150827 citynews

Is social media wrecking your neck?

MURRAY FISHER

Tobacco’s galling grab for kids’ data

MICHAEL MOORE

Fear, loathing and the GST

JOHN SCHUMANN

Failed tax that chokes the city

CATHERINE CARTER

FUZZY fairytales

Well written, well read

Little Red Riding Hood is in for a big surprise. Arts editor HELEN MUSA goes ‘Into the Woods’

Physiotherapist and Lymphoedema Practitioner

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Arts & Entertainment 19-21

Canberra Confidential 18

Cinema 20

Dining 21

Gardening 22

Horoscopes 23

Letters 10

News 3-13

Politics 7 & 10

Puzzles 23

Socials 15-17

Sport 12

1993: Volume 21, Number 31

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Is social media wrecking your neck?

My worry is the way accessing social media requires moving the head forward and the effect this has on the neck.

A DECADE ago, the way backpacks were worn by younger people in the ACT was one of the most significant postural concerns for me, as a chiropractor.

These days, the new postural concern is social media usage, which appears to be increasing every year.

Findings of a recent, three-year study of 1049 people in Hong Kong revealed that 70 per cent of adults and 30 per cent of children and teens reported that their use of electronic devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers, had caused neck, shoulder, wrist or finger pain.

if leaning the head forward or rounding the shoulders becomes the norm it’ll be difficult to correct during adulthood.

As a chiropractor, my worry is the way accessing social media requires moving the head forward and the effect this has on the neck.

It has been estimated that young people spend two to four hours a day with their heads tilted forward reading and texting on smartphones and other devices to access social media.

The Hong Kong study also measured the weight of the head in a neutral position, and in increments as the head position moved forward.

Texting… as the head bends forward, the weight on the neck increases dramatically.

Researchers,

what these warned that

A human head weighs 4.5kg to 5.5kg in the neutral position, but as the head bends forward, the weight on the neck increases dramatically, as we can see here:

• In a neutral position the head weighs 4.5kg-5.5kg.

• At 15 degrees, the weight of the head increases to 12.3kg.

O’Dea

• At 30 degrees to 18.2kg.

• At 45 degrees to 22.3kg.

• At 60 degrees to 27.3kg – almost five times as heavy as in the neutral position!

Looking at these figures, heavy social media users complaining of neck and shoulder pain and headaches is predictable.

MURRAY FISHER

The time young people spend accessing social media equates to an extra 700-1400 hours a year of extra stress on the neck.

It’s extremely unlikely that this situation will improve so, as a chiropractor, this is of significant concern to me, as it should also be to all social media users and parents.

Murray Fisher is a Civic-based chiropractor and can be contacted at 6257 1138.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, off to bomb Syria we go...

Golly, if you didn’t know better you’d think Tony was preparing for a khaki election.

FASCINATING to watch the Abbott Government orchestrating the “war on terror”.

First the obscure backbencher Dan Tehan pretended he hadn’t checked with the PM before calling for an extension of RAAF bombing raids into Syria. Tony responded coyly that no formal request had yet been received; but his earlier comments about legal problems re Syria v Iraq were null and void, he said, because “the morality is the same”. Tony’s media mouthpiece, the Murdoch press, thought it was a wonderful idea. Vice Admiral David Johnston, the chief of joint ops, weighed in supporting the expansion while warning it would be “a significantly more dangerous environment” and sensibly noting it

would reduce RAAF attacks on Iraq targets. Next, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said scores of young Australians had been stopped at airports on the way to fight with IS. Then to no one’s surprise came news that the Americans had made it official with a formal request. Golly, if you didn’t know better you’d think Tony was preparing for a khaki election… maybe even the crucial Canning by-election next month.

THE Press Gallery had lots of fun with their reports of Cabinet leaks, especially the PMO’s talking point that Cabinet was operating “exceptionally well”. It ran rather counter to Abbott loyalist Senator Eric Abetz’s outburst that his leaking colleagues were “gutless”.

One of them (tongue-in-cheek) demanded that Tony “rebuke” poor Eric for confirming the leaks. To which Eric replied that his remarks were “taken out of context”. Well of course they were, dear.

SORRY to see Tony Abbott bowing to the

dose of dorin

Aboriginal leaders’ demands that they will decide the terms of the referendum on constitutional recognition. He had it right the first time – it’s a joint

ROBERT MACKLIN

operation and should never be allowed to become a “them and us” issue. Alas, that now looks inevitable.

CLOSER to home, there’s a pleasing politesse as we approach the ACT elections. While Andrew Barr is a conscientious Chief Minister, Lib Leader Jeremy Hanson is right to suggest his government is looking

increasingly tired. And lame duck Simon Corbell’s decision to retain all his ministerial posts till the election prevents the emergence of an engaging replacement… if indeed one exists.

FORMER Labor Minister John Hargreaves’ call for $50 notes to be allowed in Canberra’s poker machines – which help fill Labor’s campaign coffers – was not helpful. “I am not such a wet sop as to deny people a bit of fun,” he said. Is Mr Hargreaves’ definition of “fun” really pouring the family pay packet into the pokies?

GOOD to see a proposal to restore that Yarralumla eyesore, the Brickworks, to become a lively centre of galleries and coffee shops. Timber specialist Thor Diesendorf is driving the project with a team of Canberra architects. It should be a real asset to the suburb and the city. And not before time.

FINALLY, the kerfuffle over Nick Kyrgios’ nasty sledge at Stan Wawrinka refuses to die. Even his mate Thanasi Kokkinakis weighed in to say it was “out of order”. Nick is now in danger of being defined by it... such a contrast to the wonderful young Aussie golfer Jason Day whose US PGA victory was universally applauded.

robert@robertmacklin.com

Big Tobacco’s galling grab for data on kids

FIONA Nash, Assistant Federal Health Minister, reacted strongly on learning a tobacco company trying to use freedomof-information laws to access taxpayerfunded research on children’s attitudes to cigarettes.

“If tobacco companies are obtaining research on young people through state FOI to increase their sales to children, then I am appalled,” the NSW senator said.

The tactics have been exposed. The FOI is for the data behind the survey. Its results are public.

When British American Tobacco decided to launch an FOI into the Australian Secondary Students Alcohol and Drug (ASSAD) survey it put the lie to one of Big Tobacco’s claims that it is only interested in selling its lethal product to adults.

Tobacco might be legal. However, the work of a team led by ANU academic Prof Emily Banks examining a cohort of more than 200,000 Australians illustrated that when tobacco is used as directed by the manufacturers, on average, it shortens lives by 10 years. This is a toxic, lethal substance.

When lashing out at British American Tobacco, Senator Nash revealed that it doesn’t matter which party is in power – efforts will be made to further and further marginalise smoking.

“Smoking causes great harm to Australians, leads to deaths from cancer, lung and heart disease, and hurts families,” she said.

“The Coalition Government has powered ahead with plain packaging and invested in reducing smoking rates, including a particular focus on indigenous communities”.

The Cancer Council Victoria is responsible for the ASSAD survey, which questions around 25,000 students on a regular basis. The ASSAD survey is run as a collaboration between Cancer Councils and the federal and state Departments of Health.

According to them, British American Tobacco is seeking the data behind this survey. It has attempted to obtain the material “on the proviso that it would remain

confidential and not be used for commercial purposes”.

The Cancer Council has good reason not to trust any Big Tobacco company. After the number of lies, deceits and trickeries that have been exposed in Big Tobacco’s activities over the years it is hardly surprising that its efforts are being resisted.

However, it’s the way the survey is funded that provides an opening for the company to be able to use the FOI process. The problem is that in 2012 the CEO of the Cancer Council of Victoria, Todd Harper, pointed out that “the survey showed preventative health policies and programs, such as graphic warnings on packaging and an increase in smoke-free areas, had made a significant impact”.

The director general of the World Health Organisation, Margaret Chan, has provided a warning. Earlier this year she said: “The tobacco industry would be delighted to see a drop in the drive for control, especially regulatory control.

“They invest heavily in making this happen”.

Despite all of its ludicrous attempts to argue the case against plain packaging and other measures to stem the use of tobacco, Big Tobacco knows that many more countries are lining up to follow the lead set by then-Health Minister Nicola Roxon in introducing plain packaging for the first time. Other successful measures introduced in Australia are also in their gunsights.

British American Tobacco spokesman, Mark Connell, claimed that “children are not, and will never be, our audience and we have always made this clear”. The irony! Its demands on the Cancer Council Victoria, however, could never be construed in any other way than an attempt to work out more effective ways to get its product to Australian and other children.

