BethSpencer.com

Vale Margaret Whitlam: a woman to look up to (a short girl says thank you)

I was so saddened to hear of the death of Margaret Whitlam (nee Dovey) yesterday, described by her husband Gough as ‘a remarkable woman and the love of my life.’ She was 92, and they would have been celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary in a few months.

[Margaret Whitlam as a young woman]

You can read more about her amazing life and the tributes pouring in from such a wide range of people, from all sides of politics, at the news sites, e.g here at news.com.au, the Brisbane Times, and at the ABC site (the latter includes a 28min video from the 70s).

I just wanted to say thank you, Margaret, for being such an amazing woman, and such a stunning role model to a young girl in the 1970s.

I was brought up on statements like ‘You can’t have love and a career’, ‘Men don’t like girls who are loud [ie opinionated]’, and ‘Education breaks up marriages.’

Girls had to be less educated, earn less, talk less, be weaker, and most importantly shorter than the men around them to get along.

Tall girls were to be pitied (they were even being given experimental hormone therapy in those days by concerned parents and doctors). At least I was short. The talking and the opinions thing, well that still needed a lot of work.

[Gough and Margaret Whitlam, It's Time campaign photo for the ALP, 1972] Into this world, through the successful 1972 ALP ‘It’s Time’ campaign, strode Margaret Whitlam. A woman of stature in every sense of the word, well-educated, who spoke her mind freely, and was obviously beloved not just by her Prime Minister husband but by most people who met her.

If women could be really really tall and imposing and take up space and still succeed in life, then to me it seemed they could be and do anything and everything.

Thank you, Margaret Whitlam, for your big heart, big voice, and your refusal to be nothing but your best self. Go well.

*just for the record, according to one source, Margaret Whitlam was 188cm tall.

** Further reading: see Susan Mitchell’s biography of Margaret Whitlam. I also recommend Jenny Hocking’s biography Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History, with the second volume due out later this year.

Please scroll down if you’d like to add a tribute or comment.

Housing Asylum Seekers in the Community: the costs and benefits of community detention and the real story behind those reports of ‘luxury packages’

For those who were sickened by the front page ‘news’ in the tabloids last week about luxurious goods given to asylum seekers — sickened because they believed it, or sickened because they knew in their hearts it was lies — here’s a link to the real story:

‘The real story on community detention’, Champions of Change: Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (Feb 19 2012) – http://www.championsofchange.org.au/?p=827

The details are here, and show that this is hardly luxury. The maximum package of goods – of $9850 – is for 9 or more people. They also get an allowance that is less than newstart to buy food and utilities, because they are not allowed to work. As they have no way in which to earn money, without the household set-up packages, they would be living in bare houses. Nor do Asylum seekers get to keep the goods when their detention is over. They are re-used for the next tenants, so it’s a one-off cost, not a gift.

Please share this report widely. Link to it on Facebook if you can. This kind of hands-on passing of quality information around is so important in these times when the mass media is so controlled by destructive interests.

Here’s a few snippets from the report:

“The shift to move 30% of the detention population into community processing in 2012-13 is expected to result in savings of $400 million.”

And:

“According to Ms Kate Pope, First Assistant Secretary of DIAC, asylum seekers who live in community detention/processing have improved physical and mental health outcomes and are more likely to positively integrate into the Australian community because they:

‘have more responsibility for managing their own lives, can be expected to experience better mental health because they are living and operating as a person normally would. Improved family relationships are a consequence as well. Clients also have the opportunity to regain some of the living skills that they would have lost in the journey and in, potentially, their time in Indonesia, in detention and so on… Similarly, for those granted visas, a better understanding of life in Australia and opportunities to learn some English, make connections in the community and so on, should enhance their settlement prospects.’

“Community detention/processing also reduces the future costs on the welfare and health systems that asylum seekers who endure life in prolonged detention inevitably have to access. As Ms Pope continues to state:

“We also expect to see some reduced downstream costs… including the cost of mental and physical health services, family intervention services and other support programs. And there is the potential that time in community detention could facilitate a faster entry to the workforce once someone does get a visa. Clients are allowed to volunteer, so the opportunity to volunteer with an organisation or what have you, may lead to the opportunity for a job later on.

“Finally, Ms Pope points out that ultimately asylum seekers just want to get on with living their lives and that community detention/processing is the best way to ensure this happens:

“We now have a growing bank of experience with vulnerable adult men, and the level of incidents and issues with them is surprisingly low, to date. They appear to get on with their lives and take the opportunities that community detention offers. When they are assessed as being in a state where that might be beneficial to them they also have the opportunity to move onto bridging visas and therefore to work.”

Thanks so much to all those at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre for preparing this report and for all they do.