There’s More To Trent Zimmerman Than Being A Gay Liberal In The House Of Reps

Australia’s first openly gay MP Trent Zimmerman has warned of the marriage equality plebiscite “spiralling into a dark place,” taking a veiled swipe at some Coalition colleagues for their “extreme and hysterical views” on the issue.

Controversy and congratulations.

They are the two defining moments of Trent Zimmerman’s parliamentary career so far, but one suspects the Liberal backbencher and new boy will soon be recognised far beyond his North Sydney electorate.

The congratulations came as he proudly declared his sexuality — “my election to this parliament represents the first time an openly gay man or woman has entered the House of Representatives” — in his maiden speech on March 2, in the midst of his party’s infighting over the LGBTI support program Safe Schools. Four days later, he marched in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and was famously captured hugging opposition leader Bill Shorten in an embrace that made headlines nationwide.

The controversy came over his election to that post, replacing the retiring Joe Hockey in a December 2015 byelection amid complaints of the pre-selection process being a “stitch-up” as some branch members were not permitted to vote.

Five months after his election to the safe, blue-ribbon Liberal seat, Zimmerman occupies a spacious tenth-floor office in the heart of the thriving North Sydney CBD, just north of the Harbour Bridge. The lofty space is the culmination of a career spent relatively behind-the-scenes. Zimmerman’s resume is impressive; national president of the Young Liberals, adviser to John Howard’s environment minister Robert Hill, adviser to Joe Hockey as shadow treasurer, North Sydney councillor, policy director for the Tourism and Transport Forum. He’s still the acting president of the NSW Liberal Party, a position he says he will “transition out of before the federal election”.

With one speech, and one hug, Zimmerman took a leap from the shadows into the spotlight, and right into a long-bubbling ideological debate within his party that has recently threatened — more than once — to spill over.

“The Liberal party is a broad church, with a liberal wing and a conservative wing, and I see myself in the liberal wing,” Zimmerman told The Huffington Post Australia.

“More specifically, some key issues I’m keen to pursue include protection of our local environment and the harbour, some transport and planning issues we face. But broadly, I’m passionate about ensuring we have policies which will maintain a sustainable environment. I’m excited about our engagement in cities policy.”

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A politician’s maiden speech in the chamber is where they traditionally speak about the issues important to them, the reasons they got into politics and what they want to achieve in the parliament. On March 2, Zimmerman rose in the House of Representatives and spoke of “building a more prosperous, fairer and sustainable Australia,” the natural beauty of his electorate, his ideas about transport and infrastructure, and heritage preservation.

As the Liberal Party’s conservative and moderate wings waged ideological war both publicly and privately on the LGBTI education support system Safe Schools, Zimmerman proudly proclaimed he was the first openly gay MP in Australia’s history. Prominent senators including Penny Wong and Janet Rice are open with their sexuality, but never has an openly gay man or woman served in the House of Representatives.

“Some have said to me that this is not an issue I need reflect upon, particularly on an occasion such as this. Surely a person’s sexuality is irrelevant in this day and age, they have said,” Zimmerman said in his speech.

In what could have been seen as a not-so-subtle reminder of the value of programs such as Safe Schools, Zimmerman outlined the difficulties young LGBTI people still face in modern Australia.

“Young gay men and women are more likely to suffer depression and other mental health issues. They are more likely to be bullied at school. More are likely to attempt to take their own lives and, tragically, some will succeed. Coming out remains hard for many people, and believe me, I know what that is like,” he said.

He told HuffPost Australia that he did receive guidance from inside the party to not address his sexuality.

“To be honest, it was a hard thing to do. I consider myself a reasonably private person. I was basically laying bare my soul,” Zimmerman said.

“It’s obviously the case that my sexuality has been an important part of my life and my growth and my learning experience, so while I don’t want to be defined by my sexuality, it would be wrong to deny it.”

After his speech, he was embraced by MPs from both sides of the aisle. Four days later, Zimmerman made headlines again, snapped hugging opposition leader Bill Shorten at the Mardi Gras as debate raged over whether PM Malcolm Turnbull should have participated in the parade, as Shorten did.

“It’s Mardi Gras, it’s a happy time and a celebration. If you can’t be friendly to your political opponents on Mardi Gras, when can you be?” Zimmerman said.

“Some people think that’s a sad side about Australian politics, that it’s become so partisan that you get criticism for something as human as reaching out for a hug. I don’t regret it at all.”

Zimmerman says he has been a strong advocate of marriage equality. While PM Turnbull has continually reaffirmed his predecessor Tony Abbott’s commitment to a plebiscite on same sex marriage, Zimmerman said he would have preferred a parliamentary vote and called a plebiscite “an unusual precedent” for such an issue. We ask him, what should we do about marriage equality?

“Well, we should make sure it happens,” he answered bluntly.

“I’m hopeful I will play a key role in trying to convince Australians to support marriage equality, I see myself playing a very strong role in the plebiscite campaign. I would have preferred a parliamentary vote, but I’m not afraid of a plebiscite.”

Marriage equality advocates have warned that a “no” campaign on the plebiscite would be damaging to LGBTI people, potentially pushing anti-gay messages into the mainstream. Zimmerman agrees.

“The only downside for me is the risk of the debate spiralling into a dark place, and it will be very important all parties in this debate treat each other respectfully, on both sides of the fence, so we don’t see some of the extreme and hysterical views emerge that perhaps have reared their head in the past,” he said.

