Garrett keeps arts portfolio

Peter Garrett has kept the arts and will go into the new term of Government as not only Minister for Environment but also Heritage and the Arts.

It seems that earlier information I received regarding the possibility of Bob McMullan heading up the portfolio was incorrect. But speaking to many insiders late last night and earlier today, no one was really privy to the information.

This means that the Arts will be heading towards a more community focused leadership with a naturally heavy bias towards the development of Australia's music industry.

I must admit that Mr Garrett has shown an active concern for the arts which was evident in him holding the five forums around the country. Although slightly nervous at facing halls full of arts workers, he listened and took on many issues.

But the new Minister has an up-hill battle. You can see my earlier thoughts on the Arts and the ALP here.

McMullan to take Arts

Updated 11:58am and as first published on Crikey.


An ALP insider has told Crikey that Bob McMullan is likely to be the new Arts Minister under a Rudd Labor Government.

“McMullan always loved being the Arts Minister,” the insider said. “And the problem with Garrett is that he doesn’t believe in funding the big theatre companies, where as McMullan is more sympathetic to the institutions.”

McMullan was first sworn in as Arts Minister under the Keating Government in March 1993 and was the first Arts Minister ever to have a place in cabinet. He then acted as Shadow Arts Minister for much of the time Labor was in opposition until Peter Garrett took over the portfolio in 2005.

The ALP source has suggested that the recent form of Mr Garrett during the election campaign will most probably lead to McMullan retrieving his favourite ministry.

The appointment of such a senior member of the ALP caucus, if true, will be quite a coup for the arts providing leverage for greater funding of arts institutions the Australia Council and the ABC.

But for the community who has been getting behind Peter Garrett’s election campaign, many fear that the appointment of McMullan will be a blow to their hard work.

Some believe that the nationwide arts forums established by film maker Bob Connolly and playwright Alex Broun will see a lot of their community orientated activities undone by the more traditional McMullan.

Under the banner of ‘Your Shout’, the forums set out to create a more grassroots arts policy and much of the resulting policy developed by Garrett reflected the outcomes of each of the forums. Indeed, one of the central platforms of the ALP Arts Policy developed under Garrett was a Creative Communities program that would see a funding boost of $10 million over four years “to improve opportunities for Australians to participate in arts and cultural activities in the places where they live”.

But the relationship between Garrett and McMullan is said to be close. In an interview with the Bulletin in 2005 McMullan explained that he was instrumental in getting Garrett as part of the ALP and utilizing him as an arts ambassador.

This could mean that Garrett could be junior to McMullan who has the networks with the powerful arts lobbyists who will no doubt be pushing the new government to put the arts as a high priority in the first term. Watch this space as the power-brokers push the Rudd Government hard to immediately revoke the Liberal Party’s sedition laws and to quickly provide some much needed investment in Australian television drama.


For more on McMullan views on the arts, have a look at an interview he gave to Workers Online here.


Image: BobMcMullan with outgoing NT Chief Minister, Clare Martin.

Will the ALP be good for the arts?

Many will be feeling relief. Many are feeling excited. And many within our small circle are predictably delighted that finally the Howard Government is finished.

But the question is - will the ALP be good for the arts?

From the artists I saw on Saturday, many think so. But many are also cautious and more reserved about what Kevin 07 will do for our industry. This is an ALP without the creative nation ambitions of Paul Keating. It is an ALP very, very different and more centrist (more deliberate) than we have ever had before.

Alison Croggon has surmised it succinctly in a blog post on The Guardian website:

"When former conservative arts minister George Brandis accused the left of an instrumentalist attitude to the arts, I found myself agreeing with him. He doesn't mention the instrumentalism of the right, which expresses itself as a form of economic rationalism, a version of the arts-as-tourism credo, but the fact is that under Brandis, a minister who was actually interested in the arts, this rationale was considerably softened. The Howard government, perhaps surprisingly, injected a lot of money into culture, particularly under Brandis, who did much to remedy the neglect of the early Howard years."

The fact is that under Howard, and most particularly in the last budget, funding for the arts has risen in nominal terms from $410 million to $680 million which represents an increase of 65.8%. This is substantial when compared to previous ALP governments.

When you look at the way that the ALP states fund the arts, most particularly in Queensland and especially New South Wales, confidence in the party isn't at its all time high.

