Woroni Edition Eight 2017 by Woroni

Woroni VOL. 67, Issue 8. Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

‘WE SHOULD NOT HAVE TO FEEL UNSAFE ON OUR CAMPUS’ ANU APOLOGISES TO SURVIVORS AFTER SURVEY RELEASE CONTENT WARNING SEXUAL ASSAULT, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, QUEERPHOBIA, AHRC SURVEY ‘We should not have to feel unsafe on our campus.’ Those were the anonymised words from one of 1,849 submissions to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s University Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment project. They echo the sentiments of students across Australia, after the ‘Change the Course’ report was released last week, showing 51 per cent of Australian university students were sexually harassed on at least one occasion in 2016. The results, from the survey conducted at 39 universities, show that women were almost twice as likely to be sexually harassed than men. The statistics were worse for individuals within minority sexualities and gender orientations: 44 per cent of bisexual students and 38 per cent of gay and lesbian students were sexually harassed in a university setting in 2016, compared with 23 per cent of students who identified as heterosexual.

Trans* and gender diverse students were more likely to have been sexually harassed (45 per cent) in a university setting in 2016 than women and men. Overall, 6.9 per cent of students were sexually assaulted on at least one occasion in 2015 or 2016, with 1.6 per cent reporting that the sexual assault occurred in a university setting. Women (10 per cent) were more than three times as likely as men (2.9 per cent) to have been sexually assaulted in 2015 or 2016. In 2016, 116 ANU students were sexually assaulted. More than half of the perpetrators of these sexual assaults were students from the same university that the victim attended. 71 per cent of perpetrators for sexual harassment were male and 83 per cent of sexual assaults were committed by men. Only nine per cent of individuals who were sexually assaulted reported their incident to the authorities, and only around one third of students who witnessed a sexual assault reported it. The Sex Discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, said that these results show ‘universities must do more to publicise their reporting processes’, noting that even when students reported their assaults, they were met with inconsistent and poor reactions.

The commissioner said that ‘one woman was asked about her drinking habits’, and a supervisor told another woman to ‘take it as a compliment’. The ANU has accepted the AHRC’s nine recommendations. The University has also accepted the ‘majority’ of the 15 recommendations made by ANUSA and PARSA. The vice-chancellor, Brian Schmidt, said he wanted ‘to start by saying sorry.’ ‘I also want to say sorry to any student, to any staff member, to any member of our alumni community who has not received what they needed from the University in dealing with sexual harassment or sexual assault,’ Schmidt said. ‘The University will work with our students through the new Steering Committee on the other proposals they have made, including exploring a restorative justice process for the University.’ This came after the AHRC survey found 38 per cent of ANU students were sexually harassed at university in 2016. The survey found that 10 per cent of ANU students were sexually harassed in a university residence. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

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Life & Style

Interview with Abby Stapleton Freya Willis 11

Interview with Tanika Sibal Cameron Allan; Kat Carrington

To Become or Not Become a PhD Candidate? Stephen Fairweather & Faham Abdus environment

INTERNATIONAL 12

The Perils of Loaded Language Garyn Tan 13

The West in the Pacific Elizabeth Underwood 14

Like the Grass Beneath Fighting Buffalo Dot Mason 15

Promise of Unification Noah Yim MULTILINGUAL 16

あと二日/Two More Days Yusuke Fukuta FEATURES 17

Jump Ship: How to Move Home Aislinn Grimley An Ode to All Students Olivia Ireland 18

Turning Point Christine Song 20

Why a Handmaid is the Dystopian Hero We All Need Kanika Kirpalani A Women’s Officer Perspective Claudia Kevin 21

Pullout: Breaking the Silence 31

A Quiet Call Out Daniel Cordeschi Questioning Tradition Anonymous 32

Love, Liberty and the Life of John Stuart Mill Alexander Vuong art 33

The End of Trash TV Miriam Sadler 34

From Parchment Page to Silver Screen Julia Faragher 35

Dystopian Fiction: A Door to Self-Realisation and Crisis Bella Di Mattina-Beven

Sea You in Court Grace Dudley Science 40

The Story of Water on Mars Matthew Teh 41

The Rise of Cryptocurrencies Siddharth Pethe Business & Economics 42

Blue for Girls, Pink for Boys Leila Bieleny 43

The Rise of Second Cities Prachi Arya 44

Heard About Cochlear? Albert Patajo Your Roommate is Actually a Negative Externality Wayne Wang sport 45

Paranoid Androids Adam Mayers sATIRE 46

Woman Thrilled About Newfound Popularity of her Eponymous Economic Theory of Relationships Julia Liu Cryptic Crossword NWJ 47

Malcolm Turnbull Upset at Marginalization by the Right; Just Wants To Be Friends With Everyone Rex Yi Pompeii, A Penis, And A Not-So-Pious Owl Elaine Zhang 48

Trump Signs Up For Medicare Card After Giving Up on Congress Woroni’s Washington Correspondent Sudoku Sebastian Rossi Memes Saltminers

Board of Editors

Editor in Chief: Kanika Kirpalani Managing Editor: Kat Carrington Deputy EiC: Nathalie Rosales Cheng Content Editor: James Atkinson Radio Editor: Oscar Jolly TV Editor: Linda Chen Art Editor: Zoe O’Leary Cameron News Editor: Jasper Lindell

staff and Sub-Editors

Admin Assistant: Arun Murali Financial Controller: Brendan Greenwood Business Development: Jonathan Tjandra Marketing: Nicole Jackson Social Media: Daniella (Sunny) Tan Instagram: Fernando Goh Comment: Ruby Smyth Comment: Noah Yim International: Una Chen Features: Olivia Ireland Pull Out: Charlotte Goodman Multilingual: Rosalind Moran Creative Writing: Georgia Leak Creative Writing: Prischa Ochan Arts: Ben Lawrence Reviews: Phoebe Hamra Life & Style: Nick Wyche Environment: Grace Dudley Science: Matthew Teh Business & Economics: Victor Sukeerth Munagala Business & Economics: Nivedita Shankar Sport: Adam Mayers Satire & Humour: Elizabeth Harris News: Isabella Ostini News: Lorane Gaborit News: Max Koslowski News: Isabella Di Mattina-Beven News: Luke Kinsella News: Josie Ganko News: Aleyn Silva Executive Producer: Loretta Lackner Presenter Liason: Annika Law Radio Technical Officer: Will Fletcher Music & Events: Eilish Hensman Marketing: Ollie Brown Design: Rowan McGinness Producer: Imogen Purcell Producer: Zoe Halstead Producer: Steph David Producer: Iona Rennie Producer: Sonja Panjkov Art & Design: Katie Ward Camera Operator: Bremer Sharp Camera Operator: Shasha Ma Camera Operator: Ruben Thompson Camera Operator: Lachlan Townshend Camera Operator: Jeongyeon ‘Judy’ Shin Reporter: Casley Rowan Reporter: Elvis Gleeson Reporter: Ajai Samra Reporter: Reza Mazumda Photography: Chloe Tredea Photography: Marwan Elhassan Photography: Christine Song Photography: Zayana Zaikariah Photography: Daniel Greiss

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Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

news

ANU, UNION SETTLE – BAR NONE Text: Jasper Lindell

The much-loved, well-worn ANU Bar is no longer, after the ANU Union reached a settlement with the ANU last week, clearing the path for the demolition of the Union building and the start of the Union Court redevelopment. ‘The ANU Union and the University are pleased to announce they have come to an agreement to help move towards the relaunch of the ANU Union with an exciting new operation program from 2018,’ the University and the Union said in a joint statement on Tuesday, 1 August. ‘Businesses previously located in the union Building including Unicycles and Vodafone have already opened

in the ANU pop-up village, with the Campus Bakery and Uni Corner Cafe scheduled to open shortly,’ the statement said. But students have lamented the demise of the mythologised bar, the first campus bar in Australia. Originally located upstairs in the Union Building, it moved to its final location following renovations announced in 1987. The Bar was the site of an infamous 65-minute 1992 Nirvana gig, although it was originally located upstairs in the Union Building. The gig quickly sold out, with tickets worth just $15 (about $27.30 in today’s money), as the band shot to international prominence. Woroni described the gig as ‘bodies joined

so close together that it was all just a writhing mass of heat, sweat and shoulders and only the stage divers stood out as individuals’. Despite only a tiny percentage of undergraduate students having actually been born in 1992, the Bar has received a number of eulogies in the pages of this newspaper in recent weeks, riffing on grand themes of a sacred spot destroyed. Sienna Lake wrote in the previous edition of Woroni that the ANU Bar was a ‘place for making and solidifying friendships, for learning to like beer, for discovering new music, and for falling in love with

the ANU, from the beautiful trees to the laid back culture.’ ‘The ANU Bar is the heart and soul of our university. It brings people together in a way that lets us forget that we are at the top university in Australia, and the pressures associated with that,’ Lake wrote. Power was previously cut to the Union Building, with the lights going out one evening, when the dispute was still expected to go to court. Following the closure of the Union Building, the Post Office is expected to open at the pop-up village in about six weeks. Union Court has now been closed ahead of demolition work.

‘YOU GUYS ARE REALLY HUNGRY’

AVOCADO SHORTAGE AS UNIVERSITY CELEBRATES FOUNDATION DAY Text: Isabella Ostini

Avocado was the first to go, as organisers were surprised by the demand for free food at the ANU’s 71st birthday picnic at Fellows’ Oval on Wednesday, 2 August. The Foundation Day celebrations ran over lunch, with both staff and students turning out to enjoy the food and sunshine. Giant board games, a bouncing castle and a scavenger hunt completed the festivities. The vice-chancellor, Brian Schmidt, said that 71 years after its foundation, the university has ‘a lot to celebrate’. He used the event to ref lect on the past year and announce new initiatives at the University. Schmidt spoke about the ‘grand challenges’ the University faces. ‘It is a year that has seen, I think, the University really think about what its future is going to be,’ he said. He focused on the University’s effort to better engage with the public and the government, ‘getting other people outside the University excited in what we’re doing, [and] getting government thinking about what it should be funding.’ He announced that the University will also be re-launching the ANU Reconciliation Action Plan, under the guidance of the pro vice-chancellor of University experience, Richard Baker, and participating in the Science in Australia Gender Equity Athena SWAN project, which will help the university discover ‘how do we

actually become an equitable campus, not one that just talks about it.’ Schmidt also noted the importance of improving safety on campus, in light of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s report into sexual assault and harassment on campus, released the day before. ‘I commit to you again today that I will not stop until we address this issue,’ he said. ‘This campus should be one of the safest places in Australia, and it is not yet.’ He also announced that the University would be seeking to expand its capacity in engineering and computer science, guided by ‘superstar of this university’ and Dean of the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science, Professor Elanor Huntington,

and Dr Genevieve Bell, who was Vice President at Intel before joining the university. ‘If you’re looking at how this university’s going to interact with society in the twenty-first century, it’s going to come using the thoughts and ideas in engineering, and how they intersect with the disciplines here at the ANU,’ he explained. The university plans to release more information on this initiative in the coming month. Six academics were also recognised as distinguished educators, ‘people who go way outside the norm to ensure that their teaching is absolutely superb’: • Professor Paul Francis, from the

College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences; • Professor Michael Platow, from the College of Medicine, Biology and the Environment; • Dr Carol Hayes, from the College of Asia and the Pacific; • Dr Catherine Frieman, from the College of Arts and Social Sciences; • Professor Asmi Wood, from the College of Law; and, • Dr John Minns, from the College of Arts and Social Sciences. ‘We celebrate you, and your teaching,’ Schmidt said. Schmidt concluded on an apologetic note. ‘I’m sorry we didn’t get you enough food,’ he said. ‘You guys are really hungry!’

news

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

‘EVERYONE MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE’: SCHMIDT CW: SEXUAL ASSAULT, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, QUEERPHOBIA, AHRC SURVEY, GENDERED VIOLENCE

FROM PAGE 1

In a joint media release on 31 June, ANUSA and PARSA asked for a student partnership with the ANU to develop adequate responses to sexual violence related issues. ‘For decades, the issue of sexual assault and sexual harassment has not been taken seriously by universities across Australia … To date the response of ANU has been totally inadequate.’ Student representatives have confirmed that campaigning will continue until the ANU agrees to their recommendations. This may include action on ANU’s Open Day, to be held 26 August. The central recommendations of ANUSA and PARSA focus on improving and making transparent ANU policy on sexual assault and sexual harassment. They demand independence, longevity and a focus on the survivor in the creation of new policy and services. Nathalie Blakely, PARSA women’s officer, said, ‘Our students want a centralised sexual assault and sexual harassment policy, we want it to be properly funded and resourced, and we want to feel safe and strong in this community.’ The student associations have called for an ANU Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment (SASH) Taskforce, resourced by the Senior Management Group, and reporting to the University Council. If this story has raised any concerns, you can contact: Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, Crisis Line (02) 6247 2525 ANU Counselling (02) 6125 2442 1800 RESPECT 1800 737 732

Bella Di Mattina-Beven, Jasper Lindell

Schmidt under fire for inaction on sexual assault Text: Bella Di Mattina-Beven

The vice-chancellor, Brian Schmidt, came under fire from students and survivors of sexual assault last week at an information session organised by the University and attended by pro vice-chancellor Richard Baker and members of the ANU administration and legal team. Schmidt apologised to past survivors, and set the tone by saying he was ‘keen to work with all of you [student representatives].’ ANU staff seemed keen to secure the support of students and advocates, and there was a respect given towards

the advocacy that has already occurred over the previous years. ‘I pledge to use your emotion to ensure the uni does better in the future,’ Schmidt said. Details of the apparent improvements focused on recent policy changes and initiatives already announced, such as inquiries into both ANU and Residential Accommodation policy. Schmidt confirmed the inquiry was to include all ANU-affiliated residences, and many members of accommodation administration were present at the event in support of action being taken. ‘We can’t prejudge the recommendations,’ he said. The ANU will begin to respond to the review in September, but said ‘we’re not going to solve it today’. This sentiment also echoed in Schmidt and Baker’s assertions that their response would address casual sexism and sexist attitudes. This is being addressed in the ‘Respectful Relationships’ online information and the sex and consent module. However they said no further online modules were in the pipeline. They suggested that they were keen to accept suggestions from students, and signalled a greater focus on the wellbeing of higher degree research students and workplace harassment. ‘I have dismissed several members of staff for it,’ Schmidt admitted. He also said that the ‘COO is responding to issues as they have arisen.’

Student protesters on Tuesday, above; Brian Schmidt addressing the media on Tuesday, above right PHOTOS: Kanika Kirpalani & Max Koslowski

The ANUSA women’s officer, Holly Zhang, told Woroni in a statement that ‘most senior staff were in

attendance in their official working capacities with pre-written notes that they carried (and at times read directly from)’. ‘It all comes across as less than genuine, especially when the university has been dragging its feet committing to, let alone actually making happen the ANUSA/PARSA and nationally recommended changes,’ she said. Students grilled the vice-chancellor on wait times during investigations into sexual assault, and the reasoning behind the ANU’s inaction. Schmidt said it was ‘worse than we thought,’ and promised students that the University ‘will take responsibility.’ Survivor advocate Codie Bell directed her question at the ANU’s senior legal advisor, asking first if she was the authority on ANU investigations into sexual assault, quickly adding to her assertion ‘because I’ve sought a meeting with you several times.’ Schmidt quickly shut down the interaction, concluding question time. The meeting ultimately failed to garner the trust of those students present and signalled continued divisions between ANUSA and the ANU on sexual assault policy and addressing those affected by present

news

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

CW: SEXUAL ASSAULT, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, AHRC SURVEY, GENDERED VIOLENCE

Residential communities respond to AHRC Report AHRC REPORT

CALLS FOR SURVIVOR INVOLVEMENT IN SEXUAL ASSAULT POLICY DESIGN

Text: Josie Ganko

An Australian Human Rights Commission report found that university responses to reports of sexual harassment and assault have failed to meaningfully engage survivors and students in the design process.

Text: Isabella Ostini & Max Koslowski

All residential halls and universityaffiliated colleges, including UniLodge, will take part in the ANU’s independent review announced on Tuesday after the release of the Human Rights Commission’s report on sexual assault and harassment on campus. The AHRC report highlighted the particular challenges residential communities face addressing sexual assault and harassment, with 10 per cent of sexual assaults in a university context occurring at residential halls or colleges. Women (12 per cent) were found to be significantly more likely than men (3 per cent) to have been sexually assaulted in a residential context. The survey revealed that 34 per cent of those who reported being sexually assaulted were living at university owned or affiliated residential accommodation at the time of the last incident, suggesting that students living in residential colleges or halls may be more at risk of sexual assault than other students. The report detailed particular difficulties facing residential communities, including hazing and ‘college traditions’, excess consumption of alcohol, and a lack of privacy regarding sexual relationships at halls and colleges. Easily accessible private spaces, such as bedrooms, residential advisors ill-equipped to support victims, and the likelihood of victims needing to interact with their perpetrator on an ongoing basis also exacerbate difficulties. The University will also establish a steering committee addressing sexual assault, sexism and sexual

harassment, chaired by Donelle Wheeler, who is a former diplomat and president of the Australian National Committee for UN Women. Wheeler will have a remit that covers the entire ANU community, which will include not just residential colleges but professional and academic staff, as well as senior leadership. This review comes after the University of Sydney announced its ‘Broderick Review’ into sexual assault in its own residential colleges last year. The vice-chancellor, Brian Schmidt, also announced that there would be a full audit of ANU’s counselling services. From 7 August, a sexual assault counsellor from the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre will have a fulltime presence on campus. Schmidt expressed his shock at the results, saying, ‘Every member of our community has a right to expect they will be safe in their place of study, their place of work, or – as this campus is for many – their home.’ The ANU announced on Tuesday that it would accept all of the AHRC’s recommendations, including that to commission an independent review of the factors contributing to sexual assault and harassment in residential settings. The review was certain to cover the university-owned halls. However, Burgmann College and John XXIII College have agreed to participate in the review, with the alternative being a review of the university’s affiliation with the two colleges. The head of John XXIII College, Geoff Johnston, told Woroni that ‘we have no concerns with people reviewing our procedures because we can always learn, we can always improve.’

‘The sheer fact that in a matter of two years, we’re now into our third policy on sexual assault gives an example that we’re trying to improve things, and I’m sure there’s other areas where we can improve as well,’ he said, noting the work the college has previously put into reforming its culture and disciplinary policy. The acting principal of Burgmann College, Amelia Zaraftis, said, ‘Burgmann College is glad to be participating in the ANU’s upcoming review… I sincerely look forward to contributing to the review.’ UniLodge Chief Executive Officer Peter Bates said that, ‘UniLodge are fully aligned with ANU and will be part of the Halls/College/Lodges review to help identify the areas that need improvement consistent with the HRC recommendations.’ ‘Any opportunity to review and improve the service and support we provide will be embraced by UniLodge now and into the future.’ In the meantime, halls and colleges will continue with their current programs addressing consent, and sexual assault and harassment. ‘Ahead of [the review], we are focusing on maintaining a respectful, supportive and inclusive living environment for residents,’ Zaraftis said of Burgmann College. Similarly, Bates assured Woroni that UniLodge ‘believe[s] we are contributing to the promotion of a culture that encourages positive social behaviours and addresses any incidents in a sensitive and appropriate manner.’ Residents of the university-owned halls, Burgmann College and John XXIII College have been contacted during the week with reminders about respectful relationships and the support services available to victims of sexual assault and harassment.

The ‘On Safe Ground: a Good Practice Guide for Australian Universities’ report was published by the AHRC and The Hunting Ground Australia Project on Thursday, 3 August in conjunction with the evidence based survey report, ‘Change the Course’, released on Tuesday. The report says universities’ existing policies fail to engage with the needs of survivors of sexual assault. The lead author of the report, Professor Andrea Durbach, points to universities’ failure to consult with community members insisting that there would be no change without ‘genuine sustained student engagement’. ‘You can have the best practice policies in the world, but if you don’t have an environment or culture that supports or enforces those policies to be properly implemented, then they won’t have any value,’ Durbach told The Guardian. The report made 18 recommendations, including the formation of policy that defines sexual assault and harassment and explicitly prohibits any such conduct. A number of the recommendations relate to the implementation of educational programs, an initiative that has already been largely implemented by the ANU. Other recommendations in the report include setting up advisory mechanisms to allow for consistent student contributions. ANU has addressed this recommendation in the form of a steering group comprising of students, staff, college representatives and experts, lead by Donelle Wheeler, the former President of the Australian National Committee for UN Women. There have been a range of other initiatives announced by the ANU, including a review into sexual assault policy and procedure by independent research firm Rapid X. While the report was commissioned by The Hunting Ground Australia Project, Durbach also noted there was no evidence to suggest any cover-ups of cases were taking place, as seen in the US film from which the group takes their name.

NEWS

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

STAND APART STANDS BACK UP AFTER BRIBERY ALLEGATION Text: Jasper Lindell

A ticket with connections to the ANU Liberal Club is still running general representatives on an anti-National Union of Students platform, after being rocked by bribery allegations levelled against it by a former candidate last week. Ashish Nagesh, the ticket convener and candidate, who is also treasurer of the ANU Liberal Club, told Woroni the Stand Apart ticket would encompass a ‘broad range of ideologies’ in putting 12 candidates forward to ‘hold the ANUSA executive to account’. The ticket will seek to lobby the ANUSA departments to give voice to people who feel they have been left out by the collective system. Nagesh said that the ticket’s core policy was to disaffiliate from the NUS. ‘The end goal is to disaffiliate from the NUS, that’s the only way that reform and changes can be made,’ he said, also criticising the union for becoming increasingly bureaucratic and censored. The ticket was accused of bribery by the president of the ANU Men’s Network, Sebastian Rossi, who says he was offered money to not run as vice-president on the ticket.

However, despite the spat, Nagesh says that the candidates are still loyal to him and will follow the policies outlined by the ticket. In contrast to the view of the Men’s Network, Nagesh said Stand Apart felt the formation of a Men’s Department was a ‘viable’ option, which would allow for ‘free speech’. ‘The formation of a Men’s Department, I think, is a completely viable option,’ Nagesh said, noting the controversy which surrounded the Men’s Network when it was formed. ‘I think it only makes sense to have a Men’s Department alongside a Women’s Department,’ he told Woroni. Nagesh said Stand Apart would seek to reallocate SSAF funding for mental health and sexual assault services, and would seek to better engage with the international student body with a platform of ‘holistic representation’. ‘We are trying to advocate for SSAF funding to be allocated to the counselling centre,’ Nagesh said. Stand Apart would also seek to implement quotas for international students in the Clubs and Societies Council. ‘We have a very broad range of candidates, and I want our voter base, to not only tap into those people who feel they have been left behind,’

Nagesh initially told Woroni that the ticket would field Labor and Greens candidates alongside independents, but ANU Labor Left confirmed no past or present Labor members were standing on the ticket. Nagesh later said that he had assumed candidates were ‘formerly active’ Labor members, but on reflection this was an ‘overstatement’. This comes after Stand Apart tried to field a candidate women’s officer, who was later found to be ineligible to run for the position. ‘We are running a women’s officer who will advocate for people who feel they have been left behind in the Women’s Department,’ Nagesh said. ‘Our women’s officer [candidate] has not been endorsed by the Women’s Department, but is very active in the department,’ he said. Most department officers are currently elected by the autonomous collective, rather than through general election, as proposed by Stand Apart. But the ticket’s initial candidate for women’s officer, Thea Linnet, was not eligible for election having not attended enough Department meetings. Linnet would run as a candidate for general representative and advocate for women, Nagesh said.

LIFT OFF FOR ELEANOR KAY’S ANUSA ELECTION TICKET Eleanor Kay’s ticket for the ANUSA election, Lift ANUSA, launched on 30 July, promising a ‘strong, competent, and determined student voice’ in ANUSA if elected. The ticket is thought to be one of the two front runners, which has pitted current vice-president Kay against current social officer Cameron Allan. Lift ANUSA’s platform includes strong student representation, collaborative decision making, meaningful student consultation, diversity, progressive values and strategic thinking. In a statement to Woroni prior to the ticket’s launch Kay said that Lift ANUSA would seek to investigate the ‘long-term financial stability of the association.’ ‘I’m increasingly aware that the decisions made by the university over the next 18 months will affect students not only for the next year, but for the next five to ten years and more,’ Kay said. Harry Needham is running for education officer and NUS delegate, Mariana Segaram is running for social officer, and Lewis Pope is running for treasurer. Lift ANUSA’s launch comes seemingly late in the campaign, after Shake Up, led by Allan, launched before the start of Semester 2. Elections will take place in Week 5.

