Lot's Wife Edition 4 2013

LOT’S
WIFEEDITION 4 2013

CONTENTS
5. Editorials
6. Letters to the editors
8. National Affairs
16. International Affairs
18. Student Affairs
31. Science
33. Music
38. Film & TV
42. Performing Arts
44. Creative Space
51. Culture
Thanks
To all those who made it out on May 14 to
the student strike.
Cover Art
Emily McDonald
Apologies
In Edition Three, a piece ‘It’s nor just Steubenville’
appeared without a trigger warning. We sincerely
apologise to anyone who may have read the piece
and was offended or upset by its nature.
Retraction
In the Special Edition, page 11 and 28 featured
images which incorrectly stated that the Gippsland
campus is being ‘sold’. This is incorrect, the campus
is being transferred to the University of Ballarat.
Section Editors
National Affairs: Thomas Clelland and Elizabeth Boag
International Affairs: Carlie O’Connell
Student Affairs: Hannah Barker and Ioan Nascu
Science: Caitlyn Burchell, Shalaka Parekh and Nicola McCaskill
Music: Dina Amin, Augustus Hebblewhite, Leah Phillips and
Steven M. Voser
Film & TV: Ghian Tjandaputra and Patricia Tobin
Performing Arts: Christine Lambrianidis and Thomas Alomes
Creative Writing: Allison Chan, Michelle Li and Thomas Wilson
Culture: Hannah Gordon and Christopher Pase
Online News: Julia Greenhalf
Web Design: Choon Yin-Yeap and Jake Spicer
As you read this paper you are on Aboriginal land. We at Lot’s Wife recognise the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nations as the
historical and rightful owners and custodians of the lands and waters on which this newspaper is produced. The land was stolen and sovereignty was never
ceded.
Lot’s Wife Student Newspaper est. 1964. Monash University Clayton, VIC.
Lot’s Wife does not condone the publishing of racist, sexist, militaristic or queerphobic material. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or
the MSA. Submitted articles may be altered. All writing and artwork remains the property of the producers and may not be reproduced without their written consent.
T: 03 9905 8174
W: lotswife.com.au
@lotswifemag
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lotswife2013@gmail.com
© 2013 Monash Student Association. All Rights Reserved.
don’t look back.
4 LOT’S WIFE EDITION 3 • 2013

EDITORIAL
MATTHEW CAMPBELL & FLORENCE RONEY
When did it become cool to not give a shit? To not want to read? To
not want to learn? To not be informed? At what point was engagement
washed over by apathy? When did students become not only too busy, but
willfully ignorant of issues of importance, because it may not encroach on
them personally?
We’ve all been there: walking past the campus centre, to the library,
or by the bus loop, silently hoping we won’t be singled out and spoken to
by these parasitic pamphleteers. “I just want to get to the damn library,”
we think to ourselves. Sometimes we walk straight past them without
making eye contact, or – if we’re unlucky enough to have made eye
contact – take a pamphlet and chuck it in the nearest bin.
If there is only one issue students should be angry about and
interested in, it’s the recent federal funding cuts to the tertiary sector.
You may not give passing thought to Israel and Palestine, refugees, the
environment, Equal Love or any other campaign currently running, but
if you are a student, why would you not be interested in fighting the cuts?
As was asked in a Stalkerspace tussle last week, “Do you really want to
pay more for your degree?”
While most of the student body may see themselves as apolitical,
this is one issue that should politicise us all, as it will literally affect every
student who is planning to study in 2014. Funding cuts to universities,
such as Monash’s loss of $48 million are not figurative battles to be fought
sipping lattes and discussing political ideology.
This editorial is not meant to be a self-righteous, condescending
rant. We don’t claim to occupy any sort of moral high ground, and we’re
fully aware of how alienating some aspects of student politics/activism can
be. James Grout’s piece in this edition of Lot’s Wife (p24-25) highlights
the danger in assuming students lack the capacity to care; an attitude that
often manifests in needless contempt for the student body.
We won’t call you a sexist, racist homophobe if you don’t agree with
us and we aren’t being selfless when we march through the CBD calling
for an end to the cuts. Rather, we are being very selfish.
Why?
Science, Engineering and Law students might scoff at the idea that
their degrees would ever be touched, let alone axed at the rate we have
seen with humanities courses, the beginnings of which we have started to
see this university, but hardly comparable to others, like at LaTrobe.
There is, in fact, no way of predicting which classes and teachers
will be targeted.
But the cuts are already having an effect. We can see it with
professional staff, such as the 80 eSolutions IT staff, who were offered
voluntary redundancies last month. The department is facing the razor,
and these cuts were planned well before Gonski was even announced.
Monash is tightening its belt and we, as students, will bear the
brunt of it. If the planned 10% of eSolutions staff are sacked in coming
months we can expect even more difficulty navigating WES and allocate.
Lecturers experiencing technical difficulties will have even less support in
helping their lectures run smoothly. These insidious attacks foreshadow
darker days to come.
Being on the other side of the pamphlet has been an interesting and
sometimes thoroughly upsetting ordeal. People brush you off, smirk and
walk away. We’ve had people throw leaflets back in our faces, yelling “I
don’t want your fucking leaflet”. We get it, you’re stressed, you’re working
a 30 hour week to make rent and you have 6 assignments due. And yet
the angst seems disproportionate to what we’re you to do.
Stalkerspace (yes, we follow that loathsome forum) went crazy after
the Monash Education Action Group held a 10 minute speak-out in
the Matheson Library. Students couldn’t understand how disturbing the
sanctity of the library could be justified. They felt betrayed and frustrated:
understandably so if they were unaware of the attacks to our education.
But the hatred and contempt that ensued was a kick in the face to those
willing to take a stand. In the face of attacks to our education, our degrees
and our futures by the Federal Government, the Coalition and our own
university administration, the sense of betrayal and frustration has been
sorely misdirected.
Students together make up one of the largest social groups. Last
week, 2000 of us marched through the rain up Swanston Street for the
National Student Strike. The atmosphere was electric, but we barely
made the daily bulletin. At Monash Clayton alone there are 25,000
students. Imagine the power we could harness if they got together, with
students from across Victoria at the next rally to be held on May 30th to
coincide with Gillard’s visit to Melbourne.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 3 • 2013 5

LETTERS
LETTERS
We would love to hear from you.
Email your thoughts, grievances and marriage proposals to
lotswife2013@gmail.com
Dear Lot’s,
Having recently returned to Monash after a hiatus, my first stop was at
Wholefoods.
I ordered what I once was a single large meal that was now two
meals at the cost of $14 - this seems very expensive, especially given that
a similar quantity in the past would have been much less.
I struggled through the boring, standard and unimaginative food,
hardly changed since I was last here - but at least iIdidn’t need to go down
stairs to get another meal. I really thought Wholefoods would have made
an attempt to improve its food standard given how high the standard now
is on the rest of the campus.
Dhal, for instance, should not taste like boiled lentils - this should
be easy and inexpensive to change.
As someone who is not vegetarian and not particularly interested
in eating healthy food (but what ever happened to the range of healthy
drinks? - ie not solely soft drink), Wholefoods makes it very hard to like
vegetarian food.
Wholefoods does itself and its fellow students a disservice by serving
the same boring food. This isn’t 1999: people know what good vego food
is. In a world saturated with wankyness over good food, I would have
hoped this would have rubbed off a bit.
I love the philosophy of Wholefoods, and the space on campus is
the best student space I have seen in the country - but this isn’t enough
for me to continue forking out for food I don’t like. Wholefoods deserves
to amaze and surprise people with its food - not be some kind of functional
equations of being broke, needing to eat and having few other options.
Wholefoods has had a fresh start this year, it is time to lift their
game.
-Anonymous
Dear Anoymous,
“In a world saturated with wankyness over good food, I would have hoped
this would have rubbed off a bit.”
But doesn’t this statement require inversion?
In a world saturated with “hiatussing” wankers complaining about
bad food, I would hope that the newly restored democratic mechanism of
the Wholefoods Collective (with its ethics of participation and hardwork)
would have rubbed off a bit, leaving such people with no excuse
not to get involved in creating the kind of service they need (or feel they
“deserve”).
Wholefoods is once again a Collective/volunteer run enterprise,
after control was wrested away from the MSA student politicians last year
through difficult struggle (while some were away on “hiatus”!).
A Collective enterprise is as productive, innovative and viable as
the people who participate in it, and participation is open to all - even
post-hiatussing, non-health food loving folk.
We do not need negative criticism from ‘Wholefoods philosophy
loving’ people.
We do need such people to demonstrate a preparedness to become
actively involved in Wholefoods: to volunteer, work hard, and make some
collective sacrifice with us to create a service that offers the best quality
and most affordable food and drink it possibly can.
If you want to pull your finger out and do some work you can
contact our Volunteers Coordinator (rcoo.tran@gmail.com) or contact
the Collective (collectivelist@wholefoods.org.au) and come along to the
next Collective meeting (advertised on Facebook/on blackboard in the
space).
You can join a menu working group, do the costings and make
proposals to reduce prices and improve the food quality.
As Captain Planet repeatedly said: “the power is yours.”
-James Grout
(Wholefoods Dishy and volunteer Collective member)
Dear Lot’s Wife,
In recent years there has been a lot of uncertainty concerning the
viability and future of Wholefoods as a student or worker-run venture.
Since Wholefoods began in 1977, the democratic principle of student
run/worker-control, embodied by the Wholefoods Collective, has been its
most distinguishing feature.
However, from 2006, successive Monash Student Association
(MSA) Executives sought to impose their own, more conventionally
hierarchical, management structure on Wholefoods. This meant that
students and workers were increasingly disempowered as the Wholefoods
Collective progressively lost control over prices, staffing, coordinators, the
menu, budgeting and the volunteer system.
This year, after winning back most, if not all, of the Collective’s
decision-making power over Wholefoods, many students are now
participating and working hard to restore Wholefoods to its former glory
and even push it beyond this.
6
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

LETTERS
We acknowledge and agree with the criticisms some students have
been making concerning Wholefoods’ prices and food quality.
This semester the Wholefoods Operations Co-ordinator, together
with our hard-working staff and volunteers, have undertaken to cost all
of the meals we serve with the goal of reducing prices wherever possible.
However, since Wholefoods hasn’t been Collective run for the past 2 - 3
years, we have had to redo the planning including the costing for our
meals, which is a tedious process. We intend to re-evaluate our prices at
the end of this semester and we expect to be able to reduce them given
increasingly skilled staff, the reinstatement of the Volunteering program
and potential changes of suppliers.
We are also currently reviewing the kitchen menu and are hoping to
improve on what we currently offer, while still keeping within budget so
that food stays affordable. Look out for some new items in the cafe next
semester, including roast veggie salads and the return of SOUP to keep
you warm against the bitter cold winds of Clayton.
Members of the Wholefoods Collective have been researching some
new drinks to offer, and will soon be reintroducing a range of juices from
a Victorian producer who makes lovely, 100%-sugar-and-preservative-free
apple juice. In the meantime, we still offer homemade chai, herbal teas
and organic, farmer-direct-trade coffee as always.
Things are looking up, but there is still a lot of work to do, as we
have highlighted in this letter. We need to improve on the consistency of
our food and ensure that Wholefoods is as exciting and delicious as it is
healthy and cheap.
However above all, as a community enterprise, Wholefoods can
only be as strong as the people who are involved. While we welcome
criticism, this is not enough. Having won back Collective decisionmaking
power there is now no excuse not to get involved and work
with us on the ongoing project that is the Wholefoods Restaurant. We
encourage everyone who shares the values of Wholefoods to come to a
Collective meeting, make concrete and constructive proposals and help
us decide how we will achieve our aims.
and decide to just quit law school and become a chef, a few days later, our
inner rebellion is all but quelled?
Many times the excuse takes the form of procrastination. “Next
year I’ll have more time”, or “I just don’t have enough money”, are some
of the things I hear the people around me say. I sympathise with them,
following your dream – especially when it is quite different from you
current life path – is risky and perilous. It’s so much easier to remain in
your comfortable and safe job that you hate (or, perhaps, that simply
doesn’t bring you joy). Things will always come up.
Yet excuses are vile little creatures. The more we delay our dreams,
the more they bury underneath our skin, making more sense, having more
power. The more we delay, the more difficult it is to break away in an
attempt to remodel our lives. The job, the mortgage, the kids. More and
more excuses pile up.
The human brain is quite a marvelous contraption when it comes
to convincing oneself of not doing anything or in persuading us that
life is about having a house, a bank account and a Louis Vuitton purse.
And when it can’t , it convinces us to think that we simply “aren’t good
enough” – so why risk it and get hurt?
However life is a battle not won by running away from difficulties.
As Leo Buscaglia says “Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in
life is to risk nothing.”
-Ioan Nascu
- The Wholefoods Collective.
For more information about how to get involved, email collectivelist@
wholefoods.org.au.
Dear Lot’s,
‘Before I Graduate’ an article from Lot’s Wife edition two, discussed the
need to live for today. “We only have one precious, outrageous, crazy mess
of a life” the writer exclaims, “so you’d better make the most of it!”. How
many have written on the ‘Before I graduate’ wall and actually attempted
to do more than just jot their dreams down?
Unhappiness seems to be a self-made thing (bar the occasional
natural disaster); how many times is it that we hear our friends and family
lament how much they hate their jobs or hate their courses? And why is it
that even though we sometimes read a book or see an inspirational movie
7

NATIONAL AFFAIRS
THE FEDERAL BUDGET
Richard Plumridge
Treasurer Wayne Swan has delivered his sixth
and likely final budget in a fraught election year.
As many commentators have observed, it is the
most unlikely of election year budgets, with virtually
none of the populist bribes that usually
transpire when governments face the people. It
is a largely responsible paper in the shadow of the
gravest financial crisis since the Great Depression
that goes part-way to restoring a balance to
the federal budget absent since the big-spending
Howard years. Grand reforms, including DisabilityCare
and Gonski school funding will serve
as the basis for Labor’s improbable campaign for
re-election in September.
At long last, this budget should put paid
to the binary fatuousness of the “surplus good;
deficit bad” mentality that has pervaded Australian
politics for the better part of a decade. Virtually
no reputable economist has placed a great
emphasis on a return to surplus – especially the
wafer-thin one offered by Mr. Swan last year –
yet it has been presented as a test of economic
credibility by both major parties. Labor, goaded
by the Coalition to promise a surplus come hell
or high water, has more than likely sealed its own
electoral fate by over-promising when it was not
necessary.
Lies, damned lies and debt
Public understanding of the Federal Budget is
always an exercise in lowest common denomination.
Note the various news media who wilfully
breakdown a $391 billion national budget into
a few bullet points under “Winners” and “Losers”.
In this Federal Budget, the “Winners” list,
at least for the average citizen of Heraldsunland,
is rather short. No Howard-era pork barrelling,
no generous tax cuts, just money for education
and the disabled. Again, not your usual election
year budget.
Even less well understood in aspirational
Heraldsunland is the concept of debt, at least as
it applies to the nation-state. Elements within
the Coalition, ably supported by Alan Jones et
al, have been successful in running a US Tea
Party-like campaign about Australian government
debt. To them, Australia is a Banana Republic
on the brink of economic collapse thanks
to irresponsible government debt. They have
even adopted the Tea Party’s vernacular, renaming
the limit on the issuance of Commonwealth
Government Securities the debt “ceiling”. To
scare the populace most effectively, they have
divided billions of dollars worth of national debt
amongst the population to demonstrate how
those economic vandals in Canberra are responsible
for a “whopping $14,000 [of debt] for every
working Australian”. Wowee. If only Australia
was a global economy instead of a mortgage-laden
suburbanite. Oh wait. It is.
The problem for these antipodean dullards
is that Australian government debt is not a
major issue of concern for the global markets, as
evidenced by the country’s untarnished Triple-
A credit rating. A $19 billion deficit in a $391
billion budget is not going to undermine the nation’s
stability. Nor is $300 billion of gross debt
in a $1.5 trillion economy going to greatly impact
Australia’s economic pre-eminence. This
popular misconception of debt perhaps spooked
Labor to push for a surplus earlier than they otherwise
would have, with the resulting “broken”
8
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

NATIONAL AFFAIRS
promise fodder for the Coalition in this perpetual
election campaign. Prepare to hear a surplus of
surplus soundbites on television and radio until
September 14.
The Aqueduct?
The echo-chamber of the commentariat following
the budget was fairly predictable: a lameduck
budget presented by a lame-duck government.
The nation’s countless rent-seekers came
out in force, appearing in front of the cameras
where possible to vent their spleen. This budget
“offered” nothing for them. What have the Romans
Labor ever done for us? We are all, after all,
rent-seekers in one form or another.
Small business owners, interviewed the
morning after the budget, decried the government
for not giving them money. Sorry, “assistance”.
One café owner wanted to “look after”
her staff, but complained she would have to pay
her workers more super. To cover these extra
costs, she now has to open Sundays, but also
then has to pay staff penalty rates. Working these
long hours, she argued, took away from time with
her family. Yes, well that is the reasoning behind
penalty rates. They serve to compensate workers
for working unsociable hours such as the weekends.
These are the costs of running a business
and, as economic liberals constantly remind us,
life is a choice. It is the owner’s choice to operate
a business and open on weekends and, as a result,
pay the increased rates of pay.
Similarly, retailers from shoe shops to
clothing boutiques complained about the GST
low-value threshold, demanding the government
establish a “level playing field” by taxing
imports under $1,000. How this would help a
small retailer is anyone’s guess. Surely there are
far more pressing structural concerns for small
businesses. As many consumers know, even if the
GST was applied to all overseas purchases, many
imported goods would still be cheaper than their
local equivalents, placing a question mark over
the economic credibility of the campaign to “assist”
business by creating a “level playing field”.
The innovative retailers out there are using the
current economic times to their advantage and
using technology, rather than decrying it, to
reach new markets. Then again, they wouldn’t
be rent-seekers if they actually took a big-picture
view of the national economy.
In reply
Tony Abbott’s budget reply was much like any
opposition reply speech: big on rhetoric, short
on detail. This is not a criticism of the Coalition’s
policies per se, but indicative of the relative
difficulty in which oppositions find themselves
at budget time. They must formulate a
credible alternative budget with none of the
advantages of incumbency. Alas, Mr. Abbott has
been guilty of engaging in hyperbole, declaring
a “budget emergency” requiring the Coalition’s
superior economic management skills. Skills
clearly honed during the “profligate” years of the
Howard government.
“In this Federal Budget, the
“Winners” list, at least for the average
citizen of Heraldsunland, is
rather short. No Howard-era pork
barrelling, no generous tax cuts,
just money for education and the
disabled.”
As shadow treasurer Joe Hockey declared
at the beginning of March, “if there is no carbon
tax, there is no need for compensation”. Yet Mr.
Abbott still feels compelled to throw $4 billion
at taxpayers to compensate them for a tax that
will no longer exist under a Coalition government.
Some “emergency”. Not to mention the
unfunded and unexplained “direct action” climate
change plan, which Mr. Abbott claims will
“reduce emissions with targeted incentives”. Ostensibly
the opposition’s plan will replace a market
mechanism designed to raise revenue with a
government-planned scheme that will pick winners
and cost money.
To Mr. Abbott’s credit, he has been coy
on changes to the GST, promising a tax reform
white paper which may look at alterations to the
nation’s consumption tax. This is a substantial
improvement on Labor’s head-in-the-sand approach,
which included establishing a “comprehensive”
tax review so comprehensive that it excluded
the GST from consideration. While the
nation needs another tax review as much as it
needs a political party led by Clive Palmer, there
is an opportunity for a future Coalition government
to complete the GST reforms begun by
Peter Costello. Any changes would be politically
fraught, but at the very least they might have the
potential to be possibly discussed at some point
in the indeterminate future. As Ken Henry, chair
of the most recent “comprehensive” tax review
has argued, governments will be forced to rely
increasingly on consumption taxes because “it is
one of the things that we can practically tax”.
Swan song
The tertiary education sector will be hit hard
by the $2.8 billion worth of cuts previously announced,
despite protests from students, staff
and administrators. The cuts will have real effects
on the students who are now the front line
of the end of the era of entitlement. Today’s university
students stand to miss out on the start-up
scholarships, first home buyers grants, baby bonuses
and much of the family tax benefits that
were available to Australians barely a decade
ago. While limiting these entitlements is economically
sound, it does create division between
the graduates of tomorrow and those of only a
few years ago, with an ever-increasing number
of the tertiary qualified entering a moribund job
market. Add to the mix that every previous mining
boom has ended in a bust and the relatively
resilient Australian economy could be in for a
rocky ride over the next few years.
Should this year’s budget end up as Labor’s
last, the government will leave an auspicious
economic legacy: managing to avoid the worst
of the Global Financial Crisis, presiding over
both low interest rates and employment growth,
retaining Australia’s triple-A credit rating and
keeping inflation low despite the mining boom.
In many ways, this budget can be considered
the first part of Labor’s election campaign, not
for 2013, but for 2016. Should the future Prime
Minister Abbott call a double dissolution election,
Labor will ensure the electorate does not
forget they are the party of disability insurance
and school funding reforms. Just as Labor harnessed
the legacy of Hawke/Keating-era economic
reforms, don’t be surprised to see the economic
legacy of the Rudd/Gillard years front and
centre with the passage of time.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 9

