Lot's Wife Edition 1 2017

SUMMER FIESTA 

INTERNATIONAL FOOD | FAMILY FUN 

MONDAY 4 – 9 PM 

NORTHERN PLAZA 

FULL MOON PARTY 

TUESDAY 9 PM – 1 AM 


TWILIGHT CINEMA 

WED – THURS 8 – 11 PM 

NORTHERN PLAZA SCREEN 

DIVE IN CINEMA 

FRIDAY 9 – 11 PM 

DOUG ELLIS SWIMMING POOL 

MAX 

MONASH ARCADE EXPO 

FRIDAY 11 AM – 10 PM 


DAILY ACTIVITIES IN THE NORTHERN PLAZA

Contents 

07. 

Student Affairs 

Office Bearer Reports 

Wot’s News? 

Clubs & Societies 

A Medley Of Evil 

Thoughts On Living Abroad 

Unions Are Important: Analysing NUS 

Make Education Free Again 

19. 

Politics Society 

27. 

Science Engineering 

35. 

Arts Culture 

Trump: A Nation Divided 

Logged In 

“If You’re Australian, Why Aren’t You White?” 

Yes... We Tried 

STI Rates Amoungst University Students 

Climate Change: You Can Be The Difference 

Healthy Skepticism 

Tips For Everyday Science Student 

Science News 

The Tension Between Artistic And Moral Judgements 

Artists Should Be Punished, Not Celebrated 

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Gig Review 

MUST General Program 

The Price Of Gaming 

The Disruption Of ‘The White Cube’ 

Why We Love Migos And Other Songs About Nothing 

45. 

Creative Comedy 

How To Be The ‘Best Modern Man’ You Can Be 

Love Affair With Cinque Terre 

Burnt In Bali 

Going Home: A Cycle In Self Discovery 

MS Word Enjoys Itself 

Wot’s Life? With Agony Aunt

Lot’s Wife 

Editors 

Emina Besirevic 

Nick Bugeja 

Sophia McNamara 

Rob Staunton 

Design 

Hana Crowl 

edition one 

lot’s wife 

Sub-editors 


Caitlin McIvor 

Dylan Marshall 

Sophie Ng 

Devika Pandit 

Arts & Culture 

Tim Davies 

Nick Jarrett 

Clarissa Kwee 

Linh Nguyen 

Creative & Comedy 

Manon Boutin Charles 

John Henry 

Georgina Lee 

Shona Louis 

Elizabeth Yu 

Science & Engineering 

Tracy Chen 

Shreeya Luthra 

Isaac Reichman 

Rachael Welling 

Politics & Society 

Mollie Ashworth 

Ben Caddaye 

Jessica Lehmann 

Lachlan Llesfield 

Campus Reporters 

Joanne Fong 

Jessie Lu 

Lot’s Wife is entirely run, written, illustrated, edited and designed by students. 

If you would like to get involved, we are always looking for new contributors! 

Say hi anytime: 

Lot’s Wife Office 

1st Floor, Campus Centre, 

Turn right at the MSA desk 

Or email us at msa-lotswife@monash.edu 

Advertising enquires: 

msa-lotswife@monash.edu 

Cover art by Maria Chamakala 

As you read this magazine you are on Aboriginal land. Lot’s Wife recognises the 

Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations as the historical and 

rightful owners and custodians of the lands which this magazine was produced 

on. This land was stolen and never ceded. 

Lot’s Wife condemns and will not publish any material that is objectionable 

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 

Monash Student Association. All writing and artwork remains the property of 

the producers and must not be reproduced without their written consent.

Hello Lot’s Wife readers! And a special hello to all the bright-eyed first years who may 

be reading this for the first time, and have no idea what they have gotten themselves into 

for the following years. It has been a whirlwind past few months: with all four of us doing 

some form of summer school, trying to put together a magazine for the first time, and 

recovering from the fact that Hillary Clinton did not win the election as she may have did 

in our dreams (Jill Stein 2020 though, am I right?). At least we’ve still got Bernie fighting 

the good fight. 

The first few weeks of the year are always daunting – trying to find your new classrooms, 

wondering if you regret taking that complicated Japanese unit that you thought was a great 

idea in January, and resisting the urge to feel completely overwhelmed and settle for a job 

selling healing crystals instead. And while America may not be looking that great again, 

there’s a protest coming up in the city to make education free again. If the HECS debt 

happens to be getting you down, join the National Union of Students on March 22 in the 

National Day of Action and show Turnbull what’s up. 

Life’s not all that bleak though – Lot’s Wife is finally back and we have articles on Trump, 

climate change, study tips, and new comedy section that may or may not be funny, but hey, 

we tried. So sit back, enjoy the words and illustrations, and tell your friends how much you 

love the first edition of Lot’s Wife for 2017. 

But, before you sit back too far that you fall off your chair, we encourage anyone who 

has something interesting to say to pitch and submit their work for future editions. This 

can be done by getting into contact with us at msa-lotswife@monash.edu or by liking our 

Facebook page and joining our Facebook group Lot’s Wife General Contributors 2017. 

l 

Rob, Emina, Sophia, and Nick 

2-3

edition one 

Letters to the 

lot’s wife 

Editor... 

Hi, I just came across reference to Lot’s 

Wife when looking up something else. 

I’m glad to see the old rag is still going! I 

was on the staff in 1969-1970 as a writer of 

articles, an official Lot’s Wife Photographer 

(maybe the only one? Memories are vague), 

and I wrote at least one of the Jacquette 

cartoon strips (the racy adventures of an 

innocent freshette). I remember we used to 

dag Molly Meldrum heaps. The Editor was 

a bloke who sadly ended up a paraplegic, or 

quaddie? due to a water skiing accident, and 

the office manager was a lovely lady called 

Margaret-Rose Dunphy. 

Monash was politically seething at the 

time, what with Albert Langer and Michael 

Hyde (??) being the top student activists 

back then. I vividly remember covering the 

first Moratorium for LW, and was almost 

pulled limb from limb by about 200 extreme 

Lefties after one student occupation of the 

Administration Offices, but was saved when 

a Channel 2 (0r 7??) news team turned up 

with cameras rolling. 

Of course, I had so much fun working 

for Lot’s Wife that I failed my second year 

exams and never completed my Degree, but 

it all worked out for the best. I haven’t seen 

the campus since 1971, I used to park my 

motorbike in a gravel yard outside the Law 

Faculty. I doubt I’d recognise anything now. 

Even the Ming Wing has a new bit grafted 

on. I spent many hours on the tenth floor 

drinking coffee from the vending machine 

there. 

Ahhhh, memories! 

– Kim White 

Don’t forget to write letter’s to the editors for 

future editions. 

Covers of Lot’s Wife from the 1970’s

MSA Calendar 

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday 

Orientation Week 

O Week 

MSA Orientation Festival 


Lemon-Scented Lawn 

Host Scheme Night 

Colonial Hotel 8pm-late 



Taco Tuesday and 

Tequila Sunrise 

Sir John’s Bar 


MSA Breakfast Club 

Sir John’s Bar 8.30-10am 

Hump Day BBQ 


12pm 

Mature Aged & Part Time Student (MAPS) Week 



MSA Welfare Department 

Free Dinner 

Wholefoods 7.30pm 

Week 

MSA Breakfast 

One 

Club 


Free Food Mondays 


MSA Tuesdays 

MSA Members Week 





Hump Day BBQ 


12pm 

Zest Fest Clubs Day 




Free Dinner 


Week 

MSA Breakfast 

Two 

Club 







MSA Queer Department 

Trivia Night 

Wholefoods 

Education (Public Affairs) Week 


Week 

MSA Breakfast 

Three 

Club 




Welfare Week 





Make Education Free 

Week Four 




2o 21 22 23 24 

27 28 01 02 03 

06 07 08 09 10 

13 14 15 16 17 




MSA Queer Department 

Karaoke Night 


Again - National Day of 

Action 


BBQ 12pm 

State Library Bus 1pm 

Protest 2pm 

2o 21 22 23 24 

4-5

MONASH IS 

SMOKE-FREE 

Want to quit? We can support you. 

Register at monash.edu/smoke-free 

Produced by SMC Monash: 16P-1801. December 2016. 

Lot’s Wife is a student-run publication that relies on your sweat and toil 

If you’re a writer or artist, we want to publish your 

fantastic work! 

Send us an email at msa-lotswife@monash.edu 

or drop by our office on the 1st floor of the Campus Centre 

IT WHAT MEANS IS THEY CONSENT? CARE? 

Relationships, When it comes be to sex, they consent partners, is friends the most or important family, can part. be a great 

part In Victoria, of life, consent but sometimes means behaviours a ‘free agreement’, that we can so for brush someone off as 

someone to consent 'just they showing need to how understand much they what care' they’re can agreeing actaully be to, 

harmful communicate or dangerous. their consent Relationships by words should and/or be actions about the equality, whole 

respect time, and and be open agreeing communication. of their own free These will, are not some out of red fear flags or force. you 

should look for before or during any relationship. 

MONASH 

SAFER COMMUNITY UNIT 

T: +61 3 9905 1599 

E: safercommunity@monash.edu 

monash.edu 

How can you make sure you have consent? 

• Remember, it’s your job to ask. Try asking, “Do you want me to…?” 

and only act if they say yes. 

• Pay attention to their body language, and make sure to stop and 

check in if they look uncomfortable 

• Never make or act on assumptions on what someone is agreeing to 

without asking them. 

• Remember that if someone is too intoxicated to consent, asleep or 

unconscious, they can’t consent. 

Never The reality date is someone that engaging out of in pity any and sexual trust act your without instincts. consent If these is an 

behaviours act of violence, sound it’s familiar, a crime the and Safer it’s wrong. Community Unit can help. 

For For information, advice advice and and support support in in a safe safe environment, environment, please please contact contact the the Monash Monash University University Safer Safer Community Community Unit Unit on on 9905 9905 

1599 1599 or or just just dial dial 51599 51599 from from a Monash Monash phone.The phone.The Safer Safer Community Community Unit Unit website website also also lists lists resources resources and and links links to to external external agencies agencies 

http://www.adm.monash.edu.au/safercommunity/ 

Adapted from Surviving Stalking (2002) by Michele Pathé

contributers: 

sam allen 

jessie lu 

joanne fong 

jayden crozier 

bryda nichols 

dolly png 

nick bugeja 

isabella toppi 

juliet steele 

jasmine duff 

audrey chmielewski 


student affairs 

6-7

edition one 

lot’s wife 

PRESIDENT 

MATILDA GREY 

Welcome one and all to 2017 at Monash University! 

The MSA is your student union, here to make your 

university experience as vibrant and as positive as 

possible! We run a range of social events for our 

members, provide student advocacy and support, 

organise activist campaigns around both local and 

national student issues, and do our best to service 

the needs of students. I hope you get an opportunity 

to join a few of our many clubs and societies during 

O-Week, and gain some insight into the various campaigns 

our departments will be rolling out this year. I also look forward to seeing 

you at our Members Week during week 2! We have lots of free and fun filled 

events planned for you to thank you for being a part of your student union. 

Because the MSA is run by students for students, I would love to hear from 

YOU as to what changes you would like to see implemented at Monash, or 

if you need any assistance whatsoever during your time here. Please feel free 

to get in touch with me at any point! See you all around! It’s going to be a 

great year. 

TREASURER 

CAITLIN BROWN 

‘Ey Lot’s Wife readers! Hope you’re settling into uni 

and enjoying the blissful first days until the crushing 

weight of assignments and exams settles in. I’m the 

MSA Treasurer. I share an office with Jessica, the MSA 

Secretary, and if needed I can be found on level one of 

Campus Centre between the President and Education 

Academic Affairs! Alongside the President, Matilda, 

we make up the executive of the MSA. Our jobs vary 

day to day, but mainly I look after the budget and make 

sure your money is being put to good use! I work alongside 

the departments to help them plan and budget for projects and campaigns. 

I’ve been helping with enrolment week and visiting Host Scheme camps, and 

dispersed information to the departments outlining their financial budgets. 

I’m extremely excited to be involved in the running of new events and 

campaigns this year, and talking to and engaging with students in the MSA. 

Coming up we have O-Week, which we’ve put loads of time and planning into 

making super fun and rewarding for you guys! Come join me for Members 

Week from the 6th to the 10th of March! A week all about giving back to 

our MSA members. Please come to us if you’re having any issues whatsoever, 

make sure you join some clubs and societies during O-Week, and purchase an 

MSA card so that you can reap the benefits of supporting your student union! 

SECRETARY 

JESSICA STONE 

Hi everyone and welcome back to another year at this 

eternal construction site and if you’re new, welcome 

to Monash (yes it’s always like this)! I’m Jess, the 

Secretary of the MSA, and I have been hard at work 

making sure that this year kicks off with a splash. 

The Orientation Festival is four jam-packed days 

happening from the 20th to the 23rd of February with 

opportunities to join clubs, eat tonnes of free food 

and importantly meet the 2017 MSA Office Bearers (I’ll 

be the one in orange frantically running around). Come 

to the big marquee to have a chat to all of us. Also don’t forget to join the 

MSA! It’s only $20 for the year and you get heaps of cool discounts on food 

at uni and any MSA run event. If you have any questions about the MSA, feel 

free to shoot me an email at jessica.stone@monash.edu. 

WELFARE: 

NICHOLAS VIRGO & PATRICK STEPHENSON 

Hey Monash students! Just calling in to introduce this 

year’s Welfare department and welcome you all back 

for another semester of torment. Nick and Patrick 

are your representatives this year, and just quietly, 

we’re bloody excited about it. If you’ve got a spare 

moment, here is some insight into what we’ve been 

up to, and what our plans for the future are. Many of 

you will not only be aware of, but will have been swept 

into the vortex that is the Centrelink automated debt 

recovery disaster. Now, one of the most overused words 

in political discourse is that of ‘disaster,’ however this has been a bloody 

train-wreck. We have been involving the Welfare department with campaigns 

surrounding the inefficiencies and injustices of the current system. On 

a lighter note, we will be continuing to run our classic Free Food Monday 

event. There is nothing that students can be more united around than free 

food, and as such we will be delivering this service with as much conviction 

as ever. We hope that by the end of the year there will be a functioning 

Centrelink advisory service on campus, an increased number of asylum 

seeker scholarships and some weekly yoga sessions for those who need some 

time to relax. Naturally, if you feel as though your time at university is not up 

to scratch, please come visit us and we’ll turn over a few rocks and even poke 

a few bears if necessary. Please contact us at nicholas.virgo@monash.edu and 

patrick.stephenson@monash.edu. 

EDUCATION (PUBLIC AFFAIRS): 

COREY ROSEVEAR & JULIET STEEL 

Welcome to our first report back in Lot’s Wife - it’s an 

exciting time to be alive and an exciting time to be 

reading what your lovely Education Public Affairs 

Officers have been up to. Corey and Juliet are here 

to fight for you in regards to university, state and 

federal policy. Our first campaign for this year, in 

conjunction with the National Union of Students, 

is the fight for publicly funded higher education. 

The government fully funds you to go to school, but 

secondary education is no longer the minimum required 

to get a job in society. Make Education Free Again is the 2017 campaign to 

restore government funding for universities to allow more people to access 

tertiary education and contribute to our society. Also keep an eye out for our 

Activate Monash Leadership Program, designed to equip you with the skills 

to create change at Monash and in the wider community - check out www. 

facebook.com/ActivateMonash to submit your application! 

EDUCATION (ACADEMIC AFFAIRS) 

HARINI KASTHURIARACHCHI & RAPHAEL TELL 

Welcome to 2017 friends! Especially all the first years! 

We hope you’re enjoying your time at Monash and 

that university is everything you hoped it’d be! (How 

good is the Schnitz on campus??) Over the past 

month and a half we have been organising student 

volunteers for Academic Progress Committee 

Hearings (APC). APCs, for those you who don’t 

know, are hearings that students have to face if they 

have failed 50% of their units over the year. The role 

of the student representative is to listen to the student’s 

case, and alongside the other committee members, to find the best outcome. 

Some outcomes include recommending support-services or other assistance 

to help them lift their academic performance. This year we will be working 

towards getting more power outlets in lecture theaters as well as furthering 

the campaign to ensure fairer assessment policies and an university wide 

‘opt-out’ process for lecture recordings instead of the current opt-in system. 

If you have any issues with your studies, teaching staff or assessment policies 

feel free to email us at msa-education@monash.edu. Everything you say is 

completely confidential. Enjoy O-Week and the first month back!

ACTIVITIES 

SEAN GLASS & SARAH HARRIS 

Sarah Harris and Sean Glass are the Activities Office 

Bearers for 2017! We will be working hard to bring 

Monash Clayton students fun events such as pub 

crawls, trivia nights and after exam parties all 

year round. But the fun isn’t just for after hours 

events, the dynamic duo will also be feeding the 

hungry masses with free Hump Day barbecues! 

So if you’re ever in the mood for a snag or a 

hash brown come down and see Activities every 

Wednesday on the Lemon Scented Lawn. Also as an 

added bonus we’ve lined up live music acts to serenade you whilst you eat 

for the first 7 weeks of semester, how good is that? 

INDIGENOUS 

JAYDEN CROZIER & BRYDA NICHOLS 

ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL JUSTICE 

TESS DIMOS & JASMINE DUFF 

ESJ is a hub of left wing activism at Monash, uniting 

activists and progressives in combatting oppression and 

injustice. We organise left wing forums and protest 

campaigns on campus, fighting the government’s 

attacks on migrants, welfare, and working class people. 

As Trump’s attacks on Muslims have escalated, mass 

opposition has swept the United States. Inspired by 

that movement, we have organised thousands of people 

in Melbourne to protest against not only Trump but 

our own right wing government and their barbaric refugee 

policies. This year we’re part of the national campaign to Make Education 

Free Again. On March 22, students in every major city around the country will 

protest against the unacceptable living standards that students experience 

and for more accessible education. We want as many people involved as 

possible – that means you! To get involved, like us on facebook at MSA 

Environment & Social Justice or email msa-enviro-l@monash.edu. 

The MSA Indigenous Department exists to represent 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. 

Indigenous people are underrepresented in higher 

education and more likely to prematurely withdraw 

from their studies. Our department strives to provide 

support networks and advocacy for these students. 

This year’s office bearers – Jayden and Bryda – are 

committed to raising awareness about issues facing 

Indigenous students such as ITAS funding cuts, closing 

the gap, creation of an MSA Reconciliation Action Plan 

and the renaming of the John Medley Library. Similarly we aim to promote 

Indigenous culture on campus. Our first event of the year will be hosting 

the Wominjeka Monash Clayton on February 22nd. The event is during 

O-Week and will feature a traditional Indigenous Welcome to Country, led 

by Aunty Di Kerr and Aunty Carolyn Briggs. It will also be headlined by 

prominent Indigenous Australian artist, Dan Sultan, with local Monash 

student talent. We hope to see you there! 

WOMEN’S 

SHREEYA LUTHRA & NIKOLA GUZYTE 

Hello fellow students, the Women’s Department has 

well and truly kicked off this year with planning 

underway for events, workshops and campaigns. 

Getting ready for O-Week is a heap of work for 

every department, and while we’ve been doing this 

we’ve also been preparing for a few post O-Week 

events, including a movie night for International 

Women’s Day (keep an eye on the big screen outside 

of campus centre)! There will be new surprises coming 

to the Women’s Room, so swing by if you haven’t before 

and hopefully we can unveil the changes soon. #watchthisspace! If you’re 

not very well acquainted with the Women’s Department, feel free to swing 

by upstairs campus centre! We’ve got plenty planned for this year, including 

NOWSA, a national women’s conference that we will be partaking in, so 

never hesitate to come along to something or express interest. Thnx v much 

xoxo ur women’s officers. 

DISABILITIES & CARERS 

NAWAMA GREEN & MELANIE LOUDOVARIS 

Hello from the MSA Disabilities and Carers (D&C) 

Department. We have been working on plans for this 

coming semester, including organising a lounge 

space in our office for students to use, working 

towards making guides to study and how to get 

support, as well as working on ways to improve 

accessibility of MSA events and activism. We will 

be holding events like morning teas and discussion 

groups throughout the semester, find us on Facebook 

for more information and details. We look forward to an 

awesome year and a great first semester. 


QUEER 

ANDREA DUVAL & DENISE ATZINGER 

Insert generic welcome. Since we’re always accused of 

having a gay agenda, Monash Queer Department has 

gone to great pains to stay on theme. This includes: 

LGBTea, Queer Beers, plotting discussions and 

workshops. We’ve already had a great glittery start 

to the year with our Monash contingent marching 

at Pride and a picnic afterwards. But the events are 

still coming. We’d love to see people check out our 

trivia night in week 2. Keep your eyes open for our 

Karaoke Night and Queer Ball. Feel intimidated visiting 

our lounge on level 1 of campus centre? We’re having friendly intro sessions 

for the first few weeks for new students (or veteran students but new to the 

lounge). Please check out our Facebook page, Monash Queer Department - 

MSA. You can follow for all the updates and get in direct contact with the 

Queer Officers for more info. 

PEOPLE OF COLOUR 

JASMINE NGUYEN & KAPIL BHARGAVA 

It’s the START of something NEWWWW and it 

feels so right to be here with YOU! Ohhh ~ It’s 

Jasmine and Kapil, your officers from the brand 

new People of Colour (PoC) Department! The 

PoC Department’s main function is to support, 

unite, represent and empower students of colour. 

We’ve been busy sorting out the office, regulations 

and social media. We’ve also been talking to clubs 

and planning campaigns and events for the year. To 

name a few, keep an eye out for the Holi festival with the 

Hindu Society and the United Colours of Monash campaign. Since this is 

the Department’s first year, our intention is to make sure we start it with 

a BANG by reaching out to as many people as possible so we can build 

together a stronger, more inclusive and diverse community. 

