Death Penalty Speak Out Falls Silent

On Friday evening, after getting sunburnt and dehydrated at the NAIDOC Family Day at Musgrave Park, I was supposed to chair a speak out at Brisbane Square about the Death Penalty.

I had to duck home from the park to grab lanterns, candles, flyers and matches for the candlelight vigil as a part of the speak out.  The lanterns were an important consideration, as it’s been pretty blowy around Brisbane recently.

I also should have factored in that Brisbane Square is situated at the junction of two wind tunnels.  Which almost wasn’t a problem as I couldn’t hail a cab to get me home anyway.

Your Favourite Aunty’s 75th Birthday

Most of my weekend was taken up with the official launch of the Democrats election campaign (I’ll write more about that later, once I’ve uploaded some photos from my camera – but you can read accounts here here or here) but I also briefly popped in  to the celebrations of the ABC’s 75th anniversary at the Botanical Gardens in the city (next door to the campaign launch).

By the time I got to the ABC event, it was clouding over and looking a bit ominous, but the atmosphere was still great and the families all seemed to be having fun. A band was tuning up, and someone I couldn’t quite make out was making a presentation about something science-y but I couldn’t get close enough to find out what.

I would have liked to stick around longer, but I had been running around since early that morning, so I bunked off after about 20 minutes.

I do think it’s worth celebrating the vital role that the ABC plays in our country, but I also think we have to address the ongoing threats to its independence and vitality. The celebration yesterday understandably steered clear of that, which is why despite the smaller turn out and fewer resources, I preferred the Friends of the ABC picnic in the park the Sunday before.