Political capital

Hypocrisy galore in Holgate-gate

It’s not hard to feel a measure of sympathy for Christine Holgate, who in the last six months has transitioned from sacked-in-disgrace Australia Post CEO to star recruit for the women’s movement that blossomed after the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins.

Holgate was ousted from her position after Victorian Labor Senator Kimberly Kitching asked questions in a Senate estimates hearing about $20,000 spent on Cartier watches for four senior AusPost executives in 2018. Scott Morrison promptly sacked Holgate.

Let’s be clear: Holgate did no wrong. Australia Post may be owned by the Australian Government, but these days it operates in the marketplace on commercial principles. The taxpayer is much better off for the corporatisation of AusPost. Taxpayer subsidies have ended, and profits earned by efficient operation come back to the public coffers as dividends.

Rewarding good performance by senior employees with bonuses or other non-cash benefits is common practice in corporate Australia. By the standards of large corporations, the four AusPost executives earned those watches. Corporations that don’t recognise superlative performance by their staff risk losing them to other corporations.

From this perspective, the Prime Minister did not cover himself in glory by moving so swiftly against the beleaguered AusPost CEO. But the Federal Opposition has nothing to be proud of either.

Let’s do a hypothetical. Let’s imagine that, instead of sacking Holgate, Scott Morrison had defended her and supported her decision to gift the watches to the executives. Do we imagine that ALP politicians in that scenario would have clapped him on the back, congratulating him for upholding the values of the marketplace?

Of course they wouldn’t. They would have ridiculed and castigated the government for wasting money on gold watches when householders are struggling to meet mortgage repayments. Morrison’s attack on Holgate, just an hour or so after the revelations in the estimates committee, was a tactical move designed to suck the oxygen out of what would otherwise have been a major ALP attack on government wastefulness.

On the day she was sacked, Christine Holgate had no champions in the Federal Opposition. The postal workers union – an affiliate of the Labor Party – welcomed her sacking. While Senator Kitching later defended her questions about the watches by saying she was upholding “accountability and transparency”, on the day itself her questions had been dripping with disapproval. This, for example: “Do you, Ms Holgate, consider it appropriate to use taxpayers’ money to buy Cartier watches for already highly remunerated Australia Post executives?”

So the spectacle of Ms Holgate being lionised by Labor and crossbench MPs when she returned to the Senate committee last week was rich in irony. As one commentator put it, Senator Kitching had transformed herself from Holgate’s assassin to her supporter.

Would this stunning turnaround have occurred if Holgate had been a man? I doubt it. The temptation to use her in the current narrative about Morrison’s insensitivity towards women was just too great. The hypocrisy of all this was but a minor inconvenience.

WITH GARY HUMPHRIES AO, FORMER ACT CHIEF MINISTER AND ACT SENATOR

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Canberra rents hit record high

Canberra remains the most expensive capital city in the country to rent, with median rent sitting at $600 per week for houses and $500 for units.

Data released by Domain last week reveals rent in the ACT is at an all-time high, with median rent for houses 3.4% higher than this time last year. Unit rents are up by just over 4%.

“We’re continuing to see rents that are putting a lot of pressure on household budgets,” said Joel Dignam, executive director of renters’ advocacy group, Better Renting.

Renters in the ACT are paying around $50 more per week for a house than renters in Sydney and Darwin – the two next most expensive cities to rent in.

For units, it’s $30 more and $70 more than Sydney and Darwin respectively. Tenants in the “renter’s market” that is Melbourne can expect to pay $170 less per week for a house and $125 less for a unit than ACT renters.

The vacancy rate for ACT rentals has also fallen to 0.7%, forcing fierce competition for available properties.

Domain’s senior research analyst Nicola Powell said tenants in the ACT have been operating in a “landlord’s market” for a while now, with landlords likely becoming accustomed to the competition to secure a tenancy.

“Tenants will find the task of securing a lease harder, as the estimated number of vacant rentals continues to decline, 14% lower than last year,” Dr Powell said.

Mr Dignam said this means people who are having trouble getting accepted for a rental property and those on lower incomes have far fewer options in the competitive market.

“Not everyone in Canberra is on a high income,” he said.

“There are plenty of people who can afford to be spending $300 a week for a room … but those people are competing for most of the same properties as people who are earning much less and where those high rents are meaning that people are going without food.”

Rents have also risen in outer-city regions, as demand for properties continues to increase.

- Libby Kimber

Cheap Rex flights begin

The first Rex flight from Sydney to Canberra touched down just before 8am on Monday 19 April – one of seven return flights each weekday.

Australia’s largest independent regional and domestic airline, Rex announced last month that it would begin flights on the route with $99 fares.

Rex deputy chairman, the Hon. John Sharp AM, said the new Saab 340 service heralded the return of competition on the route and the introduction of more affordable fares – less than a third of the average price of a Qantas ticket for the same route.

