180621 citynews

What’s with all this yoga?

Labor drives land prices ever higher at any cost JON

Spare the kids and stop pill testing JEREMY HANSON

Fewer circuses, please, Mr Barr LETTERS Big burst of new roses

CEDRIC BRYANT

COVER STORY / International Day of Yoga

So, Shikha, what’s so special about ‘real’ yoga?

The UN-declared International Day of Yoga is celebrated annually around the world on June 21, culminating in Canberra at the weekend. DANIELLE NOHRA talks to a ‘lifelong’ yoga student, who says it’s important to ask – what is yoga?

YOGA teacher Shikha Sachar calls herself a “lifelong student” and says that in the west yoga is often presented inaccurately.

“The biggest misconception about yoga in the west is that it is a physical, postural feat,” says Shikha, who teaches yoga in Tuggeranong.

“This has been creating an unfortunate ‘misconception’ in the minds of the general public that staying put in a twisted one-armed handstand will take them to the path of selfrealisation.

“[But], yoga is not a posture, yoga is the philosophy of human being.”

With a senior yoga trainer as a mother, a grandmother who has been practising raja yoga meditation for 70 years and a childhood in India where yoga was taught freely in her school, Shikha says yoga has been an integral part of her life.

“This leaves a lot of influence and impression on a growing child and you start to observe what the body is capable of,” she says.

Shikha moved to Canberra more than 10 years ago but has since been back to New Delhi to help look after a sick relative.

It was during that time where she began to ask what she was doing for herself.

“This was a turning point but I was still grappling with what my next step was,” she says.

Shikha’s mother, a living and breathing inspiration in the family unit and her first guru, guided her to the yoga school she had practised yoga 36 years ago.

So, Shikha then completed a year of formal yoga training under the guid ance of gurus based at Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga.

“While studying the diploma, I started observing a shift in my per spective on life,” she says.

“The most noticeable change was my inclination to quietness and intro spection as well as a heightened sense of empathy for myself as well as others.

“I started observing the actions and reactions, including my own, to various situations in light of the precepts of yoga.”

Now, through her own teaching in Canberra, she shares the tenets of holistic self-healing and self-awareness while she continues to learn herself.

“People [who come to yoga] are

inspired by their own suffering,” she says. “But suffering can be of any form, whether it be mental or physical.

“When I communicate with my students, I don’t ask them why they’re here but I do ask them to ask themselves.

“Everyone has their own reason for coming to yoga and obviously there’s something in a yoga class that caters to many people.”

However, the history of yoga is a more difficult question to answer and

although it’s thought to have started more than 5000 years ago, Shikha says it’s like asking how philosophy

“Why it came to being is pretty much asking, why does a person think?” she

“I think it’s one of the oldest-living

Since then, there have been many misconceptions of what yoga is, and Shikha says one of the big ones is that people believe yoga is a form of the

She asks: “More than half the world speaks English, that doesn’t make them British; how is yoga different

“Regulating one’s breath and mind and paying attention to diet and posture should not make one less Chris -

“Linguistically, there is no translation of the word ‘religion’ in Sanskrit or Hindi because there is no such no -

“Yoga professes ‘unity’, not division – and this is the foundation on which the science of yoga was created.”

TO mark the International Day of Yoga, instructor Alan Goode will conduct a free yoga class, at Albert Hall, 100 Commonwealth Avenue, Yarralumla. 10am-11am, on Sunday, June 24, followed by Shikha’s free meditation session, 11am-11.30am.

Arts & Entertainment 19-21

Cinema 20

Crossword 23

Dining 20

Gardening 22

Horoscopes 23

Letters 8

News 3-8

Politics 7

Socials 9-11

burst of new roses.

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Deft John steers the Barnaby problem away

WHILE Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un’s flesh pressing hogged international headlines some deft diplomacy was playing out closer to home.

NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro successfully negotiated with headline hogger Barnaby Joyce to give the party’s state conference a miss. The member for Monaro demonstrated dexterous diplomacy by not only removing a very large pachyderm from a room of angry Nationals but also tactfully giving Joyce a strong hint on his political future. The NSW Deputy Premier says he wasn’t calling for Joyce’s resignation but suggesting he “take a break and make a decision when he is in a better place”.

STILL on Barnaby with his “warts ‘n all” autobiography “Weatherboard & Iron” due out in August; will the dumped Deputy PM break the unwritten “what happens in Canberra” law and dump on his colleagues’

dose of dorin

shenanigans? Given Joyce’s television “tellall” flopped, publishers New Holland know while sex sells very few political tomes do.

AFTER more than three decades in journalism, my first reaction to witnessing six or seven AFP officers frisking a skinny, pimply faced teenager in Civic at lunchtime was to get out my mobile phone and record

proceedings.

But the lengthy threatening stare I copped from one of the officers gave me the distinct impression – even from a distance –that my attention was not appreciated.

Later I overheard a member of the public inquire as to whether “it was a busy day?”

“Nah, just the usual stuff,” was a courteous constable’s reply.

THERE was much excitement and smug in-house back-slapping out Mitchell way as the first LRV (light rail vehicle) “pulled out at midnight” (actually, it was dragged out) to

begin months of track testing of the route.

It’s not the Orient Express, nor does the network’s Mitchell home resemble Harry Potter’s platform at Kings Cross station, but an opportunity for image makers to create a “romance of rail travel” to counter negative news that builders were way behind schedule was missed. Perhaps a public competition for a cheesy Country & Western song is in order?

THERE are plenty of people suggesting former Canberra FM breakfast announcer Tanya Hennessy may have a bright future as an author.

Hennessy’s debut “Am I Doing This Right?” is trending across social media attracting glowing reports since its release. Hennessy, now based in Sydney from where she does her nationally syndicated weekend radio show, HAD returned to the capital to promote the book.

CANBERRA pastor David McDonald (profiled in “CN”, November 8, 2017) celebrated his 50th birthday in August 2012, a milestone doctors had told him he would not reach.

The previous December the founder of Crossroads Christian Church and part-time Brumbies chaplain was diagnosed with inoperable, stage-four lung cancer and given just months to live. “Macca” has just notched up five years NED (no evidence of disease), has witnessed two of his four children marry and met his three grandchildren.

IT’S been many years since I first skidded across the baseline of the Invermay Catholic Tennis Club’s clay courts, home to the legendary mid-week Catholic women’s mixed doubles tennis tournaments.

But I’m pretty sure none of the girls, mostly named Joan and Maureen, looked and played like the ace portrayed on an advertising A-frame at the Deakin shops. Whether she’s a libber or a lobber is difficult to tell given the radical footwork she’s adopting.

AFP statistics suggest Canberra motorists may finally be getting the message on the threatening and dangerous traffic practice of tailgating. By the end of May police had cautioned 23 tailgaters and issued TINS (traffic infringement notices) to 16 others. Last year 94 tailgaters were warned and 88 fined, which obviously makes the severe tailgating I experienced from a boneheaded moron, angry with my driving to the conditions (thick fog and darkness) for half of William Hovell Drive, an aberration!

Be transported back to 1918 and the battlefields of Le Hamel, France in this free and historically accurate digital experience at the Australian War Memorial. Using a combination of 3D and 360 degree video, viewed using VR headset and headphones, you will be fully immersed in the Battle of Hamel. Choose your role to experience the battle from the perspective of an airman, infantry or tank crewman, and learn the history of this important battle 100 years on.

This exciting, virtual reality experience is only running from 22 June - 22 July 2018. BOOK ONLINE NOW!

OPINION / Suburban Land Agency

Labor drives land prices ever higher at any cost

WITH refreshing, if somewhat surprising frankness the new CEO of the ACT Suburban Land Agency, John Dietz, has confirmed what we all knew; the number one task of the agency is to “maximise revenue” from land sales.

Mr Dietz made this confession during a speech to the Australian Property Institute in late May.

The SLA is, of course, just as was the LDA before it, subject to direction from the ACT government through the responsible ministers and cabinet. In other words, the SLA does as it is told. It receives its marching orders in the form of a Statement of Intent developed by the government.

The Statement of Intent sets out the government’s expectations and intentions. It incorporates the indicative land release program, which reflects the government’s decision on how much land is to be released and for what purpose. It also stipulates how much revenue the SLA is to generate from the sale of the land and the profit it is expected to reap.

