The holiday season is almost upon us, and many readers’ holiday plans may well include a visit to my adopted home town of Brisbane. My own plans entail a visit to my original home town of Melbourne, but I digress.
Visitors to Brisbane will notice that a significant new component of the city’s transport infrastructure is the growing network of dedicated busways. Each of the busway stations is equipped with an electronic information board purporting to display information on impending bus arrivals at the station. You are hereby advised that reading and interpreting the information displayed on the information board is, well, somewhat counter-intuitive. Continue reading ‘Travellers’ tip – how to read a Brisbane Busway information board’
Former Australian Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett has announced he will be contesting the federal seat of Brisbane for The Greens. That’s my local electorate, and I’m looking forward to an interesting contest!
Antony Green has much more. He points out that Bartlett’s chances aren’t fantastic, because it’s easier for a minor party to take a marginal than a safe seat, as they need to outpoll one of the major parties to be in with a shot. I don’t necessarily agree with Green, though, that Teresa Gambaro brings anything particular to the Liberal cause. She was a pretty lacklustre member for Petrie, and I don’t know that the seafood angle in the name recognition stakes is worth all that much. The Libs have run fairly high profile candidates in the seat before – notably Ingrid Tall in 2004. Tall is a well known doctor whose sexuality disgracefully prompted the Nationals to run a “family values” candidate.
The Libs have usually run well organised campaigns, and Labor has been worried about gentrification and shifting demographics for some time. But the sorts of potential Liberal voters who’ve been moving into the seat are more the types who’d be attracted by a hypothetical Liberal party where Malcolm Turnbull had actually fulfilled his small l Liberal promise. Gambaro doesn’t seem to me to be the best candidate – and we still need to factor in whatever chaos the LNP label might wreak on the Liberal vote in inner city Brisbane.
Arch Bevis probably doesn’t have much of a political future – he’s unlikely to ever sit on the front bench again. But he hasn’t been the member for almost 20 years for no reason – he’s well liked and respected, and works the electorate assiduously. I think he’d have had no trouble holding it whatsoever, and I suspect that’s still more than likely to be the case, though Bartlett’s candidacy certainly promises a less predictable contest.
At any rate, I’ll now be thinking about where to direct my first preference.
We’ve been discussing issues about the future of the media and of journalism here at LP over a sustained period of time, and many will be aware of Margaret Simons’ work and commentary on these issues. She, along with Queensland writer and journalist Matthew Condon, will be speaking in Brisbane on Thursday night. Blurb provided by Kate Eltham from the Queensland Writers’ Centre:
QWC’s final Wordpool for 2009 is The Content Makers: the future of journalism presented by award-winning writer and Crikey blogger Margaret Simons, and moderated by author and journalist Matthew Condon.
This is a FREE event, co-presented with the State Library of Queensland, on Thursday 22 October at 6:30pm.
Among notable articles are a somewhat sceptical take in the New York Times from Anand Giradharadas and much closer to home, a piece by Tim Watts at On Line Opinion:
It’s all too easy to get caught up in the “cool” factor of Web 2.0. The potential of the technology is so amazing that sometimes we can forget that at the end of the day, it’s still people on either end of the tubes. It’s important to remember that Web 2.0 is all about people. As Michael Wesch has said, “The Machine is Us”. The Government 2.0 Taskforce could do worse than to follow the lead of one of the great political campaigners of our time and hang a sign in the group’s (virtual) war room constantly bringing it back to this fundamental theme. It could read: It’s the Community, Stupid!
Watts’ argument, with which I would agree, might be summed up by the short paraphrase, “if you build it, they won’t necessarily come”. Or perhaps, as I’ve been arguing recently, some decisions have to be made about which populations are being incited to come, and for what purposes; I’ve previously written on some issues around the digital divide in discussing the Australian iniatives.
It seems to me, analytically, that a number of issues have to be sorted out which haven’t always been well thought through in much of the discussion of government 2.0:
There has been a certain feeling in the air of deja vu over the past fortnight in Queensland. The jailing of a former Minister, allegations that government was far too close to business, a government sinking rapidly in the polls while making “tough decisions” and, the piece de resistance, the exposure of systemic misconduct in the elite Armed Robbery Squad of the Queensland Police.
The timing of this sequence of supposedly unlikely events was interesting. Much is being made of the 20th anniversary of the release of the Fitzgerald Report. The date falls this Thursday, and Tony Fitzgerald QC himself will be commemorating the occasion with a public lecture at Griffith University.
So is something again rotten in the state of Queensland?
Lurid stories of convicted criminals wining, dining and bonking on dodgy day release jaunts supposedly to gather intelligence for the coppers dominated local press coverage. This a week after revelations of the jailed Gordon Nuttall’s bizarre plans to make himself premier — shades of Russ Hinze perhaps.