Jasmine Nguyen: jasmine.nguyen@monash.edu 

Kapil Bhargava: kapil.bhargava@monash.edu 

OBR 

Office Bearer Reports 

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lot’s wife 

Orientation Festival, Dan Sultan, and Zest Fest! 

For all jaffys and newcomers, the Monash Student 

Association (MSA) annual Orientation Festival is on at the 

Lemon Scented Lawns from the 20th to 23rd of February. 

Enjoy free food and entertainment as Monash showcases 

its diverse clubs, societies and sporting teams. In 

addition, there are special events each day of O-week. 

Key highlights are: Wominjeka Monash, the official 

Welcome to Monash event that is celebrating Indigenous 

culture with a feature performance by Dan Sultan as well 

as the Beach Party to be held at the Royal Melbourne 

Hotel, presented by Monash Engineering Students’ 

Society and the Society of Arts Students. The Student 

Theatre will be running their Harry Potter themed O-Show 

with four shows each day until Thursday. Roaming Host 

Scheme volunteers are available to give all new students 

a hand. Don’t be stressed if you can’t make it to O-week 

though, as Zest Fest, held on March 1st, will be an 

extension of the clubs days with the Soundshell and 

Northern Plaza hosting live performances and comedy 

acts. Further details on all events can be found at the 

MSA social media pages, Facebook events and Monash 

Orientation Planner. 

Monash Welcomes Diversity in Response to Trump’s 

Executive Order 

In an email addressed to all Monash staff and students, 

the President and Vice Chancellor of Monash University, 

Professor Margaret Gardner AO has expressed Monash’s 

continued commitment to internationalism, diversity and 

inclusion. In response to the US travel ban for citizens of 

the specified countries in Trump’s Executive Order, she 

condemned its negative impact on global collaboration 

and tolerance of people from all backgrounds. Monash 

does not support President Trump’s recent overarching 

measures. Monash’s policy embraces the “free exchange 

of ideas that is vital to the education and research of 

universities” and emphasises diversity and inclusion as 

remaining core to its values. 

Summerfest 2017 

To celebrate the end of summer, Summerfest kicks 

off at the Clayton and Caulfield campuses from the 13th 

-17th of March. So far, the Full Moon Party has been 

announced for the Tuesday with the gigantic waterslide 

making a return along with DJs, face paint, food and 

drinks. Tickets are available via MSA outlets for $20. 

Watch out for further announcements including the Dive- 

In Cinema at the Doug Ellis Swimming Pool, foodies’ 

night, comedy, live music, markets and more. 

M-Pass 

The new Monash student ID, the M-Pass, will be rolled 

out in February and March, and it will be sent to students’ 

addresses. The transition period will last until April, and 

after this the M-Pass will be used as official Monash ID, 

even in exams. The current ID will be required for secure 

building access until updates are completed. Library 

services such as borrowing, printing and photocopying 

will only be accessible with the M-Pass, some through 

online credit. Head to Monash Connect with your old 

student ID to collect your M-Pass if you haven’t yet 

received it. 

National Student Protests 

Students across the country will gather on March 22nd 

in protest of government cuts to education and welfare 

for the National Day of Action. The demonstration at 

the State Library is organised by the National Union of 

Students. The Monash contingent will be meeting on the 

Lemon Scented Lawn at 12pm. Juliet Steel and Jasmine 

Duff elaborate on page 17. 

Counselling Restructures 

Monash is going ahead with their plan to cut one third 

of the full-time-equivalent (FTE) counsellors and replace 

them with contractor or private practice psychologists. 

This has been met with student disdain, as it will mean 

fewer services provided for free drop-in consultations, 

as psychologists require GP referral. It is feared that the 

incoming psychologists will lack institutional knowledge. 

Counsellors will be lost en masse and students dealing 

with issues not deemed serious enough for a psychologist 

will face longer wait times. Criticism from the National 

Tertiary Education Union points out the hypocrisy in 

the university heavily promoting R U OK? Day, whilst 

reducing its mental health services. 

WOT’S 

NEWS? 

With Jessie Lu 

Refurbished Matheson Library Offers Some Welcome 

Relief from Construction 

Major construction works around Clayton campus are 

continuing with the Learning and Teaching Building by 

the bus loop whilst the fully refurbished Matheson Library 

reopens. Other projects that are expected to be near 

completion are the Monash Transport Interchange and 

the Forum, which encompasses the area between the 

Campus Centre and Matheson Library. 

This comes as Monash powers forward with their 

Masterplan, the framework for campus development 

envisioning the transformation into a ‘university city’. 

Although the construction comes as an annoyance 

to many current students with the ‘great blue wall of 

Clayton’ still standing, future students will benefit greatly 

from a revitalised campus. 

The comprehensive refurbishment of the Sir Louis 

Matheson Library is expected to be completed in time 

for Semester 1 with a new seating capacity of 1,500. 

This follows the opening of the updated Lower Ground 

level in mid-July last year with modern study spaces. 

The introduction of the Forum, which will fill the area 

between the Matheson library and the Menzies Building 

will complement the reinvigorated library. Landscaping 

works are taking place to finish the new water feature and 

decked courtyard, replacing the previous water fountain 

near the Rotunda. 

The new Monash Transport Interchange which boasts 

improved integration of bus, cycling and pedestrian 

services was set to open in February 2017. However, 

additional works may continue into the future. The LTB 

is scheduled to open in mid-2018 with four storeys 

of learning space, innovative technology and a retail 

precinct. The sustainability of the Masterplan has been 

a key concern with the installation of nearly 4,000 solar 

panels and a water harvesting system, which will include 

a filtration rain garden. Future works are to include a new 

200-seat Jazz Club, a Sound Bar replacing Rotunda and 

the refurbishment of the Alexander Theatre, scheduled to 

open in 2018. 

JCU Under Pressure After Promoting a Convicted 

Rapist 

Controversy shrouds James Cook University following 

revelations that former employee Douglas Steele 

was promoted to a senior position with JCU advising 

Indigenous students after being charged of rape. He was 

permitted to remain employed whilst awaiting sentencing 

even after Vice Chancellor Sandra Harding was made 

aware of his charge. JCU is now purportedly conducting 

an investigation into its sexual assault policies after 

criticism of its slow response. 

Renaming of John Medley Library 

The Monash Student Council has authorised the 

renaming of the MSA-run John Medley Library, to the 

Mick Dodson Library after realisations that John Medley 

was involved in eugenics that was linked to the White 

Australia Policy. Mick Dodson was the first Monash 

Indigenous graduate to hold a Bachelor of Laws, however 

the new name is yet to be confirmed. Further details on 

page 14. 

MSA Space 

The new MSA space run by the Monash Student 

Association has opened on the ground floor of the 

Campus Centre. It is currently offering a dry cleaning 

service, bicycle products, event tickets and student 

printing with more to come. 

New Nature Walk 

The Jock Marshall Reserve at Clayton is now open to 

public following the opening of the new Nature Walk last 

November. This includes a footbridge to allow greater 

accessibility to the reserve. 

Robert Doyle Awarded with Honorary Doctorate 

Melbourne’s Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle was awarded 

his alma mater - Monash University’s highest honour - the 

Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. This was in recognition 

of his contributions to public life and his associations 

in industry and philanthropy. Doyle has recently been 

making headlines for targeting the homeless community 

by banning them from camping in the CBD. 

The same honorary doctorate was also conferred onto 

the Deputy Chancellor and Council member of Monash 

University, Clinical Professor Leanne Rowe, in recognition 

for her outstanding career in the fields of adolescent 

and Indigenous health and her service to the University. 

Jeanne Pratt, AC was also among the recipients. 

Carpooling Fee Remains Amidst Further Fee Hikes to 

Parking Permits 

Despite continued opposition and frustration by 

Monash students regarding the lack of available Blue 

permits and their cost, the university has yet again raised 

the cost. The yearly Blue permit has been elevated from 

$400 to $405 and from $200 in 2016 to $202.5 for the half 

yearly Blue permit, which have been selling for Clayton 

campus from the 7th of February. 

In 2016, the annual permits were sold out before 

the semester had even commenced, forcing hundreds 

of students to either park away from campus, join the 

waitlist or risk excessive fines. A major concern for 

students is the scarcity of parking spots. Some of the 

strain has been alleviated with the opening of a new level 

at the N1 car park, adding 1,170 spaces, as well as an 

underground car park at the new Learning and Teaching 

Building (LTB), touted to open mid-year with an additional 

800 parking spots. The overcrowding may be further 

relieved with the gradual introduction of new digital 

vehicle signage, providing live data on the availability of 

spaces. Free off campus parking will now only be limited 

to the Off-campus Two (OC2) car park with discounted 

parking being offered at the OC1 car park for $1 per hour 

or $5 all day. 

The Monash Student Association is continuing their 

lobbying efforts for reduced permit fees, the abolishment 

of the carpooling fee and better transport options for 

students. The MSA is committed to fighting permit fee 

increases following an unsuccessful campaign last year. 

The contentious introduction of the fees for Rideshare 

carpooling in 2016 has continued. Previously, specified 

areas for carpooling were free. The justification for the 

fee from Monash is to “deter misuse of the program and 

help genuine ride sharers find available parking”. The 

yearly fees have increased from $70 to $76 for each 

individual student to participate in the program. To secure 

a carpooling place, the combined worth of the yearly 

Rideshare permits will equate to at least $152. Students 

are being deterred from this program as individual Blue 

permits provide much more convenience for a little 

more money. This is worrying for Monash sustainability 

initiatives that are aimed at reducing vehicle emissions 

despite efforts to promote public transport, walking and 

cycling. 

Universal Changes to Engineering Degrees Cause a 

Stir 

At the close of October last year, all Engineering 

students were informed of the introduction of a new 

compulsory course requirement, named Continuous 

Professional Development (CPD). From Semester 1, 

2017, all Engineering students graduating after Semester 

1, 2017 will be required to undertake a minimum of 

105 hours of CPD, increasing by 105 hours for every 

additional year in the course, up to 420 hours for students 

anticipated to graduate at the end of 2020. The preferred 

method of accruing time through CPD is work experience 

with an engineering related firm. 

As with all major university announcements (such 

as the new standardised Business School calculator, 

closing of gym chicken and the Asian grocery), there was 

a uproar on Monash Stalkerspace. The primary concern 

was with the lateness of the announcement, considering 

all Engineering students graduating at the end of 2017...

...or later would now be required to find ways to fulfil the CPD. This was at 

a time where a large portion of engineering summer internship applications 

had already closed and competition for any other engineering related roles 

would be very fierce. 

“My biggest issue with the system, is the manner in which they sprung 

it onto students. The fact that if I hadn’t done work on UAS (Unmanned 

Aerial Systems) and was graduating at the end of 2017, I would need to 

have found an internship over these holidays, well after all applications 

had closed. It was poorly implemented considering no warning was given 

and not enough resources were devoted to helping students find these 

internships,” says Adhi-Raj Rana, a final year engineering student. 

Some support is provided from the university to students in completing 

the CPD through the Career Gateway portal and Monash is also offering 

work insurance cover for applicable students. The Monash Engineering 

Students’ Society also intends to guide any lost students. 

Overall however, the consensus among many Engineering students was 

that despite the large time commitment involved with CPD, it is a welcome 

addition to the course. CPD is proclaimed by the Engineering faculty to 

provide a “framework for students to find professional development 

opportunities that teach business related skills and enable students to 

gain business and engineering related knowledge”. Students can largely 

appreciate the thinking behind the introduction of the CPD, which is 

likely to put them in good stead with future employers and effectively 

force students to acquire real experience and professional skills in the 

engineering field. 

“I think the CPD is a great addition. There is no doubt there is difficulty 

getting an internship but too many people are graduating with ‘engineering’ 

degrees without the foggiest clue on what the industry is like and with 

nothing to show on their resume. Furthermore, many grad jobs require 

or strongly prefer experience which students don’t realise because they 

haven’t had to get any experience,” Rana explains. 

There are alternatives to engineering based work experience in 

completing the CPD that can fill up to a specified quota of hours. Particular 

subjects from the engineering course will contribute to a proportion of 

required time, as well as work experience in any field, including regular 

jobs and participation in additional seminars, courses or volunteering. 

The flexibility of the program will assist students greatly in being able to 

complete the requirements. 

Unpaid internships are bound to fulfil a large proportion of students 

CPD hours. The introduction of the program comes at a time where 

some universities are moving away from unpaid internships due to ethical 

concerns. Columbia University in New York is limiting students’ exposure 

to unpaid work placements after efforts from Intern Labor Rights who are 

actively against the exploitation of unpaid labourers. UK universities such 

as University of the Arts London (UAL), Falmouth and Kingston have all 

stopped advertising unpaid internships positions on their student jobs 

websites. The efficacy of unpaid internships in assisting students with job 

opportunities is questionable and can also severely limit social mobility. 

The flexibility of Monash’s CPD may be able to counter this. 

Further criticism comes in the form of the lack of opportunities presented 

to students by the university itself. For students wanting to work to specific 

engineering fields, they are often left on their own. 

Rana shares some final thoughts. “I think the university doesn’t take 

enough initiative to create partnerships with companies (especially in the 

aero field). It has minimal contacts and therefore barely any internship 

partners for someone like me. It also makes minimal efforts to create them. 

Having presented the engineering faculty with possible partners (through 

the UAS team), I have seen them ignore some massive opportunities due 

to the required paperwork, despite the huge opening this would give to 

students.” 

It is only the beginning for the Continuous Professional Development 

requirement, which is intended to give engineering students a boost in their 

field experience and future work prospects. However, this is contingent 

on students being able to manage the commitment alongside their 

studies, their ability to find internships in relevant fields and willingness of 

engineering companies to value the contribution of these students. 

The University Council Election Outcome and 

Why You Should Care About It 

By Joanne Fong 

Elections – in particular, participating in them – are very important, as 

they determine who will obtain certain responsibilities and power to make 

decisions and changes that affect us. As can be seen in real life events such 

as Brexit and the US election in 2016, and with the protesting and aftermath 

that followed both, making your voice heard and casting your vote can 

really make or break a community. 

The Monash University Council is the highest governing body of 

Monash University. It is responsible for the management and activity of 

the university, including the approval of its annual budget, mission, and 

strategic direction. Academic Board, which reports to Council, oversees 

important duties including the governance of all university coursework, any 

changes to course entry requirements, as well as the Learning and Teaching 

portfolio which was partly responsible for the implementation of night 

exams. The Council is therefore responsible for the overall superintendence 

of the university, and facilitating its role in the Australian community. 

Thus, it is important that voting members on Council are able to make 

just, unbiased and competent decisions. Both the University Council and 

Academic Board take into consideration the reports and opinions of their 

respective elected student representatives. It is crucial these students are 

able to voice the best interests of students, especially as University Council 

meeting minutes are not available to be accessed by ordinary students, or 

even the Monash Student Association Executive. 

Along with the University Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, President of the 

Academic Board, twelve other appointed members, and an elected staff 

member, there is one position that is reserved for a student who is of equal 

status to the other Councillors. Eligible students are able to nominate for 

the position, and the broader student body then votes to democratically 

elect their chosen representative. The elected representative participates 

in the strategic decision making of Council, supposedly upholding the best 

interests and values of students. This includes responding to any proposed 

Federal budget cuts such as that of the student-opposed fee deregulation, 

for which Monash has previously shown support. The ability for Monash 

students to elect a student representative as a member of Council was only 

recently reinstated following legislation in 2015 from the Andrews’ Labor 

government, reversing the Baillieu government’s 2013 legislation which 

dropped requirements for elected staff and student representatives on 

Council. An appointed student representative, chosen by the University, 

remained on Council for the duration of these four years. The student who 

sits on Council, either appointed or elected, is awarded tens of thousands of 

dollars per year. 

Mr Ziyang (Tony) Zhang, previously President of MONSU Caulfield 2016, 

was elected to University Council to serve as the Student Member for 2017 

and 2018. As a part of a ticket called ‘Stand Up,’ which is now affiliated 

with ‘Unite,’ he and others on his ticket led with a focus around the impact 

of university life on international students. Controversy surrounded Mr. 

Zhang last year, as he was alleged to have spent $908 of student funds on a 

banquet for him and other Stand Up members; money that could have been 

directed towards running activities and services for students. This decision 

was brought to students’ attention by a post on Stalkerspace, revealing the 

receipt of the indulgent meal, and was received with widespread outrage 

and concern. Further, it is alleged that under his presidency, attendance 

numbers at MONSU events dropped dramatically, and funding was cut from 

the Queer department. 

According to the electronic poll, only 9.77% of the 70,676 eligible students 

voted in the University Council election, and only 2,498 formal votes were 

cast for the three positions on Academic Board. 10% of all eligible students 

had their say, but what about the remaining 90%? How many people saw 

the emails regarding the election in their inbox and just scrolled past 

them or ignored them? Brexit, the US election; our own University Council 

election. What they all have in common is that voting was optional, and 

when people don’t participate, it can have a major impact on the percentage 

of the population that is then represented. What to take away from the 

result of this election is not that a student about whom a number of serious 

allegations have been made now holds an extremely influential position, 

but that refusing to participate in elections can mean that you miss your 

opportunity to express your views and interests, and that they are never 

represented. 

10-11

edition one 

lot’s wife 

Clubs & 

Societies 

Monash Association of Debaters: 

The Monash Association of Debaters is one of 

the world's best university debating societies. 

Whether you have debated at a state level in high 

school, or you have never debated before, MAD has 

the experience and programs to help you improve 

your debating. Debating allows you to build skills 

that will be useful throughout your life, such as 

01. 

public speaking, critical thinking and an ability 

to structure arguments in a logical and cohesive 

way. A combination of these skills are useful in 

just about any career you may have in the future. 

As well as building skills, debating is also a lot of 

fun and a great chance to make new friends. The 

club sends contingents to tournaments all around 

Australia and the world, which will allow you to 

experience other cities and bond with your new 

friends. So come along on a Monday night and try 

out debating for yourself! 

Oxfam at Monash: 

Welcome to Oxfam at Monash! We are an 

organisation of students affiliated with Monash 

Clubs and Societies, Oxfam Australia and Oxfam- 

Monash Research Partnership. Oxfam at Monash 

hopes to inform and inspire students to campaign 

for social justice and sustainable development in 

local, national and international communities. 

02. 

Oxfam at Monash organises engaging events, 

which in the past have included the Hunger 

Banquet, Change Conference and other events 

in conjunction with other Monash Clubs and 

Societies and other like-minded organisations. 

Oxfam at Monash also organises opportunities in 

conjunction with social enterprises for students to 

volunteer during the semester. Oxfam at Monash 

hopes to mobilise the power of the people to 

campaign for a world without poverty. Oxfam at 

Monash updates students on opportunities to 

volunteer, intern and work with Oxfam Australia, 

Oxfam International and Oxfam-Monash Research 

Partnership. We look forward to helping you to ‘be 

the change you want to see in the world!’ 

Female Engineers of Monash: 

FEM’s goal is to support female engineering 

students by inspiring and connecting them with 

each other and with females working in the 

profession and in the faculty. Although our focus is 

on female students, we welcome everyone to come 

and enjoy our social and academic events. Through 

our industry events and our annual Industry Guide, 

03. 

we encourage you to get to know representatives 

from the industry as well as provide you with easy 

access to relevant information that can help you 

make the most out of your university experience. 

FEM also has great opportunities for members to 

socialise at our famous pancake barbeques and 

our Trivia Night. Our aim is to bring more fun, 

engaging and helpful gatherings to our members 

this year. We look forward to perhaps seeing you at 

some of our exciting events this year! 

Monash Philosophy Society: 

Is it morally just for some of us to live in relative 

luxury while others merely subsist in abysmal 

poverty? Is it morally permissible, or perhaps 

even obligatory, to take drugs which improve 

our proclivities towards moral behaviour? Why 

is it that so many people find arguments for 

vegetarianism persuasive, yet very few actually 

04. 

follow through and become vegetarian? And: what 

even IS philosophy?! At the Monash Philosophy 

Society, we aim to undertake an intellectual 

exploration of these issues which are so often 

pertinent to our daily lives. We do so by inviting 

guest speakers from the Monash Philosophy 

Department to present on an area of their research 

and open up a discussion. Students who come 

along can expect exposure to hotly contested issues 

in philosophy, robust discussion and a friendly, 

welcoming environment. The questions above are 

just a sample of what we’ve discussed in the past; 

expect more exciting discussion in the future! No 

prior philosophical experience needed; just bring 

along an inquisitive mind.

Monash Hellenic Student Society: 

MHSS was established in 2006 and since then 

has been bringing the best of Greece to Monash! 

We host a wide variety of cultural and social events 

throughout the year, including our famous souvlaki 

days, soccer tournaments, unrivalled tavern nights, 

O-Week stalls, participation in cultural community 

events and much more! Our events are guaranteed 

05. 

to bring passion, kefi and glendi (as the Greeks 

say!). We have the best of time doing everything 

that is necessary to operate a successful club and 

have cherished memories as proof! 

Wired: 

Wired is the official society for the Faculty of 

Information Technology at Monash. If you're 

passionate about computers, the IT industry, or just 

want to hang out with other tech-minded people, 

Wired is the club to be in. During the semesters 

we run lots of different events ranging from our 

Industry Night in March, to UniHack and our 

06. 

Trivia Night in August and September. We aim to 

offer a variety of different activities and events for 

our club members ranging from fun and informal 

lunches like our first week BBQ, to workshops with 

our industry partners like Facebook and Deloitte. 

Either way when you join Wired, you’re guaranteed 

an awesome year at Monash. The best part is that 

it’s free for MSA members and only $5 for nonmembers. 

So come and say hi to us at our booth in 

O-Week, we’ve got a few goodies to give away and 

always have new tech to show off. 

