Library plans spark dispute - Week 3, Semester 1, 2014
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Week 3, Semester 1, 2014 h o n i s o i t Q u i M U N K Y P ants
Library plans spark dispute
Georgia Behrens reports on growing tensions between unions and the university.
Staff unions have entered structure, with fewer generalist President Grant Wheeler the potential impact they would
into a formal dispute with positions and a greater number said that library staff had have on staff.
the University of Sydney of specialist, technical, and been kept in the dark about
over proposed changes to the managerial staff. how the changes would affect The university has insisted
university library system. their employment. that these changes will
not necessarily result in a
Both the National Tertiary “We don’t know “We don’t know how many staff reduction of overall numbers
how many
Education Union (NTEU) and will be retained, and how many of permanent staff, but has
Community & Public Sector could be made redundant. conceded that some are likely
staff will be
Union (CPSU) lodged formal We don’t know what sort of to take voluntary redundancies
disputes on Friday, claiming retraining staff will have to in light of changes to their
that university management
had failed to comply with retained, and undergo. We don’t know what
sort of jobs people will be
job descriptions.
obligations to staff in its
management of various
how many required to do once all these
changes have been made,”
“We’re anticipating that most
of our changed needs can be
library reforms. could be made he said. met by re-distributing current
staff and resources. We will
The proposed reforms, first
reported by Honi last Monday,
redundant.” “The university is very happy
to talk about outcomes, and
be doing all we can to help
our staff re-train and re-settle
include plans to convert two Since the publication of everything it’s going to achieve, themselves in new positions if
satellite campus libraries into the proposal in February, but it’s extremely selective necessary,” university librarian
“self-access” libraries without the CPSU and NTEU have about the information it Anne Bell said.
permanent staff, and to adapt stated their frustration at releases when it comes to the
the Badham and Medical the “inadequate” levels of measures they’re going to take.”
Libraries into postgraduate- consultation they believe
only study facilities. to have taken place between Wheeler said the unions were
staff and the university. formally entering dispute in continued
The Draft Change Proposal the hope of getting more
also suggests modifications to detailed information about
on page 4
Prior to lodging the formal
the university library staffing dispute, USyd’s CPSU Branch the university’s plans and
3 Letters 12 Pictures and porn
l etters
4-5 News 14-15 Feature: The lost graduates of AusAID
Do we
6 The Manning Files 16 Learning lessons and SRC stupidity
Contents
would be nonsensical to have although, during a short period author’s apparent taste for the
6 The USU responds 17 SRC Help some sort of evaluation process of Labor right control, a Pizza Hut theatrical was when he suggested
in place ready to go to see if this opened in Wentworth. This led to it was somehow a grave scandal
really
7 Right from the ‘art: Refugee art project 18-19 SRC Reports
honi soit 8 Navigating the Stanley Parable 20 Puzzles and quizzes
is an effective and successful idea, endless attacks on the Union for that a Catholic Mass was offered
or whether Sydney’s world beaters allowing capitalistic oppression as an optional activity for students
issue #3
want
9 Sporting bans a bizarre moral toss-up 21 What’s On end up beating themselves in the student safe space of at what was essentially a
10 Young guns: army recruiting 22-23 Honey Soy the most. Wentworth and, once control Catholic Independent School.
returned to the left, the lease Quick, someone better call
nocturnal
11 Profile: Erik Jensen 24 SRC Services advertisement (we’re just
kidding, it’s another NDA ad!) Yours, expired and so did the Pizza Hut. ‘Today Tonight!’
12 Getting social at the new town club
Arghya Gupta VSU wreaked havoc on many I would happily acknowledge
We acknowledge that Honi Soit’s office is located on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. We would like to acknowledge
librarians? MBBS IV
aspects of student life but trust
me, campus food was not one
of them.
the flaws of the Opus Dei
movement and schools (there
are numerous), but in the shadow
Dining in
the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work and pay our respects to the Elders past and present. of such a melodramatic account
Stuart Midgley my criticisms wont make nearly
Dear Honi,
the land
as thrilling a read. I know it’s
Editorial Some love
A little article by Georgia Behrens sometimes hard to admit to how
notified me that Fisher would be mediocre and undramatic our lives
before for Opus
trialling 24 hour access areas. really are, but suggesting that
Cute, but don’t we already have secretive “cults” are invading
Hello and welcome to week three. By now you’ve their matching stationery and highlighted notes our education system is a little
time
the Carslaw Labs (amongst
probably broken between seven and nine New and praiseworthy contributions and general air Engineering, Medical, and far-fetched and paranoid, even
Year’s Resolutions, stopped attending lectures of superiority- they don’t. It’s week three for that-place-under-Fisher after for Honi Soit.
entirely, and resolved to sit in sullen silence everyone, the optimism of a new year is fading hours facilities)? Dear Honi,
during tutorials because fuck you who are you for everyone, and we’re all wading through the Yours Sincerely,
to tell me my contributions “aren’t exactly what shit together. Have these people (specifically, I found the ‘expose’ on Opus Dei
Dear Honi, Brigid Meney
the reading was about”? You’ve also probably oft quoted University librarian by Andrew Bell in your most
already resorted to using the word “hegemony” To ensure you get through to week four, we Anne Bell) been to any of the recent edition to be entertaining
Christina White’s overview Masters Nursing II
where it isn’t really applicable, drunk more recommend you do all of the following this week: 24 hour access labs on campus? but fanciful.
of campus food options (Too
alcohol than you’ve eaten fruit, and pretended eat a cronut, watch some otter videos, engage
Prices
Not only are they noisy and bad you can’t eat sandstone,
to discover god multiple times in order to snag in a pointless Facebook argument, wash your crowded, they also serve as an Having spent nearly three years
O-Week edition) leads this aged
a snag off the EU three times in one week. In sheets (seriously mate), pat a pug, floss twice international student hostel, at the same Opus Dei schools that
postgraduate to reminisce that,
up 66%
short: it’s week three and you’re back into the daily, have some bevs with fronds, unfriend and a snack bar, and the closest Mr Bell has written such a story
however bad things are today,
swing of things. Only five weeks until midsem! punch the next person who links or likes “20 online gaming room this side of about, I can’t say my experience
they were far, far worse in my
Strangers Kiss For The First Time” and READ Broadway. Having the third floor was anywhere nearly as dramatic.
undergraduate years of 1999-2002.
But don’t let the drudgery and unbridled THIS PAPER. It’s our gift to you – a machete of Fisher will allow it to befall the I am genuinely disappointed, as
wankery and stress of university life get to with which to slash your way through the same fate. my geography class may have been
Back then almost every food
you too much, hey. While that git in your tute sweaty, slimy and riotous jungle that is week slightly more interesting had the Dearest Honi,
outlet on campus was Union
might look like they have it all together with three. See you on the other side. As an ardent student, and one teacher walked around with blood
run. The Union boards, secure in
who has used campus libraries streaming down her body from Congratulations on a great issue
their annual compulsory student
until 10pm more than anyone else religious corporal-mortification, last week. Great except for one
unionism income ($408 a year per
on campus the past three, if not while whipping her back and thing: in my General Secretary’s
Letter of the week!
student in 1998, automatically
Report I marvelled at Vegesoc’s
How to avoid a quarter
seven, years (challenge presented), directed to the Union no matter chanting a secret Catholic mantra.
