When the news broke on August 31 1997 that Princess Diana had died, Mrs. W then Miss B and I were standing in my parents' house glued to an old Phillips television furniture piece that still required a regular visit from the repairman.
It was utterly devastating. My father wept openly. And when he did the same while watching her funeral on the same television, it was as intriguing as it was sad.
He continued, until his death, to hold Queen Elizabeth partially responsible. It was complicated.
Long before a Jack Jumper was a franchise and when teams of the black biting ants were more likely to require an EpiPen than hoops, Launceston's YMCA provided the boards for junior basketball.
Primary school basketball was huge in the 1980s with kids introduced by a small number of teachers who held a love of the game.
The frustration is palpable. The stress is unfathomable, and the result will be demoralised teachers who keep on keeping on for the kids at the expense of their mental and physical health.
The situation is unsustainable and if nothing significant changes it will worsen in winter.
Expert tradespeople were employed across Tasmania to jimmy windows that were screwed shut due to chilly air in the depths of winter.
Pop icon Madonna wrote in the introduction to her song, Sorry:
Je suis désolé
Lo siento
Ik ben droevig
Sono spiacente
Perdname
In the end it doesn't matter which language you choose, if you can lessen a victim-survivor's suffering and grief and assist their recovery, just take personal responsibility and offer a timely and sincere apology "without explanation or excuse".
If I was a betting man and odds were available, there would be coin to be made on the date of Australia Day changing during my lifetime.
Of course, I have hopes for a long life, but I do not study the form placing me at a disadvantage when predicting worthwhile punting opportunities, however, I feel it in my bones.
This is not a sign of disrespect, rather, Australia Day is a relatively new concept and the young people of our nation, our next leaders, are much better at acknowledging the past.
Leave it out! Use idioms to press your case, but do not take us for idiots. The Tasmanian public is thankful that politicians are asking questions and holding the state and federal governments to account.
We have stakeholders in empty bars telling us not to overreact as restaurants close due to a lack of staff.
There are cafes and eateries resorting to takeaway service because they dare not risk exposure.
Thankfully, the Premier has chosen to be more circumspect, prefacing most sentences with, "I don't wish to sugar coat it".
Fifteen years ago, the saying, ‘boys will be boys’ frightened me – it still does. The saying was employed in a way that was not about climbing trees, or ruling the neighborhood on your BMX; rather, it was a justification for hard-drinking and womanising and belting the living suitcases out of each other when fuelled by alcohol. It was at the pub, or on a sporting field where tightly enclosed groups of blokes developed aggressiveness far beyond ‘white-line fever’.
When I spoke up about this, arguing against the timeworn justification, I was often met, ironically, with anger and sighs of frustration as my view was considered destructive to the confidence of males and the reason why we were having so many problems with discipline in our schools and communities…
Blaming teachers, which is essentially what the South Australian Labor policy is about, is seductive for government's because it presents as a budget-friendly solution to the problem of Australia's sliding student performance. The "teacher quality" debate conveniently takes the focus from cuts and underfunding that would not be countenanced by any other public service. For example, when was the last time you heard "doctor quality" as the reason for ramping at emergency departments of our hospitals?
Or what about a bad fire season being blamed on "firefighter quality"?
As Southern Tasmania sadly descended into a three-day lock-down, I was reminded of one positive of the lock-down during 2020 – the opportunity to slow down.
The news of stay-at-home orders travelled fast with grocery store aisles filling quickly as non-perishables and the need to stock up on an endless supply of toilet paper like it was the height of a gastro outbreak were rapidly depleted across local stores.
The long lines of traffic waiting to park coupled with trolleys tailgating checkout queues and the resultant empty shelves were predictable, but also sad and difficult to watch as the reality of heading back into lock-down hit the punters of Southern Tasmania long before the Premier made his announcement.
No one should be naive enough to believe that some young people between the ages of 12 and 19 are incapable of making criminal decisions that deserve consequence. Yet, research tells us that youth incarceration simplistically delivers one certainty - an undergraduate transition program to adult prison.
