Political Games

As tax-paying non-Australians, we feel like we have now earned the right to complain about politics and the politicians.   So here goes our fifth-month-of-residency opinion.
As most people know, Julia Gillard is the Prime Minister of Australia.  She is the leader of the Labour Party, a position she has held since June of 2010 when she lead a caucus revolt against then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.  She was voted in as leader of the party and promptly called an election.  She was elected by the populace as Australia's Prime Minister in August of 2010.  The August election was a tight contest between Gillard's Labour Party and Tony Abbott, the leader of the Liberal Party and the opposition coalition.  (Interesting side note: neither of these two was born in Australia - Gillard was born in Wales and Abbott in England...we are still a British stronghold!)
Julia Gillard is sometimes seen as a bit wooden in her speeches and in her interactions with the public.  She made strong gains after the flood when she became very emotional in Parliament while relating the flood damage in a speech to the House.  She doesn't hold a lead in the polls, but right now no one in her party is calling for her to step down and there is no real threat of an election being called in the immediate future.  Overall she is seen as doing her job in an acceptable way. 
Tony Abbott, however, can't quite seem to catch a break.  He does not seem to be a natural in front of the TV cameras and doesn't have a "warm and cuddly" side.  During the summer election he was widely portrayed as Bible-thumping, iron-pumping and leaden-tongued. While we cannot say anything about the Bible-thumping part, we can certainly agree that the iron-pumping has some validity to it.  We can now see how the "leaden-tongued" part of the equation came to be.

"Ironman" Tony in his budgie-smugglers (aka Speedo)

In the past month Tony Abbott has been called out on three major issues.  The first issue is that he was opposed to the flood relief levy that all tax-paying Australians will be required to pay.  This wouldn't have been a problem if it was only opposed to the new tax, but he asked all those who didn't want to pay a tax to make a contribution to his Liberal Party to support them in fighting this tax.  When he was questioned about being anti-tax but pro-fundraising, he just said that it was party policy to always ask for money from supporters.  Then, when questioned about how he would pay for the necessary flood repairs, he suggested funding cuts to industries that support low-income earning Australians...this one baffles us.  Potentially the final nail in his public relations coffin is his commentary on an Australian soldier recently killed in combat.  He was speaking with a commander in the soldier's unit and when he asked about the circumstance's of the soldier's death, he was told it was not caused by poor equipment or any kind of bad decision.  After hearing this, Tony Abbott said, on camera, "I guess sometimes sh*t happens".  This may be true, and it is a valid opinion, but a new widow and anyone concerned about the military doesn't want to hear it.  His party said that he was taken out of context and a TV news reporter interviewed him about the comment and asked him what the context was.  And Tony answered with silence...an uncomfortable, lip-clenching, toe-to-heel rocking, darting-eyes silence from the man who was seen as the person who just shrugged off a soldier's death.  The party had really nothing left to say and even his supporters are silent about it right now.  Politics are all about opinions, and image is everything.  He has no choice but to hope for a Gillard melt-down and a quick election.

Having said all of that, it seems like most politicians specialize in poor decisions, and a spin doctor can only administer so much medicine.  Just to keep things fair, review the photo of our illustrious Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, below.  Five years on and he is still our leader.  We are not so high and mighty.

There are too many comments to make about this!

Koala Sanctuary

Having seen enough of giant spiders lurking everywhere we went, we decided to visit the Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane and see some cute and furry animals.  It was completely inundated during the flood and has just reopened.  It is not completely functional again, but all of the animals are back in their shelters and they seem to be pretty relaxed about the on-going repairs.

There were a few lizards, snakes and crocodiles, but we were there for the cute factor.  We started out in a paddock with what we thought was one emu and a couple of kangaroos.  There were actually about 10 emus and 100 or more kangaroos and wallabys.

Lounging Kangaroo

Thoughtful Wallaby

The kangaroos were in large groups, mostly gathered in shady spots under trees.  We saw a couple of wallabys hopping around but the kangaroos were all in full lounging mode.  Only one was moving around and that was just to get food.  She had a pretty sweet deal going.  She would stand on her hind legs and pose for a picture, then a tourist would give her a handful of food.  Good times for the kangaroo!

Posing Kangaroo

We also saw wombats, a tasmanian devil and a golden possum, all sleeping in little tunnels in their enclosures, birds of prey, a platypus and dingos.   And, of course, koalas.  Many, many koalas, all sleeping in their trees.  We only saw one that was making any kind of movement at all, and we think he was just after a new place to sleep. 

Napping koala

There were 6 or 7 different koala enclosures for the different groups and ages of koalas, there was even one called a retirement home!  We suppose the older koalas need a quiet place to sleep and get away from all of those other younger koalas...who are also sleeping. 

