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Well written, well read

Dear Molonglo, try to grow up green BEATRICE BODART-BAILEY

Binh

NOEL BEDDOE

Andrew

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Women’s silent vigil seeks peace for Palestinians

By Katarina LLOYD JONES

A weekly silent vigil in front of the Australian War Memorial aims to pressure the parliament to do more in trying to stop Israel’s attack on the Palestinian people.

The vigil, by Women In Black Canberra, began on Valentine’s Day and will continue every Wednesday evening until Anzac Day.

Women In Black was started in Jerusalem in 2001 by two women, an Israeli and a Palestinian, who were calling for an end to the occupation in Palestine, says Michelle*, Women In Black member and former journalist. It is now a worldwide, non-violent network of women opposed to injustice, war and other forms of violence.

She says there is so much more the Australian government could be doing.

“One thing we can do is try and put pressure on the government to put pressure on its allies, Israel and the US, to stop this nightmare,” Michelle says.

“Look what they did in terms of Ukraine, they did so much more than they’re doing for this. Why are they not sanctioning Israel? Why are they not speaking louder to Israel to stop this?

“Lots of people ask what would we have done in a time like World War II, when Germans were attacking the Jewish people, and

this is your answer.

“Anzac Day this year is a Thursday, Valentine’s Day was a Wednesday, the idea is to do every Wednesday up to and including the eve of Anzac Day, to draw on the symbolism of the war memorial.”

For most Australians, Michelle says the war memorial represents anti-war and antigenocide sentiments, serving to remind the people “never again”.

“The schools around Australia bus their children to Canberra to visit the war memorial,” she says.

“The war memorial is used as a resource in the Australian education curriculum to teach children about what it means to be a good global citizen – stand up to tyranny, even if it’s at personal cost. Children are taught that.

“We’re saying, well, walk the talk.”

Michelle says Australia is complicit in the arms trading, too, as one of its biggest partners, the US, is funding the bombing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.

“It’s not a war, because it’s not two-sided… there’s a state against a civilian population,” she says.

“You see the massive protests around the world.

“There isn’t much happening here, this is the nation’s capital.

“In Britain, they had this demonstration recently where they laid children’s clothes end to end, just a little outfit here, outfit here, outfit here, to show the amount of kids that have been killed in this conflict, and it went on for five kilometres – five kilometres of kids lying side by side.

“Why is the Australian parliament not do ing more about it?”

Given the international criminal court has stated it is probable the Israeli military is committing war crimes, Michelle says she wants to know if the Australian parliament has a plan to ensure Israelis who have been involved in such war crimes are not allowed to enter and holiday here.

To be against the Israeli government is not being anti-Jewish, says Michelle.

“It’s actually anti-Semitic to say that Israel represents all Jews, they certainly do not.

“There’s a lot of Jewish people around the world who are against this.”

For others wanting to learn more about the conflict, Michelle says there is a weekly, Palestinian-led protest at Garema Place on Saturdays at 1pm, as well as a Friday night protest in Gungahlin.

Women In Black is strongly symbolic, says Michelle, it’s also got the history based on Palestinian and Israeli women coming together.

“It’s about peace,” she says.

“It’s a silent vigil, which speaks to the silencing of the people who are being mur dered.

“It’s a really powerful thing.”

*CityNews knows Michelle’s surname but has agreed to withhold it for her personal security.

Women In Black will continue its silent, Wednes day vigil, 6.30pm-7.30pm, on the Fairbairn Avenue and Anzac Parade roundabout until Anzac Day.

Woman In Black member Michelle protesting during the silent vigil near the Australian War Memorial.

Photo: Katarina Lloyd Jones

Can the Liberals get momentum under Lee?

I really like Stephen Cenatiempo.

The 2CC breakfast show host loves cars, Italian food done authentically and his heritage. But we most certainly don’t see eye to eye on everything.

One thing we do though is that he should not be the main spokesperson for the Liberal brand in Canberra.

Elizabeth Lee is the leader of the parliamentary Liberals, but outside the building on London Circuit it’s a far different story as she struggles with members who refuse to toe the line, and some who even have their own line going in who knows what. It has undermined her voice and the momentum needed to win government.

As Paul Keating once said about Peter Costello, “All tip and no iceberg”.

The Green Shed decision was yet another to add to the long list of government announcements lacking transparency. But also yet another where the Opposition let that happen in far too much silence.

walking through a shopping centre on a weekend, trying to avoid eye contact. And for others, their only meet-and-greet has been with family and friends, instead of a street corner on a Saturday morning.

As an example, the recent Green Shed decision was yet another to add to the long list of government announcements lacking transparency and clarification. But also yet another where the Opposition let that happen in far too much silence.

Can they get momentum under Lee? They can, but time is fast running out. The strategy of small target has to be binned. That works at a national level with an unpopular leader and government, a la Morrison, but at a local level, you need voice.

Candidates, elected or not, need to get one. But they also need something to take into the electorate they can talk about.

road safety for our most vulnerable?

A new stadium by 2030, with a new start-up precinct right next to it, and, and… see, this is how you start engaging and putting forward ideas.

This is the voice the Liberals need to work on. Throwing ideas around and being proud that they are Liberal. Voters love authenticity and honesty, so seeing and hearing proud Liberals is going to help. Opening up the local school’s newest reno is safe, but not enough. And far too small a target.

Small target is silence and silence is death for the ACT Liberals.

It’s been left up to a very few Libs, such as Stephen, to help carry the conservative messaging. But wait, you say? Aren’t there nine elected Libs in the Assembly, just one less than Labor? You are right!

So what are the others up to? After the empty chair ran the party for a while, now that a moderate is in charge, the conservative right forces have retreated to their own thing. A nice comfortable life as an opposition member of the ACT Legislative Assembly.

And why not? It is something they have decades of experience at doing.

Jeremy Hanson is an exception in the right faction, but perhaps that was more to do with trying to get the leadership back, and therefore needing profile, than actually getting unity.

They desperately need to start using Howard’s “Broad Church” strategy, so they can take Labor on and apply some much-needed pressure to a government that, while strong in some areas, is definitely drifting in others.

Some Lib MLAs wouldn’t be seen dead in a Liberal T-shirt. One even turned up in red for the campaign launch. This is unacceptable if you want to show you are a viable alternative government.

I have seen more than one fast-

Yes, ACT politics is hard like this. But you can’t just go digital and expect to win government. You do need to put in the hard yards at the grassroots level, as Labor does, and reach out to the electorate and build momentum.

The system is the same. The methods used by those in it aren’t. The Liberals need to adjust strategy if they want to get momentum.

It isn’t just going to appear out of nowhere, especially of the magnitude required to win. While the Liberals will likely pick up one to two seats at the next election, it will be probably more down to dissatisfaction with Labor than any specific policy they’ve put forward.

Policies that give credibility to those who need to vote blue to win the day. An example? Double the police budget to help ease frontline pressures, increase resources, and allow for more proactive policing programs that focus on working with communities. And how about anyone guilty of causing loss of life or serious injury while driving a vehicle gets an immediate lifetime ban from driving?

Or pedestrian lights that are always green with the road lights, but with timed intervals to assist with

But then again, maybe they like life in the Opposition Lane. Nice car, good money and free invites to all things in Canberra. And occasionally they get to meet a minister and think, yeah, nah.

Dr Andrew Hughes is a lecturer in marketing with the Research School of Management at ANU where he specialises in political marketing and advertising, and the use of emotions in marketing and tourism.

Stephen Cenatiempo… shouldn’t be the main spokesperson for the Liberal brand. Photo: Luke Foster

OUR BEAUTIFUL TERRITORY / Binh Le Thanh

Bistro Binh serves up photos of the wilderness

Canberra author NOEL BEDDOE continues his occasional series in praise of the ACT, this time in the company of the remarkable restaurateurcum-photographer Binh Le Thanh.

The bistro Lido in Belconnen is open for seven days a week; it operates every day of the year that the Westfield complex is open.

If you have been there you will have encountered Binh Le Thanh. He greets and welcomes; he controls the till; he keeps an eye that patrons’ orders are being created and delivered promptly – if staff are slow he’ll collect someone’s meal himself and take it to a table.

He impresses as having extraordinary, never-flagging energy and has a formidable memory for customers’ names. He opens the bistro a bit after seven in the morning and locks it up a bit after three in the afternoon. He never takes a morning tea or lunch break. He has not missed a day’s work in Lido in seven years.

Does the routine wear him down?

Asked, he gestured at the thenempty room.

“This,” he said, “is my home. The customers are like family – they like to chat, to tell me their news, and ask after me.”

Where will he be in 10 years time?

“Here, doing what I do now.”

What brought him to Australia from Vietnam?

“I accepted a scholarship to further my study of classical guitar and came to Sydney in 2007. Eventually I came to study at the Australian National University and did bits and pieces of work helping out here in Lido.”

Why is he not now a classical guitarist?

“I was performing in Adelaide and I pushed myself too far – this was in 2014. I damaged ligaments in my right hand. Now, if I play I get pain in that hand. After a while of performing the pain becomes unbearable. I can’t play the guitar to any meaningful standard any more.”

If you lose a source of meaning and beauty in your life, what do you do?

Binh: “I have been surrounded by an interest in photography all of my life; my father and brother still run a photography store in Hanoi.

“I got in the habit of finishing in the bistro and getting out into a wetlands or wilderness; I visited the Jerrabomberra wetland most days for two years.

“I spend time in parks and in the Tidbinbilla Nature reserve. I’m fascinated by the birdlife in those

places, the wildlife.

“I took sports photographs for a while and sold them to different publications but I like being outdoors best. I like to watch the interactions between birds and animals. I try to capture what they’re feeling at the instant of taking the photograph. I try to get how watching them makes me feel.”

For me he succeeds. He has created photographs of the fragile beauty of a robin perched in a fence post with the threatening glow of approaching bushfire smoke the background; of an absurd, bellicose pelican, great mouth agape, advancing threateningly on a pair of black swans; delicate birds hovering in air to feed hungry

offspring in a nest and the curiosity and confidence of a wetlands fox and its capacity for cruelty.

Some of his remarkable work decorates the walls of Lido. He also creates calendars every year using recent photographs as the monthly decorations; one memorable production captured his interaction over several months with that fox at Jerrabomberra.