The 2018-19 indicative land release program, announced by the government as part of the Budget, provides for a total of 4060 dwelling sites. Of these 1396 are identified as single residential, compact blocks and townhouses. Bizarrely the number of standard residential blocks has not been separately identified. The

I cannot imagine a circumstance in which a monopoly provider of a product in Australia achieving a profit of 85.5 per cent on sales would not expect or deserve to be referred to the ACCC.

remaining 2664 dwellings will be units. The govern ment has stipulated that out of this total 60 will be for public housing and 20 for community housing.

The first thing to be said about this land release program is that it will without doubt exacerbate the level of unmet demand for detached housing and will result in a further and almost certainly large increase in the median price of detached hous ing in Canberra.

Secondly, the proposed split between standard residential and units is the mirror reverse of what is required to meet the housing choice of Canberrans as revealed in the government’s own research. The median price of detached housing has increased over the last six years at around $50,000 a year and is currently, according to Domain, sitting at $754,000.

That it is almost inevitable that the

median house price in Canberra will continue to soar begs the question why Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Housing Minister Yvette Berry continue to deliberately and dramatically constrain the supply of land for detached housing when they must know the consequences, particularly for Canberrans in the bottom two and a half income quintiles.

However, John Dietzhas in his disarming way also given us an insight into this apparent quandary.

In seeking to anticipate criticism that the SLA is indeed “profit-driven” he said that if the SLA was in fact driven by profit “why wouldn’t we hold back the supply of land ensuring the demand stays high because the profits would go through the roof.”

In making this comment, Mr Dietz didn’t go on to reveal that in 2017-18 the SLA gross profit margin on land sales was 85.5 per cent or that despite

being directed to deliver significantly less land than last year that revenue is anticipated to grow from $445 million to $701 million.

Media reports I read of Mr Dietz’s speech did not report whether he blushed when decrying the possibility that the SLA was profit-driven but frankly I cannot imagine a circumstance in which a monopoly provider of a product in Australia achieving a profit of 85.5 per cent on sales would not expect or deserve to be referred to the ACCC.

Nor can I imagine, considering the housing affordability crisis in Canberra and the role which the SLA has played in implementing the ACT government land sales policy, which is unarguably a significant contributor to that crisis, that this is not a cause of major embarrassment to him and indeed his board, let alone the Minister.

Indeed, it is perhaps worth considering whether the decision by the government to exclude Canberrans from any role on the board of the SLA and to instead load it up with a mob of Sydneysiders with no connection to our community was designed to ensure that the government’s

determination to strangle the supply of land and maximise revenue, at the expense of affordable housing, would be carried out without compunction or hesitation.

If you don’t live in Canberra, aren’t a part of the community, don’t read the local papers or listen to the local news, don’t rub shoulders at work or in the shops or on the streets with young families desperate for a home or unable to afford the rent and you are never required to look into their faces or respond to their despair then being on the board of the Suburban Land Agency and implementing policies that are guaranteed to deny thousands of local families their own home is probably a doddle.

Jon Stanhope was chief minister from 2001 to 2011 and represented Ginninderra for the Labor Party from 1998. He is the only chief minister to have governed with a majority in the Assembly.

OPINION / pill testing

Spare the kids, stop pill testing now

PILL testing of illicit substances has recently been trialled in Canberra with the stated aim of reducing harm to drug users.

However, experience from the UK, a recent inquiry in Victoria and advice from medical and legal experts, has led me to conclude that pill testing is not the right way to deal with the complex issue of illicit drug use.

Drugs like MDMA are potentially lethal regardless of what they are mixed with, and the real risk is that government-sanctioned pill testing will send the false and dangerous message that illicit drugs are safe.

The president of the Australian Medical Association made this point saying: “The last thing we would want to do is give people a false sense of security about taking illegal drugs cooked up in someone’s bath tub.”

His view is supported by toxicologist Andrew Leibie, from Safework Laboratories, who says: “Public statements made by politicians that the trial would help ‘keep people safe’ were potentially misleading. MDMA is not a safe drug.”

The State Health Commander of Ambulance Victoria recently said about drug testing: “It’s a poison. You can test a poison all you like, it remains a poison.”

ABC Central Victoria recently conducted a survey at a music festival

Opposition to pill testing in Australia is widespread and bipartisan and is opposed for good reason by all state and territory governments other than the ACT Labor government.

in Bendigo and found young festival goers were indeed of the false belief that pill testing would make drugs safe, with one saying that: “The fact they can test it and make sure that they are going to be safe is definitely a good thing.”

Another young festival goer said: “It could make you want to take more drugs. It would definitely give you peace of mind.”

As the “Internal Medicine Journal” said in November, 2016: “Pill testing gives at best an artificial ‘shine of safety’.”

Again, I quote toxicologist Andrew Leibie, who said: “The whole concept is based on the false assumption that if you do know what you’re taking, it is safe – something that is absolutely untrue.”

One of the most compelling pieces of evidence is that in the UK, which has introduced pill testing, the death toll from illicit drugs actually increased after pill testing started.

According to figures released by the Office

of National Statistics in Britain towards the end of 2016, deaths linked to ecstasy or MDMA are at their highest level in a decade. The tragic reality is that England suffered record high drug deaths last year.

Opposition to pill testing in Australia is widespread and bipartisan and is opposed for good reason by all state and territory governments other than the ACT Labor government.

Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews recently repeated his opposition by making the point that “these drugs cannot be consumed at a safe level, therefore, we will not be putting in place a pill-testing regime. Not under a government I lead”.

A recent 680-page bipartisan report into drug law reform from a parliamentary inquiry in Victoria rejected pill testing as proposed in Canberra and warned: “A key concern of the committee regarding drug checking

is that it may lead to a perception among individuals who use drugs that, once the substances are tested, they are safe to consume…’

Further, the report found that “a related concern is that drugchecking services might be misused by drug suppliers, by using information provided by drug-checking services to promote ‘the safety’ of their product”.

The use of illicit drugs is a complex issue and the Canberra Liberals remain open to evidence-based measures to reduce harm. However, having considered all of the evidence and advice, I believe that pill testing will most likely do more harm than good, and further trials in the ACT should not be supported.

Jeremy Hanson is a Liberal MLA and Shadow Attorney-General.

BRIEFLY

Seniors’ centre wins prize

THE Goodwin Health and Wellness Centre exclusive to seniors has won the 2018 NSW/ ACT Excellence in Age Services Team Award. Run by Canberra-based, not-for-profit Goodwin Aged Care Services, the centre was an Australian-first when it opened in 2014 as a hub of co-ordinated health services set within a retirement living village.

Christmas dance in June

THE Burnt Roast Band, with caller Colin Towns, will be pacing the action at the Monaro Folk Society’s Christmas in June dance at Canberra Baptist Church Hall, Currie Crescent, Kingston, from 8pm on Saturday, June 30. There will be an appearance by the Surley Griffin Morris dancers. Bring Christmas food and dress for the occasion. Cost is $18. More at monarofolk.org.au

A

decade of Fusion

FUSION City Church has been celebrating 10 years of ministry in the heart of Gungahlin. Recently hundreds of people attended the milestone birthday celebration. Fusion City Church meets at Palmerston Primary School every Sunday at 10am. More at fusioncitychurch.com.au

JEREMY HANSON

Correction

OVER-zealous editing in last week’s advertising feature on Phillip resulted in our suggesting that the former principal of Duratone Music, Charles Cull, had departed this mortal coil. Not so. Charles is retired and reported to be in forgiving good humour about our lamentable error, for which we apologise.

POLITICS / mental health

When good politics meets good policy

ALIGNING good politics and good policy provides positive outcomes for the community.

The announcement by Greens Minister Shane Rattenbury that the ACT would have an Office of Mental Health and Wellbeing will be welcomed by the sector and will assist in consolidating Rattenbury and the Greens Party in the ACT. It is not just the Greens. This outcome is also good politics for Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris. The Office of Mental Health and Wellbeing will be located within the Health Directorate. As such Ms Fitzharris is not completely surrendering control over mental health issues and can buy in as she deems appropriate.

The Office of Mental Health and Wellbeing according to Minister Rattenbury is a “territory-wide vision for mental health and suicide prevention in the ACT through a process of collaboration and co-design”. To ensure much better co-ordination of mental health services across government, the concept builds on a “health in all” policy approach that was adopted a couple of decades ago in SA. This is also good politics for Chief Minister Andrew Barr and his government. Consultation with the sector, a report produced for government and a government response may have taken some time. However, the government has worked hard to meet sector concerns demonstrating willingness to carefully consider and tackle issues for this vulnerable part of the community.