“Everyone in this debate has to recognise that when you have an issue of this type being considered in this way, it can have a psychological impact on people still struggling with their sexuality.”

When pushed on whether his comments about “extreme and hysterical” views were related to some of the views that emerged from within his own party around Safe Schools, he admitted that “there was more work to be done” in the Liberal Party to support LGBTI people.

“What gave me some optimism was the number of MPs that said, just by my mere presence, and people like [gay Liberal senator Dean Smith] I’d altered the tenor of the debate. I think that’s a trend that will continue, but I will always stand up against what I think to be irrational and extreme views, and it disappoints me when that happens,” Zimmerman said.

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But as Zimmerman says, he doesn’t want his sexuality to define him. Transport, infrastructure, cities and the party line of “innovation” are the platforms on which he says he will build his parliamentary career.

“You can’t say you’re interested in productivity and economy unless you’re interested in how our cities are working. That brings in issues like transport and infrastructure, particularly public transport, and innovation.

“Now the mining boom is past its peak, we need to look at those sectors of the economy that will take Australia forward. Innovation will be a key part of that. It will be areas like tourism, international education, and a revival in our agricultural sector.

“We’ve got to look at where Australia’s competitive advantage will be. We’ve ridden on the back of the mining boom for the last 20 years, that won’t sustain us the way it has in the past. It will still be important but it won’t sustain us.”

With the election date still up in the air, whether a July 2 double dissolution or a regular election later in the year, it will regardless be Zimmerman’s first proper election as North Sydney MP. He will focus on the local environment, parks and public spaces, sporting facilities and supporting the local economy — and is tipping an early election.

“July 2, that seems to be where we’re heading. I hope the Senate crossbench comes to the table and is willing to support the ABCC bills, but you’d have to say, if you’re reading the tea leaves, it’s not looking likely that enough will,” he said.

“I think it will be a July 2 double dissolution.”

Rap Guide To Evolution

CHARLES Darwin and Dr Dre; evolution and Eazy-E; science and Snoop Dogg. Rap and the theory of evolution seem like the oddest of bedfellows from the outset, but according to Baba Brinkman – hip-hop artist, accomplished classical scholar, and the talent behind the smash-hit Rap Guide To Evolution – they are of the same world, separated only by time.

“There’s a lyrical artistry in rap analogous to the lyrical artistry in Shakespeare and Chaucer. Whatever age youre born into, you use the medium at hand,” Baba told the Mercury from his home in New York.

“For rappers today, making records is the way to reach the most people. In Shakespeare’s time, the way to reach most people was writing plays.”

Canadian-born Baba would know. He now travels the world performing his Rap Guide To Evolution, explaining Charles Darwin’s On The Origin Of Species in hip-hop format; the concept has its roots in Baba’s education, holding a Masters in Medieval and Renaissance English Literature where, for his thesis, he compared hip-hop and literary poetry. An aspiring hip-hop artist, he combined his study and hobby by penning a Rap Canterbury Tales, an ode to the Chaucer classic. He was later challenged by a British biologist to do the same for Darwin’s landmark theory of evolution.

“I hoped I could do it for a year or two,” Baba said. That was back in 2009, and five years later, is still selling out shows around the world and has returned to Australia for another national tour. While the worlds of academia and rap may seem miles apart, Baba said the two are inextricably linked through the most important tie of all – human nature itself.

“I don’t actually stray too far from traditional rap messages of sex and violence, but I point out that rap is about that for a reason, because they are evolutionary themes,” he said.

“They have a direct relation to reproduction and survival. Rap has deeper roots than people think when they normally hear it.”

Baba may be the only rapper to ever drop ‘artificial selection’ in a 16-bar verse. The show is constantly updated and revised after new scientific discovery or when lyrics are found to be inaccurate, with feedback welcomed. It is part history lesson, part science lecture, part concert and part comedy – the science is sound and actually peer-reviewed, with a live DJ and custom soundtrack, while the incongruity of breathless and breakneck rapping meshing with the pillars of evolutionary theory makes for a good giggle at times. Baba said the crowds are split evenly between older viewers wanting to hear the science elements, and younger crowds keen to hear rapping, and uses humour to make the two tribes aware of each other.

“I’ll make a rap reference to something only a hip-hop fan would get, then a literature reference an older person would get. They won’t all laugh at the same times, but it makes them know there are two types of literacy at work here – the rap and the science,” he said.

“The two types are playing off each other. They are both valid points, and it shows that each is missing something by not being aware of the other.”

With a grand finale song embodying the key evolutionary message – “don’t sleep with mean people” – The Rap Guide To Evolution has propelled Baba around the world since 2009, but he is hardly resting on his laurels. He is currently working on a Rap Guide To Wilderness, an ode to nature that will be premiered at the World’s Parks Congress in Sydney in November, as well as a Rap Guide To Religion.

“I conceived a trilogy of rap guides when I started this, guides to evolution, religion and human nature,” he said.

“I want to zero in on the major themes of humanity, and this one will be about conflict driven by religious behaviour. This is all scientifically-based stuff

(Illawarra Mercury, 11/6/14)

Parkside DJs

The freshest breath of air in Wollongong nightlife is not the small bar revolution, the revitalised live music scene or a brimming artistic community – it is six young DJs who got their break by making too much noise at house parties.