NATIONAL AFFAIRS
WHO THE BLOODY HELL ARE WE?
The Australian Republic, and Identifying Australian Identity
Bren Carruthers
Ask a foreigner about their general idea of
the average Australian, and you will receive
a variety of bastardised stereotypes. Perhaps it
would be some sort of kangaroo-riding, bronzed
surfer with flowing golden locks. Perhaps it
would be a bikini-clad Lara Bingle, a beauty
asking “where the bloody hell are ya?” with
jingoistic fervour. Or perhaps the imaginary
Australian is the true blue, bonza, dinky-di
beer-swilling, blue-singleted blokey bloke. In
any case, it’s a shallow, barrel-scraping reflection
on the people of a nation that we all know to be
much more nuanced. But with the knowledge
that those absurd caricatures are a complete
misrepresentation, what then, constitutes an
Australian?
Jieh-Yung Lo wants to ask every Australian
that same question. Already quite involved
with engaging the community in his role as the
Deputy Mayor of the City of Monash, Lo was
recently made a National Committee Member
of the Australian Republican Movement
(ARM). He is playing a leading role in the
group’s Our Identity campaign: a grassroots
campaign which looks to question the public on
their identity as Australians – they way they see
themselves, and the way they want to be seen.
“It’s about engaging the community,” says
Lo. “It’s about asking the community, ‘what
does it mean to be Australian?’ What’s our place
in the world? And in the Asia-Pacific region?”
Of course, the question of what it means
to be an Australian is a personal one. For Lo,
born in Australia to Chinese parents, it’s the
ever-changing face of a multicultural Australia
that forms an important part of his motivation
to fight for an Australian Republic.
“When I think about Australia, I think
about the diversity. It’s a land of opportunity;
it’s a great multicultural society… I don’t
see the ties with the UK. Certainly, there’s a
historical tie, and let’s acknowledge that. It’s
important because it’s a part of our history.
But I think we’ve evolved and we’ve moved
beyond that. We are an independent nation,
with an independent identity, in a region
that is very diverse in itself as well. So when
I think about what it means to be Australian,
it’s about that multicultural facet, that diversity,
that inclusion. I’m very proud of it. I think we
should be celebrating that.”
“Perhaps, at this point in
time, the only definable
characteristic of the
Australian people is
the severe difficulty in
defining them.”
The movement towards an Australian
Republic is by no means a modern development.
Both the Australasian Anti-Transportation
League of the 1840s and the Eureka Rebellion of
1854 were significant anti-British movements,
with the implication that succession from the
British Empire was a viable goal. The shortlived
Australian Republican Association was
also formed in 1887, in dissent to the perceived
unfairness of British rule at that time. One
attendee of the ARA meetings was so incensed
by the movement that he was motivated to
write his first poem, entitled, “A Song of the
Republic”. That poet happened to be Henry
Lawson, a man who would eventually became
a paradigm of Australian identity.
More recently, the Republican movement
reached an apex in 1999, with the Australian
public finally having the opportunity to address
the idea through a referendum. However, as the
question posed not only proposed a republic but
also the leadership model, many voters erred on
the side of caution. 54.87% of voters voted ‘No’
on the proposal, and for many, the issue had
now been put to bed. But has anything changed
since 1999? For Lo, the answer is a resounding
‘yes’.
“From a political perspective, Australia’s
growing out of its shell, and becoming more
active on the global stage,” he says.
“At the moment, our Head of State is
the Queen of England. But will the Queen of
England go out of her way to promote Australian
products overseas? No. We want an Australian
Head of State that does that. We want someone
to go out there and promote Australia. Promote
our identity, promote our products, promote our
opportunities.”
“What I’m asking the Australian people
to think about is our future, to think about what
we’re going to be like in fifty to one hundred
years. Do we want to be a major player in the
world? Do we want to be an influential nation in
our region? Of course we do. So I think having
an Australian Republic and an Australian Head
of State is not just a changing facet in Australia,
but also overseas as well.”
“I think we’re very unique in the world.
We have very unique values and a unique
identity, and I think by having an Australian
Republic, we will cap that off.”
*
Australia is a nation that has always suffered
an identity crisis. From a time when hundreds
of autonomous and culturally definable groups
of indigenous Australians covered nearly every
part of the continent and backwards into the
fog of pre-history, to its conversion into a shady,
imperial outpost. From its status a melting pot
of Protestants and Catholics operating in the
distant shadow of the British-Irish conflict, and
again into an emigration destination for people
of all nationalities and cultures worldwide.
Perhaps, at this point in time, the only definable
characteristic of the Australian people is the
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LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

NATIONAL AFFAIRS
severe difficulty in defining them.
Surely then, a discussion about an
Australian Republic must in itself be a vital
part of Australian identity. To have enough
self-reflection to continuously re-evaluate and
re-assess ‘Australian-ness’ is demonstrative of
a kind of social and ideological freedom that
is not granted to so many other people on
this planet. Too many nations suffer from the
constraints imposed on them by their national
leaders – North Korea would be the most blunt
and prolific example of this – or through the
impasse that may stem from a deep cultural
heritage – consider for example the seeming
unwillingness of the American people to
concede their constitutional right to bear arms
due to a fiercely-held reverence for liberty; a
constitutional right that is virtually irrelevant
in a modern society.
However, a push towards an Australian
Republic is only one avenue through which
the Australian people can generate a sense of
fundamental, communal identity. The leaders
we elect, and the policies they put forward,
certainly have an impact on how the rest of
the world perceives Australians. The current
situation regarding the treatment of asylum
seekers, with bipartisan support for measures
that skirt and violate human rights law and
our responsibilities as a member of the global
community, is a considerable blemish on
our national character. But of course, our
international profile does not rest in the hands of
our leaders alone. Australian backpackers have
a burgeoning reputation for being boisterous
and offensive, and regular tourist haunts such as
Bali and Thailand, despite reaping the financial
benefits of tourism, also suffer under the force
of the Western cultural imperialism that these
tourists bring with them.
There is a strong case at hand to open a
public discussion on Australia’s role and identity
as a community, both internally and in a global
context. But it would be wrong to consider it
a progression towards a definable conclusion.
Instead, we need to remember to maintain that
self-reflection, to continue to evolve and be
willing to redefine the parameters that bind us
together as a people, besides the simple fact that
we all reside on one very large rock. Regardless
of our political stances or cultural backgrounds,
our leadership and representation, the idea
of a Republic, and the appropriateness of a
British Head of State, is a central aspect of that
discussion. There is absolutely no reason that
the discussion and the self-reflection regarding
these issues cannot begin now – and continue
well into the future.
Currently touring the country for the first time since
its inception, the National Republican Lecture will
be held on Monash University’s Caulfield Campus,
Building H, Lecture Theatre 1.16, on Wednesday
June 5 at 6pm. The event will see prominent author
and media personality Peter FitzSimons speak on
behalf of the Australian Republican Movement.
Entry is free.
Four ethnicities under one flag - but how is this reality represented in our Statehood and our natioanl and global identity? Image: DIAC Images.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 11

SUBHEADING
CULTURE
DISABILITYCARE:
What will it mean for Australia?
Elizabeth Boag
For two years, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has
been floating around in Federal politics. This year it is expected to finally
come into effect on July 1.
According to the NDIS website, the scheme aims to unite services
for disabled persons across Australia, creating equal levels of support
for people in all areas and all states. Rather than allocating funds based
on budget allowances, they will be allocated on a basis of actual need,
related to the person’s specific disability. This is opposed to the current
system where some areas achieve success while others are desperately
underfunded.
According to a report recently released by the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), out of the twenty-seven
participating countries, Australia is the lowest ranked nation for
quality of life for its citizens with a disability. Of these people, they are
twice as likely to be living near the poverty line or below. We are clearly
in desperate need of a change to our current - or lack thereof - disability
support system.
If this legislation can be passed in Government, the potential to aid
and help disabled Australians would be exponential.
Recently, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that in order to
fund the scheme, the Medicare levy will be increased by half a percentage
point from the first of July next year, meaning the levy will go
from 1.5 per cent of taxable income to 2 per cent. For someone earning
$70,000 a year, this will roughly equate to paying a dollar a day to the
levy.
The opposition has argued that the Government has only given
details about half of the required funding, necessary to make the scheme
able to function. Tony Abbott stated that he would only give his vote if
the scheme is “responsibly funded”. However the Coalition has confirmed
their support for the Medicare levy, despite demanding a parliamentary
committee be set up to oversee the implementation. With the
opposition’s support, it is likely to go proceed with minimal delays.
The recent rebranding, ‘Disability Care’, has caused controversy
with disability groups, many stating their offence at the name. According
to ABC news website The Drum, Lesley Hall, the head of Australian
Federation of Disability Organisations, says that they strongly advised
the Government against the use of the word ‘care’ in the scheme’s name,
as it reinforces the myth that those with a disability need to be given
charity and welfare, instead of solid support.
Whether the scheme can actually acquire the necessary support and
funding through the Medicare levy and other unknown means remains
to be seen. With Queensland recently committing to the full NDIS
scheme, Western Australia remains the only state to yet sign up.
12
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

NATIONAL AFFAIRS
JUST A CABBIE?
Lisa Healy
Depending on where you work, a standard day on the job may consist of
answering phone calls, taking orders or booking appointments, perhaps
sweeping and mopping at the end of a long day, and leaving with the
exhausted gratification that your bank account won’t be land-sliding into
a negative balance at the end of the week.
A standard day for a taxi driver, however, can include an array of
delightful opportunities and a nebulous of ambiguity of what the day may
bring. Such joys include: your clientele refusing to pay or making a run
for it so you have to cover their trip out of your own wage; drunkards
vomiting in the back seat of the car, which you have to mop up; listening
to the bitter tirades of your customer, either unleashing abusive taunts
or complaining about your skills, ethnic background or that you went a
different route to what they would have taken themselves; going to work
every day, apprehensive of what dangers or violence may lie ahead; and,
finally, for the cherry on top, finishing a tiresome seventeen
hour shift with $300 in your pocket, only to have
to fork over half of it to your employer. Combine this
with no sick leave, no standard hourly rate, no superannuation
and no annual leave, and you must certainly be
living the high life. This may not sound like a riveting
experience, and perhaps many of us would want to have
a job that entails none of the above. Unfortunately,
for those in the taxi industry, this is the reality of what
their occupation demands on a day-to-day basis.
Alongside these grievances, Melbourne Airport’s
decision in May to axe the ‘short-fare queue’ system
was unsurprisingly met with unprecedented outrage and
highlighted further mistreatment. Instead of targeting
the few who bypass the system, every taxi driver is now forced to bear the
brunt of the restriction. Considering that Melbourne Airport is so dependent
on the taxi industry for transportation of passengers, it seems illogical
to treat those who abide by the rules and carry out local, cheaper jobs to
be equally punished.
With such poor working conditions, are questions not raised as to
why taxi drivers seem to also be taking so much flak from society, and
why it is progressively becoming normal for people to belittle or violently
attack them?
Conducting a Google search, I stumbled upon a Facebook group
entitled, ‘Giving taxi drivers unnecessary drunken abuse’. Has prejudice
against ‘cabbies’ really expanded to just become some cruel pastime for
the amusement of the great unwashed? I wonder how many Facebook
“With such poor working
conditions, are
questions not raised as
to why taxi drivers seem
to also be taking so
much flak from society,
and why it is progressively
becoming normal
for people to belittle or
violently attack them?”
groups have gone viral with a similar premise, such as, ‘Giving florists unnecessary
thorn pricks’ or ‘Giving chefs unnecessary oven burns’. Obviously
not a lot, but people seem to have stooped low enough to generalise a
whole occupation and degrade a person completely for merely carrying out
their job, rather than showing them the appreciation that they deserve.
Of course, you cannot dismiss all cases. I’m sure there are examples
of taxi drivers who are perhaps rude, perverted, arrogant, or offensive.
But isn’t this the case for all workplaces? In any job? No matter where you
work or what level you are at, there will always be some employee who
is, to put it politely, just an unfriendly person. But surely the minority of
taxi drivers who are rude, perverted, arrogant or offensive can’t be said to
represent taxi drivers as a whole.
According to an analysis by the Australian Taxi Industry Association
in 2011, almost 2 out of every 3 taxi drivers are born overseas. It
could be assumed, then, that that the ease of acquiring work as a taxi
driver is what attracts such a large proportion of migrant workers. So
is the figure released by the Taxi Council in 2011 of a
300% increase in assaults on taxi drivers in the past ten
years highlighting a racial issue? Is this confirmation of
a perpetually growing narrow-mindedness? Or are they
merely an easy target because they work alone and carry
cash?
One of the most worrying factors of this predicament
is that this understated ignorance is increasingly
being accepted as the norm. It is more common to hear
people launch vitriolic assaults on cabbies than to hear
someone voice a defence. It has become normal to label
taxi drivers derogatively; it has become normal to not
pay someone for their time and service; it has, apparently,
become perfectly normal to throw glass bottles at
someone and beat them with a baseball bat.
Why should someone have to endure such abuses in their job? A job
that allows someone to provide for themselves and their family, contribute
to their community and develop invaluable skills. It is a job that provides
us, as customers, a service that takes us from point A to point B. And it is
about us, as customers, generating respect for a person and the service they
provide
Perhaps next time you happen to take a taxi home after a smashing
night out, treat your driver to a bit of unprecedented excitement.
Give them a tip; engage them in a conversation that will make the thirty
minute drive fly by; and, maybe if you’re feeling extra kind, take a detour
through a McDonalds’ drive thru and buy them a large vanilla thick
shake. Because, when it comes down to it, the service taxi drivers provide
is one of the most underappreciated in Melbourne.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 13

NATIONAL AFFAIRS
EDUCATION
IN A
NEOLIBERAL ERA
Declan Murphy
The last few decades have seen governments wage war on our
universities. They have cut public funding on a per student basis,
casualised the workforce and forced our fees up, mounting a sustained
offensive against both student and staff organisations. The results have
been devastating; compared to the era of free education in the 1970s, our
universities are in a sorry state. Obscene prices are charged for courses
which become narrower every year (before disappearing altogether),
and are taught by staff who are worked into the ground for increasingly
lower wages. Universities have become corporatised, and student
life and culture has become, largely, a thing of the past. This is what
neoliberalism has meant for higher education.
What is neoliberalism?
Neoliberalism has been economic orthodoxy across the world for the
last three decades. In Australia, the doctrine used to be called ‘economic
rationalism’ – a cunning phrase that carries the implication that any
opposition to it must somehow be ‘irrational’. The ALP introduced the
doctrine under Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating
in the 1980s. The agenda was quite simple: union busting, privatisation
of state-owned assets, and deregulation of finance and trade. The
ultra-wealthy and corrupt - such as now-disgraced and bankrupted
businessman Alan Bond - were put on pedestals as people to emulate –
they were “great Aussie success stories”.
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher summed up the
philosophy of neoliberalism in a 1987 interview in which she remarked,
“there is no such thing as society”. The neoliberal view is that the world
is made up of individuals, and that if every individual pursues their own
self-interest in economic affairs, then the greatest welfare will accrue to
society as a whole. It is a dogmatic ideology that is little more than an
attempt at a moral justification for the rich to get richer and for the poor
to be left to rot at the margins.
In the decades since Thatcher and Hawke, global market forces,
previously mitigated to at least some degree, have been progressively
unleashed on the population. No sphere of existence is now untouched
by the market; nothing is without a price. The result has been a greater
sense of loss of control, unease, uncertainty and displacement, all
exacerbated in Europe and the US by levels of unemployment unseen
in generations. Social policy and notions of public good are now
determined entirely by reference to what they imply for the Treasury.
The ethical good under neoliberalism is reducible to the
economic imperative of unhindered markets – but only for the working
class. So government intervention that might be of some benefit to
us – for example environmental protection controls and minimum
wages – is treated under neoliberalism as a form of moral corruption
to be eradicated. On the other hand, the neoliberals urge ever tighter
government regulation of trade unionism and the right to strike. And
while they might praise competition in the ‘labour market’ – getting
workers to compete with each other for scraps – they do their best to
protect the cossetted position of the banks and media cartels that reap
billions of dollars in monopoly profits every year.
Rights that were fought for and won over decades have been under
sustained attack. Entitlements have been transformed into ‘benefits’,
provisions into ‘services’, departments into ‘providers’ and citizens into
‘customers’. Every aspect of the world is expected to subject itself to a
cold ‘cost/benefit’ analysis. That is, unless you’re wealthy, in which case
the sky is the limit for tax breaks and government largesse.
Neoliberalism is the logic that sees poor and working class elderly
people who have worked their whole lives and contributed to raising
the next generation of humanity driven to despair and suicide because
of the never ending debate among the economists and politicians about
how ‘expensive’ they are to keep alive, how much of a ‘burden’ they
now allegedly are on society. But for the rich, the government can’t do
enough to shovel still more in their direction.
Neoliberalism and education
It is important to understand these latest cuts in this context. Education
has been at the front line of the neoliberal offensive. Our right to an
education is being turned into a ‘privilege’, and we are being turned into
‘customers’ rather than students.
What are some of the ways this has happened?
For starters, there are the government cuts to the higher education
budget. In the 1970s, the government provided over 90 per cent of
university funding. Today, according to the Grattan Institute, it’s well
below 50 per cent. Funding has gone up in dollar terms but has lagged
dramatically behind the increase in student numbers from around
400,000 in the mid-1980s to over 1 million today, further stretching the
14
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

NATIONAL AFFAIRS
meagre resources available to teaching and research.
It’s not just universities that have been targeted – TAFE colleges
have been under the hammer by conservative governments across the
Eastern states with dozens sold off and thousands of staff sacked or put on
short term contracts. All of these cuts have been justified by employing
neoliberal catchphrases about ‘fiscal responsibility’.
The burden of paying for education has now fallen overwhelmingly
on individual students. Gone is the idea of free education provided by
a society that values learning, replaced by the cold, inhumane logic of
‘user-pays’. So the corporations that benefit from the labour provided by
trained graduates also benefit from the fact that the graduates themselves
have had to pay for the training – as opposed to higher corporate tax rates
to cover the education.
The cost of an undergraduate degree in Australia is anywhere
between $14,000 and $35,000 per year. Most students leave university
weighed down by a crippling debt of between $25,000 and $30,000,
which plagues them for years after they enter the workforce. It’s a
system that openly favours students from rich families, deterring
the poor with ominous fees. And with each funding cut from the
government, the Vice-Chancellors (who are paid handsomely) get the
excuse they need to jack up the prices even further.
Neoliberal restructuring of the university sector also provides a
pretext to ‘reform’ a whole range of aspects of university life – cutting
courses deemed unprofitable, making class sizes bigger and library
hours shorter and shutting down whole departments. Things like oncampus
child care entitlements for students who are single mothers are
turned into services that have to be paid for. All of this undermines
our education – it means more distance between students and their
teachers, less feedback, less access to resources and less assistance.
The huge debt and the high expenses associated with studying
at university have also helped contribute to a much broader problem
of student poverty, which has reached epidemic levels in Australia.
In 2005, more that 60 percent of Australian students lived below the
poverty line. And yet the Gillard government has no qualms in using
the latest cuts to further cut student scholarships, which provide an
essential livelihood for some of the poorest students in the country.
It’s not just the students who have suffered. Neoliberalism has
shafted university workers as well. The corporatisation of universities
has seen thousands of workers providing an essential service thrown on
the scrap heap. At Sydney University earlier this year the equivalent of
7.5 percent of all academic staff were sacked. And this at a university
which last year posted the third largest profit in Australia and invests
tens of millions in useless advertising and capital projects yearly.
University workers whose jobs survive are faced with the spectre
of casualisation. Casualisation makes it easier for Vice-Chancellors
and university boards to force up their staff’s hours while paying them
less, sacking those who fall foul of the intensified tempo of the work.
It means that stressed academic staff rush from class to class, trying
to keep up with relentless demands from management. Some analysts
estimate that last year roughly 50 percent of all undergraduate courses
in Australia were taught by casual academic staff. It goes without saying
that this undermines education – how are educators supposed to help
their students learn when their own time on campus is incredibly limited
and their own livelihoods are constantly at risk?
A vital part of the neoliberal offensive against higher education
has been the weakening of student and staff collective organisations.
Governments have always recognised that student unions and the NTEU
stand in the way of attempts to trample over our rights. That’s why a key
priority for both government and university administrations has been to
undermine these organisations.
Another way...
Neoliberalism is sold to us as ‘common sense’. But it is premised on lies –
that the market is efficient, that individuals are all that matters, that we
are all little more than consumers, and that ideas of collective strength
resulting in social good are morally and economically barren.
Yet neoliberalism has failed in practice. Leaving rich capitalists
to pursue their own self-interests has seen global inequality increase
dramatically. Rather than the greatest welfare accruing to society as a
whole, we witnessed a global financial meltdown in 2008 that workers
and the poor have had to pay for, while the rich who caused the crisis got
off scot free – and with government bailouts!
We need a different path – one in which education is a right and
where learning is valued as a social good.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 15