I can assure Ms Bell and anyone “$3 lunches”. It seems this was
what the University wanted)
semester crisis:
Dear Sir, or Madem, Gloves, Dressing Gloves, Driving Gloves, else that 24 hour study spaces Mr Bell’s assessment of religion a one-off, and the regular price
firmly believed that private
Wheel Chair Gloves, Rugby Gloves, are cacophony to the eyes, ears, being used as a precondition for will be $5 as per usual, which
enterprise was evil.
I Hope you are very Fine, And All types of Sports Gloves.......... and nose, and the furthest thing socialising during his school years includes seconds.
1. Join your ‘friends’ on the Law Lawns. Remember to bring: conducive to effective study. Unfortunately they also seemed to can be likened to the geeks joining
After Compliments, I would like to take We assure our best quality as well anecdotes about yachting in Croatia, your HSC results the chess club to make friends. My deepest apologies for this
think that freshness was the work
an opportunity to introduce our company as the best services, also in a very break-down, and a series of obnoxious ill-informed opinions. If anyone manages to get actual It is more of a reflection on your delicious mistake.
with hopping our best future business suitable rate. of Satan and nutrition a capitalist
study done there, they can study plot. Considerable effort was average awkward teen’s self-
relationships. Our Company is one of the 2. If you often sleep with your housemate don’t tell her confidence, than the ‘luring and Sincerely,
in the middle of the Devonshire expended on expunging all traces
best Companies in Pakistan, dealing:- Awaiting for your prompt reply for husband. This is particularly true if you still live at home.
St tunnel so as long as they have of imperialist tastiness whilst entrapping’ nature of a religious
our long and healthy business terms. Mariana Podesta-Diverio
Weightlifting Gloves for women, If given an opportunity we shall never WiFi, or, you know, at home. the serving staff were given the group or chess club.
3. Buy your ‘Men of Physics’ calendar on Wednesday
Weightlifting Gloves for men, Cycling let you down in any case.Hope to hear on Eastern Avenue. Full price: $15. Jeans and Joggers finest Soviet anti-customer-service
The other major issue which is However what highlighted the Arts (Sociology Hons.)
Gloves , Sailing Gloves, Police Gloves, from you soon. discount: $10. training available.
Skydiving Gloves, Mechanic Gloves, being kindly forgotten by most,
PaintBall Gloves, Winter Gloves, Best Regards 4. The perks of an ACCESS card include: including Jen Light and previous Five of the six food outlets on
Working Gloves, Wellding Gloves,
Have a thought?
$2.80 Moove at Wentworth, an instrument SRC campaigners before her for campus (Wentworth cafeteria,
Baseball batting Gloves, Childern Muzammal Attari for cutting a line of coke, and an ill-advised the same issue, is the outcome on old Manning cafeteria, Holme
butt-plug. Use yours wisely. student mental health of the idea
Just one?
‘Buttery’, Bosch and Engineering
of a 24 hour library. Sure, many kiosks) were owned and run by
5. A reminder to Vet and Philosophy world class universities have 24
Just a single one?
the Union and they all served
Apologies Mistakes in the Week 2 edition of the crossword students that heavy-petting remains
hour libraries, but has anyone the same food. Literally.
occurred as a result of an editorial oversight. Sorry illegal in NSW.
done a cross-cohort study about
to crossword producers and readers for this mistake. how the sleep times, moods, and Sausages that had aged three
depression scales are changing by hours in a bain-marie, soggy
the users of such libraries? Are
these libraries at least staffed for
chips and horrific catering trays
Write a letter to
Credits
of pasta/cheese melts (also aged
the whole 24 hours (my bet is that
they’re probably more staffed than
under lights) were the mainstays.
A weekly ‘special’ was offered for editors
@honisoit.com
Sydney’s libraries; *zing*)? students who were on a budget.
E d i t o r - i n c h i e f : Georgia Kriz m a s t h e a d i l l u s t r a t i o n : Helen Xue c o n t r i b u t o r s : Cameron Smith, It was usually some unidentifiable
Anjali Vishwanathan Increased self-imposed stress, a meat in a bright yellow curry
E d i t o r s : Georgia Behrens, Felix Donovan, John r e p o r t e r s : Sarah Armstrong, Elliot Brennan, lack of sleep, and a non-conducive sauce squeezed from a big plastic
We’ll print your
Gooding, Andrew Passarello, Justin Pen, Astha Rajvanshi, Cameron Caccamo, Adam Chalmers, Rupert Coy, Dominic artists/photographers: environment are negative factors
Michael Rees, Lane Sainty, Christina White Ellis, Eleanor Gordon-Smith, Nick Gowland, Zeb Holmes, Alexandra Mildenhall, Jay Ng catering bottle and then spooned
Sam Jonscher, Tom Joyner, Alex McKinnon, Patrick all round. I think before student onto over-cooked white rice.
lone thought.
c r e a t i v e d i r e c t o r : Judy Zhu Morrow, Sarah Mourney, Harry Stratton, Mary Ward, p u z z l e s / q u i z z e s : Paps representatives start championing Soylent would have been an
Jeff Wong, Isabelle Youssef, Naaman Zhou the idea of extending the Carslaw improvement.
Labs to an extra 40 square metres
DISCLAIMER Honi Soit is published by the Students’ Representative Council, University of Sydney, Level 1 Wentworth Building, City Road, University of Sydney NSW 2006. The SRC’s operation costs, space and administrative support are financed
by the University of Sydney. Honi Soit is printed under the auspices of the SRC’s directors of student publications: Dover Dubosarsky, Jennifer Light, Miranda Smith, India O’Neill, Naaman Zhou, Phoebe Corleone, Sonia Feng. All expressions are
on the third floor of Fisher, it The sole alternative was Ralph’s
published on the basis that they are not to be regarded as the opinions of the SRC unless specifically stated. The Council accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of any of the opinions or information contained within this newspaper, nor does it
endorse any of the advertisements and insertions.
2 3
news news
Unions enter formal dispute
c ont i nued from page 1 Georgia Behrens has been hanging out in the stacks. Unis lobby to deregulate fees
“But it is possible that there will the right way for them,” he said. performance standards and of reforms the university has The Group of Eight submission reveals a push for revenue, writes Nick Gowland.
be some staff members who do not “inherent diseconomies of scale” proposed in the past few decades
feel that they are suited to the new In a statement provided to within the current system. in an effort to rationalise the
models for whatever reasons, in Honi on Friday, a university delivery of library services. Sydney University Vice-Chancellor places (CSPs) and uncap tuition he indicated that he endorsed the university accessible, but
which case that is a choice they spokesperson said: According to data from the Michael Spence stated that it fees for courses in law, commerce, the “broad thrust” of the Go8 it’s not being distributed in an
are entitled to make.” Council of Australian University In 2011, Fisher Library removed would be “not unfair” to both scrap economics and accounting where recommendations. equitable way,” she said.