Their name is Parkside, referring simultaneously to a regular Sunday evening event at the Hotel Illawarra, a string of high-profile parties at venues including Centrepoint Tower and Novotel North Beach, and the friends and DJs Ben Beverley, Daniel Bresolin, Matt Brown, Chris Barker, Tarant Hill and Dean Relf.

Named for their Parkside Avenue home, scene of their original parties, Parkside have evolved from an occasional house music night to a multi-armed collective attracting attention from global dance music figureheads and bringing some of the genre’s best artists to the Gong.

“We would get together every Friday night and share music, because the music we liked was only really played in Sydney clubs,” says Beverley.

“We got sick of the music scene here because it didn’t cater to what we wanted to hear, so we started doing our own events.”

Beverley describes Parkside’s main offerings as house or deep house – a fusion of elements from soul, disco, R’n’B and deeper electronic sounds. In contrast to the hard-hitting, in-your-face top 40 remixes found most other nights in Wollongong clubs, Beverley says this more refined approach to music has found a willing audience in Wollongong.

“It’s a taste of a more international style of music, and it has certainly grown since we’ve been doing it. When we started, we’d been going out to clubs in Wollongong for a few years, and there wasn’t the option to hear this music here,” he says.

“Our parties are fun, but it’s also a case of the right timing. The house music scene has burst up all over the world.”

He credits Sydney record label Future Classic and producer Flume as flagbearers for a more intelligent notion of dance music. Parkside have brought top acts including Soul Clap, MK and Soda to Wollongong, and recently signed to booking company The Musique Agency. They have also been picked to play the Falls and Mountain Sounds festivals, and regularly play some of Sydney’s biggest clubs.

A new wave of Illawarra DJs and producers, including Nick Lynar, Dopeamine, Sideways and Alex Ludlow, as well as promoters This House Moves, Lair Lyf and Laze, have cropped up in the last few years. Along with regular Parkside events, all have helped place Wollongong firmly on the map as a new hot spot for the genre.
“There is lots of talent here now. It has always been here, but it is getting noticed a lot more now,” Beverley says.

“Melbourne and Sydney are still the biggest centres for this music, but Wollongong is not far behind as one of the next biggest places.”

While the six Parkside DJs invariably pack out their regular evenings at Hotel Illawarra – the next local party is on May 18, with Melbourne act Client Liaison – it is far from the only place to catch them. In varying combinations, the guys will play regular gigs at His Boy Elroy or Three Chimneys, pop up at an art launch, or land on the line-up of most other big events booked in Wollongong.

“Parkside wouldn’t have worked as well without that dynamic. Having six people means we can all maintain our jobs, not just one or two people hustling to make a living,” says Beverley.

“It is a hobby that has grown. We can be in six places at once if we have to, but we always try to have at least two of us at each event.”

They play the Flyover Bar in Sydney with Danish DJ Kolsch on May 17, but bigger things are in the works, including a bumper long weekend party and a summer on the Australian festival circuit.
Not bad for a few guys making noise at house parties.

(Illawarra Mercury, 14/5/14)

From Russia With Love

At 22, Stephanie Goldhahn has already etched her name into ballet record books. An eastern European odyssey of dance and drama – both on and off-stage – will come full circle for the Wollongong ex-pat, when she performs to hometown crowds with one of the world’s most celebrated dance troupes.

It truly is a case of From Russia With Love for Stephanie, as she returns from Moscow with the Imperial Russian Ballet’s production of Don Quixote, led by her boyfriend Daniil Kolmin in the titular role. After a frenetic few years bouncing between ballet schools and bolstering her resume with stints with a host of international companies, 22-year-old Stephanie has found a home with the Imperial Ballet for their current tour of New Zealand and Australia.

She is the first Australian ever to be selected to tour with the company.

“It’s difficult sometimes, because they only speak Russian, and I don’t speak it,” Stephanie says down the phone from New Zealand. She is one month into the three month tour of Don Quixote, having so far performed through Kazakhstan and one half of our neighbours across the Tasman.

While ballet dancers are more commonly compared to swans, Stephanie says she has more often resembled a different water creature.

“I stand around like a fish a lot of the time, they have to push me around to be in the right place in practise,” she laughs, saying her boyfriend is sometimes forced to act as a makeshift interpreter.

But aside from language barriers, Stephanie has another good reason for occasionally not being inch-perfect with her routines – while the rest of the troupe had been rehearsing together for months, she was forced to learn alone.

“I came in late, so I had to learn the moves from a DVD because I was still at my old job in Estonia,” she said.

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Her journey to Moscow was years in the making. After pestering her mother – a ballet dancer herself – from the age of four to be allowed to take ballet classes, Stephanie finally began learning the dance form at age eight. Dancing through Farmborough Road Public School then Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts, she left the government system at 17 to dance full-time at a Sydney ballet school while also studying through distance education – a short-lived combination.

“I decided I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer when I went to ballet school. I was doing distance education too, but it became too hard to do both,” Stephanie says.

“If you want to become a professional, you have to dedicate everything to ballet.”

She soon won a scholarship to study with Ballettschule Theater Basel in Switzerland, transplanting her life across the world. With a foothold in Europe, home of the world’s preeminent ballet troupes, Stephanie did not want to let the opportunity pass her by.

