If you can't stand the heat, get out of Adelaide

The average maximum temperature in Adelaide in March is 26 degrees C. Not exactly autumnal, but not high summer either.

For the last 15 days we've been experiencing an official heatwave, where each day the maximum temperature has exceeded 35 deg. The Bureau of Meteorology official figures are available on its website , but I'll reproduce them here:

Observations are from Kent Town, about 2 km east of the city centre.

Date	Day	Temps		Rain	Evap	Sun	Max wind gust			9 am						3 pm
		Min	Max				Dir	Spd	Time	Temp	RH	Cld	Dir	Spd	MSLP	Temp	RH	Cld	Dir	Spd	MSLP
		°C	°C	mm	mm	hours	km/h		local	°C	%	8th	km/h		hPa	°C	%	8th	km/h		hPa
1	Sa	13.5	25.7	0			ESE	46	02:12	17.2	37		E	9	1022.6	24.4	25		SW	17	1020.4
2	Su	13.3	31.1	0		11.4	NE	30	08:08	23.5	16		NE	15	1021.6	30.1	9		W	19	1019.9
3	Mo	15.6	35.4	0	19.6	11.0				25.6	16		NNE	7	1020.0	34.3	6		W	19	1017.5
4	Tu	23.5	35.7		11.8	10.4				27.0	16		WSW	4	1019.4	34.5	12		WSW	13	1017.7
5	We	24.4	37.9	0	10.6	11.2	ESE	35	23:04	28.4	27		NNE	13	1021.1	37.3	9		WSW	15	1019.3
6	Th	19.6	38.5	0	7.2	11.2	SW	30	14:11	26.5	28		ENE	4	1022.2	38.0	8		WSW	17	1020.6
7	Fr	19.9	39.0	0	8.2		WNW	24	11:52	26.5	39		Calm		1022.3	37.3	11		W	15	1020.4
8	Sa	21.1	39.8	0			E	26	20:59	26.8	33		Calm		1021.1	38.9	9		SW	20	1018.9
9	Su	25.4	40.2	0			E	37	00:56	31.5	15		NNE	11	1020.9	39.5	9		WSW	19	1018.7
10	Mo	22.4	40.0	0		11.4	WNW	31	13:01	28.6	26		NNE	4	1019.8	38.0	12		WSW	19	1018.7
11	Tu	22.0	38.4	0	34.4	11.1	WSW	30	13:41	26.2	45		N	6	1020.6	35.9	23		SW	19	1018.1
12	We	22.4	39.2	0	7.8	9.4	WSW	37	14:33	25.7	44		SSW	6	1018.6	38.3	13		WNW	17	1015.9
13	Th	25.0	39.7	0	8.0	10.8	NW	52	12:52	31.4	21		NNE	9	1014.3	38.8	9		NW	30	1011.6
14	Fr	30.2	38.6	0	15.8		WNW	56	12:07	31.2	15		N	20	1012.9	38.1	8		NW	30	1012.4
15	Sa	23.6	38.3	0			NW	31	12:51	26.1	42		NNE	4	1015.9	36.0	17		WNW	15	1014.5
16	Su	22.5	39.9	0		10.9	WNW	31	11:18	28.5	34		NE	7	1015.9	39.7	11		WSW	17	1013.9
17	Mo	25.9		0	22.8					32.0	19		NE	9	1014.7	39.6	10		WNW	19	1011.9
Statistics for the first 17 days of March 2008
Mean		21.8	37.3		14.6	10.9				27.2	27			7	1019.1	36.4	11			18	1017.1
Lowest		13.3	25.7	0	7.2	9.4				17.2	15		Calm		1012.9	24.4	6		WSW	13	1011.6
Highest		30.2	40.2	0	34.4	11.4	WNW	56		32.0	45		N	20	1022.6	39.7	25		NW	30	1020.6
Total				0.0	146.2	108.8

Those who measure heatwaves by the Fahrenheit scale will note that the 100 deg F (37.9 deg C) mark has been passed for the last 13 consecutive days. This is a record for an Australian capital city, breaking Perth's 11 day spell of 35+ deg C days set some years ago.

Despite the consistently high temperatures the days have not been identical: most have been sunny and with relatively moderate winds, but there have been some overcast ones where the sun hasn't shone through for long (or at all).

Today's max was 40.5 deg, but a cool change is predicted for tomorrow with a max in the 20s. At 10.45pm the temperature was, according to the BOM website, 28.5 deg, so I hope the prediction comes true. But if it doesn't I, like so many other people, will maintain (or try to maintain) a stoic fortitude in the face of the climatic adversity.

How well have people coped? i think that two things have helped: (1) widespread air conditioning , particularly in public places, and (2) no (or very few) power cuts despite the system being placed under considerable strain.

My house is made of brick and stone, which means that once it heats up it stays heated up. Opening windows at night has sometimes helped a little but, as the BOM stats show, the minimum temp hasn't always dropped very much. I have one airconditioned room, to which I've retreated at times and a cellar, where I've slept very comfortably for a few nights, and to where I'm about to adjourn. i hope to wake up tomorrow to a cool(er), crisp morning much more typical of mid-March in Adelaide.

Clyde Cameron

Clyde Cameron has died aged 95. He was at one time a shearer, then became a union official, then an MP and subsequently a minister in the Whitlam government.