“He got used to me. Every day he saw me he’d come closer. In the end he would stand just a few metres away from me and watch what I was doing. I think he was curious,” says Bihn.

Is his work for sale?

“Oh yes. People buy from me here in Lido, or they buy pieces off the net;

I’ve got a gallery on the internet.”

Sold many?

“I can’t give you an exact figure. It’s up around a thousand; maybe a thousand by now.”

At $250 to $600 a unit, a thousand units – I did the maths and immediately saw young Mr Binh Le Thanh in a new light.

Fifty-four pieces of his extraordinary work are on exhibition in the Kyeema Gallery behind the tasting room of Capital Wines in Hall, Thursday to Sunday until April 7.

Noel Beddoe’s writing has twice been awarded by The Literature Board of The Australia Council for the Arts.

Photographer Binh Le Thanh… “I spend time in parks and in the Tidbinbilla Nature reserve. I’m fascinated by the birdlife in those places, the wildlife.”

Right: Le Thanh Binh’s “Track Milky Way Panorama” photo taken at Westerman Hut, Namadji National Park. He took up to 60 shots of the sky as the light in it changed across 270 degrees of the sky, then Photoshopped the hut and sky images together to get the best version of how the scene made him feel.

Coles and Woolworths, the supermarket chains that together control almost two-thirds of the Australian grocery market, are facing unprecedented scrutiny.

One recent inquiry, commissioned by the Australian Council of Trade Unions and led by former Australian Consumer and Competition Commission chair Allan Fels, found the pair engaged in unfair pricing practices; an ongoing Senate inquiry into food prices is looking at how these practices are linked to inflation; and the ACCC has just begun a government-directed inquiry into potentially anti-competitive behaviour in Australia’s supermarkets.

The two companies have also come under the gaze of the ABC current affairs program Four Corners. Their respective chief executives each gave somewhat prickly interviews, and Woolworths chief Brad Banducci announced his retirement two days after the program aired.

A focus on the power of the supermarket duopoly is long overdue. However, one aspect of how Coles and Woolworths exercise their power has received relatively little attention: a growing high-tech infrastructure of surveillance and control that pervades

retail stores, warehouses, delivery systems and beyond.

Every customer a potential thief

As the largest private-sector employers and providers of essential household goods, the supermarkets play an outsized role in public life. Indeed, they are such familiar places that technological developments there may fly under the radar of public attention.

Coles and Woolworths are both implementing technologies that treat the supermarket as a “problem space” in which workers are controlled, customers are tracked and profits boosted.

For example, in response to a purported spike in shoplifting, a raft of customer surveillance measures have been introduced that treat every customer as a potential thief. This includes ceiling cameras which assign a digital ID to individuals and track them through the store, and “smart” exit gates that remain closed until a purchase is made. Some customers have reported being “trapped” by the gate despite paying for their items, causing significant embarrassment.

Solon Barocas refer to as “refractive surveillance” – a process whereby surveillance measures intended for one group can also impact another.

At the same time as the supermarkets ramp up the amount of data they collect on staff and shoppers, they are also investing in data-driven “crime intelligence” software. Both supermarkets have partnered with New Zealand start-up Auror, which shares a name with the magic police from the Harry Potter books and claims it can predict crime before it happens.

Coles also recently began a partnership with Palantir, a global datadriven surveillance company that takes its name from magical crystal balls in The Lord of the Rings.

infrastructure of home delivery, in an attempt to push last-mile delivery costs on to gig workers.

The precarious working conditions of the gig economy are well known.

Customers may not be aware, however, that Coles recently increased Uber Eats and Doordash prices by at least 10 per cent, and will no longer match instore promotions. Drivers have been instructed to dispose of the shopping receipt and should no longer place it in the customer’s bag at drop-off.

At least one Woolworths store has installed 500 mini cameras on product shelves. The cameras monitor realtime stock levels, and Woolworths says

customers captured in photos will be silhouetted for privacy.

A Woolworths spokesperson explained the shelf cameras were part of “a number of initiatives, both covert and overt, to minimise instances of retail crime”. It is unclear whether the cameras are for inventory management, surveillance or both.

Workers themselves are being fitted with body-worn cameras and wearable alarms. Such measures may protect against customer aggression, which is a serious problem facing workers. Biometric data collected this way could also be used to discipline staff in what scholars Karen Levy and

These heavy-handed measures seek to make self-service checkouts more secure without increasing staff numbers. This leads to something of a vicious cycle, as under-staffing, self-checkouts and high prices are often causes of customer aggression to begin with.

Many staff are similarly frustrated by historical wage theft by the supermarkets that totals hundreds of millions of dollars.

From employment to gig work

Both supermarkets have brought the gig economy squarely inside the traditional workplace. Uber and Doordash drivers are now part of the

In addition to higher prices, customers also pay service and delivery fees for the convenience of on-demand delivery. Despite the price increases to customers, drivers I have interviewed in my ongoing research report they are earning less and less through the apps, often well below Australia’s minimum wage.

Viewed as a whole, Coles’ and Woolworths’ high-tech measures paint a picture of surveillance and control that exerts pressures on both customers and workers. While issues of market competition, price gouging, and power asymmetries with suppliers must be scrutinised, issues of worker and customer surveillance are the other side of the same coin – and they too must be reckoned with The Conversation.

Lauren Kate Kelly, PhD candidate, RMIT University. Republished from The Conversation.

Woolworths surveillance cameras monitor the self-checkout area.

Photo: Woolworths

LAUREN KATE KELLY reveals the secret sauce of Coles’ and Woolworths’ profits: high-tech surveillance and control.

OPINION / Molonglo town centre

Dear Molonglo, try your best to grow

“As you grow up, Molonglo, aim to be the exception among the town centres of this city, a place that does not just destroy nature but gives back as much as it possibly can,” writes

BEATRICE BODART-BAILEY.

Congratulations, Molonglo, on becoming Canberra’s sixth town centre. The ritual of turning a serene, green landscape into a town centre of concrete, glistening glass and steel has already begun.

Heavy machinery has moved in shaving away the mantle of green vegetation and revealing an ever-increasing patch of dry soil, like clothing torn away revealing a naked body.

Yes, Molonglo, the custom of this land demands that the natural vegetation of this once beautiful valley be stripped and replaced by concrete, steel and glass with little vegetation in-between.

To mitigate the heat in those new concrete boxes, an army of air conditioners will blow out hot air into what was once a shady valley.

In other countries we find examples of people and nature living in harmony.

When the medieval university town of Heidelberg, Germany, was running out of space for its growing population in the 1960s, they opted for a new suburb sensitively placed into the forests overlooking the Rhine valley.

Only the vegetation of plots where buildings were placed was removed, with a good distance kept between structures, so that every window and balcony is surrounded by trees.

The forest in today’s photos was there when, shortly after construction, my mother moved into one of the penthouses surrounded by treetops. Naturally, trees had to be felled to construct the trunk road for buses to Heidelberg’s centre, but the shortcut to the local shops was a well-maintained forest path.

Such nature-sensitive planning would make it difficult to produce the 70,000 homes the planning minister announced for Molonglo, perhaps hoping that by conjuring up a glut of homes for those desperately

trees and perennial plants eliminating 20,000 kilograms of carbon annually. Photo: Dimitar Harizanov

seeking accommodation, he would receive sufficient support at the next election after so many much-criticised mishaps.

Large homes for all – Australians occupy the largest living space per person in the world –is what the electorate wants, but the Greens cannot approve the felling of so many trees.

They insist that 70 per cent of new homes must be provided by infill in older suburbs. In other words, first the trees in the gardens of the inner suburbs must be sacrificed.

The CSIRO established that those suburbs with 30 per cent tree cover have temperatures 13 degrees lower in the heat of summer.

But we must be democratic. Let those in the older suburbs have their tree cover reduced to accommodate infill and swelter in the heat like people in the new suburbs.

When El Nino revisits with days of 40C, the lack of vegetation is likely to push temperatures to the 50s, injurious to health. Western Sydney has already experienced these temperatures and the physical harm to people as well as the enormous cost of labour lost has been well established.

In this seemingly unsolvable competition of space for homes and trees in our cities, the Italian architect Stefano Boeri came up with a solution:

his Bosco Verticale, his Vertical Forest.

Two towers in Milan, 110 metres and 84 metres respectively, with a total of 27 storeys provide 40,000sqm space for people and for 20,000 trees and perennial plants, eliminating 20,000 kilograms of carbon annually.

Completed a decade ago, this vertical forest building demonstrates how plants can survive in this environment, nourished by recycled water and eliminating considerably more CO2 than the building produces. The plants also protect the apartments from noise-pollution and dust. Wind generators on the roof and photovoltaic systems along the façade reduce energy consumption.

Boeri’s design has been honoured with prizes and distinctions and inspired others to follow suit. From Bogota and Sao Paulo to Singapore and Tokyo, vertical forest buildings have sprouted. Even a 19-storey social housing tower in the Dutch city of

Eindhoven, Boeri clad with 8500 plants.

Here in Australia we have Sydney’s “One Central Park” with its 38,000 shrubs and 42,000 reflective mirrors to bring light to shaded areas. Brisbane is still working on getting the design of its vertical forest building approved.

And Canberra? Surely it’s time for our so progressive capital to invest in greening the city. Imagine if the new hotel facing Garema Place in Civic would be covered with thousands of plants: a drawcard for tourists and the local population alike, breathing life and oxygen into Canberra’s concrete soul.

For Molonglo finding the financial support for a vertical forest building might be problematic. But there are less costly solutions for the new town centre to turn itself into the greenest and coolest of the six.

The answer is green roofs, especially for all commercial buildings. In European cities, roofs have been turned into gardens and parks, at times even connected by bridges. Shady trees significantly reduce the summer heat and CO2, but even wicking beds on roofs, growing fresh vegetables, strawberries and raspberries, mitigate the heat and contribute to the wellbeing of people. As you grow up, Molonglo, please don’t strive to imitate the other five.

Rather, aim to be the exception among the town centres of this city, a place that does not just destroy nature but gives back as much as it possibly can.

Historian Beatrice BodartBailey is an honorary professor at the ANU School of Culture, History and Language and an emeritus professor of the Department of Comparative Culture, Otsuma Women’s University, Tokyo.

putting people first, above politics, is what I committed to doing,” Senator Pocock said.