“It is difficult to find a job. It was expensive to travel to auditions, so I was worried I would have to go home or find a regular job,” she said.

She secured a spot with Teater Vanemuine in Estonia. While hardly a household name, Stephanie leapt at the opportunity extended her.

“Whatever country offered me a spot, I would take it straight away. I needed money to keep dancing,” she said.

She stayed with Teater Vanemuine for nearly two years. Working in Tartu, Estonia’s second largest city, classes and rehearsals were in English and life was comfortable, but would soon change when her Russian boyfriend, Daniil, shared news from him and a suggestion for her.

“He got a contract in Don Quixote, and told me to send an application to see if I could join the tour too,” she said.

She received the good news – an invitation to join the company on tour – while still in Estonia. The Russian troupe was a big step up from her then-current situation, and would offer a chance to return home for the first time in years, but her decision was far from simple.

“I worried about leaving my permanent job in Estonia, because Don Quixote was only a temporary contract,” Stephanie says.

“I knew money was coming in Estonia, but I didn’t know how long I would be working with the Russian ballet. I couldn’t go back to my old job if the Russian ballet didn’t work out, and it’s so hard to find jobs in this industry.”

In the end, however, the promise of greener pastures and new opportunities won out.

“I’m only a young dancer so it’s good for me to get experience with different companies and countries. I wanted to take a chance and see what happened,” she said.

Since then, it has been a whirlwind of manic practise and unintelligible Russian. Arriving in Moscow just a day before the company left for a week of performances in Kazakhstan, Stephanie has had to literally learn by doing; her only proper practises with the full company have been during warmups directly before each performance.

“I’m picking up some Russian, but it’s hard to communicate and understand corrections,” Stephanie says.

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The Imperial Russian Ballet begins its Australian tour on April 3, winding its way down the east coast before a trio of performances at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre on April 29, 30 and May 1. It will be Stephanie’s first trip home in several years, but as much as she would like a big happy homecoming, time is somewhat against her.

“We’re in Wollongong for three days, but I only have that first afternoon free to see my family and friends,” she laments.

“I’m organising a big dinner to see everyone. I’m excited for those few hours.”

The Australian tour finishes mid-May in Perth, but after that, Stephanie’s future is less than clear. She hopes she can parlay the Don Quixote contract into an ongoing role with the Imperial Ballet, but either way, a long stint in Europe is coming up.

“Working in Germany is a big goal. I don’t want to come back home just yet,” she laughs.

“I want to tick all the boxes in Europe before I come back.”

(Illawarra Mercury, 29/3/14)

A jump through the hoops

Running away to join the circus is something many children might think about, or even threaten their parents with after a particularly testy dispute about bathtimes or curfews. Travelling through the countryside as a gypsy, with clowns and elephants as your companions, fairy floss and popcorn for every meal and a bigtop tent as your bed – it is a dream for many a youngster disillusioned with broccoli for dinner and an early bedtime, but it is hardly an idea that is followed through with.

Shona Conacher knows she is living a dream.

At 19, most would be midway through a uni degree or taking their first steps into a full-time career. Instead, former Mangerton resident Ms Conacher is a veteran performer, having foregone the rigmarole of higher education for a balancing act of a different sort – setting up camp in the United Kingdom with the Commonwealth Youth Circus as a hula hooper, aerialist, juggler and acrobat as part of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

“I was travelling New Zealand for seven months as part of Circus Aotearoa, and my boss got an email saying the Commonwealth Games wanted performers for a project,” Shona says from an apartment in Glasgow, her new home base in Scotland’s biggest city.

A video application, requiring footage of various flexibility, strength and skill exercises, was fired off to organisers of the Commonwealth Youth Circus between shows on the Aotearoa tour of New Zealand. The circus tent had become her home between December 2012 and July 2013, and she had planned to return for another season in the Land of the Long White Cloud, but Scotland beckoned. October saw her trade Australian warmth for European cold as she joined 18 other young circus performers to prepare for a run of shows as part of the Commonwealth Games, but it was not until she arrived that she realised she was the only Australian – indeed, the only one from the southern hemisphere, and one of only two outside the UK – who had been selected.

“Most of the others are from the UK because the directors wanted to ensure a lasting legacy of the group after the project finished,” Ms Conacher explains.

“I’ve come the furthest.”

And come a long way, she certainly has. Shona began her circus life in 2004 with Half High Circus, the youth group of Circus Monoxide. After years of trying out other sports, she had finally found an activity that she clicked with.

“My parents made me and my brother do sports. He found soccer, but I never found anything I really liked,” Shona says.

“Mum worked at the Wollongong Art Gallery with [renowned Illawarra circus performer]Heidi Hillier, who convinced mum to put me into the youth circus classes.”

A natural aptitude for hula-hooping soon emerged, while she also showed talent for aerial silks. When Shona graduated from The Illawarra Grammar School eight years later, like many of her classmates, she faced a fork in the road, the all-important choice of a post-school path – but unlike most, whose choices were work, uni or travel, Shona’s choice was whether to take up an offer for further study, or take up an offer to tour New Zealand with a travelling circus.

“I was accepted to uni, but when I was at high school, I didn’t think I wanted to go right back to study after so long at school,” she said.

“I said it would be a trial year for me, to see if I could stick out seven months on tour – if I could handle the lifestyle, I would stick with it, but if not I could always come back home to do uni.

