'Tis amazing what causes one to have little trips down Memory Lane. This week it has been the Mayor of Mount Isa in North West Queensland, John Molony.

Early this year, my old mate Molony (National Party) defeated my other old mate Ron McCulloch (Australian Labor Party) in the race for the Mayor's job in Mount Isa. Now to all of those who live in places like New South Wales and Victoria who put up with weak, namby-pamby local governments who leave their local councillors to elect their mayors for one year terms: forget it. Queensland (as does the Northern Territory - clearly something about the North) directly elects its mayors.

Ron had been mayor for something like eighteen years - a popular Irishman. John had been on the Mount Isa City Council for years and years and then took off further north and west to Burke Shire up on the Gulf of Carpentaria where he became what used to be called Shire Chairman. Now Mount Isa City Council claims - or used to - to be the biggest city in the world in area because it extends across to Camooweal and the Queensland-Northern Territory border. This sure is a contrast to Burke Shire because, as I recall it, Burke Shire does not contain one bitumen road.

Anyways, John is back in The Isa. Well, I don't suppose he ever really left. Just that, now, he's the mayor. Runs the place you could say. John owns a western men's outfitting store. John was selling western gear to stockmen before he ever had a Mount Isa store. His business life began as a hawker selling clothes and stuff from station to station in north west Queensland and the Barkly side of the NT. So he knows the Barkly Tableland and the Gulf from go to whoa.

Now let's get things straight. If you are a bloke with the lifeblood of northwest Queensland flowing in your veins; you are a paid up member or supporter of the Queensland National Party; you own a cattle property; and you make your living from people who live and work on, in and around cattle properties it is possible - but not all that likely - that you are a reconstructed, sensitive new age guy. However, those four adjectives have never applied to me mate Molony even at his best.

You see, dear Reader, in the long ago in that place accessed by a trip down Memory Lane, I used to know John and his wife Heather. It was in the late 70s to mid 80s when I was employed by the Mount Isa City Council to manage the Mount Isa Public Library, then part of the North Western Regional Library Service. The Library was situated directly opposite John's menswear store in West Street. I served on committees with him and our relationship was always co-operative and cordial.

However, I remember one night where the unreconstructed John came to the forefront. It was the night of Mardi Gras which launches Mount Isa's biggest event of the year - the Mount Isa Rodeo. We (the Dear Departed Dearly Beloved -DDDB - and Miss Eagle) were in the street outside Boydie's pub and got into conversation with John. Now, back then as now, Miss Eagle was never short of a word or an opinion. In the course of the conversation, John looked past Miss Eagle to the DDDB and said to him - How do you handle her? Miss E, not showing her inward consternation and not waiting for the DDDB to reply, piped up with a large and glowing smile - Because he's a real man. 'Nuff said.

Now maybe John can't provide a lot of intellectual stuff to the wider political debate. Perhaps - and it really is difficult - it is difficult to get anyone's attention when you are way across the Great Dividing Range and the sunlit plains extended in far-flung Mount Isa. Perhaps, he's been following the example of and taking lessons from that well-known noise from the northwest, Bob Katter Jr. Perhaps, it is just that it's rodeo time and all those lonely, boozing ringers in town provoked Molony's grey cells into gear.

But this time he's been and gone and done it. He's got himself not only national publicity, but international publicity. What else is going to happen when you talk about an isolated mining town, a shortage of nubile women, and an invitation to ugly women?

Everyone is now buying into the debate about his comments - including Catherine Deveny. But the local women are holding their own well - as they always have. I can proudly make that statement since I founded what is, arguably, the only home-grown feminist organisation Mount Isa had - the Union for Western Women. Time alone will tell whether the old adage about any publicity being good publicity will prove true in this matter.

Last night, the women of Mount Isa gathered outside the Civic Centre (right next to the Mount Isa Public Library) and demonstrated their displeasure. BTW, Molony and I once organised a celebration for Australia's win in the America's Cup in that very space. We made it a fundraiser for our Bi-Centennial Committee and we packed in a couple of thousand Mount Isans. The jollities included soap-sudding the civic fountain. Kev Ashworth, Town Clerk at the time, said that, in his view, it was the best use the fountain had ever been put to. We had a good time that night, didn't we John?

