Tonight, Adventurous Souls featuring Grace Ruby Herrmann will have its official opening night starting at 6pm, with the exhibition running till the 13th of September.
“This show explores the turbulent nature of the world contrast against an idyllic Australian lifestyle. Influenced by fantasy and mythology, in mediums of paper carving, woodcarving, gold leaf gilding and oil painting,” says Ms Herrmann.
Also opening tonight outside the gallery is the The Mount Coot-Tha Project featuring Des Rolph. The Brisbane artist has created an exhibition of 42 small oil paintings that takes the viewer on a visual walk around Mt Coot-tha. The intent of this exhibition is to make a historical documentation of the vistas of Brisbane, the local landmarks, and recreational spaces that visitors to this mountain know and love.
While on September 12th the Ngaaykulam-Patju Tjamuku Kapiliku Jurkurpa (Our Grandfather and Grandmothers Stories) exhibition featuring Papulankutja artists will have its official opening night. The gallery will be filled with artwork from a small community at the base of the Blackstone Ranges, Western Australia. These paintings are rich in stories emanating from their sense of history, culture and place.
For more information on these exhibitions and other upcoming shows, visit www.wag.com.au.
Meg Mac plays the Spiegeltent for the Brisbane Festival
Brisbane Festival today announced soul-pop sensation Meg Mac will play at The Telstra Spiegeltent on Sunday 21 September, following the cancellation of Seattle singer-songwriter Damien Jurado’s Australian tour.
The sultry Sydney-sider will take to the beautiful Belgian venue to play tracks from her new EP, MEGMAC, in Brisbane for the first time.
Turning heads with her much-hyped singles Known Better, Every Lie and Roll up Your Sleeves after winning triple j’s Unearthed Falls Festival competition in 2013, Meg Mac has had a whirlwind year.
If her latest sold-out gigs in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney are anything to go by, festivalgoers are advised to get in quick-smart before this gig sell out too.
Brisbane Festival is an initiative of the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council and runs from 6 to 27 September 2014. For more information visit brisbanefestival.com.au.
The “thinking woman’s crumpet” heads Yellow Brick Road
MARK BOURIS
There’s something of a home loan ‘rate war’ going on at the moment, which can be great for borrowers. However, it can also creates pitfalls for the unwary.
Take some mortgage advertising I saw this week: it promoted a variable mortgage rate of 4.65 per cent, but beside it was a ‘5.21% comparison rate’.
Look at the difference: on a $300,000 25-year mortgage at 4.65 per cent your total interest bill is $207,941. But if you pay 5.21 per cent, your costs total $237,198. The difference between what’s calculated from the headline offer and the actual costs over the long term is around $30,000.
This type of advertising is a common marketing device. The low interest rate is merely an ‘introductory rate’ which in this case lasts three years. And after three years the home loan reverts to a much higher rate.
When comparing various mortgages, it is the ‘comparison rate’ you should be focusing on. As it shows you what the full mortgage will cost you, which is the total interest cost of$237,198.
Comparing apples with oranges
SInce it is the key to understanding the cost of your loan it is worth taking the time to understand the comparison rate.
The ‘comparison rate’ is a legislated requirement brought in by the federal government. It was introduced in 2003 at a time when ‘honeymoon rates’ were popular and advertised interest rates were not informing borrowers about the true long term cost of their home loan.
It’s quite difficult for average borrowers to calculate what they really pay over the long term if they pay one rate for, say, two years and then revert to a ‘true’ rate for the next 23 years.
So to resolve the confusion the government mandated a formula that all mortgage lenders must use in their advertising. It includes unavoidable fees and charges, and interest rates over a set period, which creates the comparison interest rate.
Because all lenders have to use the same formula, the result gives a borrower the means to compare the true cost of a loan before they commit to it, and it gives some reality to the headline interest rate.
This regulation set by the government is important, but it only goes so far. The law says that a comparison rate must be co-located with the promotional rate, and with the same prominence. A comparison rate is useless unless borrowers are looking at it and registering what it means.
In talking to people, I often find that consumers misinterpret the comparison rate as “X” lenders best rate compared to “Y” lenders best rate. This is what is implied by some advertisers by the wording they use to compare their introductory rate to the comparison rate. The fact are, though, that this is not at all the case.
