Lot's Wife Edition 7 2015

Lot’s Wife 

MoNASH UNIVERSITY student MAGAZINE - CLAYTon 

ISSUE SEVEN - 2015

What’s more 

brilliant then a 

Monash degree? 

Writing for Lot’s Wife! 

We’ll publish anyone. 

Lot’s Wife is a student-run 

publication, written by people 

just like you. 

If you’re a writer, artist, cartoonist, 

illustrator, or just a plain-old narcissist, 

we want to publish you! (First timers welcome) 

Drop by the Lot’s Office on the 1st 

floor of Campus Center, or send an 

email to: msa-lotswife@monash.edu

Infinite Parking 

Cover Artwork by 

Miss Terry & Guy Incognito 

Parking at Monash has been a major issue since before the 

fall of the Berlin Wall. The University has always struggled 

with balancing the need for space (because 6 residential 

halls apparently isn’t enough) with the need for parking 

spaces (because heaven forbid public transport be useful). 

This striking photo of the N1 carpark (taken by Miss Terry) 

was inspired by the news that it was going to be expanded 

by an additional 4 floors by the end of this year. As the total 

land area on Clayton campus is reduced, while demand to 

for parking rises, it’s a logical conclusion that parking will 

become more and more vertical. 

The rainbow stained-glass effect (done by Guy Incognito) 

was inspired by mucking about in Photoshop. He’s not that 

creative.

Editors 

Bill Molloy 

Claire Rowe 

Jarrod Verity 

Design 

Danielle Natividad 

Timothy Newport 

Politics 

Bree Guthrie 

Hareesh Makam 

Kirsti Weisz 

Tom Clelland 

Student Affairs 

Julia Pillai 

Kristin Robertson 

Rosie Boyle 

Science & Engineering 

Alisoun Townsend 

Kathy Zhang 

Arts & Culture 

Emily Neilsen 

Kelly Pigram 

Lisa Healy 

Photography 

Carina Florea 

© Lot’s Wife 2015, Monash University Clayton, Victoria 

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 condemns and will not publish any material 

that is racist, sexist, queerphobic, ableist, or discriminatory 

in any nature. The views expressed herein are 

those of the attributed writers and do not necessarily 

reflect the views of the editors or the MSA. All writing 

and artwork remains the property of the producers and 

must not be reproduced without their written consent. 

Contents 

3 

Editorial 

4 

OB Reports 

Politics 

8 

Amnesty 

10 

Two Simple Words 

11 

Trial by Twitter 

12 

500 Word Challenge 

13 

Playing the Trump Card 

14 

How sexism saved lesbians 

16 



18 

An Aussie Bloke in 

Bergen 

20 

Constitutional 

Recognition of 

Indigenous Australians 

22 

WinterFest Reviews 

23 

Parking on Campus 

25 

Wholefoods Demolition 

26 

How to Survive Student 

Elections 


28 

Conservation Conversation 

29 

What’s Up Doc? 

30 

New target prompts new 

challenges 

31 

Puzzles 

32 

World Record Stargazing 

33 

Internships 

34 

Personality Traits 

36 

Event Schedule 


38 

Etymology of Emoji 

40 

Where does your food come 

from? 

41 

When you go to Asia 

42 

Step inside The Ministry 

43 

The Ashley Madison Hack is 

no one’s victory 

44 

Gig Guide 

46 

TV Junkies and Junk TV 

47 

Art Showcase

EDITORIAL 3 

Editorial 

University life is rarely unpredictable; semesters begin 

calmly with refreshed ambitions for academic excellence 

and typically end in a bit of stress and anticipation for 

holidays. Here is a detailing of what you can expect from the 

coming weeks. 

WEEK EIGHT 

By this point, class sizes have significantly dropped down 

to 15 percent with the other 85 percent not to be seen for 

another month or so. Those savvy enough to have dropped 

out of the more mundane units before the census date are 

now the envy of the entire faculty. Perhaps now is a safe time 

to sit in on first year Television Studies (ATS1304) or Extreme 

Earth! Natural hazards and human vulnerability (ATS1310), 

or some other unit you actually wanted to take but was too 

embarrassed for it to pop up on your transcript. 

It’ll probably be during this week that the oral presentation 

you were assigned in week one hits you. Back at the start of 

the semester when everyone was being allocated their weeks 

for presentation, week eight felt like ages ("two months, 

easy I’ll work it out by then"), but somehow that time slipped 

by so quickly and now you’re feeling a bit silly in front of a 

powerpoint staring at 15 or so vacant looking students. 

WEEK NINE 

That annoying week when all those mini Bill Shortens and 

Sarah Hanson-Youngs litter campus centre talking to you 

about the 601 bus or ‘how it’s time for a change’. Your mum’s 

sandwiches may be average but FOR GOD’S SAKE, take them 

because the 10 dollar focaccia at Coffee Wise is not an option 

this week. If you’re one of those few students still attending 

lectures at this point in the semester, cease your good 

habits; your lectures will all be ‘bashed’ by some aspiring 

candidate that will most definitely piss off your lecturer. 

Week nine also marks the beginning of major assessment 

time. This is when those exorbitantly weighted assignments 

are expected and you find yourself going back to the 

referencing guide you downloaded in first year to remember 

the difference between Harvard and Chicago style 

bibliographies. 

MID SEM BREAK 

The long-overdue mid-semester break finally arrives three 

quarters into the semester. This presents the perfect 

opportunity to listen to all the lectures you’ve been skipping, 

get started on that major assignment that was due in week 

six, and most importantly - binge watch season two of True 

Detective on Netflix. By the end of this week you’ll feel about 

the same as you did after you finished year 12: a little too 

good about life and completely unprepared for the future. 

The only difference is unlike when you were 18 and had a few 

months or living in your alternative reality, the future will 

smack you hard in the face by the following week. 

You might make a time somewhere during this week to 

visit your parents where, over a nice cup of tea and a tim tam, 

you tell them about all of the amazing, groundbreaking, work 

you’ve done so far in the semester. They’ll heap praise on 

you and how you’ve done such great work since high school. 

You’ll sit, take a bite of your 6th tim tam and silently nod in 

agreement. 

WEEK TEN 

When people begin to stand around the outside of Matheson 

and talk about "how much work I have to do" or "how I’m 

so stressed right now". The irony is that despite being 

supposedly busy, these people rarely make it past the steps 

into the actual library and generally go to the Den instead 

and continue to feel stressed. 

For those of you still unphased by the impending exam 

period, week ten is also the time for you to catch up with the 

one person in your tute whose name you have learned and 

make awkward small talk about what you did over the break. 

Of course, it’s during these four weeks that Issue 7 of Lot’s 

Wife will be on the stands. This issue, Elspeth Kernebone 

presents the pitfalls in the parking plan, Emma Simpkin 

examines the etymology of emoji, and Henry Kerstens details 

the dizzying debacle that is Donald Trump. So find an empty 

lecture theatre and settle in so you can read Lot’s Wife in peace.

4 

OB REPORTS 

OB Reports 

President 

Sinead Colee 

Report not submitted 

Secretary 

Daniel King 


Treasurer 

Abby Stapleton 

Over the past month I attended education conference, run 

by the national union of students. This year the conference 

was in Sydney hosted by the University of New South Wales. 

During the week I attended an array of workshops beneficial 

to my role as treasurer. Much of the conference was spent 

planning for the upcoming national day of action on August 

19th. The conference involved a lot of skill sharing and 

provided a great opportunity to meet other activists from 

different states and universities. There were a number 

of notable speakers who presented to NUS; I particularly 

enjoyed Luke Hilakari’s presentation on how to run an 

effective campaign. 

Education (Academic Affairs) 

Amelia Veronese 

Hey all! 

I hope Semester 2 is treating you well. As it’s getting to 

that stage where assignments are piling up and exams 

are approaching, it’s important that if you have any 

concerns, you want a contest a mark, are unhappy with 

your tutor/lecturer or not coping well that you please 

make an appointment with MSA Student Rights at msastudentrights@monash.edu, 

they will help you out! 

Recently, I have begun an online campaign, ‘We need 

Feedback about your Feedback!’ This campaign aims to get 

student responses assessing the quality of feedback that 

they receive in their assignments. The MSA Student Rights 

Service and myself have become aware of many issues about 

students receiving very little feedback, no feedback at all or 

waiting too long to receive feedback. With these responses 

and analysing the Monash University Feedback policy, I will 

be presenting this information to the University so they and 

faculties can improve their policy on this. 

I have also been working on preparing the MSA Teaching 

Awards Night. Nominations for Semester 2 have just closed 

so thank you to everyone who nominated excellent teaching 

staff. We will be releasing the recipients who have won each 

of the awards soon, so stay tuned! 

Education (Public Affairs) 

Sarah Spivak & Mali Rea 

The National Day of Action on August 19th was a great 

success, with over 60 Monash students taking the bus 

with us to the State Library where we heard from NUS and 

the NTEU then went on a march and had a good yell! Our 

Bluestockings Week panel was also a success with 50 

students attending and the speakers all commenting that it 

was a great discussion. We also had a full house at the trivia 

night and a good time was had by all. 

For the rest of the semester we’ll be keeping an eye on 

Chris Pyne and his failing efforts to lobby cross benchers, 

helping out other MSA departments with their activism and 

doing some research into how the changes to undergraduate 

degrees in 2016 will affect current and future Monash 

students. 

As always, get in touch with us by liking our Facebook page 

‘MSA Education’ or emailing us at msa-education@monash.edu. 

Environment & Social Justice Officers 

Lauren Goldsmith & Rhyss Wyllie 

It’s a really exciting time to be engaged in environmental 

and social justice movements, with big wins happening all 

the time, such as the University of Warwick’s commitment 

to divest from the Fossil Fuel industry (Monash’s partner 

University), and the recent successes of the campaign to 

save the Great Barrier Reef from dredging. 

The Environment and Social Justice officers have been 

busy in planning on campus projects such as the Fossil Free 

Monash Trivia Night (September 3rd); a fun way to build 

momentum and celebrate the campaign generally. After 

engaging with the University administration, we want to 

show our strength in student support by a petition delivery 

set for week 11! Divestment workshops were also given by ESJ, 

in collaboration with the AYCC at the Torque conference (a 

global health education program). 

Planning is also underway for Environment and Social 

Justice week in Week 11, with workshops forums and other 

events in the works, covering topics including the ‘new/ 

sharing economy’. 

Keen to get involved? As always, feel free to like ‘MSA 

Environment and Social Justice Collective’, and ‘Fossil Free 

Monash University’ on facebook for updates, or shoot us an 

email!

OB REPORTS 5 

Queer Officers 

Viv Stewart & Jarvis Sparks 


Women’s Officers 

Ellen Flach & Sophie Vassallo 

Bluestockings week was a smashing success! Together 

with the MSA Education Public Affairs department and 

Monash branch of the NTEU we put on an excellent forum 

and trivia night. Thanks to Jeannie Rea, Celeste Liddle, Swati 

Parashar and Rae Frances for speaking at the forum, it was 

a great discussion about the representation of Women in 

tertiary curriculum and university more broadly. Two giant 

tampons also came to Monash to raise awareness and 

support for removing the GST on pads and tampons. We 

hope to see the tax being removed soon! Planning is now in 

full swing for Women’s Week (week 10) so keep a look out 

for those events coming soon. As always we have our weekly 

events: Discussion Group on Wednesdays 1:30-3:30 in the 

Women’s Lounge and the Women of Colour only Discussion 

Group on Tuesdays 1:00-3:00 in the Women’s Lounge. You can 

get in touch via msa-womens@monash.edu or swing by the 

office on Level 1 of the Campus Centre. 

Disabilities and Carers Officer 

Andrew Day & Adrienne Bicknell 

August already? That certainly came around all too quickly. 

Hopefully you’ve been around to one of our weekly morning 

teas on alternating Tuesdays and Thursdays (we like to mix 

things up here). We’ve been so happy to meet new people and 

fulfil our mission of feeding some hungry students. 

We’ve commenced a working group with university 

administration on our Equal Access proposal and are 

now exploring ways that the university can better ensure 

essential content makes it to students who are vulnerable to 

missing classes for disability or carer related issues – more 

to come soon hopefully! 

And finally we’ve had our "How to be a better Ally" 

pamphlets come in – they’re a great little resource for people 

to use to get their head around the basics of how to be a good 

ally to carers or people with disability so check them out! 

Welfare Officers 

Rebecca Adams & Jesse Cameron 

Welfare has been extreeemely busy these past few weeks! 

We ran a successful welfare week and many people joined 

in our free fitness classes, free cooking and growing food 

workshops, free food, a housing co-op info session, and the 

much anticipated Misfits Ball! It was so heart-warming for 

your welfare obs to see you guys getting involved! 

Come along to any of our normal activities,,, Free Food 

Mondays, free weekly yoga classes, our Survival Centre, and 

come chat to us if you need any help with anything or advice. 

Activities Officers 

Tahnee Burgess & Jake Krelle 

Hey guys! 

Buckle up for the rest of semester with Activities! Comedy, 

Oktoberfest and on-campus activities heading your way 

we’ve got you covered for a lot of fun with a lot of fun people. 

The cold weather hasn’t slowed down hump day and we’ll 

continue to be feeding hungry students every Wednesday at 

12 so don’t forget to come down and enjoy a snag, hash brown 

or veggie patty on us! Shout out to the Welfare department 

for the success of Misfits ball in week 5 very impressed with 

the atmosphere of the event and look forward to the events 

other MSA departments will be running for the remainder of 

the year!

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7 7 

POLITICS 

Politics 

ILLUSTRATION BY AMIRUL NASIR @kingrool 

Articles by 

Julia Pillai 

Tom Clelland 

Kirsti Weisz 

Matthew Edwards 

Luke James 

Cassie Spry 

Henry Kerstens

8 

POLITICS 

BY JULIA PILLAI 

Discussing Sex Work 

Amnesty International has passed a motion to push for full 

decriminalisation of sex work. As explained by Catherine 

Murphy, policy advisor of Amnesty International: 

"Amnesty International has a responsibility to assess 

how best to prevent human rights violations. As such, 

it is right and fitting that we should look at one of the 

most disadvantaged groups of people in the world, often 

forced to live outside the law and denied their most basic 

human rights: sex workers. 

We have chosen to advocate for the decriminalization 

of all aspects of consensual adult sex - sex work that 

does not involve coercion, exploitation or abuse. This 

is based on evidence and the real-life experience of sex 

workers themselves that criminalization makes them 

less safe." 

This has been controversial step, as celebrities such as 

Lena Dunham, Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep have spoken 

out against this new policy from Amnesty; signing and 

endorsing a Change.org petition from Coalition Against 

Trafficking in Women International (CATW) titled "Vote NO to 

Decriminalizing Pimps, Brothel Owners, and Buyers of Sex". 

In this petition declares that CATW "...firmly believes and agrees 

with Amnesty that human beings bought and sold in the sex trade, 

who are mostly women, must not be criminalized in any jurisdiction 

by law enforcement or governments. However, what Amnesty’s "Draft 

Policy on Sex Work" proposes is in violation of long established 

human rights principles, and women’s rights in particular, including 

the right to live a life free of violence and with dignity." 

Currently in Victoria street sex work is illegal and heavily 

policed. Private escorts need to be registered by the Business 

Licencing Authority, escort agencies and brothels are legal, 

and are are defined as any venue that facilitates sex works. 

Agencies and brothels must also be registered with the BLA. 

There is little regulation on webcam based sex work. 

I spoke to social work masters student Annette Pritchard 

and sex worker Mikki* about their thoughts on Amnesty 

International’s new policy. 

"There are many 

misconceptions about sex 

work; it’s a much broader 

industry than the stereotype." 

Amnesty international has passed a policy that calls 

for decriminalisation of sex work. Is this a step in the 

right direction? Are there areas of this policy that are 

problematic, or are based on misconceptions about sex 

work? 

Annette Pritchard: This is a great step. There are many 

misconceptions about sex work; it’s a much broader industry 

than the stereotype. Trafficked women are victims and 

should not be charged with their captors crimes. 

Mikki: Decriminalisation is the only legal system 

that protects and supports sex workers. The Amnesty 

International policy is a huge step forward in acknowledging 

that criminal laws are ineffective and dangerous in governing 

sex work. Self regulation within the industry creates far less 

exclusive systems and allow legal systems to protect all sex 

workers. That said, the policy continues to encourage police 

intervention for underage workers, which remains dangerous 

and fails to provide safe alternatives but instead focuses 

on punishing young sex workers, even if that punishment is 

indirect. 

Celebrities have spoken out against this policy. Are their 

arguments misguided? If so, how? 

AP: Yes they are misguided and they don’t take into 

account societal structural reasons why sex work is entered 

into or why its services are sort. 

