DOCUMENTARY maker Justin Hunt says society is sitting on a time bomb—a generation of youngsters who’ll struggle into adulthood because their fathers bailed.
Hunt says it’s a modern dilemma, as previous generations usually had extended families and close-knit communities to fill the gap left by absent fathers.
“You show me a person that is angry, violent, depressed, selfish, sexually immoral, hyper-driven, or one of several other personality types, and I’ll show you a father wound,” the former US journalist says.
He explores the phenomenon in his award-winning documentary Absent, which is about to tour Australia. It’s at the Perth Christian Life Centre on June 29 at 1pm.
Local father of seven David Mazzotti, a delivery driver for the Voice, is part of charity group Dads4kids which is sponsoring Hunt’s tour.
“Just walk into any of our detention centres and ask the juveniles how many of them have good relations with their dad (if they even have one),” Mr Mazzotti says.
“There is a crisis in fathering here in Oz and many other western countries.”
While Hunt and Dads4Kids are admittedly churchy, the filmmaker says Absent is not a religious film—although he did tell his Facebook fans “God is good” after picking up best documentary at the prestiigous Marbella International Film Festival in Spain.
Metallica fans will enjoy the metal legends’ frontman James Hetfield’s interview in which he details the hatred he bore for his father, who abandoned him leaving nothing but a note, which was written to someone else.
• Bob Williams, Jan Reeves, Vic Sabbioni, Diana Harvey and Ken Mutton enjoy a game at the Maylands Tennis Club. Photo by Jeremy Dixon
A MOVE to slash the number of courts at Maylands Tennis Club from 17 to nine could put an end to fundraisers for groups like the WA cancer council, says club president John Hogben.
Bayswater council staff recommend leaving the club with three acrylic and six grass courts, saving the council around $58,000 a year in maintenance costs.
The cost-cutting follows a city-wide review prompted by concerns the council was spending too much propping up clubs with ageing and expensive infrastructure. Staff concluded 17 courts were overkill for the 60-member Clarkson Road club, predominantly used for social tennis and coaching.
But Mr Hogben says the extra capacity is required for inter-club tournaments and fundraisers.
“Every year we have an open day where we get people down to have a hit and raise money for the WA cancer council, but without the extra courts we could have to cancel it.
“Last year we raised around $2000 and also have another two fundraisers throughout the year.
“We also have up to three clubs participating in inter-club tournaments. Without the 14 grass courts there will be a lot of logistical problems and we could struggle to finish the tournament in one day.”
Vice-president Bob Williams fears the cuts could “devastate the club”.
“A lot of our members are older and specifically use our club because the grass is easier on the joints,” he says.
“We also need 14 grass courts because we need to rotate them and let two or three courts ‘rest’ at a time.
“The council are just looking at weekly patronage figures rather than the bigger picture.”
The council will vote on the reduction recommendation later this month.
AN Oxford Street shop owner has been warned to behave in the public gallery at Vincent city council meetings or risk, “action [being] taken against you”.
Council CEO John Giorgi issued the written warning to Debbie Saunders, owner of 50ml cafe, last week.
It follows a similar warning he’d sent in March.
Ms Saunders and long-time associate Stuart Lofthouse, the owner of nearby Greens & Co, are vocal critics of the council and regularly ask questions at meetings. On May 28 Ms Saunders had accused Cr Julia Wilcox of “rolling [her] eyes” when she spoke, calling it rude.
Mayor Alannah MacTiernan let rip at both Ms Saunders and Mr Lofthouse: “You come here week after week and hurl insults at councillors who are volunteering their time to take this council forward,” she said.
“You and Stuart are welcome to stand at the next election.”
Following that episode, Mr Giorgi wrote to Ms Saunders, citing chapter and verse of the council’s standing orders, stating people must, “comply with a high standard of personal conduct and behaviour and refrain from personal abuse or denigration of another person”.
“Any conduct, behaviour, gestures or actions which cause offence to another person”were prohibited.
“You have caused disturbances and disruption at previous council meetings and have failed to heed the request of [the mayor] to conduct yourself in a civil and proper manner,” he continued. Failure to heed the rules “will result in action being taken against you”.
