Canberra CityNews October 14-20, 2010

Carbon push falls on energy providers

THE most ambitious carbon emissions reduction commitment in the country, the ACT Government’s target of 40 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020, will be driven by legislation to forcibly flip the business model of electricity companies.

“We have to shift the way we deliver energy efficiency and make it available to lots and lots of homes and businesses,” ACT Environment Minister Simon Corbell told “CityNews”.

“We can’t afford to do it through grant programs and rebates.

“The way to do that is to require our energy suppliers to stop being suppliers of just energy, but also suppliers of energy efficiency.

“That’s how we see being able to achieve wide-scale energy efficiency. We put the mandate on the electricity company to deliver energy efficiency.”

Given the lack of policy documents presently on the table, ActewAGL business strategy and development general manager Dianne O’Hara said she wasn’t in a position to make detailed comment.

“ActewAGL is happy to work with the ACT Government to reduce carbon emissions in the ACT,” she said.

“We look forward to reviewing the legislation when it is available for comment.”

With the target coming off the back of the 2008 ACT Greens-Labor Agreement, Greens MLA and Speaker of the House Shane Rattenbury supports the Government’s decision.

“It’s the target that we need and it’s the

briefly

Hohnen wins prize

WELL-knoWn

It’s not going to be easy being green as the ACT gets serious about carbon reduction, reports ELERI HARRIS

target that the science demands,” he said.

“But we’ve only got 10 years to do it, which is quite a short time frame to turn around the Titanic.”

Given the absence of heavy industry or coal-fired power generation, how will our capital-sized ocean liner will make this emissions u-turn?

The ACT Government is working on three policies that will produce legislation specifically designed to reduce carbon: Waste management, a second action plan and an updated “weathering the change”.

Other key aspects of the ACT Government’s plan to reduce emissions involve the recently announced “wide scale” (read “commercial”) expansion of the feed-in tariff, which will benefit companies wanting to construct solar farms; a push for widespread solar hot water delivered through Government programs or by ActewAGL, when it becomes an efficiency service provider; a bigger take-up of sustainable transport; and creating energy from waste.

Corbell says all these things will be up and running this term, the feed-in tariff and mandate for energy efficiency within this financial year.

“We’re not inventing things that haven’t been done before, all of these measures

former Canberra lawyer Peter Hohnen (pictured) and his co-author Richard Guilliatt have won the UK Mountbatten Literary Award for their book “The Wolf”, the story of one of the most remarkable and least-known episodes of World War I. In a continuous 100,000-kilometre voyage lasting 15 months, the commerce-raider SMS Wolf caused havoc across three oceans, launched Germany’s only direct attacks on Australia and NZ and captured more than 400 men, women and children. The annual award, to be given in

How the ACT will hit its 40 per cent carbon-emission target reduction:

8 per cent efficiency

4 per cent solar hot water

3 per cent green power

6 per cent feed in tariff 4 per cent sustainable transport 10 per cent waste 3 per cent land use density

per cent biosequestration

we’re talking about have been implemented on this scale in cities around the world,” he said.

Canberra Liberal leader Zed Seselja says the measures are too costly.

“To get from 25 or 30 or 40 per cent you’re looking at the more punitive and expensive measures and I think that’s where Canberrans will find it difficult,” Seselja said.

“Canberrans would find it difficult if they’re asked to pay double for car parking, 50 per cent more for electricity.

“We need to make sure Canberrans do not bear an unreasonable burden.”

But “Canberra Loves 40%” lobbyist Phoebe Howe says the success of the target from 30 to 40 per cent relies on everyday decisions.

“We’ve got the goal of the machine set, we’ve just got to build all the mechanisms to get that machine going.

“An aspirational target that challenges us, makes us think about the problem, is the best thing a government can do.”

London on October 28, is made to a work of literature that contributes most significantly to public awareness of maritime issues.

For orangutans

CANBERRA mum Erana Loftus, 27, is going to take part in the 2011 Orangutan Adventure Trek in Sumatra, Indonesia, run by Rainforest Rescue, which is helping to restore and protect the orangutans endangered habitat. She is raising funds for Rainforest Rescue at the Uni Pub, London Circuit, from 7pm on Friday, October 22. Tickets are $15 and $20 on door or from Landspeed Records in Garema Place.

Colin to Canberra

COLIN Tidswell is the new CEO of the Gungahlin Regional Community Service. Colin comes from the NT where he was CEO of four community service organisations.

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New life for death Bill

It is only a matter of time before euthanasia becomes legal

in Australia, says MICHAEL MOORE

THE debate on dying is complex and it highlights the nature of the struggle between those who “know best” and those who seek the right to make their own endof-life decisions.

Greens’ Senator Bob Brown has put the issue back on the agenda and the polls show he will have support of the vast majority of Australians. The Self-Government Acts in both the ACT and the NT expressly exclude the ability to make such laws since Kevin Andrews’ Euthanasia Laws Act stripped the Territories of that power in March 1997.

In February of that year the ACT legislation (that I introduced) was being considered but the debate was adjourned until April 9, by which time the Assembly no longer had the power to make the decision and the legislation was withdrawn. Even the ACT Right to Life Society still argues on its website that the numbers were set for the legislation to pass.

There are two main conflicts to be debated. Stripping the power from elected members of the Territories is the first. Federal MPs will consider whether to impose their own view simply because they know what is good for people in each of the Territories, even though hardly any of them represent these people.

The second issue is about an individual’s power of self-determination. It is incredible that MPs were prepared to override this right simply because they “know” what is in the best interest of an individual in great pain and suffering.

They conjure up arguments about actions to protect the surrounding family members or the standards of the community as a whole; they argue legislation

would be too complex, it challenges current community values, that people will make decisions to end their own lives because they believe they are too great a burden on their families and friends. Legislation has worked successfully, albeit briefly, in Australia and in other places and it protects against the “burden” argument by requiring verification by multiple medical practitioners of “unbearable pain and suffering”.

Unlike arguments for the freedom to smoke, the freedom to drive recklessly, to eat junk food or to drink alcohol to excess, this unique personal freedom decision has no broader implications for public health, for future costs, for the economy or for its impact on others. There are no forces such as huge multi-national companies overriding or dominating alternatives.

Good palliative care is critical for people to be able to make genuine choices. Where pain and suffering can be alleviated it is far less likely that people will choose euthanasia.

In the ACT the Clare Holland House hospice and its home-based outreach workers

provide a fabulous service to terminally ill people who choose to continue living, but wish to do so with minimal pain and suffering.

The peak policy body in this area is Palliative Care Australia. This association recognises the distinction between assisted suicide on one hand and support for those who are dying on the other. It takes the sensible position of remaining neutral with regard to euthanasia not pretending to “know best”. The people it represents just get on with the job of doing what they can to ensure quality of life for people who have a fatal condition. It is a shame that we have not seen a similar approach from the majority of our elected members by providing further funding for palliative care rather than interfering in this personal decision.

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health in the Carnell government. He introduced the first voluntary active euthanasia Bill into an Australian legislature.

Drugs happen, let’s work with it

SEVERAL weeks ago I tabled in the Legislative Assembly a discussion paper “Implementing a Needle and Syringe Program” in the Alexander Maconochie Centre, which made the case for providing clean needles to drug users within the ACT’s prison.

This paper was based upon the evidence offered by the international experience of needle and syringe programs and their impact upon prisoner health, drug usage rates within prisons, and security and safety in prisons.

Since the release and tabling of the report, there has been a lot of discussion in the media, the Legislative Assembly and the community about the problem of drugs within the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC).

In an ideal world all prisons would be drug-free environments. However, no prison in Australia or elsewhere in the world has successfully eradicated drug use. The AMC already operates a highly sophisticated security system, with ultra-sensitive metal detectors, full body scanning, trace substance tests, retinal scans, random drug tests and more, and yet still has known incidences of drug use.

Given that drugs are present in the AMC,

Greens’ Assembly member AMANDA BRESNAN explains why, like it or not, the ACT jail needs a prisoner needle exchange program.

how do we then deal with that issue in a way that is consistent with the outcomes the community seeks from a human rights compliant prison, that is, providing an environment in which inmates have the best opportunity to be fully rehabilitated and do not exit prison unhealthier than when they entered?

Prisoner health is an important determinant in reducing recidivism, including a prisoner’s ability to maintain long-term employment. Unfortunately, like other prisons, the AMC has high rates of hepatitis C within the prisoner population and it is likely to be transmitted between prisoners through the use of dirty needles. This directly impacts upon prisoner health, public health and recidivism in our community. All the evidence we have seen makes it clear that implementing a needle and syringe program (NSP) in prisons reduces the rates of blood-borne virus transmission amongst prisoners. Overall, prisons with NSPs have not resulted in increased drug

use, and result in more prisoners accessing drug treatment programs

In advocating for the introduction of a NSP into the AMC, I have always maintained that the health and safety of the corrections officers is of foremost concern, and the evidence shows that the officers are safer in prisons with NSPs. Comments by opponents that implementing a NSP is “putting the human rights of prisoners above the human rights of corrections officers” is unhelpful and inaccurate. Currently AMC staff are at risk due to the presence of dirty needles within the prison, particularly from needle-stick injuries that come as a result of searches. In prisons with NSPs, this risk can be effectively eliminated.

Much of the resistance amongst corrections officers is based upon the perception that needles may be used as weapons. However, again research on the overseas experience shows that there were no needle-based attacks in prisons with NSPs.