And, in the end, that is the point. Mount Isa is unique. It is great. It is a place of great experiences and great times.

My nine years in Mount Isa were probably the best years of my whole life - unreconstructed men and all! I don't pretend that Mount Isa now is the same as Mount Isa then. Remote towns are transient towns - but, as demonstrated by John, some things stay the same.

I commend Mount Isa to everyone - male, female, ugly, beautiful or just plain interesting - but with one proviso. It is tough living in an isolated community in a forbidding climate and geography. It is not for everyone. Cracks in relationships can become gaping chasms. The education of kids has to be considered. There is the question of relationships with the First Australians. While the DDDB and I loved it - my children's memories are of the harshness. For them as they look back, their memories (and this saddens me) are bleak.

Perhaps some of us have longing for green grass and urban environments in our hearts - and others, like me, bless the sunlit plains extended.

The town Mount Isa Mines built (please note that fly in-fly out mining does not bring the socially constructive elements of somewhere like Mount Isa to the human community and landscape) is the result of generations of hard work since 1924. There have been deaths, occupational hazards, blood, sweat, lead, tears, strikes and a state of emergency. Men have mined, women have battled, children have thrived and cultures have lived together well. Those of us who have lived and shared the Mount Isa experience know that we have been part of something very, very special. Long live Mount Isa!

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Thanks to Louise who has advised of the following event:

The VICTORIAN WOMEN'S TRUST presents:
Forum Two: Dangerous and Persuasive Women: Doing Politics Differently - Australian Women's 'History of Success'
Centenary of Suffrage in Victoria 1908 - 2008
WHEN: Monday 16 June 2008
WHERE: BMW Edge Theatre, Federation Square,Melbourne
WHEN: 6.30pm for 7.00pm start
FREE!!!!!
Book now to reserve your seat for the Women's Trust's second free forum celebrating 100 years of Victorian women's right to vote. Join us for a unique and entertaining oral and visual presentation - a journey across the century detailing how Australian women have done politics not only differently, but also very successfully.
Drawing on the works of significant feminist historians and the Women’s Trust's own research, a unique, first-time and compelling public narrative will be delivered, co-presented by radio presenter and journalist Angela Pippos, comedian and entertainer Tracy Bartram, social historian Adjunct Professor Judith Smart and Women's Trust Executive Director Mary Crooks.
The Trust's first forum was a terrific success - drawing a crowd of over 300 people - so make sure you don't miss out on this next event!
Book now - phone the Trust on (03) 9642 0422 or email women@vwt.org.au to reserve your seat.
The Trust will hold a third a final event to commemorate this important anniversary in October

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Is the ACTU under pressure?

Miss Eagle was forced to ask the question above after reading this. The ACTU is, perhaps, flinching under the fruit of success. It's wonderful Your Rights At Work campaign was central to the Rudd Labor Government's ascent to the reins of power.

We all watched open-mouthed the me-too campaign run by Labor in the lead up to the election. We wondered if this is what really had to happen to come to power and if Rudd would change his public tune when he came to power. Rudd seems set on being a promise-keeper and appears determined not to follow John Howard down the dishonest path of core and non-core promises.

Rudd and Gillard prior to the election were intent on projecting an image that was business-friendly and business wanted what they had got out of Howard. But, as the union movement is set to remind Rud and Gillard, the Your Rights At Work campaign by the ACTU delivered government. People who had never voted Labor before changed their vote. John Howard's Work Choices were, for most people, a bridge too far. Business has to face that fact. After all, they do love the benefits of a democracy governed by the rule of law, don't they?

And why this magic year of 2010 before things can really begin to change - if at all? Rudd had said that this was because business had to make forward plans. But, really, Kevin. A business that does not factor in the "change of government" risk? A business that can't figure out that industrial relations might change with Labor in power?

People are - by year's end - going to want demonstrable workplace change. They really would like it sooner, like right now. But their patience may stretch to year's end. After that, Kevin and Julia, if there is no demonstrable and meaningful change you will be seen as someone who keeps your word - to business but not to ordinary working Australians.

The left unions are restless. The Socialist Alliance - not an organisation brim-full of burgeoning membership - had a State conference here in Melbourne. The Saturday afternoon panel was devoted to the industrial relations scene and the AMWU, Textile, Clothing & Footwear Union, and the CFMEU as well as the Geelong & Region Trades and Labour Council turned up and clearly expressed their points of view.