She took the second option, and the trial was passed with flying colours.

“I moved to New Zealand the week after I turned 18. It was my first time moving away from home, and there were moments where I thought it would have been easier if I just stayed and went to uni, but I don’t think I’d be nearly as happy as I am now,” Shona says.

Seven months in New Zealand flowed into what is now five months in Glasgow, training more than 20 hours a week with the rest of her Commonwealth Youth Circus troupe towards performances around the 20^th Commonwealth Games in July and August. She works fulltime around training – “it’s an office job, pushing papers” – which makes for long and hectic days, rather than the holiday dream life seemingly offered by the circus, but it is a lifestyle she is all too happy to keep living.

“I live with some of the other performers, and I get to see my friends every day. The circus is amazing, it’s such a family community,” she says.

“In the circus, , it feels like you have a family wherever you go in the world. As soon as I got here, these guys became my Glasgow family.”

“Other sports can be very demanding and competitive, but circus is different. It’s a great way to be active and do something you care about, with people who are caring. I don’t know anyone who does circus that doesn’t enjoy it.”

Long days and late nights are the routine, but the end goal is in sight. Shona and the CYC will perform a series of dates in rural Scotland alongside the Queen’s Baton Relay as it makes its way to the famed Celtic Stadium for the Opening Ceremony on June 23. The exact locations and venues are not known yet – “it’s top secret, we don’t even know where we’re going to perform,” Shona says – but the tour will be highlight of the young circus performer’s life.

Her eyes are trained firmly on July, and at this stage, it is difficult for Shona to gaze much past that date; but at only 19, she seems destined for a career dreamt of by children around the world.

“Circus makes me happy now,” she says simply.

“I’ll stop when it stops making me happy.”

(15/4/13)

Interview: John Butler

“I’m looking for my cousin, Josh Butler,” giggles the Australian-American hybrid accent as John Butler calls in from Fremantle.

Given the similarity in our names, and my role as writer of all things music as he remains one of our most popular and recognisable talents, it was perhaps inevitable the Butlers John & Josh would one day collide.

Ever since the dreadlocked, Californian-born bluesman broke out with 2002 LP Sunrise Over Sea, the two-letter difference in our names has been pointed out to me. Nicknames, misspellings on official documents, even one memorable occasion where – as a nervous Year 8 student – the cool Year 10 boys at the back of the classroom loudly hummed the iconic tune to ‘Zebra’ as I gave a presentation in a creative writing class.

So in a way, this interview about John Butler Trio’s new album Flesh and Blood and following mammoth Australian tour seems years in the making. For me, anyway; I’m sure John has no such feelings of destiny and cosmic alignment. He is enjoying the calm before the storm, the last shreds of downtime before a world tour spanning 2014.

“It’s nice having time to look after a garden, go camping or painting,” he says.

Born in Torrance to an American mother and Australian father, John moved to Australia as a child. Despite spending most of his life Down Under, his American roots aren’t obscured. The laidback SoCal drawl blends with a flat ‘Strayan accent, leaning heavily on the “r” as Americans do – “garrrden.”

It is four years since last album April Uprising, but Flesh and Blood has been sitting in the vault for over a year.

“Most of it was recorded in 20 days, then we took a bunch of time off,” he explains. Former drummer Nicky Bomba departed, prompting some rejigging of the Trio, and suddenly a December 2012 recording session becomes a February 2014 release.

John isn’t fazed, though.

“The songs hold their water. I still enjoy them after so long,” he says.

An 11-track offering of the folksy-rootsy-bluesy goodness which catapulted the John Butler Trio into Australian music royalty, Flesh and Blood formed through camping retreats and 4WD trips to Uluru and month-long jam sessions. A track-by-track explanation written by John talks of songs “wanting to come out,” lyrics “deciding to come.” It’s an ethereal, mystical way of thinking – that inspiration just appears at times, that creativity chooses or chooses not to come.

“Inspiration is a bit divine,” he muses.

“There are wild things out there. I see songs, I want to bring them in from the ether world. Every horse wants the reins on differently, you have to bring it in without breaking its spirit. No song or horse wants to be saddled the same way, written or recorded the same…”

He trails off.

“It’s an alchemic process, I don’t understand it. It’s hazy.”

What isn’t hazy, however, are plans for 2014. Flesh and Blood comes in from the ether on February 7. A big American tour starts that week, before a 15-date Australian tour rolls into an extensive European jaunt.

“The year is sewn up. It’s a challenge to stay in the present,” John says.

“It’s easy to hold your breath and wait to get to the other side, but for me it’s about being in that moment and finding things to enjoy along the way instead.”

(Illawarra Mercury, 29/1/14)

Interview: Arj Barker

They say you can’t rush genius. Arj Barker reckons you can’t force comedy either.

“I can’t write a new show every year. I need a year or more to go and experience life, have ideas, develop new material. I just sit down and create new jokes like a machine,” the American comic says.

“My best stuff comes naturally, from insight and experience, which you can’t force.”

Barker is undoubtedly one of the most recognisable faces to Australian comedy lovers. Since his first trip from native Los Angeles to Australia many years ago, Barker instantly endeared himself to audiences Down Under and they welcome him back with open arms on his yearly – or more frequent – tours here. From starring on televised comedy gala events, frequent appearances on programs including Spicks And Specks, Good News Week and the Great Comedy Debates, and a starring role on Flight of the Conchords, Barker has cemented himself as one of Australia’s favourite funny men. And it has largely been due to old jokes, apparently.

