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.

Backwater

The rivalry (or whatever else you may like to call it) between SA and Victoria has surfaced again following a claim by Victorian Premier Brumby that Adelaide is a "backwater".

Mr Brumby told a Melbourne media conference yesterday that unless Victoria pushed ahead with a $1 billion plan to deepen the channel in Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne would end up like Adelaide."If you want Melbourne to be a backwater, if you want Melbourne eventually to be an Adelaide – as someone described it the other day – well, don't do this project, and Melbourne will just die a slow death," he said.The major dredging project has caused deep division in Melbourne because of environmental concerns.

Mr Rann said Victoria's insecurity stemmed from losing the $6 billion Air Warfare Destroyer contract to South Australia."The Victorians are becoming more defensive because the centre of gravity for Australia's economic future is now firmly based in states like West Australia, Queensland and South Australia," he said."They (Victoria) announced plans to dredge their port back in early 2002, but they haven't got cracking with it," he said."They've been talking about it year after year while we got on with it, and we did it without stuffing up the environment. "We've overcome that here, and that's why we've been winning defence projects and have got a multimillion-dollar mining boom on the way."

Mr Rann may have a point about the port dredging, but he's being more than a bit disingenuous by arguing on economic grounds and also by linking SA with WA and Queensland, two states whose economies have been flourishing for several years now.

Adelaide and SA haven't had an economy to compare with Melbourne and Victoria's for more than 150 years, so if we judge by that criterion we are a backwater. But if you look at qualitative factors, eg the kind of things mentioned in a recent New York Times travel article, then you get a different perspective.

The Advertiser/ Adelaide Now's Rex Jory occasionally writes pieces which capture the flavour of the city. He first drew my attention to the NYT piece in his column last week , though he's also well aware of the less sophisticated side of Adelaide, as this from last year shows.

It's interesting that Mr Brumby's comments have elicited considerable support, if the online poll conducted by Adelaide Now/ The Advertiser is any guide.

Dr Johnson once said "the noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England". Perhaps for many people the same holds true about the road to Melbourne (or beyond). My children, who have both moved away from Adelaide (I understand and support why they've done so) would probably concur with Mr Brumby.

I'm sure that Mr Rann, despite his knee jerking boosterism, understands this as well, even though he's chosen to respond with a frontal counter attack when a guerilla style hit and run would have made his point more effectively. And, if he's serious about doing something tangible to ameliorate the backwater perception he could commit to electrifying our major suburban railways. This, after all, has been done in Perth and Brisbane, the other two cities which he believes comprise, with Adelaide, "the centre of gravity for Australia's economic future".

Australia Day

Australia Day fell on Saturday, when it was commemorated in many ways and in many places throughout the country. Monday was a public holiday, a second bite of the Australia Day cherry without many of the formalities.

I was at the Test on Saturday (in fact on all five days) and was interested to see that a public citizenship ceremony was conducted during the cricket lunch interval. The MC was Mr Tom Georganas, Federal ALP MP for Hindmarsh; also present were Ms Kate Ellis, Federal Minister for Youth and Sport, and Dr Jane Lomax Smith, State Education Minister. After the singing of the national anthem (for the second time in three days, this time by a young woman who pronounced the first word of the title "Advarnce " which we in SA prefer to the Eastern staters' short a-ed "Advants"), the citizenship ceremony took place.

Then Mr Georganas invited those Australians present (by no means all the crowd, as many were lunching elsewhere) to participate in a "voluntary" re-affirmation of their loyalty to Australia. He explained that doing so would have no legal effect, but I wondered whether this is setting a precedent for future sporting and other events.

In the Fin Review last weekend Mark Latham's piece "Aussie Aussie Aussie - shush, shush, shush" (p 90, not online but summarised here) lamented "the squeezing the fun and irreverence out of the Australian way of life":

A day at the cricket, one of our great national sporting institutions, is indicative of this process. There are now more than 230 security cameras at the SCG targeting large groups of spectators and people in "unusual costumes". Even the security officers have admitted that it resembles a scene from Big Brother. They are relentless in their surveillance, looking for "anyone turning their heads from the game - they are usually guilty of something."

Will it be long before the security cameras begin identifying those who turn their heads away from official ceremonies, or perhaps even don't join in with sufficient gusto? I pondered this as I continued to eat my lunch during the reaffirmation. Most of those around me did likewise but, as Latham and Rex Jory, writing in similar vein in The Advertiser/Adelaide Now on Tuesday, implied, who knows how this might develop? At least I know Don Bradman's average.





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A modern model for a modern Governor-General

The Australian hasn't missed a chance to rub salt into the Fairfax media's wounds for the latter's suggestion that Kym Beazley had been sounded out about becoming Australia's next Governor General.


Its coverage includes an editorial today "Reality check time: His or Her Excellency should be non-divisive", a pot stirring piece of whimsy by Philip Adams "If Bomber won't do, let's have Germaine", and a more solemn backgrounder by Greg Craven."The importance of being discreet and charming".

While there are many, maybe even a majority of, Australians who, like me, support a republic, some of them, also like me, recognise that the formal transition won't happen automatically given all the current constitutional obstacles that need to be overcome. We are IMO nevertheless a de facto republic now, albeit one which operates within the framework of a constitutional monarchy. In preparing the way for a formal transition to a republic it is important that the office of Governor-General not be devalued or downgraded.

The 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government still casts a shadow over Australian political life, at least among those, like me, whose memories stretch back that far. In theory it could be, given the appropriate (or inappropriate) circumstances, repeated. Not that I'd wish it but I do accept that there needs to be a head of state, and preferably (with due deference to the quite different US system) when where the functions of head of state and head of government are, as they are now, separate. I'm reasonably open minded about this but haven't seen any strong arguments in favour of an alternative system.

Governor General Jeffery has, as far as I can tell, performed his official duties with dignified competence, even though Mr Howard did much to sideline him eg by taking a lot of the limelight at the Commonwealth Games, Rugby World Cup and no doubt other events as well.

Mr Rudd is reputed to be something of a control freak so we may not expect a much different attitude from him, but it will be interesting to see who he appoints to succeed General Jeffery.

My suggestion is Marie Bashir the current governor of NSW. Why? Recently I heard her interviewed by Jim Maxwell on ABC radio during a cricket match broadcast. She struck me as someone who clearly met Greg Craven's criteria of discretion and charm, but also as someone who recognised that, while her role was essentially ceremonial, she had the power to seek clarification of some of the matters which came before her.

PS Also in today's Australian
Tom Frame writes about the NSW "Rum Rebellion" of 1808. "Who'll watch guardians when ex-officers rule us?" he asks. An interesting historical reminder and one with, as Frame points out, much contemporary relevance elsewhere in the world today.

More on water

• The Adelaide Nowwebsite now features a separate section on our water crisis (not an overstatement). It features links to Advertiser and Sunday Mail stories together with information about weather, reservoir levels, water restrictions etc.

• Yesterday I heard an interesting item on ABC RN's summer repeats of http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/stories/2008/2124282.htm">Counterpoint re the increase in bottled water consumption (chiefly in the USA , but largely applicable here I'm sure). For more see http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/features-message-in-a-bottle.html">this.