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Caption: Matt and Blake, personal trainers at Studio 99
Introducing the Studio 99 Westender corporate challenge!
Studio 99 fitness is initiating a 10-week corporate challenge to help local West End businessmen and women become healthier, by reducing their average weight by 10kg over 10 weeks.
Studio 99 Fitness is a local personal training studio that has been operating out of 99 Melbourne Street for over 5 years, focusing on personalized fitness programs in a fun, friendly and safe environment. With trainers boasting over 20 years industry experience, Studio 99 is the leader of personalized fitness in West End.
2014 is the year to create a healthier workplace environment through regular exercise and health and fitness education. Studio 99 is passionate about changing the health and fitness culture of West End’s business community.
Through the challenge, Studio 99 aims to not only make West End businesspeople fitter, stronger and healthier, but also to improve workplace environment and productivity.
Current corporate clients of studio 99 attribute fewer sick days, increased energy levels, and workplace productivity to regular exercise at the studio.
There are three different packages available for the 10 week corporate challenge:
The platinum package incorporates
– One free weekly group class.
– One health and fitness seminar.
– Weekly newsletter.
– Individual measurements and tracking.
– Individual training program.
– 2 one on one sessions with a personal trainer.
– Individual nutrition program.
Mention “The Westender” when registering your business, and receive the first week of the platinum package for free.
Studio 99 Fitness
99 Melbourne Street South Brisbane
www.studio99fitness.com.au
Mobile:0431340389
Email: matt@studio99fitness.com.au
Grill a Green, nail a Nat and lambast a Labor candidate. Whatever the colour of your campaign t-shirt, quizz a candidate on the evening of Wednesday February 5th, in West End just before the by-election for Griffith. All candidates are invited and the format will depend a little on who accepts the invitation.
The venue is the Souths League Club in Davies Park at the corner of Jane and Montague Street.
Get along to see your candidate stare down the crowd and their competitors for the crown of representing you in the Big House this year. This is a great opportunity to have your say and get out with your tribe to exercise your democratic muscle. As well as a sea of red, green and blue t-shirts we can expect the other eight candidates to field supporters.
Click below for the Westender story on the candidate or, failing that, the candidate statement. Don’t forget to register your questions using the comment box below.
The election is no foregone conclusion and we expect good media coverage so it might just make the difference. Be there to be sure that if it does, it makes the difference you want to see.
Glasson used his launch to urge Green voters to preference the LNP
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Australia had its hottest year ever in 2013 and we have now experienced heatwaves and destructive fires in the first month of 2014.
Twitter went viral this week with reports that Prince Charles has said that climate chaos sceptics re like “headless chickens” (of course, we would say chooks in Australia).
Well I’m right with Prince Charles when he says, “It is baffling, I must say, that in our modern world we have such blind trust in science and technology that we all accept what science tells us about everything – until, that is, it comes to climate science”.
“All of a sudden, and with a barrage of sheer intimidation, we are told by powerful groups of deniers that the scientists are wrong and we must abandon all our faith in so much overwhelming scientific evidence.”
And I am baffled as to why we have not seen and heard more on climate change during this campaign. After the overwhelming public response in September to the government de-funding the Climate Commission, and it rebuilding as the crowd funded Climate Council, I had naïvely assumed that this by-election would draw significant support and focus to action on climate change.
I had expected to see key environmental groups out on the streets of my suburb backing the Greens and the ALP in their bid to stop the government abolishing legislation that will see not only the abandonment of a price on carbon, but also the end of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and of other related legislation (11 bills in all are targeted to go).
Attention and action has instead been on Medicare, which has significantly less certain outcomes than the Abbott government’s plans for legislation designed to tackle climate change.
In fact, if not for the Greens and some of the minor parties climate change may soon become the forgotten issue in Australian mainstream politics.
The carbon price, or ‘tax’ as the Coalition prefers to call it, has started to become for most people an abstraction or context free concept whose very purpose is forgotten. Dr Glasson has hammered it long and hard during this campaign, always referring to the $500/pa the carbon price is apparently costing voters, without any reference to the costs to the environment if action is not taken. Indeed, I was somewhat bemused to hear him on radio recently, linking the latest heatwave to rising electricity bills and thus to the “need to repeal carbon tax”.