ROSSI LAUNCHES INDEPENDENT RUN FOR VICE-PRESIDENT Text: Jasper Lindell

Sebastian Rossi has emerged from the tumultuous Stand Apart ticket to launch an independent bid for the vicepresidency of the undergraduate students’ association. Rossi, pictured, was ejected from the ticket five hours after Stand Apart launched on anti-NUS platform with connections to the ANU Liberal Club. Stand Apart says that Rossi sought to destabilise the ticket and launch a splinter group, while Rossi says that he was assessing future options before accusing the ticket convenor, Ashish Nagesh, of bribery. Nagesh offered Rossi a $400 donation from the ANU Liberal Club to the ANU Men’s Network, where Rossi is president, in exchange for Rossi not running as vice-president on Stand Apart. Stand Apart is only standing general representative candidates.

In screenshots seen by Woroni, Nagesh offers the ANU Men’s Network a $400 donation and makes assurances to host joint fundraising events with the Liberal Club, where Nagesh is the treasurer. First, Nagesh told Rossi that the Liberal Club could pass a motion to donate $100 to the Men’s Network ‘if we have no exec on our ticket’. ‘Legit promise. No kidding. How about $400 dollars [sic]?’ Nagesh adds. ‘It just doesn’t look good to have only one exec on our ticket.’ Rossi conceded in a message to Nagesh that the Men’s Network ‘could use the money’, but later told Woroni he wanted to be seen as going along with the alleged bribe.

for the bribe issue’, which he described as ‘a bit of a misunderstanding anyway.’ ‘I told Ashish that he had a warchest of funds to use to get the ticket popular and keep everything working, and he got the wrong impression by that. I meant shirts, signs and advertising,’ Bouckaert wrote. Bouckaert went on to accuse Rossi of undermining ‘what Ashish is working towards’. Nagesh told Woroni that the money was ‘intended to be raised through fundraising and that was my pure intention to help his network and for him to work together with [the ANU Liberal Club]’.

Rossi then created a group chat with other candidates on the ticket, canvassing support for a breakaway group.

Rossi is running on a similar platform to that of Stand Apart, but has also announced his intention to launch an audit of Woroni based on ‘rumours’ that money is misused at the student publication.

The president of the Liberal Club, Ramon Bouckaert, said in a message to Rossi that Nagesh ‘had been reprimanded internally

‘Woroni over the years has been rumoured and accused of misuse of funds for meetings and wages for the higher

positions,’ Rossi posted online. ‘To help dispel this, I wish to do a complete year formal audit of Woroni to put it to rest, my contributions to the paper tell that I want to restore it to what it once was.’ Woroni is independently audited each year. ‘I am not just confident in my running independently for ANUSA vicepresident, and general representative, but I’m extremely confident that there is nobody more qualified for the job!’ Rossi said in a statement posted online last week.

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

NEWS

SHAW TO FACE TAYLOR IN BID FOR PARSA PRESIDENT Text: Jasper Lindell

your needs and issues to the ANU,’ Shaw said in a statement.

The current PARSA president, Alyssa Shaw, is seeking another term in office and will face Paul Taylor in elections for the presidency of the postgraduate student’s association this month.

An independent candidate, Zhizhen (Jayson) Liu, is also running for the Council member position. ‘My aim is to help improving [sic] the study experience and the career service for all ANU students, especially for international students,’ his candidate statement read.

Taylor heads the ANyou ticket in the lead up to elections which start on 14 August, promising to deliver ‘action on divestment, equitable housing, and improving student paths to employment.’ Shaw, running on the Progress for PARSA ticket, has outlined a platform which includes ‘transforming and introducing new community initiatives and events; introducing robust governance, accountability and policy measures; [and] running the largest ever postgraduate survey in order to understand the needs of the community’. Chris Wilson, the previous PARSA president, is running on the ANyou ticket in a bid for the role of general secretary and ANU Council member. Wilson told Woroni that the the ANyou team thought the roles of president and ANU Council member should be independent. ‘We believe the same candidate in both roles will not represent the

Alyssa Shaw, left, and Paul Taylor, right PARSA community appropriately and independently, specifically on the issue of sexual assault and safety on campus. ‘In practice, the separation will make the two roles each more effective and allows PARSA to more strongly advocate in the interests of Postgrad students and their families,’ Wilson said. Wilson also said he hoped he would bring experience to the role of general secretary. ‘The first thing we did during my presidency was establish a women’s officer and a general secretary,’ Wilson said. ‘It was envisioned, and set up

initially, that the gen sec would act as the institutional memory for PARSA.’ ‘With my experience on multiple PARSA committees, including as treasurer and president, I will be able to pass on knowledge on what has been been successful in the past and ways that we may be able to improve on things that haven’t worked in the past,’ he said. Shaw is contesting both the presidency and the Council member position, which used to be jointly elected but has been split for the first time this year. ‘By re-electing me to the ANU Council, and as PARSA president, I will continue to strongly represent and advocate for

Both the Progress for PARSA and the ANyou ticket are fielding candidates for the vice-presidency, general representatives on the Postgraduate Representative Council (PRC), along with department officers and college representatives. The PRC is comprised of four executive officers, eight portfolio officers, five general representatives and two representatives from each academic college. They meet a minimum of six times per year to discuss issues relating to the ANU postgraduate community. Shaw and Taylor could not be reached before deadline. Polling runs online for a week and closes at 5pm, 18 August.

SRC MEETING ATTACKS SEXISM WITHIN ANUSA Tex t: Bella Di Mattina-Beven Severa l members of t he ANUSA executive ca lled out sexism at t he SRC meeting last week, in a meeting t hat confronted sexism and inequa lit y, while a lso proposing met hods to ef fect change. The genera l secretar y, Kat Reed, spoke to t he SRC about t heir experiences w it h ot hers questioning or undermining t heir leadership. Members of t he Executive suppor ted accusations of performative a llyship which were directed at t he Council. The education of f icer, Roby n Lew is, put for ward a motion to use a progressive spea kers list in meetings, which w ill see a spea k ing list reorganised to ensure greater diversit y in discussion. Reed confronted t he ANUSA SRC meeting af ter putting for ward t heir report. Wearing a ‘BOSSY Gen Sec’ T-Shir t, Reed spoke of t he anxiet y caused by criticism of t heir competency in t he role of genera l secretar y, and a lleged some members were performative a llies.

Performative a llyship, which Reed explored and discussed in dept h at t he NOWSA conference earlier t his year, is when someone ca lls t hemself a feminist but does not follow t hrough w it h action. ‘No one intends to perform t heir a llyship, but we must be doing better,’ Reed said at t he meeting. ‘We need to be suppor ting and we need to be listening.’ Before spea k ing at t he meeting on Tuesday, 1 August, Reed spoke to 2016 genera l secretar y Sam Duncan. Reed, spea k ing to Woroni, said Duncan was surprised by how bad t he criticism was, and encouraged action. Reed suggested in t he meeting t hat in t heir role t hey were ‘ f ighting a narrative of assumed incompetency’. ‘Sometimes questions are asked because t hey don’t t hink I should be here,’ t hey said at t he meeting. Ot her instances of sexism included one person ask ing t hem to ‘smile more.’ They a lso compared t heir sexism in t heir current governance role w it h t heir experience as Queer* Of f icer. ‘It’s interesting to go from advocacy to governance. Women are assumed to be able to

do advocacy and no questions are asked about t heir abilit y to prov ide pastora l care,’ Reed said. ‘There are many forms of leadership and we must recognise t hat we don’t fa ll into t he same box of leadership,’ t hey said. Lew is introduced t he motion at t he meeting to implement a ‘progressive spea kers list’. It was seconded by t he v ice-president, Eleanor Kay. Bot h Kay and Lew is wore BOSSY T-shir ts in a joint ef for t to promote women in leadership. A ‘progressive spea kers’ list is designed to ‘ensure t hat people who have not yet spoken in t he meeting, as well as t hose from groups genera lly considered structura lly oppressed to some degree, ta ke precedence,’ t he motion’s preamble read. It’s a tactic t hat Reed a lready employs when chairing debates. The motion, which would remain in place for t he rest of t he year, was debated strongly by members of t he SRC. One genera l representative said t he motion v iolated t he SRC standing orders which state you ‘can’t

discriminate based on gender race or sexua lit y’. However t he movers argued t hat t he intentions of t he motion promoted t he spirit of t he standing orders. Genera l representative Anya Bonan said: ‘W hen your hand is up t he will to spea k drops so it’s good to forma lise what a lready occurs to a llow for a broader spectrum of opinion’. Lew is said t hat t he motion w ill ma ke people aware of progressive spea kers lists as a tool for creating open and equa l spaces. The socia l of f icer, Cameron A llan, a lso spoke to t he broader purpose of t he motion. ‘It’s about equa lising power imba lances in t he room, but it’s a lso a sy mbolic t hing,’ he said. Ultimately t he motion passed w it h two abstentions. Reed told Woroni t hey were ‘surprised by t he debate’. Spea k ing of t he SRC’s action since t he meeting, Reed was excited by t he potentia l for change. ‘To t heir credit, t here’s been a noticeable dif ference in some… It just sucks t hat we have to ca ll people out confrontationa lly to get people to listen,’ t hey said.

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Vol. 67 , Issue 8

BOSSY SELLS T-SHIRTS TO RAISE AWARENESS OF CAMPUS SEXUAL VIOLENCE CW: SEXUAL ASSAULT, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, AHRC SURVEY, GENDERED VIOLENCE

Text: Aleyn Silva The ANU Campus was awash with people wearing black shirts on 3 August that bore the slogan ‘We Stand With Survivors’ – presenting a bold display of empathy and resilience. After the release of the AHRC sexual assault survey, Bossy initiated a strength and solidarity T-shirt stall to raise awareness of sexual violence on campus and promote support for survivors. Bossy, a publication of the ANU Women’s Department is a magazine that provides space for the exploration of feminism and a way for women on campus to express their opinions. In an interview with Woroni, the editor-in-chief of Bossy, Bronte McHenry, pictured, discussed the aim of Bossy magazine and the Women’s Department in regards to acknowledging survivors of sexual assault and creating a strong support system for them. McHenry, a former editor-in-chief of Woroni, said: ‘The aim of the stall, and more specifically the T-shirts we were selling, was to raise awareness about PARSA’s Month of Strength and Solidarity, and all that it advocates for. It is extremely important that the ANU community is aware of the results of the nationwide survey into sexual assault on university campuses and how serious this issue is.’ ‘We are not just talking about overwhelming statistics, we are talking about an overwhelming number of people whose lives have been negatively impacted. We are also not just talking about womenidentifying survivors, but survivors of all genders and identities. It is fundamentally important that we all stand by survivors of sexual violence

and demand short- and long-term change from our university,’ she said. In regards to the slogan ‘We Stand With Survivors’, McHenry said that, ‘The members of the ANU Women’s Department had two slogans in mind: “We Stand With Survivors” and “End Sexual Violence”. The former is a current goal, which is why it is on the t-shirts, with the ultimate hope that one day we will end sexual violence. ‘For now, however, our focus is to stand by those who have experienced sexual assault and harassment, to demand restorative justice for

ACCUSED CHANGES PLEA IN CAMPUS ROBERRY CASE Text: Josie Ganko A man pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated robberies on the ANU and UC campuses in late 2016 in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday, 1 August. Darren Hubert Scott, 19, had initially chosen to fight the charges. Scott was accused of committing four aggravated robberies in just under a week from 22 October. The robberies took place on both the ANU and UC campus in late 2016,

them, and also to demand action to proactively change ANU’s rape culture so that prevalent sexual violence doesn’t continue,’ McHenry said.

not have been possible without the cooperation of members of the Women’s Department, who helped run the stall, and the organisational effort of Bossy magazine.

McHenry said that the stall was both funded and organised by Bossy. ‘The stall was not raising money, but selling t-shirts for the cost price of $10. The purpose of the stall was to spread awareness and send a visible message to the Chancelry that we will stand by survivors, and together, demand more.’

‘The bulk of the credit goes to Joanne Leong, the Bossy design and layout editor. She designed the t-shirts, stickers, and everything else. Her talents never cease to amaze or inspire.’

McHenry said that the stall would

‘We actually sold all 125 shirts in about 24 hours, but are considering buying another batch if the interest is there,’ McHenry told Woroni.

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where students were targeted while walking or cycling alone at night. Personal property was stolen, and at least one victim was hospitalised after being attacked. Investigations revealed that the robberies were all against Asian students, suggesting the attacks may have been racially motivated. Scott’s new plea will see him avoid trial; he is now set to be sentenced on September 26. Scott was denied bail on multiple occasions and remains in custody until sentencing. Scott’s co-accused, who cannot be named due to their age, maintains their pleas of not guilty and is currently awaiting trial.

Email news@woroni. com.au

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

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ON-CAMPUS CHURCH CONDEMNS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Text: Isabella Ostini

supporting the ANU’s Fellowship of Christian University Students.

Leadership at a Church with strong on-campus connections has come out strongly against domestic violence, saying that it ‘f lies in the face of what the scriptures say,’ and pledged support for victims within the church community.

‘We just want to be able to take [domestic violence] seriously as we seek to honour Christ and one another in our church family,’ Reeves said.

In response to the ABC’s recent investigation into the Church’s failure to address domestic violence, Senior Pastor at Crossroads Marcus Reeves wrote to the congregation on the issue, which was also discussed in Church services. Crossroads, an independent evangelical church, has strong links to the ANU community, holding their evening services on campus and

He emphasised that ‘any form of behaviour that seeks to control and manipulate another for selfish ends is offensive to God.’ ‘In the case of domestic violence, men who use their physical power through threats of, or acts of violence, towards their wives, is abhorrent. Similarly, emotional, psychological, spiritual and economic abuse simply do not belong amongst God’s people.’ Reeves also acknowledged that, although statistics show women as

the majority of victims, domestic violence can and does affect men, and has devastating effects on children.

It was also noted the pertinence, in a university setting, of addressing abuse within ‘dating relationships’. Both in the letter and in services, the Church stated its determination to be a supportive community for victims, and to hold perpetrators responsible. ‘If there are cases of such abuse occurring we want our church community and its leaders to use their strength to see the victim in a place of safety, and the abuser held to account,’ Reeves wrote.

violence in the name of God’, Reeves stressed that, ‘we will not ever encourage a woman to put up with such abuse.’ The letter also highlighted that the Crossroads pastoral team has received training in dealing with instances of domestic violence, and that such professional development is ongoing. Victims were urged to speak to a trusted member of the pastoral team, or to contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service.

In particular response to the ABC’s discussion of cases where women have been ‘told to endure domestic

ANU RESEARCHERS LEAD EXPEDITION TO DISCOVER LOST CONTINENT

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Email news@ woroni. com.au Text: Tanay Kapadia

A group of researchers from the Australian National University have set out to discover the world’s eighth continent, which is said to be hiding in the proverbial ‘ditch’ between Australia and New Zealand. The underwater land mass, called ‘Zealandia’, stretches from New Caledonia in the north to the Chatham Islands in the south, passing underneath New Zealand and Norfolk Island to cover 5 million

square kilometres – an area roughly two thirds the size of Australia. The expedition will set off on the drillship JOIDES Resolution to uncover the mysteries of the lost continent. Professor Neville Exon from the ANU said that the research would help scientists understand climate change and the shifts in global plate tectonics. On-board the drillship, taking off from Townsville, will also be an international team of 55 scientists, accompanied by a

crew of around 50. The 143 metre long ship will also carry a drill tower which would be 61 metres high and which will help to scoop up five kilometres of Zealandia sediment to help the research and collect evidence. The continent was first discovered by US geophysicist B. Luyendyk in 1995, but was not considered continent worthy until February last year. The expedition is expected to wrap up in September.

Comment

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

CONTENT WARNING: mentions of sexual assault; AHRC survey; institutional betrayal and irresponsibility

Interview with Abby Stapleton Abby Stapleton is the Women’s Officer at the National Union of Students. She was previously the President of the Monash Students’ Association. The National Union of Students’ 2015 Talk About It Survey and negotiations with the Australian Human Rights Commission were pivotal in initiating the national survey into sexual assault and sexual harassment released on 1 August. She sat down with Freya Willis to discuss the survey and campaigning.

Q: What does the release of the Australian Human Rights Commission Survey into sexual assault on campus mean for universities and students? Abby: Students and survivors will finally see their experiences reflected in the data. For too long universities have swept sexual assault under the rug and refused to acknowledge the extent to the problem. On 1 August universities won’t be able to hide from their failings, and students will have more evidence to back up what we’ve been saying for decades. These sentiments have also been echoed by many student leaders and activists. According to Nathalie Blakely, the PARSA Women’s Officer ‘Although university management found it confronting, we as student representatives were not shocked by the insights it provided – it’s merely reinforced what we already knew.’ Q: How has Universities Australia been involved in the survey? How have they responded to the issue of sexual assault on campuses? A: Universities Australia came into the picture when they offered $1 million dollars’ worth funding to the project in 2016. The involvement of UA has been troubling from the start, many students believed that their involvement jeopardised the independence and integrity of the survey, as universities are very much a part of the problem. Most universities have not responded adequately to sexual assault on their campus, which is why student representatives need to put the pressure on, and push universities to change. Q: What is the NUS’ response to the release of the survey? What are some of the key changes the NUS are pushing for? A: NUS will be launching a preventive campaign on 1 August. ‘Break the silence. End sexual violence’ centres around five key demands: 1. Establish a federal complaints and compliance mechanism 2. Sexual ethics and managing vicarious trauma training for all university and college staff and students 3. Create and improve policies and procedures so that they are survivor-centric with clear disciplinary consequences for offenders 4. Trauma-informed support services for students, including an on-campus trauma-specialist counsellor 5. Maintain accurate and comprehensive records of reports

for universities, we hope to work with members of parliament and external organisations throughout this process. We will also be encouraging student representatives to play a key role in ensuring that the changes taken up by universities is meaningful and survivor centric. At the ANU, ANUSA and PARSA have also handed a set of ANU specific demands to the ANU Administration. Blakely was involved in the drafting of the demands. She said they call on ‘the ANU to create a centralised policy, establish a centralised office to handle all reports, complaints and investigations, undertake a process of restorative justice, and to resource and fund specialised staff to properly support student survivors and students responding to sexual assault and sexual harassment.’ Brian Schmidt advised in his 1 August message that ‘the University accepts the majority of these recommendations.’ Q: Why is it important for there to be a national response to the survey results? A: Universities need to know that students across the country are angry. All Australian Universities have failed students in some way on the issue of sexual assault, less than two per cent of sexual assaults leads to an expulsion. There are students at all universities who have been let down and who want to fight back, we will be more effective together than we will be divided. Q: I am a student and I want to get more involved in the campaign, what can I do? A: I would recommend getting in contact with your campus women’s officer or joining your women’s collective. Women students have been spearheading reform at their universities and are the best people to talk to. If your campus doesn’t have a women’s officer or a collective start one yourself! Chances are there are other students who are angry about your university’s inaction on sexual assault, organise a public meeting or run a campaign – also look to other women’s collectives at different universities for ideas!

Q: What advice would you give students who are leading or participating in campaigns? A: Talk to other students doing similar things at other universities. I am empowered to do more and work harder on this issue because of the support that I have from other student activists. It’s also fantastic to bounce ideas off each other and organise collectively. Also take care of yourself, take the time you need to As well, we will be running a photo campaign and fa- work through a very intense issue, don’t expect yourcilitating state and campus actions. NUS will be look- self to be constantly on call. ing to reform Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency’s policies to include specific safety precautions

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

Comment

CONTENT WARNING: mentions of sexual assault; AHRC survey; institutional betrayal and irresponsibility

Interview with TANIKA SIBAL Tanika Sibal was a member of the organising committee of the Network of Women Students Australia (NOWSA). NOWSA is the annual conference for women and non-binary students which took place at the ANU from 17-21 July. On the final day of the conference, women and non-binary students dragged mattresses up to the Parliament House to demand government and university action on sexual assault. Tanika along with Freya Willis spoke at the protest. Freya sat down with Tanika to discuss the protest and campaigning.

What was the protest at Parliament House about? The protest at Parliament House was about lobbying the government to implement our 12 demands in order to improve the way that incidents of sexual assault are dealt with at universities. The 12 demands are: To establish a permanent 1800 hotline To establish physical and verbal campus reporting and support services with trained specialist counselling staff To provide respect, consent and bystander training for all university and college staff and students To provide respectful relationships and consent education training in primary and secondary schools To implement and establish programs that address the intersectional impact of sexual violence To establish a federal complaints and compliance mechanism for survivors or advocates to make complaints about universities mishandling of sexual misconduct To ensure survivors are empowered to direct the proceedings in response to their report of sexual assault To commission future research to measure levels of sexual assault at universities To provide ‘responding with compassion’ training and ‘vicarious trauma’ training to all staff and student representatives To ensure that reporting procedures are standardised and comprehensive with clear disciplinary consequences for offenders To provide easy to digest information for students about reporting procedures and the stress that follow a report being made To implement sexual misconduct plans in all universities. The protest was run as a part of the Network of Women Students Australia 2017 conference and was timely, being just under two weeks before the launch of the results of the AHRC survey. The mattresses represent the burden that sexual assault survivors carry with them around campus. What was the feeling at the protest like? Emotional and intense, but in a positive way. Lots of tears were shed, but it was also such a powerful thing to feel like you were involved in something huge, something that’s working to create positive change. There was a large sense of community, with all of the attendees being supportive of one another and knowing that we were all working together for a common goal – ending sexual assault.

What went into organising the protest? This goes without being said, but a lot of planning (laughs)! One of the biggest tasks for the protest was acquiring mattresses – we spent a lot of time on gumtree and in K-mart. Throughout the NOWSA conference attendees had the opportunity to spray paint messages on to the mattresses, which really allowed everyone to give it their own personal touch. Another big component of organising the protest was managing the media. My fellow organiser Emma put her sweat and tears into this. As Freya can also attest, one of the difficulties with the media around this issue is that they always want to hear the stories of survivors, but this can be a really difficult thing to talk about. Emma and Nina Funnell, who were speaking at the conference, had to manage media sensitively and were taking dozens of calls a day and vetting them. This was all so that survivors weren’t hounded with calls and requests for interviews. What have you learned about campaigning? I learnt a lot about campaigning, not only from the protest but also from NOWSA as a whole. One of the biggest things I’ve learnt is to firstly pick your battles but then not giving up on the ones you have picked. It’s vital to take time out and engage in self-care, especially if that means it will prevent you from giving up. Why do you think the protest was important? What did you take away from it? The protest was crucial to engage the government and get the government’s help to reform how universities deal with sexual misconduct. It not only gave a platform for women and non-binary students to come together and take action against wrongdoings, it also provided a voice to many student leaders. Personally, I was very empowered by speaking at the protest. My speech sparked an increase of discussions about sexual assault within my extended family, which is something I honestly did not envisage happening at all, let alone now. I’m very proud that I could start such discussions within my community.