M: Celebrities’ responses to the Amnesty International are 

entirely misguided. Sex workers are the most effective group 

in fighting against sex trafficking; providing legal protections 

and the ability to unionise will do more to protect trafficking 

victims than criminalisation ever could. The needs of sex 

workers and trafficking victims are not opposites- neither 

group want those we work alongside and those who support 

us criminalised. Criminalisation of clients only lends itself to 

statist violence and increased violence within the industry by 

forcing it underground. 

What are some of the more prevalent misconceptions 

people have about sex workers? How do social workers cut 

through these misconceptions? 

AP: I think people don’t see that there are a lot of complex 

issues that affect the situation of sex workers. For instance, 

how much choice, if any, that they may or may not have in

POLITICS 9 

"There is a dogma around the sex industry that forces 

workers further underground, thereby creating a system 

within which we become acceptable targets for violence. 

Many view my participation in sex work as either about 

empowerment or victimhood; the reality is that it is a 

survival mechanism." 

entering, performing, or leaving sex work as individuals. 

There are some situations where sex workers have no choice 

such as trafficked workers, but other sex workers may have 

a great deal of choice in their decision to enter the industry. 

There are a lot of financial barriers women in particular face 

that mean sex work can often be the only option to get by, 

even if its not their ideal choice. Flexible part-time work that 

fits around child rearing mothers who predominantly parent 

in our society, that actually pay enough to cover the cost of 

living are rare; Centre-link doesn’t always cut it either, so in 

this situation sex work may be the most viable option. 

M: There is a dogma around the sex industry that forces 

workers further underground, thereby creating a system 

within which we become acceptable targets for violence. 

Many view my participation in sex work as either about 

empowerment or victimhood; the reality is that it is a 

survival mechanism. Neither rescue from or education about 

the industry can substitute my income, and continuing to 

refuse to take sex workers seriously only makes it harder to 

organise against employers that do exploit us. 

What do you want to see change in policies around sex 

work? How will these changes help sex workers? 

AP: Let’s start talking about the customers and having 

policy that regulates safety and working conditions for 

workers. 

M: All criminal laws governing sex work need to be 

removed. Licensing systems that out sex workers and 

place them at risk do not regulate the industry, but merely 

stigmatise and criminalise it. 

sex workers in order to ‘catch’ johns. It contributes to the 

stigma around our work, and removes clients who do intend 

to respect the law, which leaves only clients that are more 

dangerous. It does not provide alternative work opportunities, 

and criminalises workers who choose to work together 

for safety. The Nordic Model poses nothing but danger to 

sex workers, and does nothing to decrease trafficking. All 

legal models criminalise coercion and trafficking- but 

decriminalisation is the only model that provides recourse 

for all victims of it. 

Final thoughts? 

AP: Not all women need to be rescued from sex work. Many 

people have had a sex industry chapter in their lives. We 

need to break the stigma and focus on societal structures 

that put women at a financial disadvantage and quit 

punishing them for it. We also need to make it easier for 

those who do need help to get out of the industry by making 

it realistic for women who are being enslaved, mistreated 

by managers or raped by clients to speak out and get help. 

We need to be looking at how society can offer viable and 

realistic financial alternatives to entering the industry in the 

first place. 

M: Decriminalisation is the best legal model to support sex 

workers, but it only defines the law. Under decriminalisation, 

sex workers will have the ability to organise and work on destigmatisation 

of the industry. It is important to remember, 

though, that the journey does not end with the law. 

Many sex workers are against the Nordic Model; a model 

that decriminalises selling sex work, but criminalises 

clients. What are your thoughts on the Nordic Model? 

AP: I think it is definitely worth talking about. In every other 

industry we have consumer laws to protect both customers 

and vendors. We don’t have that when it comes to sex work 

in Australia. There are many reasons customers seek sex 

work services. Not all are the stereotype of cheating, raping, 

misogynistic dicks, but it’s too easy to be that currently. 

M: The Nordic Model continues to treat our work as 

criminal activity. It allows police, the biggest perpetrators 

of violence against us, to continue to harass and stalk 

*Names have been changed to protect privacy.

10 

POLITICS 

BY TOM CLELLAND 

Two simple words 

A couple of years ago I was watching a press conference 

of then Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison. There I was, 

slumped in a deep malaise of disinterest, when the man said 

something that grabbed my attention. Even as I type these 

words, I am surprised at myself; I would generally be the 

last person to accuse Mr. Morrison of being even remotely 

interesting. However, his response to having been asked a 

relatively direct and clear question about boat turn-backs 

made me sit up and take notice. And yea, he spoke thusly: 

"That goes to operational matters that, whether they affect 

current or future operational activity, you will not be getting 

commentary from this podium or that podium either way on 

those matters." The passage of this remark through the room 

left many, including the offending journalist, nonplussed. I 

sat watching the exchange, incredulous. Surely that’s against 

the rules! You can’t just say that you’re no longer going 

to answer questions about a key election promise! That’s 

cheating! But say it he did, and, more amazingly, he got 

away without answering the question. Though I didn’t know 

it at the time, I had just experienced my first taste of the 

‘operational matters’ era of the Abbott government. 

There are many factors that constrain and govern the 

behaviour of those we elect to power; laws governing 

corruption, ideological positions, and individual morality 

among them. One of the subtlest of these factors, however, is 

adherence to political norms that exist within our society. For 

instance, it would traditionally be considered to be a breach 

of a political norm to renege on an election promise, with the 

result that the party in breach of the norm would ideally be 

held accountable to the electorate (i.e. voted out of office). We 

all either consciously or intuitively understand the concept 

of norms, and political parties and officials generally refrain 

from violating them, which brings us to our present situation. 

I would argue that it would generally be considered a political 

norm to, as an elected official, respond to relevant questions 

from the media at an event such as a press conference. 

Nothing particularly revolutionary there, right? Well, imagine 

a situation where you, as an elected official, are about to be 

asked some sticky questions at a press conference about 

some dirty laundry that you do not particularly want aired. It 

would seem that you have two choices; answer the questions 

honestly, with all that entails, or lie, right? Well, it seems 

that the Abbott government has decided that there is a third 

option. 

You can almost imagine the meeting that spawned the 

‘operational matters’ moniker; the idea would have been 

scorned at first, until someone decided that it might just 

"The ‘operational matters’ 

saga has significance in a 

wider sense; it shows that it 

is in fact possible to change 

the rules of the game." 

be a harebrained-enough scheme to work. The new policy 

underwent its first real trial by fire in early 2014, when a 

somewhat clumsy naval vessel caused an international 

incident by allegedly straying into Indonesian waters. Once 

it became clear that the incident had, in fact, occurred, both 

Angus Campbell (military commander of Operation Sovereign 

Borders) and Scott Morrison flat out refused to discuss the 

details. I know what you’re thinking; surely this is where the 

supremely ridiculous policy crumbles to dust in the face of 

titanic media pressure. Well, somehow the ‘I’m not going to 

answer that because that is about an area that I don’t want 

to talk about’ approach survived the herculean test. In fact, 

the ‘operational matters’ era continues unabated. In June 

this year, Tony Abbott once again used the phrase to avoid 

answering questions on radio network 3AW about allegations 

that Australian border officials had bribed people smugglers. 

Despite the increasing media furor, the line once again 

carried the day. 

Whatever your opinion on the policy, there is undoubtedly 

something to learn here about the mechanics and nature 

of our political system. The ‘operational matters’ saga has 

significance in a wider sense; it shows that it is in fact 

possible to change the rules of the game. It is demonstrably 

possible to alter the political norms of expected behaviour 

in a way that renders previously unthinkable conduct 

somewhat acceptable. The longer this narrative continues, 

the harder it will be to displace it; we are at risk of developing 

a new universal norm that allows those that we elect to 

office to simply refuse to answer questions that are inimical 

to their interests. Whatever your political alignment, there 

seems to be something profoundly undemocratic in allowing 

political parties and officials to operate in a way that is not 

accountable to the media, and by extension the electorate. 

I am willing to admit, however, that my concerns may be 

old-fashioned, and, given a few years, it will perhaps be 

acceptable behaviour on the part of politicians to simply 

send a sticky-note saying ‘no comment’ to press conferences.

POLITICS 11 

Trial by 

Twitter: 

How online vigilantes 

can shatter lives 

BY KIRSTI WEISZ 

Think of social media – particularly Twitter – as a courtroom. 

The jury is us, the average citizen, but we are also the lawyers 

and the judge. We raise our argument and not only decide 

who is guilty or innocent, but we can influence the sentence. 

In this courtroom, however, the formalities are stripped away, 

not just the formal dress-code and the legal jargon but the 

rules and procedures that have been developed to keep the 

process as balanced as possible. 

This is where Jonah Lehrer, a science writer and journalist, 

was punished and "drenched in shame and regret." Lehrer 

was shamed in 2012 when a freelance journalist accused him 

of making up and misattributing quotes about Bob Dylan in 

his best-selling book Imagine: How Creativity Works. When he 

admitted to falsifying quotes and apologised live, a screen 

played Twitter posts behind him that were degrading and 

scolding. 

Journalist and author Jon Ronson recently published a new 

book titled So you’ve been publicly shamed where he describes 

how Lehrer’s apology played out like a courtroom drama. 

Ronson says the people chose their roles and opted for "the 

hanging judge." 

Lehrer is just one of the many victims of public shaming 

Ronson interviewed for his book, which details the rise of 

culture shaming and the virtual mob. Originally, Ronson 

admired the power of social media and its ability to 

"democratise justice" but he now takes a different view. 

"Social media gave a voice to the voiceless people, so I think 

it’s a sad irony that a way to survive social media now is to go 

back to being voiceless," he says. 

The issue lies in proportionality. Shaming is not necessarily 

wrong but the lack of rules and an ‘off switch’ makes it lethal. 

It also comes in many forms, from fat shaming and skinny 

shaming to being shamed based on your beliefs or political 

opinions. One of the latest victims of body shaming was Iggy 

Azalea, a 24 year old singer who returned from a vacation 

and found nasty comments about her body. This led her to 

quit social media but the repercussions were arguably more 

trivial compared to other victims who may have made an 

innocent mistake or a badly worded joke which derailed their 

careers and lives. A frightening reality is that four people this 

year have taken their lives due to public shaming, according 

to Ronson. 

Ronson’s book aims to attack disproportionate 

punishments where minor transgressions, or in Lehrer’s 

case, rather serious ones, are punished out of proportion. 

Public humiliation as a punishment isn’t a recent 

phenomenon and has been a cultural practice for centuries. 

Stoning, branding, public hangings and witch trials prove 

this. Ronson says in his book that public punishment was 

phased out because it was viewed as far too brutal and 

appalling. Online shaming is the revival of this form of 

punishment and while it doesn’t necessarily lead to physical 

violence, it has a wider audience and a permanent effect 

that’s almost just as damaging. 

Threats of rape, death, physical violence and 

unemployment canvass some of the more serious cases that 

have taken place. It is not often discussed, but the attacks 

and their effect can be interpreted as violating human rights 

such as the right to dignity and right against cruel, inhuman 

or degrading punishment. 

Writer and media strategist Cole Stryker says that 

"considered through a historical lens, public shaming begins 

to look like a tool designed not to humanely punish the perp 

but rather to satisfy the crowd." 

There’s a sad irony in that the people doing the shaming 

often feel they are doing the right thing and serving social 

justice but in reality amateur law enforcers and vigilantes are 

dangerous. The degree of anonymity provided by social media 

makes this policing unaccountable and unrestricted in the 

damage it can cause. 

At the same time, there are benefits to using shaming as 

a punishment. Walter Palmer, the US dentist who shot and 

killed Cecil the lion, and Mark Latham highlight how social 

media can be a reasonable platform for some kind of moral 

punishment. 

Social media can be a tool for justice, it can cause inner 

reflection and illustrate the behaviour society enshrines 

but it can also be a weapon. A weapon that can rip apart 

someone’s life, marginalise them from society and leave 

them beyond repair. 

We may root for the vigilantes on TV shows or in movies 

but the vilification and harassment taking place on social 

media destroys the lives of people to unfair proportions. This 

courtroom set up by social media supersedes the realms of 

justice and fairness it ironically claims to pursue. As Ronson 

said in a recent talk in Melbourne, "can you think of anything 

less judicial than this?" 

Illustration by Amirul Nasir @kingrool

12 

POLITICS 

500 Word Challenge 

BY MATTHEW EDWARDS 

For 

Australians smoke weed more than they take any other illicit 

drug. The 2004 National Drug Strategy Household Survey 

report found one in 3 Australians aged 14 years and over 

had used marijuana at least once, with more than half a 

million indicating use in the last 12 months. Sixty thousand 

Australians are arrested every year for possessing or using 

cannabis, accounting for around 60 per cent of all drugrelated 

arrests. 

But marijuana is illegal, isn’t it? Yes and no. It’s against 

the law to use, own, cultivate, or sell cannabis in Australia, 

but the penalties for cannabis offences are different for each 

state and territory. Because what sensible system based on 

scientific fact and harm minimisation wouldn’t have seven 

different sets of consequences for the same offence? 

Some jurisdictions have already decriminalised minor 

cannabis offences, like South Australia, the Australian 

Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory. These minor 

offences include possession of small amounts for personal 

use, and can be dealt with as a civil penalty, similar to 

speeding. 

Like most countries, Australia started banning illicit 

drugs more than half a century ago. In 1971, US President 

Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs", increasing the size 

and scope of federal drug control agencies, and pushing 

mandatory sentencing. The laws have changed over the 

years, but some politicians are still obsessed with ‘fighting 

the good fight’ against drugs ever since; our own Tony Abbott 

has claimed Australia is caught in an "ice epidemic", and has 

created a campaign of fear around the substance. 

There is no good estimate for the cost of arresting 60,000 

people, processing these arrests, and punishing the offender, 

every year. But I’m sure it would not be cheap. It’s not a 

stretch to imagine how much time and money it would 

save law enforcement, and by extension, the taxpayers, if 

marijuana was decriminalised. 

Furthermore, legal marijuana might actually make money. 

Not only would the government save on law enforcement, 

but with safe and proper regulation of marijuana supply and 

sale, we could see the introduction of marijuana stores like 

Legalise it 

"It’s not a stretch to imagine 

how much time and money it 

would save law enforcement, 

and by extension, the 

taxpayers, if marijuana was 

decriminalised." 

those in Colorado, one of the US states that recently legalised 

the drug. The money made from taxing marijuana alone 

could resolve Australia’s federal budget. Dank kush could 

make some dank cash. 

The fundamental problem with the "war on drugs", 

especially in regards to marijuana, is that it focuses not 

enough on regulation, and too much on the drug itself. The 

government prohibits and creates fear surrounding the drug 

– the fear that "we" will become like "them": the drug addicts. 

We’ll destroy our families, we’ll destroy our community. This 

is wrong. 

Marijuana is often described as a gateway drug, meaning 

it could potentially lead to more harmful substances. The 

fact is, marijuana is one of the least harmful drugs available 

– alcohol is a far more dangerous drug in the short-term and 

long-term, and is still legal. 

It’s time to get rid of the stigma around marijuana and 

just, like, chill out, man.

POLITICS 13 

This month’s issue: 

Legalising Marijuana 

Against 

Free Ganja 

BY luke james 

Marijuana plays second fiddle to only alcohol and tobacco 

when it comes to what people think of when the phrase 

"recreational drug" is mentioned in conversation. Let’s be 

honest, most of you reading this have either tried it, or plan 

on trying it at some point. But what if you didn’t need to get 

it off your mate who has a friend who knows a guy? What if, 

just like buying your first six pack, you could just get it over 

the counter? What if it was legalised? 

To explore this hypothetical why don’t we take the example 

of the first state in America where it actually was legalised 

– Colorado. In January 2014, Colorado became the first state 

to allow the sale of cannabis for recreational use to anyone 

aged 21 or older, and more than a year on, the effects of this 

move have begun to show. At least 14 Colorado children, aged 

three to seven, were sent to hospitals in the first half of 2014 

for accidentally ingesting marijuana products – as opposed 

to 4 in the last three years. Whilst this figure may seem a 

minute problem, it highlights a bigger issue surrounding 

legalisation, the way marijuana is perceived will change. 

Legalisation brings marijuana into the same realm as 

alcohol and tobacco, and hence the stigma surrounding it 

currently will vanish. Underage drinking and smoking runs 

rampant in our schools and universities, adding marijuana 

to that mix doesn’t sound like a genius idea to even the most 

liberal of policy makers. Marijuana is also, like tobacco and 

alcohol, a gateway drug to worse things – like cocaine and 

synthetic party drugs, which are, without question, very, very 

bad things. Legitimising marijuana, as anyone can intuitively 

perceive, simply widens the gateway to this next level of 

recreational drug use. 

But let’s forget that for a second, why don’t we look at 

this from a purely economic perspective? Arguments about 

legalizing marijuana tend to contain a lot of dollar signs. 