Premier Peter Gutwein deserves credit for making the decision, following revelations heard during Budget Estimates and during a private meeting. Back at the start of the century Attorney General Judy Jackson made a very similar decision. Willow Court was closed in 2000, and The Royal Derwent Hospital soon followed ceasing operation 2001. They were once described as insane or mental asylums or even further back, lunatic asylums.
Nonetheless, the industry faces a complicated future.
They acknowledge the challenges ahead.
As a result of the book, they now have reputational damage to manage, and a well-oiled environment machine, thirsty to mobilise, that may impact their operations.
From the dam wars to the forestry wars and now, potentially, the salmon wars, this Tasmanian conflict is a well-trodden path and if not handled properly will lead to one certainty – bitter divisions that last for generations.
In Tasmania, our public schools will not reach 100 per cent of the SRS under the bilateral agreement signed by state and federal Liberal governments until 2027.
Every independent and Catholic school across Tasmania is already at that standard.
More than 70 per cent of Tasmanian students attend public schools, yet these schools attract 10 per cent less funding than their private counterparts.
Can you even begin to imagine if private hospitals received 10 per cent more funding year on year than the public system?
It was The Examiner's Twitter handle that informed me a car had been stolen. And not just any car. The Northern Suburbs Community Centre car used to assist people to learn how to drive had been pinched - again.
Obviously, feeling ashamed for the behaviour of my fellow humans did not return the car, nor did it solve the problems we collectively face as a society.
And although there must be consequences because criminal behaviour deserves to be punished, gaol time or youth detention will not stop people stealing cars.
Flanagan explained his rationale when he told a recent audience at Launceston's Star Théâtre, as part of the Tamar Valley Writers Festival via livestream from the Sydney Writers’ Festival, that it was to protect the book from legal suppression from the salmon industry.
And sadly, we will now walk a well-trodden path with Tasmania divided by another industry, and it will not be long before we are at war again.
Flanagan expanded that the hydro and forestry wars were due to a power imbalance in the Tasmanian community, and a desire to search for space - a culture inspired by First Nations people.
There appears little room left in the Australian political landscape for big picture thinking. And with recent and historical events and disclosures uncovering a cretinous and perverted culture that we often surmised existed in the corridors of power, big picture moments of transformation will be left to artists - not the so-called thinkers who gather in Canberra to shout at each other.
By example, transitioning from a Constitutional Monarchy to a Constitutional Republic will occur in my lifetime. However, it appears that the current political class do not have the conviction, nor the following to bring this much needed reform to fruition, at least anytime soon.
What is it with some Australian political leaders appearing more concerned with the world’s most powerful leader being banned from the social media platform Twitter rather than to call him out for inciting violence?
Further, why is it so difficult to condemn the President of the United States for the role he played in encouraging his American ‘patriots’ who he ‘loves’ to act deliberately and unlawfully?
A celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can be traced back to the 1920's and 30's when the Australian Aborigines Progressive Association and the Australian Aborigines League began raising awareness and promoting rights.
Gradually, the notion of celebration has grown with Torres Strait Islanders added to the NADOC acronym in 1991 to recognise their contribution as original owners.
Like reconciliation, acceptance of NAIDOC Week has been a slow process
We then had the Prime Minister and Minister Peter Dutton, both former Immigration Ministers, calling for compassion and humanity after a daughter was denied entry to Queensland to attend her father's funeral due to, ironically, tough border controls as a result of COVID-19.
Their plea for common sense was warranted, but not without a level of hypocrisy.
There has been no better example of a debate that requires compassion than that of asylum seekers and refugees across the world.
Twenty-twenty is akin to wartime where we ask leaders to bring us together, to help them fight the good fight. From bushfires at the start of the year to a health pandemic and subsequent global recession, it is difficult to recall a time where references to British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill and Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin, have been more prevalent. But it makes sense.
In a crisis we need a familiar face to reassure us that everything will be ok. To look us in the eye and, with compassion, tell us what we don’t want to hear.