This announcement also demonstrates that the Labor-Greens government is working in a co-ordinated and co-operative way to deliver better outcomes for people of the ACT.

Challenging for all Ministers within the

BRIEFLY

THE National Dinosaur Museum has installed a new animatronic dinosaur that director Tom Kapitany says: “Canberra has never seen anything like this”. The giant tyrannosaurus rex stands more than eight metres tall and its arrival comes as the museum celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Miniature treat

THE Canberra Miniature Railway at Symonston will be open for rides 10am-2.30pm, on Sunday, June 24. There will also be a display of old engines and pumps by the Canberra & District Historic Engine Club. Refreshments will be available and the rides cost $3. More at canberramodelengineers.org.au

ACT government will be the role of the coordinator-general. The person appointed will answer to the Minister for Mental Health but will also be able to independently initiate reports and reviews or do so at the request of the minister. This should, as the Minister claims, “guarantee a level of independence”. Recruitment for the position is currently underway in a nationwide process. The right person will be a key to the success of the office.

The person appointed to this position will be able to tap senior bureaucrats and ministers from right across government on the shoulder to highlight the needs of the mentally ill. This will include the Chief Minister. The very existence of the office will challenge the business-as-usual approach. The goal will be difficult to achieve. However, it is conceptually as simple as ensuring “people experiencing poor mental health can access the most appropriate services and supports at the right place and the right time”.

In addition to the role of the co-ordinatorgeneral, Minister Rattenbury has established a “Stewardship Group”. This group is to “support a whole-of-government focus for the office and facilitate opportunities to address the social determinants of mental health and promote an integrated and coordinated response by ACT government-funded services”.

This office is a good start. It provides an exemplar. What the ACT needs now is more examples of proactive, cross-government policies and actions that will deliver better outcomes for the people of the ACT. Such an approach will deliver both good politics and good policy.

FREE sustainable home advice workshops

Understanding Solar

DIY Draught Proofing

8pm CIT Tuggeranong

Borrow the DIY Home Energy Action Kit from any ACT library

LETTERS Fewer circuses, more bread, please Mr Barr

SOME 35,000 people in Canberra live below the poverty line and several thousand are homeless. Why?

Being a city-state I always have wondered how our compact territory only 29 years into self-government is not a substantial improvement in lifestyle from the tired old States and their centuries-old historic baggage. It is not too late to change.

Currently we are on the same, mad “progressive” drive as elsewhere – here with an expensive tram, more and more high-rise units, talk of new and improved stadia, redevelopment of cultural centres…

How do these costly initiatives help the 35,000 in our community living below the poverty line?

Surely, it is a government’s duty and responsibility to look after the fundamental needs of those to whom it administers? Health, education, housing and transport, living costs and the rule of law.

be still at work at 4.30pm! Instead all I heard from the ministers’ offices were long voicemail messages both stating that they were the minister for “everything”; as long as you don’t want to question us!

Letter writer Ray Leister from Amaroo was spot on with his assessment of the Budget in the same edition of “CityNews”. How out of touch Andrew Barr is with many in the electorate with yet another Budget imposing big increases in rates, taxes and charges, well ahead of the CPI.

Colin Lyons, Weetangera

The reality of Mugga Lane

Actsmart about heating your home

“I was able to halve my gas bill after implementing the advice offered in two of these outstanding workshops. I highly recommend attending if you want to save on energy costs.” Mark from Bruce

For more information and bookings: visit actsmart.act.gov.au email actsmartadvice@act.gov.au or phone 1300 141 777 All workshops are free with limited places available. Bookings are essential.

Extras such as those listed earlier should not be considered, at least by a government using taxpayers’ funds, until the basics of society are adequately and broadly met for all citizens.

It is a condemnation of any government that it leaves the increasing number of charities in this city to provide or attempt to provide voluntarily the help that elected official representatives, by our taxes, are charged with giving the community for its quality of life.

The Romans kept their people content with bread and circuses. I urge bread to be prioritised in the ACT and the circuses left to more favourable times for all our citizens.

Greg Cornwell, Yarralumla

More due diligence, Mr Moore

WAKE up, Michael Moore! And do due diligence before you go into print (“Public servant admits to being very wrong”, CN, June 14).

Moore touts “the great success story” of the HPV vaccine, while nothing could be further from the truth.

Some governments, such as Japan, no longer recommend the vaccine, and people are suing for damages resulting from the HPV vaccines in numerous countries.

Reports of severe adverse events associated with HPV vaccines continue to escalate worldwide. A group of scientists, medical professionals and victim group representatives from five nations, including the UK and Ireland, has issued a “Joint Statement 2018 for the Victims of HPV Vaccines.”

The statement identifies how very different countries have parallel experiences of adverse events following HPV vaccinations. It also records the victims’ similar experiences at the hands of their various national health services. The statement is the conclusion of an international symposium held a month ago at the University of Tokyo and attended by representatives from the UK and Ireland, as well as Japan, Colombia and Spain.

Moore praises the openness and transparency of our present system, but continues to chant “success” mantras for products that have never been proved safe or effective, and are failing badly while damaging young people around the world. The World Health Organisation has recorded more than 300,000 such cases.

Jennifer Heywood, Spence

Pollies not taking the calls

PAUL Costigan wrote an excellent column “Pollies fail the smell test” (CN, June 7). He highlighted a number of crucial issues where the business owners in Fyshwick would be badly affected by the proposed garbage facility in the suburb. He highlighted the fact that none of the members for Kurrajong had attended public meetings to discuss the issue. I don’t think this is good enough!

After the ACT Budget was handed down, I called three members of the government to raise issues about the Budget with them. Two were ministers, Gordon Ramsay and Shane Rattenbury. The third was a backbencher in Ginninderra. I rang their offices just before 4.30pm on the Friday afternoon and received voicemail messages in all cases. With a three-day long weekend coming up, one would have expected their staff to

BARBARA Moore states in Letters (CN, June 14) that the current site of Canberra’s landfill is situated in a “rural broadacre setting”. I assume she is referring to the Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre. I would suggest that Barbara revisits the site and notes that while it may be surrounded by paddocks and tree-covered ridges, it is in fact the most heavily industrialised site in Canberra.

There are at least five separate enterprises based there including the garbage landfill to service all of Canberra and the surrounding region, a huge open-air compost recycling farm, a building materials recycling plant and a landfill-gas-to-electricity generating plant etcetera.

Apart from the many daily movements of garbage and green recycling trucks, there are numerous pieces of heavy earthmoving equipment permanently at the site and these operate at least six days a week generating a lot of dust while belching diesel particulates with the exhaust emissions.

The building recycling plant creates a lot of noise and dust and necessitates many heavy truck and machinery movements. The most latent polluter is the LFG electricity generator, where diesel engines operating 24/7, 52 weeks a year release odourless toxic emissions and particulates equivalent to 24 large interstate road-haulage trucks at cruising speed.

If the odour from the large pieces of equipment aren’t enough the smell of decomposing green organics also pervades the whole site and when atmospheric conditions allow, all these emissions, particulates, odours and odourless gases are transported to suburbs in Tuggeranong via an inversion layer – the same inversion layer that led to the EPA banning wood-fire heaters in the Tuggeranong Valley several years ago.

Ironically, the one smell that is absent and has been for some time is that of the garbage being buried at the landfill. This is the stuff that you and your future 9000 East Lake residents are afraid of.

The declaration by Meegan Fitzharris last week that “the government is developing a waste-to energy policy, which would be open for consultation later this year” means that, like NSW and now Queensland, the ACT will be getting its first mining industry. That’s not gold mining either, it’s “garbage mining”, to feed the massive incinerator they are planning at Mugga Lane.

Richard Larkey, Tuggeranong

Not the road, it’s the drivers

CEDRIC Bryant (“Barton Highway is a national disgrace, Letters, CN, June 7) falls for the hoary old chestnut: if there is a motoring fatality, blame it on the road… it’s a “killer road”.

We’ve seen this with the Barton Highway, the Kings Highway and great sections of the Pacific Highway. While I agree the Barton Highway needs considerable work, including duplication, the highway is no killer. No road is. The sole blame for accidents on our highways lies with human frailty: the need to arrive on time, the impatience to wait for an appropriate overtaking opportunity, lack of concentration, poor driving skills, the addiction to speed… the list goes on.

Let’s stop blaming an inanimate road for the failings of those who travel on it. The blame lies entirely with the driver, or at least, one of the drivers involved.

Rowley Tompsett, Nicholls

MUMS & BUBS

Expert help with the hardest job in the world

BEING a mum is often referred to as being one of the hardest jobs in the world.