Comment // international

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

The Perils of Loaded Language Text: Garyn Tan ‘I think it’s good that we’re all a little racist.’ I’m an Australian community pharmacist with Chinese heritage and that’s what one of my regular patients said to me one day. A little taken aback, I asked, ‘Oh? Why do you say that?’ Referring to the recent census results, the patient said that half of Australia’s population were not born in Australia (this is not true), but ‘...I mean I think it’s good that we all look a bit different. I think it’s good that you look Chinese.’ To some of you, this probably seems like a very strange exchange. In community pharmacy, it’s not uncommon. Another example – after counselling an elderly patient on her blood pressure medications, the lady looked at me, patted my hand and said, smiling, ‘You speak English so well for an Asian.’ The language used by everyday people is not the same as the language used in the media. The media constitutes a profession that is generally highly educated (some would say, a part of the ‘elite’ class). Journalists have to think about the language they use a lot more than the average person. Let me ask you – which do you think is a more apt description, ‘illegal immigrant’ or ‘asylum seeker’? The Australian Press Council (APC) recommends journalists use the term ‘asylum seekers’ in most circumstances. The Howard government liked to say ‘illegal maritime arrivals,’ while the subsequent Labor government preferred ‘irregular

maritime arrivals.’ Tony Abbott brought back ‘boat people,’ a term coined in the 1970s that initially described refugees fleeing Vietnam after the fall of Saigon. It’s a strikingly anachronistic term in the vein of ‘Chink,’ ‘Abo’ or ‘Wog,’ and shows how much we – and our use of language (at least in public) – have progressed. The truth is, the language that you use probably determines how you feel about an issue. The APC warns that the word ‘illegal’ may unduly imply ‘criminality or other serious behaviour,’ –emphasising that most people who come here without authorisation are seeking a legal right to stay in Australia as refugees. However, some think that ‘asylum seeker’ deliberately avoids the fact that these people are entering Australian borders illegally. They are frustrated that the media’s obsession with political correctness has made it impossible to call a spade ‘a spade’. Censoring language, however well-intentioned, can be subversive. The Rotherham child sex abuse scandal in the U.K., where at least 1400 children were abused between 1997 and 2013, ignited a firestorm over the problem of institutionalised political correctness. Most of the perpetrators were of Pakistani heritage, but police and officials were blasted for deliberately failing to acknowledge obvious ethnic and community ties for fears of being accused of racism. The initial reluctance of the German media to cover a wave of sexual assaults during the 2015/2016 New Years’ celebration by men described as having

North African or Arab appearance was blamed on the media’s fear of stoking anti-migrant sentiment during the refugee crisis. It reinforced the perception that the media (knowingly or unknowingly) tends to skew coverage a certain way. In the U.S., Obama was constantly pilloried by the right for failing to say the words ‘radical Islamic terrorist’ (he has used those words, just not in that exact order). In 2014, he said, ‘ISIL [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] is not Islamic.’ His intentions were good – he wanted to make the distinction between ‘Islam’ and ‘Islamism’ (trust me when I say that nobody but journalists and politicians would know the difference). He was wrong – ISIS is very Islamic and it would be folly to ignore the fact. To his supporters, Trump is the antithesis of political correctness. His diatribes are inarticulate, grossly offensive to grammar-heads and crudely effective. Remember the time he said that ‘all Mexicans are rapists?’ He didn’t say that. What Trump said was this: ‘The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems… When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.’ Trump was talking about illegal immigrants (or undocumented immigrants, depending on your political bent). His

language is emotive, absolutist and appeals to baser instincts of fear and anger rather than reason or evidence. It’s language that incites and exploits stereotypes, and it’s dangerous. At the same time, implicit within a statement like ‘Mexicans are bringing drugs and crime to the U.S.’ is an acknowledgement of the opioid epidemic gripping many parts of the country as well as concerns about the impact of illegal immigration – in particular, the link between illegal immigration and crime. In the latter, there is surprisingly little evidence on either side of the debate – although, immigration overall (legal and illegal) has not been shown to increase crime. Some people voted for Trump because he spoke like them. But many voted for Trump because he spoke to them. If you can manage to look past the polemic, you’ll find embedded within an even more powerful message. To the culturally and economically stagnate, to those who could see no future for themselves or their families on the cusp of the new world of globalisation and technology, Trump said, ‘I hear you.’ The Atlantic sums Trump up best: ‘The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.’ Language is important. It can be used to incite, obscure, validate, expose. It has meaning, but meaning is in the eye of the beholder (as the incident in the pharmacy certainly affirms). Listening is important too. There is something to be gained by trying to understand another person’s point of view. The judgement can come later.

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

Comment // International

The West in the Pacific

Text and photography: Elizabeth Underwood ‘I am an ignorant outsider and will never be able to understand,’ was an ongoing epiphany I had during my trip to Papua New Guinea with ANU Global Programs. I have a way of approaching things that don’t lend to writing short pieces; my tally for being told that I need to ‘stop attempting to unlock the solution to solving world poverty’ stands at four and counting (and I’m only a second-year undergrad). My western-educated way of categorising things couldn’t handle picking a single box to frame this trip around. The rate of realisations for the week was probably about three an hour, and you could categorise every one into boxes (like culture, women, politics, economics or the environment). This was a case of the classic learning phenomena that often occurs when you travel: the more you see, the more you realise you do not know. As a group, we struggled with coming to terms with huge moral questions to tackle in just a week. What is the best way to approach aid and development?

The morality of education? (does western education breed out culture? Is western education just a colonial attempt of homogenising the world’s cultures?), and trying to digest the reality of domestic violence. Atfirst sight, each of these questions can be divided and placed into boxes. Issues of approaching aid and development are placed into the ‘international politics’ box, the morality of education is placed into the ‘domestic politics’ box, and understanding domestic violence is put into a ‘social’ box. We went as a team of international observers, sent to collect data and to strictly only observe the process. In our work, this same sort of categorization took place through the surveys we were given to base our data around when interviewing citizens around polling places. We based our questions on categories such as women in politics, health, transport and mobile phone access. However, each question asked became little anecdotes. A question answering whether education has improved turned into a story about how the youth have nowhere to go after graduation. A question about clean water availability turned into a grievance about local political members’ unfulfilled promises. With each question asked, the interviewees covered

another three. Undercurrents of religion and politics ran through all – unable to be restrained within the confines of categorical boxes. We have the option of not being political in the Western World, and in Australia specifically. It’s not uncommon for people of voting age to decide that they ‘don’t care enough’ to vote, or conclude that they ‘can’t be bothered’. This choice is not optional in Papua New Guinea. This is a country where being politically active is the only legitimate avenue for achieving community change. Being engaged in politics is the only way to improve medicine availability and get clean water. It is not just a choice; it is ingrained into all parts of life. There was a dress code to adhere to while on this trip. Our course conveners recommended wearing clothes that covered our arms and to wear long pants or skirts. When leaving the complex, my roommate and I discussed how out of place she would have felt if these codes had not been ascribed, as the dress code made her feel more comfortable. Westernised views tell us that we should be able to wear whatever we desire, and that a true freedom of expression requires women to challenge the

restrictive cultural norms set in place by men. The above is just one example of an exception to how we tend to approach the region from the outside. I think being in PNG made me realise that, although there is nothing wrong with this, there is a time and a place for asserting these misshaped notions. In the wrong time and place, it only ends up alienating and prevents further understanding. We must acknowledge that Western notions of progressive change are often out of place. I was an outsider, and I always will be. I had a responsibility to attempt to understand in as many ways as I possibly could. It was my responsibility not to prematurely alienate myself as Western supremacist, comfortable in my upper-class bubble. It’s my responsibility to listen to stories and to understand the importance of politics in their lives. Awareness of my positionality and the impact of my lens placed on my experiences allowed me to approach with common humanity: this was the only way I found I could reconcile the privilege of my position. It would be a disservice to reduce entire countries down to a single culture, and an equal disservice to not attempt to understand.

Comment // international

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

Like the Grass Beneath Fighting Buffalo

Text: Dot Mason In the thick of Myanmar’s democratic transition, citizens find themselves caught between the elected government, the authoritarian military, and paranoid ethnic armed groups reluctant to renounce political power. When I told friends that I was going to Myanmar, the most common response I received was: ‘Where’s that?’ It’s a fair enough question. Myanmar has been entirely closed to the outside world for much of the last 70-odd years – operating under the repressive military dictatorship of General Ne Win and his Burma Socialist Programme Party. During his tenure, Ne Win and his cabinet attempted to eradicate all Western influences from the country by withdrawing Myanmar from the global economy and restricting foreign travel. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was impossible to obtain a visa to Myanmar for longer than 24 hours. Following a series of brutally suppressed civil protests and subsequent retrenchments in the 1990s and 2000s, it was the West’s turn to cut Myanmar off. Investment, trade and tourism were all boycotted to alienate the military government and strangulate its funding. It was only in 2016 that the USA decided to lift economic sanctions. For a long time, then, Myanmar has been flying under the radar. However, if there were a time to start paying attention, it’s now. Myanmar is on the verge of a take-off both politically and economically. Its rapidly expanding oil and gas extraction sector and vast

reserves of jade and precious gems have caught the attention of foreign investment giants like China and the USA. In the last 12 months, massive injections of foreign capital have kick started its sluggish financial sector, making Myanmar among the world’s top ten fastest growing economies in 2017. Last year, its first ever free and fair elections catapulted Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) to into Parliament with a 67 per cent lead over the military-backed USPD. International spectators have hailed the victory as a triumph for democracy and liberal values. Many hope that Aung San Suu Kyi can be a force for change – capable of healing internal divisions and suspicion in centralised government, incited by decades of authoritarian rule. *** This unbridled optimism is not without its limitations. The NLD will need to make a concerted effort to safeguard Myanmar’s future development against corruption and corporate greed. Myanmar is ripe for exploitation by multinationals, with lax regulations and an economy in dire need for foreign capital. A growing class of ‘crony capitalists’ are increasingly conducting business in secrecy, many of whom have strong ties to the military administration. The corporate elites – and by extension, the military – have significant economic stakes in everything from breweries to banking. Profits from investment and development are likely to wind up lining the pockets of veterans or flowing indirectly into military coffers.

Keeping the military in check will be the NLD’s greatest challenge, which they may not have the capacity to address. Despite the democratic transition, the military still dominates Myanmar’s political circles. It has a veto against constitutional change, direct control over the ministries of Home Affairs, Border Affairs and Defence, and a guaranteed 25 per cent of seats in both the state and national parliaments. Since independence, the military has also played a fundamental role in maintaining the unity of the state by suppressing ethnic-based insurgencies. Frequently, these conflicts are motivated by more than a pure patriotic duty. Under the pretence of preventing rebellion or secession, the military could legitimise taking control of land and resources in ethnic minority regions. The resulting civil strife has been protracted and bloody – of the 16 recognised ethnic armed organisations in the country, only half have signed a National Ceasefire Agreement. Even among signatories, trust in the central authorities remains exceedingly small. *** While in Myanmar as part of ASIA2090, we were invited to attend a panel discussion with members of a Baptist church group in Taungoo, a city in ethnic Karen homeland. The region is known for its betel nut, a largely Christian ethnic minority, and for being the producer of 100 per cent of winners for the spin-off talent show, Myanmar Idol. Up until 2014, when an informal bilateral ceasefire signed

in 2012 came into effect, Taungoo had an intense ethnic conflict between the Myanmar Military and the Karen National Union (KNU). Tensions remain despite an official cessation of hostilities. The region has suffered from the devastation of war and is in dire need of development infrastructure. Although villagers want to continue with the business of tending their crops and returning to civilian life, the KNU is resistant to any extension of central government power into the region. Justifying this resistance, they perceive this to be a veiled assault against the provincial governance structures of the KNU itself. They have expressly blocked the expansion of roads and bridges, for fear this would enable the military to renew its operations. But without access to the mountainous region, there is little the NLD can do to provide the improvement to basic services like education and healthcare that civilians so urgently require. One of the members on the Baptist panel likened the situation to the grass beneath fighting buffalo: in the struggles between political elites, civilians are the first to get trampled. Populism may have swept Aung San Suu Kyi to power, but Myanmar’s current political climate is mired in obfuscation and captured allegiances. The reality for most living in ethnic regions is that little has changed. The NLD faces a long road ahead if it wishes to overturn the political frameworks and overcome the deep divisions which continue to hold back the nation’s development.

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

Comment // international

Promise of Unification Text: Noah Yim

Modern History of the Korean Peninsula for Dummies The possibility of unification of the two Koreas grows more dubious day by day: a little context is required to understand the dynamics of this relationship. The Japanese Empire attempted to integrate Chosun, 1800s Korea, into their Empire as early as 1870 with cultural, political, and military influence. A subsequent 35 years occupation ended in 1945, after the fall of the Japanese Empire to US and Soviet forces. The Peninsula burst into war a mere five years later in 1950; this war is technically still in progress, but there has been little exchange of fire since the 1953 armistice. However, South and North Korea have never forgotten their common roots. Unification is ingrained in their respective national psyches. In the Republic of Korea’s constitution, s 3 states that the ‘jurisdiction of the Republic of Korea is the Korean Peninsula and associated islands’, showing a cultural dedication to the concept of unification. In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s constitution, s 1 states that ‘the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is an independent, communist state that represents the benefit of the people of Chosun.’ North Korea shows similar cultural dedication to a unified Peninsula. Unfortunately, unification is looking like a false, impossible dream.

Social Problems with Unification Many problems exist on both sides of the border for prospects of unification because of the severance of the two nations and their mutual revulsion towards each other’s social structures. The effects of globalisation in both nations have driven a wedge into the dream of unification: an undercurrent of US-worship has affected the South Korean lexicon, while North Korea has remained stagnant and adamantly opposed to the incorporation of foreign words into the language. North Koreans can now only fully comprehend 80% of the text in South Korean high school textbooks. Internal troubles in South Korea have also caused a delay in unification. South Korea currently has the second-highest suicide rate in the world. Its government does not have the faith of its people due to the recent corruption scandal, and the ten largest family-run conglomerates (chaebols) of South Korea like Samsung and LG are responsible for 68.3 per cent of the nation’s entire GDP as of early 2016.

to be positive development rather than a negative one, it forces South Korea into an uncomfortable position where a nation and people unprepared for unification must choose sooner rather than later. The change of power from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un has affected the defection rate to a significant extent. When Kim Jong Un took power in 2011, the number of defectors dropped dramatically due to the change of policy. While Kim Jong Il usually pardoned, at least the first time, most attempted defectors, his son opted to execute them immediately or send them to gulags, which results in almost certain death. Dissent is rising in the populace against their government, and the regime is unable to cope effectively. International pressure on North Korea is also mounting. Earlier this year, China reportedly ended the import of coal from North Korea. Coal exports make up 40 per cent of North Korea’s net exports, and China took up the lion’s share of this coal. North Korea’s recent successful tests of their intercontinental ballistic missiles have raised global awareness and alertness to North Korea.

A total, snap unification has been accepted as an impossible dream. Slow, consistent support is required from South Korea to educate and enrich North Korea so that one day, the two countries might reunite.

Kim Jong Un does not have the support of his people, and it appears that his reign will be the last of the Kim dynasty in North Korea.

A ticking time bomb

Foreign intervention has also hindered the gradual process of unification. It appears that the US has taken it upon themselves to pressure other countries to address the issue of North Korea. China has emerged as the most likely candidate

Another problem has also presented itself recently – the imminent downfall of the Kim dynasty. Although it appears

International intervention

for this task, given their political and economic influence over North Korea, although this development is quite sinister in the eyes of South Korea. South Korea has a complicated relationship with China. China has been reaching out militarily; China frequents Korean and Japanese airspace with patrols, which draws strong opposition. China’s government has also decided to revise history, teaching its students that Goguryeo, a Korean kingdom during the three kingdoms era of Korea, was a part of China. Traditionally, this view has been mocked by South Korea and the Western world. China’s revisionist history and their almost parental role to North Korea has led a few Koreans to speculate that China plans to claim North Korea as its own when the Kim dynasty does inevitably fall. Furthermore, the Chinese government has diplomatic ties with North Korea. China’s police repatriate any escapees back into North Korea. The Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian governments also repatriate North Korean refugees, though not to the same terrifying consistency. Repatriation is a certain death penalty, and such actions are grossly inhumane. It also deprives the international community of valuable information of the secretive North Korean regime, hindering the unification effort. Most of the intimate details we have of North Korea today are accounts from defectors. The 25th of June this year marked the 67-year anniversary of the start of the Korean War. Unification is a task that is near impossible because of the challenges of disconnection, and the subsequent developments that have occurred in both nations. On top of this, it appears that any window of opportunity for unification will come sooner rather than later, to a wholly unprepared South Korean society. Regretfully, international intervention has negatively affected this very delicate process of unification. I hope that the international community can respect the mutual desires of the sibling nations separated in their infancy, and merely observe, if not aid, the arduous task of our reunion.

North Korean Defectors Entering South Korea per Year, data from the Ministry of Unification, Republic of Korea

PROMPTED // MULTILINGUAL

心でつぶやきながらカレンダーの日程にバツ印を付き終えた。

﹁本当にありがとう﹂

このような充実した一年を送ることができて本当に恵まれていると感じる。

この一年は人生で一番勉強し、苦労し、挑戦し、そして素敵な人達との出会いが多かった。

できた。

い海の中で泳ぐカメ。写真では抑えきれない自然の美しさをこの目に焼き付けることが

しなく広がる草原、夜を飾る無数の星、引き締まった胸筋をもつカンガルー、悠々と青

との出会いであった。自分はここオーストラリアでの大自然に心から魅了された。果て

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

そして人と人との素晴らしい出会い以外にも感謝すべき出来事があった。それは大自然

の地で巡り合えたのは奇跡であり、本当にこの出会いに感謝をしている。

姿友は達辛がい周中りでにもい勉た強かをら頑で張あるるモ。チベ彼ーらシはョいンつ、もそ明しるてく心元の気支にえ接としなてっくてれいたた。。彼彼ららのに輝こく

きとても満足している。だが挫折しかけた時に、前に進むことができたのは素晴らしい

壁から逃げることなく立ち向かった結果、学びの多き、充実した日々を過ごすことがで

多かった。これらの得た知識や学んだ勉強方法は今後の自分の強みとなるだろう。

また理論や知識を実際にアウトプットし、また応用できる機会が多く、結果一番収穫が

が特別な理由は、あらゆる文献を批判的に読むことの大切さを教えてくれた授業である。

一番印象深く、また成長することができた授業は比較政治学の授業であった。その授業

重ねていった。

なかったからである。しかしこれらの科目にとても興味があったので諦めず毎日努力を

ことも困難であった。その理由として国際関係学や政治学を日本で全く勉強したことが

いほど多く、かなり苦労した。また読書量の多さだけではなく、授業の内容を理解する

の量であった。授業数は日本の大学より少ないが授業のための読書量は比べ物にならな

初めに言語の壁以上に厚い壁が自分の前に立ちはだかった。それは授業で科された課題

肌寒い気候の中、大学の寮に一人でたどり着いた。そこからすべてが始まった。

オーストラリアに到着した。

去年の七月、不安と希望を胸に日本を経ち、エメラルドグリーンに輝く海のあるこの地

りとこの一年間を振り返った。

部屋のど真ん中に横たわっている、思い出で詰まったスーツケースを眺めながらじっく

カレンダーの日付にバツ印を付けながら感傷に浸る自分がいた。

TWO MORE DAYS Text: Yusuke Fukuta ‘Two more days until I leave Canberra.’ As I was marking an X on a calendar, I was feeling sentimental. I looked at my suitcase filled with precious memories, then started to turn back the clock and look back at my experience in Australia thoroughly. I was filled with high hopes and concern when I left Japan last July and arrived in this massive land with its beautiful, emerald-green ocean. Amid chilly weather, I arrived at my dorm by myself. Everything started from that moment. First of all, I was confronted by something bigger than the language barrier: the workload given by the university. Even though I took fewer courses than when I was in Japan, the workload was much heavier in Australia. Consequently, I had a hard time doing my study. In addition to the heavy workload, I also

had a difficult time understanding the context of the courses. The reason for this was that I hadn’t studied either International Relations or Asian Politics in Japan. I was particularly interested in these subjects, however, so I didn’t give up and put a great deal of effort into studying every day. The course called ‘Comparative Politics’ was the most impressive and thought-provoking course I took while at the ANU. It taught me the importance of being critical when reading journals and articles. It also helped me learn how to apply knowledge and theories from the course. In the end, it was one of my most fruitful experiences in terms of studying. I strongly believe the knowledge I gained from this course will be helpful in the near future. As a result of fighting against the odds instead of running away, I was able to live very productive, fruitful days. Nevertheless, there were times when I stumbled and did not have enough strength to stand. The sole reason why I was able to stand up and keep pushing myself forward was that I was surrounded by a group of amazing, talented, and warm

hearted people. They were always cheerful and kind towards me. Their bright presence has supported me spiritually. It is a miracle that I met them and I am really thankful to have done so. In addition to the joys of meeting these people, there is another encounter for which I am especially thankful. This was my encounter with the vast nature in Australia – and I am truly fascinated by it. Boundless grasslands, countless stars which decorate the night sky, the muscled kangaroo, and turtles quietly swimming in the blue ocean. I was able to sear the image of this beautiful nature, which cannot be captured by a camera, into my eyes. This is the year I studied the most, had the most challenging time, tried so many things; and, most importantly, was able to meet so many beautiful people. I am so blessed to have lived such a fruitful year as this. ‘Thank you so much.’ I whispered the words to myself and finished marking the X on the calendar.

﹁あと二日で帰国か﹂

あと二日

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

PROMPTED // FEATURES

Jumping Ship How to Move Home Text: Aislinn Grimley I hate the term ‘blessing in disguise’. It’s unsettling to think that an awful thing can be reduced to a vehicle for something good or even a shield against a slightly more awful thing. If a terrible situation improves, that improvement isn’t a reward for putting up with the initial issue. That being said, when my parents broke up during my final high school exam block, it never occurred to me that anything would change other than the number of adults in the house. It certainly never occurred to me how much it would affect my move away from the Sunshine Coast. It was the kind of break-up with shards and splinters, where wedding rings come off but documents don’t get signed. As it happens, their messy breakup was my clean breakaway. I didn’t leave the proverbial nest-so much as see it fall out of the tree. If you happen to be a connoisseur of divorce literature, you’ll notice that it separates pretty distinctly into a dichotomy

of When My Parents Forget How to be Friends and How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed. Stressed-out eighteenyear-olds are something of an untapped demographic in that area. I had always assumed that once I finished primary school, I would be past the point where I was allowed to care about my parents’ relationship. So, I acted accordingly. When parents of friends and alarmingly up-to-date teachers asked how I was holding up, I had an easy, impersonal response: “It’s not really relevant to me.” At that point in time, that felt very true. I had a suitcase full of thermals and a one-way plane ticket to Canberra; if I was jumping ship, did it matter if it sank behind me? Once again, disintegrating families aren’t a trial to earn an award for being satisfactorily resilient. Some parts of the whole situation are just objectively bad. When you fly thirteen hundred kilometres South and restart your life in an eternal Year 6 excursion, basically everything is unfamiliar to a bewildered first-year brain. Translating that experience to your family is draining at the best of times, and naturally, like any tale of two cities, this also happened to be the

worst of times. When your parents forget how to be friends (as the divorce discourse tells us), every disclosure to one is an omission to the other. It becomes more sensible to neglect to talk to either. Unhealthy as it may be, it becomes a relief to come untethered so that you can tie yourself down elsewhere. Obviously, people who say they miss home aren’t referring to a street address. Castle though it may be, the home itself isn’t the drawing force that makes you feel like every other bed you sleep in is temporary. Homesickness is built on the faces and rituals that suddenly disappear from your everyday life. The most common complaint I heard among fellow first-years was for family meals: the well-rehearsed, comfortable conversation over a well-rehearsed, comfortable dinner. Regardless of the quality of the food, it’s something you train yourself to love after years of practice. With a reconfigured family, I had less than a month to re-imagine those traditions. They didn’t get a chance to crystallise before I hopped on a plane to make new ones. Whatever home I’ve trained myself to love, a return ticket

won’t bring me back to it. Obviously, two divorces would be too many; I haven’t split up with my home address. Geographically, I do love Queensland. I love living at Poseidon’s cat-flap, where two layers are too many, and you can taste the colour in fruit. I love wearing a maroon jumper in a blue crowd and complaining about politicians that my relatives probably helped to elect. During O-Week, a slightly unusual home address is ideal for bulking out an otherwise-thin personality. Yet it’s not quite headquarters anymore. Over Autumn break, I remember Dad sitting down at the same table that hosted grade two spelling tests and calculus in the same handwriting, and asking when I would be going home. I looked at my plane ticket, told him the date of my flight, and we carried on with a family dinner that wasn’t really a family dinner. And when I finally used that ticket, it didn’t feel temporary. My family imploded at the wrong time, so I outsourced Home. It wasn’t a blessing, but it put a full stop on Queensland and let me re-start with

An ode to all students Text: Olivia Ireland

CW: mentions of sexual assault We live in an environment where students preach an egalitarian society. The idea of discrimination on a public level is quickly shut down by peers, teachers or your internet warriors. It is something we as students of the ANU take pride in; our progressive attitudes providing hope for what we are to bring in the future. Yet there are cracks, fault lines and imperfections, as there is with any large social system. One of our greatest weaknesses, as a body of severely intelligent and well-rounded students, is the secret, underlying feeling we all have – we see ourselves as better than others. More capable of doing the job, deserving a scholarship or holding a moral high ground to crush our opponents down. ‘You’re better than that.’ Four words were given to my friend by his ex-girlfriend in advice on never getting with me, four words that placed a label over my head. Slut? Unintelligent? Underachieving? Mentally unhealthy? I don’t know what his ex meant when she said it, but, to me, she meant it all. Most of all she meant that I was less than her. Never had I experienced such an intense negative opinion. I had always considered myself well respected, always making

a conscious effort to be respectful of others. Suddenly I found myself sitting in my room, re-evaluating who I had become at college. I had someone look down on me, a third party with such an intense opinion of me. This left an impact on my identity, my self-value and my life choices. Since moving to college, I had become more liberal in every possible way. I saw this as only positive; I had pulled back the barriers of my perfectionistic expectations to be more comfortable in my own skin. A condition for my self-acceptance was I now faced outward retaliation for the first time. Not to mention from someone who barely knows me. After a night of wallowing in self-pity, I realised I had two options with this situation; fuel myself with shame and anger, shrink into a ball and take away my newfound confidence. Or I could send a message that we, as students, need to hear.

and backwards form of thinking is what stops a shift in negative cultural behaviour. We grow blind by our own egos; our own self-absorbed attitudes take over. We cannot allow our faults at students stop us from making the same mistakes past generations have. People argue that life is a competition and you do whatever it takes to win. That belief has a hidden consequence; you can never win in the long term. You are eventually dragged back by the ghosts of your past that you put down for a singular selfish moment of self-gain. If we, as a university, want to see a new culture, want to escape backwards and toxic behaviour then it begins with pushing away our petty pride and accepting one another as equal, no matter a person’s life decisions. Evaluate whether you’re supporting your peers, your friends, your lovers and your teachers or if you’re dragging the whole movement back.

