The Western Independent, Volume 20 Number 2, October 2014

OCTOBER 2014 – Volume 20 No 2

A FREE NEWSPAPER PRODUCED BY CURTIN UNIVERSITY JOURNALISM STUDENTS Visit

Avocado surplus

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at http://inkwirenews.com.au

Penguin problems

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Ebola takes toll

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Burning rubber page

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Parole anomaly traps prisoners David Pekel Almost 60 prisoners are ineligible to complete a program that would increase their chances of being released on parole because of an anomaly in WA’s sentencing laws.

All WA prisoners sentenced before November 1996 are subject to the Offenders Community Corrections Act 1963. They cannot access the same programs, including one aimed at resocialising them before release, as prisoners sentenced under later legislation.

Among the prisoners affected by the anomaly is Kurt Russel Seel, who was sentenced in 1995 to a life jail term for the murder of a Perth hotel manager.

He was made eligible for parole after 17 years, but his parents believe a recent rejection of his parole application was based on his failure to complete the re-socialisation program.

They have asked Labor MLC Stephen Dawson to raise the issue in State Parliament.

Kath Seel said her son’s inability to complete the program was “the only thing keeping him in there”.

Mr Dawson said he planned to ask the State Government why it was taking so long to change WA’s sentencing laws.

He said he would ask Corrective Services Minister Joe Francis “if and when” an amendment was expected.

“It is an anomaly. It seems unfair to those sentenced under the old

VINYL: IMMORTAL MUSIC.

tenced prisoner to engage in a relegislation,” Mr Dawson said. socialisation program,” Mr Cock said.

“Given the weight the Prisoners “This does not preclude a prisReview Board places on these prooner sentenced under the Offenders grams, it seems grossly unfair that Community Corrections Act 1963 from only people sentenced after 1996 are being eligible for release to parole.” eligible.”

Mr Cock said releasing prisoners who Mr Francis said Attorney-General had not completed the program could be Michael Mischin was already drafting “destabilising” for them. It also created the legislation. a risk to the community.

He said it was important to note that He said the board might not be consome prisoners sentenced under the old vinced a prisoner was ready for release laws had been able to secure release if the prisoner had to parole without a re-socialisation pro“It seems grossly not completed the course. gram by “formulatunfair that only According to ing a viable parole the board’s 2013plan”. people sentenced 2014 Annual Ms Seel said the Report, 57 prisonPrisoners Review after 1996 are ers are serving jail Board rejected her terms that were son’s application eligible” handed down to be released from under the old sentencing laws.

Bunbury Regional Prison on parole The Department of Corrective in 2012 despite the support of a comServices says on its website that remunity corrections officer and three socialisation programs last between six psychologists. and 24 months.

The board is responsible for approvDuring that time, the prisoners take ing parole applications, but the part in supervised and unsupervised Attorney-General has the final say for activities outside the prison. prisoners serving a life sentence.

Seel was found guilty of stabbing Prisoners Review Board chair Robert Chris Norvilas to death in the penthouse Cock said re-socialisation programs suite of the Kings Hotel, in Perth. were an important part of the parole His Playboy playmate girlfriend was process. He said it was particularly found guilty of being an accessary. important for prisoners who had served The jury rejected Seel’s defence that long sentences. he had been provoked by Mr Norvilas.

“The board is mindful that there is no Disclosure: Stephen Dawson is the provision in the Offenders Community partner of the author’s brother.

Corrections Act 1963 for a life-sen-

FLASHBACK: Seel was convicted in 1995.

PHOTO: ©The West Australian.

Photo essay page 10.

October 2014

2 Visit Inkwire for Curtin journalism news www.inkwirenews.com.au EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joseph M Fernandez STAFF EDITOR Sean Cowan STUDENT EDITOR Rhiannon Shine DEPUTY EDITOR Tyrone Thwaites NEWS EDITORS Timothy Roberts Saket Dongre FEATURES EDITORS Hannah Lawrance Samantha Saw PHOTO EDITORS Tyne Logan Grace Chineegadoo PRODUCTION MANAGERS Rebecca Metcalf David Cumming SPORTS EDITOR Zach Relph ARTS EDITOR Brittany Langley CHIEFS OF STAFF Holly Hazel Christie Bosworth Jon Solmundson Emma Griffiths CHIEF SUB-EDITOR Luke Illich DEPUTY CHIEF SUB Heather Miller SUB-EDITOR Hannah Barry SUB-EDITOR/CHIEF BAKER Lucy Rutherford TEACHING STAFF Nicole Cox Kerry Faulkner Chris Thomson Bonita Mason Kathryn Shine Sean Cowan

NEWS

A message from the student editor “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

– Theodore Roosevelt.

If you are looking for a 9am-5pm job, journalism is not for you.

Journalism is a 24-hour calling.

If you are someone who shies away from challenge and would prefer the answer handed to you, rather than digging it up – wrong industry.

