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The Liverpool Plains, Australia

The haunting might be over, the dangerous gangs of mafia thieves that prey upon Thailand's tourists might have dissipated, the hysterical howling mobs might have moved on to more sensible pursuits than ridiculing foreigners, but still, hyper-aware, he caught fluctuations in the ferment he wished he did not. When the tumult and the shouting dies down, he was fond of saying to himself, adapting Rudyard Kipling's famous line, but he heard it still some days: "We had no idea..." 

The bodhivista in the form of a drunk. There were wild ways, and wild days. He was 61 now, and often enough in this historic part of town, he would think back to the days when he could reverse the digits, and was 16. As the midnight to dawn copyboy on The Daily Telegraph he had walked through or past the same area on many a night, frightened, in a sense, overwhelmed by the size of the city, by the urgency of having to know everything there was worth knowing. For he had to embrace a greater destiny. Past the alcove under the Bridge, long gone now, where the drunks and rough sleepers would gather each night, smashing bottles and laughing in some sort of chilling display, Mordor cutting through into the bright colours of the harbour city.

Disturbed, he had still sought oblivion whenever he could, passing out in odd spots. Under-age, it was difficult to get bottles of alcohol, but he achieved it with a kind of despairing precision. He remembered his 16th birthday, when he had ended up at a gay party in an apartment on the cliffs of Bronte, and the host had kept the heaters on, so that people felt obligated to take off their shirts. It had all seemed very daring in contrast to the silent nightmare from whence he came. It hadn't been too many weeks later when he had passed out in the gutter directly in front of Circular Quay. He could still remember looking up from the pavement to see the office workers stepping over or around him, heading home to their comfortable north shore homes after a day at the office.

And then some "old" queen picked him up, made him take a shower, gave him a blow job and $20 and sent him on his way. That sort of thing was always happening to him. Services rendered. Huh. He wouldn't lift a finger. Well that wasn't entirely true. Who knew what went on between men, in the dark, in those late night spaces. In a comfort driven places where loneliness and inhibition disappeared. 

In those moments they were as much driven by love as the greatest romantic. 

Michael never passed out in exactly that same spot ever again. As if the herds of groaning animals which had almost trampled him had moved on to better plains of indifference. And as if he, too, had developed better methods of self-preservation. 

The only astonishing thing was that he was still alive.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/28/us-thailand-protest-idUSBREA0R07G20140128

(Reuters) - Thailand's embattled government is pushing ahead with a general election on Sunday despite warnings it could end in violence and the country left without a functioning administration for six months.

The decision to go ahead with the polls came at a meeting between Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Election Commission officials and cast further doubt over any quick resolution to months of protests aimed at ousting the government.

The demonstrations are the latest eruption in a political conflict that has gripped Thailand for eight years, broadly pitting Bangkok's middle class and royalist establishment against the mainly poor, rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

The protesters reject the election that Yingluck's party will almost certainly win.

They want to suspend what they say is a fragile democracy commandeered by former telecoms tycoon Thaksin, whom they accuse of corruption, and eradicate the political influence of his family by altering electoral arrangements.

As part of their campaign, the protesters have been disrupting election preparations and early voting. In some constituencies, candidates have been unable to register and there might not be a quorum to open parliament and choose a government.

"The election result might not yield enough seats. It might take four to six months to convene parliament," said Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, an Election Commission official.

The Election Commission said it would hold by-elections until all parliamentary seats are filled. That could take up to six months and leave Thailand with a government that cannot pass laws or a budget.

In particular, it means Yingluck will struggle to find the funds to pay a mounting bill for a costly rice buying scheme which won her party huge support in the rural north and northeast of Thailand, which is her political power base.

Yingluck has been heading a caretaker government with very limited powers since dissolving parliament in December to call the election in the hope of defusing the protests.

FEARS OF CLASHES

Underscoring the risk of violence, while the meeting between the prime minister and election officials was going on at an Army Club complex, two people were hurt in a shooting where about 500 anti-government protesters had gathered in the same complex but some distance away.

At the weekend, one anti-government protest leader was shot dead and 10 people were hurt when clashes broke out as protesters prevented early voting in much of the capital.

The Election Commission has argued that the country is too unsettled to hold an election now.

"We fear that there will be clashes on election day," said election official Somchai.

The government declared a state of emergency last week and has issued an ultimatum to protest leaders that they face arrest by Thursday if they do not give up areas of Bangkok they have taken over.

