Bewitched & Bedevilled: Women Write the Gillard Years - Review

While I was visiting the library recently, I saw this book on the "new books" stand. I was instantly attracted to it, given that I have a great deal of difficultly understand the public reaction to her time as Prime Minister. The book features a collection of essay from women about Gillard. The book certainly does reinforce Gillard's comment that her gender 'doesn't explain everything, it doesn't explain nothing - it explains some things. And it is for the nation to think in a sophisticated way about those shades of grey.'

Emily Maguire's essay, explores #everydaysexism.  I was challenged by this essay, perhaps more so than I would have been in the past. As a father, I am responsible for how my son views and treats people and responsible for teaching him how he should treat women - so "the standard I  am prepared to walk past matters". And this is why I have been sharing a number of pieces around #yesallwomen, partly as a reminder to myself.

Tanya Plibersek's essay is a great exploration from a member of the ALP about the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years.  It is such a shame that Gillard was not able to lead a united party - she faced a divided party and divided house and inspite of both she was able to pass some ambitious & needed reform.

The book contains transcripts of the former PM's 'Misogyny' speech & the lecture given by Dr Anne Summers - Her Rights at Work (detailing some of the former PM's treatment - which I see as a must read).

Worth noting that - The Hon Clive Palmer MP's comments about Peta Credlin were out of line - and were also condemned by the ALP, and Palmer has apologised for them.

Whether or not you are, or were, a fan of former Prime Minister, the collection is worth reading. It provides a great exploration of attitudes to women in power. I am looking forward to reading Gillard's autobiography which is due out later this year (also on my reading list is Rob Oakeshot's book)

Recollections of a bleeding heart...

Tonight I went to hear Don Watson give the 2011 National Biography Award Lecture, about his biography of former Prime Minister Paul Keating "Recollections of a Bleeding Heart", which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. The book is based on diaries kept during Watson's time as Keating's speechwriter and advisor. I haven't read it yet, but after tonight, I'd definitely recommend it.

Some points that I jotted down during his talk.

• Vsion doesn't win elections, the current Australia is one without a vision or narrative,
• Polls tie you to the immediate and the present, not what the future can be,
• With the defeat of Keating, Australian politics lost "language"
• Governing is about leading and changing public opinion, not just listening to polls; we have lost the language of change and leadership
• speech-writers - the work of the author & speaker, the author writes the words and convictions of the speaker (and the speaker brings life to these words)
• speech writing is about the putting people into the story of the nation

Ater tonight, I am missing Keating, would love see more people with his vision in politics; and I'm missing Watson too, would love to have more people like him working and writing for our politicians.

Sideshow - Lindsay Tanner

Just finished reading Lindsay Tanner's book Sideshow; about the relationship between journalists politicians and the rest of us. To sum up, I don't think that there's anything much in the book that will surprise anyone given then 2010 election campaign; which could be summed up as spin, slogans without substance, remember "moving forward to stop the boats and end the waste".

 Tanner doesn't blame the journalists or absolve the politicians and does also point the finger at us. There is definitely something that resonates when he suggests that facts and figures aren't really the most effective for changing peoples opinions,instead arguments which hit on the emotions are going to be more effective. The book is worth a read if you're keen to explore the relationship between media and politics. We are crying out for politicians who will lead with ideas, not follow the polls or focus groups.

Stories without borders..

This is a powerful and moving piece on the immigration debate  (which we're not having & no-one's leading).

Stories Without Borders (Maria Tumarkin) 

Here is a boat, made of wood, nine metres by two and a half, with forty people (babies too) crammed onto it, that no-one wishes was turned back. Read more  > > > (via Meanjin)

On the reading list

Just finished...

:: Paul Roos and Tania Roos book Sport is Life, Life as Sport  -  the central comment of the book is to talk about life through illustrations from sport. A little side-bar here - its great to see the AFL season start, and I guess a draw was a good result.

:: The Shallows - Nicholas Carr; the often quoted book about how the internet is changing the way we think. He writes about how our brain is changed through how we use it; and how the way we use technology also reshapes the nature of our brain. Its quite a worthwhile read.  Its also worthwhile looking at his blog.

Just started..

Malcolm Fraser's political memoirs. I have to admit that I haven't done a lot of Australian history, so I thought I'd start by reading Malcolm Fraser's memoirs as I found a lot of his comments fascinating (see the University of Melbourne's collection of his papers.

Next on the list are the memiors of John Howard and Peter Costello, and then Peter Fitzsimon's biography of Kim Beazley.

despair for Australian politics ...

Fascinating pieces on the state of Australian politics here and here

Australia and refugees

It's no crime to seek a better life... (interesting piece on Australia and refugees). I think that its time to rethink our policies (not a fan of Tony or Julia on this at the moment).

Some more random pieces

• Dispelling Myths about 'Boat People (from the CASE Blog, and links to this interview on the UNSW website)
• Brooke Fraser ... Something in the water - the base line is reminiscent of Albertine; will have to listen to it a little more to understand what she is singing about. The album "Flags" is out on October 12, and listen online now.
• via NPR listen to the Swell Season (from the Newport Folk Festival) and Arcade Fire's 'The Suburbs')

on the poll

Interesting piece by CPX's Director John Dickson in the SMH on the Christian vote, here's a four key points:

• First, a Christian vote is a vote for others. It is basic to the Christian outlook that life is to be devoted to the good of others before ourselves.
• Second, the moral health of our community will provide another motivation for the Christian vote.
• Third, Christians will think of promoting the Christian message.
• Finally, Christians will mainly have in mind the poor and powerless.