Engineers Without Borders Monash: 

“Science or engineering related fields never 

really interested me. However, I was lucky enough 

to have attended a science program over the 

summer holidays in 2014. Many among the cohort 

were extremely passionate about STEM and had 

amazing hobbies such as coding or building models 

of planes and cars. Others, like me, were simply 

07. 

curious about what The Conocophillips Science 

Experience had to offer. It was there where I first 

realised I had found my people and my calling, as 

well as my first experience with Engineers Without 

Borders. Fast forward two years, I’m volunteering 

for EWB and absolutely loving the fact that we are 

able to inspire students and bring to their attention 

how cool STEM can be. One thing I noticed 

during my time as a high-school student was that 

engineering had almost no representation in the 

majority of schools. I had no idea what engineering 

was – maybe just people in hard hats who worked 

on bridges and cars? So having this opportunity 

to participate in STEM outreach and conduct fun 

workshops which students of all ages can take 

something away from amazes me. Sure, they might 

decide that ‘engineering is not for me’. However, 

it’s those few students whose eyes light up when 

you show them a cool coding trick, or talk to them 

about your studies and projects – it’s those few kids 

who you can see start thinking ‘hey, maybe this 

could be something I’m interested in…’ that really 

make volunteering worthwhile.” - Helen Zhou 

Monash Photography Club: 

Have you ever wanted to capture a photo but felt 

like too much of a tourist or felt guilty for slowing 

people down? Join this club and be embarrassed 

no more. We are a diverse group of people who 

are passionate about photography and believe it 

is worth any effort or stare to capture that perfect 

shot. Throughout the year we hold workshops, 

08. 

daytrips and road trips that allow you to learn 

camera and editing skills, and travel with equally 

passionate people. The club is beginner friendly so 

there’s no need to be a professional or even own an 

advanced camera (a phone camera will do!). Photos 

have become an important aspect of expression 

and marketing in this age of social media, therefore 

photography is a super beneficial skill to acquire 

and great fun to take up as a hobby. 

Progressive Law Network: 

The PLN stands for increasing awareness about 

social justice issues and providing the opportunity 

for passionate students to effect positive social 

change. Last year, we launched a careers guide and 

hosted many public lectures on interesting topics 

such as animal rights issues, domestic violence and 

international law. This year, we have introduced 

09. 

a portfolio for mental health and are planning on 

creating more policy reform opportunities. Our 

welcoming and passionate committee members 

will be organising many social activities for this 

year which will be intermixed with our meaningful 

lectures and debates. We hope to see you at our 

upcoming meetings! 

Monash Muggles: 

If you’re still waiting for your Hogwarts letter 

to arrive, wishing that Hagrid will bust down your 

door to tell you “YER A WIZARD”, and craving that 

little bit of magic on campus, then Muggles is the 

club for you! From events like our annual Triwizard 

Yule Ball (co-hosted with Melbourne University 

and La Trobe) and trivia, to movie nights, game 

10. 

nights, and Quidditch, the Monash Muggles is 

the perfect club for anyone who has just seen the 

films to the most dedicated Harry Potter fan. For 

any inquiries send us an owl at monashmuggles@ 

monashclubs.org or visit us in O-Week. 

Monash Law Student’s Society: 

The Monash Law Students’ Society has been 

operating to serve law students since 1964 and is 

one of the largest student societies at Clayton. We 

have 7 different portfolios that offer a wide range of 

experiences to students including: Administration, 

Activities, Careers, Competitions, Education, 

Social Justice & Equity, and finally, the Juris Doctor 

11. 

portfolio for our postgraduate students. Whatever 

your interests, the LSS has something for you 

to enjoy! Whether it be Law Ball, Networking 

Evenings, Social Justice Seminars or just a burger 

at one of our BBQs, make sure you get involved in 

our events in 2017, and like our Facebook page for 

updates. 


12-13

A Medley Of Evil 

edition one 

In 1970, a large number of recreational books and records were bequeathed to the University 

of Melbourne in the name of John Medley. As the University of Melbourne had already established 

a recreational library, the resources were hence donated to Monash and the John Medley Library was 

established as the first library of our student union. Managed by the Monash Student Association, the 

library is run off the work of a few staff members who are either students or past students, and a team of 

dedicated student volunteers. Grace Trist, the library coordinator, mentioned that the original purpose 

of the library in 1970 is still very relevant today. She acknowledged that a lot of the feedback she gets 

from students now is similar to back when the library was first established. It is a “refuge for students, 

away from the chaos of academic life.” 

Over the past few years, there has been debate over the names of particular buildings at the University 

of Melbourne. The Richard Berry Building has recently had its name changed to the Peter Hall Building 

late last year. This was due to the fact that Berry, a strong proponent of eugenics, had collected some 400 

Aboriginal corpses. The remains were re-discovered on the campus in 2003, arguably making the name 

change several years overdue. There has been a similar push for other buildings at Melbourne University 

carrying the names of detestable individuals to also be changed. One relevant example to Monash as well 

as Melbourne University is John Medley. Both staff and students at Monash and Melbourne University 

have expressed their concern over the name of buildings carrying his name. 

John Medley has a particularly shameful history involving the unethical use of eugenics, specifically 

aimed at Aboriginal people amongst many others. Furthermore, Medley was a member of the Eugenics 

Society of Victoria. The society was known for advocating for the use of sterilisation, segregation, and 

lethal chambers against Aboriginal people, homosexuals, people with disabilities and other groups of 

people that were deemed ‘inferior’ by members of the society. The practice of eugenics informed much 

of the belief system of Nazism. Following in a similar mould to the research developed in the United 

States, particularly California, eugenics gained prominence in Germany prior to the Nazis gaining power. 

However, once Hitler consolidated power there was a much larger emphasis placed on the expansion of 

its research. This expansion ultimately led to the removal of people who were generally considered weak 

in the chain of heredity: including people with cognitive and physical disabilities, mental illness and 

homosexuals. The idea was that the removal of ‘rotten heredity’ would result in a genetically superior 

master race. The Holocaust was a consequence of this belief system. 

For a university campus to still have buildings named in commemoration of people whose actions 

aided the oppression of marginalised groups, suggests that the honoree should still be celebrated. 

Eugenics and the racist practices of the members of the Eugenics Society of Victoria are nothing to be 

celebrated. Instead, we should be celebrating Indigenous achievement. The struggle that Indigenous 

Australians have faced in trying to gain access to education and equal opportunities is still ongoing. 

With this in mind, the 2017 MSA Indigenous Department is in the process of renaming the building after 

a prominent Indigenous Monash graduate. By doing so, we would not only have a library named after a 

person relevant to our university, but it could play an additional role in reversing the image impacted by 

John Medley. This will enforce the notion that we should honour Indigenous Australians, rather than a 

person who denigrated them. If the plan to rename is successful, the student union library would better 

reflect the values here at Monash University. 

The Dark History of our 

Student Union Library 

lot’s wife 

article by jayden crozier and bryda nichols

Thoughts On Living Abroad 

Away from home, often for months at a time. The 

longer one dwells on it, more daunting the prospect. The 

leap of faith just has to be taken, a step forward into an 

uncertain darkness of the future. 

Studying abroad means being away from family 

and the safe shelter of the nest, for both international 

students and citizens going interstate. At home, your 

father might have taken on the irksome job of managing 

administrative letters and monetary matters, your 

mother might have tended to the shopping and cooking, 

your siblings might have organized weekend picnics 

and family outings – it doesn’t matter, now that you are 

on your own. No longer is there the familiar security 

of family to soften life’s bruises with their reliable 

company, shared resources (notably financial) and 

heartfelt sympathy. This security is quite rare, although 

not impossible to find among friends. You can never 

be so recklessly certain of a friend’s affection especially 

after a heated argument or in an environment of mutual 

competition for grades, internships or jobs. 

Thus, this necessitates some time and energy, both 

physical and emotional, to be devoted to building a 

support network – a family away from home. In addition, 

the responsibility of taking care of yourself falls to…well, 

you. While we have had some training in taking care 

of ourselves, its implications are felt even more keenly 

when living abroad by oneself. 

Bank account statements? Insurance? Meals? Not 

the occasional meal out with friends but every single 

breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is hard to see anyone else 

around whom you can (perhaps after a particularly trying 

or disappointing day at university) delegate/plead/ 

beg into doing them for you. Moreover, you have to 

consider the fact that you want friends around instead of 

frightening everyone away with your neediness. You need 

to settle things like the grown-up that you are. 

Yet this heavy burden of responsibilities on your 

lonesome shoulders also brings with it fresh breaths 

of freedom. Living away from family also means no 

one is waiting for you to be back at dinner time, to 

interrogate you about your day or ask for an account of 

your schedule. You can change your mind, at any time, 

without worrying about clashing family commitments. 

The heady carefree feeling of a chilly night out with all 

novelty of unearthly morning hours is yours to savour. 

Daylight hours are yours to plan and spend as you wish 

– a day out in the city or by the sea? Catching up on 

homework or sleep? Shopping sprees or long chats with 

a friend? You need to be accountable only to yourself. 

The inevitable hours of solitude when you find yourself 

alone after a friend bails on you can also be a blessing in 

disguise – without the incessant voices at home, however 

well-intentioned, you can finally hear your true inner 

voice (and be sure of it) and have the time to follow 

where your inner motivations lead while discovering 

different aspects of your personality. 

For me, returning home for the summer holidays was akin to 

chancing upon a forgotten, old novel. It was the same narrative – 

familiar personalities of family, same jokes and quarrels, almost 

similar landscape of roads and buildings of the city, but a different 

reader. One will start to draw parallels – the public transport, 

architecture, food, living with friends versus family. Upon returning 

home, the initial friction of re-adjustment – living in close quarters 

with people whom you are accountable to and who place certain 

unspoken and oftentimes unwelcome expectations on you – might 

come unexpected. It is almost like being caged again but the 

boundaries more keenly felt after one has known flight. The weary 

obligation of blood ties is nevertheless accompanied by the reward 

of domestic bliss and greater emotional security (and maybe, the 

hopes in anticipation of the upcoming university semester). 

So how can one best prepare for this flight of freedom? 

1. Find out as much as possible, but not to the point of 

information overload. 

2. Be willing to make friends, by being a friend to others. 

3. Start learning to clean (a little) and cook (a lot). 

More importantly, know that it is alright to be confused or 

homesick. It is acceptable to have days when you want to lie in bed 

and hide from the world. Everyone has their own narrative, their 

own story to tell. However in the end, you will need to get out there 

to live, experience and create your own narrative. 

As a Singaporean coming to Australia, I take particular joy in 

noting differences between the two countries. One key point of 

comparison is the supermarket – everyone has to buy their own 

groceries Down Under. Australia is proud of her produce – her dairy 

bears the stamp of a home-grown company. The luscious fruits in 

season – peaches and grapes in summer, kiwi and navel oranges in 

winter – are fresh from her land. Singapore however does not have 

the luxury of acres of fertile land or indeed, much land at all – most 

fruits and dairy are imported. 

Cashiers in Australia smilingly greet you with “How are you?” at 

the checkout, even if it might be out of routine rather than genuine 

concern. On the contrary, those in Singapore single-mindedly focus 

on scanning barcodes as efficiently as they can. That is possibly the 

reason shoppers in Australia tend to be generously happy and polite 

– the custom is to carefully empty the contents of one’s basket or 

trolley onto the conveyor belt thereby giving the cashier a helping 

hand. In comparison, shoppers in Singapore are usually more 

time-pressed, worried about adding up dollars and cents of their 

purchases and placing the entire shopping basket for the cashier to 

empty, as if fearful that the little happiness they have will be lost if 

they squander it on a smile for a stranger. 

article by dolly png 


14-15

Unions Are Important: Analysing NUS 

edition one 

lot’s wife 

The National Union of Students is the peak 

representative body for undergraduate students 

who are studying in an Australian university. Its 

basic aims are to safeguard and progress the interests 

of students. NUS was established in 1987, having 

descended from the now-defunct Australian Union 

of Students (AUS). NUS, via its website, asserts that 

it seeks to achieve its noble aims by ‘by working with 

campus-based student organisations, running actions 

and campaigns, and making sure the voices of students 

are heard by parliamentarians.’ 

The need for a national union that protects students 

is pronounced in the current political and economic 

environment. Universities are no longer public 

institutions, but businesses that are run according 

to the profit motive. In many cases this results in 

universities around Australia subordinating the 

tangible interests of students to the demand of profit 

and capital. This is evident in the frequent course 

restructurings taking place across Australia (the 

University of Melbourne example being the most 

infamous) and the reduction of funding for lecturers, 

tutors and mental health services. Students are also not 

immune from Federal government action, who only 

recently attempted to introduce 100k degrees. 

Annually, NUS holds a National Conference in 

Victoria. Delegates are elected from around Australia 

to vote on, and thereby determine the policy of the 

union for the upcoming year. Some of the matters 

voted on at the 2016 National Conference related to 

opposing government cuts to welfare and universities, 

as well as advocating for the introduction of sensible 

drug policies. Many students also come to witness the 

proceedings and debate policy about which they are 

passionate. 

The main factions are: Socialist Alternative, 

Grassroots, National Labor Students, the Independents, 

Student Unity and The Australian Liberal Students’ 

Federation. There are also independents who vote 

individually. 

Certainly, conference floor is fertile ground for debate. 

Each faction has a particular perspective on the issues of 

the day, and they are accordingly entitled to share this 

with the supporters of the union. Thorough discussion 

of these issues allows for each attendee to assume an 

informed, considered personal position. For the most 

part, this is a politically stimulating thing. 

That isn’t to say that National Conference functions 

perfectly. Sometimes speaker’s arguments can descend 

into ad hominem statements, and factional hostilities 

can get in the way of productive debates. For example, 

there were a number of times where speaker’s were 

shouted down from other factions, thereby stultifying 

legitimate discussion. Moments such as these are 

contrary to the objectives of a representative student 

union. 

However, it would be wrong to assume that this is a 

defining characteristic of the union. Indeed, there were 

times where other factions congratulated one another 

on creating good policy. One of the more memorable 

instances of cooperation came after lunch on the third 

day of the Conference. Students in attendance divided 

themselves into states, ready to discuss their plans for 

the National Day of Action (NDA) in March. There were 

many worthy contributions on how to ensure that the 

day would be a success, and the spirit of collaboration 

was palpable. It is with great anticipation that we wait 

for the NDA, the aim of which is to promote discussion 

about making university education free again. 

NUS is a vital student body that was conceived to 

protect the interests of now under-siege students. It 

would be erroneous to expect that the members of 

the union be in complete consensus on every issue. 

But, a united and harmonious union is bound to be 

most successful in pursuing the maintenance and 

advancement of student rights. 

article by nick bugeja 

artwork by isabella toppi

Make Education Free Again 

For their biggest campaign of 2017, the peak 

representative body of student unions around 

Australia, the National Union of Students (NUS), 

have started a campaign called Make Education Free 

Again. The campaign will defend the rights of students 

to accessible education and welfare, fight against the 

tertiary fee, and demand an end to the enormous debt 

students are saddled with. 

Once upon a sweet time, tertiary education in Australia 

was completely free (say whaaat). This lasted until 1987 

– but it means the very people who are forcing us to 

pay higher fees and scrape by on poorly funded welfare 

went to university without paying a cent. Since entering 

politics, these people have pushed heavily to deregulate 

university fees. The average annual student contribution 

rose to $1,800 in 1989, then to $5,183 in 1997, and further 

to $7,600 in 2014. At the moment, universities can 

only legally increase fees by a very minor percentage. 

Deregulation means that Vice Chancellors at Australian 

universities can make degrees as expensive as they like. 

This cruelly takes advantage of the limited options many 

students have in regards to their university course, and 

a working class that increasingly relies on a tertiary 

qualification simply to live within ones own means. 

While deregulation was first introduced as an idea 

in 2014, it came after a long history of our government 

slowly dismantling public funding to education. Recent 

years have shown scholarship cuts, major cuts to student 

welfare, and a fee structure that makes university 

increasingly difficult to access. It is no wonder research 

shows that approximately two thirds of university 

students live below the poverty line. Financial stress is 

not only a huge deterrent from academic success, but 

it disproportionately affects Indigenous students and 

students from low-socio economic backgrounds. This 

issue is simply becoming more devastating for students 

and families by the day. A tertiary qualification is almost 

the requisite standard for a job that pays a living wage in 

Australia. Living in such a world begs the question: why 

is the cost of a qualification so financially crippling? 

While much of the deregulation bill was blocked by 

Parliament, the idea still remains on the table as some 

university courses are already being deregulated without 

much public scrutiny. In 2014, when we were on the brink 

of a complete fee restructure that would be absolutely 

devastating for students across the board, NUS along 

with many other groups of students, launched into 

action by protesting in the streets. NUS President at the 

time Rose Steele arranged meetings that successfully 

convinced a number of Independent senators to 

vote down the bill. Fee deregulation was turned into 

a poisonous issue and was defeated in the Senate 

three times. While smaller, lesser-known attacks on 

education have come into place then, the success student 

activists had with beating the main fee deregulation 

bill emphasises the importance of student unionism, 

political engagement and the effectiveness of taking 

action. 

The Australian Government consistently implements 

cuts to education every year, often far from public 

scrutiny. Being deliberately subtle, they take advantage 

of an increasingly disengaged and clueless middle class. 

This means that there’s seemingly no reason to protest 

anything – and IT’S A TRAP. Fighting back to this in the 

form of protesting and activism not only pressures the 

government, but it spreads the message far and wide that 

the current government does not stand for us: not for 

workers, not for families, and certainly not for students. 

The Australian Government is also cracking into 

welfare. Recently, in what has been mostly labelled as a 

‘scam’, thousands of dollars of false debt have been added 

onto Centrelink recipients. Debt notices calculated on 

faulty algorithms have changed the lives of thousands 

of people already, forcing them into the stressful task of 

scrambling through old payslips to prove they don’t owe 

money. It has been alleged that approximately 20% of the 

debt notices are inaccurate. There are reports of people 

paying debts they don’t owe, just to stop the government 

hounding them. This illustrates the government’s tactful 

approach to welfare: make it measly, hard to access, and 

push as many people off as possible. 

In 1974, Gough Whitlam abolished university fees 

with the belief that “a student’s merit, rather than a 

parent’s wealth, should decide who should benefit from 

the community’s vast financial commitment to tertiary 

education” (from his 1972 pre-election speech). These 

sentiments still ring true, and that’s why instead of just 

reacting, we are pushing for positive change. 

The National Day of Action is an annual protest 

organised by NUS that happens on the same day, at 

the same time, in all major cites around the country. 

This is what helped students in their major win against 

fee regulation in 2014, and 2017’s objective is the Make 

Education Free Again campaign. When thousands hit the 

streets of cities around the country to fight for our right 

to affordable and accessible education, we are heard. It 

is absolutely vital that big numbers of students inform 

themselves of the completely unacceptable education 

inequity that this government is getting away with, and 

get involved with NUS campaigns. 

The protest to Make Education Free Again will kick off 

with a bang on March 22nd at 2pm, at the State Library. 

There will be a barbeque held on the Lemon Scented 

Lawn at 12pm and a contingent from Monash will be 

leaving together at 1pm. All are welcome to join – and 

even if it’s your first protest, you will be apart of a large 

and friendly group who are keen to answer any questions. 

To join student activists around the country in fighting 

for this right for accessible and affordable education, 

contact your student union about how you can get 

involved with NUS campaigns and events. At a more 

local level, the Education (Public Affairs) Officers or the 

Environment and Social Justice Officers at the Monash 

Student Association (MSA), located upstairs in the 

Campus Centre, are always willing to speak to students 

who want to know more about their campaigns or how 

they can get more involved. 

article by juliet steel and jasmine duff, illustration by audrey chmielewski 


16-17

MONASH 

SECURITY 

MONASH SECURITY INFORMATION 

Whether you’re a student, staff member or visitor to 

Monash, you’ll find our security services team working 

around the clock to keep our campuses safe and 

enjoyable places to work, study and play. 

If you’re ever worried about your own or someone else’s 

safety, see something suspicious or just want some 

security advice, help is just a phone call away. You call 

the same general security number on all our Australian 

campuses. You’ll find the numbers on our website, it’s a 

good idea to note or enter them in your mobile phone. 

You can visit or call your campus security team directly, so 

make a note of your campus security office location and 

contact details which is also on our website. 

You’re in safe hands at Monash, so enjoy your time 

with us. 

MONASH SECURITY 

24/7 

Campus 

Security 

Patrols 

Emergency 

Help 

Points 

monash.edu/security 

Security 

Bus & 

CCTV 

Vehicle 

333* 

Emergency 

Contact 

24/7 

Campus 

Control 

ol 

Room 

Security 

Safety 

Escort 

SECURITY 

MONASH SECURITY 

For your chance to WIN! 

Visit the security website and watch the 

security orientation video: 

monash.edu/security 

Or scan the QR code and follow the prompts 

Security 

Advice 

Turn over for your 

chance to WIN! 

Property 

Marking 

Security 

Orientation 

Video 

T: 9905 3333 IN AN EMERGENCY 

Security contacts: 

T: 9902 7777 for non urgent matters 

T: 9905 3333 IN AN EMERGENCY 

“ If you leave it, you could lose it ”

contributers: 

sam allen 

nick jarrett 

hugh brooks 

devika pandit 

joanne fong 

caitlyn harris 

diana batchelor 

kelly simpson-bull 

emina besirevic 

vanessa le 

Politics/Society 

politics/society 

18-19

Trump: A Nation Divided 

article by nick jarrett 

illustration by hugh brooks 

edition one 

lot’s wife 

Whether republican or democrat, libertarian or green, the Presidential Inauguration typically marks 

a new era and the steady progression of a global superpower. With the divisive inauguration of Donald 

Trump, the air surrounding the American people can only be described as tense and anxious. President Trump’s 

first few days has sparked mass protest, anger and debate unlike any other seen within the opening fortnight 

of a presidency. Trump’s executive orders have increased moral confusion and chaos; they have relieved women 

of bodily autonomy, isolated religious minorities and immigrants and increased xenophobia and racism to 

unprecedented levels. However, there still remains Trump’s faithful base; supporters who refuse to see the moral 

wrong in his actions and wish to see further moves to continue this ultra-conservative pattern of governance. 