However, a Bangkok criminal court rejected the government's request for an arrest warrant for 16 protest leaders, including leader Suthep Thaugsuban.

Suthep has threatened to shut down the agency in charge of the emergency decree by Wednesday morning.

There are widespread fears that violence could escalate in the increasingly divisive dispute and that the army might step in. It has staged or attempted 18 coups in 80 years of on-off democracy but has tried to remain neutral this time.

Yingluck is Thailand's fifth prime minister since the populist Thaksin was toppled by the army in 2006 and went into exile two years later to escape a jail sentence that was handed down for abuse of power.

(Editing by Jonathan Thatcher, Alan Raybould and Robert Birsel)

UNFOLDING

The Liverpool Plains, NSW, Australia

There, screaching in the dawn, that was the way it had always been, and the city, unfolding itself, took him around in circles. Past the old Metro Theatre in the Cross, where Harry Godolphin, long dead, had given him his first tab of acid and taken him to see Hair. In those days when the world was unfolding and we thought nothing would ever be the same again. In the days when we had a heart, and could have loved so easily, but didn't. A nation of hard surfaces. Australia Day came and went and the city was quieter than it had ever been. Past the highway where Brutus's had once stood. Past Rushcutter's Bay, where Brutus's owner had been shot through the heart by a young man.

Standing one hundred meters away. Good shot, we all thought. 

Just another bit of gossip in the day.

And decades on from that, past Orwell Street in Darling Point, where he had lived for so long. In the days when all of journalism was an El Dorado, when the adult world was unveiling itself and he was walking on in triumph; a casual disaster, gifted. He would sit in the bars around Broadway and listen to all the legends in their own lunchtimes, the journalists who he had previously only ever known as by-lines. 

And yes, he had walked through these unfolding pools before; screenshots of past enclaves, in the days before there were screenshots. 

But this time he was older. Too many things had happened. If he wasn't wiser, he felt things in a different way. 

And all the time the land came crashing down. And sooner or later, he too would be lost.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Rite of passage comes with a high risk for those seeking foreign adventures

Date

January 26, 2014

Lindy Alexander

View more articles from Lindy Alexander

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The number of Australian tourists under 25 dying overseas has doubled in the past decade as younger travellers push boundaries that they wouldn't at home.

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Traumatic: Julie Fitzsimons, right, with daughter Kate. Photo: Sahlan Hayes

In the early hours of January 11, Jan Meadows was lying in bed. Just after midnight she had sat up, wide awake. Her husband, woken by her stirring, asked what was wrong. ''I don't know,'' she told him. ''I just can't sleep.'' The time on her mobile phone on the bedside table was 4am.

A few minutes later, Meadows' phone rang. The flashing screen told her it was an incoming call from her 26-year-old son, Lee Hudswell, who was nearing the end of a two-week trip to Thailand and Laos. Meadows' mind was racing. ''About 50 things were running through my mind: has he lost his wallet? His passport?'' Meadows picked up the phone and asked, ''Lee? What's wrong?'' but it wasn't her son calling.

It was Scott Donaghy, one of two mates Hudswell was travelling with. ''Jan, it's not Lee,'' he said. ''I don't know how to tell you this,'' he kept saying. Meadows sat up in bed. ''What is it, Scott, what's wrong?'' she asked. ''Lee has passed away,'' Donaghy told her.

Tragedy: Nicole Fitzsimons, was killed in a motorbike accident in Thailand.

''When I heard that,'' Meadows says, ''I just started screaming.''

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Lee was one of the 1138 Australians who died while overseas in 2011-12, with illness the leading cause. Almost 9 million Australians travel internationally in any given year, the number of Australian tourists under 25 having doubled in the past decade. A 2013 report from independent policy think tank, the Lowy Institute, noted activities more likely to cause injury or death, such as adventure travel or extreme sports, are becoming more common.

Searching for new experiences by travelling internationally has been a rite of passage for many young Australians. But lots of young tourists leave behind parents who, while keen for their child to explore and experience the wonders of the world, are also fearful about the risks.

Lee Hudswell had travelled to Vang Vieng in Laos to have an adventure. The gregarious and talented sportsman with a degree in commerce from Wollongong University journeyed to the once quiet agricultural town, now packed with young tourists, to float along the Nam Song river on giant tractor tubes (known as ''tubing''). At the time, cheap alcohol was sold by the bucket at bars on the edge of the river, and travellers got their thrills on rope swings, zip-lines, and giant waterslides.

