Author Archives: vintagereds

Don’s Calendar of Events, May 2018

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21 to 27 May: Exercise Right Week, exerciseright.com.au.

23 May to 6 June: Palace cinema, German Film Festival

24 May: Paperchain Bookstore, Manuka, 6 pm, Ann McGrath from the ANU launches Alison Booth’s latest novel, A Perfect Marriage – a contemporary tale of friendships, the nature of memory, and middle-class domestic violence. Bookings here.

Sunday 27 May: 8 p.m., Archie Roach and the Tiddas

Monday 28 May: National Gallery, Reconciliation Day events.

Thursday 31 May: 6 pm. China in the World auditorium, Fellows Lane, ANU, a free “meet the author” event, with Jonathan Miler talking about his new book, Duterte Harry: Fire and Fury in the Philippines. Book on 6125-4144 or here.

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May Day Dinner awards 2018

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This year’s dinner was held at the QT hotel in town. Among the recipients of the expanded May Day awards was Janice Flaherty of the Vintage Reds, shown here with a black and gold T-shirt which must be very soon a collector’s item. Janice was responsible for our recent submission to the government on aged care.

May Day march 2018

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For the first time in some years, Canberra unions rallied on May Day, as part of the Change the Rules campaign.

Two hundred people marched to the Fair Work Commission and listened to speakers on the theme of secure work, fair pay, and increasing casualisation.

April 2018 Guest Speaker, Tony Kevin

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Vintage Reds were delighted to welcome Tony Kevin to talk about
his book, Return to Moscow (University of Western Australia, 2017).

Tony worked for thirty years as a diplomat, including as ambassador to Poland and Cambodia in the 1990s. His first posting was in Moscow in 1969-71, and he made brief visits again in 1985 and 1990.

In 2016 he made a 4-week trip to Russia as an independent traveller. Tony is a Russophile, and gave a strongly pro-Russia talk. He believes that we are completely unaware of how overwhelmed we are by Western anti-Russia news. Whereas in other news story we presume some state of regularity, when the news is from Russia we presume irregularity. In the misinformation echo-chamber of the West it requires a huge effort of will and intellect to judge things from the outside. Continue reading →

More Canberra events from Don Dwyer

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APRIL

until Sunday 29 April: Weber’s Circus, corner Isabella Drive & Clive Steel Ave, Monash.

until Sunday 29 April: Heritage Festival.

until Sunday 19 August: National Library, UK Suffragettes Exhibition.

18 April to 6 May: Palace Cinema, Spanish Film Festival.

Thursday 26 April to Sunday 20 May: The Spiegeltent.

Friday 27 April: 12 noon to 5 p.m., Queanbeyan Library Comic Fest. RSVP 6285-6255.

Saturday 28 April: 10 a.m., Workers Memorial Rally. Near the Carillon on the War Memorial side of King’s Avenue bridge.

Monday 30 April: 9.30 a.m., National Library, John Bell in conversation with Genevieve Jacobs in association with the Canberra International Music Festival.

Tuesday 1 May: 12.30, May Day Rally, corner Childers Street & University Avenue, Civic.

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What’s happening at Centrelink?

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Amy Knox from the CPSU attended the Vintage Reds’ April meeting for a quick update on outsourcing and labour hire at Centrelink, part of the Turnbull government’s reckless privatisation of public service jobs.

Serco has been given a contract to staff Centrelink call centres, with another 1000 staff just announced. This is to address the crisis in unanswered calls to Centrelink (55 million in 2017); but rather than employ more trained, accountable public servants with job security and fair pay and conditions, there are instead casualised staff earning roughly half of what Centrelink staff get for performing the same work.

Amy reminded the meeting that only five years ago all service delivery work was done by employees of the Department of Human Services, and there were no casual employees in the department.

The CPSU is campaigning to scrap the arbitrary staffing level cap put in place by this government, which forces the privatisation of work out to consultants and contractors. This is a fight across the public service and help is needed.

Photo by Amy Knox, CPSU: Vintage Reds line up to fight privatisation of Centrelink.

March 2018 Guest Speaker, Meryl Jackson

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Meryl Jackson from “Manus Lives Matter” spoke to the Vintage Reds at their March meeting.

Meryl has been involved with refugees for forty years. For the first twenty, she was proud of Australia’s welcoming policy. But the last years have been tough: dehumanising, no compassion shown, especially with the indefinite detention policy.

Some years ago the “Manus Lives Matter” group started doing phone card top-ups for the men, and sent parcels. Then they got to know the men, and made friends with a number of them. Meryl told stories about Nagaraj, a Tamil fisherman; Naeem, a 30-year-old Pakistani with an MBA in finance, a former bank and NGO worker, who has been in detention for four and a half years; and Shamindan, a 27-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil.
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More from Don’s autumn calendar

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More events to keep you busy:

April 2nd to 25th: Palace Cinema, Seniors’ Film Festival.

Fri. & Sat. 13-13 April: Canberra History Bookfair, Curtin shops.

Tues. 17 April: National Film & Sound Archive, 12.30, the Beatles in “Yellow Submarine” (1968).

Wed. 18 April: Hellenic Club Comedy Night, “Straight out of Compo”.

Wed. 18 April: National Film & Sound Archive, 12.30, “Storm Boy” (1976).

Thurs. 19 April: National Film & Sound Archive, 12.30, “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952).

Fri. 20 April: National Film & Sound Archive, 12.30, “Fantasia” (1940).

27 April to 6 May: Canberra International Music Festival.

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New Vintage Reds flags

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Vintage Reds are building a flag stockpile; here is a new one making its debut recently at a picnic by the lake.  It goes nicely with the “Change the Rules” T-shirt.

Photo: Penny Lockwood