“When I first started touring Australia, I had 10 years of doing comedy in America, so I had a catalogue of material for a while that Australians hadn’t heard before,” he says.

“But now I have to come up with new stuff all the time.”

Every comedian, or even performer for that matter, has their own unique way of preparing or writing. Barker said he can’t make the laughs pour out; he just has to wait, and wait, and wait for inspiration to strike.

“I’ll try to write regularly, but my best jokes don’t come from that. Like last night I was watching Breaking Bad on my laptop, and this line popped into my head,” he says.

“I realised I could build a joke around it, but it usually takes time to turn it into a joke.”

He gives an example about a bucket list, or “things to do before you die”. The basis for a joke would be to take that sentiment literally, with examples like “slapping a grizzly bear in the face”.

“Because you’d die right after that,” Barker says.

“I had that, but it took a few years to turn that into a joke and find a good place for it in the show.”

Barker is back for his yearly Australian tour. After kicking off the massive jaunt last week, Barker will travel non-stop until the end of December, touring the entire country including a host of small regional centres along the way.

While stops like Mt Isa, Kalgoorlie and Alice Springs are not the must-do destinations on the map for a touring artist, Barker said he enjoys playing such places just as much as the big cities.

Interview: Anh Do

Anh Do is happy to sign autographs for his fans. He’s even happy to forge a signature or two.

“I was in the airport just before and a mother comes up and says ‘you’re my son’s favourite person in the world’ and asks for an autograph for him,” Do says from his Darwin hotel room. He’s in the Top End about to embark on another run of his wildly successful show, The Happiest Refugee.

“As I’m writing it, she tells me ‘you were by far the best Wiggle’. She thought I was Jeff from the Wiggles, so I ripped off ‘Anh Do’ and quickly wrote down ‘Jeff Wiggle’ instead.”

It’s the kind of story that rolls so easily off Do’s tongue, his warmth and good nature and kindness (which even extends to some light forgery so as to not disappoint a young boy) is obvious, even as he talks to the Mercury from the opposite end of the country.

Do is probably one of the nicest guys in Australia, as his TV appearances on Thank God You’re Here and Dancing With The Stars attest – but his affability belies the troubled beginning to his life, which forms the base of his best-selling autobiography, The Happiest Refugee, for which his new show is named.

“Certain parts of my childhood were tough, but there was always something good,” he says, recounting a story where his mother taped regular balloons to the roof at an early birthday party to imitate helium balloons.

Do escaped Vietnam with his parents and younger brother in 1980. His parents had fought in the Vietnam War on the side of Australian troops, so feared for their lives at war’s end.

A long trip in a leaky fishing boat, beset by two separate groups of pirates en route, including an incident when his brother was dangled overboard by a plunderer, saw the family settle in Australia.

Those experiences, as well as the struggles of growing up in a strange country with a new language, are what he recounts and recreates during the show, a live version of the book that won awards, including Book of the Year at the 2011 Australian Book Industry Awards.

“I never used to do this sort of show – I just did jokes – then one day I was having a beer with [Australian comedian] Dave Hughes and we were talking about family history, and he said I should do it on stage,” Do said.

“Dave said ‘make them laugh and cry, make it a whole journey’. It is a journey, but there’s no lack of laughs.”

Featuring photographs and videos of his childhood, as well as the regular stand-up comedy routines that fans know and love, Do calls the show a “rollercoaster” and says he ends up emotionally exhausted afterwards. But along the way, he has some laughs himself.

“The best photo is one of my brother. When we arrived in Australia, some nuns from St Vinnies gave us a big bag of second-hand clothes, but something got mixed up in translation, so we got half clothes for a boy and half for a girl,” Do said.

“Instead of giving them back, mum just dressed my brother in girls’ clothes until he was two years old. He hates those photos now.”

Do has been touring the show for a while now, and though this will likely be the last stage run, the story is probably not over for The Happiest Refugee.

“Russell Crowe called me on the phone one day, and said he wanted to turn it into a film,” Do said.

“I thought it was a prank call, but we’re doing the screenplay for it now.”

(Illawarra Mercury, October 23, 2013)

Angel of Hope: Don Woodland

Think of almost any tragedy, disaster or crisis in Australia in the last three decades. The Granville and Waterfall train crashes; the Thredbo landslide; the Port Arthur and Strathfield massacres; Cyclone Tracy; the Childers backpackers and Sylvania nursing home fires; the Newcastle earthquake; bushfires, car crashes, murders, accidents; and there is one constant factor.

It isn’t machinery malfunctions or system failures. It isn’t incompetence, sabotage, lack of foresight or plain bad luck.

It is trauma manager, Lieutenant Colonel Donald Woodland.

“The job of a trauma manager is to give hope to people involved in these terrible situations,” he said.

“Traumatised people can’t make a decision, can’t concentrate, they think something has gone wrong with their mind. My job is to settle them down, tell them they aren’t losing their mind or falling apart at the seams. To tell them what they’re feeling is quite normal.”

