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Renovation Matters operation manager Amy Gannon, left, with owner Kim Persson.

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STORY / ‘Haz’ Burbidge-Smith

‘Haz’ hit on mountain bikes and never looked back

By Lily PASS

AFTER more than 20 years of BMX racing, Harriet (“Haz”) Burbidge-Smith,

27, was invited to experience something new.

“I spent the first years of my profes sional career doing BMX, but I got invited to a mountain bike event about four years ago, and I kind of fell in love with it, I felt like it fit my vibe better,” she says.

“So, I made the decision to switch to mountain biking, leaving all my sponsors and support from BMX, and starting fresh.”

Haz grew up in Watson, spent her whole life in Canberra, and still comes back to visit her family when she can.

“I’m mostly on the road for nine months of the year. It’s pretty hectic between March and November, and I usually spend the off-season in NZ for the mountain bike trails,” she says.

“My parents noticed that I liked rid ing from a very young age. I got into BMX riding when I was four years old.

“I don’t do BMX at all any more, it’s quite a challenge to go back to the smaller bikes and I don’t miss it. I think I still get that same enjoyment with mountain biking. I’m just stoked

ly the Crankworx world tour which is a little bit of a combination of a couple things. It’s got the head-to-head racing, and then there’s also speed and style which is a mix of both, speed and

Crankworx is a touring series of mountain bike festivals that bring together riding athletes to compete at

Haz admits she gets nervous, especially after having had her fair share

“In my BMX career, I had a bunch

of collarbone breaks, and I had both of my knees reconstructed when I was 17 or 18, which was a pretty big setback,” she says.

“In my first year of trying to take on mountain biking full time, I had a pretty bad crash in Europe and suffered some internal bleeding, lacerated my liver and had a really bad concussion. I was in hospital in the Czech Republic for about a month, and that was the same year COVID-19 happened, so it was a rough start to mountain biking.

“I think everyone worries about

hurting themselves, because if you do get injured then you can’t ride, but I guess it’s about if you’re willing to keep going.”

While she admits being slightly biased, Haz says riding in Cairns for Crankworx was a very special feeling.

“It’s a local crowd, my home crowd, and they were the craziest crowd on the tour which is really cool,” she says.

“The kids were just absolutely loving it and I think it’s such a good thing for the Australian scene, because they haven’t really had an event like that, on that level, so it’s great to see, and it was a really good week for me. I performed well so that was just an added bonus. The Cairns speed and style day was my birthday, so that was pretty special, to win gold.

“This year has been really great results wise. The three golds in the tour so far are more than I got last year combined.”

Haz says riding is everything to her right now, it’s all she thinks about.

“I should be back home in Australia around October, where I hope to host my second camp.

“Trek Momentum is a progression camp. I ran the first one last year, so we’re doing it bigger and better this time, inviting 10 to 12 girls to progress, learn new tricks and skills, and just have fun in a really chilled environment, so I’m really looking forward to that.”

David Cusack, 0435 380656

Advertising account executives: Damien Klemke, 0439 139001

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Editor: Ian Meikle, editor@citynews.com.au

Journalist: Lily Pass, lily@citynews.com.au

Arts editor: Helen Musa, helen@citynews.com.au

Production manager: Janet Ewen

Graphic Designer: Mona Ismail

Proof reader: Glenda Anderson

Distribution manager: Penny McCarroll penny@citynews.com.au

Champion mountain biker “Haz” Burbidge-Smith… “I don’t do BMX at all any more, it’s quite a challenge to go back to the Photos: Graeme Murray

Why the ACT bureaucracy is losing its humanity CANBERRA MATTERS

MEDIA and opinion writers, when criticising the government of the day, traditionally keep the focus on the politicians and not their bureaucrats.

Then there was Robodebt. The evidence to the Royal Commission clearly planted the blame on those federal coalition government politicians involved.

They enabled this nasty scheme to happen and were keen to continue with it despite reports that people were innocent, were being harmed and some committed suicide rather than deal with the harassment.

More revealing was that senior public-sector executives made questionable decisions to appease their ministers. It was as if ministers had signalled what they wished to happen and the senior executives were expected to pick up on this no matter how devastating their actions were for others.

The suspicion is that this enabling by federal ministers of their publicsector executives to do nasty things was not isolated to Robodebt.

The public sector changed during recent times due to the attitude of the previous federal governments.

After more than a decade of ACT Greenslabor governments, those questionable attitudes to decision

making have also become embedded in the ACT government and its bureaucracies.

The culture of the bureaucracy has changed in the last decade and its attitude to residents has become unacceptable. If the minister is happy with the outcome, despite any collateral damage, then all is well. How questionable decisions affect residents appear to be no longer of concern.

There are still some ACT bureaucrats who value residents’ input into the implementation of programs. However, the number of negative experiences is on the increase.

Those with experience of dealing with the ACT public sector know something changed for the worse. Senior bureaucrats are now less likely to return calls, they say one thing but

then nothing happens and they are hesitant to engage in conversations unless they have the political endorsement to do so.

Increasingly, the ACT bureaucracy is seen as having developed alternative realities within silos – their towers of opaque bureaucracies.

These unsettling circumstances hinder residents who need to relate to the ACT bureaucracy in order to address the aspirations of the residents they represent.

It is hard to fathom what senior bureaucrats were thinking when they:

• followed orders to remove the funds from the sale of public housing to assist paying for the tram;

• when they know the police are understaffed and under resourced thanks to the diversion of finances for pet projects;

• they use spin to justify that Canberra has fewer buses than

decades ago;

• they followed orders to effectively evict public housing tenants from their homes and neighbourhoods because funds had been diverted to the tram;

• the planning bureaucrats know that many developments they approved did not meet their own rules;

• and the same bureaucrats know the planning reforms are a farce given that what is proposed will be the deregulation of planning to assist developers make profits. Too many ACT bureaucrats project a disrespectful attitude towards the wellbeing of the city’s residents and their suburban environments. They would probably say, when challenged, that they were following orders and doing whatever it took to please their ministers. Not really a defence in the

21st century.

While some responsibility rests with those carrying out the actions, the accountability ultimately belongs with those enabling such a culture –the ACT Greenslabor government.

If any of the ACT Labor or ACT Greens politicians were to be confronted with this perception of their behaviour and the unsettling nature of their bureaucrats’ way of working with residents, they would certainly deny all. That would be expected as this is the way of an autocratic government – nothing to see here!

There is so much that should be discussed openly about the way the ACT government’s bureaucracy behaves towards residents with approval of their ministers.

People need to confront the reality that this Greenslabor government has built a new normal around itself in order to make questionable decisions without any fear of being held to account. These debates need to happen well before the next ACT election in October, 2024.

Too many ACT bureaucrats project a disrespectful attitude towards the wellbeing of the city’s residents and their suburban environments. They would probably say they were doing whatever it took to please their ministers. Not really a defence in the 21st century.

A tower of alternative reality, the planning directorate HQ at 480 Northbourne Avenue. Photo: Paul Costigan

‘Times’ blames costs and abandons arts reviewers

“CityNews” arts editor HELEN MUSA , a highly experienced arts journalist, reveals that “The Canberra Times” is abandoning commissioning specialist arts critics (“purely a cost issue”), preferring to assign its occasional reviewing to Citynews.com.au will be increasing its reviews.

BACK in the 1920s, there was a joke doing the rounds among Fleet Street tabloid journalists that theatre reviewing was the preserve of “the sports writer on his night off”.

Of course, over a century of expert reviewing in all the arts has followed, but now, in what seems like a flashback to the bad old days, Canberra’s daily newspaper, “The Canberra Times”, has decided to abandon commissioning specialist arts reviewers, preferring to assign its occasional reviewing to staffers.

Its contributors, many with Ph.Ds, masters and lifetime professional experience behind them, are still reeling from the decision, already foreshadowed when the paper jettisoned substantial dance and music reviewing several years ago.

Now books, fine arts, craft, photography and theatre face the same fate and as one visual arts reviewer says: “That’s very sad and disappointing news for all the local galleries and for the artists whose work they show.”

Reviewers, some of whom have attended exhibitions and performances of varying quality rain, hail or shine for more than

45 years, have been told by a section editor: “We are no longer commissioning reviews in our arts pages… this is purely a cost issue… we are still committed to covering Canberra and wider arts, as well as books and theatre, but we will be doing it mostly in house.”

As a sweetener, the reviewers were also told: “It’s obviously in no way a reflection on your reviews over the years, which we have very much enjoyed.”

It is believed that the decision has come from management, not editorial, and is based on financial considerations, with one literature reviewer told that the cost to the paper of running book reviews on a weekend was $600 of the $1000 they considered prohibitive.

While the “Times” will continue to run reviews from time to time, they will be written by in-house staff with no specialist knowledge of the art forms they are reviewing, however otherwise educated they may be.

But there is reason to think that the “Times” does not value reviewing per se

In another letter, reviewers were told: “It’s more the reviewing itself, rather than the venues and reviewers, that we’re looking over.

“In our experience (of what readers are drawn to), it’s previews of shows that draw in readers, or our news stories about an interesting aspect of a show (its premise, the artist, a particular piece) rather than reviews.”

This flies in the face of the certain knowledge that Canberra’s highly educated readership knows the difference between a preview (which even at best can incline towards positive puff) and a review, which is a critical analysis of what has happened and a record of the cultural and intellectual life of the ACT. A staff reporter will have neither the time nor the background to write a cogent analysis of a book, concert, stage show or exhibition, but Canberra is ridiculously full of people who could.

The independent advocacy forum, the Childers Group, whose mission is to promote “independence; objectivity; valuing the arts; and pride in Australia’s national capital city and the surrounding region,” has told me of its “deep concern that ‘The Canberra Times’ is no longer giving the arts the extensive coverage, especially through reviewing, that it has for decades.”

Helen Musa OAM, is the arts editor of “CityNews” and founding convener of the Canberra Critics’ Circle. She was managing editor of “Muse” arts magazine 1990-1996, and arts editor of “The Canberra Times”, 1996-2007.

Our physiotherapists work closely with our exercise physiologists and excercise scientists so if you need hydrotherapy or other exercise supports, you can keep your care all in the hands of one practice.

Linda Clee – Physiotherapist

Linda is an experienced physiotherapist having worked clinically in private practice for over 20 years, in rehabilitation settings and in community based aged care. Having owned and operated her own clinic for over 10 years, Linda offered a range of different therapy options, and has refined her skills and service offerings to ensure a functional focus to therapy; that is holistic and promotes overall wellness. A dancer in a past life, Linda loves to add a bit of fun in her programs, often throwing in rhythm and co-ordination challenges that are good for the body and the mind.

• Management of Osteoarthritis

• Falls recovery programs

• Mindfulness for chronic pain management

• Sports Injury prevention and treatment

• GLAD Program for Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis

• Strength and balance for Falls Prevention

Jacqui Couldrick – Physiotherapist

Jacqui has a particular interest in hip and knee osteoarthritis.

Jacqui delivers the GLAD program designed to reduce the need for joint replacements, or if a joint replacement is unavoidable, to prepare you thoroughly for surgery and recovery for day to day tasks. Jacqui is studying towards a PhD in the outcomes of the GLAD program.