The comparison rate on your loan, is the rate you should use to compare with other competing loans. And when you do that some interesting patterns emerge.
When you look up the most affordable variable rate loans (4.6%-4.8%) at a site such as RateCity, you see that those lenders with the best ranking have comparison rates almost identical to their advertised rates – that is, the rate they advertise is basically what the borrower will pay. But other loans only start at 4.6 per cent, before reverting to something much higher.
The advertisements imply that start up rate that is lower than the comparison rate is a big advantage, but the facts are the opposite.
Consumers are easily confused by the terminology and practices of the financial services industry. So if you’re searching for something as important as a mortgage, and a comparison rate gives you a chance to level the playing field, you really must pay attention.
When he came in with the shovel I realised he was going to kill me. He told me so. If Sammy had not blocked him at the doorway, I would be dead now.
I took the second of hesitation to jump across the kitchen table and run out the front door. I owe you Sam.
I abandoned my four little children. It was no use dying for them. They were his. He was not going to kill them. Though some dads do. Imagine. Imagine that.
I have no family here. We had met backpacking through Australia. I am an immigrant.
A part-time, registered nurse, I did not earn enough money to feed and house them. I was trapped.
The violence, though, was unbearable.
I felt embarrassed to tell anyone. I told lies. My medical colleagues believed the lies despite their training. It was easier. My best friends know all about my sex life but never the beatings.
A well-educated, professional woman does not get beaten up by her husband. What a naïve, elitist, stuck-up girl was I.
The police helped stem the flood of violence. My parents helped me buy a house. I started my own life and now this.
He did not have a key, so he raged outside until he found an implement that could smash the door and then me.
I was not going to let this bastard kill me. I had to break the cycle. But I did not know how.
An outsider, I did not know about court orders, ousting, women’s shelters or other agencies.
They hid me, and my children, for three months: While tempers subsided and I got my life on track. If it weren’t for that, I would be dead now. I owe you all.
The author wishes to remain anonymous. She still struggles with the injustices of a system designed to protect the status quo and the men, at all levels, who abuse it to protect their fellows.
Across Australia, on average, one woman is killed every week by a violent partner or ex-partner.
In Queensland this year, to date, domestic violence has been responsible for 18 deaths.
The most dangerous time for women and children attempting to leave violent partners is at the time of separation; of those women killed, it is usually within three months of their leaving the relationship. Women’s refuges provide a safe space for women and children who need to escape from persistent and dangerous perpetrators.
Women’s refuges in Australia have a proud legacy and wealth of experience and skills in working with women and children who have experienced violence and abuse. Refuge workers have a well developed understanding of the nature and impact of violence against women and children. They understand that women are not to blame for the violence perpetrated against them and that rather, it is part of a much wider systemic problem.
Refuges provide more than just a bed. They provide 24 hour support to vulnerable and isolated women who may be facing harassment and pursuit by controlling ex-partners.
Domestic violence refuges support women to obtain Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPO) and address the issue of lack of police response to breaches of DVPOs. They provide advocacy to enable access to housing, healthcare, independent income and relief from debt caused by DV.
Refuges provide assistance to women whose visas make them ineligible for social security support or public housing and assist with immigration issues. They provide advocacy in relation to children with Child Protection authorities’ involvement due to domestic violence, assistance to deal with continuing violence post separation, including the abuse of children on contact visits.
Further, refuges offer assistance to women whose DV experience is compounded by drug and alcohol issues, mental health issues or intellectual/physical disabilities which make it more difficult to establish a life free from violence.
Women’s refuges aim to be responsive to the needs of women whose lives have been affected by domestic violence and therefore will attempt to provide advocacy to access everything needed to build an independent and violence free life.
In addition to advocating on behalf of individuals, women’s refuges have a strong tradition of lobbying and campaigning for law reform and improved institutional responses to domestic violence (e.g. CentreLink, Police, Immigration, Child Safety etc.), as well as providing community education about domestic violence. From their activism and inspiration, other specialist domestic violence services have emerged, laws have been established and lives have been saved.
