An article in The Age today quotes the John von Doussa of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission suggesting that not having a national paid maternity leave scheme is government (un)supported "punishment" to women for having children.
I think there are a lot of assumptions in that statement that bare pointing out:
I say all this because I can't help but think the issue of paid maternity leave would be a non-issue if we lived differently.
Lots of people have children. But these days we do it alone.
These days everyone lives with their immediate others in their own dwelling. They often live far from work, forcing the separation of family and work. You certainly could never bring a child to work. Most styles of work these days wouldn't support it. Hardly any businesses provide in-house childcare. We don't live with our extended families anymore. Retirees holiday or move to where it's warm. Or they can't afford to retire, working until they're 70 or older. They don't stay home to look after the grand children. Neither do your friends or family. They're working. Or tens of kilometres away.
A grand shift toward the family unit, separating it even from extended family and certainly from society as a whole.
It seems that if you have a child, western society expects you to look after it by yourself, and to do it as far away from other people as possible. Further, they expect you to finish it up as quickly as possible and get back to work. And they expect that that is exactly what you want to do to.
A conflict of ideas if I ever saw one. The right (and expectation) to work vs. the right to take time off work and do as you wish. And the complete walled-off separation of home and work that both concepts infer.
I can't help but this this is a (relatively) new attitude caused by everything from reliable contraception (making having children a choice), the move toward mortgages and rent requiring two salaries, to a shift from working for yourself (farming, small business) to working for someone for a wage.
We used to share our childcare duties amongst family and friends (right down to breast feeding). Women used to take their newborns with them to work. Work used to be home used to be work. Work used to be a communal activity.
I wouldn't say having no maternity leave punishes families for procreation.
I'd say our new attitudes to work and how we live punishes us for procreation.
Disclaimers: I have no idea what I'm talking about. I don't have children. I love living by myself with my partner away from all you stinky humans. I have done no reading on the history of the family and so there could very well be no "shift" at all. I support paid maternity leave, I think it's the best solution to support both procreation and the right to work. I don't support the baby bonus. I don't think paid maternity/paternity leave is unfair on those without children anymore than sick leave is unfair on those who don't get sick or berevament leave for those who never suffer through death.
I think perhaps the "PG warning" on the barrier hiding the window into the autopsy room was a little understated.
It was all fine until he decided the pruning shears he was using to cut open the animal weren't strong enough so he pulled out a massive saw and started hacking into it's lower jaw. Looking at a koala's organs just seemed unreal, but sawing at an animals face with a giant saw looked like it would hurt even if you were dead.
Oh yeah, and when he casually said "oops, got a bit of blood on he window there."
That was pretty special.
No photos. I didn't want to look weird.
East Brunswick Club - 12th May 2007
We'd never been to the East Brunswick Club before, the fact it has been around in it's current form for only a year probably explains it. Their set up is odd, with the toilets outside of the band room so the entry stamp is king. The gig room only holds around 450 people and the night was sold out.
We had a pretty darn good pub meal (parma!) next door with a bottle of Coopers Red. A pot of Carlton on entry to the band room tasted like swill. No more beer for me.
The support act is barely worth talking about.
Secret Chiefs 3 come on around 11 to the cheers of a full venue. Very good attentive crowd. Amusing calls for "shush" at before the band begin. Rarely in the night does anyone scream anything stupid (except a few "FIRE!" between songs, a pretty obscure SC3 first album joke).
We were right in front of the right speaker and as a result got a very chunky mix of mostly guitar/bass and drums. The flute and sax seemed to be mixed most in the left speaker and they were hard to hear. The chunky mix seemed to effect the band though and every song felt heavier and rockier than when I've heard them before. The whole band were having a ball, head banging to their own rock.
The band played three sets with a ten minute break between set one and set two and a very short break between set two and set three. They played a good mix of tracks, leaning more toward newer songs but dropping in a few old favourites.
I was especially impressed with their violin (and occasional trumpet and guitar) player. When I last saw them way back in 1998 I fell in love with Eyvind Kang and was disappointed he wasn't on this tour. Timb Harris from Estradasphere took on the violin (and trumpet, and guitar) and he was absolutely perfect. Every bit the showman and front man Eyvind managed to be back in 1998. I hope Estradasphere manage to tour Australia one day.
It was past 1am by the time we left. Couldn't have been happier. Looking forward to the Corner tomorrow night.
Corner Hotel - 13th May 2007
A nice surprise greats us when we finally get let in (they open the doors 40 minutes late). Bar McKinnon is playing in the support band Umlaut. I'd describe them as sounding like "a third of the writing team of Disco Volante". You can take that as well or as badly as you like.
Secret Chiefs 3 come on around 10:20 after a horrible wait. The crowd is a worse mix of fans vs. drugged up morons. It seems The Corner Hotel is a magnet for idiots these days. The no-smoking rule was blatantly ignored by a at least five people within my line of sight. And chatting during the show wasn't the faux pa it was at the East Brunswick. Also, the worlds tallest man show must have been in town as a good quarter of the men in the crowd seemed to be over six foot tall.
As it was I managed to have a pretty good view most of the night and only got smashed in the back a couple of times by the one-man-mosh behind me. If only someone had given him a muzzle.
The mix was "better" tonight, each instrument clearly audible in the mix when listened for, but I missed the chunkier mix of the night before. It was great to hear what Bar was doing on the flute and sax though. The whole band seemed a little tighter tonight.
Similar set to the night before with two or three songs changed.
They thanked us for our custom with a forth set, a single song encore.
Wrapup
The gigs were twice as good as I expected, although I had deliberately lowered my expectations. Far more energetic than expected, and the attentive crowd at the East Brunswick Club really helped the atmosphere there.
I think I'll have to avoid The Corner Hotel as a venue from now on. It's a pity because I really like the place. They have Mountain Goat on tap, they've banned smoking well before they had to, and the newly upgraded beer garden and kitchen is fantastic. But the idiot crowd ruins everything.
The friends I went with who hadn't heard much or any of the band loved it, perhaps even more than I did, and that couldn't make me happier.
Certainly the last few times I've rocked up with a cold I've been given that new stuff that doesn't work. I'm too scared to ask for anything else although I'm told that all you have to do is ask.
And yet, this morning I walked in, asked for "something for a head cold" and was given chemist generic brand Pseudoephedrine with a smile and a "get well soon".
Perhaps I look really sick.
I little research indicates some are asking for a complete ban of Pseudoephedrine, while others are saying that would triple the sick days people took which would of course destroy the economy and economy is god apparently.
Chemists are supposed to ask you for identification only if you are suspected of collecting cold tablets.
I guess I don't look like whatever that looks like.