As the previous Arts Minister George Brandis explained in his recent press club speech, a comparative study of arts funding by the different levels of government recently published by the Australia Council reveals that "in New South Wales, in 2007-08, arts funding will fall by $19.8 million, or 6.5%, while in Queensland, it will fall by $53.9 million, or a massive 20.5%. Victoria will record an increase of just 3%, about the rate of inflation. Of all the States and territories, only Western Australia has seen a significant increase in arts funding".

This is a bad reality for those artists celebrating the ALP's win on Saturday evening.

When Mr Garrett released the ALP's policy a few weeks ago, many of the same artists were in attendance. But as Croggon states, "his slim policy is notable for its lack of actual figures, which suggests that it amounts to nothing radically different from business as usual... You'll look in vain for any visionary policy that advocates the arts for their own sake, that integrates culture in any meaningful way with education or social health, that understands the profound connection between a society's artistic creativity and its intellectual vitality."

The question must arise - through what is a seemingly blind agreeance - after you have really looked at their policy, what is that you really want from Kevin 07 as artists?

Garrett's star-studded bash - and a new arts policy

As first published on Crikey.

On Saturday evening, the Labor Party faithful gathered at the Randwick Labor Club in Sydney’s eastern suburbs to cheer on candidates Peter Garrett (Kingsford-Smith) and George Newhouse (Wentworth).

Filling the enormous function hall, supporters squealed and hissed as they gorged themselves on drink, pies and meatballs in the anticipation that after 11 years, the ALP would reclaim the golden crown of Australian politics.

Spotted throughout the big hall, amongst the hundreds of balloons and Kevin 07 t-shirts were the arts community, all standing on the sidelines barracking for a Rudd Labor Government win. Incoming STC Artistic Directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton, comedian Mikey Robbins, performer Rhys Muldoon, playwright Van Badham and a host of actors, writers and musicians were cheering with the best of them, as Mr Garrett was wheeled out from the upstairs VIP room for each of the speeches.

For artists and the arts in Australia, a Labor win marked the end to the cultural cringe, Mr Garrett told Crikey after Mr Howard conceded defeat.

"The conservatives have never understood that the arts are about community," he said. "They’re all about involvement and the human spirit of every Australian, regardless of where they live and regardless of how much they earn."

In recent days, arts editors and journalists have complained about the lack of arts industry involvement and arts policy debate in the lead-up to the Federal Election. Arts Editor at The Australian Miriam Cosic wrote on 22 November that "artists have been conspicuously absent from this election campaign. No massed choruses of famous faces singing, ‘It's time!’. No cool concerts held by pop celebrities backing Kevin Rudd. Hardly a political whimper from the arts constituency…"

From the balcony at The Australian’s headquarters in Holt Street, it certainly may have felt that way, but down on the ground, the arts community has been predictably vocal as they barracked for an ALP win.

Only two weeks ago, Peter Garrett as opposition arts spokesman held a large policy launch at Parramatta Riverside theatre in Sydney’s west. In attendance were the movers and shakers of the arts industry; playwright Wesley Enoch, actor David Wenham, singer Sarah Blasko, Tim Freedman, singer Mark Seymour and Dr Julian Meyrick, Associate Director of the Melbourne Theatre Company.

The policy launch was the culmination of five arts forums held around the country with Mr Garrett and his electoral team. Co-ordinated by Melbourne based playwright Alex Broun, Mr Garrett spent months of this year speaking to and listening to artists, industry workers and the arts community.

And on Saturday night, it was clear from the numbers that the arts industry still believe in the ALP. It’s predictable and hardly a surprise to anyone. Especially since the Liberal Party didn’t even bother releasing an arts policy for this campaign. Many are wondering whether Garrett can withstand that misfortune of his campaign and survive as Environment Minister, but for the arts community, many are hoping that Garrett will keep the arts portfolio and his promises.

The Power of Theatre

In October 2005 I took a flight from Sydney to Melbourne to see a show presented at the Melbourne International Arts Festival. From the moment I had laid my hands on the glossy programme, this one show was a stand-out and the single reason that in a matter of an hour I booked a plane, a hotel room and a ticket for one.