And finding the right balance between being a person and being a “mum” can be difficult.

It can also be time consuming trying to find the right advice, service or product for a child.

This week “CityNews” has compiled a guide to expert services, products, entertainment and activities for mums (and mums-to-be).

Boutique centre for top baby brands

WHEN first-time parents Trev and Che McGee couldn’t find any exciting nursery furniture or decor they started Tip You’re It in Braddon over three years ago to deliver boutique baby brands to Canberra.

Named after their favourite childhood game, Tip You’re It continues to find special brands and bring them to the area.

“We have everything, we have fashion, we have decor, we have clothes and gifts,” Trev says.

“We’re a one-stop-shop for everything baby related but we provide boutique brands.”

Trev and Che, whose first born, Evie is now five and Finn, two, says their obsession remains the same – find ing gorgeous kids’ fashion, furniture and décor that is going to make their children’s personality shine.

As parents themselves, Trev says they can give anecdotal advice on what expecting parents will need based on their experience.

“We like to treat our customers like friends and we love to hear the stories that customers usually come with,” he says.

“We try to have a laugh with our customers and make shopping for a new baby easy and fun.”

And, with fun brands such as Tiba + Marl, a UK-based baby bag company, which makes funky yet functional baby bags, Trev says a visit to Tip You’re It will be as popular as the bag.

Tip You’re It, 5/18 Lonsdale Street, Braddon. Call 6262 6442, email hey@tipyoureit.com.au or visit tipyoureit.com.au

Photographer who likes to capture the love

SPECIALISING in maternity and newborn photography, Jill Dolby of LoJo Photography loves capturing the special bond between a child and their parents.

“It’s about capturing memories but it’s also about capturing the love between parents and their children,” she says.

While Jill takes photos of children of all ages, she says her home studio in Amaroo is specifically designed for newborns but she can also organise photoshoots in other locations.

She says she takes pride in providing beautiful images, which allow families to keep their memories as they grow and change.

“Children change so quickly and memories fade but photos are that thing which will take you back,” she says.

Whether that be through digital images, framed photos, portrait boxes with prints, canvas portraits, albums and aluminium prints.

Having children of her own helps Jill relate to the needs of a client.

“It also helps me to relate to the children in family

Photography

sessions and when there are older siblings associated with maternity and newborn sessions,” she says.

Lojo Photography. Call 0404 887297, email lojo_photography@aapt.net.au or visit lojo-photography.com.au

Maternity care at every turn

CALVARY John James Hospital has been providing excellent services with great patient outcomes to pregnant women and parents since 1994, says director of clinical services Jo Mitchell.

Offering a continuity of care, the hospital has services helping mums through all stages of pregnancy such as antenatal care, through to the delivery and postnatal care.

“You choose your obstetrician, who cares for you from early pregnancy, through your pregnancy, labour and post-delivery,” she says.

“Our mums link in with our team of midwives during their pregnancy through the antenatal classes (run onsite at the hospital) and then our midwives care for them during labour and following delivery in

the best outcomes for the mums and their bubs.”

Jo says it’s about being comfortable while getting high-level medical support with many great reasons to stay in the unit such as partners are welcome to stay, freshly cooked meals, 24-hour onsite doctor and emergency cover and a special care nursery located in the maternity wing.

“We provide a lactation specialist for mums to see post delivery and we also offer mums and bubs physiotherapy exercises,” she says.

“Our experienced maternity physiotherapists have designed a program that is safe and sympathetic to the special exercise needs of new mums, in a baby friendly environment with volunteers available for cuddles.”

Call the Maternity Unit at Calvary John James Hospital on

John James babies

• Private room with ensuite – deluxe option

• Partners welcome to stay

• Special care nursery

• 24 hour onsite doctor and emergency cover

• Lactation consultants

• Maternity physiotherapists for post baby recovery

• Easy parking next to the maternity unit

• Freshly cooked meals

A nurturing world of early learning

AS part of six early learning centres in Canberra and more than 100 across Australia, the Guardian Early Learning Group prides itself on being a well-established team of passionate, experienced, nurturing and professional educators.

Bruce’s centre manager, Belle Agresta-Sylvester says the Guardian environment in Bruce, as well as Civic, Forde, Forest, Gungahlin and Wanniassa support autonomy and foster children’s individually, through encouraging discovery and exploration.

“We, as educators, see ourselves as co-researchers and partners in learning alongside the children, providing the best possible care and education to the children and families within our service,” she says.

“We understand the importance of building strong relationships with children and their families in order

to successfully support the development of each child individually.

“We invite our families to contribute to our educational programs and curriculum decision making, with collaboration at the forefront of everything we do.”

Belle says all Guardian Early Learning Centres focus on the physical, emotional, cognitive and social development and wellbeing of young children.

“In line with our unique early learning approach, our centres focus on the promotion of natural materials and sustainability, focusing on learning in indoor and outdoor environments,” she says.

Guardian Early Learning Group. Call 1300 001119 or visit guardian.edu.au

THE ART OF GUILT-FREE PARENTING™ & RELATIONSHIPS

A workshop to transform you from feeling overwhelmed into creating hope, helping you and your children to blossom.

SATURDAY 14TH JULY

WORLD OF WELLBEING, 16 WILBOW STREET, PHILLIP 10am to 5pm, inlcuding a light lunch & refreshments.

FOR MORE INFO & TO SECURE YOUR PLACE: WWW.LISTEN4LIFE.COM/MOTHERS-WORKSHOP

AIMED at empowering parents to change their family dynamics, the upcoming workshop “The Art of GuiltFree Parenting and Relationships” will help families go from surviving to thriving.

• Led by university qualified & experienced teachers

• Fun and stimulating activities that provides both enjoyment and learning

• Sessions include music, movement, dance, fine & gross motor activities as well as literacy and numeracy

• Emphasis on development of motor skills, academic and social skills

• Parent classes for children 5 months to 2 years

• Independent Pre-Preschool for 3 year olds

• Preschool PLUS for 4 and over

• Providing children with the academic and social skills required for formal schooling by introducing structure and routines in a play based fun and creative atmosphere

“The aim is to empower parents to raise conscious and well-adjusted children by providing them with tools and strategies,” says behaviour and coaching specialist and Love2Last founder, Gillian Andale.

For the workshop on July 14, she’ll be teaming up with colleague Harry Armytage, who is a learning difficulty expert and founder of Listen4life.

Harry is trained in helping frustrated parents who are struggling to help their bright children thrive.

“He doesn’t just work with the child, he also works with the parents to support the child,” she says.

And Gillian provides coaching and support to couples and families who want to thrive and grow

Helping young children grow and develop

LED by qualified teachers in a warm, safe and stimulating environment, Kidstart Education and Activity Centre in Wanniassa helps young children grow and develop next to the safety of mum.

“From the ages of five months to three years children attend with a parent or carer for a onesession-a-week educational playgroup program,” says director Kristen O’Connor.

Not only does this let parents socialise with other parents and children with other children, but Kristen says it allows parents to be involved in seeing their children through various developmental phases.

“Parents get to be involved without having to do any of the work,” she says.

“These programs rely on the parents helping their child with the different activities to provide encouragement and support.

“The weekly session is designed to enhance a child’s overall growth and development in social, physical and intellectual areas.

“Of particular importance is the development of motor skills and co-ordination which are critical to a child’s development and future learning,” she says.

Designed to enhance social skills and exploration sessions include music, movement, dance, gym, gross motor activities, fine motor activities, percussion as well as stories, rhymes, jigsaws and games.

Kidstart Education, 65-67 Sternberg Crescent, Wanniassa, at kidstart.com.au or call 0422 406622.

together and navigate this complex world to create a lasting, loving family unit consisting of strong, resilient individuals.

But together, through the six-hour workshop, they’ll be helping parents create fully empowered, well adjusted, confident future leaders who will bring positive change to our planet.

“We will help you understand the uniqueness and brilliance of each family member,” she says.

“This is for parents of any kind of family who really want to have great insight into how to help create these well-adjusted children and how to cope themselves.”

“The Art of Guilt-Free Parenting and Relationships”, World of Wellbeing, Canberra Health Point, 9/16 Wilbow Street, Phillip. 10am-5pm, July 14. Bookings to listen4life.com/ mothers-workshop

THE EXPERTS OF BRADDON

Old suburb with a zest for modern life

SETTLED in 1922 and gazetted as a division name in September 1928, Braddon is one of Canberra’s oldest suburbs.