According to the public policy evaluation and consultancy firm, Urbis, the Rex flights will directly boost the ACT economy by nearly $200 million each year, and create 300 new jobs.

The flights represent an extra 160,000 seats a year and are expected to grow the total market by stimulating new leisure and tourism traffic and sparking a surge in travellers visiting friends and family.

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BentSpoke head brewer on the craft beer boom

Canberra brewery BentSpoke is hard pressed to keep up with demand, having grown over 30% in the past three years, winning awards in national and international arenas and exploding in the wholesale market.

When co-founder and head brewer, Richard Watkins, started out in the industry 25 years ago, there were seven small breweries in Australia.

Today, there are over 700 craft breweries occupying about 7% of the beer market – maybe 8% since COVID-19 – and Watkins is leading the pack as the nation’s longest serving craft brewer.

BentSpoke began as a brewpub in Braddon in 2014, before expanding two years later to open its cannery in Mitchell, now shipping wholesale quantities across the country.

This year, the brewery won first place in Australia’s biggest craft beer poll for its floral Crankshaft IPA, and demand is such that the cannery in Mitchell needs upgrades for the business to continue growing.

“We’re actually getting to the point where we can’t really make enough beer here, so we’re looking at putting in a faster packaging line,” he said. “It’s a little bit scary because obviously we’re still not out of COVID.”

According to Watkins, if the craft brewing industry Down Under were to grow to 10% of the market share, “there wouldn’t be enough stainless steel tanks in Australia” to brew that extra 2% in growth.

For those looking to enter the industry, he’s a “really big believer” that there are only two successful craft brewing models: start with a small retail brewpub or a large wholesale cannery.

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of breweries in Australia that are sitting in the middle,” Watkins said.

In his opinion, breweries that tried to “be a bit of both” retail and wholesale from the get-go were impeded by the cost of labour, which is why many struggled to grow or become a national brand.

Currently, a Small Brewers Rebate Scheme allows eligible brewers to claim a refund of 60% of excise duty paid per annum, up to a cap of $100,000.

A pre-Budget submission by the Independent Brewers Association called for the cap to be raised to $350,000.

Watkins said he was concerned a bigger excise rebate may motivate people to set up new breweries for the wrong reasons.

“We’ve got a lot of passionate business owners who really believe in brewing really good quality craft beer, and we don’t want to see that ethos change in our industry.”

He suggested tighter controls around how the extra cash could be spent.

“We don’t want to see people setting up breweries to try and make money, because they’re not doing it for the love of it, and craft beer is about the love of it,” Watkins said. “If you don’t love what you do, you shouldn’t be doing it.”

The BentSpoke cannery began operations in Mitchell in 2016, two years after the Braddon brewpub opened.

- Rosa Ritchie

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Club celebrates 60 years on the right track

When Canberra Bushwalking Club (CBC) was founded in 1961, its first members paid five shillings to join a group of like-minded people who loved being outdoors.

CBC family walks coordinator and longterm member, Linda Groom, says she moved to Canberra for work and gained an instant social circle by signing up.

“There were all these people, all under 35, not terribly rich – so we went around in battered old cars … doing a lot of bushwalking.”

These days, details of upcoming walks are published online, embedded with maps and extensive activity descriptions; leaders use GPS to navigate, and walkers have access to hightech gear.

But when the club first started there were no such things and gear was basic.

“We just wore long socks!” Linda laughs.

Upcoming walks were advertised with oneliners, like this 1964 description of a weekend of “snow caving/igloo building” in the Snowy Mountains: “Solve your own housing problem, cheap blocks with short leases”.

Celebrating its 60th birthday this year, Linda says the club doesn’t lack long-term members.

“There are quite a few, and maybe 10 years ago we said, ‘Well, I mean that’s great for keeping the memory and the experience there, but it’s not great for the future of the club’.”

Organisers made a conscious effort to attract younger members, with initiatives like Linda’s family walks, affectionately dubbed ‘Toddler Toddles’ – miniature exploratory courses, with rocks to conquer, interesting gullies and fantastic trees to climb.

“And pretty much always, the toddlers outfox me in some way!” she laughs. “Watching them invent their own version of the bush, that’s really fun.”

Best of all, the plan to attract younger members is working.

“We’re now getting people in the 25 to 45 age group, and they’re bringing in their friends.”

Not all CBC outings are a walk in the park, and Linda says it is a group leader’s responsibility to ensure that everyone who is signed up for a walk will be able to manage it.

Her sense of adventure is obvious as she recounts crawling through a blackberry hedge via a wombat hole to re-fill water bottles on a recent trip to Flea Creek.

Although COVID-19 caused the club to cancel walks for a few months last year, it only heightened interest.