AMERICAN GUN CONTROL:
EMPTY PROMISES?
Carlie O’Connell
The tragedy that befell Sandy Hook Elementary
in Newtown Connecticut late last year is one
that needs no introduction; a massacre that
left 20 young students and six teachers dead. It
shocked and saddened the entire international
community, and ultimately left one topic welling
in the minds of many: American gun regulation.
In the immediate wake of this heartbreaking
event, President Obama made an emotional
appeal to the American public, stating that,
“we’re going to have to come together and take
meaningful action.” What ‘meaningful action’
would equate to was unclear and as the months
passed by, it seemed as though Sandy Hook was
to become just another statistic.
However, in late March during a press
release delivered to an audience of parents who
have lost their children to gun violence, the
President assured the public that the promise for
‘meaningful action’ had not been a meaningless
remark.
A number of reforms were put forward,
including compulsory universal background
checks for anyone buying a gun, tougher
penalties for anyone who buys a gun and then
sells it to criminals, and measures to keep highcapacity
ammunition magazines off the streets.
“None of these ideas should be
controversial. Why wouldn’t we want to make
it more difficult for a dangerous person to get his
or her hand on a gun?”
“Why wouldn’t we want to close the
loophole that allows as many as 40 per cent
of all gun purchases to take place without a
background check?”
“Why wouldn’t we do that?” he asked his
audience.
However less than a month on, those
questions are left ringing in the ears of Mr Obama
and gun control lobbyists, after a watered-down
version of the proposals failed to pass through
the Senate, revealing how ingrained and never
ending this debate is among the America people,
and within American politics.
The measure fell six votes short of the 60
it needed to advance in the Senate, resulting
with 54 in favour and 46 opposed. Of the 46
votes that opposed the measures, five were from
Democrats, four of whom face re-election in
North Dakota, Alaska, Arkansas and Montana,
all of which are considered more conservative,
and “gun friendly” states.
This outcome is also a reflection of the
unyielding power and influence of the National
Rifle Association (NRA) and their prominent
self-described role as “America’s foremost
defender of Second Amendment rights”.
Over four million members strong, the
NRA provides training courses for gun owners
and educational programs for primary school
children in gun safety, but what they are
more prominently known for is their political
influence, which in the lead-up to the Senate
vote, was in full swing.
According to Reuters, NRA members and
officials made an unwavering stream of calls to
Republicans and conservative Democrats in the
lead-up to the vote. In particular they urged
swing votes such as Democratic Senator Mark
Begich of Alaska, to go against the measure.
Which he did.
It is a heavy blow for gun control allies and
Mr Obama’s second-term agenda, who, in the
wake of the announcement, was with Newtown
family members.
“It came down to politics. All in all, this
was a shameful day for Washington,” he said.
According to the United States Centers
16 LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
for Disease Control and Prevention, there are
more than 11,000 gun homicides and nearly
19,000 gun suicides annually in America.
Other statistics stand out.
Children aged 5 to 14 in America are 13
times more likely to be murdered with guns as
children in other industrialised countries.
More Americans die in gun homicides and
suicides in six months than have died in the last
25 years in every terrorist attack and the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq combined.
A gun is 12 times more likely to result in
the death of a household member or guest than
in the death of an intruder, which is particularly
concerning when it is considered that 47% of
Americans say they have a gun in their home or
on their property.
They are alarming statistics among many
more, from a six billion dollar industry.
At its core it is a debate that boils down to
two conflicting rights. The right to have a gun in
conjunction with the Second Amendment, and
the right of the public not to be unduly exposed
to the dangers imposed by the widespread
availability of guns.
Within the United States Constitution,
the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights
specifically states, “A well regulated militia,
being necessary to the security of a free state,
the right of the people to keep and bear arms,
shall not be infringed.”
Written after the revolutionary war in the
1700s, the Constitution is the most holy of US
documents, and it is this particular sentence that
is the crux of the debate for many Americans.
As DJ Cisek, 24, from New York
explained, to enforce too many restrictions on
guns would be in direct violation of the Second
Amendment, and thus the rights and freedom of
American citizens.
“It’s a fundamental right that the
government is subservient to the people and
you see that through the Second Amendment
because, god forbid, if the federal government
became too powerful, you always have the force
of the people and the states,” he said.
“You would argue that today the
likelihood of that happening is slim to none
and I would tend to agree with that, but at the
time they wrote that in the constitution it was
really possible, and as such it has become a very
important right to the American people.”
Jordan Johnson, 22, of South Carolina,
agrees whole-heartedly with this notion.
“The Second Amendment was put into
the constitution to resist tyranny, and the way
we see it is that tyranny is not between two
people, tyranny is the government against its
people.”
“When you’re going to threaten to take
guns away, something that I am using to protect
myself, or my family, and then you’re saying rely
on the government, because they have guns, I
don’t think that’s the right thing to do.”
Johnson bought his first gun just after he
turned 20, a hunting rifle, and since then has
also purchased a shotgun and a handgun.
The former two he bought for recreational
purposes, and will occasionally take them to a
shooting range, but he keeps the handgun in the
glove box of his car for safety and self-defence
purposes.
John Nguyen, 24, who grew up in
Michigan but currently resides in Memphis,
Tennessee, sits on the other side of the fence.
“With any amendment, nothing can ever
be set in stone. Things have to be allowed to
change and evolve, which is true of any law or
rule,” says Nguyen.
“An easy example is sports. There are
always going to be changes to the rules of any
sport, from American football to tennis, because
technology is constantly evolving.”
“I don’t see any issue with going back and
reviewing and revising.”
Perhaps the most prominent new proposal
by President Obama was “universal background
checks for anyone who wants to buy a gun so
that criminals or people with severe mental
illnesses can’t get their hands on one.”
In Australia, buying a handgun involves
a 28-day waiting period, while in Canada
potential gun owners have to provide the
support of two people who will vouch for their
legitimate reasons of purchase.
Even with background checks, currently
a citizen in America can in most cases walk in
and out of a store on the same day with a gun.
Despite this there are many, including
Johnson, who feel that even this revision would
not have much of an impact on crimes involving
guns, but rather just punish the vast majority of
gun owners who respect the powerful nature of
guns and use them safely.
“You’re never going to be able to stop
people from selling guns to each other; there are
always going to be illegal guns. I think you need
to stop putting so many regulations on citizens
that abide by the rules,” says Johnson.
He continues, “Everyone that goes into
a store to buy a gun, they know they’re going
to get checked out. Criminals don’t go into a
sporting goods store and try to buy a pistol, they
know they’re going to have to get checked, so
they go to the dude down the street that’s selling
pistols out of the back of his car. They know
they’re not going to be checked and the gun
isn’t going to be registered to anyone.”
DJ Cisek, while in full support of the
Second Amendment, feels that curbing the
number of people affected by mental illness who
can access guns is a step in the right direction.
“There are always going to be loopholes
with people using guns that aren’t registered
to them, or people with severe mental health
problems that aren’t documented, but I think
it’s an additional part of the process that is
essential and to a certain extent, achievable.”
Ultimately, if any regulation could put
even a small dint in the statistics quoted at
the beginning of this article, then in the eyes
of citizens such as Nguyen, it’s a sacrifice worth
making.
“Increased gun control would prevent
more of these massacres from happening. I’m
not going to say it’s going to prevent all of them,
no it wouldn’t. But would it prevent some of
them? Yes. Would it prevent at least one out of
100 of them? For sure. And that’s enough for
me, it really is. If it saves the life of one innocent
child, it’s totally worth it,” Nguyen says.
Back in March the President assured that
the lives lost in Newtown last December had by
no means been forgotten.
However, with the Senate failing to pass
the reforms that were proposed by Obama
in that same speech, many are left begging
the question; if 20 children slaughtered in
their classrooms isn’t going to be enough for
evolvement in gun safety, what will be?
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 17

STUDENT AFFAIRS
WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE ALWAYS
PROTESTING?
THE FUCK’S GOING ON TODAY?
Thomas Whiteside
Can’t keep track of on-campus demonstrations? Here’s a quick summary of what
the MSA and the Monash Education Action Group (EAG) have been up to.
Earlier this year the Monash Education Action Group was created to
get students from various political affiliations all working towards a common
goal: fighting the Gillard government’s recently announced $2.8 billion cuts to
tertiary education, and standing side by side with staff and the NTEU during
their struggle for better wages and conditions.
So, I hear you ask, “Why campaign on Campus when the issue is clearly
with Canberra?” Well, part of the EAG’s philosophy has been to keep a presence
alive at a campus level, and we’ve done this through a series of peaceful, but
controversial protest actions over the last month. Our rationale behind this is
that on-campus activities keep the message alive by pushing students to engage
with and take notice of an issue that will directly affect them; their education.
Too often, organizations start with a noble cause and plenty of ambition
but die a quick and lonesome death because of a lack of activity. Instead, by
remaining active with weekly events we hope to maintain a healthy pulse and
constant opportunities to bring new student activists into the EAG fold.
Furthermore, these protests put the Monash Vice Chancellor and others
from the senior administration on notice, demonstrating to them that they
won’t be able to use these federal cuts as an excuse to sell students and staff down
the river without a fight
Don’t get us wrong though, it’s not all about on-campus activities. This
ongoing campaign will require cooperation with universities all across the state
and nation, and coordination with bodies like the NUS and the newly created
Class Action to use our collective voices and numbers to force this issue into the
mainstream. So far the parliament has let us down. This needs to be a long-term,
mass struggle; only then will we have any hope of winning back what we’ve lost.
Dare to struggle, dare to win!
So here’s a quick run down of events over the last few weeks.
The campaign started with an MSA speak out and BBQ days after
Gillard’s cuts were announced. But the EAG’s first real action took place on the
30th April when we held another speak out and then ramped things up a notch.
Arming ourselves with banners and megaphones, around 100 of us marched
through both levels of the Campus Centre during lunchtime chanting and
rattling fruit tins. We addressed our fellow students chowing down at Meeting
Point and then headed for the Administration Building where we finished up
the afternoon.
The EAG also was thrilled by the hard work of all the students (from
both inside and outside of the EAG) who played a part in putting together the
first Student General Meeting (SGM) in eight years, held the following day.
We were heartened to see over 350 students out engaging in MSA governance
and condemning the cuts. We really hope to see another SGM held early
next semester; the last one was good but could be better next time with more
students engaged, voicing their opinions and taking part in the decision making
by voting on official motions to be carried out by the MSA.
The following week the EAG ramped things up another notch. Gathering
on the Menzies Lawn, we again heard from speakers then headed toward
the Matheson Library. It was a bold move, but we are proud of it. It’s true the
responses to this move were mixed; many felt it was deeply inappropriate to
disrupt students in a learning space like the Library. Some were so enraged that
they likened it to setting off a firearm in a church. However, to them we’d point
out that long term cuts to the funding of their university will be much more
disruptive than 15 minutes of of study time lost in the library. If the disruption
got people talking then we think it served its purpose exactly as intended.
We finished this action once again at the Administration Building.
However, this time we added a little bit of theatrical flare, and in a move echoing
that of Martin Luther we presented a list of demands to the Administration and
sticky taped pages and pages of student petitions to the doors and windows of the
building.
All of these events served to promote the Student Strike and central rally
the NUS had called for May the 14th. I think our efforts paid off. On Tuesday
the 14th we spent the morning leafleting and chalking and managed to gather
over 120 students into pre-booked buses to form a Monash Contingent and
another 50 or so Monash students joined us on our arrival. It was a gloomy and
wet day, but the atmosphere was electric. The feeling of marching side by side
with over 2000 students, staff and even high school students for a common cause
was heart warming and genuinely elating.
If you would like to get involved with the campaign, the EAG will be
holding a video and information session on Wednesday May 22nd, at 1pm in
H6. Here we will discuss student activism throughout history and how we can
build a strong student movement.
The next major NUS event will be held to welcome the Prime Minister to
Melbourne. A speak out and rally has been called for at 4pm on May 30th at the
State Library of Victoria.
For more information on upcoming actions, join the Monash Education
Action Group on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/NTEUsupport/
18
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

STUDENT AFFAIRS
Images: Daniel Taylor and Glen Haywood

THE ART
SUBHEADING
OF FOCUS
Samuel Blashki
A mechanical watch can contain over 100 parts. Each one is connected
together in perfect balance to carry out the simple task of keeping
time. The attention to detail required of a watch repairman is difficult
to comprehend. Each piece must be expertly removed with tweezers,
lovingly worked on under magnifying glass and then replaced in its
correct spot. A single moment of distraction could ruin the balance of the
pieces and render the watch useless forever.
Why is it that we find this skill so remarkable? It’s not only because
of the incredible skill required, but also because of the perfect focus and
undivided attention that must be devoted to the task.
Being ‘focused’ has traditionally been admired as an enviable
characteristic. We are intuitively impressed by someone who can devote
their entire self to achieving a particular aim. It’s natural to be amazed
by someone who has spent their life researching a particular disease,
or writing beautiful poetry, or even becoming an expert on the mating
habits of Himalayan mountain goats. We value this because, though it
requires considerable self-discipline, focus has led to society’s greatest
achievements.
Yet I get the sense lately that we are being duped. We are being
slowly convinced that, instead of revering focus, we should celebrate
distraction. We are told we should want to see emails and texts while
attempting to study, and take a quick peek at Facebook during our shift
at work. We should gasp in amazement at someone who can finish three
assignments in one night while watching The Voice, tweet about it and
make two-minute noodles all at the same time. Though multitasking
is an impressive skill in itself, ‘focus’ is loosing its rightful status as an
essential part of life.
But don’t be fooled, this cultural shift is not a natural progression. It
has arisen deliberately, caused by those who need us to think differently.
This shift is the work of the technology behemoths who have infiltrated
the most intimate areas of our lives; the Facebooks, Twitters and Apples
of this century who have a vested interest in making us want to peek
at little screens 500 times a day. Let me be clear, this is not an anticonsumerist
rant; I am an avid user of these services myself. Humanity
has encountered immeasurable advantages thanks to technological
progression. But this doesn’t negate the fact that we are being sold the
vision of an Augmented Reality Utopia; a world where technological
products will play a part in every facet of our lives, purportedly improving
the experience of living. This is a world where switching off to focus is
not considered normal at all.
Such a vision is epitomized by Google’s new product; Google Glass.
It’s a pair of glasses that puts a tiny screen in the corner of your vision at
all times, keeping you connected no matter what you are doing. This is
their vision for the future, a vision shared by many other companies who
never want you to disconnect.
Let me use Facebook to illustrate my point. Being focused
fundamentally undermines Facebook’s premise. This is because Facebook
is not built as a standalone activity. It is meant to be the secondary
thing you are doing. So where does this leave Facebook if you just want
to focus? If you don’t want to check Facebook while you are doing
homework, Mark Zuckerberg is evicted from that part of your life. If you
don’t want to check it while in bed with your partner, you are telling
Mark to get out from under the covers and leave you two alone. What if
you don’t want to read your News Feed when you are at work? Or having
a conversation with a friend? Or spending time with your family? If you
chose to fully focus on all these moments, Facebook could find itself
walled out of your life altogether. And if Facebook is out of your life, then
Facebook can’t show you advertisements, its business model falls apart
and Mark Zuckerberg’s head implodes into a black hole, tearing the fabric
of space-time to shreds.
The same line of logic can be applied to almost any technology
company because ultimately, your engagement with their product leads
to profit and your disengagement causes their empire to crumble. Exhibit
A - MySpace. Once these motives are stripped bare, it quickly becomes
apparent that these companies couldn’t care less if they are selling a
vision for the world that actually decreases productivity and happiness, as
long as it increases engagement with their product. The CEO of Google
doesn’t care if watching videos of lolcats on YouTube grinds your study to
a halt.
So where does that leave us now? I’m not ashamed to admit that
I love my iPhone with a passion and I’m not going to throw it away in
pursuit of focus. So I propose an answer that is far less dramatic than
ridding yourself of all technology. Why not remind Mark Zuckerberg and
his friends that they don’t get to choose the order of priorities in your life.
They don’t get to decide when you need to see what your third cousin had
for lunch or a selfie of your acquaintances from Saturday night. Take back
control of when you engage and more importantly, when you disengage.
Become the master of your technology, not the servant. There’s no
replacement for dedicating every neuron in your brain to achieving one
task, concentrating without distraction. Don’t let the technology industry
convince you that focus is a dying art, because an Augmented Reality
Utopia is nothing more than a profitable myth.
20

STUDENT AFFAIRS
MIND YOURSELF
How To Conquer Your Exams With Your Eyes Closed
Hannah Barker
Good news, everyone! Meditation isn’t just for
hippies!
Chances are you’re not aware of many of
the programs that are run through the Health
& Wellbeing Hubs across all Monash campuses.
Aside from complimentary counselling services
and assistance with financial, housing and
childcare difficulties, student support facilities
at Monash also include a variety of health
and management services and occasional short
courses to help improve physical, mental and
academic performance.
One of these programs, which has just
finished running for this semester, is called
Mindfulness for Academic Success. Conducted
as part of a research study by Dr Richard Chambers,
with the assistance of student counsellor
Rebecca, the course consists of one hour a
week over five weeks, and aims to introduce
participants to the practices and advantages of
mindfulness meditation.
Mindfulness essentially means paying
attention in a particular, purposeful way. It aims
to cultivate an appreciation for the present moment
and openness to whatever you might be
engaged with at that time.
This could mean formal meditation session
to get in touch with your body and see
how you’re feeling, or monitoring your own
breathing during class. It could mean actively
paying attention to your five senses as you walk
to your mate’s house, or it could mean avoidance
of multitasking so that any one duty has
your full attention. It could also be as simple as
sitting down to consciously enjoy your toast in
the morning instead of devouring it manically
as you run around the house packing your bag.
The long-term benefits of regular mindfulness
practice are actually quite profound. With
as little as five minutes of focused awareness at
the beginning and end of your day, continued
practice nurtures a greater awareness, clarity
and acceptance of all moments of your life. It
reduces stress by taking your attention away
from looming deadlines and redirecting it to
actually writing a decent assignment (without
even feeling the need to check Facebook
at regular intervals). It lessens the chance of
procrastination by allowing you to rationally
prioritise what needs to be done now and what
can wait, and teaches you to identify times
when you’re blatantly shunning something that
needs to be done.
Mindfulness also promotes healthy relationships
by helping you to be aware of people
around you, how they’re feeling, and how to
extend a more compassionate outlook toward
them. Most importantly, according to Professor
Jon Kabat-Zinn, by facilitating investigation
into our actions and perceptions through careful
and systematic self-observation, mindfulness
leads us to a life with greater satisfaction, harmony
and wisdom.
Maybe it still sounds a little too much like
new-age self-help, or a bit too Zen.
It’s true that mindfulness meditation is
indeed intrinsically linked to certain Buddhist
practices, yoga and Zen. However if this is not
your usual forte, rest assured that over the last few
decades Western scientific
study has been becoming
progressively more supportive
of Eastern philosophy
and medicinal practice.
In fact, there’s been
quite a bit of imperative research
conducted in recent
years which has proved that
regular mindfulness training
can actually cause physical
changes in the brain and
immune system, including
heightened immunity to the influenza virus and
increased thickness of the regions of the brain
that control self-awareness and sensory processing.
Besides, there’s no harm in trying something
which, when used effectively, promises
to reduce anxiety and depression, increase
happiness and creativity, and improve relationships,
lengthen attention spans, and enhance
academic performance.
Wouldn’t it be nice to smash through
those assignments and exam prep at a 100%
concentration rate? There’d be so much more
time to not have to focus on study afterwards!
The Health & Wellbeing Hub at Clayton
offers guided meditation sessions in the Narthex
Room, Building 9, on Wednesdays and Fridays
between 1:15pm and 1:45pm. Anyone is welcome
to join, and the sessions are completely
anonymous.
There is also a locally produced iPhone
app called Smiling Mind, which is freely available
to help guide you through the basics of
mindfulness practice. Android uses are advised
to use the companies website.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 21