The intention of FOI legislation was to ensure the public interest. The Victorian Health Minister, Jill Hennessy, said: “Let’s not kid ourselves. They’re not after this information for altruistic purposes” and added that she was willing to examine current legislation to see if changes were needed to prevent any future access to the data.

This galling attempt by Big Tobacco is not in the public interest.

Michael Moore was an independent member of the ACT Legislative Assembly (1989 to 2001) and was minister for health. He is the CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia.

Roverworks

Call today: 6241 8777 Check us out on the web at: roverworks.com.au

Email: info@roverworks.com.au 38 Hoskins

House mates who need a good push

THERE was some concern last week that the burgeoning army of flacks and carpetbaggers who encircle the people’s servants on Capital Hill have grown so numerous that the cavernous Parliament House can no longer safely contain them.

Alternative arrangements are being sought and, having spent eight years of my life in the corridors of power, besides standing ready as the nation’s servant, I have a few helpful suggestions to make.

Anyone pondering how to deal with a shortage of space in Parliament House would do well to hit up Google Maps and have a browse around the precinct.

Aside from the beautiful interior gardens of the building (well worth a visit on an open day if a parliamentary pass eludes you) the surrounds of the building contain numerous sporting facilities.

Aside from the gym and swimming pool inside the building the outer precinct contains a sports oval, six tennis courts, and a basketball court.

Thanks to the main building being built on a hill there’s pretty ample opportunity to build more low-impact office spaces on these largely unused facilities without disturbing the

There’s precious little good reason in 2015 for the press to have offices inside Parliament House. Most press galleries make do with a building nearby.

parliamentary sightlines.

But before taking such drastic measures there are two large chunks of the building being put to uses largely unknown in similar democracies.

Having a Ministerial Wing built into the parliament building is a real bastardisation of parliamentary democracy.

In my opinion, the executive government should not be sharing space with the legislature.

Ministers already have vast departments across Canberra in which they could set up their offices.

One could argue that the departments would be run much better without absentee ministers. Certainly, it might help with the problem of ministerial offices transforming into mini departments.

And then one’s thoughts turn to the Parliamentary Press Gallery, with

offices taking up the top floor of the Senate side of Parliament.

Journalists do traditionally need access to the viewing spaces of Parliament.

A decade ago they also needed access to the Parliamentary TV service, which could be tuned to either house of parliament or any committee room.

These days the internet makes that available to anyone anywhere.

There are also the press-release boxes, where photocopies of media releases are dutifully shoved into pigeonholes, a process which seems almost medieval when a single email list would suffice to service all who wished to sup of the public discourse. Finally, the press-release box area contains a button with an electric bell. The important (or mischievous) can ring the bell to summon scribes to pay attention to them. Again, an email list could achieve much of the same

function of alerting reporters to a media event.

There’s precious little good reason in 2015 for the press to have offices inside Parliament House. Most press galleries make do with a building nearby.

However, there are a number of bad reasons that bear thinking about.

If a political operator wishes to influence a journalist, perhaps with a juicy leak, it’s easier when occupying the same building.

It’s not entirely clear that entertaining and facilitating the dark arts is worth the expense.

John Griffiths is the online editor for citynews.com.au

Memorabilia wanted

ST Philip’s Anglican Church, Bungendore, is appealing for the loan of memorabilia to enrich its 150th anniversary display of baptismal and wedding clothing through the generations, old prayer and hymn books, photos and anything else that reflects the past and of the church.

The sesquicentenary will be celebrated at a family fun day, 10am-3pm, on Saturday, October 10, at St Philip’s in Gibraltar Street, with a jumping castle, old-fashioned games, tours of the church, morning tea, a barbecue lunch, a big cake and more.

The church’s 9am service the following day will commemorate the years past and its future.

Memorabilia offers to 6238 1251 or office@bungendoreanglican.org.au

Olympic insights

GUEST speaker Deborah Poulton will talk about the London Paralympics at the Weston Creek View Club’s next monthly lunch meeting at the Southern Cross Club, Woden, on Tuesday, September 1. Interested ladies and new members welcome. Lunch is $26 and rsvp to 6288 5064 by Friday, August 28.

Songs of praise

A FUNDRAISING gala for the 20th anniversary of the Newborn Intensive Care Foundation at Canberra Hospital will feature choirs, the National Capital Orchestra and soloists such as Steve Amosa, Louise Page and Rachael Duncan at Llewellyn Hall, 7.30pm, Saturday, September 5, bookings to ticketek.com.au

Wind of support

THE Canberra Wind Symphony, under the baton of Geoff Grey, will present “Blown Away!” at the Ainslie Arts Centre at 6.30pm and 8pm, Friday, September 4, in support of beyondblue, which is helping fight depression in Australian farmers. Bookings via eventbrite.com.au

Non-stop cancer warriors who never say die

Kathryn Vukovljak reports

FROM shaving off all her hair to selling homemade kids’ dress-ups, Rosemary Drabsch is so dedicated to fundraising for the Cancer Council that it’s become a yearround occupation in her retirement.

Rosemary heads up the “lively” Bold Bandannas, a Relay for Life team made up of mostly retired preschool teachers from all over the ACT. The team started in 2000 and has so far raised more than $245,000 for cancer research.

“We’re called the Bold Bandannas because at the Relay for Life, most of us wear pants made out of bandannas sewn together,” she says. “We also wear funny wigs, which makes the team very colourful.”

Rosemary says the Bold Bandannas started when she saw a Relay for Life advert on her preschool-assistant payslip.

“I thought, why not, so I stood up at an ACTwide preschool staff meeting and asked if anyone wanted to form a team. We had 12 people interested and in the first year we raised $1600.”

Rosemary says the team grew over the years, as did the amounts raised, but one year its total was $9000 and she says she knew they could do better.

“It was okay, but I felt embarrassed and after that my commitment intensified,” she says.

“Every year after that we raised more and more – last year was almost $28,000. That’s more like it!”

As well as participating every year in the Re -

lay for Life at the AIS, the Bold Bandannas have hosted trivia nights, dinners, theatre parties and a regular charity stall at Fyshwick Markets, as well as selling homemade pickles and jams, and Rosemary’s handmade dress-up clothes that she sells to preschools.

Rosemary also raised $3000 shaving off her straight, waist-length hair last year.

“Cutting my hair off was so liberating, it took no time at all to wash or get ready in the mornings,” she says. “It’s also grown back curly which is interesting!”

Rosemary says the Bold Bandannas’ success wouldn’t be possible without community support.

“So many organisations are consistently generous to us, including Curves, Deakin Soccer Club, Southern Cross Club, the Irish Club and

Cooleman Court,” she says.

“The staff at the Cancer Council are also supportive to the team… Nothing is ever too much trouble.”

Rosemary says she retired at the end of 2012, but finds that fundraising is now a full-time job.

“I’m always sewing, cooking, sending emails and organising events,” she says.

“I couldn’t do a lot of it without my husband –he has taken over cooking dinner, as I’m always in the sewing room!

“He’s become more supportive of me along the way, as he realises that I’m not giving in.”

Rosemary credits her determination to the team’s success and says that if she makes a commitment, she sticks to it.

“We are the only team who has walked in

every relay since we started,” she says.

“Over the years we’ve lost two of our team to cancer and some are survivors, which makes us more determined to carry on.

“Once I latch on to something it’s with a passion and I don’t give in easily.

“There is no one that can say they haven’t been touched by cancer, and by continuing to donate money to research we are fighting that cause in the hope that one day they will find a cure.

“While I’m able, I’ll continue fighting.”

All preschool staff, past and present from across the ACT, are invited to the Preschool Staff Dinner, Deakin Sports Club, Grose Street, Deakin. Saturday, September 19. Tickets $60 each, bookings to 6288 7752.

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We “go the extra mile” by helping you form sound business strategies to help sustain your business growth into the future.

Our team of accountants are highly trained, specialising in all aspects of Australian taxation and retirement income; sharing this knowledge to small business owners and individuals who want to build their wealth for a stable financial future.

still have time to take control of your future… Speak to one of our knowledgeable team.

Fear, loathing and convenient amnesia

LET’S see if I have this right. There was, for about 18 months anyway, a “budget emergency” that was entirely the fault of the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd government, before which the administration of the Australian economy was marked by unmitigated fiscal rectitude.

The argument went that unless we “structurally reform” by slashing spending and greatly increasing revenue, we were all to die a lingering, painful death after which everything we knew would be swept into a black hole.

The Government’s decision, a year or so ago, to reduce Commonwealth grants to the states by $80 billion over the next decade was seen by some as an uncharacteristically clever move designed to slash spending and, at the same time, wedge the state premiers into agreeing to modify the GST. This has been repeatedly, but rather unconvincingly, denied by Abbott and Hockey but whenever the tax reform drums beat, the GST will always be found hovering ominously at the edge of the firelight. Damn. We were all hoping never to have to think about that again.