“The university has been engaged Librarians, the overall almost 500,000 books and journals the Commonwealth-supported graduates “generally enjoy high
Wheeler said that morale in a very broad and extensive performance of USyd libraries from its collection to make way places in and uncap tuition for private returns”. University of Sydney SRC Sydney University Law Society
remained extremely low consultation process about the relative to their Australian and for more student study spaces. courses like Law, Economics, Education Officer Ridah Hassan Equity Officer Natalie Czapski
amongst library staff despite future shape of the library… New Zealand counterparts has Since 1990, more than ten Commerce and Accounting. Under the current demand-driven has slammed the submissions as criticised the Go8’s assumption
these assurances. We hope we will be able to resolve drastically declined in the past 20 university libraries have been funding regime, the Government further evidence of universities that graduates of Band 1 courses
[the dispute] during a meeting years. A recent survey of students’ closed and had their collections The comment was made in relation subsidises fees for all domestic prioritising dividends over will earn more and thus be in a
“We all just have a huge cloud next week. The university is perceptions of their university redistributed. to a submission to the Federal students enrolled in undergraduate quality of education. position to pay off increased debt.
of uncertainty constantly hanging committed to discussing this libraries placed USyd in the lowest Government’s ongoing review of bachelor degrees. In the case of She claimed that the current job
over our heads at the moment. matter in good faith.” quartile in four out of the five Bell said that, while there were demand-driven university funding the ‘Band 1’ subjects named in the “I think it’s clear that universities market for law graduates was
Most staff have very little faith areas covered. currently no plans in place to close made by the Group of Eight (Go8), submission, the Commonwealth these days operate as businesses poor, and the “damaging” Go8
in the University to go about The reforms have been proposed any further libraries, “nothing is a lobby group composed of the subsidises 16 per cent of tuition and view their degrees as recommendations would “box
managing these changes in by Bell to address slipping This the latest in a number ruled in, and nothing is ruled out”. Vice-Chancellors from the leading fees. Student foot the rest of commodities to be sold. If they people into going after high paid
eight Australian universities. the bill either up-front or under get away with privatising corporate careers” at the expense
The review is being conducted the HECS-HELP deferred debt some degrees, it will give them of community justice and law
by economist Andrew Norton, scheme. confidence to start privatising reform.
End is nigh for Raue case and former Liberal Minister for
Education Dr David Kemp. However, if CSPs were to be
others so it’s pretty bad for all
students,” she said. Czapski said that the assumption
removed, this private contribution was especially problematic
The USU’s legal drama has reached its final chapter, write John Gooding and Justin Pen. The submission, made in December would rise by around $2000 a year. Echoing the argument of an considering most high-earning
2013 but released to the public Further, the result of uncapping SRC submission to the review law graduates put hours of unpaid
The NSW Supreme Court was board announced a meeting “It is unfortunate that Tom made directors trying to roll me affect last week, argues that research tuition fees would be a 30-40 per last year, Hassan cautioned that work into clerkships, which are
expected to pass judgement this where it would vote to expel the decision to litigate this matter, my work,” said Raue. quality in Australian universities cent increase in base course fees, any increase in deferred debt simply not an option for many
past Monday on Raue v. Morris, him. The move to expel Raue but that is a decision he made and declined after the influx of students the submission projects. If Band would be a disincentive for lower low SES students.
the case between University was prompted by him providing is out of the Board’s control.” “If it doesn’t go my way, I will do to uncapped university places was 1 courses were to be effectively socioeconomic status students to
of Sydney Union (USU) Vice Honi Soit with a quote from a my best to convince the board that not adequately met by increases in privatised as suggested, the HECS study particular courses. She also “I think it would be a shame if
President Tom Raue and President confidential report. Morris stated that after the removing me is bad for the union funding. The submission contains debt for a three-year Bachelor of rejected the Go8’s suggestion that accessibility to the justice system
Hannah Morris. judgement she will meet with the regardless of whether they are a slew of recommendations Commerce degree would increase privatisation would increase the and the people actually working
Morris stated last Friday that other executive members of the legally allowed to do so. aimed at balancing funding by by 53 per cent, from $29,934 to quality and accessibility of in it came from higher means or a
The timing of the judgment the USU is “looking forward to Board and discuss how to move deregulating tertiary education. $45,750. tertiary education. particular background,” she said.
together with Honi Soit’s printing the hearing being over”. forward from there. “[The case] has been a very
schedule means we are unable to isolating experience and involved The most controversial proposal is Although Spence maintained any “The people who run the Go8 Dr Kemp and Mr Norton’s report
cover it this week, but check the “I don’t regret the decision that the Raue was more specific when a lot of hard work all because to allow universities the option to increase in private contributions universities get millions of dollars on demand driven funding will be
website (honisoit.com) or next executive made. The removal of a discussing his prospects following of one sentence which seems a forgo Commonwealth-supported would require Senate approval, a year collectively. There is plenty released to the public later
week’s issue for the latest. Director was never going to be an the delivery of the judgement. bit trivial. Sometimes I wonder of money to make all degrees in this year.
easy process, and I was under no whether I should have taken the
The case is a result of an injunction apprehension that it would be,” “If it does go my way, I will easy path, but in the end I think
Plagiarism, schmagiarism
in October of last year brought she said. continue to do my job and try not to that I did what was best for the
against Morris by Raue after the let the unpleasantness of my fellow members of the USU.”
[timeline] From the boardroom to the courtroom T hanks t o M ax C halmers , A dam
C halmers and X ia oran S hi.
Lane Sainty attended the first SRC meeting of the year and all she got was this lousy article.
June 21, 2013 24 September, 2013 20 December, 2013
USU Vice President Tom Raue leaks confidential information from an internal report to Honi Soit. Factional fighting dominated the at length from the 2013 edition The controversial motion did not downplay the importance of
Raue is elected Further procedural
first Students’ Representative included Political Economy, Vet pass smoothly, causing heated plagiarism rather than defend
unopposed by delays postpone the
the Board as Raue’s information reveals the University had some degree of control over police during industrial final day of the Court. Council meeting of 2014, with Science, Sociology, Economics and discussion and accusations of the actions of Hassan and Morley.
Vice President action, which took place last year and resulted in numerous reports of police brutality and injuries The matter is heard a motion passed condemning the the Sydney College of the Arts. factional pettiness. Both Eleanor
of the USU. to students. on December 20, with Education Officers for plagiarising The re-using of articles caused Morley and Ridah Hassan “Plagiarism is not the biggest
both parties providing sections of this year’s Counter out-of-date information to appear expressed a belief that the thing in the world,” said Anna
Raue cites the significant value of “the public interest” in his decision to disclose this information, closing submissions. Course handbook. in the handbook, including motion was a matter of political Sanders-Robinson, SAlt member
contrary to the wishes of the other Executive members the Board.
reviews of courses that are point scoring. and an SRC Global Solidarity
The motion, moved by Julia Robins no longer taught. Officer. “This obsession with
of Sydney Labor Students (a Labor “The point of this motion is to plagiarism…whatever,” said Omar
Left faction), asked Education The handbook also mentioned hang us out to dry,” said Hassan. Hassan, SAlt member and an
Officers Ridah Hassan and Socialist Alternative on pages The pair also offered their poor SRC Mature Age Students Officer.