Mr Lofthouse has confirmed to the Voice both he and Ms Saunders intend to run in October, along with a third candidate yet to be named.
WHILE public art has traditionally been the domain of government, the Beaufort Street Network is trying out a new plan to crowd-fund an installation.
BSN chair John Carey’s taken to fundraising website Pozible to raise $5000 to buy Sandy Bliim’s sculpture Clytie.
The BSN has already raised $10,000 from roving dinners, so the $3340 raised by 37 supporters through Pozible has got them tantalisingly close.
“That’s pretty incredible in 10 days,” says the Mr Carey, who is also a Vincent city councillor.
“I understand this is a first for WA for a community group to crowd-fund a piece of public art.
“It’s an incredibly striking piece, we think it’s a work that people can relate to because it’s about childhood memories and the fact that you never lose them.
“We don’t suggest that everyone will like it, and if you don’t like it you don’t have to give any money to it!” he laughs.
The BSN plans to put it at the corner of Harold Street if Vincent council gives it the thumbs up.
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN has refused to rule out running as an independent Senate candidate in September.
Scuttlebutt is doing the rounds of parliament that the former WA Labor planning minister—who contested the federal seat of Canning in 2010—will enter the race.
“Never say never,” the Vincent mayor said when the Voice called for comment.
“To rule out ever returning to politics would be foolhardy because I’m approached on a weekly basis by people who want me to get back in there.
“But at the moment I have no definite plans and am happy being Vincent mayor.”
Ms MacTiernan is still an ALP member and if she ran against endorsed Labor Senate candidates—even if it was to send preferences their way—party rules would see her barred from running as a Labor candidate for anything for at least two years.
There are six Senate spots up for grabs in WA at the election and on current polling the Coalition is quietly confident of taking four (with a Liberal and celebrity Nationals candidate David Wirrpanda slugging it out for the fourth spot). That would leave Labor with two spots and Greens senator Scott Ludlam looking for work. If the Coalition is elected to govern on September 14 it will want as many consertative senators as possible to break the Greens’ balance of power.
• Kelvin Crombie with the “The Montgomery Bible”. Photo by Jeremy Dixon
THE “Montgomery Bible” from the Battle of El Alamein will be on display in Perth this month.
WA-born historian Kelvin Crombie will give a talk on the Hebrew bible, presented by Palestinians to General Montgomery after his Allied forces stopped the Holocaust from occurring in the Middle-East.
The British general halted Rommel’s forces at El Alamein, only 100km from Alexandria in Egypt, on July 1, 1942.
“In late June and early July 1942 the Nazi high command in Berlin, led by SS commander Heinrich Himmler, instituted a new formation known as Einsatzkommando Egypt,” Crombie says.
“The Einsatz were specialised squads which were used to murder political opponents and Jewish people in Nazi-occupied Europe.
“By mid-1942 the Einsatzgruppen had already murdered close to one-million Jewish people in Europe.
“The Einstazkommando Egypt would join with local collaborators in the Middle-East in order to destroy the Jewish communities in that region.
“The implementation of this policy depended upon whether Rommel’s forces could defeat the British-led Eighth Army and reach the Suez Canal.”
Accompanying the bible is a parchment with a note of gratitude written in both Hebrew and English: “Field-Marshal Viscount Montgomery, the gallant leader of the victorious British forces, by whose hand God has placed salvation in Zion in the days of El Alamein.”
On returning to England, “Monty” gave the bible to Rochester bishop Christopher Chavasse, after which its whereabouts became nebulous.
Crombie and Dr Alex Carmel eventually tracked it down in the 1980s, to the UK office of a Jewish church.
It’s now on loan to Mr Crombie for a world tour to coincide with 2012’s 70th anniversary of the battle of El Alamein.
So far he has given talks at the House of Lords and the NSW parliament.
“The message conveyed by the bible and the book is that the principles which lay behind the Holocaust are still present today, and Australians and New Zealanders need to be as vigilant today as we were back in 1942,” says Crombie, who spent several years in Jerusalem working at a hospital for children, and as a church guide.
“Today we must work against racism and incitement to genocide.
“Unfortunately, there are those today who again want to perpetrate genocide against the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.”