There is a social uprising to the treatment of any gender in an oppressive manner. As a group of mostly progressive students, we not only outwardly reject explicit discrimination but implicit behaviour as well. We will no longer stand for rape culture, sexism, homophobia or racist comments under people’s breath, ironic jokes or so much as a whistle in a person’s direction as they simply go about their day to day life. However, the only way to begin a true change to sexist culture and unacceptable norms is to start believing we are equal. That no one is above another. This classist, arrogant

The AHRC released their report the same day following the defamation of my persona. 51 per cent of us reading this have experienced a form of sexual harassment in 2016. A number, another painfully tragic number, in a pool full of victims who continue to go through every day, fighting back against the unfair world we still live in. Our Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt’s beginning words leave a haunting effect on how far we still have to go for university culture to change. ‘I want to start by saying sorry. Sorry to any student, to any staff member, to any member of our alumni

community who has experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault on our campus.’ There is a tone of mourning, fear and desperation, for an answer on how to solve this national crisis. The first step is to support one another, to accept one another for our differences, our different approaches to life and, then, to embrace it. No one is above anyone else, we are all simply different, and it is beyond important we take advantage of this to solve the issue our Chancellor desperately wants to be solved. We need to restructure our thinking, to turn it around in an entirely different direction, to think outside of the box. This begins with opening ourselves to a greater degree of empathy and respect for others. The moment a student turns against another for the way they live their life, their sexuality, their mental health, how they approach their academics, it immediately risks the flame burning out, a flame which could have very well redefined the world in which we live. If we, as students, want older generations to begin taking us seriously, to stop seeing us as the avocado eating internet warriors, it is time that we stop thinking we are above others and instead embrace the intricacies and complexities of every peer. This is what will remould our university into a place to be proud of.

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Vol. 67 , Issue 8

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

Comment

Photography: Christine Song

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

PROMPTED // FEATURES

Why A Handmaid is the Dystopian Hero we all Need Text: Kanika Kirpalani

Why is Offred’s journey so much more powerful?

As someone who read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale for their International Baccalaureate, I couldn’t wait to rid myself of the creepy, bone-chilling novel.

Is it because she is a woman? Is it because a woman wrote the novel? Is it because the novel tackles gender roles and what it means to be a woman? Yes.

Never in my 22 years did I think that Handmaids would come back into pop-culture. And yet, I have just finished binge-watching 10 heavy episodes that gave me everything the book didn’t. Unlike many others my age, The Handmaid’s Tale was my introduction to dystopian literature. And after Offred’s tortured existence: Winston’s demise in 1984 and Bernard’s plight in Brave New World were almost insignificant.

Despite how different The Handmaid’s Tale is from 1984 and Brave New World, one theme seems to be a commonality amongst dystopian worlds; men have truly made a mess of things. These worlds, though so different, are united by ideological lunacy, which comes to the forefront to reign supreme. The hedonism that traps Bernard, the thought crime that picks at Winston and the sexual enslavement that oppresses Offred, are mechanisms that have been instigated by some self-righteous man to subjugate portions of the populations.

Atwood’s masterpiece stands alone in tackling the issues of a dystopian world through the most oppressed character of all, a woman. In 1984 and Brave New World, women are a blip on the radar of men who try to make the world right. And fail to do so. Offred is possibly the most badass in her rebellion. Scratch ‘possibly’. She definitely is. Offred quietly fights being stripped of her dignity, identity, family and autonomy. Outwardly she is the perfect little Handmaid, doing her Commander and duty for Gilead. Internally, Offred is fighting to keep sane. She clings to her memories and what she knows. They can’t take that away. So why does Offred being a woman actually matter?

She’s under very similar surveillance to Winston and Bernard, but Offred is more trapped by her circumstances. While Winston and Bernard have some stature and work within their perverse regulatory systems, Offred is the lowest of the low in hers. Her world completely objectifies her by the fact that she is fertile, a ‘twolegged womb’. Although she is ‘blessed’ with the ability to reproduce in a world plagued by infertility, she is enslaved and objectified by her own gender. What makes Offred’s rebellion so powerful is the fact that she has nothing to lose. She has lost her husband and daughter. She has lost her freedom to speak, to read, and to live as she chooses. She is fighting to change the world, even though this will inevitably lead to her demise.

A Women’s Officer Perspective Text: Claudia Kevin It always fascinates me when people ask me if sexual assault is really an issue at Australian universities. I never know how to hide my disbelief or to resist the temptation to yell that it is one of the biggest issues faced by Australian students today. In my role this year as the Women’s Officer of my residential accommodation, I have been a lightning rod for disclosures of sexual assault. In this position, I have been able to assist survivors in getting the support they need and helping them to return to normality as much as possible. When I accepted this role, I knew I would be operating as the first point of contact for issues of sexual assault. I was well trained and felt prepared for everything this would entail. Despite this, the number of disclosures I have received has been entirely unexpected. Realistically, every single person I know will know at least one survivor of sexual assault. So, when people ask me if sexual assault is an issue, I am always shocked. It shocks me because time and time again I realise how much shame, guilt and secrecy surrounds survivors of sexual assault. This is a crime that is so rampant, yet so well hidden.

Before I stepped into this role, there were many of truths that I thought were self-evident about sexual assault. Throughout the year, however, I’ve been proven wrong. Instead of viewing it as a horrific crime committed by perpetrators who deserve punishment, I have learned that there are systemic issues that hide the existence of sexual assault and silence survivors of this crime. I have learned that it is the ultimate crime to commit because it does the most damage to survivors with the least repercussions for the perpetrator. I have learned that there is so much more that we must do. The ANU has implemented consent training programs, and there will be a full-time sexual assault counsellor available to students and staff of the university. I am so excited about these changes and so proud to attend a university that is one of the first to implement these policies. However, there is still so much work to be done. There are still serious limits on grievance mechanisms that are accessible to sexual assault survivors in almost every university context, there are substantial challenges to survivors being capable of reporting, and there are limitations on punishments for perpetrators. These issues absolutely speak to wider societal issues, but we can do better in our university microcosm. While we have had some successes at the ANU, there is still

so much more that needs to happen for adequate protection, safe recovery for survivors and effective justice mechanisms for perpetrators. Despite all of this, there is one thing that has stood out the most across all the work I have done in the area of sexual assault this year. I have seen firsthand the phenomenal strength of survivors; individuals who consistently fight to get their power back, who show how they will not be defined by what has happened to them, rather that they will live their lives in a way that is empowering for them. I have been inspired by the strength and power of these people, in the face of unforgivable circumstances. Survivors deserve so much more. They deserve to have a voice and to have their voices elevated. I’ve learned in my role that survivors need us – as friends, supporters, and leaders – to believe them, to support them, and to stand with them. This is an issue that affects so many, which requires all of us to take action and stop it from occurring and to fight for survivors to get the justice they deserve.

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

INTERNATIONAL

W Breaking the Silence 21

From the ANUSA Women’s Officer Holly Zhang

No Results Found Brigid Horneman-Wren

Support Services 26 22

TRIG WAR GER NIN Discu G ssion gen

so de and s red viole f exua n l assa ce ul t

Myth busting with Restorative ANU Codie Bell & Laura Perkov 23

ANU Has a History of Sexual Violence Bronte McHenry & Joanne Leong 24

Too Large Hands Emily Dickey Defeating Campaigns Freya Willis 25

I’m (not) a celebrity, get me out of here Sylvia Gunn

You are a fighter. He is dirt. Anonymous A letter to survivors Anonymous 27

From the Disabilities Officer Aji Sana 28

From the Archives Ali Jenkins Protest Anonymous

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

INTERNATIONAL

From the ANUSA Wo m e n’s O f f ice r It’s hard to know where to begin, especially as a woman, in this world, to tell you about all of the unrecognised, unremunerated, unrecorded work of generations of women advocates past. Indeed, maybe I’m an idealist, but I cannot imagine any important moment in history that has not fallen short of the expectations of those to whom it really mattered. The release of the Australian Human Rights Commission survey into student experiences of sexual harassment and sexual assault marks the first time that our experiences have made it onto the map. Finally, our experiences are recognised – joining the already recorded and publicly acknowledged human rights violations within our local communities. But as many student advocates have already told you – it’s no news to those who have always listened to and heard survivors of sexual violence and fought for them. It’s been a long process. From the NUS Talk about the survey in 2015, to the UNSW Australian Human Rights Centre’s universities project, to, now, the joint UA/AHRC survey in 2017; it has been students who have led the push to end sexual violence on campus. Yet it always surprises me when I raise this issue with a fellow student and member of our community (while campaigning, at an event, or just in my life on campus), whose blank face reflects back a dumbfoundedness, confronted by and amused even, at the novel idea that this could be happening around them – to anyone. I’m sorry to all the women who have bravely spoken truths about their experiences, only to be told that it’s not possible and that they must be mistaken (or lying!) about the wrongful acts of others. I’m sorry for all the times that, as women, we have, time and time again, genuinely expected others to relate to us as equals and with empathy, only to find that again we somehow didn’t make it onto the agenda – despite shouting, and hoping and even just being there.

SUPPORT SE RV I CE S

Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, Crisis Line (02) 6247 2525 This is an over the phone counselling service. It is open from 7am to 11pm, 7 days a week. You can also use this number for counselling related inquiries or to book face-to-face appointments with Canberra Rape Crisis Centre. You must identify yourself as an ANU student to CRCC but this information is not shared with anyone and the ANU will not be informed. All services are free of charge.

It broke my heart when the top reasons cited that people didn’t report sexual violence to their university were because they ‘didn’t think it was serious enough’ and because they ‘didn’t need help.’ How is it possible for survivors to feel like their pain matters when, in failing to condemn the real perpetrators, the university that was supposed to give them a safe learning environment makes them feel like they are the problem? When countless times, women say to each other ‘I’m OK; I just want to rant about … [this incident where someone treated me as someone deserving of less care and rights than others],’ and don’t expect the world to change, or even help, when they are hurting. Values like respect for difference and equal opportunity mean nothing if our powerful institutions do not protect them through concrete enforceable (and well-implemented) policies. If you also believe in these abstract ideals, I invite you to join us in pushing the ANU to hold perpetrators of sexual violence accountable through its existing investigative powers as a civic institution – only then will ‘zero tolerance’ become more than empty lies.

other day after once again giving voice and strength to fellow survivors, ‘I’m just sick of finding different ways to explain to people why they should care.’ I was going to write another piece about my experiences of the unsustainable nature of advocacy work and what it means for student activism. But, basically, it boils down to this: You don’t get paid enough, so find other things like love and anger at injustice to fuel you. You won’t get all the change to happen, so make sure you work with others and pass the knowledge of how to fight best on to younger activists and build them up to carry on the work. Find the people who see, listen and care, put them together to do whatever they can from wherever they can. Just keep pushing.

(Nothing I say here is new, but it’s still true. I guess we still need more women to speak their truths to give strength to others – and to remind each other and ourselves that our The media and public attention on sexual vi- experiences are still real.) olence in university communities this August can be empowering – survivors finally, finally Recently at the NOWSA protest in feel heard and have their experiences vali- front of Parliament House, I racked dated and addressed by others. But all I can my brains for what I wanted to say to think is why it took this survey to make our the anonymous media cameras… pain matter, and what happens after the spot- the best I could do was ‘It’s hard to light moves on. I hope it doesn’t mean that the hear our pain, but please stand with injustices that we have experienced become us.’ I hope that’s sincere enough a invisible again, and survivors become again plea for you to care. troublemakers shouting to an uncaring audience. Codie Bell, a beloved friend, activist and feminist leader in our community, said to me the

ANU Counselling (02) 6125 2442 This is the phone number to book an appointment with ANU Counselling. You can book a standard appointment (50 mins) anytime. To book an on the day appointment for urgent help (25 mins) call at 9am or go into the Counselling Centre just before 9, as these appointments are first in best dressed. You can receive 6 free sessions per semester. 1800 RESPECT 1800 737 732 This is over the phone counselling and it is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They can also refer you to local services. It is free of charge. 1800 RESPECT has a triage system, so the first person you speak to is not a counsellor. We recommend that

H O L LY Z H A N G 2017 Wo m e n’s O f f i ce r

you request to be put through to a counsellor straight away. ANUSA and PARSA Student Assistance & Legal Officers ANUSA (6125 4093) & PARSA (6125 2603) These services are free and provide confidential assistance on financial, academic or advocacy support issues. Lawyers can offer legal advice. ANU Women’s Department Contact the Women’s Officer, Holly Zhang For non-urgent inquiries: sa.womens@anu.edu.au For urgent matters: 0467 092 808 The Women’s Department is part of ANUSA, and it advocates for and supports all ANU Women and

non-binary students. As Women’s Officer, Holly can provide pastoral care, referrals to local support services, and give information about options for reporting within ANU and the support ANU can offer. ANU Queer* Department Contact the Queer* Officer, Ari Scott sa.queer@anu.edu.au The Queer* Department is part of ANUSA, and it advocates for and supports all Queer* identifying students. Ari can provide pastoral care, referrals to local support services, and give information about options for reporting within the ANU and the support that the ANU can offer.

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

INTERNATIONAL

CONTENT WARNING: MENTIONS OF SE XUAL HAR A SSMENT AND A SSAULT, BL AMING RHETORIC , INSTITUTIONAL BETR AYAL AND IRRESPONSIBILIT Y

VIC TIM-

Myth busting with Restorative ANU CO D I E B E L L & L AU R A PE R KOV Re s t o r a t i ve A N U In the weeks preceding and following the release of the Change the Course results, a lot of myths about sexual assault have been bantered around the ANU campus and internet comment sections. Restorative ANU are here to bust a few that are particularly close to our heart: Myth: Only the police can deal with sexual assault. Fact: The ANU has rules about misconduct (mostly found in the Discipline Rule (2015)). If an ANU student victimises or harasses another student, they are committing misconduct. The ANU can investigate an incident, come to a finding, and take steps against students who are found to have committed misconduct. A student who misbehaves can be: excluded from campus, have their enrolment suspended or terminated, and the ANU can notify other agencies or organisations about the finding. Universities can create administrative systems that empower survivors, hold perpetrators accountable, and still afford alleged perpetrators procedural fairness. Unlike the court system, universities can’t throw people in jail – and so findings of misconduct do not need to be held to the same standard of proof as criminal convictions of sexual assault. In addition to this, universities have a duty of care towards their students, and the ANU has a responsibility to foster a safe learning environment. This includes dealing with sexual harassment and assault, even when the victim does not want to go to the police. This was reiterated by the Education Minister, Simon Birmingham, in his statement following the release of the survey results – his office will be directly writing to each university to determine what steps they are taking to uphold their legal obligation to promote a safe learning environment. Myth: Even if they’re not the only ones who can deal with it, police are still best equipped to deal with sexual assault.

Fact: It is estimated that in Australia, fewer than one in 100 sexual assaults will result in a criminal conviction. In an adversarial system that prioritises the rights of the accused, victims are not put in thecentre of the alleged assault, but they are witnesses. And, in some cases, their bodies are even treated as evidence. When the impacts of trauma start to show, such as memory fog, dissociation, or your body freezing, the process regards this as contradictory evidence. Trials can take years, and universities deflect responsibility by insisting on going to the police and that they ‘can’t do anything’ in the meantime. Years of walking around campus, going to classes, trying to live your life – all while seeing your perpetrator face no repercussions for their actions.

“If you don’t think you know any rapists or enablers – listen to the women and non-binary people in your life... Even when you don’t want to believe it.” Convictions are often lenient. Many cases don’t progress to court because they are not ‘perfect victims’ – because they couldn’t remember what happened, because they were assaulted by a partner, because they waited ‘too long’ to speak out, or because it’s just a case of ‘he said, she said’. Authorities tell victims that, because their perpetrator believed that they were consenting, then their experience does not constitute assault – even if ‘in [their] own mind’, they did not consent. Perpetrators are allowed to walk away, to never think of what they did ever again – but for victims, ‘the reality doesn’t get to be over … I don’t get to know who I would be today had this not

happened to me, and I mourn for that person’. This is a traumatising and emotionally exhausting process. Who would blame any survivor of violence for not using the criminal justice system when it treats them so abhorrently? Myth: ‘I don’t associate with people like that’; ‘Rapists are monsters who hide in the bushes and attack at night’; ‘He’s a decent guy – I don’t think he could do what she said he did.’ Fact: Change the Course shows what we have been saying for a long time: most victims of sexual violence are women, and most perpetrators are men. More than half of perpetrators attend the same university as their victim. There are rapists, sexual harassers, stalkers and other perpetrators of sexual violence at the ANU. And they’re not hiding in the bushes; they go to your tutes, they live on res, they hang out at the ANU Bar. They’re your Facebook friends. How do you find out who among us are the perpetrators behind the statistics we’re seeing? Unfortunately, women and queer* people often only find out once it’s too late – we find out only once we’ve become the victims of sexual harassment or assault. If you don’t think you know any rapists or enablers – listen to the women and non-binary people in your life. Even when they’re talking about your mate. Even when you don’t want to believe it. Even when you can come up with a million reasons it didn’t happen that way – listen to them. Myth: Restorative ANU wants everyone to hug it out and let monsters roam our campus. Fact: By doing nothing, our university already lets monsters roam our campus. Perpetrators are allowed to recommit as they face little to no disciplinary action – they are allowed to take up leadership positions in Clubs, ResComs, and become SRs. They are allowed to move around to different colleges. They are allowed to continue attending our university, and they are allowed to graduate. Many victims of violence do not get this opportunity. The ANU did not comply with the largest FOI request in history – Sunday Night revealed that hundreds of complaints had been made at

universities across Australia, with little disciplinary action against perpetrators. How many incidents have there been at the ANU? How many expulsions or removals? Change the Course indicates that there were 116 incidents at the ANU, but this is only out of the approximately 1500 people surveyed. This means that the number is likely to be much higher, and the number of perpetrators who continue to roam our campus remains terrifying. Restorative processes can only take place when every person involved in an incident agrees. Perpetrators sitting down and having a conversation about what they did wrong is something that most never have to do, and in a conference, there’s nowhere for them to hide. Sometimes, restorative practice doesn’t involve the victim and perpetrator, but the victim and their surrounding community (people they lived with and were affected by the incident, family and friends, those who supported them, those who supported the perpetrator), and the institution that betrayed and mistreated them. We don’t want everyone to ‘hug it out’. We want an apology, and a commitment to do better. We don’t want press conferences; we want concrete action. ***

The ANU can do better The news that the ANU will fund external reviews into both the University-wide policy, as well as each residence, gives some of us activists a little bit of hope. Now is our chance to ask the university to show us what ‘zero-tolerance’ actually means, and see consequences for perpetrators of sexual assault and harassment at our university. We want an apology from the University for how it has treated us. We want support for survivors and student advocates who are expected to do the work of professional service providers. We want disciplinary action for perpetrators. We want a restorative process so we can finally start healing.

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

To o L a r g e Hands I let my hands touch myself my stomach back, breasts. running warm skin slipping down like honeysuckle on summer’s first night. what for so long i only thought other’s could claim could approach and take away. eye off, own in their enlarged hands. hands so large they smother every pocket and pore my body is allowed, too large, hands too large. a body i only minimised and hurt and couldn’t touch. even if my brain in its state of altered eternity forgot, muddled, pretended to NOT understand what stranger’s hands that touched meant to . my body, that now forever accepts, bows down to those with no thoughts, no feelings, no trust yet they dared to touch. they don’t deserve what i don’t know. so now somehow, now i TOUCH myself. and own my legs that walk across mountains and arms that comfort those who have also been touched by enlarged hands. and my touch, my s k i n it is my own.

E M I LY D I C K E Y

Defeating Campaigns FR E YA W I L L I S When the Women’s Department was cleaning out the Women’s Space a few weeks ago, I found campaign materials protesting sexual violence which was 40 years old. I was so confronted because the problems they spoke about are the same ones we are facing today. It made me wonder: how this issue has been allowed to go on for so long? My disbelief, of course, comes partly from a place of horror. My instinct to support and believe survivors is so strong that I can’t comprehend why universities don’t punish such a heinous crime. But, it is also shocking to me because students and activists have been fighting this issue for decades, and to little avail. We have seen dozens of survivors go public with stories of mistreatment, Women’s Collectives and allies have been staging protests and campaigning since the 1970s, and, anecdotally, we know that most people will know someone who is a survivor of sexual assault. Yet, by most metrics, not a lot has changed in the way universities respond to sexual assault, and the problem is as rampant as ever. It makes me wonder, how did this happen? How have universities defeated so many campaigns over so many years? Step 1: Students alert the administration of the issue. In response, the administration ignores or minimises the issue. Students may alert the administration to ‘red flags’, they may present demands or reform proposals, and in response… nothing. Administrators may nod in agreement and give an understanding smile so that students get the impression they are on the same side. But then there is total inaction. Step 2: Students escalate pressure through organising campaigns, petitions, protests, speaking to the media, etc. to try and force administrations to act. In the past year, we can see evidence of this; the Open Day and Wesley College protests at the University of Sydney, women coming forward about the ‘Eagle Rock’ rituals at B&G, the NOWSA mattress protest at Parliament House and numerous articles and disclosures published in student and mainstream media. Step 3: Administrations offer to consult with students, and set up a committee to look into the issue. For most organisers, this is thought to be a win. If an administration is seen to be cooperating, it is often seen as counter-intuitive to continue

escalation strategies. As a result, the campaign group often becomes demobilised and disintegrates. It is also much harder to maintain public pressure, especially through the media, when the university is seen to be cooperating. Students begin working with the administration, usually volunteering their time and labour for free. Step 4: Progress slows down. Delaying tactics are a particularly effective one for universities. The institutional memory in student organisations is limited. Students are only at university for a very limited period of time – so it is only a matter of time before they go home for the summer or graduate. Most student leaders serve their organisation on a one-year term. The handover from one leader to the next is not always guaranteed, particularly when you factor in burn-out which means that leaders often step away from activism once their term is over. The result is that the administration can let the committee die or ignore student contributions because the pressure on them to act has relaxed. Students working on the issue leave, and their replacements often struggle to learn the ropes and the momentum going. Nothing changes. Repeat steps 1-4. What this cycle illustrates is that universities have refused to take proactive action. They have swept the issue under the rug and, while they do nothing, more and more students’ safety is put at risk. All the while, the burden of supporting survivors of sexual assault and campaigning against sexual violence has fallen on students. Students have had to remind universities of their basic duty to provide a safe learning environment. Students have been first responders and the support person for survivors. Students have been left to envision, design and reform policies and procedures. Ensuring students’ safety is the one of the most essential pillars of a productive living and educational environment. This is not student’s responsibility. Enough is enough. It’s the university’s turn to take a stand against sexual violence. In 40 years’ time, when members of the Women’s Department look through our campaign materials, I hope they don’t have the same reaction I did.

Freya Willis is the Deputy Officer of the ANU Women’s Department.