MAY 14 TH NATIONAL
STUDENTSTRIKE:
Effective Action or
Self-Righteous Psychosis?
James Grout
Many people attended the national student
strike and rally against the federal funding cuts
to the tertiary education sector on Tuesday May
14th at the State Library; myself included.
In its aftermath, some of my fellow
protestors and I are now wondering why we
sometimes feel a creeping doubt about whether
our protests can really achieve what we hope
they will. Are they not always, already doomed
to failure? And where does this doubt come from
and can it be dispelled?
Part of the answer may be found in
considering similar protests in the recent past,
such as the anti-war in Iraq demonstrations of
2003.
In the lead up to the invasion of Iraq,
protests against the war were the largest in
human history, as measured in the sheer number
of people who took to the streets, as well as
opinion poll figures. Worldwide, tens of millions
of people protested, opposing the US and other
governments’ decisions to invade and occupy
Iraq.
On Friday the 14th February 2003 in
Melbourne alone, an estimated two-hundredthousand
people marched in the streets to
oppose John Howard’s Liberal Government
decision to join the US in invading Iraq.
AND YET... Howard was not dissuaded.
The Australian military was deployed at the
behest of the Bush Administration. The war
was waged. Iraq was invaded and occupied and
thousands upon thousands of people were killed,
maimed and traumatised for life: men, women
and children, soldiers and civilians.
So these mass protests failed to stop the
war and thus achieve their ostensible aim, but
was this their only purpose?
During the height of the anti-war protests,
former US President George Bush made the
following comment: “You see this is why we need
to invade Iraq and bring them our democracy, so
that the Iraqi people can also hold such protests
when they disagree with their government”.
Rather than dismiss this comment as
idiotic, I believe that Bush offers us a valuable
insight here into how these protests successfully
functioned on a deeper level: their true
(unconscious) purpose.
As the philosopher Slavoj Zizek has
observed (himself a participant in the antiwar
movement), in a strange way the protests
satisfied both the protestors and those in power
who they were protesting against. That is, the
protesters felt good about publicly expressing
their opposition to the war, and the politicians
felt good about how their democratic society
allows for the public right to free speech/criticism
of government, etc. Everybody was able to “save
face”, maintaining “democratic appearances”
despite what was essentially unaccountable,
powerful, profiteering elites engineering another
catastrophic war.
My concern is that the “self-righteous
psychosis” phenomena which characterised
opposition to the war in Iraq, could be uncannily
similar to what was occurring during the
National Student Strike and Rally on May 14th.
Are we not also (unconsciously) maintaining
“democratic appearances” and therefore playing
into the hands of those we oppose?
Though it was exciting to close down traffic
for half an hour, march together in a large crowd
and chant our slogans, it seems unlikely that this
will stop the cuts any more than the protests
managed to stop the war in Iraq. It would seem
that our doubts about current methods of protest
may have some real justification.
This is a worrying thought, especially when
many leading activists and student politicians
seem content to repeatedly call everyone to
“strike and rally” every time there is a pressing
political issue, knowing full well that every time
the result is similarly ineffective. Effectively,
our current leadership appear to be practicing
an insidious cynicism of which we should all be
cautious of becoming complicit in.
As I understand it, the cynicism of the
student leadership comprises a disbelief in the
capacity of ordinary students to understand
and care enough about their own plight (and
the plight of others) to do something about
it. This attitude is encapsulated in a guiding
mantra: “Students/people are apathetic.” For
student politicians, this attitude manifests in
bureaucratic tricks employed to restrict student
participation in the decision-making processes
of their union such as holding Student Council
meetings “in camera” (in secret). For activists,
the attitude manifests in their cynical efforts
to ‘mobilise’ students to the cause by postering
misleading information to trick students into
thinking that “classes have been cancelled”
therebyfooling them into not attending, and
thus unwittingly striking.
Cheap tricks aside, the cynical attitude
is most problematically manifest in the
executive decision-making processes of our
student unions at the campus and national
level which purposefully exclude student public
participation. “Students are apathetic” provides
the rationalisation for making decisions at an
elite level, rather than involving the student
body in the process. These decisions then
(inevitably) result in vain calls to always already
ineffective action, such as the most recent
strike/rally called by the National Union of
Students, which further reinforce the notion
that yes, students are mostly apathetic, and so
the cycle continues...
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LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

STUDENT AFFAIRS
In summary, the current student leadership
seems to have very little faith in the student body
to make important decisions about their own
plight such as how to respond to federal funding
cuts or the hijacking of public universities by
unaccountable Administrators and the financial
mismanagement this entails.
Just like their idols in the State and
federal parliaments, most student politicians
only believe in representational democracy,
meaning the people have the opportunity to
vote once a year (or three), and in between
they have a right to be merely surveyed. And
just like their idol(s) in the Russian Revolution,
many activists only believe in the revolutionary
vanguard to enlighten and lead the currently
(unconscious) masses.
So our protests in their current form
may be ineffectual and our leaders infected by
cynicism, but are there any alternatives? What
is to be done?
I imagine the activist/student politician
rebuke: ‘Well that’s all well and good to criticise
the strike action and rally we have organised,
but what is your positive, constructive,
alternative model for organising against defunding,
increased prices for less quality courses,
staff sackings, etc.? These problems are real and
they still require some kind of a solution.’
I believe this is a fair retort, so I will
attempt to sketch out a tentative answer.
In the first instance I believe that the
best thing we can do in response to antisocial
government policy such as the funding
cuts is not to immediately (re)act to what we
assume is the problem, but rather (re)think the
problem. Otherwise we run the risk of wasting
our energies reproducing the same kind of
ultimately ineffective actions that have marked
our movement to date and which seem, in fact,
to reinforce existing power structures (from our
student union executives to our governments).
It might be helpful to start critically
thinking about our predicament and our
potential courses of action by considering the
example of our brothers and sisters in Quebec
and Chile.
The students who play key organising
roles in Quebec and Chile do not appear to
waste their time staging futile, cynical protest
actions that are bound to fail. Instead they
build empowering and effective movements,
mobilising literally hundreds of thousands of
people towards achieving concrete political
outcomes and structural change in their
societies.
In 2012 the Quebec students defeated
a 75% fee-hike policy proposal by forcing a
change in their provincial government (roughly
the Australian equivalent of Victorian students
bringing down the Liberal Napthine State
government and replacing it with a Labor
government).
“The only thing that stands in
the way of reinvigorating and
implementing this organising
model in Australia is the
prevailing cynicism of the existing
student political leadership which
has no apparent faith in the
capacity, power and passion of the
general student public.”
From 2010-2012, the Chilean students
constituted a similarly effective political force
but on an even larger national scale. Their
nation-wide protests shut down entire cities
and are applied immense pressure on their
government to reform the public education
system, winning concrete concessions.
Both of these student movement struggles
are ongoing, but both have already achieved
significant outcomes for the public education
system which benefit all members of society.
The question is why are they so effective?
What makes them so much more successful
than their British, American or Australian
counterparts? After all, they too appear to be
utilising the tactics of striking and rallying. Is
their success simply a product of their political
heritage?
The advice of student leaders is pertinent
here. Rather than explaining the success of the
Quebecois in terms of their ‘Frenchness’ and
thus something that we ‘Anglo-saxon’ societies
cannot emulate, Gabrielle Nadieu Dubois,
spokesperson of the Quebec student union
federation called CLASSE, suggests that “The
key principle of success in Quebec is exportable,
because it’s our mode of organization.”
This certainly seems promising. What
Dubois means by ‘mode of organisation’ is
empowering people through collective decisionmaking
or what is sometimes called ‘direct
democracy.’ In Quebec, all major decisions
(such as whether to go on strike) are not made at
the executive union level by student politicians
and activists. Instead these decisions are made
in public decision-making forums or ‘general
assemblies’ at the university campus level, or
even at the faculty level. Our equivalent public
decision-making forum at Monash is called a
Student General Meeting (SGM).
An SGM constitutes the highest decisionmaking
body for our union and about two
weeks ago, the first SGM in 8 years was held
at Clayton (as reported by X in this edition of
Lot’s). 350 Clayton students attended and had
the opportunity to vote and decide how we
should respond to the recent federal funding
cuts among other issues (albeit at a meeting that
was administered in an overly bureaucratic and
somewhat disorganised fashion!).
Now this model may not be perfect; it may
require extensive fine tuning. It may be useful
to begin developing SGMs on a Faculty, rather
than a campus-wide level. But the principle that
such a forum seeks to embody, that of directdemocracy
where all students can participate
in the decision-making, is vitally important
in terms of building an effective student
movement which can counter the anti-social
policies of State and Federal governments as
well as University Administrations.
The only thing that stands in the way of
reinvigorating and implementing this organising
model in Australia is the prevailing cynicism of
the existing student political leadership which
has no apparent faith in the capacity, power
and passion of the general student public. Of
course we should not expect to create a mass
movement overnight, it will take many months
or even years of building which will certainly
involve many failures along the way.
But if we can confront and dispel the
cynicism there is hope.
In the immortal words of Samuell Beckett:
“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 23

MONASH ACTIVISM
OVER TWENTY YEARS
Liam Molenaar
Monash’s unofficial history, University Unlimited, released last year, refers
to student activism as part of a long bygone era. It reports crudely what
it views as a monolithic change in student culture, from mass idealistic
engagement with ideas of University as a place of debate, knowledge and
activism to the 21st century ‘customer’, buying training in the corporate
University ‘supermarket’. There is a vested interest in this ‘unofficial’
history that tries to cleanse over the dark stains of stubborn dirt behind
Monash’s brilliant façade. Here I attempt to block some of this blinding
brilliance to sketch only some of the many events over the last 20 years,
which demonstrates placidity is conveniently superficial.
Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) was a key flank of Jeff
Kennett’s (Liberal) 1993 Victorian election campaign. Up until then
students paid an amenities fee, which went towards funding the student
union and student services. Victorian VSU proposed to remove the
ability of the amenities fee to go towards the political function of student
unions, who previously decided where the amenities fee went. A Student
General Meeting—a forum where all students had equal votes to decide
MSA motions—was attended by 650 students on March 4 1993, passing a
motion condemning VSU, followed by mass protests Victoria wide.
VSU was a disaster for the stuff we take for granted today – Lot’s
Wife, Student Rights Officers, the Women’s department, and even many
clubs were seen as too political to be funded in line with the legislation.
On the back of thousands of students protesting, the Federal Labor
Government put student unions on life support with funding from
1995-1996. When funding ran out, Lot’s Wife shut for three months. In
response in May 1996, 1500 students rallied against the closure of Lot’s
Wife. Eventually the MSA was left to negotiate with the University for
scraps and Lot’s Wife re-opened.
With the election of the Howard Government in 1996, there were
further cuts to Higher Education and HECS fees increased. Monash
University decided to introduce up-front fees in 1997. A quarter of
courses could be funded by lucrative full-fees, creating an incentive for
the University to ramp up vocational and high-esteem courses attractive
to rich students and International students. This meant the University
shifted from a place where you would pursue further learning to one
limited to a narrow career outcome. The Arts and Science faculties
suffered cuts while the Business and Engineering faculties expanded.
On July 1997, the MSA held its ‘Corporate Free Day’ and a ‘tent
city’ was constructed on the lawn outside the Administration building,
continuing for much of Semester 2. Open day was heavily disrupted.
Graffiti abounded on campus, particularly on the concrete walls of
the campus centre, including ‘UNIVERSITIES = A PLACE FOR
LEARNING NOT EARNING’, together with elaborate murals. The cuts
were not just at Monash, and activism was co-ordinated across multiple
campuses, with occupations seen at Melbourne University and most
notably at RMIT for 19 days.
In response to cuts to University courses, especially a restructuring
of the Arts faculty, on September 23 1998, staff and students occupied the
administration building, before being violently evicted by police.
In Semester 1 2004, over a thousand students protested HECS fee
rises of 25% on campus. There was a failed attempt at occupying the
Administration building but successful occupations of the former Vice-
Chancellor’s residence (Marketing and student recruitment building)
and Monash International building (now Monash College). In late
2005, students occupied Sir John’s Bar, forcing the University to give
up on their effort to turn the space—that the student union had 49%
control through Monash’s now defunct commercial arm MONYX—
into a University function room. A recurring theme here was that the
official channels of negotiation had been exhausted—the University
administrators were not interested in reasoned argument.
The last Student General Meeting (before the one held recently
on the 1st of May) was held on the 20th of April, 2005. It discussed
the Howard government’s push for Federal ‘Anti Student Organisation
Legislation’, which finished off the Victorian VSU, by completely
abolishing the amenities fees that funded student unions. The last
motion passed called on students to effectively go on strike, which in
practise failed to gain momentum. Despite this defeat, the fact that
there was grassroots support for student organisations allowed the Labor
government to introduce the Student Services and Amenities Fee, still
limited by its failure to reverse Voluntary Student Unionism. In 2011,
there was a little-known uproar over the School of Music at Monash,
with staff cut by the administration as well as the entire course on
classical music. Students prepared to boycott exams and collectively fail.
Under pressure, Monash ceded to many of their demands.
Overall, there is a structural problem for Universities as there
has been no funding increase in real terms since 1975. Furthermore,
during the same period, inequality in the University has widened as
the salary of the Vice Chancellor now reaches over a million dollars.
In the end, students and staff are the University rather than the upper
administration, whose only interests are neoliberalism, rationalising an
education ‘supermarket’ while lining their pockets. Resisting attacks to
education is a struggle with no guarantees of success, but without students
taking direct action a student controlled restaurant and this paper would
not exist today.
24
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

STUDENT AFFAIRS
CLASS ACTION
FORMED
Thomas Whiteside
There’s nothing like a good kick in the guts from ‘the powers that be’ to
bring the student left together. We’ve seen it from Gillard and boy is it
about to get worse under Abbott. That’s why it’s so exciting to announce
that students from across the country recently formed an activist network
to share skills and ideas, in the hope of building a long term national fight
back against the constant threat of a neoliberal agenda to education.
In the last 18 months universities around the country have seen
attacks on almost all fronts. First with the inadequate redistribution of
the SSAF, then with cuts announced to teaching staff and administrative
support staff, and thus to units and courses offered. There has been talk
of deregulating student fees- which would inevitably lead to price hikes
for students - and whole departments have seen their very existence
threatened by the university and government’s penny pinching razor
gangs. It goes without saying that the latest attack, in the form of Gillard’s
recently announced $2.8 billion cuts to the tertiary sector to fund the
Gonski reforms makes the picture seem pretty grim indeed.
But the news is not all bad! Across the nation the student
movement seems to be slowly awakening from its long slumber.
Already there have been significant fight backs organised out of Sydney
University - where last year a broad left coalition of students waged a
largely successful campaign to roll back of their VC’s proposed cuts to
Humanities staff -, and at John Curtin University in Western Australia,
where the entire student union has been greatly radicalized ). Out of
the Sydney success story, an exclusively NSW organisation dubbed the
CCEAN (Cross Campus Education Action network) has emerged to
bring other universities from across the state facing similar issues into
the fold. This in turn sowed the seeds for the creation of a nation-wide
network for student activists to share skills, knowledge and tactics.
And so, at the second Edufactory, “a radical education activism
conference in Australia” held at Sydney University for four days over
Anzac Day weekend, students from different universities and different
political persuasions came together to formally create an autonomous and
radical activist network they dubbed ‘Class Action’, to operate outside of
- but when possible, in collaboration with - the peak representative body,
the National Union of Students.
So what is the network exactly? Tim Scriven, a student activist
and anarcho-syndicalist from Sydney Uni who played a leading role
in Class Action’s creation describes it as a “network that’s been set up
by education activists to fight for free, quality education. Anyone can
participate and everyone is encouraged to.”
Jason Ray, a senior figure from ASEN (The Australian Student
Environment Network, a grassroots activist group that split from the NUS
in 2005 but last month played a leading role in Class Action’s formation)
goes further, “With Class Action we have the opportunity to circumvent
the traditional layers of representation in student politics that dilute and
alienate the average student from having a direct stake in the quality of
their education. Hopefully wider student participation in this growing
issue will engender an understanding and resentment of the underlying
‘logic of the market’ that is deteriorating not only our education but social
welfare and environment”.
However, despite historical tensions between the NUS and
members of the more radical student left, Clare Keyes-Liley, the NUS
Education Officer and member of the National Labor Students (Labor
Left), has expressed a genuine willingness to engage and work with
the fledgling Class Action body. As she puts it, “it is excellent to see
the left mobilising on education activism nationally. We’re currently
looking down the barrel of a deeply conservative and reactionary Federal
Government come September, the left in student activism needs to
remain focused on the fight and united as a group”.
The creation of Class Action is hopefully a sign of bigger and
better things to come. Let’s leave the last word to Casey Thompson,
the Education Officer and member of the Sydney Labor Students at
Sydney Uni, “Class Action will be a great thing for the future of student
activism and more importantly for the future of education in Australia.
It will be a unifying and guiding body for future struggles and allow our,
often-divided, movement to come together and seriously challenge
the neoliberal project attacking our universities and schools. The
establishment of Class Action gives me hope. We can look to the future
and see the presence of a strong force fighting for students and their
fundamental rights – free, quality education”
To get involved visit the following page – and don’t forget to join
the Monash Education Action Group.
http://www.facebook.com/classactionaustralia
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 25

NATIONAL SUBHEADING AFFAIRS
MONASH UNIVERSITY STANDS UP
AGAINST SEXUAL VIOLENCE
The Monash Stand Up Team
Trigger warning: This piece contains referenece
to sexual violence.
Sexual violence is receiving more widespread
media attention in recent times. Coverage of
Jill Meagher, the Steubenville High School
students, the Adelaide physiotherapist who
was accused of raping a patient during home
visits and the gang rape of a 23 year old Indian
student in Delhi all point towards the growing
attention sexual violence is receiving in the
community. Public reaction to these cases -
particularly the Delhi incident which caused
widespread protest - has taken the form of an
increase in campaigns and public support for
a transformation of how people view sexual
violence.
What seems clear is that the issue of
sexual assault is not going away any time soon.
The most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics
(ABS) Personal Safety, Australia Survey
(undertaken in 2005) recorded that over
100,000 Australian women and almost 45,000
men experienced an incident of sexual assault
in the 12 months prior to the survey.
The same survey found that 29.5% of
people who had experienced sexual violence in
the past 12 months were between 18-24 years
old.
It was also found that there is little to
no difference in rates of sexual violence across
socio-economic groups, indicating that it is
as prevalent in privileged – often universityeducated
– communities as it is in more
disadvantaged communities. This makes the
issue directly relevant to university students.
Sexual violence statistics show rates are
not declining . Similar to the 2005 survey, the
1996 Women’s Safety Survey indicated 100,000
women had experienced sexual violence in
the 12 months prior to the study. We can only
assume rates are relatively stable for other
victims as well. Thus it is clear the structural
issues inherent in our society that cause sexual
violence have not been adequately identified or
addressed.
Recognising the need for greater public
awareness of this issue, a group of students have
launched a campaign aiming to raise awareness
and to put an end to sexual violence in our
community. Stand Up is a campaign designed
and implemented by a group of students
involved with the Environment and Social
Justice Collective at Monash University. The
official week of the campaign was held during
week ten of semester one. You might have
seen some of the posters around Monash. We
encourage you to share the images online and
talk to your friends about them.
It is often not acknowledged that the vast
majority of incidents of sexual assault occur
by somebody the victim already knows. The
stereotypical image of the man in a trench coat
waiting in the bushes doesn’t actually match up
with reality. The campaign seeks to highlight
the fact that these things happen in our
communities, at our parties and to our friends
more often than we might think, and that we
must do more to stop it from happening. We
want to raise literacy about what kinds of acts
constitute sexual violence, behaviour ranging
from sexual harassment, unwanted kissing or
sexual touching, through to sexual pressure,
coercion, or forced sexual activity, and to create
conversations around acceptable alternative
behaviours.
Instead of victim blaming, we need
to take both individual and collective
responsibility for how we interact with others
and how we as a society treat and support
survivors of sexual assault. Questions that we
often ask ourselves working on this campaign
is: would we know how to intervene if we
saw something happening? Would we be able
to confront our friends? Would we be able
to confront a stranger if we thought that the
situation was urgent? These are conversations
that we will need to start having if we are
serious about preventing sexual violence and
creating safer communities.
For counselling and support for those
who have experienced sexual violence or know
someone who has, contact CASA house http://
www.casahouse.com.au or call the Victorian
Sexual Assault Crisis Line 1800 806 292.
For counselling, support and advice on campus,
you can visit the Health & Wellbeing HUB’s
counselling service http://www.monash.
edu.au/counselling/ or contact the Safer
Community Unithttp://www.adm.monash.
edu.au/safercommunity/. Both are free and
confidential.
For more information about our campaign visit
www.stand-up.org.au
26
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

SUBHEADING
NOT A YOGA MASTER?
Amy Clyne- Activities Office Bearer
I don’t meditate, in no way am I spiritual or anything remotely close – and
I don’t even practice yoga once a week. But I want to let you in on a secret.
YOGA IS THE BOMB. It’s the freakin’ bomb.com. Yoga is ahead of
Australian Rules football on the list of the most popular physical activities
in the county, and looking at the pros it is easy to see why. Anxiety, depression,
blood pressure and respiratory rates all decrease, while your attention,
energy, mood, sleep, and memory improve dramatically. Don’t meditate?
Fine. Not spiritual? No worries. Don’t exercise? That’s okay too. Yoga is
whatever you make it, and the MSA is making it totally free.
The MSA holds free yoga classes every day on campus, so come
along and try out for free what could be the best thing in the world for
both your study routine and yourself. Classes are for everyone, at all levels,
and newbies are particularly encouraged. Every time I go I feel about
10 times taller (for all you shorties out there), I have about five times less
to worry about and about a zillion times more focus. And it’s not even
hard. I still can’t even touch my toes (we’re talking mid-shin reach here)
but I can both participate and find great enjoyment in a little light yoga.
If you can’t afford a gym membership, or don’t have time for regular
exercise between work and class and study – whatever your obstacle –
starting feeling great is never easier than a light stretch with some friends
after class. We have enough yoga mats for everyone, just bring some
comfy clothes, your lovely self, and make those bodies sing!
Classes run from 5-6pm daily in Wholefoods Restaurant.
FAILING TO SUCCEED?
Caitlin Sinclair
Dear Type A’s,
As we head towards the final assessment stage of semester one it is
tempting to buy into the straight HDs hysteria. I should know, because
I normally do. However after three years of disappointment from falling
short of ‘practically perfect’ (Mary Poppin’s ain’t real people) this time
around has been different. Perhaps it is being on the verge of becoming a
sagacious post-graduate or maybe it is just because all the 21st celebrations
have finally caught up with me, but I cannot seem to muster the gut
wrenching anxiety over what I will or will not achieve. Its mysterious
disappearance is most plausibly explained by a recent tutorial discussion.
We were asked: who do we write and study for? Surely not for a twodigit
number at the end of July and December or a piece of paper and
fancy ceremony - though those silky robes do look extremely comfortable.
Completely going off stereotypical type A characteristics, if you
do not study for the grades, the envy and esteem of yours peers and family
then what for? After long nights spent with the MBA referencing system,
it is easy to over look the simple joy and privilege that is learning. Of
course good results are something to be proud of. Yet, so is any effort, no
matter the scale, that is made to learn new and different things about
yourself and the world in which we live. In retrospect, the most memorable
experiences I have had at Monash come from trying and failing and trying
again. As with most wonderful and tricky things in life, every mind-toword
attempt will always be a ‘work in progress’. So as the blank page
starts to seem obnoxiously spartan, remember that you can only give it
your best shot and try to learn from it. More than not from falling short,
you often fall forward.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 27