The talk will have personal significance for South African-born Mt Lawley MP Michael Sutherland.
“I have a very personal interest in what happened in North Africa in WWII,” he says.
“My father was a warrant officer in the South African army in Egypt for five years and my mother lived in Alexandria at the time.
“As a child I was often told the story of how the fate of Egypt and the Allied forces in the Middle-East depended on what happened at El Alamein.
“The good thing that happened that my father and mother met in Alexandria and married after the war.
“ I have visited El Alamein, the Allied war cemetery and German and Italian monuments to the fallen.
“To think about the loss of life there is disturbing.”
• Artists Kat Black and Jasper Cook with their Goderich Street rabbart.
THE much-debated Bunnies are here. This week the 2.5m glowing rabbits were installed on Perth city council’s Goderich Street affordable housing project.
Perth artists Kat Black and Jasper Cook split the PCC when it was approved last year, with Cr Rob Butler saying he wanted his name recorded as opposing it, “in capital letters”.
Cr Lyndon Rodgers and Judy McEvoy also twitched their noses.
“The bunny rabbits… do look cute, but my opinion is at the end of the day it’s not a creche,” Cr McEvoy said. “It’s not a kindergarten, it’s affordable housing.”
But Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi said, “there is no public art like [it] in WA and it is likely to become iconic on a national and international basis”.
It’s the first major sculpture commission for Black and Cook who describe themselves as “film nerd” VJs known for using archival dance film in their nightclub shows.
The PCC’s seeking tenants for its 48 apartments. It’s the first in the nation where a council’s built apartments to be rented out at 20 per cent below market price to lower income workers.
WORKS by Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne and Frida Kahlo arrive in Perth June 22 for a major six-month exhibition at the WA art gallery.
It will be the only Australian outing of the New York Museum of Modern Art collection.
“The development of the exhibition is a wonderful achievement for the gallery,” director Stefano Carboni says.
The World Reimagined exhibition features paintings, sculpture, drawings, photography, prints and mixed media works. Chief curator Gary Dufour says the collection traces the reinvention of landscape, still life and portraiture, “by artists who discovered radical new ways to depict people, places and things”.
“It will feature ground-breaking art and tell a story of how attitudes shift in response to historical events, social change and innovation.”
• Regime editor Peter Jeffery and co-founder Nathan Hondros with Unhoused—the latest edition of the magazine that showcases WA writers. Photo by Jeremy Dixon
“WE’VE always had a love of dangerous, interesting, revelatory writing,” publisher Nathan Hondros said at the launch of Northbridge-based Regime Magazine’s 02 edition earlier this year.
He and business partner and long-time friend Damon Lockwood produced their first magazine in mid-2012, saying there was no avenue for “more interesting pieces” in the local scene.
“So we said ‘screw it, we’ll do it ourselves’.”
The pair didn’t set out to replace WA writers’ journal Indigo, which folded after losing funding, but its loss left a gaping hole for local poetry and literature.
“It was all happening around the same time, [and] we suddenly found ourselves in a niche,” Hondros told the Voice.
WA writers can hold their own on the international stage, with a “distinctively” West Aussie voice says Hondros, a poet and writer.
“Our philosophy is West Australian writing is as good as anything in the world.”
The magazine showcases a collection of local writers and poets short stories, including some by Ryan O’Neill, whose The Weight of a Human Heart garnered rave reviews at home and in the UK.
But Regime is expanding into what Hondros calls “single author” editions.
First is Perth poet Chris Palazzola’s Unhoused, drawn from more than 20 years of writing.
“The theme is very West Australian…about our city, places we know,” Hondros says.
Palazzola’s poetry describes urban living through the prism of Perth, with references to areas such as Grand Promenade and Woodrow Avenue and the flats on Peninsular Road, Maylands.
It’s a warts and all view that at the same time says, “this is my city and I love it”, Hondros says.
Unhoused will be launched at PICA, Northbridge, Tuesday June 25, 6.30pm, no need to book.
There’ll be wine and nibbles, and a special reading by the poet to music commissioned by WA classical composer Chris Boyder.