Hudswell had climbed up a bamboo tower to have his second go on a zip-line strung high across the water. As he reached the end of the line he was flung awkwardly into the river. Young tourists on the banks noticed he hadn't surfaced and started calling to each other to look for him. The search became frantic. It took five or six minutes to pull Hudswell to the surface. He was unconscious. Scott Donaghy was one of Hudswell's friends who took him in a local tuk-tuk taxi to a nearby clinic; he died shortly afterwards.

Newspaper reports show Vang Vieng's tiny hospital recorded 27 tourist deaths in 2011 alone.

''Life is very difficult without Lee,'' says Meadows. ''For the first six months I was in a daze. I drove through red lights, I left the gas stove on, I left the gate open in the paddock and our racehorses got out. It never leaves your mind.''

Determined to save other young lives, Meadows lobbied Laotian authorities to have the zip-lines pulled down, along with the slides and swings along the notorious stretch of river. A few months after Hudswell's death the equipment was dismantled, and dozens of illegal bars were closed. ''It was totally and utterly unregulated tourism,'' Meadows says.

David Beirman, senior lecturer in tourism at the University of Technology, Sydney, says certain events and activities in some countries encourage travellers to take risks. ''Going with an unlicensed, unregistered operator who may be using faulty equipment can be a bit of a death trap,'' Beirman says. ''I think a lot of younger travellers want to have intense experiences and so there is a tendency to expose themselves to risk a bit more than they would at home.''

Paul Dillon, the director of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia says a whole new industry in high-risk tourism has emerged in the past 20 years that encourages young people to push the boundaries. ''The evidence is very clear that young people are aware of the risks and know what the consequences can be, but they think it won't happen to them,'' Dillon says. There is a tendency, Dillon says, that the shorter the trip, the more intense an experience young people will seek.

Melbourne psychologist Sabina Read says part of parents supporting, nurturing and raising an independent child is learning to let go. ''Just having a child travel overseas is quite significant,'' she says. ''It would be extremely unusual for a parent not to feel some sadness, anxiety, concern and a sense of loss of control in that process.'' But, she cautions, living in an anticipatory anxiety mode of what might go wrong is not helpful for parent or child. ''Part of this process is to accept that we can't always protect our children, as much as it's our instinct to do so.''

Exacerbating the difficulties for parents are the practical implications of the loss. ''You have to negotiate a whole other country with their values, infrastructure, government and laws,'' Read says. ''You specifically get on a plane where everyone is laughing and talking about where they are going and which hotel they are staying at, and you are going to identify or collect your child's body. That level of pain, distress and trauma is beyond comprehension.''

In most cases, travel insurance can help families negotiate their way through unfamiliar foreign requirements. ''For many families, their distress at the loss of a loved one is often compounded by the cost and complexity of the procedures in place overseas, for example post-mortem investigations and repatriations,'' says Justin Brown, head of the consular and crisis management division in the Foreign Affairs Department. Up to a third of Australians who travel don't take out travel insurance.

Increased demand for government help for overseas travellers is thought to have recently prompted Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop to flag a ''user-pays'' approach for consular assistance. Government funding may not be forthcoming if people acted in defiance of local laws, travelled without insurance, or ignored travel advice, Bishop warned. Many travel insurers will also refuse to cover travellers for illness, accident or misadventure if they believe that the traveller was inebriated at the time of the incident.

For many parents, trying to piece together the last moments of their child's life and the circumstances of their death can be incredibly distressing. ''Part of the human psyche is wanting to know the details around the death,'' says Sabina Read. ''Not being able to imagine what the landscape was like, or the culture of the people, or how exactly it happened, means that parents are dealing with an extra element of the unknown. ''

After travelling to Thailand to repatriate her daughter's body in October 2012, Julie Fitzsimons says she will never go back. Nicole Fitzsimons, 24, was a talented dancer who was completing a degree in media and communications by correspondence at Griffith University. She was on holiday in Koh Samui and sitting on the back of a motorcycle driven by her partner, Jamie Keith, when a local Thai man on another motorbike hit the couple from behind as they turned into their hotel driveway. With no helmet for protection, Nicole suffered severe head injuries and died before her parents arrived.

''I didn't want to go to Thailand and I didn't want to see it [the place where Nicole died], but I'm glad I went,'' Fitzsimons says.