I also found this point interesting: Christians should be willing to change voting patterns after Christian reflection on particular policies. A believer who cannot imagine voting for the ''other side'' has either determined that only one party aligns with the will of God or, more likely, is more attached to their cultural context than to the wisdom of scripture.

Will be interesting to see what debate this stirs in tomorrows paper.

++++

Wednesday's paper had a great piece on 15 questions which won't be addressed by the election ... well worth a read.

August 21 ...

It's on (a five week campaign)  ... here's hoping its a positive campaign about what the Australia become..  but we'll see.

The key slogan for the Labour Party is: "Moving forward together to a Stronger and Sustainable Australia".
[Gillard's speech] - via SBS

The key slogan for the Liberal/Nationals is "A great people deserve a great Government not a Gillard Government."
[Abbot's Speech] via SBS

So at the moment, it looks like the Coalition will run a negative campaign -- you can't trust this government; will Gillard serve a full term, and the Labour party (at the moment at least) is talking about moving forward.

the octopus and August 21

Given this article (sadly Paul was unavailable) it looks like Labour and Gillard will win the election. So, can we spare the expense and not worry about the next five weeks and just move forward? ;-)

an election on the horizon...

Here's an interesting piece by Ross Gittins wondering why Gillard has to run to the poll. Especially given the start Gillard has made. But its also might be totally irrelevant given the news headlines today.

Time to seek the lost?

Greg Clarke and Simon Smart (CPX) on refugees. interesting read. Need to take some to think about the issue some more.

Some random shorts..

On the world cup -- one of the good pieces about the world cup was how the players who were featured in the Nike advertisement all had "ordinary" world cup...  I'm hoping for a Netherlands v Spain final given that neither Spain or the Netherlands have won the world cup yet..

On the next challenge for Julia Gilliard -- how will she look at the issue of refugees

On faith and politics ... how to churches understand government ... and how the government understand churches (in the UK)

Petro Georgiou's Valedictory speech

I have been impressed with Petro Georgiou, the Liberal member for Kooyong, particularly how the took on the rights of refugees during the final years of Howard's Government. Unfortunately he is not standing this
year, but his final speech is great reading. (Here's how the SMH reported it).

weekend reading ...

While reading the Spectrum last weekend during I noticed an interesting article on evil by Terry Eagleton. Here's a couple of links to look over; I think, the fascination of evil was reprinted in the SMH.

:: The Fascination of Evil
:: Of men and monsters

Last week I also went to a lecture at UNSW on refugees - (here's the audio). It was quite sad to realise that just after I starting working at UNSW (in 2001), I sat in the same room listening to Ruddock outline the government's policy on border protection. During the lecture last week, I heard the Director of the Centre for Refugee Research, Eileen Pittaway, tell a different story from her experience in refugee camps. It was quite disheartening to realise how little has changed, and perhaps the obligation we have to do more to protect those who have displaced; and move away from the dialogue based in fear, and the language of queue jumpers, and 'illegal immigrants'. Perhaps the only resolution is the unachievable 'peace', but that doesn't mean we shouldn't advocate for change now.

Church and state

There was an interesting article in The Australian today about politicians and faith. The article was in response to the question of whether politcians need to 'leave their faith at the door of parliament once they are elected'.

I'm not sure that it is a realistic request - in the sense that what we believe is a significant part of our character, and our view of things. Perhaps theres something in Rawls argument of public reason, that arguments should be made which would appeal to those who are religious and those who are not. But is governing and legislating morality something the church should be concerned with.

Q&A

I watched the Q&A tonight, where a large group of 18-25 year olds, were given the opportunity to ask questions of the PM. There was something inspiring about this, our elected leader, standing in a room, respondng to questions. A two way conversation between the elected leader, and the electors is a great exchange of information. I'm not sure whether it would impact or influence the PM's mind, but the dicusssion is valuable, hopefully the young people in the room left feeling their PM was accessible. Flowing from this - I'd love to see a situation like in the US, where the President took questions from the opposition. I don't know how or even if it would work, but the example of dialogue it would set if it did, would be great.

revolving doors...

Its amazing to realise, but NSW has had five four Premiers in 5 years, and with a inevitable cabinet reshuffle, I think it will be six treasurers in five years. The best comment I've seen was that:

"a Party that [clearly] cannot govern itself, cannot govern a state".

I'm not sure if its constitutional valid, but it would have been wonderful if as well as making the speech he made yesterday, Rees went to the Governor and forced an election.

Given the last 6 months, its no certainity that Kennelly will be there on election day.

God and the state ..

Last Monday night my new local member; Joe Hockey gave a fascinating address (at the Sydney Institute, http://www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au/ ) Describing his view on how faith and politcs relate. Read it here.

One of the things he said which intrigued me was that the "Christian pie is not getting bigger; rather how it is sliced up is changing". I am intrigued why some the churches that are growing - what characteristics do they have.. The two reasons which quite often come to my mind are the community aspect; maybe tied to community is belonging. (and I'm always wondering how much church growth is believers "shopping around", and how many 'believers' chose not to identify as part of "a church" ). I have read somewhere (but can't recall where) that the Evangelical churchs are growing.

The other point made by Hockey which resonated with me, was his view leaders who are fake; will be shown to be without values.


While I wasn't in agreement with all of his views, it was interesting hearing another one of our politicians talk about 'their faith'.

Update: Interesting to read this article by the Dean of Sydney about Hockey's speech.