31 August, 2012 30 September, 2013 15 November, 2013 Eleanor Morley, both of Socialist two and three, and on page five handover as a defence, saying “There was no malicious intent.”
Alternative (SAlt), to publicly included a paragraph spruiking that they had worked hard on
The Board censures University of The USU announces Following a series of procedural delays, the matter is brought before the Supreme apologise in Honi Soit for recycling the Marxism 2014 conference to the handbook. After lengthy discussion of the
Sydney Union Board Director Tom Raue. a move to expel Court in mid-November. work without attribution and be held in Melbourne. motion, an SLS member requested
Raue from office
promoting SAlt in the handbook. However, Julia Robins denied the the vote be carried out via secret
The censure motion is based upon following alleged The proceedings, initiated by Raue, contest the constitutional validity of the Board’s
comments made by Raue concerning “serious misconduct” authority to dismiss Directors and further challenge the allegation of “serious
Julia Robins said the SAlt motion was politically motivated. ballot, at which point Hassan and
members of the pro-life club, LifeChoice regarding the misconduct” put forward by the Board on 30 September, 2013. In the 2014 Counter Course references set a “dangerous “It was not supposed to be ‘political Morley exited the room in protest,
Sydney, denouncing the USU in his “deliberate disclosure handbook, aimed at providing precedent,” and that future use point scoring,’ it was supposed to along with all other SAlt members
capacity as SRC Vice President for of confidential USU CEO Andrew Woodward, President Hannah Morris, Vice President Tom Raue, a students’ view of the courses of SRC resources for political be correcting a wrong that had in attendance.
approving the society in his capacity, information” contrary Honorary Treasurer Sophie Stanton, Human Resources Manager Sandra Hardy, and offered at USyd, the Ancient advertising could jeopardize the been done,” she said.
in a report published by Hoit Soit, and to USU Regulations, Events Manager Lee Devereux appear as witnesses to testify on these issues. History and Geography articles Students Services and Amenities The motion passed 21 to three,
for encouraging members of the Sydney Duty Statements
University Atheist Society to boycott and Handling of were identical to those found in Fee funding received by the SRC. Several SAlt members spoke with four abstentions.
The case is adjourned till December 6. The interlocutory injunction is extended to
Interfaith Week, a USU program. Grievances Policy. 2013. Further articles quoted against the motion, opting to
December 9.
4 5t h e m a nnin g f i l e s opi ni on
So it tu rn s o u t the y
don’t h ate e a c h o the r
(literal) sausage-fest. “We had no
problem with what the EU did,”
He y , m in d y o u r o w n
r a c is m !
Oh my god that’s like so exotic! Also,
is India really dustier than Australia?
Straight from the ‘art
Asylum seekers should be empowered not pitied, writes Anjali Vishwanathan.
th ese d a ys Vice President of the Catholic Society That seems unlikely.
of St Peter Christopher Pinto. Last week, the University of Sydney
The Evangelical Union seemingly Business School joined the ranks of Climbing the stairway “What’s this?” Art Project, which facilitates a stories. “When my
made an ecumenical faux pas after “We by no means take offence and the University of Sydney Union and to swole platform for asylum seekers to drawings are clean, I feel
holding a Week One welcoming BBQ we don’t think they had any malice; St. Paul’s with an all-caps display of
on Ash Wednesday, a day on which they were just trying to build up new racial insensitivity.
A SERCO guard picks up one of express their despairs, hopes, that my heart is clean,”
The Manning Files have received word
Catholics are unable to eat meat. members.” that Led Zeppelin’s enthralling epic
the notebooks that emerge from and fears, has been banned from one refugee says.
In doing so, the EU - which describes “Keen to knock off a 6 credit point Stairway to Heaven has made it onto the security screening belt and entering Villawood as a volunteer
itself as “a student-run Christian EU President Matthew Hill said subject during Uni break from a the Sydney University Gym playlist. begins to slowly leaf through it. organisation. Their website is Beyond Villawood, the
group” - appeared to have excluded that the society had not received any DUSTY INDIAN VILLAGE?” read
36 per cent of Australia’s Christian
Its pages are filled with delicate blocked from computers and a artworks are printed in
complaints about the event. While the an announcement on the School’s Whilst this song is a classic, Manning
population from their Sunken majority of EU members identify as Blackboard. Closer inspection of the
and haunting Manga-style ink service provider notice announces zines or feature in local
Files is of the opinion that it’s fairly
Lawns celebration. Protestant, Hill said that the non- 40K website, the program’s chief unsuited to smashing cardio or illustrations. She looks at me, that it bears ‘suspicious’ content. exhibitions. They tell
denominational society had “a range sponsor, reveals the “DUSTY INDIAN grinding out some reps. Unless her brow furrowed. a very different story
We thought that this might be a of EU members from Catholics to VILLAGE” in question is, in fact, an you’re on the StairMaster, of course. The Project was instituted in from dry, intimidating
great meaty story, but no. Apparently Protestants and all the denominations ostensibly nameless “village right next
Catholics on campus didn’t mind within those groups”. to Bangalore!”
“Did you do these?” 2010 by a collective of academics statistics or the rhetoric
missing out on the non-denominational and artists concerned by the that prevails in the
“Uh yeah. I-I was just taking inhumanity of Australia’s mainstream media
them in” detention policies. It has since which keeps asylum
grown to occupy a unique seekers anonymous and
The guard seems unconvinced
Well, we tried
position amidst Sydney’s activist inhuman in the public
but she gives it back and my heart enclaves as it operates in direct mind. Such constricted
gradually begins to dislodge from collaboration with refugees. flows of information mean
my throat. that even among those
Inside the detention centre, dedicated to advocating
The drawings are the work of the process of creating artworks for their rights, asylum
a 15-year-old refugee, living in provides a therapeutic outlet for seekers are reduced
Villawood’s Immigration Detention creative expression. The refugee to the abject tragedies
Centre. This is the first time in activist movement has a tendency of their past. They are
my experience that guards have to be a little self-indulgent. It often romanticised as hapless
Letter from the USU The assertion that these 2 Restrictions on the voting rights of Soit publishing these democratic
paid such close attention and this
Senate-appointed Directors wield Board Directors are contained in 7.4 avenues open to USU members. emphasises the activists’ own victims of our policies;
Board “disproportionate influence over the of the USU Constitution. There are We also hope that in future, editors woman, who bears a Southern ire and nudges asylum seekers’ not only disempowered inherently exclusionary
direction of the USU” is a spurious several avenues open to members and reporters of this paper seek Cross tattoo, is notoriously perspectives to the periphery. but even weak or necessitous. of people in tenuous and
We write in response to an article claim at best. Senate-appointed seeking to make alterations to the comment from the Board when temperamental. However, through art, men vulnerable situations.