''We did a Buddhist ceremony and released her spirit. It was traumatic. But I know I'll never go back.''

In the days before Nicole's memorial service, people told Fitzsimons they wanted to donate to a charity that focused on road safety and the dangers of riding motorbikes overseas. Fitzsimons says it was a way of channelling their grief.

Just months after Nicole died, 21-year-old Kate left her corporate job and became the face of the Nicole Fitzsimons Foundation. ''I read the statistics of places like Bali where the hospitals there are treating up to 300 traffic victims every day, and I wanted to know why my sister wasn't given the chance to be educated about this before she went overseas,'' says Kate.

Last year Kate Fitzsimons travelled to 40 schools in NSW, Queensland and the Northern Territory, raising awareness of travel safety overseas.

''This has been the most fulfilling, rewarding 12 months of my life. I never thought that I'd say that so soon after losing my best friend and sister, but I think she's up there opening doors … she's with me every step of the way.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/rite-of-passage-comes-with-a-high-risk-for-those-seeking-foreign-adventures-20140125-31exs.html#ixzz2rco0VlLn

AUSTRALIA DAY

Central West NSW, Australia

"It's just like any other day," the woman said, leaning over her front gate.
He picked her straight away.
She could complain under water.
And sure enough she did.
Australia Day just wasn't what it used to be.
For a start, the woman complained, the streets were empty and the wheelchair race, which normally ran past her front door, hadn't made it that far this year.
Heavily sponsored by disability organisations and the state and local governments, the event drew a scattering of curious onlookers and a line of supporters, friends and family.
They rolled through the normally traffic choked streets, and even the last to cross the finishing line had something of a triumphant air.
For some it's climbing Mount Everest, for others it's crossing the street.
The woman's grown son stood next to her, assessing him. As best the clearly different could. The man had a pair of shorts drawn up high around his waist, and a nickname in the local area, Bovver Bob, or something to that affect. A troublesome child in a man's body.
Perhaps it was brain damage, Michael didn't know, didn't care. Millionaire's row lapped up against a conglomerate of the mentally ill, schitzophrenic, drug addicted or alcoholic and a mix of old time residents, some from the old Maritime Union houses.
There was the ultra-renovated and the utterly unrenovated, the smells of rotting vomit and opposite a gold porsche. The more knocked off you were, the easier it was to fit in. Or better still, go un-noticed. On the knocked off side of the street.
The best story to tell, or so he was advised, was to say, if anybody asked, that he had just got out of the big house. Nobody blinked twice at somebody freshly out of jail.
"It's just another day," the woman reiterated after a string of complaints about the deteriorating state of everytihng.
"Just like Christmas," he said cheerfully, before wending on his way. "Just another day."

THE BIGGER STORY:

Protest leader killed as anti-government demonstrations disrupt advance voting in Thailand

Updated 39 minutes ago

Photo: Thai anti-government protesters gather outside a polling station in a bid to prevent people from voting in Narathiwat, southern Thailand. (Photo: AFP/Madaree Tohlala)

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-26/an-thai-anti-government-protesters-disrupt-advance-voting-for-d/5219744

 

A Thai anti-government protest leader has been shot dead in Bangkok.

The protest movement's spokesman, Akanat Promphan, says Suthin Tharathin was giving a speech from a pick-up truck in the Thai capital when he was shot and killed.
"The government has failed to provide any safety and security for anybody today despite the emergency decree," he said, referring to a government order empowering police to control protests.
Bangkok's Erawan emergency centre confirmed one man had been killed and nine injured in the shooting in the city's suburbs.

