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Narrow Minded Italian Catholic Conservative Peasant From Footscray

The prompts from the blog platform suggest that I introduce myself.

In short, I am several things.

Firstly, I am a Narrow Minded Italian Catholic Conservative Peasant From Footscray. I have been describing myself as that for at least the past 15 years or so.

This description might not be totally accurate.

I am probably not as narrow minded as I boast I am.

Whilst I am of Italian ancestry and reasonably fluent in Italian, I probably think more the iconoclastic way that Australians do, having been born and lived in Australia my whole life.

Nor am I particularly observant religiously, although like most people, 1600 years of Christianity being the dominant religion (‘thank you’ Emperor Theodosius) in Western Civilisation does tend to hard wire us in a particular way. (I do like to amuse myself by claiming that the dinosaurs missed the ark and that the world is just over 6000 years old.).

Peasant? Well, my parents are from peasant stock, as probably most Italian migrants in the 1950s were, and I like growing my own tomatoes in the backyard. But I am a lower middle class office worker really, with the luxury of participating in a post industrial economy. I also have a university education, and not in agriculture.

Whilst I am very personally Conservative, both culturally and socially, I am more Liberal than Conservative, and believe in individual rights and liberties and freedom of choice and conscience etc to the point where I can get quite worked up when I hear of proposals to intervene in the lives of people or to curtail our freedoms.

I also don’t live in Footscray, although I was born there (and proud of it), and lived and went to school there during my childhood and adolescence, and the Western Bulldogs (formerly known as the Footscray Football Club) is my AFL team. I do not live too far from Footscray though. I am in Avondale Heights, which is like a north western outpost of Footscray, and previously lived in Maribyrnong. But just like people from Fremantle claim that they are from Fremantle rather than from Perth, real Footscray people claim that they are from Footscray rather than from Melbourne. I suppose, historically, that it has something to do with the fact that there is quite a distance between the eastern boundary of Footscray at the Maribyrnong River, and the centre of Melbourne, and most of that two mile distance was occupied firstly by a swamp and then by a wasteland involving docks, chemical depots (where were you during the Coode Island fire in 1991?) and quarantine grounds….

Secondly, I am a postgrad dropout. That does contradict a lot of what my first description suggests I am, but we all are complex and many layered people. The MA thesis I was planning to write was about Nietzsche, Hegel and the End of History or some such, which is the sort of topic which would have been pretty passe in 1994 when I was interested in doing it. However, life gets in the way – working full time and getting a promotion at work which resulted in me focusing my energies and attention on my job meant that I did not have much left in the tank for a 30,000 word thesis. And whilst I still enjoy reading Nietzsche for his manic and frenetic style, Hegel is really boring.

As for more? I much prefer the writings of Anthony Trollope over Charles Dickens. I still enjoy re-reading my favourite Nevil Shute novels, and I occasionally re-read my copy of JRR Tolkien. I did ditch Game of Thrones about 100 pages into the first book, and don’t regret it at all. I remain very curious as to whether some of the unpublished novels of JD Salinger from his period of seclusion (I have the general impression he wrote some) will see the light of day during my lifetime, although I loathed Catcher in the Rye whilst finding his short stories fascinating.

Moira: The Gift That Keeps On Giving – For Jacinta!

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will be aware that I am not exactly an admirer of former State Opposition Leader Matthew Guy.

My thoughts on him during the late era of his leadership have been expressed thus, if you want a recap:

Bye Bye Bernie: But Matthew Guy is not off the hook….
Bad Guy! He’s Not An Alternative Premier – He’s Just A Naughty Boy

To reiterate, I consider him a hypocrite, a cad, and a blackguard, and my reasoning for such feelings is set out in detail in the above blog postings.

But for all that, I do not think that even he deserves to have Moira Deeming inflicted upon him.

Last month, Moira Deeming, who happens to be a former English teacher, complained to the police that Matthew Guy had put her in a headlock at some function. The police reviewed the security footage and took no action, as Guy had merely put his hand on her shoulder to get her to move closer to him so she could hear him clearly. Her explanation after her accusation was disproved was that she misunderstood the meaning of the term ‘headlock’.

I am so grateful that the English teachers I had in high school were competent and were able to instil in me a greater understanding of the English language (and are largely responsible for me being able to write in the fluent and coherent style that has lasted me throughout my studies and working life).