Following his campaign launch on Saturday, Dr Glasson appealed to Greens voters to preference him second. It is surprising after such a statement that there was not one follow-up question put to Dr Glasson on his ‘Green’ credentials, either on climate change or on the recent and topical Great Barrier Reef dumping issues.
“I have a fair environmental rub on my shoulder,” is the phrase he used when talking to me recently. What does it mean? What are Dr Glasson’s environmental credentials and would they influence a Greens voter to preference him?
Dr Glasson’s office declined to provide a response to No Fibs and I had given up the idea of talking with him some time ago. Last Saturday, however, when talking with other candidates at Davies Park markets in the Griffith suburb of West End, a friend spied Dr Glasson in the crowd and pushed me to introduce myself.
I did so, explained my purpose, and said I had been trying to organise some responses through his office. He was immediately apologetic, explaining that a lot of media are seeking interviews. He did not want to be filmed or recorded, but asked me what I would like to talk with him about. “Well,” I said, “I am familiar with the Coalition’s policies on the carbon price, but can you tell me about your personal views on climate change?”
I can’t give you his exact words, but this is the gist of Dr Glasson’s response.
He said he is deeply concerned about the environment. He said that he understands from visits to places like India, the impacts of human-caused pollution on rivers and air quality, and said that in years past, the Brisbane River had also been extremely polluted until action was taken to clean it up. He said that while he thinks there needs to be action, the carbon price has created an impost on the people and businesses of Australia because other countries are not participating in similar schemes. He added that the Coalition’s Green Army concept is about getting young people involved in learning about and taking action to protect the environment.
Later I repeated my conversation to my friend, saying that it seemed to me that Dr Glasson was speaking in code. He responded, “It just sounds to me like he lacks the courage of his convictions.”
And on the courage of convictions, I asked Terri Butler recently why action on climate change was not mentioned at all at the Labor Party launch on January 21. Ms Butler said: “Everyone in the room at our launch and in fact the whole of the nation knows where Labor stands on climate change. The question is whether we can trust the Abbott Government when it comes to the environment”.
“Labor has always believed we must act to reduce pollution. But Mr Abbott does not believe climate change is real”, she added.
The Greens have been out and proud on the issue throughout the campaign
The Greens have been out and proud on the issue throughout the campaign.
Their candidate Geoff Ebbs told No Fibs that the best way to address climate change is to have strong leadership from government. “The only way to get that is to get more Greens into power. Social movements like Get Up and 350.org have shown great leadership on this but can only influence government. Governments determine the laws and we must have change in those laws,” he said.
Speaking to No Fibs, Mr Ebbs said: “We live on a river, we are less than 7 meters above the river, which is the point at which Brisbane floods, and so a 7-metre flood is the 100-year event that has made the flood plain of Brisbane fertile, but as sea water rises, we are going to get those flooding events every decade or more often”.
Mr Ebbs said the reason “climate chaos” is not on the agenda for the major parties, “is that it is such a huge challenge”.
“We rely on cheap energy to fuel the economy as we know it, and that cheap energy has been oil. So if we keep burning fossil fuels, we’re going to cook, and we can see that in recent heat waves.”
“To address climate change means a serious change to the way we live, and you have to be pretty gutsy and hardy to address that, and that’s why the Greens have been pilloried in the media … because we are prepared to stand by a carbon scheme that people see as costing them money. But it’s money we are investing in the long term. We are already seeing the price of renewables come down, so what a carbon tax or any other trading mechanism does, is move us away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy. That’s the way of the future and it’s what we have to do to address climate chaos”, he said.
Greens Senator for Queensland Larissa Waters, who has been campaigning with Mr Ebbs, reminded No Fibs that in the 2007 election, climate change was one of the key issues.
“With the action that was taken on the carbon price [in 2010], people breathed a sigh of relief. Now that is under threat, I think it will come to the fore again. Just look at the sweltering heat wave we have had … and the terrible bushfires around the country, and in previous years the terrible extreme weather events, such as the floods … Griffith itself was underwater in the January 2011 flood”.