The GST was introduced in July 2000 amidst much fear, loathing and unbridled hysteria. Why then, some 15 years after its introduction, does the mere mention of the GST still fire up opprobrium all along the political watchtower? It’s a broad-based consumption tax, for crying in a bucket, not an Ebola outbreak at the MCG on Grand Final Day.

Australia’s GST replaced a plethora of unwieldy and mostly illogical wholesale taxes, all of which were dreamt up in ad hoc desperation

The GST’s a broad-based consumption tax, for crying in a bucket, not an Ebola outbreak at the MCG on Grand Final Day.

by erstwhile Commonwealth treasurers. The fundamental change, really, was the application of a tax on services, not entirely unreasonable given that Australia is now much more of service economy than a manufacturing one.

Two years after the GST washed through the Australian economy, its impact on about 50 cohorts across Australian society was modelled. To the disappointment of its shrill and opportunistic opponents, the modelling found that most cohorts – particularly those in the lower-income band – were better off though, admittedly, some more than others. There were a couple of cohorts in the middle-income band where the advantage was discernible but only marginal. Those with incomes above $180,000 a year were worse off as were a few low-income earners with no access to social security benefits and for whom the compensatory tax cuts meant little.

As well, the GST continues to provide a very significant revenue stream to the states – most of which they used to bloat their bureaucracies. This is something they regret now.

I was a parliamentary staffer when Prime Minister Howard put the GST back on the agenda before the 1998 election. As the policy debate unfolded it generated a tsunami of hatred and hysteria. Friendships were fractured, political alliances were irretrievably damaged and the cleverly ambitious wove their way through

the smoke and the rubble to positions of power. Labor MPs, senators and staffers thrashed around like cut snakes in a sugarbag. Sidelined in the Senate, their contribution to the debate comprised idiotic scare campaigns and abusive phone and email trees.

Notwithstanding the confected hysteria of their federal colleagues, Labor premiers at the time could not sign the agreement quickly enough. In the years that followed, all premiers and treasurers, Liberal and Labor alike, have come to love the GST with a deep, abiding passion. They also squeal long and loud if they think their share is at risk or there might not be quite enough of it to sustain their swollen bureaucracies.

From the depths of their woeful economic illiteracy, the Greens’ opposition to the GST comprised opportunism propelled by sanctimony and hypocrisy. Simply put, then-Greens’ leader Bob Brown saw his chance to assume the balance of power on the crossbenches of the Senate. However, the question never answered satisfactorily by the Greens – or the ALP for that matter – is how social welfare, education, aged care and environmental agendas can be funded adequately without a broad-based consumption tax.

the fore. Both sides of the fresh-food debate will, once again, reach for their knuckledusters. The arguments now for its inclusion are predictable rehashes: less red tape and lower administrative costs, i.e. simplicity. The counter argument these days is that the cost of fresh, ostensibly “healthier”, food has increased much more since the introduction of the GST than snacks, takeaway food and confectionery. In essence, the argument has always boiled down to this: what’s more important – fairness or simplicity?

I am one who doesn’t think the GST is any less fair a taxation system than that which it replaced. Nor do I think it spoiled Australia forever – though it could be argued that its introduction in 2000 had a direct and deleterious impact on the conduct of our national affairs. How? Because, eventually in July 1, 2011, brought the Greens to the balance of power in their own right for a time, anyway.

Had Australian Democrat members held their nerve, Australia might still have a moderately intelligent, moderately sane, centre-left force on the crossbenches of the Senate. The smarties in the ALP who machinated hard behind the lines to rid the Parliament of the Democrats might well reflect on this – and what it meant for the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd years. Instead, we now have the Greens and a fractured little band of senatorial desperados on the crossbenches. Mercifully though, those who suffered Clive Palmer’s hand up the back of their jumpers making their lips move, have since dispensed with his sage political advice.

As a nation we have to be grown up enough to accept fiscal reality when it’s presented to us. And by fiscal reality, I don’t mean puerile drivel like “budget emergency”. I suspect there are many Australians who would cop a fair and reasonable increase in the GST if it meant maintaining Medicare, a decent aged-care system and the capacity to educate our children without saddling them with a mountain of debt.

Arguments about the modification of the GST always involve the fresh-food exemption, one of a number of compensations negotiated by the Australian Democrats.

Now that the GST is back on the agenda, albeit briefly, the fresh-food issue will come to

Nothing is certain but change – and that pertains to the GST as it does to everything else. It’s interesting to note that NZ has raised its GST a number of times since its introduction there in 1986. There have been no lingering deaths, mass grave sites and black holes down there. Unless I’ve missed something, of course.

– Originally published in “The Spectator”

JOHN SCHUMANN

letters

You know, y’know?

HAS anyone else noticed that the English language has become seriously infected with a virulent virus – the “y’know?” virus?

The end result is that almost every spoken sentence these days contains at least one “y’know?”.

And it doesn’t mean anything!

Listen to the radio and television –especially during talk shows – and you’ll be surprised how often this stupid expression is used.

The virus probably had its origin in Scotland many years ago, where “d’ye ken?” (do you know?) was often used in casual conversation.

Since then, the “y’know?” virus has gone international and appears in conversations in every country where English is spoken.

Quietly listen to your friends and family as they talk. Has it infected them? Has it infected you?

M

McGregor, Curtin

Thanks to the pink stumpers

THE McGrath Foundation would like to say a huge thank you to the Canberra community for getting behind our community cricket initiative, Pink Stumps Day, and helping to raise more than $1.2 million to help support families experiencing breast cancer. The McGrath Foundation set community cricket teams a challenge to help smash our fundraising goal and we haven’t been disappointed. Thank you to the following schools/organisations for their fantastic efforts: Campbell High School, Canberra Grammar School (and their U15 Division 1 Cricket Team), Canberra Workers Redbacks Cricket Club, Dezignteam Pty Ltd, Eastlake Cricket Club, Ginninderra Junior Cricket Club, HRG, Mt Rogers Primary School, Tri-Horns Cricket Club, Weston Indoor Sports and Wood Ducks Cricket Club.

Each team got their local community involved, turning their pitches pink and raised a collective $8575. Through support like this, we are able to ensure families experiencing breast cancer have access to a breast-care nurse, no matter where they live or their finical situation.

We’re encouraging people to register their interest for Pink Stumps Day this summer, contact: pinkstumpsday@mcgrathfoundation.com.au

Petra Buchanan, CEO, McGrath Foundation

The streets are gridiron Zack’s new touchdown

ZACK Byers is a remarkable young man. He works on Canberra’s streets as a youth worker for Youth Care Canberra.

In a previous life Zack played gridiron for Australia, making the team after a relatively short time in the code. He also spent time in the defence force in Afghanistan.

With those careers behind him, he is now channelling his considerable energies into making a difference and, every day, he deals with at least 30 young people at risk or homeless.

He works with abused kids and kids who, at times, have nobody but Zack looking out for them. He is a guiding force as they try to navigate the day-to-day uncertainty of life on the streets.

In this day and age it’s hard to comprehend that we have young people living on the streets in Canberra, but we are indebted to the likes of Youth Care for looking out for them. Such is the demand they are raising funds to put a second youth worker on the streets.

SEVENTEEN-year-old Canberra swimmer, Ben Freeman, has now set his sights on the legendary ice swims, having conquered the English Channel.

Ben completed the journey from England to France in 9 hours 10 minutes; the fastest crossing in the world so far this year. As it turned out, the water in the Channel was not as cold as the Philip Outdoor Pool, where he trained during winter in Canberra.

Ben says he is now looking at the ice swims, which require the swimmer to complete about 1.5 kilometres in water of a certain temperature. Needless to say, the water is very cold.

It’s a swim that can be done anywhere in the world so long as the water is cold.

Good luck to Ben as he works towards his next goal.

THE push by the Canberra Capitals to play its home WNBL games at the Convention Centre could provide an early indicator of what life will be like for sport as part of the City to the Lake concept.

The team was forced to look at other options because its regular home court, the AIS Arena, was going to be out of action for refurbishment midway through the season.

The renovation has since been postponed, but the Capitals had already started looking at other options. The Royal Theatre at the Convention Centre has been used for sport; most recently for the Australian Open Squash titles.

Once the basketball flooring is in, there’s room for about 2000 people, perfect for regular season games.

More importantly, it’s closer to Civic, which might make going to the basketball more attractive for many people.

It’s perfect for the ACT government as it presses ahead with plans for the new indoor stadium on the site of the Civic Olympic Pool.

If the deal goes ahead and the Capitals play eight home games at the Convention Centre it will allow the government to test public response to playing major sport in the city precinct.