The contribution of these unions was indicative of what could be a groundswell from the Left. The AMWU with its strong foothold in a declining Victorian manufacturing base clearly wants a return to the previous way of operating including Pattern Bargaining. While the TCFU outlined lucidly the way in which flow-ons have operated in Australia, the AMWU's dream of pattern bargaining is a wish that Miss Eagle predicts will remain unfulfilled. Somewhere, though, between the traditional flow-on practices and the rigidity and targetting of pattern bargaining there could be an opportunity for some new and negotiated thinking.

Traditionally, there have been unions like the AMWU and the Construction Unions who have set the pace. They have used their clout to progress demands and those with less clout - particularly in industries whose workforce is populated by women and the young - have, in time, been able to apply for flow-ons into their own industrial instruments.

However, back in the 1980s the AMWU and the Construction Unions overlooked one very important factor: the service sector. There was a time back then when the service sector was the one area of the economy that displayed marked growth at the same time as manufacturing entered its decline and some areas of construction were in the doldrums.

The AMWU drove through enterprise bargaining. This was a disaster for workers in the service sector such as the retail and hospitality industries. Enterprise bargaining has potential in the tradeable goods area and in construction. The economies of these industries were the meat and milk of the old Industrial Relations Club. The IR Club knew the ins and outs intimately and its people on a first name basis. The service industries were foreign to them - even to the men who ran the trade unions who serviced these industries. No thought had been given to how they operated: their culture, their economic milieu. I'm not sure that this has occurred yet. Draw an AIRC Commissioner into conversation over a coldie and he (very few she-s) would admit his ignorance.

To put it simply, dear Reader, in Enterprise Bargaining one could negotiate efficiencies in this wise:
If the business was making 500 ball bearings per day but efficiencies were negotiated and work practices not currently facilitated by the industrial award were streamlined and 750 ball bearings per day could now be made, then workers could negotiate a share of the increased productivity. Dead easy.

Then you go to the service industries. A check-out operator has no control over the number of customers served; the room attendant has no control over the number of beds made and rooms cleaned; the bar attendant has no control over the number of customers nor beers pulled. And while, in this day and age, it is possible to measure anything. When people do not want to find quantifiable or qualitative data, that data will never be forthcoming - particularly in relation to the work of women. This is why, in the end, Enterprise Bargaining became associated in these industries not with improved productivity but being forced into giving up conditions and working horrible hours without penalty rates. Of course, the more this sort of Enterprise Bargaining became the norm in these industries the fewer people joined trade unions. Mmmmm.....!

So to-day we look at the linked article which seems to be attributed more to Jeff Lawrence (himself from a Left union, the LHMU) than to the Rudd Government. It is interesting that this has come within ten days of the union panel at the Socialist Alliance. Within ten days of the panel at the Socialist Alliance saying that the current position of the ACTU was quite confused; saying that if the ACTU was to mount any sort of campaign it would be months away.

But the revival of the Australian Labour Advisory Council will hardly be a sop to disgruntled unions. This would have been likely to occur anyway. Similarly, union business committees to consult on legislation - as has been advised by Miss E's AWU contacts. This process is always likely under a Labor Government.

What Australian trade unions don't take to kindly is having a Labor government giving business its wish list or giving business an upper hand to the disadvantage of trade unions and, particularly, trade union rights as spelt out in ILO conventions.

And, as you are aware Kevin and Julia, the CFMEU want the abolition of the draconian Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner forthwith.

Only a bird in a gilded cage?

Karen Murphy says:

Years ago, when I first went into the world and embraced feminism as an equalising movement, not one based on hatred, resentment or superiority, my mother expressed doubts.
She said that she foresaw a time when women would be under more pressure, rather than less, with less respect rather than more, falling further behind rather than stepping out in front.
Then I thought her fearful and reactionary.
Now I think her wise.

Miss Eagle didn't have the prescience in this matter of Karen's mother. But I do give her some credit.

Miss Eagle's feminist credentials have always been sound. I was never in the radical, separatist camp. And I didn't swap my husband for a same sex partner. I have always called myself a fair-go-feminist or, more technically, an equalitarian.