Lieutenant Colonel Woodland, 76, is one of Australia’s first and foremost voices on trauma management. In his 53 years with the Salvation Army, he served in the Vietnam War as part of the Brisbane-raised 8th Battalion; in becoming the chaplain for the Australian Capital Territory police and the New South Wales fire brigade, he became the first chaplain appointed to any statutory body in Australia; he established trauma management and counselling services throughout the country; and was a next-day responder for almost every major incident in Australia since the 1970s.

And this week, he was back in Wollongong for his first visit since the 2003 Waterfall train crash. Don was invited to the premiere of ‘Dead Man Brake’ at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, the production using verbatim witness accounts – including Don’s own recollections – to tell the story of the derailment which left seven dead.

“The fire brigade called me down there. They were still recovering bodies and the injured when I got there,” he said of arriving to the scene on January 31, 2003.

We had just watched the actors, including local man Phillip Hinton who plays Don himself, run through a dress rehearsal. A tangle of voices on stage rush through the testimony and reports of crash victims, intertwined with a whooshing, disorienting metallic shriek, representing the confusion and chaos of the crash’s immediate aftermath.

“We had other chaplains there too, to see all the families who start arriving. But my role down here, once the ambulances got the victims away, was caring for the carers.”

‘Caring for the carers’ is almost a motto for Don, the central tenement behind his 30-year association with Australian emergency services. Don connected with the ACT police in 1973, after a double fatality car crash in Canberra left responding officers deeply shaken; just as shaken as the shellshocked soldiers he had cared for in Vietnam.

“I realised these officers were feeling the same things as our fellas on the frontlines. They feel the same trauma as a witness or victim. They’re horrendously traumatised, just as a part of doing that job.” Don said.

“Trauma is not limited to a specific area of responsibility or activity. Trauma is a human thing. Where there’s a human, there’s a possibility of them being traumatised.”

Donald Thomas Woodland was born in Shanghai, China in 1937. He was the youngest of four children born to Salvation Army officers, who worked as missionaries in China for more than 21 years. It was a dangerous time to be in Shanghai. Escalating political and economic tensions between Japan and China in mid-1937 sparked the second Sino-Japanese war, as Japanese forces began bombing raids on the mainland. With their young children in tow, Don’s parents fled China. Not a moment too soon, either; the Woodlands’ boat from Shanghai home to Australia was the last to leave China before the Japanese occupation.

“We were evacuated out of the hospital two days after I was born, just as the Japanese were just starting to bomb everything,” Don said.

“I’m really one of the original boat people. I don’t have a birth certificate or anything.”

Don’s mother died of cancer when he was 10, and the family moved to Queensland. Attending several schools between Brisbane and Duaringa, he left formal education at 14 and began training in surgical footwear to work at a home for crippled children. He and wife Bernice were married in 1959 – “we were both 21, our birthdays are only 11 days apart” – and they entered the Salvation Army together the following year.

“My mum and dad were in it, that’s all I knew and I wanted to be a Salvation Army officer. At 21, I knew precisely where I wanted to go and that’s where I went,” Don said.

After three years with the Royal Australian Army’s chaplain program, Don was sent to Vietnam with the 8th Battalion out of Brisbane. After a 13-month posting, the battalion was recognised with the Vietnamese Presidential Citation.

“That was where I really got to grips with how to deal with trauma,” he said.

“In those days, nobody had heard of ‘trauma.’ Whatever happened, you just gritted your teeth and put up with it.”

It was 1973 when he would begin his association with the emergency services and 1977 would bring about the first major trauma management incidents he was involved with; the Granville train crash and the Blue Mountains bush fires.

That would begin three decades at the coalface of some of Australia’s most harrowing, horrific and shocking events. Don would take his skills in trauma and critical incident management and grief crisis counselling around the country, spending weeks at a time with grieving witnesses, victims or community members after accidents, natural disasters and murders. He worked with the Port Arthur community after the 1996 massacre, debriefed the jury of the Ivan Milat backpacker murder trial, and after forming a close bond with Thredbo landslide survivor Stuart Diver, conducted the funeral of Diver’s wife Sally. Over that time he would be awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to the community, and the Rotary International award of the Sapphire Pin and Service Above Self awards. Don has also received Salvation Army’s Order of the Founder award, published a biography, and been featured on Channel 9’s This Is Your Life television program in 1998.

There is a scene towards the end of Dead Man Brake, where Phillip Hinton, playing the part of Don, stands alone on stage and recites words Don had spoken in an interview with playwright Alana Valentine

“People ask me if I have a format, and I say no I don’t have a format because every situation is entirely different. There are similarities in responses but every set of circumstances is as individual as you could possibly get.”

After a career spent with people experiencing the very worst and lowest days of their life, Don could almost be expected to have absorbed that grief and shock into his very being, to be recalcitrant in reliving or recounting the trauma he encountered. But almost the opposite is true – and Don seems almost perplexed when asked whether his experiences, the stories he has heard and shared, affect him in any continuing way.

“I have sleepless nights, I have nightmares. I don’t dare say I don’t,” he said.

“But it doesn’t distress me, because I know why I feel that way. And when you have that knowledge, when you know what trauma is and what it does to you, that helps you cope with it and move through it.”

Don is a man willing to share the stories of the horror and the chaos he has spent his working life fighting against, in an attempt to have others recognise the devastating impacts that experiencing – or even being in close proximity to – a traumatic incident can have on the human psyche.

“It’s very interesting that, regardless of race or colour or creed or nationality, the human response to trauma is identical,” he said.