Proponents point to higher tax revenues, "pot tourism," and 

lower law enforcement costs. Fair enough, if it wasn’t illegal, 

there wouldn’t be any need to arrest someone for smoking a 

joint, and I know Amsterdam is a popular tourist destination, 

and that’s only partly due to the stunning architecture. As 

an economics student I am inclined to say - go ahead and 

"Legitimising marijuana, 

as anyone can intuitively 

perceive, simply widens the 

gateway to this next level of 

recreational drug use." 

legalize marijuana as long as the expected net benefit of 

doing so is positive, but before you go off thinking "yay! 

Economics says yes!" consider the flipside. Opponents’ 

arguments against legalisation are just as strong, two of 

the major ones being that medical costs will go up, and 

workplace productivity will go down. This too, makes intuitive 

sense, as high people are clumsy people, just like like drunk 

people, and if Bradley Cooper had been smoking weed in 

"Limitless", that movie probably wouldn’t have been called 

that – for obvious reasons. 

So to legalise or not to legalise? I put the question to you, 

the reader, but before you answer let me leave you with a 

quote from the current governor of Colorado, a year on after 

his state voted in favour of legalisation – "If I could’ve waved 

a wand the day after the election, I would’ve reversed the 

election and said, this was a bad idea."

14 

POLITICS 

BY cassie spry 

How Sexism Saved Lesbians 

From Boston marriages to Nazi Germany, throughout history, 

there have been instances where prejudice against women 

has helped lesbians and bisexual women. 

With a recent study showing reduced explicit and implicit 

bias against gays and lesbians in the last few years (despite 

the Australian marriage equality campaign hitting a road 

block) it’s interesting to look back on how far we have come. 

And one intriguing facet of this evaluation is how women who 

love women were often saved from some of the homophobia 

that gay men faced. 

The reason? Sexism. Who would have thought that it could 

have had its uses? 

Most people have heard the story of Queen Victoria 

refusing to ban lesbianism in 1885 because she did not think 

it existed. Many people believe that it is a myth, with some 

suggesting that Parliament did not want to draw women’s 

attention to the existence of lesbianism. Either way, it meant 

that lesbians were not persecuted in the same way that 

homosexual men were. 

Those 1885 amendments were so famous in their 

persecution of homosexual men that it became known as 

‘The Blackmailer’s Charter’ and was used to send Oscar Wilde 

to prison in 1895 with hundreds of other gay men following. 

However before this Charter, anal sex had been punishable by 

death since 1533. 

At the same time, it was common thought that women had 

no libido or sexual desire, but were simply passive players 

who had to dutifully endure sex solely for the creation of 

children. 

The idea of purity was obviously a harmful concept to 

women with the idea of virginity and slut-shaming still 

impacting women today. Hymen reconstruction surgery 

is currently in high demand, particularly in third world 

countries where virginity is still often a requirement for 

marriage. 

The unexpected upside to this damaging idea that only 

a man’s penis could affect the worth of a woman and that 

women never initiated (or enjoyed) sexual encounters 

themselves, was that two women could live together with 

people believing they were only close friends. 

This became known as a Boston Marriage. Two women 

could live together, even sleep in the same bed, and it 

was assumed that they were straight and would never do 

anything sexual with each other. 

Unfortunately, this was only an option for wealthy women 

– mainly those who had inherited money or those few who 

managed to have a career. 

These women often also faced some taunts and 

discrimination for being spinsters, but for some, it was worth 

it. 

Conservatives in pre-World War II Germany also believed 

in the passive role of women, considering them to be both 

inferior to and dependent on men. 

And, as lesbians could still fulfil their ‘duty’ of producing 

more Aryan children, they were still able to be as beneficial as 

a woman could be to Germany. 

During the Second World War, lesbians were persecuted by 

Nazis to a lesser extent than gay men. When they were sent 

to concentration camps, they generally were not imprisoned 

simply for their sexuality, but for being part of another 

targeted group also. They did not have to wear the pink 

triangle either, which was reserved for homosexual men. 

Legally, sexual acts between women were not against the 

law before or during the war, but the Nazi Party spend a lot 

of effort shutting down safe spaces for lesbians and lesbian 

media; such as the journal die Freundin (Girlfriend). 

Many lesbians married men in order to protect their safety 

or because Nazi restrictions of women’s careers meant they 

could not financially support themselves. 

Sexism – in this instance, the belief that women were less 

valuable than men – protected lesbians, as they were not 

hunted and killed to the same extent as homosexual men. 

In the Middle East where homosexuality is still punishable by 

death in many countries, there are still ways in which the law 

favours lesbians. 

In Iran, for example, male homosexuals face execution 

after only one conviction; whereas, lesbian sex is punishable 

by 100 lashes with the death penalty being imposed only after 

the fourth sentence. 

While the law is based on mainstream views, it also helps 

to maintain the status quo. It is much harder for queer people 

to gain acceptance when laws that are meant to protect you 

are used to persecute you. 

It was not until 1997 that homosexuality was 

decriminalised in the last Australian state. This meant that 

the law discriminated against queer people, which meant 

that people felt more justified in their own discriminatory 

beliefs and behaviours. 

While changing discriminatory laws won’t change a 

nation’s view overnight, it will help to alter popular mindset. 

In the West, there are many homophobes who hate gay men, 

but are fine with lesbians because they get turned on by girl 

on girl porn. 

While this may seem like a victory for lesbians who may

POLITICS 15 

"Sexism – in this instance, the belief that women were 

less valuable than men – protected lesbians, as they were 

not hunted and killed to the same extent as homosexual 

men. 

In the Middle East where homosexuality is still punishable 

by death in many countries, there are still ways in which 

the law favours lesbians." 

not have to face quite as many homophobic rants or slurs, 

the discrimination that queer women face is insidious. 

Female couples are yelled at to kiss and leered at if they 

display any sign of public affection. The importance of their 

relationships is often downplayed by people who assume 

that it is less significant because no men are involved. 

The fetishisation of queer women’s relationships is a huge 

issue in our society with lesbian porn being a huge industry. 

This spreads the sexist idea that has been around for 

centuries that women are passive in sexual relationships 

with everything being done for the man’s pleasure. 

In 2014, "lesbian" was the second most searched for term 

on Pornhub. While queer women also use this site and 

contributed to the statistics, it is a male-dominated website 

and thus it is predominantly males who make up lesbian 

porn watchers. 

We should not necessarily condemn anyone who enjoys 

girl/girl porn, but it is important to analyse the effect this has 

on queer women. 

In the past, queer women weren’t thought to exist or to 

matter because a man wasn’t present in the relationship; 

now, when two women kiss, it’s thought that they are trying 

to interest a man. 

And some straight women also buy into this idea. They 

believe that they should kiss a girl they are not attracted to in 

order to impress or turn on their boyfriend. 

While this is not the worst thing (experimenting with your 

sexuality definitely helps many people better understand 

themselves and their attractions), it does cheapen women’s 

relationships by encouraging the idea that women are meant 

to please men, even in relationships that do not involve them. 

Queer women experience sexism in a different way to straight 

women and experiences of homophobia are different for 

queer women and men. Sexism plays into the queerphobic 

discrimination faced by queer women and both forms 

of prejudice feed each other, strengthening the hatred, 

ignorance, and negative actions. 

In Australia, lesbian couples are much more likely to have 

children living with them (22%) than gay men (3%) with the 

children being from either previous relationships, adoption, 

IVF or other situations. 

However, it is still hard for same-sex couples to adopt, even 

in Australia (in Victoria, only heterosexual couples and single 

parents can adopt). 

Many gay parents look at international adoption, but sadly, 

they are often disqualified as being substandard parents. 

While these nations strongly believe women are innately 

nurturing mothers, they value the family structure more. 

So although sexism has had its benefits in helping lesbians 

in the past, it is not the way of the future. 

These sexist views hurt gay men by meaning they have 

often received the more violent forms of discrimination, 

and they hurt lesbians by popularising the belief that their 

relationships are not worth as much without any men. 

Hopefully with the recent study showing explicit bias against 

homosexuals falling 26% from 2006 to 2013, we can look 

forward to more acceptance for all queer people and an end 

to misogynistic ideas about lesbians.

16 

POLITICS 

BY henry kerstens 


If Netflix’s House of Cards taught me anything, it has taught 

me that American politics can be bought. Flexible campaignfunding 

regulations, an abundance of pliable candidates and 

an intoxicating cash-rules-everything attitude makes for 

the perfect breeding ground for money and power. Since the 

landmark case of Citizens United v FEC, corporate donations 

are now considered a legitimate expression of ‘free speech’ 

under the First Amendment. It’s leveraged on both sides of 

the political playhouse (Obama’s presidential campaign cost 

just shy of $750 million), and promises to become only more 

endemic as the public and private sectors further align. 

In every way, Donald Trump’s recent presidential bid 

is this process taken to its logical conclusion. When the 

system allows for multinationals and their billionaire CEO’s 

to purchase political access, it is inevitable that someone 

would eventually stop paying the candidate and actually 

become one. It’s business after all, and the middlemen 

only add extra costs and increase margin for error. Now, 

this would be funny if it wasn’t scary. In a competitive 

Republican field this year containing five Governors, three 

Senators and a Neurosurgeon, ‘The Donald’ currently has 

overwhelming support from 24% of registered Republican 

voters. That’s more than second placed Jeb Bush (13%) 

and third placed Ben Carson (8%) combined, and equates 

to roughly 12 million American voters. By any political 

sensitivity, that’s a distressing amount of people backing 

the sometimes-businessman, mostly reality TV star and 

never-before politician into assuming leadership of the Free 

World. His ‘policies’ make it scarier. On tackling the divisive 

Mexican immigration issue, Trump proposes building a "big, 

beautiful, powerful wall" and deporting children born on U.S 

soil to undocumented parents back across it. On reviving 

the tattered economy, the man most well known for saying 

‘you’re fired!’ pledges to be - without further specification - 

"the greatest jobs president that God has ever created". And, 

on foreign affairs, Trump warned China - U.S’s second largest 

trading partner - that if he got in "the poor Chinese" would 

"be in trouble" because of how "they’re ripping [America] off". 

It’s a political campaign that Frank Underwood couldn’t even 

persuade you to get behind. Yet, even when it’s gift-wrapped 

in Trump’s shameless self-aggrandisement and dripping 

with corporate agendas, he’s somehow convinced one 

quarter of the Republican demographic that it’s the right way 

forward. 

Admittedly, our representatives aren’t always exemplars 

of the high-quality leadership expected from the democratic 

process and, in fact, are probably more often that not 

reminders of the Abbott-solute opposite. But, while our 

parliament does shelter the bombastic political ideologies 

of personalities like Palmer and Lambie, they’re generally 

relegated to the political fringe and rarely placed in the 

meaningful political spotlight. Their straight talk on hotbutton 

issues is similar to Trump in substance and delivery, 

but thankfully, distinct in terms of widespread public 

support and credibility. Although public disillusionment with 

our politicians feels as alive as ever, surely ‘Prime Minister’ 

and ‘Palmer’ are two words that could only be used in the 

same sentence comically, and never politically straightfaced. 

It seems then that while our ‘worst’ says something about 

the reckless political periphery of our system, America’s 

implore that there is something deficient at the heart. 

Trump’s status as frontrunner exemplifies that when a 

system is jacked by unmitigated corporate congestion, name 

recognition and shock value can go so far in winning the 

race. What’s left behind are the politics. More than anything, 

this theme has plagued the presidential debates so far, with 

Obama even critical of it’s proceedings as not "conducive 

to good politics or good policy". Trump’s propensity for fear 

mongering, his reliance on ideological rhetoric and displays 

of tacky showmanship hollows the quality of political 

dialogue for the nation. When the playing field is injected 

with such venom, opponents are forced to consider, rebut 

and thus potentially validate positions that should have no 

place in the modern political landscape. 

That being said, most pundits will tell you that despite a 

convincing lead in the polls, Donald is just blowing his own 

Trumpet when he speaks of imminent presidential glory. 

Surely, for a man so susceptible to media gaffes the lengthy 

presidential battle presents too many opportunities for 

misadventure for him to survive. 

But, at least for now, Trump’s ascent demands the need 

for discussion: discussion of not just what is misguiding 

the priorities of American voters, but of how such priorities 

could devalue the political process so important in setting 

the standards for public debate in democratic countries. 

Trump, in every way you wouldn’t want to, indulges the House 

of Cards devotee in all of us. He reminds us not just of the 

depravity underpinning politics, but of Underwood’s own 

grave philosophy that although "power’s more important 

than money; when it comes to elections money gives power, 

well, a run for its money". 

Image courtesy of 

www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore

17 



Articles by 

David Jeffery 

MSA Indigenous Department 

Carina Florea, Jessie Crossman, 

Timothy Newport & Rosie Boyle 

Elspeth Kernebone 

Melodee Ried 

Student Affairs Editors

18 

STUDENT AFFAIRS 

By David Jeffery 

An Aussie Bloke in Bergen 

In the penultimate year of my Arts degree at Monash (while I was 

still eligible for funding and a very attractive OS HELP Loan) I 

applied for a semester of study aboard at the University of Bergen 

in Norway. These are the accounts of my seamless integration into 

Nordic life i.e. finding a job, room to rent and hiking. 

Broke ass bitch 

I have recently arrived in Bergen after haggling my way 

onto the train from Oslo to Bergen; the conductor was nicer 

than I anticipated. "If anyone asks you to move it’s because 

you’re sitting in their seat, we’re fully booked". To stay-put in 

someone else’s seat I pretended to be asleep for the 7-hour 

journey, which was a shame because this route is noted as 

one of the most scenic in Europe. 

Three weeks interning in London and a month glampacking 

through Western Europe had left me with just over a 

thousand Australian dollars (which in Norway will buy you a 

couple of beers, dinner and a week at the YMCA). It was time 

to find a job. 

I was optimistic about my chances of finding a job 

speaking English. A friend had told me "Everyone speaks 

English in Norway". I wore my best ‘go-getter’ outfit and 

canvassed the city with my CV. On my fifth day in Bergen 

I had a trial shift at a bar called Hem, which translates 

to Home in English. It was perfect. Hem used to be Café 

Hollywood, a magnet for Mods and political activists in the 

80’s. Today it is a lounge bar with a retro interior that serves 

craft beers, cocktails and the best Lapskaus you will ever 

eat. It is located smack bang in the middle of the theatre 

district. I was exotic, Norwegians love Australians, which is 

something I am still trying to understand. A weekend of work 

left me with enough tips to maintain my glamorous lifestyle. 

Within no time I was going out for breakfast and had my 

bottom on a seat watching the new Woody Allen film.

STUDENT AFFAIRS 19 

Better homes and ghettos 

Opting out for student housing I had no option but to book 

myself into the tragically decorated hostel the ‘Piano Hostel’. 

If you ever find yourself in Bergen, don’t do it to yourself (see 

image above). 

In my month of house hunting I had checked-in to every 

hostel in Bergen. I got used to sleeping in a room with 16+ 

people. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to sleep alone from hereon 

in. The rental market over here is interesting. Rooms for 

rent range from creatively converted (some with bed sheets 

for dividing walls) lounge rooms to 11 person wooden share 

houses. Private landlords exist with one purpose; to totally 

exploit international students. At one inspection the landlord 

sat me down man-to-man, and said "Good news is, its 

available now... Bad news is, it could be bigger". I examined 

the room and tried to think of how I would fit a single 

mattress in this hallway come bedroom. I saw the walls and 

asked, "Is that asbestos?" he replied, "What is that word? I 

have never heard it in my life, all the walls are like this in 

Norway..." I decided not to sign the 3-year lease written only in 

Norwegian. 

I posted on the university’s version of Gumtree and found 

a room that ticked all the boxes. I am living on Nygårdsgaten 

(which is like the Footscray of Bergen, but 150 meters from 

the university) with three flat mates, a Swede that works 

for IKEA, an Indian IT Technician for the university and a 

Norwegian extreme sports athlete; it’s fantastic. 

Faffing about in the Fjords 

This semester I’m taking Social Anthropology and Geography 

units centered on climate change and international 

development. To avoid any uncomfortable conversations on 

the carbon tax, Australian foreign aid or current immigration 

policies I will revisit ATS1091: Introductory German and take up 

an alter ego for the seminars. 

Before commencing my studies I’ve been riding the 

Fløibanen up to Mt Fløyen and pretending to hike alongside 

hundreds of American tourists. Seven fjords surround the 

city so hiking is naturally a common pastime. My first hike 

was prompted by a friend who asked me whether I would like 

to go for a walk. I expected it would be a round-trip to the 7 

Eleven. I was totally unprepared and returned seven hours 

later exhausted with sore feet. 

All pessimism aside, this has been the most phenomenal 

experience and I would encourage anyone to apply for 

student exchange in Bergen.

20 


By MSA Indigenous Department 

Constitutional Recognition of 

Indigenous Australians 

Constitutional Recognition – The campaign to "Recognise" 

Indigenous people in the Australian Constitution. It’s what sounds 

like the feel good simple solution for that one problem we can’t 

really be bothered to talk about unless they’re playing sport... 