“I think people understand that we can’t keep burning and exporting fossil fuels the way that we are … and not have effects on the way that we live and on the way our grandchildren will live. It’s really the extreme weather events that are reminding people that climate change still needs to be tackled, and if we are undoing the very laws that were starting to tackle it, we will only make things worse,” she said.
Labor is not wedded to the carbon price in the way the Coalition represents it, and according to the ALP’s Ms Butler, it wants to see the introduction of a full emissions trading scheme (ETS) to replace the current carbon price. “I support using a market-based mechanism as one of the means by which we work to reduce pollution. That’s why I support terminating the carbon tax if it is replaced with an emissions trading scheme,” Ms Butler said.
Ms Butler also commented: “The Abbott Government quietly released the Emissions Reduction Fund Green Paper just days before Christmas in a desperate attempt to avoid scrutiny. The lack of transparency is, unfortunately, unsurprising. It’s the same lack of transparency we’ve seen from the LNP on financial advice laws, border protection, and of course the so-called Commission of Audit, which has conveniently pushed back its reporting date until after the Griffith by-election,” she said.
As to the government’s Direct Action policy, Ms Butler said it “will do nothing to change behaviour and reduce pollution. There is not one credible economist or expert who thinks his plan is a good idea. Before the election, Tony Abbott claimed his Direct Action policy would reduce Australia’s emissions. The green paper shows that it will allow the exact opposite to happen”.
“It is clear from the Green Paper,” she said, “that there is no requirement whatsoever for businesses to increase energy efficiency and reduce their emissions.”
Ms Butler also said that she is strongly against weakening our renewable energy target. “After promising voters before the election that he would keep Australia’s renewable energy target in place, Mr Abbott now looks set to break yet another election promise”.
“This is a fight between the small minority inside the Coalition who accept climate change is real and those who, like their Prime Minister, think climate change is ‘absolute crap’,” she said.
“Australia’s renewable energy target has been a clear policy success driving a big expansion of wind and solar power as well as thousands of new clean energy jobs.
“Jobs in the sector have tripled, wind power has tripled, households with rooftop solar increased from under 8000 to more than 1 million, and renewable energy increased its share of the National Electricity Market by 25 per cent in 2012-13.
“Any moves to dump or wind back the renewable energy target would be a broken promise that destroys jobs and hurts our environment,” Ms Butler said.
The Reef
Coal ships standing off port in Gladstone
If the environment groups haven’t yet coalesced around action on climate change during this by-election, then maybe they will add their support to the Great Barrier Reef in this last week.
The save the reef campaign has heated up in the past few days, particularly on social media, following the announcement on Friday by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority that it had granted a permit to dump dredge waste in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Pirate Party candidate Mel Thomas tweeted on the weekend:
“If the Great Barrier Reef doesn’t become the major issue of #griffithvotes, there’s something wrong.”
However, while the protest showing outside Dr Glasson’s launch on Saturday was vocal, it lacked numbers and seemed to lack focus.
The Greens Geoff Ebbs was the only candidate actively campaigning on the issue on Saturday. Mr Ebbs said: “Only the Greens are standing up to the big mining companies to protect the Great Barrier Reef and the sustainable jobs that it supports.”
Senator Waters issued a statement: “The Australian and Queensland governments continue to treat the reef like a coal and gas highway and a rubbish tip for dredge spoil, and risk a fail mark from the World Heritage Committee on their reef homework, jeopardising the $6 billion tourism economy around our reef, and the 54,000 jobs it supports in our coastal communities.”
Senator Waters told No Fibs that people realise the reef is under threat from climate change, from dredging and shipping, and the tripling of coal and gas exports. “I think in recent years, folk who perhaps were not as aware of the climate science have realised through the reef that climate change is actually going to hurt our economy as well as our way of life. There has been a growing community campaign and growing concern about the health and future of the reef. Queenslanders are very much aware of that and the threat to the reef.”
“I do think climate change is a key issue for the people of Griffith. They have seen the extreme weather events, they are worried about the future of the reef, and they’re worried about the future for their grandkids,” She said.
