Author: Jan Bowman

On a wet Friday evening on 22 August West End locals packed into Avid Reader Bookshop for a charge of West End history: the launch of the West End Making History Group’s third and latest walking guide, Walking with Water Rats … Kurilpa Point to Davies Park and Beyond. They were joined by special guests, Sam Watson, Heritage Architect, Peter Marquis Kyle, and Annie Keys from the walking guides’ funding body, the Department of the Environment.

The evening was a mix of celebration and protest, coming as it did in the same week the Brisbane City Council launched its Kurilpa Riverfront Renewal master plan, a plan that, if fulfilled, will result in massive change to the local landscape.

Billie Cummins kicked things off with a wonderful didgeridoo performance and a moving reminiscence of boyhood fishing expeditions to the nearby river.

Former Mayor and member of the West End Making History group, Tim Quinn, considers that by knowing our local history, we get to know ourselves. “It is very difficult for us to recognise who we are and where we might go in the future unless we understand our history,” he said.

The trail lists three state heritage listed buildings: the Coronation Hotel, the Gas Stripping Tower and the Thomas Dixon Building. While these building are protected, Tim thinks other important buildings have a far less certain future and if we value our heritage, they should be fought for. They include the delightful Foggitt Jones building at the northern end of Montague Road, the art deco facade of the Stewarts and Lloyds building near Parmalat, as well as the original Parmalat façade itself.

The disquiet in the community over the Kuripla master plan comes, Tim thinks, from a lack of consultation extending over the past 10 years. “I don’t think too many political figures responsible for making those decisions have been out to this community in the last 10 years”, he said, adding,

“We would warmly welcome the Lord Mayor on one of the walks”.

On Sunday Tim led about 60 residents on the first walk based on the guide. Joining us were other members of the West End Making History Group, Helen Abrahams, Pam Bourke, Steve Capelin, Fiona Stager and Phil Vanderzeil.

In its first Street Walker‘s Guide to West End published in 2010, the West End Making History Group exhorted its readers to,

“Slow down. Leave the car at home. Take to the streets”.

With the links to our past under imminent threat, now more than ever, is the time to follow their advice.

Copies of the book can be obtained from Avid Reader Bookshop and keep an eye on the website for details of future walks.

For people interested in talking to them about the draft Kurilpa Master Plan, representatives of the Brisbane City Council will be at the West End Markets in Davies Park on Saturday 30 August, from 8am to12pm.

The West End Community Association will be holding a public meeting on Wednesday 3 September, from 6-7 pm at the South’s Leagues Club, West End. A number of the West End Making History group members will be there.

 

Click to hear an interview with Tim Quinn as broadcast on ABC 612 on Monday 25 August.

This article is part of the cover feature NO in the September issue of Westender.

According to the Office for Women,

“one-in-three Australian women have experienced physical violence and almost one-in-five have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15”.

On 27 June 2014 the Federal Government released the 2nd Action Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, a plan which builds on the work commenced by the Labor Government in the 2010-2013 Action Plan.

Westenders are represented in the Qld Parliament and Federal Upper and Lower House by women. Westender approached them all: the Federal Member for Griffith, Terri Butler and Queensland Senator and Australian Greens spokesperson for women, Larissa Waters, for their comments on current Federal Government policies and actions to reduce violence against women, and on their expectations for the role of the Minister for Women.

Jackie Trad MP, Labor Member for South Brisbane provided Westender with a  statement about policies and funding for women’s service by the Queensland State Government.

All three raise concerns in their statements about the impact of budget measures such as Medicare fees, and funding changes to legal  and housing services, which they say serve to weaken the efforts of Governments to respond to violence against women and children.

Statement from Federal Member for Griffith, Terri Butler

“Everyone in Australia should be able to live free from violence, to feel safe in their homes and in their communities.

Violence affects not only victims of violence, but also their families, their friends, their work colleagues and ultimately, our communities.

