tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13850557223957856082024-03-05T02:24:58.534-08:00Information and AccessThis blog is designed to allow discussion about Freedom of Information and other access issues in Australia and internationally. I also want to use it to allow a place for me to comment on these issues and allow access to my works in progress.Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-55391433536213642662013-10-04T03:49:00.000-07:002013-10-04T04:07:04.745-07:00Memoir - Leaves 21-28 Reflections on Education<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 21 “Once a miner always a comrade in
arms” Parliament House Canberra 1999</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve
always considered my veneer of civilisation as being very thin and a constant
struggle to retain, largely because I want to preserve the great gifts of my
background – a desire for plain talking, a preference for directness over
excessive politeness and a capacity to understand or feel what is like to walk
in someone else’s shoes. Sometimes, however, switching back to the ‘old me’ is also
a very useful tool of diplomacy.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I was
sitting in a committee meeting room in Parliament House in Canberra. Before me
were several members of a visiting UK parliamentary committee on Public
Administration investigating FOI. Most were typical angle saxon genetics -
tall, thin and full of misdirection. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However
one of the party was a gruff, short, stocky and no-nonsense Labour member, who was
very unreceptive to my considered, measured and academic responses. He had the
look, sound and temperament of an old time miner/union official. So I let slip
that I was from a mining town and had spent time working underground. Bingo.
Immediately he was very keen on this “FOI” thing that his newly <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>found comrade was advocating.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Throughout
my professional encounters, I often feel like an emissary from a very different
world. I have learnt the mannerisms, customs and speaking patterns of those I
mix with but I am always on guard and wary. I understand the necessity for the
customs, the social cues and the power in being diplomatic, yet it is often
terribly frustrating not to simply call a spade a spade or to cut through the
verbiage with a simple ‘bullshit’. I understand all the shortcomings of the
class and era I sprung from – the heavy layers of sexism, racism, homophobia
and the viewpoint that the rest of the world is filled with idiots because they
don’t agree with you. Yet often I yearn for the refreshing bluntness of leaning
over the table during a tedious university meeting and simply saying, “fuck,
you are an idiot!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 22 “College years” Hobart 1974-1975</span></i></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">When I
left Queenstown for college, my sister Julie was about 11, my brother Keith
was<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>6, and my sister Donna was 2.
Infrequent visits home over the years meant that I missed nearly all the major
events in their lives. I don’t know how my parents afforded my accommodation at
Hollydene Hostel and while I was grateful for the extra spending money they
gave me, it was never very much. Mum and Dad had little idea of what college or
university entailed but they were certainly prepared to help me get there. Yet
their lack of knowledge about further education meant they never pushed me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I worked dilligently not to write home and
ask for money but it was often difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>During one bus trip back to Hobart, I lost the money my parents had
given me and things were looking bleak until a teacher offered me a gardening
job. Over the next year, I seemed to strike it lucky and got the odd gardening
job from two other teachers. In retrospect, I now understand these jobs were
gifts and not lucky breaks for a fairly poor and irregular gardener.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">By
going to College, I started a journey that took me, with every step, deep into
a world unknown to my parents or my forbearers. My mother had to leave school
in Year 8 and my father never went past the final year in primary school. When
Dad was about 12 or 13, his father died leaving behind 12 kids - three girls in
high school and the rest in primary school or very young children. Dad’s
brothers were sent off to the Boys Home, not a great time for them. We
eventually discovered (and the banter about Dad being Nan’s favourite had more
bite in it than we realised for many years) the wide scale abuse that occurred
in state care during that time. Dad had stayed at primary school until he was
old enough to start work at the mine to help support his family. His approach
to life has always been a kind of ‘you do what you have to do and there is no
use whinging about it or trying to change things’ approach. In many ways, he
was an ideal man to take on the responsibility of two step kids in the late
1960s in a small mining town.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sometime
after I finished Grade 2 at East Launceston Primary School, Mum, my sister
Julie and I moved to Queenstown to live with my grandparents. We shared a very
tiny house in Arthur Street. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have no
recall of my bedroom or if I shared it with my little sister but I seem to
recall sleeping on a tiny couch from time to time. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was
a tiny house on the edge of town, in a small gully, in the shadows of the
majestic Penghana – the mansion of the Mt Lyell Mine mangers that sat on top of
a small hill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Penghana - with it’s
secluded, off-limits, large well maintained gardens and grounds dominating the
landscape - deepened the foundations of my future political beliefs and
attraction to social justice issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two
transformative events changed my life dramatically after moving to Queenstown.
First, in Grade 3 I received some help from a government funded speech
therapist that made my impediment more manageable. I still had difficulty
correctly pronouncing words and tended to speak in monosyllables (later on I
loved the liberation Bob Dylan gave me to stretch, twist and create new sounds).
Yet the speech therapist gave me a handful of tricks that provided an escape
from my self-imposed social isolation. Later, the flexibility and ability to
manage the written word completely unleashed my freedom to express myself. To
this day, despite two decades as an academic having delivered over a thousand
lectures, hundreds of talks, including at international conferences to several
hundred people and a few hundred media interviews, I still find the written
word a more comfortable, ‘natural’ and effective way of communicating.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
other major change at this time was the entry of Keith Snell into my life. Sometime
between Grade 3 and 5 my mother met the only man I have ever called Dad.
Unusually for Queenstown, Keith had remained a bachelor till he met Mum who not
only had two small kids, but was 4-5 years older than him. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
gained not only a father but an extremely strict disciplinarian who insisted on
neatness and order and short back and sides/crew cuts (at a time when long hair
was fashionable, albeit against school rules). I think my life of clutter is a
rebellion against that imposed discipline. You can always tell which is Dad’s
car by the high polish on the outside and the look of the engine on the inside.
The engines are always painted, sparkle and literally spotless. He has a shadow
board for his tools. And even after all these years, away from home, I would be
able walk through his house blindfolded. Everything will still be in its
prefect place as it has been for the past forty years.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In exchange for the exposure to discipline,
for the first time in my life, I gained an extended family and a new surname.
The Snell clan is a wild and rambling bunch. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went from a small struggling sole parent family
unit living on the edge with almost no history or roots, I was aware of, to
being, by default, the eldest member of the next generation of a proud and very
large family. I went from having a couple of cousins and a couple of uncles and
aunties to having over fifty cousins and twenty or so uncles and aunties. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About the age of 8 or 9, I had gained a new
name, a new family, a sense of belonging, a new family history and a new home
town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Around the same time I discovered
a passion for reading and the treasure trove of the small (but at the time it
seemed enormous) library of Queenstown Central Primary School. In many ways my
whole life and sense of identity was reforged in this period.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">By the
time I arrived at College in Hobart I had embraced the persona of a West
Coaster, a label I still attach to myself, but the remoteness of my ‘home town’
and the scarcity of other informed West Coasters allowed me to add my own
meaning, history and sense of belonging to the name ‘Snell’. My college years
allowed me to salvage what I wanted from my past and then allowed me to lock
away and neglect the rest for another 35 years.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf
23 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Inspiring families and friends”
Mexico November 2008</i></span></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I had
tears in my eyes and gently held a small glass horse in my hands. The figurine had
been given to me by Juan Pablo’s brother. The gift was made after I had spoken
about my wife and daughter’s love of horses. It had been originally a gift from
their father.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I had
celebrated thanksgiving with Juan Pablo Guerrero Amparan, a Mexican Information
Commissioner, his immediate family and a gathering of childhood (and
neighbourhood) friends. Indeed most of the male guests at thanksgiving that day
were the members of a neighbourhood band formed when they were young but who
still get together to play and had produced a CD the previous year. In my
neighbourhood we played cricket, smashed street lights and went bush; in Juan
Pablo’s neighbourhood they played music.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I had
met Juan Pablo briefly at a FOI and Privacy conference in Edmonton a couple of
years earlier. At the end of the conference we had a spare evening and went out
for a meal together. Over the meal an easy camaraderie developed. After
returning home we shared emails, family photos and kept in touch.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A few
months later, my 17 year old daughter Elise visited Mexico for five weeks and
lived with this talented family – they all sing or play instruments with
incredible passion and beauty. Juan Pablo’s wife, Johanna, is half Dutch and
American and their sons speak Spanish, English, French and some Dutch. Johanna
said having Elise around was like having a daughter and for Elise, who had her
own quarters in a converted two storey stable, with maids to cook and clean for
her, it was a very different cultural and social experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">During my stay with Juan Pablo I learnt the story of his
mother, Lourdes Guerrero, who had died of cancer. She was a fiercely
independent female journalist and well known figure in Mexico in the 1970s and
1980s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She and Guillermo Ochoa had
hosted “Hoy Mismo”, a morning program, on Televisa for many years, and before
that she had acted in a couple of her husband's movies (Juan Guerrero)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amelia (1966), Mariana (1967) and Narda o el
verano (1970).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lourdes was hosting on
air on the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>19 September 1985 when the
8.1 magnitude quake hit Mexico City at 7.19am. As the quake shook the studios
Lourdes said “It seems we are experiencing an earthquake…”. (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug8y8DE1xgo)
Transmission ceased when a 10 ton antenna bent over and crushed parts of the
Televisa studios. Most people ran from the building but Lourdes and another
presenter, Maria Victoria Llamas, stayed sheltered under their anchor desks.
Lourdes appeared on air the same afternoon broadcasting from another studio.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 24 “It’s not a house but a home”
Queenstown 1973</span></i></b><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A few
days before the end of the school year, my Grade 9 Social Science teacher
remarked that I had failed to hand in any homework for the year. If I brought
it in next day he might mark it. I had scored very well in all our class tests,
I always finished my class work quickly, in large part because I would be
assigned to help some of the prettiest girls in the class finish their work. Yet
I was totally slack with homework. I rarely did homework. Like many Queenstown
houses, our house whilst huge in my memory, was actually extremely cramped with
the six of us almost living on top of each other. Certainly, there was no desk
in my shared bedroom and the only work area was the small table in the kitchen.
I cannot even recall where I would have put school books except keeping them in
my school bag. Any homework I attempted was at recess time in the school
library but only if absolutely necessary.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Up for
a challenge from the teacher, I sweet talked the girls in my Social Science
class into lending me their work books. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
worked throughout the night, at the little kitchen table and on the lounge room
floor, and after my first major exposure to endless coffees I managed to hand
in, bleary-eyed, an impressive number of homework tasks. Every task was done
with different biros to reflect the time period over which they should have
been put together. Much to the disgust of the girls, I won the Social Science
prize for Grade 9. My only major academic achievement in High School.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
never stopped to think about what it must have been like for Mum to be
housebound in a small mining town with 4 children and unable to drive.
Especially after my grandparents moved a couple of hours away to Hamilton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The winters were long and constantly wet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dad built a drying area on the back of the
house to help ease the problem with drying washing – a covered roof and the
side covered with strips of wood separated by a couple of inches to allow
airflow. Yet there was little for Mum outside her domestic role. Mum was an
outsider both to the town and to the large Snell clan. Many years later I read
Pete Hay’s poems and writings about Queenstown and the West Coast in
Vandiemonium Essay. An outsider’s insights, but a sensitive outsider who had
taken time to listen and understand. Pete wrote a poem capturing a female
friend’s view and also brought to my attention other female stories of a sense
of entrapment or living in, Pete Hay’s words,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>‘a barren space for women’.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Looking
back I think it was indeed a barren space for my mother, with four young children,
a husband who after long hours at work, spent endless hours working in his
garage or doing up the house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a
different world I think mum would have loved to have spent her time drawing,
exploring, bike riding and watching movies at the cinema but that was a world
that was foreclosed to her until very recently.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 25 “Whose subject is it: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the teacher’s or the student’s?” Conningham
February 2002</span></i></b><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A few
days before the start of semester 1, 2002, the mid February sun was setting on
the Introduction to Law Camp at Conningham. The camp was held every year by the
Law Students Society to welcome first year students. I sat with a group of first
year students in the twilight, at a large outdoor wooden table overlooking the
bay. Late the year before, I had come close to resigning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heavy workloads, a very problematic first
year student, a white hot angry Dean and budget problems stemming from student
attrition, implicitly laid at my feet, and very few sources of positive support
had taken their toll. Requests to take up invitations to speak overseas were
never refused but were never approved. I had to deal with a ton of grief and
stress and realised that career progress from this point might be a long slow
road. I had taken most of January off and now intended to just go through the
motions, do my job and think a little about my next steps and whether to leave a
faltering career behind. A few years before, I had mentioned to Michael Field,
a former State Premier and my English teacher in Grade 7, that I had no intention
of teaching the same thing in the same way year in and year out just to have a
job. It seemed I had now reached that exit point.</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I sat
listening to the students wondering why I was even there. As the last rays of
sunshine retreated, a young blonde girl at the end of the table literally
shivered and said “I have been waiting all my life to come to University and my
first lecture is on Monday. I can’t wait.” </span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
heart sank; I was going to be her first lecturer and my intent was to just to
go through the motions. Her first lecture would be such a disappointment.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
conversation continued around me but I sat silent struggling with tears of
disappointment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had allowed myself to
become the type of lecturer I never wanted to be.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I left
Conningham in the dark and as I wound my way to the Channel Highway. Struggling
to find the dirt road in the dark, I tried to work out my options. I still felt
like resigning but didn’t want to end on such a sour note. I decided to put my
problems and frustrations to one side and follow the advice of Bruce
Springsteen. He once said in an interview – “the fans don’t buy a ticket for
next week’s show they have come to hear me play tonight.” I might not have been
Bruce Springsteen but there was no reason why this young student or any of the
others deserved less than my best effort. At the very least, I could perform my
best effort for one last year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
comment, one student and one refocused teacher.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>
</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 26 “When the subject just belongs to
the teacher” Queenstown, Winter 1973.</span></i></b><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the
middle of a wild, West Coast winter, the howling wind and almost horizontal rain
lashed against and through the open windows of the small classroom. Eight
frightened souls, doing French in Grade 9, were wedged up at the back of the
classroom shivering near the open windows. At the front of the small class,
wedged in the doorway, was the towering hulk of our teacher, a giant of a man
with a titanic temper and bellicose attitude. He bellowed and launched his
instructions at us. Some have described him as a heavy weightlifter gone to fat.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, for us poor souls doing his subject,
he was a walking nightmare. I spent most of Year 9 dreading our next class with
him. </span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the
future, this man would be my model of an anti-teacher. You were never right, only
wrong to different degrees. His students could be seen stumbling around the
hallways with a pile of books and other assorted items, at least 30 cms high. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his class you had to bring every book,
dictionary, pencil, ruler and other item he wanted or face a tirade, extra
homework or detention or on a whim, a fearsome retribution of all three. If the
next lesson was translation you couldn’t just bring the latest translation book
you had to bring everything.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I did
homework for him - unlike other classes - but I was never certain what I was
doing or why and resented every moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Trips to the phone box, a few blocks away, to call up the smartest
person in the class, who lived in Zeehan, were not helpful; in this class we
were all in the ‘Dumb Zone’. There could be a test without notice, homework
demanded for a class might not be collected or reviewed, but then we suddenly
find that we should have done extra work for this class or brought the homework
not collected last week.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
retrospect, I appreciate the unenviable task of teaching French to cultural and
working class barbarians on the West Coast. It is a punishment akin to penal
transportation for language teachers. But this approach to teaching, linked to
my speech hurdles, removed any burning desire to learn another language for a
lifetime.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 27 “Broken words are never meant to
be spoken, Everything is broken” Bob Dylan. Sometime, mid 1990s Law School
University of Tasmania</span></i></b><br />
<br />
</div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
stood in a small law school tutorial room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unusually for Tasmania, it was a hot day, and I was conducting a
tutorial with over twenty students in a room designed for maybe a dozen. Extra
chairs had been dragged in. Two or three broken chairs lay discarded in the
left hand corner and may have been there for several weeks. Restrictive
covenants was the topic - not the highlight on my property law teaching play
list. The students had come confused from the lecture and had done no
reading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was the last tutorial for
the fortnight. Most of the students in the room were there out of desperation,
but in the time honoured tradition of desperate students, there was still no
need to panic and hit the text books and certainly not enough angst to feel the
need to read the assigned cases even though <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>40% of students had failed the mid year exam,
many by large margins. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Assessment was by
80% final exam, The students were unable to discover whether this topic could
be avoided in the final exam. I was in teaching hell.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
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<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 28 “Must be somewhere out of here” Bob
Dylan. Queenstown 1971-1974</span></i></b><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Throughout
high school, I threw myself into sports and other physical activity: running,
badminton, cricket, basketball, volley ball, bike riding and when I had nothing
else to do, I would take my cricket ball down to the South Queenstown Primary
School nets and just bowl over after over at the stumps or targets I placed on
the pitch. In part, this activity kept boredom and depression at bay; it helped
offset the bookworm and four-eye labels; and it allowed my imagination to run
riot about future sports glory for me and this town in the middle of nowhere.
In retrospect, it also limited, along with availability and money, my
opportunities to indulge in underage drinking and made my non-smoking a
sensible choice. Even when I did hit the grog underage, the prospect of an
upcoming sporting effort tended to moderate my drinking.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">When I
went on holidays, I often spent many an hour in backyards in Devonport, Whyalla
and Hamilton playing solo cricket. I would throw a ball against a wall and then
hit it in endless mythical test matches where I played the key role. </span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
legacy left to the future me was a liking for sports metaphors and analogies
when I started to teach. I often use the idea of a small town sports coach –
the primary mission is getting people simply onto the field and engaged. A secondary
task, is to work with the talent you have to improve their skills -- helping
the uncoordinated press-ganged nerd move from being bowled every ball to being
able to block most deliveries that might just give your team the edge. I don’t
see the point of leaving it all to your players/students and simply jumping up
and down on the sidelines bemoaning the hopeless cretins given to you in the
last round/entry. Thirdly, you take those with some skill and help them to the
next level, to become local champs or legends. Finally, your job is to find the
rare and truly talented ones and encourage them to the next level and a better
coach.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the
end, it was not sport but education that led me away from the valley. Unlike
sports, the educational path was largely a mystery and seemed either beyond my
control or at risk from my own activity: acts of petty theft, vandalism,
underage drinking and lacklustre educational performance in some areas. I ended
up drifting down to Level 1 Technical Drawing class (there were 3 levels for
High School) despite being at Level 3 for all other subjects. My drift was due
in equal parts to a lack of interest, a TD teacher who used T-Squares as a form
of crowd control, a lack of care in my drafting and little space at home to
complete my drawings. Most of the time my thoughts, when they drifted to the
future, focused, like nearly everyone’s, on getting a job in the mine either as
an apprentice or as one of the five cadets out of a hundred potential
candidates each year (clerical staff). Just every now and then the idea of
going to that unknown place called ‘university’ popped up. Yet the obstacles
loomed large – the need to move away from home, choose a college (qualify to
enter) and very few people to talk to about it (even if I had been aware of the
questions to ask).</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the
late 1970s, when I studied Ethnic Politics during my Political Science course
and from my observations of my friends from Greek, Polish and Italian
backgrounds, I was intrigued by their families’ focus on tertiary education. My
1850s Irish (mum’s side) and German and Irish (the Snells) background never saw
education as a route to a better life. If education was ever mentioned, it was
to unfavourably compare it with common sense and hard work. Three decades later,
only some of my younger nephews and nieces the next generation have started to
follow a route involving further education.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-82775056108313683132013-08-05T04:38:00.000-07:002013-08-05T04:38:42.299-07:00The Running Sloth
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In the last 30 months, since <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/once-we-were-sloths-2.html" target="_blank">Once We Were Sloths 2</a>, my
fitness journey has taken me into areas I have never experienced or where the
passage of three decades has simply burnt from my memory.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Back in late October 2010, doing early morning<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>circuit classes with Jim Armstrong, I often
struggled to survive the warm up sessions. I was breathless within the first 50
metres of a warm up run. The simple mention of a warm up run use to almost send
me into a breakdown. The thought of being completely breathless produced major
anxiety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How things have changed. Recently
I completed my first 4km Fun Run and have 5 x 5 km runs under my belt.
Painfully slow times but nevertheless finished each one with strong reserves.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Three years ago the challenge of doing 5 pushups in a row
was almost insurmountable. Yet now I have completed 30,000 push ups this year
and a couple of weeks ago did 500 push ups (27 different varieties in sets of
10-30) including the last 100 in 2 minutes. Last Friday night I did 2,000 push
ups over the course of a football match – mostly in sets of 50. I have gone
from someone who stumbled and bumbled his way through a couple of pathetic
skips to being able to do 50+ in 30 seconds.</div>
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<br /></div>
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If I could measure the energy output and applied effort in
my circuit classes the average energy and effort (that at the time was 100% +)
of my first 12 months would now be achieved in the first 5 minutes of
yesterday’s circuit class.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDccaRlB96_z2enW88Sk1XGaGrEwQBfR5Ef9oVdWqZR8RldpSuGOpu7VdfM8Dt0p4ddWuObqzd8D9y0dlRC1yjiDjuh_Qgoxyt_YViqBIcCIoaLS5ukMBKwMAuWLvkcYcVhAQkyfzTMDbd/s1600/nanny+goat+lane.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDccaRlB96_z2enW88Sk1XGaGrEwQBfR5Ef9oVdWqZR8RldpSuGOpu7VdfM8Dt0p4ddWuObqzd8D9y0dlRC1yjiDjuh_Qgoxyt_YViqBIcCIoaLS5ukMBKwMAuWLvkcYcVhAQkyfzTMDbd/s320/nanny+goat+lane.JPG" width="241" /></a></div>
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I now do 2 x 60 minute personal training sessions a week and
the old me would have simply collapsed after the first couple of sets of these
sessions. The other week I ran up Nanny Goat Lane 5 times with my trainer Luke.
In the past I would have expended most of my energy simply walking up those
steps.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can remember the way my body shook 10-15 seconds into a 20
second plank exercise and praying for it to end. My personal best for planks is
now 5 min 2 seconds but generally 2-3 minutes. Now in a 20 second plank I need
to raise my leg and arm to make it a challenge.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite being pitched at a market demographic very different
from mine Men’s Health has become one of my favourite reads.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The most disappointing set back has been on the weight front
over the last 12-18 months. In terms of body fat, visceral fat, muscle mass etc
my results keep getting better but my total weight has drifted back over the
100 Kg mark. Indeed 4 months of intensive PT sessions and the increased running
effort has seen my weight remain basically stable around 105 kg.</div>
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<br /></div>
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However the consoling factors are that my body configuration
has tightened up, I am feeling slimmer and fitter and a side effect of some of
my diabetes medication is weight gain. My diet has completely changed with a
significant shift to protein, a decrease in carbs and processed foods and an
increase in fruit and raw <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>vegetables.
Tofu has now become a regular item on my menu.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If I had only 1 goal – significant weight loss – I would
have given up long ago. At the moment my primary goals are on the fitness
front.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Finally it has been the support of friends, family and
graduates on Facebook that has helped me along the way. On the one hand I have
used my regular updates as both a motivational tool and as a means of
commitment accountability. If I state I am off on a 5km run it is very
difficult to later admit I wimped out. If I commit to doing 52,000 push ups in
2013 via Fitocracy then I have a public commitment to achieve that goal. From
the emails, messages and Facebook chat my story, efforts and persistence has
had a positive effect on others.</div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-43800042190943988752013-05-30T23:16:00.000-07:002013-05-30T23:28:53.333-07:00Memoir - Leaves 15-20, Jimmy Carter, Ghanian princesses, Kiwi PMs and failed science projects<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: x-small;">The Memoir - a work in progress</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: x-small;">Background see <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/working-on-memoir.html">Working on a Memoir</a></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: x-small;">1st leaf see <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-1st-story-mexico-2008.html%20">Memoir Leaf 1 - Mexico 2008 </a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Leaves 2-6 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-leaves-2-6-ireland-launceston.html" target="_blank">Ireland, Launceston, Cape Town, Whyalla, Cambodia</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Leaves 7-9 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/memoir-leaves-7-9-hooning-teaching.html" target="_blank">Hooning, Teaching & Presenting </a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Leaves 10-11 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/memoir-leaves-10-11-bookseller.html" target="_blank">Bookseller, Vexatious FOI applicants and shaky start to an academic career</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Leaves 12-14 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/memoir-leaves-12-14-car-crash.html" target="_blank">Car crash, Launceston early 1960s, A Road Not Taken</a></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 15 “Hey Ma look it’s Jimmy Carter”
Accra Ghana March 2010</span></span></b></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In early
March 2010, I stood at a conference lectern in Accra, Ghana, in front of
representatives from over 20 African countries. I was there at the invitation
of the Carter Centre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seated smiling in
the front row was former US President Jimmy Carter showing, in the deep lines
of his face, every one of his many years. Jimmy Carter, after his single term
presidency, had set up the Carter Centre, an organisation devoted to work on
development projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had just given
a spirited talk that in some areas was strongly contrary to the points I
intended to make.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My topic was “The difficulties facing African
countries in trying to implement freedom of information legislation”. Unlike
most of the participants: activists, journalists, parliamentarians, professional
staff of non-government organisations and Jimmy Carter, my task was not to
focus on, and advocate for, the positives of transparency and FOI legislation. Instead,
my mission was to draw attention to many of the problems African countries
would face in trying to achieve effective access to information schemes. Until
recently, 95% or more of the law reform effort and resources has gone into
encouraging countries to adopt FOI legislation. With over 90 countries adopting
some form of legislation, this has been a very successful uptake of a law
reform initiative. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet the really difficult task of implementation, especially
for post-conflict countries or those faced with crippling combinations of high
level corruption, overwhelmed public services and non-existent records
management capacity – most African countries - received little or no attention
and resources.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
was the second time I had been in close proximity to President Carter. The previous
year I had visited Atlanta, Georgia for a Carter Centre conference. In the
Atlanta group photo I was in the back row of the 125 delegates: the only
academic in the line up of Presidents, activists, parliamentarians and
representatives of institutions like the World Bank. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
time, there was no one between President Carter and me.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
As I talked he appeared to listen intently. While at times he nodded at my
words, at others, he looked a little discomforted as I took a line that strongly
contradicted some of the points he had made. His talk had been a more
traditional set piece selling the democratic, good governance and development
virtues of FOI. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A thousand different
thoughts bumped into each other in my mind as I spoke. While trying to focus on
my talk and the whole audience I found it difficult not to try and catch, and
gauge, the reaction of the “Former Leader of the Free World,” a refreshing and
liberal antidote to the dark years of Richard Nixon and the insipidness of
Gerald Ford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remembered my university
days of studying political science and watching the Carter Presidency attempt
to steer the US towards a foreign policy agenda that focused on partnerships,
human rights and global development. And there was a little bit of me
marvelling that a four-eyed, stuttering geek in a small primary school
classroom, on the western edge of a small island, who spent his time looking
out on the bare hills of Queenstown would one day find himself delivering a speech
in a major African country before a former President of the United States.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Next
morning, I shared breakfast with the then Ugandan Minister for Information, </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Princess Kabakumba Labwoni Masiko,</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and an investigative
journalist from Uganda. A spirited conversation ensued between the two Ugandans
that was both intriguing and fascinating for an Aussie academic. I thought of
the recent and history of Uganda, where simply to be a journalist was a death
sentence, let alone pressing the Information Minister on press freedom issues
and allegations of corruption by those in her government over shared jam and
toast in the presence of a foreigner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ironically,
in December 2011 </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Princess
Kabakumba Labwoni Masiko resigned from her position in the Ugandan Cabinet </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">following </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">allegations of <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">abuse of office</span>, <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">theft by taking</span>, <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">causing monetary loss to the government</span>
and <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">conspiracy to defraud government</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Radio broadcasting equipment was alleged to
have been stolen from the Ministry of Information when she was Minister and
subsequently used in a regional radio station she had a 75% interest in. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">During
the first six months of 2010 in the midst of my busiest teaching schedule (two
classes with a total of 500+ students) I travelled to Botswana, South Africa,
Ghana, Malaysia, US, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, three times to the UK and a
brief stopover in the transit area of Cario’s international airport. A Saturday
morning might find me up early to set up my stall at Salamanca Market and the
next Saturday I was on the savannah of Botswana petting semi-tamed cheetahs. A
Monday morning would find me lecturing to 300 eager young first year law
students on judges and juries and later that week I would find myself being
picked up by Her Majesty’s Foreign Office to be whisked off to Wilton Park, an
isolated conference facility in the English countryside designed for ‘quiet and
discrete dialogues’. In June I was criss-crossing Canada while trying to cobble
together an application for promotion to Associate Professor.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">All of
these trips and encounters, no matter how fleeting, with power and position and
the sharp contrasts with life outside the conference walls and restricted
venues, shape my teaching. I find it impossible to even think about returning
to the classroom to confront my students with a pile of inert and dead material
for them to regurgitate back in an exam. I want them to have journeys like mine
or, at the very least, intellectual journeys. I want them to be able to engage with
former Presidents or current Ministers, or wild and passionate Filipinas who
want to make a difference if the opportunity presents. I don’t want to burden
them with law presented as a series of burdensome, archaic and rigid formula
that just leads to a yes/no answer that no one appears interested in.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 16 “The boys are in Hobart Town –
where the f**k is Lenah Valley?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hobart
November 1974</span></span></b></i><br />
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dickie
and I came out of that classic car chase movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry</i> super-hyped. We were at the cinema located
near <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Mercury</i> Building in Hobart:
an ultimate thrill for a pair of Queenstown boys who had recently finished
Grade 10. We lived near each other for several years sharing wild adventures in
the hills surrounding Queenstown and playing against each other in several
sports. He was the better football player and I was a superior cricketer and we
were roughly even on the badminton court though he had a slight edge. Dickie
was in Hobart because he was pursuing a possible football career. On the field
he was a fast, nimble and talented red-haired rover with a terrier like
attitude. His father had driven us from Queenstown, in between his work shifts
at the mine, but he couldn’t stay, leaving us to catch a bus home. His reasoning
was that two, sixteen year old Queenstown boys alone in Hobart were a safer bet
than one.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I had tagged
along to investigate going to college. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
had the wild idea of sharing a house. In those days, we had no idea how
unlikely that scenario was or how unviable. We walked back from the movie to
our accommodation in Lenah Valley, the home of distant relatives of Dickie, I
think. During the next two hours the initial buzz from the movie drifted away
with each uncertain step towards Lenah Valley. Hobart with a population of
150,000 people was certainly no Queenstown, with just over several thousand
souls. Queenstown was a small town located in a narrow and long valley that we
could run from one end to the other in less than 20 minutes. In contrast, Hobart,
in the dark, simply seemed endless to us mountain boys. We were walking past
endless rows of, what to us seemed like, mansions. Back home there were only a
very small handful of substantial brick houses in the whole town. Here in
Hobart every house seemed bigger and more exotic than anything we had
encountered previously.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dickie’s
football career didn’t materialise and I lost track of him after I moved south
the following February. I was offered a place in Hollydene Hostel – a place
brought to Dad’s attention by the owners of Dilger’s Garage in Queenstown, whose
sons had gone to Hollydene. As a former guesthouse next door to a hotel, it
appealed to a Queenie boy and helped offset the social disgrace of staying at
school when everyone else was raking in the money as apprentices in the mine.
It was a huge leap into the unknown because no one in the family had any
experience of moving away from home for education. It was my first warning of
how big and transforming that final departure from the valley would be. </span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">After
my final year high school, only five students out of more than a hundred, from
three West Coast towns went onto college: two boys and three girls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Originally it was meant to be six of us
heading south. At the last moment Sooty, the son of the Mt Lyell General Store
manager, decided to take up an apprenticeship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The problem of getting to Hobart almost derailed the whole adventure for
me before it started. Dad couldn’t get off work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only option was the bus and then finding
my own way, with all my gear, between two unknown destinations<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- the bus station and Hollydene Hostel. My
plans rapidly started to shift towards applying for an apprenticeship. Options
for nearly all the girls in my class were far more limited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few would become typists at the Mine
Offices, a smaller number shop assistants and for nearly all, an early marriage
before they were 18.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fortunately,
a slightly older relative by marriage, working in Hobart was heading south and she
offered me a lift. This trip was one of the highlights of my young life. She
had long flowing hair, a bubbly personality and was driving a mini-moke: a young
boy’s dream girl in the mid 1970s. It was like a delayed arrival of Woodstock.
I still recall the wind roaring through the canvas flaps of the Mini Moke and
the two of us shouting to be heard over the noise as we cruised the 150 miles
through the wilderness and later farm lands (relatively new sights to this mountain
boy). She dropped me off at the front door of the hostel on Campbell Street.
The other new students mingling at the front, checking on arrivals, were a
little dumbstruck. Who was this West Coast boy pulling up in a mini-moke with a
beautiful young woman? I often think back, if the lift hadn’t materialised
would I have made the journey or simply opted to stay like Sooty, who still
lives in Queenstown and runs a large engineering works.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Within
two years it was only Leigh (another son of a local shop owner) and me left to
go onto university from the West Coast group. The total West Coast contingent
in the whole University were Leigh, the two Dilger boys, plus a couple of the
children of mine managers who had been sent away from Queenstown for their high
school education: not a great retention rate.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two
factors played a big part in this abysmal retention rate: fear of the unknown;
and difficulty dealing with home sickness, or more accurately, losing
connection to our sense of place. For most West Coast parents, arranging for
their child’s further education, was beyond their experience in terms not only
of the mechanics but also in terms of emotional guidance and advice. Despite
forming friends at Hollydene Hostel, the Queenstown kids often didn’t go home
(a six hour bus ride) for weekends, while the kids from the Huon and East Coast
rarely stayed weekends. At weekends, we West Coasters faced the normal hostel
curfew and had little money to go out. I spent many a Friday and Saturday night
chatting on the phone to one of the West Coast girls who stayed at the girl’s
hostel up the road (our only chance to talk as the boys and girls at the
hostels went to different colleges). We chatted about what we had been reading,
movies seen, records played and hopes (often overly ambitious and rarely
realised) for the rest of the weekend.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">When
we did go home it was to a very different lifestyle, one that was increasingly
difficult to adjust to and one that refused to accommodate who we were
becoming. The easiest thing to do when stepping off the bus was to shut down
the ‘Hobart’ persona and act out a paler version of the ‘Queenstowner’ who we
had been. Most of our school friends had jobs as apprentices or office staff at
the Mt Lyell Mining and Railway Co. They had it all: access to cars, booze and
girls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No time for long chats in a phone
booth or to read novels by authors with strange names. When I was in high
school it was difficult to get a girl friend because from about Year 8 onwards
you were competing with the 1<sup>st</sup> and 2<sup>nd</sup> year apprentices
who had access to cars, parties, money and their own houses. </span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">At
first the infrequent trips home from College (outside of school holidays) were
an intoxicating whirlwind of parties, drinking and hi-jinks. Yet with each trip
we returned home a bit more different and the distance between old friends and
attitudes started to be unsettling. We came back more book wise and brain
refined but penniless and missing 95% of the experiences our friends had shared
in the intervening weeks. Visits home were certainly not an opportunity to
discuss why I was so taken with Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poem <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zima Junction </i>and how it resonated with my own homecomings. The
best I could hope for was that my gift of the latest Skyhooks, or an early
AC/DC album or condoms (the Queenstown Chemist refused to stock these items)
kept me in the “not completely weird” category. In addition, if I kept drinking
the beers my mates would buy for the ‘poor student bum,’ I was okay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During those years my reputation was not
associated with academic achievement but my return to the cricket pitch for the
summer and more importantly my capacity to win bets in drinking competitions
for my old school mates. Back at the Hostel it was like returning to a low key
prison (controlled hours, study periods, little money, no regular supply of
grog and regular surveillance).</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 17 “Prime Ministers, academics and
future judges” Wellington, New Zealand, April 1996</span></i></b><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In a small
elegant café in Wellington in 1996, I sat across the table from my friend, Sir
Geoffrey Palmer, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand. A working friendship
had formed after I read his article on teaching administrative law and designed
my first course using many of his ideas. We started a warm, but infrequent
postal, correspondence in the early 1990s. During a visit to Wellington in 2002,
we caught up again when Sir Geoffrey was a very active member of a very small
audience for a talk I gave comparing FOI in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
At a later conference in Wellington in November 2008 he lavished praise on my
research and analysis of FOI in front of Ombudsmen, FOI Commissioners,
government officials, leading NGO activists and academics from around the
world. It was praise rarely given from a man more often willing to be a stern
and unrestrained critic.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1996 I was in Wellington as the inaugural
visiting fellow of the newly launched New Zealand Institute of Public Law. I
had contacted the Institute, as I was starting on a project looking at the
beginnings of the New Zealand Official Information Act, just as they were
trying to find their first visiting fellow. From this serendipitous linking
came one of the great friendships of my life. Paul Walker QC, an up and coming
administrative and insurance lawyer from Brickfields Chambers, in London had
taken leave from his chambers to be the first Director of the Centre for two
years. His wife Jo Andrews, a well known ITN political journalist, came with
him. She continued to file reports back to the UK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To my mind, Paul is the archetypal ‘ideal’
lawyer – thoughtful, prepared, diplomatic, considered, engaging with a depth of
humanity that I could only envy. During his two years setting up the Centre
Paul attended Maori language classes and would begin each of his administrative
law classes with a new Maori phrase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
would go on to be the lead counsel in the Mad Cow Tribunal and later would be
appointed as a judge in the UK. Paul started his studies at Adelaide Law School
but despite academic success in his first year felt the need for a break. The
teaching style of the Law School had failed to grab his imagination. He went to
Paris and took up bartending for a few months before moving onto Oxford, met Jo
and stayed in the UK. Our families have since become close friends sharing
holidays and their home in London and their cottage ‘Longknowe’, in northern
Northumberland, has become part of our lives.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">On my
first trip to the UK, in 1999, I stopped over in London and made my way to Paul
and Jo’s house in Camden Town for a beautiful informal meal. They later moved
to Tufnell Park and their spare bedroom became a familiar and comfortable base
for all of our family when visiting London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Paul had become senior counsel on the Mad Cow Tribunal and incredibly
busy. Jo’s career as a political journalist was also intense. Many nights
during my London stopovers I would get back to Tufnell Park early in the
evening, catch up with my work, welcome Paul home around 8 or 9 pm, then watch
Jo on the ITN Late News at 10pm, share a whiskey and peaceful conversation with
Paul, followed by a few words with Jo as she returned from Whitehall or the ITN
studios towards 11pm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jo would then fill
us in with the inside stories of what we had watched on the news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jo is well educated, bright, intolerant of
fuzzy thinking and capable of dining with the Queen or having breakfast over a
billy in the wilds of Northumberland. Her dad went to Oxford and her mother to
Cambridge, creating an intense but friendly family rivalry.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
2001 I learned Paul had testicular cancer and was undergoing intense treatment.
I decided to cancel my next stay with Paul and Jo and started to look for
alternative accommodation. Jo wrote back saying Paul’s spirits would be lifted
by my staying with them. It was a tough few days as Paul was incredibly weak
and easily tired but our friendship deepened during that visit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
2002 the Snell family descended on Tufnell Park, London. Elise and Lance hit it
off with Florence, Paul and Jo’s daughter. Lance, tall and good looking,
boosted Florence’s stocks around her friends, Elise and Florence were both
horse mad. Esther and Jo had mutual respect for each other’s talents. After a
week crammed together at Tufnell Park, we all headed in two taxis to a packed
King’s Cross Station on the Queen’s Birthday weekend (not a good time to
travel) for a journey to Northumberland and an idyllic stay at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Longknowe</i>. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Longknowe</i> is a converted pair of shepherd’s cottages located in a
remote valley. The farmhouse is rented out during the year but Jo and Paul
reserve several weeks to stay there with family and friends.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 18 “Four Eyes, Four squared and
learning to hide lights under bushels” Queenstown late 1960s</span></i></b><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sometime
in late primary school I started to fail class tests. Up to that point, test
questions had been oral and I aced the tests. Now the tests were written on the
blackboard and my desk was at the back of the room and I couldn’t see. I
avoided this problem for a while – continuing to fail tests, but I think I was
picked up in a visiting eye test and an appointment was made with the local GP.