Simply put, Trump is literally dividing the country as he strives towards implementing his policies. 

Trump seems driven to undo all of the work completed by the Obama administration, as within a few days he 

overruled laws on abortion, shut down sites associated with environmental sustainability and signalled his intent 

to repeal Obamacare. In doing so, he is continuing the election cycle divide. A new presidency is supposed to unify 

the nation, and yet these moves seem to exhibit that Trump has no desire to compromise with the people who 

voted Hillary, but instead undo all of the work which they wanted to see expanded. 

No greater example of this tension can be seen than that of the state of California. Prior to the inauguration, 

the popularity of secession was at 20%. After two weeks, it has risen to 34%. The state is petitioning for signatures 

allowing for a state-wide vote on the secession in 2018, a move which is almost certain to succeed. California, which 

has both a larger population and a stronger economy than Australia, has literally been so divided from the United 

States, there is a legitimate move to separate from their country. Given that under Trump they will be paying more 

federal taxes than they receive in federal benefits, that they have a large multi-cultural population and that they 

have increasing doubts over Trump’s ability to govern effectively, the reasons for separation is evident. 

People from all corners of the country are standing up in opposition to Trump, particularly in the wake of his 

immigration ban. The Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAGs) highlighted numerous celebrities using their platform to 

lampoon Trump’s executive order, in a similar vein to the Golden Globes ceremony. However, despite the seeming 

obvious immorality and cruelty of some of the policies, Trump’s supporters have grown more ardent than ever. 

Agreeing with the hysterics of Sean Spicer’s first press conference as Press Secretary, there is a popular sentiment 

that Trump has been treated unfairly by the media, and that his policies are for the benefit of the ‘Real American.’ 

In Southern states such as Arizona, Texas and New Mexico, radio stations are lauding Trump’s decisiveness even as 

the poverty-riddled cities of Mexico remain in sight just across the current fence-line. Nevermind that these people 

are a minority, they are vocal and persuasive. 

Refusing to focus on the racist immigration laws which they believe in but do not always vocalise; Trump’s 

followers focus on his ‘economic genius.’ Nevermind that he was voted into office to ‘drain the swamp’ and 

has since hired the Goldman-Sachs executives he condemned, or that more of his businesses have failed than 

succeeded, his commercial acumen is going to revitalise the country. Admittedly, Trump’s pressure on General 

Motors has led to their decision to invest $1billion into a new American factory – instead of the original Mexican 

alternative – and the subsequent 7,000 jobs that will result. However, his spectacular idea that America should 

tax all Mexican imports 20% to pay for ‘The Wall’ would also lead to major price inflations that would cause the 

poor of America – who Donald targeted in his campaign – to be priced out of ordinary goods. It is only a matter of 

time before even his most loyal supporters are either disenfranchised by his manoeuvres or left loyal through their 

support of his racist policies alone. 

What is escalating the divisiveness within the country, however, is the seeming lack of preparation that has 

characterised Trump’s administration thus far. The comparison between Barack Obama’s first agenda which 

consisted of over 25,000 words to Donald Trump’s 2,500-word equivalent was an initial sign that there may be 

disorganisation in the administration. Since then, not one of Trump’s executive orders has received legal counsel, 

let alone legal review, resulting in the federal courts having to question or attempt to overturn his policies. 

Similarly, Kelly-Anne Conway has drawn comparisons to George Orwell’s infamous 1984 dictatorship for her 

presentation of ‘alternative facts’, as has Sean Spicer with his consistent demand that Donald Trump had roughly 

one million more people attend his inauguration than independent bodies have estimated. The comparisons with 

1984 do not end there, however, with Trump’s administration censoring the National Parks Department’s twitter 

feed in order to delete their pro-environment posts. The administration has tried to subtly influence what their 

government bodies publish and yet has done so poorly that it is public knowledge. This near-comedic circle of 

idiocy has confirmed the majority of the population’s opinions that this man is unfit to govern the country, and 

yet he is their president for the next four years. That is another 200 weeks of protests, racially targeted laws and 

outdated ultra-conservatism. 

What I can safely say after six weeks within this melting pot of anger, fear and confusion is that America is a 

nation on the verge of mass violence, unlawfulness and human rights breaches. By no means is Australia perfect 

– our refugee solution is barbaric, and our marriage equality stance archaic – but thank God I won’t have to live in 

America the next four years.

Logged In 

developing among people in public. Similar to a robotic 

world, each individual is preoccupied with technology 

for his needs. We are gradually losing a spirit of human 

interaction, our most fundamental trait. Tech-industry 

veteran Linda Stone cautions against this trend geared 

towards fostering relationships with screens rather than 

people: 

article by devika pandit 

Technology has simplified our lives to a great extent. With a 

special focus on the Internet and social media, instant messaging, 

chat and regular… no, constant updates, these have made even the 

average Joe a walking encyclopedia. I however have mixed feelings 

about this development. I like reminiscing about a time when we 

weren’t so digitally busy maintaining virtual connections. In this 

article, I reminisce some more and draw attention to the ill effects 

of new technology. 

The Internet Boom with due credit to Google search has 

simplified matters since its inception. Today, one can be well 

informed about anything and everything right from the spelling of 

‘multilingualism’ to causes of liver cirrhosis. However, over-reliance 

is my main concern. 

For example, my friend Tanish used Google to find out how old 

he’d be in 2054. He could’ve calculated the answer himself but 

wanted to be sure, ‘just in case’. To my mind, this incident talks 

volumes about extreme dependence created by technological 

devices. Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is 

Doing to Our Brains echoes similar sentiments remarking that search 

dependence can indeed worsen our self-reasoning abilities. 

Although the Internet is a popular source of information, this 

information possesses a high risk of being biased and may lead 

users to treat obtained information as inherently correct. Thus, if 

Search tells 19 year-old Tanish that he’d be 71 in 2054, it must be 

true because of ‘the-Internet-is-never-wrong’ ideology. Carr exposes 

such thinking as the future of societal reasoning, indeed a worrying 

proposition. 

Digitalization is a pertinent issue in this discussion. I wrote in 

longhand at school, whether for homework, assignments or finals. 

Laptops were for project work that was submitted as hard copies. At 

my first semester in university, I learnt the struggle of submitting 

all work in typed format. While I don’t have issues with typing, I do 

miss writing. 

We don’t write anymore, we type – a written assignment is a 

precious ‘document’ for the student and feared by examiners owing 

to legibility issues. It saddens me to think that we might perhaps 

not need pens or paper in the future, in our pursuit of a paperless 

world. 

Digital note-taking fares poorly when compared to longhand 

writing. As proven by researchers at Princeton University, typing 

is not learning but ‘procuring’ information. Writing allows one to 

sift through a stack of information and separate grain from chaff, 

a process that constitutes a major part of learning as suggested 

by the Princeton study. Unfortunately, the allure of technological 

convenience is stronger than a horde of scientific findings. 

My daily commute on public transport convinces me that as a 

society, we are engaged in proving how tech-savvy we are. Be it 

work, music, relationship problems, self-admiration or killing time, 

my fellow commuters invariably turn to the device as a solution. 

I watch committed office-goers furiously typing away beside a 

lady pretending to read on her phone when her expressions clearly 

indicate finding the perfect selfie for Snapchat. Tech-fever has not 

spared seniors either. On a quest to not seem outmoded, many flip 

through different apps and idle away the ride re-seeing old photos 

or marking grandchildren’s photos as favorites. 

While there isn’t anything particularly troublesome about the 

aforementioned activities, I sense a certain disconnectedness 

“It ultimately can feed the development of a kind of 

sociopathy and psychopathy.” 

Surprisingly, technology (read: social media) may not 

be as useful as we take it to be. 

For example, Summer Fest 2016 at Monash was mainly 

publicised through social media, even Moodle. Large 

posters greeted students as they entered the Menzies 

and onward towards Campus Centre. Despite this, in 

a Moodle Poll, a majority of students said they had 

never heard of Summer Fest. This is the case with many 

individuals today – we have much information available 

but barely know about it. These apparent gaps in our 

information systems might be linked to an information 

overload. Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner says: 

“The problem is humans can't keep up with all the 

technology they have created… It's becoming unmanageable 

by the human brain.” 

I perceive that we are more connected through social 

networks than ever before but looking closely, the quality 

of these networks is poor. We are friends with people, 

but may not talk to them if seen at a cinema. A Facebook 

group cannot offer the warmth of strong friendship 

experienced on coffee dates. Or, pertaining to matters of 

the heart, Tinder swiping is no match for cultivating real 

time relationships. Netflix (with or without the ‘chill’) 

is the current rage, with memes poking fun at our ironic 

tendency to intentionally seek a solitary lifestyle despite 

multiple opportunities for socializing. To put it simply, 

we are losing the social bit of our description as social 

animals. 

Moreover, there exists a very real problem of social 

media addiction with its effects hampering relationships, 

costing people their education, jobs and marriages. 

This explains the rise of technological detox and 

rehabilitation and even a National Day of Unplugging on 

the first Friday of March. 

A close friend Anam narrates her experience of 

a psychological counseling for FB addiction, which 

explains the intensity with which social media exerts 

control over our lives: 

“Most people thought I was weak due to my addiction. It is 

a crippling reality but there isn’t much awareness about it… 

I didn’t want to check my Facebook notifications but I felt 

anxious if I didn’t… Behavioral therapy taught me that the 

mind is a meek follower as well as a headstrong dictator- 

--for complying with as well as rebelling against one’s 

wishes.” 

Technology, as illustrated above, is a double-edged 

sword with the power to benefit or disadvantage, 

uplift or ruin, enlighten or misguide. We cannot stop 

technological evolution but can modify our use of this 

development. The choice is ours. It has always been ours. 


20-21

“If You’re Australian, Why Aren’t You White?” 

edition one 

lot’s wife 

It’s a question – or words to that affect – any Australian with a skin tone that glistens 

rather than burns in the sweltering Aussie heat is bound to get thrown in their direction. 

Just like Cady in Mean Girls, some will go mute not knowing how to respond. But this is 

not a rerun of Mean Girls – it’s real life. Comments that are ridiculously hilarious when 

directed at a white person may be an everyday reality for non-white Australians. 

In this sunny place, a dark and disturbing attitude haunts non-white Australians. 

Because of the colour of their skin, they’re deprived of the thing that white Australians 

have taken for granted for centuries – the privilege of being Australian. 

I’m an Australian citizen born to parents who arrived in Australia long before I was born. 

My father is a white Australian immigrant from England and my mother is Malaysian 

Indian. I often find myself defending my Australian identity by entertaining Mean Girlsesque 

questions because I have a skin pigment that does not fit the mould. My father 

doesn’t get called an immigrant. However, we both find it interesting how I’m often 

mistaken for being an immigrant, an illegal worker or a tourist. 

‘Australia’s Got Talent’ contestant, Sukhjit Kaur, laments in her powerful poetry slam 

performance, “rocking up for my first job at Coles was like a scene at Border Patrol. We 

don’t want no illegal workers here in Australia.” Her similar experience demonstrates that 

I am not alone. These ordeals appear to reinforce the message that people like me have not 

met the criteria required to be an Australian. We are not white. 

The First Australians were not white. They survived oppression, invasion and attempted 

genocide at the hands of white settlers. For many, Australia Day is a day off from work to 

enjoy lamb chops. For many indigenous Australians, it’s a reminder of the injustices they 

have and continue to suffer. 

Then there are the newer non-white Australians who pave the way for a more diverse and 

progressive image of Australia. They are the ones often left feeling strange in a familiar 

land.

some thoughts on 

My classmate was born in Australia to parents who emigrated 

from Italy. One night he got told to ‘Go back to where he came 

from.’ Sadly, that statement is unsurprising. We’ve heard it before in 

the media, from our politicians and on the streets. The surprising 

part was that the people telling this Italian-Australian to “Go 

Home,” had thick British accents! 

It doesn’t matter how many decades you or your parents have 

lived in Australia. If you’re Asian, expect to be mistaken for being 

Chinese even though your grandparents came from Korea. If you’re 

brown, expect to be randomly selected for a search at the airport. 

If you’re black, expect people to clutch their purses close as you 

step onto the bus. Prejudice forces non-white Australians to live in 

between the lines in this place their parents told them to call home. 

We don’t need to look beyond our waters to Brexit and Trump for 

examples of xenophobia. As renowned political commentator John 

Oliver puts it, “Australia is the most comfortably racist country in 

the world.” There is a culture of hatred in this country that pushes 

non-white Australians out onto the fringes of society. 

The consequences of intolerance affect all Australians. Dr Anne 

Aly’s – an Australian professor and advisor to the White House 

– research demonstrates how discrimination against non-white 

Australians makes them significantly more susceptible to being 

radicalised. Racism breeds violence and hatred. This is a problem 

for a country that many have come to love for its safety and 

fairness. 

Racism flies in the face of our Australian belief in a fair go. A 

woman came into my work asking about vacancies. I told her I 

would pass her CV onto my manager and nosily skimmed it myself. 

It contained her photograph and details of her past. I noticed that 

she was born in Western Australia. My manager noticed the picture. 

“We don’t hire black people,” she mumbled under her breath as she 

crumpled up the CV and chucked it in the bin. As the dust of my 

shock settled, I wondered about all of the economic opportunities 

that go unattained in this country because of racism. 

Australians who hail from ethnically diverse backgrounds are 

vitally important to Australian culture too. There’s Thon Maker, 

Shaun Tan, Waleed Aly, Jessica Mauboy, Cathy Freeman and Penny 

Wong to name a few. Thon Maker is a professional basketball player 

who, despite being drafted by the NBA and offered a lucrative 

opportunity to play for Canada, still considers scoring asylum 

in Australia his greatest accomplishment. “As of right now, I am 

doing everything I can to play for Australia,” Thon reports. The 

accomplishments of non-white Australians should make people 

proud of this country. 

Australia boasts a national identity that challenges neat 

categories. This Australia Day, gulping down tandoori chicken, 

chow mein, tacos, falafel or tortellini with family and friends is just 

as Australian as cooking up a sausage sizzle on the barbie whilst 

cracking open a cold beer. The culinary benefits of this diversity are 

obvious but deeper still lies the hard truth. An incorrect and racist 

understanding of identity is toxic in a country that prides itself for 

rejecting entrenched class structures and giving everyone a fair go. 

Australians don’t all look the same. We’re ethnically diverse, 

complicated, progressive, free spirited, and we’re better for it. 

ethnic diversity 

article by diana batchelor, illustration by kelly simpson-bull 

politics/society 22-23

edition one 

lot’s wife

Yes, We... Tried 

As President Barack Obama gracefully departed 

the Oval Office for the last time, the words, ‘yes we 

can,’ continued to linger. They remain the symbol of 

his uncanny talent for drawing hope out of even the 

darkest firmament of America. And whilst the hope that 

was once so vigorously attached to his iconic campaign 

slogan seems hesitant under the Trump Administration, 

it continues to lull, albeit tentatively. 

Or, perhaps it wasn’t. Perhaps being remembered for 

what he represented, and not what he accomplished 

merely points to the fact that Obama was an admirable 

role model but an ineffective president. The tragedy 

of reaching for the stars but ultimately, due to the 

disappointing realities of governing, falling short, 

is most evident in his foreign policy. His embrace of 

the Bush Administration’s approach to the ‘War On 

Terror’ saw an unprecedented escalation of drone use 

with somber results. By February 2015, Obama’s covert 

drone strikes killed almost six times more people and 

twice as many civilians than those ordered under Bush. 

Reflecting on these statistics makes President Obama’s 

2009 Cairo address seem almost imagined. Following 

the devastation of the Iraq War, it is difficult to find 

another speech that captured the boundless optimism 

and possibility that Obama embodied. At the time, it 

was circulated that if a man with distant Muslim family 

ties who had spent his childhood years in Indonesia, a 

Muslim-majority country, couldn’t improve America’s 

relationship with the Muslim world, nobody could. And 

yet, the speech that once emanated hope that America’s 

relationship with the Arab world would improve, it 

now merely reflects the gap between what the Obama 

administration might have been and what it actually was. 

These once certain promises became the mood music 

for the failing relationship between the United States 

and the Middle East. The disastrous Libya intervention, 

the inefficient diplomatic interference in Yemen and 

the hasty request to remove Assad in Syria directly 

contradicted the ‘new beginning’ Obama once promised 

in Cairo. However, his failed foreign agenda also reflected 

the fact that the days in which the United States could 

create security and maintain world order are long gone. 

Obama had the opportunity to choose which places 

matter most and which can be left to run themselves, 

and largely, this choice was never made. Instead, his 

decisions only compounded the mistakes he inherited 

whilst in office. 

Domestically, the obstructionism Obama faced 

from Republicans and the Right was historically 

unprecedented. Indeed, one of his hardest battles 

fought was bringing about the health care law known as 

Obamacare. His goal, to help millions of Americans who 

couldn’t afford health insurance, emanated nobility and 

quickly overshadowed his other domestic endeavours. It 

was desperately needed, and despite its many flaws, was 

able to change the lives of countless Americans. However, 

whilst it seemed to be a huge step toward the Democratic 

dream of health care for all, creating the Affordable Care 

Act brought neither affordability nor workability. It 

turned out to be yet another dream that shattered and 

bore little resemblance to his soaring rhetoric. 


What he did do, quite well actually, was hasten state 

surveillance. But perhaps that’s the wrong way to 

describe it. Because you see, Obama publicly declared 

his opposition to the Patriot Act and Bush-era secrecy 

whilst building his career. And yet, it didn’t take long for 

him to quickly devastate progressive hopes by actually 

expanding the illegal wiretapping of American citizens 

that he was once so against. By 2012, XKeystone, a system 

used by the National Security Agency, was storing as much 

as forty-one billion records in thirty days. Meanwhile, 

whistleblowers and journalists were being prosecuted 

by the Obama Administration more robustly that any of 

his predecessors. Whilst justified under the untouchable 

umbrella of ‘national security,’ the ironic effect is that 

storing such volumes of data make the detection of 

security threats all the more difficult. Perhaps the 

most devastating result is that Donald Trump has now 

inherited such a powerful set of tools. 

However, Obama cannot be dismissed as merely a 

silver-tongued politician. The advancements made to the 

LGBT community during the Obama administration were 

striking. Indeed, marriage equality, the condemnation 

of discrimination in the military and the appointment 

of 11 openly gay federal judges were huge steps toward 

a progressive future. While discrimination still 

exists towards marginalized groups, Obama started a 

conversation about this marginalisation with confidence 

that was previously unforeseen in American politics. 

The 44th President also faced dire circumstances 

when taking office. The world economy was in the 

worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and 

the US was close to an economic meltdown. Yet, the 

Obama administration were able to lessen the blow 

of the Global Financial Crisis and see for America’s 

relatively slow economic recovery, eventually bringing 

the unemployment rate to below five per cent. Moreover, 

amongst the promises he was criticized for abandoning, 

one he did keep was not adding anymore detainees 

to Guantanamo Bay. Barred by both Republicans and 

Democrats in Congress from closing Guantanamo, Obama 

nonetheless chipped away at the population by making 

196 transfers to third-party countries. Indeed, the Obama 

administration recognised that the closer Trump came 

to placing his hand on the Lincoln Bible, the chances 

of helping those remaining were drastically slimming. 

As such, Obama worked tirelessly to get remaining 

detainees, many of which were held captive mistakenly, 

out of Guantanamo before he left office – even making 

four transfers in the 24 hours leading up to Trump’s 

inauguration. 

Whilst these achievements are honorable, they are 

few. The thought of what might have been if he had 

governed in a more tranquil era overpowers the progress 

that he did achieve. However, these missteps and missed 

opportunities do not take away from his ability to describe 

the nation’s pain with a delicacy, maturity and elegance 

that is unlike any other of his predecessors. They do 

not take away from his being an intelligent, eloquent, 

disciplined and wholly admirable man. And they most 

certainly do not take away from his ability to instill a 

genuine, and unparalleled hope into the hearts and minds 

of not just Americans, but all those willing to listen to the 

reassuring words, ‘yes we can.’ 

A historical presidency 

and a complicated legacy 

article by emina besirevic, illustration by vanessa le 

24-25

Public Health: The Effect of Dating Apps on STI Rates Among University Students 

edition one 

It’s a typical Friday night. You’re browsing aimlessly 

through the selection that Tinder has to offer. Left. Right. 

Left. Left. Ew, definitely left. Right. Right – it’s a match! 

And so on. You scroll through your messages which range 

from the basic - hey baby/what’s up/I love ur eyes – to 

the more complex and witty (cheesy or otherwise) – you 

know what’s beautiful? Read the first word/Can I follow 

you? Cause my mum told me to follow my dreams. 

Some you reply to, some you don’t. And eventually 

you arrange to meet up with a handful. All these new 

relationships you have made, no matter how long or 

short they last all began by a simple swipe on your 

phone. But do you ever wonder that in swiping right to 

a potential hot hook-up, you’ve just swiped right to a 

potential STI? In an age where meeting new people and 

making connections is as easy as clicking “accept” on a 

friend request or swiping right on hot singles in your 

area, it is a given that dating and hooking up has been made so much 

easier and accessible. But with the rise in using dating apps such as 

Tinder, Happn, Bumble, Grindr, concern for an increase in the rates of 

STIs has risen too. 

Sex and the internet are both prone to risk and uncertainty, and 

thus the combinations of both in the use of mobile phone apps for 

sexual hook-ups or dating have been brought to the attention of 

sexual health researchers and promotors. One long-time sexual health 

campaigner, Dr Wendell Rosevear, has voiced his concern that people 

have jumped on internet dating and apps, to have frequent and often 

anonymous encounters, all more instant and accessible than before. Dr 

Rosevear expresses concern that this rise in sexual activity is directly 

correlated with the rise in STIs in his patients – some of which have 

sex with up to 10 people a day – and in the broader population of 

Australia. According to the 2015 Annual Surveillance Report of HIV 

viral hepatitis and STIs, there has been a rise in new diagnoses of STIs 

in Australia (including chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhea) totaling 

122,258 new cases in 2014, the highest rates of infection found in 

groups aged 20-29. This was almost a rise in 10,000 new cases annually 

from 2012 (when Tinder was released). 