Cool, crisp and goodbye to all that

“I LIKE Canberra a lot,” Judy Horacek says, blonde-haired, blue-eyed and racing her words a million miles a minute while an espresso machine screams and the cool cafe set crunch Cornucopia’s pastries.

“That crispness with the beautiful sunshine and that coolness in the mornings – it’s very special,” she enthuses.

After 13 years, nine books, an ANU Bachelor of Fine Arts and two regular stints with “The Weekend Australian Magazine” and “The Canberra Times”, Australia’s most famous female cartoonist is departing Canberra and heading home to Melbourne.

“One of the kids moved to Perth, the other moved to Melbourne, then my partner moved and the cat died and I was the one who didn’t want to move here in the first place and who had the pressing reasons for going!

“My family’s in Melbourne so it was always my plan to go back,” Horacek explains.

“I just left because I was feeling a bit stale. I work on my own so that outside stuff is very important. And I think it’s grown-up to live in a town that’s not the one you were born in. A lot of my friends have never left Melbourne. There are different ways of doing things that are good that you learn from living in different places, not just visiting.”

In the lead up to the Canberra launch of her latest cartoon book, “If

After 1 years living in Canberra, Australia’s most famous female cartoonist is heading home to Melbourne. ELERI HARRIS finds out why

You Can’t Stand the Heat”, Horacek says she takes away positive experiences of the height of her professional career – studying at ANU, learning to write children’s books, her studio at Gorman House, the arts community and autumn leaves.

“I think I do a lot of autumn cartoons and I’m sure that’s to do with Canberra. Autumn in Canberra is so amazing, I’ve keep thinking I’ve got to do some spring or winter cartoons – but I just love all those leaves, it’s such a

beautiful visual time,” she says.

“I think maybe there’s more introspection [in her ACT cartoons].

“I used to do a lot of cartoons about people in cafes banging on about the state of the world and now I think that, in Canberra, my life was less about that and more about somebody walking alone.

“It was last century, when I moved to Canberra, shortly after that I got a regular gig on ‘The Australian Magazine’, which is probably still, in professional terms, the pinnacle of what I’ve had. Then that finished, as these things do, when editors change, they change everything including the cartoonist. Then I had a gig at ‘The Canberra Times’ for a while... I started doing children’s books here, which I hadn’t done before and I also went to art school. I thought, ‘I’ve been doing this for a long time now and it’s only a matter of time before I’m exposed as a fraud. I’d better learn some skills!’.

“So I went to art school and that, in fact, has had a major impact on my work. Not necessarily anyone else would notice, but I know when I’m drawing I’m much more aware of visual things and my ability to put colours together with more depth.

“Most of the years I was in Canberra,

my cartoons almost took a back seat in a way. I still had cartoon books coming out, but the children’s books became a very big thing and the one I did with Mem Fox, ‘Where is the Green Sheep?’ has been a huge success. I feel like I’m living on the Green Sheep’s back at the moment.

“I think Canberra’s a good place to write books, cartooning I found harder. I need the social buzz of the city, I think my cartooning needs that, whereas writing books and rhymes fits in more with Canberra.”

Best known in her cartoons for exploring feminist issues, social justice and the environment, Horacek will be relocating to Brunswick.

“It’s a big restructure of who I am and how I want to earn my living and what I want to do next,” she says.

“Cartooning is great because I can

cherry-pick, I don’t have to have all the facts at my finger tips. I can just say this is the issue and present it in a way people aren’t defensive about because they like cartoons and they like to laugh and so, hopefully, that gets the message out there better than going out with a megaphone and putting my point of view across.”

Judy Horacek’s “If You Can’t Stand the Heat” is on sale now.

Zed wants to know if your life is any better

ACT Opposition Leader Zed Seselja didn’t want to be photographed in his Civic office, so we went to the Glasshouse Café and sat drinking Earl Grey tea on a white linen tablecloth instead.

Two years since the last Territory election, a world away from his 2008 yellow t-shirt army slogan “Zed Instead”, the Canberra-born, former government lawyer calmly and confidently outlines his party’s achievements and hopes for the future.

“You don’t win elections in the first two years of a four-year term,” Seselja said, adjusting his tie.

“You certainly can lose them, but you don’t win them, and for us to be where we need to be in order to take Government in 2012, there is much, much more work to do.”

At the mid-term mark Seselja insists the Canberra Liberals are not, as Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says, in bed.

“I’ve been really pleased with the progress we’ve made in the two years since the last election,” Seselja told the “CityNews”.

“It’s quite a long list when you look at it legislatively, we’ve had stuff like FOI reform, drug driving laws, we’ve got campaign advertising which has passed, Infrastructure Canberra is there, stuff on the Auditor General, emergency services, a whole range.”

But Seselja was more keen to point a

It’s two years to the next ACT election and the Opposition Leader thinks the Labor Government is starting to crack and, he tells ELERI HARRIS, Team Zed is ready to roll to the poll

finger at the Government’s shortcomings than to offer up Liberal solutions, pushing the conversation towards criticism, rather than illustrating the opportunities he said our city was made of back in 2008.

“It’s not our job to get lots of legislation through,” Seselja said.

“It’s our job to hold the Government to account, I think we’ve done a good job there. I think they are starting to show some real cracks after nine years in office.”

Dr Norman Abjorensen at the ANU Crawford School of Economics and Government said this attitude towards opposition is limiting.

“The role of opposition is always twofold, bearing in mind that every Opposition aspires to become the government,” Abjorensen said.

“One is, as Zed suggests, to hold the Government to account which is also the role of parliament. However, the other part of that equation in aspiring to government is to establish credibility as an alternative government, and that requires building trust with the electorate

and developing policies that gives voters a genuine choice.

“To neglect the second part is really to abandon the aspiration to govern and accept virtual permanent status in opposition; it is a sign of despair and defeatism.”

While the Canberra Liberals have focused on attack strategies on the floor of the Assembly, building a refined team of hecklers and questioners, Seselja does tip policy development as a key mission for his party in upcoming years.

“Our very strong task will be to highlight those [Government] failings, to put forward our alternatives and directly communicate with the community about what we can do better,” Seselja said.

“What we will be saying to people at the next election is we will be asking that question, after 11 years of this Labor Government, is your life any better?

“It’s not really up to me to highlight or provide a critique of the Liberal Party. I’ve been really pleased with the progress, what I would say to my team, is that there’s been some good work done, but there’s a hell of a lot more to do in the next two years.”

Dr Ali’s long crusade for children

“I WAS very happy to be coming here because it was a change as I had lots of experience of tension in Afghanistan,” Dr Ali Rahim Ghaznawee MD says earnestly, squinting in the Civic sunlight on London Circuit.

“It is about two and a half months since we arrived here in Canberra and found it very nice, as we have been living in a noisy city in Afghanistan which is too much crowded. When we arrived here we found it very quiet and very friendly.”

Formerly employed by Save the Children and Social Volunteers Foundation in some of the most unstable provinces in Afghanistan, Dr Ghaznawee has dedicated his life to assisting the youngest and most vulnerable in his homeland – focusing particularly on increasing educational opportunities for girls.

“The projects which we had were education mostly for out-of-school girls who had been deprived of going to school and continuing their education for different kinds of reasons. Like insecurity, religious beliefs or customs, lack of schools or lack of female teachers in schools,” Dr Ghaznawee says.

The University of Kabul graduate, who studied in the time of the Taliban, believes so strongly in the importance of educating his country’s women that he has come to our nation’s capital with his seven-month-old baby, Mustafa, and wife, Suraya, so that she may study for a masters degree at the

ELERI HARRIS meets a hopeful Afghani doctor, who left his life and work and, staring down cultural disapproval at home, has come to Canberra for 18 months to support his wife’s study

University of Canberra.

Unable to find “baby-care” for Mustafa, Dr Ghaznawee is settling into an 18-month stint as a stay-at-home-dad, an exceptional situation for an Afghani man.

“In Afghanistan, people don’t even want to help their girls to go to school in their villages,” he says. “They think the girls should be at home. I don’t say that all the people in Afghanistan are thinking like this, but some parts of Afghanistan are against women’s education, girls’ education. They say that women should be involved in household affairs, that they should not be allowed.

“But, some girls I know, they didn’t get married, they stopped and waited and, after the collapse of the Taliban, they started again.

“So my wife also got this chance to continue her education and I was quite committed to help her.

“In the province I live, Ghazni, I can say that lack of educated women to be quite extreme.

“In Afghanistan, in the parliamentary elections, there are people who are just nominating themselves to go to the parliament, but I know that

they don’t have higher education, they don’t know about all these things. They have influence among the people, but you should have ideas. If you don’t have this ideal then how can you bring changes?

“I left my job and life, everything there, in just supporting her [Suraya] here to complete this because it could be a wealth for the people there – to bring changes in the lives of the hundred other girls, women. It’s something that could happen in the future, but I hope that she can help them and also I can get some opportunities to help them.

“Even when I planned it, everyone, my colleagues, say ‘why do you leave?’ I say ‘I’m accompanying my wife doing her masters’. They were just looking in a way that I could read from their minds that there were a hundred question marks ‘what kind of man are you? Supporting your wife doing a masters? Only she has completed her graduation – that’s enough, she can work with that’. So these were all questions in the minds of the others.

“I was confronted with all these things, but I’m not disappointed, I’m very happy. I am hopeful for the future.”

Petula Clark gets dangerous

Arts editor HELEN MuSA talks to singer Petula Clark, who will perform in Canberra this month.