For my troubles I acquired a set of thick heavy framed prescription glasses that
burdened me with the problem of being called squared or four eyes. The offset
was an improvement in my cricket batting. However, I stopped playing football,
almost a sin on the West Coast, to partly avoid breaking my glasses, but also because
playing in the rain, a common occurrence, was almost impossible. I kept hoping
someone would invent wipers for glasses.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Throughout
most of my teenage years I was socially plagued and weighed down by my glasses
and in most photos they are absent. Later I overcame the problem of my glasses
being sent flying in contact sports by tying a piece of string, or elastic, to
the arms of the frames. By the end of Grade 6 I had climbed back up the
academic ladder and was one of the top five students and possibly, one of the
rare achievers who was not a child of the local elite. Yet the grief directed
at me, from the ‘locals’, for this touch of academic achievement taught me to
run with the rest of the pack rather than towards the front. So for the
remainder of my education, including university, I was content to cruise and
just slap together enough to get by. The only motivator I had was that my exam
performance was always so abysmal that I put big efforts into written
assignments to give myself a chance of passing each course.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 19 “Canada calling…..” March 2001</span></i></b><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">On a Thursday
morning, about 9.30 am, my office phone rang.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At the other end of the phone was a female with a thick and almost
exaggerated French accent. My initial response was is this a prank call when “The
Voice” asked, “Is that Monsieur Reeck Snellll …. please hold I have President
Madame Delagraveee on the line for you.” On the line was another female: “Monsieur
Snelll you do not knowww me but I know of uuuu….” Warning bells were ringing. Was
this a Crazy Call from the Kym and Dave radio program? Was it Stefan Petrow or
Lynden Griggs, two academic colleagues, with devilish inclinations, trying to
hoodwink me? </span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
decided to go along with the caller but very wearily. It seemed they were with
some Canadian taskforce looking into FOI. I recalled a friend from Canberra
mentioning a group of Canadians had visited Canberra a few weeks previously for
that purpose. So if this was a hoax, the caller was very well informed. The
caller stated she had stayed back at work in Ottawa to make this call,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>another bit of attention to detail. The
Taskforce researchers had overlooked New Zealand (whose Act is called the
Official Information Act rather than the FOI Act – a basic research mistake but
feasible) and whilse in Canberra they had been constantly told they should talk
with me (their research had missed me, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">FoI
Review</i> a journal I edited and New Zealand). Someone had given them a copy
of my article, “Kiwi Paradox.” that rammed home to them their error both in
terms of New Zealand and my thoughts on FOI design.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
taskforce was originally conceived as an internal government review but
ironically, had been outed by a series of FOI requests and had now become a
fully public review. By the time of the phone call, the Taskforce’s activities
were under a great deal of scrutiny and they were now in a bind. How could they
make up for their research gap? There was a quick discussion about the
possibility of flying me to New Zealand at Easter while a member of the
Taskforce slipped out of Canada and visited the Kiwis and me in New Zealand.
This option was quickly canned. Ms Delagrave, said they were unable to pay for
my travel to Canada (which would alert the press to their oversight) but if I
was in Canada the taskforce would be happy to pay my internal transportation
costs, put me up in a hotel for a couple of weeks and cover my other costs. At
the end of the call I asked the caller to email to confirm the arrangement
(still slightly suspicious it might be a hoax). A few minutes later I got my
confirmation email from the Task Force and then found their web site. A few
weeks later I was in Canada.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
stayed at the Capital Hill Hotel. It had plainly seen better days but was still
seen as a prime place to stay because of its location in the heart of Ottawa.
The Task Force was allocated a temporary suite of offices across the street
from my hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I stay anywhere for
a few days I like to find a café I can establish as a base because of the food,
service and location. I found a cellar café around the corner that served this
purpose for me. My days were spent working with a group of very bright,
ambitious and multi-lingual public servants. Often, work place conversations or
even sentences would begin in English and finish in French. The circumstances
surrounding the Task Force’s creation meant it had a multi-million dollar
budget even if it was monitored zealously by the media. At that tim,e the Task
Force was responsible for the largest ever set of commissioned research
projects into FOI exceeding any previous governmental or academic efforts
anywhere in the world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
role was to be an in-house expert and idea generator and to feed into the
process insights I had gained from my comparative work about FOI in Australia
and New Zealand. Another part of the task was to provide seminars to a steering
group of Deputy Secretaries (like agency heads in Australia). </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The interchange
of ideas, insights between my academic, comparative and applicant perspective
and the insights fed in from the commissioned research and the bureaucratic
experience of the Task Force team led to a number of major conceptual insights
about FOI reform and processes. A number of these appeared in the final report
of the Task Force and a number of others continued to be refined further in my
research, teaching, and work in places like Cambodia, then fed back into the
Australian law reform process that led to the emergence of FOI 2.0. Probably
the three major conceptual developments were that: first, FOI should be
approached as a system (requiring attention to legislation, public service and
user culture and areas such as capacity, training etc); second, the emphasis
should be on the front end of the process (making information proactively
available or determining its confidentiality on the merits of the information
removed from considerations of who is asking for it and why); and finally, FOI
should be viewed as a system of a number of interrelated parts and
relationships (records management, public service capacity, technology
capacity, training, demand and supply).</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">At
times - when I find myself having my brain picked by the UK Foreign Office,
senior public servants and government ministers in Tonga and Cambodia,
academics around the globe often flown at great expense by my hosts – I am
struck by the lack of invitations from within my own country and state.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 20 “If only the Big Bang Theory had
been 25 years earlier” Queenstown 1973</span></i></b><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Year 9
in high school was a bleak time in terms of my academic growth and development.
Earlier, in Year 8, Mrs Shepherd a young science teacher had flamed my interest
in science with her enthusiasm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
association with a teacher’s passion and enthusiasm and an obvious interest in
their subject matter continued to be reinforced for me by a very small number
of teachers from that point on. More importantly, she had sown the seed that
would eventually grow into my decision to leave the West Coast for further
education. She talked about how you could pursue science at university, a place
I had never heard of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She mentioned you
could even get a PhD (for many years I never knew what this was but the 3
letters had a power all of their own and when people asked what I was doing my
answer was ‘I might eventually get a PhD – still to be achieved). </span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mrs
Shepherd was the first of a very small handful of high school, college and
university teachers who kept my interest in learning alive and inspired me to
continue a difficult journey. Yet my interest and skill in maths and science
disappeared within a year. Our new maths teacher in Year 9 made maths unclear
and boring. A replacement science teacher, just out of teaching school, mumbled
and stumbled his way through classes and I lost all interest. About this time
my dreams to build a home-made rocket of tin foil and balsa wood and glue
literally collapsed and despite devouring every science book, I was never quite
able to crack the trick behind storing, compressing and releasing home made
oxygen and hydrogen (the making of these gases was simple). The Apollo space
program didn’t seem to have these basic problems. My aspirations to win a Noble
Prize for Science never left the foothills of Mt Owen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-7930287254674367152013-04-04T03:20:00.000-07:002013-04-04T03:20:15.357-07:00Jenny Sallans's Funeral Service<br />
<br />
Jenny's family has given me permission to post the Service for Jenny's Funeral for her friends, especially those overseas who were unable to be there.<br />
<br />
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<div class="WordSection1">
<div align="center" class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Jenny's
Service</span></b><span lang="EN-AU"></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Music<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: -5.55pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Good afternoon everyone and welcome to
this ceremony to celebrate the life of Jenny Sallans who was 54 when she died
in Whittle Ward last Saturday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My name
is Christine Howard and I would like to welcome you on behalf of Jenny’s
family, her parents Jim and Olive, her brother Steve and sister in law Coralie,
her brothers Peter and Bryan and sister in law Susan and all the other members
of her family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following this ceremony
you are all invited to join the family for refreshments in the reception room.
In Jenny’s memory, please consider making a gift to the Whittle Ward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a donation box in the foyer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">There are
many people who have been part of Jenny’s life; friends, good mates and
university colleagues and members of the legal fraternity. Their love and
friendship has always been important and Jenny’s family would like to record
their appreciation for the support and interest shown to Jenny and to them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Today
will be a time for us to share some of our memories of Jenny, some readings
that acknowledge our sadness at this time of loss and change and some words
that will help us look to the future with hope. In a spirit of love and
friendship, I offer these words for us to consider.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Let us
live well today, for today is what we have been given. Let us aim to live all
our days with courage and thankfulness so that we may leave this world with
hope. For as long as there is life, there is hope. And where there is living
hope, tended and protected by a loving community, despair cannot triumph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">And so today, as we celebrate Jenny’s life we consider
what she has left us. She leaves us with many positive memories, of course, and
she also leaves us with the memory of a life well lived. If we are to honour
her memory, we would all do well to remember that while she is not here to make
the world a better place, we can act on her behalf. We can choose to see what
we need to change within ourselves so that we can be the best we can be. We can
choose to be better stewards for the world and take greater care of each other.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">The uniqueness of each human life is the basis of our grief in
bereavement. Look through the whole world and there is no one just like
Jenny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But she still lives on in your
memories and will always remain a member of your circle through the influence
she has had in your life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 0in; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">We are here also to grow through an
ending into a beginning, to let go of Jenny and, with memories gathered for the
journey, gain strength for moving through the days ahead without her. Right now
most of us have a heightened sense of what is precious and what is true. There
is potential for connecting, truth telling and reconciling. This time together
today is a time apart when all of us gather not only to remember Jenny but also
to remember the bonds between and among us. </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 0in; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="blockquote">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Unknown source</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 0in; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">The comfort of having a friend may be
taken away but not that of having had one. Let us make the most of our friends
while we have them, for how long we shall keep them is uncertain. We who have
lost a friend have the joy that we once had in him to match the grief that he
is taken away. Shall we bury the friendship with the friend? </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 0in; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">We are
here today to remember this optimistic, accepting and intelligent woman who
faced what life offered, both good and bad, with realism. Jenny believed in
living her life and letting others live theirs; she was clear in her opinions,
didn’t play games and liked people to be straight-forward,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>black and white even, as she was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To many people she was inspirational, always
practical with an active social conscience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jenny didn’t sit with hands folded and wait for other to act. She was
pro-active and her sense of justice influenced her behaviour and dictated her
career and life decisions. </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Jenny had
a wicked sense of humour and was an avid collector…a family characteristic. She
collected anything and everything….miniature shoes, boxes, anything with eye
appeal. Scrapbooking was another passion, as was cooking, her beloved dog Annie
and cigarettes. Jenny was a Tasmanian by choice, preferred the bush or beach to
city life and was a good neighbour. She would have been a wonderful lawyer. Her
family and friends were always important and central to her life: Christmas and
birthdays were celebrated with family whenever possible. </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Life was
not always easy for Jenny and she faced her diminishing health with courage and
realism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">She
deserves the best farewell we can give her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now we will hear from friend, Paula Nelson, </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">?? from
UTas law faculty and brother, Steve. These words will be followed by a photo
montage with music for reflection. </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Memories of Jenny</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Paula Nelson</span></b><span lang="EN-AU"></span></div>
</div>
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA; mso-font-kerning: .5pt;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<div class="WordSection2">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-AU">When Steve & Coralie asked me if I had
any pictures of Jenny for today, I thought I might have a few, but not
many.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When searching through my
computer, I realised that over 30 years had passed since I met Jen, and my mind
began wandering to times even earlier than these pictures I had 'on file'.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-AU">The pictures of mine here today, are only
from 2005.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were taken at Cradle
Mountain, East Coast, Mountain River, Fern Tree, Eagle Hawk Neck, just to name
a few places I remembered we'd been to together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her 50<sup>th</sup> birthday party – Barbie
themed and red! was typical Jenny.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-AU">I was asked if I wanted to say anything at
her funeral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said no thinking I would
have nothing to say, BUT then it occurred to me that her family might like to
know what others thought of their daughter & sister.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-AU">Jen was actually living at Ables Bay when
we first met.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember staying down
there on week ends, the wonderful cooking – Drysdale influenced of course,
watching them doing up camper vans, the parties and lots of laughs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She appreciated the beauty of nature, the
wildlife and life in general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently,
she loved to talk about the trips she did with Val on the mainland and was
always reminding me of 'somewhere I had to go see for myself'. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-AU">As years passed and life got ever busier,
we didn't see as much of each other but we still caught up at places like the
Womens Dances, the P party @ Zoes School, birthday parties, Queens Ball,
Halloween, xmas and easter breaks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being
from the mainland and away from her family, she was aware many more of us were
too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her Xmas for 'orphans' as she
called it, was a comfort to many.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone
with nowhere to go on Xmas Day was welcome at her place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the past 13 years we supported each
other more as we both lived on our own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We spent more time sharing thoughts on life, love and how to fix the
universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Typical Jenny, always wanting
to aim high – I was just happy to fix the earth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-AU">I have never in all my life, been
acquainted with anyone, with as much <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">determination</b>
as Jenny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moving to Clarendon Vale, she
saw first hand what it was like for the 'less fortunate' in our society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She mediated with tenants and with Housing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She saw a need and became a JP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She put herself 'out there' to those in need.
She was the most <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">generous</b> person I
have ever met. She gave her time freely to those in need with no expectations
in return.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had very strong views of
right and wrong, and wanted to do more to help people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She embarked on her epic journey through
University, the years of part time study whilst on an invalid pension, made
achieving her dream of a Law Degree all the more personally satisfying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She saw her diagnosis with cancer as pretty
much a bloody nuisance, and wasn't about to let it get in the way of being
'Admitted to the Bar'.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember
walking into the Royal one day, in the middle of her chemo, when life was
pretty rough, and she's sitting up in bed, laptop going and study papers
everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before I could say anything
she was telling me to shut up, she just had to finish this on time to hand
in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was determined to be 'admitted'
with the rest of her friends!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Friends and family was very important to
Jen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kerri-Lee, Xanthea and Marcus, Kim
and Mark, Michael and Ursula were all still very dear to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her Mum and Dad were constantly in her
thoughts. Steve, Coralie, Peter and Bryan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She was up to date with all their goings on!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know theres lots of people from 30 odd
years ago, still touched by Jenny.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Jenny had previously supported her sister
Diana, in her final months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was well
aware of what to expect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She never once
said 'why me?'<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She never gave in to
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">dignity</b> itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She always
looked for a way to help others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even
when they told her it had spread and they were no longer going to do chemo, she
was wanting to know if there was some trial she could participate in?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By this stage I'm asking her 'why' and saying
'can't you just live the last of your life for you!' but as usual the reply was
'It might help someone else.' <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Selfless</b> to the end!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Jenny Sallans was my mate, pal, buddy,
friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was my conscience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, she wasn't perfect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No-one is. Yes, she could be<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> pedantic</b> – especially if she thought
she was right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had some arguments
over the years but got over them because we respected each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The worst one was a time when I said the law
was an ass!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said it was black &
white!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said there was times when
morally there should be a different outcome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You can probably imagine how she just kept going on……and on…..and on…..</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Which reminds me how I recently described
her as the Duracell Bunny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She just kept
going!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">I have discovered in writing this, that I
have more memories than I thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some
I could share, some best kept to myself and lots that we just don't have time
for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, this is me just giving a
snippet of how we saw Jenny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Determined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Generous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dignified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Selfless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Respectful. Pedantic</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we
wouldn't have had her be any other way!</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">And I'm half expecting
a 'cackle' to come from that casket!</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Rob White</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Jenny Sallans – Farewell</span></b><span lang="EN-AU"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Sharyn and I met Jenny Sallans about 10
years ago. It was at a conference dinner for a Human Rights event. We sat next
to this smiling, joking person and before long we were laughing our heads off.
The conversation was peppered with witticisms and one-liners. It was a hugely
enjoyable night. When we got home, we said this is a person we’d like to keep
in touch with – and thank goodness we did. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Jenny Sallans had a ‘joie de vivre’ about
her that was infectious. She was a great cook, and great company. She handled
everything in her life without fuss, and yet appreciated everything that people
did around her. She had presence. She was fun.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">The Law was a large part of Jenny’s life.
For many years, and before she qualified as a lawyer, she was a Justice of the
Peace, of which she was rightly proud and enthusiastic. She took being a JP
seriously and accordingly people took her seriously and relied upon her in many
different ways. She wanted to be of service to the wider community. And this
she certainly was.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">For example, when she lived in Clarendon
Vale, she would frequently help young mothers and other women in the local
community – with paperwork, advice, and yet more paperwork. She was valued by
her neighbours for her generosity and helpful nature. She became part of the
fabric of their lives. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">One day she was confronted by a very big,
very tough looking bearded man. He pointed at her and said, ‘If anybody hassles
you or gives you a hard time around here, they’ve fffing got me to answer
to!’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jenny experienced no fffing
problems the whole time she lived there! Protection – of all kinds and in
different shapes and sizes – comes to those who give, and Jenny was definitely
a giver. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Jenny not only gave to other people, she
gave it out as well. Rarely shy about offering her (usually well informed)
opinion, she once counselled our daughter Sienna about a previous boyfriend –
the quote unquote ‘dick brain’ that she used to see. After Jenny talked with
Sienna, things were never quite the same! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Never one to suffer fools gladly, Jenny was
receptive to everyone but intolerant of those who spoke falsehood or who tried
to take shortcuts. She would speak to truth – in her activism, in her law
school classes, in her private moments. There is a word for this: it is called
integrity. With Jenny you always knew where you stood, and why she stood where
she stood. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">As I’ve said, the law was a large part of
Jenny’s life, especially once she had moved into Newtown. Over many years of
part-time study she pursued a Law degree. Jenny’s technical understanding of
legal studies was simply outstanding. She got it. And she had a passion for it.
</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">The law for Jenny, however, was never about
‘authority’ or kowtowing to what the experts and the books said. The law was
about achieving particular ends, about creating and constructing the ‘good
society’. The authority of the law was something that had to be achieved,
something that had to be judged on its own merits. Law was about people, not
pomp and ceremony or going through the motions. Jenny respected people, and the
law, when it, and they, walked the walk – of justice, of equality, of respect
for human rights. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Not surprisingly, in her law school
tutorials Jenny was never afraid to challenge, and never frightened to speak
her mind. She was hugely interested in studying law and in the practices and
outcomes of law. But she was not seduced by the law, nor intimidated by its
language and its trappings. As with everything, the Law was seen as a potential
servant, and where this was not perceived to be the case, it was open to
critique and condemnation. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Jenny’s face at graduation was simply
amazing. The pride and joy was wonderful to see. She graduated with excellent
grades, and with the experience of having published in the University of
Tasmania Law Journal amongst other things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She was an active doer and contributor within the Law School, and her
university experience was marked by lots of engagement with other students,
with lecturers and with many others who accompanied her on her long journey of
study. She just loved the whole thing about being a student, being in the Law
School, and being part of the energy and passion of ‘The Law’. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Jenny was a wonderful friend and human
being. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">She loved her dog.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">She loved her friends.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">She loved her family.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">She loved ‘The Law’.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">And she served us all – with humble pride,
quiet resolve and generous heart. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">We celebrate her life and bid her a fond
farewell. Good-bye our dear friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Rob White</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">University
of Tasmania</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Steve Sallans</span></b></div>
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<b><u><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Steve's Words</span></u></b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Paula and Rob,
thank you for your memories and helping to bring Jenny back to us for<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this brief celebration of her life and heart
felt farewell. And thank you to Christine for guiding us through these
difficult and emotional times.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">For my part I
would like to take this opportunity to celebrate Jenny's special character, as
I believe her character was, and is, extraordinary and inspirational.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her remarkable character was tested to the
hilt over the past twelve months, and she demonstrated, in no uncertain terms,
that it was as true and firm as I had known it to be throughout her life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Jenny was
brave; she faced the brutal facts head on; she did not brook euphemisms; she
never complained or became unduly upset, nor did she consider herself a
victim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, toward the end, and
losing the use of her legs, she was offered a risky operation to her spine.
Jenny, ever the optimist, unhesitatingly took this challenge on, determined to
walk a little further before she left us. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">After initial
positive indications, her doctor informed her that unfortunately the operation
was unsuccessful leaving her with movement only in her right arm and hand. She
accepted the news quietly and calmly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, her doctor interpreted her calm stoicism as denial and ordered
the services of a psychologist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jenny
was duly horrified by this development and in this case Jenny did raise some
vociferous complaints concerning her treatment, at least with some of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However Jenny counted her small mercies and
was in fact grateful that she could at least continue to smoke her precious
cigarettes, which of course she did to the end; well, no one's perfect after
all.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In the face of
her adversity, she stood as she always had; brave, honest, pragmatic, calm,
optimistic and always considered others before herself, to the very end. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I think a good
life can be compared to climbing Mt Everest, attempting the summit is the real
game in town, and the risk of death is simply an unavoidable part of the climb,
and an honourable one at that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Death is
simply one of the costs of experiencing this wonderful challenging life. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Jenny's example
inspires me, and I hope it inspires others, to travel toward our inevitable
date with death, not with fear, but as a challenge to live well while ever we
can, and to not permit those things that we cannot control unnecessarily drag
us down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">While this may
be easier said then done, Jenny's example stands before us to show us the way
up the mountain. On the other hand, and notwithstanding her brilliant example,
I do think she possessed an innate advantage that the rest of will just have to
work that much harder to replicate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
was by nature an intelligent, outgoing, sceptical, optimistic, personality who
challenged life from her earliest days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The following
photo montage may at first glance appear to be simply a set of dusty family
snapshots. However, if you take special note of Jenny, you may find that even
in the youngest shots of her you will see that special character bursting with
interest and humour, challenging the authority of the camera, while others
simply smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe these images
will resonate powerfully with those of us who knew her at all well.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Its not
possible to express just how much Jenny will be missed by Mum and Dad, myself
and all of our family, and no doubt her many, many friends and colleagues. I
think that I can safely say that we are all very proud of her philosophies, her
substantial achievements, and her friendship.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Finally, I am
proud to say that my sister Jenny died a good and dignified death, and I only
hope I can do as well when my time comes.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Thank You</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Photo montage with music for reflection</span></b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">David Harkins</span></u></b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">You can shed tears that she is gone</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Or you
can smile because she has lived.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">You can
close your eyes and pray she’ll come back</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Or you
can open your eyes and see all she’s left.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">You can
be empty because you can’t see her</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Or you
can be full of the love you shared.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">You can
turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Or you
can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">You can
remember her and only that she’s gone</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Or you
can cherish her memory and let it live on.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">You can
cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Or you
can do what she’d want; smile, open your eyes, love and go on.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">With understandable sorrow but with spirits lifted by our fond
memories and our hope, we put aside our sadness at parting and all our regrets
for things that were said and done or left unsaid or left undone. Only our love
remains. To love someone always carries the risk of parting but not to love is
not to have truly lived at all. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: -27.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Let us all be strong in the conviction
that in spite of death, the scheme of life is ultimately </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: -27.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">good. Let us aim to leave this ceremony
determined to live through the loss and the grief to </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: -27.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">an even more abundant life. Death is
not too high a price to pay for having lived. We pause </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: -27.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">to gather our feelings and thoughts and
we remember how Jenny touched our lives and in our</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: -27.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">own hearts, we each say our farewell. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">We are grateful that Jenny has been, and still is, part of our lives.
We will remember her with love and affection and gratitude. And now we have
each other. That is all we have but it is all we need. We are subject to
natural law and to chance but our humanity gives us the power to stand over and
against them. We have a measure of understanding and so we gain some control.
We share our thoughts and our feelings and so we support each other. By our
living and our loving we create the value of the world.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">We commit the body of Jenny to the elements. We are glad she lived,
that we saw her face, knew </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">her friendship, and walked the way of life with her. We deeply
cherish the memory of her words </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">and deeds and character. We leave our dead in peace. With respect we
bid her farewell, in love we </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">remember her companionship, her ways. And thinking of her in this
manner, let us go in quietness of spirit and live in charity with each other.</span></div>
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<div class="TableContents" style="margin-bottom: 14.15pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Afterglow</span></b><a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="afterglow"></a><span lang="EN-AU"><br />
<br />
I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one.<br />
I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life <br />
is done.<br />
I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down <br />
the ways.<br />
Of happy times and laughing times and bright <br />
and sunny days.<br />
I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry <br />
before the sun.<br />
Of happy memories that I leave when life is <br />
done </span></div>
<div class="TableContents" style="margin-bottom: 14.15pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Helen Lowrie
Marshall</span></b><span lang="EN-AU"></span></div>
</td>
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<div class="TableContents">
<span lang="EN-AU"></span></div>
</td>
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</tbody></table>
<div class="TableContents">
<span lang="EN-AU"></span></div>
</td>
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<span lang="EN-AU"></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Music </span></b><span lang="EN-AU"></span></div>
<br />Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-46681691215937021872013-01-10T01:00:00.000-08:002013-01-10T01:01:02.170-08:00Time to Deliver on FOI<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Time to Deliver on FOI</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
published in <i><b>Public Administration Today</b></i> Edition 33 Jan-Mar 2013, 16-18.</div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">The APS has a long track record of
being unable to manage the appropriate balance between secrecy, providing
information as a service to citizens, and the public’s right to know.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">Arguably, this stems from a reluctance
to embrace access to government information as a right with limited
protections. Moreover, there seems little motivation for the APS to give high
priority to ensure the provision of reliable and timely information as an
elementary service to citizens.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">The general attitude, and particularly
at the highest echelons, seems to be a continuation of an outmoded attitude of
excessive caution and fear of the ‘chilling effect’ of FOI. Furthermore, the
primary objective in managing FOI is to avoid the potential sensitivities that could
be touched on by disclosure of some information.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">Cornall in his report on FOI practices
in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship wrote “ the Department
presently seems to have more of an attitude of resistance to disclosure.”
Timmins wrote in relation to the release of documents concerning car subsidies
“Excessive secrecy and an abundance of caution still mark the response to some
requests for access to information…” (Peter Timmins, “It’s clear FOI simply
isn’t working properly.” (Australian Financial Review, 27 September 2012).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">The 1983 FOI reforms ended in what then
opposition leader Rudd described as a <i><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">sclerotic</span></i><span class="st"> information </span><i><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">system. The cautious 2010 reforms have made improvements on the margins
but were always going to be problematic if there was no political leadership to
counter the APS’s inclinations and preference for high levels of secrecy.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Whilst
it is a struggle to find Departmental Secretaries speaking favourably about FOI
it is not too difficult to find the reverse. Former Treasury Secretary Ted
Evans noted how Treasury had not been happy with the introduction of FOI
because it might undermine fearless and frank advice. (Sid Maher and David
Crowe, “Treasury ‘tainted’ by Swan leak,” The Australian 7 November 2012).
Whilst he was Treasury secretary Dr Ken Henry continually warned of the adverse
impact of FOI and the threat to good public policy and frank advice from the
bureaucracy. (Brett Clegg and Jennifer Hewett, “Treasury Swamped by Demands:
Ken Henry” The Australian 9 December 2010)</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The
shortness of John Faulkner’s tenure overseeing the 2010 FOI reforms was a major
blow. Australian Information Commissioner, John McMillan decision to opt for a low
key incremental approach to achieving the necessary cultural change in the APS
underestimated the potency of the elements that drive the APS’s resistance to
the idea of a more open government. These elements include:</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></i><i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The role of blame avoidance</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></i><i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Increasing and problematic impact
of ministerial offices</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></i><i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The comfort offered by a veil of
secrecy</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></i><i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Absence of any value adding by
FOI in an era of extreme budget restrictions</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A review announced at the end of October, led
by former senior bureaucrat Dr Allan Hawke, promises to continue a program of
cautious change that will fail to offset the APS’s lukewarm response, at best,
to FOI and the more common hostility and distaste shown by areas like Treasury
and Immigration interestingly other areas like the Department of Defence have a
good track record with FOI.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The
Cornall review into the FOI practices of the Department of Immigration and
Citizenship, in September 2012, concluded that there was a lack of a
whole-of-department approach to effective FOI management. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Two
years after the 2010 FOI reforms, the Cornall review is a damning indictment.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Yet,
in reality there is a whole of APS approach to FOI management - to treat it as
an unwanted imposition and subservient to protecting Ministers from
embarrassment.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Strong,
unstinting political leadership on FOI is rare in the annals of Australian
history.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Cain and Anna Bligh both had to lead from
the front and alone in delivering on FOI reform. There is little doubt that
John Faulkner was probably a lone voice in Cabinet after the 2007 election in
supporting the translation of the ALP’s commitment to open government in
opposition into effective practice and legislation. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since Faulkner, the Rudd and Gillard ministers
responsible for FOI have been noticeable for their lack of FOI leadership. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">In
part outsiders to the APS are to blame for underestimating and not
understanding the factors contributing to the APS’s lethargic response to the 1983
FOI reforms and the small and begrudging improvements since 2010.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">In
his 2010 book The Blame Game: Spin, Bureaucracy and Self-preservation in
Government UK author Christopher Hood argues that the major operating principle
in Ministerial offices and at all levels of the bureaucracy is to avoid blame. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Hood
argues that risk management is primarily geared towards the management of blame
risk and that this “so often shapes the organization and operation of modern
executive government, producing its own curious logic of administrative
architecture and policy operation.”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">If Hood’s thesis has any degree of
accuracy, then FOI is a counter-intuitive and highly threatening government
policy let alone legal requirement for the APS. As an accountability tool FOI,
is the most problematic for blame avoiders because it restricts the options for
blame avoidance, and even more troublesome, it increases the risk of direct
blame attribution.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">In the absence of the strongest and
clearest leadership FOI will therefore be worked around, sidelined or avoided.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">The rise of the influence, interference
and shaping of public policy by ministerial advisers exacerbates the adverse
impact of blame avoidance in the area of FOI. Terry Moran, former Secretary of
the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>describes this new and growing layer of
Australian government as an “accountability black hole”. (Terry Moran,
“Political Staffers an accountability black hole” Australian Financial Review
26 September 2012)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">Ministerial advisers now play an
increasing role in how advice and policies are formulated by the APS and how
they are communicated, managed and recorded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Particularly, however, the decisions of advisers are primarily filtered
through the lens of political opportunity or outcomes in contrast to the values
and requirements of an apolitical APS.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">FOI is anathema to these relatively new
kids of Australian public policy and explains why in many areas of the APS there
is now a requirement or practice to channel FOI requests, at some stage,
through <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ministerial advisers as revealed
in the Cornall review. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">APS staff working on policy development
or briefing Ministers will often be constructing that advice to minimise
potential future blame on them, from ministerial advisors and to their
Ministers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A more effective FOI regime
would shatter the comforting veil of secrecy now utilised by the APS and
exploited for political opportunism by ministerial staffers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">Justice Michael Kirby, during the
hearing of the 2006 McKinnon case in the High Court, argued that there should
be small but necessary zones of secrecy for the APS. However as an outsider,
and idealist, Justice Kirby failed to realise that the APS operates with small,
narrow and limited zones of openness that are always on the verge of potential
closure. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">Most policy development begins in a
zone of secrecy and the possibility of that policy entering an ‘open’ zone is a
rare and unexpected phenomenon. The default state of play is a zone of secrecy.