For all of these cute and cuddly guys that we saw, the coolest animals were the bats!  The night skies over Brisbane are teeming with bats.  They are very large and graceful and swoop all around tree tops and buildings.  Last night, after seeing bats up close at the zoo, we actually saw two bats landing in the trees and hang upside down from the low hanging branches.  Hopefully they were snacking on the big, gross spiders that live there.

Tangalooma

We have now settled in to some beautiful late summer weather, and yesterday took advantage of the sunny day with a day trip to Moreton Island.

Moreton Island

Moreton Island is the third largest sand island in the world (we were told).  It is located about 40km from Brisbane, across Moreton Bay.  Access is via a 75 minute ferry ride from Brisbane.  The island is a national park and heavily regulated.  The Tangalooma resort is the only game on the island and they provide all services, including restaurants, groceries and all recreational.  All beach activities and nature activities (snorkeling, sand toboganning, fishing) are associated with the resort.  There is a man-made reef for snorkeling, created by scuttled boats. 

Mad-made reef

The Tangalooma site was formerly a whaling station but has now been converted to a resort (the old flensing sation, where the whales were hauled out of the water and processed, is now a covered games area.)  There are a few private residences, but they were all on the cusp of the resort property. 

For all of the commercial aspects of the resort, it really is a quiet natural area.  In the height of summer it could be a different story, but we were able to find a section on the beach where there were only three or four other people, there were no sea-doos or loud boats.  The only activity we saw was a group of about 4 dune buggy vehicles travelling along at about 1km an hour and a few people trying to learn how to use a Segway.  We really felt like we had the entire resort to ourselves.

Quiet beach (we weren't lying!)

The beaches are beautiful white sands in a very quiet harbour.  We were able to walk out about 200m from shore and still stand with our feet on the sand, the water no higher than our shoulders (mid-stomach for Jim).  The water was like a tepid bath and the sand was hot enough to cook an egg (an interesting concept but, like having a floor clean enough to eat off, not necessarily practical).  We spent a couple of hours swimming and relaxing in the sun and were still home by six.  We were expecting a crowded and commercial resort, but it was a very pleasant surprise and we will definitely be back.

What next?!

Here we sit, three weeks after the "flood of the century" in Brisbane and we are once again battening down the hatches.  We are now officially in cyclone season.  Tropical Cyclone Andy, a category 2, hit the area around Bowen on the weekend, about 1000km north of Brisbane.  This is in the area that was hit by flooding back in December.  Cyclone Andy brought wind gusts of up to 120 km/h and torrential downpours which caused some localized flooding.  Andy was just the precursor, as he has a looming big ugly sister called Yasi which is striking much fear in the hearts of even the most seasoned Queenslanders.

Radar photo from the US Environmental Satellite Service, the coast of Australia is on the left hand side with CT Andy showing up as a green circular object.  The behemoth red bull's eye in the centre of the photo is Tropical Cyclone "The Big One" Yasi

Yasi, potentially a category 5, is expected to make land fall in the same area as Andy on Thursday morning.  The winds will be more powerful than what was seen with Andy and this could also demolish ports and beaches, cause massive flooding (just what we all need), destroy buildings and infrastructure, and rip up trees.  Residents in the area have been told to have food and water supplies and expect to be without power and water for up to four days.  On a positive note, since the 1960's, architectural design has vastly improved so most buildings of that era and newer were built to withstand cyclones, and these homes are not being evacuated.  Brisbane is much further in the south from Yasi's eye and should get off lucky with only more rain and wind than usual, but cyclones have ventured this far south before.

There are some rather graphic headlines on news and weather sites, such as "Residents Urged to Flee Monster Cyclone", "Cyclone Yasi Sets its Evil Eye on Cairns" and, our personal favourite, "Flood Escape Turns to High Drama for Cyclone Virgin" (we didn't really read that one, but it is well worth mentioning!)

Now we will have seen flooding and a cyclone, as well as a locust cloud in New South Wales that was so large they could track it by satellite. 

If all this wasn't enough to make you think the world has gone mad, yesterday morning we found a gecko in our dishwasher!  And that wasn't even the worst thing that we found in our house yesterday, as we had to unload a massive amount of bug spray on a spider the size of a doughnut!  That was our home-version of "the big one" and we will be perfectly happy not to have to deal with one ever again.

Work Update

Santos Place, overlooking the Brisbane River

Over the past couple of years Santos, and a number of Australian based companies, have been working towards supplying the markets in China and other Asian countries with natural gas sourced from coal seams, called coal seam gas (CSG), similar to the CBM plays in Canada.  These deals involve the federal and state governments and require approvals from different levels of government and different interest groups, including landowner and environmental groups.  In addition to getting approval from all of these groups, the company also requires approval from it's own board and the boards of the partnership companies.  On January 13, Santos achieved the green light and released the final investment decision (FID)...the project was officially declared a "go".