And I wasn’t alone. When many lovers of theatre had heard that Theatre de Soleil’s epic Le Dernier Caravanserail (Odyssees) was to have a run at the Royal Exhibition Building in the beautiful grounds of the Carlton Gardens, phone calls and emails darted through the wired cities with plans afoot to head to Melbourne.

After the presentation of The Flood Drummers at the Sydney Festival in 2001, many were head over heels in love with the stunningly unique work of Ariane Mnouchkine’s theatre troupe.

While audiences in Sydney were being wowed by The Flood Drummers, Artistic Director Mnouchkine was out each day, heading to Villawood Detention Centre to interview refugees caught within the web of international political opportunism.

Mnouchkine’s new found passion for the rights of refugees had been first sparked after meeting other refugees, usually from the Middle East, who had been interned at the French Red Cross camp in the small village of Sangatte in France.

In an interview with the New York Village Voice, she said that people she met “came from the Middle East and the Far East, and the French Red Cross set up a centre so people wouldn't have to sleep on the street. It was very controversial because the British said we were helping the refugees get to England, which resulted in the French police trying not to let the people out of France. I asked permission to go and see this place, with someone of Iranian background, who became one of our actors. I had to explain that I wasn't a journalist who could help them in the way they'd come to expect from journalists, that I was mainly interested in hearing about their lives. They said, 'Yes, but what can you do about our lives?' And I said, 'I can't really do anything but tell the stories.'"

And so, the seed for Le Dernier Caravanserail (Odyssees) was born.

Attending the seven hour show in Melbourne was a physically and emotionally exhausting experience like no other. Beginning with some projected written correspondence between Mnouchkine and a young female refugee the stories of loss, hope and dislocation start.

As Alison Croggon of Theatre Notes explained in her beautiful letter to the director, it was the stories of "voyagers which you and your company collected and shaped into this work of art. They are the stories of human beings in exile - Kurds, Afghanis, Russians, Chechnyans, Bosnians, Africans... there are so many wars, after all, and so many famines of different kinds. And you know that as well as being full of grief and love and generosity, human beings can be murderous, cruel, weak, ignorant and stupid. That they might be cruel or stupid doesn't mean that they might not be also victims of forces beyond their control. We still hold an idea of victimhood as entitlement, which is linked to the "deserving poor", the dichotomies of good and evil. But a person might be wicked, and still suffer.”

Last night, I met young man at a political forum. He was an Iraqi refugee. His father was Iranian and his mother was Iraqi. With tensions escalating between the two countries, his mother was accused of spying for the Iranian government merely because she was a Shiite. Suddenly this family were in danger.

He told me his story in a dim corner of a rowdy bar and explained the steps they took to get out of harm’s way. Suddenly images of Mnouchkine’s show came surging back.

The images of leaky boats, of people stranded on board and images of detention centres in the middle of no where.

He told me of the torture techniques employed by the Australian authorities and the mind games played by immigration officials. And again, scene by scene, the true stories that had informed Mnouchkine to create her epic theatrical masterpiece jolted me out my chair.

And again I got uncomfortable, as though I just couldn’t hear it all again. But scarily I realised that I had put my feelings about Tampa, children overboard and Woomera in the back of mind. Last night they came streaming back. Last night I remembered why I could never ever vote for the Liberal Party today.

Actor Exposed!!

Shock horror. Quick! Man the doors and don't let a single one in!

Today's The Daily Telegraph has gone hard-core for some real breaking news.

The front page screams "BUSTED! CAUGHT IN THE ACT"

This is then followed by "Labor's 'Tradie' is a full-time Robbie Williams impersonator".

Imagine. An actor playing one of those characters off a political advertisement. Who would have ever thought??

The bright spark at the Telegraph that's dug deep to pull this astonishing story out, Justin Vallejo must have got that rush of adrenalin knowing that he has exposed one of the all time cons... All of those people that appear in commercials, are actors!

"By day, he wears the faded blue collar work gear of a disgruntled Howard Battler in Labor's election campaign assault. By night, however, actor Trent Bowater throws off the shackles of the costume department's tradie rags to become "Robbee" Williams - impersonator extraordinaire."
The discovery by Vallejo is apparently a "major embarrassment for the ALP".

But his investigations didn't stop there.

The woman in the other ALP advertisement that questions Prime Minister Howard's assertion that things haven't been so good is... wait for it... "Emma Jane Hyland, a professional voice actor who can be heard on various radio and TV commercials".