In the APS it is openness that needs to be justified and fought hard for on
most occasions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">As former senior bureaucrat and Public
Service Commissioner Andrew Podger has acknowledged, the primary motivation of
many in the APS is not ensuring legal rights of access and high levels of
information service delivery but to avoid embarrassing their Minister. (Marcus
Priest and Alex Boxsell “Combet ‘not involved’, Australian Financial Review, 25
September 2012, 7)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">Instead of being information stewards
ensuring the best and most timely use of information the senior echelons of the
APS loom like sullen non-trusting guardians of an unwanted <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>legal responsibility. Finding APS champions
for FOI is difficult, finding less than enthusiastic implementers is relatively
easy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">Many outsider advocates for FOI fail to
understand the need for the APS to have space to develop policy in-house and to
engage in full and frank exchange of ideas and information. However, for too
long the general threat to frankness and candour of higher levels of openness
has been used by the senior echelons of the APS to justify excessive levels of
secrecy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">The APS needs to identify what needs to
be protected, and for how long, in the public interest and for good governance
and to clearly demonstrate that the motivation is not simply to protect the
Minister from embarrassment or political discomfort or curry favour with
ministerial staffers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">The onus needs to be on the APS to
demonstrate how and to what extent their implementation and management of the
2010 FOI reforms have resulted in an increase in the availability on a timely
basis of better quality information that has informed public debate and policy
discussion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">The 2010 Declaration of Open Government
, as minimalist and low in aspirations as it was, has been left as one of the
few concrete achievements in this area.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">Most critiques of the FOI performance
are largely citizen-centric. There is a good reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>FOI legislation, whether or not it is accepted
by the powers that be in the APS or ministerial staffers, grants legal rights
of access to information and allows a few limited exceptions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">However the citizen-centric approach to
a large extent has driven government information handling to institute measures
and processes to counter this ‘threat’ of transparency. FOI is seen as an
imposed process that value adds little to the decisionmaking processes of the
APS, and in times of fiscal austerity, is an unnecessary luxury or burden.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">There are benefits to the APS of more
open government but the dividends will not be harvested overnight. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A fuller and more timely sharing of
information will allow greater collaboration and cooperation on policy
development between citizens and the APS. Greater openness will lessen the
interference and decrease the role of political opportunism but not eradicate
it entirely, because of the dwellers in Terry Moran’s ‘black hole of government
accountability’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">Furthermore it will allow trust and creditability
in the APS’s capacity to provide government with frank and candid advice. This
creditability will accrue by not allowing uncontested claims of confidentiality
to protect Ministers and others from embarrassment but by continual
demonstration of the quality and strength of that advice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">Andrea Di Maio, a member of the Gartner
Blog Network, has argued, in the area of open data, that too strong a
citizen-centric approach downplays the vital role of government employees in
open government. A government employee-centric approach does not have to equate
to excessive secrecy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">The APS needs to demonstrate it can
deliver an open government policy as effectively as any other program and legal
responsibility. It needs to demonstrate that its claims for confidentiality are
valid, limited and serve the public interest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">The Australian Information Commissioner
has continued to promise that culture change in the APS is possible.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Perpetua;">The APS needs to deliver.</span></div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-10722206322781232532012-12-22T14:17:00.001-08:002013-03-27T00:15:44.030-07:00Memoir - Leaves 12-14 Car crash, Launceston early 1960s, A Road Not Taken<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;"> The Memoir - a work in progress</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;">Background see <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/working-on-memoir.html">Working on a Memoir</a></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;">1st leaf see <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-1st-story-mexico-2008.html%20">Memoir Leaf 1 - Mexico 2008 </a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 2-6 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-leaves-2-6-ireland-launceston.html" target="_blank">Ireland, Launceston, Cape Town, Whyalla, Cambodia</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 7-9 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/memoir-leaves-7-9-hooning-teaching.html" target="_blank">Hooning, Teaching & Presenting </a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 10-11 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/memoir-leaves-10-11-bookseller.html" target="_blank">Bookseller, Vexatious FOI applicants and shaky start to an academic career</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 12-14 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/memoir-leaves-12-14-car-crash.html" target="_blank">Car crash, Launceston early 1960s, A Road Not Taken</a></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Postcard 12 “</span></i><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now
we’re moving in slow motion, To a piercing steering wheel, There’s chaos and
commotion, The whole thing’s a bit too real<i>"</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Mark Gillespie Pile-Up
November/December 1979 behind Bothwell</span></i></b><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
world spun and rolled before my eyes. Moments before I had been listening to
Sue and Deb talking in the front of the car. We were en route to the back of
Bothwell for a triple 21<sup>st</sup> birthday party for three law students.
Deb had just received her Provisional learner’s licence. When I was growing up,
in Queenstown, Deb was the type of girl I could never have imagined or
contemplated becoming friends with. She completed honours in ancient Greek art,
she worked part time (rare in those days), wore skin tight jeans and helped me
to appreciate women as something other than as “traditionally” viewed (mothers,
sisters, or objects of lust).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
can’t recall the noise or any screams, but once the car had come to a
standstill after rolling along a long stretch of barbed wire fence, I remember
crawling from the vehicle. Someone who had been in the car ahead said that they
had seen the accident in their rear view mirror and feared coming back to
investigate. Yet, there were no major injuries, only minor cuts or scratches. I
can’t remember much of the aftermath except we continued to the party and I
think I got well and truly drunk. Now, as I try to recall the events of that
summer, I struggle to remember any details, apart from those very brief
snippets from the accident.</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 13. “Living outside the law when way
too young” Elphin Road, Launceston 1963-1964.</span></i></b><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have
no real memory, only a few scattered images from “that night.” It is dark, very
dark, and I’m standing at a building site for a future hotel, just off Elphin
Road in Launceston.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I was five or
six. I’m not sure why I was there: maybe, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as a look out; to help carry things; or possibly
to scramble through somewhere to unlock a door or gate? There is a man near me
but it is hard to see, or remember his face, maybe there were more in the
background. In later memories, he becomes my mother’s boyfriend but I don’t
know. </span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
feet were on the verge of another path one that could have led me into a far different
engagement with the law, a darker, more savage and higher risk engagement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On this path, I probably would have been
unlikely to complete high school and more than certain to have experienced
Ashley Detention Centre or its predecessor. This was a path I stepped from
without knowing why. At several points, until my early high school years, I
stepped on and off this path or similar paths as I flirted with and was caught
up in several types of unlawful activity - petty theft, vandalism and other
anti-social behaviour. At the time I never constructed a rationale why this
happened or what was drawing me to a potentially destructive path. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many years later, after reading The Outsider
and attending a rare political science lecture on alienation, the concept of
being an outsider struck a very strong and lasting chord. </span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 14 “Ride on the chrome horse with
your diplomat. Who carries on his shoulder a Siamese cat” Bronte Inn Sydney June/July
1983</span></i></b><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’d spent
just a few months in the Tax Office and my relationship with Esther was in its first
passionate but uncertain stages. In between the lust, passion and early
discoveries, both of us could sense a growing commitment to each other, despite
all our stark contrasts and few shared interests or approaches to life.</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I found
myself at a breakfast table in the Bronte Inn in Sydney. I had used my internal
knowledge of the public service to arrive in Sydney a day before the final
selection round for recruitment into the Foreign Affairs Department. I was there
largely by a series of accidents, last minute decisions and a whim. Nearly
everyone else was on a determined mission, often started prior to their
university studies, to join the diplomatic corps.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
three day selection ordeal was designed to pinpoint the final 30-50 ‘anointed
ones’ to join the Australian diplomat corps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The initial pool of applicants had numbered several thousand. That
potential pool was culled via an intensive exam, and an initial screening of
the written applications, to produce a group of several hundred applicants who
were then interviewed. Finally, about seventy applicants were brought to Sydney
for a final 3 day culling exercise that consisted of tests, role plays,
seminars, presentations and intense, but discrete, scrutiny of behaviour at all
meals and cocktail parties.</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sitting
at the breakfast table, I was unsure whether my travel ingenuity had gained me
bonus points or raised questions about my ethics and commitment to correct
procedure. Many (including me) were surprised I had reached the final stage. On
a whim, I had sat a 3 hour entry test (problem questions, current affairs,
short essays etc) with little preparation. My application was written in a
frenzy, fuelled by coffee and orange juice after a very late and boozy Tax
function. My application was written more as a stream of consciousness missive than
a staid, proper and disciplined application. One part of my application
referred to my approach to things as being like a whirling dervish. Later, at
the interview round, the panel told me they had waited their whole journey
around Australia to meet the author of this unique application. </span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">On my second
morning in Sydney, I sat at the same table, and the serving staff greeted me as
an old friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile, other tables
filled rapidly with applicants who had only arrived overnight or very early
that morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The friendly and familiar greetings
from the serving staff convinced many of the other applicants that I was part
of the selection team and they started to speak loudly, letting their claims
for selection drop into their conversations. Later-to-be Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd had been through this process a couple of years previously, and indeed
that morning one nerdy guy blew me away when he talked about his honours thesis
and how he had translated newspapers from Vietnamese or Chinese. I started to
wonder how I would survive and make it through the next 3 days of the selection
process against such superior and gifted candidates. </span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
doubts were confirmed when late in the evening of day two I realised I had
missed some sort of social cue and was the last applicant in the room among all
the selectors. Until that moment, I had pursued the objective to be a ‘trainee
diplomat’ simply as another intellectual challenge or job opportunity and a
useful escape option from the bureaucratic confines of the lowest levels of the
Tax Office. During the night, I started to think about whether this could be a
career path. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
following morning as I listened to and observed the other applicants at the breakfast
table, I reflected on whether I had been allowed this far through the process
simply as a social experiment or a dark horse. Most of the other applicants had
far brighter academic qualifications, refined social skills and had already in
the last two days learnt to deliver finely shaped diplomatic responses. While I
could analyse, dissect and be objective as any of those around me on Timor or
military intervention in Africa, I was well aware of my preference to be ‘frank
and candid’ and to keep pushing the ‘we ought to’ case. I also wondered how
quickly my refreshing West Coast directness or bluntness would become
unsuitable in a sensitive diplomatic post. It certainly had not proved a career
advancing trait in the Tax Office.</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">After
the three day session, I left Sydney still uncertain about a career as a
diplomat. A few weeks later, I was asked to complete a security clearance form
to finalise the application process. I didn’t and dropped out at this final
stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why? First, during the three day
Sydney process, the Foreign Affairs staff had indicated how hard the job was on
families (spouses couldn’t work, and it would be difficult, if not impossible,
to leave a posting to return to Australia in a family emergency). Esther was
very attached to her horses and coming from a very small family, a foreign
posting of two or more years would be a major trauma for her and her loved ones,
including two elderly grandparents. Second, I had moved so many times in my
years at university, and in my first few months with the Tax Office (over 10
different lots of flat mates many who could rival the strangest people featuring
in </span><span class="st"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He
Died with a Felafel in His Hand</span></i></span><span class="st"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">),
that it was easier to stay with my preferred option of remaining with Esther.</span></span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another
road not taken.</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I doubt,
in retrospect, I could have survived as a junior diplomat. I remain uncertain
whether at that early stage in our relationship I should have dragged Esther
into that life/lifestyle and whether our relationship would have survived.
Looking back 28 years later surrounded by my family and the life I have created
there are no regrets. Esther and I have grown together and now support each other
like two large trees, of different species, that have grown together giving each
other a strong physical and emotional centre. I think the diplomatic corps
would have offered neither.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-73235081459171937592012-12-06T20:05:00.001-08:002012-12-06T20:06:22.491-08:00Joint Submission to FOI Review by Breit, Henman, Lidberg & Snell<style>@font-face {
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Submission to the Review of the Freedom
of Information Act, 1982 and the Australian Information Commissioner Act, 2010</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dr Rhonda Breit,
University of Queensland</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Associate
Professor Paul Henman, University of Queensland</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dr Johan Lidberg,
Monash University</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Associate
Professor Rick Snell, University of Tasmania</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">7 December 2012</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Introduction</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">There
is a critical need to assess whether, and to what extent, Freedom of Information
regimes have delivered on their political and service delivery promises of
promoting open communication between governments and citizens.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">FOI
and its impact, effectiveness and contributions to our democratic polity is an
under researched area both within Australia and internationally. This
submission is to inform the review of a proposed research project that, if
funded, will start from mid 2013.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
have submitted an application for a 2013 Australian Research Council Linkage
grant scheme. The proposed project develops a framework for testing FOI demand
and functionality, without which Australia’s access to information </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">laws could potentially remain ineffective paper
constructs. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We intend to examine whether recent reforms have had
any impact on public access to government held information and investigate <b>user experiences</b> to identify whether
there is a practical difference in the <b>demand
and functionality </b>of government information across different FOI
jurisdictions to provide a <b>report card
to governments, FOI administrators and the public</b>. To achieve this aim our
study will </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">track internal
and external actors’ experiences and practices.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is a partnership with five
Australian Information Commissioners/Ombudsmen<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1385055722395785608#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">[1]</span></span></span></a>
, and the project will provide a report
card on the actual operation of Freedom of Information (FOI) across different
jurisdictional contexts in Australia and the achievement of open government
objectives.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The study develops an internationally
innovative and replicable measurement methodology to critically assess the
practical impacts and achievements of FOI legal and service delivery reforms on
demand and functionality. </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Public access to government held
information is one of the pillars of mature democracies. It goes to the core of
public participation in the political system and accountability for the elected
representatives. In theory, well functioning FOI systems can help build trust
between governments and the public (Lidberg, 2009), but actual operation of FOI
appears quite different (Timmins, 2012). Prior to recent FOI reforms many users
had given up on FOI as an information access tool (Lidberg, 2003; Snell, 2002;
2006). Administrators were critiqued as failing to deliver on the promise of
promoting open communication between governments and citizens both in terms of
the service delivery objectives of making information available, accessible and
usable, and the political objectives of promoting greater openness and
transparency of government (Yu and Robinson, 2012). </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Since 2009 major legal reforms in several
jurisdictions have led to a dual system of FOI operating in Australia. The
Commonwealth, QLD, NSW, and Tasmanian jurisdictions have implemented “FOI 2.0”,
which requires all government agencies to release information pro-actively
unless contrary to public interest. This is also known as <b>push model FOI,</b> as government information is “pushed’ to the public
by pro-active disclosure. FOI 2.0 systems are reliant on digital technologies
and third parties to disseminate and reuse government information. All other
Australian jurisdictions follow the older “FOI 1.0” model, in which governments
are legally required to release information upon request from third parties.
This is also known as <b>pull model FOI,</b>
as information must be “pulled” from agencies via request.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">These legal reforms have been accompanied
by improved digital technologies (especially internet, mobile and social media
technologies), which are transforming the way governments communicate with
citizens and how they secure, convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and
retrieve information (Eggers 2007; Lathrop & Ruma, 2010). Consequently,
members of the public have access to information and data in processes and formats
that expedite access, republication, analysis and <b>reuse</b>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The FOI 2.0 laws and emerging digital
technologies have the potential to become potent political accountability
tools, with the capacity to dramatically improve the flow of reliable
information between governments and citizens (Roberts, 2006)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">. It
is becoming increasingly important for FOI oversight agencies, such as
Information Commissioners, to develop repeatable methodologies and standardized
metrics to measure how the operation of these laws are contributing to the
political and service delivery objectives of open government. There is an
urgent need to understand how FOI is working in Australia across different
jurisdictional contexts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The focus of this research is the lived
experiences of FOI from different perspectives to help improve how FOI is
communicated internally within agencies and externally amongst re-users and the
broader public. We will identify and typify different FOI user roles; scope
user experiences, practices and attitudes; articulate a revised Functionality
Index and report findings; and develop resources and recommendations for the
use of the project partners and FOI users. The project will be managed in close
cooperation with the five institutional partners, who have had extensive input
into the final design of this research. The partners will provide the
infrastructure and the raw data from previous relevant FOI studies to aid our
data gathering activities. Their role in this project emphasises its
significance and timeliness because it links to their stated information
management objectives by:</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Creating a comprehensive and
cross-jurisdictional database of FOI practices. This database will be hosted by
the partners as part of the <b>Australian
Information Access Portal </b>and form the basis of a sustainable web-based
repository housing resources to maximize community re-use of government
information and assist the project partners to promote greater information
disclosure, digital innovation and online engagement with public.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Formulating a revised set of
metrics applicable across different jurisdictional settings and formulating an <b>index</b> to evaluate FOI demand and
functionality (hereinafter referred to as the <b>functionality index</b>). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Making recommendations for the
implementation of a National FOI Action Plan to improve government information
management practices pursuant to the 2009 report of the Government 2.0
Taskforce (see OIAC, 2011, p. 2). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This project can play a significant role
in improving the <b>communication
infrastructure</b> (particularly use of digital technologies) underpinning FOI
in Australia by benchmarking experiences, standardising approaches to
evaluation, making recommendations for better information management in the
digital era and establishing resources to enhance public use and re-use of
government information. </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Empirical significance and innovations</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">This study provides the first </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">comparative benchmark data of
contemporary FOI practices</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;"> in Australia, and
specifically comparing FOI 1.0 and 2.0 regime performance. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">Within Australia and
internationally, few comparative studies have been conducted to evaluate the
role of FOI in managing and bolstering governments’ information resources
(Dekkers et al, 2006). </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">What prior</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;"> studies have revealed
is that FOI laws on their own do not necessarily ensure greater access to
government information. Rather, FOI regimes worldwide typically display poor
functionality and Australia’s FOI performance particularly ranks poorly
(Lidberg, 2003, 2009; Snell 2007). Existing research suggests that the
Australian FOI regimes have failed to deliver on their promise of greater
government accessibility, transparency and accountability. While there is a
vast amount of literature on FOI 1.0 from different approaches and disciplines
(Stubbs, 2012), there is no independent evidence of an “increase in the quantity
and significance of disclosures” since the implementation of FOI (Timmins, 2012).
Moreover, the effects of legal and technological changes to FOI remain
untested. To ensure that FOI laws are more than a paper construct or a
democratic ‘showcase’, the functionality of the laws, particularly how they
work in practice, needs to be assessed. These and other findings </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">(ALRC, 1996; Lidberg, 2003, 2006, 2009; Snell 2000, 2006,
2007) were one of the catalysts for several regimes moving from FOI 1.0 to FOI
2.0. This study fulfills the urgent need </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">to examine the effects of this transition on information
sharing practices and experiences between governments and communities. </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Methodological significance and innovations</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">This study develops an internationally innovative and repeatable
methodology based on a new set of standardised metrics with which to rigorously
and systematically assess, compare and benchmark the operation of FOI regimes,
nationally and internationally.</span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">Despite the
paradigmatic legal and technological changes arising from the transition to FOI
2.0, the question of FOI performance is routinely evaluated by quantitative
measures such as how many FOI requests are made, granted, refused, appealed or
are successful (see Hazel and Worthy, 2010, 354; Lidberg 2009; Breit, Snell
& Neal, 2011; Breit, Snell and Henman, 2012). But such traditional
evaluation methodologies cannot shed light on how effectively governments are </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">communicating information</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;"> and whether the
sharing of information by government with community has produced measureable
economic, social and democratic benefits (OAIC 2011, p. 1). </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">The limitations of these evaluation methodologies are recognised by
academics and governments alike (Hazel & Worthy 2010; Dekkers et al 2006,
OAIC 2011). For example, the Australian Government 2.0 Taskforce (Gruen, 2009)
called on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> develop a
methodology, a revised functionality index and a standardised set of metrics </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">for reporting to government on the social, democratic and economic
value generated from published government information. Subsequently, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">the OAIC Issues Paper (2011) called for repeatable
methodologies to evaluate FOI’s contribution to open government. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">This proposed project’s development of a ‘</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">functionality
index’,</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;"> based on different actor experiences directly
addresses these concerns and calls. This index will </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">evaluate FOI
functionality in terms of both the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">political
objective</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">
of promoting transparency and accountability, and the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">service delivery objectives</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;"> of promoting
innovative and meaningful uses of government information to produce economic
efficiencies and returns (Yu and Robinson, 2012). </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">This
new index will be constructed by </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-weight: normal;">adapting evaluation frameworks used in international and Australian
studies (see Dekkers et al, 2006; OAIC, 2011). It will also be uniquely
informed by a cross-disciplinary research approach that investigates FOI
functionality across legal, administrative and communication policy settings
drawing on the CIs expertise in the fields of journalism and communication
(Breit and Lidberg), media and administrative law (Snell, Breit and Lidberg)
and e-governance, public policy and public administration (Henman).</span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Government
FOI administration significance and innovation</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">These
empirical and methodological contributions are expected to underpin innovation
in the policy, practice and administration of FOI policy, with enhancements in
open government, government accountability and performance. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Data generated from
this study will directly inform recommendations for and the implementation of an
inaugural National FOI Action Plan for improving FOI performance.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The project will identify the roles and key
concerns of FOI users, reusers and administrators and offer evidence-based
feedback to project partners on how to enhance service delivery and design of
FOI communication environments, thereby delivering incentives for all
governments to strive for greater openness and indirectly greater political
accountability. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In advancing knowledge and policy innovation,<b> </b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">our
research will lead to the establishment and launch of a c</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">ross-</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jurisdictional FOI
assessment/monitoring website, known as <b>The
Australian Information Access Portal</b>.
The portal will contain the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">FOI
Functionality Index and a comparative report card on FOI demand and
functionality in Australia. This portal will be managed by project partners to
provide a sustainable evaluation tool on FOI performance and data for the State
and Federal FOI Commissioners/Ombudsmen to use as part of public forums on FOI.
It will serve as a guide to users of FOI, such as investigative journalists and
the public, and will help maximize community re-use of government information
and assist project partners to promote greater information disclosure, digital delivery
innovation and online engagement with publics.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Conclusion</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the
heart of the project is the need to assess whether, and to what extent, FOI
regimes have delivered on their political and service delivery promises of
promoting open communication between governments and citizens. In order to do
this, this project develops a framework for testing FOI demand and
functionality, without which Australia’s access to information </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">laws could potentially remain ineffective paper
constructs. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We will examine whether recent reforms have had any
impact on public access to government held information and investigate <b>user experiences</b> to identify whether
there is a practical difference in the <b>demand
and functionality </b>of government information across different FOI
jurisdictions to provide a <b>report card
to governments, FOI administrators and the public</b>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Reviews
of FOI systems are valuable as they collate quantitative user and
administration data such number of requests, how many was approved and rejected
and how many was appealed. However, reviews that do not include a functionality
assessment will provide an incomplete analysis and only provide a partial
response to the questions raised by the terms of reference for this review
issued by the Commonwealth Attorney General. To take the information access
systems in Australia to the next level where they could potentially become a
trust building exercise between governments and the public, qualitative
functionality tests of FOI have to be performed. It is our hope that the
proposal summarized in this submission will provide the missing link in FOI
assessment and functionality monitoring in Australia.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dr
Rhonda Breit</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Associate
Professor Paul Henman</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dr
Johan Lidberg</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Associate
Professor Rick Snell</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<br /></div>
<h1 style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"> </span></h1>
<h1 style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"> </span></h1>
<h1 style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Australian
Law Reform Commission (1996) “Open Government: a review of the federal Freedom
of Information Act 1982”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Breit, R., Snell, R, and Neal, R (2011) From FoI
to RTI: Mapping the essential literacies. <i>International
Association for Media and Communication Research</i>. Annual Conference.
Cities, Creativity, Connectivity, July 13-17.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Breit, R.,
Henman, P & Snell, R. (2012)
,Towards a Qualitative Approach to Evaluating Access to Information Legislation
(September 7, 2012). CPRafrica 2012/CPRsouth7 Conference, Port Louis,
Mauritius, September 5-7, 2012. SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2147661</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Darch,
C and Underwood, P. (2010) <i>Freedom of
Information and the Developing World: The Citizen, the State and Models of Openness.
</i>Oxford UK: Chandos.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Dekkers,
M., Polman, F., te Velde, R., de Vries, M. (2006) MEPSIR Measuring European
Public Sector Information Resources. Final Report of Exploitation of public
sector information – benchmarking of EU frameworks</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Eggers
(2007) <i>Government 2.0, </i>Plymouth:
Rowman & Littlefield.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Gruen,
N, (2009), ‘Getting on with government’, Final Government 2.0 report,
Commonwealth, available: http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/gov20taskforcereport/index.html<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Hazell, Robert & Worthy, Ben. (2010) Assessing
the performance of freedom of information.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;"> <i>Government Information
Quarterly</i> 27 Pp: 352–359.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Lathrop
& Ruma (ed) (2010) <i>Open Government, </i>Sebastopol CA: O’Reilly
Media</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Lewis,
K., Sligo, F., & Masses, C. (2005)
Observe, Record, then Beyond: Facilitating Participant Reflection via Research
Diaries. <i>Qualitative Research in
Accounting & Management. </i>Vol 2, No 2. Pp 216-228. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Lidberg,
J. and McHoul, A. (2003) Freedom of information and journalistic content in
Western Australia and Sweden. <i>The UTS Law
Review</i>, 5 . pp. 101-118. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">----(2009)
<i>The International Freedom of Information
Index - the Promise and Practise of FOI Laws.</i> Berlin: VDM Verlag,. Print.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">---
(2006). "'Keeping the Bastards Honest' - the Promise and Practice of
Freedom of Information Legislation." PhD. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20070115.121829.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Loblich
M & Pfaff-Rudiger (2011) Network Analysis: A qualitative approach to
empirical studies on communication policy. <i>International
Communication Gazette</i>. 73: 630-647. <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Noveck,
B. (2009) <i>Wiki Government: How Technology
Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful</i>,
Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC.<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Office
of the Australian Information Commissioner (2011) <i>Understanding the value of public sector information in Australia</i>,
Issues Paper 2. November. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Pope,
C., S. Zieland & N. Mays. 2000. Analysing qualitative data. BMJ 320:
114-116.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Roberts,
A. (2006). Blacked Out. Government Secrecy in the Information Age, Cambridge
University Press</span></div>
<div class="presentations" style="margin: 0cm 14.95pt 0.0001pt 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Snell,
R. (2000) “The Kiwi Paradox - A Comparison of Freedom of Information in
Australia and New Zealand, <i>Federal Law Review</i>, 28 (3), 575-616. </span></div>
<div class="presentations" style="margin: 0cm 14.95pt 0.0001pt 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">----(2002),
"Freedom of Information and the delivery of diminishing returns or how
spin doctors and journalists have mistreated a volatile reform," in <i>The Drawing Board: An Australian Review of
Public Affairs,</i> 3 (2), , 187–207.<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;"></span></span></div>
<div class="presentations" style="margin: 0cm 14.95pt 0.0001pt 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">---(2006),
“Freedom of Information Practices“ in <i>Agenda
A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform</i>
13 (4), , 291-307.</span></div>
<div class="presentations" style="margin: 0cm 14.95pt 0.0001pt 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">---(2007),
“Failing the Information Game,” <i>Public
Administration Today</i> January-March,,
5-9.</span></div>
<div class="presentations" style="margin: 0cm 14.95pt 0.0001pt 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Stubbs,
R (2012) A Case Study in the Rise of Public Sector Transparency: Understanding
the Global Diffusion of Freedom of Information Law. Faculty of Law, Tasmania
Australia. University of Tasmania, PhD. </span></div>
<div class="presentations" style="margin: 0cm 14.95pt 0.0001pt 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Timmins,
P. (2012) It’s clear FOI isn’t working properly. <i>Australian Financial Review</i> 27 September, 2012. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
<div class="presentations" style="margin: 0cm 14.95pt 0.0001pt 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10pt;">Yu, H., and Robinson,
D.G. (2012) The New Ambiguity of “Open Government”. Princeton CITP/Yale ISP
Working Paper. Draft of February 28, 2012.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div>
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<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1385055722395785608#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt;">[1]</span></span></span></a>
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, Information and Privacy
Commission, NSW, Commonwealth Ombudsman, Ombudsman South Australia, Information
Commissioner, NT</div>
</div>
</div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-87936410331517878382012-12-06T20:02:00.002-08:002012-12-06T20:02:50.720-08:00Second Response to the Review of FOI Laws (Cth)
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Associate Professor Rick Snell </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">University of Tasmania</span></div>
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<a href="mailto:r.snell@utas.edu.au"><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">r.snell@utas.edu.au</span></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.ricksnell.com.au/"><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">www.ricksnell.com.au</span></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">7 December 2012</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Dear Dr
Hawke,</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">The reforms made to Commonwealth FOI in 2010 represented
an amalgam of the long overdue implementation of a number of suggestions from
the 1996 ALRC/ARC Report on Open Government and a few selective ideas from the
far more wide sweeping and fundamental reforms generated in Queensland,
Tasmania and NSW, often referred to as the FOI 2.0 model.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">The resultant construct, while a significant improvement
on the sclerotic system condemned by Prime Minister Rudd, was considered by
Minister of State Faulkner as merely the beginning of a long transformation
towards a more functional system of open government. Progress along that path to
reform over the last two years has been fragmented, highly variable between
agencies and limited. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">The inconsistent and piecemeal approach taken to FOI
reform is reflected in both the terms of reference and the methodology used to
undertake this review.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">The Commonwealth system of FOI needs to be reconsidered
from first principles (as it was in Queensland and Tasmania). It needs to be
designed to meet<span> </span>the contemporary needs
of the Australian government and citizens <span> </span>while also being forward thinking and
innovative enough to create an environment where FOI can make a<span> </span>functional and value adding contribution to
public policy development, scrutiny and accountability well into this century.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">A key recommendation from the 2002 Canadian Access to
Information Review Task Force was that a systemic approach is required to
effectively review the operation of FOI. <span> </span>The Task Force recognised that access to
government information must be approached from a systems perspective, focusing
beyond legislation to concentrate on administrative practices, culture and
capacity as well as user demand, behaviour, expectation and needs. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">The Solomon Report, subsequently adopted by the
Queensland Government, advocated that the management of government information
requires a whole of government approach. The creation of the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner was a step in that direction but it is
clear that government agencies, the OAIC and others still view FOI largely in
isolation from open data, e-government, archives, records management and other
areas of public administration. The Australian Law Reform Report (and inquiry)
into secrecy is a classic demonstration of taking a single lens perspective
rather than a multi-lens and systemic approach to issues associated with open
government.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">In addition to engaging with those individuals or agencies
who have made submissions <span> </span>to this
review by phone or face to face meetings, it would be helpful to hold several
round table forums, bringing together a range of stakeholders and experts to
generate new ideas and approaches to government information, including the role
and expectations of FOI legislation in the 21<sup>st</sup> century.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Given that FOI is part of a major democratic policy
program to enhance accountability and transparency in decision-making, an
objective of this review should be to adopt a more rigorous and extensive
assessment of the operation and evaluation of FOI.<span> </span>This is particularly important given the
amended objects section of the FOI Act now requires government information to
be managed for public purposes and as a national resource. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">There are obviously unavoidable costs associated with this
process, however a narrow cost fixated approach to FOI (as set out in the Terms
of Reference for this review) is too simplistic.<span> </span>If costs are to be calculated they need to be
offset by determining the dividends and public benefit derived from the
operation of FOI.<span> </span>Any devaluing of that
public benefit by begrudging, indifferent or hostile oversight of FOI should be
carefully considered.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">This review should reach some determination about how
effectively the new objects section of the FOI Act operates and agencies should
be required to account for how well and to what extent these legal objectives
are met. While acknowledging that by necessity the process will be difficult,
qualitative and often subjective, agencies should nevertheless attempt the
task.</span></div>
<div class="paragraph">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">A key undertaking
for this review must be to ask questions about the extent to which the supply,
demand, distribution, quality and availability of government information has
been improved since the reforms, evaluating and balancing the impact upon both
agencies and citizens. For example, any difficulties or increase in agency
costs <span> </span>associated with <span> </span>FOI should be offset against any significant outcomes
that may have been achieved (or could be achieved) under Section 3 (2) (a) and
(b) of the FOI Act namely;</span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-left: 1cm;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">(a)
increasing public participation in Government processes, with a view to
promoting better-informed decision-making;<span>
</span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-left: 1cm;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">(b)
increasing scrutiny, discussion, comment and review of the Government's
activities. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Basic changes needed in the
operation of FOI at a national level</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Statement from the Prime Minister
on Freedom of Information and open government.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Scope of FOI widened to include
all government agencies and functions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Emulation of <span> </span>the New Zealand approach to Cabinet
information.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Switch from a focus on documents
to a focus on information.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Instruction to public servants
that frankness and candour are requirements of public office.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Public interest test to apply to
all exemptions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">ALRC Report recommendations into
Secrecy Laws adopted.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Simplified charging regime.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Simplified review mechanism.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Greater focus on changing culture
and practice within the public service.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Australia to join the Open Government
Partnership.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">1. Statement from the Prime
Minister on Freedom of Information and open government.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Since
Senator Faulkner, <span> </span>no Minister
responsible for FOI, or Prime Minister, has shown ongoing and positive
leadership, direction or commitment to ensuring the reforms made in 2010 were
effectively put into place. The Prime Minister should be advised to make a
public commitment to FOI and to instruct the federal public service to avoid
transparency only where it is absolutely in the public interest to do so.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">This statement would reflect similar approaches by
Presidents Clinton and Obama. See the Memorandum from President Obama in
January 2009 at </span><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/FreedomofInformationAct"><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/FreedomofInformationAct</span></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;"> and the US Attorney General memo
March 2009 (attached).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Strong, direct leadership on FOI is vital. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">2. Scope of FOI widened to
include all government agencies and functions.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">In the
21<sup>st</sup> century there is no justification to entirely exclude any
agency or function from the coverage of the FOI Act or the supervision of the
Information Commissioner. If the USA can operate with agencies like the FBI and
CIA covered by the Freedom of Information Act, there is no justification or
necessity to exclude any Australian agency from the <i>Freedom of Information Act </i>1982.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">The
coverage of the<i> Freedom of Information
Act </i>1982 should be extended to include </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">any government or non-government body that carries out public functions or
receives substantial public funds and should automatically extend to include government
agencies created in the future, unless expressly (and by necessity) excluded.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">FOI systems in many western
democracies have demonstrated a capacity to protect sensitive military,
security and economic information without resorting to the blunt and sweeping
mechanism that exclude entire operations or substantial functions of an agency
from the operations of the FOI Act. As Justice Kirby explained in the hearings
of the 2006 McKinnon case in the High Court, a small zone of secrecy is
necessary for the effective operation of government. However, the current scope
of the FOI Act and the extent of exclusions from its coverage clearly exceeds required
levels of confidentiality, security and protection and is not conducive to an
effective and sophisticated system of government information management </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">3. Emulation of the New Zealand
approach to Cabinet information.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Ministers
should be required to consider the appropriateness of publishing Cabinet
material and information under guidelines similar to those adopted in New
Zealand in 2009 (see attached NZ Cabinet Office Memo provided with my initial
submission), including the possibility of releasing such material before a
matter is considered or decided by Cabinet (See point 8 of the NZ Cabinet
Memo).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">In the
last 30 years the entire nature and fundamentals of APS administration have
changed in response to new ideas generated to accommodate the changing needs of
governance and accountability. The nature of government and parliamentary
operations and processes have also evolved and in some cases been radically
transformed from what they were and how they operated in the mid 20<sup>th</sup>
century.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Yet in
the design of FOI we have, almost unthinkingly, stayed committed to an
antiquated and outmoded concept of Westminster government and Cabinet
operations. <span> </span>We need to reconsider the
system to ensure the vital elements and functions of Cabinet confidentiality continue
and are enhanced, while allowing a greater level of transparency and scrutiny
to occur. The NZ example demonstrates that effective government can continue
even with a greater degree of transparency throughout the cabinet
decision-making process.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Furthermore,
the approach taken by the Reserve Bank demonstrates how the adoption of 21<sup>st</sup>
century thinking in relation to information, scrutiny, accountability and
effectiveness can lead to a more open and informed decision-making process.
There is no evidence to show that the increasing level of openness surrounding
the operations of the Reserve Bank Board have diminished its effectiveness,
ability to reach decisions and<span> </span>respond
to crises or challenges. Indeed the evidence seems to indicate that a greater
level of openness has improved economic analysis generally, and enhanced
commentary and understanding about the Reserve Bank and its decisions
specifically.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Contrasting
the approach taken by the New Zealand Government and the Reserve bank, with the
speculation, guesswork and unsophisticated analysis that accompanies the
Cabinet decision-making process in Australia, it is clear we need to reconsider
our approach to Cabinet information.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">4. Switch from a focus on
documents to a focus on information.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">As
suggested by Mr Thomler in his <span> </span>submission to this review, there should be a
shift to a ‘right to information’ framework “where the format of the
information is de-emphasised in favour of a focus on the content.” The key
policy objective of the FOI Act should be devoted to the management of supply,
demand, distribution, quality and timing of availability of information held by
government agencies, rather than focussing on the excessive protection of
information regardless of harm. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">In a
digital age, the goal should be to make information readily accessible to
people using a variety of platforms, serving both to promote government
transparency and accountability, while simultaneously reducing the burden on
agencies to manage cumbersome and outdated systems and processes associated
with meeting their obligations under FOI.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">The AOIC
is embracing the Open Data movement/approach but doing so from a legislative
base and focus that drips with a world view set in the late 19<sup>th</sup>
century in terms of technology, governance and the relationship between citizen
and state and the capacity and resources of citizens. Whilst the digital age
does not empower or ensure equality for all citizens it does have the capacity
to transform those inequalities and power/knowledge imbalances. There is a
world of difference between an adversarial tussle over documents that, once
removed from their surroundings, lose a lot of meaning and insight, and a
process that encourages the creative supply of information to assist
understanding and capacity to engage in public policy development and scrutiny.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">5. Instruction to public servants
that frankness and candour are requirements of public office.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Much has
been made, generally in anecdotal comments as opposed to any solid evidence,
about the chilling effect that possible disclosure has on the capacity of
public servants to be fully candid and frank in their dealings with Ministers.<span> </span>However, a minimum requirement for all public
officers accepting public money and gaining access to the public payroll, is an
expectation or requirement that they will give full and frank advice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">I
understand, as a former bureaucrat, board member and academic, the value and
necessity of the capacity to think/discuss/float ideas in private. However the
impact upon frankness and candour has been overplayed throughout the operation
of the FOI Act. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">The NZ
public service has operated with a significantly higher level of openness
(including up to the Cabinet level) without frankness and candour being
severely diminished.<span> </span>It is only now,
after 30 years in operation, that disquiet about frankness and candour in New
Zealand has arisen and it should be noted that such concerns relate to an inner
core of decision-making far deeper than the outer fringes that are of concern
to Australian public servants.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">As a
former head of agency, Mr Wood noted in his submission that staff should
operate on the basis that they should be prepared to publically, or before
parliamentary committees, stand by and justify advice they prepare for their
Secretary or Minister.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">6. Public interest test to apply
to all exemptions.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">There
should be no absolute exemptions and all exemptions should be subjected to a
public interest test.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">7. ALRC Report recommendations
into Secrecy Laws adopted.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">The 61
recommendations contained in the <span class="st"><span>Australian Law Reform Commission</span>: <span>Secrecy</span> Laws and Open</span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span class="st"><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Government in Australia (ALRC <span>Report</span> 112) 2010 should be implemented.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">It is
difficult to see how an open government system as envisaged under the 2010
reforms can be achieved without adopting and implementing at least the majority
of changes recommended by the ALRC regarding the management of secrecy laws and
provisions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">8. Simplified charging regime.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">As Mr
Thomler points out in his submission, the charging practices of federal
agencies are inconsistent, including where applicants (and the public in
general) are penalisied because of the inadequacies of an agency’s document and
data management system.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Application
fees should be kept to a minimum, not exceeding $20. There are alternative
methods for handling excessive numbers of applications, burdensome and
time-consuming applications and/or vexatious or troublesome applicants than by creating
prohibitive fee structures.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Processing
charges should be removed. As Ms Doyle and Mr Wood’s submissions reveal these
charges are applied inconsistently over time and between agencies. The majority
of Departments now have, or ought to have ICT and records management systems
that enable the inexpensive retrieval and/or creation of information in
response to requests. In many cases, information provided under a FOI request
will be reused by many others and therefore the original applicant should not
bear the cost. Additionally, if (via the Objects section) government
information is a national resource to be used to further inform and improve
policy debate and/or to scrutinise government activity, then processing costs
should not be recovered from those endeavouring to meet these objectives. Fees
should be reduced where the OAIC has determined there have been unnecessary,
unjustifiable or excessive delays in processing FOI applications.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">The idea
of a limit/ceiling on processing time is a useful one. However, any limit
should be reviewable by the OAIC and applicants should not be disadvantaged by
slow, cumbersome and ineffective records management, OICT and processing
procedures used by agencies.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Digital
information should be free, with<span> </span>a small
charge for reproduction via other means (paper, sound etc). Greater use should
be made of government systems such as <i>Slipstream</i>,
as noted by Ms Doyle, to improve efficiency in processing, meeting and managing
of FOI requests.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">I agree
with Ms Doyle and reject the indexing of fees and charges to the CPI. As Ms
Doyle states the FOI process is a legal right granted by parliament and is
intended to serve a number of important democratic and participatory purposes.