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

CONTENT A SSAULT,

FEATURES

WARNING: MENTIONS OF SE XUAL A SSAULT, DESCRIP TIONS OF SE XUAL VIC TIM-BL AMING RHETORIC AND INSTITUTIONALISED NEGLEC T

I ’m (n o t ) a c e l e b r i t y, get me out of here S Y LV I A G U N N The plane touches down into the Sydney Airport, and I sigh internally, breathing in the familiarity and safety of return. For me, Australia is a safe place: I speak the language, and I know the culture. It’s where my home, family and friends are. I love to travel, and I especially love to explore countries and cultures distinct from my own. China was no exception, but there was one negative experience that sticks in my mind. Within my first 20 minutes in Asia, in Singapore, a Vietnamese man asked for a photo with me. I joked later that he was my first fan. At The China House in Tianjin, I asked another fan’s friend to take a photo on my phone too. A woman asked for selfies with me twice at Mount Taishan. My Chinese friend kept joking that I was famous. It was funny, but it felt strange to be treated like an undeserving celebrity. The gazes and not-so-subtle photos became an ordinary part of my life. In Australia, I would never tolerate it, but I put it up to cultural difference. It’s all part of the travel experience for a young white woman, and it’s less irritating if you joke about it. Then I started to hear from multiple people that a man had been lurking on the street between our hotel and

university, following and grabbing the white women in our group. He’d grabbed someone’s bum from behind as she waited to cross the street; he’d followed another pair closely until they ran away. One morning, I was walking with my roommate, when a man walked up fast from beside me, invasively brushed against my side with his forearm, did an 180-degree turn and walked back past me. Seemingly, he had made a v-line for me. As I walked home alone from class that day, the eyes on me were signs of a threat. My vulnerability was too much. I got back to my room and cried. I talked to other girls in my group. It was the same man. This was reassuring in a sense, but it also meant we had a consistent threat, and we were on constant lookout. The walk to class was no longer simple or enjoyable. The men in our group suggested that they accompany us to class. This was not the point. We told the convenor, a woman from NTU in Singapore, and she recommended we go to the police. Although most of the others thought it would be useless, two of us went along with a student guide from Tianjin University. We entered a police station thick with cigarette smoke, despite the ‘no smoking’ signs in every room. Of the 40-odd police officers’ photos displayed on the wall, only two were women. The only woman we saw in the flesh was the cleaner – picking cigarette butts off the floor as she mopped. Our guide translated as we explained what had

happened, and the officer asked us endless questions. Where did it happen? What time was it exactly? How tall was he? Why didn’t you call the police straight away? They were only interested in our experiences; we weren’t allowed to speak for our friends. I was worried that our guide might mistranslate something and make them dismiss the whole case. Eventually, they decided to look at the video footage – one advantage of China’s heightened surveillance. They flipped between shots of the surrounding streets before telling us that, even if the cameras did catch something, the police couldn’t arrest him unless he did something ‘more extreme.’ They told us to try and catch it on camera next time. Before we left, frustrated, the police officer laboured to try to teach us how to say ‘leave me alone’ in Chinese. If only we’d thought of that! The next few days, we noticed officers and cars on the way to class. The next time we saw the man, he walked on to the road to avoid us. It seemed that, despite our unpleasant experience at the station, the police had spoken to him and increased their presence. Suffice to say I was pleasantly surprised, as were my friends back home, particularly those with Chinese heritage. A few days later, I got an email from the ANU, saying they hoped I was okay and offering me phone counselling if I wanted it. Others on the trip received no such emails from their universities.

I have no clue what it would have been like if this was in Canberra, or indeed if the perpetrator had been a fellow student, rather than a random Chinese man. Despite the follow-up, the experience at the police station was incredibly negative. It’s hard to explain it succinctly, but there was a strong vibe that they thought we were wasting their time. It was frustrating for me, but I know I was lucky to be a white person in a nonwhite country and not vice versa. Imagine being an immigrant to Australia, not a tourist, and being assaulted by a local. Imagine being asked why you didn’t call the police straight away, when you don’t have a full grasp of the language they speak. Imagine being scared to call the police, because they don’t treat you the same way as people of their race. My Chinese-American friend told me later that she never feels comfortable walking on the street in the USA as a woman of colour. The plight of minorities, racial or otherwise, is worse in this regard and this is clear from the survey results released this month. I have heard many horrific stories of police reactions to sexual harassment and assault, in Australia and abroad. I can understand why so many go unreported, and it breaks my heart that the system so often fails to protect people. I hope this month’s AHRC report doesn’t dishearten survivors, and that it leads to better responses, at least in Australia.

No Result s Found BRIGID H O R N E M A N -W R E N The ANU policy library is a labyrinth. Apart from the slight convenience of being listed in alphabetical order, it’s a mystifying list of policy and procedure ranging from Admissions to Cabcharge guidelines to Workplace Inspections. And sexual assault is nowhere on the list. Today, most students turn to the internet as their first source of information. For information on how our university looks after us, its website is logically the first port of call.

is located as a subsection of the ‘student critical incident’ policy. Here, sexual assault is merely mentioned in a list of other serious and traumatic incidences, and offers no information as to what to expect from the University should a survivor choose to disclose.

For a survivor, or their supporters, this is frightening. Stories about university mismanagement of a disclosure are far from uncommon. How is someone meant take a step into that process, when they’re given no idea of what to But ANU’s sexual assault policy is incredi- expect from it? bly difficult to find, where it exists online at all. The first result of a ‘sexual assault pol- Providing clear and visible information icy’ or ‘sexual harassment policy’ search on sexual assault and harassment does on the ANU’s website redirects to the pol- not just hold universities accountable to icy library. The only direct result for sexual fair and transparent policies: it can imharassment is ‘Staff grievance resolution’, prove rates of reporting, and play a key though if you look hard enough there is a role in changing negative cultures and procedure for presenting discrimination, misconceptions of sexual assault. harassment and bullying. The sexual assault policy even harder to find: a search A website with good information adreturns no results. Instead, ‘sexual assault’ dresses the context of sexual assault

in universities. It disproves rape myths and tells a survivor that their experience is always serious enough. It outlines a procedurally fair disclosure and discipline process. And it demands that we do better. To its credit, the ANU Website does tick some of the boxes. Its current subpage ‘Finding help and support if you have been sexually assaulted,’ explains what sexual assault is, and what the rights of the survivor are. It provides links to internal and external support services. There’s also a link to a companion subpage, ‘Supporting someone who has been sexually assaulted.’ The resources that both of these pages’ link to are ones that university staff and residential leaders are trained to be aware of, and they’re crucial starting points of information for someone trying to process an assault. But, 93 per cent of students who were subject to harassment did not seek

ANU’s support or assistance. As a potential platform for change, the website isn’t doing enough. Students in need of help aren’t going to scroll through policy documents, read occupancy agreements or otherwise spend hours searching for concrete information. They need that information at their fingertips. A university must not only respond effectively and appropriately to sexual assault and harassment when they occur, it must work to prevent them from occurring. While certainly not the solution, ensuring that its policy is clear and understandable would be a step for the ANU toward helping its students understand what sexual assault is, what their rights are, and how they can hold their University accountable for any response. The ANU has its policies: a response to a disclosure doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Make them visible, and be accountable to them – and we might feel like we have a chance of being looked after.

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

CONTENT WARNING: SE XUAL ASSAULT

MENTIONS

SEXUAL

A SSAULT,

GR APHIC

DESCRIPTIONS

Yo u a r e a f i g h t e r. He is dirt. A N O N Y M O US PART 1 It starts early. You don’t understand how you feel about it. It’s exhilarating. He’s your friend’s older brother. You’re visiting the motherland during the summer holidays. He flirts with you, offers you a cup of that rum that leaves a sick taste in your mouth. He’s like one of those Bollywood heroes. It starts innocently. You start sneaking out of your apartment, taking you outside the safety of the walls. He goes to the movies with his friends and he invites you. On the way there he pulls you up the flight of stairs that leads to the roof. Suddenly he kisses you and you don’t like it. It’s not what you were expecting. He’s your friend’s older brother. He is off limits. You try to make a run for it and he whispers in your ear, saying that he knows you want it. He tries to open your jeans and you know for sure you don’t want it. You twist free and run down the stairs and into your apartment. In your bedroom mirror you see that your carefully applied layer of strawberry lip-gloss is now smudged, the buttons of your jeans are open. You are 11. He is 20. For years after you can’t seem to be comfortable when you go back. You see him everywhere. He hangs out with all of your friends. You don’t feel safe. Your friend notices and pulls you aside and asks you and, when you tell her, she isn’t surprised. In hasty whispers,

she tells you that he’s done it to her – he’s done it to most of the girls in our group. There’s no way we can tell anyone else. They might not believe us. He will never get prosecuted for what he has done. The best we can do is make sure the other girls in our building complex are warned about him so they can stay away from him. But you will not be able to wear strawberry lip-gloss anymore. He has ruined it for you. You are a warrior. He is scum. PART 2 The train pulls into the station 8:16. You decide to grab a large chai latte from your favourite café. The train is crowded and a mass of people sweep you into the train. As the train pulls out of the station, you feel something sliding up your stockings. You pay no attention. The train pulls into the next station. The sliding sensation stops. The doors close. You have your earphones in. The sliding sensation starts again, it is going upwards. You think your skirt is riding up. You lower your hand to pull your skirt down. Fingers touch fingers. There’s a hand on your stockings. You look up. It’s a man much older. He smiles down at you. His hand is going further up. The train is packed full. You freeze. His hand goes further up, finally reaching your panties. All the while he is steadying himself. After what seems like an hour, the train pulls into the central station. When you look up, the doors have opened and the man has vanished. You are 16. He is your dad’s age.

You run up the stairs. You don’t get that chai latte. You are shaking like a leaf. Your friends try to ask you what is wrong but you’re still not sure whether it happened or not. It feels like there are still fingers on your legs. You try and tell your mother, but you choke. If she knows she’ll make you transfer school. You won’t be able to go out again. So you try and process it by yourself. You can’t get on the train by yourself, and when you move to Canberra, the sight of a crowded bus makes you have panic attacks. There will be a day, in year 12, when you get to the station late and your friends have left without you. You think, today is the day you can get to school. By yourself. The crowd tries to push you into the train. You turn around and walk back home. It takes you half an hour, but you get there. You are brave. He is filth. PART 3 The doors open before the doorbell has even rung. Someone puts a glass of vodka punch in your hand, and you make sure none of it spills on your new blue dress. You’re deposited in the room where all the other kids are. These are all kids you’ve grown up with. A friend leans over, a little tipsy already, asking if you’ve heard about the latest scandal in the community. The call for dinner comes, and all eight of you go racing down the hallway. It’s biryani for Christmas dinner. The drinks keep flowing. The music starts up. The tables are cleared. It’s time to dance. A couple of uncles come too close to comfort. But who cares, you’re drunk and these

are people you trust. You walk away from the dance floor. As you turn into the kitchen he grabs your hand. He puts his arms around you and you can smell it on him. That strong stench of whiskey is burned into your memory. His hands come down to your bra. When he can’t manage that, he turns you around. He grabs your face and sticks his tongue in your mouth. You can hear your friends looking for you. You shove him off you and hurry down the hall. You adjust your dress as you go. You are 19. He is 37. You walk to the bathroom and fix your lipstick., You look into the mirror. Your hair is ok though. You get back to the party like nothing has happened. He is just sitting there on a white lawn chair. You stand there for a while, your mind not sure how to react to the music while he is napping metres away from you. A friend comes up to you, and leads you to the middle of the dance floor. The beats of the latest party anthem are thumping, but you are not present. You will fly back to Canberra in less than 12 hours. Whenever you go back, there he is. He’s a part of your community. Every time he comes into your house, he hugs you. At first, you can’t tell whether or not he can remember what he has done to you. He hugs you for a little too long. He shakes your hand for a little too long. And you know he remembers, he knows what he has done. But that night is a blur. All you can really remember is the incident. But he has ruined that blue dress for you. Vodka punch remains in a lesser capacity. You are a fighter. He is dirt.

CONTENT WARNING: MENTIONS OF SE XUAL A SSAULT, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND MANIPUL ATION. DESCRIPTIONS OF SE XUAL ASSAULT AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

A letter to survivors A N O N Y M O US

‘She doesn’t have the upper hand anymore,’ they wrote as I cried during mediation at my residential hall. I froze as I began to realise that this was a play of power to them. Seeing their writing was the only truth that could have ever convinced me that I was in an abusive relationship and that, even in plain sight, none of my friends had recognised it. So I say to silenced survivors, You are resilient; Your feelings are valid; Your memory is trustworthy. I wish I had been able to uncover my feelings for them and discover the agony they brought to my life. They had successfully wrapped me

in a blanket of dependency, guilt, and a feeling of owing them all that I could give. It suffocated me and then some, but sometimes they listened, so I chose to stay. I told myself again and again that this is not a relationship. Love is not doing things out of fear. If they give you a reason to be scared, it is not safe. You are not responsible for their anger, even if it rose when you attempted to stand up for yourself. It is okay if you love them still. It is okay if you are just as scared to leave them. Tear yourself away from the clenches of their fists slowly, but steadily. Believe in yourself. Confide in the services offered to us, and share what you can with the people you

trust. It will be painful, but you will heal greater the further you are from their torment. Demanding may be dangerous. Gradually taking away their power over you might seem like nothing is changing, but it is. You are growing out of the depths of their control. Take whichever path is safest, and know that we are a community. We are listening, and we understand and respect your experience. I am still trying to grow out of their manipulation of my personality. I am still trying to take away their ownership of me. To them, we are not our own entity. I am lucky to have a safe space, and call on you to please try to reach out if you can and if it is safe to do so.

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

From the Disabilities Officer AJI SANA This past week, the Australian Human Rights Commission’s (AHRC) Survey on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault has been a topic of discussion across many university circles. What shocks me most is that there are still people on this campus who found these results shocking at all. Survivors, friends of survivors, student representatives, and staff members who have received disclosures are all painstakingly aware of the horrifying excerpts of cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment on our campus. For us, these results merely confirm what we have suspected for decades. I am lucky to have a voice and would like to share on behalf of some students who have been silenced due to the mistreatment of their disclosure of sexual assault. They have confided in me and are comfortable with me sharing their stories anonymously to raise awareness of the unfortunately gross mishandling of sexual assault and sexual harassment that our peers here at the ANU have endured. A Senior Resident at a residential hall was accused of assaulting a student. The hall did not remove the SR from the hall of residence; rather, he chose to leave weeks after rumours of the alleged assault circulated. In another instance, a fellow resident and alleged abuser was appointed to SR after the administration of the residential hall had been made aware of the abuse. Unsurprisingly, the AHRC survey found a common theme of perpetrators abusing positions of power. Not only is staff engaging in this behaviour towards students an area of concern. The survey also identified instances of senior students in leadership positions sexually assaulting or sexually harassing other students in clubs and societies, at Uni Games, on orientation camps and within residential colleges. There are also other types of power imbalances when it comes to perpetrators and survivors of sexual harassment and sexual assault. The AHCR survey highlighted that students with disability were more likely to have been sexually assaulted in 2015 or 2016 than students without disability. As the Disabilities Officer, I

am deeply disturbed to know that in some instances students have even been declined special consideration for assessments when applying on the basis of having been sexually assaulted. There are far too many incidences of survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment not being offered support. Rather, at times they are told that little, to nothing, can done about these allegations and are recommended to leave if they feel threatened or unsafe in their current living situation. Let’s get one thing straight: no survivor should ever be forced to be in the presence of or make peace with their perpetrator, especially not when they are being encouraged to do so purely on the institution’s best interests. In the above two SR incidents, the residential halls preferred to stand neutral between the survivor and the perpetrator. Make no mistake, neutrality favours the perpetrator. When, if any, in any other crime is the victim blamed and ostracised? These mishandled cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment discourage other survivors within the community to disclose and create a barrier from receiving much-needed support. Our institution continues to silence survivors, but we can no longer continue this battle. I came to Australia to study at the ANU in hopes of escaping the violence towards women and lack of respect for my education as a woman in Pakistan. Yet, I personally know two students who were left to drop out of the ANU due not only to the lack of support but even the accusational attitude that they were met with when disclosing to the university. How, in today’s Australia, can sexual assault and sexual harassment still prevent women from receiving an equal and fair education to those of their peers? To paraphrase, how does our university allow perpetrators to continue studying at the ANU while victims of a crime are targeted and left unsupported to the extent that some have found it impossible to

complete their tertiary education? Of the students who were sexually assaulted at the ANU, 93 per cent did not make a formal report or complaint to anyone at the university. I am stunned that the horror stories we are aware of only shape four per cent (three per cent preferred not to say) of the disclosed cases of sexual assault on campus. This alone should compel the ANU to advocate for its large community of survivors to encourage them to seek support rather than be made to feel like a liability. As I mentioned at the Speak Out and Sit In by ANUSA and PARSA, I echo what fellow survivors have said. There are no congratulations to be had at the release of this survey nor are comparisons between universities appropriate. We demand the ANU to do better. We can no longer work around mishandled cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment. I demand that the safety of students become an utmost priority and can only hope that the ANU will follow through and continue to take ANUSA and PARSA’s demands seriously. We need to finally recognise sexual assault and sexual harassment for what it is, a crime, and take appropriate action against perpetrators of this crime. To all survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment: we believe you, it is not your fault, and you are not alone. Please reach out to available resources for support during this painful and infuriating time. Aji is the 2017 Disabilities Officer.

The Disabilities Student Association is the only on-campus group run by students with disability, for students with disability. Aji can be contacted for all non-urgent matters. She can provide confidential support, referrals to local professional support services, and can offer assistance when navigating the ANU’s support systems. Aji can be contacted at sa.disabilities@anu.edu.au

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

from the archives: Lack of information on campus following sexual assault

A sexual assault at the ANU was reported in The Canberra Times on Wednesday the 6th of March. The caption accompanying the photo showed police trawling the grounds of the ANU near Burgmann College, searching for clues to help with the investigation. This article, combined with verbal reports from Burgmann students who were in the vicinity when the victim of the alleged assault was found have created a cloud of rumours that has not been dispelled by any source following the report of the assault in The Canberra Times. No official statements have been produced to either aid ANU students in protecting themselves better around campus, or to absolve students living on campus of any blame. When contacted, the Acting Assistant to the Principal of Burgmann College provided a comment to Woroni which she later retracted. Nadia Docrat, the ANU Women’s Officer, who is responsible for running campus safety campaigns amongst other tilings, was not informed by the university, and having found out through other sources on the morning of Tuesday 5 March had a meeting with the Principal of Burgmann College as well as various Unisafe representatives. Nadia was happy to tell Woroni that although she has little information, what she did know was that the victim was not an ANU student, that she had been found near Burgmann College at 6am on Tuesday 5 March, and that the perpetrator was not a staff member or student of Burgmann College. The Women’s officer also said, ‘It’s really frustrating. Women are being attacked on campus and nothing is being done about it, and worse, there is a severe lack of information. How far will it have to go before somebody sits up and takes action?’ Representatives of Unisafe who were contacted were unavailable for comment, and the police are making no statements either. During daylight hours, a police presence has been noticed around campus which has further added to the rumours circulating about the seriousness of the sexual assault . Coupled with the lack of comment, Burgmann students have been feeling the heat of constant questioning over the reputation of the college. The Women’s Collective will be running a campus safety campaign as a reaction to the assault and the general need for better safety on campus with other various university groups. Anyone is free to join in by calling the Women’s office on 61259868.

Ali Jenkins, 2002

We stand unafraid, strong, and powerful The ice-cold seeps through my rooted legs I resist, nothing can sway us now

Protest ANONYMOUS

I stand with and for the survivors We lift and hold mattresses, demonstrating the weight of our burden A burning rage ignites within me Nothing can tear us down, Not the brutal wind, Not the fierce media, Not the monstrous, unjust bureaucracy Standing at the heart of the nation. We are handed a microphone, A platform to scream to the world: Times must change, Injustices reversed, Voices heard, Survivors believed, And human beings from all walks of life: respected.

Vol. 67 , Issue 8 W O R T H E F O R I N C

O F T O

N I O L H E M P

W O U L D L I K E T O T H A N K L O W I N G I N D I V I D U A L S I R I N V A L U A B L E S U P P O R T I L I N G T H I S P U L L O U T :

Freya Willis, Holly Zhang, Charlotte Goodman, and the ANUSA Department Officers

Illustration: Katie Ward

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

PROMPTED // FEATURES

QUESTIONING TRADITION Text: Anonymous

A QUIET CALL OUT Text: Daniel Cordeschi I have my hand grasped on the door handle about to pull it open until I hear a collection of voices outside the room next to me, and I freeze. I wait, standing behind my bedroom door for almost five minutes until I am certain the voices have moved down the corridor. It is only then I decide to open the door and go to the bathroom two metres away. Welcome to one of the many experiences people with introverted tendencies face. This little story of mine begins from February of this year. I, a fresh first year starting his new life at college, was willing to hold my bladder to avoid engaging in casual conversation with my neighbours on a short journey to the toilet. Yet here I am, six months later, publishing the first personal piece of writing I’ve ever written. Before I go any further, I’d like to make it clear that I am not trying to pigeonhole people into binary categories of introvert and extrovert. Everyone is a unique basket case with traits associated to both, and whether someone associates more strongly with one end of the spectrum is up to the individual. This piece is intended to be somewhat helpful and encouraging to those who feel they lean more towards introversion, but, nonetheless, I direct it to everyone. Throughout high school, I was known as a kind of quiet achiever. I’d sit down at my desk and work to the best of my ability, and generally this would lead to a tick in a box or a relatively large number on a piece of paper. When it came to class discussions, or even just lunchtime group chat, I tended to contribute little, partly due to being intimidated by the hoards of voices, but mostly because I just felt that there wasn’t any need for others to know what I was thinking. I had valid thoughts that would have contributed well to the discussions but, for some reason, I felt perfectly fine entertaining myself with a different discussion, the one that was in my mind and the one wherein I was the only audience. This got me through high school just fine, and I got the ATAR I needed for the degree I wanted. However, my first

semester at university has led more than my fair share self-evaluation. For many introverts such as myself, living on campus means a bombardment of over-stimulation. From dining hall small talk to tutorial group discussions, I found that I had to interact with people more than I ever thought was possible. Towards the middle of the semester, I became rather overwhelmed by all the social interaction that faced me when I left the comfort of my room. Naturally, I opted for the stereotypical introvert response and spent most of my time in my room, studying. Spending so much time alone studying inevitably yielded satisfying grades, but something was missing. I thought I’d give a new little project for my mind discussions and figure out why I didn’t feel happy. I realised that a university is a special place for the development of a young adult because it is a place of ideas. Ideas are the catalyst for change in a world that desperately needs it, not the mark that goes on your transcript for Micro 1. The free exchange of ideas at university is unparalleled, but too often it is the ideas motivated by the loudest speakers that are the ones which dominate. The volume that propels an idea into the world is in no way correlated to its quality. By all means, outgoing extroverts have brilliant ideas, but they frequently cast an unintentional shadow on those who have the quieter voices. Recent US statistics say that roughly a third of the population associates themselves with introversion. So my message is quite simple. To those with loud voices, share your ideas, but also be considerate of those who may not be inclined to be the loudest in the room, so that they can make their own contribution. As someone compelled to introversion, writing this article was one of the most uncomfortable tasks I’ve encountered at university, but knowing that my voice is reaching people other than myself is a thrilling change. So, to the quiet contemplators who have your own ideas exchange thriving inside your minds, as much as it might go against your predispositions, speak out among the crowd of voices; you all have things that need to be heard.

No one says it, but I hear it in all their actions. I hear it as goon is poured down people’s shirts and coleslaw thrown at their mouths. I hear it in people’s cheers as nudie runs occur in Garema Place. I hear it as they tell me that ‘the college doesn’t ask us about the details and we don’t do anything that could fuck us over.’ And throughout the night, we didn’t do anything wrong. People had fun, and nobody was made to do anything that made them uncomfortable. Should that stop us from critically evaluating our traditions, though? Even, in essence, the tradition of bucks and hens is inherently sexist; the traditions of marriage generally are. However, the norms of a pub-crawl that separates men and women are fundamentally hetero-normative and problematic. Yet, we shy away from this by saying that it’s opt-out, so you have a way out if you can’t stand the pressure. It’s not opt-in though, is it? If you go to the college and you want to be a part of Bush Week, then you go to Bucks and Hens, and you act the way they expect you to at Bucks and Hens. You take part because ‘it’s more fun if everyone takes part’ and you join in chanting the name of a different college when everyone else starts doing it so we don’t get in trouble for doing things that could ‘fuck us over.’ The problem isn’t how they act; it’s that we must take part if we want to be a part of that night. It’s the expectation that men should act like this, that we should separate girls and

boys for these depraved activities and that all the bucks are lusting after their hens. It’s a good fall back, tradition. It sends the blame back generations to the people before people who were here before even we remember. ‘It’s out of our hands – it’s just how we do things,’ because the people who don’t like the tradition either don’t show up in the first place or don’t show up a second time to properly take it in. I wish that I could write this article without sounding like I’m attacking the event. The greatest risks with opposing traditions is that its controversial. This causes people to become instantly defensive of opposition to an event like this. I invite you all, instead of reading this and ranting in an outrage, to engage in conversation with people to reassess. Nothing in this world is perfect, and we are all people who promote the idea of making things more accepting and better for people, this is simply another forum to do this. If the event were properly opt-in, then it would be fine. However, the way that the college works, and the way I’m assuming most res-halls work is that you take part if you want to fit in. So, this is one tradition I would be happy to scrap and completely start again.