Emil Terbio - Physiotherapist

Emil has come to Arthritis ACT highly recommended by clients he has worked with previously.

With experience in the hospital system and private practice, Emil has interests in neurology, chronic pain and sports injury management and prevention.

Emil is soccer fan and assists local clubs in his spare time on weekends.

Best give the taxpayers’ millions back, Brittany

Given what we know now compared to last year, legal affairs columnist HUGH SELBY says there’s an argument of “unjust enrichment” and that Brittany Higgins should give the taxpayers’ money back.

THANKS to the mainstream media coverage of the police investigation, the trial, the decision to not have a second trial, the Sofronoff Inquiry and the recent torrent of information, we are well placed to look both back and forward at the Brittany Higgins saga.

The looking back is to imagine what would have happened if the decision last year had been to have a second trial in which Bruce Lehrmann was the accused. This article aims to help you to make up your mind about how that would have ended.

The looking forward is to imagine how as honest, informed advisers to government, we would set out the next steps to deal with whatever payout of taxpayer funds was made to Ms Higgins. Leaving aside information kept from us

(but possibly known to some police, lawyers, and media) does the available information entail that Ms Higgins should keep or repay the settlement monies that she received?

A second trial

Remember, the prosecution must prove its case against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt.

It is not the job of the defence to prove anything in a case such as this one.

Experienced, competent police, prosecutors, and defence advocates tell their witnesses to stay well clear of media. Why? Because it creates a record that can find its way before the trial fact finder, be that 12 jurors or a judge sitting alone.

If there is such a record, then a skilled prosecutor, properly using the tests to go to trial or not, must consider whether the media reports can be dealt with in chief by “confess and avoid”,

at Stella 's Cafe

when cross-examined by the defence advocate.

A skilled defence advocate, armed with all the material now shared with us, must decide how to organise it into topics, in what order to present it, and with what tone and pace as they cross-examine.

It’s the answers, not the questions, that are the evidence for the fact finder. However, it is both the question content and the style of the question delivery that build up a feeling in the audience, as surely as film music evokes our emotions as we watch a film.

from romance it’s heroes and villains that draw us in. A criminal trial doesn’t have the energy of “Fast and Furious” or the “how-close-to-death” moments of “sniper” drama.

However, as an audience –be that as jurors or watchers in the public gallery – we are watching a high-stakes fight between a claimed heroine or hero and a possible villain. Who will wear the victim label when it’s all over?

Each of them is helped by a black-robed knight. The referee (judge), also black robed, sits above the fray.

Every person in that courtroom, including us, brings popular sentiment with them to the fight. That sentiment is the background musical score to whatever are the extra tracks played in the trial.

The background score in these trials is loud and somewhat overplayed these days. There is a catchy, hard-to-mute insistence that all complainants are victims, that all accused are villains. To victims and villains let us add “V” for vengeance.

That score can play well in public, but it can be like a scratch on a vinyl record (predigital technology) – ruining everything else that needs to be heard in a courtroom.

The defence team for a second trial now has available to them a rather large selection of materials (larger than in 2022) from which to fashion its cross examination.

Here, lacking sufficient information, I ignore any possibilities that might arise from the timing of publicity, any book deals, any assistance from an experienced media person and health issues for the complainant. We are restricted to the following, widely published information with which to build their possible cross-examination:

Complainant’s background (phase 1): a well-educated adult; well informed as to how to respond to unwanted sex: aware of 24/7 help from sexual assault centres, rape crisis service,

police, victims services; aware of a “victim centric” approach – all instantly available – all of them available whether or not the person goes forward with civil and/or criminal proceedings.

The cross examination will focus upon showing the audience that, despite all that knowledge, the complainant chose not to follow it. Moreover, it will bring out that a well-educated complainant would want to make immediate use of these confidential services to prevent an unwanted pregnancy or any sexually transmitted disease.

Complainant’s background (phase 2): a welleducated adult; well-informed as to the need to preserve evidence, especially where there is no other evidence.

The cross examination will focus upon the failure to go promptly to the nearby sexual assault centre where evidence could have been collected; the absence of any scientific evidence that would support the claims if quickly collected – referring to her body, her clothes, the sofa in the office, and possibly phone records.

Presentation of both parties: were either he or she drunk?; is there any evidence that he plied her with drinks or spiked her drink?

The cross examiner will remind everyone of the early assertions that both were drunk and that he plied her with alcohol. It will then show the video record (shown on the Channel 7 interview with Mr Lehrmann) that shows neither of them to be unsteady, and she is well able to take off, put her shoes back on and walk.

The cross examination will also go to his bank records to show that he didn’t spend much on drinks. She will be shown those records and confronted with the gap between her earlier statement/s and what these records reveal. [Whether and when these records become evidence depends on other issues that we can ignore here.]

The cross examination will draw out that as she was not drunk/hungover there was no impediment to her seeking out security staff asap and making a complaint.

The cross examiner will loop back to the failure to go to the sexual assault centre and then build on that. As she was not drunk/hungover there was no impediment to her going to the nearby hospital sexual assault centre – not necessarily to allege rape – but to take proper precautions against pregnancy and any sexually transmitted disease, which she would do if sex had occurred. That would be so whether such sex was consensual or not.

Then the cross examiner can do a dance. Not being drunk she could and should have carefully secured her clothes for later evidence assessment; not being drunk she would want to carefully keep her phone history; not being drunk, and invested in women’s rights, she would want to involve the work management team – namely the politician she served, and the chief of staff – both of whom are women.

Some will say that she was in fear of losing her job. That would have come out in her examination-in-chief by the prosecutor. It will now be taken apart.

That happens with the coup de grace, wholly in sorrow, never in anger. It would take Ms Fiona Brown’s account (shared in great detail with us in recent days) that the prosecution would have to call as evidence in their case. Let us assume that Ms Brown’s account is persuasive. Then, why did you lie about the chief of staff? Why did you lie about a person who went out of her way to help you?

It’s up to readers to decide what all this means in terms of any doubt.

Negotiated monetary settlement

For undisclosed reasons the federal government negotiated a financial settlement with the complainant shortly before Christmas.

There have been repeated media claims that the sum was around $3 million. The complainant is reported to have said it was less.

Attempts to have either party come clean as to how much was paid and why have failed.

Ms Brown’s account (in the “Weekend Australian”), coupled with material shown on Channel 7’s interview with Mr Lehrmann, call into question any factual basis for a payout.

Noting again that there may be compelling material not shared with the public, there is a need for we taxpayers to be assured that the bases leading to that payment have not been upended by the recent revelations.

If the facts, as known last year, have been upended, then the complainant and the government must consider whether all or any part of the payment would now be viewed as “unjust enrichment”.

If so, the complainant had best pay it back.

Hugh Selby’s free podcasts on “Witness Essentials” and “Advocacy in court: preparation and performance” can be heard on the best known podcast sites.

Brittany Higgins leaves the ACT Supreme Court in October.

Photo: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Maybe Albanese is playing a long game

THE longer Anthony Albanese remains in The Lodge, the more difficult it is to decide just how complete is his mastery of the prime ministerial demands.

Does he just look good compared to his awful predecessor (and his current Opposition Leader)? Or does he fulfil what a major defence contractor friend asserted confidentially last week: “Cometh the hour, cometh the man”.

All we can say for sure is that more than a year into his prime ministership he doesn’t appear to have put a foot wrong.

We can agree that he has a pretty strong team of individual ministers, starting with Penny Wong, who leads his Senate team the way Sam Kerr runs the Matilda forwards. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is one of the better economic comptrollers since Paul Keating snapped the budget reins; Don Farrell has exceeded all expectations in Trade; and Tony Burke is conducting parliamentary business with the grace and charm of an antipodean Simon Rattle.

They all work together (so far) like a team headed for the premiership, while Albo himself is leading the show in the great international councils with a natural assurance that eschews the inherent pomposity of the old (and absurd) inspection of the guards and handshakes for the cameras.

Albanese has railed against the neoliberal movement to abandon domestic manufacturing in favour of imports...

Marles promises will be effective initially 300 kilometres north of our continent… extending all the way to, say, Taiwan just in case we’re called upon to “deter” aggression in that area.

But the area of greatest surprise is the way he and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles have turned what all the defence experts expected to be his Achilles heel into a potential gold-medal winner. It is an exercise in subtlety that combines two pillars of Labor’s aspirations into one that no one expected from either man.

He is determined that we will once again be a country that makes things.

Albanese has railed against the neoliberal movement to abandon domestic manufacturing in favour of imports long before the Libs took the final decision to shut down the Australian car industry.

He is determined that we will once again be a country that makes things. But he’s not about to invest the national treasure in an industry like electric vehicles that is now fully developed elsewhere and where we lack the natural advantage of a massive home market (such as China or the US).

However, we do have access to some of the vital ingredients for high-tech industries –lithium, rare earths etcetera – and that’s an area wide open for innovation.

Combine it with our nuclear-powered submarines and the obvious next step is to enter the field of home-grown missiles, which Minister

BRIEFLY Police reveal scams

POLICE will talk about the latest scams in the community at the next lunch meeting of the Weston Creek VIEW Club at the Canberra Southern Cross Club, Woden, from 11.30am on July 4. Interested ladies and visitors are welcome. RSVP to 0408 864616 by June 29.

If so, it is a masterly exercise in misdirection. Truth is, our RAAF with its 72 F-35s (and another 28 arriving soon), its 24 Super Hornets and its amazing battlefield-controlling Growlers could successfully conduct warfare against any aggression in that zone right now. But missiles don’t have to be refuelled en route and a bellicose Opposition will applaud from the sidelines.

At the same time, of course, Albanese will be doing his level best among the AUKUS and QUAD partnerships to lower the aggressive temperature so that the research and skills gained in the high-tech arena can be translated – like NASA research – across the broad spectrum of peaceful activities.

Maybe the PM is playing a long game. He didn’t invest all those 27 years in parliament – most of it in opposition – to squander the chance to make a difference. The real surprise is the thoroughness of his planning and the depth of his reflection.

When Donald Horne coined the term “the lucky country” he was exercising his bitter powers of political irony.

Could it be that Albo is the exception that proves the rule?

robert@ robertmacklin.com

German markets

BOLD Bandannas, the Relay for Life Team, will be at the Harmonie German Club Markets raising money for cancer research, 9am-1pm, June 25. They’ll be selling their “trademark” preserves and handmade craft items, along with children’s dress-up clothes and more.

ALL LAST SEASONS STOCK HURRY

OUTDOOR PLANTS

of inspiration at the theatrette of the Australian National Botanic Gardens, from 11am on June 27.

In the talk, hosted by the Friends of Black Mountain, she will reflect on Black Mountain in the context of the federal capital site, its role in the Griffins’ design for the federal city, Weston’s revegetation process, the NCDC expansion of suburbs into its foothills, the tower and how it offers inspiration for contemporary artists.