STUDENT AFFAIRS
In the wake of university funding shortcomings,
clubs have the potential to pick up some
slack with their diverse methods of engaging
students. The Society of Chemical Engineers,
better known as SMUCE is exemplary in
providing such an outreach. SMUCE’s activities
centre on linking students to the professional
world at large with strong industry, alumni and
academic partnerships.
SMUCE has more than a few reasons to
boast. Their awesome moose logo is a start, not
to mention the enviable office they occupy in
the engineering precinct, as well as an unparalleled
industry rapport. However, boasting
is certainly not something the hard-working
SMUCE committee will be found doing. Not
least of all because they are too busy working
on running a proactive academic club with an
ever-growing calendar of regular activities to
organize for members, with new ideas constantly
in the pipeline. For a club of fewer than
150 members, the overwhelming majority of
whom are chemical engineering students, their
presence on campus is disproportionately larger
than their membership base might suggest.
SMUCE committee members are driven
by genuine compassion for the collective plight
of students to successfully transition to life
after study. In reality, such a feat is not automatic
even with as taxing a degree as chemical
engineering under one’s belt. To accomplish
this objective, SMUCE reaches out to industry,
forging partnerships that offer returns to
students, companies and Monash University
alike. For several years, the SMUCE industry
Laura Aston
seminar series has been gaining momentum, offering
students the chance to listen to and meet
representatives from diverse employers in fields
relevant to their studies. This year, a full suite
of weekly industry representatives were locked
in as far as 6-months in advance. The willingness
of industry representatives to engage with
students through SMUCE is evidence of the
esteem with which it is regarded by the professional
world. 2013 also saw the publication of
the SMUCE careers guide.
“SMUCE committee
members are driven by genuine
compassion for the collective
plight of students to
successfully transition to life
after study. In reality, such
a feat is not automatic even
with as taxing a degree as
chemical engineering under
one’s belt.”
The careers guide, which provides information
about transitioning into the professional
world, is an invaluable supplement to academic
life, and the pride of hardworking SMUCE
committee members who devoted their summer
to sourcing content from industry partners.
SMUCE also works closely with the
Department of Chemical Engineering. The
relatively new concept of mid-semester unit
evaluation was the brain-child of the 2009
committee. Unlike end-of-year evaluations,
mid-semester evaluations offer tangible returns
to the students reviewing the subject, since they
equate to improvements in the current term of
study. The concept has caught on so well that
SMUCE reps aren’t able to obtain feedback fast
enough to satisfy academics, who are hungry for
feedback on the quality of their teaching.
The social element of club life is not lost
on SMUCE either. A little thinking outside the
box has seen the addition of annual lawn bowls,
sustainable laboratory beer tasting, BBQ’s, the
September academic dinner (which is heavily
attended by faculty staff) and more recently a
trivia night at Sir John’s bar.
How does one club achieve such proactivity?
Undoubtedly, this culture has been
inherited. But it continues to attract innovative
students who enjoy putting their organizational
skills to use in improving the quality of study
and career prospects for their fellow students,
while working with a team of equally motivated
individuals with support and recognition coming
from many levels of the university institution.
Of course, academic clubs are by no means
more relevant in supplementing the university
experience than recreational, cultural or welfare
clubs. Each offer their own valuable opportunities
for students to engage with each other and
the world at large; with the advantage of university
recognition meaning clubs can benefit
from funding, venue hire and support to foster
such activities.
So, after learning a little about SMUCE,
let’s just see if their membership base continues
to be biased towards ChemEngers….
28
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

STUDENT AFFAIRS
MSA OFFICE BEARER REPORTS
President: Freya Logan
Hi everyone, it’s coming to the time of the
year where the days are shorter but the
essay pile is getting bigger. At the MSA we
are working on a whole range of things for
students. I have been working hard to ensure
that if the proposed cuts to tertiary education
go ahead that Monash University will consult
with students and student representatives. It’s
important that you let the University know
what you think is important we will be starting
a new campaign focussed around you, the
students, telling us what you think is the most
important part of your university education.
Look out for that!
Also if things are getting a bit tough
with essays and exam prep, remember you
can always check out our Student Rights
department who are there to make sure you get
through it all.
Good luck with exams and I look forward
to seeing you all in Semester two!
Treasurer: Samantha Towler
Hi Everyone. It’s the time of semester when
exam prep and final assessments become
pretty consuming, and there just don’t seem
to be enough hours in the day. Despite these
commitments there has been an outstanding
level of activism and involvement from the
student body at the SGM and in the ‘Stop
the Cuts Campaign’. In addition to helping
run these events and campaigns, I spent a
lot of time with the Ed Pub and Women’s
department helping to run Blue Stockings
Week promoting women within higher
education, as well as the usual expenses and
signings. Best of Luck to everyone for exams –
keep going, keep studying, keep fighting!
Secretary: Ben Zocco
Hey everyone! I’m not sure whether it’s the
cold weather or the intense studying that is
keeping everyone away from Clayton, but the
campus seems quieter and quieter every day!
Your MSA is working harder than ever, with
the announcement that the federal government
intends on slashing $2.8b out of higher
education funding, which will cut universities
literally to the bone financially. I have been
assisting with office-bearers to sort out the
logistics of the campaign, and coordinated the
recent Student General Meeting where we had
more than 300 students vote against the cuts!
As always, I have spent a great deal of my time
coordinating the day-to-day management of
the MSA and working on some key projects,
including the policy review and by-elections.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions
about my work or about the MSA in
general!
Education (Academic Affairs): Ben Knight
Hey everyone! I hope you’re bracing yourself
for exam study mode. Make sure you find out
when your exams are by logging onto the Web
Enrolment System (WES), as the timetables
have been released!
By now most of you should have handed in
your last assignments for the semester. Remember,
if you are unhappy with the feedback your
tutor or lecturer has given you, you have the
right to request a consultation session to go
over everything.
Recently the University announced they
will be implementing 50, $2000 scholarships
for interstate students to ease the burden of
University transition, and is also improving
access to wireless around campus – these
are more wins for students! If you have any
academic concerns that you feel the University
needs to listen to, make sure you get in contact
with me.
Make sure you stay updated on the 24-hour
library campaign, e-mail me at ben.knight@
monash.edu to get involved in the campaign;
quality education doesn’t stop at the classroom!
Education (Public Affairs):
Sarah Christie & John Jordan
Greetings, readers! How time flies? It seems
impossible that the semester is nearly over
already! So much has been happening around
the department since the last edition that
its hard to know where to start. Ed(Pub) has
been working overtime on the campaign
against the cuts to higher education. This
involved the establishment of the Monash
Education Action Group (which any student
is encouraged to join). Actions have been
held on campus every week- involving speak
outs, marches, etc.- in order to explain the
issues for students and to encourage everyone
to get involved and to fight to protect their
education. As I write this we are going
into week 10 and the release of the federal
budget; this day will coincide with our
biggest action so far! Hopefully many of you
took the afternoon off from class to join us!
In addition to this campaign, Ed(Pub) was
involved in Blue Stockings Week, which
saw the celebration of female engagement
in higher education and the sale of those
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013
29

STUDENT AFFAIRS
infamous cupcakes! Additionally, we have
been working closely with the Ed (Ac) Officer
to secure 24 hour-libraries on campus during
exam cupcakes! Additionally, we have been
working closely with the Ed (Ac) Officer to
secure 24 hour-libraries on campus during exam
time. Furthermore, our Student Representative
Network has been working hard to develop
the skills to be a successful activist! If you
would like to get involved or want any more
information please email us at msa-education@
monash.edu. Best of luck with exams and we
hope to see you next semester!National Day
of Action against those cuts. For information
on how you can get involved in these efforts,
email msa-education@monash.edu
Environment & Social Justice:
Rory Knight & Tamara Vekich
Ha, ha, ha! Hey, hey, hey! Hee, hee, hee!
Ho, ho, ho! Huh, huh, huh! Wah hoo!
Male Queer: Asher Cameron
Queer Week was an incomparable success!
I would like to warmly thank all those who
attended any of the events during the week for
their support and energy that helped Cam and
I through everything. The Sex and Gender
diversity panel attracted over 45 attendees, and
has been recorded for people who were unable
to attend the session, and Queer Ball sold over
100 tickets, a first for the event.
30
Right now we’re preparing for the Queer
Collaborations conference (July 8-14) which is
being held in Sydney and we are currently subsidising
26 delegates from Monash Clayton to
attend, a record number from a single campus
of a university. We have a few more potential
spots open for anyone interested in attending
the conference, but places are limited.
The next big thing is the Queer Lounge
renovation, happening during the semester
break. Come back in 2nd semester and see the
amazing changes!!!
Female Queer: Cam Peter
The Monash Queer Department ran an
exciting queer week – jam packed with exciting
events, workshops and capped off with the
amazing Queer Ball – Nautical at Sir John’s
Bar. It was an exciting, shenanigan-fuelled
night and that set records for attendance and
rowdiness. The week and the ball have set new
standards and a goal for what Queer Week
aspires to achieve and the amount of queer and
ally students we aim to engage with.
The Queer Department are continuing
their fundraising efforts later in the semester
with our #procrastibake sale that will take
place later in Week 12. An abundance of
vegan, gluten free and delicious bake goods will
be on offer to raise money for our contingent
to annual conference, Queer Collaborations in
Sydney. We hope to see you there!
Welfare: Alexandra Bryant
Hi all, Getting to the end of first semester now,
hopefully the assignments haven’t completely
crushed you spirit. If you are ever feeling
stressed and need a talk feel free to drop by.
Also don’t forget if you haven’t got the time to
cook on Monday nights in semester you can get
a free dinner in Wholefoods at 7:30pm.
Otherwise I’ve been getting on with the
Cookbook and getting signatures for the NUS
Welfare ‘Support a Student, Support Our Future’
Campaign, hopefully you got a chance to
sign and if not you still can until May 29th just
stop by the MSA reception desk.
Finally good luck for your exams, and enjoy
your break.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013
Women’s Department: Adria Castellucci &
Sally-Anne Jovic
The Women’s Department is currently wrapping
up this semester’s activities and getting
ready to start new projects for next semester!
We’re currently getting closer to our Women’s
Room refurbishment, meaning that the space
will be slick and shiny for next semester, as well
as trying to finish off our current campaign such
as getting Trigger Warnings in course content.
We’re also preparing for Network of Women
Students Australia (NOWSA) Conference,
open to all female students, a great opportunity
to meet talk with other women about what is
important to our lives! If any of this sounds interesting,
shoot us an email at: msa-womens@
monash.edu
Activities: Amy Clyne
Exams. Can’t wait til they’re over?
Neither can we. Because we are sure
that this year’s After Exams Party will most
definitely blow your minds, or what’s left of
them following the exam period. We have a
new venue, amazing drink specials and surprises
galore to give all Monash Clayton students the
best possible start to a well-earned break.
Grab your ticket before they are all gone
at MSA reception or any of the MESS, SAS,
Biomed or MSS offices.
Upon return in Semester 2, be ready to
fight for the glory of your faculty in the Monash
Clayton
Campus Games. Capture the flag, condiment
twister, dodgeball – your faculty needs
YOU for all these fun events and more, so
let’s REPRESENT (Woo! Go Arts!). Held in
Week 2, the fun won’t stop at sundown with a
different party held on every night of the week
of Campus Games: Monday – Sir John’s Bar
Night, Tuesday – Brazilian Carnival, Wednesday
–Trivia Night, Thursday – Faculty Nott
Night
Stay up to date by liking the MSA
Facebook page, or simply talk to your faculty
societies for more info.
Campus Games. May the odds be forever
in your favour.

SCIENCE
SCIENCE LESSONS FROM…
PHILIP K. DICK
Christopher Pase
Philip K. Dick’s short stories have been turned
into some of Hollywood’s greatest sci-fi films;
Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report and
The Adjustment Bureau to name but a few. In
Blade Runner android ‘replicants’ of humans are
commonplace in a futuristic Los Angeles. This
world might not be as far away as you would
think. Robots can now play soccer, navigate
obstacle courses and mimic a range of human
movements. Furthermore, the Pentagon is well
underway in developing an android soldier to
replace human troops on the frontline. The
ability to copy human expressions already
exists, with androids rapidly becoming more
and more lifelike.
While lifelike in appearance, these
androids are far from thinking and expressing
emotion on their own accord. Some of Dick’s
replicants were unaware they were robots,
programmed with human memories and even
able to love one another. Dick questioned
what it meant to be human. What set us apart
from these replicants? He blurred the line
between human and android with their ability
to care for one another, and I’m sure he had
loftier dreams for androids than fully replacing
brothel workers by 2050. While this current
conjecture may rid the sex trade of many of its
dangers and traps, it’s crude to think the media
seems to enjoy talking about android brothels
as much as android applications to medicine
or more common day-to-day services. Given
Dick’s ability to make robots human, let’s hope
that android technology progresses beyond the
grime of the sex trade.
Some of Dick’s characters are unaware
they are androids or that their memories
have been wiped and they’re living another
life. It’s a recurring theme in his stories, the
main characters with little control over who
they are or what they are able to do. Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s character in Total Recall
learnt that he was leading a second life, his
memory wiped and a new one inserted to hide
his life as a secret agent. Today, there are pills
with the ability to remove certain memories.
While they have only been tested - and proven
- on rats, the pills removed one memory whilst
leaving all others intact. This has valuable
application for sufferers of Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder, with one pill able to remove
haunting images and suffering at the hands of
stress and anxiety. There are obvious ethical
questions about the use and misuse of these
pills, but the chance to live a life free of great
trauma must be a tantalising prospect for
sufferers.
Dick was a great visionary, and many
of his dreams may just come true in the near
future. This author can only hope he is not
subjected to an Adjustment Bureau style
hijacking of his life, or a memory wipe and
a false life. For all I know, I may have always
been a replicant. I may have no idea that all my
memories have been implanted by an engineer.
It’s a short way off, but it’s still a scary thought
that in the future we may not be able to tell
the difference between human and android,
between a new life and our old one.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 31

ACROSS THE ZOONIVERSE:
KEEPING AN EYE ON CITIZEN ASTRONOMY
Kevin Pimbblet- Senior Lecturer in Physics at Monash University
Amateur astronomers in Russia made a discovery recently any professional
would envy – it seems they may have identified the remnants
of the ill-fated Soviet Mars 3 lander, 30 years after it lost contact with
Earth.
Photos taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment
(HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in
2007 show what appears to be the parachute, heat shield, and retrorocket
of the Mars 3 lander.
But finding objects as small as an 11-metre-wide parachute on
the surface of Mars takes a lot of work, especially as the most promising
photo contains 1.2 billion pixels and requires 2,500 computer screens to
view the entire image at full resolution.
The possible Mars 3 lander hardware was found by a group of Russian
citizen enthusiasts. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
This is the most recent example of how citizen science is blossoming
– and getting results – within the field of astronomy.
There is a wealth of amateurs who pursue backyard observations as
a hobby and their efforts make headlines worldwide.
Some have historically contributed to science by finding comets,
tracking asteroids, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)
program, and monitoring stars.
One of the most visible citizen-science projects in astronomy and
astrophysics is the “Zooniverse” which invites members of the public to
analyse data ranging from determining the shape of galaxies to trying to
detect if any planets outside our solar system orbit stars.
The Galaxy Zoo
The Zooniverse project grew out of the Galaxy Zoo project which was
set up to determine the shape, or morphology, of galaxies.
Galaxy shape is a useful visual indicator to professional astronomers
about the state of the galaxy and the physical processes which may be
going on inside it.
While there are many types of galaxy shapes, bright galaxies usually
fall into one of three categories: spiral, elliptical or irregular.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, an internationally funded project to
map the sky, photographed and mapped more than 930,000 galaxies over
eight years.
Faced with an overwhelming amount of data to sift through, astronomers
conceived of the Galaxy Zoo idea to ask the general public for
help to look through all the data and classify the shapes of galaxies.
Since this requires little background knowledge, any member of the
public can help so long as they have an internet connection.
Using a simple, clickable interface, users can say whether galaxies
are rounded, have spiral arms, have any unusual or distinguishing features,
or whether they want to discuss the objects in more detail.
This is especially important in a data-rich field like astronomy:
users can sometimes be the first human being to actually look at a galaxy
since most of the processing of the images they examine have been done
by computers.
Getting the numbers up
For all the excellent work done by the general public, there will
still be disagreement about the exact classification of galaxy shapes – and
this, fundamentally, raises questions about data integrity.
This is why the Galaxy Zoo project aims to have at least 20 people
attempt to classify each galaxy.
To use the data in professional research, astronomers have to look
for disagreements between members of the general public.
Taking a threshold level is one way to solve the problem. If, say,
80% of respondents say a galaxy is a particular shape, that is a reasonable
way forward and is perfectly suitable for some analysis purposes.
The cost of this may be that there is a high number of “unclassified”
galaxies where there is large disagreement, perhaps caused by very
few individuals having looked at a galaxy.
And the results are …
There have been a healthy number of scientific publications arising
from the Galaxy Zoo project team, including the relationship between
galaxy colour and environment and studies of highly unusual objects
such as “Hanny’s Voorwerp” – a possible light echo from quasars (the
brightest objects in the known universe).
In my own research, we recently used data from Galaxy Zoo to explore
the connection between galaxy morphology, galaxy mass, and the
likelihood of hosting an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) in a massive
cluster of galaxies – a collection of gravitationally bound galaxies and
one of the most extreme “environments” in which a galaxy can live.
We used the data to explain an earlier result that red and passive
spiral galaxies are, in the majority, also massive and similar in nature to
most of the massive elliptically shaped cluster galaxies.
We then inferred that the life cycle of high and low mass cluster
galaxies are markedly different.
But we wouldn’t have been able to make these conclusions without
the citizen scientists who classified the bulk of the data for us – something
for which we are extremely appreciative.
And who knows? As shown by the Russian amateur astronomers
sifting through NASA’s high-resolution photos, the next big astronomy
discovery could be made by you.
This piece originally appeared on The Conversation
(www.theconversation.edu.au)
32
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