PROMPTED // FEATURES

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

Love, Liberty and the life of John Stuart Mill Text: Alexander Vuong Human nature, John Stuart Mill tells us, is not a machine cast in an iron mould, aimed to perform predetermined tasks carefully designed by some Darwinian blueprint. Rather, it is a tree, growing on all its sides, developing, according to its own inner forces – the very forces that make it a living thing. The constant tension between the need for tradition in society and the need for individual expression is inescapable. In a time when the ‘tyranny of the majority’ is as much a cultural phenomena as it is a political one, individuality has never been more a valuable currency. In On Liberty, a philosophical treatise published in 1859, John Stuart Mill presents perhaps the fiercest and most eloquent defence of individuality. For Mill, carving out our paths and realising our own life projects requires the liberation of the individual from the shackles of tradition. As Mill declares, “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.” Of the great English philosophers of the 19th century, none are more eminent than John Stuart Mill. A precocious youth, Mill displayed a supreme intellectual capacity as early as the age of eight, already fluent in both Greek and Latin. Under the careful tutelage of his father, James Mill, and his other great philosophical contemporary, Jeremy Bentham. By the ripe old age of twelve, Mill had reportedly mastered philosophy, political economy, mathematics and historical literature. (Maybe Thomas Jefferson was wrong after all: perhaps not all men are created equal.) Yet, like all great stories worth telling, there soon was a crisis. In 1826, at the age of 20, Mill experienced a mental breakdown. Ever since, the causes have been the subject of much speculation: his overly demanding

father, his emotionless ice cold childhood, and the unrelenting burden of expectation remain prime suspects. Over the next four years, battling constant bouts of depression and anxiety, Mill’s recovery was gradual at best. In the wilderness of his despair, he seemed unable to find any light at the end of the tunnel. That was until 1830 when he met Harriet Taylor, his confidant, his friend, and his eventual wife. To Mill, Taylor was the beginning and end of his whole life. “To her outer circle”, he writes, “she was a beauty and a wit, with an air of natural distinction, felt by all who approached her: to the inner, a woman of deep and strong feeling, of penetrating and intuitive intelligence, and of an eminently meditative and poetic nature.” This was no ordinary woman. There was but one small problem: she was married. Thankfully, this would not stop their friendship. Over the next two decades, they formed an inseparable, intense relationship that while strictly platonic, remained deeply scandalous. Simply put, there was nothing actually improper with their friendship while she was married to her first husband. However, that did not stop their relationship being seen by mainstream society as an immoral violation of social custom. The gossip and rumour escalated to the point where Taylor felt that she a victim of tradition – one where a woman is disgraced if she dares befriend a man who is not her husband. When Taylor’s husband died in 1849, the two married without support from friends or society’s approval. Such was the burden of cultural norms. For the remainder of their marriage, which lasted until Taylor’s death in 1858, they retreated from British society. Together, they began work on a new treatise inspired by

their indignance towards society’s mistreatment of their friendship and eventual love, and they titled it On Liberty.

fostering of a “spirit of conformity” that suppressed an individual’s capacity for self-determination.

Its conception rested on a very simple and personal realisation: that if all they did were obey the conventions and traditions set out by society on how they ought to live their lives, they would have never fallen in love.

In other words, perhaps the greatest danger mass society poses to its constituents is in the form of implicit and explicit demands of self-repression and conformism, all of which are made under the fatuous assumption that the only acceptable ways to live your life are those that are in line with mainstream societal convention. Never seek shelter in the illusory comfort of tradition. When John Stuart Mill died in 1873 at the age of 66, he had an immeasurable influence on philosophical logic and political economy. Yet his greatest contribution was his defence of basic civil liberties, for his rallying cry against the culling of the individual in the face of tradition and custom. For that, we must thank Harriet Taylor.

The argument for free expression (both in thought and in character) in On Liberty is two-pronged: on the one hand, it suggests that it is best for individuals when they are given the freedom to pursue their own path in life; on the other hand, it is best for society as well. Together, their wisdom is incisive: “In proportion to the development of his individuality, each person becomes more valuable to himself, and is, therefore, capable of being more valuable to others… without them, human life would become a stagnant pool.” They continue, “Human beings are not like sheep; and even sheep are not indistinguishably alike. A man cannot get a coat to fit him unless they are either made to his measure, or he has a whole warehouse full to choose from.” Of all the forms of tyranny incompatible with freedom, Mill and Taylor identified social tyranny, or the ‘despotism of custom’, as the foremost affront to human flourishing. Much of On Liberty involves a vigorous attack on civil society for what he and Taylor saw as a

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

culture // art

the end of trash tv

Text: Miriam Sadler Image: Katie Ward In my first year 11 English class, our teacher had us write down ‘What is Literature?’ and then dutifully copy out ‘mood’, ‘tone’, ‘narrative structure’ and ‘characterisation’. Come exam time, identifying the tone and mood of a piece became more second nature to me than getting dressed in the morning. I came from a family of book lovers, of literature majors. I read one book a week. And, yet… I had a secret. I was a television fanatic. While film is often considered less intellectual than literature, scorn is usually reserved exclusively for TV. Many criticise it as lazy entertainment, designed to curb the imagination that literature demands. TV is, apparently, raising generations of teenagers numb to cartoon violence and unaffected by the near-constant sex on shows like Jersey Shore and its far-superior counterpart Geordie Shore. Fast-forward to 2017 and TV has surpassed film as one of the most lucrative businesses one can engage in. Networks such as HBO, The CW and FX are churning out dramas of the highest calibre; while Netflix and Amazon are producing series which are giving rise to a new generation of talents. Even Salman Rushdie was quoted by The Observer in

2011 saying that the creative process in TV was comparable to that of a novel. But can TV be literature? Can we consider the writing of current series to be so ground-breaking, so engaging, that we elevate it the levels of some of the great novels? We most certainly can. The biggest criticism of TV is of its lazy characterisation. Too often, we see one-dimensional, sugar-coated stereotypes that marginalise minority groups and misrepresent the complexity of human interactions. When reading a good novel, we invest in the characters, and we add a little of ourselves to them and their motivations. With TV, the character is handed to you already fully fleshed out, and critics would argue that this makes the audience lazy and complacent. But TV doesn’t have to kill imagination. Arguably one of television’s most carefully crafted characters was Tony Soprano. From his opening ‘look, it’s impossible for me to talk to a psychiatrist’ to that final basket of onion rings, Soprano’s narrative carried a little bit of all of us in it. Yes, he was a mobster, but he was an animal lover, a family man, and a confused man. Similarly, the effort dedicated by the Breaking Bad writers to Walter White saw them craft a multifaceted character who, though his reality was absurd, scored a legion of fans. His initial dedication to his family through to this final acceptance that ‘I did it for

me, I liked it’ was as much a journey for the audience as it was for Walt himself. In these cases, the writers have crafted journeys and motivations for these characters that, rather than providing superficial, comforting entertainment, demand the audience find a bit of themselves in them. Furthermore, the gifted characterisation on display in current TV offers a much-needed diversity. Though, there is a long way to go. Still, shows like Orange is the New Black, Dear White People and Jane the Virgin make heroic efforts in portraying ageing women, people of colour and the LGBTQIA+ community. Critically, these characters are emerging as richly developed, emotionally complicated ones rather than the superficial stereotypes of another era. A great novel captivates us. TV, on the other hand, is mindless; it takes you only as far as a stupor on the couch. Of the current TV series, this image of mindlessness simply does not apply. The clear amount of creative work that has gone into scenes from Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale is nothing short of visionary. When I first read the novel, the phrase ‘caught in the act, sinfully scrabbling’ stayed with me as perfectly encapsulating the sheer tension of the scrabble sessions, something surely the TV series could not command. And yet, as I watched Elisabeth Moss’ Offred struggle to look into Waterford’s eyes, as they laid their tiles in silence, I felt the sin ooze off

the scene. It was masterfully crafted, dripping in tension that made my skin prickle. Obviously, trash TV still exists. I can’t begin to offer analysis on the tone and mood of The Bachelor or the narrative voice of Love Island. Yet, television has arguably hit its zenith. It’s not just drama. The sophistication of comedy writing in shows like Arrested Development, Veep and The I.T. Crowd is unparalleled; it demands attention and appreciation of the subtleties of timing and tone. Crime, too, is at its pinnacle. The genius of shows such as Happy Valley and Broadchurch is the combination of sophisticated characterisation, a coherent narrative structure and those small details that create the perfect mood. TV has people talking. As Dickens’ serials captivated his audience each week, so too are we now discussing the recent episode of Game of Thrones. As people are quoting Shakespeare, they are also proclaiming ‘You know nothing Jon Snow’ or, if they’re old enough, glossing over the juicy details with ‘yada yada yada.’ No longer can we simply shrug TV off as the poor relative of film and the far lesser cousin of literature. Its power is only just beginning to emerge, and it is only beginning to tap into its potential. My last thought: give Donald Glover the Nobel Prize in Literature 2017 for Atlanta. Watch it, and you’ll be with me.

CULTURE // ART

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

from parchment page to silver screen It is a truth universally acknowledged that book lovers are ferociously overprotective when it comes to film adaptations of their favourite stories. They follow the pre-production news closely, and they’re not afraid to voice their opinions about whether the actors look enough like the characters. And if that’s not sufficient, they share their list of predictions about changes based on the two-minute trailers. God forbid that Augustus Waters is unattractive or if Gatsby’s parties are anything less than an exorbitant extravaganza – anything less and the studio will be bombarded by an influx of angrily worded tweets.

translate well to film. For instance, there is the issue of length. A novel can be anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 words long – maybe even more – whereas the standard film ranges between 90-120 minutes. Unless, of course, there is Oscar buzz, then the film will usually drag on a little longer. No screenwriter could capture all 200,000 words directly into a 120-minute film, so it will be necessary for parts of the story to be adapted accordingly. Perhaps this issue of length is also one of the driving factors behind the shift from film to TV series adaptations of books, such as A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Handmaid’s Tale. This medium gives the screenwriters more space to play with the story and does not force them to make as many compromises.

However, most disappointment with book-to-film adaptations is due to a lack of appreciation of the fact that books and films are two very different storytelling mediums. There is often a reason that the writer chose to tell their story through a book instead of another medium. Thus, there are parts of the story that are heavily rooted in the structures and conventions that do not necessarily

A common problem with screen adaptations is the difficulty of capturing a strong first-person voice on screen, as we saw in the Twilight and Hunger Games series. Twilight tried to remain true to Bella Swan’s long, introspective monologues and, thus, made a film quite laden with voiceover, perhaps to the detriment of the viewing experience. On the contrary, The Hunger Games films focused

Text: Julia Faragher

very much on Katniss Everdeen as the main character but accepted the fact that they could not tell the exact story that she told in the books. The films featured several new scenes that are only implied or suggested by Katniss in the books, such as the death of Seneca Crane and a conversation between President Snow and his granddaughter, which enrich the world of the book. However, a film cannot take too much creative liberty with adapting the story if it begins to deviate from the overall message of the book. For instance, The Golden Compass is an infamous example of a film adaptation which misses the point of the book entirely. The director vetoed the dark and shocking finish to the book Northern Lights for a more family-friendly and death-free finale. It was the equivalent of finishing an adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 where Winston Smith escapes from Room 101 and lives happily ever after. This is not to say that no creative liberty may be taken at all, as proven by the metafilm Adaptation. This film reworks the main ideas of the nonfiction book The Orchid Thief and twists them into an entirely new story. While there is even more of a radical

difference between book and film than in The Golden Compass, this adaptation is perhaps more successful because the overall theme and message remain the same. In a way, film adaptations will never be as good as the books on which they are based. Nothing can match the experience of reading a book for the first time and the vivid world that your imagination creates. No matter how many famous Hollywood actors or CGI effects that filmmakers pull into a film, it is never going to look exactly as you pictured it. There is something magical about reading a book that has no film adaptation and being able to craft the world of the story for yourself – instead of immediately picturing Daniel Radcliffe whenever someone mentions Harry Potter. So, until they invent the technology to show exactly what you imagine inside your head, it seems as though we shall have to settle for less than perfect film adaptations of books.

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

CULTURE // ART

Dystopian Fiction A Door to Self-Realisation and Crisis

Text: Bella Di Mattina-Beven Illustraion: Katie Ward

I’m not gonna lie; I’m more into historical fiction than the dystopian genre. My first interactions with it were in high school when we watched the dated A.I. Artificial Intelligence. It has Jude Law in it, but that’s about all I got out of the movie. My forays into dystopia may have been accidental, but I’ve always welcomed them. As it transpires, dystopias, or science fiction more broadly, is a perfect way to analyse aspects of the self and society. It’s helped me refine my political beliefs, question my agency over my life, and consolidate my aspirations. Here are my favourite five books (and movies) for self-discovery.

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Cat’s Cradle explores questions of morality, mortality and the meaning of life. Throughout this process, Vonnegut uses a well-established pattern of nihilistic amusement with the stupidity of man. Cat’s Cradle places these typical themes in a modern context of scientific advancement. The immediate danger of worldwide collapse due to ice-nine is interpreted as allegorical of nuclear

weapons. He asks: do researchers have an obligation to consider the practical application of their research? More broadly, he questions the reliability of individual consciences to protect the masses, particularly in the context of our inevitable mortality.

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin On one level, Le Guin’s book deconstructs the practical flaws of the socialist and capitalist worlds she creates. However, on a deeper level, the narrator explores the deeply flawed understandings of freedom present in both societies. Wherever there are norms and customs, there is a restriction on freedom. Narrator Shevek explores the socialist belief of slavery to capitalism but sees no escape in his anarchist alternative, where the needs of the collective trump individual desire. The result is a reflection on what it means to be free, whether freedom can exist, and what basic necessities we need to feel free.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Brave New World depicts the downfall of morality at the hands of capitalism and quick, cheap happiness. Like The

Dispossessed, it discusses politics, but that isn’t the main concern. This society finds its happiness in erotic movies, state sponsored drugs and hedonistic pursuits. It turns conservative motifs and cultural icons on their heads (‘The Year of our Ford’) to create a new society that questions how to live genuinely and happily. It’s not just a shallow 1930s man questioning the liberal attitudes of the 1920s. It includes powerful debates on how genuine our society can be – and whether it should be. He creates an ordered society that quickly removes the suffering of individuals. It makes us question whether we mask painful truths with our consumerism and hedonism, and whether that’s even wrong.

Stasiland by Anna Funder Yes, this is historical fiction: it depicts the ‘Stasi,’ the East German secret police during the cold war. This cheeky alternative to 1984 explores the effect of state surveillance and interference in the lives of not-so-radical individuals. The shadowy world Funder creates seems so removed from the society we now live in and is so different to the kitschy, cartoonish way communism is often depicted. It’s never been a better time to read Stasiland, as new laws continue to encroach our privacy in ways unimaginable 30 years ago. It’s a slippery slope, and we’re left to wonder how we would react to a

state beyond our control, and whether we’re already there.

Gattaca by Andrew Niccol Gattaca is in many ways similar to Cat’s Cradle. It depicts the slippery moral slope of scientific advancement, but its real power is how it facilitates empathy with the ‘invalids’ of its world. It forces you to consider how to respond to injustice adequately, and what one’s motivations are in opposing policy. It mirrors V for Vendetta by James McTeigue – depicting ways of actively resisting disagreeable policy. Opposition in Gattaca is subtle: the main character’s resistance is exciting and empowering, but it’s essentially for his own gain. You’re left wondering, what is the right way to oppose wrongs in society? Can such small acts of defiance, while dramatic, be purposeful? Are more militant actions required to create change? If opposing an Adani mine, is changing banks enough? Or should you be holding the picketing sign? I always saw dystopias as an extension of science fiction – I thought it was a method of escapism and a way to feel better about our world. But the characteristics of dystopias are always rooted in the past or present of our society. Ultimately, they’re a pathway to introspection and self-improvement.

CULTURE // LIFE & STYLE

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

Doctorates from Roswell or Haircuts from the best Barbers in the World:

-FORText: Stephen Fairweather The other day, I took some time off from the hard work of scrolling social media to do a little work on my doctorate. In the process I came across the following article on the National Enquirer web page: ‘End of the World: Evil Overlords Want to Overthrow our American Way of Life!’, it screamed. With the exception of the ‘American way of life’ bit, I knew instantly what the article was about: the evil, mendacious, blood-sucking, slave-driving bastards that are otherwise known as PhD supervisors. I knew this to be true as I had just spent the better part of the last five years listening to the repressed and downtrodden masses (i.e. postgraduate students) spout their well-worn wisdom. As an honours student, I first heard it from my betters – older PhD students – and then I joined their ranks, and they became my social peers. Their wisdom gets reduced to a few pearls, which go much like this: ‘PhD’s are the slaves of the research industry, suffering intolerable abuse for little reward or gratitude. They make their supervisors look good, but they have no career prospects at the end of it! It’s all because of cronyism in academia/lack of (usually government) funding/an unfair metric for grading research value – take your pick on the last.’ Eventually, I had imbibed of this holy grail of truth so frequently that I began espousing it to the new minnows about the department, otherwise known as slightly junior PhD students. But before I get carried away by my own morbidity and deter aspiring up-andcomers from the post-graduate world, let me inform you that salvation is at hand. In my research school at least, the powers that be are perhaps starting to see the light: they’re allowing a couple of doctorate students to set a list of mandated ‘training’ initiatives that supervisors will henceforth be required to consider. This eloquent little set of virtue-signalling niceties was delivered by e-mail, after ‘extensive consultation’ with the ‘stakeholders’. They included the implementation of compulsory courses for

supervisors current and future, on subjects including gender equity, cultural awareness, discrimination re-education, and tolerance training. So there you have it – the world of the oppressed is about to overthrown, the Voldemort’s ‘re-educated’ and the final triumph of the doctoral student at hand.

For me, much of the nonsense that passes for everyday PhD conversations is whining about things related to career-development and prestige: how we look to our peers and our striving for status within a chosen field. In other words, it falls into the trap that much of all professional life does. The trap where we worry about the external fulfilment of our profession – the promotion, award, external validation and accolades. This, of course, is not the spiritual nourishment that got us excited about wanting to be a physicist, economist, engineer, epidemiologist et al in the first place. And if you are just doing a PhD as a ‘career’ move, a qualification, or have never had that inspirational moment, then I would ask you: why you are doing a doctorate at all? How about another pearl of wisdom: go and do something you want to, do instead of complaining about the lack of opportunities in a field you don’t care about anyway.

As I thought a little more about the endless repetition of these PhD conversations, I realised that they were a bit like the substance of the National Enquirer article: complete and utter hokum. I imagine that the average reader of this illustrious publication is not dissimilar to the typical deluded PhD student: echo-chamber lunatics. One of these demographics reads Breitbart and thinks car-pooling is communism, that Afghanistan is just south of Canada, and that emulating Walter White would still be a fantastic idea if only HBO hadn’t got there first. The gives the outward perception of latte-sipping, half-day PhD candidates. Sure, there are many problems with how PhD programs these days are managed Repeated complaining about supervisors, – on a general level, but also specifically the system, and the general unfairness at the ANU. We can all get hot under the of doctoral life is such a misery indus- collar about the lack of scholarships for try among many of my peers that it has international as opposed to Australian become a self-fulfilling prophecy. You resident candidates, or about the utter learn, through constant negative think- uselessness and time-wasting of counting, to see only the negatives of doctoral less administration forms. And don’t life without the unique benefits. Worried even get me started on recent changes about where you first post-doc is coming which mean even the very best PhD’s from? If your record will be good enough are mandated to finish inside five years for that fellowship? Are you complaining now, absolute maximum – all to satisfy about the lack of jobs in your so-called the ANU’s budget thirst for the $30,000 esteemed and invaluable discipline? sugar hit they get for each completed Worried about the experiment, or writ- doctorate. ing that’s not going anywhere? Wondering on the most general level of all: what But to attempt a remedy for the substanis the point of a PhD anyway? tial failings of the doctoral program by It’s easy to get sucked into the vortex that mandating compulsory ‘re-education’ is PhD life and, as with all of the human programs for supervisors? Was that the experience, start to focus only on the best those half-witted PhD colleagues of negatives. As Agent Smith offers in the mine could come up with? Note to these Matrix: humans define ourselves via our imbeciles: giving your horrid supervisor suffering… maybe even when there is more inane tasks to add to their worknone. Or maybe, just maybe, a PhD with load is unlikely to result in you receivits disappointments, struggles, persever- ing more quality time from them. In any ance, and occasional triumphs is superb case, for the five per cent or so (give or training for work in the rarefied air that take) of dickhead supervisors out there is the forefront of human knowledge. It’s (not to mention the five per cent or so great training for a life spent in the pur- of dickhead PhDs) there already exists suit of achievement and useful endeav- a myriad of bureaucratic processes and our. conciliation meetings at the ANU to get

rid of them. If there really are supervisors in academia that are bigoted, sexist and/or racist, then in my experience a re-education course is not going to change them. In any case, they would be unlikely to be acting on bigotry, because one complaint up the chain and a leaked e-mail are all it takes to end a career these days. The inanities of doing a doctorate do not, and have never, detracted from the timeless essence of a doctorate is: the sublime pursuit of knowledge to understand the human condition and the world around us in its essence. And what a privilege, what an absolute privilege, it is to be one of the select few to be given the opportunity to complete one. Spoiler alert: as I read further down, the National Enquirer article was about how the aliens who landed at Roswell in 1949 had not left. Instead, they spent the next 65-odd years infiltrating the highest echelons of power in the United States: the Democratic Party, the FBI, the Justice Department, you name it. This was all for the express purpose of having a swamp in place (the rule of law, I think they called it) to stop the American saviour from outing them and kicking their asses back into whatever nasty little flying saucer they had first come from. I suspect this is what all those pearls of PhD whinging and supervisor-hatred are really all about anyway – a desire for some reverse ass-kicking that occurs when any long-term relationship begins with an inherent power imbalance, as all student-supervisor relationships of necessity do. In my time as a doctoral candidate (quite considerable and, sadly, now coming to an end) there is only one real commonality of successful candidates: hard work and perseverance. I know: it’s not sexy, not sitting around sipping lattes complaining incessantly about your supervisor, not even as grandiose and easy as sitting around binge watching Game of Thrones – but it’s true nonetheless. So heads down and bums up you bright young things (or not so young maybe, nor bright) and get on with it.

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

CULTURE // LIFE & STYLE

To become or not become a PhD Candidate?