His obituary in The Australian, written by Mungo McCallum, is worth reading.

I recall seeing him only once, one night many years ago, at a sparsely attended street campaign meeting (perhaps the closest thing to this nowadays would be the well orchestrated walk through a shopping mall). I don't remember him speaking, just that he, a federal politician, took the trouble to campaign for a Labor candidate in a safe Liberal seat.

By today's standards an old style Labor man (there were few women active in the party for much of his career) yet one who apparently made friends across the political divide. Today on TV I saw Alexander Downer and Brendan Nelson speak positively about him in parliament during a discussion (there was no debate) on a condolence motion. Downer's tribute was especially fulsome: it doesn't seem to have been reported online, though the ABC report mentions both the PM and Leader of the Opposition's contributions. It will be published in Hansard in due course.

Update 19 March

I was wrong about street corner political meetings being a thing of the past. Today I received a letter from my federal MP Ms Kate Ellis (who is also Minister for Sport) inviting me to a street meeting in a week or so. I now recall that she's done this before.

Yesterday's Age had a detailed obituary of Cameron.

...and now HMAS Sydney

The wreck of HMAS Sydney has been found , reports the ABC website.

News.com.au has further details:

The wreckage of HMAS Sydney, sunk off the West Australian coast during World War II, has been found, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced today.

The ship's entire crew of 645 went down with the ship in the Indian Ocean and its location has been a mystery for 66 years.

The wreckage of a German ship - the merchant raider Kormoran - believed to have sunk the Sydney was found at the weekend in waters about 800km north of Perth.

Both sites are likely to be protected as war graves. Mr Rudd said Environment Minister Peter Garrett was in the process of issuing an interim protection declaration in relation to both ships.

"The environment minister will be issuing a full statement a bit later in the day, but I'm advised it provides immediate and early protection of the sites against any unauthorised intrusion," he said.

Mr Rudd said the Sydney was found yesterday, about 22km from the Kormoran.

"I'm advised that the HMAS Sydney was found some 12 nautical miles from the Kormoran, some eight nautical miles from the scene of the principal battle site and at a depth of some 2470 metres," Mr Rudd said.

Hull intact

Mr Rudd said the hull has been found largely intact. But Chairman of the Finding Sydney Foundation, Ted Graham, said there were no plans to raise the ships.

"For a start they're in very deep water, and secondly, from my point of view, and from the foundation's point of view they contain the remains of many people, and our view is firmly that they should be left alone," he said.

Mr Rudd said it was important to understand that the Sydney was the tomb of 645 Australian sailors and air force members.

"The good thing about Australians is we treat our war dead with respect and these war dead will be treated with complete respect.'

Closure

The Prime Minister said the Federal Government hoped the find would bring some closure for the families of the 645 sailors who went down with the ship.

He said the Australian Defence Force would be contacting family members.

"They will be using their own communications systems to make sure that the surviving family members of the crew of HMAS Sydney are informed of this discovery as soon as is practically possible."

Chief of the Royal Australian Navy, Vice Admiral Russ Shalders, said it was a very historic day.

Mystery

"For 66 years, this nation has wondered where the Sydney was and what occurred to her, we've uncovered the first part of that mystery ... the next part of the mystery, of course, is what happened.

"It will take some time to try to ascertain exactly what happened that day over 66 years ago."

Admiral Shalders said there had always been an HMAS Sydney in the Australian navy.

"It's an historic name and we've added to the history of that name over the weekend."

Standby for more information, interpretation and speculation.

Wreck of Kormoran found

Today the Prime Minister has announced that the wreck of the Kormoran has been found :

Mr Rudd says it is a promising outcome which could lead to the discovery of HMAS Sydney.

"Finding the Kormoran is one big step forward," he said.

"Of course that does not mean that the search has yet found the Sydney itself but it does play one significant step closer.

"All of us concerned about this great ship and those of us who are concerned about what happened to the 645 brave souls who went down with her, have all these years been wondering where she lay and what in the end actually happened."

An unfortunate choice of words?

In today's Crikey Keysar Trad , who frequently features in the media commenting on behalf of Muslims, asks "Can we please stop talking about Muslims?" He's referring to a federal government proposal to create a seven person Muslim reference group to replace a larger one set up by the previous government.

Well there you have it. Laurie Ferguson has found the solution to the problem, the more than $440 million that the previous government wasted on the "Muslim Community Reference Group" can now be spent on a smaller group made up of seven that includes academics, business and sports people. Problem solved!

This hyped approach tells people that "a lot of Muslim youth in my electorate that are totally irreligious, or its marginal to their existence and they don't spend a lot of time thinking about the Koran."

Firstly, what problem are you trying to resolve? What are the objectives of the group? Surely starting with the group before stating its objectives is like putting the cart before the horse. I won’t buy the old story of "factors contributing to the radicalisation of young Muslims", this issue has already been the subject of research and literature and has been done to death.

The last three words may not be the most constructive way to express disagreement in the current environment.

New sins for our times

Today's Australian prints ( p3) an abridged version of a piece by Richard Owen in The Times about the Vatican's revised list of deadly sins.