IT’S nearly midnight in London when I put my call through to singer Petula Clark and mumble a polite apology. “Don’t worry,” she replies, “this is my time of night.”

Of course it is. I’m talking to the “Downtown” girl, the “Don’t Sleep in the Subway, Darling” girl and nothing is a worry for her. “My work is not a labour, it’s a great joy for me, I’m fortunate.”

Now she’s coming to Canberra with “You And I”, subtitled “An Intimate Evening with Petula Clark”, and she says that these days she is doing things “a little bit edgy… it’s about the audience and me… it keeps me on my toes… I deliberately do it… I like to do something dangerous.

“Of course, I’ll be doing songs that people expect,” she goes on. “They’ve got the right.”

And while this is an intimate show (“I like that”), she often plays in big venues and emphasises that her work is very far from cabaret. “You have to use a different part of you each time and that’s fun.”

In keeping with her determination to live dangerously, she recently flew off to Minorca, where her long-time composer Tony Hatch lives, and revisited some favourite songs. “We recreated them

– they are a little different now.”

But there will be a few new songs and she’ll be playing the piano more than she used to do.

Clark is inclined to get prickly if you so much as hint that she is maintaining a cracking pace for a septuagenarian.

She sings in Vegas, she tours the UK, she does concerts throughout the US, she play Paris. “I do stuff as it comes along, I work when I feel like it,” she says.

That includes theatre. “I might do a play in New York next year, they’ve asked me to do a play.” And in Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard,” she’s played Norma Desmond more than any other actress.

British-born, she has lived in Geneva for a long time with her French husband Claude Wolff and their three children, though one daughter now lives in New York and another in Paris. They also have a place in the French Alps.

And hasn’t she written her memoirs?

She sighs. Her friends – and recently a publisher – are asking her to write a book, but it doesn’t really go with the territory. “I don’t look back – if you’re writing a book, you have to.”

Petula Clark, Southern Cross Club, Woden, October 23. Bookings to 6282 7288.

Petula Clark… “I do stuff as it comes along, I work when I feel like it.”

Café takes title

WODEN’S Café Ink, established by the Woden Community Service to create employment and training opportunities for people with a disability, has been awarded the 2010 ACT Chief Minister’s Inclusion Award of Excellence. The café has given opportunities to 10 people living with a disability and/or mental health issue. The awards are a public acknowledgement of the achievements of business, organisations and individuals who have demonstrated a clear commitment to include people with a disability in their workplace, business and/or community.

Disability grants

ACTTADS is inviting short applications from people with a disability for one of five grants of $1500 to help them them improve work, sporting, artistic skills, recreational opportunities or their participation in the community. A letter of support from carers that a grant will be beneficial is welcome. Applications, which close Tuesday, October 19, to the secretary, ACTAADS Inc., 17 The Pines Avenue, Sundown Village, Symonston 2609. Enquiries to 6239 7919, 0409 308410 or dca@netspeed.com.au

Happy fellows

CANBERRA scriptwriter Michael Cove and filmmaker Sotiris Dounoukos have been named 2010 Creative Arts Fellows by Acting Arts Minister Katy Gallagher. Each artist receives $45,000 for a year to allow them dedicated time to advance their artistic careers.

Fond memories of nights at the drive-in

THANKS for your article on the Starlight DriveIn (CN, October 7), it brought back so many memories.

As new arrivals to Canberra from Sydney, we set off one July evening for the drive-in theatre. Perplexed by the adjoining cars continually starting their engines, the penny finally dropped before half time as the temperature slowly plummeted. Having no car heater and frozen, we capitulated, and returned home. Our next visit was in our new car and, yes, fitted with a heater!

Denise Page, Yarralumla

WHEN I saw your article on Starlight my heart raced, I thought for moment it was really “opening tomorrow night”!

When I was about 10 years old (early 1980s, I think), we had a special outing to the Starlight which turned into a night I will always remember.

We were the sixth millionth customer to drive through the gate and got rather spoilt with a big bottle of champers, a free annual gold movie pass, six litres of ice cream a week for a year (which ended up being eight litres due to a change in bucket size) and, on the night, got to raid the snack bar and take whatever sweets we wanted! The presentation was in the snack bar and I’m pretty sure my family, classy as ever, received the prize in our PJs! It was all very generous. The sign should make it’s way to a special place! Thanks for the article.

Kath Richens, Palmerston

Readers with memories to share of Starlight Drive-In should drop us a line at editor@citynews.com.au. The best published letter wins a double pass to the Dendy Premium Cinema.

Coming clean

PASSING your allocated prison sentence high or stoned out of your mind negates the punishment. Also, the relentless need for money to feed drug habits is one of the major causes of crime. If the ACT prison can’t keep the drugs out, the question is why? Is the prison badly run or was it incompetently designed?

Anyway, the solution is mandatory drugs testing in the prison and, if caught, solitary with access to a drug rehabilitation program until clean.

trevor Fairhurst via email

Barr is precious

THERE has recently been a contretemps over some planning issues in Dickson. Andrew Barr, as Planning Minister, raised personal protest to the wording of a submission from a community group that had some objections to the planning proposal. If Barr has been reported properly, he used Facebook to claim that the submission was “attacking single people and childless couples who want to live in innersuburban areas.”

Anyone with common sense would recognise Barr’s grumble as precious and mischievous. Barr seems to think that the group’s advocacy was directed at him personally. His use of Facebook to garner support or sympathy for his stance is unconventional to say the least for a Minister, and more akin to an activist advocating an opposing position to a community group.

If Barr, as a Minister, judges all submissions from the Canberra community through the prism of his intimate life and private

emotions, and regards innocent wording as implicit personal criticism, and deliberately misunderstands community proposals, he does not merit further endorsement as an objective representative in the Assembly nor as an ACT Minister.

It is a pity that the community group has apologised to Barr. The apology should have come from Barr, as he mistakenly took offence, when none was intended.

Greg o ’Regan, Farrer

State a mongrel

PETER Blackwell and Alex Satrapa, in their feisty little letters (CN, September 23) , point out the bleeding obvious – there are a lot of bastards out there in the private sector. There certainly are. I’m one of them. But this is not an argument for a larger public sector, because the public sector is worse. If the 20th century belts us around the ears with anything, it is that the State is a mongrel just itching to wage war on its citizens et al, destroying, maiming, killing, legislating, fining. I give you speed cameras as a prime example. We’ve them all round Canberra, and the death toll is a shocker for 2010.

The State should be as small as possible consistent with law and order, defence and the basic infrastructure for citizens to lead decent lives. The State should get out of the bloody way, and cops should be less arrogant and obnoxious. Nonetheless, the State should keep its eye on things to make life hard for shonky operators and minimise the dark side of human nature.

John c leland, Latham

Simple choice, to the power of two

We don’t live in a democracy and haven’t for a century, argues DON AITKIN.

“ WHAT sort of a democracy is this!” said someone indignantly, in one of several discussions I was involved in before Julia Gillard formed her Ministry. The speaker was railing against independents having so much power.

For a moment or two I was back in a political science tutorial.

“Well, it’s not really a democracy at all, is it?” I ventured. “It hasn’t been one for 100 years. Maybe it never was.”

“Fair go!” said someone else. “What do you mean?”

And that gave me the opportunity to get out something I have wanted to say for a while: Australia is an elected oligarchy, not a democracy. We have the rule of the few, not of the people.

In 1910, 100 years ago, Australians went to the polls and elected a Labor Government. Labor won 50 per cent of the vote, and what had just become the Liberal Party won 45 per cent. “Others” won the remaining five per cent, but no one was elected to the House of Representatives who was not a member of one or other of the two major parties.

We’ve had a century of that. We

have had, and continue to have, minor parties, the oldest being the Nationals (first formed, in a trial way, in 1893).

But there really has been no “third force” in Australian politics. The choice, at every election, boils down to Labor or the Coalition. The Australia Party, the DLP, the Democrats, the Greens – none has been able to budge the established two.

The reason is that we the voters have become used to the adversarial, confrontational battle between two rival oligarchies. Only my grandparents, born in the 1880s, could have voted for something other than these two – like Free Trade or Protection, political parties long ago but now simply policy themes within the two major parties.

And for us, the voters, the choice between Labor or Liberal greatly simplifies our task at election time. Probably each of us has a single issue that we think most important, like doing

something about hospitals, or schools, or climate change, or gay marriage, or broadband, or the state of the Pacific Highway near where we live – there are now hundreds of potential single issues.

But ultimately they have to be sorted out and merged into some kind of coherent government program. That is no simple task, and the major parties have to be most sensitive to the

currents of opinion in the electorate so that the program has the right balance.

For this reason, the parties monitor opinion polls closely, and commission their own. The swinging voters tend to go for the more attractive program.

You want to be an MP? First choose your party, and join it. Not a few of the present parliament could have belonged to either party. Then, preferably as a young man or woman, get a

job working for an MP or Senator. Get to be good at your job, and work ridiculous hours. Attract the attention of others in the party, and put your name up for endorsement.

Don’t worry if you’re given an impossible seat: Take the opportunity seriously, and show that you’re keen. The next time you’ll get something better. With any luck, you’ll make it, sooner or later.

What will you know about Australia? Not much, through direct experience. But you are an elected member of one of the ruling parties, and they make up the oligarchy. Now you have time to really get to know the country you live in – and the seat you represent, because it would be a matter of real luck if you came to represent the area you grew up in.

