette Furio
• Artist Interview: Aly Firbank
• Artist Interview: Rhian Saunders – Music is for you, the audience

Australia in the 1950s, with its ochre tones, shrub mythology and unrealised architecture, would have been a strange place to arrive to – especially from a post-war city with nothing but an innate need to express.

Mirka somehow found ways to do so outside of the frivolous noise – and perhaps her sensuous skills as a mime, performer and artist were distilled, which allowed her to give the world a perfect vision.

She was an originator of Australian Bohemia, a gift to society we often take for granted.

Her woven tones, shapes and forms could not be made by anyone else; her unique countercultural perspective created something brilliant and alive.

I heard her speak on a few occasions that in so many ways, once the art she makes leaves her, it belongs to the world.

And there was her gift: to paint the streets with happiness through colour and clay. To bring life to brick and mortar, and wine and food to the lips of the singing, swinging masses. To inspire a community to feel joy in-amongst pain. To be a woman in the world and to celebrate the feminine form and expression that exists in the space between our breasts. To laugh. To find happiness and hope.

Mirka – wherever you are, I hope you are flashing your bottom at the serious faces that will miss the gift you gave to the world.

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