The Oz, as it often does with items from The Thunderer, has cut some of the more interesting parts, including a list of "seven holy virtues" (chastity, abstinence, temperance, diligence, patience, kindness and humility) and the punishments for the original seven deadly sins:

Pride: Broken on the wheel
Envy : Put in freezing water
Gluttony: Forced to eat rats, toads, and snakes
Lust : Smothered in fire and brimstone
Anger: Dismembered alive
Greed : Put in cauldrons of boiling oil
Sloth : Thrown in snake pits

Source: The Picture Book of Devils, Demons and Witchcraft; Ernst and Johanna Lehner.

Do these "punishments", I wonder, not count as torture because they have, or may have had, ecclesiastical imprimatur? I'm surprised we've not heard this argument, casuistical though it is, advanced by the US authorities.

University expertise used to help identify unknown sailor

Since my recent post about the search for HMAS Sydney, which was scheduled to begin off the WA coast a few days ago, I've heard nothing.

On Friday ABC TV (aka ABC1)'s Stateline SA edition reported that more advanced techniques are now being used to try to identify the unknown sailor (generally assumed to be from the Sydney) whose remains had been discovered on Christmas Island a couple of years ago. The original shortlist of three has not produced a result, so a further 13 names on the list of 118 possibles will now be investigated at Adelaide University's Ancient DNA lab. If no identification can be made then it isn't clear whether the quest will be continued.

All this comes at a time when the wreck of HMS Hunter, a Royal Navy destroyer lost in Norwegian waters in 1940, has been discovered, but not disturbed. The BBC and Norway Post websites have more details.

"A good hearted little town, not overburdened with imagination..."

What I think of Adelaide now is pretty much what I have thought of Adelaide every time I've come here, that it is a good-hearted little town not over-burdened with imagination. Much of it is very like the seaside Melbourne I grew up in, only more so.

Thus spake Germaine Greer about Adelaide in today's Sunday Mail/ Adelaide Now.

Many of her comments were about the environment:

The architecture of the upmarket beachfront homes at Henley Beach and Glenelg is just as bad as that of seaside suburbs anywhere in Australia, but there are signs of greater awareness in the treatment of the Adelaide foreshore than I can recall seeing elsewhere.

I grew up dodging flashers who lurked amid the dunes and behind bushes; in Adelaide walkways have been built and everybody has to keep off the fragile coastal vegetation and use them.

The dunes are still infested with exotic weeds, marram grass and gazanias, that will not leave of their own accord as the sexual predators have had to. As much of a worry are the exotics that nobody is making any move to extirpate, chief among them, the Norfolk Island pine.

There are more Norfolk Island pines on the Adelaide foreshore than anywhere else in the world, including Norfolk Island.

Every year thousands more are planted – which is what I mean by lack of imagination. There are alternatives, melaleucas and casuarinas that would help to clothe naked sidewalks and car parks, making beautiful shapes that will filter the breeze.

Some city fathers have dared to plant Turkey palms on their roadsides and central reservations. These are no less exotic than the Norfolk Island pines but they are more unusual, and in Adelaide's semi-desert conditions they do well, better than the araucarias.

The valiant efforts being made to clothe with native vegetation the banks of the Torrens and the batters of the storm drains are producing results. As I drove west along the A6 (Sir Donald Bradman Drive) a blue heron kept pace with me and native ducks dabbled in the fast-drying mud.

Nevertheless, environmental catastrophe looms over Adelaide. The increasing salinity of the Coorong has already turned it into a Dead Sea. The Hindmarsh Bridge of Sighs will soon straddle no water whatsoever. Already the draught is so shallow that the big yachts cannot use the waterway and smaller boats moored midstream are careened twice a day.

The "Hindmarsh Bridge of Sighs" is presumably meant to be the bridge connecting Hindmarsh Island to the mainland at Goolwa. The River Torrens, which is spanned by several bridges in the suburb of Hindmarsh, is also in a sad state: when I last went by several weeks ago there was no water there for much of its course through the western suburbs. Near the city centre a weir preserves what is really an artificial lake, but even here algal bloom is a major problem and, despite efforts to treat it with aerating machines (like little fountains) the river/lake has been closed to boating and similar activities (it may have been reopened for the festival: I'm not sure).

Changing realities?

Nicholson's cartoon in The Weekend Australian, commenting on a report that the federal government plans to cut a $500 dollar a head payment to over 65s speaks for itself:

It's hot in March, so it must be Writers' Week

"Cooler on Monday with a maximum of 37", is the local weather forecast according to ABC News just now. I've never heard Adelaide's weather described that way before, but if the predictions for the next few days turn out to be correct then the statement will be accurate enough.

After a relatively cool February March has kicked off with a fiery vengeance. Today has been the third day on the trot where the temperature has nudged or surpassed 38 degrees, and no relief is forecast for a few more days. I'm not counting Monday's 37 as "relief", but will try to be endure whatever nature has in store for us. I'd willingly put up with a few more hot days if we could have some good soaking rain.

As always seems to happen, the hot weather has coincided with Writers' Week, an alfresco series of talks, book launches and panel discussions held in one of the greener sections of the parklands where the shade is augmented by several marquees.

Attending the whole six days requires considerable planning ( to choose the sessions which are most likely to interest you) and fortitude (to endure the heat) but it's always possible to refresh yourself at the bar and food stalls or to duck away for a while to the airconditioned State Library, Museum or Art Gallery.


The weather and other commitments precluded me from attending the whole week, but I did attend sessions on most days (today was just too hot). Here are my personal highlights:

• Ian McEwan launching Peter Carey's latest novel His Illegal Self with an elegant and succinct assessment of Carey's qualities as a writer.
  