Dredging in Gladstone harbour
Labor’s Terri Butler told No Fibs that, “like many Australians, I’m deeply concerned by last week’s decision by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to grant a permit to dump dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park”.
“The Great Barrier Reef is an Australian wonder, and sadly it is in poor health. It is critical that we do all we can to protect it, and a project like this could put the reef’s health at further risk, as well as potentially impacting on local tourism.
“The Barrier Reef Authority has always enjoyed bipartisan support to make decisions in the best interest of the Great Barrier Reef. Many people are concerned about last week’s decision, and I hope the Authority has approved this application based on the best scientific advice,” she said.
Where do the other parties stand on Climate Change?
Anne Reid of the Secular Party told No Fibs, that her party is concerned about the move away from scientific thinking on issues such as climate change. “Climate change is being dismissed as something to do with the Gods,” she said, “rather than being taken seriously as a science.”
“For most thinking people,” she added, “it is one of the most serious issues that we have to contend with.”
Where she said the Secular Party departs from other parties was around solutions. “We are very much evidence based, and we feel that nuclear should be put on the table, because it is something that science is telling us could make a difference in substituting some of our carbon based energy with nuclear energy.”
Ms Reid explained that she is not talking about uranium and big reactors, but “small reactors, and different fuels such as thorium.”
Pirate Party candidate Mel Thomas told No Fibs, “We want to see an end to reliance on fossil fuels and we believe that can happen by encouraging innovation in renewable energy. We would like to see a renewable energy grid created.”
“We had the flood in Brisbane, so people who live in the Griffith electorate have seen the results of climate change. We know beyond doubt that we are seeing extreme weather events. That’s one thing that local people can understand,” she said.
Timothy Lawrence of the Sustainable Population Party told No Fibs that population is the key. He said that individual impacts on the environment are multiplied as the population increases.
“The Population Party recognises that, as a global community, we need a whole raft of responses to the climate issue.
“Importantly, global population growth from 2 billion to 7 billion in just one lifetime was a huge driver of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, due to exploding energy requirements.
“Furthermore, acting to stabilise global population at the United Nations’ low peak variant of around 8 billion by 2050 (potentially then dropping back to 7 billion by 2100) will greatly help to minimise future greenhouse gas emissions.
“To not act to stabilise population, on both local and global levels, may allow population to reach the UN’s high peak variant of over 17 billion by the end of this century.”
He added that the party’s responses to climate change should also include, but not be limited to:
Australia managing its finite and non-renewable resources more cautiously and sustainably.
Australia progressing rapidly towards using a predominantly renewable energy supply, and a low carbon economy.
He said they are currently working through the specifics of these policies with their membership.
Independent Karel Boele said that as someone with a science background, “Clearly there is an issue. Very few refereed scientific journals do not support the need to tackle climate change.”
He admitted, however, that climate change is a complex issue to address using his participative democracy platform. It requires leadership and careful consultation with voters to find acceptable solutions. He said he thinks to begin with, it is a matter of “marketing and selling” the issue to the constituency, and then engaging with them on solutions.
Independent Travis Windsor was less clear on the issue. “You can’t have factories dumping stuff,” he said, “but again the problem is, one person thinks this, the other person thinks that … let’s get a solution”.
“You don’t win arguments by arguing: we want a solution, we don’t want an argument.”
Both Ray Sawyer of Katter’s Australian Party and Christopher Williams of Family First told No Fibs that they support the abolition of the carbon price, but when asked if they accept the science on climate change, neither seemed willing to commit.
This article reprinted with permission from No Fibs
– See more at: http://nofibs.com.au/2014/02/03/climate-change-reef-griffithvotes-griffithelects-reports/#sthash.BbnIXWt8.dpuf
Macrame is so hot right now. This February, Reverse Garbage jumps on the Macrame bandwagon with a Macrame Plant Hanger workshop, with a twist.
RG workshop facilitators introduce their signature salvaged materials as an alternative to traditional macrame materials.
Within the workshop, participants will be shown the ropes, exploring basic macrame techniques to create their own quirky, unique and sustainable plant hangers.