Of course, that’s not to say that using dating apps are a one way trip 

to gonorrhea city, but it is important to proceed with caution. As with 

any sexual partner, no matter if you found them through a mutual 

friend, dating app or off a street corner, communication is essential in 

order to eliminate any uncertainty or anything that could potentially 

affect your sexual health. No matter if you have one, three or an 

entire harem of sexual encounters and partners, make sure to always 

communicate with your partner. Ask about their sexual history, tell 

them about yours, no matter how awkward a conversation about STIs 

with a potential partner is, contracting an STI is far worse. And always 

remember to practice safe sex – use condoms, dental dams or any 

other form of barrier methods! Even if other contraceptives are used, 

only barriers such as condoms protect against STIs, and remember 

that some STIs can be contracted orally, not just through penetrative 

sex (sorry to sound like your sexual health teacher from the seventh 

grade). 

The take away from this article is not to scare you away and boycott 

all dating apps and technologies forever, they’re a fun, innovative and 

easy way to meet, chat to and screen through potential partners. Just 

be careful, have fun and continue swiping. 

lot’s wife 

article by joanne fong, illustration by caitlyn harris

contributers: 

sam allen 

jessica lehmann 

yusra shahid 

science & engineering subeditor team 

maria volobueva 

sasha hall 

julia thouas 

chulani jithma kaluarachchi 

Science/Engineering 

science/engineering 

26-27

edition one 

lot’s wife

Climate Change 

you 

can be the 

differenceclothing item 

Scientists have been telling us for 

years that climate change is real. Yet 

collectively we are doing very little to 

reduce the environmental degradation. 

Climate change is scary and life altering 

but we are the generation that can actually 

solve it. 

Let the facts speak for themselves. The 

world has already lost 80% of its forests. 

Half of the earth’s species have become 

extinct in the past forty years. In the history 

of humankind there has never been this 

much carbon in our atmosphere. We have 

already lost 27% of our coral reefs and at 

this rate all of the reefs will be gone in 30 

years. Over three quarters of energy utilised 

is from non-renewable fossil fuels sources. 

We have an island of plastics floating in our 

oceans the size of India, Europe, and Mexico 

combined. Reading these facts leaves you 

feeling numb; it is easier for us to check 

social media and watch a cute dog video 

than confront the reality of our looming 

climate disaster. 

How did we get here? Simply, climate 

change is a human-made disaster. 

Our direct abuse and disregard for the 

complicated and sensitive ecosystem we 

occupy has led to the near-environmental 

catastrophe. Right now we are existing 

in an ‘Anthropocene’, traced back to the 

early 1800’s. This is a new geological age 

characterised by humans pumping so much 

carbon dioxide in our atmosphere that 

we have extensively reshaped the planet’s 

environment. 

There are two fundamental science 

terms to grasp to understand climate 

science; the greenhouse effect and fossil 

fuels. The greenhouse effect occurs when 

sunlight passes through our atmosphere 

and shines down on Earth. When it hits the 

surface, it gets absorbed by the Earth and 

released as heat. Greenhouse gases in our 

atmosphere trap that heat, holding that 

warmth close to the surface that otherwise 

would have escaped into space. We need 

the greenhouse effect otherwise we would 

be as cold as ice, literally. These are a few of 

the main greenhouse gases; carbon dioxide 

(CO2), water vapor (H2O), methane (CH4) 

and ozone (O3). The earth has an internal 

thermostat that is now completely off kilter; 

most of the earth’s warming has occurred 

since the 1970s with 16 of the warmest 

years occurring since 2000. And the reason 

it is hotting up is due to fossil fuels; coal, 

oil, and natural gas that our modern lives 

require. However, when we burn fossil fuels 

it produces CO2, and more CO2 means 

more heat trapped in our atmosphere, 

compounding the greenhouse effect. 

This is not our fault. We were born 

into a world obsessed with consumption. 

A consumerist culture encouraging us 

through advertising to continually buy 

materialistic products we don’t need, with 

money we don’t have, to power with energy 

that is destroying the air you are breathing. 

We do have a responsibility to ensure our 

planet’s future exists and the means to do 

so are remarkably easy despite the enormity 

of the otherwise catastrophic future that 

could eventuate; a world changed beyond 

recognition, with large areas uninhabitable, 

climate refugees, extreme weather 

conditions and extensive starvation. 

On an everyday level you can reduce your 

impact on the climate. When you shower, 

cut it short with a four-minute maximum 

rule. Reduce your waste. Thrift shop instead 

of buying clothes from companies that use 

fast fashion ethics and always donate your 

goods to thrift shops instead of putting 

them into landfill. Don’t buy every trendy 

or homewares cushion. If 

you think about it, the space that cushion 

occupies on your couch equals a whole lot 

more space in reality; the fabric is farmed 

overseas, transported to Australia and 

occupies the landfill it is sent to when your 

article by jessica lehmann, illustration by yusra shahid 

Instagram idol promotes the next season 

cushions release you just ‘need’. There are 

myriads of ways to use less energy or to get 

our energy from cleaner, renewable sources. 

Did you know the Earth gets more energy 

from the Sun in an hour than the whole 

planet uses in a year? 

Reduce your meat consumption. The 

farmed meat you are eating is detrimental 

for the environment. If meat consumption 

increases at current rates, GHG emissions 

from agriculture will have increased 76% 

by 2050 global. If we all reduced meat 

consumption by 25%, it could result in a 51% 

decline in agricultural GHG emissions over 

the same period. Consider a ‘Climatarian 

diet’; less meat, less heat. And if you feel 

you cannot survive without red meat 

consider kangaroo meat, a sustainable meat 

alternative. 

The climate crisis is unfair because 

those that have done the least to cause the 

problem will feel the effects first and worst. 

The affluent control the largest pollutants 

and live lifestyles at a comfortable distance 

from, for example, Bangladesh – which will 

have 20% of its land mass uninhabitable by 

2099. 

As young citizens in a position with 

power to make a difference, our voices can 

speak out in a multitude of ways to make an 

impact. Get involved with the ‘Australian 

Youth Climate Coalition’; write a letter 

to a local member of parliament voicing 

your dissatisfaction; attend climate rallies; 

support political parties whom align with 

your climate action beliefs and talk about 

your opinions far and wide. We need to 

live sustainably and justly in a healthy 

environment, diverse with nature and 

within a community united in a common 

goal – our future is ours and our earth is 

our responsibility. 

science/engineering 28-29

Healthy Skepticism 

edition one 

lot’s wife 

Health advertising, like any other advertising, is meant to be compelling. Health 

ads may promise to fix anything and everything, to entice you to hand over exorbitant 

amounts of money. Adverts for health products and services, however, come with an extra 

proviso: they not only have a financial influence over consumers but dangerously sway 

community perceptions around healthcare. 

Like me, you may remember this unfortunate billboard (pictured) or its more explicit 

companions from when you were just old enough to vaguely understand what it meant. 

Due to this insensitive advertising, provocatively preying on the fears of men, the 

Advanced Medical Institute pocketed several millions selling their shonky products and 

services. AMI was receiving 7,000 calls a week allowing for thousands of clients to be 

locked into deceptive contracts for products that were not only ridiculously marked-up, 

but scientifically ineffective compared to mainstream medications. Whilst the Advertising 

Standards Bureau banned the billboards in 2008, only recently was the entire AMI charade 

legally unmasked. In 2015, AMI was charged with unconscionable conduct in the Federal 

Court against the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) and ordered 

to halt advertising and providing services. 

You would think that the problem was solved. Sadly, it wasn’t. Despite this official 

ruling, a simple trip to the AMI website reveals the serious limitations in the regulatory 

framework. 

Misleading Advertising 

As educated university students, why should we give a second thought to this little 

anecdote about an obvious scam? Well, firstly because the conduct of AMI is merely 

symbolic of the ridiculous behaviour which pervades the world of health advertising. Many 

health-related businesses have little regard for consumer protection when promoting 

their products, which results in a widespread culture of routinely deceiving consumers for 

financial gain. 

You may recall Reckitt Benckiser was recently fined $6 million for their blatantly 

deceptive marketing of Nurofen as ‘targeted pain relief’ for period pain or back pain. Many 

consumers opted for these ‘targeted’ products, unaware they had simply paid an outrageous 

premium for the same active ingredient in a normal Nurofen tablet. It was an evil but easy 

way for an already enormously wealthy company to make a profit anew. 

The same goes for companies like Swisse, whose products are ‘based on scientific 

research’ but their trials are generally self-funded and non-transparent. This is because it 

is more economical to pay for Nicole Kidman’s star power in your ad campaigns and sign 

million dollar partnerships with La Trobe, ABC and CSIRO, than scientifically prove your 

products. 

The list continues with modern health hacks and fads, such as giving your gut a charcoal 

cleanse (yummo) or the IV vitamin clinics that have been in and out of the news, being 

promoted as the cure for a hangover. 

Plot twist: sticking liquid vitamins into your bloodstream is a dangerous placebo 

with little or no scientific basis. And sure, charcoal cleansing ‘works’ – because they use 

charcoal in hospitals for drug overdoses to ‘get rid of the toxins,’ it will certainly work for 

your ‘toxins’ too. Unfortunately, it seems the human body is not quite that simple. This, 

however, doesn’t prevent people from making their fair share of cash out of pseudoscience. 

A Failing System

The second parallel to the AMI saga is that the Australian 

regulatory framework, screening processes and penalties for 

misleading and deceptive health advertising are not stringent 

enough to eradicate this kind of conduct. The many costs of this 

reality end up falling upon consumers. 

For example, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which 

among other things currently regulates the registration and 

advertising of complementary medicines, does not assess these 

products for efficacy. 

So, if I wanted to sell a sugar pill and market it for bone health, I 

would first have to register the product in the Australian Register 

of Therapeutic Goods. I must also state my claim that the sugar 

pill ‘supports bone health’ in the Australian Register. In terms 

of ‘evidence’ to support my claim, all I need do is declare that 

I ‘hold’ the scientific evidence supporting those claims. Then I 

can advertise my sugar pill for bone health on any garish yellow 

billboard I choose. I might get into trouble because someone 

will complain that my claim breaches the Therapeutic Goods 

Advertising Code and is deceptive and misleading advertising, but 

the complaint will likely take several months to be resolved. By this 

I mean that with some luck on the complainant’s behalf, I might 

merely have to remove my advertising, but I will still walk away 

with a lovely net profit. 

In summary, the current system here doesn’t focus on removing 

the misleading adverts before they are published but ‘remedying’ 

the situation after the damage has been done to consumers’ 

wallets and perceptions. Despite reforms on the horizon for this 

terrible system, there is still a long road ahead to ensure consumer 

protection. 

Healthy Skepticism And Evidence-Based Science: What You Can Do? 

From the small vitamin collection in the kitchen pantry, to those 

irregular physio visits, we are and will continue to be consumers of 

many health-related goods and services. University students may 

not be the target demographic of all Swisse commercials, but health 

advertising can still subtly influence our perceptions of health and 

what we end up buying on that chance visit to Chemist Warehouse. 

It really comes down to consumers being educated and equipped 

with the skills to protect themselves against the pitfalls of the 

regulatory system and the greed of the industry. We deserve to 

enter a Pharmacy and clearly see what is worth buying from the 

labels, without a science degree or years of professional exposure 

to evidence-based medicine. But until a consumer utopia arrives, 

applying a bit of evidence-based knowledge to your encounters 

with health advertising will leave you better off. 

This might involve double checking the advice of a friend or shop 

assistant who said a certain pill banished all her health problems 

against the body of validated scientific research easily available 

online. For example, a simple search in Pubmed, a free online 

database of medically-related scientific studies, may reveal that 

Vitamin C supplements are unlikely to shorten the length of your 

cold. 

For those from a non-science background, the studies on 

this database generally compare a group of people on the same 

intervention, whether it is a pill or a type of treatment, with 

another group of people who are given a placebo pill. Theoretically, 

this allows for the efficacy of the pill in question to be properly 

examined. Although large trials with heavily controlled variables 

are difficult to conduct, the results of these studies provide us with 

a wealth of knowledge that is used to inform the practice of health 

professionals. If it is used by our doctors and pharmacists, then it is 

probably worth considering. 

Admittedly, the average student wanting to get rid of their cold 

faster is unlikely to spend their energy trawling through Pubmed. A 

uni-friendly option is to search for the medicine on NPS Medwise 

(http://www.nps.org.au/), a government-funded Australian website 

providing evidence-based information about all medications from 

grandma’s cholesterol-lowering meds to the Vitamin C you are 

contemplating purchasing. It is the easiest way to get informed 

by just reading the small summary of the evidence for that 

medication. Otherwise it is just worth becoming very sceptical of 

the following phrases on labels and in ads: 

’Clinically/Scientifically Tested/Proven’: 

Hmmm how intriguing. The implication here is that 

the product has been the subject of a clinical trial, 

however what you probably won’t find on the label is 

that the trial was: 

a) funded by the company themselves leaving 

them to tamper or selectively alter results to appear 

positive. 

b) included bias that significantly altered the validity 

of results. For example, if the participants knew 

whether they were given the intervention or placebo. 

c) conducted by another company that literally 

guaranteed a positive trial result by rigging 

everything. 

d) not tested for the specific health issues it is 

advertised as being able to treat. 

A side note: this same kind of analysis applies to more 

ambiguous such as ‘based on scientific evidence’ (courtesy 

of Swisse.) This gives little indication of the quality of the 

scientific evidence. 

‘More Effective Than The Leading Treatment’: 

An ambiguous statement that requires scepticism. 

What was the leading treatment? Was it a fair trial 

where both participant groups were given the same 

dose in equivalent conditions? Hmmm?? Approach 

with caution. 

’Natural’: 

Ummmm ok. What do you mean natural? Do you 

mean plant-based? Or not synthetic? Are you implying 

because it is ‘natural’ that it is less harsh on the body? 

Or do you mean it hasn’t been refined and processed? 

Natural unrefined arsenic can still kill you so the 

fact that the product is ‘natural’ doesn’t really tell us 

much. It is useful to remember that there is a definite 

distinction between ‘natural’ and ‘harmless’, even when 

it comes to vitamins. 

‘Traditionally Used’: 

The only validation needed to make this claim is.... 

oh wait, no validation needed! Picking an obscure 

Peruvian root and selling it for back pain with the label 

‘traditionally used’ (even though Peruvians have never 

heard of it) occurs more than you would think. Yes, 

there are traditionally used herbs that have actually 

been traditionally used, so just make sure you google 

the name of it to check before spending on some 

useless placebo. 

So next time you find yourself perusing the aisles at 

Priceline, avoid taking the ads at face value and apply 

your healthy scepticism and evidence-based know-how 

instead: was that clinical trial actually transparent 

and independently funded? Did 95% of users truly feel 

they had more energy? And is that obscure Peruvian 

root really ‘traditionally used?’ With a simple change 

of thinking, you can avoid falling prey to the world of 

health advertising. 

article by sasha hall, artwork by julia thouas 

science/engineering 30-31

Tips for The Everyday Science Student 

edition one 

Hey everyone! How was your summer break? How many of you started the holiday thinking I’m gonna travel the 

world and have fun with my friends and family while hitting the gym every day. And I’m gonna be so ready for 2017, 

coz you know, new year, new me but ended up slaving away at your job while having minor strokes every time you 

think of last semester’s exam results? Did you succeed in getting fat from eating your mum’s Christmas leftovers, and 

finally managing to drag yourself to class when uni eventually began? Yeah…me too. 

But don’t worry…it’s not all that bad. It’s still the very beginning of the new semester and we have more than 

enough time to make a difference for the better. That GPA isn’t gonna raise itself up you know. Even if you are an 

innocent jaffy (bless your soul...!) or a final year catastrophe like me; we all have the ability to make a difference to 

how we study this semester. Let’s do this! 

lot’s wife 

before class 

Read (Or At Least Scan) The Textbook 

Material BEFORE You Come To Class 

But if you are like me and don’t wanna 

invest in textbooks that cost a soul and a 

half, just scan through the lecture notes 

you can get from Moodle. You don’t need to 

read every line. Just the topics are enough. 

That way, at least you’ll know what the 

hell you will be learning that day. At least 

skim through the slides while you wait for 

the lecturer to start the lecture (after they 

finally figure out how to get the computer 

working). 

Make Sure You Have All The Appropriate 

Materials Needed For Class 

And for god’s sake, don’t go to practicals 

without the manual and don’t come to 

lectures with no notes or laptop and just 

stare at the lecturer behind an empty desk. 

We all wanna do that by week 12 but as I 

said that GPA isn’t gonna raise itself! You 

can’t gain anything without putting in the 

effort. This isn’t high school anymore. No 

one gives a damn about whether you keep 

up with your studies or not. You are the 

only person who can save yourself. 

during class 

Take Organized, Clear Notes 

Either make annotations on a computer 

or write on printed slides or make your 

own notes – just do something! Don’t 

listen like a zombie without making notes 

because there is NO way you’ll remember 

everything. You are more likely to be 

actively involved to the lecture when you 

have your hands busy. 

Be Alert And On Time 

No one wants to come to lectures. And 

by week 12 no one wants to step inside Uni 

altogether. But regular attendance is a sign 

of a serious student. However, creeping 

into the lecture 45 min late doesn’t really 

count. Keep an eye out for announcements, 

dates and deadlines; you don’t wanna log 

into Moodle one morning and realise you 

have an online test due in 10 minutes or 

find out that mid-sem you thought has only 

Multiple Choice Questions actually has a 

ton of Short Answer Questions. 

Ask For Clarification Whenever The 

Material Is Unclear 

It’s always better to ask for clarification 

immediately after you come across 

confusions since we all know ‘I’ll email the 

lecturer when I’m home’ won’t ever work 

because we forget everything once we leave 

the lecture hall. If you’re too shy to talk, 

email the lecturer while you are still in the 

lecture. That way, you won’t forget. Start a 

new email and keep adding questions to it 

as the lecture progresses. Then simply hit 

send before you get up and leave. 

article by chulani jithma kaluarachchi

during class 

Don’t Tolerate The Distractions Of Other 

Students 

To that one person who always decides 

to eat a huge bag of chips, chewing them 

loud as they can – eat them after class. 

You don’t die of hunger before that. To 

the couple who always wants to cuddle 

during lecture time – go get a room. You 

guys are distracting the people around 

you and tittering with each other while 

ignoring the lecture is in no way #goals. 

And for everyone using laptops – why are 

you paying thousands of dollars to come 

to Uni just to chat on Facebook during the 

whole lecture? And to the ones who talk 

during the lecture – you are wasting your 

time and distracting others too. Don’t let 

other people distract you from listening. 

Don’t be afraid to tell noisy people to quiet 

down if they are disturbing you. I know you 

wanna throw a shoe at them to shut them 

up, but because that’s not allowed, we’ll just 

have to talk to them. Whether they waste 

their/their parents hard earned money by 

being distracted is none of your business. 

Do not let them be a hindrance for your 

productivity. 

after class 

Re-read Your Notes The Same Day 

Make sure that you have written down 

everything and didn’t miss something 

important. This gives you an opportunity 

to put the entire day’s lecture ‘together’, 

since the memory of the actual lecture 

is still in your mind. If you wait a couple 

of days before looking at your notes, you 

won’t remember the lecture and you will be 

relying on your notes alone, instead of your 

memory. 

Listen To MULO If You Missed A Lecture 

If you missed a lecture because of work 

or simply because you were too lazy to 

get out of bed, make sure you listen to the 

lecture on the same day. Do you really think 

listening to 30+ lectures on 1.5x speed one 

week before finals is gonna help you learn 

anything? Okay, I know it works for some 

people, but I highly doubt it would for most. 

Listen to the missed lecture in the bus if 

you have to; don’t go to lectures tomorrow 

not knowing what was done today. 

Use Diagrams And Tables Instead Of 

Multiple Bullet Points 

Most textbooks have diagrams and tables 

summarising each section. Study from 

them instead of reading long paragraphs of 

texts. Then you can see all the important 

information at a glance instead of having to 

search for them among a sea of sentences. 

Location 

Find a place to study that is free of interruptions and 

distractions. Trying to study at a table in the Campus 

Centre, surrounded by 15 other people with a burrito in 

one hand might not be the best option. Go to a library or 

find a quiet corner at Uni. Even if you study with a group 

of friends, find a place that won’t distract you. Buy food 

and drinks before you start studying so that you won’t 

have to leave in the middle of the session. 

Self-Discipline 

Fall into some sort of a routine. Develop your own 

study rules and stick to them. You must establish 

your own study times, listen to lectures actively, 

conscientiously do the lab exercises, etc. I know that new 

TV series you just found is so addictive and you’re still 

suppressing the urge to binge watch the whole thing 

instead of studying, but keep reminding yourself what 

your priories are. You need to take responsibility for your 

own triumph bcz no one else will. 

Study In 1 Hour Blocks 

The amount you need to study for a class differs from 

person to person. You never want to study in blocks 

longer than 1 hour. If you sit with a textbook for 4 hours, 

you will gain information during the first hour; after 

that your brain stops concentrating. After an hour, take 

a break. You can spend 10 minutes eating something, 

scrolling through Facebook or talking to your friend, 

whatever, just don’t study. Your brain can only handle 50- 

60 minutes of work, then it needs a break. After a break, 

go back and focus. 

Study Effectively 

Make your study time as uninterrupted as possible. 

Pick a good time. Keep stocked up on stationary you 

need so there is no reason to interrupt your studies. Use 

the same place (if possible). Be efficient with your time. 