AN INTERVIEW WITH ...
JEREMY HUNTER
David Nowak
Jeremy Hunter might not be a familiar name, but if you’ve been following
the Triple J hitlist at all you will have heard him harmonising with the
Inland Sea. The band itself was garnering a fair amount of critical success
themselves, so the thing I was most curious about when I interviewed
him was why he had taken leave from them to record a solo EP. It turns
out that it’s not the ever-feared blue between band members that has led
him to turn away. For some reason, I could only ever picture him smiling
genuinely throughout our chat: “What happened is we kind of just called
it an indefinite hiatus. We went to the UK and we played some awesome
shows and it felt like the peak of our career because we all felt really good
about it but we came back and it was kind of like, we’ve got to get back
on the road, We’ve got to record another thing and just because of the
way, I don’t know, how small the music industry is in Australia and like,
how big the band was, it just wasn’t financially viable, and it just took so
much energy ...” Hunter makes it clear to me that he’s still in love with
the band and giving that up was, in his words, “quite sad”.
So it’s on to new stuff, and this time Hunter’s been taking it all on
himself in the recording studios. After having played in numerous bands,
it’s all him playing the keys, drums, and various guitars on his latest
venture. “I’ve always written too many songs for whatever band I’m in.
There’s always songs that don’t fit … and it was just kind of an opportune
time [now that Inland Sea had reached its hiatus] to have a crack at that.”
So he tells me that he’s let go of the reins in a large way, but it’s still cohesive.
Having developed as an artist with Inland Sea and influenced by
a mass of other great music out there, I was curious as to whether he was
wary of these influences carrying over from these areas. “I wasn’t intentionally
trying to divorce my sound from Inland Sea. If anything, like, the
three years or so in Inland Sea just kind of taught me a whole bunch of
awesome tricks when you’re writing songs, when you’re arranging songs,
you know, like when you’re sitting there with ten people trying to figure
out where the violin part fits in and the cello part fits in, you know, how
complex you can make other parts and just try to hold it all together …
you learn a couple of things. So I kind of just took what I learned from
Inland Sea and put it into this new thing.”
As a result, his EP is a bit bluesy, a bit more rock, and still a bit
folksy. Still he tells me that he’s not really conscious of influences when
he writes. “If you write something and you really really fucking love it,
and then someone goes, ‘Oh, you know that melody sounds like a Pearl
Jam song’, it’s just like, do you really want to give up this thing that you
love just because someone’s done it before? Because you’re doing it your
way and your way is completely unique even though it might share some
similarities with something.” Creative control has been an important
thing that Hunter’s been able to grasp in his solitary efforts. “That was a
conscious thing in making the solo project. It’s like, alright, finally I’m
going to do this and it’s going to be mine, and I’m just gonna tell people
what I want from them, and you know, just don’t be a dickhead about it.
You just be nice and diplomatic and you get the sound that you want and
you feel good about it at the end.”
As he’s a budding solo artist, I had to ask about image control as
well. This was met with an instant, but uncondescending laugh. Still,
I felt the need to defend the question before he could answer. It is
important to a lot of bands, and is unfortunately a bit of a weakness in
Australia; the Aussies tend to be rather laid back or contemptuous about
their band image. I know it’s about the music, but Britain seems to have it
really well set up, where they come up with the music and then they go,
‘Alright, now we’ve got to pay attention to the kind of image we want.’
It’s not exactly about fitting into a mode, but more about having an exact
presence. It turns out that Hunter could identify with this. “That’s one
of the things I like to think about a lot, but I still haven’t come up with
the answer to it because it’s really complex, cos there’s that whole idea of
authenticity. There’s this interview online with Jack White and Conan
O’Brien which is really interesting. At one point they address it and Jack
White says, ‘Authenticity is a trap’, you know, because you’ve got to put
an image out there and no matter what the image is, people are going to
have an image of you and you might as well make it the way you want to
be portrayed … I guess I’m still trying to work out the whole image thing
…” For now, it’s restricted to a monotone-blue image of him smiling on
his album cover. It’s kind of refreshing to see someone smiling on a cover
again. It feels like it’s been a while.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 33

SUBHEADING
FIFTEEN MINUTES WITH OWL EYES
Dina Amin
An adorer of synthesisers, 22-year-old Brooke Addamo, aka Owl Eyes, has
taken the musical style of indie pop in a direction of her own. Her stage
name itself is a metaphor for how she describes her music; simultaneously
encompassing light and dark shades, acknowledging the tranquil and,
paradoxically, sinister nature of owls, stating that her sound is essentially
“pop, but with some mysteriousness behind it”. This “mysteriousness” is
found in her juxtaposition of acoustics and electronic instrumentation,
heard through the incorporation of synths and an interplay of both acoustic
drums and drum machines. A thickly layered record, her debut album
Nightswim was released on April 19 and will be supported by a series of
headline tours throughout Australia, commencing in early May.
Five years after being a finalist on Australian Idol, Brooke Addamo has
released a total of four records, including her 2012 EP Crystallised and,
most recently, her debut album Nightswim. Throughout her musical
career as Owl Eyes, Brooke has been featured twice in Triple J’s Hottest
100 and has worked closely alongside ARIA award winning producer
Styalz Fuego. When interviewed, Brooke is humble and sweet, enthusing
that she is “still pretty much the same person” she always was. Growing
up, Stevie Nicks and Ella Fitzgerald were the catalysts for Brooke’s
aspirations. She was 12 when she started singing and 15 when she wrote
her first song. Her debut album Nightswim is Brooke’s “coming of age
record, a document of where I am at currently”. Nightswim explores
youth, yearning, self-realisation and development: universal themes that
are addressed through raw vocals and edgy instrumentals. Her music has
been labelled by critics as synth-pop, indie-pop, indie-rock, dream-pop
and most appropriately indietronica – a sub-genre encompassing both
indie pop and electronica. Subjectively, Brooke concurs with each of
these definitions, hoping that her pop music also “holds some intelligence
behind it”. This intelligence is manifested through the multi-layered
production of her record. With various experimentations in 80s synthpop,
post-dubstep and acoustic balladry, Brooke is diversifying her sound.
Somewhere between Grimes and Bat for Lashes, Brooke’s vocals are raw,
dreamy and melodic. Her voice is soothing, a quality that she makes
interesting by adding darker and more agressive elements of electronica.
While she courts her listeners with blissful harmonies and sweet and simple
lyricism, her instrumentals heighten and bring a certain dynamic to
her record. The man responsible for this solid production is Styalz Fuego,
winner of last year’s ARIA award for Producer of the Year. Acknowledged
by Brooke as her “big mentor”, Styalz has made a prominent impact on
the young singer-songwriter. Brooke also pinpoints various other influences
on her record, including UK beat makers Jamie xx, SBTRKT and
Mount Kimbie, each of whom feature in Brooke’s collaboration fantasies.
When asked which song off Nightswim resonates most deeply with her,
Brooke is quick to answer “Saltwater”. She finds it the most honest and
sincere of all her tracks, adding excitedly that she adores the “synthbreakdown”
that comes at the conclusion of the song. When describing
her most memorable experiences as an artist, Brooke enthuses that she
loves nothing more than hearing her music out in the world, especially
when people sing it back to her. She has plans to take her music overseas
by the end of the year, highlighting the US as a desirable destination for
the writing process of her next potential EP. She is currently in the midst
of her Australian Nightswim tour and will be concluding this with a show
at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne on June 1.
34
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

SUBHEADING
FIFTY YEARS OF JOAN BAEZ
Verity Thornton
As exams and major assessments close in on us, we are starting to realise
just how much time we have wasted this semester. But this article isn’t
about feeling better about procrastinating. This article should make you
realise how much potential you are wasting. Tough love. Let’s start with
an easy riddle: what do Bob Dylan, Dr Martin Luther King Jr and the
Velvet Revolution have in common?
They were all influenced by Joan Baez. With more than 55 years of
performance behind her, Joan Baez has been attributed as the person who
introduced Bob Dylan to the world. And I bet many of you are struggling
to pronounce her name (“buy-yes”, not “bay-ez”).
The musician got her start in Boston, performing in folk festivals
in and around Massachusetts. In 1959, following the release of her debut
album, she performed in the first Newport Folk Festival. Four years later
Baez returned to the festival with two gold albums and a TIME magazine
cover under her belt, and a then-unknown Bob Dylan.
Dylan and Baez’ relationship was one of the most famous of the
time; she encouraged him to perform alongside her (much to the disgust
of many of her fans), launching his career. Their relationship was the
inspiration for one of her most famous albums, Diamonds and Rust.
Baez, like Dylan, was known for her strong beliefs and commitment
to human rights. She marched alongside Dr Martin Luther King Jr, was
caught in the North Vietnam Christmas bombings of Hanoi, and in 1993
was the first major artist to perform in Sarajevo following the Yugoslav
civil war.
Baez has also been credited with protecting the freedom of Václav
Havel, stopping government agents from arresting him during her 1989
tour. Havel was later voted in as (the last) president, and has said she was
a major inspiration and influence for the country’s peaceful revolution.
If that wasn’t enough to make you feel inadequate (and it should),
Baez has 24 studio albums to her name (compilations and live albums put
this figure past 50), has an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, France’s
highest medal (Ordre national de la Legion d’honneur) and was instrumental
in founding the American chapter of Amnesty International.
At 72, she is still playing sold out shows around the world, including
Glastonbury and Montreux.
After 25 years, Joan Baez will be gracing Australia with her presence
once again. Baez is performing in six cities over two and a half weeks.
Both of her Melbourne performances are almost guaranteed to sell out.
Baez will be showcasing her most recent album, Day After Tomorrow:
a collection of her original writing and new interpretations of
other artists, including Tom Waits and T Bone Burnett. She will also be
performing some of her well-known classics and covers.
Joining her on tour is her son Gabriel Harris on drums, and Dirk
Powell on keyboard and strings. Powell is a successful solo musician best
known for his expertise in Appalachian fiddle and banjo styles. He has
also collaborated with several artists, including Jack White, Sting and
Jewel. Harris has been playing percussion for more than 30 years, and has
previously performed with The Indigo Girls, Grateful Dead and Carlos
Santana.
Are you feeling insecure yet? Well, the good news is it’s never too
late to make a change. It’s amazing how much you can get done when you
log out of Facebook. And if you need some second semester motivation,
Joan Baez will be performing at Hamer Hall Thursday 8th and Friday
9th August. Tickets can be bought through the Arts Centre Melbourne
website.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 35

MUSIC
REVIEWS
ONEREPUBLIC
Native
Nigel Winterman
Now, I understand that OneRepublic
make pop music. It’s not supposed
to be groundbreaking or progressive;
it’s merely there to sit in the background while people go on about their
everyday activities. That being said, OneRepublic’s new album, Native, is
absolute fucking garbage.
‘Counting Stars’ (One of the singles) opens up the album with
Ryan Tedder’s voice and an acoustic guitar; I’ll admit it was a promising
start but a few seconds pass and... you can easily hear this song having a
dubstep remix applied to it and it would most definitely work. In fact a
lot of the songs that follow would work very well in a club like scene.
Basically ‘Counting Stars’ sets the tone/song structure/mood for every
other song on the album. It almost felt like each song was a re-write
of the preceding song, as if the songs were written for the pure purpose of
achieving single status, or stabbing in the dark so to speak.
The song formulas always follow the same structure: Quiet Verse
-Loud Chorus - Repeat Chorus- Repeat Verse 1 - Chorus - Repeat
Chorus ‘till the song finishes. The songs themselves never evolve into
anything besides the main riff or a lonesome kick drum: It’s faceless and
soulless dribble.
The overall tone to the album is intended to be very positive,
optimistic and uplifting, you know:
‘Something bad happens! Never Fear! Something Good Will Happen!
Love conquers all!’
The topics are very safe; never breaking away from love, heartbreak,
and the need of someone to hold. After 3 or 4 songs the album
gets extremely repetitive.
The album production itself gets to be draining after a while too.
The heavy reliance on synthesizers to fill in empty spaces make the songs
really tacky.
But, there is one song, ‘Au Revoir’, which actually uses the synths
and strings effectively by coating and enhancing the character of other
instruments rather than swallowing them and taking over. Sadly, this
song too falls flat on its face through lack of evolution. It harkens back to
their big single ‘Apologize’.
‘Light It Up’ is the most bad-ass song on the album. It has a Beatles/Zeppelin
feel to it. Although it follows the cliché ‘Love is a Drug’
theme, it is still the stand out track; the one song that wasn’t trying to be
a hit single turned out to be the best.
‘Preacher’ was the weakest song. Take the chorus: “When I was
a kid my grandfather was a preacher/Yeah he’d talk about God, he was
something of a teacher”
Drenched in auto-tune, it’s just a lame attempt at appealing to
religious folk.
Obviously, OneRepublic are going through that ‘Technicolour’
image and sound phase, much like Coldplay, but have simply churned
out watered-down, cliché-infested shit. Perfect for fans of Maroon 5 and
to anyone who feels The Killers are way too hardcore. I can only imagine
the band being in a room with their record company, noting down popular
production techniques amongst mainstream ‘Indie’ bands, watering it
down and producing Native.
My favourite line that sums up OneRepublic: ‘I don’t think the
world is sold; I’m just doing what we’re told.’ You said it Ryan...you said
it.
THE SHOUTING MATCHES
Grownass Man
Nick Reid
Grammy award winner Justin
Vernon of Bon Iver delves deep
into the blues on The Shouting
Matches’ latest offering, Grownass
Man. A rough and ready blues
burner of an album, Grownass Man
is subtly refined by an injection of pure soul and capped off with a thin
layer of country twang.
Vernon, alongside fellow Grownass band members Phil Cook
and Brian Moen, played a single show back in 2006 as The Shouting
Matches, predating Vernon’s success with Bon Iver. It’s taken seven
years for the trio to reunite in their hometown, Eau Claire, Wisconsin,
and it’s clear that Vernon has gone back to his roots both physically and
musically.
Opening track ‘Avery Hill’ bounces along on a pleasantly fuzzy
rock n roll riff and sees Vernon kick off his shoes and get comfortable on
blues territory.
Vernon and the gang hold steady for the majority of the album,
dropping catchy blues riffs and chorus hooks on ‘Seven Sisters’, and
ambling soul grooves on ‘New Theme’.
However ‘Heaven Knows’ is the stand out track; a muddy and
distorted Vernon howls over an incredibly tight Moer on the tubs, before
unleashing the delta blues via a crunchy guitar assault and wailing harmonica.
The momentum continues on ‘Mother When?’; a soul infused
36
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

MUSIC
blues roller that just keeps rolling and sees Vernon’s vocal delivery
parallel some of the blues greats.
‘I Need A Change’ closes the album on a quieter note. A slow
burning blues jam is drenched in soul and swagger, but is still endearingly
vulnerable.
Vernon once again demonstrates his musical versatility alongside
his fellow Grownass band members Phil Cook and Brian Moen. However
this is no side project. With speculation Vernon is winding down Bon
Iver indefinitely, we could be seeing more of The Shouting Matches in
the future.
Grownass Man is the culmination of everything Vernon, Cook and
Moen love about the blues, rock n roll and soul. It draws together the
rawness of the delta blues, slickness of city blues, polished off with soulful
emotion and a rock n roll demeanor.
Interested in going to gigs
or hearing albums before
anyone else?
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upcoming music, film, performing arts and other events.
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offers in exchange for reviews.
FLASHBACK: SEPARATION SUNDAY
by THE HOLD STEADY
Steven M. Voser
Separation Sunday is anything but an easy-listening album. When
you’re faced with the decision of whether or not to listen to it, tread
carefully. If you do, be prepared to be slung face first into an aural
and psychological journey that’ll leave your brain hemorrhaging with
admiration and confusion. At best, listen to it alone and learn to love
it. Don’t bother convincing your friends to like it; I’ve been doing
that since I first heard it, and am still waiting for someone to agree.
That being said, it’s undeniable that Craig Finn is a lyrical genius,
and he is accompanied by a group of equally talented musicians.
As a band, they are tighter than those Bonds undies that come in an
array of crazy colour combinations, and their music screams for attention.
Their second album, Separation Sunday, is an artwork EVERY-
ONE should familiarize themselves with.
On the one hand, the album follows the story of Hallelujah, a
teenage sometimes-Christian and her interactions with a vast array of
drugs and shady characters like Charlemagne (a pimp) and Gideon:
“Holly wore a cross to ward them off/she said if they think you’re a
Christian then they wont bring in the dogs”.
Finn uses his wickedly descriptive writing to narrate various
scenes that few could relate to: “I was waiting for my ride and I got
jumped from behind, I got punctured/ I got stopped by the cops and
they found it in my socks and I got probed.”.
On top of that, there’s the overwhelming use of literary techniques,
such as the assonance in “Holly wore a string around her
finger/ she says it helps her to remember, all the nights that we got
over / and besides, it ties her outfit all together” that you’ll probably
notice on your third listen (if you bother).
And, just in case the mix of storytelling narrative and complex
literature hasn’t already blended your brain into a thick soup, then
Finn sprinkles it all with some biblical imagery; “ I guess I heard
about original sin, I heard the dude blamed the chick I heard the
chick blamed the snake/And I heard they were naked when they got
busted, and I heard things ain’t been the same since”.
But, none of it would work if it weren’t for the union of the
band. The combination of Finn’s voice (that sounds as if he was
being spat out by a drunk skater who just got punched in the lip),
the distorted guitar and thundering bass and drums suit the lyrics
perfectly. It all comes together in a huge blues/punk/doo wop fusion
that makes you wonder whether any of the songs were rehearsed, or
are just improvised.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 37

FILM & TV
WINTER MOVIE GUIDE
Ghian Tjandaputra & Patricia Tobin
The Place Beyond The Pines
Release Date: 9 May
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio & Darius Marder
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta
esteemed modern auteur and Star Trek Into Darkness might just cement
his distinguished position.
A motorcycle stunt driver begins robbing banks to support his lover and
their newborn child, which inevitably sees him collide with a tenacious
cop operating in a department controlled by a corrupt detective. The
plot is intriguing enough, but if nothing else, this movie is worth seeing
because Academy Award nominees Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper
are at the top of their games. It is evident that Ryan Gosling is one
of the finest actors of his generation; and with Silver Linings Playbook,
Bradley Cooper has stepped up his game and proved that he too deserves
a solid reputation. This movie seems to revolve around Gosling more,
however, which is a cause for celebration. Director Derek Cianfrance
collaborated with Gosling in the critically acclaimed Blue Valentine and
from the outset, The Place Beyond the Pines is almost like the first cousin
of Drive – just switch his car with a motorcycle. The signs are promising.
Star Trek Into Darkness
Release Date: 9 May
Director: J.J. Abrams
Writers: Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof & Roberto Orci
Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoe
Saldana
Star Trek Into Darkness has largely been hyped around Benedict Cumberbatch’s
mysterious character, John Harrison, a villain who attacks
Starfleet and leaves Earth in chaos. Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and
Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto) lead the Enterprise and the exhilarating
manhunt to track down John Harrison. Adding Star Wars Episode
VII to his directorial belt, the king of sci-fi epics, J.J. Abrams, returns to
the helm for this sequel. Trekkies have long protested against Abrams’
directorial vision, as he defies canonical conventions that stem from
the franchise’s rich 47 year history. Cue jokes about Abrams’ signature
lens-flare style circa 2009, but the American director enjoys citing Star
Trek’s tagline in interviews when questioned about his venture away
from the recognised canonical form – he boldly goes where no man has
gone before. It truly seems that Abrams is on his way to becoming an
The Great Gatsby
Release Date: 30 May
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Writers: Baz Luhrmann & Craig Pearce
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel
Edgerton
Upon reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel about the disillusionment of the
Jazz Age, who here thought adapting it into a 3D movie with a Jay-Zproduced
soundtrack sounded like a good idea? Well, Baz Luhrmann certainly
did. The film features Leonardo DiCaprio as the enigmatic Gatsby
himself, who pines after the girl of his dreams, Daisy (Carey Mulligan).
Tobey Maguire stars alongside as narrator Nick Carraway, who eventually
becomes lured into Gatsby’s lavish, deceitful world. Luhrmann has
never shied away from re-appropriating historical dramas with audacious
modern music too – think Moulin Rouge’s ‘Lady Marmalade’. Featuring
musical heavyweights like Beyonce and Florence + the Machine, The
Great Gatsby soundtrack alone already has critics claiming it to be
“bold” and “edgy”. In terms of visual style alone, The Great Gatsby is
a considerable departure from Luhrmann’s last film, the long-winded
historical romance Australia. It is as though Luhrmann is drawing from
the aesthetics of Moulin Rouge, perhaps attempting to return to his past
commercial success. The extravagant sets and dazzling costumes of The
Great Gatsby are bound to impress, but it would be interesting to see if
there is any substance underneath all that shiny style.
38
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

FILM & TV
Before Midnight
Release: 20 June
Director: Richard Linklater
Writers: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater
Cast: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
The final installment to the exquisite Before romance trilogy, Before
Midnight is definitely one to look out for. Nine years has past since
audiences last saw Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) spend
a day together in Paris. The star-crossed lovers have finally committed as
a couple, and are spending a family holiday on a Greek island with their
kids (!!!). Before Midnight tackles the subject of long-term love between
two soul-mates, exposing cracks and tension within a marriage. Through
the expert direction of Richard Linklater, the tender representation of
romance in the Before trilogy is highly riveting. The endearing duo of
Delpy and Hawke are sure to please and break hearts at the same time;
their engaging banter always draws the audience in. Before Midnight is
bound to be an intricate and charming piece of film.
weak Sucker Punch, the forgettable Quantum of Solace and the overblown
300, are indeed causes for concern, but here’s hoping Nolan’s touch of
brilliance will bring Man of Steel closer to Snyder’s excellent previous
work, Watchmen.
Kick-Ass 2
Release Date: 4 July
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Writer: Jeff Wadlow
Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jim Carrey
Following 2010’s excellent action-comedy Kick-Ass, this film marks the
return of self-made masked crusader, Kick-Ass (Aaron Johnson). Jim
Carrey stars as the manic Colonel Stars and Stripes, leader of an amateur
crime-fighting group. No longer a foul-mouthed child, but now a foulmouthed
teenager, Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) battles high-school
problems of her own. Meanwhile, Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse)
plots an act of revenge that is sure to turn everyone’s world upside down.
Kick-Ass 2 does face certain reluctance from fans, especially with the
departure of Nicholas Cage’s character, Big Daddy, in the first film. Nevertheless,
Kick-Ass 2 will be heavily relying on Carrey’s star power and
the return of Hit Girl, the role that catapulted Moretz to fame. Besides,
it would also be fun to see some wickedly outrageous violence that could
make Tarantino blush.
Only God Forgives
Release Date: 18 July
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas
Man of Steel
Release Date: 27 June
Director: Zack Snyder
Writers: David S. Goyer
Cast: Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon, Amy Adams, Russell Crowe
Another iconic superhero returns to the big screen, this time helmed by
director Zack Snyder. After the game-changing The Dark Knight trilogy,
it is not entirely unreasonable to wish Christopher Nolan would direct
every single superhero movie ever made until the end of time. Tragically,
this will not happen. However, Nolan does get his hands on this movie
as a producer so it will be interesting to see what sort of influence he will
bring to the movie. There is already one known aspect of the film where
his influence will certainly be felt: the music is composed by Nolan favorite
Hans Zimmer. Henry Cavill, who plays the titular character, seems
to look the part, and the supporting cast line-up is solid. In the brilliant
Michael Shannon, the movie has one of the most underrated actors in
cinema today. Director Zack Snyder’s previous works, which include the
To truly appreciate this movie’s context, watch Drive. This movie is not
a sequel to Drive, but Only God Forgives is the anticipated follow-up of
the deadly collaboration between Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn
and its star Ryan Gosling, supported again by the brilliant composer
Cliff Martinez. Drive seems to have inspired a legion of cult followers of
the brand, which combines impossible brute force with an intense level
of dramatic depth. This time, though, a distinct character will complement
that experience: Bangkok. It can be the wildcard that makes Only
God Forgives distinguished enough from Drive to avoid the sense that
this movie will feel redundant. In this movie, Ryan Gosling’s character,
Julian, under the instruction of his mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) - a
head of a powerful criminal organization herself - is set out to avenge his
brother’s death to those who are responsible – members of the Bangkok
criminal underworld. Only God Forgives has all the ingredients to be a
powerful experience.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 39