Any changes should only occur after consultation with the public.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">9. Simplified review mechanism.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">All
review requests should go directly to the FOI Commissioner who must be staffed
and resourced to ensure that reviews are finalised promptly. As Ms Doyle notes
in her submission the handling of internal reviews is very much the luck of the
draw depending on which agency and which culture is in place regarding FOI.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">One
suggestion is that each agency should be required to transfer resources to the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner proportional to the FOI
review workload generated in the previous year. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">10. Greater focus on changing
culture and practice within the public service.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Despite
the passage of two years since the reforms, Mr Thomler <span> </span>writes:</span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0cm 28pt 0.0001pt 1cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua;">“I have encountered a large number of public servants responsible for
the collection, holding and dissemination of information who: </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0cm 28pt 0.0001pt 1cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0cm 28pt 1.2pt 1cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua;">a. Were
unaware of their obligations under the amended FOI Act </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0cm 28pt 1.2pt 1cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua;">b. Had
mistaken beliefs about their obligations under the amended FOI Act </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0cm 28pt 0.0001pt 1cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua;">c. Were actively conspiring to not record information in ‘documents’
in order to avoid it being FOIed “</span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua;">The submissions
from Ms Doyle and Mr Wood as well as the OAIC Annual Report all reveal a degree
of variable and/or poor compliance in excess of what should be tolerated by a
well trained public service administering an FOI Act in accordance with the
clear objects set out in Section 3.</span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua;">Variable
compliance and commitment to the reforms is inexcusable. I understand that the
Information Commissioner has worked hard to produce cultural change but clearly
far more needs to be done. In particular, the counterproductive influence of
many ministerial staffers upon the effective operation of the objectives of the
FOI Act must be addressed.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">11. Australia to join the Open
Government Partnership.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">As Peter
Timmins has frequently commented on his blog Open and Shut, the Australian
Government’s slowness to sign up to President Obama’s global initiative is
unfathomable and sends a very negative message both domestically and
internationally regarding Australia’s commitment and capacity to achieve open
government.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">This
case is made very clearly in Senator John Faulkner’s extensive coverage of the
reasons and value to Australia in becoming a participating member of the OGP.
See </span><a href="http://www.senatorjohnfaulkner.com.au/file.php?file=/news/QCRMVHXKFO/index.html"><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">http://www.senatorjohnfaulkner.com.au/file.php?file=/news/QCRMVHXKFO/index.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Final Comments</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">I found
it very helpful to have access to Mr Thomler’s submission. It would have been
helpful if your review process had gone some way to facilitating the exchange
of ideas and experiences.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Furthermore,
given the staffing capacity, resources and experience of the Australian Public
Service, it would have been helpful if agency submissions were due by the 7<sup>th</sup>
of December 2012, allowing the public the opportunity to consider and respond
to those submissions by the end of January.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">I have
submitted an opinion piece to <i>Public
Administration Today</i> that will be published before your review is complete.
In that piece my main argument is that the APS has failed to embrace FOI and
open government as a policy program. I argue that the APS in general, and its
leadership specifically, have neglected (since 1983 and 2010) to seek the
benefits of greater openness and have focussed primarily on the negatives and
costs associated with FOI.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-43068646293349031322012-12-03T20:00:00.001-08:002012-12-03T20:00:17.461-08:00Initial Response to the Review of FOI Laws (Cth)
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<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Associate Professor Rick Snell </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">University of Tasmania</span></div>
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<a href="mailto:r.snell@utas.edu.au"><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">r.snell@utas.edu.au</span></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.ricksnell.com.au/"><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">www.ricksnell.com.au</span></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">4 December 2012</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Dear Dr
Hawke,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Thank you for the limited
opportunity, given the submission deadline, to make this submission to your
review. My intention is to submit a set of key changes I consider necessary to
the <i>Freedom of Information Act </i>1982
and the <i>Australian Information
Commissioner Act</i> 2010 and just as importantly changes needed in the
practice, administration and culture of open government at a federal level in
the 21<sup>st</sup> century.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">My intention is to expand upon
these recommendations and points before Friday but I wanted to meet your
deadline and allow others a chance to comment on or respond to some of my
ideas. The approach you have adopted to this review severely limits
opportunities for discussion and the exchange of ideas. I will be available to
meet with you to expand upon the points below or to respond to submissions made
by others especially government agencies.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>Terms of Reference </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 8pt;">Impact of<b> </b>reforms to FOI laws including new structures and processes for
review of decisions and investigations of complaints under the FOI Act, on the
effectiveness of the FOI system and the effectiveness of the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner. The effectiveness of the new two-tier
system of merits review of decisions to refuse access to documents and related
matters.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 8pt;">The reformulation of the exemptions in the FOI Act,
including the application of the new public interest test, including: (i) the
requirement to ensure the legitimate protection of sensitive government
documents including Cabinet documents; and (ii) the necessity for the
government to continue to obtain frank and fearless advice from agencies and
from third parties who deal with government.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 8pt;">The appropriateness of the range of agencies
covered, either in part or in whole, by the FOI Act.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 8pt;">The role of fees and charges on FOI, taking into
account the recommendations of the Information Commissioner’s review of the
current charging regime; and the desirability of minimising the regulatory and
administrative burden, including costs, on government agencies</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Basic changes needed in the
operation of FOI at a national level</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Statement from the Prime Minister
on Freedom of Information and open government.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Scope of FOI widen to include all
government agencies and functions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Emulate the New Zealand approach
to Cabinet information.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Switch from focus on documents to
information.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Instruction to public servants
that frankness and candour are requirements of public office.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Public interest test to apply to
all exemptions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">ALRC Report recommendations into
Secrecy Laws adopted.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Simplified charging regime.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Simplified review mechanism.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Greater focus on changing culture
and practice within the public service.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;"><span>·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Australia to join the Open
Government Partnership.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">1. Statement from the Prime
Minister on Freedom of Information and open government.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Since
Senator Faulkner no Minister responsible for FOI, or Prime Minister, has shown ongoing
and positive leadership, direction or commitment to ensuring the reforms made
in 2010 were effectively put into place. The Prime Minister should be advised
to make a public commitment to FOI and to instruct the federal public service
to avoid transparency only where it is absolutely in the public interest to do
so.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">2. Scope of FOI widen to include
all government agencies and functions.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">In the
21<sup>st</sup> century there is no justification to exclude any agency or
function entirely from the coverage of the FOI Act or the supervision of the
Information Commissioner. If the USA can operate with agencies like the FBI and
CIA covered by the Freedom of Information Act there is no justification or
necessity to exclude any Australian agency from the <i>Freedom of Information Act </i>1982.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">The<i> Freedom of Information Act </i>1982 should
be extended to include </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">any body,
government or non-government carrying out public functions; or receiving
substantial public funds and automatically extend to the creation of any future
government agencies unless specifically excluded.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">3. Emulate the New Zealand
approach to Cabinet information.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Ministers
should be required to consider the appropriateness of publishing Cabinet
material and information under guidelines similar to those adopted in New
Zealand in 2009 (see attached NZ Cabinet Office Memo).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">This
would also include the possibility of releasing such material where appropriate
before a matter is considered or decided by Cabinet (See point 8 of the NZ
Cabinet Memo).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">4. Switch from focus on documents
to information.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">As
suggested in Mr Thomler’s submission to this review there should be a shift to
a ‘right to information’ framework “where the format of the information is
de-emphasised in favour of a focus on the content.” The key policy objective of
the FOI Act should be devoted to the management of the supply, demand,
distribution, quality and timing of availability of information held by
government rather than the focus being on the excessive protection of
information regardless of harm.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">5. Instruction to public servants
that frankness and candour are requirements of public office.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Much has
been made, generally in anecdotal comments as opposed to any solid evidence, about
the chilling effect of possible disclosure has on the capacity of public
servants to be fully candid and frank in their dealings with Ministers.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">A
minimum requirement of accepting public money and their access to the public
payroll, for all public officers, is an expectation or requirement that they
will give full and frank advice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">6. Public interest test to apply
to all exemptions.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">There
should be no absolute exemptions and all exemptions should be subjected to a
public interest test.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">7. ALRC Report recommendations
into Secrecy Laws adopted.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">The 61
recommendations contained in the<span> </span><span class="st"><span>Australian Law Reform
Commission</span>: <span>Secrecy</span> Laws
and Open </span></span><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span></span><span class="st"><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Government in Australia (ALRC <span>Report</span> 112) 2010<span> </span>should be implemented.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">It is
difficult to see how an open government system as envisaged under the 2010 reforms
can be achieved without adopting and implementing at least the majority of
changes recommended by the ALRC in relation to the management of secrecy laws
and provisions.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">8. Simplified charging regime.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">As Mr
Thomler points out in his submission the charging practices of federal agencies
are inconsistent and where applicants (and the public in general) are
penalisied because of the inadequacies of an agency’s document and data
management systems .</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">9. Simplified review mechanism.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">All
review requests should go directly to the FOI Commissioner who must be staffed
and resourced to ensure that reviews are finalised promptly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">One
suggestion is that each agency should be required to transfer resources to the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner based on FOI review workload
generated in the previous year by each agency.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">10. Greater focus on changing
culture and practice within the public service.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Despite
the passage of two years since the reforms Mr Thomler can write:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0cm 28pt 0.0001pt 1cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 10pt;">“I have encountered a large number of public
servants responsible for the collection, holding and dissemination of
information who: </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0cm 28pt 0.0001pt 1cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0cm 28pt 1.2pt 1cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 10pt;">a.
Were unaware of their obligations under the amended FOI Act </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0cm 28pt 1.2pt 1cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 10pt;">b.
Had mistaken beliefs about their obligations under the amended FOI Act </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0cm 28pt 0.0001pt 1cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 10pt;">c. Were actively conspiring to not record
information in ‘documents’ in order to avoid it being FOIed “</span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua;">Variable
compliance and commitment to the reforms is inexcusable. I understand that the
Information Commissioner has worked hard to produce cultural change but clearly
far more needs to be done and achieved.</span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Perpetua;">In particular
the counterproductive influence of many ministerial staffers upon the effective
operation of the objectives of the FOI Act need to be addressed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">11. Australia to join the Open
Government Partnership.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">As Peter
Timmins has frequently commented on his blog Open and Shut the Australian
Government’s slowness to sign up to President Obama’s global initiative is both
unfathomable and sends a very negative message both domestically and
internationally about Australia’s commitment and capability to achieve open government.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Final Comments</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">I
apologise for the brevity and terseness of these suggestions but I have
sacrificed detail to enable my meeting of your deadline.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">I found
it very helpful to have access to Mr Thomler’s submission. It would have been
helpful if your review process had offered ways of facilitating the exchange of
ideas and experiences.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">Furthermore
given the staffing capacity, resources and experience of the Australian Public
Service it would have been helpful to have made agency submissions due by the 7<sup>th</sup>
of December 2012 and the public given an opportunity to consider and respond to
those submissions by the end of January.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 12pt;">I have
submitted an opinion piece to <i>Public
Administration Today</i> that will be published before your review is complete.
In that piece my main argument is that the APS has failed to embrace FOI and
open government as a policy program. I argue that the APS in general and its
leadership specifically have neglected (since 1983 and 2010) to seek the
benefits of greater openness and have focussed primarily on the negatives and
costs associated with FOI.</span></div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-51996770577926167502012-11-27T22:24:00.000-08:002013-03-27T00:22:43.597-07:00 Memoir - Leaves 10-11 Bookseller, Vexatious FOI applicants and shaky start to an academic career<br />
<h2>
</h2>
<h3>
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</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<h3>
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></b></h3>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;"> The Memoir - a work in progress</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;">Background see <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/working-on-memoir.html">Working on a Memoir</a></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;">1st leaf see <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-1st-story-mexico-2008.html" target="_blank">Memoir Leaf 1 - Mexico 2008</a> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 2-6 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-leaves-2-6-ireland-launceston.html" target="_blank">Ireland, Launceston, Cape Town, Whyalla, Cambodia</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 7-9 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/memoir-leaves-7-9-hooning-teaching.html" target="_blank">Hooning, Teaching & Presenting </a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 10-11 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/memoir-leaves-10-11-bookseller.html" target="_blank">Bookseller, Vexatious FOI applicants and shaky start to an academic career</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 12-14 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/memoir-leaves-12-14-car-crash.html" target="_blank">Car crash, Launceston early 1960s, A Road Not Taken</a></span></span><br />
<h3>
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 10 “Saturday interludes as a book merchant” Winter 1987
Hobart</span></i></b></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Esther had just returned
to work full time in the Tax Office and I had taken six months leave to look
after Lance, our 7 month old son. At the time it was rare for woman to return
to work that soon (especially whilst still expressing milk) and very rare for a
young father to be in daily control of a young baby. I encountered numerous
hurdles: there were no baby changing facilities in men’s toilets in the city
(so in an emergency had to change Lance on the floor of toilets): very few
gentlemen rush to help you with prams on the steps of the GPO: baby gear bags
came in few macho styles or colours: and mothers’ groups were strangely
uninviting. At the time, the decision was partly motivated by Esther’s career
appearing to be on a more upward track whilst mine had hit a couple of bumps.
After a few temporary escapes from the Tax Office acting at higher levels in
other Departments (and making the final recruitment selection rounds into the
Australian diplomatic service), I found myself back in Tax at a fairly low
level with little prospect of
advancement.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the previous
12 months, we had operated a casual book and record stall at Salamanca Market.
We started the stall simply to make space for a nursery by selling off excess
books and records. However, we also started to buy books for resale. As a
casual stallholder, I had to drive down to Salamanca on the Hobart waterfront
around 3 am on a Saturday morning to claim my site for the day. Some casual stallholders
got there before midnight, to ensure that they would have a ‘good’ site. And, from
time to time there were early morning fist fights in the car park as ‘regulars’
tried to impose the ‘normal rules to get a casual site’ with newbies who not
only parked in the wrong areas, but often jumped the invisible queue for casual
sites. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Hobart City
Council announced it would allocate a large number of sites on a permanent
basis on a first come-first served basis on the following Monday morning.
Driving by City Hall on Sunday afternoon we noticed a long queue of people with
chairs, thermoses and sleeping bags and we decided, given the length of the
line, it was not worth the effort to camp overnight. On Monday morning Esther
called from work and suggested that it might be worthwhile to see if any stalls
were left. I arrived at City Hall after Lance had woken from his morning nap
and we found ourselves on the end of a short queue. I received the second last
stall, and from that point on we have had a permanent presence at a Salamanca
Market for the last 28 years.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lance, and later
his sister Elise, grew up around this stall.
In my mind, there are pictures of a heavily pregnant Esther helping to
unload bookcases, both Lance and Elise as young babies in bassinets under the
trestles, Lance as a toddler with a label saying “Please return to Stall 145,”
a small lad of five drinking a milkshake behind a card table where he is
selling his old toys, a young boy playing cricket on the lawns of parliament
with other young stall off-spring we called munchkins, and a young man lounging
around catching up on his reading or sleep.
In the last few years, Lance has been replaced by Elise - when she is
not travelling, horse riding or recovering from Friday nights. She too tends to
lounge around (in the winter months, covered head to toe with a blanket),
catching up on reading and sleep.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<h3>
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 11 “Vexatious FOI applicants and flimsy career foundations” 2000 Hobart</span></i></b></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I received a
phone call from the University lawyers. A notorious and vexatious FOI
applicant, a n interstate lawyer, had asked the University for all the
information in my personnel file. I had annoyed the applicant by appearing, the
previous year, before a Queensland Parliamentary Committee on FOI, where I
claimed some people had called me a serial FOI applicant. For some unknown
reason, this had annoyed him and he was now keen to find evidence that
challenged my credentials or undermined my creditability and reputation. The University
was keen to resist the challenge but I was much more relaxed and suggested we
could give him everything he wanted. However, as a compromise, I asked to see
my file before making a final decision. The file was very thick so the
University FOI officer allowed me to read it all.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In many ways, it
was an unusual level of complete access granted to me but also it was an eye
opener. First, I discovered that one of my often used referees, a well known
academic and later judge, was often lukewarm in his support of my applications
– a much different attitude then conveyed in my other encounters with him.
Second, my initial appointment as a law tutor in 1990 was far more problematic
then I had realised. The appointment had often been sold in public by the Law School as a bold and novel experiment by the Law School to deliberately add a
different dimension to the teaching of public law by incorporating a political
science perspective. In many ways, this
official ‘endorsement’ of seeking an innovative approach to public law teaching
guided my efforts over the next few years. However, I discovered the reality
was much different and far from an endorsement. I had actually been the last candidate
out of four applicants standing. Like the Olympic ice skater Steve Bradbury, I
had emerged as the last contestant still in the race. Unlike Steve who knew his
medal had been the result of fate, I spent several years operating with a false
understanding. In retrospect, these two discoveries, the less than supportive
referee and the real reason I had been given a job as a law tutor, explained in
part, some of the difficulties I experienced in gaining a tenured appointment
at the Law School. My academic career had begun on a far more tenuous thread
than I ever imagined.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I consistently justified
and defended my attempts at creating a different type of teaching and learning
environment on the basis that the Law School had deliberately hired someone who
was ‘different’ than the typical or traditional law academic. Indeed, I was
different: I had a less than stellar
undergraduate record as a law student; my primary focus was political science;
and my employment experience had not been as a lawyer but as a public servant. The
truth is, I might have stumbled at the first hurdle, or simply given up, if I
had realised that I had only been given my opportunity to teach because the Law
School was desperate and because I ‘waited’ for several weeks after the
interview, to ask how my application was progressing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Despite these
rocky beginnings, I ended up with a great career and the Law School and
University continue to reap, in terms of international reputation and positive
impact on student learning, an unexpected windfall that has lasted a couple of
decades rather than the intended temporary desperate stop gap measure.<i></i></span></div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-84358601710812380332012-10-05T04:15:00.000-07:002013-03-27T00:21:44.769-07:00Memoir Leaves 7-9, Hooning, Teaching & Presenting<div class="tr_bq">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<h2>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></h2>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKriz9CwEd0u8RiACvuWRf_i6BRRsDBbIwP89joqIfw9JTyM_1lSF8eZA-oPxjUVbjo8nBtw4QqypOjinCrabWIQYyv6ruCySVMXqcr0m6B066S7Uuoi9i_RHnEU75YuUCLxu-VEDpYxo2/s1600/blueecho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKriz9CwEd0u8RiACvuWRf_i6BRRsDBbIwP89joqIfw9JTyM_1lSF8eZA-oPxjUVbjo8nBtw4QqypOjinCrabWIQYyv6ruCySVMXqcr0m6B066S7Uuoi9i_RHnEU75YuUCLxu-VEDpYxo2/s200/blueecho.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">At
the moment the memoir consists of a series of leaves or postcards that
slip between time periods without following a chronology or trying to
tell a structured story.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"> </span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"> Appreciate feedback, reactions and suggestions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"> <a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4/art/6007292-1-blue-echo"><span style="color: #000099;">Blue Echo</span></a></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cover art:</span>
</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> with kind permission of Rachel-Ireland-Meyers (see <a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4">http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4/art/6007292-1-blue-echo"><span style="color: #000099;"></span></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;"> The Memoir - a work in progress</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;">Background see <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/working-on-memoir.html">Working on a Memoir</a></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;">1st leaf see <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-1st-story-mexico-2008.html" target="_blank">Memoir Leaf 1 - Mexico 2008 </a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 2-6 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-leaves-2-6-ireland-launceston.html" target="_blank">Ireland, Launceston, Cape Town, Whyalla, Cambodia</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 7-9 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/memoir-leaves-7-9-hooning-teaching.html" target="_blank">Hooning, Teaching & Presenting </a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 10-11 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/memoir-leaves-10-11-bookseller.html" target="_blank">Bookseller, Vexatious FOI applicants and shaky start to an academic career</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 12-14 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/memoir-leaves-12-14-car-crash.html" target="_blank">Car crash, Launceston early 1960s, A Road Not Taken</a></span></span><br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf
7 </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <i>“My last
hooning on a Friday night in Queenstown” December 1980</i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyy-rv5IGJsT-mzf1_6_PrNDvp7QQGVTE6-lKKEijsrL6qMp-EJ6Pk941Uq2etbiX9YbUTC68RU9f5Ee_KMwNOtRDiNGncigGnLAUPn1ASqTOqulc7MCXygADVMhr_abdk5dAG8Sjhct-I/s1600/img357.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyy-rv5IGJsT-mzf1_6_PrNDvp7QQGVTE6-lKKEijsrL6qMp-EJ6Pk941Uq2etbiX9YbUTC68RU9f5Ee_KMwNOtRDiNGncigGnLAUPn1ASqTOqulc7MCXygADVMhr_abdk5dAG8Sjhct-I/s200/img357.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was a warm Friday night in Queenstown.
Part of me relished the surge of adrenalin and the thrill of being with my
childhood mates. I even made the link with the antics of my favourite Beat
authors and envisaged how this was like a scene from <i>On The Road</i>. Yet the law student and political science major in me
was thinking “what shit have you got yourself into”? I was 22 and John Lennon
had just died. I was back home working underground in the Mt Lyell mine during
my university holidays. I was in the back seat of a station wagon with a carton
of beer cans on my lap. Massive sparks were rising up from the back of the car
as it hurtled dangerously around corners. There were eight or more young men
and boys in the car, three or four of them in the back hurling cans, empty I
hoped, at a pursuing police car. In a mining town like Queenstown, police,
doctors, teachers and mine management were always treated as outsiders and at
times enemies, at best they were tolerated in a very uneasy relationship.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I was thinking of that Dylan lyric, “They
got him on conspiracy, they were never sure who with” and that there would be
no doubt this time. Some of the guys in
the car were old school mates, some relatives and other younger ones were like
I was at fifteen - full of grog on a Friday night and so filled to the brim
with excitement there was little room for foresight. At one point, the wheels
on one side of the car left the ground as we drifted through the tight
roundabout on Driffield Street designed for a much slower speed. We had a good
driver, a veteran of many hair-raising episodes like this, but everything rests
on fate. Our destination was the Webster’s old house on Robertson Street, a
couple of houses from my old family home. We skidded to a halt, everyone
vacated the car and spread themselves around the lounge room pretending to have
been there all night long. The cops grabbed the driver took him outside and
gave him a bit of a belting for being another Queenie smart arse. Later that
night, we engaged repeatedly in several very drunken and heartfelt full renditions
of American Pie.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Over the next few hours and sometimes
over the following years I played this night through a series of lenses. One
lens is that of the lucky survivor of a ‘What if’ scenario. What if the car had
rolled on that roundabout? The headlines would have read, like many headlines
over the years in small country towns, ‘Tragedy and heartbreak as young men die
in accident’. Another lens is that of a young man inexorably drifting away from
his childhood mates and hometown. In another lens I converted the experience,
almost as it is happening, into a poem, novel or a piece of reflective
narrative rather than a simple story of hell raising that is quickly forgotten
among the episodes of every day life or wild nights in a mining town. No one
else in that car had by their bed a copy of, or echoing in their head parts of,
Yevgeny Yevushenko’s Zima Station:</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 134.7pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-ZW">I had been thinking, and I wondered
whether</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 134.7pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-ZW">I would see any changes when I got
in.</span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzdl-0xiSSwWxSuIoA2nSREIGjVS6unLM1KduvEbb6UsmqWrYzH015eBm80blRsYb9gFVYhee7B9pZJK_cNAXQ8_XQjXGBNvAJWNuGqiDng_u5SG0d6NRvdHhmfMe2hMjaV4flZjLxhsyw/s1600/yuri.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzdl-0xiSSwWxSuIoA2nSREIGjVS6unLM1KduvEbb6UsmqWrYzH015eBm80blRsYb9gFVYhee7B9pZJK_cNAXQ8_XQjXGBNvAJWNuGqiDng_u5SG0d6NRvdHhmfMe2hMjaV4flZjLxhsyw/s1600/yuri.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 134.7pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-ZW">I figured if it wasn"t any
better</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 134.7pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-ZW">at least it wasn"t worse than
it had been.</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 134.7pt;">
<i>But
everything appeared to be small,</i></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 134.7pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-ZW">the chemist"s shop, the city
park and all.</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 134.7pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-ZW">It seemed that things had shrunk and
therefore</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 134.7pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-ZW">were smaller than had been nine
years before.</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 134.7pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-ZW">As I was circling around the
vicinity</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 134.7pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-ZW">I gradually came to realise</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 134.7pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-ZW">that it was not the streets that had
become diminutive,</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 134.7pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-ZW">it was my steps that now were big in
size.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Simply having the options of playing with
my thoughts branded me in my own mind as an intruder. If the thoughts had been
given a voice or shared on paper I would have been branded an outsider. This
was my last summer in Queenstown, a summer working underground with my cousins,
catching the mine bus to work with my uncles, staying with my Nan, listening to
the direct and caustic wisdom of my aunties, trying to remember all the names
of the various tribes of my younger cousins, watching girls I had hopeless
school crushes on push their second or third babies around town. After this I
rarely returned and the gaps started to stretch into years and decades. I no
longer fitted comfortably within my home town.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf
8 “Not another brick in the wall” Hobart May 1997</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the front row of the assembled
academics at law graduation, I had tears in my eyes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sitting in an upper balcony, my parents,
Esther and our two young children looked down on this created ritual with
medieval overtones that explicitly and symbolically distanced the graduates
from their past. That was the first and last exposure of my parents, both
diverted from their own education journeys, to university life and the annual
pomp, colour and ceremony of university graduation. I had skipped my previous
two graduation ceremonies not realising that the events were more for family
than for the student. The tears were caused by a spontaneous standing ovation
from the law graduates as my name was read out as the recipient of a Vice
Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-S5ndxbX11CMlwUkegd_VeOjmP-tGuIR4T0rSkTtP2sDLSorSPK5kcj5A_9Iq71rTFK1F5px0Jn9wnUXl4OQ82y2ijoJwcT9-mnCpBBKDHGUqTibNusCycSwRsy_O1HNcCH4moMmXTbYw/s1600/img393.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-S5ndxbX11CMlwUkegd_VeOjmP-tGuIR4T0rSkTtP2sDLSorSPK5kcj5A_9Iq71rTFK1F5px0Jn9wnUXl4OQ82y2ijoJwcT9-mnCpBBKDHGUqTibNusCycSwRsy_O1HNcCH4moMmXTbYw/s200/img393.jpg" width="131" /></a></span><style>@font-face {
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">Receiving the award was
a needed capstone to a long and difficult 6 year journey as a law teacher:</span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">a journey filled with
uncertainty about employment; a journey where my teaching methods had been
viewed as abnormal; and a journey in which my young family too often came second behind teaching, a masters
thesis in political science and attempts to build a profile as a legal
researcher. In my journey as a new teacher. I had rejected mainstream
approaches to law teaching but the replacements I was testing were largely untried,
intuitive and assembled from a multitude of ‘unorthodox” sources. Every class,
every new technique or different type of assessment was launched with the
prospect that failure or a mistake would see the end of a new career, and the fragile
and uncertain indicators of success (testimonials from students) were regarded
by many of my superiors and colleagues around me as at best, generally unreliable
or at worst, just plain not worth the paper they were written on.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 1990, after a couple of years of
teaching a handful of political science tutorials part time, I had taken the
gamble of forging a new career. Leaving behind the two years of developing a
tutor’s surface level expertise in Australian, American and South Pacific
politics and political philosophy, I made the switch to Law. Over the next few
years, I struggled to complete my left over Masters in Political Science
(including a complete topic switch – from Industrial Democracy in Australia to
Politics in Western Samoa) whilst building up expertise in Property Law (a
subject failed as an undergraduate LLB student.
Indeed, I have a rare distinction among Australian law academics of
failing two undergraduate units and having no honours degree in law),
Constitutional Law (rarely attended as an undergraduate) Administrative Law
(vaguely recalled) and Advanced Administrative Law. In addition to my teaching and research, I
had two small children and a market stall at Salamanca Market where I sold
‘pre-loved’ books on Saturdays.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">From 1990 to 1993 I struggled to win a ‘permanent’
position, and was employed on a year to year basis (albeit with a safety net of
a position remaining open for me at the Tax Office). However in 1993, that
safety net disappeared and for several months I was in limbo as the Law School
delayed confirming if I had successfully gained a tenured position. This was a
tough period for me: two young children, Lance, who was 7 years old and Elise ,just
over 2, and a wife who I had vowed, never to place in the financially
precarious position her family had faced when she was young, when her father took
his own life leaving behind a young wife and two young girls to put back the
pieces. Every time I took a risk, each time I failed to get shortlisted for a
contract position, every time I riled my Head of Department, a judge, a student
or a Premier, I was confronted with a growing temptation to simply turn aside
and settle for the security of a low level position in the Tax Office.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the face of this employment
uncertainty, I was coming to grips with the hard core knowledge of several law
subjects and my publishing efforts were still in the early stages. In most
academic disciplines, staff are recruited because of their expertise in
particular niche areas yet in Law no second thoughts are given to pitching a
legal academic into any number of new areas. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I had taught myself to teach and the
ceremony in 1997 was a vindication, in part for the hard choices, struggles and
the risks associated with wanting to offer students a better learning
experience than I had generally encountered in my university days. The award
and ceremony was also a point where I started to be much more systematic and
professional about understanding and improving the learning processes
associated with my teaching. The experience of others in most universities
reflected my own introduction into the ‘profession’ of higher education
teaching – the sink or swim method. The
award confirmed I had learned to swim! The award also gave me a degree of
immunity to continue to explore and develop my teaching practices.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> “Prelude to Leaf 8 - Just another brick in the wall….” Political
Science Department UTAS 1988</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Desperate to escape the confines of a low
level clerical job in the Tax Office, I enrolled in a Masters of Political
Science degree in early 1988. The original plan of doing this while being a
full time parent to a 6 month old in late 1987 quickly evaporated in the
reality of nappies, washing and 100% focus on a small, often uncooperative,
human. The following year I became the first male to go part-time in the Hobart
Tax Office and commenced my political science thesis. My Political Science
mentor felt the best way to dust off my mental cobwebs was to do some part time
teaching.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I knocked nervously on the door. My postgraduate
supervisor had arranged an appointment with the coordinator of first year
political science. Ironically, but true to form, I had skipped most of my
lectures in first year pol sci – to sit on the grass and look at girls, listen
to music and read books that were not listed on my reading lists – Gunter
Grass, Camus, books about revolutionary priests in Latin America and
mercenaries in Africa. I didn’t know what to expect behind the door. In the
public service where I was still employed, every job vacancy required
applications and the extensive addressing of numerous selection criteria,
interviews and reference checks. I was flying blind with this ‘job’. Teaching
at university was a serious business wasn’t it?
Although I then recalled a number of the abysmal tutors inflicted on
students in my undergraduate degree and was totally uncertain about what
awaited me behind that door.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A strong voice boomed “enter”. Before me
was a distracted, bearded academic who clearly had no idea why I was there. The
floor was covered with newspaper and two large puppies were busy staining and
smearing the newspapers. On the surrounding walls, hundreds of thick tomes on
communism in Russia, China and elsewhere appeared to be in the process of
tumbling off the shelves. In desperation I tried to recall some vague points
about communist politics and failed. After a few stops and starts we realised
why I was there – “Room 536 Tuesday at 9am and Wednesday at 10am. See
Bev.” Who was Bev? Bev was the
departmental secretary and my major teaching point of contact and leadership
for the next two years. There was no hand over of notes, course details or any
further discussion about the course. I left the room a fully licensed tutor
with an open permit to play with the minds of first year political science
students. My university teaching career was underway and I never looked back.
Twenty plus years later the support and training of casual tutors has generally
improved yet there are still far more tutors than there should be who still
start in the same fashion as I did. <i></i></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf
9 “Fast Talking” and “my short life as a spy” March 2003 Jakarta, Indonesia</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-4NRnXoTatcLOtq9-PuTttT-y0NG9LCwD2HLaGXg3VRV9d4Yu4dIIqMiBeJ18wIzjHdODqf1QUKilITC0QC6O5WKcfIyxQmEZcRupBlOV3sZbC3GceyCV_Ln2IceDgfCRXjbxbXFBGeSk/s1600/indonesia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-4NRnXoTatcLOtq9-PuTttT-y0NG9LCwD2HLaGXg3VRV9d4Yu4dIIqMiBeJ18wIzjHdODqf1QUKilITC0QC6O5WKcfIyxQmEZcRupBlOV3sZbC3GceyCV_Ln2IceDgfCRXjbxbXFBGeSk/s200/indonesia.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I was inside a large assembly hall within
the Indonesian Parliament building, speaking to a gathering of Indonesian
parliamentarians, civil society activists, military personnel, journalists and
a handful of other international experts. Earlier on, the entire conference had
been bussed to the Presidential Palace and the five international speakers had
been presented to President Megawati at a very elaborate and formal ceremony. As
I shook the President’s hand my thoughts went back 20 years to writing endless
papers on Indonesian politics and history at uni and how I could not have
envisaged the path from that small classroom in Tasmania to the Presidential
Palace in Jakarta.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My talk, after we were returned to the
Parliament, had a few small hiccups. At
the start, a frantic representative from the translators interrupted my talk
after a couple of sentences saying, “Mr Rick, Mr Rick you talk even faster than
Mr Toby (the previous speaker Toby Mendel a Canadian had been asked to slow
down about 15 minutes into his talk) please slow down and can you confirm you
are speaking English?” My lingering speech problems had emerged yet again.