Matthew Guy has rightly demanded an apology from Mrs Deeming for besmirching his name in this way. As this has not been forthcoming, there is, yet again, talk of expelling her from the Parliamentary Liberal Party and removing her tenuously held endorsement to run as the lead Liberal candidate in Western Metropolitan. She has obtained a two week injunction preventing the Liberal Party administration from pursuing the latter course of action.

One way or the other, Moria has had the most destructive impact on the Victorian Liberal Party in the past four years. Her narrow preselection win four years ago was followed by the misguided departure of one of her main rivals who then ran against her as an independent, as well as the resignation in protest from the Liberal Party by one of her predecessors in the seat.

Then, on entering parliament, she participated in some now infamous rally which was hijacked by neo-nazis. The downstream consequences of her participation in that rally caused her to be expelled from the parliamentary party, to successfully sue then Opposition Leader John Pessuto for defamation, and then to cause Pessuto to lose his leadership in consequence. I am firmly of the belief that John Pessuto would have had the best chance of leading the Liberals to victory at the upcoming state election.

Her recent re-endorsement as candidate for Western Metropolitan only occurred because the prospective candidate who had successfully challenged her was immediately revealed as one of several prominent Indian community leaders who had given a character reference to someone gaoled for underage sex offences. [There were other issues with that other candidate, and I wish that local Liberals had done a better job of trying to find a better alternative to her.]

All of which, for a very junior sometime member of the state opposition, has taken up a lot of oxygen for both the party administration and the opposition leadership group which should have been spent on more important matters, like exposing the serious issues with the current government and choosing decent candidates in a timely manner to run against Jacinta Allen’s appalling government.

Jacinta must be grateful indeed for the existence of Mrs Deeming in the state opposition – particularly the way her presence fluctuates between being in the party and not.

What happens next? The state election is due in four and a half months. The party administration has not yet filled all the seats where it needs to field candidates, and having to decide what to do about this turbulent backbencher is eating up a lot of time and energy which should be spent on preparing for the election.

If she is allowed to run as a Liberal, then she will be a major electoral liability across the state. If she is disendorsed (and I have little doubt that this will happen), I am confident that she will look for a new home in some other party.

Apparently Pauline Hanson and One Nation were interested in welcoming her in earlier this year, but when Mrs Deeming chose to remain in the Liberal fold, their interest waned. I suspect that Pauline has learned over the past 30 years to be cautious about people who are not good team players.

But there are other options, which one could take from the Bernie Finn playbook (our Bernie, by the way, has gone from DLP at the last state election to Family First at the last federal election and has now officially embraced One Nation).

One Family First activist posted a long and very sympathetic entry on Facebook very recently about how hard done by Mrs Deeming has been by the Liberals. It is reasonable to interpret this as a public overture to her. I think it is a very viable option.

And of course, there is the DLP, who have taken one of the five seats in Western Metropolitan previously in 2006, and who welcomed Bernie in as their leader and candidate in 2022 after his long overdue expulsion from the Liberals. The DLP appears to be moribund at the moment, after changes to electoral laws on membership numbers stripped them of the ability to run in Federal elections, but the addition of a sitting member of state parliament would reinvigorate their capacity to run candidates.

Moira Deeming might be down, but she is definitely not out. More’s the pity.

No Saudi No Party? Reflections on the 2034 Soccer World Cup

I am not really a fan of association football, or soccer as I prefer to call it (I much prefer Australian Rules Football). On the rare occasions I have gone to an A League game, or to its predecessor competition, I have been more interested in watching the crowd, who are far more entertaining than the people on the field.

The current World Cup being hosted in the USA (and Canada and Mexico) is a case in point. I have not watched any games, and I do not regret this: Australia and Paraguay scoring a 0-0 draw would have been extremely boring. But the fans have been most entertaining, from what I have seen on Instagram.

Let’s start with Australia. Chanting ‘Aussie boys are on a bender, Donald Trump’s a sex offender’, and ‘Free health care’ whilst holding up their medicare cards is rather entertaining.

Then there is Norway. Everyone in Norway, from the fans in the stadia to kids in preschool to members of parliament, have been rowing like Vikings to cheer on the team. Really good national spirit.

The England fans traditionally are the best. They have lots of songs, which they are fond of belting out in pubs and stadia. Before this tournament, I was aware of ‘Three Lions’, ‘World in Motion’ and ‘Football’s coming home again’ (the latter, sung by Atomic Kitten, appears to have been retired as it specifically mentions Southgate, the erstwhile England coach).

I was particularly gratified by the regular appearance of ‘God Save The King’ being sung by England fans, being a dedicated Commonwealth Constitutional Monarchist.