“They’re values Australians want to see and values that many winners of this prize share and it’s a privilege to be recognised alongside them.”

The McKinnon Prize is a collaboration between the Susan McKinnon Foundation and the University of Melbourne and is self-described as an “independent, nonpartisan award for outstanding political leadership” that recognises politicians who have made a positive impact.

Past recipients include Foreign Minister Penny Wong, independent MP Helen Haines and former Liberal Health Minister Greg Hunt. –AAP

Senator David Pocock.

Photo: AAP

ACT tax grab is taking Canberrans for a ride

As the costs of grocery, fuel, services and mortgages skyrocket, are you one of the households feeling the pinch?

The ACT government is adding to the pain by constantly increasing taxes.

Tax reform was a great promise of our Labor government that has now been in power for more than 20 years. The idea was to remove duties that were inconvenient and unpredictable and replace them with an increase in “non-productive” rates and land tax.

The concept is good. But to what extent have they delivered on the promise?

The trouble is that increasing rates and land taxes has not been matched by a commensurate reduction in revenue from duties.

There were claims of huge reductions in conveyancing duties in the last ACT budget. In December, according to Domain, the median house price was just over a million dollars. In more than two decades of reform, while rates and land tax increased there was a 30 per cent reduction in conveyancing costs at the median price of housing.

At first glance this seems like a huge reduction – but only if rates and land tax are not examined as well. The rates on my own home have

“Over less than 20 years, there has been a 300 per cent increase in rates compared to a lousy 30 per cent decrease in conveyancing duty.”

increased threefold since 2006-07. It will be a similar story for those who have owned their own homes for any sustained period.

Over less than 20 years, there has been a 300 per cent increase in rates compared to a lousy 30 per cent decrease in conveyancing duty. Granted, this comparison does include a time preceding the commencement of the tax reforms in 2012. Even so, no wonder you’re feeling the pinch.

Motor vehicle registration charges are another area that Canberrans will be feeling the pinch from a voracious ACT government.

According to the last budget

Over less than 20 years, there has been a 300 per cent increase in rates compared to a lousy 30 per cent decrease in conveyancing duty. No wonder you’re feeling the pinch.

papers: “Total duties (including both property and vehicle transfers) are estimated to be $429.3 million in 2022-23, which is $32.9 million higher than the 2022-23 Budget estimate”. It should be noted that some of this is due to commercial conveyancing.

The big picture is that in 2006-07 revenue from rates was $157 million and from land tax, $63.8 million. A combined income of $220.8 million. This year the revenue from rates was $716 million and from land tax $172 million. A combined total of $888 million.

A fourfold increase over these years could be part of the reason that you’re feeling the pinch!

Over the same period, revenue from duties came close to doubling. For the 2022-23 budget the income from duties was $396 million. In 2006-07 the figure was $228 million. So much for the promise that tax reform will

mean a drop in duties countered by an increase in rates!

Canberrans are being taken for a ride.

The government is likely to claim that an increase in the number of households is the reason for the increase in revenue. According to the Bureau of Statistics (ABS) there were 131,274 households in Canberra in 2006. In the census of 2021, the number of households had risen to 186,963 – an increase over the period of 55,689 households.

While there was a fourfold increase in rates and land tax revenue, there was only about a quarter increase in the number of dwellings paying the increase in revenue. No wonder Canberrans are feeling the pinch.

There are those who advocate for using the ACT land revenue system Australia wide. Prosper Australia (an NGO committed to tax reform) recently released a report encouraging other jurisdictions to follow suit. They argue the change has not been politically damaging.

Prosper Australia pointed to a promise at the time the reforms were introduced. The ACT government “promised that the reforms would be

revenue neutral, reassuring residents that this was not a tax grab”.

Revenue neutral! Laugh out loud! Other jurisdictions beware – it is an invitation to a tax grab.

The principles on which Prosper Australia argues are sound and are “inspired by US journalist, economist and politician Henry George” they “advocate for shifting taxes from labour to land”.

While the principles are sound, the ability to keep the promise of revenue neutrality needs to be carefully considered before any action is taken for this sort of tax reform. Others should know that this approach requires trust in government, and Canberrans have a right to be bitterly disappointed.

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

No mystery, but we all know whodunnit

hated Hamas find a chink in the armour of Israeli security and on October 7 commit a disgraceful massacre of at least 1200 innocent civilians and take hostages.

What more could a corrupt leader ask for? Well, bombs from America would help. Oh, and there’s an election on there as well with an American government trapped by decades of devotion to the Israeli cause. So President Joe Biden really

The only problem is that the Hamas enemy is hard to identify among the two million folk in the Gaza Strip. And that means murdering 30,000 Gazans and counting. Along the way, our suspect has been

In fact it took five months into the war before the senior Jewish legislator in the US Congress Chuck Schumer finally did his Agatha Christie denouement: “Bibi Netanya-

robertmacklin.

BRIEFLY

Local chemist takes top title

Capital Chemist Southlands is the 2024 Guild Pharmacy of the Year. Louise Mclean, pharmacist and co-owner said: “Being nominated for Guild Pharmacy of the Year by one of our customers was probably the best piece of feedback we have ever received. “I just really wish I knew who that person was just to say, thank you.”

Dentist in the chair

The Healthcare Consumers’ Association is hosting a free webinar with dentist Dr Sri Karumuri, who will discuss the link between oral health and overall wellbeing, revealing that severe gum disease has been associated with cardiovascular disease, adverse pregnancy outcomes and Alzheimer’s disease. Via Zoom, 6pm-7.30pm, April 4. Register at via events at hcca.org.au

Pelvic floor help

A physiotherapist from Canberra Health Services will present a free pelvic floor workshop offering information, education and self-help strategies for women experiencing continence problems or wishing to prevent them. It’s at Gungahlin Community Health Centre, 1pm-3.30pm, April 5. Book at chs.ccptpelvichealth@act. gov.au or call 5124 9977

Research fundraiser

Relay for Life Team, the Bold Bandannas, will hold a stall at Bunnings Majura, 10am4.30pm, April 6 to raise funds for cancer research, prevention and support services.

Let

The ‘beast’ that’s been swallowing my savings

I used to think that by staying away from the old-age pension and being a self-funded retiree I was doing the country a favour.

That was until I had a stroke in 2023 and ended up in a nursing home. Most of my life savings have been swallowed up by this beast called aged care. As has most of my super income stream each month.

I hear younger relatives saying they plan to go on the old-age pension and are dropping the idea of being self-funded.

How many others will follow suit, especially if the aged-care funding proposals being considered by the current federal government are accepted and implemented?

Gary Shapcott, Hughes

Working from home or the garden?

I’ve recently discovered my neighbour in Nicholls is working from home.

As a public servant I’m sure she is entitled to screen breaks, however I still cannot account for the time spent in the garden.

There is not even an attempt to conceal or hide the gardening on the taxpayer dime.

In my time, sometimes we had a long lunch. Back then, we were told to park our vehicles behind the club or local watering hole. Of course, everyone complied and had no sense of the entitlement you see in today’s public service.

Martin Cahill, Nicholls

Canberra Metro’s profits come at a cost

Canberra Metro’s profits are a high priority for the ACT government.

Canberra Metro was a 2012 election commitment by then-Chief Minister Katy Gallagher. She committed to establish Canberra Metro as a “private sector partnership to plan, finance and develop the first stage of a light rail network for Canberra”.

She omitted to mention that Canberrans would pay for the finance.

More recently, as federal Minister for Finance, Gallagher said: “Canberrans rightly expect that their taxpayer money will be spent with the best bang for buck and deliver the best outcome for our city.”

The ACT government concluded that stage 1 of bus rapid transit would cost $280 million

less than light rail, and would be twice as cost-effective.

In choosing to fund Canberra Metro to build stage 1 of light rail, the government prioritised Canberra Metro’s profits ahead of the best outcome for Canberra.

The government then concluded that light rail stage 2A would provide only $150 million worth of benefits. In choosing to pay Canberra Metro $577 million to build Stage 2A, the government again prioritised Canberra Metro’s profits ahead of the best outcome for Canberra.

Leon Arundell, Downer

Bus case ‘significantly stronger’ than light rail

May I be so bold and praise in a letter to the editor of CityNews an article in the Canberra Times with the title “Bus case ‘significantly stronger’ than light rail ”?

I am glad the public is informed once again about the rather “interesting” way the decision to build the light rail line was made. CityNews already called attention to this problem with two of my opinion pieces (December 22, 2022 and January 25, 2023).

The latter, with the heading “‘Funny business’ on the way to the Assembly”, mentions that in 2010 the Chinese automobile company BYD rolled out its BYD K9, a bus so much in demand in the US that soon afterwards it was manufactured there.

Considering that instead the ACT govern -

ment decided on a Spanish tram unable to climb hills for this hilly city of Canberra, costing a multiple of that of the bus, one must indeed wonder about the professionalism of the decision makers.

Prof Beatrice Bodart-Bailey, via email

Landscaping gets uglier by the day

That rubbish on Northbourne Avenue complementing light rail, loosely called landscaping, is uglier by the day, if that’s possible.

Are standards so challenging in this place that rainbow-glazed eyes fail to comprehend the sight that greets visitors to this city?

It’s ugly Mr Barr, but I guess no one in authority cares so what’s the panic, it’s just continued deterioration!

John Lawrence via email

Will Molonglo planners prioritise trees?

Mike Quirk notes that Molonglo has been identified as “the main greenfield supply area in Canberra over the coming decades” (“As the population surges, is Molonglo ready?”, CN March 14).

In 2008, the National Capital Authority was concerned about the effect of development on the Box-Gum woodland and

argued for a large conservation area centred on Central Molonglo.

There is an opportunity now to revisit that vision. Three years ago, however, the Molonglo Valley’s tree cover was measured at only 9 per cent, well below most other districts. The highest was Hall with 38 per cent tree cover, close to the Sydney and Melbourne targets of 40 per cent.

Urban trees provide many benefits to residents and habitat for birds and other animals. They can cool streets by up to 10 degrees and improve human health.

Let’s hope the planners of Canberra’s next town centre will prioritise trees.

Ray Peck, Hawthorn

Whole Sofronoff inquiry has become tedious

The former Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, can’t seem to take no for an answer. While he “won” two of his claims of bias and prejudice, it must be noted that there were several other of his claims that he did not “win”.