Later in the Question and Answer period an Indonesian gentleman accused me of
being an agent of the Australian intelligence services attempting to undermine
Indonesian security by allowing access to sensitive secrets. Later that night I
was in a Muslim nightclub, swept up in the beat and for the first time to enjoy
the bonding of Muslim men dancing together.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArTM9M0iv5sRfp1WGynD72uyfrI1mWXR35W5OVcjcES98iBi4LhZ4OUPWGdlqLbGuJJUwR2UdzApjBl4b-J7bvF1RUqqIECcKUWfKuKJa5-MqR99eCuvy9_G7HTAqugrWd8V3D9ydhH4e/s1600/indoparl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArTM9M0iv5sRfp1WGynD72uyfrI1mWXR35W5OVcjcES98iBi4LhZ4OUPWGdlqLbGuJJUwR2UdzApjBl4b-J7bvF1RUqqIECcKUWfKuKJa5-MqR99eCuvy9_G7HTAqugrWd8V3D9ydhH4e/s200/indoparl.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The invitation to speak had been
organised through Article 19, an international non-government organisation
focused on freedom of expression and speech issues. The five day trip involved
a whirlwind round of talks and events in Jakarta and Manila to promote and
assist with the development of FOI in those two countries. I had managed to
organise my teaching schedule to make the journey, but the striking contrast
between these two versions of my working life was palpable. On one hand, I left
behind, and was shortly returning to, a group of students who struggled to be
moved by what I was trying to teach them and always left the lectures and
seminars seemingly unimpressed with what they had endured. I was simply another
boring academic paid to disrupt their far more interesting social and work
lives. On the other hand, my short 10-15 minute talks to several hundred
politicians, activists, lawyers and others were considered, debated and
applauded.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">‘On tour’, my days were filled by all
expenses paid airfares, accommodation and meals and opportunities to meet and
spend time with interesting people who were working hard to make a difference
in their homelands. At a meeting in Manila, the next leg of the tour, I sat
next to a beautiful young woman, one of a handful of truly breathtaking people
I have encountered. She had just graduated from film school and had recently
returned from the civil conflict on Mindanao where she had been travelling
alone creating a film about social justice. During our meeting, she exploded in
frustration and railed against the old lawyers (including me) in the room who
were debating the meaning of technical words in legislation thereby excluding
the likes of her and many other ordinary people from making the law do what
they needed it to do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Every meeting since, every time when I am
invited to assist in the law reform process in another country, or the rarer
times in my own country, my thoughts go back to that fiery outburst and the
young Filipina’s passion. I try and make that extra effort to include the
non-lawyer, non-expert voice into the process and to make the technical words
work for them rather than cut down their hopes and aspirations for the law.</span></div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-7705647532653217162012-10-02T02:44:00.000-07:002012-10-02T04:04:42.424-07:00"Demise of Hollydene Hostel"<style>@font-face {
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBlockText">
<b> Published as
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;">“Demise
of Hollydene,” Weekend Extra, <i>The
Advocate</i>, 15 November 2003, 34</span></b><style>@font-face {
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBlockText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBlockText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBlockText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsBVspOBmXXKEB3b9My3V9mb3dwE3luWPJ-IEEi5ERkkQFnS72oohAUPcDh5_ZZ7vyUugqytTL036s-xPOfSf9HGkMymlGYvuSJsPscFYM3w9bI6lreZ9xKC9I4966pEJ3e3eqhzgYvyhp/s1600/hollydene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsBVspOBmXXKEB3b9My3V9mb3dwE3luWPJ-IEEi5ERkkQFnS72oohAUPcDh5_ZZ7vyUugqytTL036s-xPOfSf9HGkMymlGYvuSJsPscFYM3w9bI6lreZ9xKC9I4966pEJ3e3eqhzgYvyhp/s200/hollydene.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
An opportunity that, in
retrospect, was so fragile. It needed many ingredients. Teachers to plant the seed that there was a
road that led beyond my beloved hills. Parents ready to struggle to find money
in an already tight budget. Most important it needed a place to stay. Hollydene
Hostel. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
In the mid 1970s Hollydene served
as a safe base in Hobart for country boys to step onto the road to higher
education. Few made it through to successful completion of year 12 but without
Hollydene many more would have fallen by the wayside. That would have caused
the early and unnecessary termination in
the careers of a number of very good engineers, teachers, scientists and the
odd outspoken academic.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
Hollydene was, even in the 1970s,
rundown but it provided a place my
parents knew they could entrust the care of their son. A 16 year old who lacked experience, maturity and the
finances to survive in a flat or shared private accommodation with other young
country kids in a strange city.
Hollydene, located in Campbell Street, was not a paradise and we all
struggled against its curfews, hostel rules and restrictions on heating in
winter time. Yet it provided a sense of community and day to day stability. It
wasn’t a home but that was a major part of its attraction.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
The sale of Hollydene raises a
simple question. What is there now to replace it? In a letter dated 27 October
2003 to the Mountain Heights School Council (Queenstown) Paula Wriedt, the
Minister for Education suggests that there is a trend away from the “more
structured and supervised hostel accommodation” . Therefore West Coast parents
wanting to send their children on to Year 11 should “liaise with the senior
secondary colleges to establish networks of home-stay accommodation within the
individual college communities”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
Simply not good enough Minister.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
When you close a major
accommodation hostel and fail to replace it there will definitely be a trend
towards private board or rental accommodation. There are no other alternatives
if students wish to study in Hobart. The direct retention rates (never very
good) of Year 10 to full time Year 11 in 2003 from Mountain Heights dropped
from 68% in 2002 to a dismal 43-47% (if you count students who have moved
interstate). In today’s information age this is tantamount to slamming shut the
doors of opportunity on kids who out of choice or necessity went to school on
the West Coast.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
Yes at sixteen I briefly toyed
with the idea of sharing a flat with one of my mates until the reality of the
search for accommodation, rents, furniture, cooking and cleaning changed my
mind. The hit or miss of home stay accommodation (in terms of compatibility,
reliability and availability) was easily outweighed by the benefits of
structured and supervised hostel accommodation. The privacy of your own room,
the availability of food, laundry and scheduled study periods and a base to
explore a new city and lifestyle with a degree of independence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
The closure of Hollydene and the
refusal to provide country kids (and the resulting parental peace of mind) with
a replacement, state of the art hostel
accommodation (designed for the needs of 16-17 year olds) borders on absolute
neglect. Yes it would be costly but what price are we prepared to pay to allow
all our children equality of participation in further education be it going
onto University, VET or other paths such as apprenticeships.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
I never returned to visit
Hollydene but I would be surprised if successive governments did much to
maintain or improve the hostel from the late 1970s too its closure. From time
to time it falls to particular Ministers and Governments to lay down the costly
foundations and invest for future generations. The rebuilding of Reece High
School was an opportunity to improve education in the North West. The
replacement of Hollydene would be an opportunity to improve the educational
prospects of the best and brightest from many small country schools around this
state who would like to study in Hobart. It is unfeasible and simply too
limiting to rely on all West Coast students (and students from country/remote
areas) to move only to Launceston or Burnie.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 58.9pt 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
Without a Hollydene Hostel in
Hobart my life would have been far
different. I now have a life beyond the imagining of a young boy thirty years
ago. I still remember a family relative driving me to Hobart in a Mini Moke
with my bags in the back. As I stepped onto the footpath to walk through those
famous heavy doors of Hollydene I had no hint about the career or life I would
discover. Yet Hollydene gave me the opportunity to find out. I am troubled that 30 years later that
fragile opportunity given to me is now even more fragile and problematic.</div>
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Providing secure and good quality
accommodation will improve retention
rates. Yet why are these retention rates for Mountain Heights students falling?
More importantly what is the Education Department doing about the problem? By
all means travel the world beating the drum to entice parents from other
countries to send their children to study in Tasmania. But don’t neglect our own backyard.</div>
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Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-67769764856225542412012-09-26T05:59:00.001-07:002013-03-27T00:21:08.308-07:00Memoir - Leaves 2-6 Ireland, Launceston, Cape Town, Whyalla, Cambodia<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR7Fg4ZVSXGxchgTgo04DMdwz-esgNBVyfnJtLf6hTdT0rI2ICTerntAStNhgM_TtITDSQb2ZGfFHuj3mgqtw2zjUzg44TMSYjWw_cTa4a8KmWccFMJPUpJAgA5zwIO_I16ZSMAqwLGvri/s1600/blueecho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR7Fg4ZVSXGxchgTgo04DMdwz-esgNBVyfnJtLf6hTdT0rI2ICTerntAStNhgM_TtITDSQb2ZGfFHuj3mgqtw2zjUzg44TMSYjWw_cTa4a8KmWccFMJPUpJAgA5zwIO_I16ZSMAqwLGvri/s200/blueecho.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">At
the moment the memoir consists of a series of leaves or postcards that
slip between time periods without following a chronology or trying to
tell a structured story.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>
</div>
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<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> Appreciate feedback, reactions and suggestions.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cover art:</span>
</span><span style="font-size: large;"> with kind permission of Rachel-Ireland-Meyers (see <span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4">http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4</a>)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
<a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4/art/6007292-1-blue-echo"><span style="color: #000099;">Blue Echo</span></a></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;"> The Memoir - a work in progress</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;">Background see <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/working-on-memoir.html">Working on a Memoir</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;">1st leaf see <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-1st-story-mexico-2008.html" target="_blank">Memoir Leaf 1 - Mexico 2008</a> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 2-6 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-leaves-2-6-ireland-launceston.html" target="_blank">Ireland, Launceston, Cape Town, Whyalla, Cambodia</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 7-9 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/memoir-leaves-7-9-hooning-teaching.html" target="_blank">Hooning, Teaching & Presenting </a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 10-11 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/memoir-leaves-10-11-bookseller.html" target="_blank">Bookseller, Vexatious FOI applicants and shaky start to an academic career</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leaves 12-14 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/memoir-leaves-12-14-car-crash.html" target="_blank">Car crash, Launceston early 1960s, A Road Not Taken</a></span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Leaf
2 <i>“Returning to Erin” Ireland April 1999</i></span></b><br />
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiksOZIQS_wb7Rpyt8P-Sd1g9J9VtdyQRhpn-GhX7IKzicUyAtviSnQ19Tt3Adz1m5tC31IQuwxwG4JDrQ6OfSfWFbeihWI2ZJ5hHcbcGKY8_EIA048CFdR75k4JmU8Y5pzgnc6AefuKRw1/s1600/dc+grand+hall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiksOZIQS_wb7Rpyt8P-Sd1g9J9VtdyQRhpn-GhX7IKzicUyAtviSnQ19Tt3Adz1m5tC31IQuwxwG4JDrQ6OfSfWFbeihWI2ZJ5hHcbcGKY8_EIA048CFdR75k4JmU8Y5pzgnc6AefuKRw1/s200/dc+grand+hall.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">I
stood at the podium in St Patrick’s Hall deep inside Dublin Castle. Towering
gilt covered columns and large mirrors lined the walls. Thin, long banners
floated down the walls in between the mirrors and columns. Many of the banners bore cattle motifs
belonging to the Anglo-Irish nobility who gathered here century after century
at the beck and call of their English monarchs. Above me, three massive painted
panels by </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Perpetua;">Vincenzo Valdre</span><span style="font-family: Perpetua;"> covered high and sweeping ceilings</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Perpetua;">. The first depicted the coronation of King George
III, the second, Saint Patrick introducing Christianity to Ireland, and the
final painting was of King Henry II receiving the submission of the Irish Chieftains.
This hall had, for centuries, sent a sharp message to the Irish, from nobility
to peasant, about power and dominion.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8NTCDxpeHI37q8RzzlR5XdSzk4jUaMM-TE0k2GYJCSZr-_B8fKoFqGo38dCPxXr31aq8h4XFM7h7kQ4Ds0rAkm6yA2QBo-6XfhV-VTsPZ57ygZ6iguzuNRvHlDD2e-gpT94OTbvxqCsfx/s1600/dc+ceiling+paintings+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8NTCDxpeHI37q8RzzlR5XdSzk4jUaMM-TE0k2GYJCSZr-_B8fKoFqGo38dCPxXr31aq8h4XFM7h7kQ4Ds0rAkm6yA2QBo-6XfhV-VTsPZ57ygZ6iguzuNRvHlDD2e-gpT94OTbvxqCsfx/s200/dc+ceiling+paintings+3.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Perpetua;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Perpetua;">The Irish Government/University of Cork sponsored
FOI Conference was a rare opportunity for a junior lecturer to speak at such a
venue in another country. I faced a sea of Irish faces, many bearing a striking
resemblance to those I saw every day in Tasmania, including my cousins on the
Cody and Gleeson sides of the family. I was extremely nervous despite repeated
rehearsals in the morning shower, I had not yet found the right opening. </span><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Finding the start of a talk or lecture is always
the difficult moment for me. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">If I can get an interesting opening or one that I
can use as a hook, the rest of the talk flows naturally. Yet until I see the
venue, and get a feel for the audience and the atmosphere, it is hard to
crystallise the opening. Looking out on the assembled Irish public servants,
journalists and academics, finally inspiration came to me as I waited on stage
to be introduced. I found the
‘hook’: a link between my theme of
government transparency, the history made within the confines of Dublin
Castle and my mother’s ancestors being transported from
Ireland in the 1840s. My talk had found its beginning:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">“I find it strange to be standing
here today- at the heart of colonial British administration from the place
where my ancestors, male and female in chains, were transported as criminals to
the other end of the world – talking about access to government information.
I’m the first of their descendants to return to this country and after three
months of living with ‘soft days’ I know why my ancestors never returned home.” </span></i><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Over
the next 12 months I revisited parts of my Irish ancestors’ long, slow route to
Australia. I gave invited talks in Cape Town, where their leaky old transport
ships would have rested at anchor, and later at the Rocks in Sydney where they
were likely to have berthed before being consigned like trade goods or human
cattle to Van Diemen’s Land. In all three places my talks were given in the
converted buildings of the British colonial regime – in Dublin Castle, a
converted prison in Cape Town and the old government buildings in Sydney.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">The
invitation to Dublin was achieved through networking, a skill few academics or
public servants seem to master despite the fortune spent on business cards and
the piles of cards collected and distributed at conferences. An email from people given one of my cards is
rare. On the other hand within a week of returning from a trip, I’ve emailed
everyone whose details I collected. If no reply is forthcoming, they are
allowed to drift out of my networks. If someone replies, they go into one of my
contact lists (administrative law teachers, FOI contacts, personal, by location
or some other category). Only 5% of those I contact ever keep in touch. Yet in
20 years, this 5% has turned into a significant network. Networks are like
gardens requiring regular attention where seeds germinate, bloom and often fade
away over time.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;"> In early December 1998, I received an email
from Maeve McDonagh, a striking red-haired academic from University College
Cork. Maeve was an Irish expert on FOI who had worked in Australia. We met via
the <i>FoI Review</i>, a publication I
edited for a decade, and Maeve had visited Tasmania a few years previously for
a seminar and stayed with my family. She had arrived in late November (late
Spring) only to encounter snow falling on the mountain where we live. Maeve is
one of those vibrant Galway women with a lilting voice and flashing eyes which
give enough warning signs to know you would want to avoid her ire. Maeve’s email asked if I could help Cork Law School with a
problem. Each year in January they invited a US academic to Ireland who would
teach a legal writing class in return for an airfare and a small stipend. All
that was required was a few hours of lectures, some one-on-one feedback with a
hundred or more Irish, Spanish and German students over a four month period and
marking two sets of essays. An American legal writing teacher (a position yet
to gain a significant foothold in Australia) had cancelled at the very last
moment and they needed someone within three weeks.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Frantic
consultations with family, the Dean of the Law School and the deployment of my
annual and long service leave found me committed to living for four months in
Ireland whilst my family remained in Tasmania.
My return to ‘home soil’ after a 40 hour journey was almost thwarted as
the Garda (Police) insisted on a work permit and seemed unmoved by my
explanations that the people at Cork Law School had said it would be okay to
complete the details (which only they had) on the form after arriving, an
arrangement not cleared with the authorities.
It was Cork, late Saturday night and I was an Australian, so I was
allowed in with a passport stamp saying
“report to the nearest Garda Station in 10 days,” a deadline my Irish
colleagues kept insisting could blissfully be ignored. Meanwhile, on the same
night in Dublin, a Japanese student with a fully completed permit, but in their
luggage, was refused entry and held in custody for four days. Maybe a few ancestral
spirits had removed the ‘barriers’ for my return ‘home’.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Leaf
3 <i>“Words and Pictures” Elphin Road
Launceston 1965 or early 1966</i></span></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW6FDDFm6l-zfAd5GkYH2baAa6Z1GjrAwYOpbja1gI0SUmQ8-V5SGAZwir87cFni3-paZvYsM_xwEXXX6v3UCSPT3E2C1jFIGWVxFoPOfplZd5JGiZ3wcY8x5ADmcCBcXdEjM1N6JZN_DK/s1600/smash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW6FDDFm6l-zfAd5GkYH2baAa6Z1GjrAwYOpbja1gI0SUmQ8-V5SGAZwir87cFni3-paZvYsM_xwEXXX6v3UCSPT3E2C1jFIGWVxFoPOfplZd5JGiZ3wcY8x5ADmcCBcXdEjM1N6JZN_DK/s200/smash.jpg" width="144" /></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Two
memories battle for a precise location in my early history. One is where I’m
aged about six, checking letterboxes because I have conflated the sending out
of pamphlets about the introduction of decimal currency with the idea that
actual money was being delivered. I have
a strong impression that the struggle to find money was a constant part of my
mother’s waking hours. My venture into postal theft reaped poor dividends as
the Government simply sent out cards showing the likeness of the coins and
banknotes to come. The second memory is heading to the newsagent to buy a copy
of <i>Smash</i>, a British comic, with a
penny or ha’penny with a coin that may have been given to me by an old man who
lived in the same group of flats as our family.
Maybe this was the old man who taught me draughts and a few basic card
games. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9aVmsaNWBppACxQJjvx0NuaEAGYz8i0oCmJN0yiVS4qe3UHf1Ps8c9QsL3IzRyrVtMAox-D-YntuiBQkCWDAhg3o5wMO7Fb2sDR_sS4ahfSie-wUNUgy7lvzrAnkGbCe2u9Ti-4pVOMKW/s1600/spot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9aVmsaNWBppACxQJjvx0NuaEAGYz8i0oCmJN0yiVS4qe3UHf1Ps8c9QsL3IzRyrVtMAox-D-YntuiBQkCWDAhg3o5wMO7Fb2sDR_sS4ahfSie-wUNUgy7lvzrAnkGbCe2u9Ti-4pVOMKW/s200/spot.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">The
struggle to read the borrowed <i>Dick and
Jane</i> books from East Launceston Primary School still lingers with me today,
especially the frantic efforts I made to avoid the terror of trying to read
aloud in class before my stuttering and mangled pronunciation ended in
tears. Yet those struggles and terror
quickly disappeared with my private and mental devouring of the pictures,
actions and words of <i>Smash</i> comics.
Comics remain a treasured part of my reading material, and like Clive James in <i>Unreliable Memoirs,</i> some of them rank
equally to Arundhati Roy, Kerouac or Shakespeare. As I type this, the latest 5
issues of <i>The Phantom</i> are sitting on
the table waiting to be read with sweet pleasure and anticipation. Comics
taught me I could master words and language, even if I had little talent or
capacity to show that mastery with my voice.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">When
I first started writing these vignettes I would visualise a scene or recall a
photograph and then develop the story around the image. Image - my mother and I in our best outfits on
the steps of a public building and the camera catching her beauty. Another
image – a late Friday night almost two decades later and I am in the backseat
of a speeding car, packed with local youth, as beer cans are being hurled at a
pursuing police car. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">For
several years I have urged law book publishers to add colour and images to
their text books or to produce a “Rough Guide” series to the law where cases
and principles are supplemented by the back story, pictures and other
information in drop boxes and other devices. Many of my academic colleagues
would almost sneer at the ‘dumbing down’ of the delivery of ‘the law’ in this
way. For me, it is making the law
accessible and interesting. A few years ago Lynden Griggs, my colleague at
UTAS, and I wrote an article advocating teaching property law using just six
cases. The idea was that we would trace the story, including the legal and the
social aspects, from the beginning to the aftermath of the case. The idea was
that this ‘six pack” of cases could put law cases and principles not only in
their context, but also make them come alive with their characters, dramas and
intriguing stories of hope, despair and chaos. This method would provide a way
to immerse students in the detail of the law as well as into the drama and
struggle behind the dry cases set out in the textbooks and case law. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Leaf
4<i> “Freedom Fighter” Cape Town July 1999</i></span></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">The
words “Freedom Fighter…” were splashed
across a large picture of me in the <i>Argus</i>
newspaper in Cape Town, South Africa: an honour in the land of Nelson Mandela
and the inspiring jurist Albie Sachs. I
was halfway through a rapid 3 day trip (including return travel that started
with a lecture in Introduction to Law in Hobart on a Wednesday morning - a
hurried filming in my office of a <i>Lateline</i>
segment on FOI (that never went to air), a taxi to Hobart International Airport,
a series of flights, – Melbourne - Kuala Lumpur –Mauritius – Johannesburg - Cape Town, 48 hours at a conference then a
return set of flights – Cape Town - Johannesburg – Sydney – Hobart, followed by
another Introduction to Law lecture on the Monday morning, just to give a
presentation to a conference about FOI in South Africa. When I asked an organisier for the South
African Human Rights Commission why I was there, he simply said, “after what
you have to say about the experience elsewhere and what best practice is in
relation to cabinet information then our proposals will look moderate.” Deep in
the text of the Argus article is possibly the only use by an academic in a
media interview using the term “ratshit”.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Three
very different encounters have stayed in my mind from that trip. The first was
being confronted by the slums on the way from the airport in Cape Town. It was
my first near but still fleeting and remote encounter with mass poverty. It was
intriguing to see the range of housing even within the slums. In one location,
a large two storey concrete building lorded it over the rest of the buildings.
Stretching out in almost prefect concentric, regulated zones were different
types of housing: nearest to the two storey building were those constructed of
better tin; as the zones went out the tin quality dropped quickly; and finally,
tin was soon replaced by cardboard. On the edges of stagnant water pools (large
puddles) were the most improvised dwellings. It seemed that poverty clearly had
its own levels. The second encounter
occurred at a reception during a conversation with a white male who was a
former member of the South African Defence Forces. He was telling a story from the apartheid
years about Armoured Personnel Carriers and the ANC. Another person, a black
female left the group at the same time as I did. She made a phone call where she related the
man’s story and seemed to be urging some kind of action or response from the
person on the other end of the line. Whilst the gathering was multi-racial, it
was clear the scars, wounds and enmities from an earlier period were not
buried, instead, they still lingered just under the surface of collective
memory.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">The
final encounter was a lesson in the difference between necessary accommodation
at work and separate lives after hours. A very mixed group from the conference,
in terms of race, gender and countries went to an elegant wharf side
restaurant. As we walked in, the conversation slowed to a stop. The absence of
non-white faces among the diners was a stark contrast to our multi-ethnic
group. During the course of our meal several ‘coloured’ passers-by stopped and
looked into the restaurant. A couple appeared to make a spur of the moment
decision and came in for a meal. One of my companions remarked the next day
that there were very distinct worlds for most South Africans, nearly
uncrossable divisions between their multi-racial working lives and their very
race-centered non-work existence.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Leaf
5<i> “An inferno on the edge of town”
Whyalla, South Australia December 1977 –
February 1978</i></span></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">A
magnificent sight, driving on the edge of the South Australian desert with Dad
at the wheel. Great forks of lightening rippled towards the earth from all locations
around a perfectly flat horizon. I felt
like I was at the epicentre. Every few seconds another series of dazzling
bright streaks, a fresh lightening bolt would appear, often before the previous
one had faded. The blue sky disappearing into night wore a blanket of dark
cloud and the flashes highlighted the redness of the soil. I was on my summer
holidays before starting my second year of University. We were driving towards
a complex of steel and iron rising out of the landscape: BHP’s Whyalla Steel
Mill</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Dad
had moved to work at Whyalla after being retrenched in the massive lay offs of
over 700 workers, almost half the workforce, at Mt Lyell, Tasmania in 1976. The
retrenchments ripped apart Queenstown, a small isolated town of about 8,000
people. Many families were forced to do the unthinkable and leave town, an
unimaginable moment for many in that town, including for my family. Untill that
moment, an attitude had prevailed that the history of Queenstown, despite all
the experiences of mining towns everywhere else, would be eternal. I had
completed a social sciences assignment in matriculation college in 1975 which
attempted to explain this attitude based on the evidence of surviving the
economic crunch of the 1890s, the Mt Lyell Disaster of 1912, two World Wars,
the Depression and hard times in the early 1960s. There was a feeling and an
optimism that the town would be there for centuries.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">At
the same time as the retrenchments, two retiring Directors of Consolidated
Goldfields, the then owners of Mt Lyell, received golden parachutes of several
hundred thousand dollars each. The events of the Whitlam Dismissal, the
invasion of East Timor, the Mt Lyell retrenchments and the golden parachute for
the directors added sharp dimensions to my thinking and attitudes. The lonesome
outsider started to form a critical and sharp political view of the world. The accidental discovery of Bob Dylan (I was
attracted by the cover and the poetic liner notes) via his Desire album and Bruce
Springsteen’s tributes to the working/struggling classes of small towns
finished the forging of a radical edge to my politics and social views. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">After
a long period of trying to find work with hundreds of others on the West Coast,
even trying for jobs on <i>Groote</i><i> </i>Eylandt,
the largest island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Dad eventually scored a job at
Whyalla in South Australia and the family pulled up its roots and went with
him. For a family that considered a once a year trip to Burnie (100 miles) as a
major and largely joyless adventure, this appeared like a journey of no return.
I stayed behind in Tasmania to continue my first year at the University.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Whilst
my TESS (Tertiary Education Student Support) allowance was minimal (calculated
on Dad’s previous wage at Mt Lyell and not on his unemployment benefit or much
lower new wage), it did entitle me to 3 return trips to my home (the definition
of home now incorporated my family’s new
home in South Australia) each year. No more money could be found for me to live
on but I could spend more than double my monthly TESS cheque on each trip home
three times a year if I wanted.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Bored
and keen for money, during my first summer in Whyalla, I rocked up to the
employment office at the steel mill. I lied about my educational background
claiming that I had just finished college and had no intent of going on to
university. My long hair and shaggy beard seemed to do little to undermine the
creditability of my story. I was hired. Thus began my short but intense career
as a shift-work mill labourer in the hot desert sun. There were a number of
Tasmanian employment refugees like my father at the mill. We identified
ourselves by drawing a rough triangle (the general shape of the island state of
Tasmania) on our helmets with the year of our arrival in the middle of the
triangle. My red helmet had a yellow triangle and a ‘77’. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2NOhyphenhyphen8M4W1GfrsQAGkDxW8BSXWip02Pd628ih__W0RycY24SYK8svoXgGBjp2NsvYdIbbI6o5JwGF7u5VexLHyaiKY9PLRS26ECXQJSxiDBj14QWbFb1h5P-lkUqY93L7hyJWy7TFTgy7/s1600/steel1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2NOhyphenhyphen8M4W1GfrsQAGkDxW8BSXWip02Pd628ih__W0RycY24SYK8svoXgGBjp2NsvYdIbbI6o5JwGF7u5VexLHyaiKY9PLRS26ECXQJSxiDBj14QWbFb1h5P-lkUqY93L7hyJWy7TFTgy7/s200/steel1.jpg" width="129" /></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua;"> The main, and never ending, shift task was
using a special metal ‘key’, a metal rod about a metre in length with a ‘V’ at
one end. The labourer would approach a 6 metre long steel girder laying on its
side push the ‘V’ at the top of the bar into an edge of the girder and with the
right degree of force and timing ‘flick’ the bar over. It was a simple task
that anyone could do and the degree of instruction matched its complexity – a
handful of minutes on the first day. But it was, in fact, a simple task that
sometimes went horribly wrong. Errors in estimating the force, timing and/or getting
the flick wrong would result in the 6 metre several tonne girder whipping back suddenly. When this
happened you had to do two things: first, let go of the bar – or have your arm
wrenched from its socket; and second, step back, duck and dive backwards as
your bar spun would often spin back towards you. The turning procedure needed
to be done every few minutes. If you failed to turn a girder the whole section
of the rolling mill would be on hold until you recovered your turning bar,
tested your arm and successfully flipped the girder.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">There
were three shifts, morning from 8am - 4pm, afternoon from 4pm - midnight and
night shift from midnight - 8am. You rotated through these shifts over three
weeks. Labourers, desperate for money like me, could also volunteer for
overtime. Sometimes, overtime was an
extra three hour shift or a rare but enriching double shift with full meal
allowances. The only drawback of overtime was having to rock up at the start of
the next normal shift – a killer after a double shift. For a very good reason there
were few volunteers for overtime.– the overtime job that awaited you. Few
people volunteered for a second lot of overtime. After eight hours of flicking
steel girders, with little access to water, your stamina and concentration was
fairly low. The overtime job was
‘bundling’. Bundling is such a simple
phrase that described something Dante would have struggled to depict. Girders
would emerge from the furnaces glowing red hot, twisted and warped. They needed
to be straightened between massive heavy-duty rollers. After the rolling, the
girders would be collected in bundles of 8-10 by massive forklifts and taken
out into the desert to cool off. The cooling took several days. The cooled
girders were then returned to the rollers to be further straightened.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLLSaHyzKsgLbxS8HWh0q0XDNoO_667RTn0ZU2k5V18XQoVDWsXhekkskeuchIm-oTI9O4BcyhHUzQyWl_cqTrE1IZiilKE7514vRlSuscqnv-RcOcqwBC47UH5GLeTOArqVhn0N_0XIa7/s1600/hot+steel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLLSaHyzKsgLbxS8HWh0q0XDNoO_667RTn0ZU2k5V18XQoVDWsXhekkskeuchIm-oTI9O4BcyhHUzQyWl_cqTrE1IZiilKE7514vRlSuscqnv-RcOcqwBC47UH5GLeTOArqVhn0N_0XIa7/s200/hot+steel.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Bundling
required the labourer to twist a thick wire around both ends of the bundle and
a third wire in the middle. Donning a full face mask, thick leather gloves and
a thick leather apron with your trusty flip bar in one hand and the wire in the
other you dashed from the shelter towards this massive pile of glowing red
steel with two other work mates. There you stood like a leather clad medieval
knight on the edge of a dessert in the middle of summer to undergo your
ordeal. Step 1, twist the long wire in
half forming a small loop at one end. Step 2, tap the new double strand wire
one third along and about halfway along which allowed the wire to be folded at
these ‘joints’. Step 3 walk quickly up to the mass of steel, surrounded by
heat, burning dust, choking air and slide the wire underneath and up behind the
bundle. Step 4, reach across the red hot
steel – avoiding contact - insert bar in loop twist until wire is super tight.
Step 5, ignore the honking forklift drivers right behind you (on a bonus for
each bundle collected – whilst the bundlers were on a flat minimum wage).</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Five
quick steps. 25 seconds in total if done
flawlessly. My maximum limit was about
40 seconds of exposure to the heat, choking fumes and horn blasts. Stuff up the
bundling and the second attempt would generally take another 40 -50 seconds.