-AGAINSTText: Faham Abdus 20 years ago, in my high school days, I knew a remarkable boy who I thought was set for something big even when we were 17. Imran was not the most brilliant kid, but I have never known anyone as ‘street-smart’ as he was. He had a killer combination of sixth-sense and strategic thinking. He went to the US right after we graduated high school and while he was just a Wall Street intern, he told a mutual friend – ‘I have figured out a way, one day I’ll own this place.’ Fast forward to 2007: I met another remarkable individual, this time at the ANU. It’s a given that PhD students will have to work during weekends, but I can’t remember an odd hour when I was in the lab and Leena wasn’t. She was and still is a gifted researcher with incredible work ethic. She did her post-doctoral gig at Cambridge, and while there she published tons of papers. Without a doubt, she is one of the smartest people I have ever met. Imran Khan made US$150 million last year as the CSO of Snapchat. Leena is now in her mid-30s and is still not sure whether she will be able to win a permanent position in academia. Yes, you heard me right. I am not talking about research excellence, wages or promotion – there is a real chance that in a year or two she’ll leave academia altogether and take up a job that will waste almost all of her research skills. Keep in mind also that Leena is a woman. If she takes a two-year break to start a family; she is practically out of the game. So, we have a person who probably belongs to Mensa, with a work ethic which even the Germans would envy, who can plan her life for only the next two years. Forget the long-term future: family, property, retirement. These are luxuries scientists can’t afford. Is this the way we should treat our crème de la crème, should surviving (let alone prospering) in academia be this difficult? The ivory tower is a metaphor of a bygone era. The amount of perseverance, luck, network, brilliance and other attributes required to survive in academia is beyond ridiculous. Competition is generally healthy, but in a system when the success rate is possibly 10 per cent among the very best, you are not necessarily picking the

best guy – it’s a system of elimination amongst incredible people. Academia is like the person with scissors in hands, telling you, I am the best barber in the world, but, hey, I can do only half your head. They can give you a PhD if you are good, but after that you are on your own. The reality is that PhDs all over the world are the cheapest labour doing the most sophisticated work that there is. In the last three decades, we have produced millions of PhDs worldwide without having a clue what these students will do afterwards. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying you shouldn’t commit to the four year-long journey. You should if you can. It is probably the best journey you’ll ever undertake. Above all else, you will learn – not only about your chosen field but also about how to think and the importance of doubting your own judgment. There aren’t many institutional avenues to master these traits. We know that Leena (or anyone for that matter) will receive training for 10 years on cutting edge research. So, from a policy angle, what’s the point of this training if they are going to go into the ‘real world’ to do inconsequential bureaucratic work, for which, in many cases, even undergrads are overqualified? And honestly, when the Leenas of the world compete with others in their industry for positions which are mostly administrative, they pose an unrealistic challenge to candidates who are otherwise competent and cut out for the job. Very few could hope to match the qualifications of a researcher from a top university with 10 years’ worth of experience. We are gradually entering an era where we produce exceedingly qualified people to do surprisingly trivial jobs, and this trend dilutes the importance of independent research. Just as you see on the cover of a gossip magazine that 40 is the new 20, I fear that in coming decades PhDs will be the new bachelors. This is great if you are an employer; you’ll get the added value of a highly-educated worker without having to compete to attract them. But should taxpayer money really be spent training the world’s best ‘one-handed’ heart surgeons? This is the question we should be asking ourselves when thinking about the future of the PhD.

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

Vol. 67 , Issue 7

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Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

CULTURE // LIFE & STYLE

Sea you in court how the GBR could obtain legal personality Text: Grace Dudley There is a movement building momentum all over the world, and that focuses on making it more common for nature to have legal rights. No, this does not mean that a tree will have the same rights as you – it merely means that some parts of nature will have more of a chance to stay protected than the current legal system allows. In the 1970’s Christopher Stone stunned his half asleep property law class by proposing that nature have legal rights in some limited contexts. He wrote a book, Should Trees Have Standing? Which, at the time, made waves. He argued that, if non-living corporations can have legal personality, why can’t nature? It’s an opinion that is growing in popularity. You might have seen that several rivers have been granted legal rights recently; one in New Zealand and another in India. Legislation and judicial rulings respectively provided each of the rivers with a set of rights which are enforced by specific guardians of the river – traditional owners of the land, who are able act on behalf of the river. In both cases, multiculturalism and collaboration have been central pillars upon which the changes have occurred. As such, there is a massive link between the granting of le-

to reinstate the river to its former unpolluted state.’ Similarly, if the river is being polluted it has no standing to challenge the pollutants actions: it must wait for a human to demonstrate the invasion of its rights. This is unlikely to occur every time as environmental litigation is often undertaken by community groups with few funds in an expensive, inaccessible and complex court system. As a result, there is a range of natural phenomena that really aren’t being protected by existing legal structures. It does not take long to find an example close to home – the Great Barrier Reef, a World Heritage Area and dumping ground for pollutants. There are of course a lot of questions raised when one proposes large changes to the law. However, re-thinking how we approach environmental law is not a futile exercise, in my opinion. In Queensland, the Northern Queensland Environmental Defenders Office began mounting a campaign in 2014 to allow the reef to have a legal personality and, therefore, ‘an independent right to seek justice before the relevant courts.’ This movement is in the preparation stage, but the plan is to draft a Bill, and submit a petition for a plebiscite to Parliament to see if there is sufficient support for this idea in Australia.

In Queensland, the Northern Queensland Environmental Defenders Office began mounting a campaign in 2014 to allow the [Great Barrier] Reef to have a legal personality and, therefore, ‘an independent right to seek justice before the relevant courts.’

What this would do is allow for a body or panel of people to act as guardians of the reef, allowing them to enforce the reef ’s rights when the need arises. While this idea may be conceptual, the discussion is worth having when one of the most unique pieces of our environment is continuously under threat.

gal rights and recognising the cultural ties traditional owners have with their land. In New Zealand, one guardian is an appointee from the New Zealand government, and one is a local Maori. This is beneficial to both the environment and culture in the nations that have been inventive enough to begin taking this legal movement seriously.

Part of this might include a shift in our human-centric legal system – because not everything is about humans anymore when climate change is shifting the balance between us and the natural objects we have traditionally given little agency to.

At present in Australia, natural objects do not exist in their own right before the law. For example, ‘damages awarded as a result of the pollution of a river are not necessarily applied

This would be one of the first moves to grant legal rights to nature in Australia, with the only other tenuous example the Victorian Environmental Water Holder. It is a legal entity – a statutory corporation – set up to manage the rights of rivers in Victoria to increase efficiency and water recovery amidst a drought. This board is independent of the government, allowing for a greater prioritisation of the environmental integrity of rivers in the state. This Water Holder was necessary, not just for nature’s rights, but for human water needs. It goes to show that our relationship with nature is continuously shifting, from resource reliance and exploitation to a recognition that humans and nature are interdependent.

I’m not going to pretend that this reform is perfect, or indeed that it ensures better protection than at present, but it is worth consideration. At the very least, we must re-evaluate our attitudes toward the environment, and we must reconsider how natural wonders like the Great Barrier Reef can be best protected.

DISCOVER // SCIENCE

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

The Story of Water on Mars What do the rocks say?

Figure 1: Three Martian outflow ‘channels’ located on Mars. These channels are roughly 1 km deep and are around 40 km at their widest width. Those are some really big rivers! Source: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems.

Text: Matthew Teh Roll up, roll up! Ladies and gentlemen and all people on Earth that do dwell: brace yourselves and buckle up for this whirlwind geological field trip. Today, we’re going to Mars! Geological features observed by scientists on Mars have excited scientists about the age-old question of whether there was, or if there ever had been, water on Mars. Research has indicated that the forces of water heavily influenced the geological landscape of Mars. The influence of water on the landscape to create Martian channels and valleys has been documented, along with the effects of ice on the Martian landscape. These features on Mars, and the role of water in their creation can be inferred from the similar features documented on Earth’s landscape. Certain aspects of the Martian landscape remain peculiar and unique to Mars – it is, after all, an entirely different planet to Earth. Are you ready to quench your knowledge and immerse yourselves in the watery madness of Mars? Alrighty then – let’s go!

Martian channels and valleys Martian ‘channels’ have been documented on the Martian landscape, which tells of a dramatic outflow of material (Figure 1). These channels, up to 150 km wide and 2,000 km in length, are analogous in formation to the ‘Channelled Scablands’ of the USA’s Pacific Northwest;

yet illustrate a far greater flood of material than ever witnessed on Earth that would perhaps challenge the structural integrity of Noah’s Ark. These channels that scar Mars’s surface have all been denoted as outflow channels of a huge amount of material; they emanated from depressions in the Martian landscape, approximately 2-5 km below the surrounding area and covered with blocks of material from the enveloping surface. These indicate a process of collapse, rather than a removal, which then caused the cataclysmic outflow of material. Martian volcanism and the melting of Martian ice has been put forward as a hypothesis which accounts for the pressure required to confine large aquifers and the subsequent catastrophic failure which caused these channels. Possible changes in the climate system due to this immense discharge of water remains a key point of future research for the environmental history of Mars. These Martian channels are distinguished from Martian valleys. Martian valleys tell of low-density drainage and have lengths between five to 1,000 km and are up to 10 km wide – similar to the Grand Canyon. Martian valleys lack of fluid flow: instead, geological evidence points to the seeping of Martian groundwater to the surface as key to the formation of these valleys. It’s like how drainage patterns found on Earth’s surface form from rainwater.

Surface water on Mars Sediments found on the northern plains of Mars, as well as an inscription of shorelines on the Martian landscape, point to a past where large bodies of

Figure 2: These polygons were observed on the floor of an impact crater on the northern plains of Mars; analogy to Earth’s permafrost indicates that these were formed by a freeze-thaw cycle process. Groovy! Source: MOC Image M01-00294.

water covered the surface of Mars. The largest estimates of these water bodies involve 20 to 60 million cubic kilometres of water, equivalent to an even spread of water 200 to 400 metres deep across the Martian surface. That’s a lot of water – and how unfortunate for any Martians living way back when who suffered from thalassophobia! Across the Martian northern hemisphere, sedimentary layers deposited in watery environments are distributed across an area of three million square kilometres and average hundreds of kilometres in depth. Along with the presence of Martian channels, this evidence indicates a Martian geological history dominated by a gargantuan body of water. So if there was some sort of Waterworld thing going on in Mars, why can’t we see water on Mars today? The disappearance of these so-called immense ‘paleolakes’ has been subject to much controversy, and many scientists believe that these paleolakes did not exist for a large portion of Martian geological history. Scientists think that it’s because it became really, really cold. It has been suggested that all this water became frozen into the Martian permafrost which covers Mars. Polygonal features on the Martian terrain are analogous to permafrost environments found on Earth (Figure 2); this corroborates the Martian permafrost as a reservoir for the vast quantities of water documented. After the dramatic release of copious amounts of water which engulfed the Martian surface, all this water then froze upon the cooling of the Martian landscape or the subsidence of Martian

volcanism.

Glacial landscapes on Mars After the release of immense reservoirs of water that produced the Martian channels, water on Mars took the form of glaciers have carved their way into the Martian landscape. Ridges on Mars bear the appearance of eskers – the trail of debris left behind by a shrinking glacier. Glacial rocks also tell of the scale of glaciation found across Mars, which fits in well with the presence of Martian oceans and their later disappearance. Perhaps the chaotic, violent, and truly dramatic behaviour of water on Mars comes from its Roman God of War namesake! The landscape of Mars that we can observe today is one very different to that found in its geological history. We see that Mars was a world where turbulent floods of incomprehensible size carved vast channels into the rock; a world where enormous reservoirs of water engulfed the Martian surface. It is now a world where ice dominates the landscape itself. Simply by observing the geological features of Mars we see that Mars is a world which was and remains sculpted by the peremptory command of water. Indeed: though we have imputed the presence of water on Mars, Bowie’s question remains – Is there life on Mars? The plot thickens.

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

DISCOVER // SCIENCE

The Rise of Cryptocurrencies Financial Disruption Fuelled by Blockchain

Text: Siddharth Pethe

a currency that is under the control of Donald Trump.

Have you ever wondered what makes the money in your pocket worth the things you spend it on? I know I have. The answer is trust.

Here’s how cryptocurrencies can help. A cryptocurrency, e.g. Bitcoin, has a few things that make it different from all other currencies. Other notable cryptocurrencies include Ether by Ethereum, which is gaining traction in transactions made on the Internet. Cryptocurrencies have no physical or tangible form: no notes and no coins. This is immensely helpful because it’s much easier, and cheaper, to make something secure in the virtual world than the real world. Central banks spend vast amounts of resources on printing money to prevent forgery. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin avoid this by using a highly encrypted key on a computer, so all it takes to make and securely store Bitcoin is a few bytes of data.

We trust the government that has issued the currency, as does the person who is accepting the money. This mutual trust makes the piece of plastic worth its value and is what is making cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin so useful today. Back in the day, all federal reserves needed to have a certain amount of gold to back the currency notes that it issued. So, if you print $x worth of notes and have 10 kilograms of gold, each note is worth 10/x amount of gold. Therefore, the more money you print, the lesser the value of each note. But, somewhere along the way, the world decided that gold is in short supply. So, instead, we will base our currencies on oil. Still alright, I guess, since oil is a tangible resource. Since then, however, the United States has used its might to make a new rule: that all oil will be traded, and thereby valued, in US dollars (USD). What this means is that all any currency that is based on oil will be valued in USD only. As a result, the USD is inexplicably tied to all currencies. But, what is the USD tied to? It is now a fiat currency, meaning that it has no tangible worth in gold or any other resource. The US Federal Reserve can simply print money into existence. Its value is denoted by how much someone is ready to pay for it. And the same is true for all the currencies of the world because they are all linked to the value of oil, and therefore the USD. If you aren’t alarmed yet, think about this: all the money in your pocket and all the money in the bank is valued by

A cryptocurrency is like a global currency. It is not backed, regulated or controlled by any country or federal reserve. And, its value is decided by the demand and supply – like a global stock market where everyone can have a say and where everyone is a shareholder. It is highly non-inflationary. Moreover, it has no borders or jurisdiction. Because it lies within the realm of the Internet, it has the same value in any country – at least, any country with a good internet connection. Bitcoin is open, meaning that everyone on the network helps run the network itself. You don’t have to pay a commission to transfer money. Nor will you be charged any service or maintenance fees. There is a vast network of computers that help keep the network running. In return, they get a small amount of Bitcoin for donating their computational capacity. But, this Bitcoin doesn’t come from your kitty. We pay this Bitcoin in such a way that everyone’s currency is equally depreciated, making the impact negligible to any particular user. A hallmark quality that defines Bitcoin’s utility is that Bitcoin is extremely secure, thanks to the technology behind it: Blockchain. The Blockchain is what is truly marvellous about Bitcoin or almost any other cryptocurrency today. It works by using the power of democracy, handing control to the users themselves through its open and distributed nature. The Bitcoin Blockchain is a ledger that

records all the transactions of all the places, locked and secure. If something Bitcoins ever transferred. A pretty big were to happen to any single chain, mayledger, right? be even a natural disaster or accident, there remain hundreds and thousands Well, Blockchain handles this by divid- of Blockchain backups that spell the ing all transactions into sets or blocks. truth. These blocks are securely locked and then tied together in a chain such that This is another amazing thing about the if any single block were tampered with, Blockchain: it is distributed. Globalthen the whole chain is invalidated. This ly, thousands of computers and servers helps because, as long as the most recent maintain the Blockchain, so if anyone blocks are valid, you needn’t concern had Bitcoin larceny on their minds, yourself with all the blocks before them. they’d have to hack not just the whole Blockchain sequence, but all the BlockHere’s a simple analogy to help illustrate chains around the world, simultaneousthe mechanism of Blockchain. Imag- ly! Impossible is a strong word, but this ine that you are the person in charge of comes pretty close. keeping track of all these Bitcoin transactions. You have a pen and paper, and Bitcoin is just one manifestation of the you start taking notes. Soon the pa- Blockchain. There are many more applipers pile up, so you take a cord and tie cations for this technology, and Blocka bunch of them together, and you lock chain is no doubt something to watch them using a number as the key. But, out for in the future. Cryptocurrencies soon you have another bunch, and an- are something that will disrupt the fiother, and another. So, rather than re- nancial world. But this also puts control membering all the keys for every group, of the world’s money in the hands of the you use a special method where every world instead of glorified, grandiose bublock’s key is contained in the block be- reaucrats or the elite that control them. fore it. Now, every time you add a new Ultimately, it is the genius of the Blockblock, you just find the secret number in chain and the trust that it affords to a the current block and use that as the key currency that fuels the cryptocurrency for the next block. This way, all you must revolution we are witnessing today. do is remember the key for the first block and then go on unlocking all the blocks sequentially. That’s exactly how Blockchain works. The important thing is that the key isn’t just any random number. It is a fixed combination of the data contained within the current block itself, for example, a sum of all the transacted amounts in that block. Now, if somebody were to tamper with the accounts to give themselves some additional money, you would know because the key, computed now, would not unlock the next block and then all blocks after that would remain locked too. To tamper with the records, they would have to change each transaction and each block. But, say someone is hell bent on cracking the Blockchain, so much so that they are ready to change the entire set of records, from the start to end. This would be fairly easy if someone had access to all the records at once, but you – the creator of the Blockchain – are smart. You anticipated this, so you keep multiple copies of the chain in various

DISCOVER // BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

Blue for Girls, Pink for Boys

An insight into the gender neutral future of marketing Text: Leila Bieleny

If you’ve been on the internet anytime in the last twelve months, you might have noticed the growing discussion around gender binaries and their place in modern society. Movements such as Pride Month, held in June each year, and its widespread impact are a testament to how far we’ve come in the last 50 years. While the term ‘gender fluid’ may have once been met with raised eyebrows, it has become a well-known term to describe those who don’t identify with a fixed gender. Celebrities such as Ruby Rose and Miley Cyrus, who identify as gender fluid, have become the faces of a movement encouraging non-binaries to embrace their identity. So, when it comes to the marketing universe, what’s next for an industry that relies so heavily on appealing to the masses? There was once, and still is, a market for unnecessarily gendered products. I will always buy women’s razors, despite knowing I’m paying double for what is essentially the same product. Whack a frangipani graphic on the front alongside the word “Revitalising” in bold italics, and I’ll play the fool. But, as our social awareness progresses, companies will have no choice but to do away with gender normative marketing strategies, or risk appearing out of touch with the current generation. Already, we are seeing a rise in gender fluid fashion both in stores and on the runway. This tells us that brands are shifting to align themselves with these modern values. Facebook, one of the most progressive social media platforms, was one of the first bigname companies to support the transition away from gender stereotypes. The social network allowed users to select from 58 different genders in addition to male and female. From Agender to Two-Spirit (which a quick Google search revealed is an American Indian term for gay, lesbian or transgender), Facebook takes inclusivity to another level. In 2015 cosmetics giant MAC released a line of limited edition gender-fluid makeup, which proved so popular it made a return the following year. Neutral eye shadows and lip stains were featured in the collection, but the biggest point of difference buyers cited was the packaging, which includes a matte black casing.

Where there is a demand, companies are often more than willing to supply. But what about the most vulnerable audience when it comes to gender-stereotyped marketing? Gender binaries seem to remain dominant in the marketing of children’s toys and clothes, perpetuating a potentially damaging cycle of conformity. Any child diverging from this standard is less likely to question social ethos and instead, question their own identity. Gender distinctions at this early

We already know that young people are taking a more active and sympathetic role in the global community. As a generation of consumers, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to just about everything. With retail competition at an all-time high, brands simply cannot afford to remain stagnant in the face of societal progression at a time when the form of internet-bred social activism can spell out large scale boycotts. It didn’t take long for Pepsi to pull their latest

stage of life can prove damaging, as children use toys as a means of development socially and intellectually. Interestingly, however, the segregation of children’s toys into gender binaries is a relatively new phenomenon. Today, even toys that appear gender neutral are assigned gender-binary marketing techniques. Lego is the poster child of this fall from grace. The toy company was famous for their gender-neutral advertisements, but in recent years have reverted to the pink and blue segregation. It is especially disturbing that in most cases the contents of the blue packaged Lego are identical that of the pink.

commercial featuring Kendall Jenner from the internet after it received backlash for trivialising the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. Social media provides a dangerous platform for consumers to vocalise their criticisms. In 2016, masses of people boycotted so-called “free range” eggs from 19 different brands when the lax legal definition of ‘free range’ was publicised. If consumers care enough about an issue, they wield a great deal of power. If companies don’t reflect the values of the current generation, especially regarding non-binary attitudes towards gender, their future may rest in the hands (and keyboards) of angry millennials.

In the future, it is likely that retail outlets will move away from the restrictive girl/ boy/men/women labels, and embrace gender fluidity. Target stores across the US have already stopped using these labels for bedding and toys. But the labels go deeper than the male/female dichotomy. Men’s deodorant, for example, uses catchwords such as ‘masculine woods’ and ‘clean shaving smell’, with women’s scents described as ‘flirtatious’ and ‘floral’. When did we decide how men and women were supposed to smell? Or perhaps you’ve seen tissues labelled ‘mansize’, a marketing ploy which reaches new heights in the world of unnecessary product gendering. During a recent trip to the ANU pharmacy, I noticed a lip balm that stood out from the peach-coloured, strawberry scented selection on the stand. The packaging was black and minimalist, and the sleek red font on the label said that it was ‘engineered for men’. That’s right: engineered. This lip balm means business. Perhaps a few decades ago, before images of the apron-clad housewife produced eye-rolls from this new and progressive generation, companies could rely on gender stereotypes in marketing. But as cultural norms shift, so too must the gendered approach to branding. The use of things such as internet memes as marketing tools (despite inciting a high level of cringe) tells us that companies, particularly those targeting millennials, are desperate to prove themselves. If this is the case, it’s time companies did more to embrace individuality, and less to reinforce outdated gender stereotypes. Our overexposure to various forms of media means that we are constantly consuming information in forms such as online ads, television commercials, online shopping and the subtle (and more recent) sponsored Instagram posts. If companies fail to acknowledge gender-fluidity, it will contribute further to a world already saturated with unrealistic standards for both men and women. As history has proven, society changes over time. Our values and norms are constantly shifting, and gender binaries are a thing of the past. Instead of relying on outdated stereotypes, companies can appeal to our individuality as consumers, which hopefully provides a refreshing insight into the way marketing is headed towards the future.

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

DISCOVER // BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

Growth Watch – Underdogs Uninterrupted

THE RISE OF SECOND CITIES EMERGING MARKET MIDDLEWEIGHTS TAKE CENTRE STAGE Text: Prachi Arya

Part time Potterhead and a full time finance student, Prachi will cover emerging markets for Woroni this semester. She’s always up for discussions on politics and economics and loves to binge watch Oprah interviews. Join her as she chronicles the growth stories of emerging economies all the way from Mexico through to Indonesia.

The industrial revolution saw the first mass migration of rural dwellers moving to towns as wages increased and work opportunities mushroomed. Today, the same transition is underway at an exponential scale. A report prepared by Citibank states that about a century ago, approximately two in every 10 people globally lived in cities. Today, that figure stands at five. Towards the end of the 21st Century, seven out of 10 people will be urban dwellers. The cities cannot cope. Job seekers are leaving the hinterlands for urban areas in search of a better job, better educational opportunities and a higher standard of living by the hundreds of thousands. Meanwhile, the cities have gradually begun to creak under the burgeoning load of the population that has gone way past its breaking point. Emerging markets have seen the fruition of urbanisation reap enormous benefits for its urban populace. Though, poor planning and gated urban clusters are now seen as an impediment to equitable growth. Consequently, it has become a source of resentment between people from different socioeconomic classes – the rich, mostly found in the secluded urban pockets, pitted against the impoverished, less resourceful country folk. Over the last decade, an estimated 100 million people in India migrated from rural to urban areas. More than half of Mumbai’s 22 million people live in slums. Open sewers crisscross a large part of the city. Delhi is fast running out of clean drinking water, and in November last year, it became the most polluted city in the world. Ruchir Sharma, Chief Global Strategist at Morgan Stanley, in a Times of India piece recounts his trip to Thailand in the year 2011. Marred by conflict, Bangkok was in the thick of tension that had erupted between the city’s elite and the hoi polloi belonging to less prosperous provinces. Bangkok’s 10 million strong population outstripped that of the next most populous city by more than 10 times. Sharma has since emphasised the need for growth of second tier cities

across different regions of a country, making the urbanisation process less centralised. Thus, it enables second cities to act as effective counters to the resource guzzling capital cities. Though, we are yet to reach a consensus on a fixed definition of a secondary city. It is a term coined in the 1980s by University of North Carolina professor Dennis Rondinelli. Broadly, one can describe them as a city whose population is anywhere between a third to a half of that of the metropolises. A typical effect of rising population in urban centres is skyrocketing property prices. According to Forbes, rent for an office space in Beijing typically costs about $199 per square foot, per year – the third highest in the world after Hong Kong and London. Rising wages in the south-eastern production belt of the Pearl River Delta region have threatened China’s competitiveness in manufacturing for some time now. While Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, the three biggest cities, enjoy more prominent spots on the tourist map, businesses have been looking elsewhere to expand. Shenzen, in the same league as Guangzhou in terms of city size, is a hub for electronics. In the south-west, Chongqing churns out well over 12 million motorbikes a year. Last year alone, about 400 Beijing based companies opened offices in Tianjin, a port city to Beijing and look poised to invest about $23 billion in the city. These cities are well connected by direct flights to Helsinki, London and Frankfurt. Ruchir Sharma, at a panel discussion in Mumbai last year, mentioned that China, in the past three decades, has managed to build 19-second cities, the highest anywhere in the world. This has been made possible due to China’s heavy investments in roads, transport systems, ports and factories. China has seen its per capita GDP almost double between 2006 and 2016 – from $3487 to $6894. Now onto Jakarta. With a population of 10 million, it is the second most populous megacity in Southeast Asia. In the 1990s we saw Indonesia’s GDP plummet

by more than 25 per cent and in May 1998, the then Indonesian President, Suharto, in the face of massive protests, decided to step down as President. Eventually, an IMF rescue package, drafted in the aftermath of the crisis forced Suharto to give up a substantial part of his family run business empire, thus effectively ending the reign of crony capitalism in Indonesia. Another change this brought forth was the shifting of attention from Jakarta alone, where most of Suharto and his cronies’ businesses were based, to other cities like Surabaya and now Bandung. Capital inflows into provinces other than Java, which is home to Jakarta, have been rising rapidly. At an Economic conference in Jakarta in 2012, McKinsey stated that Bandung was the fastest growing consumer market in Indonesia. By 2030, 90 per cent of Indonesia’s fastest growing cities will be outside Java. Indonesia’s key parliamentary body set the GDP growth target for 2017 at 5.2 per cent. The average for emerging markets sits at about 5 per cent. According to a Mckinsey Global Institute report, developed economies, over the next 15 years, will account for only a third of the world GDP growth. Increasingly setting the pace will be second tier cities in emerging market economies. ‘Around 230 middleweights that are not among the top 600 urban centres in terms of GDP today will make that list in 2025,’ says the report. Countries that have been powerhouses of economic growth in the past few decades bear testimony to the might of second cities such as Seoul and Busan in Korea, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in Brazil, Taipei and Taichung in Taiwan. Even so, the emergence of second cities alone can’t guarantee prosperity. The economic opportunities that these cities present can only be leveraged if the governments rein in corruption and get some basics in place – good roads, a skilled labour force, effective transportation systems and minimal red tape. Some boxes that China ticked long ago. If the others succeed too, the underdogs look poised to crowd out the heavyweights sooner than most pundits have predicted.