Indigenous people. 

This semester our MSA Indigenous department aims to 

enlighten you on the yes, no and ‘meh’ cases where our 

current Indigenous rights discussion sits. If you’ve been 

paying attention to the news, AFL, Facebook suggested 

pages or Corporate Partnership Advertising, you will notice 

the campaign for Constitutional recognition is everywhere. 

If you don’t subscribe to the said mentioned channels or 

just mentally blocked them out because you’re fed up with 

the world of symbolic internet activism, you may have some 

questions. In that case, good! We are here to help. 

So what is Recognise? It is the federally funded campaign 

to acknowledge Indigenous people in our constitution as well 

as remove racist outdated sections of the document and 

potentially ban racial discrimination at a constitutional level. 

The movement, with its glowing ‘R’ graphic logo, has travelled 

along the backburner throughout the Howard, Rudd, Gillard, 

Rudd and now Abbott governments, waiting for its politically 

opportune moment to be called to a referendum. 

So first off, a few FAQs and myths about the campaign 

need to be dispelled before we have any rational discussion 

and debate on the topic. Remember this year when our 

national Indigenous Reconciliation and NAIDOC weeks were 

dominated by media coverage of people booing a guy with an 

imaginary spear? In that very same week, do you remember 

when reports of sky rocketing indigenous incarceration rates 

came out and received only a blip of mainstream media 

coverage? In light of this, imagine how hard it would be to 

have a genuine discussion about Indigenous sovereignty 

and rights. Something you may have also noticed in the 

Indigenous rights debate is that the conversation on the 

whole has lost it’s shape in the last decade; the Indigenous 

voice on the whole has been defunded, dismantled, silenced 

and generally confused with no real platform for intelligent 

discussion or leadership. 

So lets start that discussion. 

1— There’s no final wording, yet: With only a tentativeless 

than likely-2017 date for a referendum, currently 

constitutional recognition is just graphically designed logos, 

stickers and notions of positive things. The final proposed 

words to go into the constitution are yet to be announced 

and with good reason; this is an incredibly contentious legal 

argument that this country has avoided for over 200 years, 

so we are in a the grace period right now where our political 

leaders can look good by politely supporting this feel good 

notion before their respective parties get to reveal any real 

positions. 

2— It’s nothing new: The idea for constitutional recognition 

has travelled along since the 1967 referendum on the 

discriminatory elements of the constitution; so don’t 

automatically write it off because of the current woeful 

downward spiral of unscripted government slip ups. Keep in 

mind that this is the only Indigenous rights item currently 

being discussed, as all of our best efforts to close the gap 

continue to fail due to both sides of successive government 

policy. 

3— Is this a Government administered symbolic political 

band aid on our country’s history? Well, yes and no. The 

campaign has been crafted by some of country’s most 

respected senior Indigenous leaders with the full intent to 

reshape our national identity by slowly walking away from 

our racist past towards a respectful future. However the 

campaign is touted as holding the potential to open new 

doors and hold new conversations towards a better future 

and is a stepping stone to greater achievements. Regardless 

of how you word the symbolic synonym stairway to change 

the campaign is no different to any other band aid applied on 

our nation’s history. It’s the cultural equivalent of addressing 

climate change by planting some trees. 

4— It is the right thing to do? In theory, the right thing 

would be to sign a treaty with our traditional owners before 

we even create a constitution. However 200 years later we are 

stuck in this grey area where Indigenous people never ceded 

sovereignty and regardless of this, the country of Australia 

was established by ignoring them, therefore, anything we 

do from here will not exactly be the ‘right thing’ and any 

next step will always have to acknowledge this fact when 

determining what is right and what is fair. 

5— Recognise’s billion-dollar campaign. Amidst the outrage 

of federal cuts to Indigenous health and legal aide, Recognise


"The movement, has travelled along the backburner 

throughout the Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Rudd and 

now Abbott governments, waiting for its politically 

opportune moment to be called to a referendum." 

has copped flack for receiving funding to promote their 

campaign. Under the Abbott government, the campaign has 

hit a real downturn of support with the prime minster himself 

professing his commitment to the cause whilst at the same 

time continuously requesting that Indigenous Australians 

drop their "unsettled" "lifestyle choices" to assimilate. The 

campaign itself has only been given 10-15 million dollars 

since 2013 to get the ball rolling in the promotion of raising 

awareness, which does sound like a lot. So where does that 

money go? Consider that Harvey Norman spends an upwards 

of 50 million dollars each year in marketing to inform you 

on retail products, and a 30 second beer commercial at the 

super bowl costs 4 million dollars. In comparison to these 

figures, a 10-15 million dollar campaign with a handful of 

staff tasked with educating an entire country on some pretty 

complex constitutional issues doesn’t seem like very much 

at all. 

6— And what about the bigger picture of a treaty between 

Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians? Well this 

proposal definitely isn’t a treaty, well not the kind that 

Mandawuy Yunupingu sung about. Additionally, it doesn’t 

negate any future rights to treaty. The process towards 

recognition is not necessarily the course of action you would 

take towards signing a treaty. If we were to establish a 

binding agreement, it would be more logical for you to hold a 

discussion for a treaty. The fact that recognition is the only 

discussion being had right now in the mainstream political 

sphere does give the impression that this may well be just 

a step towards assimilation as opposed to negotiation 

with substantial change being made for Indigenous people, 

however we can only speculate and be active in the campaign 

to ensure this does not occur. 

following day we will be holding a "BBQ referendum" on the 

matter for everyone to have their say. 

The Constitutional Recognition Forum will be held 

in building 15 Ancora Way, in room L3 on the 14th of 

September from 12pm -1:30pm, with speakers from 

Monash University, and advocacy groups: ANTAR and 

Reconciliation Victoria. 

The MSA Indigenous department BBQ referendum will be 

held on the 15th of September from 12pm-1 out front the 

Indigenous Centre (bus loop) and the BBQ will be available 

from 12pm-2pm on the Menzies lawn. Come by for a free 

sausage sizzle and cast your vote. 

So how do you make an informed vote of either ‘Yes’ or 

‘No’? You may even be wondering whether you should 

even be making an informed vote on issues that belong to 

Indigenous people. Come to the MSA Indigenous department 

Constitutional Recognition Forum in Week 8 and any of these 

kinds of questions will be discussed and answered. The

22 


Winter Festival 

We students of Monash University are accustomed to random 

buildings popping up over night, however it came as much of a shock 

when what seemed to be a wooden winter wonderland emerged at 

the foot of the campus centre out of no where. 

It was this sudden construction that marked the beginning 

of the very first Winterfestival. The festival, attracting a crowd 

of 15,000 and involving the help of 100 student volunteers, 

entailed snow fights, film screenings, fire twirling and 

performances by the renowned musicians and comedians. 

Following the tradition of the late Short Courses Centre, 

which tragically disappeared at some point during 2014, the 

Chalet also ceased to be after the festival’s end. Rumours has 

since emerged that Clive Palmer has purchased it and it is 

now being used as a cubby house for his children. 

Snow Party 

By Jessie Crossman 

This year’s Winterfest could not have taken place at a 

more appropriate time. On the night of the Snow Party, 

temperatures in the Lemon-Scented Lawn hovered just 

above freezing and far below comfortable. You could imagine 

the mixture of fear and awe felt by attendees when they 

encountered the few people that had decided to go to the 

Snow Party wearing only a tutu and leggings, and sometimes 

– if they were feeling slightly chilly – a leotard. 

The Chalet, the largest and loudest, was filled comfortably 

with dancers, the occasional phone-checker, and 

conversationalists battling the music to be heard. Organizers 

also set up an inflatable igloo filled with manufactured snow. 

The igloo also housed a large-scale snow fight that involved 

missiles of compacted ice being shot around at participants. 

The people who stayed in the snow fight were playing for 

keeps, which was felt by this writer and her friend when a 

snowball rebounded so hard off the back of the friend’s head 

it caught the writer full in the face. It was awesome, but stung 

for a few minutes afterwards. 

Snow Party 2015 was a fantastic night out, and hopefully it 

returns again for next year’s Winterfest. 

Winter Blues 

By Carina Florea 

The first night of Winterfest opened with a wide selection 

of food trucks and music on display as Monash lit up with 

fairy lights and the warm, inviting glow of The Chalet. This 

set the scene for the night’s fantastic line up of blues and 

jazz artists featuring Movement 9, Clare Bowditch and The 

Black Sorrows. Reworking the music of Amy Winehouse in 

their own twisted way, Movement 9 recreated popular songs 

such as ‘Valerie’, ‘In my bed’ and ‘What is it about men’ 

giving us a taste of their new EP ‘May we never meet again: 

The music of Amy Winehouse’. The night continued with 

a lively performance by ARIA award winner and Offspring 

star, Clare Bowditch. Stripped down from her usual 12 piece 

band, Bowditch was joined on stage by long-time friend and 

collaborator, Monique Donatina on piano. To finish the night, 

The Black Sorrows took to the stage to deliver an energy 

packed set that got people up and dancing in the Chalet.


Friday Night Freeze 


Comedy Night 

By Timothy Newport 

After spending the week showcasing talented musicians, 

artists and comedians while also throwing the occasional 

snowball here and there, Monash’s inaugural WinterFest 

celebrations came to an end with Friday night fireworks and 

fire twirlers. 

The appropriately named ‘Friday Night Freeze’ celebrations 

got people moving and jumping with a dodge ball style 

snowball competition, toboggan slope and bubble soccer. 

Meanwhile, the braver souls among us took the ice slide 

challenge to help raise funds for motor neuron disease (MND). 

It was a packed Chalet for Thursday’s comedy night, and 

if we were cold outside, the stellar talent warmed us up 

quickly. Our MC was Nova’s Tommy Little, who was lost for 

words when the two audience members he asked the majors 

of answered "genetic engineering" and "neurotechnology." 

Following him was local talent Naomi Higgins, whom Tommy 

Little introduced as being "So good, I’m embarrassed to 

be stealing the spotlight from her." With rapid-fire jabs at 

sexist internet idiots, she slayed with a verbatim reading 

of the "Nice Guys" Facebook group. Following her was fellow 

student David Rose, who didn’t let anyone get a breath in 

with his commentary on the tokenism of "Sorry Day." Finally, 

the headliner Nazeem Hussain destroyed us with his tales of 

being treated to dinner... by ASIO. 

MidWinter Carnival 

By Timothy Newport 

A merry night of hot food, snowmen, and movies about 

snowmen. The MidWinter Carnival was a roaring success, 

with hundreds of people showing up to try some of the 

amazing food from the wide variety of speciality stalls. The 

main event was, of course, the 6pm screening of Frozen, 

bringing children and slightly drunk students alike to the 

amazing Chalet cinema. Anna and Elsa also showed up for 

photos, while throughout the night there was also some ice 

sculpting and a snowball fight in the inflatable igloo next 

door. The night wrapped up with a 9pm screening of the Coen 

classic Fargo, drawing the older and colder crowd. 

Monash Academy Orchestra 

By Rosie Boyle 

Recently I spent a couple of Sunday hours at Monash, 

watching opera. As someone who isn’t very into theatre, likes 

classical music, but never felt drawn to opera, I didn’t know 

what to expect. In fact, I knew very little about the production 

until just before. 

Prior to the main event, we had a treat in the form of 

excerpts from the Hary Janos Suite – short and glorious 

samples of music by Zoltan Kodaly. Then we had Thomas 

Reiner’s Lacan: Ein Lehrstuck, an ‘educational’ piece on 

the works of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. The 

stunningly powerful soprano Jessica Aszodi took us through 

Lacan’s ideas about our world: The Symbolic, the Imaginary, 

and the Real, accompanied by pieces I recognized, and some 

that were new. 

Famous names were there on stage: Deborah Humble, in 

the role of Judith, and Warwick Fyfe in the devilish, Gothic 

Duke Bluebeard. They both enthralled me with their presence, 

and it felt like stealing to bask in such talent for free. 

If you’re new to opera or classical music, the concerts, 

plays or performance art put on by Monash Academy of 

Performing Arts are a great introduction. You don’t have to 

be a theatre buff to go along and have a great experience. 

There’s no pressure to dress up, the sessions are a great 

length, and several of them – including special rarities such 

as Bluebeard’s Castle – are FREE!

24 


By ELSPETH KERNEBONE 

Parking on Campus 

Photographs of the Menzies building under construction in 

1964 show it surrounded by scrubby grass, with VW Beetles, 

Ford Falcons and the like, drawn right up to the edge of the 

scaffolding. An almost unaltered Campus Centre is the only 

building nearby. Despite the cars and machinery, in no photo 

is any person in sight. To a student used to the jumble of 

smaller buildings backgrounding Menzies, it feels stark 

and bare. With over 25,000 students currently enrolled on 

Clayton campus, drawing your classic tinny Beetle up to 

H6 is obviously no longer practical. Aptly, however, Monash 

was, in the words of historian Graeme Davison, Australia’s 

first, "drive-in university." Founded in 1961, it was planned 

and built in the boom time of Melbourne’s car based Eastern 

suburbs. However in 2015, we no longer live in the glory days 

of consumption and consumerism. We face global warming, 

high petrol prices and an obesity crisis; that many of us live 

in suburbs where the infrastructure is designed for cars is 

no longer a sign of our nation’s economic prosperity, it’s a 

burden. 

Monash was designed to be accessed by car. That’s not to 

say we shouldn’t use sustainable transport options where 

we can; where possible, it is of course ideal to use buses, 

trains, bikes or to walk. I am lucky enough to live a ten 

minute walk from a bus that takes me directly to Clayton 

campus, however many friends of mine, even those living in 

the same suburb, are not so lucky. Melbourne’s bus coverage 

is patchy, routes are limited, services often run infrequently 

and connections are unreliable. So, while Monash does 

boast an impressive number of buses stopping on campus, 

they are just not a practical option for many students. 

Nor are trains; while the 601 bus frequently connects with 

Huntingdale station, the Cranbourne Pakenham line only 

covers the Southern suburbs. Walking and cycling have clear 

geographic limitations. By anyone’s estimations, Monash 

is hard to get to. Thus, while car parking is one of the most 

boring issues imaginable, like filing a tax return, it matters 

for many Monash students. 

Parking at Monash is indisputably expensive. Full year Blue 

Permits for Clayton campus cost $389 this year. Over the two, 

twelve week semesters, for a student who comes to campus 

five days a week, that’s $3.20 per day; four days a week, $4.10 

per day; three days, $5.40 per day; two days, $8.10 per day; 

after which point it becomes cheaper to pay the $8.50 per day 

for parking in the N1 and SE3 parking areas. 

A $389 parking permit would, you hope, guarantee the 

holder a parking spot. However, at the end of Semester 1, 

in the name of improvements to infrastructure and the 

construction of the Monash College learning village, all 

blue permit parking was removed from the South West 2 

car park. The upper level of the South East 4 multi-level was 

converted from carpool parking to blue permit parking. The 

parking above the synchrotron, on the corner of Wellington 

and Blackburn roads is now blue permit and carpool parking. 

Previously, carpooling was moved from the centre of campus 

to make way for the construction of new halls of residence. 

Monash’s assurance, in one of its innumerable emails, that 

more than 1000 new parking spaces will be provided during 

2016, is presumably little comfort to those who have been 

unable to find a park on campus this semester. 

The carpark above the synchrotron, housing some blue 

parking spaces and carpooling, is 1.2 kilometres from the 

Menzies building. This is a healthy fifteen minutes’ walk to 

campus for most Arts, Education, Law and Music students. 

For anyone whose classes are in the Science and Engineering 

area of campus, it is 1.7 kilometres from the synchrotron to 

the Hargrave Andrew Library, that’s a twenty-two minute 

walk. This means that a student who, at the start of 2015 paid 

$389 for their blue parking permit, could be forced to park 

as much as a twenty-five minutes’ walk from their eventual 

destination. 

If Monash could demonstrate that its parking prices were 

high to encourage students to use sustainable forms of 

transport, honestly, I would support that. Carpooling solves 

many of the problems students face getting to uni and 

Monash should be encouraging it. Monash’s marginalisation 

of carpooling, however, and its failure to provide parking 

spaces even for those who have a permit suggests that the 

university’s main interest lies in maximising its revenue, not 

in encouraging sustainable transport.


University administrators to 

demolish Wholefoods stairs 

On behalf of the Wholefoods Collective 

By Melodee Ried 

As you are hopefully aware, Monash Wholefoods is a 

collective and student-run food cooperative on level one 

of the campus centre. It’s been around since 1977, serving 

students cheap and healthy food, as well as being a 

supportive and inclusive community. 

Earlier this semester the Wholefoods Collective found 

out that the Monash administrators were planning on 

demolishing our balcony stairs without consulting us. Once 

these plans were confirmed by anonymous sources, we 

began emailing Monash’s admin to air our concerns. 