Email your name and phone number to friendsofblackmountain@gmail.com

Antique fair treats

THE Rotary Club of Murrumbidgee Canberra will benefit from the proceeds of the Winter Antiques and Collectables Fair at Albert Hall, July 28 to 30. Up to 30 local and interstate dealers will present a blend of antiques, old-world nostalgia, books, art, jewellery, pottery, silver, bronzes, furniture, linen, glassware, gift ideas and more. Entry is $12, children under 14 free.

Black Mountain. Photo: R Purdie

Please help us protect Canberra’s kangaroos from cruelty!

This year the ACT government will slaughter more than 1042 kangaroos on six nature reserves.

The kangaroos being targeted are on Mt Ainslie, Mt Majura, Red Hill, Mulanggari Grasslands, The Pinnacle and Molonglo River Reserve (Kama section).

Environment Minister Rebecca Vassarotti is the minister responsible for a program that has already killed nearly 30,000 adult kangaroos, bludgeoned or decapitated about 10,000 pouch joeys, and orphaned thousands of older, dependent joeys.

Ms Vassarotti recently made the following claim which is worthy of the torturers employed by George Orwell’s “Ministry of Love”:

“Culling operations are undertaken with the deepest respect to the animal’s welfare and their connection with the land.” In fact, many of these kangaroos will not be killed instantly. They will die in agony. Many others, fleeing in panic, will impale themselves on barbed wire fences or collide with traffic.

Hundreds of struggling, terrified pouch young will be bludgeoned to death or decapitated. Uncounted older joeys will be orphaned to die of cold, hunger, thirst and the painful form of stress known as myopathy.

An open letter published this year by 32 ACT medical specialists describes the scale of the cruelty witnessed during last year’s slaughter. These specialists are trained in the methods of scientific evaluation, critical thinking, and empathy. They conclude:

“There is no science, no compassion, no accountability and no transparency in this annual kill – and it is time the ACT government and the Environment, Planning, Sustainable Development Directorate were called to account.”

Last year, the government was exposed as vastly overestimating the number of kangaroos on the reserves. Despite these overestimates, the number to be killed is legislated under a calculating program which

Ms Vassarotti and her predecessors claim that kangaroo grazing is a threat to other native species. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A CSIRO analysis of the government’s own data shows that kangaroos are present on Canberra reserves in numbers that actively benefit other native species.

Kangaroos have long been recognised as a keystone species – a species without which other species cannot survive.

Kangaroos are vital for ecosystems. Killing them destroys ecosystems.

A topical example of a species that cannot survive without kangaroos is the Earless Dragon who thrives in “areas with a more open structure, characterised by small patches of bare ground between the grasses and herbs”. This is exactly the kind of habitat that is maintained by kangaroo grazing.

In the absence of kangaroos the ACT reserves are now covered in head-high overgrowth. It is scarcely any wonder that the Earless Dragon has recently been promoted to the ACT’s critically endangered list.

As we move from a long, wet, high-growth period into another long, hot, dry spell, the overgrown reserves invite a repetition of the 2003 fires. Such fires would pretty much guarantee the promotion of the Earless Dragon and other species from the “critically endangered” list to the “locally extinct” list.

The government now plans to expedite its kangaroo extermination program with fertility control. Under such pressure, kangaroos will soon be following many other local species into extinction in some areas of Canberra.

Please email your objection to the cruel treatment of Canberra’s kangaroos to:

ACT Chief Minister at barr@act.gov.au

ACT Greens Leader at rattenbury@act.gov.au

ACT Environment Minister at vassarotti@act.gov.au

And contact Save Canberra’s Kangaroos at canberrakangaroos@optusnet.com.au

has been popularly dubbed Robo-kill

Authorised by Frankie Seymour on behalf of Save Canberra’s Kangaroos. PO BOX 6090 Conder ACT 2906

As the covid wave accelerates, go get vaccinated

WINTER is a time when flu and flu-like diseases flourish. This means additional challenges for our workplaces and hospitals at a time when the community is trying to make up ground after the first four covid waves. It is time to vaccinate.

The good news is that the current (or fifth) covid wave does not appear to be as significant as earlier ones. This wave has grown slowly since February and has accelerated in Canberra over the last few weeks.

However, it is difficult to ascertain the extent of the current spread of covid as governments have stopped compulsory testing and do not require reporting of positive rapid antigen tests (RAT+).

The impact of vaccination along with the number of people who have already contracted covid plays a key role in reducing the impact of this wave. However, there are still many people who are vulnerable. This includes the elderly and immunocompromised.

There is an exacerbating factor. This year the covid wave closely coincides with other respiratory infections. These include influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). The combined impact of these infectious

and hospital management.

The combined impact should be a concern for everyone. The action for individuals is very clear. Although there is no vaccination yet for RSV, vaccinations are readily available for influenza and for covid.

The advantage of these shots is not just regarding personal health. It also improves our health system as a whole, limits the spread to other people and plays a role in protecting the elderly and those who are immunocompromised.

Since 2020 there have been clear instructions from governments on actions required to avoid covid infections and what to do if the disease has been contracted. It is not so clear now. The ACT government website explains the actions appropriate for those who are working in healthcare

settings such as hospitals and agedcare facilities.

However, I was not able to locate clear instructions about ordinary people operating in their workplace. How long after a covid+ test, for example, should an individual wait before going back to work? Getting a medical certificate from a pharmacy after a RAT+ for covid seems impossible. Understandably, like pharmacists, doctors do not want covid+ patients in their surgeries. A telehealth alternative does work – but at a significant cost to the individual. The worst thing, as we learnt through the pandemic, is to “soldier on” by going to work and infecting others.

A key issue for all governments is investing in prevention. Vaccination has an important role to play in prevention and is a key component of healthy ageing. However, the current

focus remains largely on vaccination of children. Internationally, this focus needs to change to an all-of-life approach.

Most adults in Canberra have regular vaccinations against tetanus/ diphtheria and pertussis. Additionally, the HPV vaccination has been key in reducing (and hopefully eliminating in time) the spread of cervical cancer.

As the population ages, other vaccinations ought to become a fundamental element of preventive healthcare. They include vaccinations against shingles, influenza, covid and pneumococcal. Additionally, keeping up with a pertussis vaccination helps to protect newborn babies by reducing the spread of whooping cough.

Investing in vaccines saves time, money and lives and it leads to healthier, sustainable healthcare systems and communities. The challenge for governments is to encourage widespread vaccination as part of normal healthcare across the life course. The first step is to remove as many barriers as possible to make it easy to vaccinate.

It was not so long ago that the prime source of vaccination was the GP.

However, there has been a sensible transition to pharmacy for covid and influenza vaccination. Let’s hope this convenience and cost-cutting trend continues.

In making decisions about reducing barriers to vaccination, governments need to be cognisant of equity. The lowest on the socio-economic scale are statistically more vulnerable to winter (and other) infectious diseases. Government policies must consider how to reduce inequity.

Apart from improving personal health outcomes, being fully vaccinated assists in reducing the times for people waiting for elective surgery. Reducing demand on our hospitals will minimise the number of times that surgeries are postponed and improve health outcomes for many in Canberra and surrounding NSW.

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an in dependent minister for health. He has been a political columnist with “CityNews” since 2006.

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Investing in vaccines saves time, money and lives and it leads to healthier, sustainable healthcare systems and communities.

Glad you’re not here… when holidays go wrong

MY wife and I had always wanted to go to sunny Sicily, the traditional home of the Cosa Nostra and Italian TV detective Montalbano. We had the opportunity in late May to go there for eight days.

The early morning journey from Devon started badly, with all UK travel being affected by a rail strike, but fortuitously we had booked on a National Express coach, so all should have been well.

Unfortunately, it had a flat tyre near Reading, and – because of the rail strike – there was no replacement coach available, or space on other coaches heading to Heathrow.

We eventually got to Heathrow three hours later than scheduled, where we were to take another National Express coach to Gatwick airport, our point of departure for Sicily.

It took the coach more than two hours to drive the 70 kilometres from Heathrow to Gatwick North Terminal. The rail strike had resulted in the roads being gridlocked with cars.

We got to Gatwick at 9.30pm where, fortunately, we had booked an airport hotel room because our EasyJet flight was due to depart at 6.30am.

The departure part went well –apart from missing the hotel breakfast

which started at 6am and not being able to buy a newspaper (only available at the terminal after 7am).

We boarded the flight on time at 6am. The flight time to Sicily was three hours – a doddle by Australian standards.

We arrived into Catania airport, Sicily, late morning, in heavy rain and stormy weather – this was to continue for most of the next eight days, resulting in widespread flooding and transport disruption.

Towards the end of our visit, one of the highlights was going to be travelling up Mount Etna – which is still an active volcano.

When we got there, we found that travel beyond the parking lot was not being permitted because of “unusual seismic activity”. Instead, we walked around some of the lower-level craters.

We then went on to Catania, our place of departure, where we had booked rooms at the airport for two nights so we could do the one-day “Montalbano” tour. The tour takes in the areas where the TV series is filmed.

However, Sicily Grand Tours

cancelled the tour at the last minute on advice from the government about even-worse weather to come.

Not to be deterred from enjoying our last full day in “sunny” Sicily, we spent the day in downtown Catania dodging heavy rain showers.

While we were at a Lidl store, it suddenly went dark at midday. It turned out to be a volcanic dust storm from an eruption on Etna.

The fine volcanic ash grit gets everywhere, including into cameras and eyes.

Late afternoon, we made our way back to our accommodation at the airport. When we got there, we found the airport had been closed because of the fine dust in the air and on the runways. Incoming flights were being diverted to Palermo and elsewhere.

The next day we optimistically went at 9.30am to Terminal A for our scheduled 11.35am flight back to Gatwick. We saw a long queue stretching down the road outside the terminal. It turned out to be the queue for the security check. We spent more than two hours shuffling along in line. It took longer than it should have done

because of people pushing in. Italians are passive about queue jumping; Australians would have been much less tolerant.

After three hours, we finally got through security and immigration to arrive at the very crowded international holding lounge for our flight. Very little flight information was available there.

Our EasyJet flight (we later learned from the pilot) had been diverted to Palermo where the original crew ran out of flying hours and had to be replaced by another crew from Luton.

Even so, our aircraft arrived into Catania only three hours late and we departed four and a half hours late.

Inevitably, our arrival into Gatwick was similarly late, so we missed our train connections, and our train tickets would not let us through the barrier.

A sympathetic rail worker opened the barrier gates for us and let us through. We managed to get on a train to Clapham Junction, where we took the next train at 8.27 pm to Devon.

The ticket inspector on the train could have made us pay for new tickets but accepted our expired tickets.

The train stopped at all stations, and

it became clear by 11pm that it would arrive at Exeter city after the last bus had left at 11.29pm.

We therefore got off the train earlier, at Honiton, a small town closer to our destination. However, we found that at 11.30 pm in a country town on a Monday night there were no taxis or Ubers to be had. That meant staying the night if we could find somewhere open – or waiting for the first bus at 6am.

Luckily, we met a Good Samaritan in the high street who had just had a successful sea fishing trip for mackerel. He kindly offered to drive us the 20 kilometres to our destination. We finally got there around 12.30am and, despite his protestations, insisted on reimbursing him for his trouble.

There’s certainly nothing like an arduous holiday to make one appreciate being at home – and of course, the random kindness of strangers.