Women’s House opened the first domestic violence refuge in Queensland in 1974. It has a public office in Woolloongabba and provides services for women who have experienced domestic violence and sexual assault.
Women’s House is outraged at the recent loss of many valuable services for women and children, in particular, domestic violence refuges in New South Wales. Staff at Women’s House believe that women’s refuges in Queensland will be put out to tender next year.
Women’s refuges were put out to tender earlier this year in NSW. This process saw the redirection of funding away from smaller specialist domestic violence refuges to big generic religious charities (which, as the recent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has revealed, have an appalling record in relation to survivors of violence).
These organisations are able to submit cheaper tenders by cutting specialised support available to women and children. Over 20 women’s refuges have been defunded. In stripping funding from specialist domestic violence refuges, the NSW government has put the lives of women and children at risk.
Without specialist domestic violence support, women and children are less likely to leave abusive relationships and far more likely to return to abusive relationships, thus compounding the devastating effects that violence has on their lives. Ironically, for a government focused on cutting costs, this will, in the longer term, result in greater costs to statutory services including police, health departments and social services.
For the sake of women and their children who are desperate to break free from abuse, Women’s House urges the Queensland government not to follow the course taken by NSW. It is essential that the Queensland government funds refuges that have a specialised focus on women and children and a diversity of services which meet the variety of needs required by those affected by violence.
Womens House is a cooperative that runs Women’s Shelters in and around Woollongabba in Brisbane’s inner South.
A red Hypergiant, one of the largest stars believed to exist in the Universe. Image credit: NASA
Astronomers have spotted what they believe is the largest known star in the Universe. It’s a red ‘Hypergiant’ located about 5,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus the swan. Astronomers recently calculated its upper size at more than 2,000 times the size of the Sun. That is around 1.2 billion kilometres wide!
Placed in our Solar System, its surface would extend out to the orbit of Saturn. Light takes more than 4 hours just to cross its circumference!
That’s the biggest star that we know of, but what’s the biggest probable star in the Universe? Obviously, it’s difficult for us to actually find it, the Universe is a big place, but some astronomers believe one day we’ll find a cool ‘Supergiant’ 2,600 times the size of the Sun. That, astronomers believe, is the largest possible star. Now that’s big!
Talking about the Universe, it’s time to scan the skies again. Stars come up nicely through a telescope and as you know I always use binoculars because you see a wider field of view. The image is right side up and the larger field of view makes it easy to find what you point at. They’re so simple to use, the ideal starter instrument to go star spotting with.
The Lord Of The Rings
Saturn is nearby and shines in the western sky at nightfall and stays out until late evening in late August. Saturn is the planet with the WOW factor. There is no more dazzling sight in the solar system than that of the ringed planet, even city lights can’t diminish the beauty of this tiny but picturesque crowd pleaser!
Stories abound about first timers who catch their first glimpse of Saturn through a telescope, only to check the front of the scope in disbelief to see if there isn’t a picture of the ringed planet dangling there.
How could an object so far away in space appear so perfectly clear and sharp? Such is the utter coolness of Saturn. Every time I show people Saturn through a telescope they turn and say, “Wow, it really is there!” Such is the magic of the ‘Lord of the Rings.’ At the moment Saturn and Mars are close together in the constellation Libra low in the western evening sky.
A Messy Place
Hey, have a guess how much space junk is floating around up there? That’s right, too much to count and we put it all there, over the past 40 years by launching more than 10,000 satellites, the majority of which are still in orbit. We’re only now beginning to reap the bounty we’ve sown, so to speak.
Rocket booster casings, dead satellites – you name it and it’s there posing a problem for astronauts and space tourists for the next 30 years. Scientists believe there are more than 300,000 pieces of debris in space, made up of everything from tiny screws and bolts to large parts of rockets, mostly moving in low orbits around Earth at tremendous speed.
Are you starting to get reminders of what you saw depicted in the 2013 Hollywood movie Gravity and wondering…what if? Stunning movie though!
David Reneke is one of Australia’s most well known and respected astronomers and lecturers with links to some of the world’s leading astronomical institutions. David is the editor for Australia’s Astro-Space News Magazine and a writer/publicist for Australasian Science magazine. www.davidreneke.com