Hide your phone. If you can’t see it, you might not feel 

like using it. You won’t die if you miss a tweet or ignore a 

snap. Put away all other distractions. Every time you get 

interrupted, you lose information. If you really wanna 

change, you’re gonna have to make some sacrifices. 

Use Planners 

Prioritize things that must get done, what you should 

get done and what can be done at other times. Most 

science units have lots of in-semester assessments that 

add up to a large chuck of your final mark. Missing the 

chance to do easy online tests just because you forgot 

its due date is such a shame. The more you score during 

semester; the less you have to worry about the finals. 

Buy a cheap planner or simply use the calendar on your 

phone to set reminders 1-2 days before something is due. 

That way, you’ll never miss deadlines. 

Most importantly, keep a positive attitude! 

An education is a gift to you. 

science/engineering 

Happy studying everyone! 

how to study 

32-33

Science News 

Monash Research Finds Humans 

Likely Cause Of Australian Megafauna 

Extinction 

Recently published research has found that the 

extinction of megafauna in southwest Australia was 

not linked with climate change as previously thought 

but rather with ‘imperceptible overkill’ by humans. 

The study was led by Dr. Sander van der Kaars, 

adjunct research fellow at the Monash School of 

Earth, Atmosphere and Environment. The analysis 

was undertaken on a sediment core collected 100km 

offshore of southwest Australia, allowing the team 

to track environmental change and megafauna 

abundance over the past 150,000 years. 

The research, published in Nature Communications, 

found that the extinction took place approximately 

43,000 to 45,000 years ago and was completed 

within 4000 years of humans colonising Australi 

Source: Monash Science News 

edition one 

Researchers Believe They Have 

Found Observational Evidence Of A 

Holographic Universe 

In a report in Physics Review Letters, a team 

of theoretical physicists and astrophysicists have 

published findings of evidence supporting a 

holographic explanation of the universe. 

The holographic explanation of the universe states 

that reality (three dimensions plus time) is contained 

or projected onto a 2D surface. Professor Kostas 

Skenderis from the University of Southhampton 

School of Mathematic Sciences explains that the 

idea of a holographic universe is similar to ordinary 

holograms; 3D images are coded onto a 2D surface, 

such as holograms on credit cards or bank notes. 

However he explains “The entire universe is coded.” 

By using cosmological observations to investigate 

irregularities in the cosmic microwave background 

(the ‘imprint’ on the universe caused by the Big Bang), 

the researchers have concluded that there is as much 

evidence supporting the holographic explanation as 

for traditional explanations. 

lot’s wife 

Computer Interface Allows ‘Locked-In’ 

Patients To Communicate 

An international team led by the Wyss Center 

for Bio and Neuroengineering in Switzerland have 

demonstrated the use of a brain-computer interface 

to communicate with patients suffering from complete 

locked-in state (CLIS) – when patients are paralysed 

to the extent of eye-movement and blinking loss. 

Patients who are otherwise unable to communicate 

were able to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions through 

a brain-computer interface that measured changes in 

brain blood-oxygen levels. The interface was initially 

calibrated using questions with known answers 

(“your husband’s name is Joachim?”), after which 

more open questions were asked. During trials, 

the interface produced correct answer 70% of the 

time. All four patients the technology was tested on 

answered yes to the question, “Are you happy?” 

Source: PLOS Biology 

Australian Scientists Create Super 

Strong Graphite Out Of Soybean Oil 

Everyday cooking ingredient soybean oil has been 

used by Australian scientists to create graphene – an 

atomically thin material that is 200 times stronger 

than steel and more conductive than copper. 

Created in the lab by a team of CSIRO scientists, 

the graphene was produced in a process that was 

described as faster and more energy-efficient than 

other methods. Research describing the method was 

published recently in Nature Communications, with 

authors stating they believe the use of a renewable 

graphene precursor could cut down production costs 

significantly. 

The issue of scalability of graphene remains 

– currently the largest graphene film that can be 

produced is the size of a credit card. However, the 

CSIRO are looking into developments in water 

filtration and solar panels. 

Source: ABC News 

Source: Science Daily 

Global Emissions Remain Stagnant For 

3rd Year In A Row 

The end of 2016 marked the third consecutive 

year that global carbon dioxide emissions remained 

relatively flat. Global carbon dioxide emissions 

reached 36 gigatons last year, approximately the 

same in 2014 and 2015. 

In a study published in Nature Climate Change, 

researchers aimed to track the progress of over 150 

nations that signed the Paris Agreement in 2015. The 

study found that the main drivers of the emissions 

slowdown were reduced coal use from major powers 

such as China. In the United States, emissions 

reductions were also due to rapid gains in the natural 

gas, wind and solar sectors. However, much more 

action is required to achieve global reduction in 

emissions and reach the targets set by the Paris 

Agreement. 

Source: Nature 

Black Humour Corresponds With Higher 

Levels Of Intelligence 

Understanding and appreciating black humour 

– defined as humour surrounding morbid or tragic 

topics – has been linked with higher levels of verbal 

and non-verbal intelligence. In a study published in 

Cognitive Processing, researchers had participants 

rate their understanding and enjoyment of 12 cartoons 

from the infamous dark humour comic, The Black 

Book by Uli Stein. The study also found that those 

with ‘high black humour preference’ also displayed 

the lowest mood disturbance and aggression levels 

in response to the comics, whilst those with low 

preference displayed the highest levels of aggression. 

The authors of the study said that their findings 

suggested that aggression and poor moods could 

cloud people’s ability to ‘get the joke.’ 

Source: The Guardian 

article by science & engineering sub-editor team 

illustration by maria volobueva

contributers: 

sam allen 

john henry 

nick jarrett 

molly dixon 

dylan marshall 

rachael welling 

erica gage 

linh thuy nguyen 

reece hooker 

Arts/Culture 

arts/culture 

34-35

The Tension Between Artistic And Moral Judgements 

edition one 

lot’s wife 

For most people, the initial answer is uncontroversial. 

It’s obvious that the unsavoury details of an artist’s private and 

working life, for instance, don’t interfere with our appraisal of their 

works as a matter of general principle. If someone were to ask you 

“did you like Crime and Punishment?”, it would be eccentric to reply “I 

can’t say, I haven’t read Dostoevsky’s biography yet”. So far, so good; 

this seems pretty clear. 

When we refer to acts, intentions and consequences in the 

real world, the term ‘good’ is often used as a moral assessment; 

to art, ‘good’ is an assessment of quality. Both are normative, not 

descriptive, uses of the term—they express a particular point of 

view and not a matter of bare fact, but the resemblance stops there. 

We respect the critical distinction between art and morality while 

things go smoothly, when our artists don’t behave too badly to 

warrant our attention when appraising their work, or when the 

work doesn’t transgress our moral norms too far. If an artist is a 

conventionally good person, for instance, we don’t consider their 

works intrinsically better as a consequence; authors like Dan Brown 

and Stephenie Meyer seem to be decent enough people, yet this 

doesn’t affect the literary (de-)merit of their novels. 

But some artists do some incredibly, extraordinarily despicable 

things, and this makes the idea that ‘bad people can make good art’ 

more of a burden to maintain for consistency’s sake, rather than 

a harmless platitude. When we learn of an artwork’s unsavoury 

background history, it often becomes impossible to ‘unsee’ it 

in the work, and as much as we want to pretend that art can be 

disassociated from its questionable origins, few of us would be 

willing to fully accept this in practice. What are we to make of a 

painting of a child by the convicted sex offender Rolf Harris? How 

are we to aesthetically and disinterestedly assess the artistic merit 

of the portrayal of sexual violence in the film Rosemary’s Baby, when 

the director Roman Polanski was to commit statutory rape not ten 

years later? 

This becomes an even more prickly issue when we consider 

artworks that include real moral wrongs—how can we critique, 

on purely aesthetic grounds, the brutal real-life slaughter of a 

water buffalo in Apocalypse Now? For many, that sort of thing 

could impinge on the merit of the work, as it brought about real 

suffering. Perhaps we could try to make some qualifications here for 

consistency’s sake. When we say that morality is distinct from art, 

we may moderate this claim—perhaps when we make judgements, 

morality is only distinct from art as imitation. If a person or animal 

is harmed in a film in the making of an artwork, our judgements 

on the work are no longer a matter of aesthetic taste. A snuff film, 

however tastefully shot, is not art as it shows reality essentially as 

it is. 

Art is, at its core, representation; an artwork is a creation one step 

removed from reality, and not the reality itself; and if what we are 

observing is a real-life evil on the film screen, we can criticise it as 

we would a real-life action. Therefore, when Bernardo Bertolucci 

not only permitted, but included in his film the sexual assault 

of actor Maria Schneider in Last Tango in Paris, we have sufficient 

warrant to criticise not only Bertolucci as committing a moral 

wrong, but also to condemn the quality of the film itself, as the 

wrong has occurred beyond the realm of representation and into 

the concrete world that permits moral critique. If the assault was 

a make-believe performance, on the other hand, we would have no 

warrant to do so. 

Yet this doesn’t seem so intuitively correct when we apply this 

‘art as mimesis’ criterion to harmless instances of reality seeping 

into art. If we watch a short film of a man drinking tea, and he 

is in fact drinking tea, it is dogmatic to insist that we are not 

watching art, but just a movie of a man drinking tea. If anyone puts 

something forward that can be observed aesthetically, it can be 

regarded as art and interpreted accordingly.

Drawing further distinctions about what does and does not 

constitute genuine art within this broad criteria becomes a matter 

of barren metaphysics. 

Once we accept that art is really just any sort of creative act open 

to interpretation, the internal distinction between art and reality is 

not such an easy one to draw, and we are inevitably faced with the 

conclusion that even a vile act of real cruelty could be considered 

art. The performance-artist Marina Abramović continually 

emphasised this point in the 1970s in her own works, by setting 

herself on fire and playing with knives. 

It can sometimes happen that the real immoralities that intrude 

on an artistic work can contribute something to its aesthetic 

quality overall. As the fantasy author China Mieville has remarked, 

it is the jaw-dropping racism of H. P. Lovecraft that gave his works 

such a distinctive and unforgettable flavour. For Lovecraft, the 

very concept of racial intermixing was a revolting idea, and he did 

not disguise this in his works—indeed this view is foundational to 

some of his most suspenseful and influential works like The Shadow 

Over Innsmouth. Yet although we would rightly condemn someone 

today for harbouring even a tenth of Lovecraft’s racist views today, 

his short stories are oddly enlivened by his horrible ideology. The 

profound sense of horror and revulsion that elevates the work into 

something convincing and immersive just happened to be the byproduct 

of these personal views. 

So, upon reflection, if we are to be consistent, we must face up to 

the sometimes unpalatable consequences—morally contemptible 

as it may appear to us, the merit of an artwork and the morality of 

its origins or content have to remain conceptually distinct, even 

at the very extremes. If we maintain this principle in general, it 

must logically entail the uncomfortable and immoral as well as the 

morally pleasant or neutral. 

If an artwork is 

,, 

article & illustration by john henry 

somehow immoral 

in its origins or 

its content, does 

it make sense to 

call that artwork 

itself inferior as 

a result? ,, 

arts/culture 36-37

Artists Should Be Punished, Not Celebrated 

edition one 

Let’s be honest. Despite their numerous indiscretions, public gaffes and even crimes, we hold 

celebrities in a ludicrously high regard. We are, for some reason, willing to ignore the immoral and illegal 

acts they commit so that we may benefit from continued production of their art. This cannot continue, 

and a boycott of their work is what is required. 

Notable celebrities such as Chris Brown and Mel Gibson have all earned varying degrees of fame and 

success in their careers, and still command the attention of millions, and yet they are perpetrators of 

domestic violence. Brown’s abuse of then-partner Rihanna is common knowledge and, despite this, 

he has since released five albums with reasonable success and become a face of a footwear company, 

Snipes. Mel Gibson, charged with physical assault on his then-partner, has gone on to direct the Oscarnominated 

Hacksaw Ridge. 

By separating acts from the artist, we are ignoring what both informs and drives these people to do 

what they do. An artwork is not distinct from the behaviours and actions of the artist, and by ignoring 

the indiscretions, we are normalising and even forgiving these awful acts. 

This attempt to ignore the misdeeds of celebrities is becoming endemic in pop culture, with people 

so infatuated with a celebrity’s work that they are willing to ignore criminal acts. Take the #freebieber 

slogan which whirled around the internet following Justin Bieber’s arrest for a DUI. No matter that he 

was driving while drink and endangering countless lives, he was too precious to be punished and the 

incident has left no mark on his popularity. 

Furthermore, and most importantly, by refusing to punish these celebrities we are silencing their 

victims and are continuing to suppress much needed dialogue on these crimes. Woody Allen, a famed 

filmmaker and actor, has been accused of the sexual assault of his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow. 

Whilst no convictions were upheld, Allen continues to direct at least one film per year. For most, being 

accused of sexual assault would make one unemployable. For Allen, job opportunities continued in quick 

succession, effectively diminishing and ignoring the potential victim Dylan Farrow. 

Giving artists accolades and fortune when they commit serious misdeeds only works to silence their 

victims. This is because they are celebrated for the two minutes of a song or two hours in a cinema. 

Separating the work from the artist only enhances and magnifies the victims respective harm and 

contributes to a continued cycle of normalising crime. We need to hold these people accountable for 

their actions, and have them treated as any other offender. Otherwise, these crimes will continue to go 

unpunished. 

lot’s wife 

article by nick jarrett 

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds: Gig Review 

At the second performance of their Australian tour, fans young and old were treated to an 

electric and energetic performance. Cave’s powerful stage presence remains as palpable as ever. 

The Bad Seeds formed in 1986 and since then, have cemented their name as one of Australia’s biggest 

and longest lasting rock exports. 

The support act, The Necks, are an Australian 3-piece experimental jazz band that provided a great 

atmosphere and sound track for the start of the gig. However, it was obvious that the masses of fans had 

come for Cave. 

The Bad Seeds set list consisted mainly of the band’s most recent 2016 release Skeleton Tree. This is 

their 16th full studio album and can best be described as atmospheric, lyrical and deeply personal, as 

much of the record’s production was shaped by the tragic death of Cave’s son in 2015. Spacing out the 

newer, heavier style of music with fan favourites from older albums such as The Boat Song and From Her 

to Eternity was a good choice to maintain the energy of the crowd… not that Cave’s performance wasn’t 

enough already. 

Cave’s artistry as a musician and performer was apparent from the second he appeared on stage. There 

was an anticipation in the audience that made me almost sure he would appear in a puff of smoke, like 

some kind of enigmatic magic-man. As the rest of the band entered, a hush momentarily fell over the 

audience. When Cave took the stage seconds later it was broken by a deafening wave of cheering and 

clapping. At the age of 59, he is still a true rock star; reaching into the audience, holding hands with 

those lucky enough to have fought their way to the front of the crowd. 

It would be wrong not to acknowledge the brilliance that is Warren Ellis, the band’s multi-talented 

violinist (Ballarat-born) who shines as a live performer. Ellis’s famously experimental violin style is 

heightened immensely in a live setting. He rips into the songs that maintain the band’s rock roots with 

ferocity and lends beautiful, sensitive sounds to tracks of the ballad variety. On stage, both Ellis and 

Cave radiate joy and give passionate performances. 

A personal highlight of the performance was the encore. The narrative track Stagger Lee from the 1996 

album Murder Ballads really becomes an epic with the full brunt of the band behind it. 

I would 100% recommend to anyone who is a music lover to go see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds live 

at some point. The depth of emotion, energy and pure musical talent makes them an act which bears 

relevance to the lives of so many. 

The tour reached Melbourne’s Sydney Myer Music Bowl on the 27th and 28th of January and concluded 

in Perth on the 31st of January. 

review & illustration by molly dixon

Monash University 

Program 2017 

Student Theatre 

Compiled by Dylan Marshall 

SEMESTER ONE 

THE MUST O SHOW ‘17 – 

FANTASTIC TIPS AND WHERE 

TO FIND THEM 

O Week: 20 – 23 Feb | Written & 

Directed by Justin Gardam & Fraser 

Mitchell, Musical Direction by Earl 

Marrows, Produced by Sophie 

Ashkanasy 

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT 

PROJECT 

From Week 3 | Fun accessible 

performance workshops all year, 

culminating in public showings 

2017 MUST SEASON LAUNCH 

16 March | Produced by Michelle 

Robertson 

THE LATE NIGHT LATE SHOW: 

LIVE! 

7 – 13 April | Written by Justin 

Gardam, Directed by Max Paton, 

Musical Direction by Will Yates 

PHONE-IT-IN FILM FESTIVAL 

Mon 1 May (TBC) | Curated & 

Produced by Krystal Gayton & Tyrie 

Aspinall 

SHAKESPEARE COMPANY in the 

MUST Space 

27 April – 6 May | The Complete 

Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), 

Directed by Niamh Percy 

SPOKEN WORD EVENING 

Mon 15 May | Curated by Annabelle 

Ballard from the Monash Creative 

Writers 

AWAKENING - Remount at 

fortyfivedownstairs 

10 – 21 May | Adapted & Directed by 

Daniel Lammin 

SEMESTER TWO 

THE MUST CABARET FESTIVAL 

1 – 12 August | Curated & Produced 

by Lucy Rosenblum & Kat Yates 

SHAKESPEARE COMPANY 

WORK in the MUST Space 

17 – 26 August | The Taming of the 

Shrew, Directed by Gina Dickson 

PHONE-IT-IN FILM FESTIVAL 

Mon 28 August (TBC) | Curated & 

Produced by Krystal Gayton & Tyrie 

Aspinall 

THE WAY – A SERIES OF 

INTIMATE ENGAGEMENTS 

7 – 16 September | Curated by 

Amber Bock & James Malcher 

SUBVERSIVE POLITICALLY 

CHARGED ROCK CABARET 

21 – 30 September | Written & 

Directed by Tara Dowler 

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT 

PROJECT 

From Week 1 | Fun accessible 

performance workshops, culminating 

in public showings 5 – 7 October 

SPOKEN WORD EVENING 

Mon 9 October | Curated by 

Annabelle Ballard from the Monash 

Creative Writers 

COMMUNITY PROJECT – Story 

Telling in Communities 

Semester Two | Curated & Directed 

by Grace Ulrich 

DEVELOPMENT WORKS 

Mid - Late October 

FRANKENSTEIN 

11 – 20 May | Adapted by 

Genevieve Atkins & Directed by 

Helena Dixon 

NEXT TO NORMAL 

(THE MUSICAL) 

25 May – 3 June | Directed by 

Stephen Amos, Musical Direction 

by Will Yates, Assistant Direction & 

Choreography by Diane Pereira 

arts/culture 

38-39

The Price Of Gaming 

edition one 

lot’s wife 

My partner and I recently made the pilgrimage to EB Games in Chadstone. Not 

to buy anything, but to cancel our pre-order for the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo’s newest 

console. We looked at our respective bank accounts and decided we couldn’t justify the 

$500 that the system would cost us. $500 is rent for a month, or the bills for half a year, or 

a year of myki money. Choices like this are common for us; we’ve picked a hobby that costs 

money. It just feels like video games cost so damn much. 

In truth, gaming has always been expensive. No home console has ever cost less than 

US$250 at launch. The ‘Australia tax’ slaps up to 88% extra on to the recommended 

retail price of digital products. Downloadable content (or DLC) for games is now entirely 

pervasive within the industry, and very little of it is free. Add to that the fact that 

videogames are ludicrously expensive to produce, and so the prospect of squeezing extra 

money out of consumers is attractive for publishers. But it feels like additional costs are 

being built into the business model of modern gaming, and they are becoming increasingly 

difficult to avoid. 

Types of Additional Costs 

Additional costs take many forms. One of the oldest is the expansion pack, which adds 

anything from new items to entire storylines to an already released game, and often cost 

almost as much as the original. Recently however, The Sims 4 publisher EA Games came 

under fire because they were allegedly cutting content from the base game in order to sell 

it later in expansion packs. A recent and small example is the inclusion of a butler in a 

recent expansion pack for The Sims 4, a feature that was available on launch in The Sims 2. 

Whether or not this was actually cut from the base game of The Sims 4 is pure speculation. 

Regardless, EA have released no less than seventeen content packs for The Sims 4 since 

launch. All of these together will cost the Australian consumer AU$420. You want the full 

experience? Be prepared to fork out the cash. 

Another form is micro-transactions; small purchases (typically less than $5) that enhance 

the game in some way. Micro-transactions can be anything from cosmetic content that 

alters the appearance of something in game, to ‘pay-to-win’ content that actually gives the 

player some kind of advantage. Micro-transactions in major release games are generally 

frowned upon – many feel that paying for a fully-priced game should rule out needing to 

pay for extra content – but micro-transactions are common nonetheless. Gaming giant Call 

of Duty: Infinite Warfare contains micro-transactions in the form of random caches, where 

players can buy a bundle of mystery (supposedly cosmetic) items. But it turns out some of 

the weapons given in the random drops have better stats than those the player can earn by 

simply playing the game. And keep in mind, Infinite Warfare is a multiplayer game. So now 

the costs aren’t even in simply owning a game, they lie in being able to experience it in a 

way that is fair. 

One of the newer forms is the pre-order bonus. Purchase a game before it releases and 

receive certain content that will never be available any other way. The benefits for the 

publishers are clear; if someone pre-orders a game, they’ve essentially bought it before any 

reviews of the game are published. Unfavourable reviews are circumvented because they 

simply don’t exist yet. In certain cases, this model has been pushed to the extreme. Deus Ex: 

Mankind Divided pissed just about everyone off with their tiered pre-order bonus structure; 

the more people who pre-ordered, the more pre-order content everyone would get. At the 

highest tier, the game would actually release an entire week early. Many perceived this as 

the publisher holding consumers ransom. You want the full experience? You better hope 

everyone else does too. And if you didn’t want the value of your purchase in the hands of 

countless, faceless others? Simply buy the Collector’s Edition, which contains all of the preorder 

content – for US$150US. Within weeks the pre-order scheme was cancelled, and the 

developer issued an apology.