Clive Williams is a Canberra columnist.

We eventually got to Heathrow three hours later than scheduled, where we were to take another coach to Gatwick airport, our point of departure for Sicily…” and so everything goes south from there.

World is watching the cull with ‘deep sadness’

I READ your article about the “cull” of 1042 kangaroos and joeys started this year in six of Canberra’s reserves.

I’m writing to you from Italy. I’m one of the many passionate Australian wildlife and kangaroo lovers worldwide.

I wish to express my love and admiration for Australia’s beautiful kangaroos and especially those in Canberra. It is the dream of all tourists from overseas to come and visit Canberra and see your iconic kangaroos happy and healthy in their beautiful land where they belong. When I dream of visiting Australia and Canberrra, my first thoughts are the kangaroos!

I am very sad and scared knowing that every year since 2009, the ACT government proceeds with the “culling” for the “management” of the numbers of kangaroos in Canberra’s nature reserves “necessary” to preserve the “grassy layer” and the species that live there.

I would like to appeal on behalf of all international tourists to Rebecca Vassarotti MLA and to all ACT ministers and the Canberra government: Don’t you understand that the annual killing of kangaroos in Canberra reserves is a shame for Canberra and for Australia in front of the world? I/we worldwide beg you to stop the slaughter immediately.

The world is watching with deep sadness and upset.

Paola Torti, Castelnuovo Scrivia, Italy

Culling via a computer program ‘appalling’

THE most egregious thing about the ACT government’s kangaroo killing program is its Nature Conservation (Eastern Grey Kangaroo) Conservation Culling Calculator, dubbed Robo-kill by people who care about biodiversity and the wellbeing of animals on ACT reserves.

Robo-kill is a desktop calculating program that, with enforcement legislatively required, determines how many kangaroos are to be slaughtered on ACT reserves every year.

It does so on the basis of three assumptions, all of which are demonstrably wrong.

First, the calculator’s assumption regarding the numbers of kangaroos that it claims are ecologically desirable per hectare has been debunked by the CSIRO on the basis of the ACT government’s own data.

Secondly, the calculator’s kangaroo population estimates have been revealed, by numerous, systematic, scientific, independent, direct counts, to be vastly exaggerated.

Thirdly, the calculator’s assumption of the maximum kangaroo population growth rate is three times higher than the highest biologically possible population growth rate for Eastern Grey Kangaroos in the wild. Under natural conditions, kangaroo growth rates do not “grow” at all. They fluctuate in equilibrium with the condition of their environment.

The notion that the lives of thousands of sentient beings should be blasted and bludgeoned away on the say-so of a

computer program is appalling. When the computer program is wrong on every count, it is unforgivable.

Frankie Seymour, Queanbeyan

Re-think this slaughter of innocent kangaroos

A GREAT joy in my life is to walk on Red Hill and see the unique and beautiful kangaroos. Many diplomats and overseas visitors over the years have said the same to me.

Since urban development and roads surround the reserve, I fear that the kangaroo population will get so low that they may never recover. The grass is currently nearly a metre high so over-grazing is not an issue.

I am asking the ACT government to halt and re-think this slaughter of innocent Australian wildlife on Red Hill Nature Reserve now.

Peter Johnson, via email

Fire event preparations well underway

I SEE that preparations for the next big ACT fire event (like the one in 2002-3) are well underway.

Older readers may remember that in 2002-3, four people were killed by the fires, more than 435 people were injured and there were 5000 evacuations. About 160,000 hectares were burnt which equated to almost 70 per cent of the ACT’s pasture, forests and nature parks including Namadgi National Park, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and all government

pine forest west of the Murrumbidgee River Stromlo pine plantation.

Oh yes. And the little skinks and other creepy-crawlies whose salvation the proponents of said Orwellian “conservation cull” claim it to be all about, went up in flames as well; as they did in the recent burn-offs of the understorey vegetation in parks and reserves that the Orwellian cull, for which the shooters will be paid around $400,000 by the ACT government to carry out, is purported to be about “conserving”.

The kangaroos would do that for free. They are our friends, not our enemies.

Ian MacDougall, Farrer

Stop the cull for an independent inquiry

THE ACT government’s counting of kangaroos lacks credibility and the “program” requires transparency.

My daughter has only just turned three and loves to go up the hill to see kangaroos, but after last year’s culI they are much more difficult to find.

It’s extremely concerning that the seriously flawed method of counting used and continuous fertility control will mean they no longer exist on the reserves in the ACT in a few years or less.

This year on Red Hill they are about to kill 500 kangaroos plus the joeys that die as a result of having their little heads bashed plus the babies that die from the cold or stress escaping after their mum got shot.

The rubbery numbers are more than enough reason to immediately stop the cull until an independent review of the kangaroo management program and its impacts on ACT’s native flora and fauna, including the accurate kangaroo population, has been conducted.

Alex Kucharska, via email

Stop the cull and count the kangaroos properly

WITH the commencement of the kangaroo cull on Red Hill, Save Canberra’s Kangaroo Group conducted a count across the whole reserve, through blackberry infested scrub, gullies and hills, finding only 380 kangaroos on the whole reserve.

The ACT government asserts there are 1748 on that reserve, with 520 plus their “in-pouch” joeys to be killed over the coming weeks.

Walkers were aghast to learn what the government was proposing, many saying: “But there are hardly any left after they culled last year”. They were even more aghast to hear the fate of the joeys, a fact of which they were totally unaware.

With such a serious discrepancy between the group’s count across the whole reserve, and the government’s office-modelled count, we call on Minister Vassarotti to stop the cull immediately and allow a full and independent inquiry into all the underlying premises and science the government claims support the cull.

Jennifer Macdougall, Farrer

LETTERS

It’s official, we now live under totalitarian regime

WE no longer live in a democracy.

That the ACT government can forcefully acquire a well-run hospital, without consultation and at lightning speed, with the aid of the court system means that we no longer have rule of law in this country.

The ACT government just disregarded a contract with 74 years left to run because it suited them. The whole situation is disgrace ful. Who is next? Will it be your business?

This means that our democratic system, where contracts mean something and are upheld by an unbiased court system, no longer exists. It is official. We now live under a totalitarian regime.

Rachael Namo, via email

Avoiding scrutiny erodes public trust

WHEN a government actively avoids scrutiny regarding the takeover of Calvary Hospital, it undermines the principles of transparency, accountability, and democratic rights.

When a government actively works to avoid this scrutiny, it raises questions about the motives behind the takeover and erodes public trust.

Furthermore, the acquisition of Calvary Hospital, without proper scrutiny, can lead to negative consequences for both the hospital staff and the community it serves.

It is important to involve all relevant stakeholders, such as healthcare professionals, patients, and local residents, in decision-making processes that affect them directly.

By avoiding scrutiny, the government denies these individuals the opportunity to voice their concerns, provide valuable input, and hold decision-makers accountable.

The trampling of democratic rights in this scenario highlights a disregard for the principles of participatory democracy and the importance of an informed citizenry.

When a government actively avoids scrutiny in the takeover of Calvary Hospital, it not only undermines the principles of transparency and accountability, but also infringes upon the democratic rights of its citizens.

Errol Good, Macgregor

Why no public hospital in Gungahlin?

THE Barr/Rattenbury government must think the Canberra population are idiots. Maybe

that’s why they foisted the new hospital plans and Calvary takeover on us, so we would not have time to argue.

The article in “Our CBR” states the new hospital will be built on “the current Calvary Public Hospital site in Bruce”.

Does this mean the whole of the hospital will be taken out of action while it is being built? The ACT already has the reputation of the worst health system in Australia. Why do they not build it in, say, Gungahlin?

Vi Evans via email

The bogong moths could outlast us

VI Evans (Letters, CN June 8) has a distaste for bogong moths. So do I, but our local First Australians of past millennia would hardly agree.

Vi goes on to assert that without population controls of some sort, the planet could be overrun with bogongs and all sorts of nasty creatures.

In one sense Vi is right, but she doesn’t mention the creatures that are the cause of even worse problems.

It’s unchecked human population growth brought about through centuries of religion and survival-inspired multi-childbirths.

The overall world population is decreasing, but only slightly, too slowly and not everywhere. We’re still suffering the hangover of the “populate or perish” syndrome.

The reality is, unless we urgently develop sustainable global population policies to

cover the expected decline of world food production due to the extremes of climate change, we will only accelerate the fast approaching existential threat to all life on earth and humans may be among the first to go. Indeed, the bogong moths could outlast us.

Eric Hunter, Cook

We need a look at land use

LEON Arundell (CN June 15) in suggesting I have overstated the importance of public transport, correctly argues the potential of increasing car occupancy in reducing emissions should be considered.

It is one of a number of complementary strategies needing assessment as to their effectiveness in reducing car trips. Others include employment dispersal, reducing parking supply, increasing parking charges, additional transit lanes, autonomous cars and improved cycle and pedestrian infrastructure.

What is needed is an independent and comprehensive review of Canberra’s land use and transport strategies including the efficacy of the funds-gobbling light rail.

Mike Quirk, Garran

Ten years on and the woodfire smoke still rises

DAVID Bolton’s story (“David’s war with bureaucracy in battle to breathe”, CN June 8) reminds me of an elderly friend. She lived in the Tuggeranong Valley and suffered a lung condition.

She regularly used an oxygen bottle and was confined to her home throughout the cooler months of the year because of wood-heater smoke in her neighbourhood.

If she ventured outside she suffered difficulty breathing and risked being hospitalised. Her only links to the outside world during this period were a mobile phone and a computer.

A hairdresser would visit occasionally and her groceries were home delivered. If she had enough money, she would escape the Canberra woodsmoke season and spend long months with her family in farnorth Queensland. Despite her disability and restrictions she still liked being an active member of our community.

Ten years ago this month I pushed her in a wheelchair with an oxygen bottle attached into Parliament House so she could relate her story to the Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry into the Impacts on Health of Air Quality in Australia.

After hearing evidence, the all-party committee made a number of recommendations aimed at reducing wood-heater smoke in populated areas and aimed at protecting people like my elderly friend and Mr Bolton. Unfortunately, the recommendations do not appear to have been acted on by governments.

My friend, who was brave enough to tell her story, has since passed away. Do we need to wait another decade before politicians take decisive action to protect the most vulnerable people in our community like my friend and Mr Bolton?

Darryl Johnston, Tuggeranong

Where the hell are you, Elizabeth Lee?

I COULDN’T agree more with Rebecca Henson (Letters, CN June 8) regarding the lack of backbone and policies from the Canberra Liberals.

They seem to be very happy staying in opposition again, instead of fighting hard for the quiet “conservative voters”. Where are you Elizabeth Lee?

Any wonder Canberra has been on a spiralling downfall, since Barr and the woeful Greens have been literally running Canberra into the ground for the last two decades.

Barr and his health minister have a poor track record with our hospitals and the toxic culture that exists within Canberra Hospital, and yet that is not enough failure, now they want to wreck Calvary Public Hospital as well!

What is Barr and his unchallenged, unaccountable, secretive colleagues going to requisition next?

It’s time for a massive change that cannot come soon enough.