Voting disrupted on tense day across Thailand

Anti-government protesters forced the closure of 19 out of 50 polling stations in the Thai capital, Bangkok, on Sunday, disrupting advance voting for the disputed general election.
The country's election commission says protesters surrounded buildings, blocking officials from entering to hold advance voting in Bangkok and several southern provinces.
"Nineteen poll stations reported closed out of 50 in Bangkok," said Puchong Nutrawong, the secretary general of the election commission.
"Election officials at the poll stations could not go inside because of the protesters."
He added it was unclear how the advance votes not cast ahead of the scheduled February 2 election will be tallied.
Protesters have prevented commission staff from delivering ballot boxes to polling stations.
Candidates in 28 southern electoral constituencies have been unable to register for candidacy as protests disrupted registration.
More than 2 million people are registered for the advance vote ahead of next week's polls, which was called by prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in an attempt to defuse rising political tensions after weeks of mass anti-government protests.
Advance voting is being held for those who are unable to take part in next Sunday's polls and is routine, although this time it is being seen as a litmus test for the possibility of holding the vote without violence.
Demonstrators have rejected the election and vowed to gather around polling stations.
The protesters have staged a so-called "shutdown" of Bangkok for almost two weeks, in an effort to disrupt the vote.
The prime minister is scheduled to hold a meeting on Tuesday with members of the election commission to discuss possible change of date for the election.
At least nine people have died and more than 500 injured since political violence started late last year, after the lower house of Thailand's parliament passed an amnesty bill appearing to benefit the prime minister's brother, former leader Thaksin Shinawatra.
The bill was later voted down in the Senate.

THE PLACES FLED XXI

Protestor's Falls, The Channon, NSW, Australia

The city was taking him on a not so romantic tour of his own past, as it did at times of change or intersection. "A city is the greatest work of art possible," said Lloyd Rees, one of Sydney's greatest ever artitists, and so it sometimes seemed, even if the memories were caught in a bell jar, muffled, or even sometimes if he was the only one who could hear what had gone before. Nowhere to park, he went around and around the block in the Cross. Nowhere to be had. Past the little theatre where he sometimes went. Past the tenement house where he had lived with a little wild gang of miscreants, including the painter John, on whom he had a crush, as much for his personal charms as for his stunning roofscapes.

Leader of the pack, the early seventies had disappeared into history. But so had earlier bits of history, and strangely calm despite the lack of a parking space, he found himself in a little cul de sac that only locals would know. And found himself staring up at the window of the apartment where Joe had once lived. The Irish lad who had declared his undying love in the muddy days which were their lives, and when Michael had declared it wasn't in him, he didn't love him back, dropped dead in the bar of the Rex Hotel at midday, having consumed God knows how many bottles of whisky. His heart just stopped.

And from out of car windows the gangs had screamed "murderer" for weeks after, and he hadn't meant any of it. He wasn't yet 18. Joe was all of 21. Michael hadn't been ready to settle down. But he didn't mind ending up with him late at night, as they drank their way each evening into erratic, comforting oblivion. He hadn't wanted him dead. He hadn't wanted anything. 

So he stared up at the window where more than 40 years before he had ended up with a boy called Joe on various drunken evenings, possibly the only person in Sydney who remembered a skinny Irish lad who had once loved him, the whole city punctured with time bombs, emotional pits which were not quite sentimentality, and wished that life had been kinder. That Joe hadn't died. That they could have been perfectly happy together at a different intersection in their lives. A knowing mist. And shrugged. There were helicopters overhead.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Life after politics: Kevin Rudd continues his jetsetting ways

Date

January 23, 2014

Heath Aston

Political reporter

View more articles from Heath Aston

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• Federal politics: full coverage

Not even a resounding election defeat could clip the wings of Kevin 747.

In his first three months out of office, former prime minister Kevin Rudd went on a jet lag-inducing odyssey of eight foreign capitals, spending 60 days outside Australia.

Kevin Rudd in New York in September after losing the federal election. Photo: Kristie Kellahan

The Mandarin speaker met Chinese officials and delivered speeches in Beijing on four separate week-long trips in September, October and November.

He has flown to New York and London three times, Paris twice and had engagements in Washington DC, Bahrain, Zurich and Toronto.

On every trip Mr Rudd has requested assistance from Australian consular staff to arrange VIP airport transfers and transport to meetings. In a few cases he didn't request transport to all the meeings he had scheduled.

Department of Foreign Affairs documents show Mr Rudd only spent a significant amount of time in Australia during a three-week period in which he quit Parliament, citing the strains on family for his exit from politics.

Seven days after his tearful final speech he boarded a plane with an itinerary for November 21 to December 11 that read: New York, Canada, Boston, London, New York, London, New York, Washington.

In London, he requested a driver and car for the duration of his time in Britain but DFAT records the ''London post'' as having been unable to provide a car. In New York, the embassy made available a staff member as an ''airport facilitator'' and a car and driver.

By comparison, former prime minister Julia Gillard took two overseas trips during the same post-election period. On both occasions she requested and received airport facilitation and received transport during a two-day trip to Bali.

A spokeswoman for Mr Rudd said the retiring MP is still eager to remain engaged with global issues.