I wanted a fair go: a fair go to be myself, not to be impeded because of my gender or marital status or fertility or child caring and rearing responsibilities. I love men - or some of them. And I care about the way some men are treated and how many of them - for one reason or another - don't get a fair go. I wanted to earn the good money the boys always ensured for themselves. I wanted women to cease to be their own worst enemies by their always-trying-to-please-mentality. I was sick and tired of a system that kept women happy by giving them a nice title, a nice office, don't-get-your-hands-dirty work, and lousy pay.

I hate Secretary's Day. To show appreciation to and for your Secretary/PA/EA, forget the ad in the paper. Ditch the roses. Give her decent money, time flexibility, a fair degree of autonomy, treat her as a professional member of the team, and value her work!

And titles. One of the feminist trademarks was "Ms." Even down to Gloria Steinem's magazine. But Ms was an indication that marital status was my business not yours. And believe me the stories that abounded back in the 70s in relation to single mothers and their treatment by electricity companies!

To Miss Eagle, the title is important. So important that she doesn't want any. She was not born with a title. She is not a miss - nor has she been missed.

I have a first name, a middle name, a last name. You can call me by my first name (my preference - even if you are a six year old) or you can call me by my last name. I don't want Miss, Ms, or Mrs. This has been the Quaker way for the last 350 years. If there is a Quaker title, it is merely Friend.

As for how to address the mail, use names or initials. Ms has still not lost the stigma of being a very, very radical title. Rubbish, poppycock and horsefeathers! Any good old fashioned stenographer will tell you that when you don't know the title of a woman (whether it is Miss or Mrs) you can always write M/s. This was the forerunner of the feminist Ms.

Many organisations - business, political, feminist - have, since the 70s, always addressed their mail Ms. But imagine my shock in recent times when I received a letter from Kevin Rudd address to me as Mrs.... !

Now, for those of you who are archaic, yes I am a Mrs. But I don't wish to be called Mrs and how dare Kevin or who ever prepared that letter assume, since they are complete strangers, my marital status. It is none of their ever-so-polite business. Why could the letter not have been addressed to FirstName LastName or FirstName Middle Name/Middle Initial Last Name. The salutation could have been Dear FirstName. What is so difficult about that? What is so bad mannered about that?

And then what bugs me is that, so often, computer programs give no option. Very few in the title box have an option saying "None". So I pick my own - if someone is willing to play along. My favourite Melbourne book store sends me their catalogue - courtesy of the assistance of a rather cute young man on a sunny Melbourne morning - using the title Saint: Saint First Name Last Name. Heaven knows what the postie thinks!

Back to Mrs Murphy and her prescience. Is she right? Julia Gillard is now next to the top of the tree and there are a lot more visible women in public and corporate life than ever before. Our efforts have not been for nought. But even more visible are the sexual libertarians and their camp (no: not gay: ancient phrase) followers.

Karen Murphy explicitly lays the blame and I support her:

And I blame women because winning equality and respect was always going to be our fight, wives and mothers, sisters, friends and colleagues, but we seem to have walked away before serious battle was even joined.
Capitalism lurks somewhere behind it, of that there is no doubt, the notion that earning money is without a moral component. But it goes deeper than that, as if we have all been sold the emperor's new clothes of sexual glamour.
No, ladies, it's not glamorous, it's just naked.
In particular, I hold to account:
■All the lap dancers, strippers, topless barmaids and well-educated prostitutes who do it for the money.
■Women participating in pornography.
■Women who post tawdry "raunch" photos of themselves on the internet.
■Women who model in degrading advertisements (think Windsor Smith shoes) who do it for the money.
■Women who have cosmetic surgery just when their faces are becoming interesting, and breast enhancements to make themselves desirable.
■Women who claim they have Brazilian waxes for themselves.
■Women who refuse to have an argument with their male partners over the sharing of household duties.
■Women who have caesareans so that their vaginas remain tight.
■Women who claim stiletto heels are comfortable.
■Mothers who give their daughters make-up or hair dye before they turn 10, and are more likely to ask if the child has a favourite boy at school rather than a favourite subject.
■All the women who participate in soft-porn music clips.
■All the women who do pole dancing instead of a non-sexual gym workout.
■All the actresses that strip when their careers are in trouble.
■All the female sports stars that strip to raise money.
■Those women who still believe it is more important to be beautiful on the outside than the inside.