The Refugee Art Project’s zines
published in last week’s edition Directors play a commensurate, Constitution. (1) A resolution passed naming individual directors. Most refugees staunchly guard
and women behind barbed wire are reliant on autonomous and
titled, “The Democratic Deficit”. rather than disproportionate, role on by a two-thirds majority of Members Cameras, phones and journalists their social media presence with
the Union Board. They are bound by present and voting at the Annual
are enabled to enter the public creative expression. They combat
As always, the Board welcomes and are generally prohibited inside pseudonyms and profile pictures
The University of Sydney Union the same Constitution, Regulations, General Meeting; (2) a resolution encourages member feedback. This discourse on their own terms. the tendency for refugees to be
Board is comprised of 11 Directors Duty Statements, fiduciary duties passed by a two-thirds majority of
detention centres. So it is As we sit together and draw, anonymised by well-meaning of flowers or cloying babies.
can be directed to the President’s
elected by popular student vote, 2 and legal liability as other members Members present and voting at a email (h.morris@usu.usyd.edu.au), unsurprising that the Refugee we build friendships and exchange activists as well as opportunistic To insist that they agitate through
Senate-appointed Directors and the of the Board. General Meeting, or; (3) a resolution or to the Board directly at our politicians. the city’s main streets while
Immediate Past President of the passed by a simple majority of at monthly members forums. flanked by antagonistic policemen
Union. In the past, the Union Board The article included a contract least 4,000 Members voting in Examining these comics opens is an unreasonable demand.
has sought suitable candidates to fill addressed to 6 Directors regarding a referendum. Yours (non)contractually, a window to their lived realities.
vacancies for the 2 Senate-appointed the role of Senate-appointed Directors This does not signify that asylum
We see that suffering is typically
Directors. Candidates are selected on in upcoming Executive Elections. Though a Big Mac would have been Board Directors seekers must be clambered over
merit, experience and independence.
manifested in smaller fragments
nice, in the interests of an informed University of Sydney Union and spoken for. It highlights the
readership we would appreciate Honi of memory. We’re invited to share
tender moments of friendship need for advocates of refugee
between two men amidst the rights to adopt diverse and
grim surroundings of the detention creative approaches to their
We want to thank the Board Directors trust our elected representatives to it says nothing of the conversations need to; we hope that we can trust that centre. A child illustrates her advocacy; to be contemplative and
for their letter and for engaging in act on our behalf. that can be had between elected and the people we elected to represent us fright at the discovery of giant be reflective of the spaces they
public debate about the way that our unelected directors. will fight for a student-run student crabs one night on Christmas have opened up.
student union is run. It is a debate not In voting for them, we determined union. Island; later, her consternation
about the use of power in an abstract that they would serve our interests. We certainly could try and stack out The decision to actively pursue the
at the adults who won’t take her
way, but about how best a student In electing them, we decided that we the AGM at the end of the year and We’re also kind of worried we don’t dream of safety and embark on its
organisation worth $22m annually wanted them to be in the room on our demand constitutional change. have enough mates. Please don’t pass story seriously. Another poignant
zine is dedicated to the memory journey is a brave one. It reveals a
can spend that wealth to enrich the behalf, calling the shots for the Union We hope, however, that we won’t the buck on this one.
of our friend Ahmad Ali Jafari, fierce independence; that asylum
student experience at this university. that we pay for the pleasure of being
seekers are not victims but fighters
If you missed it, last week we
a part of.
Once upon a time... a detainee who passed away in
detention last year due to guards’ with temerity. They should not
expressed concern about the They are right to remind us of the negligence. Art provides a medium evoke pity in the advocates for
Senate-appointed directors voting avenues that exist for us to change to create an enduring tribute to his their rights.
in the election of the USU executive. the constitution. But they should memory. This takes on particular
“I believe that the passion and creativity of student
It frightens us that the vote of these not be blind to the easiest avenue control will be the driving energy of growth in the significance when the details To relegate refugees to passive
directors, neither elected nor students, available: to use the power we gave coming years.” recipients, as we often do, imposes
could swing a close election. We think of SERCO’s misconduct are not
them to act in the student interest. Tim Matthews, USU Board Director a double-oppression. It strips them
this would be anti-democratic: taking reported in the media.
of the basic agency that they came
control of the student union out of They are correct that section 7.4 of the
The refugee activist community here to claim over their lives.
student hands. USU Constitution puts restrictions on
“I want to heighten transparency in USU was recently jolted by a statement Refugees should not be merely
the voting rights of Board Directors.
Our student directors, in their letter This section merely prevents the CEO governance, and create a progressive and inclusive written by Liz Thompson, a former included in the protest. It is theirs.
organisation that empowers student decision-
above, seek to shirk responsibility for and the Immediate Past President migration agent who leaked the
making.”
ensuring that the student union is from voting in executive elections. Bebe D’Souza, USU Board Director
recent events on Manus Island.
student-run. That section does not compel the Among other things, Thompson
directors to seek the votes of the
accused the refugee movement of
They advise us to turn up to the USU unelected colleagues who sit beside
excluding the voices of refugees. illustration by
AGM in with some like-minded mates, them on Board, nor even does the “At USyd, we have one awfully beautiful university
or get 4000 of our mates to vote in section stop them from asking those - I mean, just look at the Quad!” However, she fails to note the root MURTAZA and
of the problem: that public rallies, Moha mma d. images
a referendum. These avenues are unelected colleagues not to vote in the Kade Denton, USU Board Director fr om the rap facebook.
important, but in almost every other election. The Constitution gives the the dominant mode of protest, are
decision that the Union makes we unelected directors the power to vote;
6 7ana lys is a na lysi s
Spoiled for choice Tech
The very foundations of modern video games are questioned by The Stanley Parable, writes Jeff Wong.
Five matches worth of anti-Semitism Sport
The length of football bans sends a bizarre moral message, writes Naaman Zhou.
The reader’s eyes were drawn is left to the machinations of his Many games punish the player In spite of the negative press
to the article about The Stanley own free will – or so it seems. for straying too far from pre- surrounding linearity and the lack It’s lunchtime in East London and they say, a “reverse Nazi salute”. that has been performed outside week in, week out, wholly
Parable, curious as to what this A disembodied narrator speaks determined paths, physically of freedom in video games, some Nicolas Anelka is running through schools where Jewish children pardoned it seems, by virtue of
was all about. They had heard to Stanley and, by extension the disabling them from traversing as games favour closed narratives the last line of defenders, everyone Anelka has denied the anti- have been gunned down. being white, English, and good
whispers about this particular player, guiding both through the they please. The Stanley Parable because it allows for a story to be arrayed messily like the quivering Semitism charge, claiming it at placing his foot conveniently
video-game, and decided it office in search of explanation for on the other hand appears to offer told that compliments the provided dots on an LED football display. was “just a special dedication” to The FA have a track record between other players and the
was finally time to see it for the mysterious events within. every possible path to the player, gameplay. A game’s ability to The 34 year-old striker shrugs off his friend Dieudonne, who was with this unique brand of self- goal. Unlike the bite-happy Suarez,
themselves. Or had the reader so long as the player can actually provide a sense of free-will must his marker and clips the ball, like watching the game. The problem is contradiction. In October 2011, the FA look comically toothless.