The whole Sofronoff inquiry has become tedious, and it’s time he took his bat and ball and headed home, instead of behaving like a petulant child.

Janine Haskins, Cook

Nuclear: what will Liberal candidates say?

When ripping into the CSIRO this month over its costings of renewable and nuclear energy, Peter Dutton genuflected yet again to the LNP’s Barnaby-led brigade of pronuclear, anti-2050 commitment crusaders.

While promoting what would be a highly problematical pathway for establishing not small but large nuclear reactors around the country, the opposition leader made the adoption of nuclear power generation sound quite benign, like the acquisition of a guide dog or live-in home carer: “We see nuclear power as a companion to renewables” (“Dutton goes Gortonian on nuclear energy”, citynews.com.au March 15).

The Coalition’s intransigent, inwardlooking focus on political self-preservationat-any-cost guarantees that Australia would again lag in delivering clean and affordable energy to all and in reducing the impacts of damaging greenhouse emissions.

ACT Liberal candidates for the next federal election will not be allowed to wriggle

away from the many questions voters and the local scientific community will want answered about this major policy push.

Aspiring Coalition politicians will need to have a good understanding of, and be transparent about, the long-term development and economics of creating sources of nuclear energy across the country.

The usual lazy spin, deflection, and fearmongering practices employed by our former Liberal senator and his Advance allies to promote far less significant policies last time could not be relied upon to support arguments and context for the adoption of what creditable research shows is the most expensive form of electricity generation.

Liberal candidates’ answers will be interesting, indeed.

Sue Dyer, Downer

Barr’s Canberra is an untidy embarrassment

I agree with the comments by Martin Gordon (Letters, CN March 21) about “the scale of decay” (eg decrepit road signs); the inordinate delay in building the new bridge over the river between north and south Molonglo Valley; the shambles that is the Canberra Hospital upgrade; and our national capital not being “the showcase it should be”.

After nearly 10 years with Andrew Barr as Chief Minister, Canberra and the wider ACT have become an untidy embarrassment.

Long grass and tall weeds are almost ubiquitous; there are countless dead and dying trees on public land and along streets, including a large, half-dead oak tree near the Deakin shops.

Dr Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

Understanding of the curse of hard drugs

Ron Edgecombe’s letter (“Where the possession of hard drugs went crazy”, CN March 14) appears to reinforce my earlier unpublished letter that Colorado is joining Oregon in recriminalising cannabis.

Mr Edgecombe shows he has a full understanding of the curse of hard drugs and merits strong political support.

Colliss Parrett, Drug Free Australia, Barton

Luke Clews

Cartoon: Paul Dorin

Two words and you may be off to Jamala Lodge

Here’s a special advertising feature with a twist of April Fool’s Day fun.

In each of the advertisements showing on these nine pages (and only in the advertisements) a single letter of text is missing in a word.

To be in the running to win a free night’s accommodation for two adults valued at $1850 at the award-winning Jamala Wildlife Lodge at the National Zoo and Aquarium all you have to do is identify the missing letters.

Here’s a clue: there are 11 letters to collect and once you have them, work out what they spell. Here’s another clue, they make two words (six letters and five letters).

Once you’ve cracked the code, email your two-word answer with a contact name and phone number to tim@citynews.com.au by 5pm April 4. The winner will be judged on April 5 and contacted by phone. Entrants must be 18+. The judge’s decision is final. The prize is for a uShaka Lodge room, off-peak only.

Conference facility with a view

Oaks Ranch is a luxury, 14-room boutique hotel, restaurant, bar, event and conference facility and golf course, says general manager Josh Tyler.

“We are situated on the south coast, five minutes from Broulee Beach on 300 acres, flanked by the Tomago River and Candlagan Creek,” he says.

“The Oaks Ranch first opened in 1970. The current owners closed the hotel in June 2021 to renovate and elevate the property’s offering, before we reopened in February 2022.

“Our conference and event facilities offer everything from boardroom-style to cabaret conferencing, weddings and events with a large alfresco breakout area, stunning views west across the property to the Deua mountain ranges.

“The venue has high-speed, reliable wifi, a drop-down data projector with audio surround, flipcharts and a whiteboard.”

Josh says the restaurant and bar, Arlo, is a refined casual eating experience, influenced by Australian, Asian and European cuisines.

“For conferencing we offer full or half-day

Host at

n ly 10 min u te s f rom Moru ya airpo r t

$7 7 ha l f d ay delega te pa c kage s

$88 fu ll d ay deleg a te pac kage s

14 bo u tique b un g a l ows

Bo a rd room me e ti n g s f rom 8 to 3 0 and ca b a re t u p to 6 0 g u e s ts

Di n e in our A rlo re s tau ra n t, pl ay golf on our 9 hol e golf c ours e

Bo k your n ex t te a m building re t reat o r c o n f e ren c e at the Oa k s R an ch

To e n q u i re, c o n t a ct our Event s Team a t eve n t s @o a ks ra nc h c om.a u

and afternoon teas,” he says.

“Our conference lunches range from gourmet sandwiches on local artisan breads to dining in Arlo. We also offer barista-made coffee, specialty teas, and in-house breakfast for overnight guests.

“Oaks Ranch is a Spanish mission-style property, a rural oasis with a sense of tranquillity, and the sunsets are truly amazing.”

Oaks Ranch, 340 Old Mossy Point Road, Mossy Point, NSW. Call 4471 7403, or visit oaksranch.com.au

Industry certified body contouring

Total Body Contouring has been established in Canberra for a few years, but new-owner Christy Christensen only recently took over.

“The community and customer base around the brand appealed to me, as we have so much to offer for the next phase of growth and service offerings,” she says, with 15 years of experience backing her up.

“Total Body Contouring is a place to redefine your silhouette. We help people achieve their goals from reducing cellulite and fatty tissue, assisting with muscle growth, through to lymphatic drain age, and facials that reduce acne scars.”

Christy says Total Body Contouring is about building body confidence without surgery.

“We give a personalised experience and journey, everyone is different,” she says.

“First, we set up a consultation to make sure you get the right specialisation for your needs and wants.

“With industry certification for all our services, your safety comes first.

“We give full transparency to everyone so there are no hidden extras or inflated prices.

“Currently we are offering fat freezing from only $320, and up to 50 per cent off other services booked before the end of March.”

Christy says as a team, satisfaction comes from the results achieved through the Total Body Contouring services.

“But, most of all, it’s the smile on our clients’ faces when they see the results for themselves,” she says.

Total Body Contouring, Shop 3/22 Franklin Street, Griffith. Call 6239 7347, or visit totalbodycontouring.com.au

CREATING A STRONG,

Family support services dedicated to building community

Sanctuary Aus is a not-for-profit family support centre based in Holder that is purpose built for Canberra, says Kim Hefren-Webb, executive director.

“We have two goals,” says Kim.

“The first is to provide professional child and family services for vulnerable families.

“The second is to build community.”

A lot of families parent in isolation in Canberra because it is such a mobile city, says Kim, so building community is important.

“We provide ‘circle of security’ training, which is an attachment based training program for families.

“We try to pick up the families who can’t access the current programs in Canberra, because they’re all during the day, during business hours, so we provide it at home, we’ll go to the families.”

Kim says they provide NDIS services including behaviour support services mainly for kids with autism, intellectual disability, ADHD, oppositional defiance, developmental delays with communication or genetic disorders that have not been labelled.

Executive director Kim Hefren-Webb.

Kim says they also run support groups, one is Cool Kids, which supports children to manage their anxiety and learn coping skills.

They also have a club called Club Mojo, which teaches children between seven and 11 how to understand their emotions or others’ emotions.

“And we run a beautiful women’s group each week,” says Kim.

“Give us a call,” says Kim, “we help families with lots and lots of stuff, we do not judge, it’s a really lovely team of people.”

Sanctuary Aus. Call 0431 4498227 or visit sanctuaryaus.org.au

“As a charity we work with families on how we can create long-term positive change”

Local charity ‘Sanctuary Aus’ is a child and family service, custom-built for the Canberra community by professionals with decades of therapeutic and management experience.

OUR PROGRAMS INCLUDE:

• Positive Behaviour Support Services: Holistic and attachment focused services for young people with disabilities, who are displaying challenging behaviours.

• Cool Kids with Autism: Specialist anxiety management program for children 7 - 12 yr/o. Accredited by Macquarie Uni.

• Club Mojo: For 7 - 12 yr/o kids who are strugg ing to manage their emotions and social skills.

• Circle of Security: Internationally recognised attachment focused program for parents/carers: flexible home or web based delivery.

• Counselling: Attachment based counselling for young people and parents.

• Women's Carer Support Group: Come along and meet some new people, do an activity and share lunch with us! Free to attend.

www.sanctuaryaus.org.au

I have witnessed the positive growth that my son has been displaying since working with Sanctuary Aus -Canberra mum

Christy Christensen.

Canberra’s Most Trusted Non-Surgical Body Sculpting, Beauty and Health Clinic

Fat loss With Cooltech®

Cooltech, also known as fat freezing, is a popular, non-surgical treatment that makes it possible to reduce fat deposits by up to 25%.

The advantages of Cooltech are, amon other things, that the treatment is very effective, almost painless and far more gentle on the body than, for example, surgery.

The Latest In Non-Invasive Full Body Contouring and fat freezing – Cooltech®

Many people find that despite a healthy lifestyle, they can have a hard time getting rid of fat in certain areas of the body. This can be extremely frustrating for the individual and lead to not feeling comfortable in their body. Stubborn fat deposits can be genetically determined and therefore be extremely difficult to get rid of.

The Latest Telsa Functional Magnetic Stimulation for the whole body and Incontinence Treatments

ONDA With Coolwaves®

ONDA is an award winning and the world’s first and only body shaping device to use revolutionary new Coolwaves technology – and is set to change the way in which non-surgical body shaping procedures are delivered.

Cool waves bypass the uppermost layers of skin tissue, helping deliver more energy/heat directly to where it is needed: the subcutaneous fat cells. This new technology helps dramatically reduce the heating of the surface tissue by focusing heat in the subdermal fatty tissues, with 20% more heating of the fat than laser and RF fat reduction technologies while keeping the skin cooler and more comfortable. Additionally, ONDA Coolwaves has no consumables, no downtime, and offers faster treatment in fewer sessions. Not available elsewhere in ACT.