Studies have shown that domestic violence and sexual assault committed against women costs our country $13.6 billion each year. More importantly, domestic and family violence, and sexual assault, are abhorrent and have no place in our community.

The 2nd Action Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and Children has been released. This National Plan builds on the long-term strategy put in place by the previous Labor Government.

The First Action Plan sought to improve the safety of women and their children by, building better primary prevention capacity, enhancing service delivery, strengthening justice responses and building the evidence base. Labor’s reforms to strengthen laws in relation to family violence were a pivotal part of this plan.

Though I welcome the 2nd Action plan, I’m greatly concerned about the Abbott government’s rotten budget and its likely effect – if all of the measures were to be passed – on women and children who are suffering violence.

The National Foundation for Australian Women’s analysis of the Federal Budget identified that cuts to housing programs and to legal services “undermine state and federal level measures to address violence against women under the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children”.

The proposed GP tax, blood test tax and x-ray tax will just add to the impediments that women face when seeking help, as will the cuts to Legal Aid funding.

And the Abbott government’s decision to scrap the National Rental Affordability Scheme is concerning, particularly as women fleeing domestic and family violence are at risk of homelessness.

Here in Queensland, we’ve seen a government that hasn’t had a domestic violence strategy for the first two and a half years of its term finally appoint a task force aimed at reducing domestic violence in Queensland.

If Tony Abbott is going to be the Prime Minister for Women he needs to ensure that his policies improve the lives of women, and he needs to talk to his Liberal Premiers about devoting real effort towards tackling domestic and family violence.

Labor is committed to dealing with family and domestic violence.

On 15 August, Bill Shorten launched Labor’s family and domestic violence policy development process for the next election. He said:
“Today we have been meeting with people who speak up as the voice for one of the urgent crises in Australian society: I talk about the crisis of family violence.

“This is an important national political issue and it is a crisis across Australia. It is a national disgrace that more than a woman every week is murdered by someone who claims to love them.

“The police can’t simply arrest their way out of this crisis. It is not just an issue for women. It is not just an issue of homelessness, it is a national political issue, which needs a determined bipartisan national political response.

“Today Labor is starting the process of working our policies on how we would assist the fight the scourge of family violence and tackle the violence which is occurring in our suburbs regardless of postcode, regardless of ethnicity. This is a national political issue and Labor’s determined to fight this issue.”

At the state level, Labor has introduced a private member’s bill that seeks to increase penalties for offenders who breach domestic violence orders. The bill would also require that all victims be provided with assistance.

The Queensland Police Service’s most recent statistical review (http://www.police.qld.gov.au/Resources/Internet/services/reportsPublications/statisticalReview/1112/documents/QldCrime.pdf) show that there were 11,101 reported breaches of Domestic Violence Protection Orders in 2011-12.

Queensland Senator and Australian Greens spokesperson for women, Larissa Waters

“While the Abbott Government has released the second action plan on domestic violence, which provides about $25 million a year for four years; it is ripping far more funding out of the budget from support that victims of domestic violence currently rely on. This shows a complete ignorance of the needs of women, which is hardly surprising given the Abbott Government has only one woman in its Cabinet.

Domestic violence pervades all parts of society. While victims have varying levels of financial means, a common feature of abusive relationships is control and often abusive partners control their victims’ money. Think about that control of money in the context of the Abbott Government’s proposed budget measure to make everyone pay at least $7 to see a doctor. If a victim of domestic violence cannot see a doctor for free, she may not go at all. Firstly, she may not be able to afford it and, secondly, even if she can afford the fee, she may need to ask her abusive partner for the money, who is of course, probably the reason that she needs to see a doctor in the first place.

Finding the money to see a doctor would be challenging enough, let alone finding money to pay for legal advice. Many victims of domestic violence cannot afford private legal advice and, again, even if they could, they might not have control over the funds to secure the advice. That is why free legal advice for victims of domestic violence is so incredibly important. And yet the Abbott Government is cutting funding for community legal centres across the country, which will leave women stranded.