I’m not sending it up, and while I think we could do better, that would mean that we the people would have to devote much more time to the issues of government than we are presently prepared to. Australia’s elected oligarchy system does work reasonably well. If you don’t think so, offer some alternatives.

Don Aitkin, political scientist and historian, was vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra from 1991 to 2002.

Spare the listless and don’t make them vote

Okay, so people have died for the right to vote, but surely the right not to is equally valid, suggests GREG CORNWELL

THE unsurprising news that the informal vote in the recent election was the highest for 26 years set me thinking of the absurdity of those thousands of people listlessly attending a polling booth, simply to have their name crossed off to avoid a fine.

Certainly, some would have made a deliberate act of protest but would not the effect have been the same if they had joined those who didn’t want to turn up? Would the outcome have produced a different result than achieved from all those apathetic attendees?

So why compulsory voting?

Yes, people have died for the right to vote, although one would think in a democracy (which that right hopefully implies) the option not to do so should also be upheld. In any event, with only about 31 countries with qualified compulsory voting, the argument doesn’t have much support worldwide.

We also have a responsibility to vote – a claim which would have more credence were we asked to vote responsibly. Some of the vox pop reasons advanced in the media made the federal election more of a popularity contest than a serious decision about who should run the country.

Disadvantage some sections of society? Despite criticism of our education system, most people are capable of a valid vote for

their candidate and party of choice; otherwise they will vote informal, be none the wiser for doing so and still not be counted. And anyway, we do our best to help such people with the ubiquitous how-to-vote pamphlet.

Non-compulsory voting certainly obliges political parties to work harder to get the vote, which perhaps itself says something about the public’s commitment to their democratic right; however would this encourage more extravagant promises? I’m sceptical because I don’t accept an unpopular party can buy its way back into favour with or without compulsion to attend the ballot box.

Not voting in any case remains an option. You can fail to enrol in time, as happened to many thousands of people before August 21, or you can consciously refuse to register. Again the obligation cannot be enforced and the penalty can only be applied if you’re caught. I wonder nevertheless if someone should be penalised if they genuinely believed they couldn’t take the responsibility of voting? Others who fail to accept far more important obligations often escape society’s wrath. Certainly the queues at polling stations would be less if people could exercise a choice, while the political parties’ war chests would suffer by the subsequent loss of $2 per voter from people forced to cast a valid if reluctant vote, but would non-compulsory voting really make a difference? Would the politicians notice and take heed of any drop in overall commitment to the exercise of such a democratic right?

I suggest you don’t ask.

Greg Cornwell is a former Speaker in the House of Assembly.

Karate and the art of being a better person

By Megan Haggan

THERE’S a big misconception in the community about karate being all about fighting, says martial artist José Roses, from Monash, who’s the joint chairman of the International Okinawan Goju Ryu Federation in Australia. José trains around 50 students of varying ages in his Canberra dojo.

He’s a mechanic and electrician by trade, testing ACTION buses for safety (he’s worked there for 20 years).

“I’ve been doing it [karate] for 40 years,” he says. “I started when I was 18, doing jujitsu and judo, and from there I started to venture out into other things. I tried Goju Ryu, the traditional Okinawan karate, and that was it.

“Goju Ryu is based on traditional ideas, values and training: It’s about teaching your body and mind to be able to cope with different issues, stresses and problems in your life.

“It was designed for self-defence, but that’s not all it is. It’s about understanding your body mechanics, about physical and mental fitness.

“We teach our students that karate is not about picking fights.”

Indeed, part of the discipline is learning about concepts like nutrition as well as awareness of issues around alcohol and other health hazards – “how to care for the body.”

Over the years, Jose’s seen his students become successful in life and attributes this partly to the mental discipline bestowed by Goju Ryu. And two of his sons, Jason and Jonathan, have also followed in his footsteps. Both have been studying karate for several years.

The International Okinawan Goju Ryu Federation has 50,000 members worldwide, and José and his co-chair have reached the highest rank in Australia. “That honour was bestowed on me in Okinawa, and I’ve been head boy in Australia for four or five years now,” he laughs.

He says that karate began in Okinawa with this style, and from there was disseminated throughout Japan and then worldwide. “Tradition, respect and honour were the concepts behind it, though in the olden days it was very brutal.

“These days we try and minimise injuries!” he adds. “It’s about being fit and healthy, not beating people up. We have women and kids among our students and, with the way the world is, it’s good for everyone to know some self-defence.

“Once you begin martial arts there’s a good chance you’ll never be in a fight. You understand how to keep away from trouble, to try and be a better person and be strong. There’s much more to it than the physical aspect.”

The Federal member for Fraser Andrew Leigh... “Canberra is more than its parliament. It is also a place that takes seriously its environmental responsibility, and prides itself on its indigenous heritage.”

I love Canberra because...

THERE are many reasons to love Canberra, but the number one reason is its social connectedness.

Since time immemorial, people have enjoyed the simple pleasure of sharing time with friends and neighbours; of working collectively together in clubs, groups and associations; of strengthening the social ties that bind us together as a people.

These bonds exist between two friends who meet on Friday night for a beer. Such networks link together the members of a local cricket team, who know that trusting teams win more games. And social capital joins together co-workers, who find that working together gets the job done faster.

On virtually every social capital measure, Canberra is at or near the top. Canberra has the highest share of charitable donors and the highest volunteering rate. In a given year, 85 per cent of Canberrans give money to other causes, compared with 73 per cent of those in NSW. When it comes to giving time, 38 per cent of Canberrans volunteer in a given year, compared with 33 per cent of Victorians.

According to the latest data, 47 per cent of Canberrans attended a sporting event in the previous year, compared with 44 per cent nationally. There’s an even bigger difference when you look at those who actually take the field. 41 per cent of

ANDREW LEIGH, the new member for Fraser, told the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney that if Canberra were a person, it would be an egalitarian patriot

Canberrans say that they play organised sport, compared with around 30 per cent in the rest of Australia.

On the cultural front, Canberrans are twice as likely to attend an art gallery or museum than other Australians, more likely to go to the movies, and significantly more likely to go for a stroll around the botanic gardens.

It’s true that we don’t have a Sydney Opera House, but we’re significantly more likely to have attended a musical or opera than NSW residents. We don’t have a Melbourne Arts Centre, but we’re more likely to likely to have gone to a theatre performance than Victorians. For that matter, Canberrans are more likely to have gone to a zoo, a pop music concert, or a dance performance than other Australians.

In 2013, Canberra will celebrate its centenary. Already plans are in place to use this chance to re-engage Australians with their capital, and build legacies that last well beyond the celebration itself. Walter Griffin said that he was de -

signing a city for a nation of “bold democrats”. We need to use this chance to think about how we want Canberra to develop over the century ahead.

If Canberra were a person, it would be an egalitarian patriot – one who understands the past, but isn’t bound by it. Canberra is more than its parliament. It is also a place that takes seriously its environmental responsibility, and prides itself on its indigenous heritage.

In an era when Australians are becoming disconnected from one another, Canberra has some of the highest rates of civic engagement in the nation. Canberrans are more generous with our time and money, more engaged in our local community groups, more likely to play sport with our friends and neighbours, and more likely to participate in cultural activities. Part of the reason for this is that we spend less time in the car than most other Australians. But I suspect that we owe a debt to Marion and Walter Griffin for helping to forge a city in which local communities really mean something.

Andrew Leigh’s new book, “Disconnected”, is being released by UNSW Press this month. This is an edited extract of a speech delivered at the Sydney Opera House’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas on October 3. For the full text of the speech, please visit www.andrewleigh.com.

Video bored the radio star

MARK PARTON spent his two-week break from breakfast radio drinking, playing and, sigh, watching TV

on my two-week break from work I slept in big time, sometimes even past 6am. I drank too much, played in the sun with my girls and re-acquainted myself with one of the biggest wastes of time on the modern world, the television.

When your alarm is regularly set for 3am, you don’t watch much TV. I often feel as though I’m missing out all that culture and entertainment, but I’m always disappointed by what’s on offer when I actually do turn it on.

I never seem to find the answers on TV, only more questions. Who the hell are the Kardashians and why does anybody care about their insignificant quarrels? How is it that Alf from Summer Bay still looks the same as he did 20 years ago? Is Kyle Sandilands real or is he a computer-animated character?

I was well and truly sucked into the Ten coverage of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, though. Hats off to Ten and to the Indians for producing the goods despite a crowd of prophets of doom in the lead-up to the Games.

However, I remain most embarrassed that we lost to Nigeria at table tennis – we must have been scammed somehow. And I will never ever understand synchronised swimming. I’m sorry, it’s just not a sport and never will be.

And I’ll tell you what else I don’t get. I don’t get the diving. I still think that the diving originated when a bunch of swimmers lobbed at the pool one day to do their training but they’d been out at the pub the night before. They were committed enough to drag their sorry arses out of bed to get to the pool, but when they arrived, they found they couldn’t muster the energy to grind out some laps.

So they all said to their swim coach, “We’re here, but we’re hungover. I don’t think we can do any swimming. How about we just jump into the pool and then go home.”

The coach agreed and suggested that hitting the water from a 10-metre platform might wake them up.

The sport of diving was born.

Mark Parton is the breakfast announcer on 2CC.

The fun Cup lunch Melbourne Cup lunch

With Family and Community Day now moved to September, Melbourne Cup Day is back in force as a lunch to enjoy in the office or out.

With many workplaces opting for a Melbourne Cup lunch either catered at the office, or off-site at one of Canberra’s many participating venues, it’s time for the “CityNews” roundup of what’s on offer...