known about the game for some One of the first places the narrator comply with, or defy, the narrator. be entirely reliant on player choice, that Dieudonne has been convicted the Liverpool striker Luis Suarez
a suited executive sinking a putt Why is a manager’s idiocy valued
time, and in fact come here to see takes you is a room with two Davey Wreden, developer and and not upon pre-determined of hate speech eight times, and in was given an eight-game ban for
with the faintest of taps, into the at seven matches, an anti-Semitic
if this article held opinions similar doors, where he instructs you to writer of The Stanley Parable outcomes. Wreden himself states a 2013 show, said of Franco-Jewish racial abuse. Suarez (who has
far corner of the goal. gesture at five and
to their own? The reader grinned enter one of them. A few players stated that the game came from that “it’s the kind of thing that radio presenter Patrick Cohen: in the past deliberately handled racist abuse from
at the clever introduction and may listen to such commands, “a desire to do something that seems to emerge naturally from In celebration the Frenchman pins “When I hear him speak, I think the ball, bitten opponents, and the captain of
continued reading. but many would be beset by the hadn’t really been done before”. open inquiry rather than being one arm to his side, lifts the other to myself: ‘Gas chambers...too bad deliberately bitten the hands of England only four?
nagging curiosity of defying the He wanted to produce “a kind consciously programmed into across his chest and presses his they no longer exist.’” opponents), had called another The numbers
Apologies - sadly, I’m not as narrator and choosing the other of game that broke player the game.” hand to his shoulder. He looks like player “negrito”. Weeks later, simply do not
well-spoken or as witty as the door, if only to see what happens. expectations.” a medical mannequin in a sling, or Anelka has since been banned for the then England captain, John add up.
narrator in The Stanley Parable, The desire for independence The Stanley Parable is a spark a man singing the national anthem five matches and fined £80,000 by Terry, was similarly charged, this
which in October 2013 found its and explanation, fuelled by the However, in The Stanley Parable, of creativity and ingenuity in with his shoulder standing in for the English Football Association time for calling compatriot Anton
way onto PC and Mac. Hopefully, mischievous possibility of defying every action has been pre- the increasingly cynical medium his heart. Those in the stands (FA). Two weeks later, the FA Ferdinand a “fucking black cunt”.
however, I will be able to guide the narrator, is what makes The conceived. The player is ultimately of video games. The ability for think nothing of it but across the handed out a comparable ban, His punishment? A four-match
you as the narrator did Stanley, Stanley Parable one of the most still being guided to recite a story such a simple game, once an Channel, French fans have just sat this time to the manager of ban. Compare this to Suarez’s
and illuminate several points of impressively written and creative already written for them. The game amateur hobby project, to spark up, perhaps pressed the rewind Newcastle United, Alan Pardew, eight, Pardew’s seven and the five
intrigue about the game. indie games of recent times. One effectively only provides an illusion conversation and thought- button, raised an eyebrow or two. who headbutted a player as he the FA gave a 14-year old who, as
of its central themes, however, of free-will. Can The Stanley provoking debate should not Some are on the phone to the press. rushed into the technical area a joke, told the referee his name
Stanley, the game’s protagonist, speaks fathoms about the game Parable really be considered a be taken lightly, leaving it to for a throw-in. was “Santa Claus”.
arrives at work to find his office itself. It’s a core theme that game, rather than a digital choose- advance the artistic medium Anelka has just performed a
building empty. All of his co- plagues a great proportion of your-own adventure novel? Is the of video games. gesture known as the “quenelle”. While Anelka will miss five On Sunday, Anelka was officially
workers have disappeared, and video games - choice, free-will true theme conveyed actually the Invented by controversial French matches, Pardew will be gone for released by his club for “gross
for the first time in his life, Stanley and pre-determinism. lack of free-will and choice? “comedian” Dieudonne M’bala seven, having been charged last misconduct” and his career
M’bala, it is widely seen as having Wednesday with violent conduct. looks all but extinguished.
anti-Semitic or racist connotations. But the violence tag is a bit of a After thirteen years in the Premier
It has been performed in front of misnomer. Pardew’s headbutt was League, it seems he will never
Worth its weight
ugly, pig-brained and reeking of
Science
Holocaust memorials, synagogues play in England again. Terry,
and the Toulouse primary school foul machismo, but it was less a meanwhile, has remained captain
where two Jewish children were Zidane-style charge and more a of Chelsea FC every year since
killed in 2012. Most English media brief nod in the general direction his conviction. He retains this
Harry Stratton explores the role of genetic modification in preventing Vitamin A deficiency. outlets describe it with the same of someone else’s ear. It seems this position of power over his
three-word phrase: it resembles, is worse than repeating a gesture racially-diverse teammates
Here are some depressing facts. which it delivers that Vitamin A However, Golden Rice has proven This led to panicked scenes of
This year, Vitamin A deficiency is and the ease with which it can be to be very controversial. Last starving people besieging delivery
estimated to kill 700,000 children. integrated into local food supply year, far-left guerilla organisation convoys, desperate for something
A not so bygone era
It’s also on track to send another chains. A single cup of rice, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas to eat.
Media
370,000 kids irreversibly blind. staple crop in the parts of the posed as local farmers to attack
developing world where Vitamin A the Filipino government’s trial It’s incredibly easy for first-world
Here are some even more deficiency is most acute, promises rice crop. Closer to home, a related environmentalists and religious
depressing facts. There is a to deliver up to 50 per cent of the CSIRO fibre-enriched wheat radicals to tell the developing The battle for reproductive rights is not yet won, writes Sarah Armstrong.
solution to Vitamin A deficiency. average person’s daily Vitamin A project was destroyed by two world that they should just
The American Society for requirements. Best of all, because Greenpeace eco-vandals. buy Vitamin A supplements. Events in Channel 9’s Love Child estimated 150,000 children forcibly there isn’t really a problem these However, the passing of ‘Zoe’s
Nutrition, leading anti-blindness the patent on Golden Rice is But telling starving people that seem a world away, with episodes removed between 1951 and 1975 in days, and that these incidences are Law’ in the lower house and the
NGO Helen Keller International, controlled by a humanitarian trust Both the global scientific they should just plant more carrots punctuated by the Apollo moon Australia. It’s an important story just the product of a few ‘bad eggs’. rightward shift of the abortion
and the CSIRO have all endorsed rather than a private corporation, community and former Greenpeace is like telling them to eat cake. landing and anti-Vietnam war to tell, but cannot be seen as the debate in recent years could
it. When it was trialled in parts modified seeds are distributed free kingpins Patrick Moore and Mark protests. The show, set in the end of the story of reproductive In the first episode a young undermine this progress and limit
of the Philippines, mortality of charge to farmers in developing Lynas condemned these attacks, I say let them eat rice.
late 1960s, focuses on how forced rights, a final chapter in some pregnant woman named Vivian the freedom of judges to interpret
due to VAD was reduced by countries, thanks in part to but not before controversial Indian adoption affects the lives of people definitively finished past. is sedated by her father and laws in favour of bodily autonomy.