The TESLAChair offers the latest technology to battles incontinence and weakness in the pelvic floor muscles. It is an effective treatment for conditions that form after child birth, sexual dysfunction and pelvic/ lower back pain and stress making it a versatile machine capable of resolving multiple issues of the body. This treatment also enables better circulation within the targeted muscles which helps those with circulatory problems. OPENING

TESLAFormer Treatment builds body muscle in the areas you want and leads to burning fat as muscle forms.

Blast into the past at the National Dinosaur Museum Mechanics

Carole Arulantu, general manager, National Dinosaur Museum, says she is excited to welcome everyone to celebrate the museum’s 31st birthday on April 6. Carole says there are two separate events on the day, with the Family Fun Day event, 10am to 4pm, and the Adults Only Birthday event starting at 6pm.

Normal ticket prices apply for the Family Fun Day event, she says, and include a free sausage sandwich, kids’ activities and an Easter egg hunt, sponsored by La Casa.

“We can’t wait to see you for our birthday, either for the day event or the special adults-only evening event,” says Carole.

For the Family Fun Day event, participants must be aged between four and 12, and must register online, she says.

The adults-only event tickets cost $30 and includes drinks and games on the verandah, a stroll in the garden and music by the Leanne Castley Duo, says Carole.

There will also be a lucky draw, and Carole says the winner will receive a bottle of Moët and a Canberra Monopoly board.

“What great timing,” says Carole, “our birthday present is our Canberra Monopoly with Cooper, our beloved Australotitan featured on our property!

“You can purchase your very own dinosaur token for $5 when you buy a Monopoly Board, exclusive to the National Dinosaur Museum.”

National Dinosaur Museum. 6 Gold Creek Road, Nicholls. Call 6109 8160 or visit nationaldinosaurmuseum.com.au

Car Mechanical Services co-owner Raffy Sgroi says she is committed to lifting the sustainability standards of the automobile industry.

“As much as we’re supporting the e-vehicle transition and we know this is going to be the future, realistically we have to keep in mind that combustion vehicles are going to still be around for a long time.

“It was up to us to come up with a strategy to create a more sustainable workplace,” she says.

Raffy says that Car Mechanical Services have implemented a number of changes recently, including the bulk buying of engine oil and investing in specific waste collection.

“Our oil filters are 100 per cent recyclable, metal we donate to scrap metal guys, so we know it’s not being wasted, it’s being reused,” she says.

“We used to have 12 collections every year of the

big tip bins, we have cut that to six collections.”

Raffy says they have also started to implement educational workshops for clients so they can better understand the costs associated with industry services, particularly with sustainable waste practices.

“We know that everybody feels the pinch so obviously you’re going to go for the cheaper price, and sometimes they might not understand why there is such a big gap from one place to another,” she says.

“We want to encourage them to look a bit deeper.”

Car Mechanical Services won the sustainable small business of the year award last year, says Raffy, so customers can be assured their mechanics are putting in the work for future generations.

Car Mechanical Services, 82 Kalgoorlie Crescent, Fisher. Call 6162 4111 or visit carmechanicalservices.com.au

Raffy and Charlie Sgroi.

Driving Towards Sustainability: Car Mechanical Services’ Eco-Friendly Innovations

At Car Mechanical Services, we’re dedicated to upholding our sustainability commitment and promoting practices that benefit both our business and the environment.

Our mission is to operate as a model of sustainability within the automotive industry, implementing innovative measures to reduce our environmental footprint while delivering exceptional service to our clients.

One of our primary focuses has been on enhancing energy efficiency throughout our operations. We’ve upgraded our lighting system to energy-efficient LED technology, not only improving visibility in our workshop but also significantly reducing energy consumption. Additionally, we’ve invested in sealed floors with an industrial acrylic floor system, minimizing the need for harsh cleaning chemicals and promoting a cleaner workspace.

To further minimize our environmental impact, we’ve made conscious efforts to reduce fluid use and switch to waterbased products whenever feasible. By implementing spill kits replaced by mopping spillage, we’ve streamlined our cleanup processes while reducing waste.

One of our most significant achievements is our bulk buying of engine oils, which has allowed us to eliminate over 80,000 plastic containers annually. We’ve also made the switch from paper towels to hand towels, reducing our paper consumption and waste output.

Recycling plays a crucial role in our sustainability efforts, with cardboard,

plastic, glass, and cans all sorted and recycled wherever possible. Additionally, we collect used batteries to trade in with suppliers, ensuring responsible disposal and recycling practices.

In addition to recycling materials like cardboard, plastic, glass, and cans, we ensure that metal waste is donated to scrap metal collection facilities.

By diverting metal from landfills, we contribute to the circular economy and reduce the need for virgin materials.

Furthermore, we are conscientious about wastewater management, particularly when it comes to oilcontaminated water. Our oil separator is regularly maintained to ensure it

operates efficiently, effectively removing oil and contaminants from wastewater before it is discharged. This proactive approach helps us safeguard local water resources and protect the environment from potential pollution hazards.

By addressing both solid and liquid waste streams in our sustainability efforts, we strive to minimize our ecological footprint and promote responsible stewardship of natural resources. These practices align with our core values and demonstrate our ongoing commitment to sustainability in all aspects of our business operations.

When it comes to waste management, we adhere to strict ethical guidelines.

Used engine oil is collected and recycled, while oil filters are 100% recycled by specialised recycling facilities.

In our day-to-day operations, we prioritize energy efficiency by minimising electricity use, utilizing standby functions, and opting for cold water whenever possible. Ongoing staff training and research ensure that we stay at the forefront of sustainable practices in the automotive industry. Client education is another essential aspect of our sustainability initiatives. By encouraging regular vehicle servicing and tire rotation, we not only ensure optimal vehicle performance but also contribute to longer usage and reduced

environmental impact.

At Car Mechanical Services, sustainability isn’t just a goal; it’s a core value that guides everything we do.

By continually striving to improve our practices and educate both staff and clients, we’re making a tangible difference in our community and beyond. We are proud to be recognized as leaders in sustainable automotive practices, and we remain committed to pioneering new ways to protect our planet while delivering top-notch service to our valued clients.

Car Mechanical Services, call 6162 4111 or visit carmechanicalservices.com.au

The Car Mechanical Services team, from left, Neville Scholes, Angus Gray, David Beatty, Charlie Sgroi… “I am proud of Car Mechanical Services, proud of Charlie and proud of myself,” says Raffy.

Kidstart Southside Education and Activity Centre understands that the first five years of a child’s life are crucial for development, says owner Kristen O’Connor.

“Kidstart offers classes for children from five months to five years of age to develop them socially, physically, emotionally and intellectually,” she says.

Operating since 1996 and located in Wanniassa, Kristen says Kidstart offers three distinct and ageappropriate programs to ignite a love of learning.

The first program is for children under the age of three, to attend with an adult, and introduces them to music, stories and stimulating equipment.

The second program is a “Pre-Preschool” program for three and four-year-olds to attend by themselves before starting preschool.

“It has been amazing to see 23 years’ worth kids and their families growing, loving, enjoying and

benefiting from the program,” says Kristen.

The third program is Preschool PLUS. It’s designed for children to be involved alongside Preschool. The program is centred on phonics based literacy.

“We use interactive computer sessions to expose the children to the letter sounds, letter identification and letter formation,” says Kristen.

“We are passionate about developing a love of learning in each and every child.

“By allowing them to thrive in an educational setting and experience the joy in exploring and achieving, we hope learning will be a lifelong passion for all our Kidstart kids.”

Kidstart Southside Education and Activity Centre, 65 Sternberg Crescent, Wanniassa. For enrolment enquiries visit kidstart.com.au

Pilates can be considered a cross-partner with any body conditioning modality, says Felicia DarbyshirePirie of Pilates Centre Canberra. or fitness, or the sole form of exercise- Pilates makes people feel good!” she says.

and says she discovered a love for it at a point in her life when she was fit and keen to have a go at any new exercise.

supported her through pregnancies and injuries. with other professionals including Physiotherapists, Osteopaths, Soft Tissue therapists and Exercise Physiologists,” she says trained instructor you get very skillful teaching. your instructor why you are doing an exercise and learn the reasons, it’s so important to get the exercises right.” gets when meeting the physical challenges. it’s a huge personal accomplishment,” she says.

BASI, the world-leading Pilates instructor training school.

rewarding, but not nearly as rewarding as working in the industry!”

The Pilates Centre Canberra, 1/11 Colbee Court, Phillip. Call 0438 967379.

Felicia Darbyshire-Pirie of Pilates Centre Canberra.

Fun-filled day of aviation celebration

On April 6, The Temora Aviation Museum will host an Aircraft Showcase, says deputy CEO Peter Harper.

“We have 20 aircraft displaying, we have P-51 Mustangs, a P-40 Kittyhawk and a Spitfire, they are all fighter aircraft from the world war two era so they’re quite iconic and quite popular,” he says.

“We are expecting a PC-21, an aircraft from the current air force, and probably the other recognisable one would be an A-37 Dragonfly, just to name a few.”

Gates open at 10am, says Peter, and the day will start off with one of the pilots, who will be displaying later in the day, doing a Q&A session with Peter.

“Immediately following that, at 11.30am, the flying program commences and it is non-stop flying right through to 1.45pm; almost three hours of non-stop flying displays,” says Peter.

“After the actual flying, when all the aircraft are

back on the ground, we position them all on the flight line and then we rope them off and we invite the spectators out on to the flight line, where they can get up real close to the aircraft and we also have pilots on hand to answer any questions and have a chat.

“For an airshow, it’s quite different, it’s access you wouldn’t normally get.”

To add further excitement, Peter says they will have recently installed aircraft simulators operating on the day.

“They’re quite new to the museum, they’ve only been up and running for a few months,” he says.

Peter says there will also be barista coffee and food available to buy throughout the day.

Temora Aviation Museum, 1 Tom Moon Avenue, Temora. Visit aviationmuseum.com.au

From the first sketch to the final polish, each piece of jewellery is meticulously crafted to symbolise a story, says Venetia Major, owner of Venetia Major – Bespoke Jewellery at Hall.

“Specialising in custom designed and handmade jewel lery, Venetia is your passport to a world of unparalleled beauty, with a focus on creating jewellery that transcends the ordinary,” she says.