It was previously known for its many car dealerships and automotive services but has since become one of Canberra’s most trendy suburbs.

Braddon’s commercial area, which consists of small art galleries, restaurants, cafes, bars, gift and clothes stores, is centred on Mort and Lonsdale Streets, which are both parallel to Northbourne Avenue.

With only a short walk to Civic, Braddon has become a popular living option with many of its former suburban houses being replaced by apartments.

Quality clothes for children

OVER the past seven years, Lellow Kids has loved watching its home on Lonsdale Street grow, while it shares wonderful experiences helping families choose quality clothes for their children, says store manager Jen Takiari.

“We get to see excited expectant couples and their families, meet the new babies, help them choose their first shoes and watch them go off to school,” she says.

Its owner Loretta Hately started Lellow Kids after she struggled to find unique,

new and exciting things, too,” Jen says.

Stocking clothing, shoes and gifts for newborns to eight-year-olds, Jen says Lellow Kids has a variety of Australian and European brands, many of which people won’t find anywhere else in Canberra.

“We have a great shoe selection and staff are trained to measure and fit,” she says.

“We’ve got a cute little play corner to keep kids busy while the grown ups shop.

“[And], we have a fantastic team of loyal

MOULIN ROTY

An enchanting collection of soft toys and gifts from France.

Jewellers use technology to get it just right

CRAFTED with skill, Diamond Boutique specialises in custom, handmade jewellery that’ll last longer over time, says owner Olivia Keppie.

Diamond Boutique’s rings are designed in free hand and then, through software, shown to customers in 3D before being made.

“The Computer Aided Design (CAD) software allows us to create the piece in 3D,

in front of the customers so they can visually see what the ring will look like before it’s made,” she says.

“Some people will come in with images and others will come in with nothing, so we will show them images and examples to find out what they want.

“We can draw sketches as well to come up with really unique designs from our minds.

“And then we source the gemstones before the jewellery is handmade in store.”

Olivia says they’re able to take many different elements from designs and pull them together to create something unique.

“We’ll take all the elements that customers like and have even made a pokeball engagement ring,” she says.

“The creative outlet and thanks we receive from our customers is very rewarding.”

And Olivia says it’s nice to know that on the hands of many is a little piece of their work.

Diamond Boutique, Shop 141, Mode 3 Building, 24 Lonsdale Street. Call 6249 6997 or visit diamondboutique.com.au

Club Med’s calling from Braddon

BRADDON’s only travel agent, Active Travel, has moved across the road in to the trendy Palko building on Lonsdale Street.

But that’s not the only new thing happening at Active Travel at the moment, according to owner Nick Carter, who says they’re launching a Club Med in store.

“The in-store boutique makes us Club Med sun and snow specialists,” he says.

“Which basically gives us access to all the [Club Med] resorts around the world and access to specials in sun and ski.”

At the moment, Nick says direct flights from Canberra to Bintan Island in Singapore are a popular destination.

And, the resort Active Travel is offering under Club Med is all-inclusive so, Nick says, people don’t have to pay for anything once they’re there, such as child care.

“It’s family friendly but it’s also a great destination for a couple, especially for honeymooners,” he says.

Despite this new partnership with Club Med, Nick says Active Travel still takes great pride in offering independent advice to travellers.

“So, if sun and snow resorts aren’t your

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Semee says with vitamin consultations, she can help figure out what people might be lacking.

“For example, people might use cold and flu tablets regularly when they might just need a boost of immunity vitamins,” she says. their lives, and so does the friendly team who are willing to provide as much advice as possible, tailored to everyone.

NEW PHARMACY OPEN NOW

Learn to do make-up like a professional

SALOON on Lonsdale Street makes its customers feel like a supermodel, giving them celebrity beauty and hair services with a bar full of bubbles to get the party started.

Stocked with “best of the best” beauty and hair products, Saloon offers services such as blow dry, wax, tint and make-up and can cater for occasions such as birthdays, hens’ parties and weddings.

Saloon’s blowdry menu has fun names such as “Cindy Crawford” – a textured, voluminous blow dry with a soft wave – which reflects on the glamorous services at Saloon.

Its owner and make-up artist Sarah Wright has worked in the television industry, on international film sets and her make-up regularly features on

Cosmetica, and also studied with Toni and Guy.

And, for people who want to learn how to professionally do their own make-up, Saloon has a three-week introduction to make-up workshop offering a behind-the-scenes make-up experience designed for beauty enthusiasts.

This three-week introduction will teach students the professional techniques and fundamentals of creating the perfect look.

This personalised approach to make-up will cover the essentials of application such as analysis of face shape and skin type and the techniques for creating a look for every occasion.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

A multimedia glimpse into a beautiful mind

By Helen MUSA

“I LIKE Sherlock Holmes and I think that if I were a proper detective he is the kind of detective I would be,” says 15-year-old Christopher Boone.

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes… but he notices them, like I do.”

Boone, played by Joshua Jenkins, is the unusual hero of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”, by English author Mark Haddon, who became an overnight sensation on its publication in 2013.

The novel was initially publicised on its back cover as being about a teenage boy with Asperger’s syndrome, (high-functioning autism, or savant syndrome) who discovers a murdered dog on a neighbour’s lawn and, copying his hero Sherlock Holmes (the title comes from Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1892 short story “The Adventure of Silver Blaze”) puts his inventive mind to the mystery at hand.

It won the Whitbread Award, the Guardian Prize and a Commonwealth Writers Prize.

A hugely popular, multimedia stage adap tation by Simon Stephens followed, directed by Marianne Elliott, and became a smash hit on the West End then Broadway, wowing audiences with the spectacular encounter between human beings and technology.

Now on tour in Australia, with a cast of British and Irish actors, it’s due to hit the Canberra Theatre stage in late June.

It’s presented as a play-within-a-play and while Stephens has taken large chunks of narrative and dialogue from the book, what has really been packing them in is the technology, as images from the text have been translated by set designer, Bunny Christie,

a kaleidoscope of others, such as a drunk, a policeman, a posh woman and even a door, played by the remaining six cast members.

“CityNews” spoke with Kim Pearce, who’s been the resident director of “The

Christopher does not identify himself as being on the spectrum and we want the play perceived as a celebration of difference.”

Pearce says the company undertook research and found many different kinds of

“There are lots of people like Christopher and so we should focus on Christopher himself.”

So focusing on Christopher, the character has exceptional, visionary mental abilities

ARTS IN THE CITY Prize-winner steps into the spotlight again

FLAUTIST Serena Ford, winner of the 2018 Canberra Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition, will perform Jules Mouquet’s “La Flûte de Pan” in Llewellyn Hall on Saturday, June 30, when the orchestra will also perform “Running-RestingReeling” by Aria-winning CYO alumna Sally Whitwell and “Sonic Boom” by the ANU’s Natalie Williams. Bookings to premier.ticketek.com.au

BATEMANS Bay’s Sculpture on Clyde is keen to attract Canberra entrants to its second Sculpture Walk competition, with highlights to be seen August 24-September 3. Entries by July 30 to sculptureonclyde.com.au

MEANTIME, the Australian War Memorial, the University of Canberra, The Road Home and Thales Australia are calling for applications from current and former Australian Defence Force personnel to enter the inaugural $10,000 Napier Waller Art Prize, which also involves a two-week research residency at the AWM with Ben Quilty. Entries by July 11 to awm.gov.au

2.30 pm, on Saturday, June 30. Bookings to 0407 431332, eventbrite.com or tickets at the door.

SELBY & Friends presents Schubert, Brahms and Mendelssohn in “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Romantic,” with Andrew Haveron on violin, Umberto Clerici on cello and Kathryn Selby on piano. At James O Fairfax Theatre, NGA, Wednesday, June 27, bookings to selbyandfriends.com.au

PHOTOGRAPHER and former Air Force officer Scott Leggo’s new gallery in Kingston is now up and running at 45 Jardine Street, Kingston, with a launch by the Chief Minister planned for June 25. Leggo believes it will be Canberra’s first permanent landscape photography gallery.

MUSICA da Camera’s “Strings and Banjo” concert, marking its 40th anniversary, will be performed in Holy Covenant Church, 89 Dexter Street, Cook, 2.30pm, Saturday, June 30. Tickets at the door.