TIM GAVEL

Father’s Day / September 6

Treasure trove of gift ideas opinion

FROM antique furniture to high-quality bronze and wooden sculptures, an original Father’s Day gift can be found inside The Silk Road Gallery’s treasure trove of unique, one-of-a-kind pieces.

“We specialise in rescuing old pieces of Chinese furniture, preserving their charm and integrity while ensuring they fit modern Australian lifestyles,” says Hou Leong, owner of the Kingston store.

“We have a magnificent pair of 3.3-metre high city

Sweet treats

CHRIS’S Patisserie and Bakehouse in Brierly Street, Weston Creek, is offering a coffee and cake deal on Wednesdays and Thursdays where customers can receive a half-price coffee when they buy a slice of cake.

“Customers can have a caramel swiss roll, chocolate mousse cake, caramel cheese cake or a hazelnut praline,” says pastry chef Royce Rajapakse.

“I really enjoy being a pastry chef and owning my own business, it is my passion. We are very family oriented and we hope to build the business up because our main aim is to make people happy.”

Chris’s Patisserie & Bakehouse, 47 Brierly Street, Weston Creek. Call 0418 104870 or visit chrispatisserie.com.au

gates which date from early 1700s Pingyao (Shanxi Province).

The versatile doors can be converted into tables, creating the perfect statement inside the home,’ he says.

“We also have a lovely range of high-quality porcelain, bronzes, wooden sculptures, blanc de Chine and other decorative items, both antiques and modern reproductions.”

The Silk Road Gallery, 19 Kennedy Street, Kingston. Call 6295 0192 or 0413 843308. Visit silkroadgallery.com.au

World’s Finest Cakes, Pastries and Slices to Excite

Servos scratching the little guys out of lotto

By Marcus Paul WE all love convenience.

The Silk Road Gallery

STUNNING TV STAND/STAGE CREATED FROM ELM PANELS CARVED 100 YEARS AGO, PERFECT FOR DAD’S BIG TV

Pulling into your local service – er, sorry – petrol station these days allows you to not only fill your tank, but stock the cupboards, fill the bathroom, grab a few hardware items and now, following a recent deal between NSW Lotteries and Woolworths petrol stations, gamble!

Sounds okay at first, but I wonder where it’s going to end. Will there come a time when the servo sells everything and the convenience store or newsagent is no longer needed?

This is what newsagency owners from Kippax Fair to Griffith and Gungahlin are now fearing following the announcement that five of Woolies’ servos in Canberra will sell the full range of NSW lotteries products from September 7. This competition may very well lead to some newsagencies, a part of our local community, going belly up.

On top of this is the concern the petrol stations won’t follow strict guidelines set in place, such as trading hours, and effectively allow 24/7 gambling from these outlets.

With so many issues surrounding problem gambling and harm minimisation, such availability at all hours might concern local groups including ACTCOSS and others. More alarming is the fact lotto sales often cover the rent for newsagencies. It’s hardly a level playing field when servo customers can already buy newspapers, magazines and other items including greeting cards traditionally associated with the local newsagent. Now – they can play lotto!

It’s frustrating enough having to queue behind motorists shopping for drinks, chips, cat food and even a cup of coffee; just imagine the frustration of waiting behind people having their numbers checked or placing this week’s entry. No thanks!

Doubtless many will applaud this move, happy at being able to have the convenience of an “all-in-one petrol station”. I’m not one of them and hope, in the interests of fairness to the ever maligned small business sector, that the ACT government does all it can to stop this from happening.

Failed tax chokes the city

By Catherine Carter

AS revenue from the ACT government’s controversial Lease Variation Charge continues to fall, so does the amenity of our city centre.

Many of the buildings in Civic are in a state of disrepair. Look around our CBD and you’ll see boarded up windows and faded “for lease” signs on every street.

The 14 per cent office vacancy rate and 15.9 per cent street-level vacancy rate are more than statistics: they have a real-world impact on our city’s heart.

One of the fastest ways to revitalise our CBD is also the simplest – relax the LVC.

The LVC has been a massive obstacle to adaptive reuse in our city centre for years. As it now stands, developers must pay LVC – that can easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars – on any building that changes use. These significant additional costs are preventing the adaptive reuse of redundant commercial offices into stylish new apartments, fabulous student digs, boutique hotels or retirement living towers.

And the worst thing? The flawed LVC policy has never achieved the revenues it forecasted.

In fact, forecast revenue from the LVC has plummeted year on year – a sure indicator that the volume of redevelopment continues to drop.

The ACT government budgeted for LVC to bring in $23 million in 2012 and missed the mark. After lowering its expectations to $14 million this financial year, it still hasn’t managed to meet budget.

The Territory’s Consolidated Financial Report for June 2015 finds that LVC revenue has raked in just $11.35 million. That might sound like a lot – but it is actually $2.8 million below budget.

What the LVC has done successfully is pull the handbrake on investment and renewal in our city centre. Our office vacancy rate remains the second highest in the country. To a large degree, the LVC prohibits the adaptive reuse of empty, redundant C and D-grade commercial offices.

Catherine Carter is ACT executive director of the Property Council of Australia.

The School of Practical Philosophy advertising feature

‘When I started coming to practical philosophy classes, I fell in love with the teaching; it’s very inspiring.’

A practical path in the search for happiness

“PEOPLE come to us because they are searching for truth or something else that’s missing”, says Kay Pendlebury, branch leader at The School of Practical Philosophy.

“It is a place for thoughtful people wishing to improve their quality of life, to ask big questions, explore the best answers and to be yourself.”

The school was founded in London in 1937 by Leon MacLaren, who had an insight that “there was such a thing as truth and that it could be taught.” The school is a not-for-profit organisation, and has branches across the world. A school was established in Sydney in 1967, and the Canberra branch opened in 2002.

Having recently moved from Barton, The School of Practical Philosophy has now settled on 27-29 Napier Close in Deakin and has high aspirations for the future.

Kay, who is also a student and tutor, says: “The school is not associated with any political or religious organisation, people think it’s like the type of philosophy you learn at university but it’s more practical. You put the principles you learn into everyday life.

“The classes are more like a conversation, it is a chance to hear the insights and practise the methods of some of the greatest teachers of the East and the West.

“At the school, you are always a student and once you have been there for a few years you can become a tutor and guide the discussions.

“The new premises are currently under construction and it is very important that we create a natural, uncluttered space that reflects the intelligence of the universe. It will be a place of stillness to reflect on life discussions.”

With classes starting on Tuesday, September 15, the school’s philosophy courses last for 12 weeks and are inspired by the ancient Indian concept of Advaita, but embrace a wide range of philosophers, thinkers and writers.

With a focus on practical exercises that can be applied to everyday life, Kay says: “The philosophy of Advaita is translated as non-duality and means that we are all manifestations of the one universal consciousness. The connectedness requires a response in terms of how we live our lives and how we build relationships.

“We get so distracted these days that we don’t pay attention to the world. In our introductory course, we focus on mindful wisdom where we learn to increase our awareness through simple practices that bring us into the present moment.

“People join the course because they want to achieve happiness and they want to live a great life. It’s mostly superficial goals at first, but when they learn how to meditate, it becomes more than that. Meditation is offered to all students; it is an important aspect of the development of stillness in the being. It’s a way of life, you get the confidence to take on things you never thought you would ever do.

“A common thread runs through all the great religions and philosophies of the world – the idea that life is a great and noble thing and that the human being is made for greatness and nobility.”

After the introductory course is completed students have the option to continue their study of philosophy and meditation.

This can also involve the study of subjects such as Sanskrit and Plato, and students can attend residential weeks in Sydney with students from all over Australia to further their study and practice.

Veceslav Stanuga, a student and tutor with the school, has been managing the refurbishment of the new premises.

“We hope the extra space will enable us to offer extra classes and also establish a youth group,” he says.

Kay says: “We are hoping the new premises create an opportunity for a variety of different classes.

“The move to Deakin has very much been a group effort. Students have been organising the building work, cleaning, painting, purchasing furniture etcetera. We all benefit from working together on something. The school teaches you selfmastery. Most people are moved by their likes and aversions and usually act from habit. We learn to overcome these forces to act more appropriately in the moment. When I started coming to practical philosophy classes, I fell in love with the teaching; it’s very inspiring, and a great calling to serve the truth.”

The School of Practical Philosophy, Unit 4, Surveyor House, 27-29 Napier Close, Deakin. Visit philosophyinpractice.net or facebook.com/groups/422796785623/ Enquiries to cansopp@gmail.com

Students of the school, Veceslav Stanuga and Kay Pendlebury… “We get so distracted these days that we don’t pay attention to the world. In our introductory course, we focus on mindful wisdom,” says Kay.