Goodness. Whatever will we do?

Unfortunately, Vallejo doesn't dig deeper. What about all those people on All Saints... are they not real either? Or CSI Miami... you mean that chap with the red hair is just saying lines?

What about the other people I see on TV? John Howard? Is he an actor too? Who is John Howard really..?? I mean, there has been a lot of things that he says that doesn't make sense to me you know. But now I understand... he is just the victim of a bad script writer!

Oh, joy, what a relief!

Remember the $80 million to compensate for VSU? It's pork

As first published in Crikey today.

The findings of the National Audit Office that came out yesterday which reveal that the $400 million regional grant program has been a pork-barrelling exercise will be old news for university sports associations.

Earlier this year the Howard Government passed an amendment to abolish compulsory student union fees. It was only passed after concerns from Senator Barnaby Joyce and Family First Senator Steve Fielding were heeded by the Prime Minister. Consequently, an $80 million "Transition Fund" was put on the table to assist university sport associations to cover the costs previously relied upon through student union fees.

Senator Joyce wasn’t taken in by the offer but it was enough for Senator Fielding to allow the bill to pass. In an interview with Radio National earlier this year, Senator Joyce explained that "we're having to rely on the universities to go cap in hand to the government each time they run out of money to support their gym, and their cricket pitch, and rugby grounds and their AFL grounds and their hockey grounds and the netball courts. And I think that in the long term, it's a pretty ridiculous position."

A draft report commissioned by Australian University Sport and the Australasian Campus Managers Association has raised concerns about how the $80 million -- now in its second round -- is being allocated. The report found that "for the federal electorates which received funding under this programme the campuses in coalition held seats received in total more than twice the funding… compared to the campuses in opposition held seats".

And for much of the funding in Opposition held seats, many are marginal, including the Bendigo campus of La Trobe University and Flinders University in Adelaide.

Even more damning, the report also found that, based on the number of full-time students enrolled, "75% of all students nationally received nil benefit from the VSU Transition Fund". So the message being sent out is that if you are a student interested in pursuing a bit of sports activity while studying at university you'd better hope that you are in a Coalition seat or a at the very least a marginal Opposition one.

Some within the university sector believe the figures could be skewed due to the fact that most regional universities are in Coalition seats but they argue that metropolitan universities, particularly those outside of the city centres, are just as desperate.

But Minister for Education Julie Bishop is of the view that the money students are saving through non-compulsory activities fees is the equivalent of "$160 million that the Australian Government has put back in the pockets of students who can now choose the services they want to support".

What this $160 million does not account for is the increase in tuition fees as well as prices charged to students for use of ex-union services and facilities -- these have "far outstripped CPI and in some cases prices have more than doubled."

A quick look down the list of campuses affected by voluntary student unionism reads like a Depression era newspaper with sports departments and cultural activities shutting down from coast to coast.

Unless of course you happen to find yourself in a Coalition seat, that is.


Image: Minister for Education, Julie Bishop

Where did ArtStart go?

As first published in Crikey.


In mid-September, Treasurer Peter Costello came out guns blazing in parliament with his trademark sarcasm and tore up one of the ALP’s central arts policies – ArtStart.

The policy, which Opposition Arts Minister Peter Garrett had launched as part of a paper entitled New Directions for the Arts, would see the ALP “develop a ‘Social Security and the Arts’ policy that harmonises current Australia Council, Centrelink and the Australian Tax Office rules and determines the most equitable way to treat earnings and royalty payments for artists currently receiving welfare.”

Costello’s mouth salivated. “The member for Kingsford Smith said that I would never have thought of something like this. Well, blow me down! I never have thought of something like this: that somebody on welfare needs more time to produce art! What are the responsibilities of someone who is on welfare? Do they have to turn up at the office at 8am and take them away from their easel?”

His spray was even picked up by the Murdoch papers with the usual hysteria -- the Herald Sun branded it the ‘paint for the dole scheme’.

On Saturday, Mr Garrett officially launched the ALP’s arts policy in Parramatta. It contained a wide-ranging arts platform, including increased funding for the Australia Council for the Arts, encouragement for the development of the local music industry and a resale scheme for visual artists.