The budget also abolishes the National Rental Affordability Scheme. Whilst women’s refuges provide some immediate accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence, they are already struggling financially to keep up with the alarming demand and they can only offer short-term housing. Once that short-term refuge accommodation is up, many victims will have nowhere to go. With no safe affordable, long-term housing options for accommodation, this means that, sadly, they will simply have to return to their abusive partners and live with the threat of more violence. The National Rental Affordability Scheme helped women to escape this fate and is now being wound up. On top of this, the federal budget also threatens to cut tax support for single parents, which again could see women financially unable to start or maintain a new, free life with their children.

While the cuts to single parent support, housing, legal services and Medicare are bearing down ominously, I’m confident that the Senate will be able to block most of them. The Greens will be doing all we can in the Senate to ensure that the budget does not make the already heinous situation victims of domestic violence face even worse. I’ve also initiated a Senate Inquiry into domestic violence and am hopeful that through this process, government senators will see how the budget cuts would impact victims of domestic violence and will be able to convince the government to change course.”

Tony Abbott may call himself a feminist but his track record indicates otherwise.

As Minister for Women, Tony Abbott caused national outrage, when he winked and smirked in response to an elderly woman, with health problems, describing on radio how she makes ends meet with multiple jobs, including as a sex line worker. In the lead up to the election, Mr Abbott described one of his party’s female candidates as having “sex appeal”; told a group of young female netball players that “a bit of body contact never hurt anyone” and then told Big Brother contestants to vote for him “as I’m the guy with the not bad looking daughters”. The election blunders came on top of his past comments – he seemed to think that ironing was exclusively done by “the housewives of Australia” and that Julia Gillard should “make an honest woman of herself”. Buried deeper in Mr Abbott’s past are his comments about abortion being “the easy way out” and on women and leadership (“What if men are by physiology or temperament more adapted to exercise authority or to issue command?”), as well as allegations that as a university student he punched a wall close to a female student’s head.

We need a Minister for Women who is prepared to stand up for women – not a man who has 1950s views on gender roles. And I think that person should be a woman, who is prepared to stand up for women. We Greens are calling on the Prime Minister to step down as Minister for Women and to appoint a woman for the role, who is prepared to tackle to real issues and the systemic discrimination that women still face.

While I welcome the Queensland Government’s Special Taskforce on domestic violence and especially the appointment of Quentin Bryce as chair, we need a commitment from the state government that funding for specialist women’s refuges will be maintained and increased.

With the Abbott Government’s disastrous budget cuts, the last thing Queensland women need is for the state government to take more money out of the support services that victims of domestic violence rely on.

Jackie Trad MP – Labor Member for South Brisbane provided the following statement about policies and funding for women’s service by the Queensland State Government.

“In 2013 there were 64,246 reported incidents of domestic violence in Queensland. This figure has increased by over 10% from 2012. I think every Queenslander would agree this is unacceptable and more needs to be done to protect women and children from this horrendous violence.

One in three Australian women will be subjected to domestic violence in their lifetime – while the statistics remain that staggeringly high, how can we claim women are truly equal members of our society?

I unequivocally support any effort that genuinely seeks to combat violence against women.”

“I think the Newman Government’s decision not to appoint a Minister for Women is a sad indication of their failure to address the serious issues facing Queensland women.

The Newman Government’s savage cuts to community services, health and education have disproportionately affected women. Having spoken to many local women I know that Queensland’s growing unemployment rate is hurting families, with local women going months without work or being forced to accept part-time work because full time jobs are just not available.

Clearly, the best way you can improve opportunities for women is to provide access to reliable jobs, so they can keep food on the table for their families.

Queensland Labor is proud to have a Shadow Minister for Women and will continue to strongly advocate for greater support for our most vulnerable women.”