‘‘Prior to, throughout and post his time in Parliament, Mr Rudd has maintained an active interest in international affairs,’’ she said.

The spokeswoman also said the DFAT assistance was standard for a former prime minister and foreign minister.

‘‘Provision of such assistance is covered in DFAT guidelines and applies to all former prime ministers and former portfolio ministers."

DFAT guidelines state that the public profile of former prime ministers ''makes it almost impossible for them to be free of the commitments and demands naturally arising from having held such an office at the national level''.

"Former prime ministers have access to car transport for specific journeys only when travelling overseas on official business as a former prime minister in locations where an overseas post maintains a vehicle fleet. The entitlement should not be used for commercial purposes.''

Meanwhile Bob Carr this week responded to a Senate estimates hearing request for details of his side visits during his time as foreign minister.  

On Thursday, Mr Carr said the questions were a calculated stunt by a new government that was out of its depth on the world stage.

''Instead of attacking their predecessor, Julie Bishop and her office should spend their energy mastering their brief and fixing relations with Indonesia and China,'' he said.

A spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Ms Bishop declined to respond.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/life-after-politics-kevin-rudd-continues-his-jetsetting-ways-20140123-31aio.html#ixzz2rSORELRa
   

SLIDE SHOWS

illawara, NSW, Australia

The city was showing him slideshows of everywhere that had ever been important. In some sort of canny, but not uncomforting way. After a meeting in the Cross one night he drove around and around the block looking for somewhere to park before meeting up at the Tropicana. Around and around the block they had gone; merciless savages, demons on the hunt. The area had become famous, or even more infamous, since the Christmas season, when a vacuum of news and the poor quality of newspapers allowed for an hysterical media driven campaign over "alcohol-fuelled violence"; followed by stories on Barry O'Farrell shutting down Sydney, which was effectively what he was doing.

A news blind and grieving relatives backed by an idiotic media were a poor basis on which to create legislation which would alter the social fabric and the lives of tens of thousands of people, but that is exactly what they had done.

The police were pleased with the new laws.

The police were always pleased with legislation which handed them yet more power; and the law and order drum beaten by state governments of all polical persusasians, cheap populism, would always influence the shaping realities of the Nanny State of Australia. 

Sydney as an international destinastion? He didn't think so.

Nothing to do, nowhere to go.

You could shoot a cannon down half the streets of Sydney at 10pm and hit not a soul. Most of the bars were empty; joining the disintegrating shops and the ailing economy. A place that could have once been rich, but now was poor.

O'Farrell was unimpressive in Opposiition and unimpressive as Premier. He had heard the outrage of the people, he declared. He had in fact heard the concocted faux outrage of the media, but was too opportunistic and nasty minded to bother fighting against the tide.

We'd all be in bed by 10pm soon enough.

And under the cloak, the mantle of Russian style austerity, the country that was once fun but was fun no longer, giant parties would brew, and the resentment and frustration would build, and there would be a damn sight more harm done than a few young men behaving badly on a night out could ever do.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Barry O'Farrell says he isn't penalising responsible drinkers

O’Farrell shuts down Sydney

Posted January 23, 2014 by Michael Koziol & filed under City News, Featured Home.

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The NSW government’s package of liquor regulation has met with strong criticism from operators, drinkers and freedom advocates.

Premier Barry O’Farrell announced on Tuesday that 1.30am lockouts and 3am “last drinks” will be imposed on most venues in Sydney’s CBD. In a statewide crackdown, bottle shops will also be forced to close at 10pm.

In addition, mandatory minimum sentences of eight years will apply for anyone convicted of a one-punch assault occasioning death. The maximum penalty will be 20 years, but will be extended to 25 years where drugs or alcohol are involved.

The licensing restrictions will be imposed across an expanded Sydney precinct that takes in most of the CBD, Kings Cross and Oxford Street. Barangaroo and the Star casino are not included in the zone.

The conditions are similar to the so-called “Newcastle solution” which has been heralded as reducing violent incidents in the northern city.

Announcing the suite of measures on Tuesday, the premier said a recent spate of alcohol-related violence required a “concerted effort by government and its agencies, by the alcohol industry and by the community”. He said the package announced this week would “make the difference and start the change”.

“We’re sending a message today that misuse and abuse of alcohol and drugs are going to be less tolerated,” Mr O’Farrell said.