This is a very big deal, much bigger than anything that either of us have been involved with before.  The Weekend Australian reported the numbers this way: Santos, with it's partners Petronas, Total and Kogas, are building a liquified natural gas (LNG) plant at Gladstone, 550 km north of Brisbane on the north-east coast of Queensalnd, that will have the capacity to ship 708 million tonnes of LNGs per year.  The LNG plant will be ready to start shipping in 2015.  This project has a capex of $18 Billion and will create 5000 jobs over the next few years, as the plant is built and becomes operational.  This is not the only LNG project that is ramping up right now, BG/CNOOC/Tokyo Gas have a project valued at $18 Billion and Origin/Conoco have a $35 Billion project (wow).  All of these projects will be on stream by 2015 and will create thousands of jobs along the way, both temporary and permanent, including the two that we have! 

Happy Australia Day!

Today, January 26 2011, marks 110 years since the Commonwealth of Australia was officially formed.  From what we have been able to glean together from various internet sources (not always reliable but very convenient) Australia has been inhabited by Aborigine people for thousands of years but the written history of Australia goes back to the early 1600s, when Tasmania was mapped by a Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman.  Zoom ahead more than 100 years to 1770, when Captain James Cook landed in Botany Bay.  In 1788 the penal colony of Sydney was established, also on January 26, and the exploration and settlement of Australia began.  In 1901 the federation of the states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia formed the country that we now call home.  There are also various territories, including the Northern Territory, which was not part of the official group comprising the original commonwealth (we think). 
This Australia Day was unusual in Brisbane because of the devastation wreaked by the floods only two weeks ago.  We were told that there is normally a big celebration at Southbank and a fireworks display, but none of that was possible this year.  Southbank is still cordoned off to the public and the crews who would set up the fireworks have far more important things to do.  It is also pretty tough to budget for fireworks when there is talk of a new tax or "flood levy" that all Australians will be paying in 2011 and beyond. 
For our first Australia Day we decided to walk to the CBD for lunch and then head to the greyhound races!  When we sat down in the pub for lunch we asked if they would mind turning on the Australian Open tennis for us, rather than a cricket match rebroadcast from 1987 and a footie match.  Not only did they turn on the tennis, they decided to show the live footage of the Montreal Canadiens-Philadelphia Flyers hockey game.  We sat in 32C heat watching live hockey...how crazy is that!

We went to the dog races for the first time ever and really enjoyed it.  We saw only young dogs new to racing and some of them were completely clueless.  They take the young dogs to the side of the track and let the "rabbit" (it's actually a rag on a stick) run around the track past them so that they know to chase it.  The races are about 300m and the dogs didn't seem too tired afterwards, so we think they had a good time too.
We know that Australians have a fantastic reputation for being friendly and caring and that was certainly seen with all the volunteering and flood relief that we have seen over the past coule of weeks.  Even with knowing that, we had some big misconceptions about Australia before we moved here.  The first one was that Australia was a totally macho society.  Not only is the Prime Minister female, three of the states have female premiers.  Not exactly the man's world we were expecting!
Our second misconception, that moving to a city of 2 million people would result in seeing more crime than we did in Calgary, was realized yesterday when we came home from work and noticed that our city-provided garbage wheelie bin was missing.  We walked around the block and couldn't see it at anyone else's place and decided that someone must have nicked it.  We thought that due to all the flood clean-up going on someone just needed it.  When we got home today, however, it was back on our driveway.  It was only borrowed, not stolen and returned a little dusty but not really any worse for wear.  Another prejudice proven wrong!

Long road

The long road to recovery has now begun.  We were back at work on Monday the 17th and the entire CBD, excluding the portion near Eagle St Pier, was up and running. 

Eagle St Pier Business , fenced off for repairs January 22 (Blackberry photo)

Clean up started right away and many businesses were able to open mid-week.  The biggest problem for most people who were not flooded, was the lack of power.  All substations in flood areas were turned off.  It depended on how many homes and businesses were connected to the substation for how quickly it was reactivated.  Our substation was in a flood zone but was not flooded and it was back on within 55 hours of being turned off.  Many substations had massive residential connections and have not yet been turned back on, for fear of electrical fires in houses that have now been damaged.  There is also a problem with apartment buildings that had flooding in the underground parking garages.  If the electrical panel and all power systems were in the garage, everything needs to be inspected and potentially replaced prior to being recertified and turned back on.  We know of many people living in apartments who had no flooding in their units, but there was either water in the substation or in their electrical systems.  They were without power for a week...a week of hot weather (+30C, finally) and no air conditioning.  We would have made for a hotel and paid for the cool!  Clearly we are not yet Australians.