But I was not aware that ‘Wonderwall’ or ‘Sweet Caroline’ were World Cup anthems for the England team.

And when the stadium erupts after the game is over into singing ‘Hey Jude’ in honour of one of the England goal scorers, it is particularly poignant and moving.

Nor was I aware of the existence of a song titled ‘Ten German Bombers’ (which is a bit like ‘Ten bottles of beer on the wall’ except that the ‘RAF from England shot one down’).

It is amazing what you can learn from Instagram.

I do wonder whether England fans have peaked too early, but I am mindful that pub anthems like those of Robbie Williams have not been sung yet, and that Oasis have a few other great songs (‘Champagne Supernova springs to mind) which have yet to appear. [Yes, I did pay attention when in those Russell Street pubs with the Lions fans last July before the Wallabies-Lions Rugby Test.]

But even though they have been eliminated and are presumably en route home, the best fans of the tournament so far are the Scots, who have been chanting ‘No Scotland No Party’ over and over, whilst putting traffic cones on statues all over Boston and Miami. Everyone in those cities is imploring them to return next year for a reunion.

What I have seen on Instagram has even got me thinking half seriously, despite my disdain for soccer, of travelling to Spain in 2030 for the next World Cup. Not to actually watch games in the stadia (tickets apparently cost a huge amount), but to hang out in the bars and taverns with the fans, singing along.

It would have to be an amazing atmosphere. Italian and Spanish are almost mutually intelligible, and I have a friend who has travelled many times to Spain as a tourist who might want to come along.

At that time, it will be very affordable. I will be 61, the tax treatment on my superannuation pension will change in a favourable way, and my other superannuation will have vested into another pension.

Also, when looking at the 2030 hosts, I did look at who is hosting in 2034: Saudi Arabia.

Let’s leave aside the usual complaints about Saudi Arabia, namely: the human rights abuses, the dismemberment of regime critics in embassies with bone saws (OK it only happened once), the harsh conditions for immigrant workers employed on construction on the stadia (note that as a Latin scholar I use the Latin plural rather than the more uncouth ‘stadiums’), the situation for women, and the lack of tolerance for other religions. Let’s also disregard the perennial complaint about sports washing and the rather dubious circumstances under which Saudi Arabia were handed the rights to host this tournament.

Let’s focus on the more important question about Saudi Arabia 2034: can they hold a party?

Firstly, the Saudi authorities have stated that alcohol will not be served during the tournament, including in hotels where spectators will be staying. That will dampen a lot of the celebrations.

Secondly, I fear that the chants and singing which are popular amongst many of the most fun loving fans will not be permitted. This is because I am more familiar with Sunni Sharia law than most people.

In Saudi Arabia, the Sharia law school of jurisprudence followed is called Hanbali, which only considers the Quran and the Hadith (ie sayings of the Prophet) as sources for interpretation of Sharia law. This is quite austere on its own, and much more restrictive than the other three schools of Sunni Sharia jurisprudence.

However, what Saudis follow is even more austere, being what is correctly known as Salafism (following the true path) and more commonly (not popularly as this is very unpopular stuff) called Wahabbism.

This is an interpretation of Sharia law which does not permit music, particularly not when accompanied by consumption of alcohol and fornication and whatever other activities make for having a party during a World Cup tournament.

There are many reasons why holding the World Cup in Saudi Arabia will not be a good idea, but that the fans will be in danger of being arrested and imprisoned for simply trying to have a good time is antithetical to the basic idea of holding a sports tournament.

Why The Latest Star Wars Film Doesn’t Work

I enjoy Science Fiction as much as anyone, particularly the movies and TV shows with lots of amazing special effects.

Sometimes, I even read Science Fiction. I was still in primary school when I first encountered Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, the pioneers of the genre.

I’m not always impressed with it. Take Rendezvous At Rama, a novella by Arthur C. Clarke. The idea is great, but I found the prose to be rather poor. Nor did I enjoy the writing style of Isaac Asimov (and the Foundation TV series is awful fan fiction).

Ray Bradbury, in my mind, had the best prose of any Sci Fi writer, as well as some of the most provocative ideas.

What makes Science Fiction great? And what makes it inadequate?

I suppose that Big Ideas are what we expect from Science Fiction.