I remember being told in my first introductory print lecture: “Journalists don’t have an off button”.

I now understand what that means.

Because every conversation we have, every thing we see, taste or smell, is a potential story.

But don’t expect that just because you get a whiff of a story it’s going to fall neatly in your lap.

Journalism is frustrating, infuriating and heart breaking.

It takes courage, determination and drive.

We have come to expect that you

will get hung up on, yelled at and rejected at least once in your career.

Almost every story you write is bound to piss someone off.

But when you manage to push through all of that and produce something worthwhile, despite all of those hurdles, there is no feeling more gratifying.

The Western Independent gave many of us our first taste of that deep fulfilment because of all the challenges it presented.

And it’s completely addictive.

One particular asset many of us acquired during our time working on the Western Independent is a built-in BS radar.

It is an alarm system that rings in our brains whenever something is not quite right.

It asks us: “Did that person really say that? Where did this information come from? Where are the facts? Is this trustworthy? Does this person have an agenda?”

Our BS radars prompted a mantra that

echoed around the newsroom throughout production week: “Attribution, facts, balance”.

Although we are a small newspaper, we subscribe to the highest standard of ethical and legal principles.

As the semester draws to a close and another successful issue of the Western Independent hits Perth, we will reflect on the rollercoaster of emotions that

production week produced.

We feel both exhausted and elated.

We are sad to say goodbye to our Curtin newsroom roles.

Our biggest challenge yet has been by far the most rewarding and we can’t wait to get out there and put these skills to further use.

— Rhiannon Shine.

Public private schools will burn taxpayers – McGowan Jesinta Burton The Opposition has criticised the State Government over its plan to have eight new Perth schools built using public private partnerships.

The partnerships allow companies to finance, design, build and maintain public schools, while also receiving government funding.

Opposition Leader Mark McGowan said the State Government was being forced to turn to the private sector to help build schools because it had mismanaged the budget.

“I don’t have any faith that they’ll be able to manage this process and I’m concerned that WA taxpayers will get burned,” he said.

A 2008 study by the National PPP Forum showed that while projects formed under a partnership agreement were often delayed, they were 31.5 per cent cheaper on average than “traditional” counterparts.

Education Minister Peter Collier announced the $370 million scheme in early October and said the skills of educators and building managers would

be used to get the best value for money.

He also said the contracts would have clearly defined performance measures and timelines.

“The company that builds the school won’t get paid until it’s finished and then it’ll need to maintain the building for 25 years,” he said.

“This means it’s in the company’s interest to stay on time and on budget, and to construct quality school buildings.

“The project company only receives payment when the school is operational and payments can be deducted if performance measures aren’t met.”

State School Teachers Union president Pat Byrne said the union was concerned infrastructure previously owned by the public would now be lost to the private sector.

“We are concerned the private companies will cut corners in building and maintenance in order to maximise their profits,” she said.

“The impact to us is obvious.

Private companies are in it to make a profit, not to create the best learning environment for students.”

Mr McGowan said he looked

UNDER FIRE: Minister Peter Collier (left).

into the issue when he was Education Minister in the former WA Labor Government.

“The general view, at that point in time, was that it would be unwise for WA schools to enter into PPP arrangements as it would increase the Department of Education’s recurrent costs, over time,” he said.

“There would also be less control over the schools by the relevant agencies and the savings are generally minimal or non-existent.”

Mr Collier has asked the private sector for expressions of interest to build and maintain the new schools.

PHOTO: State Government.

He said primary schools would be built using PPPs in Landsdale, Alkimos, Baldivis and Byford, while secondary schools would be built in Ellenbrook, Lakelands, Hammond Park and Harrissdale.

Mr Collier said students and parents would notice little, if any, difference in the way their school was run.

“For principals and their staff, it will mean they can concentrate on what they do best, and that’s educating their students,” he said.

“They will be able to leave the maintenance and management of their school buildings to others.”

Travel agents no longer need a licence Luke Worthington

Western Independent Telephone 08 9266 7038 08 9266 7878 Facsimile 08 9266 7142 Postal Address GPO Box U1987 Perth WA 6845 Ethical Guidelines The highest standards of ethical conduct are expected in the way the Western Independent's journalists obtain and present information. One of the course requirements is that they abide by the Media Entertainment and Arts Code of Ethics and Curtin University Department of Journalism's ethical guidelines in all aspects of writing, photography and production. The MEAA Code of Ethics and Curtin's journalism guidelines are designed to safeguard individual rights while respecting the public's right to information.

The licensing scheme for WA travel agents has officially ended after the State Government deregulated the industry.

The Travel Agents Amendment and Expiry Act 2014, which came into effect on October 8, removed the requirement for travel agents to be registered with the WA Department of Commerce.

Consumer Protection acting commissioner David Hillyard said WA’s licensing scheme had been inconsistent with the national licensing and consumer compensation scheme.