“Venetia possesses a rare skill, transforming your unique vision into a breathtaking reality.”

Venetia says customers can choose from an array of ethically sourced diamonds and precious gems, or supply their own, select the perfect metal, and tailor every intricate detail to match their style.

“Our diamonds are of the highest quality, and expertly set to radiate brilliance for a lifetime,” she says.

“Book a Design Appointment or visit the studio in Hall, only 19 minutes from the city!”

Venetia Major – Bespoke Jewellery, 3/8 Victoria Street, Hall. Call 6230 9587, or visit venetiamajor.com

Venetia Major, owner of Venetia Major Bespoke Jewellery at Hall.

Woden’s ‘booming’ architecture team

Arkitex is a firm that has been operating in Canberra since 1997, says director Alessandro (Alex) D’Ambrosio.

“We are a focused firm dedicated to enhancing and improving the local architectural fabric of our immediate local community and surrounding regional areas alike.”

And, Alex says, they’re excited to be expanding to south-east Queensland soon.

But, of course, “Woden is a great place for our office here in Canberra”.

“Woden Valley has experienced something of a boom in renovation, addition and knock-down and rebuild of homes over recent years. This has led to the commute to our office being littered with our previous projects, which is not only rewarding to see from our perspective, but it is a good primer for

clients meeting at our office.

“We have a focus on the design development phase, working closely with our clients and meeting as often as required to ensure an outcome that meets or exceeds our clients’ desires as well as achieving an architectural outcome of high quality.

“The experience we have garnered through the projects we have completed informs each project we undertake, applying what we have learned through our many years of providing our services,” says Alex.

“Arkitex architecture is less of a career and more of a lifestyle and passion.”

Arkitex, Shop 5, 24 Torrens Place, Torrens. Call 0413 570599, email info@arkitex.com.au or search Arkitex on Facebook.

Road Ready Centre is committed to making learner drivers more safe and aware out on the road, says CEO Steve Lake.

Providing a range of courses to improve learner confidence, Steve says learner drivers can get up to 30 hours contributed to their logbook out of the 100 they need to get their P’s, all while becoming more aware of the risks they’ll face while driving.

“The first course we have is called the ACT Pre-Learner Licence course. It’s a 10 hour course that drivers can take before they do their knowledge test to get their L plates,” he says.

“After they’ve got their L’s, our Safer Driver course provides a two and a half hour workshop. Then learners get to go out on the road in an instructor’s vehicle for an hour and get 20 hours counted toward

their log book.

“The other course they can do is the Vulnerable Road Users course. It’s a two hour workshop that makes learners aware of who is at highest risk on the road and can contribute up to 10 hours’ credit.”

Steve says courses can be taken both online and in person, and can be booked together for convenience.

“A lot of young drivers come out of the courses surprised at how much space they need to keep in front of them when they drive,” says Steve.

“They come out feeling more confident and aware of what hazards to be looking for and what responses to implement.”

Road Ready Centre, 4/54 Hoskins Street, Mitchell. Call 6103 0463 or visit roadreadycentre.com.au

Your Teenager’s Path To Getting Road Ready

ACT PRE-LEARNER LICENCE COURSE

Essential course to complete prior to gaining Le rner’s Licence

VULNERABLE ROAD USER PROGRAM

Get 10 hours of logbook credit towards P’s.

ACT SAFER DRIVER COURSE

Get 20 hours of logbook credit towards P’s.

All courses are available online or face to face

Bark is the staghorn’s best friend

Staghorn is most unusual to grow as it doesn’t produce flowers and doesn’t

need soil to grow.

In its habitat it likes to cling to the bark of trees, where there is moisture in the understory of a sub-tropical forest.

Long-living, slow-growing Staghorn (Platycerium bifurcatum) can be grown in Canberra in a protected spot and needs little care when established.

The shield fronds protect its root ball from drying out and, in habitat, collects falling leaves that, in turn, become organic matter and release nutrients to the plant.

This is difficult to replicate in the home garden, but by placing, compost and peat around the root ball will keep it moist. Misting sprays and drippers will help, too.

If dividing an old stag, gently remove small offshoots of the main plant ensuring you have fertile fronds, which are the leaves with rusty cinnamon spots on the underside and also sterile fronds, which are all green fronds.

Propagating by division is best done early spring just before the plant becomes active or, if you need to do it now, it will need a little more TLC.

Use a good quality piece of hardwood timber or bark and lay the plant on to the

board with some compost and peat around the root ball. Tie on with a fishing line and lay it flat for several weeks so it can attach itself to the board. It can then be hung.

Propagating ferns by spores is very tricky in a home environment because fog tents and temperature control is required. Propagating from spores can take months, if not years, to grow but it’s not impossible and can be done with lots of research.

Division will give fewer problems and a faster, bigger, low-maintenance plant in the long run.

When growing Staghorn in Canberra we need to mimic its habitat conditions. It would like to be grown in a bright, outdoor location well under a pergola and away from frost or in a glasshouse with no direct sun.

It needs moisture in the warmer months and keeping it dry through winter should stop it from freezing. Get them growing in spring with a weak seaweed solution.

Their counterpart the elk-horn (Platycerium superbum), which is the same species of fern, looks different with slender leaves and grows multiple plants with its fanning fronds. It grows low and wide, whereas a staghorn is a more upright plant, with one big leaf.

ZINNIAS are flowering at the moment and are a terrific old-fashioned, long-flowering plant for a cottage garden or a wild garden. Its flowers are bright and cheerful, ranging in colour through yellows, pinks and reds.

It thrives on very little water once established and doesn’t mind full sun and a bit of heat.

Deadheading the plant encourages more flowering growth and a neater looking plant. Its flowers encourage beneficial insects and bees to the garden.

I plant them around my vegetables and fruit trees for colour and a shade for the tree roots as well.

There are also dwarf varieties only 15 centimtres tall and have a more compact growth.

Harvesting the seed for sowing next year is easy. Remove the flower heads when they are dry in autumn and place them in an envelope or paper bag to dry over winter and sow again in spring. Plant in full sun and shelter from the wind.

This technique of seed collecting can be done for other summer annuals such as cosmos, sunflowers and even herbs such as parsley and basil.

jackwar@home.netspeed.com.au

Jottings…

• Plant sweet peas in soil sprinkled with lime.

• Keep picking tomatoes and zucchini for more yield.

• Deadhead herbs to keep foliage growing strong.

• Fertilise lawns coming into winter and water well.

Staghorn… most unusual, as they don’t produce flowers and don’t need soil to grow.

Photos: Jackie Warburton

Zinnias… a terrific old-fashioned, long-flowering plant for a cottage garden or a wild garden.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

INSIDE Local fiano punches above its weight RICHARD CALVER

‘Classic horror’ marks Craig’s feature film debut

By Helen MUSA

Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story, The Body Snatcher, the in-demand Canberra actor and videographer, Craig Alexander, has embarked on his first feature film, Snatchers, to be shot exclusively in Canberra during April.

“I love classic horror,” director Alexander tells me when I catch up with him and co-director/producer Shelly Higgs for a chat, adding that he’d been hunting for a classic horror story to adapt for the stage, so thought about such Victorian tales.

The story he ended up with is that a pair of orderlies in a hospital, Mac and Fettes (the latter name comes straight from Robert Louis Stevenson) decide to target the black market in fresh organs.

They manage to steal the beautiful Jane Doe, “a snatcher’s perfect 10,” they think – and make it to a secluded warehouse in Fyshwick.

As they try to extract the organs, Jane wakes up.

But hang on, you may say, isn’t that one of embarking on what he calls “a twisted game of survival.”

turning it into a film. He has form here, having in 2020 during covid, created a livestreamed production

Mixing theatre, music and cameras with live editing to provide a journey through vampire, it blurred boundaries between

“It’s been my lifelong dream to make a Higgs, a long-time dramaturg and director at The Street, noting the use of a surreal dance Alexander says, but doing a feature film is “a lot bigger than the things we’ve done… Keen, the chosen designer for most productions at The Street, including Saint Nicholas,

“We are asking the crew to trust us that a warehouse in Fyshwick will look like an

“The story needs to feel real,” Alexander says, but it’s darkly comedic. “You can have a lot of fun with something that couldn’t happen in real life.”

For this, their first film, they begged, borrowed, stole and engaged investors, and are now hoping that Screen Australia will come up with post-production costs.

“It’s a low-budget film, but we want to get it out there so that we can leverage for more,” Higgs says. It’s slated for a 2026 release.

The locations will be HQ Thirty-Four in Fyshwick and Narrabundah College, the latter got up to look like a rundown hospital. They’ll be shooting in the school holidays with student extras made up to look older Alexander says it’s not a cliched story and Higgs, putting her dramaturgical hat on, agrees, praising the “real rigour” in the script.

“Our goal is constant surprise,” Alexander adds.

The oddest question in the film is whether Jane Doe actually dies, then wakes up – or what? This may or may not be actual, Alexander suggests, but they’ve had a lot of fun with the Jane Doe character, who shifts from being exploited to becoming a powerful manipulator.

Jane will be played by Canberra actor Hannah Mackenzie, who starred as Emily in Clare Young’s Venice Film Festival entry, Love Forever.

Alexander is playing Mac, while Justin Hocking from Melbourne, known for “a feral quality” in his acting, plays Fettes.

“The roles sit in dark spaces – it’s harder to do than you’d think, ” Alexander says.

Cautious optimism greets alien-invasion opus

FIVE years since Game of Thrones ended and the show’s controversial creators David Benioff and DB Weiss have just launched their new series.

Over the epic fantasy show’s eight seasons the duo went from lauded to lambasted. They’re still held responsible for the ending that many fans thought was such a let down they started a petition to remake it which has hit almost two million signatures.

And so viewers are approaching their new series sceptically but cautiously optimistic. Can Benioff and Weiss redeem themselves?

This time they’ve turned their hands to sci-fi with an adaptation of another series of books no less ambitious than Game of Thrones.

It’s called The Three Body Problem, based on the 2008 novel by Chinese author Liu Cixin.

This tale begins with the mysterious death of a scientist in 1960s China that sets off a chain of events that alter the universe as we know it.

Six decades later, some of earth’s brightest minds must come together to prepare the planet for an invasion from an advanced alien species fleeing their own doomed solar system.