Four years ago, I shared some of my thoughts about Star Wars, and how it fits into the hard wiring of our culture, going back to the Trojan War and the Homeric Epics which initiate our intellectual traditions:

Wouldn’t Star Peace be better than Star Wars? (Reflections on Space Opera and perhaps on Human Nature)

I read some reviews of the latest Star Wars film last week, The Mandalorian and Grogu, and despite their lukewarm nature, I decided to go to the cinema on Sunday and see the film on the big screen.

I must say that I was very disappointed, despite being forewarned by the reviews.

But what is wrong with the latest Star Wars movie?

I feel that it comes down to not delivering what we expect from Science Fiction, that is, the Big Idea.

Where Star Wars has seized our imaginations for the past half century is that it is all about one Big Idea: Saving The Galaxy. Much of Science Fiction is about that sort of Big Idea – saving the Galaxy, the Universe, or, in smaller times, the World.

That is what H.G. Wells was about, in his most well known novel, War Of The Worlds, right at the birth of Science Fiction.

The Illiad, some three thousand years earlier, was about another big idea – waging what was (at least to the illiterate people of the dark age which followed and who recited the story orally until writing was rediscovered) the first global war. The Odyssey was about another big idea – a hero coming home despite the wrath of a God placing every obstacle in his way.

Early cinematic Science Fiction was all about saving the world. The serials of Flash Gordon featured the hero fighting Ming the Merciless, the evil ruler of the universe, to save the world. So too were the Buck Rogers serials (fun fact – Buster Crabbe starred as both Flash and Buck). This is where the concept of Space Opera came from.

[As an aside, I have read the original 1920s era stories on which Buck Rogers is based. His nickname ‘Buck’ does not appear, and the story is set in a post apocalyptic North America, not in space.]

Sometimes, the Big Idea is not about saving the world, or overcoming external obstacles. It can be more cerebral, or existential, about confronting some of the dilemmas about being human.

In The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells gives us someone who obtains a great power, but becomes the most lonely man on Earth. In 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Jules Verne introduces us to the mysterious Captain Nemo, a vengeful submariner who has, for reasons not made clear to us, cut himself off from the surface world, only appearing to wreck havoc on shipping. [Verne does give us the back story to Nemo eventually in the last pages of The Mysterious Island, but this latter novel is the most inadequate of his works and the chronology he sets out for Nemo is incoherent.]

Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis from a century ago gave us a chance to question what it means to be human.

More recently, we have movies like 2001, Close Encounters, and Gattaca. Two are about our place in the universe, and the latter is about whether the human spirit can overcome predestination.

These are all big ideas.

You can get away, when you do TV shows, with smaller ideas and stories. Star Trek struggled in its initial jump from TV series to movies because of that connection to smaller ideas. My favourite Space Western, Firefly, was able to successfully jump into a movie adaptation, Serenity, due to having the underpinning theme of saving Humanity from an evil technocratic political system – a typical Big Idea.

The Mandalorian worked as a TV show on Disney+ because it focused on being a Space Western, with a likeable hero and a loveable sidekick. The small screen is a good place for small ideas – but the Big Screen is about Big Ideas.

In converting The Mandalorian into a movie, the executives at Disney forgot all the rules about making Space Opera, particularly about Star Wars. Mando and his sidekick Grogu are great characters for a TV series, but what are they actually doing in a movie? Namely, it could and should have been a two part episode of the TV series, rather than a cinema release.

They are not saving the galaxy from evil, but merely busy pursuing bounties on bad guys, and then saving themselves from a bounty gone wrong. Nor is there any existential questioning of their place in the universe.

Basically, there is no Big Idea. Without a big idea, a Science Fiction movie is going to fail, and that is what has happened in this case. This is like An Ewok Adventure for the 21st Century.

Dunlop Volleys: The Model T Ford Of Tennis Shoes

When I started high school, part of the uniform and book list related to Phys Ed class – we were required to buy flat white soled shoes, specifically Dunlop Volleys.

I guess it was because the gymnasium was pretty new and they did not want to damage the polished wooden floor.

Dunlop Volleys are a rather primitive type of sports shoe. They are a canvas upper on a rubber sole. I believe that they were first made in 1939, and was even commonly used by top tennis players into the 1970s.

They still make them, despite there being many more sophisticated high tech sports shoes available, and they are pretty iconic in Australia.

I’ve been meaning to buy a pair for a while, wanting a cheap casual shoe to wear around the house and on errands to the supermarket etc, and finally did so this week.

I must say, not only are they cheap and simple in construction, they are also vey comfy, like a pair of slippers with laces.

I do wonder how long this pair lasts before it wears out. Probably not long, but I think I will get my $39 use out of it.