The premier said small bars and restaurants would be exempt from lockouts and last-drinks restrictions. But only a handful of bars are classed under the government’s new “small bar” licence for venues with a capacity of less than 60 patrons. Most smaller bars, which have capacity of up to 120, come under the regular bar licence.

“This is not about penalising responsible drinkers,” Mr O’Farrell said.

But the announcement sparked a barrage of resistance from patrons, musicians and operators who felt they were being penalised.

“Limiting choice for everyone is an absurd reaction. We don’t do it in any other field,” said Dan Nolan, a developer and entrepreneur who patronises venues in the CBD and Surry Hills.

“Internationally it makes us a joke. The only other city that does something similar is San Francisco and it is widely reviled for it.”

Henry Ho, licensee at Charlie Chan’s Bar on George Street, said the changes would have a huge impact, particularly on tourism.

“We close at 6am. Our peak hours are from 3 o’clock onwards. What will they do? Drink water?” he asked. “Sydney will become like a country town.”

Stephan Gyory of the 2010 Business Partnership said the laws would punish the wrong people.

“It’s the bozos doing it, not the venues,” he told City News. “It’s a collective punishment for everyone, not just the nutcases.”

Incoming Freedom Commissioner Tim Wilson condemned the policy as disappointing.

“Stopping street violence is not achieved through arbitrary restrictions on the individual liberty of law-abiding citizens in the hope that it may reduce criminal behaviour amongst a small number of individuals,” he said.

Mr Wilson noted that non-domestic assaults in Kings Cross are not rising, and said the lockout policy had previously failed in Victoria.

Mr O’Farrell will also increase penalties for offences such as using “offensive language” ($500) and supplying illegal steroids (up to 25 years imprisonment).

Paul Gregoire contributed reporting

JOYCE

 

“Joyce died,” he said to his son in the Strawberry Hills in Surrey Hills, just up the hill from Central Station.

“Oh,” he said, in a tone which reflected disappointment, sadness, or something, for she had been a part of their lives in the days when they had lived in Redfern.

“What did she die of?” he asked.

“Well she was 84 and had leukemia when I left,” he said. “I helped to organise her 84^th birthday party.”

There was another kind of grunt from his son. “I thought leukemia was a children’s disease.”

“Well so did I, but clearly not. I guess she wasn’t long for the world.”

A thought that was tied up with everything. The last time he had been in the Strawberry Hills he had worked around the corner and the steaks had been $7 each.

Now it had been renovated into another inner-city joint. Several clusters of almost attractives had been clustered across the open air restaurant on the second floor, they sold spicy black rum and the hamburgers were $15 each.

Otherwise occupied, or distressed, depressed, distracted, he had knocked on Joyce’s door a couple of times since he had returned, but there had been no response. He had feared the worst.

Joyce, who had been the tea lady at the Australian Broadcasting Commission and 58 when she first got sober, was popular amongst the gay boys.

But confirmation came at a meeting in Darlinghurst when someone who had been around, and rather persistent, at the time when he had met his son’s mother, had said: “I suppose you heard about Joyce?”

“No,” he said.

And that was all, in the fleeting circle of the day, that he knew.

That he would never pick her up and take her to the movies again, as had been their ritual for so many years.

He should have been more persistent, more determined, in tracking her down when he had first come back. But instead, swamped by grief and ridicule, he had sought his own private states. Just as he assumed she had, in her own private dying.

And so another person passed out of his life, the city’s life, and that was all. Nothing further to be said. Time overlaid time. People’s paths crossed each other; and then they were gone, from each other; and from this place. Rain blew over the top of the Harbour Bridge, the wind whipping the Australian flag. One day, soon enough, they would all be gone; not even memories on each other’s path.

ANOTHER STORY:

Where the Tele and SMH agree: violence and media beat-ups

MATTHEW KNOTT Crikey media editor	|  EMAIL   |  COMMENT

ALCOHOL-FUELLED VIOLENCE, DAILY TELEGRAPH, KING HIT,NEWSPAPER CAMPAIGNS, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

For more than a century, Sydney's two dominant newspapers have been fierce rivals -- despite stark differences in their world views and target audiences. Reporters at The Sydney Morning Herald, a fixture on Sydney's affluent north shore and eastern suburbs, have long looked down at their Daily Telegraph competitors as ethically dubious beat-up merchants. At the Tele, which dominates Sydney's sprawling west, Fairfax types have been dismissed as smug and self-important.