It’s one of those books that has often been called “unfilmable” but it hasn’t stopped Benioff and Weiss giving it a red hot crack with the help of Netflix, where the show is now streaming.

“The Three Body Problem” follows dozens

of characters whose lives intersect as a result of the cosmic conundrum that ties them together. The cast includes several Game of Thrones alumni including John Bradley and Liam Cunningham, who fans will remember as Samwell Tarly and Davos Seaworth. Those happy to get caught up in all this grandiose sci-fi malarky will have a blast here. The Three Body Problem is a smart blockbuster and Benioff and Weiss have set the scene for a huge, sprawling saga that with time could be streaming’s next big hit.

It’s a show that has the potential to

Netflix doesn’t cancel it before it can get going.

“I hope it’s as big as Thrones,” Benioff told the BBC in an interview on the new series. “Our goal really is to get to the third season.”

THIS month a new show streaming on Binge has transformed one of Victoria’s most popular tourism spots into the setting of a crime noir thriller.

It’s called High Country and it’s set amongst the southern alpine peaks of the

This series comes from the creators of another popular Aussie series Wentworth, where star Leah Purcell played one of the inmates inside the brutal, titular women’s prison.

Wentworth was something of Australia’s answer to Orange is the New Black, but in High Country Purcell is on the other side

ARTS IN THE CITY

of the law as Andrea Whitford, a hardened cop posted to a small Victorian town after five people mysteriously disappear into the surrounding wilderness.

It’s not long before she becomes entangled in a web of deceit, murder and revenge.

Purcell is exceptional in the lead role and would you believe she’s also joined by a Game of Thrones star as well. That would be Ian McElhinney, who plays police officer Sam Dyson, another cop who gets caught up in this brutal and puzzling case.

Rounding off a trio of talent is the star of crime thriller Mystery Road, Aaron Pederson, showing just how prolific outback noir has become not only for Australian audiences, but for those around the world.

The real highlight here though is the setting. These days crime dramas are a dime a dozen and making something that truly stands out is no easy feat. The wintry Victorian wilderness here does just that though.The mountains watch over this town with an ominous gaze, turning High Country into something of a character itself as this eight-episode plot unfolds.

This one is worth a shot for crime junkies and anyone looking for the next series to get addicted to.

All of Harry Potter, in 70 minutes

Potted Potter, created by actors Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, returns to Australia for its fifth tour, condensing all seven Harry Potter books into 70 minutes and including a new real-life game of Quidditch. Suitable for ages six to Dumbledore. The Playhouse, April 3-7.

Llewellyn Choir’s For M is Musick concert will feature soprano Elsa Huber, with Anthony Smith on organ. Wesley Music Centre, April 5.

Musica da Camera will join mezzo soprano Christina Wilson in a program conceived by Chris Latham of music by Bach, Kelly, Rachmaninov and others, accompanied by slides of abstract art works from Monet, Mondrian, Klimt and more. Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Barton, April 6.

Canberra photo artist, Margaret Kalms, has taken three images from her Life with Endometriosis collec tion and three of her fantasy images to ArtExpo in New York, showing April 4-7.

Julie Bradley, 2020 CityNews Artist of the Year, and glass artist Holly Grace, cut off in the high country of the Gudgenby Valley on a Craft+Design Canberra artist residency, have produced a resulting exhibition, South Facing. Craft+Design Gallery, level 1 North Building, Civic Square, until April 11.

Rebus Theatre presents Re-Emergence: Every Storm Gives Way To A New Sunrise, an original film by disabled actors from across rural NSW, about their experiences of drought, bushfires and pandemic. Free for people with lived experience of disability or mental health challenges and their carers. Uniting Church, Queanbeyan, April 6.

Dianna Nixon continues her project devoted to rediscovering the work of Gunning farmer-playwright

Jess Hong in The Three Body Problem… a huge, sprawling saga that with time could be streaming’s next big hit.

Millicent Armstrong with a dramaturgical exploration of her four-act drama, Fire, at The Street Theatre in April. There will be a second reading of the play in Armstrong’s old woolshed north of Gunning, on the property where the play was written 100 years ago, before a regional NSW tour in October.

Potted Potter… The Playhouse, April 3-7.

DINING / Dockside, Kingston

Foreshore

Turning Japanese… every night

It’s a café by day and a Japanesefusion restaurant by night. Dockside Kingston, by Chong Co Group, now offers dinner with picturesque views of the water.

If passing by as the sun sets, don’t be misled. At night Dockside Kingston looks exactly as it does by day, which sadly doesn’t do the food justice.

A better ambience is needed – lights could be dimmed, table candles would help, and effort is needed to transform the décor, perhaps with colourful Japanese decorative elements.

Putting that aside, the food is gorgeous and stunningly presented. An option – and the one we chose – was the tasting menu (minimum two guests, $79 each, or you can enjoy a tasting menu for $59 each). We couldn’t fault one dish.

Fresh oysters were served on a mound of ice, to preserve their temperature, and on a magnificent dish shaped like an oyster shell. Citrus-based ponzu, sweet negi oil (such a taste of Japan), and red caviar all popped with flavour. We could have ordered dozens.

The salmon tacos, served on a special stainless tray, were punchy, vibrant and addicting. Flavours include spicy mayo, jalapeno onion salsa, and furikake (a savory-sweet rice seasoning).

Next were mozzarella cheese baked scallops, each a moment-on-the-lips-lifetime-on-the-hips.

I normally like scallops served more simply, but was encouraged by a friend who had indulged in these beauties before. They are worth the experience.

Cooked to perfection was the sliced melt-inthe-mouth wagyu scotch fillet with a side of snap

WINE / finao

Local

peas. A small bowl of chimichurri and another with a reduction of black pepper yakiniku accompanied the dish and the person who served us recommended combining the two. It was great advice.

Also cooked to perfection were the decadent kipfler potatoes fried with herb oil. To liven matters up was a delightful mixed-leaf green salad. Fried wonton on top added crunch and the wafu dressing was simple and delicious.

Rounding off the experience was cool, creamy panna cotta dusted with matcha green tea powder and adorned with fresh berries.

Gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan dishes all appear on Dockside Kingston’s menu, so everyone is taken care of.

The wine list leaves something to be desired. It’s sparse and no local wines are offered. Sparkling, whites and reds start off at $10 a glass and labels include Garfish, Stonefish, Starborough and Nanny Goat.

Beers include Coast Ale from Capital Brewing and, of course, Japanese varieties. Signature cocktails are stirred and shaken, and Dockside Kingston serves a range of sake and nonalcoholic, carbonated soft drink Ramune. Our Australian Garfish pinot grigio (2023) was refreshing with stone fruit characters.

We’d go the BYO route next time (wine only and corkage $4 a person).

fiano punches above its weight

The last time I wrote about fiano wine was in 2016, eight years ago.

So, it’s obviously not my favourite.

But it was a hot day and we were sitting outside Cork & Glass at the Yarralumla Shops, a place that was constructed on the old Yarralumla Post Office site.

It is a specialist bottle shop as well as delicatessen and bar that is independently owned – and that’s great because it’s not dominated by a big supermarket chain.

Occasionally I pop in post-tennis with one or more of my tennis companions to have a glass of wine, maybe a shared bottle, sometimes with a cheese and charcuterie plate and it’s a great way to unwind after running around the courts. Plenty of water is obligatory, as is pacing yourself following exercise. It wasn’t a day for red wine, it was too hot. I didn’t choose a chardonnay because some people have negative preconceived notions about that varietal. I wanted

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not liking the waxy texture or the heavy hint of pear on the finish. Since that time, I’ve learned that fiano can cover a broad range of tastes depending on the growing conditions. These can range from high minerality to lush, honeyed flavours, close to the Italian idea of sweet enough for the bees.

The Collector fiano was perfect to drink on a hot day: crisp, textural and with an element of preserved lemon. It is not a low-alcohol wine with a nudge above 13 per cent alcohol by volume, so water and more water was required so we keep to the bounds of sobriety.

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something local but didn’t want a riesling.

Staring out at me from the cold white wine cabinet was a range of Collector Wines, including the award-winning Tiger, Tiger chardonnay and I nearly pounced. But sitting beside the Tiger, Tiger was a Collector Summer Swarm Fiano 2023. It was a good price, $28, and it seemed to suit the weather conditions: white, bright, maybe a hint of sweetness.

The Collector label name is obviously a take on the origin of this varietal which comes from the province of Avellino in the

Campania region east of Naples.

So my superb powers of deduction tell me that this is an Italian grape variety. Apparently, fiano takes its name from the Latin “vitis apiana”, as the grapes were so sweet they proved to be irresistible to bees (“api”).

Hence, it seems, a reference to the name a “swarm”. The Collector website tells me that the fiano used in the Collector wine in 2022 was grown by Peter Mullany and family on deep red granitic loam near Wombat in the Hilltops region of NSW. The 2023 label says the grapes originate from Gundagai/Hilltops.

The last time I’d tried fiano, I was

I discussed the wine with the friendly general manager of Cork & Glass, Robbie O’Dea and he said: “Alex McKay, who started Collector in the early 2000s, really knows how to make wines, especially Italian varietals.

“He outperforms the Italians. The fiano is a good example. It ranks against the Italian wines, a local punching above its weight.”

Which reminds me of the joke about a groom punching above his weight per this extract from a best man’s speech: “I’ve just got some last messages here to read out, one from Greg’s football team to Jacqui: ‘Apologies we couldn’t all be there today, good luck with Greg, we found him to be useless in most positions, but wishing you all the best for tonight’.”

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Photos: Wendy Johnson Wagyu scotch fillet… with a side of snap peas.

Peter and Cath Mullany... growers of the fiano used in the Collector wine. Photo: Hilltops Wine

America beckons Aidan for his novel-writing debut

By Katarina LLOYD JONES

It all began with a copy of JRR Tolkein’s The Hobbit, says Aidan Scott.

He was gifted it by his grandfather when he was five, he says, and it sparked a love for novels that would ultimately see the Narrabundah local becoming an internationally published author at only 24 years old.

“I read it, and I was sort of like, I don’t really know what this is, but I want to do it, and, from there I just sort of fell in love with stories,” says Aidan.

“I progressively read more and more until I was 13 or 14 and I realised that the world of books was so much bigger than I thought it was.