Reflections On The Farrer By-Election

When I was a young and foolish teenager (as opposed to being a late middle aged fool as I am right now), I felt an enthusiasm for the rather quixotic Joh For PM campaign (an early political intervention by Clive Palmer), and indeed a deep fondness for Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the union bashing, lefty head-kicking, premier of Queensland.

Even now, despite all the evidence to the contrary, I still find it very hard to believe that Sir Joh was as crooked as most people believe.

After all, when all the universities in Queensland installed condom vending machines in their toilets in mid 1987, this matter somehow came up for discussion at Queensland state cabinet, and Sir Joh asked what a condom was. When the purpose of this item was explained to him (does anyone ever still use the slang term ‘franger’ anymore???), he expressed a shocked disgust and ordered their immediate removal. Hence I find it hard to accept that someone with that sort of naivety would be leading a government profiting from illegal brothels in Fortitude Valley.

After his reluctant resignation from the Premiership in late 1987 due to the latter issues, rather than the former decision, he decided to retire from parliament and a by-election was held for his seat in early 1988.

The result was that someone from the Citizens’ Electoral Council, a rather odd ball right wing movement, was able to win the seat in front of the National Party candidate.

That did spook people at the time, but was just a precursor to the electoral annihilation of the National Party in the 1989 state government, something which was, if I am being honest, richly deserved.

The victory of One Nation at the weekend, in the Farrer By-Election, forced by the resignation of the risibly ineffectual former Federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, has caused shockwaves across the Australian polity.

In winning over 40% of the primary vote to convincingly see off all other contenders, and cause something like a 30% swing against the Liberal Party who have held the seat for some 80 years, One Nation has made history by winning its first ever House of Representatives seat in an actual contest (Barnaby Joyce recently changing parties and Pauline Hanson winning a seat as a disendorsed Liberal in 1996 don’t count).

What does this actually mean? Some are seeing this as a tipping point (along with the recent South Australian State Election), where One Nation is going to replace the Liberals (and Nationals) as the popularly supported party of the conservative side of politics in Australia.

I am skeptical about calling that as such just yet: aside from the fact that I have never seen and still do not see One Nation now as a responsible protest vote, let alone as a credible and viable potential party of government [If you want to know why, please refer to my recent post about their ‘print more money and give it to the farmers’ finance policies.], there is an abundance of recent political electoral history to examine first.

Aside from that 1988 By-Election to replace Sir Joh, there are other anomalies. Let’s take the 1998 Queensland State Election, where One Nation outpolled the Nationals and Liberals and were able to take 11 out of the 89 seats in the Queensland Parliament. That was a much more significant outcome than the recent South Australian State Election, yet one which One Nation was incapable of building upon, and from which One Nation then quickly imploded.

Then there have been various more recent Queensland State Elections, where first the incumbent ALP and then in the next election the incumbent LNP were virtually obliterated by their opponents. Not really One Nation related matters, but instances where significant electoral volatility and voter disillusionment caused significant change from previous outcomes.

And we have had various independents of different colours winning seats mostly off the Coalition in recent years, although we have had several doing so since at least the demise of the political career of current Teal Allegra Spender’s Liberal MP father John Spender in 1990.

With sufficient resources and voter disengagement, it is doubtful that any seat is absolutely safe, particularly if the candidate for the incumbent party is not appealing (eg Kristina Keneally, arguing the most electorally repulsive person in Australian political history).

And protest voting, in Queensland, in the countryside, and in by-elections, is a very normal state of affairs.

I hope, given that I prefer the relative responsibility of the Liberals over the boganesque chaos of One Nation, that this is only a flash in the pan.

But I could be wrong. I am after all, a fool in late middle age.

So… what could make this different and mean a permanent turn away from the Liberals and Nationals and to One Nation?

One new aspect to One Nation is that they are much disciplined than they have been in the past, with Pauline Hanson being better advised and using social media much more effectively than the other parties. She has mastered the weapon of ridicule in a way not seen since Keating, and before him, Whitlam. Recent defectors like Barnaby Joyce, despite his indiscretions with drinking and family values, add credibility – he was, after all, Deputy Prime Minister.

Another is that for some reason, there is now a mass protest movement behind One Nation. All the working class battlers who feel their standard of living and opportunity are being threatened by current policies are protesting against the major parties and deserting them. Similarly, people I speak to who are lifelong Liberal voters are openly expressing their patience with their party of choice has run out.