“Brisbane has seen a renewed appreciation for handmade items.” says Workshop Co-ordinator, Nadine Schmoll.
“Taking part in this workshop will allow participants to create their very own one-of-a-kind piece of art, while also treading lightly on the earth by diverting materials from going to landfill.” Nadine says.
The Macrame Plant Hangers Eco-Art Workshop runs on Saturday 22 February from 10:00am – 11:30am. The workshop will be held at Reverse Garbage, 20 Burke St Woolloongabba and is suitable for participants aged 13 years and up. Please note: plants are not provided.
WHAT – Macrame Plant Hanger Eco-Art Workshop
WHEN – Saturday 22 February 2014
TIME – 10:00am – 11:30am
WHERE – Reverse Garbage, 20 Burke Street Woolloongabba.
CONTACT & BOOKINGS – 07 3891 9744 or workshops@reversegarbage.com.au
COST – $25 per person (includes materials, tools and facilitator), please note, payment is due on booking and fees are non-refundable
AGE – suitable for 13 years and up!
MAXIMUM – 15 participants per workshop
FURTHER INFO – www.reversegarbage.com.au
ABOUT
Reverse Garbage Brisbane is a not-for-profit worker run co-operative that promotes environmental sustainability and resource reuse. Reverse Garbage collects high quality industrial discards, diverting them away from landfill and sells them at a low cost to the general public. Established in 1998 to support Friends of the Earth – Brisbane, Reverse Garbage was also set up to provide meaningful and ecologically sustainable employment and to be an example of a truly sustainable enterprise.
Reverse Garbage runs a variety of environment and waste focused art workshops and educational talks and tours to suit every age and group. Their mail order service provides regional areas with access to salvaged materials and Reverse Emporium gallery and gift shop provides local artists, craft workers and designers who salvage, reuse and up-cycle materials an outlet so sell their works and wares.
Having a Prime Minister as the sitting member drew significant attention to Griffith during the 2013 federal election, but there is a sense that this time around the eyes of the nation will be on Griffith with renewed interest, many seeing this by-election as the first test for Tony Abbott’s government.
On one side of the ring we have LNP candidate Dr Glasson, who is well liked in the electorate, and his personal appeal may be his greatest asset. He projected as much himself, when he was reported in the Fairfax press as saying that: “If we try to sell it (the election) on a political basis, or a leadership basis, we won’t get up.”
As the son of William (Bill) Glasson, Queensland Minister for Lands and Forestry and Police under Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Dr Glasson has an LNP legacy. “You may say politics is in my blood” he toldCarindale Connect in March 2013.
Since the 2013 election Dr Glasson has been touted in the media as something of a giant slayer, having made significant inroads into the ALP’s primary vote in Griffith by gaining 42.2 per cent to Kevin Rudd’s 40.36 per cent.
In his campaign material, Dr Glasson lists his priorities as:
Improving frontline health services and delivering on our commitment to establish Hummingbird House, a children’s respite and hospice facility at Kangaroo Point;
Creating more local jobs by reducing taxes and regulations on small business and increasing their ability to compete – which will be helped by the Government’s new competition review;
Reducing the cost of living by scrapping the Carbon Tax – making households $550 a year better off; and,
A stronger, safer community through more CCTVs, and support for sporting and community groups.
While he may have wanted to ‘keep it local’ and focus the campaign around Kevin Rudd’s resignation, the Abbott government’s shaky start has largely enabled Labor and the Greens to set the agenda.
There has been particular focus in the past few weeks on school funding, Medicare, and action on climate change. Whether he had planned to or not, these are the issues to which Dr Glasson is now having to respond.
Much is made in Dr Glasson’s campaign material of his credentials as a local doctor and a past president of the AMA. It says of him that: “Bill’s character is reflected in his belief that all Australians should be able to access quality health care, regardless of their circumstances or where they live. As president of the Australian Medical Association he fought hard for that outcome working with governments of all persuasions.”
However, after going public with qualified support for a proposed new Medicare fee for bulk billed patients, these credentials have been under attack and a ‘Save Our Medicare’ campaign has sprung up in Griffith and found resonance nationally.