Big day for fun

THE Hellenic Club is gearing up for a big Melbourne Cup Day, with staff set to dress in jockey silks complete with hats, according to the Club’s Philanthi Economopoulos, who describes it all as “a bit of fun.”

November 2 will see the Hellenic Clubs in Woden and Civic host a full luncheon with three-course meal, sweepstakes, TV coverage, entertainment, lucky door prize and prizes for Best Hat and Best Dressed attendees.

According to Philanthi, it’s a good idea to book ahead because, while all restaurants will trade as usual, it’s bound to be a busy day.

There will be extra TAB facilities for people to place bets, plus a big TV in the Triton Lounge, entertainment by Annie and the Armadillos, drinks specials and sweepstakes.

The club is also set to hold its Calcutta promotion, which will be drawn on Monday, November 1 from 7.30pm with a minimum prize pool of $10,000. Tickets are $1 each.

The Hellenic Club of Canberra, Matilda Street Woden (6281 0899) and The Hellenic Club at 13 Moore Street Civic (6162 6777). More information at www.hellenicclub.com.au.

High tea indulgence

THE Rydges Capital Hill is excited about its first Melbourne Cup High Tea, says the hotel’s Brett Boulton: “It’ll be an indulgent three tiers full of yummy items. We’re also doing the big screen, with live coverage of the races, Best Dressed competition and sweeps.”

Brett says that women are increasingly attracted to events such as Melbourne Cup as venues such as Rydges make it a fun day out, ideal to spend with friends.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun. Everyone can get dressed up for a girls’ day out. Instead of traditional-style betting, it’s fun with a glass of bubbly on arrival!”

Because Melbourne Cup Day is once again a stand-alone event, no longer tied to Family and Community Day, the business community isn’t being neglected either – and Brett says it’s a great opportunity for a bit of office bonding.

“It’s always exciting to have that day at the races to get out, have some fun and let your hair down, have a few laughs and a glass of bubbly together.”

More information at www.rydges.com or call 6232 0322 for bookings.

comes racing back advertising feature

Celebrating together

“ALL Australians look forward to Melbourne Cup,” says Arthur Roufogalis, CEO of the Canberra Labor Club Group. “Sport, fashion, food and friends all come together for a day of celebration.

“There aren’t many occasions where the whole of Australia stands still for a moment in time, a moment when history is made.”

Arthur says Melbourne Cup should be enjoyed by all Australians, and invited Canberrans to join the festivities at the Labor Club, “for a fun day filled with Melbourne Cup festivities and horse racing.”

He says: “We will be hosting Melbourne Cup Day luncheons at all of the Labor Club venues, which will feature gourmet food selections, lucky door prizes, sweeps, live entertainment at the Belconnen venue and a Calcutta at Belconnen and Weston Creek.

“The Canberra Labor Clubs are the ideal place to enjoy the Melbourne Cup Race with family and friends.”

More information at www.laborclub.com.au or call 6251 5522 (Belconnen) 6230 0404 (city) 6258 8618 (Gininderra) or 6288 5047 (Weston Creek).

With a bit of spice

BLU Ginger, in Bunda Street, will be available for Melbourne Cup Day lunches, says the restaurant’s Reddy Manne.

Blu Ginger uses the freshest locally-sourced product, plus authentic spices imported directly from the Indian sub-continent, to offer classic, traditional recipes with a modern twist.

As well as offering banquets and a lunch menu, Blu Ginger is able to cater for functions, offering a Melbourne Cup lunch with a bit of spice.

More information at www.bluginger.com.au or call 6247 2228.

At the Canberra Theatre Centre’s 2011 season launch ‘A Lot Can Happen in a Room’, Civic

all about living

Season with room for smash hits

Arts editor HELEN MuSA

previews the Canberra Theatre Centre’s new season

BRUCE Carmichael has a very big lounge-room. It’s the Canberra Theatre Centre, of which he is director, and the theme he’s adopted for the 2011 season, is that “a lot can happen in a room”.

Quite so. At Monday’s launch in that very big room, the main theatre, former “Oz Idol” star Casey Donovan entertained a big crowd with a song from the musical “The Sapphires”. The show, which takes us back to 1969 and a Supremes-style group performing in St Kilda, is one of the several smash hits Carmichael and his team have put together.

Another in the line-up that includes 10 productions and two bonus shows, is BIG hART’s production “Namatjira”, starring Trevor Jamieson and members of Albert Namatjira’s family. Nice timing. Last week the National Gallery unveiled a new gallery devoted to the works of that ill-treated Australian artist.

Carmichael didn’t mind boasting a little. “With the return of Sydney Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare, Sydney Dance Company and Bangarra Dance Theatre, it’s safe to say Canberra Theatre Centre houses some of the best work in the country,” he said.

And sure enough, the SDC’s Rafael Bonachela will join up again with Italian musician Ezio

Bosso to create “Between Breath & Form”, while Stephen Page and Elma Kris will stage the double-bill “Belong” for Bangarra. In what looks like a good year for dance, daring choreographer Lucy Guerin’s “Untrained” will feature Canberra dancers Dean Cross and James Shannon and two “untrained” Canberra dancers.

Bell returns to its favourite theatre, the Playhouse, with “Much Ado About Nothing” directed by John Bell and “Julius Caesar” directed by the new associate artistic director Peter Evans.

From Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre comes Peter Houghton’s biting comedy “A Commercial Farce”. From the Sydney Theatre Company comes “In the Next Room” (the vibrator play) directed by Pamela Rabe and starring film luminary Jacqueline McKenzie.

From the world of showbiz, Reg Livermore and Nancye Hayes will star in Reg’s creation “Turns”, directed by Peter Adams.

After this year’s scarifying offering from the Druid Theatre in Galway, there’ll be another

swig of the Irish with Dublin’s Gúna Nua Theatre Company performing in “Little Gem”. Ah, yes, and there’s the Wharf Revue with Jonathan Biggins, Phil Scott and Drew Forsythe. You’ll have to be quick to get into that one.

Season tickets are now on sale from 6275 2700 or www.canberratheatrecentre.com.au

Where Da Vinci’s science captures the imagination

THIS exhibition is a harmonious blend of commerce, science and art. Its marketers have cleverly piggybacked on Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” with t-shirts of the Vitruvian man and even a Vitruvian Donald Duck.

On the artistic front, the exhibitors have recently brought in reproductions of famous paintings, including the Mona Lisa, digitalised to look as it might have done when Leonardo first painted it. Organisers say the background captioning to “The Last Supper” is “more interesting than Dan Brown”.

But it is the science that captures the imagination. Only made possible by the discovery in 1966 of Leonardo’s codices, or working manuscripts, about 60 models of war (he was a pacifist), flying, nautical, hydraulic machines, pulleys and drills have been

EXHIBITION

The Da Vinci Machines exhibition. Commonwealth Park until November 14. Tickets at the door.

Reviewed by Helen Musa

faithfully reproduced by “Artisans of Florence: Teknoart” under the supervision of the Niccolai firm and verified by UCLA scholar Carlo Pedretti.

Exceptional for any exhibition, all but one of the objects can be touched and worked by visitors. My favourites were scaled-down battlecruisers, a 16th century robot, the flying machines and a bicycle whose authenticity was questioned until Leonardo’s codices revealed his plans for bike-chains.

It’s a cliché to say an exhibition is suitable for all ages, but this one certainly is.

Big print works for studio’s big bash

CONGRATULATIONS to Megalo Print Studio+Gallery, which will hold a big 30th birthday on October 15 at the Kingston Fitters & Turners’ Workshop called “Print Big”. The show will include big works by 10 Megalo veterans – Annie Trevillian, GW Bot, Ampers and Duck & Byrd, Mini Graff, Mike Parr, John Loane, Surya Bajracharya, Robert Boynes, Liam Garstang and Julian Laffan. And it coincides with the NGA’s big print symposium.

QL2 CENTRE for Youth Dance is staging a dance performance called “Hard Yards” at Yarralumla Woolshed at 4pm and 7pm, October 15-16 as this year’s “Chaos” project – QL2’s annual project for 44 auditioned young people from

arts in the city

Helen Musa

Canberra and Cowra aged from eight, with a bit of help from older Quantum Leapers.

A BIT of a coup for Daramalan Theatre students, who had Julie Goss from NIDA giving notes to the cast of their forthcoming production of “King Lear” in a recent workshop on playing Shakespeare. The production opens on October 20 in the school hall.

EMERGING local artist Michelle Day is showing her light and silicone sculptures in her first solo show “Elka

From Michelle Day’s exhibition “Elka Mar is Lost”… is to do with Elka’s grandma’s eye.

Mar is Lost” at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space in Furneaux Street,

Manuka. One of the weirder inclusions is to do with Elka’s grandma’s eye. You can catch it until October 17.

ART Song Canberra’s “Season of Song 2010” has sopranos Susan Ellis and Sarahlouise Owens and Jee Lee on piano in “Don’t Forget Your Lippy!” at the Wesley Music Centre, 3pm on October 17. It features the music of Handel, Brahms and Schreker as well as songs from the Sirens of Cinema, hence the lippy. Tickets only at the door.

“HEAVENS Above and the Earth Below” is mathematician Patricia Van Den Nieuwenhuijzen’s new exhibition of work, inspired by the creation and the book of Genesis, at Watson Arts Centre in Aspinall Street until October 17.