Third attempts were simply suicidal. On second attempts you started to forget
things like why there needed to be a loop, you would neglect to put in the
‘joints’ and struggle with trying to fit a straight thick iron wire around a
stack of red hot steel. This was often followed by the ultimate moment of
induced forgetfulness. Thick leather offered some protection from heat but it
was not a very fireproof barrier against direct contact with red hot steel. A
quick lapse of concentration would be immediately accompanied by the smell of
fresh burning and the necessity to quickly retreat. I never got burnt but
several times I exchanged my smoking holey gloves or apron for new ones. Once
the girders were bundled, you retreated to the shelter taking off helmet,
gloves and knocking back endless quantities of water. If the bundling was
completed in the first attempt and in minimal time you had the luxury of fresh
air, water and time to refocus on the next foray. When you staggered through a
second or third attempt you had no time for any recovery. Labourers who failed to complete overtime
tasks never got a second opportunity.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Stand
stills were frequent at the mill. Rolling the warped red hot steel between the
straightening wheels required attention to speed, the weight to be applied and
the positioning of the girder. The rolling operators seemed to be a hot-bed
collection of dope smoking and white horse riding (heroin) cowboys and
inattention and therefore hold ups were common. During the day and early
afternoon shifts when these stoppages occurred,
labourers, like me, had to grab tins of yellow paint and repaint all the safety rails, just in case a
‘boss’ was walking around. ‘Bosses’ had to suffer big pieces of machinery not
working but would not tolerate a free loading labourer. Over several weeks, I
painted the same safety railings at least 15 times. When stoppages occurred
after the afternoon shift meal beak
(7.30pm) or on nightshift, when no Bosses were on the job, you could curl up in a corner and try and
sleep or read under the lights. Generally I was the only reader in the rolling
mill area. Reading Kerouac, Salinger, Tom Robbins or political philosophy in
the strange twilight and backdrop of a night time steel mill on the edge of the
desert added a special atmosphere to the task.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">A
few weeks of enduring an antipodean version of Dante’s Inferno led to the
fateful decision to forgo a few extra weeks of wages and head back to Tasmania
to enrol in a special 2 week intensive Introduction to Law course. A series of
letters exchanged with my friend Sally (met in my very first Political Science
tutorial and my first ever private school friend) persuaded me to give law a
go. At that point I had no realisation of the role played by law in creating
and preserving the status quo that I had started to rub against.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Leaf
6<i> “Talking to the Generals” Phnom Penh,
Cambodia August 2007</i></span></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6PRXa1svIWa5KD46fTXN0jvy0MW9qPp9YII7_X521zfX2297EKJVj_rlzIpA9lbrC5UQKyrPgO-sRjs4iSTUrxSQAEEQrDUVzbOdoM-3a8f7NUgTNHRuaeg0YKqDcRQtEjj4IMgt1zCgO/s1600/neang+phat-20-7-09_d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6PRXa1svIWa5KD46fTXN0jvy0MW9qPp9YII7_X521zfX2297EKJVj_rlzIpA9lbrC5UQKyrPgO-sRjs4iSTUrxSQAEEQrDUVzbOdoM-3a8f7NUgTNHRuaeg0YKqDcRQtEjj4IMgt1zCgO/s200/neang+phat-20-7-09_d.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">We
had just driven across Phnom Penh in a small convoy, small flags fluttering at
the front of the vehicle. Negotiations
for this meeting had been going on for a couple of days. We were waved into the
Headquarters of the Cambodian Defence Ministry. Car doors were opened smoothly
by officers in smart dress uniforms. On the circular creamy marble stairs at
each turn, there were pairs of silent and still guards. As we climbed the
levels, the amount of insignia, colour cords and braiding on the statute like
guards increased. The seven of us (including our interpreter, four Ministry of
National Assembly officials and my Cambodian off-sider) were ushered into a
massive room. We were seated at two long
polished wooden tables separated by a wide gap in the middle. At each seat was
a microphone. It was like a photo from the Paris Peace Talks of the late 1960s
or early 1970s. Opposite sat eight men in full dress uniform, adorned with medals
and overflowing braid, and one lone civilian. Behind each officer, and a few
paces back, fully armed sentries stood at attention. I wanted to whip out my
camera to catch the scene but decided that this would probably be a deal
breaker.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">At
one point in the meeting, I referred to a section in the Cambodian
Constitution. The translation was followed by looks of concern and the hands of
the Generals started to move towards their jackets. My immediate thought was
that I had derailed the talks with a stupid comment. It was both a relief and
surprise when all of them drew out their pocket constitutions to confirm the
accuracy of my Cambodian constitutional knowledge. At that point, I reflected
that reaching for their constitutions rather than their guns may have been a
sign of progress in Cambodia’s long and very troubled history. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Later,
in the course of a few terse exchanges, it was apparent that the Generals were
deeply concerned, but it was hard to fathom the cause. Then, enlightenment: the Generals thought the
‘right to information’ was also the ‘right of every soldier’, regardless of
rank, to release information. They had
been reeling from the thought of Cambodian privates exercising constitutionally
guaranteed rights to hand out information to anyone who wanted it. A quick
clarification that FOI officers, authorisied to make decisions about release of
information, ought to be senior officers operating in a firm line of command
placed negotiations back on a smooth path.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhDfwCbny3xMQUG7urtZBeDT1V8Uvc__nQJbnEuYYYRu5ua6GSKpbmFIe4rjVVj0eVzeKLyFlZEi2JiqcX0CMBmr2Qa3F2Ta_fD40m8ig_NyQcbefnwit4PIJfelSx2NIMEjeu1mXHStf/s1600/100_0705.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhDfwCbny3xMQUG7urtZBeDT1V8Uvc__nQJbnEuYYYRu5ua6GSKpbmFIe4rjVVj0eVzeKLyFlZEi2JiqcX0CMBmr2Qa3F2Ta_fD40m8ig_NyQcbefnwit4PIJfelSx2NIMEjeu1mXHStf/s200/100_0705.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjgzoQ2wNKEB42SkTFxCATa4VXeF6mRqrnoBfCUXwH2YRDsUij_0Buc4adBP6HnH0bEWOJ-DeZuinAmDVE1PSQ1NRoIQ6l80ocs2rBvhlOz4I-SRv3_pprDQJJtbbnS87FXsMYQ3GRLu1P/s1600/100_0696.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjgzoQ2wNKEB42SkTFxCATa4VXeF6mRqrnoBfCUXwH2YRDsUij_0Buc4adBP6HnH0bEWOJ-DeZuinAmDVE1PSQ1NRoIQ6l80ocs2rBvhlOz4I-SRv3_pprDQJJtbbnS87FXsMYQ3GRLu1P/s200/100_0696.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">As
we left the compound I reflected on how a shy, tongue-tied boy from a small
mountain mining town had found himself dealing directly with generals and
Ministers in a far away land (Eespecially after a childhood of imagining being
a solider in Vietnam). Yet the stories of those I worked with and my visit to
S21 quickly evaporated any sentimentality or light heartedness. S21 was the
former school where over 14,000 Cambodians and a handful of non-Cambodians were
systematically tortured, interrogated, photographed (often in their torture
chair) and then killed, Most of the people I worked with had been young
children or young adults during the Khmer years.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq22YS3yS8QocRrBXki_tL1ft6XtIyZCE_i8V0dlfPimGzeNu08y1cv5xzR1OwgCM7NpF8b4wQrCvpGESI30F7751qnfMRaM2L7VN6NtX0r0z9XYNEJjh_oylxPYArY5Xi5VnpatU1esmn/s1600/100_0707.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq22YS3yS8QocRrBXki_tL1ft6XtIyZCE_i8V0dlfPimGzeNu08y1cv5xzR1OwgCM7NpF8b4wQrCvpGESI30F7751qnfMRaM2L7VN6NtX0r0z9XYNEJjh_oylxPYArY5Xi5VnpatU1esmn/s200/100_0707.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg6Ytz4cumDLc_0cz88Sv2ECzLlCWsz60PfLa6bmDYeG0xWaNM9UjFHz9wh6tVuNNc7FrwyBQTi_539N6pMaRUVApdYtDGt6ypA-XOyKf2-KqCxxxrnLKiZK724kjpMy1euvVeoAS60bpe/s1600/100_0703.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg6Ytz4cumDLc_0cz88Sv2ECzLlCWsz60PfLa6bmDYeG0xWaNM9UjFHz9wh6tVuNNc7FrwyBQTi_539N6pMaRUVApdYtDGt6ypA-XOyKf2-KqCxxxrnLKiZK724kjpMy1euvVeoAS60bpe/s200/100_0703.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Throughout
my work in Cambodia there would be times when these 40-55 year old survivors
would gently recall some aspect of these troubled years. It might be a comment
about how my local 45 year old consultant was the family ‘elder’ for his
extended family. Or the NGO activist,
who acted as a go-between with government officials, recounting how as a young
teenager he walked across Cambodia, eluding the Khmer Rouge and then swum
underwater sucking through a reed to get across the Thai border before becoming
for a period a teenage gunrunner. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Perpetua;">Next - </span></div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-64097333876265018472012-09-23T23:26:00.001-07:002013-03-27T00:39:36.150-07:00Memoir - 1st story Mexico 2008<style>@font-face {
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
first of the pieces from my memoir project. For a backgrounder on this project
see earlier post </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;"> The Memoir - a work in progress</span><br />
<span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;">Background see <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/working-on-memoir.html">Working on a Memoir</a></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-size: small;">1st leaf see <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-1st-story-mexico-2008.html" target="_blank">Memoir Leaf 1 - Mexico 2008</a> </span></div>
Leaves 2-6 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-leaves-2-6-ireland-launceston.html" target="_blank">Ireland, Launceston, Cape Town, Whyalla, Cambodia</a><br />
Leaves 7-9 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/memoir-leaves-7-9-hooning-teaching.html" target="_blank">Hooning, Teaching & Presenting </a><br />
Leaves 10-11 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/memoir-leaves-10-11-bookseller.html" target="_blank">Bookseller, Vexatious FOI applicants and shaky start to an academic career</a><br />
Leaves 12-14 <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/memoir-leaves-12-14-car-crash.html" target="_blank">Car crash, Launceston early 1960s, A Road Not Taken</a><br />
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Sm8o3Dt9uqASw7qcFpx7KwBOI2hT5J-UfSG3y6VybsGNtsj00U2rWGZTtCOO1h4Pag-2zn_MKkWP3-jEvMEBwcegfQzhlvCf9yded3v90fmtaXQxF6MLTvVAy7_m686AMmuKZrFE_umo/s1600/blueecho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Sm8o3Dt9uqASw7qcFpx7KwBOI2hT5J-UfSG3y6VybsGNtsj00U2rWGZTtCOO1h4Pag-2zn_MKkWP3-jEvMEBwcegfQzhlvCf9yded3v90fmtaXQxF6MLTvVAy7_m686AMmuKZrFE_umo/s200/blueecho.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> At the moment the memoir consists of a series of leaves or postcards that slip between time periods without following a chronology or trying to tell a structured story.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Appreciate feedback, reactions and suggestions.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Cover art:</span> with kind permission of Rachel-Ireland-Meyers (see <a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4">http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4</a>)<br />
<a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4/art/6007292-1-blue-echo"><span style="color: #000099;">Blue Echo</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaves of My Past – Snapshots from an
unfinished journey</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaf 1 “Happy Birthday” November 2008 Mexico</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It’s an early
November evening and I’m walking down a colonial cobblestone street towards our
hotel in Puebla, Mexico. The<i> Camino Real</i>
is a grand 16<sup>th</sup> century building converted from a monastery where
the bodies of nuns, many rumoured to be pregnant, are in the walls. The building has a large open air courtyard ideal
for recreating a scene where Zorro would be ducking from second storey stone
archway to archway dodging sword thrusts and bullets fired from the courtyard
below. On the eve of my 50<sup>th</sup> birthday, I am a hemisphere, ocean and
continent away from home, wife, children, and seemingly, several worlds away
from my birth in a small coal mining village nestled in the hills of the east
coast of Tasmania. I am in Mexico as an invited guest of two warring factions involved
in Freedom of Information and Freedom of Expression. Though unsure of the
causes or history of the rift, I can sense the deep animosity between the two
groups and the problems caused by my close and personal links to key people in
both groups. In the luxurious foyer of the Mexico City Sheraton, my first host,
a Mexican City Information Commissioner, hands me over to the representative (a
future postgrad student of mine) of her sworn enemy. Like a scene from a black
and white cold war movie, I am made to walk from one to the other in a silent
handover between antagonists. The Commissioner is a beautiful, feisty, flamboyant,
long haired woman who seems to have high level contacts everywhere. She is cool,
urbane and bejewelled. My future postgrad carries with her the revolutionary
spirit and proud gait of Pancho Villas.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8qAcG8a5ICpinzUuLLzWqcGIDlZF3rTwiUXNPv4_9RcfMXGeqy5TuOWrBTLoz9UfiE026f_LMz9xCnNAwJ8FzNX3CYnb79o07dbeZ3DM6mhMEm2XrnGSoG_sKjc7klCWejeqwA5XIlpmG/s1600/mexico+2008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8qAcG8a5ICpinzUuLLzWqcGIDlZF3rTwiUXNPv4_9RcfMXGeqy5TuOWrBTLoz9UfiE026f_LMz9xCnNAwJ8FzNX3CYnb79o07dbeZ3DM6mhMEm2XrnGSoG_sKjc7klCWejeqwA5XIlpmG/s200/mexico+2008.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am in
Mexico as part of a travelling troupe of speakers from Canada, Uruguay,
Argentina, Chile, Spain and Mexico. In return for our expenses, we are required
to speak at a number of conferences and events in Mexico City, Puebla
and Cuernavaca. At each town, we roll from our small min-bus, set up camp at a
new hotel and then wait to be told where and when we are performing our freedom
of expression show-pieces. In sharp contrast to the much smaller and more
subdued gatherings I encounter in many counties including my own, the audiences
often number several hundred passionate and interested people. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As we navigate,
through Puebla, on time worn cobblestones, I start to relate my story to the
Spanish academic alongside me. Rumours at breakfast suggest she is an Opus Dei associate. Yet against the backdrop of the volcanoes </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popocat%C3%A9petl">Popocatépetl</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iztacc%C3%ADhuatl">Iztaccíhuat</a>, it is
more the catholic grace of her smile that draws me into conversation rather
than the form or depths of her beliefs. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> My story is one I never wanted to tell before
but now it seems eager for airing, even if only as a collection of poorly
recalled fragments. Maybe I am prompted by the pending milestone of my 50<sup>th</sup>
birthday or maybe it is the surrounding and deep layers of Aztec, Spanish and
Mexican history that encourages me to approach my own heritage. In this gathering of foreigners – to Mexico
and each other – maybe I feel safe to hesitantly retrace experiences and
stories I had thought long dismissed from my life. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKu6yJeEkZA2bRuayb21iA-lrE_i-pOGktQzv93T9dqoy_QuoEcFEG8z_JtCSyRoKF-yp8wvn6pMux2B7d2R7tHbW-KLbrn_tPu7xwKb77_vn6HJQjhN27-Ok-9uBnU2-lUomemaEJI0cC/s1600/mum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKu6yJeEkZA2bRuayb21iA-lrE_i-pOGktQzv93T9dqoy_QuoEcFEG8z_JtCSyRoKF-yp8wvn6pMux2B7d2R7tHbW-KLbrn_tPu7xwKb77_vn6HJQjhN27-Ok-9uBnU2-lUomemaEJI0cC/s200/mum.jpg" width="155" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwv8ZRi9-S22vYpcvIme1sgmTQIKuDZ5fOHDmO6-4Y7VMUXqkO803woSMbi4nAyM9IvAmXRmYXsrDX3AMBSjL51CqWllDVNns7yjeuq5z5LqwlLi2bn9C0Rf-QdsNYX-VsACIkP63Zp87/s1600/mum+and+me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwv8ZRi9-S22vYpcvIme1sgmTQIKuDZ5fOHDmO6-4Y7VMUXqkO803woSMbi4nAyM9IvAmXRmYXsrDX3AMBSjL51CqWllDVNns7yjeuq5z5LqwlLi2bn9C0Rf-QdsNYX-VsACIkP63Zp87/s320/mum+and+me.jpg" width="208" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My story
begins with a young and beautiful woman with flaming red hair. She is holding
the hand of a small boy on the steps of the Launceston post office in the early
1960s. In photos and my earliest memories, she could have easily graced the
salons of Paris or the Bohemian bookstores of 1950’s San Francisco but it was
her fate (and maybe my birth), which restricted her to a much shorter journey
from the back blocks of Elizabeth Town to the socially constrained streets of
early 1960’s Launceston. In that era of Tasmania’s history, she was out of
place: a young woman with two young children and no husband. The missing
husband, my birth father, was someone I only encountered in limited ways. This
stranger’s name appears on my original birth certificate. My middle name is his
but I have rarely drawn attention to it. The first seven years of my life are
bookmarked by a surname I no longer wear or identify with and one I freely
surrendered at first opportunity. The replacement of the name also seemed to
close the door on my early years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As the memories faded, I made no attempt to
hold on or to test my mother’s silence on the past. My birth father has remained a stranger who
appears in a couple of black and white photos in my mother’s old tin box. My
only other encounter with this man was a couple of years previously, date
forgotten, when reading the death notices in <i>The Mercury</i>, a newspaper often flimsy and unsatisfying in its
content but accurate in its lucrative death announcements. I had cut the notice
out, intrigued by the mention of other children, and other unknown family
members but that clipping was quickly neglected and is now lost. The rough
landmarks I have in my memory would place my parent’s breakup around the early
months of my little sister’s life when I was 3 or 4 years old.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2QcTo3ZIeYFD1pEIfx90qfjdH2H0WOI2qIWFD9tHzINRJWc-v1rr0ottr5R4DOB_bLpDxX_2ZdBzPKTXErH9Tlfvmd3D14wFjzKkvGeWwXZVk9gI9xubJkfm1KQjHWKkreSjMRUKpACdw/s1600/Dad+and+me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2QcTo3ZIeYFD1pEIfx90qfjdH2H0WOI2qIWFD9tHzINRJWc-v1rr0ottr5R4DOB_bLpDxX_2ZdBzPKTXErH9Tlfvmd3D14wFjzKkvGeWwXZVk9gI9xubJkfm1KQjHWKkreSjMRUKpACdw/s200/Dad+and+me.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">No
questions were asked about this stranger because my mother never seemed to want
to talk. For many years I didn’t realise he was missing. When I was around
eight years of age my mother met the only man I have ever called dad, and whose
surname I embraced eagerly and still wear with pride. For many years I didn’t
feel fully entitled or worthy to wear the name. Only as my reputation as an
academic, teacher and law reformer grew, did I feel I had repaid a very large gift.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the
1960s, ‘broken families’ were not uncommon but were treated as failures and
rarely spoken of and then, only in whispers. In contrast, when my own children
were in school, Esther and I belonged to a minority of married couples still in
their first marriage and or family grouping. I bore my background as a secret,
although well known by everyone in our small town, whereas my children knew
automatically which week or day their friends would shift from one family
setting to their alternative, and even at times their third or fourth
alternative household.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My broken
story, teased out by some gentle questioning and encouragement, only took a few
blocks to tell. It was like opening my
own old photo tin but my pictures were more fragmentary and less complete, than
my mother’s. They were like old deteriorating film off cuts, without a narrator
or scriptwriter to provide the storyline. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLsCmsBGW-7x_SEkQMRaXIHkGvJL_kRyP0SjPxOAMXS6XWg_01AfQVnmhDXhZENS0bNigfxgBQHp3IC5J2OvnaGUzo_5IgxC-Ml2CS0Dt2rdcdF574bAAe3fFIx3_OTutPvPRXpqXYbXs6/s1600/family.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLsCmsBGW-7x_SEkQMRaXIHkGvJL_kRyP0SjPxOAMXS6XWg_01AfQVnmhDXhZENS0bNigfxgBQHp3IC5J2OvnaGUzo_5IgxC-Ml2CS0Dt2rdcdF574bAAe3fFIx3_OTutPvPRXpqXYbXs6/s200/family.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As I
listened to my companion talk about her recent travels across Europe, facts,
impressions, glimpses and other half recalled scenes of my past floated like
bubbles struggling to the surface of a thick and opaque liquid. In one scene, I
am looking after my young sister, who was less than 4, while my mother worked
in a low paid job in some nearby factory. The other fragments are of constantly
moving between houses, cities, towns and states so that no place ever anchored
itself as ‘my home’. Within these scenes, are encounters in different places
with a set of relatives and friends who seemed as unsettled and transient as we
were. We constituted a group of people descended from the wandering and
drifting poor, who James Boyce writes about near the end of his <i>Van Diemen’s Land</i>. These early arrivals
were men and women (and children)<i> </i> forced to the periphery of both the landscape
and society of Tasmania in the late 1840s and 1850s. By the 1960s, their
descendants were still poor and drifting. We remained locked into an
educational, economic and social periphery, living in small towns, the poorer
streets of Launceston or on a circuit between friends and relatives, employed
as labourers or semi-skilled workers in forestry, farming and mining while supplementing
periods of unemployment with roo and possum shooting. I remember looking at the
missing fingers, and finger joints, of an older relative who seemed to have
fortuitous workplace accidents when drinking funds started to dry up. It took a
long while for my interpretation of his ‘accidents’ to change from a tale of
besting the system to one of hopelessness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">That
brief period of openness in a warm Mexican evening started to release over time
other stories. In particular, I recalled stories of walking to and from
different primary schools, constantly alone, conjuring up mythical visions of
my past and connections. In those long
walks, a remoteness and a stubborn self reliance was forged that still erodes
at all my bonds. The photographs of this period show a serious young boy, not
unhappy, but wary, alert – taking all around him in, just in case it is whisked
away.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As we
approached The<i> Camino Real</i>, the ghosts
of entombed pregnant nuns and the darkness of the night filled the colonial streets. In that darkness,
and surrounded by the thick walls, I hid my story away again surprised by what
I had brought out to share with this stranger in the early evening light of
this beautiful but foreign country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> My story stopped before getting to the little
boy with a severe speech impediment, an impediment that added a deeper and more
complicated layer to his feeling of being an outsider. It’s an impediment, that
still lingers in the background and determines many of the things I do. <i>The King’s Speech</i> reminded me of the
lingering sensitivity, indeed the rawness of this legacy. Now in late middle
age, or early old age, I struggle to
stretch my vocabulary to new areas or multi-syllable words and I am unwilling
to try to learn new languages. The stuttering and word mangling were compounded
by a tendency, still a feature, of speaking at a million miles an hour when
excited or engaged. A constant wonder for me is how a stuttering, syllable
stumbling motor mouth has forged a career and reputation that relies heavily on
public communication. Maybe my art of keeping things concise and simple – to
accommodate my own limitations – has reaped unexpected benefits.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT-3G730s2ZkkiC7UK9YvRErMLjqHRb5p5ecy6NBS9QXq4PvQ3QDMMP5wexTitvtx5EkVwUIIZYLiwIWnOwXD6rpIbDvuzM3wRfhvV2noll_aTKv-1WT6OuOK2fZ4xC5qO18LozlZSQwzR/s1600/sibs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT-3G730s2ZkkiC7UK9YvRErMLjqHRb5p5ecy6NBS9QXq4PvQ3QDMMP5wexTitvtx5EkVwUIIZYLiwIWnOwXD6rpIbDvuzM3wRfhvV2noll_aTKv-1WT6OuOK2fZ4xC5qO18LozlZSQwzR/s200/sibs.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
unreliable tongue and voice led the young boy, with no books at home, to
endless hours sitting in the small school library devouring every book from
non-fiction series on World War II battleships to an entire twenty-five plus
collection of books about a wandering young cowboy with his trusty palomino who
signed off every story with ‘hasta la vista’. Hours spent in isolation where my
tongue could not betray me and the magic of word combinations seemed achievable
via the written word. Its a legacy that
dogged my every step through high school even to the leaver’s dinner, where I
arrived full of dreams and bravado dressed in a purple flared suit, floral
shirt and tie brought during a rare family trip to Burnie, in those days and in
my family’s eyes a distant 113 miles away.
On the tables at the Leavers Dinner were nameplates and a caricature for
each person drawn by a talented and perceptive classmate. Despite being a House
Captain, school representative in cricket, basketball, badminton, athletics,
proud under age drinker and feared fast bowler, my image was a picture of a
cute bookworm with glasses. Forty years later I can appreciate the foresight
and accuracy of that drawing, but throughout that special night and for many
years later, I felt it was a denial of a large part of who I was. Books were
constant and close companions but there were other stories, other parts of what
was or who was ‘me’. In a mining town,
the translation was simple – being into books was simply ‘weird’ and undermined
your creditability. Only the pace of my cricket deliveries and my drinking
capacity rescued me from being treated as a total pariah.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">to be continued </span>
<style>@font-face {
font-family: "Cambria Math";
}@font-face {
font-family: "Cambria";
}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }.MsoChpDefault { font-size: 10pt; font-family: Cambria; }.MsoPapDefault { margin-bottom: 10pt; }div.WordSection1 { page: WordSection1; }</style><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> - <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-leaves-2-6-ireland-launceston.html" target="_blank">Leaf 2 <i>“Returning to Erin” Ireland April 1999</i></a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>Leaves 2-6 - </i></span><a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-leaves-2-6-ireland-launceston.html" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Ireland, Launceston, Cape Town, Whyalla, Cambodia</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i> </i></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-67460731457929652832012-09-22T23:18:00.001-07:002012-09-30T06:39:51.842-07:00Video of Sue Butterworth's Funeral 14th September 2012As promised, below is a recording of Susan's funeral for those who were unable to attend. <br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ar1bIVhfxmU" width="420"></iframe>Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-19601362976323743672012-09-21T12:03:00.000-07:002012-09-22T18:21:29.058-07:00Eulogy for Sue Butterworth 14 Sep 2012<div class="mbl notesBlogText clearfix">
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="text-align: center;" tabindex="0">
Eulogy for Sue Butterworth</h2>
<h3 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="text-align: center;" tabindex="0">
delivered </h3>
<h3 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="text-align: center;" tabindex="0">
14th September 2012</h3>
<br />
Sue was the Law School Secretary at University of Tasmania from 1989-2003 and a very close friend. I was asked to deliver a eulogy by her family.<br />
<br />
<i>This is the
text on which the eulogy was based - delivered most of it as is - glare
from the lights, a few near tears and a bit of ab lib changed some of
it. - Will be posting a video of full funeral service in near future.
The entire service was a wonderful celebration of Sue's life. I think it
was able to convey to Sue's closest family and friends a very different
picture of a Sue they only had a slight knowledge about - The Law
School Sue.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
Dear family and friends of Sue
Butterworth. I have been asked by Alison to talk about Sue’s involvement
with the Law School – a special place in her life and a place made
special by her presence there for almost 15 years.<br />
<br />
My
task, and honour, today is to pay tribute to an outstanding and
wonderful woman. A tribute not only on behalf of myself and my family,
but on behalf of literally hundreds of lawyers, government officials and
graduates whose lives and attitudes were shaped and transformed by
becoming part of Sue’s world.<br />
<br />
Many, who only knew that Sue
worked at the Law School, might be surprised by the strength, degree
and source of the outpouring of fond memories that has been shared with
Sue’s family in the last week from those connected with the Law School.
Hundreds of graduates have expressed a sense of loss but also gratitude
for having Sue around at a critical point in their lives and careers.<br />
<br />
We
all know that Sue was not very tolerant of fools nor could she stand
being praised or recognisied for her achievements. I am sure she is mad
with me at this very moment - on both accounts. But I loved to annoy
and stir her – and for my sins received twice as much grief back. <br />
<br />
The
woeful grammar and punctuation in this speech would be annoying the
hell out of her. I was never allowed to publish a paper, give a speech
or write a newspaper article without being subjected to her scathing but
always useful corrections. She continued to perform this role for me
from time to time even after she retired due to ill-health.<br />
<br />
Yet
despite Sue’s likely objections we can’t and shouldn’t ignore what a
lasting legacy she has left. No one else, in the period that Sue worked
at the Law School, touched so many people, so deeply and so profoundly.
She went from being simply “a law school secretary” to a person who has
been described in the following terms :–<br />
<br />
<br />
Marcus Fowler (a graduate) wrote to me -<br />
<br />
<i> “</i><i>Sue
was such an integral, wonderful part of the law school in the years
that I was studying (1991-1996). Her cutting wit, knowledge, patience,
and ultimate affection for her role and the students was indispensable.”</i><br />
<br />
Another graduate Paul Garth said –<br />
<br />
<i>“</i><i>Through
the long years at law school, Sue was a constant presence in the
Aquarium that was somehow reassuring to me. At times of self-doubt,
wondering what the hell I was doing there, she always had a smile and a
chat and would make me feel as if I was one of the law school family, a
feeling of belonging. She must have seen countless students and staff
flow through that faculty, but I suspect she had a special gift of
making thousands of other students feel the same way.”</i><br />
<br />
In
particular Sue served as an invaluable and friendly face for
international students – a group of students who were not only
attempting the hardships of a law degree but facing those hardships away
from family and friends in another culture. Her care and support for
international students (many of them now occupying powerful positions in
their home countries) remains deeply appreciated.<br />
<br />
Suka Mangisi Acting Sectretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tonga wrote –<br />
<br />
<i>“</i><i>As
an international student, her kind and warm demeanor made me feel
comfortable and free to ask anything and everything of her regarding
school work with the oft mention of other non-school matters which made
the relationship more personal. She was always well dressed and kind
with great social skills which made me as an international student more
at home, whilst away from home.”</i><br />
<br />
Suka’s comments were
endorsed last night by Samuel Manetoali, Minister for Tourism in the
Solomons – and one of Sue’s much loved international students.<br />
<br />
<br />
This
elegant, beautiful and eloquent woman worked her magic day in and day
out, from the very first day of starting her job at the law school.<br />
<br />
Year
after year Sue did her job in full public view at the Aquarium. An open
plan office opened on one side with a long counter that could allow a
dozen or more people to stand at it. And they often did. <br />
<br />
She
did her job with little control over when or for how long busy periods
would last, or those long periods of solitude when staff and students
were working or the endless stretches of boredom during university
breaks.<br />
<br />
And she did it with no control over what jobs
staff needed to have done urgently by yesterday (with often minimal
and/or indecipherable instructions in my case).<br />
<br />
And despite these trying and challenging work conditions it was indeed magic that Sue worked.<br />
<br />
In the 1989 <i>Advocatus,</i> the Law School magazine, it was clear that Sue made an immediate impact on her first group of students. They wrote:<br />
<br />
<i>“Of
course, our special, special, special – eternally grateful thanks go to
Sue Butterworth, for just being wonderful. She corrected our
grammatical and spelling errors, reminded us of meetings, bent over
backwards to help us (or so she alleged) and danced the legs off us at
the Law Ball.”</i><br />
<br />
Year in and year out – when her own
life was going through its ups and downs, even when her health was not
great – she managed to continue to work her professional magic every
working day. We know Sue loved to party and outside work hours was a
wild child – her performances on the dance floors at Law Balls were
indeed legendary including one episode of crowd surfing.<br />
<br />
Yet
in work hours she turned the position of typist and collector and
dispenser of student assignments into a very special role. She terrified
first year students – a terror that completely ‘house trained”
generations of UTAS lawyers. Thousands of secretaries around the world
who have received special treatment from UTAS graduates never realised
the great debt that they owed Sue Butterworth.<br />
<br />
First year students very quickly learnt their place or proper station in life.<br />
As Alison so eloquently put it – <i>“Mum had no time for first year students until they learnt some respect and pulled the stick out of their arses”.</i><br />
<br />
Our current Premier Lara Giddings wrote to me from overseas and said:<br />
<br />
<i>“ </i><i>I
seem to recall being a little intimidated by her in my early years at
uni, but soon came to understand her passion for her work and for all of
us.</i><i>“</i><br />
<br />
Yet this terrifying person later became a key person in students’ ability to cope at Law School.<br />
<br />
Will Hodgman, Leader of the Opposition noted <i>“Sue certainly played a pivotal role in helping get me through to graduation.”</i><br />
<br />
For
many students the most wonderful moment in their law degree was not
passing their first exam, or scoring 80% in contract law or even
graduation but that moment when after what seemed an eternity they were
greeted by a smile for the first time from Sue and she addressed them by
name.<br />
<br />
Rena Bean told me -<br />
<br />
<i>“I
remember the first time I had to approach the "gatekeeper" of the
aquarium. She was so stern & intimidating. By the end of first
semester contract law I realised she was an absolute gem & a softy, a
caring, amazing woman once you earnt her respect. I loved the start of a
new year watching terrified students approach Sue to submit work. We
would stand back & snigger...for me Sue was the law school. Greatly
loved mentor & wise woman who restored our faith after our ordeals
with a strong belief of "of course you can do it."</i><br />
<br />
At
some critical moment in their lives many students found in Sue a
friend, a counsellor or simply someone who was there for them when
needed most.<br />
<br />
Year after year Sue watched, engaged with and
helped students go from fresh faced first years to confident graduates.
She always desperately hunted up a ticket to each graduation to look
proudly down, from near the back rows, on “her” students graduating.<br />
<br />
Even
after ill-health forced her from the Law School she still dragged
herself to each law graduation until the last of “her” students had
finally graduated.<br />
<br />
Just a few final reflections about Sue -<br />
<br />
Tom Baxter wrote:<br />
<i> </i><i>As
one of the countless students Sue helped over the years, my enduring
memories are her warm, friendly face across the counter of her
“Aquarium”:</i><i> </i><br />
<i>· </i><i>always willing to make time for a chat;</i><i> </i><br />
<i>· </i><i>genuinely interested;</i><i></i><br />
<i>· </i><i>making you feel so much more than just another student number;</i><i></i><br />
<i>· </i><i>ever-ready to calm and assist panicked students submitting overdue assignments!</i><i></i><br />
<i>Nothing ever seemed too much trouble for her.</i><i></i><br />
<i>Sue
was so much more than the Law Faculty Receptionist. She was part of the
heart and soul of the place. Thousands of former students will fondly
remember her.</i><br />
<br />
For Caroline Cannock Walsh<br />
<br />
<i>“She was always the perfect mix of scary, smiling charm in the aquarium. Every law school needs a Sue.”</i><br />
<br />
Ursula Hogben (nee Crowley) captures Sue’s special impact so well –<br />
<br />
<i>“Sue
was an amazing influence in the Law Faculty - there's a saying "your
dream job doesn't exist, you have to create it" and she did! Sue was
equal parts administrator, office manager, gatekeeper, confidante and
friend. She was a dose of realism, strength and warmth and we all grew
up under her influence. I hope Sue's funeral is a wonderful celebration
of her life.”</i><br />
<br />
It was my pleasure and privilege to
share a key part of my working life and the early years of my children’s
lives with such a wonderful lady.<br />
<br />
The Law School has been
around for almost 120 years but I think no other era, to date, has had
as much heart or been so closely linked to its student body as the “Sue
Butterworth” era.<br />
<br />
Thank you Sue for a wonderful and lasting legacy.</div>
</div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-29222773744230978882012-09-21T01:29:00.000-07:002012-09-21T03:21:58.390-07:00Re-discovering King O'Malley and the spirit of place<style>@font-face {
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1385055722395785608" name="OLE_LINK2"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1385055722395785608" name="OLE_LINK1">“Re-Discovering
King O’Malley and the spirit of place”</a></div>
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Rick Snell</div>
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Senior
Lecturer in Law</div>
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University
of Tasmania</div>
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Speaker
Notes 19 October 2004</div>
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<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin-right: 80.15pt;">
Disclaimer and post talk reflections</h3>
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<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">What follows is a rough extract of my talk given at
the Mine Manager’s Offices at Queenstown on the night of the 19<sup>th</sup>
October 2004. Some parts of the talk have been dropped, other parts that were
skipped in the delivery have been included.
The morning after the talk I visited the freshly brushed-cut Pioneer
Cemetery and later that morning walked to Nelson Falls. The cemetery reminded me of how fortunate we
have been to have reclaimed an important part of our history. I have been to
many cemeteries around the world but few as magical as this one. Yet there was only a single small sign. Whereas at Nelson Falls, your
path is guided, in an unobtrusive way by informative signs and you walk away
not only experiencing natural beauty but with a better understanding. It
reminded me of the last part of my talk the night before about how much of the
King O’Malley story is missing from the West Coast.. </span></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I would like to thank Megan Cavanagh-Russell and her
team, especially Rachael Hogge, from the Cradle Coast Campus of UTAS for the
organization, flowers, great catering and
incredible support to make this talk a reality. Finally to the audience thank you for your
support and the great atmosphere. I am
sure that this is only one of many such joint efforts between the University of
Tasmania and the people of the West Coast that will continue to happen.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>A second disclaimer and note September 2012</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>It was
always my intention to go back and properly edit this document, tidy it up, add
full references and maybe build on some of the themes. However it sunk down
into my pile of “Things I might get around to.” I still might get around to it
but in the meantime I would like to share it with family and friends ad others
interested in history, Tasmania and radical politics.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>The
following sources were used to compile the talk (many flagged in the talk) but
some still to be accurately acknowledged:</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Michael
Boddy and Bob Ellis, The Legend of King O’Malley (1974).</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Dorothy Catts, King O’Malley: Man and Statesman
(1957).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 64.35pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Max
Colwell & Alan Naylor, <i>Adelaide an Illustrated History</i>. Landsdowne
Press 1974 (O'Malley biography Pgs 86 - 91).</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Arthur Hoyle “King O’Malley (1858-1953)
Australian Dictionary of Biography at <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/omalley-king-7907">http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/omalley-king-7907</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Arthur Hoyle, King O’Malley: The American
Bounder (1981).</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Larry Noye King O’Malley MHR (1985 Neptune
Press) a reprinted version available
form <a href="http://sidharta.com/books/index.jsp?uid=280">http://sidharta.com/books/index.jsp?uid=280</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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This
wonderful exhibition and tribute to King O’Malley is available at <a href="http://www.museumsandgalleries.act.gov.au/cmag/KOM.html">http://www.museumsandgalleries.act.gov.au/cmag/KOM.html</a></div>
<h2 style="margin-right: 80.15pt; text-align: justify;">
Opening comments</h2>
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In the past
few years I have had the pleasure and privilege of speaking at venues all
around the world from Dublin Castle -
where my Irish ancestors were sent in shackles to Van Diemen’s Land - to inside the Indonesian parliament to a
gathering of generals, bureaucrats,
activists and journalists. I have given over 100 public talks and over
200 media interviews – nevertheless I regard this as my toughest and most
difficult speaking engagement.</div>
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Made more
difficult by having my Mum and Dad in the audience. This is the first time they
have had the opportunity to hear me speak in person in public. I would like to take this moment to publicly
thank them for making all this possible. Almost 30 years ago they gave me the
opportunity to leave this valley on a journey I am still on. Their support and
sacrifice made that journey possible and I would like to say thank you to two
wonderful people.</div>
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To return
home – is always a challenge - to
confront and engage with your past and the futures you never followed. Never
followed because you journeyed upon a
path that lead away from the valley and the West Coast both in terms of
geography and mental exploration.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Those now
few and distant years growing up in this valley and on the West Coast shaped,
contoured and gave a special quality to
my imagination and spirit.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I have
engaged in my activities as an academic, teacher, commentator and with my audiences in a way determined by
my interpretation of the history of the West Coast, by the spirit of this place and this
landscape and by a radical political legacy.
</div>
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<br /></div>
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A political
legacy that in part can be traced to King O’Malley and the West Coast. In the words of Christopher Binks at page 156, in his book <i>Pioneers of Tasmania’s West Coast</i> it is a legacy that focuses on
long “running campaigns for better conditions,
better services, better legislation and better representation.” </div>
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<br /></div>
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I would
like to weave 4 threads together in this talk tonight –</div>
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First -To
rediscover some of the key elements of that larger than life figure King
O’Malley who inspired and was inspired by what he encountered on the West
Coast. To look at how this legend took West Coast ideas, ideals and values to a
wider audience.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Secondly,
to explore some of the themes that sparked the idea for this talk in the CD
Rom “Mining the Imagination: Queenstown
Spirit of the Place”. </div>
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Thirdly to
try and understand why King O’Malley was right about the contributions of the
West Coast to the beginnings of Australian democracy</div>
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Fourthly,
if time permits I want to see what place there is for King O’Malley in the Queenstown, and West
Coast of the 21<sup>st</sup> Century.</div>
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A prelude</h2>
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My interest
in King O’Malley began one dark winters night when I and a handful of others
attended a talk by the leading Australian historian Manning Clark in the Murray
High School library.</div>
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Professor Clark, like some great character
from his own books, swept into the room
dressed in a flowing black shoulder cape, wide rimmed black felt hat – dripping
with rain – long flowing wispy grey
locks and with a burning enthusiasm for history, King O’Malley and the West
Coast. You could see that he was overflowing with the excitement of treading on
the same rocks and rain swept hills as King O’Malley had.</div>
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For the
next hour he transfixed me with the story of King O’Malley – how this one man
side show had went from selling insurance to selling a political vision, how he
had entertained crowds of miners from the balconies of places like Hunter’s
Hotel or from inside the Queenstown Academy of Music.</div>
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How because of the voters of Queenstown and
the West Coast – Australia was exposed to, and eventually implemented, ideas
like a national bank, aged pensions, the transcontinental railroad, Australia
House in London and a purpose designed capital city – Canberra.</div>
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Not
necessarily all O’Malley’s ideas but few advocated them as loudly and as long
as King O’Malley. Few worked as hard to see them transformed from pipe dreams
to reality – sometimes diminished in size, capacity and perfection compared to
the dreams but nevertheless given life.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Professor
Clark left little doubt that the people of the West Coast had done a great
service to Australia by pining their political hopes onto this exotic
character. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Exotic
-whether in his medicine show, spread eagle rhetoric, his eloquent but
eccentric dress or his ability to match inherently volatile mixtures in the
same mind -</div>
<ul>
<li>A passionate temperance (non-drinking) Christian
man who loved to hold hard drinking miners spell bound in smokey pubs and loved
to gamble</li>
<li>A representative of the working class who made a
fortunate as a landlord and speculator</li>
<li>A plain speaking honest man who hid his past in
confounding layers of fact, fiction and hard to believe myth.</li>
<li>A man who did much to advance and support women
in politics and life, and left a considerable amount of his estate to a trust
to support female home economics students but found it difficult to be in the
company of all but a small number of women.</li>
</ul>
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As I
engaged with the wider world first as a student and then later as an academic I
did so with a mindset inspired by the landscape and people of the West Coast –
and armed with the knowledge that despite the isolation of the West Coast, the
ugliness of the Queen river we had – in the form of King O’Malley given much to
this country (along with a gravel football oval) – and would always have much
to offer.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Turning to the main character –
King O’Malley</h2>
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<br /></div>
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I always
think that King O’Malley was like a piece of conglomerate – a highly compacted
collection of distinct bits and pieces woven together in a fine but tough
matrix.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The life of
this amazing, eccentric character can be roughly put into four periods.</div>
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<ol>
<li>His
life in America until the late 1880s</li>
<li>His
wanderings and life in Australia prior
to 1899</li>
<li>His
period as a member of the Federal House of Representatives from 1901-1917</li>
<li>A
twilight, but far from uneventful, period until his death in 1954. The last of
the first federal members to die.</li>
</ol>
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This talk,
you will be grateful to know, touches only briefly on the first 2 of those
stages and concentrates on the third the period 1901-1917. And neglects the
last 37 years of King O’Malley’s life.</div>
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. </div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
The first period – The birth of the myth, the
construction of the basic elements of the legend of King O’Malley</h2>
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<br /></div>
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This is the
period most shrouded in myth and endless variations of King O’ Malley’s
capacity for story-telling. King O’Malley was born either in Canada or the US.