It is hard to know whether the Medicare fee issue has gained any traction beyond the Labor and Green’s party faithful. While the government has not categorically ruled it out, the Acting Health Minister Kevin Andrews has made it clear that a new Medicare fee is not current Government policy, and Glasson says Labor is just ‘scaremongering’.
Locals I have spoken with appear to be somewhat underwhelmed by the issue, some saying they already pay a gap fee anyway, and others that $6 doesn’t seem like much to ask. Nevertheless, Labor and the Greens continue to pursue the issue with vigour.
In the ALP corner, Dr Glasson’s opponent, newcomer Terri Butler told No Fibs that if the government does introduce a fee it is unlikely to be a one-off.
“The Abbott Government has hit Australians hard with the biggest increase to private health insurance premiums in a decade,” and added, “once they introduce a tax on every GP visit, the Abbott government will open the floodgate to annual increases of GP fees, making it tough for families already struggling with the cost of living.” she said.
As others have observed, the disadvantage for Terri Butler in this by-election is that she doesn’t have a profile in the electorate that could in any way equal that of her predecessor Kevin Rudd, and on top of that, she is up against a well-known and well-liked opponent.
On the plus side, Ms Butler is new: this can bring its own energy and freshness, and the old Labor leadership battles are no longer the ‘front and centre’ distractions they were in 2013.
While Ms Butler sees herself as the underdog in terms of financial resources, she considers she has the backing that will really count come election time.
“Though the LNP candidate has a lot more money to spend on this campaign than I do, I have more grassroots support,” she told No Fibs.
Yet in her campaign speech this week, Ms Butler warned her supporters: “Do not be fooled. We are right up against the wall in Griffith.”
In my first interview with Ms Butler, she said of herself: “I am someone that people can relate to. I’m a young mum, I’ve got a successful career, and like a lot of people in this electorate, I juggle the responsibilities of looking after my family with full-time work.”
Ms Butler said Labor’s volunteers (which some have dubbed ‘Butler’s Battlers’ as a retort to the ‘Glasson’s Gladiators’ tag), “are working on this campaign because they strongly believe in what we stand for: a fair go for the people of Griffith, and they’re working alongside me to engage with people as much as possible.”
Ms Butler said that Labor is keeping the campaign local. “We’re doing street stalls, meeting and greeting people at train, bus and ferry stops, making phone calls, speaking directly with local businesses, sending letters, and attending community meetings, among other things”.
As to the local issues, Ms Butler said people are concerned about: “The inequity in access to high-speed broadband, and concerns about Mr Turnbull’s second-rate broadband plan,
LNP backflipping on education funding”, and cited access to quality childcare and aircraft noise as other topics of concern for the electorate.
“More generally”, she said, “people are concerned that the Abbott government is not what they expected when they voted. We were promised no surprises and no excuses, but we seem to be getting plenty of both”.
“This by-election is people’s first opportunity to express an opinion about the Abbott government. From the conversations I’ve had, I don’t think people want to give the Abbott government a tick of approval,” she said.
Asked why she considers Labor is best placed to represent the interests of the people of Griffith, Ms Butler said: “We have wall-to-wall LNP governments. We don’t need yet another person agreeing with Tony Abbott and Campbell Newman. It’s important to restore some of the balance. Our community deserves a strong voice.”
Ms Butler said that the by-election is about the future. “It’s an opportunity for people to send a message to Canberra about the Abbott government’s performance, and about the type of government we expect and deserve.”
Over the past week, Ms Butler has had Labor Leader Bill Shorten at her side as they have taken to the streets. She told No Fibs: “It has been great to have had opposition leader Bill Shorten in Griffith this week. Bill has provided tremendous support to me right throughout the campaign, including campaigning with me at bus and ferry terminals across the Southside, making phone calls, meeting with local community groups and formally launching my campaign.”
Mr Shorten launched the Labor campaign on Wednesday evening with a fiery speech to a (mostly standing) whistling and hooting crowd of supporters in cramped footy clubs in Hawthorne. This was the Bill Shorten Labor people have been waiting to see.