These balcony stairs are our main exit in case of 

emergency. Our only other feasible exit directs students 

back into the campus centre; a situation which would create 

a massive bottleneck, in the event of an emergency and 

even just during busy lunch periods. Wholefoods gets really 

crowded around lunch time, and as such the collective is 

worried that without these stairs Wholefoods-goers will be 

denied adequate safety measures because of the university’s 

decisions. 

The stairs are also a main factor in the accessibility and 

visibility of Wholefoods. As the restaurant is on the top level 

of the campus centre and buried away at one end, it can be 

hard for newcomers to find us. These stairs help to point 

us out and massively contribute to Wholefoods being a 

convenient eatery and place to hang out on campus. 

Despite the significant merits of the stairs, university 

admin has thus far rejected our concerns and suggestions 

to consider alternative development plans. Members of the 

Wholefoods Collective recently met with relevant members 

of the Monash admin to ‘negotiate’ this development plan. 

They accused us of ‘holding up’ the architect who would 

refurbish our balcony in exchange for demolishing our stairs. 

We were not comfortable discussing the refurbishment as 

doing so would be submitting to the demolition without 

them acknowledging the adverse impacts Wholefoods would 

face as a result. The collective was frustrated by this meeting 

as the Monash admin flat out refused to acknowledge 

that the removal of the stairs would be any form of loss for 

Wholefoods. They suggested we make use of hidden-away 

stairs that connect to the balcony from behind our couches 

and go through to the basement. This was presented as a way 

of making ‘finding Wholefoods’ into some sort of a game! 

We did not receive this well, as we feel that convenience is a 

significant and legitimate factor for students and hiddenaway 

stairs would only make Wholefoods inaccessible. 

We asked the admin if they’d considered any alternative 

development plans that did not involve removing our 

stairs and were literally answered with a Tony Abbott-esque 

pause followed by a suspicious "I don’t know". This was 

disappointing, as was the research referenced by those at 

the meeting who claim their development would ease foot 

traffic congestion underneath Wholefoods. When a collective 

member suggested that the true interest for the development 

is to make profit from rent, the admin dismissed it and 

pressed that they were refraining from making this a 

‘political issue’ and were holding back likewise political 

comments about how we are a collective and student-run. 

The admin’s plans involve demolishing our stairs, 

expanding the northern ground level portion of the 

campus centre and constructing a 7m wide glass canopy 

to accommodate retail spaces. As a general rule, the 

collective is not opposed to developments that may benefit 

students. That said, we do not accept that reducing the 

safety and accessibility of a student space is worth the 

gains from extravagantly increasing retail space on campus. 

Additionally, we do not think that it is necessary to remove 

our stairs in order to provide more food choices for students. 

We admit that the stairs are quite large, but we believe that if 

it was in the admin’s interests they could find another design 

that would have accommodated existing student groups on 

campus. 

The Wholefoods Collective is still trying to negotiate with 

university admin before they attain a building permit. 

The Collective has a petition to show that students are 

supportive of Wholefoods’ opposition to the proposal. 

To sign online head to https:// 

www.change.org/p/monashuniversity-administration-consideralternative-development-plansprovide-us-with-relevant-safetydocuments-and-meaningfullyinclude-us-in-any-decisions-thatwill-impact-on-our-community 

or 

sign the hard copy in Wholefoods. 

Melodee Ried is a member of the Wholefoods Collective

26 


By the Student Affairs editors 

A guide: 

How to survive 

student elections 

Throughout the ninth week of semester 

two of the academic year, every aspiring 

political leader of tomorrow ventures out 

into campus centre to make their case 

for potential election into their desired 

position. During this week, your lectures 

will be filled by people in coloured t-shirts, 

your favourite coffee spot occupied by 

the discussion of union corruption and 

revolutions and your attempts to exit 

campus will be disabled due to the sheer 

amount of political ‘prop’ littering the 

campus. This is a guide of how to survive 

student elections. We wish all of you 

the highest amount of safety and peace 

throughout the week. 

1— Pack your lunch (avoid campus centre and it’s 

surroundings at all cost). Bring your deep fryers, as this will 

mean making your own peri-peri chips. 

2— Take your ‘I have voted’ sticker to a tattoo parlour and 

have it tattooed onto your forehead. This will help you out for 

many elections to come... 

3— Become a Monash staff member, a postgraduate student 

or apply to graduate before week 9. If this is not possible, at 

least try to acquire a fake Monash staff ID card to produce if 

asked or come up with a ‘thesis topic’ so you can discuss it at 

length in the instance of interrogation. 

4— Say you are a member of the Liberal party and that you are 

a second cousin of Christopher Pyne. This will make the vast 

majority of campaigners run a mile. 

5— Remain in ‘MSA spaces’ such as Sir John’s for the entirety 

of the week (no campaigning is permitted in these areas). You 

probably already spend all of your time in Sir John’s anyway. 

6— Obtain as much unimelb and University of Melbourne 

student union merch, and wear it all at once for the entire week. 

This will undoubtedly mean that you will be the laughing stock 

of Stalkerspace and a general pariah, but hey, no one will want 

to be anywhere near you and you certainly will look ineligible to 

vote. 

7— Use this edition of Lot’s Wife as invisibility properties. 

Use this to cover your face as you briskly approach the 

campus centre. Do be warned that this could lead to walking 

straight into concrete walls. Lot’s Wife and the MSA do not take 

responsibility for any misuse of this illustrious publication. 

8— Just don’t go to uni this week. Election week is is what 

MULO is made for. 

9— Quit whining and appreciate democracy. Go vote, get a sticker.

27 27 

POLITICS 



Articles by 

Alisoun Townsend 

Kate Mani 

Ben Neve 

Emma Simpkin 

Eleanor Albury

28 

SCIENCE & ENGINEERING 

By Alisoun Townsend 

The Conservation Conversation 

I should probably put a disclaimer in here (or many disclaimers?). I am a 

conservation ecology major. Conservation is very close to my heart, borne 

from living with how dynamic and amazing the Earth is. I was raised in a 

small farming community by proudly greenie parents. So yes, Nanny, the 

family does approve of my ‘leftist dealings’. 

The concept of conservation as a stagnant science is well 

founded. In the past, conservation efforts have been intensely 

focused on maintaining whatever species remain and 

reversing the environmental changes after human influence. 

And human influence is acknowledged to be terrible. 

In the Sixth Great Extinction, all sorts of species will become 

extinct. This is due to a range of factors, and human based 

climate change is a significant factor in this. Human 

influence on changing the environment is also a massive 

factor in extinctions. 

But how would do we judge where to return the Earth to? 

Should we aim for its original quality when agriculture was 

first introduced into human society? Before the industrial 

revolution? 50 years ago when our population was smaller? 

This is a difficult question to answer. Also, it must be noted 

that calling for a reduction or halt in population growth 

definitely comes across as xenophobic. Westernised people 

often fear the unknown, and the large population growth in 

periphery countries of the world is an unknown. The entire 

human population is not at fault here. What is at fault is 

the small part of the population that encourages economic 

growth over the health of the planet. Our present society is 

definitely a by-product of this. 

The effort exerted by many scientists and conservationists 

to return the Earth to what it once was, either before humans 

or before human influence reached its worst, is well meaning 

but ultimately a falsely placed energy. Conservationists can 

sometimes come across as preservationists. The Earth is a 

dynamic planet where change is inevitable. Change will occur 

regardless of human influence and returning the Earth to a 

state before change has occurred is missing the point. 

Human influence is what we have to work with now. We 

as young scientists, conservationists and humans must 

be looking towards the future. Trying to reverse what 

humans have done since we began disrupting the natural 

progressions of the Earth would be like trying to stop a sand 

dune from shifting. Instead, we must looks for ways in which 

we can tread lighter on our only home. 

The wider public must be encouraged to understand that 

exerting less pressure on the world is an important factor 

in our survival. Governments must put in place policies that 

favour environmental sustainability over economy for the 

good of current and future populations. 

Food production and agriculture are perhaps the most 

important factors for human survival, but intensive farming 

and intensive agriculture are extremely harmful to the planet. 

Monoculture farms are common, but this does not have to 

be the way for all food producing practises. Most farmers 

understand that sometimes their farming practises can be 

harmful to their land, but the economy must be favoured 

above all else. Because how else will they be able to feed their 

families? 

A society where intensive farming is not used and food 

production is local would be ideal but until farmers are 

allowed to choose their crops and style of production free 

from economic pressures this cannot happen. Sustainable 

agriculture at a more local level should be a priority for 

governments, but instead the current Federal government 

favours export of raw product above sustainability. This 

ultimately means more importing food for Australians. 

Transporting and refrigerating this food all over the world is a 

blatant and rude waste of fossil fuels. 

Some of the most arable land within Australia is being 

lost to the suburban sprawl and to coal mines, such as the 

newly approved Liverpool Plains coal mine. Sustainable 

housing and farming are interconnected. Our population 

needs to reconnect with what our country is able to produce 

as food and fuel. People are too distanced from the reality 

of agriculture by packaged meats and perfect fruit. There 

needs to be a large scale revitalization of our society and 

communities with how we are associated with land, food and 

our changing environment. The government needs to assist 

in this matter. The broad issue feels so much bigger than 

what an individual person, household or business believes 

they can do to help, but it is not. We need to accept human 

influenced climate change and work with the significant 

consequences of our actions. Although the damage we’ve 

done cannot be reversed and the challenges we face feel 

insurmountable, we must start to change as an entire 

population and become more connected with the land.

SCIENCE & ENGINEERING 29 

What’s Up Doc? 

Anna Scovelle’s fascination with sleep has inspired her to research the link 

between sleep and attention, and how this changes with age, at a PhD level. She 

completed a Bachelor of Psychology with Honours at Monash University and has 

given lectures and worked as a tutor for third-year Monash psychology students. 

She is currently Chair of the Psychology Graduate Research Student Executive 

Committee, has presented at interstate conferences and talks regularly about 

her research to older adults through local community organisations. 

by Kate Mani 

Kate Mani: What are you specifically researching in your 

PhD? 

Anna Scovelle: My research is predominantly focused on 

sleep. I’m interested specifically in the role that changes in 

sleep have on attention as people get older. We know that as 

people age, many experience a degree of cognitive decline. 

One of the areas where we see this quite markedly is in 

attention, and attention forms the basis for many cognitive 

functions. I’m having a look at whether we can pinpoint the 

aspects of sleep that are involved in the changes we see in 

attention. Hopefully if we can identify those aspects then 

we’ll be able to develop some targeted sleep intervention to 

improve attention in older adults. 

KM: Are these inventions the goal of your research? 

AS: My research is really hoping to develop the foundations 

for those targeted sleep interventions. I’m not trialling 

an intervention because I’m still trying to establish 

the connections in order to inform those interventions. 

Ultimately I would like to think that my research would go on 

to aid in the development of those interventions. 

KM: As uni students we’re often told we’ll concentrate 

better in lectures after a good night’s sleep! Does your 

research confirm this for us? 

AS: Absolutely! In a way my research relates perfectly to that, 

showing sleep is so important for our ability to sustain our 

attention, when you’re in lectures and when you’re reading 

articles. Also, sleep is really important if you’re preparing for 

exams, cramming your mind full of things during the day. 

Having a good night’s sleep to consolidate all of that learning 

is definitely going to be beneficial. It serves two purposes, 

your daytime function and your consolidation of memory 

overnight. 

KM: How has your research been going since you started 

the PhD? 

AS: It’s been going well. PhDs are, as I’m always learning, full 

of ups and downs, and research never goes completely to 

plan. There have been small changes along the way but I’ve 

been fortunate to be part of a big lab with lots going on where 

I’ve been able to get involved in lots of different things. I’ve 

had a lot of support to help me create a project that I’m really 

interested in, with the resources for me to complete that 

research. 

KM: What advice do you have for future PhD students for 

coping with those ups and downs? 

AS: If you love what you do and you’re really passionate 

about it you can ride the waves. It’s not an easy journey, 

but I know that nothing else would make me as happy as 

doing my research and my PhD and that’s enough to give 

me the determination and motivation to keep going. I think 

if you really follow your passion you can endure whatever 

comes your way. I also think you should make sure you’re 

surrounded by other people doing similar research or 

other post-graduate students who can support you, offer 

their advice and make you feel you’re not alone. Having 

that support from other students is really important in the 

journey. 

KM: Are there ways students can prepare themselves 

before they enter the PhD stage so they have the necessary 

study skills and focus? 

AS: I think in general working hard in your undergraduate 

studies is going to set you up well for your PhD. You’re not 

expected to be the perfect student or the perfect studier or 

the perfect writer. In your PhD you’re still learning to do all of 

those things. But you want to set the foundations early on, 

you want to work hard in your undergraduate degree and do 

the very best you can. I think it’s also about exposing yourself 

to research environments, seeing if you can volunteer in 

different laboratories to get an idea of what research is all 

about. I think the biggest transition from undergraduate 

to PhD is what research on a daily basis really looks like. 

Exposing yourself to those things early on is probably the 

best thing. 

KM: You mentioned that you give talks at local community 

organisations. Do you think that giving back to the 

community and sharing what you’ve been studying is 

important? 

AS: Yes, absolutely. I think it helps to keep you real. It keeps 

you grounded in the fact that you’re not just doing research 

for the sake of research, you’re doing research so that it can 

be translated to people, to the community. Going back into 

the community, talking to people about their sleep and how 

they’re feeling about their attention or memory keeps that 

passion alive for what you’re doing.

30 


By Ben Neve 

New Target Prompts New Challenges 

No matter how one views the issue, a proposed cut of 26- 

28% on 2005 levels represents a significant reduction in 

our overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. When it was 

announced by the Australian government, the responses 

were polarised: business groups generally accepted the 

target, while those more environmentally concerned 

stakeholders criticised it as lacklustre. Either way, a 

reduction in the order of 26% is a considerable challenge to 

overcome, especially for an economy as carbon-dependent as 

ours (more on this later). In November Julie Bishop will travel 

to Paris to attend climate talks with other world leaders, to 

try and agree on legally binding emissions reductions. The 

ultimate goal is to avoid a situation in which global average 

temperatures rise more than two degrees Celsius (the socalled 

450ppm scenario). While we can only speculate at 

this moment on the outcome of the Paris talks, it is easier 

to predict that an increased emissions target will have a 

considerable impact on the STEM sector. After all, it will be 

engineers and scientists who develop many of the methods 

to reduce emissions in the future. 

The federal government’s current policy to reduce 

emissions is the so called Direct-Action scheme. By most 

estimates, we will achieve our Kyoto target of 5%, in part 

due to the reductions led by the program and also due to a 

national fall in demand for electricity. But in the future, with 

a target of 26% we will no longer be able to rely on these two 

drivers, because the nature of reductions in the order of 

5% differs vastly from 26%. The Emissions Reduction Fund 

(ERF) – the funding source behind Direct Action scheme – 

is designed to purchase the lowest cost per tonne of GHG 

reductions. It makes no attempt to target certain sectors 

because it is essentially a reverse auction. As a result, the 

kind of reductions achieved under the Direct Action scheme 

are naturally the easiest ones. Over the coming years we will 

need to deviate from this path to find the ‘hard’ reductions, 

and cut emissions embedded in our economy rather than 

addressing efficiency. 

Over the mid-year break I visited Tongji University in 

Shanghai, during which we toured the China headquarters 

of Disney Imagineering – the research branch of the Disney 

Company. Whilst there I learnt that when it came time 

for the business to retrofit their communist-era concrete 

office block, they arranged for all the heating and cooling 

systems to be provided under a lease agreement with the 

energy provider. Rather than purchasing an expensive 

air conditioner, the company only pays for the use of the 

machine for a certain period of time. Should the need arise 

"The kind of reductions 

achieved under the Direct 

Action scheme are naturally 

the easiest ones." 

to replace or remove the unit, it is returned to the energy 

provider who can recycle or reinstall the unit somewhere else. 

Each of these units carries with it an amount of embedded 

energy, which is the sum of the emissions created directly 

and indirectly during its service life. A service-based 

approach reduces the carbon footprint of Disney’s business 

operation because the embedded energy – and therefore 

emissions – in the heating/cooling system is neither lost 

nor gained, it is simply passed on to a different user. The key 

difference is that the Disney Company leases the services 

which the heating unit provides – functionality and flexibility 

– without taking ownership of the product. Service based 

approaches still recognise that emissions are produced, but 

by closing the loop on the product cycle there is a greater 

potential to reclaim the emissions down the track. 

The STEM sector will be positioned at the nexus of 

decarbonisation as it develops the solutions to the future 

emissions reductions. The scale and complexity of the task 

means that technology must continue to advance in tandem 

with behaviour. In 2013 the number of installed small-scale 

solar power systems in Australia had risen to 1.25 million. 

New advances in battery technology mean that energy 

captured from the sun during the day can now be stored in 

molten-salt or rechargeable batteries, so that households 

can draw on the excess electricity generated during the day 

in times of high demand. 