So back to the question Canberrans are asking, where the hell are you, Elizabeth Lee?

Ros Thomas, Gordon (Editor’s note: To be fair, Ms Lee has been on maternity leave for much of this year.)

Condemned to a Labor/ Greens government

IN respect of the Higgins affair, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has form when it comes to political manoeuvring for the Labor Party.

At the 2012 ACT election, voters got rid of three of the four Greens MLAs and voted in equal numbers of Liberal and Labor MLAs.

As the then ACT Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher opted to form a coalition with the one remaining Greens MLA when she did

not have to, to stay in government; she could have easily led a minority government.

The effect of her decision has been to condemn the ACT to a perpetual Labor/Greens government (already in power for 22 years) and, among other things, burdening ACT taxpayers with an extremely wasteful light rail system to which the ACT government has already committed to Stages 1 and 2 at an estimated cost of some $4.5 billion.

Max Flint, Erindale Centre

Whose voice is the right voice?

AFTER reading the government’s letterbox drop “Our Canberra June 2023 Belconnen” it’s hard to refrain from calling our chief minister “Two-bob each-way Andrew” when his politically correct feel-good acknowledges the Ngunnawal peoples as the traditional custodians of the ACT and, with a last thought, also recognises any other people or family with connection to the lands of the ACT and region.

Just exactly who claims this place? The way it’s published drives a wedge and leaves those contemplating a green-light Voice vote in the up-coming referendum wondering who the hell the Voice will be if it gets up. Would the Chief Minister please clarify this in consultation with indigenous leaders and respectable authority because this isn’t going away.

John Lawrence via email

Canberrans denied full vote in referendum

FOR the Voice referendum to pass, more than half of the national vote must vote “yes”, and more than half of electors in at least four states must also vote “yes”.

This situation is highly inequitable as the ACT and NT are not considered as states for the requirements of a majority of states in the referendum, meaning Canberrans and territorians are denied a full vote. Yet another reason why the Voice should have been legislated instead, and in doing so saving an estimated $82 million of taxpayers’ money.

Mario Stivala, Belconnen

Practice what you preach, Douglas

DR Douglas Mackenzie (Letters, CN June 7) asks me to consider both sides of the story in his usual defence of anything to do with the Labor Party. Judging by his numerous letters in “CityNews” and other local papers where he regularly only considers the Labor side of the story, I am looking forward to when people like him practice what they preach.

Dr Mackenzie criticises Tony Abbott but overlooks the major failings of the Rudd government.

As for me providing both sides of the story; when our taxpayer funded broadcaster, who is meant to show impartiality, and our local daily newspaper provide a balanced and unbiased view rather than the Labor side of the story I will cease my letters as Dr Mackenzie wished, but until then…

Ian Pilsner, Weston

Ease the loan pain for young people

IT is often said that our future is dependent on our young; our kids and grandkids. So, at a time of high cost-of-living pressures, why are our young being subjected to a 3.9 per cent increase on their HECS-HELP fees (up from 0.6 per cent the previous year) to 7.1 per cent, which also impacts on their ability to get a housing loan, etcetera from the banks?

It is high time the federal government revisited the system, which has been in place for some 34 years and developed by Canberra academic Prof Bruce Chapman.

Surely there is some way of reducing its impact on our young people in times of financial stress such as indexing the value

of the actual loan itself rather than the increased loan resulting from indexation.

I am not saying that HECS is not a good loan, but simply that it might be tailored better to suit current circumstances. It would be interesting to know if Prof Chapman still thinks it is fit for purpose under current economic conditions.

Ric Hingee, Duffy

When it comes to chairs, more legs the better!

I WAS not persuaded by Clive Williams’ proposition that three legs are better than four (“Whimsy”, June 8).

As it happens, we learnt on a tour of the Johnson Wax Works in Racine, Wisconsin, that America’s greatest architect (his own claim), Frank Lloyd Wright, got into trouble for designing three-legged office chairs that notoriously spilled occupants on to the floor. He reluctantly came up with a four-legged design. In later years, five legs have become the standard for office chairs. Clearly, the more legs the better!

Richard Johnston, Kingston

‘Shameful’ truth about planning reforms

IN his article “Government spinners must think we’re stupid” (CN June 15) Paul Costigan wrote: “The so-called planning reforms are not about planning but about wholesale deregulation to favour the development industry”. How shamefully true this is. One only has to drive along the light rail route between Gungahlin and Civic to see the results.

Mr Costigan also wrote of “updating (of the planning system) to deal with the complexities of climate change”. Perhaps these complexities include the problems of soil loss (which can be irreversible in the short to medium term) and the heat-island effect in our crowded newer suburbs.

In such suburbs, aerial photography shows that there is barely room to walk between adjacent oversized houses. There is insufficient space for cool trees, and almost all horizontal surfaces are covered by concrete or paving. The small areas of what could be cooling lawn are artificial and heat-trapping.

The Barr government has a lot to learn about planning and creating the beautiful city that Canberra was and should be again.

Dr Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

Cartoon: Paul Dorin

Services providing support at home and beyond advertising feature HOME SUPPORT SERVICES

LIVING with a disability, ageing or recovering from an injury can be a challenge.

There are many passionate experts based in the ACT region who offer services that can make daily life a little easier, whether it’s at home, or beyond.

“CityNews” has found the Canberra businesses who are here to offer support and guidance.

Services lead to healthier, happier lives

ARTHRITIS ACT can help people with physical and mental disabilities find the pathways they need to lead happier and healthier lives, says CEO Rebecca Davey.

“We have an occupational therapist who can assist people particularly with their assistive technology needs,” says Rebecca.

“That includes wheelchairs, scooters, home modification and he can also do private driving assessments for people with disabilities who need them.”

Rebecca says it’s incredibly rewarding to see the difference Arthritis ACT’s services make in the day-to-day lives of those who require them.

“Our occupational therapist can assist with plans for home modifications, or can assist with equipment choices and even help you to purchase,” she says.

“Or, he offers car modifications to help give easy access to a vehicle if the client is a passenger, or can modify the vehicle to make it easier to drive.”

And Rebecca says Arthritis ACT helps people access important services such as the NDIS and the disability support pension.

Ageing in the comfort of home

AGEING well is something we all aspire to, and sometimes it’s influenced by more than just good genes, says manager of BaptistCare ACT, Michelle Buckley.

“A major factor is receiving the right care and support at home, so you can stay healthy, independent, and keep doing the things you love,” she says.

“Thanks to government-supported homecare programs, providers such as BaptistCare can help older people live well in the comfort of their own homes for significantly longer, making a genuine difference in their lives.”

Partnering with clients to create tailored care plans, Michelle and her team say they focus their support on the concept of “WellLiving”.

“This means providing care that not only supports physi cal health, but emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing, too,” says Michelle.

need a bit of extra assistance with domestic duties like cooking, cleaning, or gardening, or it might be personal care tasks such as showering or getting dressed that have become more of a challenge.”

Michelle says her team provides quality, discreet, one-on-one care – “right in the comfort of your own home.”

“With a growing team of reliable, highlytrained care workers, BaptistCare’s Canberra staff are passionate about continuing to meet the needs of seniors in the community.”

they need so they can participate fully in the community. ”

Arthritis ACT, 170 Haydon Drive, Bruce. Call 1800 011041, or visit arthritisact.org.au

“It’s this wide range of home care services that really helps bring meaningful change to so many people’s lives.

“We pride ourselves on being a ‘one-stop shop’ for all home care needs.

“Sometimes our clients

Arthritis ACT CEO Rebecca Davey.

HOME SUPPORT SERVICES

Support in navigating agedcare services

A NEW service to support older citizens navigate the aged-care system has launched, and Northside Community Service is one of the organisations providing the new Care Finder program in Canberra, says aged-care manager Pema Sherpa.

“Care Finder supports older people who would not be able to arrange aged-care services without intensive support and do not have a family member or friends who can help,” she says.

“We’ve been providing aged-care services in-home for a long time.

“One of the things that we’ve noticed is that Australia’s aged-care system is complicated, and for many older people out there it can be a huge challenge to even know what services they can receive.

“Care Finder is funded by the government through the Capital Health Network to help. The Northside team can help people understand what aged-care services are available, set up an assessment and find and choose services.”

Pema says they also help people with access to other supports in the community, and they can help with both accessing services for the first time and changing or finding new services and supports.

“Having someone to actually meet with you, work with you, and help see what support you can get is so important for many older people,” says registered nurse and Northside’s care co-ordinator Doris Ekwegwo.

“As Care Finders, we are really here to help.” Northside Community Service, 2 Rosevear Place, Dickson. Call 6171 8000, or visit northside.asn.au

RUBIES Nursing Care manager Sydreck Mabvira says supported independent living (SIL) and specialist disability accommodation (SDA) is now open.

“Our focus is caring for the community,” he says.

“Rubies offers a wide range of services to support the community, we are a boutique style, all-inclusive organisation.

This allows us to offer support tailored to the consumers individual needs, across the NDIS, disability and aged care, and home care package sectors.

“We are excited to announce that we have opened two brand new SIL and SDA houses in Macgregor, Belconnen, located in a quiet cul-de-sac adjacent to Kippax shopping centre.”

He says both four-bedroom houses are fully furnished, wheelchair accessible, and have wide openings and handrails.

“Each of our SIL/SDA homes feature personal support tailored to your needs, with a passionate

team of qualified support professionals, clinical care is available for complex needs,” he says.

“We offer 24/7 support, a fun day of programs and activities, training in everyday tasks like housework and shopping, support to study or work, opportunities to learn new skills and hobbies.

“You will have a care plan tailored to your individual needs, and live in an excellent location in a thriving suburb close to all amenities, close to public transport, and all ages accepted as the houses are still open for short listing.

“It’s a place where you can make friends, while enjoying privacy. A warm and safe environment where you can be yourself.

“Our homes are available for medium and longterm accommodation, and respite care.”

Rubies Nursing Care. Call 1300 651649, or visit rubiesnursingcare.com.au

Northside Community Service… “As Care Finders, we are really here to help,” says registered nurse and Northside’s care co-ordinator Doris Ekwegwo.

Rubies Nursing Care specialist accommodation.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS HELP MAKE YOUR EVERY DAY TASKS EASIER

We assist you with:

Planning and design of custom builds or modification to your home

Workplace modifications to make working easier, efficient and less painful

Car modifications and driving assessments - if you have been told you need this

Applications to the NDIS and other schemes e.g Housing and Disability Support Pensions

We work closely with our team of physiotherapists, exercise physiologists, art therapy and dietetics at Build a Better Me: Arthritis, Pain Support & ME/CFS ACT to provide you with the best support possible!

You do not need to have any particular condition to utilise our services, just a desire to ‘Build a Better You.

Professionals with a focus on improving health

MAINTAINING health or going on a journey towards good health means different things to different people.

Whether it’s help with hearing, or general health advice, Canberra is home to many experts passion ate about improv ing health in all sorts of ways.

This week “CityNews” speaks with local health experts who specialise in main taining people’s wellbeing.

gaining

advice

“We find that those people who put off getting help with their hearing loss for long periods don’t have as successful outcomes as those who seek help earlier.”