Mindful Wisdom

A course of 11 weekly evening sessions (2.0 hours each)

Mindfulness is at the heart of attention and knowledge, which arise as wisdom as they work together in the present moment.

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This eleven-week course is for thoughtful people seeking to understand the nature of existence and the world in which we live. The course draws on the great philosophic ideas of East and West, which lead to mindful presence and effective action in work, study and every aspect of daily life. It is for all, regardless of education, age, race or religious beliefs. It will give you the tools to become more mindful, more connected and more alive.

Beginning 15 September, 6.30pm

General $225; Full-time Students $70 (Student ID needed)

Location: Surveyor House, 27 Napier Close, Deakin Book online www.philosophyinpractice.net or phone 0414 325 366

*All prices valid until 7 September 2015.

(The School of Philosophy is a not-for-profit organisation)

scene / around canberra

Social event of the week / Gillon McLachlan at the National Press Club

WITH the $2.5 billion broadcast deal still resonating, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan addressed the National Press Club audience of AFL diehards, including our Chief Minister Andrew Barr plus the debut performance of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop as a journo.

Multi-tasking has taken on a whole new perspective if, from now, every lesser-known pollie pops down to the Press Club to pose a few Dorothy Dixers. But on a question of relevance Bishop was on song and managed to slip in three questions. She asked about the kick back rule (nothing to do with money), when will she see the first West Coast v Fremantle grand final played in the new Perth Stadium and how will fans benefit from that billion-dollar media deal?

The only definitive answer was that the MCG and AFL will be holding hands until 2038. However, in the intervening years the National Women’s League is a certainty, twilight games likely and recruiting zones a not-to-bemissed opportunity to recruit more widely.

A comment about the toughness and tenacity of the Papua New Guinea footballers could see that as another opportunity. That $2.5 billion augurs well for the future of the AFL, we will be watching for results.

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At the Vikings Group’s gala awards, Erindale

SUNDAY ROAST

Stay in touch with the names making news on Sundays from 10am as 2CC and “CityNews” present Canberra’s only local weekend news and current affairs program.

It’s a revolving panel show that brings to the microphone great “CityNews” commentators and 2CC personalities.

Be part of the conversation and call 6255 1206 between 10am and noon.

At the opening night of the Israeli Film Festival, Civic

Canberra Confidential

Diana lets it rip…

JEWELLER and co-proprietor of Manuka jewellery store Briolette, Diana Thompson, has a not-sosecret life as the author of her first romance novel “Winterflood’s Passion” – a story set in the Southern Highlands that’s already been called “the Bowral bodice ripper”.

The cover promises an “intensely moving story with a twist of lust” and the plot is described as following “the life of Charlotte Ranleigh who, after the tragic loss of her husband, placed herself into exile on her country estate, that is until her brother-in-law introduces her to the exclusive English art dealer Daniel Winterflood.

“Charlotte could not have imagined the turn her life would take after this chance encounter.”

Thompson launched the book in her temple of bling and will be signing copies at the Canberra Centre Dymocks, 5.30pm, on Friday, August 28.

FORMER Civic restaurateur Carlo Tosolini, whose iconic Bailey’s Corner eatery closed suddenly at Easter when the landlord unhappily changed the locks, has been feted with the Lifetime Achiever award at the Restaurant & Catering Awards for Excellence.

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Described as the industry’s “night of nights”, it recognised ACT operators who “provided exceptional service, demonstrated culinary excellence, and delivered great ambience and value for money across 25 categories”.

Other winners of the major-award categories included Sage, Braddon – Restaurant of the Year; Hyatt Hotel Canberra, Yarralumla - Caterer of the Year and Charlie’s Sala Thai Restaurant, Greenway – Consumer Vote Award.

In congratulating the winners Restaurant & Catering Australia’s CEO John Hart said: “The winners should be proud of their achievements, as they have been rigorously reviewed in one of the most objective awards systems, which looks at the entire dining experience, rather than a single food or service dimension.”

Bewilderingly, the association’s media release listed the winner of the Canberra Social Media Award to Coffee Amigo, which is based in John Street, Salisbury, an outer northern suburb of Adelaide.

Pig’s passed!

LIKE Kit Carson, the famous US frontiersman and tracker, the Queanbeyan City Council contractor has steadfastly tracked, trapped and killed the Wild Pig of Mount Jerrabomberra.

The pig, which is unfunnily blamed for biting a woman defending her dog against the fearful feral, has been stalked since last month with cameras and traps placed on the mountain.

Goodness knows what the tracking process has cost the council, but it has stoically reminded visitors that the mount is not an area where dogs are to roam off leash and to report any sightings of feral pigs. There are more?

Falling out of favour

WISH them luck as you wave them goodbye… “The Canberra Times” topped the nation with the highest circulation fall of any metropolitan newspaper in the year to June.

The breathtaking 18.91 per cent collapse in sales takes the paper’s average weekday circulation to 19,492, a sad shadow of less than half its former self. Likewise the flagship Saturday, down 11.21 per cent to 30,280 and Sunday, down 9.99 per cent to 20,312.

And why would anyone buy it when they are giving their news away online where, paywall free, readers can enjoy unfettered access to writers of the “Times”, “The Sydney Morning Herald” and “The Age”. And better still, a feature of the daily, free tablet app is a digital version of that morning’s paper. Nuts or what?

Thank you, Fairfax shareholders for this wonderful community service, though heaven knows how they turn a buck from Fyshwick these days.

The very long black

AND from Will Glasgow’s “Rear Window” column last week in “The Australian Financial Review”: “While we were sitting in Silo cafe in the Canberra parliamentary suburb of Kingston on Thursday morning wondering how it could

possibly take 40 minutes to make a long black, the nation’s regional networks were descending on Parliament House – once again.”

Third time lucky?

POPULAR Queanbeyan mayor Tim Overall, pictured, is so determined to see a multiplex cinema (among other, bigger things) built that he revealed on 2CC’s “CityNews Sunday Roast” news program his intention to stand for the third time at next year’s September council elections. Queanbeyan elects its mayor directly and at the last election in 2012 Tim scored a primary vote of 54 per cent in a Melbourne Cup field, something of a record he says.

Cutting cost of living

A 2015 analysis of housing costs by the ACT Council of Social Services and ACT Shelter found that Canberra households spend an average $328 a week on housing, which is a whopping $63 a week higher than the national average. Timely then that local community group SEE-Change is holding a talk on cutting the cost of living and the cost of home ownership, as part of its Sustainability Talks Series. It’s at the Belconnen Library, 12 Chandler Street, 2pm-4pm, Sunday, August 30. Entry is $5 ($2 for members). More information at see-change.org.au

By Helen Musa

GUNGAHLIN’S getting a theatre company, and its first mainstage show is a production of the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine classic “Into the Woods”, described by one critic as “Wicked” for smart people.

Witty and worldly-wise, the musical interweaves the plots of famous fairy tales, including “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Jack and the Beanstalk”, “Rapunzel” and “Cinderella”, through the archetypal story of a childless baker and his wife. All the favourite characters are there, but not as we might remember them. And for anyone bringing the littlies along, as the witch puts it: “Careful the things you say, children will listen”.

Director of the production and the company, Richard Block, is a selfconfessed latecomer to the theatrical scene, but he is making up for lost time.

Thirty years of age when he got involved in his first show, he’s been performing in Canberra for the last 10 years, playing “fabulous, meaty” roles such as Bill Sykes and learning from top directors such as Kelda McManus and Jim McMullen.

Block’s day job is managing his family publishing business, so it was inevitable that he should come up with an idea of forming a theatre company, Dramatic Productions, and paying his creatives.

Enter writer Michael Heming and composer Andrew Hackwill with the “fabulous fun musical” “The Rokitelly Man”.

“I decided to coproduce it with Ickle Pickle Productions,” he says, and he was on his way.

In 2014 at Teatro Vivaldi, he staged the boutique musical “The Last Five Years” on a share-of-profit basis.

“I’d seen how many talented people there are in Canberra and how hard they work, and I thought they deserved some financial recognition,” Block says.

But “Into the Woods” is on a much

larger scale. He’s hired costumes and props from the Victorian Opera and is strongly supported by Gungahlin community associations keen to see a theatre company in the area.

“I knew it was the most difficult show around musically, so we needed really talented people who could get on top of the music,” Block tells “CityNews”.

Luckily, he had worked with ANU School of Music’s Peter Tregear on Carl Rafferty’s Opera by Candlelight production of “The Magic Flute” so Tregear approached him to be musical director, but commitments got in the way. Nonetheless, Tregear gave him access to young musicians. As well, Damien Slingsby, who had been the musical director of “The Last Five Years”, came on board. A singer, too, Slingsby also coaches the voices.