CBC president Diana Terry says CBC experienced a huge spike in membership enquiries in 2020.

As time marches on, so too does CBC, with no sign of stopping.

“I think the club will still be here in a few centuries,” Linda says. - Rosa Ritchie Read an extended version at canberraweekly.com.au

Canberra Bushwalking Club members (back) Darren Robinson with sons Joshua and Lucas, Rob Horsfield, with (front) Jenny Horsfield and Linda Groom.

Belconnen Osteopathy advertising moment

Belconnen Osteopathy cares for your mind, body and soul

Focusing on caring for Canberrans of all ages, Belconnen Osteopathy has officially opened at the Belconnen Fresh Food Markets.

Specialising in visceral manipulation, cranial osteopathy (“craniosacral”), soft tissue techniques, spinal and joints manipulation and dry needling, the new clinic offers a range of services to suit the needs of everyone with its holistic approach.

Owner and osteopath Dr Patricia Ortiz says “it’s important to look at the whole person” when assisting with recovery – which is why her approach is not one size fits all.

“What I do is not purely a biomechanical approach, I incorporate many concepts, therefore I work very holistically. I am also very intuitive, and I combine evidence-based assessments with my intuition to understand what the best approach for each person is,” Dr Ortiz says.

Osteopathy, a type of manual medicine that emphasises the relationship between all the tissues and systems of the body and how everything is connected, can address many conditions such as muscle and joint pain, headaches, arthritis and much more. Osteopaths are AHPRA registered health care practitioners.

Dr Ortiz works with the musculoskeletal system to help with a wider range of disorders. For instance, the visceral manipulation can help not only with conditions such as constipation, IBS, digestive issues, endometriosis, and overactive bladder, but working on the ligaments and connective tissues in the abdominal cavity may also help with back pain, hip tightness, shoulder pain, and more.

“I am also very interested in childhood trauma because it affects the body … people with childhood trauma will have more probability to have some health problems and several issues.

“Osteopaths may not necessarily address mental conditions directly, but we can help indirectly by working with and through the musculoskeletal system to support the recovery of the whole person,” Dr Ortiz says.

Patients don’t need a referral to book an appointment; they can book directly on her website [www. belconnenosteopathy.com.au]. They can also get a CDM plan from their GP, which gives a Medicare rebate for five visits. For people with private health insurance, it’s possible to get a rebate claimed on the spot.

In addition, Dr Ortiz is fluent in English, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian.

Located inside “Being in Health” above Audika at the Belconnen Fresh Food Markets, the clinic is a calming space where patients can get the best care to suit their health needs. For more information, visit belconnenosteopathy.com.au Level 1, Unit 1, 17 Market Street, Belconnen E: belconnenosteopathy@gmail.com M: 0466 416 249

Belconnen Osteopathy owner and osteopath Dr Patricia Ortiz is passionate about caring for the minds, bodies and souls of all Canberrans.

Upali Kariyawasam has created a menagerie of sculptures in his backyard after needing a creative outlet during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: Kerrie Brewer.

Retired chef’s creative journey from ice carvings to garden art

Over one year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the world, forcing any people to stay home and exercise their creativity to have some fun.

For Weston Creek resident, Upali Kariyawasam, creativity has always been a part of his life, but the pandemic enabled him to explore his artistic side as he created unique garden sculptures to brighten his backyard.

Mr Kariyawasam’s creative journey started in the kitchen when, at the age of 24, he moved from Sri Lanka to London, where he trained in cooking European cuisine. With more than 40 years’ experience cooking all over the world, he still loves being in the kitchen, cooking delicious feasts for family and friends.

“I had two restaurants in the heart of London,” he said.

During his career, Mr Kariyawasam was invited to Buckingham Palace twice, was named the “MasterChef of Sri Lanka” and worked at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, having immigrated to Australia in the late 1980s.

He created his first cement sculpture, a dolphin that once decorated the entryway of his home, “a long time ago”. His passion for sculpting began when he learnt how to carve ice sculptures in London via his colleague, a breakfast chef from Japan.

“I was head chef those days and I thought I must go and sit with him ... he was so talented, so I learnt from watching him.

“Then when I came to this country, one guy who was the head chef at the Tuggeranong Vikings Club, he said ‘could you do a butter carving?’ Then I made a Viking into a butter carving and that went well,” Mr Kariyawasam said.

When the pandemic hit last year, he began to make more garden sculptures as a creative outlet. A lion, elephant, kangaroo and an octopus on the roof are just some of the art pieces decorating the backyard, while a bust of his father and a statue of Sir Don Bradman sit near his workshop.

Mr Kariyawasam makes the sculptures using chicken wire, cement and hessian.

While his backyard is already brimming with art, he has no plans to stop.

“It’s just a bit of fun,” he smiled. - Erin Cross Find an extended version of this story at canberraweekly.com.au