Dr Vass says patients have the certainty that they’ll be seeing him when they visit the clinic and that he will provide one-onone, tailored care and advice.

“It’s rewarding to help people not be so isolated, and help improve their communication with others, especially their loved ones,” he says.

Dr Vass Hearing Clinic, suite 14, John James

so

Winnunga Nimmityjah CEO Julie Tongs.

Dr William Vass.

WINNUNGA NIMMITYJAH ABORIGINAL HEALTH AND COMMUNITY SERVICES

Winnunga Nimmityjah AHCS is an Aboriginal community controlled primary health care service operated by the Aboriginal community of the ACT. In Wiradjuri language, Winnunga Nimmityjah means Strong Health. The service logo is the Corroboree Frog which is significant to Aboriginal people in the ACT.

Our aim is to provide a culturally safe, holistic health care service for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of the ACT and surrounding regions. The holistic health care provided by Winnunga AHCS includes not only medical care, but a range of programs to promote good health and healthy lifestyles.

Our services include:

• GP and Nursing

• Midwifery

• Immunisations

• Health Checks

• Men’s & Women’s Health

• Hearing Health

• Dental

• Physiotherapy

• Podiatry

• Dietician (Nutrition)

• Counselling

• Diabetes Clinic

• Quit Smoking Services / No More Boondah

• Needle Syringe Program

• Mental Health Support

• Healthy Weight Program

• Healthy Cooking Group

• Mums and Bubs Group / Child Health

• Optometry Service

• Psychology and Psychiatrist

• Community Events

• Groups

ALL OUR SERVICES ARE FREE OF CHARGE • WE MAY BE ABLE TO ASSIST WITH TRANSPORT

Winnunga AHCS is a national leader in accreditation, was one of the first Aboriginal community controlled health services to achieve dual accreditation under RACGP and QIC standards. Winnunga AHCS has been at the forefront of setting a national agenda for quality improvement in Aboriginal community controlled health and continues to advocate locally and nationally for best practice standards in operational and governance areas of Aboriginal health services.

CLINIC hours | MONDAY TO FRIDAY 9am-5pm

Ph: 6284 6222 | 63 Boolimba Cres, Narrabundah www.winnunga.org.au

COVID-19 Vaccinations and Testing for Winnunga Clients

caring for or at risk of diabetes. By raising awareness we hope to support open conversations to assist our community to live well,” she says.

“We know more than 20,000 people in Canberra are living with diabetes, but there are a lot more living with it who don’t yet know.

“Sixty per cent of people can prevent the onset of diabetes through lifestyle changes, but 40 per cent of people have a significant chance through genetics.”

She says that’s why it’s so important for Diabetes Australia to continue raising awareness, and for people to have a conversation with their GP and get screened every year.

Personally tailored Pilates classes

OWNER of The Pilates Centre Canberra, Felicia Darbyshire-Pirie says she’s proud that the centre provides pilates sessions that focus on each individual.

“We believe in quality over quantity,” says Felicia, a pilates instructor of more than 15 years.

“Pilates is total body strengthening, conditioning and re-balancing, which is why it’s perfect as rehab. To me it’s a combination of intuition and science that helps people achieve goals.

From two weeks post-spinal surgery all the way through to high-performing, advanced clients, Felicia says the centre welcomes anyone regardless of experience or fitness level.

“A body that is in pain needs time, space and re-education to recover. Each individual’s pain journey is different and therefore we are never comparing one person to another,” she says.

develop type two diabetes at an earlier age.

“Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders are four times more likely to develop type two diabetes than other Australians.”

Diabetes Australia has an online calculator where people can measure how much risk they’re at of the chronic illness, says Natalie.

“It calculates cultural, genetic and lifestyle factors that contribute, and we encourage everyone to do it.

“If you’re diagnosed with diabetes, don’t panic, call us. We’re here to help.”

Diabetes Australia, visit diabetesaustralia.com.au or call 1800 177055.

She believes a good instructor is what makes all the difference.

“We only hire really high-quality instructors with really good qualifications,” she says.

“At the Pilates Centre we often work with pain specialists such as osteopaths and physiotherapists for client goals.

“I like to say Pilates is the perfect training partner for everything, especially for life.”

The Pilates Centre Canberra, 58 Colbee Court, Phillip. Call 6162 1793, or visit pilatescentre.com.au

Diabetes Australia has been helping people living with diabetes for over 80

DIABETES Australia’s operations manager for NSW and ACT Natalie Smith.

New location for family practice

1993, says practice manager Lorraine Straker.

“We provide comprehensive and confidential care which endeavours to improve patients’ quality of life and wellbeing,” she says.

“From humble beginnings, combined with committed staff, Brindabella Family Practice has grown and expanded to our new purpose-built facility at Suite 4, 7-9 Morisset Street.

“Our focus however has never changed and that is our care and commitment to the patients and community.”

Lorraine says serving the community is important to them, as many of the staff live in Queanbeyan and surrounding areas.

“We love being an integral part of this vibrant, growing community,” she says.

“With the relocation of the practice we are excited

“Our in-house pathology streamlines appointments and our proximity to the chemist means patients don’t have to travel far to collect scripts.

“Our new and existing services include travel medicine and vaccinations, iron infusions, skin cancer checks, diving medicals, vaccinations and immunisations, family planning, implanon and mirena insertion and removal, cosmetic injectables and fillers, dietetics, cervical screening tests, antenatal shared care, fibreglass casts, ear syringing, wound care, sexual health screening, hearing screening and testing, ingrown toenail surgery, smoking cessation, women’s and men’s health, chronic disease management, COVID-19 and flu vaccinations, and spirometry.”

Brindabella Family Practice, Suite 4, 7-9 Morisset Street. Call 6299 6990, or visit brindabellapractice.com.au

Jeyamanoharan

Prune properly, she’ll be apples

APPLE-tree pruning is my favourite type of pruning. It can be done in the next few months now all the leaves have fallen and the tree structure can be clearly seen.

Most pruning jobs need at least secateurs, loppers and maybe a hand saw with safety gear. If summer pruning wasn’t carried out, there’ll be a lot of material to take away to bring the tree down to a manageable size for picking and netting. Knowing what type of tree it is helps with pruning techniques to ensure fruit for the summer season.

Fuji, Granny Smith and Pink Lady are tip-bearing apples that have buds at the ends of the branches and have side-shoot growth that’s a different colour to thicker branches of the same tree.

Gently feel the buds. The fat, furry ones are fruit buds and the slender and smooth ones are leaf buds. Tip: prune to “fat buds” on extra-long branches to promote growth next season as they produce flowers and fruit on two-yearold wood. Spurbearing apples such as

Red Delicious and Golden Delicious or even Cox’s Orange Pippin are easier to grow and not as much pruning is required. These heritage apples flower and fruit on spurs.

Old branches that crowd the centre of the tree should be removed now and any lateral branches can be reduced and shortened to encourage new spurs for fruit in the future.

Prune to an outward-facing bud and encourage horizontal tree growth as fruit will develop more easily than vertical growth.

If there’s a space in the garden that gets at least four or five hours of full sun a day, then plant an apple tree. They’re long lived and don’t like to be transplanted, so choose

their spot wisely.

Prepare the soil, add compost to the hole and add a little boron and dolomite lime.

The main insect problems we have in our region are aphids and cottony cushion scales. Give the trees several winter sprays of the bark and branches with an organic horticultural oil and spray lime sulphur for powdery mildew, apple rust and apple scab.

Spray on a still, sunny day in the morning to allow the spray to dry before nightfall. In springtime, plant marigolds and chives under an apple tree to prevent apple scab.

Apples and potatoes are not good companions, so don’t store

or grow them together.

WHILE they look terrific in the tropics and warmer climates than ours, there are some plants that surprisingly do well in a verticalgrowing space.

My “green wall” is on a southern side and is full of succulents and, although slow growing, survives with minimal maintenance.

Growing small shrubs in “pockets” can work well all year round. Use plants that grow slowly and also try plants such as bergenias, liriopes, dichondra, jasmines and heucheras.

Herbs are also ideal for “pocket” systems and easy-to-grow plants to try are sage, thyme, oregano and parsley.

Vertical walls are great for balconies and small courtyards. If there’s an indoor space with low, natural light where you want to have a vertical green wall, it would be a challenge, but do-able with hydroponic watering systems, lighting and plant choices. Professionals may need to be brought in to get the set-up right.

jackwar@home.netspeed.com.au

Jottings…

• Look for winter-flowering shrubs to plant, such as garrya elliptica or Stachyurus praecox. • Prune kiwi fruit after harvest.

Apple-tree pruning… remove old branches that are crowding the centre of the tree and any lateral branches can be reduced and shortened to encourage new spurs for fruit in the future.

Photos: Jackie Warburton

Growing small shrubs in “pockets” can work well all year round.

INSIDE

Canberra writer Maura’s on a creative roll ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

By Helen MUSA

WITH a lifetime as a selfacknowledged “career dilettante” behind her, Canberra writer Maura Pierlot is on a roll.

Her eight-part web series “Fragments”, which won Best TV/Web Series and Best Screenplay at the last Canberra Short Film Festival, was launched at the NFSA and is now on YouTube, while this month her new picture book for young people, “What Will You Make Today?” is being launched at Dairy Road.

It’s been a long journey, but you can take her “dilettante” confession with a grain of salt, as the American-born Pierlot is a high achiever, with a swag of qualifications behind her, including a BA in philosophy from Duke University, a masters and a PhD in philosophy from Georgetown University for which she spent time on a Fulbright Scholarship at Monash University, where she met her Aussie husband, Kieran. She’s tried a lot of things in life, but found over the past decade that writing is what suits her best.

As an expatriate often having to contend with the phrase, “in Australia we do things this way”, she says everyone knows she’s not

outlet,” she says. “I had an ear for teenage dialogue; growing up in the Bronx, you would hear things you shouldn’t.”

The end result was “Fragments”, which

began on stage at The Street Theatre in 2019 as a close and personal look at eight young people experiencing anxiety, depression, neurodivergence, gender-questioning, cultural alienation, family problems and body dysmorphia. While it was a sell-out season, only around 200 people saw it and its life could well have ended there.

“Theatre is so ephemeral,” she says.

Pierlot turned it into a playscript then tried other options and eventually it was published this year by Big Ideas Press as a young-adult hybrid novel titled “Fragments: Journeys from Isolation to Connection”.

Keen to encourage frank discussions about mental health, Pierlot applied for and won a lockdown-period grant to adapt

“Fragments” to “go digital”.

While Pierlot worked on the series, she found herself looking back to her own streetsmart childhood in the US and recollecting how she had valued her own agency.

“Although I was brought up in a Catholic family, I was always asking questions and I’m a firm believer that you can disagree.”

That’s why her new picture book offers the chance for young people to engage in

“Kids today are pressured by things like

“The system tries to pigeonhole them, so my book encourages kids to have an outward looking attitude to solving problems.