FILM & TV
matters that articulate important aspects of the human condition so masterfully.
In Lost in Translation, she looks at how we consistently attempt
to find the ever-elusive directions in life. In The Virgin Suicides, she looks
at how some things that are so beautiful can turn out so tragic. Both
movies leave a distinct lingering feeling that will occupy your mind and
heart after the initial experience. The Bling Ring will ask questions about
our obsession with fame, and at its core, attention, and the lengths we
will go to satisfy that almost primordial need. It is especially relevant for
our generation and it is a safe bet that Sofia Coppola will deliver.
The Bling Ring
Release Date: 22 August
Director: Sofia Coppola
Writer: Sofia Coppola
Cast: Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson
There are several reasons to look forward to The Bling Ring, but the most
obvious one is Emma Watson. In this movie, she looks set to unleash
herself from the smart, independent, no-nonsense image that is assigned
to her ever since Harry Potter. She stepped out from her comfort zone
in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but this movie seems to be almost the
exact opposite of her comfort zone. Another reason to look forward to
The Bling Ring is Sofia Coppola. She has the talent of looking at subject
HOLLYWOOD COSTUMES AT ACMI
Patricia Tobin
From Holly Golightly’s quintessential black dress in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
to Batman’s hi-tech superhero suit in The Dark Knight Rises, classic Hollywood
characters often come with iconic costumes that are unforgettable.
Direct from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, ACMI
will be presenting Hollywood Costume as part of their Melbourne Winter
Masterpieces series from 24 April to 18 August.
Hollywood Costume would showcase the art of costume design in
magnificent detail, while exploring the central role costume design plays
in cinematic storytelling. A character’s clothing can speak volumes,
whether it’s Dorothy’s baby blue gingham dress in The Wizard of Oz, sharp
suits donned by James Bond in Casino Royale, or Rose’s stunning gowns
in Titanic. These famous costumes are not only aesthetically pleasing, but
they give audiences an insight into a character’s personality, set the mood
for an entire film and occasionally become a landmark piece for a fashion
or costume designer.
In conjunction with this exhibition, ACMI is screening films,
providing workshops, panels and free late night entertainment as well.
Film programs include the musical Les Girls and Breakfast At Tiffany’s,
and guided tours with distinguished guests – fantastic for any film geek.
Be sure not to miss their free, walk-in late night events at the bar every
first Thursday of the month. On 2nd May, the first Hollywood Costume:
Up Late event featured everyone’s favourite 007. It was an entertaining
night of Bond-themed music, conversations on whether Bond women are
empowered or one dimensional (Halle Berry, anyone?) and demonstrations
of the best “shaken, not stirred” martinis.
Hollywood Costume aims to showcase the dynamic interplay between
costume, film and fashion and is an event not to be missed.
ACMI, Federation Square
24 April— 18 August 2013
Tickets: Full $19.50, Concession $15.50, ACMI Member $13.50
For more information, visit acmi.net.au.
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LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

SUBHEADING
Hayley Adams
Did the Spring Breakers trailer make you cringe? Did you laugh
uncontrollably when James Franco’s voice whispered Spring Break
repeatedly? And did you wonder why Disney and ABC stars such as
Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson felt the need to
prove themselves in showbiz by going no holds barred into an almost
pornographic film? Well, I can tell you that I did. I thought how sad
it was that young female actresses feel the only way they could prove
themselves was by stripping down to their bikinis and prancing around
like bimbos. No doubt, this film is the result of just another male director
obsessed with the female form and unable to think of anything outside
the box. But when I talked to my friends, they all seemed genuinely
excited. And so, I gave it a go.
The film begins with an extremely gratuitous, long, slow motion
montage of college kids on Spring Break. Set to Skrillex’s ‘Scary
Monsters and Nice Sprites’, it sets the precedent for the entire film:
booty shakin’, beer-drinking, shirtless girls and boys seemingly having
the time of their lives. But, the film is more than superficial.
Typical bad girls Candy, Brit and Cotty (I know right, those names
are so inventive…) drink and get high as they while away numbing
hours at their small-town American college. Enter Faith; the obviouslynamed
Selena Gomez character who can’t stand waking up in the same
bed, in the same neighborhood every day and is losing faith in God. Oh,
and did I mention they haven’t been able to save up enough money for
Spring Break? Tragedy. #whitegirlproblems.
However, the girls don’t let this ruin their fun and after robbing a
local restaurant, they’re on their way to Florida. Another visual-feast of a
montage ensues as the girls party hard, getting drunk, dirty and relatively
naked. This all comes to a close though when they land in jail for drug
use and misconduct.
Enter Alien; a tattoo-covered, silver grill wearing gangster,
with cornrows to top it off. Now, if for no other reason at all, watch
Spring Breakers just for James Franco’s performance as Alien. Totally
transformed and almost unrecognizable, Franco is over the top in all the
right ways. From his accent down to his swagger, everything about him
screams creepy. And yet, in a particularly poignant scene with Selena
Gomez, you can see how such a lost and confused girl really could fall
into his trap. In an effort not to spoil the film, I won’t go any further
here. But it is worth noting that Franco’s character is not the one in
control; these girls aren’t blind followers, they want what they get.
There are two ways of understanding this film. The first, and very
obvious one, is to totally dismiss the director and stars as following the
‘sex sells’ mentality. I mean, who’s not going to pay to see Disney stars
strip down and get dirty? However, this film does try to offer more than
that. At times, the acting is a bit forced and the shots a bit pretentious,
but the gratuitous drugs, violence and sex are all very purposeful. When
Franco is standing in his mansion, atop his bed full of money and guns,
screaming ‘look at my shit!’ you can’t help but think: Is this guy serious?
As the girls constantly pick up guns and wield them like toys, you will
undoubtedly question their sanity. The repetitive scenes of topless
women grinding up on each other as males drench them in beer make
you wonder: Does this actually happen? I would argue that it is in this
ridiculousness that Spring Breakers comes alive. Perhaps it points to the
idiocy of the mythic sex trip that is ‘Spring Break’; perhaps more broadly
to the over-sexed and desensitized culture that we are currently living in.
It really is quite hard to decide between the purely exploitative gaze of
the camera and the potential yet unconfirmed meaning.
Now, I’m not saying that everyone and their mum needs to go see
this film, I’m just saying it’s worth talking about. It’s visually intriguing,
visceral and at times extremely uncomfortable. But it also brings up
issues, whether negatively or positively, surrounding sex and power,
nudity on screen and gender dynamics. As a critically engaged viewer,
I find myself wanting to discuss the film; sitting on the fence about
whether I can possibly allow myself to enjoy it. But love it or hate it,
I can’t stop thinking about it. As Franco says: “Spring Break, Spring
Break, Spring Break Forever”.
For more female driven pop culture discussion, listen to the podcast
Memoirs of a Fangirl.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 41

PERFORMING ARTS
WHY CAN’T I FEEL
THE TALL MAN?
Christine Lambrianidis
A playwright can learn a lot from La Mama’s recent production of Tall
Man.
Firstly, it is a great example of dramatic characterisation. The
dialogue and direction shows, rather than tells us immediately who
these people are. Once we hear his angry words and see his walk, we
know that Wayne (Hayden Spencer) is the classic lovable bad guy with
the criminal record, addictions and sense of humour to prove it. Once
we hear the bogan accent and see the tight Eddy Hardy t-shirt, we
know that Billy (Louise Brehmer) is his down and out of luck runaway
daughter. After seeing UnAustralia at La Mama last year, it was a
relief to see a well-developed script performed by two superb actors.
Hallelujah! Decent original Australian work still exists in Melbourne
independent theatres and no trendy adaptation or artistic installation
was required.
Secondly, it is a great example of plot development. Angela
Betzien’s script lathers its revelations carefully and effectively to leave
most audiences on the edge of their seats. We keep watching and waiting
for the next part to be revealed and even though I knew it was a twohander,
I just kept expecting someone or something to enter. This type
of drama has had its day, but audiences (me included) still want to be
captivated by a story about characters that they actually end up caring
about. This basic fact about theatre, that audiences sometimes just want
to be entertained, is sometimes forgotten, especially by new playwrights.
It is a hard pill to swallow and yet it’s also a relief to be reminded that
plays are just about good, old-fashioned storytelling.
Thirdly, not one word is out of place or superfluous. The exposition
is beautifully and seamlessly crafted and the characters’ gestures and
movements only further highlight the relevance of each moment. This is
how scripts should operate; every word needs a purpose; every beat needs
a conflict and most importantly, every play needs a perfect structure that
makes audiences believe that there could not possibly have been any
other way to tell that story.
Finally, the subtext is never ending. One minute you are
considering environmentalism and the effects of mining and the next,
you are reminded of indigenous land rights issues. This is definitely
a topical piece of theatre that has all the social ingredients to satisfy
its leftist audience (me included) who crave to feel guilt, rather than
actually take action against the capitalist devil that puts a price on not
only the natural environment, but innocent, working class families.
Brecht warned us against this type of naturalistic drama, but who
amongst us can resist experiencing the pleasures of catharsis?
Well I can and do you know how? Because I spend most of my time,
outside of teaching, studying and writing drama and these are the precise
elements you need to stop actually feeling when you go to the theatre. I
recommend you study theatre, attempt to create theatre and then viola,
theatre dies. Help dear readers! I want to feel again. I want to experience
the pleasures of naturalism, not just to admire its form. Theatre should
not be a lesson in play writing and maybe after a long holiday, I’ll
actually be able to watch and enjoy theatre once more, like a real
audience member. Until then though, you will see me in the audience,
waiting for that one, special show to sweep me off my feet and make me
fall in love with the magic of theatre all over again.
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LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

PERFORMING ARTS
THE ACT OF SEEING THEATRE
Hannah Barker
I am a theatre aficionado, born and bred. From primary school pantomimes
to London’s West End; from Elizabethan recitals to grungy
European fringe; from Melbourne’s La Mama Courthouse to Vietnamese
water puppetry and the Laos national “ballet” (I use that term lightly),
there isn’t too much I haven’t dabbled in or wouldn’t be willing to witness.
Onstage, backstage or offstage entirely, there’s no atmosphere quite
like being in a theatre space charged with thespian spirit. The sounds,
smells and energies go unopposed.
It wasn’t until very recently, however, that I really began to think
about the actual deed of going to see a performance.
Over the last month Malthouse Theatre hosted a production of
Dance of Death, a violent, uproarious, shrewd script about monotonous
marriage and dreary demise. Aside from being a brilliant piece of theatre,
Dance of Death was also a rather enlightening experience, largely because
of the way it was staged. For the entire length of the show the threeperson
cast was essentially trapped in a glass tank, with audience clusters
on either side of the enclosure. This was clearly a design choice geared
toward the thematic symbolism of the show. However it also sent my
brain spiralling in two directions on the theoretics of theatre.
The first and most obvious concept emphasised by displaying actors
in captivity, like animals at the zoo, is the way in which audiences
unconsciously objectify them. As much as we might admire actors for
their talent, and as much as we might empathise with any given character
that they might be portraying, when we go to see a live show – and
this goes for music gigs, dance recitals, street busking, and even sporting
events alike – we are principally going to gawk at them. Established
performance spaces are among the few places in the world where it’s
acceptable, let alone encouraged, to actively stare at and scrutinise the
behaviour of another person in their direct presence.
Dance of Death, during which none of the players slipped out of
character or took a sip of water let alone left the stage for near-on two
hours, drew attention to the fact that actors are human beings made into
a spectacle, laden with the expectation to be anyone other than who
they are in real life.
Of course having a material perspective of an actor during a performance
doesn’t make the role of being an audience member any less worthy,
and nor does it degrade the actor themself – it is, after all, the very
nature of the trade. Actors want to be seen. It’s in their job description.
The second sense of intrigue that Dance of Death aroused in me is
the subjective experience of forming a part of a theatre audience.
It isn’t all that uncommon to have an audience divided with the
stage in the middle. This manner of staging is called traverse, the upshot
being that there are two potential views to be had of the action, and
subsequently, that the two sides of the audience are facing each other.
Sometimes it’s possible to see the other side of the audience, and sometimes
it’s not. Usually it isn’t significant either way. In the case of Dance
of Death, the opposing spectators were most definitely visible. Somehow
the fact that there was a physical windowpane (two, in fact) between
them and myself promoted the ability to stare them down and judge
them mercilessly for their responses to the show.
There’s a strange thing about group dynamic that is difficult to
notice until you’re outside of it. That thing is a propensity for collective
reactionism. Watching the other side of the audience, one begins
to realise the extent to which our responses to shocking dialogue or
funny physicality depend on the people around us. By singling out audience
members and watching them (which would normally be taboo), I
noticed people who repeatedly failed to change their facial expressions
until they heard the person beside or behind them laugh or gasp. I also
noticed people who would begin to smile or cringe, then glance out the
corner of their eye, discover that no one else had found the same reason
for response, and gently sink back into nonchalance.
Quite apart from that, there was a distinct difference between
how the two sides of the auditorium were reacting en masse. There
were times when I was aware of guffawing raucously with my half of the
theatre whilst the other half remained flinty, and vice versa. Similarly,
there were apparently a handful of people sitting on a mezzanine over
the prompt side of the stage, unseen, that would intermittently cackle at
subtleties, leaving the rest of us startled and perplexed.
Theatre is simultaneously a very objective and very subjective
experience, at once personal and communal. We react, we interact, we
judge, and we are judged. Oscar Wilde once said that theatre was “the
most immediate way in which a human being can share with another
the sense of what it is to be a human being”. Whether it’s true or not, it’s
certainly a strange and beautiful experience.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 43

CREATIVE SPACE
FLASH FICTION COMPETITION WINNER:
THE CYCLE
Once there was a girl who loved stories.
Alyce Adams
She read everything and anything she could get her hands on. Classics, thrillers, ebooks. Whatever. As long as it followed a plot, she would read it.
However, there was just one catch.
She could never make it past the beginning. No matter how many books she read, always right before the middle of the book she would stop, put it
down, and pick up a new one.
She never planned on doing it, but yet it happened every time.
She was very fond of rereading the stories as well (never finishing them of course), and could often recite her favourite openings at the drop of a hat.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune is in want of a wife.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”
People thought she was very strange. Why wouldn’t she read the end? No normal girl would stop half way. There was probably something wrong
with her. Best to keep away.
For this reason, she grew up quite lonely. People barely talked to her. Her conversations generally started and finished with a “hello, how are you?”
She became so isolated that soon she only knew how to start a conversation, but never how to finish.
The unfortunate few who found themselves cornered into a conversation would stand perplexed, waiting for her to continue talking, but although she
whole heartedly wanted to, she just didn’t know how.
In her loneliness, she delved even further into her books. She became obsessed with them. She read every opening chapter of all the books in the
library. She became addicted to the sensation of cracking open a book and reading the first page for the first time. Eventually, all she could do was speak
in beginning phrases. When the postman delivered her junk mail and asked how her week was, she would reply, “It was the best of times. It was the
worst of times.”
Next, after exhausting the libraries resources, she tried reading the stories backwards, so that the last page she read was the first page, in a desperate
attempt to recapture the sensation.
But even that wasn’t enough. Finally, in a last ditch effort; she started writing her own story. She thought long and hard about what to write, and decided
the only story she could tell was about her self. She sat down to write, but she could never finish. Just as she was about to reach the end, her hand
would move to write again for the millionth time, “Once there was a girl who loved stories. She read anything and everything…”
Lot’s Wife would like to congratulate
the winner of our Flash Fiction
Competition, Alyce Adams for her
story, The Cycle.
Pay attention to the Lot’s Wife Magazine Facebook page for future competitions.
44
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

CREATIVE SPACE
PHOTOS I N FOCUS
marcus littlewood
There is much to see in Melbourne’s famous Victoria Market. The
market is still running with lively atmosphere after more than 150
years of operation. More than just the weekly shopper can be seen
at this historic location. The atmosphere is lively with busking
performers entertaining the ever passing crowd. The fresh produce
and cooking provides attractive sights and aromas for the ravenous.
The workers behind the shop fronts bring life to the market and
create a memorable experience. I highly recommend a trip to one of
Melbourne’s less talked about attractions.
Want your photos featured in Lot’s Wife?
It’s easy, send us an email - no experience
required
lotswife2013@gmail.com
Join the Lot’s Wife Contributors group on facebook for deadlines and freebies!
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013
45

SUBHEADING
The Underwater Woman
Benjamin Potter
March of Sanity
Md. Roysul Islam
Her golden tresses flow
Through the waving wondering sea
The underwater woman
Emerges to our plea
I am in search of sanity.
When the journey begins
And death follows me behind,
I hear a thousand voices echoed in the wind.
Her jewelish smile arises
From the very bed that be
My lack of lust demises
And the river fish are free
I draw near the source
And hear the sound of humanity:
Like a symphony, they shout as one
As we march towards harmony.
If no one sees her aura,
The quiet humming breeze,
Then who can sense her power
Below the willow trees.
We defy death
On our march for sanity.
All the fences turn to flames
As we join hands for equality.
When ants move up the mountain
Searching for the light
I wander for my journey
She cares not for my plight
So walk my fearless! Come my brave!
We are on a march for sanity.
Have no fear of the warmongers
That cause the tears of our mothers.
It’s not her sense of calmness
Nor her smiling eyes
It’s her utter sense of power
That keeps me wondering wandering wise
Meditations on Uni Life
Lenin Gatus
-They say to apply yourself to your studies – I forget that I’m responsible for my enrolment.
-I’ve paid my student amenities fee. It hasn’t made me amenable.
-A cover sheet does a lousy job of protecting a crappy assignment.
-I support student strikes – some people could use a smack.
-My mother tells me that I should finish my degree for the “piece of paper”. Why? Why is it that every other hard working
student has to pay their way in life, but this paper gets to live off the rest of us? It gets to have ‘opportunities’; it gets to ‘go
to places’ – for free.
46
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LOT’S WIFE EDITION LOT’S WIFE 4 • 2013 EDITION 4 • 2013
Page Background: Marcus Littlewood