Is this what the liberation of women, the freedom of choice and social movement for women is all about? If so, as Mrs Murphy predicted, it has devalued the currency. Not only has the currency of the free will of women being devalued but it is affecting our children, particularly our daughters and our grand-daughters.

We now have people who consider pole dancing a mainstream activity appropriate for teaching to little girls. We now have sexually-inspired clothes for little girls. Our little girls are not only playing with their mothers' cosmetics but seriously wearing cosmetics at a younger age than ever before.

The women who use their freedom for only these practices have sold their birthright for a mess of pottage. Instead of building wider horizons for themselves, they have narrowed the supposedly gilded cage. There is a wide and beautiful world out there waiting for women to explore and make their own. There are those who want to encase us in heavy clothes and imprison us in our homes and leave us naked on our beds.

We have to continue to fight to establish ourselves in the physical, mental and spiritual freedom our Creator Spirit intended for us.

Workplace Relations and Aged Care

My friend Gina over at Patra's Place and Patra's Other Place has had trials and tribulations in recent times in relation to her employment. Gina is feisty - and a fighter. Now she has set up a new blog to document what has been happening. It is called Workplace Relations - what a farce!

Miss Eagle commends Gina for this well set up blog. Gina brings a personal take on some of the major issues at the forefront of the contemporary Australian workplace and highlights the often hidden practice of service delivery in aged care.

Miss E believes that Aged Care is, as a political issue, a major sleeper. The number of aged people is increasing - and so are their friends and relatives and the number of people employed in the Home and Community Care (HACC) program.

Gina is right! Let's get stirring. Please let her know your experience in the workplace - any workplace. If you work in a HACC program, please make getting in touch a priority. Major issues within Aged Care include:

1. Lack of a grass-roots consumer complaint system for those receiving Commonwealth packages or HACC services.
2. Lack of organisation among employees of private service providers - particularly those who are outsourced by local government.
3. Gender domination by women in delivering services to the aged. The dominance of women in service sector occupations can be equated with lack of employee organisation and inequities in pay scales.
4. Lack of a voice at the policy table for those who work at the coal-face of delivery of services to the aged in the home.
5. Governments are making major changes to policies affecting the delivery of services to the aged in the home with major input from doctors and nurses but not for personal care workers.
6. The role of guest workers in aged care services now and in the future.

Indigenous Leadership Scholarship: Women please apply

Patricia Corowa (centre) from Redfern with Jean Carter of Wreck Bay and Kerry Brown of Yass. From The Message Stick site - Yabun Concert Album

Miss Eagle has received this morning an email from her good and dear friend, Patricia Corowa, which was forwarded to her from Russell Logan. Russell and Patricia are trying to disseminate this information as widely as possible, so Miss Eagle is posting the email here together with a relevant link in the hope that you, dear Reader, will pick up the baton and disseminate it even further. Go for it! Indigenous women - don't delay! Apply now!

From: russell.logan@centrelink.gov.au
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land I work on, as the first people of this country

Russell Logan

Indigenous Service Officer

Tweed / Gold Coast Areas Area Pacific Central

Fax: 07 55 699 599Ph 07 55 699 584Mob:Email: russell.logan@centrelink.gov.au

Attention: Good Shepherd Indigenous Scholarship Applications cut off date 31 October

Dear Good Shepherd People

The dead line for the next round of Good Shepherd Scholarships for Indigenous women is Wednesday 31 October. We encourage you all to distribute the attached information sheet as widely as you can across all your networks. You might also personally give any aboriginal women you know the attached information sheet.

We'd like to spread the word as widely as possible even to women who are not already studying. In this way the information may reach some women who might not otherwise have been in a position to consider tertiary study. These possibilities make the Good Shepherd Indigenous Scholarship a very particular way of furthering

Reconciliation.

Cheers Annie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GOOD SHEPHERD RECONCILIATION SCHOLARSHIPS

In 2006 the Good Shepherd Sisters formalised a Reconciliation Scholarship Program for Indigenous women. The Scholarship Program is an expression of Good Shepherd’s commitment to reconciliation. In keeping with the Good Shepherd spirit, the Scholarship aims to advance reconciliation by building the capacity of individual Indigenous women and by making a significant difference in their lives.