At the conclusion of her campaign speech on Wednesday, Ms Butler said: “Everyone in this room knows that universal healthcare, a great education system, high speed broadband, and accessible affordable childcare, are, and always have been, Labor priorities, and we all know that only a Labor member will stand and fight to protect them.”
– See more at: http://nofibs.com.au/2014/01/25/griffith-grudge-match-glassons-gladiators-vs-butlers-battlers-griffithelects-reports/#sthash.urJsXr0Q.dpuf
Kurilpa Peninsula is home to many events combining alcohol and a community spirit
While our leaders shake their heads in despair at what everybody now calls ‘alcohol-fuelled violence’, the rest of us can shake our heads over their cluelessness. At least they could consider something other than more law enforcement that is already not working.
People are far less likely to behave badly when they know those they might offend. We are far more likely to wish punishments on people we haven’t met or drop bombs on people we can’t see. We might occasionally behave badly at a family barbeque or the school fete, but we are far looser at a venue where we know no one other than those with whom we arrived.
In addition, mass consumerism encourages us to want more, bigger and better excitement instantly.
These days, licensed premises are like lap dances. All the elements of a bar room brawl are there except the brawl itself; that’s heavily controlled. Women are encouraged to hold themselves out as objects of desire, but to be very selective in parting with their most valued commodity – their affections. They’re sprayed and plucked and crammed into the expensive but hardly expensive outfits they are told to wear. The men aren’t much different, forged by sports science in the gyms of the would-be rich and fatuous, primed with “male cosmetics” and sporting all the designer labels.
These people have over-powered engines, but don’t have the suspension and braking systems to pull them up when conditions become hazardous. Nevertheless, we cram them in together and sell them as much alcohol and chicken wings as we can.
We blame the punter for the violence, when in a sense they are doing nothing more than being a good targets for our the marketing and great consumers consumption of our products. Faced with the annihilation of the spirit, it’s little wonder some of us prove our super powers through sucker punches and impromptu kerbside tree pruning on our way home.
In Kurilpa, we now see both the poison and the antidote. We are not untouched by “alcohol- fuelled violence”, but we also enjoy festivities that are remarkably free of it. The Kurilpa Derby is a local alcohol-free event, although drinking is possible in a number of Sunday trading licensed premises. In its six year history, there has not been one incident of aggro but there have been continuous incidents of fun and camaraderie. Our The Block Parties of in 2012 and 2013 were licensed events and they even hosted hosting significant numbers of out-of-towners. Not only were they These lively festivals they were totally peaceful as well; no problems despite thousands of partying people. Reports from the Boundary Hotel suggest that after the 2012 Block Party they had one of their biggest yet happiest and most peaceful crowds ever.
The reason for alcohol-fuelled violence in our society is the promotion of pre-packaged fun, over-hyped and sold to us by faceless big business rather than self-organised authentic human contact between people that is organised by ourselves. The answer to alcohol-fuelled violence is to foster communities where we know and interact with each other.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to occasionally hold or attend the Greatest Show on Earth, but if that’s what every event and venue tries to be, then alcohol-fuelled violence is the likely outcome.
Here are some suggestions for fostering local communities based on our experience in Kurilpa:
Make it possible for everyone to become involved in a real way in the planning and management of their local areas.
Support social and entertainment activities in suburban centres in small venues.
Support festivals and markets based on their local content rather than income and attendance figures.
Make it possible for people to meet and get to know their local politicians, police and emergency services personnel (e.g., hold a “Meet The Coppers” day)
Get local people involved in organising, not just attending, local events.
Have owners/ proprietors present, visible and accessible in their venues instead of hiding behind security firm staff.
Give patrons something active to be involved in; rather than using something other than a high blood-alcohol level to help mixing with other.
We now have conservative governments at all levels. This is my appeal to them:
“You have two close friends; family and community values on the one hand and big business-based consumerism on the other. Unfortunately they aren’t getting along, and the big guy is beating the crap out of our communities. It is no longer acceptable for you to beat your chest and offer more of the same. They’re your friends; either you get them to sort it out or you choose between them.