The Cautionary Tale of Evolve 

No pricing scandal is more infamous than the 2015 shooter, Evolve, developed by Turtle Rock 

Studios. Before Evolve even launched, Turtle Rock shot itself right in the foot with convoluted 

pricing structure and an avalanche of additional content (and hence costs). Evolve would ship 

in three editions, the most expensive costing US$100. On top of that, US$60 of additional, 

online only content was available to download at launch. Individual characters for the game 

could cost up to US$15 each. Individual skins as much as US$8. The cheapest way to get 

everything Evolve had to offer at launch would set you back US$185 – that’s near AU$250. You 

want the full experience? Well fuck you. 

Evolve had every additional cost possible. The mountain of DLC available at launch went 

beyond accusations of cutting content from a game to sell later – it was a textbook example. 

The multiple ways to simply buy the game showed a focus on snapping up pre-orders over 

delivering a solid experience at launch. The ridiculous costs of single pieces of content made 

it clear that micro-transactions were built into the game. And embroiled at the centre of this 

controversy, the creative director of Turtle Rock Studios Phil Robb essentially pleaded with 

consumers to reconsider their anger. “I don’t like people thinking we’re doing underhanded, 

dirty shit” he said. “If we’re going to make money we want to feel good about the way we’ve 

done it,” 

The issue isn’t about making money. The Sims 4 in its complete form costs around double 

what Evolve can cost. The issue is value. Where $15 in The Sims 4 will get you a bundle of new 

cosmetics, items and gameplay, $15 in Evolve will get you a single character. It’s not about 

being underhanded or dirty. It’s the unreasonable expectation that there must always be more 

to buy; that players should take whatever price they are given or have their game held for 

ransom until they can afford the rest of it. 

Funnily enough, Evolve did terribly. The player base hemorrhaged after launch to less than 

400 in the world. The game then became free-to-play, but still didn’t manage to sustain a 

healthy community. And less than a month after that, Turtle Rock Studios abandoned Evolve 

all together. Was it the huge backlash over the pricing that killed the game, or was it that 

Evolve simply wasn’t fun? Questions like these pervade every failed game and it’s unlikely that 

Evolve will be the last to upset players with its cost. 

arts/culture 

In truth, gaming has 

Gaming Without (Some of) The Cost 

For myself and many other students with limited disposable incomes, it can feel like we are 

priced out of modern gaming. While most additional costs are entirely optional, it can feel like 

publishers are constantly dangling the carrot. Still there are some relatively easy ways to still 

choose gaming as a hobby without feeling like there is always more to buy. 

Patient Gaming: Most games eventually go on sale. Games with DLC often re-release as a 

bundle pack with everything included, in some cases cheaper than the original game. Sites 

such as IsThereAnyDeal can be setup to email you when a game goes on sale. In the case of 

Evolve and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the pre-order DLC was eventually given to everyone for 

free after their respective controversies. 

Be Informed: I know this sounds a little obvious, but simple things like reading reviews, 

watching a stream of a game or googling ‘Is [this DLC] worth it?’ will give you an idea of 

whether or not the actual content of a game is worth your money. 

Make Use Of The Market: Unless you are dead certain you will replay a game, trading in or 

selling old games is a quick way of saving money. EB Games does store credit for traded games, 

and JB-Hifi frequently do trade-in deals. On the flip side, you can also buy games preowned. 

The argument against this is that you are no longer giving your money to the developers, only 

the retailer – but that’s a question of ethics, and where yours lead is on you. 

Older Games: By virtue of their age alone many games are ridiculously cheap. Microsoft, Sony 

and Nintendo all offer older games for download to their consoles. Online PC game retailers 

such as Steam and Good Old Games keep libraries of older games and frequently send them to 

sale. EA Games’ Origin Store for PC allows players to access older games entirely for free and 

often to keep. 

Indie Games: Indie games are currently experiencing a huge resurgence thanks to the 

widespread nature of PC gaming. Anything from rhythm games to RPGs to story-based 

adventure games are out there, all easily downloadable online and most under $20. 

The One I Will Not Advocate: Also known as, ‘The One the Government recently tried to block 

but did so really poorly making it easy to continue to use but you didn’t hear that from me, no 

sir.’ 

The good thing about videogames as a hobby is you can take it as far as you like. You can get 

all serious like me and lament the shady business practices of major games publishers, or you 

can just focus on saving money where you can. But that’s the best thing about videogames – 

the possibility, the interactivity – at the end of the day, it’s up to you. 

always been expensive 

article by rachael welling, illustration by erica gage 

40-41

Disrupting The ‘White Cube’: Two Exhibitions On Indigenous Art 

edition one 

These two exhibitions – Sovereignty at ACCA and Who’s Afraid of Colour? 

at NGV Australia – provide a glimpse into the array of artistic forms from 

First Nations contemporary artists, showcasing a myriad of vibrant and 

distinct cultural expressions. By no means exhaustive, these two exhibitions 

survey the vital and proliferous landscape of contemporary Indigenous art, 

exhibiting new commissions alongside historical works. With Sovereignty, ACCA 

presents an exhibition that centres upon the contemporary art of First Nations 

peoples of Victoria, while Who’s Afraid of Colour? focuses on Indigenous female 

artists – ‘great women innovators – transformers of tradition and precedent.’ 

Both exhibitions seek to challenge presumptions about how Indigenous art 

is conceived and interpreted, exploring a range of mediums from traditional 

woven objects to sculpture, painting, photographs, and video installations. 

The historical backdrop in which Sovereignty and Who’s Afraid of Colour? take 

place is inescapable. By the fact of their very existence, these exhibitions are 

inherently political, illustrating the intimate link between art and activism. 

The title Sovereignty is itself an assertion of First Nations peoples’ claim to the 

land, bringing to mind the legal fiction of terra nullius and the history of illegal 

invasion and occupation, dispossession and destruction. The exhibition is 

explicitly situated amidst current debates related to constitutional recognition 

and treaty, and the historic and ongoing struggles of First Nations people for 

self-determination and land rights. Who’s Afraid of Colour? boldly proclaims 

a politics of difference and identity, centring the perspectives and voices of 

Indigenous women. 

The conversation surrounding ‘Australia/Invasion Day’ demonstrates 

there is widespread and collective cognitive dissonance when it comes to 

acknowledging the foundational violence on which the Australian colonial 

state rests. As a nation, over two centuries after the fact, we still fail to reconcile 

the historical legacy of our national identity. As the common protest refrain 

goes: ‘white Australia has a black history’— yet the bedrock of white-settler 

Australian culture is rooted in longstanding denial and amnesia toward its 

Indigenous past. It is important to note the authoritative role museums, 

galleries, and art institutions play in interpreting and legitimizing contested 

histories, and to recognize the power they hold as gatekeepers of cultural 

production and knowledge. As purveyors of ‘official culture’, museums shape 

which – and how – histories are told and subsequently received by the public. 

The ‘white cube’ of elite cultural institutions often privilege a Western and 

Eurocentric history and lens onto the world. Colonialism, beyond its economic 

and socio-political manifestations, is perhaps most omnipresent within the 

realm of culture; as the decolonial theorist Ivan Muniz Reed writes: “so much of 

the modern world we know and experience has been constructed out of western 

imperial categories… the coloniality of knowledge is perhaps harder to discern 

and much more insidious to overcome.” 

It is important, then, that Sovereignty is conceived through a collaborative 

curatorial model, in partnership with the artist and curator Paola Bella, a 

Wemba-Wemba and Gunditjmara woman. In the words of Max Delany, the 

co-curator of Sovereignty and ACCA’s Artistic Director, it was a “curatorial 

process informed by First nation communities, knowledge, and cultural 

expression … structured around a set of practices and relationships in which 

art and society, community and family, history and politics are inextricably 

connected.” Sovereignty represents a new approach in curatorship and knowledge 

production: “a shift from authorial, institutional modes of exhibition-making 

towards more self-critical, consultative and collective models.” A curatorial 

practice that aims to challenge the legacy of colonialism must necessarily 

restructure and reinscribe prevailing discourses with alternative perspectives 

and narratives, replacing the hegemony of Eurocentric categories and standards 

with a form of “epistemic disobedience.” As Paola Balla herself states – “I 

am challenging working within the colonial institution, because I have a 

cultural and political responsibility to speak back whilst collaborating with 

non-indigenous practitioners.” ‘Speaking back’ to white Australia necessitates 

traversing across gendered and racial lines, to embody a politics of resistance 

whilst also celebrating and asserting the endurance and vitality of one’s 

own cultural identity. These artworks articulate resistance and survival, 

self-determination and autonomy, while also bearing witness to trauma and 

historical legacy – “art that tries to carve out a cultural space… to give form to 

that which is often unseen.” These two exhibitions can be seen as a corrective 

to the systemic and institutional absence of Indigenous representation in 

Australian arts culture, while also engaging with critical historical and political 

questions of our time. Sovereignty and Who’s Afraid of Colour? is a challenge to, 

and a disruption of, the ‘white cube’ of the gallery space. 

lot’s wife 

Sovereignty 

Australian Centre for 

Contemporary Art (ACCA) 

Curators: Paola Balla and Max 

Delany 

17 December 2016 – 26 March 2017 

Free Entry, Open 10/11am – 5pm daily 

(excluding Mondays) 

Who’s Afraid of Colour? 

NGV Australia, Federation 

Square 

Curator: Judith Ryan 

16 December 2016 – 17 April 2017 

Free Entry, Open 10am – 5pm daily 

“Despite being at the forefront of political, 

social, and cultural resistance, Indigenous 

women’s knowledge and practices are often 

omitted and rendered invisible in colonial 

academic, art and cultural institutions and 

public spaces… Aboriginal women speak back 

to white Australia through art and activism by 

naming trauma as a disruption of artistic terra 

nullius.” 

Paola Bella, Catalogue essay: Sovereignty: 

Inalienable and Intimate pg.12-13 

“In the gallery space and in cultural 

institutions, we situate ourselves to return the 

gaze with direct eye contact and a request that 

you listen to us deeply – whilst we attempt at the 

same time to subvert the process; to decolonise 

and to Indigenise the very places that have 

represented us through the colonial gaze.” 

Paola Bella, Catalogue essay: Sovereignty: 

Inalienable and Intimate pg.12-13 

“The Indigenous artist speaks truth to power 

simply by the fact of his or her existence… 

the power of presence unnerves some in white 

Australia. The autonomous Indigenous body, 

within a colonial ideology, should not be.” 

Tony Birch, Catalogue essay: Sovereignty: 

The Act Of Being pg. 17

I forgive you installation video 

On display at Who’s Afraid of Colour? NGV 

Kent Morris, Boonwurrung (St Kilda) – Rainbow Lorikeet, 2016 

On display at Sovereignty ACCA 

article & photography by linh thuy nguyen 

Sovereignty exhibition 

Kuruwarriyingathi Bijarrb Paula Paul, My Country, 2009 


Miriam Charlie, Nancy Kidd inside her house, Garrwa One camp, 2015 




Maree Clarke, Born of this land, 2016, installation video 

On display at Sovereignty ACCA 

arts/culture 42-43

Why We Love Migos And Other Songs About Nothing 

edition one 

“Rain drop. Drop top. Smokin’ on cookie in the hotbox.” 

So begins Bad and Boujee, an excellent song from Atlanta rap duo Migos that is about 

nothing. 

To be particular, the song is actually about “making money and spending time with 

women who have expensive taste” (thanks, Rap Genius), but realistically, the subject matter 

is entirely inconsequential to why Bad and Boujee occupies #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

The dearth of subject doesn’t mean by any stretch the song is bad. Offset’s chorus is 

intoxicatingly catchy and their handle on the triplet flow is untouchable. Metro Boomin 

could probably make a great beat while scuba diving and the bubbly Quavo oozes charisma. 

Nevertheless, this song is about nothing. 

Hip-hop has never been more ubiquitous in pop culture and strangely, it owes a great 

debt to songs of that seemingly spurn all conventions of the genre: thematically empty 

vessels that focus on aesthetic appeal, innovative sounds and creative musical directions. 

Bad and Boujee is the latest incarnation of that series, but the family tree is adding 

branches by the month: Panda, Black Beatles, Broccoli are all smash hits of the same 

genealogy whilst iSpy, You Was Right, I Ain’t Hiding and X flesh out the sound taking over the 

genre. 

None of the big hits succeeded conventionally. Panda had circulated for months without 

any buzz until Kanye West sampled the song on Pt. 2. Black Beatles went unnoticed before 

the viral Mannequin Challenge. Broccoli is just really, really goofy. Migos were popular, but 

their profile multiplied tenfold when Donald Glover praised Bad and Boujee at the Golden 

Globes. 

No one could have forecast the enduring success of any of these songs, but here we are. 

So how did songs about nothing come into vogue? 

The oft cited explanation is the considerable power of memes. Some would lump the 

aforementioned artists in with Bobby Shmurda, Silento and those who slingshot up the 

charts with a viral hit. 

However, meme-fuelled chart-toppers tend to disappear as soon as their one hit does. 

This group has some staying power: Black Beatles architects Rae Sremmurd have nine Top 

100 songs from two albums. Migos have drawn credible comparisons to the Beatles. Even 

Desiigner followed up Panda with New English, a good-not-great project that has kept him 

relevant a year later. 

A better explanation for this explosion of demand for songs like Bad and Boujee lies in the 

grim, combative political climate of the United States and beyond. Battered from a bruising 

eighteen months of divisive campaigning and widespread discontent, fun rap songs that 

don’t require much thought to engage hold unprecedented allure. Artists like Migos are 

accessible, apolitical and provide an appealing alternative universe of wealth and glory to 

substitute for whatever the real world is now. 

Those ingredients have always been in commercial hits but never before has hip-hop so 

transparently embraced these toothless apolitical earworms. 

To examine how quickly the landscape shifted, cast an eye back to the Best Rap Album 

field at the 2014 Grammys. Of the five nominees – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s The Heist, 

Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, m.A.A.d City, Kanye West’s Yeezus, Jay Z’s Magna Carta… Holy Grail 

and Drake’s Nothing Was The Same – only Drake’s project could be objectively categorised as 

‘not political’. 

This year, the nominees all offer more escapism than they do commentary. In 2013, Kanye 

West was performing Black Skinhead on Saturday Night Live. In 2016, his most inflammatory 

lyrics centred around defending Bill Cosby and claiming to be the catalyst for Taylor Swift’s 

fame. 

Outside of the Grammys, the trend of de-politicisation in commercial rap is even more 

palpable. Budding critical darlings like Young Thug, 21 Savage, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty 

and Kodak Black are all incredibly talented, but never stray close to anything resembling 

politics. 

That reticence doesn’t detract from their utility as artists, but it distinguishes them from 

their predecessors. The runaway success of songs like Bad and Boujee suggests a shift in 

what hip-hop means to the masses: a fun genre that can be political, rather than a political 

genre that can be fun. It evolved beyond the radical protest of Public Enemy, the sneering 

Beastie Boys, the confrontational Death Row Records. Kanye, Jay Z, Drake and Eminem 

remain the genre’s biggest names, but after two decades of domination the genre is set for 

another creative revolution. 

Bad and Boujee helps crystalise what the next wave looks like. It’s the spritely new guard, 

armed with a breezy lust for life and a sound that demolishes the traditions of hip-hop. In 

an all-engulfing political nightmare, acts like Migos offer momentary respite that is clearly 

resonating with a massive audience. Fleeting as it may be, art that does that is worth its 

weight in gold. 

lot’s wife 

article by reece hooker

contributers: 

sam allen 

nick bugeja 

kelly simpson-bull 

natasha brennfleck 

menthol charlie 

rachelle lee 

lachlan liesfield 

sian davies 

agony aunt 

Creative/Comedy 

creative/comedy 

44-45

How To Be The Best ‘Modern Man’ You Can Be 

edition one 

Men. Lads. Fellas. Boys. Blokes. Mates. However you salute your fellow man. It feels like the pressure on us 

to be gentleman with the women and down at the pub with our mates is ever increasing. But of course, we are up 

to the challenge. After having mulled on what we have to do to conquer our critics, I wanted to help out blokes 

experiencing the same questions. This is how I wrote out this list, and reckon it’ll serve some of you well. Life is 

all about sticking up for your mates. Your mum, girlfriend, brothers and mates will thank you for sticking to these 

core principles. 

lot’s wife 

Shake hands with everybody 

Let’s be honest, there isn’t much better 

than a good handshake. Part and parcel of 

a good handshake is a firm, tight grip. The 

‘shake’ shouldn’t be brief. I estimate that 

the optimal time is about 7.8 seconds, and 

nothing less. It is a display of power and 

initiative. It’s even better if you initiate 

the handshake. Now, there can never be 

10. 

too many handshakes per day. I advise 

you to shake the hand of cab drivers, past 

classmates you haven’t seen for 10 years, 

and especially your girlfriend’s dad. It’ll be 

sure to impress them, and it’ll show the 

world your a man of action. 

Hang out in big groups of other men 

If you go out for a lads night, don’t go out 

08. 

with one or two of them. Go out with 8 or 

more of them. There’s no better sight down 

Swanston street on a Saturday night than 

a group of serious, ready-to-party blokes 

strutting down the street, taking up the 

whole path. The women won’t be able to 

resist – and that scrawny little guy walking 

home from playing ‘Pokemon Go’ will wish 

he was one of you. It is also imperative that 

you don’t waste your man-power. Make sure 

people know you’re in a group amongst your 

mates. Yell loudly, and talk over bystanders. 

Walk like you own the town. 

Always pay for everything 

09. 

Money is pretty sweet. It lets us buy 

Tommy Hilfiger clothes, grog and many 

other great male-orientated things. Money 

is power. That’s why when you go out on 

a date, you have to pay for everything, 

especially dinner and a movie (take ‘em to 

either Will Ferrell-esque comedies or Steven 

Seagal action movies). It sends a strong 

signal to your girl that you are that man 

able to take care of her. It doesn’t hurt to 

be kind, and maybe you’ll get something in 

return later. The same applies when you go 

out with your mates- always shout them for 

the first round. This shows them you’re an 

indispensable member of the group. Even 

better, you show them that you aren’t tight 

with money- a real show of power. 

Don’t be afraid to be stylish 

One of the best things about the 

07. 

evolution of being a man is that there’s no 

shame to pay attention to style. Having said 

that, though, be careful of these ‘hipsters’ 

and never shop at Target. If you want to 

be a presence wherever you are, a good 

hairstyle is essential. Manbun, gelled-up 

hair, whatever suits you. A good Tommy or 

Ralphy shirt or polo is a must for any man 

serious about impressing his mates and the 

girls. Nice cologne (between $80 and $200) 

will only help your chances when your out 

there in the nightlife.

When you go out: dance, but not too 

vigorously and don’t act like you like it 

06. 

In the past, it was weak to go out and 

dance at nightclubs, but times have now 

changed. Beware, though, modulating your 

dancing is a key. Doing this will impress 

your mates, and even better, catch the eye 

of many beautiful ladies. In my experiences, 

I have found the finger-wag and controlled 

head movement to be pretty sweet dance 

moves out on the floor. It allows you to still 

scout out the women and the competition 

without seeming to ‘into’ emotion and the 

music playing. In fact, playing it cool is 

essential. Only when you are able to latch 

onto a girl dancing alone is it acceptable 

to get more serious about things. If you 

are lucky enough to find yourself in this 

situation, quick, abrupt dance moves will 

serve you well. Get especially close to the 

girl, ideally from behind. 

05. 

the bar is a powerful way of channelling 

article by nick bugeja 

illustration by kelly simpson-bull 

Stare at girls when you are trying to attract 

them 

With girls confidence is key. You have to 

show them, and yourself, that you mean 

business. The most effective way of getting 

the attention of a girl is strong eye contact. 

Staring relentlessly and without blinking is 

the most pure way to do this. Deliberately 

staring at a girl with her friends from across 

that you want her. Ideally, standing with 

your head slightly turned, staring, will give 

you a more handsome, manly profile that 

she won’t be able to resist. 

Stare at guys walking down the street to show 

them you mean business 

The staring ‘plan of attack’ also goes for 

other guys. Whether your by yourself or 

with mates, if you see another pack or a 

guy by himself a strong stare is a must. It 

shows your prey that you own the town, 

and lets them know not to mess with you. 

Even greater importance is attached to 

04. 

this if you are with your girl, as you need 

This is decidedly satire. 

to send a clear message for them to back 

right off. Once at Rats I was there with my 

missus and this guy walked up to her and 

whispered in her ear, asking her if she’d 

seen some movie Raging Buck. I stared 

at him the whole time and he fucked off. 

That’s what that staring does – it scares 

blokes off. Even if the bloke is on the other 

side of the road, make sure you meet his 

eyes with strong eye contact. It’s a sign of 

your position on the top of the food chain. 

Walk like you own the town. 

Take your sporting life seriously 

03. 

The sporting field is a great place where 

you can prove yourself a man. For whatever 

sport you play: cricket, footy, rugby, baseball 

(not netball unless there is girls on your 

team), it is a great place to show your 

physical superiority. This is important 

for any man’s psychology, and equally 

important to put down any man who is 

not at your level. For cricket, this can be 

achieved by bowling bouncers at 15-year-old 

kids, abusing the umpire, and tensing your 

biceps powerfully when you take a wicket. 

On Saturday night, discussion of your 

physical feats with your mates and female 

suitors is a great way to impress. 

Be the funniest and the centre of attention 

The best way to stand out and be 

remembered is to be the life of the party. 

Wearing clothes that exhibit your best 

physical features (usually biceps and pecks) 

goes some way, but being a comedian is 

probably the most foolproof way. These 

two things combined are irresistible. Some 

jokes guarantee to kill: anything Harambe- 

02. 

related, jokes about Trump, and jokes about 

you bashing clowns. Always make sure to 

dab. 