• A panel discussion on sport with Gideon Haigh, John Harms and William McInnes.
  

• "The lure of war", a session with individual contributions from Geraldine Brooks, Richard Holmes, James Meek and Henry Reynolds
  

• Peter Godwin, a white Zimbabwean in exile (if I understood him correctly)

• A conversation between David Marr and Gideon Haigh which ranged over several topics including the Australian media and business reporting.

In the past some of the sessions have been broadcast on the ABC. I asked at the information counter if this was going to happen again but nobody there knew. Despite this I hope that as much as possible of the event is made available to a wider audience (as well as to those like me who would like to hear some of them again) .

Whose ABC (Learning Centres)?

In the last couple of days there's been a lot of discussion about the financial troubles of ABC Early Learning Centres.

There's an interesting comment in today's Crikey from Stephen Magee:

In the constant tut-tutting of the commentariat about nasty Eddy Groves, one fact is constantly overlooked: Eddy's success is a direct result of the takeover of childcare in Australia by academics and public servants. 20 or 30 years ago, childcare was a happy go lucky affair: community-run centres operating out of church halls with enthusiastic amateurs, parent volunteers and a handful of paid staff were often the norm. Then the "experts" arrived. Self-appointed public service bureaucracies began imposing heavier and heavier "standards" on child care centres. Parents were, apparently, no longer capable of deciding what was appropriate for their children -- and could not devote the long hours needed to cope with the paper-shuffling processes of accreditation. Slowly but surely, the weight of it all led to the rise of the childcare professionals and mobs like ABC. Eddy was simply meeting a need that the public service had created.

Sounds a bit simplistic but there's more than a grain of truth in his comments. They could be applied to many other activities which were previously the sole domain of the community, or non-profit sector. Over the last 20 years or so the creation of markets for such services as child care, employment services and aged care has made it harder for smaller community based groups to survive, let alone flourish. Much Government funding is now allocated after competitive tendering, which tends to advantage larger organisations, both for profit and non profit ones. There may be some advantages in this, eg economies of scale, but when big ones like ABC ELC wobble, the entire apparatus starts to look shaky. I hope this doesn't happen but would like the government to review some of the policies mentioned by Magee which have contributed to the current situation. It's too much to expect a u-turn, but maybe not too much to ask for an easing of the rigid compliance standards which favour those who have large record keeping back offices over those whose primary concern is service delivery. Sometimes small can be better.

Update 29 February

Today's Australian has a piece by Andrew Fraser "Fast Eddy hits the wall" which surveys the rise and recent troubles of ABC ELC. Extract:

There's a strong school of thought that says child care should be run as a service, not as a profit-making venture.

The industry did not traditionally evolve around margins on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. Most employees weren't keen on negotiating their contracts with an employer or negotiating a future employment path: most of them just liked looking after children.

The Australian's Elisabeth Wynhausen recorded some of the experiences of these workers: "(ABC Learning Centres) put some young childcare workers in a room with three company executives before producing the workplace agreement. Under the terms of that contract, minimum-wage employees earning about $13.30 an hour agreed to pay for their own police checks and first-aid training, and to purchase their own uniforms through the company."

Today's Crikey also recommended a piece by Ben Hills in the SMH a couple of years ago.

HMAS Sydney search resumes

In the next day or so, the long awaited search for HMAS Sydney will resume off the Western Australian coast.

ABC RN's PM had a good overview tonight, including interviews with key figures in th search. The transcript hasn't yet been posted online, but I'll link to it when it has.

News from South Australia

A few items which have caught my eye in the last day or so:

# Mr Foley's blast

Treasurer Kevin Foley has blasted South Australians as "a bunch of bloody whingers".

"This state has an exciting future and it's not, in my view, because of timid governments," he said at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia lunch.

"What laments me and laments me quite often is that here in Adelaide we are a bunch of bloody whingers, a bunch of bloody whingers."

"We might not be the sexiest and exciting Government that some people may want. But we have delivered the almost impossible – stable government."

Mr Foley said his comments were made in response to tenured academics who hung their cardigans on the back of their seats and then sat down and wondered "who can we critique today?"

Mr F's vision (read the whole piece) sounds like a number cruncher's one, which is all very well but there is more to life than a balanced budget, important though that is. Perhaps South Australians would just like to see more tangible evidence of the prosperity which the Rann-Foley government is supposed to be delivering. It's interesting that Mr F mentions prisons as an important part of his vision, but there's no indication that he's thought about why new ones might be needed.

# Bolkus denies conflict of interest

The ABC reports:

Former Labor Senator Nick Bolkus says there has been no conflict of interest in his chairmanship of the South Australian Stormwater Authority and lobbying for the Jockey Club.

Mr Bolkus has resigned from the Stormwater Authority to take up a new business opportunity.

The South Australian Jockey Club wants to sell Cheltenham Racecourse to a housing developer but some opponents believe it should be used to capture stormwater run-off.

Mr Bolkus says that has not caused a conflict of interest on his part.

"In respect of Cheltenham, for the first 20 or so months on either committee the issue didn't come up," he said.

"When it did came (sic) up in accordance with the practice we adopted, I wasn't alerted to the fact it was going to come up and in fact left the room and let the committee deliberate in accordance with the rules."