It is this kind of approach, combined with societal change 

that will accelerate the decarbonisation process. To put this 

into perspective, even things like the beloved Monash coffee 

culture carries with it different kinds of embedded energy; 

among others, it is in the paper cups and the resources 

consumed to transport the coffee beans and milk. That is 

not to say we shouldn’t enjoy a coffee in the morning, but 

that we must regard an emissions cut of 26% as the impetus 

to decarbonise every sector of the economy. We must break 

the link between traditional buy-and-sell approaches, and 

move towards service based industries which will reduce 

the amount of hard waste and preserve virgin materials. All 

the while the STEM sector should be allowed to develop and 

flourish, because a strong technological base will ensure we 

can apply emerging technologies to the ever increasingly 

difficult challenge of cutting emissions.


Puzzles 

Puzzle 

1 

Puzzle 

3 

Secret Symbol 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer 

 

Starting with 17 and ascending through the odd 

 

numbers, connect all the valid numbers with a 

 

line (you can cross multiple squares at once). 

 

The 

answer is the name of this maths symbol! 

 

 

 

Maths Maze 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puzzle 

2 

Puzzle 

4 

Protons, Neutrons, 

Electrons 

 

The protons are red, neutrons are blue, and 

electrons are yellow. The question is, is it possible 

to connect each numbered electron to its 

matching proton with a line that doesn’t cross any 

other lines or touch any subatomic particles? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 

1 

3 

2 

1 

3 

 

 

Triangles and Triangles 

 

How 

 

many triangles can be made by connecting 

 

different combinations of the dots below? 

(Triangles are still 

valid if they encapsulate 

another dot within their boundaries) 

5 

4 

2 

4 

Answer 

Honour Roll 

 

Find the shortest path through the maze, from 

the 

bold ‘3’ to the ‘?’. The numbers along this 

path 

 

follow a certain pattern. The answer is the 

 

next number in the sequence, located at ‘?’! 

 

 

 

Success, fame and glamour can all be yours! Simply submit the answers to msa-lotswife@monash.edu 

and you’ll get your name published on this page in the next issue! 

Issue 3 Issue 4 

Max Zadnik 

Christopher E Orrell 

William Molloy 

Sarah Spencer 


Max Zadnik 

Lucas Azzola 

Issue 5 


Max Zadnik 

Issue 6 

Neil Kedar 

Max Zadnik

32 


By Emma Simpkin 

World Record 

Stargazing 

"We always classify each other as what we do 

you’re an artist, you’re a chemist, you’re a designer. 

But what I love about astronomy is we’re all just 

humans staring at the sky." 

August 21st saw thousands gather across Australia in a 

nation wide attempt to set the new Guinness World Record 

for Most People Stargazing at Multiple Sites in a Country. Led 

by Australian National University’s Mt. Stromolo observatory, 

professional stargazers, budding astronomers and the 

telescope inept alike came together at over 40 sites to enjoy 

an evening under the night sky. 

The Monash event was hosted by the School of Physics 

and Astronomy and took place at Clayton campus. Highlights 

included guided observations with staff and students, 

children’s face painting, an "Ask an astronomer" Q&A, food 

trucks, a raffle draw, and talks featuring topics from the sky 

culture of the Boorong clan and the importance of the sky in 

indigenous artwork, to the Mission to Mars and Australia’s 

Mars One candidate Josh Richards. 

Regardless of whether you’d come to ask if supernovas can 

be seen with the naked eye, to show off an antique or hightech 

telescope, or simply to enjoy the romance of a night 

under the stars, everyone considered the night a wonderful 

success. Unofficial figures on the night saw the previous 

record of 3,007 simultaneous stargazers broken, with official 

figures to be released in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, 

Australia National University’s city campus managed to set 

a second world record for Most People Stargazing as a Single 

Site with 1,869 participants. 

Monash’s own event had a 700 register to attend, with over 

1,100 present on the night. Monash managed to sell out of 

commemorative telescopes (similar in size to those Gaileo 

used) before the record attempt even took place. Jasmina 

Lazendic Galloway, organiser of the Monash event, was 

delighted with the results and hopes to host more Astrofest 

events in future. 

"We always classify each other as what we do - you’re an 

artist, you’re a chemist, you’re a designer. But what I love 

about astronomy is we’re all just humans staring at the sky." 

With the current World Record tally climbing past 8,000 

participants, it seems the rest of Australia would agree. 

Photograph by Benjamin Peng @benpeng_


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Adelaide, Brisbane, 

Melbourne, Perth, 

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Beijing, Honk 

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Shenzhen 

Brisbane, 

Melbourne, Sydney 

Engineering 

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Full Time Work 

Yes 

6 Months Unspecified 

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before September 

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10 Weeks Yes before September 

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Adelaide, 

Gladstone, Mackay, 

Melbourne, 

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Summer 

Engineering 

Students 

3 Months Yes from October 

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Hong Kong, 

London, New York 

Northern 

Hemisphere Winter 

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Students 

2-4 Weeks Unspecified Unspecified 

Look out for more opportunities online; the Monash 

Summer internships will open on September 14th! 

Illustrations by Amirul Nasir @kingrool

34 


By Eleanor Albury 

The Cult of Personality 

You may have heard of the Myer-Briggs personality test, a 

short survey that claims to condense your personality into 

one of sixteen different personality paradigms. It has little 

to no scientific basis, superseded by considerably more 

comprehensive, but also more time intensive and financially 

consuming tests. And yet, it remains amongst an almost cult 

status across varying social groups. In multiple instances, 

people have asked me for my personality type in an effort to 

try, at least ostensibly, to understand me more. At one point 

a friend and I spent the duration of a beer trying to gauge 

my personality type on a piece of paper, discussing reasons 

why I would be one personality type more than another. While 

discussion arising from this test ignited intense examination 

of our own distinct personalities, it seems that its use also 

constrains and dismisses the multidimensional nature of 

human personality. 

If you aren’t already aware, the personality types are 

defined by a combination of four different letters, each of 

which refers to one of two options regarding a particular 

personality trait. E for Extroversion or I for Introversion, S 

for Sensing or N for Intuition, T for thinking or F for Feeling 

and J for Judging or P for Perceiving. Your answers to the 

test determine your assignment to one of the sixteen 

combinations and a complete write up of your not so unique 

personality type, as well as your strengths and weakness 

according to answers that you provided during the test. After 

receiving their results some people even get them tattooed to 

their bodies, the four letters used as a personal insignia that 

proudly proclaims their alliance to a particular personality 

type. It seems strange that people’s need to belong within 

a stratified group is strong enough to compel them to write 

arguably meaningless letters on their bodies. Is there an 

inherent human need to understand human beings by 

simplifying one another? 

On a long car trip with friends, we spent a considerable 

amount of the car trip discussing the test and its debatable 

accuracy as well as the differences we all had in our 

personality types. While my analysis said I am an extroverted 

decision maker (ESTJ), a friend of mine (somewhat 

coincidentally) received the exact opposite of me, her 

analysis conveying that she is introverted and preferring to 

go with the flow (INFP). There were several sections of the test 

that I found accurate for each of our different personalities, 

and we became increasingly enthused by the notion that 

our personalities belonged within a particular type. The 

conversations prompted by the test enabled me to further 

understand that no personality is alike, and that people see 

the world very differently to the way I see it; a fact that is 

easy to miss in our increasingly narcissistic society where 

the most important person is the self. While I may see the 

world in black and white, others see the world in a cascade 

of colours. Realising this has motivated me to reconsider the 

tact I use when dealing with others, especially in situations of 

conflict. The test also enables people to become more aware 

of their strengths and weaknesses that are often associated 

with certain personality traits. This is a positive aspect of 

the test, as it is beneficial to some extent to be aware of 

our own personal weaknesses. Knowing them can aid us in 

assimilating into the expected norms of society, and as a 

result increase our own enjoyment of life through improving 

our interactions with others. 

I was sharing the test with people I knew, blissfully 

unaware of its lack of scientific reliability until I urged my 

friend studying psychology to take it. She told me that the 

tests have no credence within the scientific arena, and 

the ensuing research (i.e. quick Google) that I conducted 

suggested that her contention was valid. Only 50% of people 

that retake the same test have the same scores, and as a 

result the internal validity of the tests is very low. The Myer- 

Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was produced in 1943, motivated 

by the desire of two women (who were not psychologically 

qualified) to extrapolate the work of psychiatrist Carl Jung 

regarding personality. Despite the information before me 

indicating that Myer-Briggs might not be as reliable as I 

thought, I simply couldn’t accept the realisation that the test 

it had no basis on fact. I wanted to believe that I conformed 

to the personality type I was assigned. I felt that it suited me 

and it made me feel happy that I was considered a decision 

maker, someone with power and who doesn’t wane under 

pressure. And therein lies the allure; people love to hear good 

things about themselves regardless of its validity. Their 

conformance to a particular personality profile is the nod 

that they fit in within society, and therefore are accepted and 

belong. Hence the MBTI’s cult-like status, as belonging is allimportant 

in a world of seven billion people. Unfortunately, 

personality is complex and it cannot be simplified by a test 

conducted on the Internet. While taking the tests has the 

benefit of being able to understand the notion that not all


"The conversations prompted by the test enabled me to 

further understand that no personality is alike, and that 

people see the world very differently to the way I see it 

a fact that is easy to miss in our increasingly narcissistic 

society where the most important person is the self." 

personalities or worldviews are the same, taking the test with 

a grain (or bucket) of salt is recommended. 

You shouldn’t judge somebody by his or her proposed 

personality types, and yet to some extent it is hard to avoid. 

I have a new feeling of futility with some of my friendships 

that have starkly different personality types to mine. 

Thoughts such as "I don’t understand that personality 

type at all" and "their personality type is so different from 

mine, we will never understand each other" reverberated 

around my head. The test provides a mode of justifying 

relationships but also their presumed incompatibility. As a 

result, I had to make a conscious effort to dismiss that way 

of thinking to avoid dismissing my relationships as based 

on an evidently fallacious, but nonetheless pervasive test. 

The Myer-Briggs personality test not only motivated me to 

consider my relationships with others, but also to analyse 

my own personal weaknesses as defined by it. I had this 

desire to alter my personality, to be perfect by minimising 

my weaknesses. But how much of a person’s personality is 

mutable? 

Many self-help books champion self-improvement 

techniques to remedy various "weak" tendencies. However, 

when it comes to fundamentals of an individual’s 

personality, research indicates we don’t have as much free 

will over that arena as we would like. As mentioned at the 

beginning of this article, more comprehensive tests than 

the MBTI exist that can accurately and reliably identify 

aspects of personality. The most notable form of analysis is 

known as the Big Five personality traits, where personality is 

devised into five different domains: openness, conscientious, 

extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. While you can 

change your behaviour relatively easily, innate traits such as 

the Big Five are considerably more ingrained. It is true that 

environmental factors do influence personality, however, 

research conducted by the Colby Personality Lab at Colby 

College in Waterville, Maine, indicates that approximately 

50% of personality traits are caused by genetics, and 50% 

are caused by environmental factors. Although this number 

may be argued against, longitudinal studies of twins also 

strongly suggest that genetics have a definite influence on 

personality. Being aware of your weaknesses allows you to 

understand yourself on a deeper level, but the extent that an 

individual can truly change aspects of their personality is 

disputable. Thus, just as strengths are an inherited aspect 

of personalities, with that we must also accept our own 

weaknesses as an innate part of our personality also. The 

true lesson the test and its associated ponderings have 

taught me is acceptance and understanding of my self and 

of others. 

Although the tests may not be valid in the scientific area 

there is, as noted, intrinsic value in the test. It provoked 

conversation within my friendships groups that I otherwise 

wouldn’t have had and I am more aware of my own apparent 

strengths and weaknesses. However, it is overly simplistic 

to believe that human personality can be understood in a 

matter of ten minutes over the Internet, and in only sixteen 

distinct personality types. To believe this is to relegate the 

entire world’s population into an impossibly simplistic 

paradigm.

36 

Month Week Date Event Club Time Location Type 

SEP 

Event Calendar 

8 

9 

MID SEM 

BREAK 

 

Mon 14th Weekly Talk and Discussion MPS 13:00 TBD Weekly Event 

Mon 14th Weekly Board Game Nights MBS 13:00 Engineering Hall 2, 23 College Walk Weekly Event 

Thu 17th The Ministry MUST 19:00 Monash Uni Student Theatre Performance/Arts 

Fri 18th Care Group (Dinner & Bible Study) ASOC 18:30 S105, Chancellor's Walk Weekly Event 

Fri 18th The Ministry MUST 19:00 Monash Uni Student Theatre Performance/Arts 

Sat 19th The Ministry MUST 19:00 Monash Uni Student Theatre Performance/Arts 

Mon 21st Weekly Talk and Discussion MPS 13:00 TBD Weekly Event 

Mon 21st Weekly Board Game Nights MBS 13:00 Engineering Hall 2, 23 College Walk Weekly Event 

Mon 21st The Ministry MUST 19:00 Monash Uni Student Theatre Performance/Arts 

Tue 22nd The Ministry MUST 19:00 Monash Uni Student Theatre Performance/Arts 

Wed 23rd Masterclass: A Dive into the World of Red Bull MMSS 13:00 Clayton Campus Academic Event (Guest Speaker/Networking) 

Wed 23rd The Ministry MUST 19:00 Monash Uni Student Theatre Performance/Arts 

Thu 24th The Ministry MUST 19:00 Monash Uni Student Theatre Performance/Arts 

Thu 24th Vegas Ball SMUCE 19:00 The Brighton Savoy Ball/Cruise/Party 

Thu 24th Disney Party 2015 DIS 20:00 Oakleigh Bowls Club Ball/Cruise/Party 

Fri 25th The Ministry MUST 19:00 Monash Uni Student Theatre Performance/Arts 

Sat 26th The Ministry MUST 19:00 Monash Uni Student Theatre Performance/Arts 

Mon 28th Monash Model United Nations Conference MIAS 9:00 Menzies Building, 20 Chancellors Walk Academic Event (Guest Speaker/Networking) 

Tue 29th Monash Model United Nations Conference MIAS 9:00 Menzies Building, 20 Chancellors Walk Academic Event (Guest Speaker/Networking) 

OCT 

10 

11 

12 

Fri 9th Submissions Due: Incisors & Grinders MCWC 23:59 Email creativewriters@monashclubs.com Other 

Wed 14th Film and Theology CU 17:30 Cinema, Campus Centre, 21 Chancellors Walk Fundraiser 

Wed 21st Oktoberfest GC 19:30 Banquet Hall, Campus Centre Ball/Cruise/Party 

Clubs 

ASOC - Adventist Students on Campus 

CU - Christian Union 

GC - German Club 

DIS - Monash Disney Club 

MBS - Monash Boardgames Society 

MCWC - Monash Creative Writers Club 

MIAS - Monash International Affairs Society 

MMSS - Monash Marketing Students' Society 

MPS - Monash Philosophical Society 

MUST - Monash Uni Student Theatre 

SMUCE - Society of Monash Uni Chemical Engineers 

Event Types 

Ball/Cruise/Party 

Fundraiser 

Academic Event (Guest Speaker/Networking) 

Other 

Weekly Event 

Performance/Arts 

Trivia Night 

* Please double check event details with club in case of changes 

** To enter events in the Calendar for Semester 2 check club emails around late June! 

Career Connect 

Chat with us about: 

■ Meeting with a careers consultant 

■ Getting your job application checked 

■ Interview tips 

■ Developing your employability skills 

■ Your work rights 

■ Career Gateway jobs board 

■ Jobs for Students program 

■ Student Leadership Development 

■ Volunteering at Monash 

■ Career seminars and events 

monash.edu.au/students/career-connect

37 37 

POLITICS 



Articles by 

Emma Simpkin 

Kristin Robertson 

Anna Zhang 

Carina Florea 

Julia Pillai 

Brodie Everist 

Josh Zuzek

38 

ARTS & CULTURE 

BY EMMA SIMPKIN 

Etymology of Emoji 

Hilary Clinton’s social media team recently asked the 

presidential candidate’s followers to tweet how their student 

debt made them feel in three emoji or less. 

The tweet was intended to start conversation about the 

candidate’s new college affordability scheme and doubled 

as yet another example of why politicians should steer 

clear of social media. Yet by asking twitter to respond to a 

complex topic in emoji, Clinton unwittingly rekindled public 

debate about the place of the evolving symbols in current 

communication. 

To those who haven’t yet had the pleasure of being 

acquainted with linguistics, the scientific study of language, 

serious analysis of emoji sounds laughable. For many emoji 

linguistics carries the same amount of academic weight 

as dank memetics but when looking at what qualifies a 

language versus communication, it becomes apparent we 

shouldn’t be quick to dismiss the value of emoji. 