CREATIVE SPACE
SHORT STORIES
THREE WEEKS
Allison Chan
Henry was in his room, on his bed, splayed against the wall. Left arm raised and upper body sinking into the gap which had – over the course of three
weeks – grown. He hadn’t noticed this and, as he lay there, pressed against the wall with some forgotten urgency, he continued in the same listless state
on his sheets. Shoulder blade and rib were now caught in the gap between the bed and the carnivorous wall; he felt it gnawing on him, not unlike some
savage and his dinner. The gnawing had a rhythm and it sent pulses of pain through his nervous system, harmonizing with his body’s cardiovascular
rhythm. He thought back to the drums that night, adding another layer to the rhythm and orchestrating a complex symphony of beats within the
soundproofed walls of his cranium. He was lost again. With a groan, he turned over, his face now embedded in the mattress. He sucked in, wondering if
he would be able to survive suffocation by drawing out air bubbles from within the foam. Probably not.
For the first time in three weeks, he looked over at the wall he had avoided eye contact with. Henry found that there was now a light shade of grey
that was forming just above the gap. It was then that he finally noticed the gap itself. Disbelief replaced despondence – had he really been lying here
for three weeks, oblivious to the gap, the odour and the layer of human soap scum on his body and the wall? Possibly. He rolled onto his back now and
thought to before those three weeks. He could hardly believe that, before then, he had functioned as a normal human being: left the house, attended
classes, interacted with other living beings… He rolled over to face the widening gap again and groaned loudly into it to relinquish the weight of
responsibility from his chest. I don’t want to do this anymore. Flashes from that night still played like a Super 8 reel - unclear, unfocussed and silent -
except for the eerie whirring of the reel. He shut his eyes, as if he saw the scenes projected onto the grey wall in front of him, willing them away.
Henry saw himself at the bar again. He saw Phil walk in and the reel cut out. There was just the silent whirring. Now, Phil was in the middle of the
road, posing like the most recent Sports Illustrated cover girl. The car came round the bend. Henry flicked his eyes open, and let the tears slide off the
precipice upon which he was balancing.
He had to get up. His lungs, they were filling up with supressed tears that had nowhere else to go. He had to sit up before they choked him. He couldn’t
breathe. In one swift motion, Henry sat up, gripping the headboard. He leaned his head back and sobbed terrified sobs. His chest was constricting.
He needed air. Henry swung his legs over the other edge of the bed and stood to walk over to the window. He was sure that he had the bedsores of an
eighty-year-old paralytic. Those three weeks might as well have been eighty years. He saw his phone on the ground with its cracked screen – vision
impairing, induced by idiocy. No battery.
Henry was now standing in front of the window, staring out. The original intention had been to get some air. Instead of air, he found the moon. The
quiet glow of the moon comforted him. The grey soothed him in a way the grey of the wall could not.
He did not notice that he was naked in front of a window He was staring at the moon through its panes, and then at the faint impression of a reflection
on the transparent glass. His hair was matted and pressed to one side, beard-of-three-weeks in a similar state, sunken marbled eyes that he worried were
cataracts held in by ripened raisins. He now understood where the light grey shade on the wall had come from – he was the grey. The grey of the wall
had unsettled him because he did not know where it came from. With this new understanding, Henry was more at ease, knowing that the grey was not
foe but friend. He was the grey. He looked up again at the moon with longing, and then back to his reflection. They touched foreheads, communicating
the unspoken enigmas and secrets. He felt a breeze on his face, a refreshing breeze that made him acutely aware of thick liquid following the path
of his nose bridge and being caught in the sacks under his eyes. He thought they were tears that had coagulated into mucus, but the sharp metal smell
brought him to. It was blood. He looked up, expecting his reflection to be taunting, leering but he was gone; only a broken pane remained.
With one last lingering look at the moon, he folded himself back into bed and rolled towards the widening gap that now swallowed him.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 47

CREATIVE SPACE
THE COLOUR
OF LIFE
David Nowak
“Life is poetic. Now you see me wearing a black and white suit. Don’t you see the colour? The disposition it gives? Fine leather shoes and silky flowing
garments.
“Listen to my voice: deep and trembling. Oh yes, believe me when I say that life occurs in poetry. The rhythm of dreams where magnanimous things
occur and dark things creep through the crevices of quiet alleyways.
“There are lightning bolts in life. Those alleyways let out a stream and we see greed. Turn the globe and we may find love. Flit to the zenith and
there is abyss, and at the bottom there is always this sense of poetry.
“There exists no certainty, and yet time remains. Time carries us on. Time forces us on.
“Beginning. Purity. Growth. Hunger. Desecration. Evolution. Apocalypse!
“And rebirth …
“Listen to the rain outside, pattering against tin rooves. Listen to it slash down in throngs on homely verandas. Listen to it sweep upon royal courtyards
… Listen to the beat at your stomach. The two hearts within.
“Listen to him … creeping inside from that crevice.
“Duality. Never are things told with a singleness when we mention life.”
“Of course … You can’t hear him. No. The dramatic effect of things is always left so close to the end. And then there is the concept of verism: in
order for those that weave life to divine in the magnanimous, so should they sink in evil, all the better to appreciate their divinities. For this reason,
evil deeds are so often partied to poetry.
“Can you see the colour? Vibrant blues with a dash of pink, and on the other side murky green.
“His dark silhouette reaches for the window. The colour of his features built with malice, the eyes unforgiving in their gaze. From inside we hear
nothing but a tap on the roof.
“Won’t you listen to him creep? You’re there! Pay attention to the colour behind you! Steel bounces with the light around. Pupils widen with comprehension.
“… The red runs …
“She cries sodden last gasps, a sparkle in her tears. He studies the crimson as it flows like a torrent, revelling in his own poetry. The pulsating stops.
Vicious, broken, hateful colours cover the girl’s cadaver.
“And don’t forget the girl on the other side. Flip the globe. Flip the globe! She’s crying as well! But she’s different from the other girl. The eyes are
alive. The two hearts within are separating. Beautiful colours. Magniloquent colours! The child exits the womb and a new life bears witness to the
world. Isn’t there glory in that?
“The mother cradles her child in her arms. There is so much love. She lays there thanking God almighty for her blessings in life.
“But who ever said life or God was fair?
“The dark silhouette leaves the cadaver on the floor. He’s had his kick. The girl’s body stays pressed to the floor for days; a cold form in the darkness.
There is no contenting point here. A deathly smell envelops the house whilst her destroyer waits; there will be another rainy day for him to perform his
acts again.
“As we see the dark, so do we see how much brighter the day is. Duality is, in essence, nothing but life and death. Beginning and apocalypse.
“Oh yes. Life is poetic.”
Want your short stories featured in the next edition of Lot’s Wife?
Send all contributions to lotswife2013@gmail.c.om No experiemce required!
48 LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

SUBHEADING
LITERARY NOTES
Thomas Wilson
Writing Wisdom: Margaret Atwood
1.Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil
breaks, you can’t sharpen it on the plane, because you can’t take knives
with you. Therefore: take two pencils.
2.If both pencils break, you can do a rough sharpening job with a nail file
of the metal or glass type.
3.Take something to write on. Paper is good. In a pinch, pieces of wood or
your arm will do.
4.If you’re using a computer, always safeguard new text with a memory
stick.
5.Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.
6.Hold the reader’s attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold
your own.) But you don’t know who the reader is, so it’s like shooting fish
with a slingshot in the dark. What fascinates A will bore the pants off B.
7.You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a
grip on reality. This latter means: there’s no free lunch. Writing is work.
It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help
you a bit, but essentially you’re on your own. Nobody is making you do
this: you chose it, so don’t whine.
8.You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that
comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the
thing. You’ve been backstage. You’ve seen how the rabbits were smuggled
into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you
give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be
someone with whom you have a romantic relationship, unless you want
to break up.
9.Don’t sit down in the middle of the woods. If you’re lost in the plot or
blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other
road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening
page.
10.Prayer might work. Or reading something else. Or a constant visualisation
of the holy grail that is the finished, published version of your
resplendent book.
Publishing News and Blues
•Awards Season: As I’m sure anyone with a passing interest in literature
and/or feminism is aware, the inaugural Stella Award, celebrating great
books by Australian women, has been awarded to Carrie Tiffany for
Mateship With Birds. In other congratulatory news, the Miles Franklin
shortlist is out (with an all-female cast) with the winner to be announced
in June, and for the second time in its history the Vogel award goes to: No
one. Step up your game, young writers!
•Stop the TOC: O’Reilly Media, who refer to themselves as a “technology
transfer company, have decided to no longer continue the forwardthinking
Tools of Change conference. For seven years the event allowed
people from all areas of publishing to connect and correspond on all the
changes that have been a result of digitization. Instead O’Reilly will focus
on Atlas, a “tool for collaborative writing, one-touch publishing in all formats
and an interactive online reading platform that takes full advantage
of the digital realm.”
Refining Reads
How to Read and Why: Before one can write, one must read—and prolifically.
In this book renowned educator, Harold Bloom, takes you through
his most revered poems, short stories, plays and novels. With each he asks
“Why read this?” and gives a revelatory response. If you’re in a reading
slump, or need some inspiration, this is the book to do it.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013
49

ART WITH...
Emily McDonald

SUBHEADING
WHO IS
ANONYMOUS?
“Remember, remember, the 5th of November”, the tune would go
on in V for Vendetta; the movie that portrayed a battle against an
oppressive regime known as Norsefire, who, in a Nazi fashion, would jail
homosexuals and political dissidents.
For those who have seen the movie, ‘Anonymous’ would
most probably seem very similar – without the bit where the English
parliament is blown up. A hacktivist group formed in 2003, Anonymous
is an online/offline anarchic global community that strongly opposes
Internet censorship (and surveillance), governmental corruption, and
scientology. Their members can sometimes be seen wearing Guy Fawkes
masks, just like the main character of the movie (and
then the entire population when they rose up against
the regime), and are sometimes seen as instigators of
several protests, including Occupy Wall Street.
The group has a dual nature – just like any
great comic superhero. On the one hand they are
vigilantes who are outside the law. Yet many would
undoubtedly see them as more than just trouble–
makers, but heroes. ‘Operation Darknet’ was initiated
in October 2011 to weed out the remnants of child
pornography from the dark corners of the Internet,
Anonymous posting the usernames of 1,589 members
of Lolita City, a hidden child porn website.
Pirates of the virtual world, rejoice, for Anonymous is your
friend. In January 2012, in response to Megaupload (a notorious
website used to illegally stream movies and TV series) being taken
down, Anonymous took down the sites of the Department of Justice,
FBI, Motion Pictures Association of America and many others. The
group is also responsible for Cyber-attacks on the Pentagon and has
threatened to destroy Facebook.
Ioan Nascu
“Anonymous fills
in the gap where many
western governments
seem to be unwilling (or
simply have no power)
to engage with such
regimes to stop them from
passing populist laws that
would harm a group of
individuals”
It’s most recent nemesis seems to be the Ugandan government,
hacking various governmental websites (in response to their antihomosexuality
bill), leaving messages such as “Citizens and government
of Uganda, take heed, Anonymous is calling”. They also threatened
to adopt a ‘scorched earth policy’ for Ugandan online infrastructure
(basically shutting everything down), all in defense of LGBT rights.
Anonymous fills in the gap where many western governments
seem to be unwilling (or simply have no power) to engage with such
regimes to stop them from passing populist laws that would harm a group
of individuals.
But what would happen if Anonymous
– or better said, one part of Anonymous (as
the organization is formed by members which
simply take the identity upon themselves
with no control over each other’s actions
whatsoever) – would decide to hold views
which are not as progressive? What if they
would think that homosexuality is actually a
sin and decide to find and publish the names
and addresses of homosexuals in Saudi Arabia
and Yemen, where it is punishable by death?
I cannot but enjoy the damage
this group brings upon regimes who would
stone people on the street for holding hands. Yet at the same time, the
sheer amount of damage they could do if their views were not ‘right’ is
frightening; such is the anarchic nature of Anonymous. The Internet is far
more dangerous than people would like to consider.
Especially when anyone can be Anonymous.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013
51

CULTURE
SEX: The Classical
Approach
Hannah Gordon
Around 2000 BCE, a man by the name of Erramalik filed one of the earliest
known cases for divorce. His evidence? Upon finding his wife having sex
with another man, Erramalik tied the man onto the bed, his wife still
under her adulterer, and proceeded to carry the bed to court.
Relationships have changed little throughout the course of history.
Obviously we no longer resort to carrying our cheating partner midcopulation
into the courtroom, but the act of adultery is still prevalent as
ever. The envy and deceit underlying many relationships are traits that
have coexisted with marriage since the time of the early Romans. (And
possibly before this too; only lack of written documents makes it difficult
to know with certainty).
Humans have an innate desire to be bound to one person for life, so
why the need for infidelity? Perhaps we become bored in our relationships,
perhaps we have married the wrong person, or maybe we just want to
make them jealous.
In Ancient Rome, sex was power for the aristocratic women.
One woman was particularly good at using her sexuality to manipulate
– Agrippina the Younger. When she was a girl, she seduced her uncle
Claudius to marry her, as he was the emperor at the time. Later, when
Agrippina’s son, Nero, was Emperor and Agrippina could feel her power
over him was waning, she seduced him too. When travelling around in a
litter (a chair or bed supported by poles, carried by other men), Agrippina
would commit incest with her son, evidenced by the state of his clothes
when leaving the litter.
While incest is not openly practiced or condoned by contemporary
society, sex and adultery are both still means of gaining power. However,
sex these days is not so much about gaining political, but rather social
power. In modern society, celebrities are replacing the aristocracy once
revered in Ancient Rome. We are able to increase our own social notoriety
through relationships with people higher up on the social ladder, be they
footballers or Geoffrey Edelsten. For many, it is a sign of superiority to
appear in the social pages of a magazine or on the Brownlow red carpet.
We’ve even given footballer’s partners their own title – WAGs – and we
are all abuzz in deciding whose dress is stunning and whose looks like a
tablecloth. I wonder if we’ll ever be able to escape the confines of these
clichés?
Ancient Romans believed that sex was a health benefit for women.
In fact, women needed to have sex regularly, or else their uteruses would
begin to wander around their body. And if they abstained from sex for an
extended period of time, their uteruses would wander right up to their
throats and choke them.
But are beautiful men attracted to powerful women? A 2007 study
from Indiana University conducted a number of speed dates in the hope
of discovering what men and women each seek in a partner. The results
showed that women sought rich men, and men sought beautiful women.
While I am sure there are instances of attractive men marrying women
purely for their wealth and power, more often than not it occurs in the
reverse.
In Ancient Rome, men manipulated women into believing that
a lack of sex would kill them. Women would manipulate men into
sleeping with them in order to gain political control and escape from
their subordination. Women’s rights have progressed exponentially since
imperial times, but sex still exists to be abused. We can laugh at how
corrupt and incestuous sex was in Ancient Rome, but have we really
changed?
Image: Michael Gordon
52 LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

LOVE ADVICE WITH...
KARL MARX
- The advice column with class -
Dear Karl,
The love of my life dumped me brutally last week. I feel as sad and lonely
as Bridgett Jones in that scene where she’s on the couch in her pyjamas
singing, ‘All By Myself!’ What should I do?
Love-sick
Dear Comrade,
Why, it’s a blessing in disguise. Just think of all the extra time you now
have to devote to the struggle towards a classless utopia!
You really need to toughen up. The gloominess of your letter smacked
of bourgeois sentimentality – and you don’t want to be accused of being
the class enemy, do you? Do you? Just kidding. Even communists need
to keep a sense of humour. But seriously, there are millions of proletariat
starving and oppressed while you whinge, so at least try to pull it
together.
It might help to spend some extra time with your closest comrades
during the next few of weeks. In difficult times, we need solidarity, and
sometimes a little cheering up.
Karl Marx
For this edition of the column, Marx was interviewed by Carl Umber
Please send YOUR love problem to lotswife2013@gmail.com, who will
send it over to Marx straight away
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013

SUBHEADING
Rolando Chancellor
54
It is the summer of 1940. The smell of high-octane aviation fuel courses detail is where Gaijin have truly done well here, with each new plane
through the air as you don your flight suit and fire up the behemoth unlocked being a completely new model, with completely new textures
V12 motor in your Mark I Spitfire. A distant droning hum followed by and completely different in-game handling. Over 100 unique planes
the signature squeal of a Stuka dive-bomber siren heralds the arrival of are available for players to choose, from agile single-engine fighters to
the next wave of German attacks on English soil. You wind the throttle monumental four-engine heavy bombers, allowing players to configure
up to 100% and take off, entering battle as the last entity that stands themselves into the role that suits them best within each individual
between a Free Britannia and the ever-increasing onslaught of Nazi match.
fascism.
An interesting thing to note is that the game itself is actually
A big-budget remake of The Battle of Britain you’re thinking? Not free. Yes, free. (That’s a win for us university students). War Thunder
quite. Enter War Thunder, the latest flight simulator offering from indie represents a new wave of games, coming from modern indie developers
Russian developer Gaijin Entertainment. Currently in open beta on PC that don’t aim to make money off the direct sale, instead giving you
and due for console release in late 2013, War Thunder puts forwards a the base game for free, but then allowing people the option to buy
dazzling attempt at creating a multi-player flight simulator based around in-game upgrades that give them a slight advantage over other players.
the last era of true dog fighting, all whilst appealing to a broad gaming In War Thunder this comes in the form of upgrades to your planes
audience. And best of all, it’s free!
and weaponry, as well as access to premium planes unavailable to free
From the get-go you notice that War Thunder is an immensely players. One can unlock the same upgrades through points earned ingame
visually-stunning game. Powered by the relatively-unknown Dagor
themselves although this requires a lot (and I mean a lot) of game
engine, rendering of everything from models to environments on high time to acquire the same things as a hefty $5 might get you. That being
settings is comparable to what you see come from big-name releases such said, the value gained from buying into the game balances well so as to
as EA’s Battlefield series. Upon first starting the game, you can’t help not give players that do buy-in too much of an advantage over players
but spend quite some time looking around and admiring just how pretty that don’t.
everything looks. Admiring for long enough, in fact, that one might
Being an open-beta there is still the occasional, very infrequent,
even forget they are piloting an aircraft and end up crashing said aircraft game bug and to the woe of Australian players, servers are currently only
in a fiery mess somewhere in the jungles of Guadalcanal. Yes, it does available in Russia, Europe and America. These small issues, however,
happen.
do not really detract from the overall impact of the game, and will
Taking lessons from other prominent flight-sims such as IL-2 and most-likely be completely fixed ahead of global release later this year.
Birds of Steel, the developers at Gaijin have successfully integrated the Future releases intend on further broadening the scope by introducing
game into options that appease both newbies and veterans to the world ground and naval battle to players, allowing for massive online vehicular
of flight simulators. Different game modes are available to suit a variety warfare over gigantic-scaled maps. How successful Gaijin will be on this
of players, from simple Arcade combat putting players against each other endeavour though remains to be seen.
in a ‘capture the point’ or ‘team death match’ scenario, all the way up
Overall a highly recommended game, War Thunder heartily
to historically accurate virtual versions of Pearl Harbour, Midway and satisfies the inner flyboy within all of us and presents its players with
many other key battles of World War II, complete with real-life accurate an incredibly beautiful virtual window at experiencing their own finest
physics and great joystick-control support for the more involved
hour.
simulator player.
Check out the game, including download links, available at the
You’re kept interested (and playing) with the game’s levelling War Thunder Website: http://warthunder.com/en/
system, allowing you to choose a country’s air force and unlock more
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013
planes within each one as you play more and level up. Attention to

SUBHEADING
THE MYTH OF THE ANTI-SOCIAL
GAMER
Jake Spicer
Video games are still often seen as the hobby of a reclusive loner, a
pastime for the guy who wasn’t invited. But by their nature, video games
can offer a shared experience as well. Be that a narrative, team based or
individual competition - even just watching someone play can create a
connection.
Video game developers are starting to understand the extent to
which they can toy with the shared or connected experience that games
can provide. Dark Souls, an open-world RPG (role playing game), has
a feature that allows users to plant messages that can either help, or
deliberately mislead other players. Journey gives you control of a robed,
levitating traveller, through which you can find other players heading on
the same voyage. You can only assist each other without communicating
via speech or text, creating an incredibly powerful connection.
Working together towards a shared goal is not the only way to
experience this connectedness. Sometimes the opposite can have just the
same effect.
Spy Party is an “asymmetric multiplayer espionage game”. A game of
deception and perception, one person plays as a spy moving around a party,
trying to complete certain Mission: Impossible-esque tasks (and they
sometimes do feel impossible) like bugging another party goer. Meanwhile
the other person, a sniper, waits with a single bullet for the unconvincing
spy. In some ways Spy Party is like a reverse Turing Test. If you can
convince the opponent you’re not a human for long enough to complete
the set missions, you survive.
It’s the little things that give the game the depth required for highend
competitive play. Walking up to a bookshelf and falling just short,
forcing you to make a jittery adjustment forwards, can be enough for the
sniper to catch on. It leads to tense situations.
As the spy, I’m standing in a group conversation when I say the code
phrase, “Banana Bread”, signalling some message to the double agent
and completing my final mission. The sniper’s laser sight falls directly
between my eyes. I know if I walk away now it will be an obvious tell. I
start to sweat. He, however, doesn’t know that I have now completed all
of my missions. A ten second-countdown pops up on my screen. When it
reaches zero I win. I break away from the conversation, no longer caring
if it gives away who I am at this point, and try to hide behind other party-goers
for the remaining few seconds.
It was one of the few matches as spy that I’ve won. The game
is hard. There are a tonne of advanced techniques like framing other
AI players or waiting until the last 30 seconds before attempting any
missions. It will be some time before I develop the skills to be able to do
them.
Chris Hecker, an ex-Maxis developer (it’s claimed his work on
Spore “advanced the state of the art in procedural animation by several
years”), has been working on the game personally since 2009. A fixed
release date with Spy Party doesn’t look likely – it’s as if it’s perpetually
two years away from completion (perhaps operating on ‘Valve Time’). For
now it’s in closed beta (testing mode), with invitations being a good few
months wait yet.
This type of development – a slow exclusive beta – has created a
tight and rich community. It’s remarkable the intimacy you feel with
others playing this game. I hopped into the main waiting room prior to
beginning and had a chat with a few of the regulars. Before long one of
them volunteered to ‘mentor’ my play. New players are treated with such
gentle guided kindness. The question of whether this attitude will continue
after the game is released is one everyone appears to be very aware
of. There’s a large thread in the forums discussing the understandable
nervousness of opening up their little game to the wider community.
Spy Party is a game designed for highly competitive play. And with
highly competitive play comes extremely close non-physical contact.
You’re getting into the mind of another person, and what can be more
intimate than that?
Video games can be intrinsically social. The shared experience, or
the connection with other people they provide, is not an escape from
reality but an exploration of it.
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 4 • 2013 55