20 per cent within a year. But the humanitarian programs of nationalist and involved in a Kings Cross home taken to the home. She later tells With a senator recently describing
a baffling coalition of far-left biotechnology giants Syngenta “Deep Ecologist” for unwed mothers, reminiscent The house matron (played by Joan that her mother found her abortion as a “death industry” and
environmentalists and far-right and Monsanto. Contrary to Vandana Shiva of a reform school. While based Manda McElhinney, who is far in the process of unsuccessfully bills importing inflammatory but
religious extremists has thus far the “terminator seed” myths of alleged that on true events, the show implies less likeable in this role than attempting to induce miscarriage locally negligible aspects of global
kept this solution out of the hands dystopian fiction, these farmers allowing Golden that challenges to reproductive when playing Rhonda in AAMI using several dubious methods. abortion debate (such as sex-
of those who need it most. are actively encouraged to save Rice in India was autonomy are being a thing of ads) embodies the conservatism selective abortions), the issue
and propagate these seeds. “like saying rapists the past and nothing for us to of older generations. She requires Even though those days have been is far from safely resolved.
Golden Rice is a strain of rice should have the largely left behind, abortion isn’t
worry about. penitence from the young women in
genetically modified to include In regions where governments freedom to rape”. freely available in New South Assurances that we’re no longer in
the house and enjoys the authority
beta-carotene, the chemical have introduced Golden Rice Ms Shiva is best Love Child addresses sexual Wales. The Crimes Act continues the ‘bad old days’ of 1960s abortion
she holds over them.
precursor to Vitamin A. There’s programs, rice prices have known for calling politics through the eyes of lively to penalise obtaining or providing rackets and so don’t need to worry
nothing particularly exciting about remained stable without the on the government young women – hidden away Though television shows often an unlawful abortion, and provides at all fail to take into account the
beta-carotene in and of itself - it’s need for state subsidies that of India to by their families to prevent focus on individuals in order to for a maximum penalty of 10 years less evident, but still very real
the same ingredient that’s in foods developing world governments withdraw food embarrassment – and a young illustrate larger societal issues, in jail. Court cases in the 1970s issues of today. Love Child displays
we eat every day, like carrots, struggle to fund. According to the aid from cyclone- midwife, Joan, who empathetically the use of the matron as a stand-in clarified that for abortion to be a difficult and astoundingly
spinach and, if you live International Rice Institute, if ravaged areas on works as their advocate in a for the entire system of oppression lawful, pregnant people had to recent part of Australia’s history
in Newtown, kale. there was ever an efficient method the grounds that system stacked against them. detracts from the reality of the satisfy doctors that continuing the of reproductive rights, but it is
to get nutrients to those who need some of it might Through a collection of fairly situation. In Australian society pregnancy would cause significant important that the debate over
The reason that Golden Rice has them the most, but are unable to contain genetically
illustratio n by alexan d ra standard character tropes the reports of anything vaguely mental or physical harm, and the these rights is not now dismissed
researchers and health advocates afford them, this is it. modified wheat. m ild en hall show highlights the pain felt discriminatory are met with a liberal enforcement of this law has as a vestige of last century.
so intrigued is the efficiency with
by the mothers of the Senate- chorus of voices assuring us that allowed some freedom.
8 9inv e st igat i o n profi l e
We Want You, Inc. The survival of the fittest
Eleanor Gordon-Smith examines the recruitment of young people by the Australian military. Tom Joyner speaks to The Saturday Paper’s Erik Jensen.
Even over the phone, Erik Jensen making up for a truly stellar With only 30 per cent of the media”, which an audience like his
The army needs recruits. oh I can’t do this oh has the weary air of a man whose billing. In sport, Jensen would paper’s subscriber base residing consumes fervently throughout the
In Australia, we outsource this in I want to come home. crusade against print media’s slow be a wildcard, in politics a outside of its three launch cities, week. This perhaps goes to explain
part to the Manpower Services Inc. That’d keep the noobs decay has taken an early toll. maverick, or in the arts, a rising and with limited newsroom why he is working within a weekly
They’re a private sector, civilian out.” Noobs? “Guys star. But survival in print is a resources, it seems ambitious print cycle rather than a daily one,
corporation who find part time who put ‘lol’ in their At 25, the hair of the editor of harder test than most, and Jensen that Jensen should claim The although print cycles, he says, are
and full time ‘talent’ for a application. They see the newly launched The Saturday has yet to prove himself. Saturday Paper will have a “inherently arbitrary” – possibly
spectrum of industries including this shit and think it’s Paper may be slightly unkempt, nationwide purview on par with part of the reason why online
grain harvesting and interior for misfits who love but his words are handsomely Since departing from his post that of News Limited’s national media has succeeded in the first
design administration. guns. They get chewed articulate. Jensen exudes as summer editor of The Herald, daily, The Australian – a paper instance. He seems unmoved by
up fast. It’s not a experience and intelligence that Jensen has spent the last 18 whose criticism has been swift the prospect that almost all of the
The collaboration between the fucking gap year.” would otherwise belong to someone months working closely with and vociferous since launch. “Well paper’s operational costs would be
ADF and Manpower Services has much older and probably more publisher Morry Schwartz. yeah,” Jensen hastens to add, “I in printing and distribution.
yielded a series of campaigns that It doesn’t seem the jaded. But then again, Jensen is The two have been busy don’t think you should confuse
feel like an unlikely allegiance of moment to point out no stranger to print – he began approaching advertisers and our distribution footprint with our Even if he doesn’t admit it openly,
Contiki, GTA and Tough Mudder. that the ADF does in writing music reviews for the mustering a crack team of around editorial aspirations.” Jensen is well aware of print
Don’t be a soldier; start a Defence fact run a gap year Sydney Morning Herald at 16, 10 full-time staffers to produce media’s seemingly marked time,
Career. Don’t join the army; program. before joining its ranks as a their new edition. It’s no surprise But Jensen’s ambition, along but remains singular in his vision
challenge yourself. reporter upon finishing school. that Jensen is about as sanguine with Schwartz’, is precisely the for The Saturday Paper: to provide
Manpower joins a rising joining up was a way and collected as his exhaustion expedient for the entire project to quality long-form journalism for
Daniel, a UTS student who tide of corporations including Serco to stay ideologically Speaking from his Melbourne might betray over the phone. date, something that Fairfax, his old a discerning crowd of “Twitter
moonlights in the reserves, is and GFS now managing civilian- consistent with his office, Jensen laughs nervously
unimpressed by the people this control mechanisms that have belief in compulsory when I bring up his age, a
sort of advertising is attracting.
He’s a stocky guy, unsurprisingly,
typically been the dominion of the
state. Manpower Services thinks
national service. I ask
if the money helps - a
topic impossible to ignore in an
industry mostly governed by men
“His vision for The Saturday Paper:
and is mostly monosyllables
and refills until we start to
of potential recruits as players
in a job market full of competing
trainee recruit can expect
to make $34,460 in a year.
sometimes three times his senior.