Hmm.

# No more cane toads but foxes abundant

No further cane toads have been found in suburban Mawson Lakes despite a detailed search, according to the ABC.

The Department of Land and Biodiversity has been searching for cane toads after one was found in a backyard last week.

The department's director Bill Davies says the night trapping will be called off shortly, and searches will only be conducted randomly.

"We're reasonably certain there's nothing there, so what we might do is actually pick occasions when we think the conditions might be very good for trapping and just try that," he said.

"The odd evening that's more warm and balmy are more conducive for the animals coming out."

On the other hand the Mount Barker Courier reports on an increase in fox numbers in the Adelaide Hills:

A rise in fox numbers has alarmed the region's peak environment group with 900 foxes killed on one 10ha Norton Summit property in the past six years.

Adelaide and Mt Lofty Natural Resources Management Board officer David Hughes said the fox problem in the area was "getting worse" with the animals thriving in the Hills, particularly on the urban fringe. The number of foxes in the region is impossible to accurately estimate but experts believe for every bait taken there could be as many as four foxes within a square kilometre.

Property owners are being urged to act to halt the rising menace and implement strategies to limit their numbers. Landholders Sue and Sean Delaney have had two to three baits taken every week from their property which backs onto the Morialta Conservation Park.

Unlike cane toads, foxes aren't recent arrivals here but there have been other reports of them occupying areas even closer to the city eg the Botanic Park. On walks and drives through the Adelaide Hills over the years I've occasionally seen a fox, or more often when walking, scats (droppings). Nobody seems to have much idea of what to do about them.

All bets are on

It's a concern to see that, as the ABC reports the Victorian government has approved betting on races via TV. While it's true that alternative forms of home based betting (telephone, internet) are available, and have been for some time, the gambling industry seems always to want to take a giant step forward while not really pausing, let alone taking a step backwards, to make it easier for people to bet rather than in trying to help those who become compulsive gamblers.

It also looks as if the SA government may follow in Victoria's wake. Senator-elect Xenophon has spoken out about it, quoting the Rev Tim Costello's line about being able to lose your home without leaving it.

All this comes with little notice, and only a couple of weeks after Mr Rudd expressed his concern about the ease of access to ATMs in many gambling venues. While he didn't promise to change government policy, his raising the topic is at least an indication that he may be well disposed to introducing more restrictions on gambling at some stage in the future.

In the meantime if you're so inclined and you live in Victoria, you can sit back, relax, reach for the form guide and TV remote control and place your wagers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to gambling per se but have heard too many horror stories to believe that governments should be expanding the ways in which people can gamble. Of course, those governments rely upon gambling taxes for a significant chunk of their revenue ( I think it may be about 14 - 15% in SA) so you can hardly blame them for trying to rake in more.

"The quality of travellers is better at the back end of the plane"

In The Weekend Australian former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie writes whimsically about his journey across the Pacific and the US in economy class.

Extract:

I really didn't think it was that funny to be honest but I smiled politely as I desperately tried to force my carry-on luggage into the overhead bin above seat 50H in the bowels of economy class on the Brisbane to LA flight QF175.

"What no more first or business class?" chuckled a friendly Australian of Indian descent, who seemed far too pleased with himself. The woman next to him across the aisle was even more direct: "Why are you down here?" I thought that was self-evident so I just kept smiling like some deranged idiot until the last of my luggage was finally safely in place.

But as I sat down she wouldn't let it go, "Don't ex-premiers get first and business class travel for life?" she inquired. She was about my age and pleasant enough so I ever so politely explained that ex-premiers did not get free air travel for life, secretly wishing for the first time ever that we did. But since I was the fool who had banned such travel I was in no position to complain.

"The quality of travellers is better at the back end of the plane," I stated bravely. They seemed particularly pleased with that idea and I was equally pleased they didn't ask when was the last time I travelled economy. The truth was it has been a little while since I travelled either out of the government jet or the pointy end of the plane and since their taxes had been paying for both the least I could do was to take their gentle Australian ribbing on the chin. So I did.

The pointy end of QF175 may have been full but there were plenty of spare seats where the "quality passengers" were. So my new travelling mates told me that as soon as we took off we should divide up the empty seats for maximum comfort. "We will end up with more room that those buggers in business class at a fraction of the cost," my new best mate said in his clear Australian-Indian accent. And he was right...

I must try to emulate Mr B and be more stoic about long distance flights; but it would be good to acquire the secret of how he managed to get a whole row of seats to himself on a Qantas trans-Pacific flight.

Ash Wednesday 25 years on

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Ash Wednesday fires, which burnt through large tracts of South Australia and Victoria and took many lives.

At the time I was living near the Adelaide foothills. I can still recall seeing a wall of flame advancing steadily across a hill not far away from my home. Fortunately for me and my family a cool change accompanied by a change of wind direction and some rain helped the firefighters to contain and then control the fires in the vicinity.

Much of Cleland Conservation Park, was burnt out, though the affected areas slowly regenerated in the following years (unfortunately plants like blackberries did so more rapidly than the native flora).

Today The Advertiser/Adelaide Now and The Australian both acknowledge the anniversary with their coverage . On the other hand, while tonight's ABC TV South Australian News also led with the story, the ABC website only has a brief report. I wouldn't for a moment suggest that the brevity is because the fires didn't approach Sydney.