 

Bike polo may not be for the faint-hearted, but age and gender are definitely no barriers, or so says Ollie Wykeham who spoke with me about the sport recently. In fact he reckons there are players in their 50s and there’s even a player in the US as old as 87. As to gender, he said one of the best international players he has competed against is a woman called Birdie and teams often have mixed membership.

See photo gallery below.

You may have seen Ollie, Max, Leon, Maddy and others playing at Musgrave Park tennis court on Sunday afternoons. If you haven’t, do try to get along. The players I spoke with all described the sport as addictive and just watching them has convinced me. I am not a person who lives with regrets, but learning about this sport that has left me wishing I were younger and fitter.

The sport requires real skill and nerve, but the rules are simple. Ollie said the main rule when he started was “don’t be a dick”. The game consists of two teams of three players competing to be the first to score five goals. When a player touches the ground they are temporarily out of play. Hip and shoulder body contact is fine, within limits. As to spills and thrills, Ollie said there are a few, but added dismissively that the maximum damage he has sustained, was a broken finger.

Bike Polo originated in Ireland in the early 1900’s but in its current form is quite young having emerged around 16 years ago from the ranks of bicycle couriers in Seattle who started playing in down times at work. It is now played across North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia: after all as Ollie said, all you need is a bike and a stick. Certainly a stark contrast to the very exclusive and expensive pony polo.

While equipment is generally cheap and accessible it is becoming more specialised, and there is an emerging cottage industry surrounding the sport in Brisbane. Ollie for example now manufactures polo mallets. He likens the stage of development of the sport to the early days of skate boarding.

Local tournaments seem to be largely organised on Facebook. A recent interstate event titled “No Sleep Till Brisbane” held on the weekend of 12 & 13 July, attracted 11 teams from Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, and five from Brisbane: 16 teams in all. Two Brisbane teams, Majestic and Extra Gear, competed for a berth in the final, but in the end the Sydney-Perth combination “JSIM” overwhelmed the local team Extra Gear (Tom, Max and Ollie) for the title. Extra Gear is sponsored by local West End bike shop “Gear”.  Commercial sponsorships for bike polo are likely to increase as the sport expands.

The Brisbane players hire courts at Milton State School on Mondays and Wednesdays and, with the assistance of Gabba Ward Councillor Helen Abrahams, have been using the disused tennis court at Musgrave Park on Sundays afternoons. However, these sites are no longer meeting the needs of the growing sport, and players are looking for a permanent home with lights. Cr Abrahams says bike polo is a real sport with skilled and enterprising players and they deserve a permanent venue, although she say it may be difficult to find a venue in the inner city. In the meantime Cr Abrahams is happy for the players to continue to use Musgrave Park while it remains available.

Next up on the Brisbane players agenda are the world championships which will be held in Montpellier in France from 28 to 31 August. The top seven teams from the recent “No Sleep Till Brisbane” tournament will be attending, including three teams from Brisbane. This is the 6th world championship and this year games will be live streamed on bikepolo.tv with results published on hardcourtpodium.com

My thanks to Ollie, Max Newstead, Madeline Elise,  Leon Cameron and others for sharing their love of bike polo with me; they can count me as a convert, at least as a spectator.

Click here to hear a recent broadcoast on 612 ABC Brisbane.

 

Following publication of its report on the Rally for public parks in June, Westender approached Brisbane City Council seeking details of planned parks in the West End and South Brisbane on the basis of total hectares, and hectares per resident.

In a response received late last week Council advised Westender that it is, “delivering new open space for West End as part of the Neighbourhood Plan. Council has commenced the resumption process for 68 Vulture Street, West End and this will go before Council this Tuesday [July, 29] for consideration”.

Council also provided a memo sent by the Lord Mayor to Gabba Ward Councillor Helen Abrahams in June, saying that this response details Council’s commitment to delivering open space in West End. The requested details, quantifying publically accessible parkland in the West End and South Brisbane against the City Plan’s Land Provision Standard, were not provided.