I ask him if it’s realistic
to provide quality long-form journalism
talk Kapooka. internships, placements and part
time work.
“I mean it doesn’t hurt. But
if I just wanted money I’d
to imagine his editorial team ever
being as young as he is. “It’s not
for a discerning crowd of ‘Twitter users’”
Kapooka is the training site just stack shelves.” really a criterion on which I look
outside Wagga where new recruits By far the biggest influx of in commissioning [someone],” Jensen’s words echo rehearsal. employer – “obviously a financially users”; turning to its pages for
get turned into soldiers, whether recruits happens over summer,
“Guys who
he says. “A young person who “We’re launching a newspaper troubled company” – apparently greater depth of the ‘how’ and
for the Reserve or what Daniel when school leavers and tertiary writes well is just as an attractive because we believe there is a
Perhaps this explains the ways failed to champion. Jensen takes the ‘why’ of any story that has already
calls the ‘real army’. “They should studiers are looking for any
put ‘lol’ in their
proposition to an editor as an significant market for people helm in the same week that Fairfax been chewed through what he calls
show these fuckwits crying into number of combinations of money, recruitment drives have targeted
older person.” who want to read long-form switches its weekend flagships to the “incredible and unhelpful grind
their phones on - what day are something to do during the day, young Australians in the last few
application.
journalism in print, and aren’t compact format. of a 24-hours news cycle ”.
they allowed a phone? Day 15? a way to get fit, and a way to give years. The era of army personnel
It’s a genuine worry for those being satisfied elsewhere.”
- to all their girlfriends about back to the community. For Tim, standing in shopping centres and
They see this
aspiring to work in his field, and Troy Bramston’s column in The For the paper, Jensen proclaims
bookstores is long since passed.
Jensen has certainly set himself But this proposed ‘market’ Australian, which ran the Monday no great reach for in-depth
If the ADF wants to compete with
shit and think
apart not only on his own merit, has drawn skepticism from after the paper’s launch, was a international coverage, nor do
other employers who want a part
but also among the last of a dying both conservative and progressive typical effusion of flying spittle. his resources appear to allow for
of the young, fit, mobile workforce,
it’s for misfits
breed in an ailing medium. pundits. When an advertising “The Saturday Paper is likely truly comprehensive nationwide
it knows it has to out-advertise
pitch in the launch’s media- to rival only one other weekly reporting. But then again, this
them. Joe, a 22 year old with his
who love guns.
The Saturday Paper, a 32-page kit outlined the paper’s target newspaper: Green Left Weekly,” is not his focus.
sights set on being a clearance
tabloid-sized edition published demographic as being specifically a wrote Bramston. Jensen is duly
diver, was bemused by a recent
They get
weekly and printed on a dense, social elite, a “well-educated people nonplussed. He does, however, On this, I ask Jensen how much of
series of recruitment ads run in
white stock, leaps out on living in the inner-suburbs,” appear uneasy when asked to a semblance The Saturday Paper’s
cinemas nationwide for Navy,
chewed up fast.”
newsstands beside the dusty it sparked online criticism. explain how he plans to quell format shares with periodicals like
that a few years ago made like
mastheads of the Herald and Daily Targeting an audience between 35- the already growing perception Schwartz’s own The Monthly: its
Zuckerberg and dropped the ‘the’.
Telegraph. Meticulously designed 49 years old, members are seen to of political bias, and maintain focus on long-form journalism, its
“They had a guy on a tuk tuk
from front to back, its black, white be “image-conscious” and “socially- balance between what is a largely eschewance of online-only content,
Manpower has three years somewhere in south east Asia.
and red colour scheme lends new aware” with “a high disposable ex-Fairfax cohort of contributors. its indignance of a 24-hour news
left in its contract with Defence, They didn’t show the hours you
meaning to the old joke. income”. Jensen dismisses my “It is quite an active hope of ours cycle, its weekly print structure
which is worth spend every day on mindless
suggestion that this is problematic. that we remain an unbiased press, with a slim middle-class target
$500 million to the company. It cleaning”. Speaking of his accomplishments “I certainly am not pitching a although of course I imagine our demographic – would it be fair to
is tasked with two things: ADFA - among them a 2010 Walkley newspaper to that audience,” he critics like Gerard Henderson and say it is a magazine stuck inside
recruitment and retention. The The second part of the R2 strategy,
for Young Journalist of the Year tells me, “whether a person is rich Troy Bramston will struggle to see a newspaper’s body?
potential for alliteration was not Retention, is simple enough.
and a 2009 UNAA Media Peace or well-educated, or ill-educated through that,” he says.
lost on the military boffins who Once people are in the army,
Award for an investigative piece doesn’t really bother me.” “Because we’re tapped more
dubbed the strategy ‘R2’. don’t lose them. Australian
on the exploitation of international Even so, posters and billboards heavily into the news cycle than
retention focuses on trying to
students - Jensen is impatient, Though, this is contentious in light plastered around the city on what a magazine is, I think that
The ADF has allocated $3.1 billion “establish and maintain the ADF
if humble. “I won one of those...” of the paper’s launch distribution launch weekend featured heavy- warrants that we produce our
to recruitment and retention since as an employer of choice,
he hesitates, “what are they structure. For now at least, set slogans. “Not the Daily paper every week.”
2007. That’s 117 M1 Abrams by providing contemporary
called?” An award momentarily The Saturday Paper will only be Telegraph” and “A Newspaper
tanks. When I told Daniel about rewards for a competitive
escapes him. sold in Sydney, Melbourne and but without the Murdoch” are It remains to be seen if or how The
Manpower Services’ involvement marketplace”. This doesn’t seem
Canberra, urban areas in which punched in dark type on the side of Saturday Paper will develop. It
in recruitment, he’s bemused in an to rattle Daniel and co so much. It is rare for a publisher to appoint Jensen and Schwartz have an a construction site on Parramatta is a project borne from a love for
almost curmudgeonly way. “I had “No I get that’s all fair. Some guys an editor so untested, even on top established readership with The Road near Leichhardt. newspapers shared by both editor
no idea they were managing it. It’s get 182K as a base rate, but they of Jensen’s lauded achievements, Monthly and The Quarterly Essay and publisher, but it’s almost as
weird that they’re not… that they do a hard job. Pay them. But the especially when such a seasoned (published by Schwartz’s company His defense of his decision to if it has to consciously be a paper
don’t have military experience. people they’re attracting with vanguard of journalists and critics Black Inc.), where, arguably, back print seems dogged, if not for its premise to work. Jensen
You’d think they’d want more than this entry-level bullshit... we need assemble beneath him, including their “environmentally-aware” irritated, but Jensen concedes assures me he isn’t worried, but it
just a civvie advertising company.” young people, not people with the likes of David Marr, Martin ‘lighthouse consumers’ are to that for immediate news coverage will take some time. Against my
nothing better to do.” Mackenzie-Murray, Hamish be found. The Saturday Paper can only hope better judgment I am inclined to
McDonald and Christos Tsiolkas, to be “a complement to online believe him.
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