I might have mentioned in passing here, and I know I’ve said on Facebook, that I’ve become interested lately in exploring some themes which don’t really seem to fit into the LP space, and also in a more personal form of blogging, and indeed, a more writerly form of blogging.
One of the issues I’ve been interested in discussing is the complex intersections of the religious, the spiritual and the social. That’s in part from a place based perspective – associated in particular with the continuing life of Saint Mary’s, South Brisbane – and in part from a radical Catholic position. In the process of so doing, I’ve been addressing some themes both personal and philosophical.
I’m not entirely certain the ‘one size fits all’ blog works for this sort of discussion. I’m also not interested in getting into an argument about the existence of God, or whether all religion is evil, or Richard Dawkins, or whatnot. That sort of thing might have its place, but it’s rarely conducted with much intellectual rigour, and it simply doesn’t do anything for me.
Anyway, I write this really just to highlight some of what I’m doing for the benefit of those who enjoy my writing and appreciate my perspective. Continue reading ‘Blogging otherwise…’
Intoning the phrase ‘Global Financial Crisis’ at every opportunity, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has been preparing the ground for the privatisation of a wide range of state assets. It was confirmed today that QR’s freight train business would be among the government owned enterprises flogged off.
Bligh seems to be assuming that selling the freight business will be less unpopular than privatising passenger rail. Maybe, maybe not. The unions are certainly unhappy. But hiving off the profitable bits of QR is just nuts. Aside from the economies of scale that will be lost, the lack of a cross-subsidy for public transport will cause immense problems further down the track. That will be compounded by the government’s quick return to an aversion to public spending, which is a complete backflip from its winning electoral message.
Queensland Labor never previously went down the privatisation track favoured in other states. Peter Beattie was happy to retain some fat in QR over a period of years to cushion the impact of restructuring on jobs. There’s also previously been a perception that diseconomies would result from selling off profitable bits of public assets in such a geographically huge state with such a dispersed population. Cross-subsidy is the only model that works for public services in this state.
While the ‘economic management debate’ rumbles along its predictable partisan grooves, something interesting has been taking place elsewhere – something of a concatenation of the better legacies of the communitarianism of the 90s and a shift in values which has gained traction with the Global Financial Crisis. There has been increasing talk of the creation of social value and social creativity, and the harnessing of community connectivity through social enterprise.
In her post-political career, Cheryl Kernot has been actively working in these fields, and analysing them within academia. The latest edition of Griffith REVIEW, Participation Society, addresses many of these questions, and Kernot will be talking at the State Library of Queensland on Wednesday night at 6.30pm on ‘A Participation Society’, riffing off some of the themes of her GR essay.
I’ve blogged about the fracas around St Mary’s, South Brisbane on a couple of occasions before.
I’ve now become quite heavily and personally involved in the work of the ongoing Catholic parish of St Mary’s, and for a whole range of reasons, I’ve been reluctant to have all that much to say about the saga in a forum such as this.
However, last night’s Australian Story crystallised my extreme disillusionment with the ridiculously simplistic and utterly one-sided media coverage of the whole thing. I should note one exception – Steve Austin’s ABC radio interview with Peter Kennedy, which did draw out some aspects of Kennedy’s position further than he might have liked to have revealed, in an actually positive and ethical journalistic practice.
But, given how appallingly the whole thing has generally been reported, I do want to go on record by linking to a piece I wrote at my ‘other’ blog Angelus Novus, but perhaps more pertitently with regard to the ABC programme itself, to another discussion of the affair by Michael Carden at his Jottings blog.
Folks might remember I talked a while back about the ‘Creative Brisbane’ event we’re presenting tonight as part of the Brisbane CitySmart Innovation Festival. The response to both this conversation and to the BrisCulture concept has been really exciting. I thought, therefore, I’d post a quick notice to let people know details of the event, should anyone who hasn’t already responded to our rsvp be interested in checking it out. Details are available at the BrisCulture website, and on the Facebook event page. Over the fold, I’ve posted the programme for the evening.
A lot of my academic and consultancy work at the moment is focused on online urbanism, distributed knowledge and urban creativity. I’m loath to use the term ‘action research’ loosely, but this form of public sociology is really impossible to separate from creative practice. One of the projects I’ve been working on with some lovely and talented colleagues is about to launch itself on the world, and now has its own web presence – BrisCulture.
While literature about Creative Cities abounds, every city has its own urbanism and its own distinct culture. A ‘one size fits all’ model doesn’t map neatly onto the specificities of place. While Brisbane is now on the arts map with new cultural infrastructure capable of attracting visitors in the hundreds and thousands to major exhibitions and events, what of the sustainability of the city’s everyday lived cultural experience and production? Our town has proved its value in fostering distinctive and innovative forms of cultural practice – the germination of the music scene in the Valley or the arrival of grunge lit being notable moments in time. But much of this activity takes place ‘underground’ – it bubbles up alchemically from below; drawing energy from serendipitous connections and a sense of locale. Although we welcome the era of government support, public art and creative industries policy, we contend that embedding, celebrating and fostering emergent practice is a task still to be thought out.