Reconciliation Scholarships are open to Indigenous women of any age who are eligible for or enrolled in a course of study leading to a certificate, diploma or degree at an accredited Australian University or TAFE.

The Scholarships assist students with their HECS liability and provide a small living allowance of $1,500 per semester. Students who have made other arrangements to cover their HECS fees and those who face additional financial, social, geographic or emotional challenges in undertaking study can request assistance for the purchase of computing equipment, child care, transport, tutoring and counselling to the value of $5,000 per year.

The value of each scholarship will be determined by the individual student’s needs to a maximum of $7,500 per year. Scholarships can be renewed each year, if progress is satisfactory; but one-off grants for special assistance can also be made.

Good Shepherd Reconciliation Scholarships are funded by the Good Shepherd Sisters and administered by the Mary MacKillop Foundation.

More detailed information and application forms are available from the Mary MacKillop Foundation. Please contact the Project Co-ordinator at:

The Mary MacKillop Foundation Limited
9 Mount Street
North Sydney, NSW, 2060
PO Box 1508
North Sydney, NSW, 2059

Telephone: (02) 9929 7344 or (02) 8912 4860
Email: info@mackillopfoundation.org.au
Website: www.mackillopfoundation.org.au

Banduk Marika: a prophetic voice

Banduk Marika is a talented woman, an artist.

Her art speaks for her - most of the time. To-day, she speaks out. Here is a truly prophetic voice - but it is a voice speaking of history and experience, a voice well-founded in its own culture. Listen....please!

Bev Manton: Remembering the silence

Bev Manton received national attention with her recent NAIDOC Week speech in her capacity as Chairperson of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSW ALC).




Bev Manton, a member of the Worimi nation, is a strong and respected advocate for community development, particularly in relation to employment, housing, health and education. Involved with the NSWALC since its inception, Bev is a founding member and co-ordinator of the Karuah Local Aboriginal Land Council and worked as the LALC Co-ordinator for four years before being elected to NSWALC.

Karuah is a small township on the banks of the Karuah River. Karuah Local Aboriginal Land Council started up a boat building project a year or two ago for young Aboriginal people. The project has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the New South Wales Department of Education and Training under the Elsa Dixon employment program. This will allow the project to target Aboriginal students in high schools.


As Chairperson of NSWALC, Bev Manton represents her people on a number of Boards including the Worimi Conservation Lands, Aboriginal Community Environment Network and the Northern Alliance.

Bev concluded her NAIDOC Week speech with a quote from Martin Luther King:
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Miss Eagle takes these words to heart and examines her conscience.

Miss Eagle has had periods of examination of conscience since Howard's Winter Solstice (the winter of our discontent?) Shock and Awe Campaign began. As readers of this blog know, John Howard comes in for a great deal of criticism here - and the most vehement criticism has been for his military intervention in the Northern Territory.

But - if one tries to stick to the teachings of Jesus Christ - one cannot overlook self-criticism. Howard is Howard but what about me? Every week in a little Anglican church in Upper Gully, Miss Eagle - along with her community of faith - says these words:

Merciful God, our maker and our judge,

we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed,

and in what we have failed to do:

we have not loved you with our whole heart;

we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves;

we repent and are sorry for all our sins.

Father, forgive us.

Strengthen us to love and obey you in newness of life;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Miss Eagle doesn't get too deeply into the sins of thought, word and deed. Not that brave. She absolves herself re the criticism of Howard because she recalls how Jesus referred to Herod as an old fox [Luke 13:32]. This was real political comment from a man whose family had long had no reason to think kindly of Herod: they had been forced to flee with their lives from his forebear's military and a family member had been murdered by Herod as well.

But what about those sins of omission? Miss Eagle is not one of those brilliant, compassionate souls like John Boffa, formerly of Anyiningyi Congress in Tennant Creek and now with Central Australian Congress in Alice Springs. She is not as brave and persevering as those brilliant talented teachers, mainly women, that she remembers teaching at outstations and communities across the Barkly Tableland.