The earliest predecessor of emoji was born in 1982 with 

a clear-cut meaning and defined purpose. Brainchild of 

computer scientist Scott Fahlman, the humble :-) was 

created as a joke marker, one that today’s generation 

may recognise as the outdated smiley frequently used 

by older relatives on Facebook. :-) was the first of many 

band-aid solutions to a problem just appearing in digital 

communication. How do you avoid misunderstanding and 

multiple interpretations when you can’t rely on tone or nonverbal 

cues? 

The smiley gained popularity in Japan in the 90s and 

spawned development of large-scale punctuation based sets 

of emoticons in the Japanese mobile market. Emoticons 

at this stage substituted for ideas rather than words and 

were heavily influenced by anime as well as kanji, a form of 

Japanese writing. Japanese emoticons or kaomoji continued 

to be successful in Japan before becoming part of Unicode in 

2010, a global computing standard for displaying fonts and 

text in multiple languages. A year later in Apple introduced 

its first emoji keyboard and Android followed suit in 2013, 

bringing emoji to the world stage. 

The world has seen some fascinating, innovative and 

occasionally plain bizarre happenings with emoji. Earlier in 

2015 a Norwegian airline was the first company to publish 

an all-emoji URL (www. 

.ws) and last year a New 

York couple texted solely in emoji for a month to prove it was 

possible. Instagram confirmed roughly 40% of text on the app 

involves emoji (possibly less now they have banned the 

emoji for its sexual connotations) and for $200 USD you 

can own a hardback translation of Moby Dick written entirely 

in emoji. 

Emoji are credited in the media as the world’s newest 

and fastest growing language with potential to provide a 

universal communication system. Banks are researching the 

potential for emoji pin codes and some Dominos ask regular 

users to tweet for their order to be delivered. In the digital 

age emoji act as an enrichment and supplement to written 

text, not only filling the void left by lack of pitch, prosody 

and intonation but also giving clues to how the user feels or 

wants a statement to be interpreted. 

Emoji does envy - and in some cases arguably surpasses 

- the ability of written language in conveying emotion, 

descriptions and reactions. Find one word in English that 

specifies the oh-thank-god-that-could-have-been-worserelief 

of the or the exaggerated but likely trivial heartbreak 

of the . 

What the media miss when they claim emoji is a language 

is that a communication system needs more than just the 

ability to convey information to be a language. Languages 

are incredibly varied in the way they combine words to create 

messages but the ability to create larger structures is what 

" What the media miss when they 

claim emoji is a language is that a 

communication system needs more than 

just the ability to convey information to be 

a language." 

separates English from the babbling sounds toddlers make 

and a fully fledged sign language like Auslan from the series 

of hand gestures you might try and use to communicate with 

someone in a noisy bar or club. 

Unlike words in any human language, emoji can’t be strung 

together to form larger units in a meaningful way. There are 

rules for how words combine to make meaningful sentences 

and speakers know these rules when dealing with a language 

they’re fluent in. However when you read a string of emoji, 

there’s a noticeable lack of patterns as emoji don’t appear to 

organize by rules. Common small strings like 

can be easily understood as I love pandas but when it 

comes to reading a string of ten emoji even the author of 

the Moby Dick translation would struggle as the order and 

meaning breaks down. This isn’t just an issue with large 

combinations of emoji, even two-emoji combinations 

like can be unclear and ambiguous. The example here 

could be interpreted as horses make me happy, I smile at 

horses or even happy horses. Meaning is entirely dependent

ARTS & CULTURE 39 

"Emoji does envy - and in some cases arguably surpasses - 

the ability of written language in conveying emotion, 

descriptions and reactions. 

Find one word in English that specifies the 

oh-thank-god-that-could-have-been-worse-relief of the 

or the exaggerated but likely trivial heartbreak of the ." 

on the speaker’s interpretation of not only what each of the 

individual emoji mean but what the function of each emoji 

(e.g. as a noun, adjective, verb) is in the sentence, and really 

there’s no right answer. 

To complicate matters further we don’t all agree on 

exactly what each emoji means and how to use them. For 

example, a common translation for is lets go out drinking 

but it has also been known to be used by workmates to say 

thanks for covering a shift. Even something as apparently 

straightforward as can be interpreted as cringing, 

nervously smiling, awkwardly smiling or in one bizarre 

interpretation, getting ready for a tooth canal. Likewise there 

has been debate whether the emoji depicts someone 

praying or a high-five. So who decides what the meaning of 

an emoji is and how to use it? 

Given that we can’t even agree to the single and plural 

forms for emoji (emoji, emojis, emojus, emojipodes?) trying 

to force standard meanings onto users seems a futile 

endeavour. If we liken emoji to a natural language such as 

English, then users would decide the preferred meanings of 

each emoji and document these in dictionaries. Unlike words 

emoji are designed, edited and released onto our keyboards 

at their creator’s discretion. Theoretically this grants emoji 

creators more say than the average user about intended 

meaning and usage but much like the man who coined the 

word gif with an initial j sound, people ignore the authorities 

in favour of their own communicative needs of the user. 

Interestingly how you interpret and use emoji varies along 

similar lines to general language. It has been shown that 

emoji use differs with age, a study using data from twitter 

found that people with older more conservative interests 

were more likely to include a nose in their smileys :-) while 

those with younger interests (e.g mentioned Miley Cyrus 

etc) preferred to exclude the nose. Similarly we tend to 

perceive emoji differently depending on the gender of the 

speaker. Facebook recently released data about the way 

people laugh online with results suggesting women prefer to 

signal laughter via emoji while men employ a haha or hehe 

response. Likewise numerous articles have been published 

in the likes of The New York Times, The Age, GQ, Men’s Health 

and Cosmopolitan discussing male versus female emoji 

usage with a prevailingly negative attitude towards emoji use 

by adult males. 

Variation in emoji may not only appear along the lines of 

age and gender usage. SwiftKey, a third party emoji app for 

smartphones, released data earlier this year showing the 

most used emoji in different countries and cultural groups. 

According to SwiftKey, the French use four times as many 

love heart emoji as any other group, Canadians surprisingly 

score highest for use of violent emoji and Australians use 

double the global average for alcohol-themed emoji . 

The SwiftKey findings aren’t substantiated by any means 

but suggest that the ways groups differentiate themselves 

through language may be similar to the way they are 

distinguishing themselves through emoji. An example of this 

is the different meaning of the emoji for African American 

Vernacular English (AAVE) speakers. 

AAVE speakers use the emoji to reference a fixed 

cultural phrase keeping it 100 meaning to keep something 

real, honest or truthful. Outside of AAVE, use often 

translates to mean 100% or good job. 

Regardless of whether or not emoji do reveal and 

demonstrate cultural values, the perceived link between 

emoji and ideology was enough to prompt Russia to ban 

"gay" emoji for denying traditional family values in August. 

Likewise Hilary Clinton’s campaign was taken as an insult 

by many millenials who saw the request to reply in emoji as 

a statement on their generation’s ability to communicate 

effectively. 

If emoji are understood and used differently depending on 

social, regional, age and possibly even gender of the users 

then hopes it can serve as global language or lingua franca 

are likely unfounded. Emoji as a communication system is 

rapidly evolving. In the past ten years inclusion of a smiley 

face in professional emails has gone from a faux-pas to 

mostly accepted. If emoji continue to evolve and expand at 

current rates then perhaps it will eventually reach language 

status. For the moment, emoji are best treated as an 

expressive resource, one that while certainly isn’t universal 

has interesting potential for the future. 

Emma Simpkin is president of Linguistics Society 

(LingSoc) at Monash University. If you are interested in 

being involved contact her at lingsoc@monashclubs.org 

to find out more.

40 


By Kristin Robertson 

Where does your food come from? 

They say you are what you eat, but how well do you know 

what you’re eating? Do you know where your food comes from 

and how it is treated? Trade. Health. Environmental impacts. 

It can be a mine field. Here is a guide to help you eat more 

thoughtfully. 

Meats 

Key Imports 

Australians love their beef and the majority of the beef 

we buy in the supermarket is lucky enough to come from 

Australian cattle. Minor imports also come from New Zealand 

or Vanuatu; the only other two countries approved by Food 

Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). The Standards are 

strict, so much so that even imported canned meats – that 

predominately come out of the U.S. – must originally source 

the meat from FSANZ approved countries in order to be sold 

here. 

The Humanity Factor 

While inhumane issues do arise within Australia, the 

majority of cases involving mistreatment of Australian cattle 

happen abroad. At home the process of slaughter involves 

stunning the animal until they are insensible and can’t feel 

their major blood vessels being severed and drained. The 

RSPCA endorses this as a humane method of slaughter 

saying that the procedures are designed to be ‘low stress.’ 

The biggest issue involved in Australian methods involves 

instances where the cattle are not properly stunned before 

they are killed. Due to supply and demand, cases like that 

happen more frequently than they should. Likewise supply 

and demand also sees that young cattle are slaughtered 

before they typically should be. 

It should also be noted that regardless of the cattle’s living 

conditions - whether factory farmed or organic – all meat 

that’s sold in the supermarket is killed in only a handful of 

registered abattoirs. 

Vegetables 

Key Imports 

While vegetable importing remains relatively small, there 

has been a steady increase over the years to cope with sales. 

In Australia most imports come from New Zealand and Italy 

(who mainly offer processed vegetables.) However, specific 

vegetables are frequently imported from particular regions, 

for instance imported onions are typically from the U.S., 

asparagus from Mexico or Peru or garlic from China. 

Unfortunately, the growing number of vegetable imports 

poses a real danger for local farmers and their produce. 

Despite being more environmentally friendly and beneficially 

for local economies the low price of importing can make it 

difficult to compete. 

The Pesticide Factor 

Unless you are a backyard farmer, pesticide on our veggies 

is something we’ll all have come into contact with. It might 

be assumed that imported food contains more of these 

harmful pesticides however that isn’t necessarily the case 

with research from consumer advocates CHOICE showing 

that Australia is just as bad. CHOICE even claims that 

Australia is a bit behind in their pesticide precautions as 

compared to other countries. 

Organic eaters can be reassured by a study out of 

Washington University that found those who eat organic 

vegetables have half the amount of pesticide in their urine as 

non-organic eaters. 

Fish 

Key Imports 

Surprisingly, about 66% of the fish consumed in Australia 

is imported. This is because, despite having the 3rd largest 

fishing zone in the world, our seas yield lower harvests than 

other zones. Additionally, our seafood imports – mainly from 

China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and New Zealand – are 

relatively cheap. 

Aqua Culture versus Wild Caught 

There is quite a bit of debate surrounding whether 

aquaculture or wild caught seafood is better for the 

environment and for our own health. 

Health fanatics tend to argue that fish caught in natural 

environments provide more health benefits due to their 

‘natural’ diets and freer environments. Over half of the fish 

caught in Australia is wild caught; however, this can pose 

environmental issues since overfishing is more easily done. 

On the other hand, research shows that farmed fish is 

lower in mercury levels and that some fish maintain higher 

omega 3 fatty acid levels in farm environments. The major 

issue with farming seems to be the pollution of surrounding 

waters which threaten the nearby habitats. 

It’s a tough choice to make and so many recommend 

researching the fish you like to eat and making your choice 

accordingly. 

Eggs 

"Free Range" 

With no real restrictions on the labelling on egg cartons 

the difference between one carton labelled ‘Free Range’ may 

vary immensely from another. This means that while you 

may buy free range eggs for the sake of the hen, that hen 

might potentially be beakless and just as cooped up as you’d 

imagine caged or barn-laying chickens to be. 

The demand for eggs in Australia already reduces the 

amount of people able to buy free range eggs in the first 

place. Furthermore this demand sees "free-range" farmers 

using the lack of legal literature to release their chooks from 

spatially-challenged barns to spatially-challenged fields 

that only allows each chicken about half a square metres of 

space– if they are released at all. That doesn’t sound so ‘free 

range’ to me. 

How can we know the difference? If you want to ensure 

that the eggs you are buying are really free range look out for 

Australian Certified Organic, Humane Choice or Free Range 

Farmers Association logos on your egg cartons. Be wary 

of Egg Corp Assured logos; despite claiming that it seeks 

welfare for its flocks it has been reported that some suppliers 

that use the logo don’t truly give the chickens free range and 

still practice beak trimming.


When you go to Asia… 

"Feel empowered, feel gratitude, feel wonder. 

Come back and view the world through different lenses." 

BY Anna Zhang 

This summer, many of you will find yourselves visiting exotic 

destinations all over the world. More often than not, you will 

find yourselves in inexpensive South East Asia, where your 

Australian dollar will get the most bang for its buck. 

Whether you’re lounging on a beach in Bali, or exploring 

the ancient monuments of Angkor, you will most certainly 

confront poverty. At first, you may feel a lump in the back 

of your throat, as you struggle to come to terms with the 

injustices of the world. You may clutch your DSLR a little 

tighter, whilst simultaneously wondering what you can do 

to alleviate the guilt. The feeling that you may somewhat 

be responsible for the dire circumstances that many find 

themselves in. After all, you are part of an economic system 

that punishes those born with brute luck. 

But dammit, you’re here for a holiday. You’re angry that 

you are feeling guilty for something that you have not 

directly caused. You push the feeling of guilt away, and say to 

yourself, next time, I’ll come back to volunteer, or when I go 

home I’ll start donating to a charity. These promises ease the 

guilt, although, you know that once you get home, you have 

no intention of sacrificing your latte or flat white in order to 

change something you no longer see. 

The next time you go, your wallet is a little heavier. You’re 

ready to give 50 cents here and 50 cents there to every 

person that you see on the street. You might even pop 

into an orphanage, pull out your iPhone, take a few selfies 

with the children and teach them a song or two. As you’re 

heading back to your hotel, you quickly upload the photos to 

Instagram with the hashtag #makingadifference. You might 

even feel generous enough to link the photo to an Australian 

charity that your followers can donate to. 

Little do you know that in taking the photo, you have 

reduced those children to mere objects for your selfgratification. 

You have breached child protection policies, 

and may have placed those children at risk of danger by 

identifying their location, and perhaps, even their name. Your 

photo will portray these children as forever being stuck in the 

dire circumstances that you have captured them in – never 

changing. Only changing when someone like you comes to 

‘save’ them. You do not realise the damage that you have 

done. 

So next time you’re in Asia, here’s what to do: 

1— Take photos of beautiful buildings, trees, images of 

empowerment. Don’t take photos of people who haven’t 

asked for the photo to be taken (you’re not in a zoo). In 

particular, don’t take photos of children and upload them to 

your social media feeds. Children have a right to privacy. 

2— When visiting or volunteering with a charity, be 

conscious of the impact that you’re having. Children are 

not tourist attractions. There are many ways that you can 

make an impact, through campaigns and organisations 

such as, ‘Think Child Safe’ http://www.thinkchildsafe.org/ 

thinkbeforevisiting/ 

3— If you would like to have a prolonged impact on making 

a difference in the world, without sacrificing the luxuries 

that you have, consider reading "Effective Altruism" by Peter 

Singer (available at Monash Library), or donating to an 

effective charity that has been assessed by a meta-charity 

such as GiveWell (http://www.givewell.org/) or The Life You 

Can Save (http://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/Where-to- 

Donate). Meta-charities assess charities in order to ensure 

that your hard earned donations go to making the most 

impact. 

But most importantly, cherish the culture, cherish the 

experience and learn about how lives are lived differently all 

over the world. Feel empowered, feel gratitude, feel wonder. 

Come back and view the world through different lenses. Take 

that energy and commit to never living life the same way again. 

Photograph courtesy of 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/archer10

42 



Step inside The Ministry 

Monash Uni Student Theatre (MUST) in conjunction with 

Kin Collaborative Inc. presents, The Ministry; an immersive 

multi-disciplinary experience set to change the way you 

experience your surroundings. 

Back in 1949, when Orwell penned his classic dystopian novel, 

Nineteen Eighty-Four, the cautionary tale of a totalitarian 

future captured its readers and left one final warning, "don’t 

let it happen. It depends on you". Yet, despite his warning, 

countless parallels between Orwell’s imagined world and 

today’s society detail the pervasive influence technology has 

on our lives. None more real or immersive than the upcoming 

promenade production, The Ministry, which seeks to 

reimagine the world of Oceania right in the heart of Monash 

University. 

In anticipation for the opening of this production, we spoke 

to creator/Director Anna Nalpantidis about the inspiration 

behind the making of The Ministry and what exactly the 

audience can expect from the experience. 

While The Ministry draws a lot of inspiration from Orwell’s 

Nineteen Eighty-Four, it goes far beyond the boundaries 

of pages and screens into the realm of immersive theatre 

production inspired by the likes of UK based theatre 

company PunchDrunk. As Nalpantidis explains, "we are not 

so much striving to adapt ‘1984’ – rather we are inviting the 

audience on a journey where they will collect fragments of 

information and navigate connections between Orwell’s 

world and ours." Alongside Orwell’s influence, The Ministry 

draws upon influences such as the the NSA files and a variety 

of other dystopian novels, literature and films. 

As for the audience experience, you will be relieved to hear 

that it’s not a direct adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four. 