Liberal Party insiders are getting scared – the intelligent ones are starting to look at the patterns of political history which predate the creation of the Liberal Party in 1944 and starting to see instability. The rest are looking at whether there are better opportunities elsewhere.

For the first time in many years, I pulled out the reading list from a course I did during my part time Honours year in 1992: PLT 420 Electoral Behaviour. In this course, which I have kept at the back of my mind for more than thirty years, we read about the theories trying to explain why people vote the way that do, and why they tend to stay loyal to their party of choice, election after election.

Much of the reading list featured academics who argue that voter loyalty is not immutable – that there are times and reasons why a large number of voters can and will en masse abandon their party of choice for either an existing party or for a new party entirely. The 1932 US Presidential Election was one such election (particularly in that the blacks for the first time abandoned the Republican Party for the Democrats, marking the end of abolition as an electorally relevant issue), and I think that as we were studying the course, the postwar Italian political consensus unravelled to the point that I wrote my essay for that course on that issue.

There are still two years until the next Federal Election. The Victorian State Election may be a test in the meantime, as may be other elections that will occur between now and then. Circumstances may change. But I am unwilling to make the call that One Nation is going to attract a major voter realignment in its own favour just yet.

The Music Of Lana Del Rey

About 15 years ago, when the Metro was still a nightclub which had been converted from a cinema, I was sitting late one afternoon after work in a bar located in Little Bourke Street directly behind it, sinking a few cold ones with some friends from the office. [When you spend as long working for the same employer as I did, most of your friends tend to be people you met through work.]

I am not sure whether the alley next to that bar was named yet, but it was later named Amphlett Lane after the late Chrissy Amphlett, front woman of the Divinyls. The bar at the time was named Mrs Parma’s, and I had been going there fairly regularly since the mid 1990s, when it was known as Cheers.

We were sitting at a table overlooking the alley, when I saw a very attractive, very short woman (accompanied by a couple of security) standing facing a group of fans, who were offering her bouquets of flowers. She seemed very young, although I was later to learn that she was 25 at the time.

It only much later that I learned that this woman was the artist popularly known as Lana Del Rey, who happened to be performing at the Metro at the time.

Very nice of her to meet those fans.

It was about a year or more later that I was introduced to her music by one of my colleagues, who was quickly to become one of my closest friends, when we were working together on Christmas Island. One night, over a few beers (or wines, or duty free whiskeys – who knows exactly), he played her music on his blue tooth speaker.

I have been a fan since then. Her music seems to be the lush audio equivalent of dark chocolate and fine port, doing for the ears what those do for the taste buds and the mood.

I reminded myself of this the past week, where I played catch up by playing her more recent albums on Apple Music a couple of evenings. She has definitely lost none of her artistry in the intervening decade or so since I became a fan.

Breaker Morant 2.0?!?

It is interesting to see what kind of comments appear on social media in relation to the Ben Roberts-Smith arrest.

For those who came in late (as they say in the Phantom comics):

My position has always been that we need to follow due process of the law and that no one is immune from prosecution or otherwise above the law. My position also has been abundantly clear that we have mythologised Breaker Morant to the point of martyrdom and that this has not helped form an accountable culture in our Defence Forces, particularly in recent years, nor in forming the lens through which we as a nation see the conduct of our Defence Forces.

The phrase at the top of this blog – Breaker Morant 2.0 – was posted by one of the online supporters of Mr Roberts-Smith on Facebook, and then showed up in my feed. That sort of comment is probably typical of the world view of the people who publicly support him on social media.

They are entitled to their opinions (we are after all a democracy and we should engage in civil discussions), but I consider that parallels to Breaker Morant are part of the cultural problem which has led us to the sad state of affairs where a national hero has been accused of war crimes, and where many people in our community are stating openly that killing in warfare (including of non-combatants, prisoners, and wounded) should happen with impunity, rather than within accepted rules of war.

We need to move the national conversation away from the mythologising about convicted war criminals like Breaker Morant and towards nurturing a military culture where our troops do not behave with impunity.

Exorcising The Ghost Of Breaker Morant

The news today that Ben Roberts-Smith VC has been arrested on charges of murder relating to war crimes allegedly committed in Afghanistan whilst serving with the Australian Army has triggered a wave of outrage from some supposed patriots.

My own views on this, particularly given that the matter is now sub judice, are more nuanced.