When asked to comment, Cr Abrahams told Westender that:

“The data to support more parks for West End and South Brisbane just keeps growing. West End residents do not have a local park with the standard of 400 m from where they live. Also, they do not have the area of park that is specified in the City Plan 2014.”

Cr Abrahams added that, ‘”The Priority Infrastructure Plan specifies the amount of park for local informal use as 1.12ha per 1000 people. This KPI means 38.5 hectare of park yet there is only 15 ha. The proposed new park brings the total to 17 ha. The Lord Mayor’s response to letters from residents is to refuse to comment on the deficiency of parkland in West End. The Lord Mayor’s response fails to acknowledge he has removed proposed park in the City Plan 2014.”

“The Lord Mayor may think that if he does not comment, this issue will disappear but he is wrong. It is just not possible to squeeze 37,500 residents into West End and South Brisbane without more parks. They will demand parks and now is the time to keep to the commitment to provide the seven parks promised as part of the South Brisbane Riverside Neighbourhood Plan”

“The Lord Mayor’s legacy will be dormitory suburbs without space, greenery or quality of life” Cr Abrahams said.

West End Community Association (WECA) President, Dr Erin Evans told Westender that, “three

years after the Neighbourhood Plan was approved Council has failed to zone all seven of the new public open spaces identified.  Until these are zoned for, they remain unidentified and uncertain for the community. The current response from the Lord Mayor’s office does not address the issue or provide assurances of commitment.”

“The Lord Mayor can zone all seven parks with the stroke of a pen and the community calls on him to make good on this requirement to zone the parks and provide greenspace for the community. WECA has consulted widely with the community through discussions and surveys and provision of parks is one of the most important issues to all residents in the area”, Dr Evans added.

“The Lord Mayor needs to listen to the community rather than focusing on the wishes of developers,” Dr Evans said.

A WECA sponsored petition to Brisbane City Council demanding the provision of parks in West End has attracted over 500 signatures and will be presented to the Lord Mayor by Cr Abrahams on July, 29.

A subcommittee of the WECA meets regularly to respond to West End parks issues and it is currently finalising strategies for future action.

Dr Evans said that residents who wish to contribute their skills and ideas to this process are welcome and can contact WECA via its website at www.weca.org.au or via its Facebook Page.

When he was presented with The Westender Kurilpa Local Legend award in May, Joe Hurley was described as a “guiding light” in the West End Community House. Now he is leaving, not by choice, but because the government’s funding model for community houses is changing.

Dr Kay Pearse, Chairperson of the West End Community House (WECH) Board said budgetary constraints forced its hand and it reluctantly decided that it could no longer afford to keep Joe on as coordinator and manager.

“West End Community House and the West End Community, have a great debt to Joe.” she said. “He’s been around for almost 20 years serving the community and he will be sorely missed. It was a terrible decision for the board to restructure: we had to do it, we had no choice, but we will miss him terribly. The House will miss him, and the community will miss him”.

Norma aged 89 and a volunteer at the Community House for about 10 years summed up the feelings of many when she said,

“It’s impossible to describe the beauty of a person like Joe. There is something special about him that we will never see again.”

As to the future of WECH, Norma added, “Joe has set us a great example and I’m sure that somehow we will keep it going”.

When I spoke with him, Mr Hurley was philosophical about his move, and his focus was on ensuring WECH services have a future.

“I am leaving because we need to change here. The organisation needs to find a sustainable footing, and part of that is reducing the costs of the organisation”, Mr Hurley said. “But,” he added, “It’s also a good opportunity for me to change. If I hadn’t had this motivation I might be sitting here for another 10 years”.