That’s the task we’ve set ourselves. It sounds ambitious, but it’s realisable because we’re approaching it as an exercise in making connections and fostering the art of public conversation and collaborative policy making. You can read about the project at BrisCulture and stay tuned for our first event. As part of the 2009 Brisbane CitySmart Innovation Festival, we are hosting a joint event with The Centre for Policy Development, and in conjunction with the Eidos Institute, on the 26th of May at the Old School of Arts in Ann Street, Brisbane – Creative Brisbane: Rethinking Innovation. This will only be the beginning – we’re conceiving BrisCulture as a rolling series of events, policy interventions, performances and conversations which exists in a virtual locale as well as in the spaces of the city.
If you’re interested in all this, whether as a Brisbanite, an occasional visitor, or just curious about the town, I’d encourage you to join our Facebook group, which will be utilised to keep everyone in the loop. I’m very excited about this project, and I think it will lead to some really interesting things!
It’s been absolutely ages since I saw any live music. I’d planned to remedy that tonight by going to see Way Out West – a jazz act influenced by African and Vietnamese music at Jazzworx at Bowen Hills – but unfortunately I’ve got a virus. But this post is both promo for Way Out West and an open thread where folks can give me some vicarious enjoyment by recommending or reporting on any fab gigs attended recently!
Just a quick heads up to some sessions at the Brisbane Ideas Festival later this week which might be of interest. I’m speaking on a panel called “The Future of the Magazine”. It’s part of the “Think Do Tank” program targeted towards high school students. You can access the times and places (1.30pm Thursday and again at 1.30pm on Friday) via the links in my speaker’s bio.
Frequent guest poster on cultural policy stuff, Marcus Westbury, is talking about technology, new media and creativity on a panel on Friday night at 6pm.
And another LP guest poster and CPD Director Miriam Lyons will be discussing how technology is mediating the social engagement with democracy with some other think tank folk on Saturday arvo at 4pm.
There is no truth to the rumour that her doppelganger Myriam Lyons has usurped her role in this session!
Barry Saunders, from Gatewatching and Democratic Renewal Coordinator at the CPD, will be facilitating a workshop on using open access tools to interface with government on Saturday at 1pm.
I’m sure there’s lots of other interesting and worthy stuff going on! As usual at the moment, I’m crazily busy, though, so won’t necessarily be around for it – but the whole program can be accessed here.
Folks might remember an earlier post where I briefly discussed the imbroglio around St. Mary’s, South Brisbane and the dispute between Father Peter Kennedy, the parish’s dismissed administrator, and the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, John Bathersby. The ashes of the controversy are still being raked over, but little more light has been thrown on the real issues raised. The latest news is that Peter Kennedy has refused to enter the mediation process on offer, and the Church has indicated civil action in the courts will follow. Father Kennedy is also appealling to the Vatican under canon law, which is odd given what he has to say about the authoritarianism of the church hierarchy.
So things have reached a very bad impasse, but it’s interesting that the media has failed to report that a number of long term parishioners of St Mary’s – including some who had quite prominent roles – have ceased to attend Mass there. Peter Kennedy’s rhetoric has become ever more self-centred, and the actual option for the parish’s outreach, mission and even form of service (albeit somewhat modified) to continue in his absence is one he is closing off, despite his claims about the centrality of the community.
In my earlier post I linked to some pieces written by Michael Carden on his blog, and I’m taking this opportunity to highlight another post he’s authored displaying a similarly acute understanding of what’s really at stake, and offering some reflections on the poverty of the media courage. Reading Michael’s post, it’s obvious that the dispute is more about authority than theology, and as he comments, Peter Kennedy’s “Father knows best” attitude mirrors that of the Archbishop.
Larvatus Prodeo is an Australian group blog which discusses politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
I’ve blogged about the fracas around St Mary’s, South Brisbane on a 
A lot of my academic and consultancy work at the moment is focused on online urbanism, distributed knowledge and urban creativity. I’m loath to use the term ‘action research’ loosely, but this form of public sociology is really impossible to separate from creative practice. One of the projects I’ve been working on with some lovely and talented colleagues is about to launch itself on the world, and now has its own web presence – 
Just a quick heads up to some sessions at the Brisbane Ideas Festival later this week which might be of interest. I’m speaking on a panel called “The Future of the Magazine”. It’s part of the “Think Do Tank” program targeted towards high school students. You can access the times and places (1.30pm Thursday and again at 1.30pm on Friday) via the links in 
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