Vale Claude Durand

Today I was informed of the death of a long time friend Claude Durand. Claude was a retired school teacher in the French village of Hendecourt where he took an abiding interest in the Battle of Bullecourt which was situated virtually on the town’s doorstep. I first made my acquaintance with Claude in 1984 when I wrote to him after seeing an article about him in the Age newspaper. At the time Claude had expressed an interest in translating the writings about the battle by war historian C. E. W. Bean. We tossed around the idea of pairing Bullecourt and Emerald as sister towns, an idea that never found fruition. I found I was only one of hundreds of Australians to whom Claude had extended his welcoming hand….

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Lone Pine Backflip

It is rare that I agree with any idea advanced by the Liberal/National COALition but I had no problem with the recent decision to abandon the Lone Pine ceremony at Gallipoli on Anzac Day. Quite frankly the Dawn Service at Anzac is enough to commemorate the campaign and all that occurred within it. How many prompts for reflection do we really need? Predictably the RSL and shock jocks got their knickers in a knot over the issue. Bill Shorten, thinking he was on a winner, declared we should never forget the Anzacs and shot off a letter to the PM. The government has now compromised and will offer a wreath laying ceremony at Lone Pine on Anzac Day eve as well as holding a formal ceremony on the anniversary of the battle’s commencement on 6 August.

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An open letter to Bill Shorten

Dear Bill

In siding with the COALition on asylum policy you and your spineless colleagues have shredded the slim hopes I had held for a compassionate alternative government for Australia. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. It was a Labor government that introduced mandatory detention in 1992 with no limit to the length of detention. It was sold as an interim measure then. You’ve got to laugh otherwise you’d cry. While I understand that pragmatism and compromise in politics is an inevitable part of the game the ALP’s decision not to support the Green’s motion to grant amnesty to the 267 refugees revealed its complete lack of understanding about the issue of refugees. Six state and territory leaders, appealing to the same voters as you Bill, were able to see through the pointlessness of sending these families back to an abusive environment at Nauru but not you. Church leaders and doctors are prepared to take a moral stand but not you Bill. Bill, you are under the deluded impression that the ALP lost the 2013 election because of the asylum seeker issue. You are wrong.

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