Father of his people?

'An effort to lift South Australia's population to two million well before its target of 2050 will be led by Monsignor David Cappo" reports The Advertiser/ Adelaide Now.

Is this just an example of poor sub-editing, or is the Monsignor, who is better known in the secular world as chair of the state's Social Inclusion Board (which normally deals with matters like this), expected to lead in a literal sense?

An impressive interview

The Prime Minister appeared tonight on ABC TV's Lateline.

I thought that he spoke extremely lucidly about a number of matters, ranging from yesterday's apology (which he drafted in longhand), through future collaboration with the opposition to address pressing indigenous issues (an offer Dr Nelson can't, and mustn't, refuse) to the situation in East Timor. The transcript isn't yet up on the web but I'll link to it when it does appear.

Update 22 February

Here's the link to the transcript.

Smoky Dawson

Smoky Dawson has died. Tonight's ABC TV 7.30 Report paid a generous tribute to him, including some footage of him riding a horse, singing, reminiscing and, back in the 1950s, plugging Kellogg's products on the radio (which nowadays would have him excoriated for promoting obesity).

A brief glimpse of a poster during the program showed that he was proficient in a several fields, eg knife and axe throwing, though he was best known for his singing. He was no Slim Dusty, as much of his material( and all his attire) had an American flavour, but he could carry a tune and did so until very late in his life.

My favourite performance of his is his duet with Jimmy Barnes singing "Cold Cold Heart", the old Hank Williams song. By the time he recorded this Smoky was only up to backing Jimmy's rasping vocals, but together the pair did a good job. By agreeing to appear with Smoky Jimmy presumably wished to acknowledge Smoky's contribution to Australian popular culture.

He was 94 and is survived by his wife Dot who is , according to the 7.30 Report, 101.

Update 16 February

There are more media tributes today, including "Smoky's sunset", by music writer Iain Shedden in The Australian , the last paragraph of which is a succinct summary of his career :

Last year Dawson was honoured at his last Tamworth appearance. His plaque on the city's Galaxy of Stars promenade outside the entertainment centre marks a career spanning eight decades, that drew on vaudevillian show business traditions, cowboy pastiche and crafted storytelling as much as it did on singing and songwriting.

Sorry

Today was an important day for Australia. In Parliament House Canberra, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition expressed their apologies to the stolen generations of indigenous people.

The media, eg the ABC website, have covered today's events in great detail.

Of all the comment and analysis about the event one remains in the forefront of my mind: Noel Pearson's in yesterday's Australian. The title, "When words aren't enough" says a lot, but if you care at all about the next steps which must be taken to follow up on today's statements, I recommend that you read , and ponder, it.

Is this what we are fighting for?

The Independent (UK) has drawn attention to the plight of Sayed Pervez Kambkash:

A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country's rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years after "liberation" and under the democratic rule of the West's ally Hamid Karzai.

The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.

Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter. But a complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by religious judges without – say his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.

The Independent is launching a campaign today to secure justice for Mr Kambaksh. The UN, human rights groups, journalists' organisations and Western diplomats have urged Mr Karzai's government to intervene and free him. But the Afghan Senate passed a motion yesterday confirming the death sentence.

The MP who proposed the ruling condemning Mr Kambaksh was Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, a key ally of Mr Karzai. The Senate also attacked the international community for putting pressure on the Afghan government and urged Mr Karzai not to be influenced by outside un-Islamic views.

The newspaper has an online petition calling for the UK Foreign Office to put "all possible pressure" on the Afghan government to prevent Mr Kambaksh's execution. Click here to read and, if you see fit, to sign it.

The Independent has subsequently reported that the death penalty may not be enforced:

A ministerial aide, Najib Manalai, insisted: "I am not worried for his life. I'm sure Afghanistan's justice system will find the best way to avoid this sentence."

Some people may believe this, others will, like me, wait and see what happens. The Independent's petition has so far gathered more than 63,000 signatures which may have had some influence. In Australia we've heard little of the matter, even though we have troops there propping up defending Mr Karzai's regime.

Familiar logo in an unfamiliar place?

Taken today in Adelaide.

Mitsubishi closure confirmed

It has been confirmed that Mitsubishi's Tonsley Park plant will close at the end of March. About 1,000 workers will lose their jobs and many others in component suppliers may also do so.

This is a bleak, if hardly unexpected , day for South Australia.

There are many reasons for the closure, but I think that the principal one was the crack brained decision to develop a six cylinder car, the 380, at a time when anyone with half a brain should have been able to see that four cylinder cars were the way of the future. Even a four cylinder version of the 380 might have helped stave off today's announcement.

I hope that the state government has some contingency plans in place to assist the displaced workers to find new jobs. Mr Tom Phillips who was more than happy to take credit for the 380 (there's a photo showing this in today's Advertiser) seems to have landed on his feet. Let's hope that many others do.

Shortcomings of mental health system identified

Both The Advertiser/ Adelaide Now and the ABC have reported the findings of the coroner's inquiry into the death of an 18 year old man, who

died from a methadone overdose at the Palm Lodge supported residential care facility in College Park, in August 2003.

The 18-year-old was not prescribed methadone for his severe depression and an autopsy found it was likely he had never taken the drug before.