Hondros jokes that at first glance it may not look appealing to the young and hip, but he says the poetry scene in Perth is thriving.
by JENNY D’ANGER
Bucket wish I WRITE in response to the lengthy glowing assessment of the Lord Mayor of Perth, Ms Scaffidi, by an obviously awestruck Ron Willis (Voice Mail, June 15, 2013). At the risk of angering her excited admirer, can I suggest the almost perfect Ms Scaffidi forsake some of her photo opportunities and get out onto the very dirty streets, footpaths and malls of our once beautiful city and make a critical assessment of what needs to be done.
As an example, let me briefly describe a visit I made to downtown Los Angeles some time back.
I was amazed at the lack of litter, graffiti and unsightly stains on the footpaths, malls and subways and I wondered why that should be so.
Then I came across a little man armed with a bucket of hot soapy water and a sturdy broom vigorously scrubbing the dirty areas.
Problem solved!
Perhaps Ron could join our “honourable lady”, the eminent Lord Mayor, and perhaps take a bucket and broom to help her out. K Laffer Freedman Rd, Menora The Ed says: Now you’ve done it.
Axe the authority MANAGEMENT of our ancient and treasured Kings Park should be transferred to Perth city council.
It’s blatantly obvious from “Easton tree removed” (Voice, June 15, 2013) the park needs tender loving care.
The attitude to Mrs Barbara Campbell is heart-stopping.
Euphemistic “removal” of the Easton tree apart, how will the Lords of the Park prevent people spreading there the ashes of their loved ones?
Some axing of authority cannot be soon enough. Willie Glencorse Brown St, East Perth
Seriously IF we want to be serious about ending the various divides and to wipe out their inherent unfortunate impacts then we have to move in various affirmative actions in order to ensure democracy.
Only in this striving for equality will we reduce the gender divide, racist divides, and class divides.
The supposition of the will of the people is not the equivalent of the constitution of democracy. Governments and referenda that depend on a majority vote, whether first-past-the-post or preferential, have failed to induce democracy. They’ve formented division and furthermore have failed to understand the will of the people as a whole-of-the-people..
To ensure democracy we require the representation of all of the people in government. Democracy requires an informed citizenry, and the eroding of monopoly politics. This is achieved by affirmative actions which ensure proportional representation.
For instance, a truly equal Australia would allocate 75 of its 150 House of Representative seats to women and 75 to men. Similarly with the Senate and once again with all state jurisdictions. This too must be the case at all layers of government—councils must affirm half their seats to women, half to men.
Similarly, proportional representation should ensure mandatory representation of Aboriginal peoples in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and similarly in state and territory jurisdictions.
The will of the people is diminished when all the people are not represented. We remain a long way from democracy. Gerry Georgatos Forrest St, Bridgetown The Ed says: And how many reserved male seats will be reserved for males of Anglo background, for those of Anglo background who are gay, for those of Anglo background who are gay with one leg? Reserving seats for certain groups (we note Burma does it for its military) hampers, not enhances, democracy, Gerry. Let voters choose who they want.
Magical trees CURTAINS? Pass. I’m a Sundance Kid. Winter’s dawn awakens me.
Through my second-floor bedroom window, and without leaving my bed, I see frenzied activity around the crown of a neighbour’s towering evergreen.
Tiny honeyeaters take breakfast. They disturb insects, then in briefly weaving flurries catch them against a red-gold sunrise.
The tree helps give my neighbour privacy while hosting a magical show.
Shuddering thought: of the day the neighbour might leave and a newcomer axes the tree. This nothing less than a crime against humanity. So much more than a tree at stake.
Eventually, I swing from bed. Blunder to my kitchen, grateful there’s no need these days to go out hunting breakfast.
Soo-oh good to have the Voice campaigning for trees to be cherished. Bill Proude First Ave, Mt Lawley
Yip yip yip WISTFULLY remembered—times at dawn or dusk when one could mosey around Mount Lawley’s blissful streets.
No longer. Every other property now seems to boast a yapping midget monstrosity with a Baskerville complex. Dignity prevents my prompting a Voice headline: Woman bites dog. What might be done, then?
Is one within the law to shoot a yappist with a soapy-water pistol?
Gudonya — perhaps? Peta Jacqui Curzon Clifton Cres, Mt Lawley
Perth Voice Interactive 