If his birthplace was America it meant that he was illegally a member of the
South Australian Parliament for 3 years
and Federal Parliament for 17 years.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Born either
in 1854 or 1858 (so either he was near to 100 and waiting or the Queen’s
telegram when he died – or he just lived to a very ripe old age).</div>
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<br /></div>
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Brought up
by an uncle – began working life at the age of 14 in a small family bank.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Then moved
to New York to continue his banking education – a point of pride for O’Malley
later in federal parliament as the only trained banker in the whole parliament.
Important in respect of his
creditability in his later push to create the Commonwealth Bank.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
O’Malley
left his career in banking around 1880 to spend the next few years of his life
selling insurance, land, temperance (and
even religion) throughout the mid west and west coasts of America . It was in
this wandering period that he constructed the elements of the legend ”King
O’Malley” –</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Cowboy persona– clothes, manner, speech - “King
O’Malley is a tall man, whose appearance suggests a compromise between a
desperado from the cattle ranges, a spruiker from Barnum’s Circus and a Western
American statesman wrote journalist George Cockerill ( See Noye at
page 83).</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Larger than life story telling (events he was
involved in, people met – claims that he
sold insurance to the Kings of England,
Germany and Tsar of Russia).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Two stories
about King O’Malley from this period demonstrate his capacity for
salesmanship. The first involved the selling
of real estate. He would come into a new
town and put up a sign “The Whole Earth
for Sale by King O’Malley – Come Inside” King O’Malley didn’t do things by half
– so he was always selling the best, the biggest, the brightest – whether it be
insurance, land, politics, religion or himself.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The second
story involved both real estate and religion. At one stage King O’Malley
created the “Waterlily Rockbound Church
– Redskin Church of the Cayuse Nation”. King O’Malley learnt that in Texas
religious organizations were eligible for substantial land grants if they had a
minimum sized congregation. So needed a church and a congregation and miracles. King O’Malley preferred night time miracles. O’Malley would stand on back of a wagon, in
front of a hill. At certain moments there would be sounds of
trumpets from the hills or blazing bushes of god would appear on a mountain
top. King O’Malley would ascend to the top of the hil and come back with stone tablets and the word of
God. His charade was finally exposed when he fired his Angel, an American
Indian who got drunk and told a local newspaper about King O’Malley’s scam.</div>
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<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Stage 2
Arrival and early years in Australia 1888-1899</h2>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Shrouded in
myth – O’Malley claimed he arrived with
tuberculosis, cured by an aboriginal elder in Rockhampton (see the start of
Nancy Catts’s biography) and that he subsequently walked on foot to Melbourne.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Whatever
the truth there appeared in Australia a young man – 29 – in cowboy dress, more accurately wearing the elegant American
rancher eye catching style –
prepared to wear lavender suits or do whatever it took to be noticed.
He had a lexicon of outlandish speech using phrases like “stagger juice” for alcohol. Some described it as a “wild and
woolly style” speaking style. O’Malley
described one opponent as “our lop-eared, lop-shouldered, knock-kneed,
slob-sided, ramshackle, bald-headed, poverty stricken, cross-eyed, toothless
old contemporary…” ( see Hoyle at page
12).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
He also
arrived with money for investment and an eye for politics. The rest of decade
of the 1890s was a search to build investments and find a political role. A short stint in
Melbourne was followed by his arrival in Hobart in 1890. In this period he sold insurance, gave a talk
on Irish politics at New Norfolk and became a freemason.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
He then
travelled to the Zeehan mining fields and later to Launceston to sell
insurance. This period clearly was a
time in finding his feet in Australia and looking for opportunities. There is a
missing period of 18 months - most likely spent speculating on the Kalgoorlie
mining fields – he returned to Melbourne and brought a number of small
cottages. For the rest of his life he used these rental properties as the main
basis of his income and fortune.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
In the mid
1890s he arrived in Adelaide. In many ways a dress rehearsal of his later
campaigns on the West Coast of Tasmania. He spent 3 years of getting noticed
and selling insurance in South Australia. He was elected to state parliament in
South Australia on a weird platform that included advocating for lavatories in
railway carriages, seats for female shop
assistants and support for the Married
Women’s Protection League.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
O’Malley
lost his seat in the South Australian parliament – a
close election - to a well financed campaign from the hoteliers association –
described by O’Malley as “These heroic artistic nose-painters, the
orphan makers, the goal fillers, the lunatic generators, are the blight of the
colony.” He left South Australia in search of another seat in some other parliament.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<b>Stage 3 in King O’Malley’s life (and final
for purposes of tonight’s talk) The West Coast and federal politics</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
As I wrote
in the newspaper article (attached to the end of this talk) King O’Malley
arrived in full blown style on the West Coast– the aim was to be noticed. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Whilst he
lost his first attempt to gain election to the Tasmanian parliament in 1899 he had:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 53.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Picked up on key issues</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 53.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Became better known</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 53.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Decided to concentrate (but not exclusively) on
West Coast</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 53.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Saw the need to add miners to the Electoral
Rolls</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 53.45pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Made entertainment one of the key features of
his future electoral campaigns</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
But it was also
clear that he found a more radical tune to sing to – Better services, fair
treatment, a societal obligation to
support individual effort.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
It was on
this platform he was elected to the first Federal Parliament.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
For the
next 17 years represented the interests of the West Coast in federal politics
but just as importantly the West Coast kept a political maverick and firebrand
on the national stage. During that period whether from opposition, the
government backbenches or from the frontbenches of 2 Labor governments King O’Malley
mixed his showmanship, buffoonery and love of comedy with a zest for hard work.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
When he
became Minister for Home Affairs in 1910 – he arrived at the office on his
first day at 8 am and had to get the caretaker to open the door – he then wrote
in large sized letters on the staff timebook – “King O’Malley 8am.” From that
moment on there was always a rush by his public servants to be above O’Malley’s
famous sign in line.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
He agitated
for aged pensions –</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
“The miner
who goes to the West Coast of Tasmania and lives there in a hut, after years of
struggling, accumulates nothing. There are thousands and thousands of them but
the rich merchant, who does nothing but sends goods over there, accumulates a
good fortune out of the miner….Miners find themselves in their old age absolute
beggars in the midst of plenty.” (See Hoyle)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1cm;">
He
was also an early advocate for universal health care and;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Construction of national capital</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>National bank</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Transcontinental railroad</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Australia House – Designed to show the
Australian flag in the heart of the old country</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
He was a
favourite of Trades Hall but deeply despised by leading members of the
parliamentary ALP – especially Billy Hughes – who regarded him as mad,
dangerous, a fool or all three.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
He was a
reformist who pushed for large nation building projects while looking out for
the interests of those who fell by the wayside. Sharp-eyed journalists noted
the difference in his public clowning and the way he attacked his work and the
serious issues of governing. In 1917 he lost the election because his
non-conscription/anti-militarism position put a wedge between him and the voters of the West Coast.</div>
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<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1cm;">
The Spirit
of the West Coast</h2>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
In this
part of the talk I want to explore some factors which I feel shaped O’Malley’s
politics and vision. Most writers on O’Malley look at his politics and his
career as largely being derived internally – and treat the West Coast as simply
a stage with a more receptive audience than he had previously found.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
My view is
different. The coming of King O’Malley to the West Coast saw the merging or
partnership of O’Malley’s reformist politics with a particular West Coast
vision. Anyone who has tarried for more than a few seconds on the West Coast
knows how dangerous it is to speak in generalisations about the West Coast –
there have been and will always be very vocal and often very fiery critics who
will let you know the world of difference between Queenie and Strahan, Gormie
or Zeehan and vast the differences of the first 4 from Rosebery goes without
question.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Yet like
Binks – in his Pioneers of the West Coast I believe there are many things which
support a view about a unique placed called the West Coast.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
For decades
– till very recent times – the main focus of settlement has been mining or
related activities (very few other regions had such a focused activity at the
heart of the whole region). So whilst there may be wide gulfs between those who
supped at Penghana and those who lived in South Queenstown, or between the
miners of tin and those of copper, or the shopkeeper and the widow created by a
mining disaster – they shared more in common than those living elsewhere.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
The
landscape</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Natural beauty</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>And the man blasted moonscape</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Better
talkers and writers than me have described the magic of the West Coast. I just
know that when I am heading down Mt Arrowsmith on my way to Queenstown I have
entered a landscape that swells and lifts my spirits to heights I pine for when
I am away from the coast.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Patsy
Crawford in her book on the King River and the quotations on the handout
express the dramatic contrast of
rainforest and snow topped peaks with
the stripped hills and pollution of the Queen River valley.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
The weather
and the challenges like snow, bushfires, economic swings all forge a bond of
common identity regardless of town, football team, workplace or duration spent
on the West Coast. The rain forges new brotherhoods and the threat of job
losses new kinships across other lines of separation.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
The need
for West Coast solidarity to gain access to essential infrastructure or
services whether it be:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 70.9pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Railroads,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 70.9pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Roads</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 70.9pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Schooling</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 70.9pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Hospitals</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 70.9pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Political representation</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 70.9pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>or the dredging of the sand bar at Hell’s Gates</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
There
developed, and I think still remains, a strong degree of distinctiveness
between those who work and live on the West Coast to other Tasmanians. I used
to introduce myself first as a West Coaster, then Tasmanian – not sure if the
same applies today – I suspect it does.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 80.15pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
In this
unique natural, employment, emotional and political landscape arose a sense of
unity, separate identity and a desire for a full community life. The ideal that
hard work – whether by forging through horizontal jungle like the
prospectors, building railroads, dams or
the hard life of an underground miner - merited access to good services whether
communication, education or recreational. And the women also did it tough –
from a poem by Peter Hay about a friend who lived at Williamsford –</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
The house
was freezing, the heater broken.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
I’d put the
kids in the old Valiant</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
And all day
we’d drive Rosebery to Tullah,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Back an
forth,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
So the car
would be warm when my husband knocked off….</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Or a lyric
from folk singer Phyl Lobl called “West Coast Litany” (also borrowed from Pete
Hay’s book Vandemonium Essays):</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Beauty lies
within the eyes</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Of those
who choose to see,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Drawing in
my head I hear</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
The West
Coast Litany</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
That taught
me how to listen to the rain</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
And how to
be contented</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Even though
I know I’ve lost my liberty.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
This was a
region, that recognised the necessity to look beyond individual gain and
interest from time to time towards community and regional interest. Whilst the
individual, working shifts and playing footy in the winter and cricket in the
summer, saving a fortune - might have little need of good roads to Hobart or
Burnie an injured neighbour might.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
Whilst
Hobart based bureaucrats and politicians may underestimate the hurdles from
primary school to further education – generations of West Coasters from King
O’Malley on have not.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 80.15pt 0.0001pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
So King
O’Malley came across a place he called the Rock of democracy – a place where
political representatives of all political persuasions and at all levels of
government put community service and community interest first.</div>
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It was from
that political milieu he forged his thoughts about a people’s bank, a nation
binding railway of a civic capital to represent all Australians from Cape York
and Albury to Gormanston. Whilst, in King O’Malley’s words living in hell was
preferable to living in Linda – the people in Linda still deserved pensions,
banking services and to have the opportunity to make their contributions to
Australia.</div>
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So whilst
King O’Malley articulated the vision and sold it like an old time insurance
salesman, showman and real estate seller it was a vision transformed by the
West Coast.</div>
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<h3 style="margin-right: 80.15pt;">
The final steps in this journey</h3>
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In the time
remaining I just want to reflect on the relevance – if any that King O’Malley
has for the West Coast of the 21<sup>st</sup> century – for the West Coast and
King O’Malley a number of centenary marks have already passed and many others
will pass in the next months and next few years. King O’Malley has travelled
less well than many in the history books – such as Deakin, Fisher, Watson
and Billy Hughes.</div>
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He would
have rolled several times in his grave with the privatisation of the
Commonwealth Bank and even with the sale of Telstra. A bank that pays little recognition to its
founder either in terms of history or legacies like scholarships.</div>
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Books on or
about the West Coast whether it be Patsy Crawford’s – <i>God Bless Little Sister</i> or Blainey’s <i>Peaks of Lyell</i> often only give a brief mention or cameo role to the
King.</div>
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Canberra
has a suburb name O’Malley and the irony of all ironies a prize winning pub
called King O’Malley’s Irish Pub – for a temperance fighter and hater of the
“stagger juice”</div>
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Queenstown
has little except “O’Malley’s Restaurant “– now closed and a half torn and
burnt sign (about 6 cm by 4 cm) – a size designed for easy reading by
O’Malley’s favourite retort to heckler’s that there minds were the size of a Zeehan
flea. The Zeehan and Queenstown
Museums have minimal displays about this significant
national figure.</div>
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In other
places I would expect to encounter a statute or two, actors wandering the
street greeting “Brothers and Sisters” dressed in their Yankee finest or
performing from balconies, or a
interactive interpretation centre. The CD “Mining the Imagination : Spirit of
Place” comes the closest. </div>
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King O’Malley
was not the only, or greatest or most worthy of West Coast legends but his
national impact is one worthy of claiming for the West Coast.</div>
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<b>The following article
appeared in The Queenstowner, Friday 15<sup>th</sup>
October 2004 at page 8</b></div>
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In late January
1900, a one- man political movement stepped off the Queenstown train. It was
one of those glorious Queenstown summer days when the ultra sharp blue of the
cloudless sky is reflected by the bright white of the exposed quartz on the
hillsides. “Tall, with golden beard and moustache,” noted one observer, dressed like a rich Yankee in a 10- galleon
hat, King O’Malley had arrived. This man, whose past would remain a mystery,
had arrived fresh from political defeat in South Australia. He came to preach a
radical political gospel to a working class still focussed on day- to- day survival
rather than stories of a promised land. He was a politician in search of a
constituency.</div>
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This was a new
mining town of buildings and tents, less than 10 years old. Unhesitatingly,
King O’Malley strode the main street greeting the locals with “good day
brother.” He admired new- born babes and their mothers admired him. He
organised and attended political meetings where he set out his demands for old
age pensions, miners’ disability pensions and better conditions for workers,
free education from primary school to university, construction of government
railways, a Queenstown hospital, and a Queenstown branch of the Supreme Court.
He moved around the camps and made his way to the little towns of Gormanston,
Strahan, North Lyell and Zeehan.</div>
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King O’Malley’s initial goal was a seat in the
Tasmanian House of Assembly but even at this stage he was thinking more about
laying the groundwork to become a member of the first Federal Parliament. After two months of hard campaigning, this
brash, strutting fashion peacock, who used to advise hecklers to take a good
dose of Epsom Salts (or to suggest that their intellects failed to rival those
of a Zeehan flea), lost the election to a better- known local candidate by a
few hundred votes. </div>
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O’Malley had noticed that
many of the miners failed to vote because they weren’t on the electoral rolls.
So over the next few months he wandered through the hills and small valleys of
the West Coast helping to create a new constituency. Miners who had been
underground for long hours would stumble out of their mineshafts to be greeted
by a tall, immaculately dressed American, although he always claimed he had
been born in Canada. Even in the pouring rain he would greet them with “Good
evening brothers. Are you on the Roll yet?” Over the campfire at night weary
miners would be entertained by the O’Malley’s oratory, a mixture of gospel,
history, politics which embodied a radical vision of a working man’s paradise.
In fact he had for many years had sold insurance, and he found the switch to politics
just required a simple alteration in the sales pitch. In a region often starved of entertainment, a
King O’Malley talk in a hall, from the balcony of Hunter’s Hotel or in a
strategic storefront position on a Saturday morning was a highlight of the
week.</div>
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He worked the
West Coast and the North West Coast (including King Island) like a Southern
Baptist preacher in the deep south of the USA. When the first Federal election
was held, he outpolled Braddon (the former Premier of Tasmania) on the West Coast
by over 1,000 votes out of the few thousand cast. King O’Malley became a member of the first
Federal Parliament of Australia.</div>
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Over the next
17 years King O’Malley continued to be the West Coast’s member in the Federal
Parliament. He was a larger- than- life figure amongst the other political
leading figures of that time, who included Barton, Deakin and Billy Hughes.
Hughes detested O’Malley with great and bitter passion – which was returned
ten-fold by O’Malley, who joined Hughes in the federal Labor Party.</div>
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During those 17
years O’Malley was a major driving force behind proposals for aged pensions,
the transcontinental railroad, the building of Canberra and the creation of the
people’s bank; the Commonwealth Bank. His contribution to these major aspects
of nation building were often bitterly resisted or derided, but O’Malley would
tirelessly campaign for his ideas. History, bitter rivals like Billy Hughes and
time itself have removed most traces of his contributions to these major facets
of Australian life. When he died in December 1952 he was the last surviving
member of the first Australian Federal parliament.</div>
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King O’Malley
and his life were full of paradoxes. Often his eccentric speech, clothing and
behaviour led people to treat and think of him as a fool rather than a
legend. Yet he had a vision for fair
access to services and infrastructure by West Coasters, and it seems strange
that there is so little left here that bears his name. </div>
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<br />Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-73130445781936145892011-04-01T03:21:00.000-07:002011-04-01T11:26:43.322-07:00Australian Cabinet Information - a retrograde approach in the 21st CenturyMatthew Moore’s story on the NSW Government’s resistance to releasing the “Blue Book” briefings for incoming Ministers highlights the continuing malaise in attitudes to FOI/Right to enforcement or access to government information in Australia.<br /><br />See <a href="http://http//www.smh.com.au/nsw/onus-on-ofarrell-to-end-labors-state-secrecy-20110330-1cgdz.html">http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/onus-on-ofarrell-to-end-labors-state-secrecy-20110330-1cgdz.html</a><br /><br />Australian governments, public officials and law reformers continue to display a narrow and outdated conception of how to handle cabinet confidentiality. The general approach of categorically exempting information tagged as “Cabinet documents” with no public interest test or excessively long periods of protection (and in my view 10 years is far too long and unjustified).<br /><br />The one exception is Queensland where under the Right to Information Act 2009 the Premier has been proactively releasing a small but steady stream of Cabinet documents<br /> <br /><a href="http://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/right-to-info/published-info/our-decisions.aspx">http://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/right-to-info/published-info/our-decisions.aspx<br /></a><br />In contrast is the New Zealand position where the release of Cabinet information has been taking place for many years and in contrast to Queensland is extended to even very important decisions and topics.<br /><br />See for example<br /><br /><a href="http://www.justice.govt.nz/publications/global-publications/c/civil-union-bill-relationships-statutory-references-bill/cabinet-policy-committee-minute-of-decision/?searchterm=cabinet">http://www.justice.govt.nz/publications/global-publications/c/civil-union-bill-relationships-statutory-references-bill/cabinet-policy-committee-minute-of-decision/?searchterm=cabinet</a><br /><br />Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism AML/CFT Bill: Approval for Introduction at<br /><a href="http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/criminal-justice/aml-cft/publications-and-consultation/LEG-paper-to-introduce-AMLCFT-Bill-final.pdf/view?searchterm=cabinet">http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/criminal-justice/aml-cft/publications-and-consultation/LEG-paper-to-introduce-AMLCFT-Bill-final.pdf/view?searchterm=cabinet</a><br /><br />See briefing to new incoming Conservation Minister in 2008 <a href="http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/about-doc/role/policies-and-plans/briefing-to-new-minister-of-conservation-2008.pdf">http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/about-doc/role/policies-and-plans/briefing-to-new-minister-of-conservation-2008.pdf<br /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://norightturn.blogspot.com/search/label/OIA">http://norightturn.blogspot.com/search/label/OIA</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Govt departments -</span> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.dia.govt.nz/Publications-and-reports">http://www.dia.govt.nz/Publications-and-reports</a><br /><br /><a href="http://treasury.govt.nz/publications/informationreleases">http://treasury.govt.nz/publications/informationreleases</a><br /><br />Proactive publication is now so common in New Zealand there is a policy governing proactive release see <span style="font-weight: bold;">CO Notice (09) 5 7 August 2009 Publishing Cabinet material on the web: approval process and publication requirements.</span> See below<br /><blockquote><br />In fact Item 8 even allows for a New Zealand Minister to release documents before they have been considered by Cabinet.</blockquote><br /><br />The irony is that it took an <span style="font-style: italic;">Official Information Act</span> request to access this Cabinet Notice.<br /><br />We are told that our system of government in Australia would fall apart if this type of information was released after a Cabinet decision let alone beforehand. This dreadful fate is said to await even if you release Cabinet documents before 20 years has passed at a Commonwealth level. Strangely nothing seems to happen to the smooth running of our system of government when Premiers or Prime Ministers exclusively brief journalists on a Cabinet meeting, or a Minister leaks who was on what side of a Cabinet argument or when a former Minister reveals cabinet deliberations in their memoirs penned shortly after leaving office.<br /><br />There seems an almost total incapacity by government officials and government ministers to understand how a structured means of access that uses the public interest as the key to determine the degree, timing and extent of release is a better fit for governance in the 21st century. <blockquote>It probably was an inferior form of governance even in the 18th century.</blockquote><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> New Zealand CO Notice (09) 5 7 August 2009</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Publishing Cabinet material on the web: approval process and publication requirements</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Summary</span><br /><br />1 A Minister may decide that it is appropriate for Cabinet material to be published online, either proactively or following a request for the information made under the Official Information Act 1982.<br /><br />2 The Cabinet Manual (at paragraph 8.4) provides guidance about the proactive release of Cabinet material. This notice sets out in further detail the processes and responsibilities that follow a Minister’s decision to publish Cabinet material on the web. It aims to support departments and staff in Ministers’ offices to publish Cabinet material online consistently and effectively so that it is easy to find. The notice covers:<br /><ul><li>• the approval process, including roles and responsibilities; • consideration of principles of the Official Information Act 1982 and other</li><li>relevant considerations; • content and presentation requirements; and • quality assurance.</li></ul><br />3 “Cabinet material” means submissions that have been considered by Cabinet or a Cabinet committee, and Cabinet and Cabinet committee minutes. “Publisher” means the person in a department or a Minister’s office who is responsible for administering the publication of the Cabinet material on the web.<br /><br />4 The notice relates only to Cabinet material of the current administration. The process for publicly releasing Cabinet material of a previous administration is set out in paragraphs 8.83 and 8.84 of the Cabinet Manual.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Approval to publish Cabinet material</span><br /><br />5 Cabinet material may be published on the web only if the relevant portfolio Ministers(s) has approved the release of the material in that way. The publisher is responsible for obtaining the approval or for checking that approval has been obtained.<br /><br />6 Approval can be obtained by:<br /><ul><li>• the publisher (ie a Minister’s office or department) seeking the portfolio Minister’s approval to publish a Cabinet paper/minute online;</li><li>• the portfolio Minister directing officials to publish a Cabinet paper/minute online; or • the Cabinet minute noting that the portfolio Minister will publish the information on the</li><li>web. </li></ul><br />7 Before approving publication, the Minister should consider:<br /><ul><li>7.1 the application of the principles in the Official Information Act 1982, the Privacy Act 1993, and the Security in the Government Sector manual to the information;</li><li>7.2 whether the document contains any information that would have been withheld if the information had been requested under the Official Information Act 1982;</li><li>7.3 whether the document contains any information that must be withheld under the terms of any other legislation; and</li><li>7.4 whether, in the circumstances, publication on the web is the best means of public release.</li></ul><br />8 If a Minister decides before the paper is considered by a Cabinet committee or by Cabinet that publication will be appropriate, the paper should contain a recommendation noting that intention:<br />note that the Minister intends to publish this paper and related Cabinet decisions online, subject to consideration of any deletions that would be justified if the information had been requested under the Official Information Act 1982.<br />Content and presentation<br /><br />9 It is the publisher’s responsibility to ensure that only the final versions of Cabinet material are published on the web.<br /><ul><li>• Papers: the final version of a paper is that signed and dated by the Minister and considered by a Cabinet committee or Cabinet.</li><li>• Minutes: the final version of a minute is that issued by the Cabinet Office following a Cabinet or Cabinet committee meeting.</li></ul><br />10 Cabinet committee minutes should not be published, however, until they have been confirmed by Cabinet.<br /><br />11 Depending on their administrative arrangements with departments, Ministers’ offices may choose to review the finalised content before publication on the web.<br /><br />12 Once Cabinet material is published on the web, the storage and handling requirements belonging to its original security classification (specified in the Security in the Government Sector manual and at http://www.security.govt.nz/sigs/index.html) may no longer apply. Unless some information has been withheld from the online version, departments may need to think about reviewing the security requirements of the original version stored on their document management systems.<br /><br />13 Where possible, papers and relevant minutes should be published together so that readers have context for the decisions made by Cabinet. The Cabinet Office is able to provide electronic copies of minutes on request.<br /><br />14 Where Cabinet material has been published on the web following a request under the Official Information Act, any deletions should be flagged in the body of the text at each deletion point. It is good practice to state the reasons for deleting information.<br /><br />15 Do not publish:<br /><ul><li>• Cabinet Office summaries, which do not provide information additional to that contained in Cabinet papers and/or minutes;</li><li>• the distribution lists on Cabinet and Cabinet committee minutes, since their function is purely administrative for the distribution of hard copy documents;</li><li>• the names and signatures of Cabinet Office committee secretaries; or • CAB100 consultation forms accompanying Cabinet papers.</li></ul>16 Cabinet material published on the web should conform with the current New Zealand Government Web Standards 2.0. At the time of writing this notice, this is version 2.0 (dated March 2009) and is available at http://webstandards.govt.nz/new-zealand-government-web- standards-2/<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Quality assurance</span><br /><br />17 It is the publisher’s responsibility to ensure the quality and accuracy of Cabinet material made available on the web.<br />18 The following points should be included in any quality assurance checklists used by publishers of Cabinet material:<br /><ul><li>• the Minister has approved the item for publication • it is the final signed version being published • if it is a Cabinet committee minute, that it has been confirmed by Cabinet • the title and other reference information (eg shoulder number) is accurate • the date on which the paper was signed has been included • any distribution lists have been removed • the Cabinet Office summary (including its distribution list) has been removed • the signatures of the Secretary of Cabinet and/or of Cabinet committee</li><li>secretaries have been removed • the related CAB100 consultation form has been removed • all related Cabinet material (paper, minute) is included.</li></ul>Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-69129847303439549982011-03-28T03:47:00.000-07:002011-03-28T03:51:38.793-07:00Submission on the Disclosure Log Discussion Paper - Office of the Australian Information Commissioner<span style="font-weight:bold;"><br /><br />Submission on the Disclosure Log Discussion Paper<br />By Rick Snell<br />Associate Professor<br />Law School<br />University of Tasmania<br />28 March 2011</span><br /><br /><a href=" http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/papers.html"><br />http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/papers.html</a><br /><br />This submission contains no confidential material.<br /><br />In general I am supportive of most of the suggestions made in this Discussion Paper but would like to focus my attention on some particular points.<br /><br />Consultation questions<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Q15. Should agencies and ministers adopt a practice of updating their disclosure log on a particular day each week or fortnight?</span><br /><br />I see no need for agencies to be limited in this way.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Q16. What other steps should be adopted to ensure a consistent and suitable approach across government to disclosure log publication?</span><br /><br />I listened with great interest to the comments made at the Information Law Conference by both agency personnel and journalists.<br /><br />I have great sympathy for the case made by journalists, especially by Michael McKinnon, that the public interest in delaying general release by the Disclosure Log to enable requesting journalists to craft stories based on the released material, is relatively minor compared to the threat to the public interest in deterring or lessening the use by journalists of the Act.<br /><br />In particular I note that a number of comments were made in side sessions, plenary events and in casual conversation as to how the 10 day discretion on disclosure logs would be deployed to the disadvantage of journalists by releasing the information very quickly.<br /><br />I would suggest the Information Commissioner adopt a guideline whereby the applicant can make a request on whether any released information be delayed from general release up to the 10 day maximum period. The applicant making this request should justify where it is in the public interest for the Agency to delay updating the Log for this specified period.<br /><br />Some applicants will be happy with immediate release, other applicants such as journalists, researchers or members of parliament or NGOs may have good reasons to have a period of exclusive access. <br /><br />Where applicants do not specify a grace period then the Agency is free to publish at its discretion.<br /><br />I would reject the suggestion that “Agencies and ministers could invite applicants to propose or negotiate the date of publication, provided this occurred within the ten working days stipulated in s 11C. The discretion would remain with the agency or minister to decide the actual date, but they would better understand any special concern of the applicant.” This option gives too much discretion to agencies and does nothing to prevent the manipulation of the timing to disadvantage particular applicants including, but not exclusively, journalists.<br /><br />The alternative of allowing the applicant to nominate the grace period rewards and protects certain users and adds little extra burden or restrictions on agencies.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Q13. Is 12 months a reasonable period for agencies and ministers to make available, by website download or otherwise, information that is listed in a disclosure log register?</span><br /><br />No this is far too short a time. For the initial period of the new reforms all Disclosure Logs should be available for a minimum of 2 years and then this issue should be re-examined in light of actual experience.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Q14. Should the disclosure log register indicate when information is likely to be removed from an agency’s or minister’s website, or the date on which information was in fact removed?</span><br /><br />Yes.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Q12. What steps can be taken by agencies to make information in a disclosure log easily discoverable, understandable, machine-readable and accessible for members of the public?</span><br /><br />At the minimum the information should be in searchable format.<br />Agencies should be required to index with searchable key terms.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Q7. Should all agencies and ministers adopt the same template for their disclosure log?</span><br /><br />Yes.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Q8. Should a disclosure log contain the headings and information specified in the draft template annexed to this paper?</span><br /><br />Yes<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Q9. Should the disclosure log contain a summary of an FOI applicant’s request, whether the documents requested were provided in full or in part, and whether all information provided to the FOI applicant is made available under the disclosure log?</span><br /><br />Yes<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Q10. Should this information be provided in the disclosure log register or in some other manner (also see question 8 above)?</span><br /><br />In the Disclosure Log or link to it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Q11. Should it be open to an agency or minister to supplement a disclosure log entry with comment or explanation?</span><br /><br />YesRick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-57666833295344669212011-03-07T03:31:00.000-08:002011-03-07T03:42:41.264-08:00Evaluating FOI 2.0 performance - some initial thoughts <style>@font-face { font-family: "New York"; }@font-face { font-family: "Calibri"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }@font-face { font-family: "Perpetua"; }@font-face { font-family: "ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3"; }@font-face { font-family: "Geeza Pro"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }h1 { margin: 24pt 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: 115%; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(79, 129, 189); }p.MsoFootnoteText, li.MsoFootnoteText, div.MsoFootnoteText { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }span.MsoFootnoteReference { vertical-align: super; }span.Heading1Char { font-family: Cambria; color: rgb(79, 129, 189); font-weight: bold; }p.Body1, li.Body1, div.Body1 { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: black; }span.FootnoteTextChar { }span.apple-style-span { }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <p class="Body1" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Nick Howard Student Administrative Law 204 and Comparative Administrative Law 609 UTAS 2010</span> </span></p> <p class="Body1" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">As part of my undergraduate degree in law at the University of Tasmania, I took Associate Professor Rick </span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">Snell's unit in comparative administrative law. In consultation with Rick, I wrote two essays concerning the new Right to Information laws in Australia. In particular, I researched as to how best the new FoI 2.0 regime could be evaluated. This proved to be a challenging task. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">In the past it has been easier to evaluate Australian FoI through, inter alia, comparative analysis. Moreover, comparative criteria such as information polity, asymmetry and compliance analysis have proved, for the most part, useful. However, I have argued that with the advent of FoI 2.0, these criteria are no longer a viable and effective mechanism for evaluation. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">One of the key concerns with a 2.0 system is that there is nothing in place to safeguard the citizenry from the dumping of unordered, unstructured and superfluous information on government websites, in order to comply with Right to Information legislation. How is the citizenry to know whether or not what is broadcast by the government is quality information in the public interest? In addition, as suggested by Professor Alsadair Roberts in Blacked Out, there is also a problem of supply and demand. How are governments to tell how many people want the information and what exactly to supply? There is a possible solution. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">In Wiki Democracy: How technology can make government better, democracy stronger, and citizens more powerful, Professor Beth Simone Noveck coined a revolutionary idea: ordinary people through open source technology could make government decision-making more expert and more democratic.<a style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.do#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="">[1]</span></span></a> For Professor Noveck this is in the context of patents. Moreover, she argued that the public could assist in patent examination and 'collaborating groups of dedicated volunteers [could] help decide whether a particular patent should be granted'.<a style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.do#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="">[2]</span></span></a> This thesis could be modified and in turn employed as a mechanism for the evaluation of a 2.0 system. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"></span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">A website could be created for the purpose of public collaboration. Thereon, the citizenry could post comments on and rate disclosed information pertaining to its comprehensiveness; usability; accessibility; and comprehensibility, for example. This would provide feedback for government departments and in turn improve the quality of the proactively released information. Consequently, these comments and ratings could be used in comparative analysis between two countries, for example Australia and New Zealand, to thus evaluate an FOI 2.0 regime. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">Rick Snell</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" >After our discussions in Law 609 Nick and I continued to mull over this issue of trying to evaluate FOI 2.0 regimes.<span style=""> </span>In part our thinking was influenced by the approach adopted in the Tasmanian Discussion Paper on FOI</span><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" > <span style="font-style: italic;">Strengthening Trust in Government: Everyone's Right to Know</span> 2009 at page 12 that divided information into 4 categories that subsequently were incorporated in Section 12 of the Right to Information Act 2009 (Tas):</span><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" >
<br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><ul><li><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" >Required disclosures</span></li><li><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" > Routine disclosures</span></li><li><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" ></span><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" > Active disclosures</span></li><li><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" > </span><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" >Assessed disclosures</span><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" ></span></li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" >
<br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" >These were defined in the Discussion Paper as:</span><span style=";font-family:Perpetua;color:#000000;" ></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">
<br /></span></p><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Required Disclosure;</span> that is the disclosures required by law or enforceable under an agreement, for instance annual reports, the Report on Government Services etc.</span><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Routine Disclosure;</span> that is the voluntary publishing of Government Information of interest to the public, for example the Department of Health and Human Services Health Progress Chart and the Department of Education Schools Improvement Report.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Active Disclosure; </span>that is the voluntary release of information upon request. This includes the release of information which holds no broad public interest, but there is no public detriment in providing the information on request. A large amount of information is released on a day to day basis because someone makes a request and agencies disclose it without reference to FoI.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Assessed Disclosure;</span> that is the release of information after it has been assessed against defined limitations, the onus is on release unless an agency can prove that the release would be detrimental to the public interest.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">The idea has been to create a system that integrates the traditional FOI 1.0 approach into an integrated information management system geared towards increasing the availability of timely high quality information to citizens.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">Yet few mechanisms, or much attention, has been devoted to evaluating whether this is taking place. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has put out a discussion paper about information principles (<a href="http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/papers.html">http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/papers.html</a>) but as Peter Timmins points out it is silent on how agencies establish their performance on achieving improved information access other than crude quantity measures (see <a href="http://foi-privacy.blogspot.com/2011/02/office-of-australian-information.html">http://foi-privacy.blogspot.com/2011/02/office-of-australian-information.html</a>)</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">Currently, at UTAS and in collaboration with Dr Rhonda Breit from the School of Journalism at University of Queensland, we are looking at ways of utilizing the ideas of Beth </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">Noveck and the initial work by Nick Howard to start this type of assessment.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">One of my volunteers, Kat Burela, has developed an audit template to evaluate the ease of accessing information about the Right to Information Act on Tasmanian Government web sites. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">We will ask reviewers to evaluate various Tasmanian government web sites in terms of accessibility of their information about Right to Information. The following categories have been used:</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">