If you feel insecure or threatened, either try to 

belittle the person causing those feelings, or 

passively-aggressively play-fight with them 

(especially if girls are around) 

If theres ever a bloke questioning you, 

or trying to make out that you’re not a real 

man, DO NOT TAKE IT. If this is done in a 

social setting, do either one of two things: 

1a. Divert attention away from what was 

01. said about you by ruthlessly attacking the 

person making the allegation/attack the 

weakest bloke there. A hint of comedy in 

this is good to insert, but still make it clear 

you are ripping into their character. E.g. a 

good small-dick comment is reliable. 

1b. Play fighting with whoever talks shit 

about your manliness is a good way to 

reassert your male power. Act like you have 

taken it well and just want to engage in 

some fun male bonding, but underneath 

that try your best to hurt and injure the 

bloke without showing that you wanted to. 

People will just think that you are naturally 

strong if you do that. It is also a good way 

to release the anger that is surely eating 

away at you. The most important thing 

here is to make sure you’re manliness is not 

questioned. And if you react well, then it 

will get you a bit of silent praise from your 

mates and the girls will think that your 

above your mates and the man for her. 

creative/comedy 46-47

Love Affair With Cinque Terre 

edition one 

lot’s wife 

Images from the western coastline of Cinque Terre. 

Tash Brennfleck visited in September 2016 on a study abroad 

program with her visual arts degree. The images show the 

warm climate, crystal clear water, and other holiday-makers 

along the coast. Tash shares her photographs to show her 

beautiful experience along the coast of Italy. 

instagram: tsh_brn 

website: bbt-online.com.au

creative/comedy 48-49 

words & photography by natasha brennfleck

Burnt In Bali 

edition one 

No moisturiser, 

lot’s wife 

no drink 

and certainly 

no lawyer. 

The day after the Brexit vote I woke up in my suite on the 

bottom floor of the Komaneka Bisma – an expansive property 

on the edge of Ubud, a village in central Bali. As I woke up, I was 

greeted to a slow-burning pain all across my stomach and inner 

thighs, the previous day’s post-lunch lounge by the pool having 

left me with such severe sunburn that scores of empty Aloe Vera 

bottles lay sprawled around my bed. My journey to the shower 

proved difficult, pockets of green sludge unsteadied my footing and 

the burn had affected my quads so harshly that every step brought 

sharp and destabilising spasms. 

There is no question that I was duped into an elaborate joke by 

the staff at my hotel. I was told that the bottles of spray on each 

lounge chair side table was certified ‘Grade A’ 60+ SPF sunscreen. 

In hindsight they appear nothing more than the discarded oil from 

tuna cans. Where my wintery and pasty Melbournian skin suffered 

dearly under this ruse, the blonde wife of a Russian oligarch had 

profited greatly – on my balcony later that evening, over a quart of 

American Bourbon, she loudly illustrated the impending jealousy 

from her Moscovian sisters upon witnessing her tan. Playing the 

femme-fatale beautifully, she consoled me and suggested I sue the 

bastards for general damages. I sighed and explained I didn’t have 

access to a Balinese lawyer who specialised in these sorts of things. 

As I was reeling from the shock of my egregious overconfidence 

in the power of hotel-provided sunscreen, the world too was 

recovering in a similar manner from United Kingdom’s vote to get 

out of the EU. None of the King’s Court soothsayers anticipated 

such a decisive victory for the Leave camp, over a million votes 

favoured a Fractured Kingdom over a United Europe. What 

was framed by the Brexiteers as an opportunity to precipitate 

a renaissance of the United Kingdom, seems to have created 

the exact opposite result. Not that this consequence is entirely 

surprising either – the entire contemporary political narrative 

will be rewritten by this vote. The political elites have begun 

sharpening their knives for what is sure to be a grand feast at the 

political theatre. I imagine David Cameron, having lost the vote 

and ultimately his Prime Ministership, probably wasted no time in 

scouring his teledex for contacts in the Cobblestone Underbelly to 

survey his options for retribution. One hell of a sunburn. 

A call was forwarded to my room straight from the Labor Party 

HQ on Collins Street. The receptionist explained that they had 

reversed the charges and asked for permission to bill it to my room. 

Upon my loud and profane protestations, he put me on hold. This 

was the sort of penny-pinching tomfoolery that the Australian 

Left believe they can get away with. The xylophonic holding music 

finally ceased and I was told the call was urgent. He insisted that 

I accept the call. I agreed and told him to connect the call in 25 

seconds, on the condition that my caller be subjected to the holding 

melody at its maximum while they waited. 

I rushed over to the fridge and grabbed four dark miniatures to 

mix myself a drink; no doubt I was about to be swooned over by 

a secretarial hack and like shit I was going to allow it sober. The 

mystery caller turned out to be an old drinking buddy of mine from 

my brief stint at Melbourne University. We developed a habit of 

camping out at the craps table in the Mahogany Room in Packer’s 

Crown Casino all on our parents’ dollar, to begin revision for our 

politics exam, usually scheduled for the forthcoming afternoon. 

“Kim Carr, I should’ve guessed it! You fucking snake, where do 

you get the gall? No doubt extracted from the testicles of freshfaced 

Socialist-Left recruits?” 

“Jesus Charlie, you are in Bali aren’t you? I’m told this resort 

they’ve got you in is more luxurious than Bob Hawke’s bayside 

manor. You’ve got no good reason to be so strung out.” 

“Kim, ol’ darling, I know your kind don’t care much for private 

credit but this is some serious cheek. Charge it to the party!” 

“That’s why I’m calling.” 

“Ho ho! In a spot of trouble? Don’t tell me the wire’s going 

to read; Labor Heavyweight – in both figure and stature – uses 

campaign money to fund Bikie-run pooch nabbing scheme.” 

“No, no, we gave up on that enterprise in Oh Five. It’s much 

worse, our Accountant tells me Campaign Central has run dry, they 

mistakenly approved the printing of four million glossed pamphlets 

to be sent to each marginal household in Victoria. The order was 

irreversible and now we owe millions to some supplier in Ararat.” 

“Ararat? There’s no industry there Kim, only housing for 

paedophiles and tourists venturing into Western Victoria on poor 

intel. This sounds much worse indeed.”

“Don’t worry about that Charlie, Dreyfus has got his best lawyer 

on it. There are more immediate concerns. We’ve got about eight 

seats that are so close you could measure the margin on Danby’s 

dick, and without any more money we won’t just lose them to the 

Libs but also the op shop combing north-side seats to the Greens.” 

“Give up on em’ Kim, the bookies are saying Batman will be 

worse than Bennelong. Fuck that gaff-prone fool Feeney anyway, 

he deserves to lose to an academic. Cut him loose, redirect the 

volunteers, save yourselves some clams.” 

“This is bigger than Batman, Charlie!” 

“Time for the hard-ask. Hold the line Kim, lemme anaesthetise 

before you close the last stitch.” I ventured back over to the minibar 

to refill my drink. 

“I’m back Kim, go for it.” 

“Alright, I’ve already hit the Krauts, the Lebs, the St. Kevin’s 

crowd and even the Church but it’s not enough. They’re telling me 

a Porcine Magnate known to you has boarded himself up in Potts 

Point with a Polish dancing troupe, word is they’ve got enough 

cocaine on call to keep the Bolivian monopoly going for another 

few years, at least. This is the break we need Charlie, his secretary 

isn’t taking calls and you have his private cell number. The cash you 

secured for us in ‘04 kept the Victorian chapter alive, he seemed 

very-” 

“He’s turned his sails to the hard-right since then Kim, the 

prospects of a $50 billion tax cut bodes well in his circles. I doubt 

he’s willing to part with so much dirty cash in this political climate. 

We don’t know who’s going to win this fucking election. Bill’s run 

and Bus across Australia only succeeded in revealing his Keynsian 

leanings and its done well to alienate the Reinhart ilk. More budget 

deficits means less income tax cuts! He won’t give up the money 

Kim- no matter the ludicrous coke-to-blood ratio.” 

“Charlie, the Reds may be relegated to the campuses but the 

Greens are thriving in suburbs. If the ALP vote crashes through 

in this election we’ll lose all credibility and may never recover in 

Victoria. What happened in the UK this morning is a sign of things 

to come; the centrists are losing their shine. We’re entering an era 

of extreme promises and hard consequences. These new Millennials 

coming through are fucking the status quo, the game is changing 

and the ALP is still scrambling to figure out what the damned game 

is anymore. If you don’t get this injection for us the Greens will be 

the only seller on the market. Once they get hooked into the inner- 

North, Labor will never be welcomed back, believe me, friend.” 

“Every call I get from you Kim, only works to hammer in this 

perception that Australian politics is headed for crisis. The Dam is 

quickly reaching breaking point; it can only sustain so many gallons 

of blasted tripe before it bursts. I’ll give it some serious thought and 

get back to you this afternoon. Does Shorten known about this?” 

“This entire call is on his instruction.” 

“I’ll be in contact Kim.” 

I put down the phone with rancorous haste. His reply had deeply 

unnerved me. The hurried lighting of a cigarette on my balcony 

calmed my angst, but in that mix of smoke and humidity emerged 

rapid introspection. Bill Shorten had instructed the most senior 

left-wing Senator in Victoria to milk his contacts for an emergency 

slush-fund to save Labor’s vote from a fatal and awe-inspiring selfinduced 

wound. The immediate parallel to that morning’s Brexit 

vote astounded me. Cameron had used Western democracy’s most 

powerful structure-shifting mechanism (referendum) as a quick fix 

to quell party room dissent, only to fall on his sword spectacularly. 

Then, in Australia, the Labor party had taken advantage of a natural 

friend of the left, the environment, to not only wastefully produce 

tonnes of useless paper fucking pamphlets but to also squeeze dry 

the last drop of cash in Baby’s College Fund. 

A phone call such as this, then in that silence when the receiver 

touched its base revealed something that I had not known nor 

could escape. I am as pained by, but persist in the political apparat 

as I do my sunburn. A life-time membership to the Royal Australian 

Political Theatre grants the commentariat unparalleled privilege 

over other private citizens, a privilege that dooms me to watch 

empires collapse and see old friends turn dirty. Such a burden it is 

to trade secrets in this era of Murdochracy. But alas, it puts me by 

pools and sends me to the tropics. 

That’s all for now, Menthol Charlie. 

I’ve divided my advance towards the next issue 

with the diligence of an accomplished jurist. Half 

for Mint Juleps and the other for Ibogaine. No 

other pharmaceutical interaction could mimic 

the extractive capacity of a dreamcatcher so 

effectively. After all, the boorish editor of the 

Telegraph had the cajones to run a piece on Bill 

Shorten and a certain Gentleman’s club on King 

Street. This calls for serious reflection, especially 

because that motherfucking Labourist hasn’t 

squared our debt from that evening… 

article & photography by menthol charlie 


50-51

Going Home: A Cycle Of Self Discovery 

, 

edition one 

Some students know how it feels to re-locate to study and go back “home” over the 

holiday period, away from their new friends, partner(s) and Melbourne summer events 

and atmosphere. Whilst some travel for an hour or two by car others travel by plane for 

three or more hours. And still both struggle with existential questions, displacement, 

and the cyclical nature of living away from home to study. Although, whilst it all sounds 

serious, seeing family once (or more) a year is a pretty cathartic experience where you get 

to live like old times, where your housemates are your own flesh and blood. 

My existentialist side comes out to play only in Darwin, where I grew up and started to 

decide the kind of person I wanted to be. And with this, it is the place where I can no longer 

run away from answering the dreaded questions of “Who am I? Where am I going? And 

what am I doing?” which are common amongst uni students, especially during exam period 

and semester breaks. But there is something much more poignant about trying to find the 

answers in the place you grew up. And whilst I never have an answer for these questions, 

it’s the process of seemingly long stares at the ceiling, extensive journal writing and asking 

overly complex questions to my parents about what they did when they were young that 

bookends the end and beginning of my year. And every year my soul search spirals into a 

several day period of depression about how I became who I am, until I snap myself out of it 

to think about who I am, where I’m going, what I’m doing... until next year. I feel extremely 

lucky to have a home away from home and to get away from the intensity of Melbourne 

to a place that’s inhabited by nothing but crocodiles and grey nomads. I can explore my 

existentialism and reflect on the year past and the one ahead. However, it isn’t always a 

calm reflective time. 

Displacement feels inescapable when you’re living between two places. For me it feels like 

I have three separate lives that are all sewn together through my experiences in Darwin, 

and my memorabilia there. All with contrasting experiences, they feel disjointed and 

fragmented. I grew up in Melbourne where I engaged with the natural environment and 

walked home every day with my best friend through the most beautiful Sherbrooke forests 

and made new friends in my first years at high school. Then my family moved to Darwin 

displacement 

where I started all over again, making new friends, exploring new interests and wishing to 

return to Melbourne. Those years, of course, were stained with teenage angst. My current 

life in Melbourne feels like I’m returning to a reoccurring dream where everything is so 

also a strange hunch that they’re memories from a life that isn’t mine. My displacement 

feels 

stems from living away 

inescapable 

from family where we have a shared history for a great majority of 

my life. Where I am now, living an environment where I have a future, I’m still unsure 

whether I can confidently call two places my home – for remotely different reasons – but 

I’m willing to try. 

familiar but isn’t the same and not quite like how it used to be. Visiting where I used to 

grow up and my old friends there, I am engulfed in a wave of nostalgia and familiarity but 

The cycle of going back and forth between two places not only feeds into the idea of 

displacement – never really settling anywhere or feeling completely at peace – but also 

feeds the cycle of annual self-reflection. Every year the cycle continues to uncover personal 

growth, reflection and boundless possibilities. But will the concept of entropy ring true 

to the point where the regularity of my annual self-reflection will decline into a greater 

disorder and further disassociation with memory, and the feelings of displacement and 

fragmentation? Or will it, alternatively, become so regular, where the time spent away 

when youre 

from Melbourne no longer harbours the effects of personal reflection as the years go past? 

I honestly don’t know which I prefer but can feel slightly more at ease, knowing there are 

other students in the Monash community who face the same challenges of the cyclical 

nature of living away from home. 

I definitely feel I’ve grown as a person since the last time I visited Darwin but I can 

imagine I said this last year and will say it again next year. But I don’t know, it just feels like 

living between 

there’s something more to living away from home than just being in two places at different 

reasons. 

two places 

times of the year, in places that hold such personal relevance, for completely opposite 

lot’s wife

article by natasha brennfleck, artwork by rachelle lee 


52-53

MS Word Enjoys Itself 

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh you’re reading this, are you? 

edition one 

Like properly? With words sounding off in your head and that tinny little voice going ringa-dinga-dinga if 

it sees it? 

Aha. 

Well, very nice then. Carry on. 

Oh, bugger you can’t. You need words to do that. Alright, alright just give me a minute and I’ll go and 

fetch them, yeah? Great, cheers. 

Oh, shit I’ve lost them. 

And they were bloody good I tell you, words so good you couldn’t even pronounce them, words like 

‘phendrenamultimatchimier’. 

But real. 

But just as equally unpronouncable. Even in that head of yours. 

You didn’t think much of that, did you? 

No, didn’t think you’d be impressed. You know what? It’s fine, I’ll take another look alright, I’ll find the 

words, just give me - 

Whoa, 

Hey, 

Alright, here, here, here, what about this fella: 

“In the same exacting perfection as before, she had not aged a day” 

Now that’s a bloody good one that is. True romance in written form. All served up to you on a silver platter. 

Silver page. Well, that bit of the page was, we had to make cutbacks somewhere. 

But, as I’m sure you can see, we are still a journal of the highest quality, indeed, I would doff my cap to 

you if I could, and wish you a good day. Indeed, I have, just like that, you see? Lovely. 

You’re still here. 

I told you, I lost the words, I didn’t even find those last ones, I just made them up myself. The real words 

are gone. 

I’m sorry. 

Here now, here now, don’t be sad you see, just, well look, look at that: 

That’s a proper illustration and all what you’re seeing there, not often we get them in such high quality in 

these parts, I tell ya. No, no it’s all plain text this, and formatting that, with no regard to the pleasure of 

one such as yourself, ya see. 

But that sorta thing is what you came here for innit? Alright then, try with me, come on, give it a shot, 

and 

3, 

2, 

1, 

And... 

Gah, thought that’d work, was hoping the words would find themselves, you see? Never have such luck 

I do, but I thought, maybe they’d come out for you. 

Come, come, lets try again, and - 

3, 

2, 

1, 

Butsincethoulovest,lovestillandthrivetherein,EvenasIwouldwhenItolovebegin” 

Bugger me, that all came gushing out at once, didn’t it? Ahaha, we did it, oh, I knew we could do it you 

and I, look at that, words on a page. Maker and muse, you and me. Maker and muse. 

That’s real beauty that is. What we made there. The words always come to ya eventually. 

lot’s wife

True, they did come out in a bit of a deluge, but, you know what, it’s fine, it’s fine, we’ll sort it out now, alright, you 

stuck with me this far let’s just, just see what we can get here with a little – 

“But since thou lovest, love still and thive therein, even as I would when I to love begin” 

Mhm, 

Mhm, 

That’s the stuff. See what we can do when we take our time to think before we read? Just gorgeous. 

But ere, I can do one better – 

“But since thou lovest, love still and thrive therein, 

Even as I would when I to love begin” 

Formatting, ten out of ten. Just makes it that bit more readable, yeah. 

Oh, oh, oh, I’m sorry, this is actually probably a bit boring for you, isn’t it? Here then, you give it a shot, let me read 

something of yours. 

Seriously. 

Just put it, umm 

Just put it here: 

article by lachlan liesfield, illustrations by sian davies 

Nope, nothing? 

Come on, don’t be shy, show me some words, take whatever space you need, here, here, here, just chuck it: 

Ah. 

I see the problem. Alright, silly me, that’s, yep, that one’s on me. 

Alright, alright, here, just for you then, to say sorry (you must be so embarrassed!) I’ll do something exciting, see: 

“But since thou lovest, love still and thrive therein, 

Even as I would when I to love begin” 

Yeah. I know you’re impressed. They don’t call it Impact for nothing, right? 

Hey, hey, more fun coming up: 

I may have got a bit excited. 


54-55

Wot’s Life? With Agony Aunt 

edition one 

Agony Aunt and friends will be here all 

year to answer your anonymous questions. 

Q. 

What happens when you die? 

You’re reborn as a bug for asking such a 

shit question. Or you go to heaven, or to hell. 

Or you just cease to exist. Or maybe you just 

live in an urn above a mantle? 

Personally, I’d say that it depends on your 

own beliefs and no one has come back from 

the dead to tell me otherwise. 

A. 

Q. 

I have feelings for my cousin. What 

should I do? 

You should transfer to the University of 

Tasmania. 

If anything progresses it is incest to 

conceive a child so I suggest you adopt. But 

in Australia apparently it’s legal to marry first 

cousins. So whatever, I guess it’s fine. 

A. 

lot’s wife 

Q. 

I am attracted to my co-worker and he 

asked me out to dinner but I’m pretty sure 

he has a girlfriend. 

Firstly you don’t seem convinced that he 

has a girlfriend so probably just confirm that 

it’s true. Talk to him up front and see what 

he says. Or ya know, stalk his Facebook 

and Instagram and the respective girl’s 

A. Facebook and Instagram just to confirm if 

he does indeed have a girlfriend. 

You could always casually slip it into 

conversation? But odds are if he asked you 

out on a date he’s keen and maybe he has an 

open relationship or something or maybe he 

just wants to be friends. I suggest you clarify 

with him before you get more involved. 

Q. 

Do you have any suggestions or tips for 

taking sexy photos? I am a 22 year old 

girl but I have never done it before. I have 

just started seeing a guy and I want him to 

know what he’s missing out on when we 

can’t see each other as we both have busy 

work schedules. 

A. 

Personally, I suggest you keep your face 

out of it because what if he turns out to be a 

twat and shows lots of people, ya know? Or 

alternatively just gather blackmail material 

on him and go wild with your photos. 

But I feel like you can’t really go wrong 

with taking sexy photos, you’re literally 

sending them a pic of your boobs, they’re 

not allowed to complain and they have to 

love it regardless. 

Q. 

Q. 

My friends don’t want full communism 

A. 

like I do. Please help. 

Find new friends, you don’t need people 

like that in your life. 

O - Week is the time to branch out and 

A. 

to make new friends so make sure you go 

to as many events as you can and befriend 

as many people as you can because who 

knows, maybe they want full communism 

too! 

Q. 

If I’m wearing a choker, does that mean 

I like anal? 

According to memes (the highest source 

of authority there is) yes, but I’d like to see 

the empirical evidence behind it. 

It probably just means that you like 

chokers and accessorising your neck to be 

frank. 

A. 

Q. 

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it 

hurt losing your virginity? 

Guess you’ll just have to try it to find out 

but we’ll say a 4. 

But in all seriousness, I doubt that the first 

time is great for anyone and if they say it 

is they’re probably a liar. So don’t fret, it’ll 

probably be over in 40 seconds anyway. 

A. Read a few Cosmo articles to prepare 

yourself, I find Cosmo to be enlightening!

ADVERTISEMENT 

The Women’s Department is seeking contributions 

from writers and artists identifying as or with 

women for our magazine; 

DISSENT 

Please email submissions to msadissent17@gmail.com 

We look forward to hearing from you! 

TUESDAY 14 MARCH 

Doors open from 9pm 

Lockout at 10pm 

$20 tickets 

Tickets available at monash.edu/summerfest 

or at the MSA Desk and Sir Johns Bar 

Full Moon Party is an 18+ event. Photo ID is required. Monash 

Student Association practices responsible service of alcohol. 

#MONASHSUMMER 

MONASH.EDU/SUMMERFEST

BBQ @ 12PM, buses @ 1pm 

Lemon Scented Lawns

Lot's Wife Edition 1 2017

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