His body lay in his room undiscovered for up to three days after his death, prompting a call from coroner Mark Johns for a sweeping overhaul of procedures inside state-run care centres.

His father, who I know, has also made some pertinent yet dignified comments which remind us that despite all the resources devoted to mental health, the system still has major shortcomings:

while nothing could bring back his son, he said the findings were a "wake-up call" for those running the mental health system.

"I talk to other parents every day who have got kids like Tom and I think that this issue of care for 18 to 25-year-olds just cannot be ignored by the community or the people we elect," he said.

"I don't think it is a big vote winner but I talk to a lot of parents who have got kids with difficulties to varying degrees who are incredibly frustrated."

Rumours about Mitsubishi resurface while government launches tongue in cheek campaign to attract migrants

This afternoon reports that the remaining Mitsubishi motors plant in Adelaide would close soon resurfaced in public, as they have done at regular intervals for the last few years. (A couple of weeks ago I heard a gentleman bellowing this into his mobile phone in a public place).
On this occasion even Premier Rann, according to an ABC report from later tonight, seems to be expecting bad news:

South Australian Premier Mike Rann met with Mitsubishi's Australian management today and said he was told any decision on the plant's future would be based on its viability as part of a global restructure.

The state and federal governments have tipped in tens of millions of dollars in aid to help prop up the local plant over the past decade.

At the same time the SA government has, as the London Daily Mail reports (link via The Advertiser/ Adelaide Now), launched a campaign to encourage Brits to move here:

Under the headings Sod London House Prices, Screw Working in Staines, Stuff London Traffic and Bugger it, I'm off to Adelaide, the adverts promise a life in paradise.

They offer "fine weather, fine wine, fine houses, fine jobs, fine beaches and fine universities" to the students and skilled workers-such as plumbers and electricians they are hoping to attract to South Australia.

A campaign spokesman said: "It's a stand-off challenge for people to stick two fingers up to the UK and reach out for better business prospects, better health care, higher-quality education, warmer weather, lower house prices - overall a far superior way of life."

The article is accompanied by some photos which make SA, compared to a wintry UK, look attractive, though not all of them are up to date: the one of Glenelg shows an old H class tram of the class which was phased out several years ago.

Goyder's Line

The Weekend Australian Magazine published a story "Where Goyder made his mark" by Jamie Walker about the travails of farmers in the mid and upper north of South Australia.

Drought persists and there is concern that Goyder's Line is shifting southwards from the position it has held since it was first defined in the 1860s, by G W Goyder , the SA Surveyor -General of the time.

Last July, on the way home from my trip north, I travelled across some of those areas. Most of them ooked green from afar, thanks to early season rain, yet on closer inspection the ground was hard and the crops, which hadn't had the follow up rains they required, didn't look to have the makings of a bountiful harvest. Things don't seem to have changed much since then.

The print version of The Weekend Australian article is accompanied by some good illustrations: the online version (click Jamie Walker link above) has a slide show which is worth looking at. Last year ABC RN's Hindsight also broadcast a program about the line: neither transcript nor podcast is available but the program website includes an image gallery.

Comments on indigenous matters

The Weekend Australian has two good pieces on indigenous matters. The first "A symbol of intent" by Mike Steketee discusses the views of Ian Tuxworth, a former CLP (conservative) Chief Minister of the NT and resident of Tennant Creek,and Richard Court, former Liberal WA Premier, about the proposal to say sorry to Aboriginal people".

An apology is not the most important issue facing the Rudd Government. But nor should the power of symbolism be dismissed. The policies of child removal adopted throughout Australia treated indigenous people not just as bad parents but as racial inferiors. Acknowledging how mistaken this was matters. Going further through what [former WA Premier Richard]Court called a national change of heart and incorporating the oldest civilisation on earth into the Australian consciousness would be something of which we could all be proud.

Tuxworth wrote last year: "It is easy for us to see Aborigines as members of dysfunctional communities, remote skin groups or disruptive mobs hanging around in public places, with little to do but be a nuisance which offends the sensibilities of the wider community.

"In fact, they are also individuals whose beliefs, confidence and self-esteem are at such a low ebb it is going to take at least a generation to rekindle in the Aboriginal community the inner spirit that drives other Australians."

An apology can help light that flame.

The second "Standing on secret ground" by Paul Toohey asks "Is the national emergency response still an emergency?" Although Major-General Chalmers, the head of the Federal government's emergency response taskforce, says it is because the government has said it is, Toohey's response is more nuanced in places and forthright in others:

The intervention is in three stages: the current stabilisation period, which will nominally last a year and seeks to establish order through increased police presence, changes to alcohol and pornography laws, the quarantining of welfare, the gathering of population data, and explaining the intervention to residents of 73 communities and 45 town camps; part two is the longer normalisation stage, in which communities will - they hope - be provided with the services they need for good health, education and infrastructure; the final stage is the exit strategy.

The emergency response legislation will be dismantled after five years. If all goes well, not just Aborigines will know their responsibilities by that time, but the Territory and federal governments, which have long neglected Aboriginal communities, will know theirs as well.

Fears that the legislation, which allows the federal Government to control communities for the five-year period, was a disguised land grab have not been justified.