But ArtStart suddenly disappeared from the official speeches and the press releases approved by Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd’s office and then forwarded on by Garrett’s team.

It appears that Mr Garrett’s run of bad luck with the media in previous weeks means that even with an Arts Policy launch, the ALP is trying to keep him under the radar.

Crikey asked Garrett’s office whether the disappearance of ArtStart from his official speech and the releases meant that this central policy had been abandoned. “It's still there, no plans to change that. It was mentioned in two of the speeches by artists,” the spokesperson said.

In the transcripts provided by Garrett’s office, even the artists' speeches, ArtStart is nowhere to be found.

Indeed, the entire Arts Policy launch on Saturday was kept extremely quiet, with most of the arts industry receiving emails from an independent arts lobby group two days before the event. Notifications to arts media contacts, however, only left Garrett’s office three hours prior to the event. And this was an event that had a line-up including David Wenham, Tim Freedman, Mark Seymour and Sarah Blasko – an extremely good photo opportunity.


Image credit: Peter Garrett, ABC Online, Getty Images (Paul McConnell)

Sorry, sorry...

Macbeth
Looking on his hands This is a sorry sight.


Lady Macbeth
A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.

Terrorist Busters

The image of the terrorist buster logo from the CIA website that Crikey reproduced today was just too much for me to resist.

Picturing President Bush, Prime Minister Howard and Paul Wolfowitz as the daft but lovable Venkman, Stantz and Spengler can’t be a missed opportunity.

One by one, Bush, Wolfowitz and Howard come down the tightly winding, old iron staircase. They are scared. Books are strewn all over the floor.

The books start to slide forward then the whole shelving unit topples over and almost crushes the team under a ton of books. They jump to safety.

BUSH
Nice.
(out loud)
Hello...

WOLFOWITZ looks at his meters and silently points at a dark aisle intersecting the one they're in. The team inches toward it.

WOLFOWITZ
It's here.

They stop at the corner.

The team peeks around the corner and looks toward camera.

An ethereal Osama bin Laden like presence is hovering between the stacks about four feet off the ground. It seems to waver on the edge of being and non-being, then a large legless, headless torso begins to emerge.

BUSH, HOWARD and WOLFOWITZ stand there amazed.

HOWARD
(whispers)
What is it?

BUSH
It looks like a big pair of breasts and a pot belly.

A head and arms begin to form. The apparition is now unmistakably a full-bodied, somewhat elderly Osama bin Laden, tinted beard and all.

WOLFOWITZ
It's Osama.

He edges closer to take valence readings. HOWARD starts snapping infra-red photos of it.

HOWARD
(excited)
I told you it's real.

BUSH
(whispers)
What do we do now?

HOWARD
(whispers back)
I don't know. Talk to it.

BUSH
(nods in agreement then
hesitates)
What do I say?

HOWARD
Anything! Just make contact.

BUSH
(takes a deep breath, then
addresses the specter)
Hey, Osama?
(the apparition turns and
seems to look right past
them)
Osama! Can you talk? Who are you?
(no answer)
(to HOWARD)
This is not working. Think of something else.

HOWARD
(sotto voce)
Okay. Okay. I got it. I know what to do.
Stay close. I have a plan.

He starts moving closer to the apparition. BUSH and WOLFOWITZ edge closer, fighting their fear. They stop just a few feet from the vision.

HOWARD (CONT'D)
(whispers)
Okay, now do exactly as I say. Everybody
ready?

BUSH & WOLFOWITZ
Ready.

HOWARD
Okay...
(shouts)
GET HIM!!!

He leaps at the apparition. BUSH and WOLFOWITZ jump reflexively at almost the same moment but they all end up on the floor grabbing at thin air.

Osama drops back a few feet, looms up into a raging demon like specter and blasts them with a rush of hot breath as he mouths a single word.

THE GHOST
(roars)
QUIET!

BUSH, HOWARD and WOLFOWITZ scream and fall backwards.

They burst through the doors and onto the broad steps, terrified and exhilarated by their first real contact with the supernatural. Tony Blair rushes out the door after them and chases them down the steps.

TONY BLAIR
(very agitated)
Did you see it? What was it?

BUSH
We'll get back to you.

Pork barrel serenade in Tamworth

As published in Crikey on Friday.