Horror of the fall from grace

BOOK REVIEW

“Inside Story”

By Peter Lloyd,

Allen

& Unwin (rrp $35)

Reviewed by Robert Macklin

ALL journalists and most ABC viewers will be fascinated to read Peter Lloyd’s account of his very public fall from grace. I fall into both categories and devoured it avidly.

Found guilty of possessing methamphetamine (“ice”) in 2008, the long-time South Asia correspondent served eight months in a Singapore jail before returning to Australia and – after a period in the commercial television wilderness – to Aunty’s ample bosom as a producer/reporter on “Lateline”.

The title is apparently intended as a pun and as such it fulfils half its promise. We learn much of what it’s like to be inside a Singapore jail. But almost nothing of the inside story of the events leading to his arrest. He tells us a lot about the terrible experiences he endured covering the Bali bombing, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto (whom he despises) and the 2004 tsunami. They are enough to turn anyone to mind-bending substances for some surcease from the horror. But he reveals next to nothing about the parallel trauma when he leaves his wife and children for a Singapore Airlines steward, a thoroughly unpleasant chap who deserts him in his moment of crisis.

The most telling aspect of the book is the way he strips away the façade of respectability from Lee Kwan Yew’s tyrannical rule. The naked racist oppression of the Singaporean regime will come as a shock to many travellers. Lloyd shows us just what a hateful fascist polity the island state has become. This alone would repay the reader for the journalistic clichés and superficial character studies endured in the telling.

Yes, but it will frighten claustrophobics

“BuRIED” (MA)

CHRIS Sparling’s screenplay for Rodrigo Cortes’ film will probably frighten claustrophobics. Horror lovers might find it tame.

Those for whom challenging drama and witty humour are the principal raisons d’être for narrative cinema may consider its tensions contrived and lacking credibility. Users of movies to escape from life’s hum-drumities may find it tedious. Seekers for mindless entertainment will have to think about it.

But film-goers with eclectic tastes can set its shortcomings aside while waiting to see what happens to truckie Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds, pictured). Paul spends the film’s 88 minutes trying to escape from the wooden box in which he is lying bound, gagged and buried somewhere in Iraq after an IED attack on his convoy. He doesn’t know where or why he’s there.

At first, his only resources are a cell phone with Arabic characters (which he neither reads nor speaks), a liquid-fuelled cigarette lighter, a pencil, his medications and a hip flask. Later he discov-

cinema

Dougal Macdonald

“Buried” resembles George Sluizer’s 1988 buried-alive classic “The Vanishing” only superficially. Its deficiencies don’t render it unpalatable. Just a large tad improbable. AT all cinemas

ers a light stick, a pocket knife and a torch. Half the film elapses before he discovers that in his trousers, there’s a snake of not the expected kind.

The dialogue, cell-phone calls to numbers in the US to seek rescue, mocks the bureaucratic framework of emergency call centre procedures. Only when Paul reaches a no-nonsense Brit in an anti-terrorist agency does some sort of comfort zone appear. That gets totally wrecked when his employer’s HR manager calls to record Paul’s acknowledgements to a questionnaire accepting dismissal and the firm’s abnegation of liability and benefits.

“Me” (2010) by Brayden Vickery, Year 11, Bundarra Central School, NSW, digital print.

Best in ‘Headspace’

ART

“Self/Reflections: Headspace 10” At the National Portrait Gallery until November 7.

Reviewed by Helen Musa

I n this its 10th year – and I’ve seen them all – the National Portrait Gallery makes good on its promise to reach out and give Australia’s secondary students the opportunity for self-examination through all media, although the bulk of the works are in the form of painting, photography or digital print.

Administered through schools, which were asked to nominate six works per school, 700 artworks were submitted and 100 hung, including a whopping 21 entries from the ACT.

A non-competitive project, it offers the artists a great deal of scope. Kim Brandreth, from Campbell High School, for instance, submitted a ceramic work “He/She”, while 12 students from St Anne’s Central School in NSW created a group work, “Here We Are Two”.

Sarah Kwon from West Moreton Anglican College, Queensland, and Brayden Vickery from Bundarra Central School, NSW, play it reflectively with “Inner Calm” and “Me”. Patrick Doepel, from Marist College in

“Inner Calm” (2010) by Sarah Kwon, Year 11, West Moreton Anglican College, Queensland, synthetic polymer paint, charcoal and fixative on canvas.

Canberra, places himself in the landscape with “Self Reflection: Self-Portrait in the Outback”, while the inner animal is explored by Sara Robinson, from Campbell High, in her ceramic work “Cowgirl” and Katie-Rose Tutty from St Aidan’s School Queensland in “Me-Wolf-She-Wolf”.

This is undoubtedly the best “Headspace” so far, with a geographical spread as far as WA and the NT.

JULIA Roberts’ performance in Ryan Murphy’s 140-minute film, based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir of the year she spent searching for herself, is a tour de force.

Old Indonesian actor Hadi Subiyanto as Ketut, the sage whose advice led Elizabeth to set forth along the path to divorce and self-discovery, is also a delight. Javier Bardem as the Latin American whom Liz met in Bali delivers a powerful performance, as does Richard Jenkins as the emotionally-wounded Texan whom she met in an Indian ashram.

It’s been said elsewhere that this film is about a selfish woman concerned for only her own well-being. And why should she not be? The screenplay by Murphy and Jennifer Salt makes no special pleading for Liz’s decision to leave a

Biting and entertaining

THEATRE

“The Clever Country” By Bruce Hoogendoorn. Street Theatre until October 16.

Reviewed by Bill Stephens

A STATISTIC revealing that university science enrolments had dropped by 3000 in five years provided the inspiration for this biting satire by Canberra Playwright Bruce Hoogendoorn.

Cataloguing the travails of scientist Andrew Dean (Bruce Kavanagh), who invents a machine supposedly capable of stimulating minds to improve the ability to draw and play music, provides Hoogendoorn with plenty of grist for wicked comment on the ethics of the science, fashion, advertising and television industries.

When the Minister for Science (David Vallenti) offers Andrew 10 years’ of funding if he can raise science enrolments by 20 per cent in a year. Andrew accepts the challenge, which includes the services of the Minister’s ambitious assistant Sarah (Michelle Cooper) who strongly believes “a message is not as important as the messenger”.

Andrews’ inept attempts to win the challenge are catalogued in a series of well-written scenes, highlighed in the riotous punch-up with the director of a fashion school (Clinton McRobert) during a television show when both men try to attract student Fiona (Jamie Ishfani) to their respective disciplines.

Director Daniel McCusker has his strong cast play the characters in an exaggerated surreal style which works well for the comedy but tends to prevent the characters making much emotional contact with the audience. However, good performances, particularly from Kavanagh, Cooper, Vallenti, Isfahani and a delightfully eccentric Fiona Fox, insures an entertaining, even thought-provoking, evening of theatre.

marriage that wasn’t working out for her. Instead, it presents a heads-up of her observations of life, relationships, decisions affecting others, the importance of delusion-free self-awareness and of finding balance in one’s life.

Calling it a chick-flick does “Eat Pray Love” an unjustifiable dishonor. Gender-neutral, it’s a warts-and-all observation of complex theses, arguments and issues. That it expresses the thoughts and experiences of a woman is mere coincidence. Whether a man might have canvassed the same elements and presented them with equivalent perceptions and neutrality is a moot point, but I can imagine no basis for writing it off as impossible.

Making mistakes and choices that don’t work out is easy. Many people will find that Liz’s quest explores familiar territory. Her treatment is comfortable, compassionate, credible and valid about her undeniable yet reasonable selfishness. Murphy’s telling of her story is handsomely mounted, by and large culturally respectful of Italy, India and Indonesia and delightful in its observations of people.

At all cinemas

Something deliciously different

By Wendy Johnson

MEDITERRANEAN cuisine. It’s wonderfully fragrant, versatile, healthy and a feast for the eyes.

The dishes being served up at Tazé, a new eatery on a strip of interesting restaurants on trendy Genge Street in the city, offers the best of the traditional dishes representing the many cultures of the Mediterranean – including Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey – as well as contemporary tastes for those looking for something deliciously different.

When walking into Tazé, I was immediately struck by the unique blend of massive, industrial concrete Y-shaped reinforcement structures – stretching from floor to ceiling – and the warmth of the rich-coloured feature walls that emphasise the tones of some the seating fabric. The glass behind the bar changes colour and the restaurant’s massive windows let you watch city life as you dine.

The menu’s Mezze section, designed for those who love to share, ranges from $7.50 to $22 and showcases dishes that Mediterranean cuisine is famous for, including vine leaves, zucchini fritters and cigara borek (enticing little cigars made with delicate filo pastry and stuffed with salty feta and parsley). We started with Saganak – grilled haloumi – lightly dusted with flour and a mix of secret spices and served on a drizzle of

tangy balsamic reduction. It was the dish of the night with the haloumi soft and chewy. The mains each command attention in their own right (from $23.50 to $32). My Bursa Iskender was super tasty but almost overflowed the plate. The tender, shaved lamb had been slowly simmered in a vibrant-coloured tomato sauce which was a great partner for the roasted garlic and yogurt dressing. However, the serving size took my breath away – a huge stack of

meat served on a mountain of Turkish rice.

My friend hadn’t enjoyed cabbage rolls for yonks so selected the Sarma and was glad she did. Another super generous serve with three large, rolled cabbage leaves packed with minced veal, rice, delicate herbs and topped with house-made tomato chutney.