But since teenager Daniel Christie was struck down in Kings Cross by a one-punch assault on New Year's Eve, the papers have marched in lockstep by campaigning for the New South Wales government and wider community to get tough on alcohol-fuelled violence. For 17 days straight, the cry has rung out from the front pages and editorial columns: something must be done. Prime Minister Tony Abbott weighed in last week with a front-page column for the Tele; today, the Governor-General attended Christie's funeral service.

Such sustained campaigning by both papers on a single issue is unprecedented in recent times, according to formerSMH editor Peter Fray. "Campaigning is easier for the tabloids -- they're virtually on a permanent campaign footing," he said. "The really interesting thing about this is that the Herald is matching the Tele blow-for-blow."

The coverage is heaping enormous pressure on Premier Barry O'Farrell to act -- which he has seemed extremely reluctant to do.

The SMH's Safer Sydney campaign is calling for 1am lockouts and 3am closing times in trouble spot areas such as Kings Cross. The paper is also offering $2500 to the reader who can create the best advertising campaign against alcohol-fuelled violence. Meanwhile, the Tele's Enough campaign is calling for the following:

1. Be a real mate -- take responsibility for each other and stop violence
2. Mandatory minimum jail terms for punches that cause death or serious injury
3. 1am lockouts across the Sydney CBD
4. More trains to get people home quicker
5. Review liquor licences annually, and charge on a risk basis
6. Ban the sale of alcohol 30 minutes before the venue closes.

The Tele upped the ante today with a story headlined "Lock these grubs up", showing 93% of respondents to a survey want minimum sentencing for one-punch crimes causing death.

Meanwhile over 140,000 people have signed a petition created by the parents of Thomas Kelly -- who died after a similar one-punch incident in Kings Cross in 2012 -- calling for alcohol and drug abuse to be considered an "aggravating factor" in all crimes. And public health campaigners have revived calls for increased taxation of alcohol to discourage drinkers from "pre-loading".

While Peter Fray is not opposed to newspaper campaigns, he has some concerns with the current media onslaught. "It is the silly season, and there have been a couple of times I've wondered if the story is really there," he said. "There is always a risk in campaigning that you pick your facts to suit the campaign, and there's an element of that in some of the stories about safety in Sydney."

A problem for the papers is that there is no quantitative evidence of increased violence in the Kings Cross area. Assaults within licensed venues have dropped by an average of 19.6% over two years; on the streets, the rate of assault is stable. These figures are countered by hospital workers and police officers, who insist the severity of assaults is increasing, if not their frequency. The view of the papers -- and it seems, much of the public -- is that the current numbers are simply too high and need to be driven down.

Former NSW director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery is alarmed at the prospect of isolated tragic incidents leading to mandatory jail terms and longer sentences. "I think that media-driven law reform is a bad thing -- it really produces less-than-satisfactory results," he told Crikey.

"Increased penalties won't make a blind bit of difference and are really just populist nonsense ... I have great sympathy for the families, but we have laws sufficient to deal with these offences and I don't see the need to rush to change the law."

But Cowdery does support a trial of 1am lockouts and 3am closing times (known as the "Newcastle Solution", following the success of such measures in the Newcastle CBD: "If it was effective in Newcactle, why can't it be effective in a place like Kings Cross? It should be trialled. I think the reluctance of the government to implement strong and serious measures comes from the relationship between the government and the AHA [Australian Hotels Asssociation]."

Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore told Crikey she was open to the "Newcastle Solution" -- but only if applied across the entire inner-metropolitan area. "Otherwise people would simply move on to areas not affected by the changes -- shifting the problem, rather than solving it," she said.

"The current measures to reduce late-night violence are clearly not sufficient, which is why our staff have been carefully researching other options, and we've been asking the NSW government for more co-operation.

"Our research shows that Sydney needs renewable liquor licences reviewed annually -- rather than the current system of giving a licence in perpetuity; that councils need to be given the power to refuse development applications when areas like the Cross have reached 'saturation point' and can't cope with any more venues; and we need more frequent late-night public transport to get people home safely."

The real power, of course, lies with O'Farrell. In a scene reminiscent of Yes Minister, he fronted the media yesterday to announce that he would have something to announce next week. He knows he can expect the media bollocking to continue unless he introduces sweeping changes -- regardless of whether he thinks they are necessary. Is that a risk he's willing to take?