Miss Eagle has tried to listen, to learn, to befriend, and to support and just generally putting herself in the way of things so that she might help if the occasion arose. Now, she is older and finds herself living in the outer suburbs of Melbourne in a predominantly white and anglo society. She hasn't got what it takes to commit to continuing activity in an organisation. For the first time in her life, there are no Aboriginal people just around the corner or up the street - not that she knows about, anyway. So, here she is, in splendid isolation sitting on her backside hitting the keyboard to make her protest, to demand justice. Has it all been enough? Is this enough? Will one day the list of those sins of what might have been done - but wasn't - rise up to haunt her? Will one day the list of omissions haunt us all?

Fitzroy women don't want grog: whitefella vacillates

Michael Byrt's mural in Redfern, Sydney featuring Aboriginal children

The majority of Aboriginal society is willing to come to terms with alcohol - but mainstream Australian society doesn't want to talk about it.

In major centres across the island continent, there is extraordinary access to alcohol. In spite of the abuse of alcohol in white dominated society causing great suffering - road trauma and deaths; illness, hospitalization, and deaths; child abuse and deaths; domestic violence and deaths - we refuse to talk about it.

We refuse to consider limiting the extraordinary opening hours of alcohol retailing outlets. In fact, time and again Australians have been told that an increase in the availability of alcohol at extraordinary times through retailing outlets (and I mean not just outlets attached to food retailing outlets but pubs, clubs, and nightclubs etc) will lead to more civilized drinking practices - just like Europe. Mmmm...!

But in Aboriginal communities the majority of women - particularly the grandmothers - are quite clear about what needs to be done in about the availability of alcohol. Now the women of Fitzroy Crossing have added their voices.

Not that all women are stone-cold sober but the brunt of picking up the pieces goes to women, particularly older women, the grandmothers.

But whitefellas can be relied upon not to be reliable on this issue. Police may well be supportive - but those reliant on public opinion like politicians seldom are. Whitefellas vacillate in the same way Brough did recently at Santa Teresa when there appeared to be some move away from the previous public statements by the Howard Government that alcohol would not be available at Aboriginal communities.

Of course, the topic of ready availability at all hours in mainstream communities doesn't get a guernsey - with the exception of Tennant Creek.

Time to go, Bill Heffernan...we don't need to hear from you ever again

Well, dear Reader, do you think the above touched-up photograph is fair political comment?

You see, he's at it again.

Yes, Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan is once again reminding us of his infinite capacity to breach one of the two commandments enjoined upon all Christians and Heffernan is reputed to be a faithful Catholic.

The Second Commandment is commonly known as The Golden Rule. It is "loving your neighbour as yourself".

Bill can't keep his mouth shut. In fact, it appears that he may never have heard of that wise saying which states that if you can't say something good about someone then don't say anything at all.

Now, ordinarily, someone like Bill probably wouldn't get airplay. Bill would never pass as an intellectual. His resources aren't such that they would be a source of power. And it is doubtful whether he could lead legions of followers across a desert. In fact, his comments would probably die for want of oxygen except for one crucial fact. You see, dear Reader, Bill is a good mate of John Howard's and a sort of attack-dog-come-dirt-digger for him.

But Bill is not infallible - and definitely not reliable.

This became clear when he tried single handedly to destroy one of Australia's finest jurists, Michael Kirby. He failed in a major, major way.

You see, Bill has a tendency to unapologetically shoot his mouth off and doesn't give a fig even if it is someone on his own side of politics.

But headlines and attitudes which say that "Bill is just being Bill" won't cut the mustard anymore. Bill's mouth and mind are too despicable for that.

Apologists for Bill from the PM down only show their own lack of ethics, show their own bigotry and bias, and shame Australia and Australians.

World Day of Prayer 2007

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER 2007

TO-NIGHT AT A CHURCH

NEAR YOU

Spider's web lace made by women in Paraguay

The World Day of Prayer Committee in Paraguay

This year's World Day of Prayer has been prepared by the women of Paraguay. Miss Eagle is pleased to see that the Australian committee has drawn attention to an historic link between Australia and Paraguay in the form of the utopian socialist communities established by William Lane. To those of us involved in the labour movement, this is of significant historic importance. The movement to establish the communities involved two of Australia's greatest poets, Henry Lawson and Mary Gilmore. Miss Eagle knew, some years ago now, a daughter of John Lane, William's brother. John is famous for riding around western New South Wales on a bicycle with the tyres stuffed with straw to seek support for the settlements in Paraguay. His daughter was born at Cosme.