He says the depth of talent goes right through the whole cast, listing Kelly Roberts as the Witch, Grant Pegg as the Baker, Veronica Thwaites-Brown as the Baker’s wife, Pip Carroll as Jack, Pip Murphy as Cinderella and Alexander Clubb as Cinderella’s Prince and the Big, Bad Wolf.

His “feisty Little Red [Riding Hood]” is played by Sian Harrington, who came here from England about four years ago, but she is a young adult, not the little girl often associated with the role, a key decision, Block says.

So, what’s the show all about? After all, the happily-ever-after part is all over by the time Act II begins, full of repercussions, natural disasters and human error.

By way of explaining, Block tells me how Sondheim recently said the song “No One is Alone” means “every action you take has a reaction, and everything you do affects everything around you”. And you can’t get much more moral than that.

“Into the Woods”, Gungahlin College Theatre, from August 28 to September 12. Bookings to stagecenta.com or 6253 1454. Dinner and show available. 10 years+ warning.

By Helen Musa

BELCONNEN Arts Centre is about to turn six and the creative team has turned to the art of dance and to Winnie the Pooh’s creator AA Milne for inspiration.

“Now We Are Six”, you see, is one of Milne’s best-known poems and it seemed to hit the spot.

“When I was five,” the words go, “I was just alive/ But now I am six, I’m as clever as clever.”

Clever, indeed. Event producer and cultural planning expert, Annemaree Dalziel, has been at the centre for three months filling the shoes of cultural inclusion officer Philip Piggin while he’s been overseas on a Churchill fellowship. Now he’s back and they’re working together on a dance extravaganza that illustrates how strong the dance base at the centre is.

Piggin joined the centre in 2010, not long after it opened in late 2009, and testifies that, from the outset, the state-of-the-art building was alive with dance, initially taught by flamenco artist Tomas Dietz, but later booked out by different teachers and used for the centre’s exploratory “Dance on the Edge” programs.

It was obvious to Dalziel and the centre’s new creative program director Monika McInerney that the slap-up birthday cake should be matched by a knees-up. After all, as Dalziel says, paraphrasing composer John Cage: “Everything you do is dance”.

But so far their dance artists were almost always “doing stuff for free” and as a gesture towards maturity, Belconnen Arts Centre decided on its first paid commission to mark the Big 6. Dalziel made the call-out to choreographers, stipulating that they respond to a sense of place and to the theme “Now We Are Six”, while also involving audiences. Oddly, no one responded to the idea of place, but the latter two points were eagerly seized upon. Dance artist Alison Plevey and collaborators Jamie Winbank and Olivia Fyfe were chosen. Plevey will make use of verbatim theatre techniques to create “A Diary of Six”, which will include vox pops on the day. The clever technicians at the centre will create a soundtrack to people’s voices. By contrast, Winbank and Fyfe are producing a kind of paper installation that will recall a child’s birthday party, allowing visitors to write their memories of being six.

“It’s very playful”, Dalziel says, and should fill the arts centre “with memories of what we were”.

The large foyer space will be configured into an end-stage and a thrust, almost like a catwalk, to be used by the two commissioned works, Dance Northside, Eva Damarjati of Move to Self-Love; Hilal Dance, Golds from Canberra Dance Theatre; Monaro Folk; Mudrakar Kathak Dance School; Quake Bellydance and the Earthly Delights Historic Dance Academy.

Piggin can hardly believe his eyes at what has been planned during his absence. “It feels like we’re coming-of-age,” he says.

“Dance Kaleidoscope”, Belconnen Arts Centre, 118 Emu Bank, 3pm, Sunday, August 30, entry by gold-coin donation.

A talk on the contrite side

By Helen Musa

WHEN you’re from Canberra and you’re talking to globetrotting American writer Bill Bryson, it’s hard to avoid mention of the verbal lashing he once gave our city.

“I’ve been very, very contrite,” Bryson tells me as we chat by phone about a new film, “A Walk in the Woods”, based on his 1998 book of the same name. Robert Redford plays Bryson, Emma Thompson his English wife and Nick Nolte his gravelly-voiced old school friend “Katz”, with whom he grew up in Des Moines, Iowa.

“It’s true I had not given Canberra its due respect,” he adds, gritting his teeth for the inevitable onslaught.

That’s putting it mildly. In his 2000 book “Down Under” (“In a Sunburned Country” in the US and Canada) the most charitable thing Bryson had to say about our nation’s capital was: “When a man as outstandingly colourless as John Howard turns his nose up at a place, you know it must be worth a look”.

The chapter on Canberra attacks the usual suspects – roundabouts, parks, grey government buildings and public memorials – leading him to conclude: “Canberra – why wait for death?”

But that’s all changed, and not just because of the public outrage, but much worse. “My daughter lived here for six months and just loved it, so I’m constantly being reminded,” he laments.

Besides, Bryson’s been back to Canberra a couple of times and in a token effort to justify

himself, Bryson points out that he was a walker, daunted by the sheer scale of Canberra – “I can’t imagine anybody walking around the lake”.

Bryson has just finished his first travel book in 15 years, “The Road to Little Dribbling”, which he describes as: “Essentially just a travelogue, where I travel around, spying on people as an onlooker from the outside… it’s another chance to take the piss out of the British, something which I absolutely love to do.”

He concedes that he is not really an outsider. He was just 21 years old when first he travelled there as a backpacker and met his nurse wife, then he lived in the UK for more than 40 years.

“But Britain still leaves me confused and befuddled,” he says.

He’s here publicising the movie that shows how he and Katz “spectacularly failed” to walk the formidable 3380km long Appalachian Trail, encountering weird characters, woolly animals and wild weather along the way.

But when he did that walk, he was in his forties. Everyone knows that the charismatic Redford is now 79, while Thompson is about 20 years younger than him, so there’s been some poetic licence, but who cares?

As Bryson says: “To have Robert Redford play me is a huge ego thing – there has been a nice element of vanity about the whole film.”

To him, the book and the film tell a story not of failure, but of human endeavour. He likes that.

“Some people have the view that the Appalachian Trail is a matter of all-or-nothing, almost a religious experience,” he says.

But, he believes, “everyone is different… everybody should be able to go out and do what they can do, whether they walk 400 miles or 4000”.

As for the primordial landscape the film shows, he and Katz didn’t see any of that.

“The camera went up high in helicopters, but we were trapped in a big green tunnel”, he says.

It’s real all right, but you can’t see it for the vegetation, he explains. To urban people like Bryson, the scale of it is overwhelming – “do you realise that doing the trail is like walking from Perth to Sydney?”

And to think he complains about walking around Lake Burley Griffin.

“A Walk in the Woods” is to be released in cinemas throughout Australia on September 3.

On the road again

“Vacation” (MA)

IMAGINE this. Writers and directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein, together with seven producers (the guys who make the money decisions) sitting at a table deciding whether to resuscitate the National Lampoon franchise (the original one starring Chevy Chase and Beverley D’Angelo as the Griswolds, not the more recent knock-offs) and, if so, what sort of plot?

Yes. And the same as it was back in the 1980s, that is Griswolds turned loose to wreak mayhem on the highways and byways. But this time, it’s their son Rusty (Ed Helms) who flies as pilot in command for a short-haul airline, wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) and sons

James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins).

The consequences of those decisions is a movie for which the most apt description is an overarching satire on a big bunch of lesser satires on the social, cultural, economic, moral and other American behavioural traits. The instructions probably directed Daley and Goldstein to favour stupidity rather than wit, to leave no shibboleth unplumbed, to favour coarse and grimy humour above refinement, to stroke the edge of eroticism without actually showing it, to take full advantage of the (not entirely unwelcome) relaxation of vocabulary in all media except print.

At Hoyts Woden, Dendy, Capitol 6 and Limelight

Blessed by Woody’s latest

“Irrational Man” (M)

HOW blessed audiences are to have Woody Allen still after 49 years providing films that, whatever their shortcomings, continue to remind us that cinema of merit doesn’t need to go extra-terrestrial or futurist or pseudo-scientific or ultra-violent.

Philosophy lecturer Abe (Joaquin Phoenix) drinks on the job. His muse has deserted him, rather like his wife Rita (Parker Posey) who’s beginning to regret her second marriage and yearns to share Abe’s life again. Student Jill (Emma Stone) shows interest in him. Resurrection comes when

he and Jill get it together in bed. He cuts down on the booze and the anti-depressants. He feels motivated to do something anonymously that will benefit a deserving stranger. There is a murder. It has a moral justification. The whole town discusses it. Gossip slowly reveals fragments of information that allow another person beside the killer to work it out. Allen puts the pair together in a cracker of a finale that defies convention and sent me away smiling inwardly. I wonder what his 51st film will do. At Palace Electric, Dendy, Capitol 6 and Limelight

Teen challenges laid bare

“Dope” (MA)

FOR about 10 minutes after “Dope” began lighting up the screen, I wondered whether I could endure the rest of its 112 minutes.