Tazé’s wine list is acceptable with whites averaging at $43 a bottle and reds at $55 a bottle. More “by-the-glass” options would be great and I was disappointed that my first two selections were unavailable. We dined early (pretheatre) and the service was a bit too efficient, with our waitress clearing my friend’s dishes before I was finished with mine – oops. Still, we relaxed overall, enjoying the “chill out” music.

Tazé has two great private dining areas on a mezzanine level for smallish groups and there’s a compact outdoor dining area. It’s a little sparse and has a fairly ordinary view of a huge car park.

Tazé is open Monday to Saturday for lunch and dinner. Shop 4, ATO Building, 21 Genge St, Civic. Call 6262 6601.

The steps to getting a six-pack

ACHIEVING a flat stomach, let alone visible abs, is incredibly hard work and there are no short-cuts, according to personal trainer Matthew Quixley, of Body Basics.

“However, there are ways of doing the hard work in a smarter fashion,” he says.

Smart training will allow you to achieve a greater outcome in a shorter period of time than doing hundreds of repetitions of exercises that aren’t targeting your abdominal muscles effectively, according to Matthew.

“If you’re still training this way, the intensity and technique of the exercise would quickly drop off, turning into a light cardio workout with a high chance of injury,” he says.

“It’s not that some people have a six-pack and others don’t – it’s just that the people that do have cut abs are toned enough for it to be visible.

“So in other words, you have

to lose fat, and get your body fat percentage to around 12-16 per cent (depending on your body type) to get a noticeable six-pack.

“The less body fat you have, the more defined your abs will look.”

Unfortunately, Matthew says you can’t spot reduce fat in the area you want to lose fat.

“You lose fat in some areas first, based on genetics,” he says. “What makes a six-pack so hard to get is that most people store a lot of their fat around their midline, and it’s usually the last place they’re going to lose it from!”

The best way to get visible abs is to do a combination of fat-burning and training the abs

“You have to lose fat, and get your body fat percentage to around 12-16 per cent to get a noticeable six-pack,” says trainer Matthew Quixley.

effectively so they grow and become more visible, without having to become as thin as a twig, according to Matthew.

“I like to call this the ‘grow and show’ style of training, which is training the abs with high intensity and minimal rest to increase their strength and size,” he says.

“When training the abs you only want to go for three to five minutes max, with no more than 10-20 seconds rest between sets.

“Crunches and Russian twists (if done properly) are simple yet effective exercises that you can

do at home.

“The main thing when you’re doing any abdominal training on the floor is to keep your shoulder blades off the floor at all times, this will activate your abs. Once you can do 15-20 reps of an abdominal exercise, then you have to progress the exercise to make it harder. This can be done by adding extra weight or changing the position of your hands.

“You will have to make the exercise harder week by week, or you won’t get the results that you’re after.”

Health starts in the mind

By Megan Haggan

THE key to health and fitness all begins in the mind, says Angie Warrener from One Life Workshops.

“We always talk about healthy food for the body, but we also need to think about healthy language and its effect on the mind,” she says.

“We all have a positive and a negative side. The negative side is the part of us that tells ourselves, ‘I shouldn’t have done that’ instead of something healthy, like ‘well, that didn’t work out, but next time it will’.”

She used as an example the practice of thinking we “should” do something, such as exercise, instead of “could” – this gives us a sense of duty, instead of a sense of possibility, and may make us resentful at the thought of exercise.

“If you’re not filling your body with great, nutritious food, you won’t be physically healthy. The same goes for the mind: You need to fill it with positive thoughts.

“Choosing certain words and ways of thinking actually

makes us feel different. Saying I ‘should’ exercise creates such a negative feeling.”

The importance of choosing positive language is particularly pertinent when we’re undergoing one of life’s transitions: everything from leaving a marriage, to starting a new job, to embarking on lifestyle changes like a new diet and exercise regime.

“People aren’t fabulous at change – we’re creatures of comfort and like to pull ourselves into ruts. But we all have the power to change that.”

Kirsty gets a buzz from belly dancing

By Megan Haggan

BELLY dancing is one of the best things women can do to improve their self-esteem, says local teacher Kirsty Duncan, who was recently a finalist in the Bellydance Star Awards 2010, held in Sydney.

“It looks good on any body type, and the movements are well-suited for women’s bodies,” says 20-year-old Kirsty, who also performs ballet and contemporary dance. “I have watched my students through their journey of belly dance, and experienced myself what belly dancing does for selfesteem.

“It gets women in touch with their bodies, and gets them feeling beautiful and accepting themselves.

“I love watching my students

evolve. In their first class, most of them are petrified. After eight weeks, they’re dancing as though they’ve been doing it all their lives: it gives me a real buzz!”

Kirsty began belly dancing at the age of 13, when she accompanied her mother to a class. Seven years later, she along with three others have just taken over teaching at Bahirah Bellydance, when founder Kirrily Wasserman moved to Brisbane.

“It’s a pretty big school, and had just over 100 students when Kirrily left: we didn’t want to see the community fall apart, wanted to continue with what she had done,” says Kirsty.

“It’s been great. We have four or five teachers with unique styles, so the school has grown in diversity.”

Kirsty says the Canberra belly dance community is vibrant and supportive, and made up of women from a variety of backgrounds. “I teach a group of Islamic ladies, and another group of highschool girls, most of whom are

from the US,” she says.

“Women from a lot of different cultures and backgrounds now do belly dancing; it’s really inclusive!”

Kirsty says her favourite styles are classical Egyptian and Romani (Turkish Gypsy) dancing. “Egyptian because it’s very elegant, feminine and uplifting; Turkish is more earthy and has a lot of attitude. Each style has

its own rhythm; the way you carry yourself when dancing is different.”

Bahirah Bellydance will host the B’dazzled Show, headlined by Sydney belly dancer Jrisi, on Saturday, October 16 at the Kremlin Bar.

“What we hope to do with the show is aim for a variety of dance, not just belly dance,” says Kirsty.

Wee really don’t understand UTI!

on LY half of Australians understand that urinary tract infections are caused by bacteria, and so may be taking measures to combat them that don’t work.

That’s according to an online survey by Kidney Health Australia and The Cranberry Institute, which found that while nearly half of us experience a UTI in our lifetimes, we don’t understand how to prevent and treat them.

To treat a UTI, three-quarters of respondents said they’d make an appointment with their GP, 25 per cent said they would either increase their fluid intake or take urine alkalinising agents, and one in 10 use painkillers to relieve the “sting”.

To prevent UTIs, two-thirds of respondents said they would simply take care of their personal hygiene, and one in four said they would wear cotton underwear.

According to Dr Tim Mathew, medical director of Kidney Health Australia, cranberries have been shown to be effective in the prevention of UTIs in general practice for those prone to recurrent infections.

“Studies have shown that cranberries may be effective as they contain unique compounds known as proanthocyanides (PACs) which inhibit bacteria from adhering to the urinary tract wall,” he said.

open garden

Dianne’s giant, gorgeous garden

Wo RDs: Kathryn Vukovljak

PH otos: s ilas Brown

A SPECTACuLAR, shady allée lined with Manchurian pear, currently dotting the ground in fallen blossom, is a gorgeous feature of Dianne Anderson’s Red Hill garden – “It’s lovely with the blossom, isn’t it? It’s like snow,” she says.

Dianne’s stunning 4000sqm garden will open as part of the Australian Open Garden Scheme to promote the knowledge and pleasure of gardening.

“It’s a bit of a work-in-progress, and since we last opened to the public there have been many changes,” she says. These include the addition of a 150,000-litre underground concrete rainwater tank, levelling a grassed

sloping area, a re-design of the pool area, removal of some lawn and new rock retaining walls in the driveway.

“It was hard for us to watch the garden being basically destroyed putting in the water tank,” said Dianne. “But now we have an alternate water resource and the garden is taking shape again.”

Dianne enjoys designing, implementing and maintaining the garden and keeps the lawn in check with her ride-on mower. Gardener Mike Bayley does the hedges, lawn edges and heavy work. “It can be a lot of work,” she says. “But I really do enjoy it.”

When Dianne and her husband Brian bought the property in 1997, it was “pretty bland, with very small garden beds and lots of lawn”. Now there’s a large camellia hedge for privacy, a huge, thriving bulb garden (daffodils, hellebores and white tulips abound at the moment), a pretty, cottage-style cubby (adored by grandchildren Sam, Charlotte and Arabella) and of course the beautiful allée.

“The allée is just lovely in summer – it has grown enormously since our last open garden,” she says.

Dianne has a comprehensive automatic drip system for all the garden beds, which is run from a small shed, so that any one area of the garden can be watered when needed.

The house and garden have a colour palette of blue and white to give a sense of connection between the two, but also for another, more personal reason. “Brian is colour-blind to red on green, so with a blue and white scheme he can enjoy the garden that much more,” she says. Hence the use of bluebells, forget-me-nots, blue perennials, star jasmine, purple catmint, white Japanese wildflower and lavender throughout the space.

Brian isn’t a gardener, which Dianne says has positives and negatives. “Sometimes I think it would be nice if we could work out here together,” she muses. “But on the positive side, this way I can make all the decisions myself!”

The garden at 57 Arthur Circle, Red Hill, will be open on Saturday, October 23 and Sunday, October 24, 10am4pm. Adults $6, children under 18 are free. Funds raised will go to the Open Garden Scheme and The Australian National Eisteddfod. There will be musicians performing at 11am and 3pm each day, a sausage sizzle and tea and coffee available, as well as Christmas puddings for sale. More information at www.opengarden.org.au.