FILIPINO classical guitar master Segundo Vasquez will join forces with the Canberra Mandolin Orchestra and Canberra’s Rondanihan Filipino string band during an afternoon concert at Hughes Baptist Church, 10 Groom Street, Hughes,

THE popular Yarralumla Midwinter Arts and Crafts Show is now in its 35th year. Performers on Saturday and Sunday include Lady’s Mantle, Vintage Ukes and Andante Andante. At Yarralumla Uniting Church Centre, Denman Street, Yarralumla, 10am-8pm, Friday, June 29; 10am-5pm, June 30 and noon-5pm, July 1. Official opening, 6pm, June 2. Proceeds will support community programs.

CHOIR leader, singer and composer, Dan Walker, will be here on Saturday, June 30 for an afternoon choral workshop with the Oriana Chorale, followed by an informal, free public performance of works by Walker, Esenvalds and Anerio. At University House at 5pm. Bookings for workshop to trybooking.com

An unorthodox Jewish drama

By Dougal MACDONALD

“Disobedience” (MA)

IN 2006, Naomi Alderman’s first novel earned her two prestigious-enough awards. One London reviewer wrote: “Alderman’s commentary on Orthodox Judaism in the 21st century is thought-provoking and illuminating”.

This Canberra reviewer found the filmed version by the writer (in collaboration with Rebecca Lenkiewicz) and director Sebastian Lelio matches that observation beautifully, with a group of admirable performances telling a story that puts two issues under a microscope and unflinchingly describes what it reveals.

Rav Krushka (Anton Lesser) collapses and dies as he is about to complete delivering a powerful sermon in a Hendon (London) synagogue.

We meet his only daughter Ronit (Rachel Weisz) in the arms of her New York lover and follow her to London where she re-establishes contact with Esti (Rachel McAdams) married to her cousin Dovid (Alessandro Nivola). The stage is set for a warts-and-all examination of an Orthodox Jewish community.

“Disobedience” pulls no punches about the traditions of Jewish religious observance. The practice of separating the women at religious services and the role of women in domestic life get subtly scarifying.

And what has gently been simmering underneath the community’s male domination comes to a figurative boil when the film begins its treatment of its other issue that’s rather more dramatic because it happens in every race and faith.

Esti may be a wife but she finds Dovid’s obligatory Friday night copulation repulsive and unfulfilling. The person she really loves and has done since childhood is Ronit. The two Rachels play those characters with delicacy, sweetness and, dare I say it, credibility, as a series of passionate encounters develops into a bedroom sequence that, to this straight bloke

who has several valued lesbian friends, explains much.

Naomi Alderman says she wasn’t writing about events in her life but writing it led her to cease being a practising Jew. My mother would probably have agreed with her.

At Dendy and Palace Electric

“The Leisure Seeker” (M)

WHEN Will Spencer (Christian McKay) and his wife Jane (Janel Moloney) arrive at Will’s parents’ house one morning, they find it deserted and an empty garage that normally housed The Leisure Seeker, Will’s parents’ name for their ancient and now seldom used Winnebago campervan (RV in US parlance). Will and Jane panic.

Prolific Italian director Paolo Virzi’s first fully English-language film, written by Stephen Amidon adapting a novel by Michael Zadoorian, brings together a pair of classy film veterans after a hiatus of 27 years. Donald Sutherland (born 1935) plays retired English teacher John, whose memory often lets him down but who remembers the texts that he once taught and their authors. Helen Mirren (born 1945) plays Ella, whose brain is working just fine. Married for yonks, John and Ella know all that can be known about love and devotion. And they’re driving to Key West in Florida to visit the haunts frequented by one of John’s heroes, Ernest Hemingway.

Watching these two delightful characters undertaking a road movie turns out to be less a travelogue than a suspenser. It’s the sort of comedy that I wish more American movie makers might emulate more often – real people finding humour in credible situations uncloyed by clichés of the genre. John and Ella are in no hurry. And as they go, we begin to feel a growing dread that it’s a bliss that can’t last.

Which it doesn’t. But you could never accuse “The Leisure Seeker” of denying its audience a satisfying conclusion.

At Dendy, Palace Electric and Capitol 6

“Tag” (M)

THIS movie starts with a claim of being based on actual events and ends with a shot of Russell Adams’s story in “The Wall Street Journal” about a game of tag that a bunch of grown-ups had playing for years across the US.

I had to research the game to discover its rules. I was mildly surprised to find that each game builds its own rules on a foundation of immutables. One player is “it”. When “it” touches another player, that other player becomes “it”. Each group can agree on subordinate rules but only by unanimous vote. Simple, ain’t it? When as a six-year-old I changed schools, I met a game called “British Bulldog”. Just another name for “tag”. And the pleasures of playing it were transitory indeed.

In Jeff Tomsic’s feature debut, after a career in short films and network TV series, one game has been going on since school days. Three decades later, one of the five players makes contact with three of the others for the first time since adulthood. Hoagie (Ed Helms) has great news. He knows where Jerry will be on a particular day.

Who’s Jerry? Played by Jeremy Renner, he’s the one member of the game who’s never, not ever, been “it”. Let’s get together, guys, and tag Jerry on the day at the place named in a full-page advertisement in a tabloid announcing Jerry’s wedding.

Tomsic apparently has never thought, or perhaps never dared, to question the screenplay by Rob McKittrick and Mark Steilen that a team of seven producers handed him and said “make a movie”. The kindest word for it is slapstick. Before colour and sound hi-jacked movies, slapstick was the staple fodder of comedy in relatively short movies. “Tag” runs for 100 minutes.

The cast is unmemorable. The only moments to show any sparkle are when Isla Fisher, whom Australian movie buffs may call Aussie although she didn’t get here till age four, playing Hoagie’s wife Anna, has centre stage – wonderfully brash, violent, foul-mouthed and several cuts above the rest. But not enough of her to lift a film using a screenplay that would be dead in the water if it had been blessed with intelligence.

I have great difficulty fathoming which audience cohort its makers expected it to please.

At all cinemas

DINING

Memorable taste of Mediterranean

I ABSOLUTELY adore

Mediterranean cuisine, worshipping its diversity and use of amazing produce, so it never takes much convincing to settle me into a restaurant that adores it, too.

Olive at Mawson is a standout at the Southlands shopping centre. It’s elegant – crisp white table cloths and napkins and comfy cloth chairs – and the minute you open the door, the smells entice you in.

Head chef Daniel Li has pulled together an intriguing menu that celebrates so much that is famous about Mediterranean dining, making it challenging to decide what to order.

What wasn’t challenging was the decision to start with crispy fried olives, a perfect way to perk up the tastebuds. These super-large green olives were stuffed with roasted capsicum and salty feta. We delighted in dipping them into the creamy side dish of aioli ($12).

Our tastebuds continued their journey with the char-grilled octopus, tender, sweet and delicious. The banana peppers we also shared as an entrée were divine. Stuffed with goat cheese and herbs, their flavour was enhanced with a drizzle of Olive’s very own olive oil and balsamic vinegar – a winning combo

Then we sat back and enjoyed a bit of wine before we

received our mains.

Olive’s layout is well planned. You’re not crammed in or sitting on top of the folks at the next table. It’s relaxed and on a warmer, sunnier day we may have opted to sit in the more casual outdoor area.

The whole rainbow trout (mostly deboned) was a treat – perfectly cooked and stuffed with succulent prawns. The dish almost didn’t get ordered for fear it would be too creamy, but the champagne sauce was light and the fish mostly deboned so easy to eat ($36).

Traditional, hearty meatballs are no doubt a big favourite at Olive and this dish came through with its promise to pack a punch with flavour ($18). More delicate was the grilled snapper, perched atop a bed of potatoes with some vibrant greens on the side.

Olive was opened by John Yianoulakis, who arrived in Australia in 1964 and has worked in hospitality ever since, including opening Hellenic Trattoria in Woden with his wife Aleca. After opening Olive at Mawson they ventured further afield and opened a restaurant with the same name at the Hawker shops.

It wasn’t overly busy at Olive on the grey, cool Canberra afternoon we visited. Service was a tad slow, with a bigger party enjoying a birthday celebration at one end of the restaurant. Still, it was worth the wait for the flavours and food and it was sweet when the young birthday boy presented us with a big slab of chocolate cake to enjoy. Olive at Mawson, Southlands Shopping Centre. Open Tuesday to Sunday lunch and dinner. Call 6286 3753. Fully licensed.

ART COMMENT / new face at the national gallery

Meticulously making Australian history

By Helen Musa

IN a bold curatorial step, the National Portrait Gallery has taken the leap into the under-explored world of women’s artistic practice and found it to be “so fine”.