Back to to-day, there is a chance once again to link with Paraguay: this time in prayer.
Paraguay is a country with a young population, full of enthusiasm and zest for life. However it is one of the poorest countries in the world and struggles with poverty, unemployment, lack of education and health services, the need of land for rural people and indigenous communities and a globalisation that has increased the levels of violence and placed cultural traditions at risk. Please keep the people of Paraguay in your prayers during 2007.

This year's theme is United Under God's Tent.

Vale, Elizabeth Jolley.

A giant of Australian literature has left us: the gifted, fey, observant, and compassionate Elizabeth Jolley. Miss Eagle sheds a tear. She remembers the pleasure, the smiles, the laughter her work has wrought in her life. Love goes out to her as she continues her journey in another place and to the family and friends she has left behind.

For many Australians, she will be best known for The Newspaper of Claremont Street. For many of us, it was our introduction to Elizabeth's work when it was a featured bookreading on the ABC.

For more about Elizabeth and a bibliography, go here. For a wonderful piece by Australian writer, Helen Garner, go here.

Women can have balls

In the long, long ago when Miss Eagle was a union official at the Australian Workers Union (AWU) in North Queensland where she was one of only two female AWU officials in the whole of Australia - and, at one stage, the only one - I used to tell my boss (who was great, by the way) that, while the blokes in the AWU all had penises, I was the only one with balls. Working at the coal face of the working-class patriarchy, I had to have balls. How else could I have survived?

It seems that, as she writes about Julia Gillard, Kaz Cooke has come to a similar conclusion. Women - while being penis-less - can have balls. Whatever the blokes and Bill Ludwig thinks - Julia is leadership material. And she is acting like it. This week it was Australian Story. Of course the blokes of the ALP right (girls are not leadership material in the faction either) are not going to sit idly by and see the leadership of the ALP go to someone on the left - irrespective of gender. So Bill had to get nasty and personal - which he can do rather well. The master of the comb-over had a go at Julia about her hair. Well, what else could be expected? I have only known Bill to support one woman in her career and that had overtones.

Interesting this week was Bill Shorten's deft handling of Bill Ludwig's boots and all attitude to a single site agreement with Qantas moving some of its maintenance to Brisbane. Shorten managed to praise Ludwig, hose him down publicly, and shift criticism to Qantas in a short space of time. Is this why they refer to Bill Shorten as a future leader?

John Howard, Feminism and the burqa

Prime Minister John Howard recently stated that most Australians find the head to toe covering of Muslim women confronting. For me, it is not confronting if it is merely an all-enveloping garment that leaves the face uncovered as does the chador. I do find head to toe covering which includes face covering - either total or partial covering - of which the burqa is but one example very difficult.

Why should I find it difficult? Because there is so much communication in the human face. We communicate not only with words and sounds but with our eyes and a variety of facial muscles: eyebrows, cheeks, lips. We understand not only with what we hear but what we see. And, quite often, we understand with intangibles which we can only intuit from information coming to us in ways which we cannot adequately and rationally explain.

I try to understand the religious strictures. Miss Eagle is a person of religious values and sentiment and grew up being taught by women in head to toe covering with only the face and hands evident. The rationale for that clothing was not too far removed from the rationale, as I understand it, of Muslim women. So I am not about to get uptight about the clothing of Muslim women. But I do find it difficult.

I always recall how I felt years ago when I lived in Mount Isa in north-west Queensland. In that hot desert climate, I often used to see a Muslim couple shopping at Woolworths. She was dressed in the hijab and clothes that were full-length, high necked and long-sleeved - clothing which western women find oppressive in extreme heat. Beside her was her husband dressed like so many North Australian men in stubbies (shorts), a tank top and a XXXX (a brand of beer) hat. The contrast, to an outsider, seemed oppressive: the man identifying with mainstream Aussie culture and dressing appropriately to the climate and the woman (by choice, I hope) in clothing considered oppressive in Australia, particularly when worn in temperatures of 40 + degrees celsius.

I am encouraged by Phyllis Chesler's article on feminism, women, Islam and Europe. Let's talk. And in all the talk remember that Muslim women need to understand our views and we, mainstream women of the Christian West, need to understand theirs.