<br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><b style=""><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">The access point</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> discloses the link provided, and the number of subsequent links required gaining information (in the form of text, file or FAQs). </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><b style=""><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">The target audience</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> depicts the type of information provided (whether to inform the public of their rights or the departments of their duties and obligations.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><b style=""><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">The overall ranking</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> each site has received is a personal ranking given against a prepared questionnaire.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">Type of content</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><b style=""><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">Accessibility of content</span></b></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><b style=""><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">Search Option</span></b></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">We are developing a <span style="font-weight: bold;">SurveyMonkey</span> survey which will allow volunteers to both rank/audit the government web sites (in terms of FOI) and the survey mechanism we have developed.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="Body1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;">We will then move onto the more difficult task of trying to evaluate whether post Right to Information there has been a qualitative information improvement in availability of government information.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"></span></p> <p class="Body1" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p> <div style="">
<br /> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"> <div style="" id="ftn"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;"><a style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.do#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="">[1]</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-US"> B Noveck, ‘Wiki-Government – how open source technology can make government deicison-making more expert and more democratic’, accessed at </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black;"><</span><span class="Heading1Char"><span style=";font-family:Calibri;font-size:14pt;color:black;" lang="EN-US" > </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black;">www.<span style="">democracyjournal</span>.org/pdf/7/031-043.noveck.final.pdf</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color:black;"> >.</span></p> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p> </div> <div style="" id="ftn"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.do#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="">[2]</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span style="">Ibid. </span></p> </div> </div> Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-1793335220014779442011-02-20T00:47:00.000-08:002013-03-26T23:30:56.238-07:00Once We Were Sloths 2<style>@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Wingdings"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0in; }ul { margin-bottom: 0in; }</style> <br />
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Four months on and it is about operating at newer fitness levels that seem to occur on a weekly basis. </div>
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In terms of weight I have hovered between 96 – 99 kg but now that weight is built around a newer and firmer body configuration. The inability to drop more weight has been extremely frustrating despite the more positive side which is that I have kept the 20+ kilos off I have lost since I started in late 2009. </div>
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I have offset the frustration in the weight department against the fitness gains and other positive changes.</div>
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My waist has gone from 104 cm to 102 cm and my pants size from 97cm to 95 cm.</div>
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Since the start of the new year I have increased exercise classes from 2 hours of circuit class a week with 1-3 hours of badminton to:</div>
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<li>2 hours of circuit (done at higher levels of intensity and faster recovery)</li>
<li>1-2 hours of badminton</li>
<li>2 hours of Spin</li>
<li>1 hour of Body Combat</li>
<li>1 hour of Pump</li>
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A strong keenness to add more sessions but university semester is beginning and will only be able to do early morning classes and evening classes (which I haven’t tried yet).</div>
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The most noticeable change has been my flexibility (in Sloth 1 – the increase in flexibility had been noticeable but now it is at a whole other level). Each week there is a surprising but much appreciated moment (or several) when I do something and then realised that I couldn’t do that previously:</div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Rise from a low chair without using my hands.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Grab my ankle for a quad stretch.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Lay in bed and bring my knee up to my chest.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Do a squat and instead of meeting resistance within nano seconds I keep squatting lower and lower.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span>I can now twist my body almost 180 degrees.</li>
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In terms of fitness I find that not only do I have the capacity and energy for extra exercise sessions (sometimes 2 on the same day) but I am putting in more effort during those sessions.</div>
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The beginning see - <a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/once-we-were-sloths-tale-of-slow.html" target="_blank">Once we were sloths - A tale of slow conversion </a></div>
Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-47193220899837623252011-02-20T00:29:00.000-08:002011-02-20T00:33:42.567-08:00An old reflection<style>@font-face { font-family: "Calibri"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri;">An old reflection<br /></span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri;"><br />In my first newsletter to Introduction to Law students, in the last couple of years, I have included this reflection of an encounter with Justice Albie Sachs from South Africa.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri;">I wrote the extract below in 2008 when I was overseas rather than teaching first week Introduction to Law. Last year during my 2010 work travels (10 countries, several conferences), I met the cousin of the judge who is the focus of my 2008 reflection – Justice Albie Sachs recently retired from the Constitutional Court of South Africa. His cousin, a sprightly elderly woman, described how she used to take food to Albie each day while he was in prison during the apartheid years in South Africa. She was very annoyed with me because I was leaving South Africa the next morning as she wanted me to visit Albie and would have taken me to see him. Three things struck me. First, how was I in this position to be offered the chance to meet a truly inspirational man (and being unable to take up opportunity)? Secondly, how deeply she was committed to her country despite the massive problems (in some areas 60-80% of population have aids, areas with high illiteracy 50% +, high unemployment). Third, Shirley and her husband Ben Rabinowitz are among the richest folk in Cape Town (and among the most significant contributors to charity, the arts, sports and scholarships) – were willing to give up their time to allow a complete stranger to meet their cousin. I met her whilst at a dinner with 50 odd lawyers, judges and former judges – many of them women. Many of them had played significant roles in keeping the worst ravages of apartheid at bay and in rebuilding their country. I hope some part of my teaching will be enriched by their example and experiences they shared with me.<br /><br /><b style="">The 2008 reflection<br /></b>It has been strange to be away from Uni for the first week. As a co-ordinator of two subjects (Introduction to Law and Law 204 Administrative Law) I feel guilty or at least irresponsible for delegating my work to other people whilst I am travelling in the US.<br /><br />In contrast I think that this trip has added enormously to my understanding of law, legal education and strengthen my desire to be an effective teacher. I have now seen and been involved in classes in 4 very different US law schools (New Mexico, Brandeis, Washington College of Law, Charlotte).<br /><br />More importantly the after dinner speech last night in the exquisitely beautiful banquet room of the First National Reserve Bank of Atlanta would have been worth the last 20 days on the road, living out of a suitcase and putting up with extra security checks at every airport because I was a foreigner who had purchased his tickets outside the US.<br /><br />Why did the dinner speech have such an impact?<br /><br />It was not the large marbled hallways, the beautiful works of art, the boardroom table that probably cost a few hundred thousand dollars. It certainly was not the 18 hours of conference attendance over the last 3 days.<br /><br />First the guest speaker was introduced by former President Jimmy Carter. Carter has redefined the role of former Presidents and the conference I have been at for the past 3 days at the Carter Centre perfectly illustrates this. 125 delegates (political leaders, activists, key donors and scholars) brought together to tackle a major issue see <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.cartercenter.org/homepage.html">http://www.cartercenter.org/homepage.html</a><br /></span></u><br />Yet the key moment was the speech of Justice Albie Sachs – a founding member of the Constitutional Court of South Africa see <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albie_Sachs">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albie_Sachs</a><br /></span></u><br />This elderly gentleman quietly stood at the podium. In a gentle voice he asked us what was the moment in our life that most challenged us as individuals. Many, like me, were flickering through a catelogue of events that seemed unremarkable or not significant enough to air in this august forum.<br /><br />Justice Sachs with a simple statement and movement then proceeded to hold us spellbound. He said<br /><br />“It was not the bombing which left me with this (flaps around a stump where his right arm once was), a bombing authorised by the state of South Africa. No it was my cracking under the slow torture inflicted upon me in a South African police cell…” – he then proceeded in soft unemotional words to paint the picture of a proud lawyer driven pass the point of physical endurance who was forced to sign a confession to crimes and to implicate friends and others. Still clinging to the last vestiges of pride by starting his confession “I make this confession under duress, I have been tortured…” yet too weak and defeated to resist being forced to sign blank sheets of paper so that his “real confession” could be typed on it.<br /><br />The rest of the talk covered how he came back from this personal hell to be a key figure in restoring the rule of law in his beloved country.<br /><br />Last night left me pondering what is it about the law that captures some people’s imaginations so deeply and becomes ingrained so completely with their souls that they can endure physical attack and cold, calculating torture? Endure it with enough faith to replant the seeds, after their own personal low point, for a better justice system.<br /><br />What was it, and how was it passed on, in Justice Sach’s legal education, that allowed him, or committed him, so strongly to the rule of law? Can I, or will I ever, be able to pass this on to any of my students?<br /><br />The other notable event yesterday was a quiet walk, in the Japanese Garden at the Carter Centre, with the head of Google Global Development and another scholar. The three of us talked about how Google could make accessible more of the necessary information that people at the bottom of the pyramid (the bottom 25% of the world’s population in terms of income, life expectancy, education etc) need. I probably was able to offer little new insight but it was an incredible opportunity to have just even a very brief input into an exciting enterprise. Certainly all those decades ago as a young first year law student, still with the rough edges of Queenstown on proud display, I never imagined that I would have experienced a day like yesterday. An experience that arose as a result of my continual legal education.<br /><br />Yet I am annoyed with myself. The walk and the discussion was unexpected – so I wasn’t prepared. My input was therefore limited. A good lesson about being prepared for any circumstance including accidental opportunities.</span></p>Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-35580313004561808252011-01-25T02:21:00.001-08:002011-01-25T02:28:04.636-08:00Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner Penguin 1971<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZvVlzKx-x4L1XlhY5viJ9rsc-6cQSDsCEu9NrW-e9RrQ2mm7iTYH5ASbQ6Fm72O7iqNxpGD2-nOVs-tzCU-4DcLk7mmVILAtn5Cw-caW_LsYNx3La6MsUNmkbn5qab6F43mBJhiLRB_Hh/s1600/51KC3CHNJGL._SL500_.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 195px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZvVlzKx-x4L1XlhY5viJ9rsc-6cQSDsCEu9NrW-e9RrQ2mm7iTYH5ASbQ6Fm72O7iqNxpGD2-nOVs-tzCU-4DcLk7mmVILAtn5Cw-caW_LsYNx3La6MsUNmkbn5qab6F43mBJhiLRB_Hh/s320/51KC3CHNJGL._SL500_.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566066772568284594" border="0" /></a><br /> <style>@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Wingdings"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }@font-face { font-family: "Perpetua"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0in; }ul { margin-bottom: 0in; }</style> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">In a previous blog I wrote about rediscovering a book I had read around 1980 which was already fairly dated by that time.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">“Teaching as a Subversive Activity. It left a big impression on me but as I was thinking in the last 5 weeks about the influences/inputs into my teaching journey it didn’t come to mind. Yet when I went back and reread the book I was staggered by the extent to which my teaching fits onto their template. Any student taught by me who looks at the Wikipedia page on Inquiry Education <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry_education">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry_education</a> would say I simply replicated their methods. Yet at no time in the last 22 years have I relooked at the book. Yet most of the elements I have chosen – deep learning, constructive alignment, action learning, avoiding teaching inert or dead material – for my teaching from various authors fit almost as modules or snap lock parts to this central framework.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">The book came out in the US in the late 1960s and has all the hallmarks of being written at the height of the counter culture revolution and when radical or even complete change in society, institutions and power structures was seen not only as desirable but both possible and necessary. The first 40-50 pages had a profound influence on my thinking. The remaining 80 or so pages were devoted to advocating a complete, and often nonsensical, transformation of the educational system and the roles of teachers, administrators and students with little regard to how such a radical overall could occur. Whilst I could see how it’s critique of classroom teaching and the benefits to be gained from inquiry learning the suggestions for society wide change seemed both unworkable and unrealistic even by 1980.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry_education">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry_education</a></span></p> <span style=";font-size:85%;" >“The inquiry method is motivated by Postman and Weingartner's recognition that good learners and sound reasoners center their attention and activity on the dynamic process of inquiry itself, not merely on the end product of static knowledge. They write that certain characteristics are common to all good learners (Postman and Weingartner, 31–33), saying that all good learners have:</span><br /><ul><li><span style=";font-size:85%;" ><span style="">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style=";font-size:85%;" >Self-confidence in their learning ability</span></li><li><span style=";font-size:85%;" ><span style="">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style=";font-size:85%;" >Pleasure in problem solving</span></li><li><span style=";font-size:85%;" ><span style="">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style=";font-size:85%;" >A keen sense of relevance</span></li><li><span style=";font-size:85%;" ><span style="">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style=";font-size:85%;" >Reliance on their own judgment over other people's or society's</span></li><li><span style=";font-size:85%;" ><span style="">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style=";font-size:85%;" >No fear of being wrong</span></li><li><span style=";font-size:85%;" ><span style="">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style=";font-size:85%;" >No haste in answering</span></li><li><span style=";font-size:85%;" ><span style="">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style=";font-size:85%;" >Flexibility in point of view</span></li><li><span style=";font-size:85%;" ><span style="">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style=";font-size:85%;" >Respect for facts, and the ability to distinguish between fact and opinion</span></li><li><span style=";font-size:85%;" ><span style="">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style=";font-size:85%;" >No need for final answers to all questions, and comfort in not knowing an answer to difficult questions rather than settling for a simplistic answer”</span></li></ul> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">At the time of my first reading of this book I was halfway through a combined arts/law degree and the critique of the traditional approach to study clicked with me and fitted with other readings I had encountered like Karl Popper (the concept of a searchlight – trial and error – approach to experiencing and observing to gain knowledge as opposed to a static collection of bits and pieces of knowledge – the bucket approach) along with other inquiry orientated writers such as Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Zen and the Art of Archery and Richard Bach’s books <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Livingston_Seagull"><i style="">Jonathan Livingston Seagull</i></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusions_%28novel%29"><i style="">Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah</i></a>. The film and TV series Paper Chase had also raised critical questions for me about what was taught in Law Schools and its applicability to life.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">Postman and Weingartner contrasted the rate and type of change taking place in the world outside the classroom, touching on and making many similar points to Alvin Toffler’s book <span style="font-weight: bold;">Future Shock </span>(published around the same time), with the rearview mirror approach of education where most of the teaching was aimed at preserving the status quo and the business of teaching was largely information dissemination and transmission of cultural heritage [at 15-16].</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">Postman and Weingartner<span style=""> </span>argued that [14-15]</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">“Our sociological theories, our political philosophy, our practical maxims of business, our political economy, and our doctrine of education are derived from an unbroken tradition of great thinkers and of practical examples from the age of Plato ...to the end of the last century. The whole of this tradition is warped by the vicious assumption that each generation will substantially live amid the conditions governing the lives of its fathers and will transmit those conditions to mould with equal force the lives of its children. We are living in the first period of human history for which this assumption is false.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">If anything the rate, type and impact of change in 2011 is a quantum leap from what Postman and Weingartner were responding to in the late 1960s. <span style=""> </span>The transferability of content information taught in University classes often will not survive past a student’s graduation. Yet, despite the expansion of formative and continuous assessment in law schools, summative assessment still dominates and whilst deep learning (the work of Gibbs and Ramsden) and constructive alignment (Biggs) gain ground the majority of students still appear to be collecting pieces of content to fill up their buckets to be poured out in a final exam. Content gathers who reflect back what has been communicated to them will generally be successful. Inquirers need to deliver back the content but are rewarded for the layer of insight and originality they add to their recollection efforts. Most effort is spent trying to guess what will please the lecturer.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">Postman and Weingartner felt that the primary focus of education was content orientated, or driven, and that the method used was largely a secondary or minor consideration. A position that remains unchanged within most law schools – most accreditation schemes whether like those in the US or especially like the hold of the “Priestly 11” in Australia - focus first and primarily on content. Postman and Weingartner [at 19] argue:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">“To our knowledge, all schools of education and teacher training institutions in the United States are organized around the idea that content and method are separate in the manner we have described. Perhaps the most important message thus communicated to teachers in training is that this separation is real useful and urgent, and that it ought to be maintained in the schools. A secondary message is that, while the 'content' and 'method' are separate, they are not equal. Everyone knows that the 'real' courses are the content courses…”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">Therefore the type of teaching style or methodology that is adopted is secondary to the measurement or assessment of how accurately students have their ability to recall content whether this be the facts of a case or more often in law schools the ‘rules’ and ‘principles’ derived from a case or particular judgment. Teachers who fail to engage, who bore their students or simply read out their old lecture notes or passages from textbooks rarely face censure and as content acquisition is the student’s responsibility can rarely be found wanting. Whereas a bored or unengaged student who fails to play the content game easily demonstrates their inadequacies by what they produce, or fail to replicate, in a 60%+final exam. Law Schools, driven by the complementary missions of accreditation protection and delivering employment ready graduates, </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">Postman and Weingartner argued that students become comfortable with, or gravitate towards, sitting and listening – passive learning. Questions of teachers tend to be more about administrative and technical details (how long, word count etc? will this be on the exam?) rather than substantive or inquiry type questions. Teachers tend to ask <span style=""> </span>“convergent questions” of the ‘Guess what I am thinking’ type and await the ‘right answer’ [20-21] to appear. When the lecturer asks “What did the High Court decide?” there is a limited array of responses.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">The learning process is largely a case of passive learning, where a smart student learns to predict, and replicate, the narrative of the teacher and the teacher’s role becomes primarily one of judging how close the student comes to replicating the ‘answer’ or the story known or accepted by the teacher.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">The structures of the course both intellectual (syllabus, course synopsis, source of the questions) and physical (design of the classroom or seating arrangement – tiered lecture theatres or tutor standing at front of a room) inherently favour a passive or ‘wait and respond’ style of learning. Postman and Weingartner write [at 27-28]</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><span style="font-style: italic;">“… the passive reception of someone else's story. Of course, the school syllabus is exactly the latter: someone else's story. And most traditional learning environments are arranged to facilitate the sending and receiving of various story lines. That is why teachers regard it as desirable for students to pay attention, face front, sit up in their seats, and be quiet."</span><span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">In many law schools the majority of students and lecturers find it difficult not to drift into, and remain bogged, in their respective roles of passive listeners and note takers (albeit now with some distraction via Facebook) and information transmitters. The difficulty largely stems from the fixed structures of the lecture theatres – fixed rows of tiered seating, all eyes centered to the front and a pool of faces often in the dimmed lights required for a powerpoint presentation. The art of reading out lecture notes is now tweeked with the repeating of stripped down dot points on the screen.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">For Postman and Weingartner the constant changes and challenges in modern society requires an ability to construct and seek new knowledge.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">“Knowledge is produced in response to questions. And new knowledge results from the asking of new questions; quite often new questions about old questions. Here is the point: once you have learned how to ask questions - relevant and appropriate and substantial questions- you have leaned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">A process of inquiry learning will help students cope with a society and environment whereby story lines are created by a multiplicity of information flows – sequential, episodic, alternative, visual, and where broken continuity is<span style=""> </span>inferred [at 27]</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">Whilst Postman and Weingartner were early, and radical proponents, of the now common student engagement/student centered approach to learning they were almost recklessly indifferent to the role or contributions of the teacher to this process. Indeed in many of their examples the model teacher is the one who slides into the background as a facilitator. They do offer a few interesting categories of different approaches within the traditional teaching approach they critique:</span></p> <ul><li><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">Lamplighter</span></li><li><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">Gardener</span></li><li><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">Personnel Manager</span></li><li><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">Muscle Builder</span></li><li><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">Bucket Filler</span></li></ul> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;">In the end what I took away, very deep in my subconscious, from this little book was a desire to create a student centered learning environment where the mission was to enhance students to be independent learners and questioners. Content is subordinate to how it helps students understand and engage with current and future issues and problems.</span></p>Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-49606815104317798512011-01-20T01:41:00.000-08:002013-03-26T23:26:10.929-07:00Working on a Memoir<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2kJox1jFOvFHXUUh45p4wVf7HLajyZ8kR9Jzn3JwMJjukctQ1jaBHwC4uES22C8NZEurZHV2FgeRzDdwMDPntr9L0kGrZxyB2IyovAQdszXWB7-aNWaxhyDRkYI5oghzou3yvzMEFKCkn/s1600/blueecho.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5564574780372674706" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2kJox1jFOvFHXUUh45p4wVf7HLajyZ8kR9Jzn3JwMJjukctQ1jaBHwC4uES22C8NZEurZHV2FgeRzDdwMDPntr9L0kGrZxyB2IyovAQdszXWB7-aNWaxhyDRkYI5oghzou3yvzMEFKCkn/s320/blueecho.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 194px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Working Title:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Postcards from the Past to the Future – Snapshots from an unfinished journey</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Cover art:</span> with kind permission of Rachel-Ireland-Meyers (see <a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4">http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4</a>)<br />
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It will be the painting titled <a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/grace4/art/6007292-1-blue-echo"><span style="color: #000099;">Blue Echo</span></a><br />
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<br />
After some encouragement from Professor Gary Meyers, who teaches Introduction to Law with me, I have started to write a memoir.<br />
<br />
My recent promotion to Associate Professor was the final release moment of something I had been struggling with for a while ie what am I doing in a place like a law school (given my roots, erratic track record as a student, a stop and start progress in the lowest echelons of the public service) teaching law? My economics/law graduate son puts it a little more starkly when he asks “How did you smuggle an Arts subject (the way and what I teach in Administrative Law) into the law school”? What is a young boy who grew up in a mining town, with an underwhelming secondary school record, doing engaging in public debate and tussles with elected officials? How did I gain an international profile in FOI yet have no, or no orthodox, traditional publication or research foundation and especially as after matriculation college I was ready to give away any further education and head back to work in the mines?<br />
<br />
Gary’s proposal was simple <br />
<blockquote>
“You have an interesting story to tell – tell it”.</blockquote>
In part I think his aim was to provide a point of reference for a growing cohort of students that Australian government policy is sweeping into Universities – namely first in family and more students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and/or from regional areas. First, they have few reference points to relate their experiences to and secondly there are only a few places/authors that are able to share their sense of loss and even feelings betrayal of the family, friends and community you abandon on a higher education journey.<br />
<br />
<br />
Furthermore after being awarded the Australasian Law Teacher of the Year Award in 2009 (and given my age - early 50s) I started to think of what could I leave as a legacy in terms of my approach/skills as a teacher that is something other than the "me"? Was there something in the method and process of my teaching, that clearly strikes a chord with many students and committees overseeing teaching awards, that could be useful to other teachers?<br />
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I only started writing in December, so very early formative stages, but have written 25,000 words and more are impatiently lining up. I have decided to adopt Richard Delgado’s motto, shared with me in an email, of <br />
<blockquote>
“write fast, edit slowly”.</blockquote>
I have yet to work out a structure, a real conception of an audience or readership (and at the moment it is more simply for me and family/friends although the “in-house” readership is growing). In the first few words, and before it became clear it was to be a memoir, the writing project had rammed me up against a number of unresolved issues about who I was and my past. Exposure to an early draft of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Humeirah Fasq </span>by Sabah Carrim<br />
(<a href="http://www.authonomy.com/books/28188/humeirah-fasq-edited-and-updated-/">http://www.authonomy.com/books/28188/humeirah-fasq-edited-and-updated-/</a>) encouraged me to tackle my own relationship to my past.<br />
<br />
A reader, of an early draft, noted some similarity to Obama's <span style="font-weight: bold;">Dreams from My Father</span> which I had not read until three weeks ago. A great book. Like Obama, the search/construction of my story then sets up other actions (travelling home to talk with my mother about my birth father. A subject I had not raised for the last 48 years).<br />
<br />
<br />
In part the effort has been (and still is) to find my voice/tune, to recall/reconstruct fragments and like Obama deal with unknown/uncertain family history. As I write I have also started to read more and very different memoirs including Hemingway’s <span style="font-weight: bold;">A Movable Feast</span>, Bob Ellis <span style="font-weight: bold;">Goodbye Jerusalem: Night thoughts of a Labour Outsider</span>. Patricia William’s <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Alchemy of Race and Rights</span>, Helene Chung’s <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ching Chong China Girl</span> and recall other ones I have previously read like Clive James <span style="font-weight: bold;">Unreliable Memoirs</span> and Dylan’s masterpiece <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chronicles: Volume 1</span>.<br />
<br />
<br />
Now I am starting to explore in more depth, and tease out, some of the themes - academic as activist and my engagement with the law as an outsider. The other major theme I want to tackle is my journey as a university lecturer and the style of teaching that gives the subjects I teach a hallmark among UTAS law students as “a Rick subject”. The hallmark indicates, for those in the know, that this subject will be a far different experience than most of their other law subjects and indeed most of their UTAS learning experiences.<br />
<br />
In the back of my mind the format I would like to try and emulate, to a degree, is The Rough Guide series ie like The Rough Guide to Bob Dylan (<a href="http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9781843537182/rough-guide-bob-dylan">http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9781843537182/rough-guide-bob-dylan</a>) in terms of the storytelling, the use of colour, boxes and photographs (or drawings). At the moment the writing is simply text but I have been collecting old photographs and often writing segments with a photo in mind to accompany the final text.<br />
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I have also started to reread, especially Richard Delgado (<a href="http://www.law.seattleu.edu/Faculty/Faculty_Profiles/Richard_Delgado.xml">http://www.law.seattleu.edu/Faculty/Faculty_Profiles/Richard_Delgado.xml</a>), about the use, and/or application, of narrative and the personal experience in law scholarship. Patricia Williams has been heavily criticised for both of these approaches and as a consequence she finds many of her articles rejected by law reviews because they rely too heavily on her first hand accounts. Richard had sparked my interest in weaving personal narrative into my scholarship during a very brief visit he and Jean Stefancic (<a href="http://www.law.seattleu.edu/Faculty/Faculty_Profiles/Jean_Stefancic.xml">http://www.law.seattleu.edu/Faculty/Faculty_Profiles/Jean_Stefancic.xml</a>) had made to Tasmania in December 1995 after a short series of lectures in Melbourne. In preparation for his visit I had read some of his work including “Storytelling for Oppositions and Others: A Plea for Narrative”, 87 Michigan Law Review 2411 (1987). We had a brief conversation about writing from the perspective of difference or the outsider in law (gender, race, ethnicity) and I had speculated whether the voice of a marginal/regional/working class perspective could also be an approach. From about that period a more personal and polemic tone started to appear in my academic writings.<br />
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A theme in the memoir will be the exploration of my feeling/concept of being an outsider to the <span style="font-weight: bold;">LAW</span> and the paradox of being a respected and award winning teacher <span style="font-style: italic;">of the law</span>. At the moment this theme is implicit and has only just started to bubble to the surface - still raw and rambling in its appearance – in the writing or more accurately in the writing waiting to be done in the next few days.<br />
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In part, until my promotion, I felt that a lot of my activity including my teaching approach, written scholarship and public engagement in law reform, policy debates and discussion was in some sense illegitimate/unorthodox or of lesser value/respectability or status than the more traditional activities of my peers. A friend, now a Law School Dean, emailed me on hearing of the promotion and stated “You must feel incredibly validated for all your hard work over the years”. This was an eureka moment/comment for me. Yes I did. I had lodged an application, with the extremely strong backing of my new Dean, that asked for my efforts to be judged against the normal criteria but not in reference to the usual benchmarks (A1 refereed journals, competitive research grants, formal university teaching surveys). Another colleague wrote <br />
<blockquote>
“You are a star! One of the few real teachers that made it in the research encrusted world - so not only congratulations on a promotion so very well earned, but thanks from the rest of us for whom teaching is the goal.”</blockquote>
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This memoir owes part of its existence to my recent long and slow slog back to better levels of health and fitness. Not only do I feel much better with myself, more comfortable in the world around me but I also have the energy to divert to this activity.<br />
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I have started to try and tell a story about some of my journey that has meaning not only for me but for those who I have encountered on the way. I have already discovered that a memoir and a personal narrative can have a deep impact on others and that ‘my story’ is also in parts a story of other people who may not want any version of that story told.<br />
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I haven’t decided wherever to, or when, post excerpts from the memoir on this blog. In the short term probably not and may restrict it to unwanted reflections or by-products of the process (the next proposed blog entry on the book Teaching as a Subversive Activity is an example of this – a piece too long and/or out of tune with the project).<br />
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I remember seeing on an ABC Book Club segment a discussion about the Great Gatsby. Someone commented how Fitzgerald had developed a deep and multilayered background for every character, event, relationship but had pared it all down to a minimalist presence on the actual page. In A Movable Feast Hemmingway wrote about a crowd scene a poet had worked on for a year to reduce down to a sparse few words. At the moment I am just trying to capture events, memories, flashbacks and to explore feelings and reactions by just letting the words flow out.<br />
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One thing I am discovering is how fragile and unreliable memories can be. One example around 1980 I read a second hand copy of <b><a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/teaching-as-subversive-activity-by-neil.html" target="_blank">Teaching as a Subversive Activity</a></b>. It left a big impression on me but as I was thinking in the last 5 weeks about the influences/inputs into my teaching journey it didn’t come to mind. Yet when I went back and reread the book I was staggered by the extent to which my teaching fits onto their template. Any student taught by me who looks at the Wikipedia page on Inquiry Education <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry_education">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry_education</a> would say I simply replicated their methods. Yet at no time in the last 22 years have I looked again at the book. Yet most of the elements I have chosen – deep learning, constructive alignment, action learning, avoiding teaching inert or dead material – for my teaching from various authors fit almost as modules or snap lock parts to this central framework.<br />
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Whether this memoir is finally published or in what form who knows but already I have reaped dividends in my family and personal relationships, in my sense of self and in my understanding of my teaching. At the very least it has provided enough renewed passion to get me through at least one more semester of teaching.<br />
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<a href="http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/memoir-1st-story-mexico-2008.html" target="_blank">1st Leaf - Mexico </a> Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1385055722395785608.post-78182319743518418412010-11-03T04:59:00.000-07:002010-11-03T05:11:55.181-07:00Creating and preserving an Exam Free State<span style="font-weight:bold;">Creating and preserving an Exam Free State</span><br /><br /><a href=" http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/scrap-our-archaic-exams-says-top-academic/story-e6frea8c-1225943522873">Scrap our archaic exams, says top academic</a> By Lucy Hood From: Adelaide Now October 26, 2010<br /><br /><blockquote>“University of Adelaide executive dean, faculty of sciences Professor Bob Hill says mid and final-year written exams should be abolished in the sciences and be reviewed in other disciplines.”</blockquote><br /><br />I spent my undergraduate years losing 20-40% of my marks between research essay performance and final results due to exams.<br /><br />As a new casual tutor in Political Science I watched two of my best contributing first year students in tutorials being bell curved downwards against exam performance. Their internal work was ‘too high’ compared to their exam performance. As I had looked at drafts of all my students work (if they wanted) my students had received an ‘unfair’ advantage against other students whose tutors behaved more sensibly and even handedly.<br /><br />As a starting law lecturer I watched property law students let the subject drift by because 80% of marks were based on the final exam. In acts of desperation they tried to grasp the intricacies of Torrens, common law and equity in a couple of days by trying to cherry pick topics. A future scholarship student saw me after the property exam pointing out he had read no cases, a bit of text book and used his mates notes to cram to pull off the highest mark in the subject.<br /><br />In my first years of tutoring administrative law I marked exam after exam seeing barely anything to raise my pulse or to indicate that I had conveyed anything interesting about the subject.<br /><br />In a 1997 book I outlined my anti-exam feelings and explained why in Administrative Law I had created an exam free zone.<br /> See<br /><br /><a href="http://ricksnell.com.au/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=49">"Not Just Another Brick in the Wall: Rick Snell"</a> Chapter 42 in Ballantyne, Roy et al Reflecting on University Teaching: Academics' Stories DEETYA 1997.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">This was a Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development project. Professor Ballantyne asked every Australian University to nominate exemplary teachers. Those nominated then submitted a short profile and outline of their teaching practices and nominated students who could be approached for comment. A final list of 44 academics were chosen to be interviewed. The interview allowed the academics the opportunity to tell their teaching story. The writing team then tried to capture the full story of the teaching practices in a way that could be accessible to other academics (using a variety of theme sections) interested in teaching and learning.<br /><br />Nomination did wonders for my own self-belief but more importantly the telling, albeit fairly crudely, of my story was my first opportunity to engage in both subjective and objective reflection about my teaching ideas and practices. </span><br /><br />In 1999 I took over first year law. I added, over the next decade, more internal assessment but kept 30-40% of assessment based on exams. Despite my anti-exam feelings I kept the exams mostly on the rationale that my students would confront exams throughout their law degree so I might as well prepare them in advance. A little like a war weary gunny Sergeant in a marine boot camp.<br /><br />This year I finally killed the exam and replaced it with a presentation. As a learning opportunity the majority of students performed exceptionally well. Instead of enduring the trudge and loathing of marking poorly handwritten crammed efforts the teaching staff had the joy of watching prepared, albeit nervous, bright youngsters presenting arguments.<br /><br />Meanwhile for the last 17 years as my colleagues bemoaned the 70-90% of sub standard performances in exams (sub standard in regards to the student’s potential and the academic’s expectation) at assessment stage I would be celebrating the research, arguments, understanding and often expressed interest in a notoriously ‘dull and boring subject known as administrative law.<br />This blog entry inspired by the following discussion on Facebook provoked by a discussion about the article “Invasion of aca-zombies” by Joseph Gora and Andrew Whelan From: The Australian November 03, 2010 <br /> <span style="font-style:italic;">http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion-analysis/invasion-of-aca-zombies/story-e6frgcko-1225946869706<span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://ricksnell.com.au/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=49"></a></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Student A</span> - Presumably this means that the undergrads are all lifeless goal-pursuing zombies? ;)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Rick Snell</span><br />They often give this illusion but deep down we know they have good hearts and intent. A few of us academics might fail a pick the zombie and the undergrad student contest. Although a lot of us have inflicted so much mental angst and tedium we would qualify as true Zombie Masters.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Student A</span><br /> Abolish exams and the zombies might awaken - seriously, I think they are one of the least effective means of testing a student's overall understanding and engagement with a topic, yet still the most widely utilised!<br />· <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Rick Snell</span><br /> You preaching to the converted. I wouldn't have last as long as I had as a uni teacher if the Law School hadn't allowed me the latitude to offer different assessment regimes.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Student A</span><br /> 'Exactly - admin is such a welcome change from the assessment structure used in torts and contract (which I think is a bit too full on for the second years and is more of an examination of their ability to write under pressure than their ability to understand and apply the law)'<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Rick Snell</span> <br />for my thoughts on exams - almost unchanged - there is a chapter on my web site under teaching - teaching style and preferences called "Another Brick in the Wall"<br />good/great students can do both - and therefore in the eyes of former good/great students this validates the process.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Student A </span><br />'exactly but even though I can handle both, assessment structures such as yours really got the best out of me! Some students are so bright but their academic records don't reflect that level of understanding because the exam assessment structure doesn't suit them - why should the assessment structure be designed for the few who are going to do well regardless?'<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Student B</span><br />Yep, they really are just a test of who can regurgitate the most information in as little time. Too bad if you are a slow writer or need more time to actually think through what you are writing. <br /><br />Moots are my personal favourite. Although they do mean that you may not cover as wide an area of the course as you would in preparing for the mixed bag of an exam they require you to be able to focus on a specific area and then learn, understand and apply it verbally - a vital skill for almost any employment path. <br /><br />Even if it means you may have slightly less surface knowledge of other areas of the course by virtue of it being so focussed it teaches the vital skills of being able to take on any specific area of the course and being able to master it. A skill far more valuable than being able to mindlessly regurgitate and a skill you won't forget down the track unlike the reams of information you have to cover.<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight:bold;">Student A</span> <br />Exactly. And it's so hit and miss - it's actually a game of chance how well you do in an exam, it all depends upon the questions asked. There is no real life equivalent of the exam situation - so what are we testing?! Plus, it's so easy to resort to mindless regurgitation bordering on plagiarism in an exam, whereas in an essay/oral presentation you actually have to use intelligence!<br /><br />It always comes down to laziness - it takes energy, dedication and passion to bring out the best in students!!! <br /><br />Hopefully at some point in my career I will be a lecturer and I will pour all my energy in to it!!!<br /><br />Well keep fighting the good fight rick and never let them force you to use exams! Students really like the flexible assessment approach!<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Rick Snell</span><br />Just reread the Another Brick chapter I think it still resonates even though I do things in very different ways now.<br /> <br />See the testimonials on my web site to understand how students like Student A as well as those tarred as poor performers (due to their exam performances)respond to a different learning environment.Rick Snellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07379024295586296387noreply@blogger.com0