That’s from the title of the new exhibition, “So Fine: Contemporary women artists make Australian history”, part of the NPG’s 20th birthday celebrations, in which curators Sarah Engledow and Christine Clark have proposed the idea that the art of women distinguishes itself by “a habit of serious thinking and a meticulous approach to creation”.

Meticulous maybe, but badly underrated or dismissed as “cottage art” or “craft”, so Engledow and Clark have thrown the spotlight on 10 women artists from across Australia by presenting new perspectives on the past.

And these artists, they say, are anything but gentle, with “incomplete, biased, personal, regional, marginal and distinctly feminist” stories to tell.

Visitors can expect to see works created around first encounters, the convict experience, indigenous people, the betrayal of children, the divided self of the immigrant and scientific discovery.

There will be works by Gija painter Shirley Purdie, ceramic pieces inspired by convict women by Melbourne artist Bern Emmerichs, a portrait of her Bilambil mother by Brisbane photomedia artist Leah King-Smith, sculptures about Australian scientists in the Antarctic by Sydney’s Linde Ivimey and Indo-Persian-style miniatures by Melbourne artist Nusra Latif Qureshi. There are also paper-cut images about Chinese entrepreneurs and innovators by Brisbane’s Pamela See (Xue Mei-Leng), paintings of kids sent to Australia under the Child Migration Scheme by Fiona Mc-

Not to take anything away…

By Paul Costigan

FOR a couple of months there was the rumour, then in early April the art world’s worst-kept secret was out in the open – the new National Gallery director from next month is to be Nick Mitzevich.

There have been many praiseworthy statements about Mitzevich’s work as director of the Art Gallery of SA. He finishes in that role with two successful exhibitions – “Colours of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay” and the “2018 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art”.

All signs are good about Mitzevich’s appointment (starting July 2) and I join with the many who are looking forward to seeing a higher profile, through exhibitions and online, for the fabulous NGA collections that need to come out of the storerooms more often.

appointment did highlight a curious thing.

Right now all the major state galleries and the National Gallery have directors who are white, male Anglo-Europeans. The exception could be SA, if the government replaces Nick with a talented woman of non-AngloEuropean descent.

If you look around the regional galleries, you will find many talented women occupying the positions of director – and if you go back further it is clear that women dominate the graduating classes from art schools, museum and art history programs. There’s something wrong here. Somewhere along their career paths there is resistance to women making their way through to the top visual arts jobs.

We have had the Australian Human Rights Commission report by Tim Soutphommasane that highlighted the inequity in racial backgrounds within the ranks of Australia’s CEOs.

Valerie Kirk with her commissioned tapestry “The Traveller”... “a kind of self portrait done from a photograph, where you can see my shadow over the rocks”.

Monagle, painted, stitched possum skin cloaks and vessels, feathered pencils, woven hair and wire baskets by Wathaurong-Scottish woman Carol McGregor, painted works and words set against a backdrop of hand-blocked wallpaper evoking French encounters with indigenous Tasmanian and Pacific peoples by Canberra’s Nicola Dickson and woollen tapestries and painted slates by Scottish-Australian weaver Valerie Kirk, also from Canberra.

“CityNews” caught up recently with Kirk, one of the most lauded textile artists in Australia and for 27 years until she retired in 2017, head of textiles at the ANU School of Art and Design.

Over the years she has taken on some spectacular commissions and right now she is planning a 1.2 x 2.4m tapestry for University House biophysicist Prof Graham Farquhar. Born in Scotland, Kirk grew up in the midst of the kind of fine work

the exhibition acknowledges and says: “Often it is regarded as just women’s work… traditional china painting, botanical art and textiles – these are the areas that women have largely worked in, and my works relate to that tradition.”

For Kirk that means weaving and tapestry, but she believes that she’s been selected because the NPG curators were also intrigued by work that looked at her role as an immigrant, a perpetual traveller.

This led to a new commission for this show, “The Traveller”, which she describes as “a kind of self portrait done from a photograph, where you can see my shadow over the rocks”.

Snapped during a textiles tour to Peru in 2017, she recognised herself and said: “This is me, a traveller”.

“So Fine: Contemporary women artists make Australian history”, National Portrait Gallery, June 29-October 1.

We need to see more homegrown blockbusters from the NGA. We also hope that sometime soon we may also see the return of dedicated spaces for particular cherished art forms, such as sculpture, photography and the decorative arts.

Mitzevich takes on the NGA at an “interesting” time especially given what he is famous for – his enthusiasm for the visual arts and curatorship. The coming years could be a good time for those of us and our friends interstate who used to love going to the gallery very often.

Not to take away from the positives, but this

So who among the visual arts has been favouring Anglo-Europeans as the directors of our major state and national galleries? Unfortunately, this task falls to government-appointed gallery boards and ultimately to the relevant minister or cabinet. So it remains a larger corporate/institutional problem, not one controlled by the arts communities around Australia.

Paul Costigan is an independent commentator and consultant on the visual arts, photography, urban design, environmental issues and everyday life matters.

GARDENING

Big burst for new-release roses

By Cedric Bryant

THIS is one of the most exciting times of the year for gardeners who love roses. The new season’s choice is overwhelming with three of the main rose growers between them offering more than 45 new-release roses.

Wagner’s Rose Nursery, one of the oldest and largest rose growers in the country has a 50-hectare nursery at Kalangadoo in the south-east of SA.

Wagner’s are also agents for the world’s top rose breeders, such as the famous Kordes roses of Germany. Wagner’s grows a staggering 600 varieties, with 18 new releases for 2018.

Then there is Swane’s with its showcase nursery and rose gardens at Dural. Swane’s started as market gardeners before 1920 supplying hundreds of citrus trees to the then new Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. Swane’s has 11 new releases this season.

Treloar Roses, of Victoria, a more-than-generous provider of roses to the Horticultural Society of Canberra’s Trial Garden in Bruce, has 15 new-release roses this year.

I have chosen to feature just three roses, all from Wagner’s:

• “Bellissimo Mum”, a truly beautiful bush rose growing to 80cm with elegant pink double blooms. It has a strong, unforgettable, old-fashioned rose fragrance.

• “Outback Dreaming” really captures the colours of the outback with deep red and golden blooms on long stems. A taller rose to 180cm, making it ideal for cutting.

• “Fairy Dust”, a small shrub rose to 60cm with large, double, pure white flowers with a sweet scent of violets. It would make an ideal companion to white roses such as “White Iceberg”. Alternatively, this rose would make a great small hedge.

NINETY-FIVE per cent of all roses introduced into Australia come from overseas breeders, mainly from Europe. Experience has shown many do not neces sarily grow well here. So in 1996 the rose industry got together to establish a trial garden in the Botanic Gardens in Adelaide. The National Rose Society, the rose-growing industry and the Adelaide Botanic Gardens were all represented. Roses bred both here and from overseas are planted in the National Rose Trial Garden in groups of four to six of each variety with no name shown, just a code number. Plants are assessed by a group of 10 experienced rosarians who allocate points each month over a period of two years. This assessment is based on a strict, 10-point criteria that includes hardiness, pest and disease resistance and fragrance.

This is the guarantee that retail roses are suitable for our local conditions.

Jottings...

• Check rose nurseries’ websites for a full list and illustrations of new-release roses.

• Not all garden centres buy roses from the growers listed above.

• Buy roses that are displayed in natural, outdoor conditions

• Roses illustrated in overseas magazines will not necessarily have the same name when sold here.

PUZZLES PAGE

Joanne Madeline Moore

ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)

Resist the overwhelming urge to be an impulsive and impetuous Ram! Under the influence of retrograde Mars, the Full Moon and Saturn, you need to apply the brakes and think before you speak and act. Otherwise you could upset others with your hasty words and reckless actions. When it comes to your Aries aspirations for the future, the main quality you need to cultivate at the moment is patience. So your motto for the week is: “Good things come to those who wait.”

TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 21)

Your communication and learning zones are activated by the Full Moon. So it’s time to exercise your Bullish brain as you talk, text, tweet, read, research, post, publish and converse as creatively as possible. But resist the temptation to be super stubborn at home. Venus encourages you to be more accommodating and take housemates’ needs into consideration. With Mars reversing through your career zone, it’s not a good week to initiate work projects or look for a new job.

GEMINI (May 22 – June 21)

It’s a big week for finances and flirting! The Full Moon shines a bright spotlight on money, business, finance, property and real estate. So make sure they are all in practical order. With Venus and Mercury both visiting your social media zone (from Friday onwards) True Love or Lady Luck could be waiting online! But Mars is reversing through your adventure zone for the next few weeks. So, when it comes to a future holiday, be patient and plan carefully.