I could. And I happily did. Rick Famuyiwa’s film about teenagers coping with gangs, drugs, poverty and corruption has a deep humanist sentiment made even more palatable by a strong thread of intelligently-crafted humour.

At high school, kids Malcolm (Shamiek Moore), Jaleel (Quincy Brown) and Diggy (Kiersey Clemons) just want to make music and get grades good enough for entry to major universities. But the rest of the students look down on them as nerds, geeks. They find safety from on-campus bullying when dope dealer Dom (Rakim Mayers)

engages Malcolm to tell Nakia (Zoe Kravitz) that Dom wants her to come over and see him. Before long, Malcolm, Jaleel and Diggy are embroiled in a chase plot involving a shipment of highgrade cocaine belonging to a rival dealer who brooks no intrusion on to his patch.

If this sounds dreadfully serious and perhaps slightly cliched, be not dismayed. Under those values flows a stream of humour and, for those who enjoy movies that invite them to think, social enquiry into the predicament of young AfricanAmericans. The performances are fine. The plot is serpentine enough to engage and hold our attention. The film’s moral values are unabashedly up front.

At Palace Electric

arts & entertainment / dining

Buzz must mean something

WHETHER you like paleo or are baffled by what the fuss is about, it’s worth giving Elemental in Braddon a go.

This paleo-style café is busy more often than not, although outdoor seats aren’t always full in chilly Canberra these days (understandable).

The name of this Lonsdale Street café reflects Aussie Paleo chef Dan Barrett’s commitment to produce dishes with basic, unprocessed and local ingredients. This is food “without gimmicks”.

Barrett co-owns Elemental with Alexis Moran. The fit-out features a mural by local signwriter George Rose. There’s lots of reclaimed timber and some reclaimed and refurbished furniture. The eclectic look works.

The menu changes with the seasons and breakfast and lunch appear on the same all-day menu. And it’s not expensive (the dearest dish on my visit was the crispy skin pork belly at $20). The menu includes house granola ($9), beef nachos ($15), Mexican baked egg with spiced chicken, coriander, coconut cheese and harissa ($16), a naked cheeseburger ($17), and warm smoked trout on celeriac mash ($18).

I opted for the brisket pie for lunch ($17) – beef brisket slow-cooked in tomato, garlic and smoked paprika with bacon, parsley oil and sweet potato mash. It was a generous serve and although the brisket was beautifully tender and full of wonderful flavour, I found the dish overwhelmingly sweet and with nothing like a fresh salad to cut through (I couldn’t see one on the

menu), my tastebuds found it a lot to handle.

I couldn’t have ordered a salad at that stage anyway because of timing. It took ages for my order to be taken and another hefty amount of time for my food to arrive.

I had to enquire as to its whereabouts and, by then, I was bored waiting and running out of time to make it to my upcoming

arts in the city

appointment. I was told it would be another eight-minute wait which would have had me sitting there for well over 40 minutes twiddling my thumbs. I said this wasn’t acceptable so the dish miraculously arrived quickly, but wasn’t heated through. I had a few mouthfuls and called it a day.

I was baffled by the slow service. I knew I wasn’t in a fast take-away but it was the end of the lunch period and only a few tables were occupied. In all fairness, staff knew there was a problem and I was given a sweet treat on my way out the door.

Elemental is near the Ori Building. I say give it a go since it’s busy and so must be doing something right. I hope you find the service efficient.

Feted Margaret doesn’t make it to Paris

CANBERRA artist Margaret Kalms didn’t get to Paris for the photographic slide show at the Louvre in which her work was featured, but was thrilled to find that her selected photo, “Burning Pain”, was featured in an art book, “Body Collection”, accompanying the show.

LUKE Middlebrook is bringing his Fiddler’s Green Theatre Company to the Courtyard Studio (September 1 to 6) with a 1950s classic, “A Taste of Honey”, written by Shelagh Delaney when aged 18 and dealing with class, race, gender and sexual orientation, way ahead of its time. Bookings to canberratheatrecentre. com.au or 6275 2700.

TOM Burlinson, former star of those horsey movies “The Man from Snowy River” and “Phar Lap”, is better known these days for playing Frank Sinatra. He’ll be at the Canberra Theatre on September 5 performing songs from the album “Sinatra at the Sands” and an add-on set from other famous Sinatra albums. Bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.

THE Arab Film Festival is in Canberra until August 30. The line-up features the Palestinian documentary “Speed Sisters”, which follows the first all-female street car racing team in the Middle East. At the Arc Cinema, Acton, bookings to 6248 2000 or arabfilmfestival.com.au

WESLEY Music Centre has classical guitarist Callum Henshaw performing music from France, Spain, Mexico and Paraguay, 12.40pm-1.20 pm on September 2. In 2012, he won first prize in the Cordoba International Guitar Competition in Spain and last year won at the Tirana International Guitar Competition. Entry by paper note, or concession $5. No bookings required.

HELEN MUSA

AS part of Mental Health Week ACT, Belconnen Arts Centre will again be home to the Mindscapes Short Film Festival and Poetry Night on October 6. The call’s out for budding short-filmmakers and poets to submit entries. Visit mentalhealthweekact.org and click on “Mindscapes” for entry forms and guidelines.

“RESERVED Seating Only”, a comedy about life, love and our

national obsession with sport, will be performed by real-life husband and wife duo, David Ross Paterson (“Frost/Nixon”) and Cecelia Specht (“Castle”) at The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, September 4-5.

ALSO at The Q, Michael Whittaker will appear as Matt Monro in “Morning Melodies” Wednesday, September 2 at 10.30am. Bookings to theq.net.au or 6285 6290.

The sweet beauties of growing crabapples

LOW-maintenance crabapple trees are almost pest and disease free, and there are crabapples for ornamental purposes and those perfect for making crabapple jelly.

Hillier’s “Manual of Trees and Shrubs”, which I consider my bible, lists 130 varieties of crabapples.

One of the most spectacular crabs is Malus ioensis plena. This is one of a North American species, classed as the most beautiful flowering crabapple with its semi-double soft pink fragrant flowers. In 1940, the Royal Horticultural Society awarded it the Award of Merit.

Another stunningly beautiful crabapple is M. floribunda, whose crimson buds open to white or pale pink flowers. Introduced into Western gardens in 1862 from Japan, it is one of the earliest to flower with small red and yellow fruit.

M. “GORGEOUS” is the one for making crabapple jelly. A small, densely rounded tree with pink buds opening to single, white flowers. The large crimson to orange-red fruit appears in late autumn.

For a stunning display of fruit you cannot go past M. “Golden Hornet”. The single, white flowers are followed by a profusion of bright yellow fruit that stays on the tree until late autumn/early winter. It was also given the Award of Merit in 1949.

WHILE the rose is a superlative plant, not all roses deserve the praise that is often attributed to them, say the well-known Tesselaar’s Nursery

notes. Anthony Tesselaar says that while new roses are released every year, this does not necessarily mean they are better. For example, he considers Rosa “Mr. Lincoln”, first released about 40 years ago, with its dark-red, velvety flowers and enticing scent as the best red, romantic rose and still available today. Incidentally, now’s the time to get on with planting new roses before their full flush of new spring growth. Also it’s time to complete pruning all bush roses without delay.

A SURPRISE package arrived in the mail the other day from Mr and Mrs John Seccombe, who are downsizing. They found and posted two wonderful, historic books, namely the 24th edition of “Yates’ Garden Guide”, dated 1944 (price one shilling, “post free to any part of the world”, which was pretty good considering there was a war on!) and a copy of the 1948 first edition of “The Canberra Gardener” (price three shillings and sixpence).

The Yates book had at least seven impressions with 170,000 copies printed. Much of the advice in both books is applicable today.

The current “Canberra Gardener” is the 10th edition, published in 2010. It still contains the best advice for newcomers moving here or those just starting their first garden and is still a best seller, available from most bookshops.

WHILE on the subject of books, I saw a copy of the newly revised “The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control” at the Botanic Gardens’ bookshop. With the latest and safest organic solutions, it’s highly recommended as a complete guide to maintaining a healthy garden and yard the earth-friendly way.

Jottings…

• It’s safe to plant out potted perennials appearing in garden centres as the weather warms.

• Water and liquid feed regularly spring bulbs in pots with warming days.