For several months, if not years, there has been a Facebook page dedicated to demanding a ‘pre-emptive pardon’ for Mr Roberts-Smith. Given that he had, despite serious accusations and the findings of a civil court to a lower standard of proof, not yet been charged with any crimes, let alone convicted, I deplore calls for pre-emptive pardons as I feel that they undermine the place of due process in our legal system.

Indeed, I do not think that you can pre-emptively pardon someone who has not yet been found by a criminal court to have actually committed a crime. [Indeed, it implies that these petitioners believe that he did commit the crimes in question, but that he should not answer for them.]

But I doubt that those who talk of pre-emptive pardons are actually holders of law degrees, although I have met enough law graduates over the course of my adult life that I do not put my faith unreservedly in the understanding of jurisprudence held by all members of that category.

Australia’s relationship with the concept of war crimes has unfortunately been an ambiguous one, despite the fact that we are, on the whole, an extreme decent and fair nation, particularly when compared with most others.

On one hand, we played a significant role in the creation and then adoption of what is commonly known as the Rome Statute, the current main international legal instrument defining war crimes and crimes against humanity. [In my former day job, I had the pleasure and privilege of meeting and discussing these serious matters several times with a law professor from Melbourne University who had contributed greatly to the creation of the Rome Statute.]

On the other hand, we have this collective belief in the martyrdom of Breaker Morant, an Australian officer in the Boer War who, along with several of his colleagues, was convicted and executed for the killing of various prisoners of war and civilians.

Various books and a movie have emphasised this martyrdom myth in the intervening 125 years, particularly in the past half century.

This collective belief appears to have mutated into a sense of immunity for the conduct of Australian soldiers in conflict, that our troops can do no wrong, are above reproach in their behaviour on the battlefield and hence are immune from prosecution.

Ben Roberts-Smith, as arguably the most decorated living Australian soldier, has benefited from the shadow that the execution of Breaker Morant has cast on the conduct of Australian troops in the intervening 125 years.

But, Victoria Cross or not, he is not above the law. He was found by a court in a defamation trial to have, to the civil standard of proof (balance of probabilities), committed war crimes. He was unsuccessful in appealing that verdict to a higher court.

Now that the civil trials are over, the way is clear to establish in a criminal court, with its higher standard of proof (beyond reasonable doubt), whether he is guilty of murder or related war crimes.

I do feel sadness about this. I am patriotic, and I value our defence forces and the supreme sacrifice that a hundred thousand Australians have made since Federation in so many wars. I mostly believe that our troops are better behaved than those in other armies, and that we are fighting for just causes, rather than for conquest or to defend tyranny.

But that does not mean that we turn a blind eye to serious allegations of conduct that does not meet the standards of behaviour that we expect of our troops. To do so would not only undermine the legitimacy of our just cause when we do fight, but also will provide those who might behave otherwise the impunity to behave as if they are above the law.

Hence it is necessary, given the existence of such serious accusations, to see them tested in a court of law, in a criminal trial.

The Australian nation requires this, to preserve the moral integrity of our legal system, and of our defence forces, to show the world that we will behave better than others do in armed conflict, and that if we do not, we will investigate and punish transgressors.

As a footnote, in relation to the historical fact that Mr Roberts-Smith is a holder of the Victoria Cross, it is unlikely that it will be stripped from him, even if he were to be convicted. Whilst this happened several times prior to 1920, George V was asked his views that year as to whether the holder of a Victoria Cross should ever have it revoked for subsequent crimes. His views, as expressed through one of his courtiers, was:

The King feels so strongly that, no matter the crime committed by anyone on whom the VC has been conferred, the decoration should not be forfeited. Even were a VC to be sentenced to be hanged for murder, he should be allowed to wear his VC on the scaffold.

I am sad that a national hero must face justice in relation to the crimes he may have committed. But I am relieved that even heroes are not above the law.

Treasury Wine Estates Continues To Spiral

The more I look at the news around Treasury Wine Estates, the more I am grateful that I sold 90% of my shares last year, leaving only sufficient to get me an invitation to the Annual General Meeting.

The announcement in mid-February that TWE was not going to pay a dividend this half year was not exactly surprising, given that the share price had been continuing to travel south and there has been no good news amongst any of the company announcements over the past year.

This morning, one of my friends sent me a link to the latest cheery news reports – that the Plato fund management group has not only been betting on the share price falling even further, but that they believe that there is a strong risk that the company could go bankrupt.

Well… in just under 18 months the falling share price has caused about $8 billion to be wiped from the company’s value.