On a sunny day in Tamworth earlier this week the Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA) proudly accepted a grant of $50,000 from NSW Nationals Senator Sandy Macdonald to assist with “operations in the lead-up to the 2008 Country Music Awards”.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with the Federal Senator was Deputy Mayor Phil Betts, also a mover and shaker within the National Party who is running for the New England seat against standing Independent Tony Windsor.

“I am pleased the Australian Coalition Government has been able to support the CMAA in this way, playing its part in strengthening Australia’s country music industry,” Senator Macdonald said in the release.

The large cheque from the "Federal Government of Australia" was proudly presented by NSW Nationals Senator Sandy Macdonald to the CMAA in front of the infamous Tamworth guitar shaped obelisk that stands proudly in the centre of the country music capital of Australia. The funds are a welcome addition to the signing of Jayco as sponsor to a very popular event that is now in its 36th year.
Picture from left to right: Rod Laing - CMAA Chairman, Phil Betts - Deputy Mayor of Tamworth Regional Council and National Party Candidate for the Federal Seat of New England, Sandy Macdonald - NSW Senator and Cheryl Hayes - CMAA General Manager.

But where the money from the "Australian Coalition Government" came from exactly is a little less clear. Normally, a regional arts organisation is required to complete a comprehensive grant application and acquittal that is either administered by the Australia Council for the Arts or a regional arts or touring body funded by the Arts Ministry within DCITA.

The CMAA didn’t jump any of these hoops usually afforded to most arts and music organisations in acquiring a few thousand dollars, let alone $50,000.

A Tamworth council insider has suggested to Crikey that the $50,000 was less about assisting in the production of the world famous Country Music Awards as the CMAA maintains, and more about covering a debt that the CMAA owed Tamworth Regional Council for use of its entertainment centre.

Crikey believes that a meeting was held between the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor to arrange the payment and on Tuesday 25 September a subsequent council meeting was held in Tamworth where a "Closed Council" motion proposed that:

That Council apply the TRECC Economic Benefit Policy venue hire by the Country Music Association of Australia to the extent as detailed in confidence for the 34th, 35th and 36th Country Music Festivals; and further the CMAA be advised to submit a Business Plan to the Tamworth Venues and Events Corporation for 2009.

It was a good photo opportunity for a National Party Senator who is seeking to remove the popular Independent Tony Windsor and replace him with his National Party colleague. And Senator Brandis was there to pork-barrel his National Party colleagues with his available discretionary funding.

For Tamworth, the rough and tumble of politics has always been a heated affair and every little bit of help counts. Even a bit of money to help the CMAA pay the rent.

In late 2004 the argy bargy between Windsor and the National Party reached its height when Windsor accused Senator Macdonald of organising local Tamworth businessman Greg Maguire to bribe Windsor to leave the seat of New England. At the time, Maguire angrily refuted the claims, dumping on Windsor.

Despite this, the National Party needs a 20% swing to remove Windsor and it appears that the "Australian Coalition Government" is even now prepared to throw money at arts organisations in safe non-Coalition seats.

DCITA maintains that the funding of the CMAA comes from the Cultural Development Fund. It sounds official, but is little more than a term to describe the discretionary funds that the Arts Minister has at his disposal. Just this week he floated $1.5million to the financially disastrous Sydney Dance Company as part of the ‘Cultural Development Fund’. Senator Brandis’s office is yet to confirm with Crikey how much money is available as part of this discretionary funding.

It could, however, be a new "Australian Coalition Government" model of funding the arts in Australia that Senator Brandis is now advocating. The need for process, accountability and pages upon pages of grant application forms could disappear along with the bureaucrats and the Australia Council for the Arts.

You're a bit late aren't you?

Goodness. All this hoo-haa over a song by the Chaser that was first unleashed on the public in February now gets attention nine months later.

We are surely witnessing one of the most boring election campaigns with some of the most boring politicians in the history of this nation. Add a bored media to the mix and you get some pretty old news.

The hoo-haa surrounds the broadcast of The Eulogy Song, which as the Herald today reports "criticises the way dead celebrities were 'eulogised' by the public". Or as the song puts it - 'Even pricks turn into top blokes once they're dead'.

You know the people. The delightful Stan Zemanek, the caring and meek Kerry Packer, the softly spoken Steve Irwin and the environmentally friendly Peter Brock.