If some of the shriller opponents of the intervention were now to look more closely at what is happening, they would find the intervention is less invasive than they imagine. The Northern Territory Government, initially shocked by the emergency, then humiliated, has seen the benefits: it knows that over the five-year period will come an enormous injection of commonwealth funding to the bush. The quarantining of welfare money, or income management, is being rolled out in stages, with a sweep of central Australian communities the first to experience the regime. As of a few weeks ago, it was being introduced in one of the Territory's biggest northern communities, Wadeye. So far, Katherine, Tennant Creek and the whole of Arnhem Land are yet to be affected by the intervention at all, except for health checks. People can choose to have their welfare quarantined to their local store, which electronically manages the money for food or essentials (but not cigarettes), or, if a person wishes to spend in, say, Alice Springs, they can get a Centrelink card that works at Woolies or Kmart, but not at the bottle shop.

"There are problems with it and these are very complex things to introduce," says Chalmers. "When a problem crops up it aggravates people but people who often don't have voice (women): they know this is making a difference and money is available to be spent on children. Stores where we've introduced income management have had an increased turnover of 20-30 per cent. To me, that money that was potentially being spent on gambling or grog is now being spent on food and essentials."

If income management is implicitly discriminatory, Mavis Malbunka, 63, an emerging spokeswoman for Aboriginal women from Hermannsburg, in the centre, is prepared to overlook the fact. She has now lived with income management for close to six months. "We see the benefits," she says. "There's no money running out. Income management is a great help for Aboriginal people; in Hermannsburg I hear no complaint about income management." She says it is too early to say whether gambling has been stamped out, because there is still cash money available in the un-quarantined welfare payment.

"But I do know people are buying more food," Malbunka says. "We see income management as more safe." She witnessed the initial visit by the army and medical teams. She says an infrastructure crew is in the area talking about renovations and building improvements but, as a grandmother, she says what she really wants from the intervention is practical assistance with disciplining kids.

"Old people and family feel there's a threat coming from the children. If we hurt them, they go to police and we are charged. We are not looking to hit kids, but we want support to work with the kids. They're going over us." Her point is valid: how can you help kids, and protect them from harm, if they won't listen? Therein may be Dave Chalmers' toughest intervention challenge.

.....

Chalmers won't comment on Macklin's decision to reinstate the permit system for townships. So I will. It is a disaster. She has said keeping the permit system will keep out the pedophiles and the grog and the ganja. But aren't the pedophiles supposedly already in the communities? Wasn't that the basis of the emergency response? As for drug and ganja runners, they are not outsiders: they are Aboriginal locals, looking to make some extra money or taking in their own supply.

In its intention to reinstate the permit system, Labor is not acting in the interests of Aborigines but reaffirming Labor's strong political base in the bush. Journalists will be allowed in without permits, but so what? It isn't about journalists, it is about allowing normality to return - or begin - in the bush.

Labor's position will undermine every successful step the intervention has taken and will see, in five years' time, communities return to their rotten isolation. It should be very clear: permits will, and should, still be required for the vast Aboriginal land holdings that surround the towns. If people want cultural privacy, all that land is theirs to use. But Aborigines and whites who don't like the intervention should be able to see, by now, that it was the permit system that created the intervention. A secret world is not necessarily a sacred one.

I've quoted lengthy extracts from them, but both articles are worth reading in full.

Commissioner beleaguered

In The Weekend Australian Hedley Thomas and Cameron Stewart report that AFP Commissioner Keelty's support has vanished in the wake of his contention that the media should be gagged or at least severely restricted in its ability to report trials of terrorism suspects..

Ken McKinnon , Chairman of the Australian Press Council, puts the case against the Commissioner's views trenchantly:

Our freedoms must not be destroyed in the name of defending freedom. We have open courts so that citizens may be assured by attendance or media reports that their freedoms are being preserved. Only in the most extreme circumstances should courts be closed. The public interest is the standard by which matters investigated and reported by the media should be judged. Delaying the reporting of terrorism trials as a matter of course would be entirely against the public interest.

.....

Characteristically people in authority, ministers and commissioners alike, control sensitive information. They release what they think the public ought to be told, usually partially, from a particular point of view, and drip-fed at that. Or information is leaked to selected sympathetic journalists.

The best newspapers do not accept this as enough. Editors and journalists rightly believe it is their duty in an open society to discover the whole truth and report that to the public. That entails exploration of all sources of information, official and unofficial.

I, too, am concerned with some opinion pieces in newspapers, especially when they are at odds with what I believe. That does not mean they should not be published. And I can understand that the commissioner's onerous responsibilities are made more stressful by that kind of press analysis and criticism. But they are the necessary rules of play for commissioners and other officials. That is what democracy properly demands. Regrettably, the council has been put on notice that it is going to have to be alert to preserve those rules.

Well said. Let's hope the media continue to practice what Mr McKinnon preaches.

Innocents abroad or junketers?

Today's Crikey "Tips and rumours" section quotes an email purportedly written by someone who attended the recent G'Day USA Australia Day Ball in New York. Extract:

The Victorian and South Australian state government contingent were on a massive junket and I can't believe they had the audacity to even fly over for the event and stay at the Waldorf all at taxpayers' expense. Disgraceful.

Was this part of the high powered delegation about which I posted last month?

If so, when might SA (and Victorian) taxpayers expect to see a statement of the costs and an estimate of the benefits of the exercise?

I also hope that everyone behaved themselves, and especially that that there was no unseemly provincial backbiting about backwaters between the Victorian and South Australian delegations.