• Finish mulching the whole garden in the next couple of weeks.

• Now is an ideal time to plant out potted herbs. Instead of a dedicated herb garden plant amongst the general shrubbery to discourage pests.

• Look out for Yates’ new “Nature’s Way” certified organic citrus and ornamental shrub spray, pyrethrum based with canola oil.

puzzles page

Joanne Madeline Moore

ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)

You’re restless and keen for change, but are others ready for your ambitious Aries ideas? Don’t rush Rams – consultation and attention to detail will get you a lot further than being slapdash. And don’t let your vivid imagination get the better of you – especially involving a romantic relationship, health issue or work matter. Keep your feet firmly planted on the ground. When it comes to a close friend, you may have to listen to something over and over again.

TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 20)

Expect a family matter or DIY project to go haywire, as retro Venus leaves you wondering what on earth is going on! A pinch of patience will help you muddle through. Attached Bulls – your partner is looking to you for some sensible advice. Singles – you’re attracting a few admirers, but make them prove themselves before you ride off into the romantic sunset. As birthday great Beyonce says: “Find someone who will change your life, not just your relationship status.”

GEMINI (May 21 – June 21)

Try looking at people and situations in a more considered way this week Twins. All is not as it appears (especially at home, school or work) so be extra careful in the way you give and receive information. A colleague or family member is enthusiastic about a project but make sure you check the facts, figures and finances thoroughly before you commit. Your motto for the moment is from comedian and birthday great Lily Tomlin: “For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.”

CANCER (June 22 – July 22)

Crabs are capricious creatures and mood swings are likely this week, as you feel insecure. With Venus reversing through your self-esteem zone (until the weekend) comfort eating is a danger, as you strive to boost your spirits with sweet foods and calorie-laden treats. Try to employ some restraint Crabs! And learn to nurture yourself in other less fattening ways. Perhaps you could have a relaxing massage, get your hair done, buy a new outfit or enjoy seeing a movie with a friend.

LEO (July 23 – Aug 22)

Is your killer Cat charisma failing to win over the masses at the moment? Fear not Lions! Venus stops reversing through your sign on the weekend, so you’ve only got a few more days of having to deal with a much less appreciative crowd (at home, work, school or socially). Be patient – your time in the Sun will come. Be inspired by birthday great Freddie Mercury (who had a Leo Ascendant): “I always knew I was a star. And now, the rest of the world seems to agree with me.”

VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sept 22)

Attached Virgos – you’re keen to pursue a particular course of action but is your partner on the same page? Singles – don’t accept someone’s dating profile as the gospel truth. Seek some substantial clarification before you proceed. This week relationships are far more complex than they appear, and other people may have hidden agendas. So be vigilant and double-check Virgo, otherwise you could find yourself veering off in a direction that you definitely don’t want to go.

LIBRA (Sept 23 – Oct 23)

Mercury is currently in Libra which boosts your natural talent for networking, negotiating and communicating. But remember Venus is still in retro mode (until the weekend) so making social connections and smoothing over problems will take more time than you think. Your diplomatic skills will be indispensable on Thursday and Friday, when loved ones or colleagues get caught up in misunderstandings. By all means play the peace-maker – but don’t get caught in the crossfire!

SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 21)

The challenge is to let off Scorpio steam in smart and constructive ways, as you capitalise on the fiery Pluto power surge. Making brave changes in your personal life brings deep satisfaction. All forms of physical exercise are favoured, and passion and creativity are also highlighted. When you’re communicating with others, avoid being secretive or sulky (which are Scorpio specialties!) The more focused you are and the more strategic your approach – the better the week will be.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 – Dec 21)

When it comes to school, university or work, this week you may swing between supreme optimism and debilitating self-doubt (and back again) as your confidence levels go up and down like a yo-yo. Don’t stress Sagittarius and quit focusing on what your so-called ‘competitors’ are doing. You need to set your own personal standards and run your own individual race. Plus you’ll find the more creative and perceptive you are, the better the long-term outcome will be.

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 19)

You’ve got the power to move mountains this week courtesy of a welcome boost from Pluto. But you could become increasingly impatient with a loved one’s lack of initiative and accountability. It’s not the time to tell others what to do, so pipe down and concentrate on personal projects instead. Plus be extra careful when sending messages via social media. With nebulous Neptune scrambling your communication antennae, what you write could easily be misinterpreted.

AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 18)

Make the most of Venus reversing through your relationship zone for one more week as you reassess, resolve and rejuvenate a problematic partnership. You know what you need to do, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll do it! Mysterious motivations are driving you at the moment, so who knows what road you’ll end up travelling on? Don’t overlook the importance of your inner voice. Your intuition will help point you in the right direction – if you let it.

PISCES (Feb 19 – Mar 20)

The ‘what-ifs’ may take over early in the week, as you question your actions and doubt your dreams. Neptune certainly sucks the wind out of your Piscean sails, and you may feel lost, dazed, disappointed or confused. But avoiding complex issues won’t make them magically disappear, so do your best to communicate your ideas and intentions clearly especially when it comes to close relationships. Plus get your creative juices flowing in imaginative new directions.

Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2015 Daily astrology updates at twitter.com/JoMadelineMoore

General knowledge crossword No. 515

Across

1 Which beetle was regarded as sacred by the ancient Egyptians?

8 Which term is applicable to out-of-doors?

9 What do we call a person skilled in judging the qualities of literary or artistic work?

10 Name those people who obtain gambling money by questionable methods.

11 What is a funeral vehicle also known as?

13 Name an alternative term for “moreover”.

16 What is a person who practises legerdemain?

19 What describes the shape of a rectangle?

22 What are bar code readers?

24 To develop gradually, is to do what?

25 Name one of the Goons, Spike ...

26 Which stands are used by artists?

Sudoku hard No. 157

Down

2 What is a profane oath?

3 Name the blade of a helicopter.

4 What do we call an unmarried man?

5 What are common newts, in their land stage?

6 Name another term for a chap.

7 Name the fruits of the oak.

12 Which term is used after a prayer?

14 Which mixture of liquid hydrocarbons is used for lamps, heaters, etc?

15 What is an abbreviated term for information?

17 Name a plant with beautiful flowers.

18 What is a simple, catchy, advertising rhyme, set to music?

20 A Queensland AFL team is affectionately known as the Brisbane what?

21 Name a particular type of orange.

23 Which Latin term means “therefore”?

MELVIN needs to buy new hearing aids and his wife had alerted him to tax changes in relation to medical expenses.

“Gail, my new hearing aids will cost $10,500 and I am not sure that I want to spend that much money right now. I’d rather wait until next year when my cash flow will be better,” he told me.

“Well, Melvin,” I said, “it’s good that you came to see me because the medical expense offset is being phased out from July 1 next year, which means that, for most medical expenses, you will be unable to make claims after June 30.

“However, there are special rules for disability aids, attendant care and aged care. Hearing aids should be considered as disability aids, so you can still claim for them until June 30, 2019. But that may not be the best option.”

Melvin looked surprised.

“You cannot claim the medical expenses offset if you did not have a claim in 2014 and to claim in 2014 you needed to have had a claim in 2013,” I told him.

“And 2015 is the last year that you’ll be able to claim for such items as spectacles, eye tests, general medical and dental expenses, prescribed medications, or physiotherapy and other items for which you are referred by a medical practitioner.

“So, Melvin, if you maximise your medical expenses during 2015 –including purchase of hearing aids – you will get a larger amount of tax back on your hearing aids.

“To clarify, if your family income is $180,000 or less and you are eligible to receive an offset in 2015 then you will receive an offset of 20 per cent of net medical expenses over $2218. If your family income exceeds $180,000 then you are only entitled to receive an offset of 10 per cent of your medical expenses over $5233.”

Melvin was still unconvinced saying he wasn’t sure why waiting 12 months wasn’t the best option.

“Assuming your family income is below $180,000 and that you already have medical expenses in excess of $5500 and that you receive $500 from your health fund, the offset on your hearing aids will be 20 per cent of $10,500 less $500 which is $2000,” I explained. “If you wait to make the claim until 2016, then you will only receive 20 per cent of ($10,500 less $500 less $2218) which is $1556. Therefore they will cost you $444 more next year than if you buy them this year.

“If your income exceeds the $180,000 family threshold, then your offset this year would be $1000 compared with $476 next year, a difference of $524. If you buy them this year they may well need replacing before June 30, 2019, so you should still be eligible to make a claim that year under the disability aid provisions.”

Melvin finally smiled, saying: “Who would have thought that purchasing hearing aids required such careful planning. Thank you, Gail.”

If you require information on the tax consequences of your proposed actions, contact the friendly team at Gail Freeman & Co Pty Ltd.