But they also throw into the mix a bit of jaw-dropping references - Donald Bradman, Princess Diana and then, not quite, Belinda Emmett.

The song was first performed at the Sydney Theatre Company in February this year and then again in July during a return season of the teams Chaser's play Dead Caesar.

Based around Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar it explores the central theme of the song:
"It's not how they live that counts, but how we re-write the book. When it comes to truth it's best to use restraint. It pays to throw away the facts and have a rose coloured look."

Julius Caesar - John Howard. Marcus Brutus - Peter Costello. What's the difference?

And then for it to reach the front-page of the Herald website and Melbourne talkback today all because six viewers complained to the ABC and then was echoed by the tut-tut's from Howard and Rudd, you have probably have the beginning of what is a truly boring election.... until of course...

Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!

Don't stop there Mr Howard!

Prime Minister John Howard yesterday afternoon announced "compulsory standalone Australian history in years 9 and 10," reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

"I will write to premiers and chief ministers asking that they accept the Australian Government's proposal to strengthen the teaching of Australian history based on the recommendations of the reference group and the subject-matter set out in the guide," he said.

"I will seek their co-operation on the next stage which includes consideration of assessment techniques, detailed curriculum and associated resources required to support this outcome.

Now that the study of history is the flavour of the election month - don't stop there Prime Minister. After ten conscientious years of funding cuts to history courses around the country, now would be the ideal time to replinish the starving beast of history teaching across the country.

It's all very well to shove gold-rush Australian history down the throats of 15 and 16 year old students, but where does that young scholar go when they find that the study of history is their future vocation? Or perhaps go on and teach history to the next generation? It wouldn't be at an Australian university that's for sure.

Just last month, the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development found that public spending on high education in Australia was amongst the lowest of the 34 developed countries covered in the study. Australia was just ahead of Russia and Brazil.

Many arms of history study have all but vanished from many university calendars over the years of cut-backs. Australian history, economic history, European history, Ancient history, cultural history, Asian history, American history, colonial history, post-colonial history, medieval history, renaissance history, political history, legal history - if they have survived - are now operating with skeletal staff bodies. Courses in their hundreds have just disappeared along with an entire generation of lecturers, professors and tutors.

We aren't talking about the culture wars here. We aren't even talking about this ridiculous history war. We are talking about a basic principal of civilised society that has been decimated by a prevailing attitude by this government for ten years that brands the beautiful art of studying the humanities as 'elitist'.

If that logic holds true then the Prime Minister's visit to Moorebank High School in Sydney announcing the compulsory study of Australian history totalling 150 hours over a two year period is nothing short of pompous.

Could there be an election called tomorrow?

I might be cynical... a little maybe... But this evening I open up Microsoft Outlook and check my email account.

4.32pm - Media Release - From Senator Brandis, Arts Minister
Ongoing funding recognises central role of National Museum

5.29pm - Media Release - From Senator Brandis, Arts Minister
Promoting Australia as an international film production location

5.47pm - Media Release - From Senator Brandis, Arts Minister
Funding upgrade for Australia’s major orchestras

6.17pm - Media Release - From Senator Brandis, Arts Minister
Funding secured for the Gallery of Australian Democracy

6.35pm - Media Release - From Senator Brandis, Arts Minister
Ongoing funding to support the publication of educational books

6.55pm - Media Release - From Senator Brandis, Arts Minister
Appointment to the National Gallery of Australia Council

7.04pm - Media Release - From Senator Brandis, Arts Minister
New screen agency will build Australia’s film industry

7.09pm - Media Release - From Senator Brandis, Arts Minister
Ongoing funding for communities to preserve their heritage

7.53pm - Media Release - From Senator Brandis, Arts Minister
Ongoing support for tours of major cultural exhibitions

7.59pm - Media Release - From Senator Brandis, Arts Minister
Increased funding to flow to Australia’s opera and ballet orchestras


To give some context, ten Arts Ministry releases within three and a half hours is no small thing. There could be a number of reasons for such an unusual influx of media releases. The ministry has had a backlog and finally received approval for a whole lot at once...

Or, and this might be closer to the truth. Words out within the corridors of power and the order has been given to get rid of any left over affairs. A certain leading minister may be making the trip to Yarralumla tomorrow.



Also picked up at Crikey.