Mr Hurley said he is driven by a belief in social justice. He said he started his working life in the property sector, in valuation and property administration, and through that he came to the affordable housing world. “And that’s when I realised, wow, that’s what I’d like to be contributing to in the future, rather than just the economics of the property game.”

He describes WECH as: “a place of comfort and support, a place of opportunity… and something that contributes positively to people’s lives and outcomes, no matter what circumstances they might be in.”

As part of its support services, a Centrelink representative and Anglicare support workers attend the Thursday morning breakfasts. In addition to these services the WECH works with Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House to provide a homeless person’s legal service. WECH has a therapeutic arts program on Fridays, predominantly for people with a mental illness and those living in supported accommodation, as well as a women’s group and a computer literacy program.

“It’s a gateway to support” Mr Hurley said. “The way that plays out is having an open house for the large part of everyday so people can just walk through the door and ask questions, have a cup of tea, and hopefully get the informed and supportive assistance to get them where they need to be.”

Mr Hurley will continue to work for a time with WECH on a contractual basis. He has a particular passion for the development at the Croquet Club in Musgrave Park. ” We’ve spent two and a half years getting a development application approved on a very sensitive site, with a very sensitive development, that we hope will be a legacy for the community… a meeting space that hopefully will be accessed for decades to come. I’m really very keen to see that come to fruition. And certainly I will continue to work to support our Annerley and Yeronga services: I’ve got a lot of affection for them, so it will be hard to let them go.”

About his own future Mr Hurley said, “I am definitely looking to keep working around some of the social justice issues that I have a passion for. I have had a focus for a lot of my career on tenancy and affordable housing issues and I’d like to see what sort of contributions I could make to that sector. I am also just looking to put a bit of time into my family”.

Dr Pearse said that the WECH experience is not unique. “…the financial constraints that all community services are working within these days are severe. Budgets have been cut over the last two years … and now all community services are struggling with financial viability issues”.

“It’s been a very difficult time for staff to see their colleagues leave and go to other services”, Dr Pearse added.

Dr Pearse said the WECH has been lucky because a few years ago it was given funding to implement a regional model which has enabled it to support the community centres in Yeronga and Annerley as well is in the West End. But she said in the 2014/15 financial year the service has reached crunch time. “This has placed enormous pressures on staff as they face an incredibly uncertain future” she said.

Funding WECH and associated services comes from the three main services Dr Pearse said, “We get government support, but that’s not sufficient now to cover our operational and service delivery costs. We also do a lot of fundraising, and then we look to our residents and to corporates to support us”.

Both Dr Pearse and Mr Hurley said that WECH has had great support from local businesses over the years. Dr Pearse made particular mention of Jacobs and Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM), which has partnered with WECH to support the breakfast program and in a number of other ways as well.

While both Dr Pearse and Mr Hurley acknowledged that the changes in state government funding have been a critical issue, neither was critical of government, talking broadly about difficult times for all. Norma however had no hesitation in attaching blame to government.

“My greatest disappointment is the people in Government cannot see the worth of what we do. They don’t seem to understand the amount of money we could be saving them…I can’t understand any government that does what they’re doing here,” she said.

Dr Pearse said that the state government, “has a very clear agenda of professionalising non-government services and wanting them to be financially stable; to be multistranded. We need to collaborate and work with our other community services on the South Side if we are going to survive in these very tough times.”

In the meantime Dr Pearse said WECH is adjusting to the new word and is collaborating in particular with the Acacia Ridge and Mount Gravatt community centres, for example, by applying for grants together in an attempt to secure regional funding.

Dr Pearse said the board will also continue to look for alternative sources of funding in order for its services to continue.

“Vulnerable people, people who are not working, people who have mental health issues, they’re people who are sometimes hidden … we need to support them, they’re members of our community, and they are valued members of our community, so we can’t just close our doors.”

If you want to help WECH contact them here.

For Audio of these interviews on ABC 612 click here: West End Community House Co-ordinator and Manager Joe Hurley to retire after 20 years