DISCOVER // BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

heard about cochlear?

Text: Albert Patajo If I learnt anything from watching Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, it’s the idea of ‘buy low and sell high’. And by high, I don’t necessarily mean high after the use of copious amounts of cocaine, but rather, sell when the price of the stock has risen. Coming into a low is Cochlear Limited, the manufacturer of the Cochlear hearing-aid. The Australian company is famous for inventing the cochlear implant which has enabled people with hearing difficulties in processing sound waves and ‘hear as they would had they not had the hearing difficulty.’ Generally speaking, a good thumb is to steer away from and development companies sink significant amounts of

rule of research as they funding

into research, which is often hard to recuperate in revenue later unless the product can seize a large market share. However, Cochlear is a bit different due to their consistent increase in revenue (they’ve only had two years when revenue decreased, from $809.6 million to $779.0 million from 2011-2012 and then from $779 to $752.7 million from 2012 to 2013). Since then, revenue had grown to $925.6 in 2015. The decrease in revenue during these years was attributed to a product recall in 2011, but since then, the company has revised their risk management policy to ensure that such a recall doesn’t occur again. Cochlear’s current dip in their share price is attributed to the early resignation of their latest CEO, which has caused some level of uncertainty in the management of the company. However, this shouldn’t last too much time as the COO; Dig Howitt has been promoted

to CEO starting January 2018. This should ensure the strategic direction of the company remains on course, as well as a smooth transition between the two CEOs. Cochlear has recently announced an iPhone implant, the first of its kind on the market as well as a move to expand their international presence, starting with a factory in China for emerging Asia-Pacific markets. The current growing trend for investors to move into the healthcare sector as the Australian population starts ageing isn’t one of my reasons for the investment, although it is a good bonus but rather, the general trend of increased hearing loss within the population. The rise of hearing loss has driven the demand for devices such as the Cochlear implant, with numerous competitors emerging. Furthermore, Cochlear’s customers have a much longer retention period than customers of companies in other industries.

This combined with their market share and Australian reputation presents Cochlear as an excellent opportunity for investors to jump on a low stock price and hold until a sizeable increase. The current price is at around $140 a piece, but it’d be worth holding until they return to $155-$160 in the next few years, and then making a decision then. In the meantime, investors can enjoy dividend payments of $1.90 or so per share, which should offset initial brokerage costs. Don’t quote me on that though; I’m not Warren Buffet. Albert Patajo is a final year Law/Science student currently writing his Honours thesis in Law. He has a small but growing portfolio spread across the ASX and other markets. If you want to learn more, he is more than happy to help other students start their journey in the ‘stock market’.

Your roommate is actually a negative externality Text: Wayne Wang Are you sick of seeing a sink full of dirty dishes because your flatmates are really lazy? Are you frustrated by your loud neighbours at night? The good news is there are solutions to these problems! But first, let me explain why people do these things. In economics, there is something called an ‘externality’. An externality can be a cost or a benefit, but most importantly externality is something that affects a party who did not choose to incur it. Having to experience dirty living space due to your flatmates’ irresponsible actions is an externality, as it didn’t occur because of you. Similarly, enduring the loud noises from your roommates at night is also an externality. Why do people keep doing things that will negatively

affect other people? Economists explain this using cost and benefit. Before making a decision, an individual weighs up the cost and benefit associated with the action. If the benefit exceeds the cost, the person will take the action (obviously). However, when making the decision, the person does not usually include the cost to others in his/her decision making. This is why we often see people not giving a flying fish about how their actions might affect the people around them. So, what are the solutions? One solution is regulation. The government regulates to encourage or force everyone to reduce the externality. You can set up a regulation with your flatmates on how many dirty dishes can be left out and agree on a penalty for people who do not obey. Another solution is what economists call internalising externality, which means shifting the costs or benefits from externality to the person

who caused the externality. This can be achieved by tax. Tax increases the cost to the person, so when making a decision they are forced to take into account of the extra cost to other people. However, it is tough to find the right amount of tax to reflect the costs to other people correctly. If you can charge your flatmates for every dirty dish left out, how much would you charge them? Can you actually put a dollar amount on your feeling of disgust when you walk past the sink? Probably not. Next time you see your flatmates leaving dirty dishes in the sink, try applying the solutions. If they think you are eccentric, give them a lesson on externality. P.S. While this article focuses on negative externalities, there are positive ones too! Why don’t you remove the password from your WiFi, it will help everyone!

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

SPORT

paranoid androids why Video Referees Are Not Always the Answer in Sport Text: Adam Mayers The use of video technology in sport officiating has expanded rapidly over the past decade. In Australia particularly, out of the eleven most popular sports in the country, netball umpires remain the only officiators not to receive the support of technological aids at the elite level (and in this case it’s as a result of a lack of funding, not organisational unwillingness). Most recently, association football has initiated the use of video referrals in a number of top-level competitions — including the A-League — in the hope of having a system ready for the World Cup next year. While, almost universally, the introduction of greater technology into these sports has been met with support and enthusiasm, the ability of modern technologies to positively influence refereeing remains contested. In certain sports, particularly those with large breaks between moments of action, the introduction of video technology has greatly improved the efficacy of officials. In tennis (where rallies are flowing yet brief), cricket (where each ball is followed by a lull in play as players reset) and American football (where an average professional game lasts for more than 3 hours but the ball is in play for around eleven minutes), video technology has been used to great effect. Umpires have been able to take their time to review decisions during breaks in play. Further, in all three sports, laws are largely binary, and there is little space for interpretation. In tennis and cricket particularly, the laws of the game provide almost no scope for subjectivity: the ball is in or out, hits the net or doesn’t, the batter’s leg is in-front of the wicket or not, a nick of the ball is from the bat or it isn’t, a bowler’s toe is over the crease… and so on. While there is still room for argument in areas such as whether a sound picked up by ‘Snicko’ was contact between bat and ball or bat and pad, the rules are clear in what is lawful and what is not. In American football, where laws may be interpreted a little more (though a look through the 2017 NFL rule book leaves you with unequivocal indications about what is and isn’t lawful during a game), not only are umpires assisted by technology, but also up to seven other officials. Hence, if we combine the two elements of these sports — that rules are largely binary and match events take place in short bursts of action (along with the

fact that games of tennis and cricket can go on for many hours or days) — the case for technological aids become clear. Technological aids improve the effectiveness of umpiring as well as have little meaningful impact on the flow or length of the game overall. However, this is not true of all sports; including those that have utilised technological aids for almost two decades. Take rugby league (and, by extension, rugby union) as an example. Initially introduced into the domestic game in 1997, video officiating has been a mainstay of elite rugby league competitions in Australia with only minor adjustments to its scope and configuration during that time (the biggest coming with the recent introduction of ‘The Bunker’ review system). Whilst the majority of rugby league fans support its ongoing place in the game (only 25 per cent of fans voted for a return to the single referee system during an NRL fan forum in 2015), its influence on referee decision-making and the pace of the game are concerning. Firstly, the nature of refereeing has altered dramatically. Referees are less likely to make a call themselves in case video replays show their decision to have been incorrect (even if the call was clear all along). Not only are almost all tries scored reviewed — there were 753 reviews during the 2014 season — but, with the introduction of ‘The Bunker’ review system in 2016, most plays during the game are too. Moreover, even if the referee does not call for a referral, plays are reviewed to see whether they could be. And players know this. They — particularly captains — continuously attempt to slow the game down for the purposes of review as they know that stoppages increase the chance of a decision being overturned or a play analysed. While referees still have discretion over whether or not to review a call, the lingering doubt created by player contention inevitably leads to referral-after-referral. Considering that video referee decisions can take two or three minutes at a time, this greatly slows down the pace of the game. The worst part, however, is that the introduction of video referral systems in the rugby codes has not led to referee infallibility, but constant conjecture. Unlike in tennis or cricket, the rugby codes have interpretable laws and, despite hightech match coverage, some plays can be missed or obscured simply due to a lack

of camera angles or the congestion of the game itself. As a result, not all decisions are clear-cut, even when reviewed through video replays. During the second State of Origin game this year, for example, the opening try, scored by Maroons debutant Valentine Holmes, was allowed to stand despite video replays suggesting that he had run the ball out of play. There was insufficient evidence to overturn the decision of a try. Further, in an attempt to let the game flow like the first game of the 2017 Origin series, the referees interpreted certain rules more leniently. “We’ve got to make sure we abide by the rules that are in play on the day” grumbled Blues coach Laurie Daley at the end of the game. And rugby league isn’t even the worst example. While the rules can be subjective and replays inconclusive, at least most plays involve two solid banks of players running at each other in a consistent fashion. Both Australian rules and association football dispense with these formalities. Spreading players out across over ten-plus square kilometres of space and having rules as subjective as the handball one in association football; whereby the official Laws of the Game define it as when a player ‘deliberately handles the ball’ — what constitutes ‘deliberate’ is anyone’s guess. This is where technology in sport falters. In games where rules are interpretable and constant stoppages are to the detriment of the flow of a match, the constant interjections of video referees can be frustrating and inimical. In all of the recognised footballing codes in Australia — rugby league, rugby union,

Australian rules and association — not only are rules regularly subjective, but the flow of the game is what makes them so exciting to spectators. Whether it’s in rugby league, where the game is “built upon all types of fatigue and speed and momentum”, or association football, where the cadence of the game is almost entirely unbroken for 90 minutes, constant stoppages impede upon fan enjoyment of the game. Video referrals not only increase these breaks in play, but they fail to lead to consistently correct decisions due to the non-binary nature of these games’ laws. So perhaps when we see (or contribute to) social media frenzies about refereeing we need to take into account that maybe nobody’s right. Rules can be interpreted, technology does not make every action clear cut, and fans, players, and coaches love an opportunity to complain (particularly following a loss). Whilst the introduction of technology into officiating has — in many cases — led to an increase in the accuracy of decisions, in others all it has achieved is the slowing down of the game and the heightening of debate by commentators bolstered by the notion that referees should now be infallible.

SATIRE

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

Cryptic Crossword: Julia Liu

Woman thrilled about newfound popularity of her eponymous economic theory of relationships

Woroni Cryptic 6 1

Solutions in next issue

10 11 12

13 14

17 18 19

Text: Julia Liu ‘I never thought I would realistically have a shot at becoming the next Vice-Chancellor of the ANU until today,’ said a female student after learning that a now-famous economic theory has been named after her. Julia Liu, who is a Bachelor of Economics student at the Australian National University, never thought a fake economic theory she formulated for Woroni’s Satire Section would become the groundbreaking economic theory that has come to reshape the field. The theory postulated that a man and a woman would engage in a relationship with each other, regardless of personal characteristics, so long as they would not be better off with anyone else. ‘This theory destroys the fiction of fated romance and star-crossed lovers, and places us squarely back in the pre-Austenian era,’ Liu said convincingly. She went on to add that she did not know who Jane Austen was: ‘I heard she wrote romance pulps for girls in the 1800s.’ When asked what her contribution to the theory was, Liu said it was her idea to contact Tatsunori Yamaguchi, a fellow Economics student, to develop a theory to ‘shove maths down the throats of love birds on Facebook.’ The theory was originally intended to be a fake mathematical guide to how soon a person could make their relationship Facebook official. ‘But oh boy, it turned into something much bigger,’ Liu said, nodding sagely. ‘Tastunori started drawing graphs and illustrations on a white board. One night, he sent me a photo of a board of scribbles and told me he had solved it.’ She recalled the defining moment of the theory’s creation, saying ‘In one of his

graphs, he illustrated the market with a set of hand-drawn matchstick figures. One of the matchstick females was named after me.’ ‘I jumped and said: “That’s literally me in your theory!”’

Across

Down

1 Rancid friend reaches an impasse (9)

1 Dot and pin the French! A sight to see! (9)

6 Individual in labyrinth finds corn (5)

2 A good tube breaks - going to see a man… (5,1,3)

7 100 spirit animals? Breakfast cakes! (8)

3 Ponder and hesitate in gallery (6)

9 Small rent in county (5)

4 Beckett serenaded the tech company (7)

10 Aid Mecca! blurts professor (8)

‘We agreed that naming the matchstick figure after me was the turning point of the theory’s creation. It humanised that economic agent.’

11 American era of consumption! (5)

When asked if she would be willing to share the theory’s title with Tatsunori, Liu nodded: ‘I knew it would be hard to figure out the person behind it if it was just Liu’s Theory, because Liu is such a common Asian surname.’

20 Tour a lit, strange class of twenty students (8)

‘After winning the Nobel Prize, the Vice-Chancellorship will be well within reach,’ Liu concluded confidently. Special thanks to Tatsunori Yamaguchi, for his tireless work in producing a theory that was limited by five unrealistic assumptions about relationships, including one that assumed no-one in the dating market would use their prior relationship experience to their advantage.

8 Burning ulcer as non-religious (7) 13 Dessert within secret service begins (6)

14 A Nationalist and Rafter revolts (7)

15 Aw Robin! Lose the colourful arch (7)

18 Tin monkeys served on a platter (7)

16 Not in the mail? Garrison on the frontier (7)

19 Broken Pairs in European city (5)

17 Remove weed from warehouse (5) 18 Unit in dungeon (4)

Woroni Cryptic 5 1

C H 6 E M 8 I S 10 T R Y

‘To that end, adding Tatsunori’s surname would at least make it longer and more memorable.’ She surmised that ‘Economics students of the next generation will remember us with gritted teeth when they have to refer to our theory in the final exams. But then again, at least we’ll help them get their word counts up!’ When asked where she thought the theory would take her, Liu answered, ‘The Nobel Prize, of course! That’s where a highly limited theory with controversial empirical backings will get you a hot date and a good dinner.’ She pointed to a photo of the current ANU Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt at his Nobel-Prize dinner accompanied by Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden.

5 Family treasures found in Homer's oil (9)

12 Steals? but stool returns (5)

S C U 20 B A 18

A R P A X T R L M P I A E A M E 14 N T

Solutions in next issue 3

A T H I A N S 5 A T 7 A C T I O N S R V 9 N G E A T W E D R E 11 12 H Y P N O S A H 15 A P O L E O N O O T W 17 E S T E 19 A S K E T R T R L O O D Y O A T H P

Across 1 Vehicle tracks around Thorpe in mountain range (11) 5 Art ruined by pitch (3) 6 Old lover grips and has teeth removed (11) 8 Encroach on vague mini peg (7) 9 Adjust sligthly, time is feeble (5) 10 Mate comprises a side (4) 11 Syphon is entranced by brainwashing (8) 14 Sodium stick works French leader (8) 17 Thieve tricky tales (5) 18 Keg and alien in coffin (5)

F A R A N A K

pdfcrowd.com

I S H O P A L I F T S

Down 1 Thy crimes confuse the study of elements (9) 2 Mineral tap shakes seat of government (10) 3 Headgear? Scarlet with loathing (6) 4 Loud and smelly - honest and to the point (5) 7 Zero change for reproductive organ (5) 9 Renters X insects (7) 12 Wash and display the queen (6) 13 Steal store elevators (9) 15 Edgar Allen, attempt verse! (6) 16 Baby in South Australia is used underwater (5) 19 Halt! Pots head north (4)

20 Gorey pledge of exuberant agreement (6,4)

pdfcrowd.com

Week 3, Semester 2, 2017

SATIRE

Malcolm Turnbull upset at marginalization by the Right; Just wants to be friends with everyone Following a tradition established by his immediate predecessor, the Prime Minister chose to use the international stage to assert his domestic position, and attack large-eared rivals best known internationally for their threats to assault ex-KGB Russian presidents. The Liberal Party, asserts our millionaire Prime Minister, is not a right-wing party. It remains in the ‘sensible centre’ of politics.

Text: Rex Yi In a historic statement made upon receiving the Disraeli Prize, awarded by UK think tank Policy Exchange, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull recently remarked that the Liberal Party of Australia is, in fact, a centrist party.

This comes as little surprise to international audiences. One diplomat who reached out to Woroni commented that she was simply glad that ‘the damn Australians didn’t bring a carabineer clip. I know they live upside down and need to fasten themselves to the ground, but we’re right-way up here, and it’s always embarrassing to see them bring useless equipment on diplomatic visits.’ However, domestic audiences were left baffled at the Prime Minister’s apparent attempts to woo first-year politics students with his understanding of Median Voter Theorem.

‘I just don’t understand it,’ says Jenny ‘J’ Crane. ‘He’s lowered corporate tax, he’s against samesex marriage, and he can’t even let the free market have a go at climate change; I mean, he practically wears a cravat and calls himself “Esquire”.’ However, further questioning of an anonymous source at the ANU Bar revealed that Turnbull may be acting on sinister ulterior motives: ‘Look. He just wants friends, alright? It gets lonely being PM sometimes.’ ‘He just wants to sit in the middle of it all. He’s a real people pleaser, is Malcolm.’ ‘Just wait for him to meet Corbyn, and he’ll be redder than an undergrad philosophy student.’ When asked to elaborate, our source sipped his glass of chilled Fruity Lexia, and responded:

And, when pressed, concluded the conversation saying, ‘Can you bloody well leave me alone? I’m trying to enjoy my drink.’ Meanwhile, opposition leader Bill Shorten has remained conspicuously silent regarding the Prime Minister’s remarks. When approached once more, our anonymous source had this to say: ‘Alright. Bloody hell. Buy me another drink, and we’ll hang.’ Drink in hand, our source provided us with significant commentary, saying: ‘Shorten looks like bloody Megamind, from Megamind. What do you expect from him?’ More to follow.

‘All I’ve got to say, mate.’

Pompeii, a Penis, and a Not-so-Pious Owl Text: Elaine Zhang Okay. Let’s take a moment to transport ourselves back to ancient Rome. Mad emperors, fierce warriors, brutal entertainments, and lascivious lifestyles. But of all these aspects of the luxe Roman lifestyle, the most evocative was indulgence in the flesh. Hence, if you Googled the term ‘Pompeii’, the first item that appears would be ‘Pompeii Brothels’, because let’s be real, sex will always be a prime fascination of humankind. Roman erotic art seems to have been universal both in its placement and in its appeal. The location of erotic art is suggestive of its audience. For the purpose-built brothels of this Roman getaway, the fantasy of an adulterous liaison with a member of the elite social class was the topic du jour of interior design. Although much of the detail of these luscious frescos is now lost, the explicit scenes were once richly furnished, detailing elegant decor which contrasted with the austere furnishings of the brothels themselves. In contrast, the typical upper-class house contained works with mythological allusions to sex. These were, however, often created with an air of playfulness and decorum, compared to the displays in the brothel, which were rumoured to suggest the ‘specialty’ of the house. According to this art history student, anything can be art, including the iconic owl sculpture that carefully surveys the traffic on Belconnen Way, pondering

the racing vehicles with its ever-wandering eyes. As its creator, Bruce Armstrong, says, ‘The owl watches quietly over his domain like a guardian spirit or totem.’ Yes, yes, it’s a celebration of the city’s commitment to creativity, but the exposure of such a delicate standalone artwork was dangerous, nay, courageous move by its creator, as he abandoned it to the cruel judgment of the public.

art; the pornographic element of a piece is stronger or weaker, rather than simply being absent or present. Me? I see pornography everywhere. And what response should the image of a sexual organ trigger? It might function as an aphrodisiac, didactic paradigm, display of wealth and culture, humour, and above all sexual satire, but never as a simple decoration.

This decision to trust in public respect for the arts didn’t end well, as someone in the modern-day city of Canberra decided to take matters into their own hands – armed with spray cans - transforming everyone’s thoughts about the sculpture into an artistic form: That of a crudely spray-painted depiction of male genitalia. (Queue: A giant sigh of relief that someone had the courage to show it like it is.)

One must always read deep into symbolism and over-analyse the true meaning of an artistic work. Perhaps the modern day simplified version of the spray painted male genitalia is the parallel of mythological representations of sex in the upper-class houses of ancient Rome, where it was regarded as a work of satire and shown in a setting of lighthearted playfulness. But could this be just another example of the suppressed urge to explicitly express our sexual urges today as freely as was done in Roman brothels? Perhaps the addition of the penis was the answer to the long-suppressed belief that the Guardian of Wisdom of Belconnen Way resembled a bit more than its supposed function. So, in paying our respects to the unsuspecting owl with its new creative addition on its torso, let us also stare fearlessly at the penis graffiti as we drive past. After all, recognition is the first step to understanding why we do the things we do. If it was good enough for the Romans, it’s good enough for us.

The newly embellished sculpture now radiates with the raw testosterone and erotic energy generated by this new addition. The owl’s eyes of wisdom continue to look forward, towards the never-ceasing flow of commuters, its back towards the civilians living in its shadow. But we must also take a moment to give a silent funeral to the artwork, which, due to its unfortunate-looking silhouette, is doomed to an eternity of being a symbol of the human male productive organ. Being the good citizens we all are, we were taught not to judge others by their appearance, but hey, human nature can be a b*tch. Unfortunately for the owl, we just can’t help it. Pornography is just one aspect of erotic

Vol. 67 , Issue 8

Satire

Trump signs up for Medicare card after giving up on Congress Text: Woroni’s Washington Correspondent President Donald J Trump today applied for a Medicare card amid growing concerns that the United States healthcare system is headed for imminent collapse, a source close to the Australian Minister for Health has confirmed. Amid the failure of Senate Republicans to agree on a replacement for the bill known as ‘Obamacare’, Trump reportedly received legal advice that universal healthcare was not considered a ludicrous idea by the Australian public, prompting the

move. Traditionally, Medicare cards are only available to Australian citizens or residents, yet considering the importance of the Australia-U.S. alliance for national security, the Turnbull Government approved the application. ‘We’re willing to let this one slide,’ Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told Woroni, adding, “Besides, at this point, it’s only him and the 2,500 marines in Darwin standing between us and a full-blown Chinese invasion of the Australian mainland.” House Majority Leader Paul Ryan – better known as Eagle Scout First Class on weekends – was seen drinking an alcoholic beverage as the news broke. ‘Looks

like St. Paddy’s day came twice this year,’ Ryan told Woroni before taking a sip from a terribly poured pint of Guinness. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader and world-class negotiator Mitch McConnell is reportedly undertaking strictly closed-door meetings with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to see whether the same deal could be struck for the McConnell family. Rumours of a mass-exodus of Republicans from Washington D.C. have been circling for months now. “I’m out of ideas,” Senator Ted Cruz told Woroni, ‘Unless anyone else wants another government shutdown?’ Despite the latest non-partisan Congressional Budget Office Report – which indicated that

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approximately 350 million Americans would lose insurance coverage if all Republicans in Congress flee the country in pursuit of adequate health care – Mitch McConnell told Woroni that ‘Nothing is off the table.’ Meanwhile, tweeting from the Oval Office, the 45th President sought to cast doubt on the accusations, writing ‘Australia is FAKE NEWS.’ Unfortunately for the President, it appears he had accidentally tweeted the Medicare card application earlier that morning. Nevertheless, Fox News came to the President’s defence. For some reason. More to come.