CANCER (June 22 – July 23)

The Sun’s moving through your sign, which stimulates and energises your fertile imagination. So look for a creative project that you can really sink your Crab teeth into. But – with Mars reversing through your ‘money-from-others’ zone – the next few weeks is not a good time to lend cash, borrow money or initiate a joint financial partnership. And don’t let relationship responsibilities get you down on Wednesday and Thursday, when the Full Moon amplifies current problems.

LEO (July 24 – Aug 23)

With Venus and then Mercury moving through your sign, it’s a wonderful week to embrace your Cat creativity! Be inspired by birthday great, singer-songwriter Carly Simon: “There’s always a creative side to me, even when it’s quiet musically… like painting or decorating or planting a garden.” But consider the consequences of what you do and say (especially on Saturday). If you act with haste, then you could find yourself deep in a disagreement or a messy misunderstanding.

VIRGO (Aug 24 – Sept 23)

You prefer things to run in an efficient fashion but there’s a crazy Full Moon, so drop the strict schedule and take things as they come. Your very private Virgo nature is emphasised from Friday onwards, when Mercury shifts into your seclusion zone. So make it a priority to connect with like-minded folk who understand your peccadillos and strong need for privacy. Some people will be unpredictable on Saturday, so don’t even try to work out where they are coming from.

LIBRA (Sept 24 – Oct 23)

Polite Librans are the peacemakers of the zodiac. And you’ll certainly require your diplomacy skills mid-week, when the Full Moon fires up your home zone and you may feel as if you’re stuck in a never-ending episode of Family Feud! Plus –courtesy of Mars turning retrograde – a relationship with a child, teenager, sibling or friend will be particularly frustrating over the next few weeks. The best way to handle the situation is with plenty of patience and understanding.

SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 22)

Business and work matters are favoured, as you put creative ideas into action and communicate with influential people. Don’t be a Scorpio wall-flower. Speak up and promote your talents! If you procrastinate, then fabulous opportunities will pass you by. With Jupiter in your sign, confidence and chutzpah will take you far. So your mantra for the week is from birthday great, deaf-blind author and educator Helen Keller: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23 – Dec 21)

You’re keen to expand your knowledge base, as you pick up ideas and inspiration from all corners of the globe. Fabulous opportunities could come from foreign shores, as the planets activate your travel zone. Sagittarians are the cosmopolitan global citizens of the zodiac, so get connecting with your international buddies ASAP! You also have a strong desire to be of service to others. As Princess Diana (born on July 1) observed: “Everyone has the potential to give something back.”

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 20)

This week, under the luminous glow of the Capricorn Full Moon, concentration is high and your attention to detail is even better than usual. So any work you do will be of an extremely high standard. Coupled Capricorn – it’s a wonderful week to work on deepening the love and commitment between the two of you. If you are looking for lasting love, don’t accept second best. Be discriminating, as you patiently wait for the right person to come along.

AQUARIUS (Jan 21 – Feb 19)

Have you been working too hard? Or do you have a problem that no amount of thinking can resolve? Action-planet Mars starts reversing through your sign on Tuesday. And then the Full Moon activates your spiritual zone on Wednesday and Thursday. So it’s time to slow down and focus attention on your inner world, as you listen to what your intuition is trying to tell you. Your motto for the moment is from birthday great Princess Diana: “I work on instinct. It’s my best advisor.”

PISCES (Feb 20 – Mar 20)

If you’re involved with a group, club or organisation, then expect power plays or personality clashes when the Full Moon stirs things up mid-week. And are you sick and tired of being perpetually busy? Have you been feeling like a frazzled Fish, with too many activities crammed into your timetable? Avoid extra work functions and social events over the next few weeks. With Mars reversing through your solitude zone, rest and relaxation are just what the doctor ordered.

Copyright

Joanne Madeline Moore 2018

Across

3 Which gland, situated near the stomach, secretes an important digestive fluid? (8)

7 Name the civil force employed to prevent and detect crime, etc. (6)

8 What are organised boat races? (8)

9 What do we call tenders or bids? (6)

10 Which term means “and so on”? (2,6)

11 Which snakes resemble vipers? (6)

14 Name the flesh of well-grown or mature sheep. (6)

17 Which human being eats human flesh? (8)

18 What do we often call a cicada? (6)

19 Which card game is usually played by one person alone? (8)

20 Name a formal agreement between independent states in reference to peace, etc. (6)

21 What are acquired male offspring known as? (8)

Down

1 Name a city on the central coast of NSW. (7)

2 What must one have to legally drive a motor vehicle? (7)

3 Who, in Greek Legend, slew the gorgon, Medusa? (7)

4 What is a more familiar name for a French castle? (7)

5 To make an earnest request, is to do what? (7)

6 To hold, or bear up from below, is to do what? (7)

11 Which term implies that someone receives something offered? (7)

12 What is a part of a kitchen set apart for meals? (7)

13 What is the nickname for the Canberra NRL team? (7)

14 Name some widely distributed fishes in Australian waters. (7)

15 The windpipe is also known as the what? (7)

16 Name another term for corpulence. (7)

Gail Freeman & Co Pty Ltd

CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT

Edie comes adrift on her uniform claim

Last year Edie lodged her tax return online and wasn't confident she'd got her claims right. This year she wants to be certain everything is correct and came to see me to make sure this happens.

I asked to see a copy of her previous return on the basis that if it was amiss an amendment could be lodged to correct it.

“Oh dear, I do feel silly," said Edie. "I lodged it on ‘My Tax’ but I wasn’t able to print a copy. I didn’t think it would matter.”

I said we could reconstruct it to see if it matches the amount of the refund she received. However, there was a limit of two years after receipt of the assessment to request an amendment.

"In the meantime, let’s look at the current year," I said. "What are your main concerns?”

Edie said she had to wear a suit and other dressy clothes to work and wanted to claim them as uniform expenses. I told her that in order to be able to claim deductions for clothing, it had to be a uniform with a logo or protective clothing or occupation-specific clothing.

"From what you have said, your clothing doesn't match any of these criteria. Am I correct?”

Edie admitted to choosing not to wear the optional uniform and wondered if it would make any difference if she did.

“Yes, it would," I told her. "There is not a requirement that the uniform is compulsory but that it must have the company logo displayed and it must be registered on the government register of corporate clothing. Assuming that it is registered, you can claim for the purchase of the uniform unless your employer purchases it and you can claim laundry and dry cleaning.

"I also need to alert you that laundry claims are an area of focus for the tax office this year so you need to be extra careful with your claim.

"To claim dry cleaning you need the receipts. Most dry cleaners run a tax card system so that you have a record of all your transactions with that dry cleaner. As to laundry you can claim up to $150 a year without substantiation. Even though you do not need substantiation you need to be able to justify the claim. So you need to satisfy the uniform criteria as stated above in order to have a claim.

"The ATO then states that you can claim up to $1 a load for laundry which only contains uniforms or 50 cents for a mixed load of uniforms and other clothing. If you are audited, you can expect some questions confirming how often you wore the uniform and how often you needed to wash it.”

Edie then said she hadn’t realised it was so complicated.

"I just thought I could claim because my employer said I had to look smart," she said. "I'll be back in July for you to complete my tax return and review the one I lodged in 2017.

Thank you, so much.”

If you need help with your tax return contact the friendly team at Gail Freeman & Co Pty Ltd

WINNUNGA NIMMITYJAH ABORIGINAL HEALTH AND COMMUNITY SERVICES

Winnunga Nimmityjah AHCS is an Aboriginal community controlled primary health care service operated by the Aboriginal community of the ACT.

In Wiradjuri language, Winnunga Nimmityjah means Strong Health.

The service logo is the Corroboree Frog which is significant to Aboriginal people in the ACT.

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

• GP and Nursing

• Midwifery

• Immunisations

• Health Checks

• Men’s & Women’s Health

• Hearing Health

• Dental

• Physiotherapy

• Podiatry

• Dietician (Nutrition)

• Counselling

• Diabetes Clinic

• Quit Smoking Services / No More Boondah

• Needle Syringe Program

• Mental Health Support

• Healthy Weight Program

• Healthy Cooking Group

• Mums and Bubs Group / Child Health

• Optometry Service

• Psychology and Psychiatrist

• Community Events

• Groups

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

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

HOURS | MONDAY TO FRIDAY 9am-5pm