SPIDERS ON CRUNCHING GLASS
Oak Flats, NSW, Australia
The roaches scattered as their sheet crunched across shattered glass. There were solutions, he just didn't know what they were. There were businesses for sale everywhere. Bring on the bread and circuses, entertain the masses in times of depression. People had come to value money again. There were few flashy displays of wealth. After the ostentious displays of Bangkok, the status conscious flashing of gold, here was a different realm, of "tradies" and humble houses, of ordinary working people stitching together a survival, of businesses going bust, empty shops, constrained circumstance, desert small, dusty except there was no dust, but small town, grizzling little survivals. "Come in," the young woman said, when he finally stopped and bought two dollars worth of pumpkin seeds. "I've been walking past here for weeks on my morning walk, and just happened to have two dollars in my pocket," he said.
"Lucky me," she said. "Come in."
She was surprisingly good looking, and surprisingly nice. He had been expecting the urgently undisciplined kids of some "housos", as the saying, after a popular television series, for the welfare dependent, the rough edges of Australia's lower socio-economic groups, went. There was so much to do and he didn't know how he could do it all. There were times, times, but time was fleeing like a mercury sea before his feet; retreating as he crunched across the glass. "Nice," he said, of the vegetable garden that the woman had dug in between stretches of lawn.
The pumpkin seedlings were two dollars each. He had been expecting a punnet for that much. Half the price of a coffee.
Not that many years ago no one would have cared that much about two dollars. Now it was valued.
With awkward grace. Ropes had wrapped themselves around him; and sometimes he stumbled or forgot.win
But there were still incessant voices, if he chose to listen. "I didn't like him at all before..."
Well, he hadn't liked them either, and just wanted not to be watched. To have his own private moments and move on. To find, like a chrysalis or a cocoon, someone else other than what he had been; to escape the past, the fame, the notoriety, the mocking voices or the whispered admiration; because most people didn't know anybody with any trace of fame, or who had bumped up, almost vicariously, against those who did.
He disappeared, disappeared, or wanted to disappear, and that, in part, is what had made the whole incident so traumatic, and why, in part, he had behaved so oddly, or badly. He hated them for what they had done, the thieving, lying, nasty, vicious little bastards; and he wanted to be left alone. No one left him alone. And so, despite shouting, "Leave Me Alone", the tendrils of corrupt police and threatening mafioso kept plucking, ringing him with fire and disease. And he disowned them and he disowned himself. And was lucky to have survived one of the world's great tourist destinations. A fraud from top to bottom, some days that was all he saw. No magic, no charm, no grace, no decency; no gratitude and no respect. And now, in this quiet water, he became, once again, a different self; and yes, survived.
THE BIGGER STORY:
Michelle Grattan in The Conversation:
Labor is about to end its post-election hiatus, when the party has been high on a drug called democracy. The job of the new leader announced on Sunday – Bill Shorten or Anthony Albanese – will be to preserve as much as possible of the unity and positive thinking now that the ALP has to move to the real business of opposition. In the inevitable letdown, it won’t be easy.
Kevin Rudd did many bad things to Labor but his positive legacy to the party has been twofold. His return to the leadership saved some furniture, and his rule change, allowing the rank and file a 50% say in choosing the leader, has given the defeated ALP momentum and (so far) prevented blood letting.
As national secretary George Wright told Sky yesterday, there is a “big appetite” for participatory democracy.
By yesterday 27,000 of 43,000 members had voted (with the deadline close of business today). All who were members at election time were eligible. There’ve been glitches with getting the ballots out and back quickly enough; even so, the participation rate is high. Caucus voted yesterday. The results of the two sides of the ballot will be released together.
For Shorten and Albanese it’s been an enormous effort, coming immediately after an exhausting election. Shorten has attended 46 functions including the three face to face debates and a joint business fund raiser; apart from the joint gatherings, Albanese has done about 10 large meetings and two teleconferences. They’ve each been allowed two mailouts (one of Shorten’s was a 16 page booklet). It’s not been cheap. The party has provided the candidates with a kitty of $50,000 each, with the ALP estimating its total costs will be up to $150,000. Shorten has raised extra money; Albanese has tried to live within his allocated budget.
The contest has been a magnet for new members since the election (even though they can’t vote): some 3000 people have joined with another 1000 inquiries. While building a membership and support base is extremely difficult for modern parties, doing so is important, not least for fund raising. This election the ALP raised $800,000 online, compared with $70,000 last election.
For the past month Chris Bowen, designated “interim leader”, has carried the flag against the new government. It’s true this has been Labor’s “gap” period, but it hasn’t mattered. Bowen has done a good job, out every day on the current issue. He’s a savvy player: recognising the time wasn’t right for him, he received assurances he’ll be shadow treasurer whoever wins.
The battle has been like no other internal contest in memory on either side of politics, not just for the membership participation but for the extravagant mutual compliments, the desperate lengths gone to in avoiding any unseemly division. Differences of opinion have been minimal; barbs oblique. Behind the scenes it’s more gritty, but the public impression that Labor wanted to give was symbolised by the pair arriving side by side at caucus yesterday.
Both have defended the Labor government’s record. They each voted for regime change in June, but Shorten, a 2010 plotter and a 2013 late swinger, carries more baggage there. Albanese, from the left, has played on his strengths as a parliamentary scrapper. Shorten, from the right, casts himself as the searcher for big ideas. Both have locked into opposing the carbon tax repeal, believing Labor is on the right side of history. Albanese gives an impression of continuity; Shorten (whose campaign has picked up as time has gone on), projects more a new era.