When asked about the possible inclusion of live rats in the 

show, Nalpantidis replied that the idea "got shut down pretty 

quickly". 

Blending dance, music, film and installation art, The 

Ministry strives to challenge audience members to step 

outside the role of being an observer and embark on their 

own journeys with the help of the talented MUST cast. 

Nalpantidis describes the experience as sensory, "you 

might smell things, you might taste things, you can touch 

things" and also that it’s about "finding that barrier between 

what’s real and what’s being performed." In regards to 

what exactly goes on in The Ministry, it’s all up to you to 

distinguish between spectator and actor and who’s watching 

or being watched. 

The Ministry is part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival and 

runs from September 17-26, located at the MUST space 

at Monash Clayton. Tickets are available through www. 

melbournefringe.com.au or call (03) 9660 9666. For more 

information, visit www.theministry.org.au


The Ashley Madison hack is no-one’s victory 

If you have stayed up watching late night TV, you may have 

seen a mildly amusing advertisement of a zombie couple 

living their monotonous life under the shadow of monogamy 

and matrimony. Then suddenly our heroine goes online - to 

ashleymadison.com. She closes her laptop screen, no longer 

undead, and suggestively places one finger on her lips. Life 

is short, have an affair. Websites such as Ashley Madison are 

controversial, to say the very least, as ultimately it aims to 

facilitate activities that many of us see as outright immoral; 

cheating on one’s spouse. With this in mind, the initial lack 

of sympathy to the victims of Impact Team’s hack into Ashley 

Madison and Established Men, was hardly unsurprising. 

The Impact Team issued a threat to Ashley Madison’s 

parent company, Avid Life Media, to shut down these two 

websites, or else the personal details of all users - names, 

email addresses, bank card numbers, home addresses and 

sexual interests - would be leaked. After failing to comply 

with Impact Team’s requests, they released a statement on 

Reddit, stating that they had leaked user information. What 

followed was frenzy. 

It’s hard to not feel at least the slightest bit of 

shadenfreude at the hack. Especially with the news that 

Josh Duggar, the former 19 and counting star and previous 

executive director of conservative lobbying group Family 

Research Council, which aims "to champion marriage and 

family as the foundation of civilization" had a paid account. 

This is not the only controversy unearthed about Duggar; in 

May this year, In Touch Weekly revealed that in 2006 Duggar 

had confessed to molesting five underage girls, including 

four of his own sisters. 

However things began to go sour even before the full leak. 

When the news came out that Impact Team had hacked into 

ALM’s sites, a Saudi-Arabian Reddit user going by the name 

ICouldBeStoned2Death posted a plea. 

"I am from Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality carries the 

death penalty," he writes. "I studied in [redacted] the last 

several years and used Ashley Madison during that time ... I 

am single; I used it because I am gay. Gay sex is punishable 

by death in my home country, so I wanted to keep my 

hookups extremely discreet. (AM promised that they had 

systems in place to ensure confidentiality.)" 

This brought up a couple of new perspectives on this hack. 

Despite the downright seediness of the website, not all AM 

users are similar to Duggar, and the hack could leave them 

in legal and mortal danger. We must also note that adultery 

laws are generally far harsher on women than men, as per 

this 2012 statement from the UN: 

"Adultery laws have usually been drafted and almost 

always implemented in a manner prejudicial to women, 

Provisions in penal codes often do not treat women and men 

equally and establish harsher sanctions for women, and in 

some countries, rules of evidence value women’s testimony 

as half that of a man’s." 

Homosexuality is illegal in 79 countries, and punishable 

by death in ten countries. As Ashley Madison has previously 

been perceived to be safer than LGBT specific dating sites, 

this could be concerning for users living in those companies. 

For similar reasons, committed or married couples in open 

relationships may have also used Ashley Madison in a 

manner where both spouses were aware of the other using 

the site. While of course there may be differing views on 

open relationships or polyamory, surely this is a personal 

matter for such couples that should not be discussed on 

such a scale, and this could unfortunately lead to unwanted 

attention, or a poor reputation for some people, even if they 

did not actually deceive their partners. 

Did Impact Team think about the spouses who would 

discover that their partner might have been unfaithful, in 

such a public manner? Sure, they have a right to know, but 

how humiliating must that be? Did they think about how 

domestic violence could come into play in these situations; 

and before you say ‘well they shouldn’t have been cheating in 

the first place’ do you really think anyone ‘deserves’ violent 

treatment? What about the mental health not only on people 

who wear using the site, but their family and spouses? 

Already there have been two suicides with links to the leak, 

and this could certainly become more of an issue as this leak 

continues to play out. 

The worst part of this incident is what it says about us. 

As a global society we have a streak of a morbid, mediaeval, 

fascination around shaming people and the Internet 

certainly shields us from our own un-empathetic actions. 

We do see mob like attacks on individuals on line, usually 

to discredit them and ruin their reputations. Sure, this is 

often when they do something awful, but how is this not 

the modern equivalent of the stocks and pillory? The Ashley 

Madison hack is a case where yes, very few people were doing 

the right thing, of course you can’t be fully sympathetic to 

sleazy cheating partners, but as mentioned earlier the ripple 

effect goes so much further than that. We cannot entirely 

blame the Impact Team for this, because we have given them 

the perfect audience. 

BY JULIA PILLAI

44 


By BRODIE EVERIST 

Gig Guide 

16 

Sept 

Live Jazz with The Rookies. 

The Rooks Return. 201 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy 

Free – 8:30pm every Wednesday 

23 

Sept 



Free – 8:30pm every Wednesday 

17 

Sept 

18 

Sept 

19 

Sept 

22 

Sept 

Louise Love/Je Wheeler/Little Adventures 

Bar Open. 317 Brunswick St, Fitzroy. 

9pm. $5 entry 

Little Adventures is a Melbourne-based duo that features 

the stunning vocals of Mel O’Neill encapsulated by 

the soundscapes and grooves of Luke Singleton. With 

support from accomplished songwriters Louise Love and 

Jillian Wheeler. 

The Melbourne Improvisers Collective September 

Series 

Uptown Jazz Cafe. 1/177 Brunswick St, Fitzroy. 

8:30pm. 

The Melbourne Improvisers Collective (MIC) is an 

organisation that presents regular performances 

throughout Melbourne displaying local, interstate and 

international creative musicians. This week features the 

Wayfinders and the Nick McCusker Quartet. 

Movement 9 – Funk, Jazz and Latin 

Vamos. 1st Floor 37 Little Bourke St, Melbourne. 

8:30pm. 

Movement 9 present a heady cocktail of jazz, funk and 

latin music, featuring the original compositions of Joe 

McEvilly. After launching their debut album WINGS in 

2013, they are bringing a combination of classic and new 

work to Vamos. 

Fistful of Soul W/ Fulton Street 

Ding Dong Lounge. 18 Market Lane, Chinatown, 

Melbourne. 

9pm. $10 entry 

Seven-piece soul outfit Fulton Street open for Ding Dong’s 

Fistful of Soul – featuring a heady mix of rhythm & blues, 

Motown & stomping Northern tracks brought to you by 

resident DJs, led by PBS Radio presenter, Vince Peach. 

The Senegambian Jazz Band with STAV. 

The Toff in Town. 2/252 Swanston St. 

7:30pm. $10+bf / $15 on door. 

Pulsing with polyrhythm, vocalist and virtuosic kora 

player Amadou Suso brings together a collective of 

musicians who merge traditional African percussion and 

song with improvisation. Vibrant smiles and passionate 

melodies, the culture is deep and the music is fresh. 

Opening the night is Melbourne’s soulful, moving and 

groovy: STAV. 

24 

Sept 

25 

Sept 

26 

Sept 

27 

Sept 

30 

Sept 

The Melbourne Improvisers Collective September 

Series 

Uptown Jazz Cafe. 1/177 Brunswick St, Fitzroy. 

8:30pm. 

The Melbourne Improvisers Collective (MIC) is an 

organisation that presents regular performances 

throughout Melbourne displaying local, interstate and 

international creative musicians. This week features the 

Antipodes Sextet and the Gareth Voigt Quartet. 

Vintage Roots – Pop Music with a Jazz Edge 

Paris Cat Jazz Club $25 9:30pm 

Vintage Roots re-interpret classic pop songs by artists 

such as Cold Chisel, John Farnham, Maroon 5, Justice 

Crew, Justin Bieber, Madonna, The Cure and lots more. 

Exploring a plethora of genres from the jazz idiom this is 

pop music like you’ve never heard before. 

Papa G and The Starcats W/ The Jungle Crooks and 

Scrimshaw Four 

Ding Dong Lounge. 18 Market Lane, Chinatown, 

Melbourne. 

The Starcats return to the Ding Dong Lounge for a superb 

night of their heavy grooves and catchy funk anthems. 

Monash Philharmonic Society Spring Concert 2015 – 

Americana 

The Patricia Turner Centre for Creative Arts, Firbank 

Grammar, 51 Outer Crescent, Brighton. 

7pm. $15/12/8 

Monash University Philharmonic Society proudly 

presents the Monash Philharmonic Orchestra, the 

Monash Symphonic Winds and the Monash Jazz 

Orchestra in the second major concert for 2015, 

"Americana". 

Monash Academy Orchestra – Beethoven 9 

Robert Blackwood Hall. Monash University, Clayton. 

The MAO continues their 2015 season with a world 

premiere of New Work by Mary Finsterer, Liszt’s Piano 

Concerto No. 1 in Eb Major and Beethoven’s Symphony 

No.9 in D minor. 



Free – 8:30pm every Wednesday


2 

Oct 

3 

Oct 

Pilot 

Paris Cat Jazz Club. 6 Goldie Place Melbourne. 

8:30pm. $20 entry – tickets available. 

PILOT is a five-piece instrumental jazz/fusion band 

from Melbourne. Formed in 2014, their self-titled, 

independently released debut EP ranges from their 

trademark rock-infused jazz style through to forays 

into piano-based hip hop and beyond. 

Movement 9: Presents the music of Amy Winehouse 


6:30pm. Tickets $25. 

In collaboration with Elly Poletti, winner of two 

prestigious Bruce Awards for Music Theatre, Movement 

9 present a fresh and fascinating perspective on 

the music of Amy Winehouse. Reimagined and 

reinterpreted, they transport Amy Winehouse’s songs 

from the radio to the smoky clubs where her idols 

Mingus, Miles and Monk used to play. 

4 

Oct 

16 

Oct 

17 

Oct 

Little Adventures/Je Wheeler/Tommy Staples 

Whole Lotta Love. 524 Lygon St, East Brunswick. 

World-class DJ Tommy Staples takes over Whole Lotta 

Love with support from professional songwriter Je 

Wheeler and ambient duo Little Adventures. 

Elissa Rodger Band - Poetry In Motion 

Melbourne Recital Centre. 31 Sturt St, Southbank, 

Melbourne. 

7pm. Tickets $30/25. 

Upcoming jazz vocalist Elissa Rodger presents a 

collection of pieces celebrating the spoken word 

– featuring the works of E.E. Cummings, Theodore 

Roethke and fantastic lyricists alike. 

Clancye Milne Presents the Music of Gershwin 


6:30pm. Tickets $25. 

With a shared love of the Great American Songbook, 

vocalist Clancye Milne and composer James Mustafa 

present an evening of music, featuring the iconic 

compositions of George and Ira Gershwin. 

Want to have your gig advertised in 

the next gig guide? Send the details to 

bceve1@student.monash.edu 

Please include date, time, entry fee, 

address and a 1-2 sentence description 

of the band/music.

46 arts & culture 

By Josh Zuzek 

TV Junkies and Junk TV 

Are you a TV junkie? Or are you one of those socially 

backward people who still only watch their TV simply for 

enjoyment? 

Television has transcended mere entertainment. 

In 2011, Netflix was still a DVD rental service limited to 

America and Canada. No Australians were bombarded 

with commercials for Stan or Presto. Channel 10 wasn’t a 

complete joke. The world was a simpler place. 

Then came the boom. 

The inevitable competition to offer the best TV viewing 

experience has lead to an explosion in new shows, all for 

consumption and immediate social media critiquing. 

With it, good television has suddenly become the needle in 

the haystack that is the rapidly evolving world of network, pay 

TV and streaming services. 

As much as viewers have been treated to some fantastic 

new series over the past few years, there has also a great 

increase in shows that have failed to captivate their target 

audience. 

Unfortunately, there are a limited number of good actors, 

showrunners and – most importantly – original ideas for new 

TV series, and that talent can only be spread so far. 

Pessimists may argue that any good idea for a TV series 

has already been thought of; as Mindy Kaling humorously 

pointed out in The New Yorker last month, TV addicts have 

no trouble detecting obvious similarities amongst every new 

wave of shows that hit their screens. 

Compounding the problem, any new TV series not only has 

to compete against shows on other channels, but now also 

the alarming amount of content available from streaming 

services like Netflix, Stan and Presto. These services offer 

anything from the freshest of new release titles to old 

classics and children’s shows. 

With the greater accessibility to older shows thanks to 

streaming services, new series are swamped – making the 

decision to commit to an original series even tougher. 

Why would I commit to watching thirteen hours of a new 

"Immature, pathetic 30-something year old man is suddenly thrust 

into a position of great responsibility and must grow up fast" series 

when I have ‘Breaking Bad’ there in its entirety, especially 

with the constant (and slightly annoying) reminder from 

everyone I know that ‘Breaking Bad’ is the single greatest TV 

show ever created? 

Keeping up to date on the latest buzz show has become 

something of a social badge of honour for people too. With 

the aid of social media, TV viewing has become more than 

something done in your spare time – it’s become an event. 

Initially kick started by reality TV shows and sporting 

events, social media coverage of scripted dramas has taken 

off recently, to the point of ridiculousness – especially those 

not in on the fun. 

Devoted fans need to be in a certain frame of mind to 

watch their beloved ‘True Detective’, ‘Game of Thrones’ or 

‘Dragonball Z’ (admit it, you’d still binge watch Goku at the 

drop of a hat). No small detail can be missed, and every plot 

twist must feel like the rollercoaster ride they’re created to 

be. 

Instant reactions must be tweeted, and if you are so brave 

as to not watch an episode the moment its available, you 

must avoid social media like the plague until you’ve caught 

up again. 

Heavily dramatic shows can also leave the viewer feeling 

depressed – say following the death of a favourite character 

– angry, and always desperate for more - such is their 

intention. However, not everyone can handle going off to bed 

immediately following the ice-cold betrayal of their beloved, 

beautiful man in black... Did someone say spoiler? 

This highlights how there will always be a place for shows 

you don’t have to be totally invested in, sitcom reruns you 

happily allow to simply wash over you while you sit on the 

couch, paying just as much attention to your phone as you 

do to the TV. 

This is the space where reality TV resides, alongside 

lightweight dramas and good old-fashioned soap operas. 

It must also be noted that the proliferation of choice for 

viewers has undoubtedly brought some positives too. 

The race between programmers to beef up their content 

libraries has lead networks and streaming services to 

broaden their horizons, pulling away from the safety of 

repetition to search for new and interesting ideas. 

Indeed, series such as ‘Empire’ and ‘Orange is the New 

Black’ have proven to be unique examples – and immensely 

popular in their original American markets - in recent years, 

simply for featuring predominantly African-American and 

female casts respectively. While being embarrassingly long 

overdue, shows such as these – particularly ‘OITNB’ – may not 

have ever seen the light of day before the content explosion 

in recent years. 

Speaking to The New York Times in August, ‘Girlfriends’ 

Guide to Divorce’ showrunner Marti Noxon commented on 

how the increase in programming over the past five years 

has lead to greater opportunities for shows featuring women 

and minorities, and even just shows with a more niche 

subject matter. 

"There was not enough opportunity for voices that speak 

to a smaller audience," Ms. Noxon said. "Now many of these 

places are looking to reach some people — not all the people." 

"That’s opened up a tremendous opportunity for women 

and other people that have been left out of the conversation." 

While some popular shows are watched primarily to 

stay up to date on current conversations, television is still 

ultimately a medium to entertain. After a hard days studying, 

working, or binge watching ‘Breaking Bad’, a viewer will 

always find something to fit the bill.

ART SHOWCASE 

47 

Sophie Hinz 

Sophie Hinz is a Melbourne based Visual Artist 

who recently graduated from Bachelor of Visual 

Arts at Monash University. 

You can find more of her work at 

cargocollective.com/sophiehinz 

Above: 

Glass, Concrete and mixed media on unstretched 

canvas, dimensions variable

48 

ART SHOWCASE 

SOPHIE HINZ 

Misfortunes of the mind, Mix Media on Canvas, 2014

ART SHOWCASE 49 

SOPHIE HINZ 

Top left: 

‘Untitled’, Glass, 2014 

Above: 

Eric Cross, Sophie Hinz collaboration 

‘Mountain’, Glass and concrete, 2014

Lot's Wife Edition 7 2015

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