“There’s a natural wonder in children, but

Her illustrator and collaborator is Indonesian-Canberran artist Triandhika Anjani and “What Will You Make Today?” (published by Sam Rutter, of Canberra’s Storytorch Press) shows a group of children on a camping trip who motivate themselves to clean up a forest of litter, beautifully

The text consists entirely of openended questions, such as “Will you make a discovery? Will you make a change? Will you make yourself heard?”

And there’s not an adult in sight.

“What Will You Make Today?” launch outside Kidzplore, Dairy Road, Fyshwick, 1pm on June 24.

Twits

Piers proves a coup for new hall

By Helen Musa

Piers Lane, raised and educated in Queens land, resides in London, but at 65 keeps up a cracking pace of engagements in a career that in the past saw him back home up to five times a year, though he only came once last year and not at all during covid.

Lane hasn’t seen the new concert hall, but speculates when I catch up with him by phone to Sydney, that it must be “a fantastic addition to Canberra” and adds: “I have experienced Canberra audiences in the past when playing with the CSO and I’m really looking forward to that.”

Former “CityNews” Artist of the Year, and fellow-Queenslander, Chris Latham is an unabashed Lane fan, saying: “I look up to Piers, he’s my elder, he’s Queensland’s most important cultural export. He’s a great artist, an absolute class act.”

But, Latham adds: “If you ever go backstage, you’ll find Piers practising – he’s a complete workaholic.”

Lane doesn’t bother to deny it, although he tells me that he recently managed a two-week holiday in Nairobi with some friends and enjoyed the mild weather. And he’s going to a movie with opera singers Peter Coleman-Wright and Cheryl Barker after our interview.

But otherwise, it’s a whirlwind. He’s just back

from Queenstown and Auckland, where he’d been judging the Michael Hill International Violin Competition.

Before that, in May, he played Mozart with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and performed in Adelaide, Nelson and Wellington, NZ, Melbourne, and later as part of the Medici series at Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane.

After Canberra, on June 29, he’ll head for Sydney where, since 2015, he’s been the artistic director and chief juror of the Sydney International Piano Competition, running this year from July 5 to 22, with 32 of the world’s best pianists chosen from 250 aspirants in a gruelling elimination process.

“I’m home to London on July 26 and I need to leave for New York City on July 30,” he says. “After that, I’m off to a summer school in Manchester

ARTS IN THE CITY

and then to Vevey, Switzerland, to judge the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition.”

Lane is a household name in Britain, having presented more than 100 programs for BBC

A five-time soloist at the BBC “Proms”, he is an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music, an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) and the recipient of the Sir Bernard Heinze

Trained at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music (Griffith University), who later gave him an honorary doctorate, he came to note at the inaugural Sydney International Piano Competition in 1977, at which he was named Best Australian Pianist. In 1979, he auditioned in Canberra and won a rare two-year Churchill Fellowship, which sent him to the US and the UK, where he settled. In Canberra, he’ll be performing a suite of works by Rachmaninov and Chopin.

The choice as opener of Rachmaninov’s most famous work, the Prelude in C# minor, shows that the concert is aimed at mainstream lovers of piano music.

A large part of the recital will include works by Chopin, with Lane performing music used as the basis for Michel Fokine’s revolutionary 1908 ballet “Chopiniana”, later renamed by Diaghilev as “Les Sylphides”.

While in Canberra, Lane will conduct a masterclass with young musicians, something close to his heart.

“Remember, I was a professor at the Royal Academy for years teaching piano and my parents both taught music, so teaching is in my blood,” he says.

Piers Lane, Snow Concert Hall, 7pm, June 29.

Celebrating 50 years of ‘Dark Side’

By Helen Musa

THE Australian Rock Collective – Darren Middleton, Mark Wilson, Davey Lane and Kram will perform Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” in its entirety, marking its 50th anniversary. Recorded at London’s Abbey Road Studios. The album continues to notch up around 250,000 sales annually. Llewellyn Hall, June 25.

NOW in its third year, entries to the National Capital Art Prize close at nationalcapitalartprize. com.au on June 30. Artists around Australia are eligible to take part, with $45,000 prize money across three categories – Open Prize, First Nations Prize for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and the Sustainability Prize.

NOW in its fifth year, the Australian Photographic Society’s Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize is a national $25,000 acquisitive prize hosted by the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre. Local-region photographers Judith Nangala Crispin and Wouter Van de Voorde have been announced as finalists.

DIRECTOR Jodie Cunningham has announced a new branding for the

52-year-old previously-named Craft

ACT: Craft + Design Centre, now to be called “Craft + Design Canberra”.

MUSICA da Camera and Sally Greenaway present Australian music by a string of Australian composers including Peter Sculthorpe, Lachlan Skipworth, Tristan Coelho, Brenda Gifford and Canberra locals Leanne Bear, Marian Budos and Greenaway herself. Holy Covenant Church, Cook, 3pm, July 1.

CANBERRA-raised musical star Queenie van de Zandt was announced as Best Leading Artist (Musical Theatre) for her

performance in the James Terry Collective’s production of the musical “Next to Normal” at the recent 40th Annual Green Room Awards held in Melbourne .

SOME of the ACT’s leading musicians in Canberra Strings will perform string quintets by Brahms and Mendelssohn, both known for their melodic writing and harmonic invention. All Saints Anglican Church, Ainslie, 3pm, June 25.

BUNGENDORE landscape artist Kerry McInnis’ new exhibition is at Wagner Contemporary, Paddington, Sydney, until July 4.

The Australian Rock Collective… Llewellyn Hall, June 25.

WITH a crowd-pleasing program, Snow Concert Hall Enterprises has scored a significant coup getting one of the world’s top pianists as a guest for its next concert – and he’s an Australian.

Pianist Piers Lane.

Best meals are memorable, this is simply the best

THE best dining experiences are memorable dining experiences.

Every dish is a piece of art with exciting flavour profiles. Staff are knowledgeable, devoted and never overbearing.

Meet Raku.

This multiple-award-winning restaurant and bar has a long list of fans, including many from the hospitality biz.

Raku combines the culinary history of Japan with the energy and vibrancy of quality Australian dining, with passion and precision. Two of us recently enjoyed the express lunch, served Monday to Friday with five courses plus rice for only $50 (not

available on public holidays). We voted it one of the best deals in town.

While Raku’s Bunda Street indoor décor is sleek and inviting, we perched ourselves on an outdoor table, with mature bamboo trees providing a green backdrop. Before long, our Sashimi Santen was delivered with each piece of the highest quality sashimi carefully placed on a bed of ice and surrounding a column of ice to keep it cool and fresh. Skills in using the sushi blade are very evident. Raku is respectful when serving, with dishes brought steadily, never in a frenzy. Next in the express lunch line-up of small starters was a chef’s selection of maki –rolled sushi rice. Sensational.

FABULOUS FOOD

The tempura was perfectly light and the seasonal vegetables had the right texture. We dipped them in a well-executed dashi broth.

For the last dish in the express lunch, we chose between two options – the 150-day grain-fed Scotch fillet and NZ snapper. We had both had the beef before, with Raku’s famous rhubarb salt, so we selected the fish. It’s an innovative dish and we adored the orange ponzu and yuzu kosho dressing.

Although “express”, staff don’t rush customers or pressure them out the door. So, we took our time and ramped our lunch up to the next level, ordering one of our fave Raku dishes ever – the Canadian scallops, a dish

called Aburi hotate. It is thrilling and I believe the scallops are placed on the Robata grill for just a moment or two, which means they’re essentially raw but with an edge. Refreshing touches included green apple and jalapeno, a surprisingly excellent combination, and creamy garlic mayo ($24).

Because we could, we ordered one more dish, which was truly a grand finale. We’d never ordered the Mio kamo before, but are still talking about it ($36). Beautifully plated, the Aka dashi miso-marinated duck breast

melted in the mouth. How amazing was the pickled nashi pear, plum and nashi puree? Utterly so and dipping the slices of meat tenderly into Sansho pepper salt ($36) was simply the best.

In addition to its regular menu, Raku offers a tasting menu for $100 each or a Royal Tasting Menu for $160 each (both a minimum of two guests).

Canadian scallops… essentially raw but with an edge.

NZ snapper… served with orange ponzu and yuzu kosho dressing.

Miso-marinated duck… pickled nashi pear, plum and nashi puree.

Photos: Wendy Johnson

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What could possibly go wrong?

By Nick OVERALL

THE extent to which the audiences are obsessed with a genre can often be gauged by just how many parodies of said genre start hitting the market.

Take true crime, an endless assortment of TV shows, movies, podcasts and more which have enjoyed unrivalled popularity in the streaming era.

As such, it was only so long before people were going to start paying it out.

From Netflix’s “American Vandal” (a brilliant and juvenile lampoon of “Making a Murderer”) to “Only Murders in the Building” (Disney Plus’ goofball breakdown of the classic whodunit plot), today there’s no shortage of true crime which satirises true crime.

The latest to jump on this trend is a new show on Binge called “Based on a True Story”, which gets even more meta by introducing viewers to a couple so obsessed with true crime, they start trying to make it themselves.

Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina

living out a perfunctory life in Los Angeles suburbia.

Ava (Cuoco) is a second-rate real estate agent, tired of slinging single bedroom apartments, whereas Nathan (Messina) is a former tennis pro who let it all slip away.

Things get interesting when Ava believes she may have just discovered a distant acquaintance is actually a serial killer.

But instead of turning them in, a different plan is hatched, the couple thinking a true crime podcast in which their star guest was a real-life murderer might just be the ticket to

OPERA

The wicked premise makes for some light and amusing streaming that makes for a fun takedown of TV’s reigning genre king.

THE biggest film of 2022 has finally come to streaming.

James Cameron’s indulgent and eye-popping blockbuster, “Avatar: The Way of Water” is now available on Disney Plus.

It’s the second film in the series which Cameron has around a million sequels planned for and comes 13 years after its predecessor became the highest grossing movie

Summer season of optimistic opera

By Liz Hobday

OPERA Australia’s Sydney summer season, its first slate since the departure of long-time artistic director Lyndon Terracini, should give the company’s critics something to sing about.

For starters, at least half a dozen top-flight Australian artists are returning to the country to perform, a riposte to an era in which critics felt international talent took precedence over local performers.

They include singers Samantha Clarke, Indyana Schneider, Caitlin Hulcup and Emma Pearson, and conductors Jessica Cottis and Dane Lam – the majority making their debuts with the national company.

Next, the season could easily be billed “Opera Australia and Friends” – it features partnerships with Victorian Opera, Pinchgut Opera and renowned circus company Circa, as well as a return to the line-up of the Sydney Festival.

Guest creative director Lindy Hume put together the slate ahead of new artistic director Jo Davies starting in November.

Hume said she saw the brief as a kind of pop-up opera festival.

“I wanted to just leave everything open for the new artistic director to come in and do

what she wants to do, so it was a delight actually, it was a real pleasure,” she said.

But the program doesn’t address what many consider Opera Australia’s greatest problem – and the clue is in the billing of the 2024 “Sydney Summer Season”.

A focus on the harbour city at the expense of programming across the rest of the country has long been an issue for the company – its 2023 slate does not feature any full productions in Melbourne, for example.