A lot of the blame for the fall in the share price and the poor financial situation is due to the decision some 30 months ago to buy Daou vineyards in the USA. I remember that TWE did a rights issue at the time – a rights issue in which I did not bother participating.

Thinking about it, I have some 26 years of history as an investor in TWE and its various predecessor companies, such as Fosters Group and Southcorp to give me context.

Southcorp made a fatal mistake in consenting to what became a reverse takeover when it merged with Rosemount circa 2000. Not only did the fall out from that merger seriously damage the bottom line, but it caused the rise of Casella Wines’ Yellowtail brand at Southcorp’s expense. Nor was the Rosemount brand maintained (it had been the second biggest selling domestic wine brand in 1999) – it is now just a footnote in the TWE annual report each year rather than a surviving brand.

Then… despite the reservations held by the CEO of Fosters, the Fosters Board decided to take over Southcorp shortly afterwards, when the Oatley family (former owners of Rosemount) offered to sell their shares in Southcorp to Fosters. That decision did not exactly benefit the Fosters bottom line.

The moral of those stories is that bolting on additional large wine businesses to an existing wine conglomerate is not necessarily going to be a successful transaction. Indeed, looking at the many mergers and demergers which occur across many businesses in all sectors (the 1999 merger of BHP and Billiton, and the various capital restructures of Westfield come to mind) cause me to think that merger and acquisition lawyers are the main beneficiaries of such boardroom decisions. Call me cynical.

The TWE AGM is due to occur in October. Last year, I was very disappointed with the quality of the catering and the quantity of wine available, particularly in comparison to the 2024 AGM. I will go along again, but I will anticipate the explanations from the Board almost as much as the post meeting refreshments. And I will be bringing my party posse.

The Latest Twist In The Moira Saga….

I was premature in my predictions about Moira Deeming and Western Metropolitan. There was another twist I did not see coming.

It has been known for several years that Dinesh Gourisetty, the endorsed candidate for 18 hours for that seat, had been fined heavily over health code violations at a restaurant he owned. This issue was raised by a Liberal Party official four years ago when he sought the Western Metropolitan preselection for the 2022 state election. At that time, that was enough to kibosh his chances of a political career.

This time around, it seemed that everything was forgiven. Despite his conviction for health code violations, he was able to win the endorsement with 37 votes against 29 for Moira and 3 for the second upper house MP, Truong Luu (who is a really good bloke).

Then, on Monday morning, all the triumph came to a premature end. It turned out that two years ago, Dinesh had written a character reference for a friend who ended up getting gaoled for child sex offences. This reference was public record, in that it was held in the AUSLII legal database, easily accessible to anyone who might think to look.

[I do wonder do had actually thought to look and then release this information at the most unfortunate moment, rather than sometime before the preselection convention.]

Suddenly Dinesh no longer looked like a barely viable candidate. The state opposition leader, Jess Wilson, announced that she would not allow him to join the party room after the election. Phillip Davis, the state president, sent out an email late Monday afternoon announcing that the preselection would be redone, without Dinesh as a candidate, and that Dinesh had agreed to step down.

Subsequent news reports suggest that he did not agree to step down, or at least not so readily.

In any event, nominations were reopened almost immediately for the number one spot on the Liberal ticket for Western Metropolitan. The Herald Sun has misinterpreted this as the party making another move against Moira Deeming, rather than the party trying to follow due process, albeit in its usual ham fisted way.

It really is amateur hour. Davis’s opponents on the state executive are demanding he immediately resign – despite the fact that his term is up in May. Some people are calling for a federal takeover of the state division, even though I somehow do not see that the federal apparatus of the Liberal Party looks particularly credible right now.

But the Western Metropolitan debacle is merely symptomatic of a wider malaise in the Victorian Liberals. The state election is scheduled for 28 November, less than 8 months ago. The coalition need to win a minimum of 45 seats – 26 more than they won at the last election. The only endorsed lower house candidates are the 19 in the coalition held seats. Nominations closed on 27 February for 4 marginal seats, and on 27 March for 8 marginal seats. No candidates have been chosen yet in those seats, let alone in the additional 14 minimum seats needed to win government.

Time is growing short to select candidates and get them on the ground, running for office. The lack of candidates is going to hurt.

And every day reduces the likelihood that the candidates will be chosen by a preselection convention involving local grassroots members, rather than appointed by the State Executive.

At this rate, I do not see that Federal intervention in the state Liberals is actually going to make a difference – it will just put a new captain on the bridge of the Titanic at the time after the iceberg has already collided.