“I started reading people like Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, people like that, and again, I thought, I don’t know if I can do this, but this is what I’d like to do.”

Aidan’s first novel, The Garden, was published in America on March 7 by Chicago-based publishing house Anxiety Press.

Set in 1847, against the backdrop of the Mexico-America war, Aidan says it is a historical period that many people seem to dismiss.

“I think those particular years, the late

1840s, is something that people don’t really think about as meaning anything, but I think it’s so hugely impactful to the way that America is now,” says Aidan.

While it feels “insane” to be a published author, Aidan says getting to this point was no easy feat, with The Garden taking eight years to complete.

“It began when I was 16, I wrote it in about a year and a half, the first draft, at the back of class when I should have been listening.

“I put it away for a while, and it became the process of just whittling away at it, rewriting, working on other things and coming back to it, and, you know, thinking that it was never gonna pan out to anything.

“You end up with stacks and stacks of paper, and books, and I’d say 90 per cent of it you throw away, because it’s not good.”

Aidan says he knew Cody Sexton, founder of Anxiety Press, from previously having a short story published by their online magazine, A Thin Slice of Anxiety.

Aidan says he initially reached out just looking for feedback.

“I very tentatively was like, ‘this is slightly presumptuous, but do you reckon you could, just read this and tell me if it’s good?’ and he got back to me and was like, ‘this is great, can I please publish it?’” says Aidan.

“Writing this, and having an American publisher saying this is good and we want to publish it and then having, at 24, other authors whose writing I really respect and love deeply telling me that it’s genuinely

MUSIC / Rod Stewart

At 79, Rod’s not slowing down

HOROSCOPE PUZZLES

By Joanne Madeline Moore

April 1-7, 2024

ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)

This week Venus hooks up with Neptune, and Mercury starts reversing through your sign. So you’re extra susceptible to confusing misunderstandings, dubious suggestions and false flattery. Be discerning about who’s advice you take and make sure your plans are grounded in reality. Don’t let fair-weather friends lead you up the primrose path to trouble! If you’re a smart Ram, you will plan your week carefully and choose your close confidantes wisely.

TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 21)

Prosperity planet Jupiter is jumping through your sign until May 25. But are you making the most of this positive once-in-every-12-years placement? It’s your time to shine Taurus – to show the world what you are truly capable of. So your motto for the moment is from birthday great, writer and activist Maya Angelou: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive. And to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style.”

GEMINI (May 22 – June 21)

The Sun, Mercury and Venus stimulate your peer group zone, so it’s important to support and encourage your friends. But with Mercury (your ruling planet) turning retrograde until April 25, make sure you communicate clearly and sort out any misunderstandings early. Fast thinking and creative strategies will help you solve problems and alleviate stress. Your motto is from birthday great, singer Billie Holiday: “If I don’t have friends, then I ain’t got nothing.”

CANCER (June 22 – July 23)

Many busy Crabs will burn the midnight oil, as creativity bites and inspiration strikes. International connections could be particularly beneficial and your involvement with a group, club or organisation has others looking to you for innovative ideas. But – with Mercury reversing through your career zone - resist the temptation to sidestep, confuse or snooze at work! Use your networking skills to drum up support, and don’t be afraid to ask experts for help.

LEO (July 24 – Aug 23)

With your ruler the Sun, Mercury and Venus all transiting through fellow fire sign Aries, you’re feeling feisty and ready for adventure. But with Mercury turning retrograde (until April 25) you could also feel like a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof! Remember that hubris often comes before a fall, so the buzz word for this week is humility. Clever Lions will be kinder towards other people, and more tolerant of their individual idiosyncrasies and particular circumstances.

VIRGO (Aug 24 – Sept 23)

Mercury (your patron planet) turns retrograde which can mean frustrations, delays and power plays, especially at work or while travelling. Perhaps a project is stalled, a person is plotting, or a domestic appliance (or your car) breaks down. Avoid stressing and vexing Virgo! Aim to be proactive rather than reactive. As writer (and birthday great) Maya Angelou reminds us: “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”

LIBRA (Sept 24 – Oct 23)

With the Sun, Venus and Mercury (which turns retro on Monday night) visiting your relationship zone, it’s important to nurture and cherish your nearest and dearest. You could also lend a hand to a friend or relative who is sick, experiencing financial trouble or recovering from a broken heart. The best day of the week is Wednesday, when the Venus/Neptune link highlights romance, compassion and creativity. So surround yourself with love, beauty and good vibes!

SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 22)

On Monday night Mercury starts reversing through your wellbeing and work zone, so it’s a suitable week to revise your daily diet and fitness routine, as you choose healthier food options and a form of exercise that you enjoy. Plus – when it comes to your job – it’s time to catch up on the backlog of unfinished projects and overflowing paperwork. With proactive Mars in your friendship zone, you’re keen to have a catch-up lunch or movie night with your besties.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23 – Dec 21)

This week the Sun, Mercury and Venus are all transiting through fellow fire sign Aries, which will boost your energy and enthusiasm – but also your blunt and tactless side. And Mercury turns retrograde on Monday night (until April 25). So close relationships will be complicated, and communication will be increasingly tricky – especially with your partner, potential partner, children and/or friends. Smart Sagittarians will slow down, shut up, listen and learn!

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 20)

Mercury turns retrograde on Monday night (London time) which can mean delays, cancellations and plenty of frustrations – especially at home. Perhaps a DIY project is stalled, a family member is slowing progress, or an essential domestic appliance breaks down. Calm down Capricorn - aim to be proactive rather than reactive. Be particularly careful what you say to a stressed family member. If in doubt then be extra discreet, zip your lips and say nothing!

AQUARIUS (Jan 21 – Feb 19)

This week Mercury turns retrograde until April 25, so it’s time to do anything with an ‘re’ in front of it - revise, rehearse, review, remember, return, recover and/ or reconnect. Especially in areas involving travel, education, communication and local community projects. Your mantra for the week is from birthday great, environmentalist Jane Goodall: “Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.”

PISCES (Feb 20 – Mar 20)

Creativity is especially high on Wednesday/Thursday. And with Mars transiting through your sign, it’s time to assert your independence. But expect some frustrations and restrictions along the way, as Mercury turns retrograde until April 25. Clever Fish will be patient, persuasive and persistent – especially involving finances and business matters. Your motto is from this week’s birthday great, movie icon Bette Davis: “The key to life is accepting challenges.”

Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2024

Across

4 To be away, is to be what? (6)

7 Name a large cask of beer. (8)

8 Which legendary figure used wings made of wax and feathers that the sun melted, and he drowned? (6)

9 What is the rotating part of an electric motor? (8)

11 What is a remote settlement? (7)

13 Name some plants of the rhododendron family. (7)

15 Quito is the capital of which South American republic? (7)

17 To be powered by atomic energy is to be what? (7)

20 Which forms of chemical elements have different atomic weights? (8)

23 What are thespians more commonly known as? (6)

24 Name the cavities at the upper ends of the human windpipes. (8)

25 What is a diamond-shaped pattern of two or more colours? (6)

1 How many funnels did the Titanic have? (4)

2 Jerusalem is the capital of which SW Asian republic? (6)

3 Lima is the capital of which South American republic? (4)

4 What is another term for goodbye, or farewell? (5)

5 What are wet, spongy tracts of land? (6)

6 Name some parts of speech. (5)

9 Which is said to be the largest river in the world? (6)

10 What are lists of persons with their periods of duty? (7)

12 Name the second sign of the zodiac. (6)

14 What is a colloquial term for a woman stereotyped as young, pretty and stupid? (6)

16 Name the fruits of the oak. (6)

18 What is an open sore? (5)

19 What do we call a passageway? (5)

21 Name a tall plant of the mallow family. (4)

22 What is a pitcher with a wide spout? (4)

Zane and his father Felix came to see me. Zane said: “Gail, this is so exciting mum and dad want to sell their house to me and my fiancé Katy.

"I know I can't get the First Home Saver Super Scheme grant because I've already owned a house, but we want to minimise the tax we pay on our saved deposit and mum and dad are now both drawing pensions."

I said I could assist them both.

"Firstly, Felix you can make downsizer super contributions. You must both be 55 or older and selling your own home, which must have been your main residence," I told him.

"As this is clearly the case, you and Annalise can contribute $300,000 each to superannuation. This amount doesn't count towards your contribution cap. However it does count towards your transfer balance cap. You can leave these contributions in the accumulation phase permanently. So it would seem like a good option for you both.”

Felix looked pretty pleased and said he'd be keen to explore it further another time.

Then I turned to Zane: "I know that you owned a property previously, but I know that Katy has not previously owned a property in Australia.

"The First Home Saver Super Scheme (FHSS) allows Katy to contribute to superannuation, get a tax deduction and pay tax on the earnings from it.

“Katy can make a voluntary contribution into super up to $15,000 a year with a maximum that can be withdrawn of $50,000. The property needs to be purchased within 12 months of approval.

"Based on the timeline you outlined, Katy can contribute $15,000 this financial year and $15,000 next financial year. I know you'll be looking for your property in January/February 2025 so you can apply to have the funds withdrawn then.

“The benefit is that each of those $15,000 voluntary concessional contributions will result in Katy getting a refund of the tax on that contribution when she lodges her tax return.

"That would be about $5000 on each contribution. The super fund will pay tax on the $15,000 contribution of 15 per cent. When you're ready to withdraw your FHSS balance, which is your balance plus notional earnings determined by the ATO, then you pay tax on those earnings.

"Clearly that is significantly less than the benefit Katy receives by getting the tax deduction. Katy cannot withdraw any amounts paid by her employer under the super guarantee scheme. Katy must also lodge a form with her super fund each year called a Notice of Intent to Claim a Tax Deduction.

“There is a process for releasing your savings. You need to apply for an FHSS determination. Once you have that determination from the ATO, you apply for a written release, which must be done within 14 days of the determination.

"Only 85 per cent of eligible personal contributions are refunded as the balance is paid in tax, as I said earlier. You can do this before or after you sign the contract to purchase, but you must sign the contract within 12 months of signing the release. This is a fantastic way to maximise your deposit. We can fine tune it later.”

Zane said he had no idea they could do this.

"Once we realised we couldn’t apply for the NSW State Home Saver grant, we thought that was it.”

If you need any help on the downsizer scheme, FHSS or any other related tax or

contact