Perhaps Hume did not have the latitude or budget to program beyond the Sydney Opera House, where the summer season will see five premieres – and perhaps it’s a big ask across just three months.

At any rate, Hume has four 18th century operas on the slate, with soprano Stacey Alleaume and musical theatre star Ben Mingay starring in “The Magic Flute”.

A production of Mozart’s “Idomeneo” features celebrated tenor Michael Schade in partnership with the Victorian Opera, and there’s Handel’s “Theodora” in concert with Pinchgut Opera.

The company’s new artistic director Jo Davies takes up the role in November, and the rest of Opera Australia’s 2024 program will be released later this year.

of all time (helped along by the 2009 advent of 3D glasses).

But it seems the long space between the first and second flick didn’t dissuade audiences from making a return trip to Pandora.

“The Way of Water” has made it all the way to the third highest grossing movie of all time, raking in $2.3 billion at the box office. The only films in history to trump it are “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.7 billion) and the first “Avatar” ($2.9 billion).

Heavy on spectacle but light on story, “The Way of Water’s” absurd three-hour-and-12-minute runtime is a big ask, but the visual effects on display do make this a worthwhile experience.

Aussie star Sam Worthington reprises his role as Jake Sully, a former marine accepted into the alien colony on Pandora, where humans are waging a war in want of a valuable mineral known as “unobtanium”. Yes, unobtanium. Bit on the nose there, Jim.

In “The Way of Water”, Sully and his extraterrestrial family are forced deeper into their battle against the tyrannical colonisers, this time using the oceans of Pandora and the creatures within them to fight back.

So does the bombastic spectacle of the film hold up on a screen at home? Just. The amount of painstaking work that has gone into crafting this fictional world is impressive.

For all the film’s shortcomings, it is a remarkable feat that it can sell the illusion of swimming through alien oceans. Watching behind-thescenes footage of how they made it is almost more fascinating than the film itself.

That makes “The Way of Water” an intriguing movie. One with plenty of failings, but also one worth experiencing just to see what all the fuss is about.

It is indeed an achievement in blockbuster film making although I think they could have got a bit more out there with the design of these underwater species.

Of all the possibilities that an extraterrestrial world offers, they somehow landed on what is essentially a whale with horns as the animal companion of this alien civilisation.

If you’re asking audiences to travel with you to an alien world inhabited by blue people, may as well go as crazy as possible with it.

HOROSCOPE PUZZLES

Your week in the stars

By Joanne Madeline Moore

26 June-2 July, 2023

ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)

Monday’s Mars/Uranus square could amp up your impulsive, impatient, argumentative side, especially involving friends and finances. And relationships look challenging, as loved ones are more demanding and unpredictable than usual. With Venus visiting your children and friendship zone, strive to be more diplomatic. If you can temporarily morph from a raging ram to a gentle lamb, then life will be less bumpy. Channel your energy into a creative project.

TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 21)

Personal projects are favoured, as you put creative ideas into action and rub shoulders with influential people. Don’t be a wallflower. Speak up and promote your talents! If you procrastinate, then promising opportunities will pass you by. With Jupiter and Uranus in your sign, confidence and an adventurous attitude will take you places. So, your motto is from birthday great, deaf-blind author and educator Helen Keller: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

GEMINI (May 22 – June 21)

Geminis can easily become preoccupied with the minutiae of daily life, full of noisy notifications and garrulous gossip. This week, Jupiter and Uranus light up your intuition and solitude zone, and Mercury transits into perceptive Cancer. So, it’s a good week to spend some quality time on your own. Slow down, meditate, contemplate, and listen to the quiet voice within. Your motto is from birthday great Princess Diana: “I work on instinct. It’s my best advisor.”

CANCER (June 22 – July 23)

Avoid getting drawn into disputes with a frustrated friend or an unpredictable family member. This week will work best if you keep your Crab claws out of other people’s business and concentrate on pursuing personal projects instead. Saturday is the best day of the week, when the Sun and Mercury (both in Cancer) form fabulous aspects with generous Jupiter. So, concentrate on uplifting activities that expand your horizons and make your heart sing.

LEO (July 24 – Aug 23)

Have you been feeling like a tired and lacklustre Lion, with too many activities crammed into your busy timetable? Avoid extra work functions and social events this week. The Sun and Mercury are transiting through your solitude zone, so rest and relaxation are just what the doctor ordered. Volunteer work and humanitarian projects are also highlighted. As birthday great Princess Diana observed: “Everyone has the potential to give something back.”

VIRGO (Aug 24 – Sept 23)

Are people aware of the substantial amount of work you’re doing behind the scenes? Don’t be disappointed if others aren’t showing their appreciation ATM. Your efforts will be applauded (and rewarded) further down the track. Attached Virgos – are you seeing your partner clearly? Singles – you’re more gullible than usual, so don’t fall for an online dating profile that’s all gloss and no substance. If someone looks too good to be true, then avoid them like the plague!

LIBRA (Sept 24 – Oct 23)

With Venus and Mars visiting your hopes and wishes zone, it’s time to articulate (and write down) your goals and dreams for the future. Then you can put them into action. But don’t let a loved one or work mate manipulate you on Monday, as they try to persuade you to do something against your better judgment. Have the strength – and common sense – to stand your ground and say no. With a firm smile. Saturday is wonderful for socialising with colleagues.

SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 22)

You’re keen to call the shots this week but domineering behaviour will only lead to unpredictable dramas (especially on Monday) so slip on your humility hat instead. And don’t underestimate your ability to inspire others. Coupled Scorpios – with Jupiter transiting through your relationship zone, a frustrating problem with your partner could finally be resolved. Singles – Cupid’s love arrows are most likely to strike while you are studying or travelling.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23 – Dec 21)

Early in the week, it may be difficult to distinguish between blind optimism and self-delusion. Slow down Sagittarius, keep your wits about you, and do your best to separate fact from fiction. Saturday is your best day, when Jupiter (your power planet) makes positive connections with Mercury and the Sun. It’s the perfect time to play sport, socialise, study, travel and/or party like a pro. Plus make the most of any lucky opportunities that come along.

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 20)

This week Saturn (your boss planet) forms positive aspects with the Sun and Mercury. So, it’s a fabulous time to focus, plan, study, organise and strategise. Especially involving partnerships, joint ventures, education, and projects within your local community. But double-check all information that comes your way on Monday, and make sure someone isn’t trying to pull the wool over your eyes! Saturday is super for financial matters and family get-togethers.

AQUARIUS (Jan 21 – Feb 19)

Monday’s Mars/Uranus square stirs up your impulsive, restless, rebellious side. So slow down Aquarius – otherwise you could find yourself headed for an argument or an accident. It’s time to look for a new love or reboot an old relationship as Venus and Mars rev up your romance zone. The more you cooperate with others, the more affection and abundance you’ll attract. But don’t let a fair-weather friend lead you astray, especially when it comes to finances.

PISCES (Feb 20 – Mar 20)

Are you running on empty? Perceptive Pisceans will strive to get the ratio right between being on top of things at work, while still having time to rest, reflect and recharge your run-down batteries. Balance is the key. But relations with a loved one or work colleague could be unpredictable and problematic earlier in the week, particularly if you try to control an uncontrollable situation. So, expect the unexpected and keep your adaptability muscles well-flexed!

Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2023

General knowledge crossword No. 886

THE TAX DEDUCTIONS FINE

Kris wants to contribute some extra money to her industry super fund, fearful of not getting a tax refund this year. Partner Josh thinks it might be a good idea to contribute something to his selfmanaged superannuation fund (SMSF).

The problem was they were leaving things a bit late. When they came to see me, I told them all the large funds had cut-off dates and Kris had barely a week to get things sorted.

"You need to do it now," I stressed.

Across

4 Who was known as the Lithgow Flash, Marjorie ... ? (7)

8 Name the principal female character in a story, play, etc. (7)

9 To have hitched a ride is to have done what with a hand digit? (7)

10 Which laundry appliances were used for pressing water out of washed articles? (7)

11 Which statistician computes risks etc, especially for insurance purposes? (7)

12 What are councils also called? (6)

14 Name the winner of the first two Melbourne Cups. (6)

18 What do we call one who performs feats, as with balls, knives, etc? (7)

21 Which ornamental shoulder piece is worn on uniforms? (7)

22 What is a radio or TV aerial? (7)

23 Which contrivance is suspended from a horse’s saddle to support the rider’s foot? (7)

24 Name another term for the landscape or panorama. (7)

Solution next edition Down

1 What is an agile goatlike antelope? (7)

2 Name a northern borough of New York City. (5)

3 Name a former NSW gold-mining town in the Bathurst area. (4,3)

4 What are goods thrown overboard to lighten a vessel in distress? (6)

5 Who won the Grand Slam tennis tournaments in 1970, Margaret ...? (5)

6 What is Sunday also known as? (7)

7 Name a character created by Enid Blyton. (5)

13 What is another term for a nightdress? (7)

15 Bucharest is the capital of which SE European republic? (7)

16 Which term describes excessive attention to formality and routine? (3,4)

17 To be oily or fatty, is to be what? (6)

18 Which casual trousers are made of blue denim? (5)

19 Name the long, shafted weapon once used by mounted soldiers in charging. (5)

20 What are plants of a particular region, or period? (5)

"Both you and Josh each have a maximum of $27,500 that you can contribute and get a tax deduction, but this must be done in Kris' case now and Josh’s by June 30 so it shows on the SMSF bank statement on or before June 30.

"Some of the other industry funds have later cut-off dates, which are shown on their web pages.

“The $27,500 includes employer contributions, so if your employer has contributed $15,000 on your behalf then you can contribute up to $12,500. You can also contribute an amount that is non-deductible up to $330,000, depending on your circumstances.

“There's also a further amount that you may be able to contribute known as a ‘catch up concessional contribution’.

"This is calculated by the ATO and is based on the last five years using the shortfall in your contributions against the maximum that you could have contributed.

"It also requires that your total super balance is less than $500,000. So it can be useful to catch up if you have the capacity and the spare cash to do so.

"If you exceed the $27,500 limit and you do not have carry forward contributions available to you then you could be charged excess concessional contribution’s tax”.

Josh said he didn't really understand that, but knew they had to quickly make a contribution for Kris, with a little more time for her to fine tune any contributions she might be able to make.

“Kris, to make your contribution log into the fund and follow the instructions for making a personal or number contribution," said.

"Now I need to tell you about the all-important paperwork. You will find a form called 'Notice of intent to claim a tax deduction for personal super contributions' on your fund’s site. Josh, you can get one for your SMSF from the ATO site.

"The most important part of this process is that you need to receive an acknowledgement of the notice of intent form before you lodge your tax return for 2023.

"If you don't do this, you will not receive the tax benefit as part of your refund as the superannuation contribution will not be processed.”

Kris said it was now clear they just about had time to make the contributions this financial year and get some benefit from them.

If you have any questions on superannuation or tax contact the experts at Gail Freeman & Co Pty Ltd on 02 6295 2844.

Disclaimer

This column contains general advice, please do not rely on it. If you require specific advice on this topic please contact Gail Freeman or your professional adviser. Authorised Representative of Lifespan Financial Planning Pty Ltd AFS Lic No. 229892.