Saluting unsung heroes

CARERS Week will take place from October 17-23, with a celebration planned for Tuesday, October 19, at the National Gallery of Australia.

THE week celebrates the work of the 2.6 million unpaid family carers who make a vital contribution to Australian society by providing care and support for family members and friends with a disability, mental illness or disorder, chronic condition, terminal illness or who is frail.

More information at www.carersaustralia.com.au

Caring for carers carers week

CARERS need to take the time to ensure that they look after themselves, says Phil Whitelock, of The Wheelchair Factory, which supplies mobility aids such as wheelchairs and scooters.

“If you have a wheelchair that weighs 25kg which you, as a carer, have to pick up and put in the boot all the time, and you’re 55 yourself, it’s

going to be difficult for you,” he says.

“It’s a matter of matching the right tools to the comfort and safety of the patient, but that also applies to the carer, so they don’t get hurt.”

Caring can be isolating, so it’s important not to exacerbate the situation, he says.

“By changing a wheelchair to a 12kg one instead, it may be easier for the carer to lift.

“When you have kids, you buy a pram: It’s not a luxury item, but a management tool. We’re often talking about the other end of life with mobility aids, but it’s the same principle: You have to match the tool to the purpose.

“The carer’s health and well being is important to the patient: They need respite, they need help and they need the most appropriate tools available to make management easier, because if you get hurt, who’s going to look after your loved one?”

More information at www.wheelchairfactory. com.au or call 6288 3106.

Finding flexibility in working week

PROFESSIONAL carers need flexibility in terms of where and when they work, says Bob Hardie, chief executive officer of the Canberra-based Professional Nursing Agency.

“We replace short-staffing in the hospitals and nursing homes – we’re a placement agency,” he says. “We have quality standards and a remedial training program that none of the others have; for three years in a row we’ve been the only nursing agency or facility that was in the finals for Employer of the Year for the ACT.”

Bob says that many people are moving away from full-time employment, instead seeking to

work hours that suit them.

“They want flexibility for their family lives, to be able to work when they want. At the moment in a lot of facilities they run a rotating roster and so, as an employee, you don’t have much say in when you’ve got to work.

“Our people can, for the duration of the school holidays, for example, make themselves unavailable so they can spend time with their kids. Essentially, they can choose when to work, and where.”

More information at www.professionalnursing.com.au or call 6258 5243 or 6241 6292.

your week in the stars

With Joanne Madeline Moore October 18-24

ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)

Rams are always butting in with advice but don’t help others unless they ask you first. Everyone has their own unique way of solving problems. Saturday’s Full Moon is in your sign, which fires up your enthusiastic nature. Be inspired by Sarah Bernhardt (born on October 22): “Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.”

TAuRuS

(Apr 21 – May 20)

Venus is still reversing through your partnership zone (until November 8) so you’re in the process of re-evaluating close relationships and casual associations. Some will stay and be strengthened – and some will go. Don’t let jealousy rear its ugly head. If your self-esteem is high, then you’ll rise above possessive behaviour and petty jealousies.

GEMINI

(May 21 – June 21)

Mercury moves into Scorpio on Thursday (until November 9) which will improve your concentration and deepen your insights. It’s time to look beneath the surface gloss to discover what’s really going on. The Full Moon lights up your networking zone, so get out there and make business contacts, and expand your social network ASAP.

CANCER (June 22 – July 22)

Is your Crab cave nurturing you – or is it starting to resemble a cage? It’s time to crawl out of your comfort zone and present your ideas to a wider audience. If you’ve been feeling low, Saturday’s Full Moon energises you and provides a muchneeded confidence boost. You’ll be in the public eye – let’s hope it’s for all the right reasons!

LEO (July 2 – Aug 22)

Positive Sun/Neptune aspects see your heart strings tugged and your compassion soar. Lions to the rescue, as you help someone in need or become more involved in your local community. Family issues from the past may resurface. It’s up to you to swallow your pride and offer the olive branch of peace, as you get communication flowing again.

VIRGO (Aug 2 – Sept 22)

Separating your wants from your needs is a must in the current economic climate. Saturn is asking you to cut your consumption and get by with less. Being thrifty is the new black and you’re wearing it! Your bank balance will be happier – and so will Mother Earth. Saturday favours passionate embraces, close encounters and intimate rendezvous.

LIBRA (Sept 2 – Oct 2)

It’s not a good time to make expensive purchases or investments. With Venus reversing through your money zone (until Nov 8) you’re likely to overvalue things. The challenge this weekend is to get the balance right in close relationships. You love to please others but make sure you’re not doing all the giving, while they’re doing all the taking!

SCORPIO (Oct 2 – Nov 21)

Scorpios can be stubborn and unforgiving souls. Are you holding onto a grudge or old belief system? It’s time to question outdated attitudes; break free from the past; forgive others; and then move on. Your inspiration for the next seven days is from Mahatma Gandhi: “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

SAGITTARIuS (Nov 22 – Dec 21)

On Thursday, some star signs will get involved in ego games and guilt trips. So it’s up to sunny Sagittarians to rise above petty power plays and set a good example with enthusiasm and plenty of positive vibes! It’s also the perfect time to connect with your playful inner child, as you foster new friendships or reboot an old romance.

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 1)

This week is all about getting the balance right between work responsibilities and domestic duties. It’s a tough juggling act but, with passion and persistence, you can do it. Thursday is a tricky day when diplomacy will get you a lot further than bossy demands. A loved one longs for more independence so take the time to listen to their needs.

AQuARIuS (Jan 20 – Feb 18)

Aquarians hate budgeting but you’d be smart to do so, as your finances are in a state of flux. You’ll raise a few eyebrows and ruffle a few feathers this weekend, as the Full Moon fires up your communication zone. You’re in the mood to be super honest, as you raise controversial topics and air your unorthodox views. Look out world!

PISCES (Feb 1 – Mar 20)

Money matters that surfaced last month may crop up again. When it comes to joint finances, keep the lines of communication open. Don’t put your head in the sand – avoidance will only make matters worse. Saturday’s Full Moon is in Aries, so tackle projects you’ve been putting off, and approach problems with a proactive plan. Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2010.

general knowledge crossword

Across

1 What, unofficially, do we call a woman in charge of hospital nurses?

7 Name a crystallised violet or purple quartz used in jewellery.

8 What is a pendulous fold of skin under the throat of cattle?

9 Which term describes wealth, riches, or affluence?

10 Name a pen, or enclosure for horses, cattle, etc.

11 One who indulges in wickedness and sin is a what?

14 What is a term describing the practice of morbid self-conceit?

18 Which marine gastropod mollusc is found adhering to rocks?

19 Name the north-eastern NSW town, postcode 2382.

21 In astronomy, what is the point in the orbit of a satellite most distant from the earth?

22 What do we call a male council representative?

23 What are guitar-like instruments of India?

Down

1 Which substance is used in treating disease?

2 Name the straight-edged strips used in drawing lines, measuring, etc.

3 The Battle of Waterloo marked an end to the reign of whom?

4 Lima is the capital of which South American republic?

5 What is a piece of hand held defensive armour used to protect the body in battle?

6 The human spirit is known as the what?

12 Which word describes natives of Rome?

13 What is a colloquial term for goods trains, in the US chiefly?

15 Name those who rob graves.

16 Which metallic body possesses attracting properties?

17 To bring in merchandise from another country is to do what?

20 What is an alternative term for an explosive device?

Solution next week

Boom times in Barton property

By t im Humphrey

IT company CSC is experiencing growth and has committed to an additional 935sqm of office space in Canberra’s prestigious inner south. The company is taking up the remaining area on level 1 at Pharmacy House at 15 National Circuit in Barton. The latest deal will increase its total occupancy in the A-grade building to about 2970sqm.

Michael Ceacis, director of government services at Colliers International, brokered the five-year deal on behalf of current building owner Pharmacy Guild of Australia at a rate of $430 per sqm (gross +GST).

Gavin Martin, of Jones Lang LaSalle, represented CSC as its tenant advocate.

“The new lease to CSC takes 15 National Circuit to full occupancy, which is a real positive in light of the rising vacancy levels across the national capital,” Mr Ceacis said.

Barton remains in demand as one of Canberra’s premier office districts, in many respects rivalling the CBD. The largest recent commitment to space in the area was to the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s department. It is taking 8000sqm of A-grade space in ISPT’s planned 4 National Circuit

PWC sublease at 25 National Circuit...1588sqm on offer.

development.

There are currently only three options above 1000qm for tenants in Barton, which include 4000sqm over two floors in the Burns Centre at 28 National Circuit, 6,178sqm at 6 National Circuit (available through Colliers International), and the 1588sqm PWC sublease at 25 National Circuit (on offer through Raine & Horne Commercial).

Mark Terracini, director of leasing at Raine & Horne Commercial confirmed that the PWC space is on the market at an asking rental from $420 per sqm.

“The tenancy is one of the best south of the lake which

has an existing A-grade standard fit-out in place. For organisations wanting to move quickly, the fit-out and furnishings can be included in the deal if required,” he said.

Larger office occupiers that have recently come to the market seeking alternative options in Canberra include BAE Systems (3000sqm+), CPSU, (1500sqm), Schneider Electric (1000-1100sqm) & Serco (800-1000sqm).

Tim Humphrey is editor of “Property Daily”, a market news and intelligence service focused on commercial property markets nationally. www.propertydaily.com.au

0414 622 926 3BR J

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Agent

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