“It is a normal human response, but only in recent years have we come to understand what trauma can do. We can see what it did to our servicemen in war, but it can happen to anyone. A lot of it comes from problems we don’t deal with. Unless we control the problem, it controls us.”

There’s a religious quote he holds close to his heart; “God, you got me into this, you have to get me out of it.” He said the line gives him hope and strength – and a belief that, no matter how dark the day, it will get better.

Don carries colourful booklets around with him. A pink front page bears the words ‘body, mind, spirit,’ covering a pamphlet detailing what trauma is, what it can do to a person, and how to begin to fight it. Through our entire conversation, Don is at pains to stress every person he has ever dealt with has had their own individual reaction to what they’ve experienced; but throwing a broad net over the issue, someone experiencing trauma may have any or all symptoms on the list including nausea, chills, chest pain, rapid heart beat and breathing, sleep disturbance, difficulty making decisions or problem solving, confusion, memory problems, poor attention spans, numbness, and feelings of anxiety, abandonment, isolation or anger.

The wide-ranging and diverse responses to trauma are why Don does not subscribe to the notion of dispatching psychologists or psychiatrists to the scene immediately after an incident.

“People do not need counselling at that point in time. It’s impossible to counsel a person in the immediate aftermath because one of the immediate factors is shock,” he said.

“Shock can do devastating things to people. Sometimes people are in such a state, they don’t even know their name or where they live. It’s not much use asking them ‘how do you feel?’ because they don’t have a clue.”

Don’s techniques are not psychological or psychiatric in nature. He says he can’t say what he can specifically do for a person experiencing trauma because, as outlined, individual responses vary greatly from person to person. Sometimes he will take the person for a walk. Sometimes he will hold their hand or put an arm around their shoulder and listen. Other times, he will just quietly sit next to them, and wait until they are ready to talk.

“They say beauty is only skin deep. Our knowledge of a person is no deeper,” he said.

“My wife and I have been married 54 years, but there’s lots even we don’t know about each other. There are things I don’t know about my wife, any more than you know about my wife… Everyone is different, which is why there can’t be the same approach for everyone.”

Phillip Hinton, playing Don, is standing alone on stage and reciting words Don had said after Waterfall. Don is watching on as his own words, words he had spoken over a decade ago, echo back at him.

“You don’t say I understand what you’re going through. You hear it on the radio, you hear it with our media folk when they’re interviewing, ‘Yes, I understand’ They wouldn’t have a clue in the world… The only person, even after all these years of working in this field that I’ve worked in, I am only qualified to say ‘I understand’ to a nine year old kid whose mother’s just died. And all these years after my mother’s death, I’m not even sure I can understand how I felt.”

Of all the words Don has spoken to victims, witnesses or community members over his decades in trauma management, the phrase “I understand” was one he did not bandy about lightly. He never said it unless he truly did understand, which is why he would often immerse himself in the events and the scene to put himself in the mindset of the people he spoke to.

“Professionals say you cannot counsel or debrief a person about an incident you’ve been involved in, but I think that’s rubbish.”

“If I’ve been through the same situation, I have a fair appreciation of what theyre going through. Then, I can say that I understand.”

Excerpts from Dead Man Brake, copyright Alana Valentine 2013

Helping Hand For Many Less Fortunate

This article was part of a series on Illawarra people honoured in the 2013 Queen’s Birthday list. For the full complement of 14 stories, click here.

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Noel Causer’s years of service to communities as far afield as Victoria, Queensland and Papua New Guinea will be recognised today as the Corrimal man is posthumously awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.

Mr Causer died on May 18 at age 82, after 25 years of community service through Rotary, disaster relief programs in Queensland and Victoria, and spearheading social programs in PNG.

“He just saw a need to help people,” his wife Isobel said of her late husband’s extraordinary drive and commitment to the community.

“He was involved with so many different projects.”

Mr Causer moved to Wollongong in 1955, from Quandialla in rural NSW. Joining the Corrimal Rotary Club in 1989, and serving as president from 1995-96, he was a driving force behind many important ventures in his time with the club.

He founded and managed the successful Farm Aid project, giving farming families affected by drought, fire or flood the chance to have a holiday by the beach in Wollongong.

Mrs Causer said his work on Farm Aid – working with local businesses to provide free or cheap accommodation, meals and activities for rural families – was what he was most proud of.

“That was one of his greatest passions. Farming was his roots, he came from a farming family, so he knew what it was like,” she said.

“He was helping people who he felt a connection with. Right to the end, he was helping people from the country have holidays here.”

Mr Causer also gave time to fund-raising for the New Zealand earthquake and Japanese tsunami in 2011, Bulli Hospital, meningococcal research, and worked with the Leukaemia Foundation.

But his work in PNG, raising funds and awareness for causes including HIV/AIDS, local schools, community centres and hospitals, will perhaps form his most lasting legacy.

“He was involved with Rotary building a hospital in Kokoda, then with Interplast, a medical team for children with cleft palates,” Mrs Causer said.

He walked the Kokoda Track on several occasions during his “10 or 11” visits to PNG, his wife said.

“While he was doing that, he brought things to the PNG people like medical kits and equipment. He did one trip where he was showing films to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS.”

Mr Causer will today be recognised for his work with an OAM.

“He did know about it. The letter came about a fortnight before he passed away,” she said.

Illawarra Mercury, June 10, 2013