“WA would have been inconsistent with the rest of the country and WA agents would have been faced with increased businesses costs, placing them at a distinct competitive disadvantage against their interstate counterparts,” he said.

Many WA travel agents have already signed up to the Australian Federation of Travel Agents’ travel accreditation scheme.

AFTA general manager Gary O’Riordan said the scheme set the standard for Australian travel agents.

“Now we have this consistent national standard across the country, whereas previously various travel agent acts were written at different stages and the definition for travel agent varied,” he said.

Mr O’Riordan said the scheme included a code of conduct and would

NATIONAL STANDARD: Business competition expected to increase.

provide consumers with confidence.

“People apply, they have to meet the criteria to become accredited, and that gives them the ability to use the logo and the brand in their own marketing and advertising,” he said.

“That will give the consumer confidence they are dealing with an ethical business, one that can be trusted, one that is professional and has

met certain standards.”

Mr Hillyard said the transition to the new system could increase competition.

“With licensing of travel agents no longer in place, it is possible that new businesses will enter the marketplace,” he said.

“Thereby increasing competition and choice for consumers.”

Travel Traits Western Australia

PHOTO: Sebastian Neuweiler.

owner Sharon Leonhardt said she would not seek AFTA accreditation.

She said she doubted the new scheme would be successful.

“I don’t see the rate of return for that investment,” Ms Leonhardt said.

“Previously, the AFTA had a very similar thing and, back in those days, they weren’t very effective in putting that out to the public.”

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Fracking fraught with conflict Chelsie Stone and Hannah Barry The Department of Mines and Petroleum has a conflict of interest as sole regulator for the WA fracking industry, according to environmental and health groups.

The groups claim the conflict occurs because the department promotes, as well as regulates, the industry.

Gas fracking involves injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into the ground to fracture layers of rock so that natural gas is released to the surface.

The department drafted new fracking regulations in February, outlining penalties for companies that failed to comply with tough water monitoring and well management requirements.

Conservation Council of WA chairman Piers Verstegen said it was not appropriate for the State Government to promote and subsidise the industry while also being responsible for protecting the environment and community from the industry’s impacts.

“It must be regulated by an independent agency with a mandate to protect the environment and public health, not by the same agency that promotes and subsidises gas fracking in WA,” he said.

The department’s Exploration Incentive Scheme provides funding to companies to encourage mining exploration.

Petroleum Division acting executive director Mark Gabrielson said the scheme closed in 2012 and did not

allocate any funds for fracking.

Fracking companies based in WA are, however, able to apply for department funding under the “innovative drilling” program.

CCWA said in a statement “innovative drilling” was “code for fracking”.

According to the department’s website, the department put $20.5 million into “innovative drilling” between July 2009 and June 2013. Funding has been extended to 2016-17.

Doctors for the Environment WA chair George Crisp said the department should not act as lead enforcer of its own environmental regulations. He said setting up an independent body was an appropriate solution.

“The DMP is acting as both regulator and promoter of unconventional gas extraction,” Dr Crisp said.

He said the department should look after the drilling process, while the Environmental Protection Authority could regulate environmental impacts.

University of Queensland Centre for International Minerals and Energy Law director Tina Hunter said the Department of Mines and Petroleum was a competent independent regulator.

Dr Hunter served as an independent advisor to the department while the new fracking laws were being drafted.

The EPA conducts environmental impact assessments in WA under the Environmental Protection Act 1986, but can only conduct assessments for fracking projects if called upon by the department.

No independent body is able to compel a company to perform an environ-

PHOTO: Dane Griffiths.

WA FRACK: AWE's Eneabba site.

mental impact assessment.

A State Government inquiry into fracking in February this year revealed the department chose not to investigate a gas leak at AWE’s Corybas fracking operation in 2012 because it deemed there was no risk to nearby groundwater.

Before the leak, the department conducted its own site inspection and determined the project was fit to operate.

In New South Wales, all companies involved in fracking must hold an environment protection licence, which is issued by the NSW EPA. Energy company Santos was fined $1500 by the NSW EPA in March for contaminating groundwater with uranium 20 times higher than the level considered safe for drinking water.

The WA EPA said WA’s gas deposits were located much deeper than those in NSW. WA water supplies were between 500 and 1000 metres underground, while gas reserves could be found about 2000 metres below the surface.

Under Australian law, all mineral resources are owned by the Federal Government, but the State Government can grant drilling permits with the approval of local landowners.

Frack Free Geraldton spokeswoman Irene Ghannage said WA farmers were unable to stop companies from getting approval to drill on their land without taking the matter to court.

Frack Free Geraldton is a community group that was created to raise awareness about fracking and its effects on water supplies.

“A lot of people don’t get a choice

UNDERGROUND FRACKING: The ins and outs.

if the government decides to issue a permit to explore on their land,” Ms Ghannage said.

Shire of Irwin chief executive Darren Simmons said fracking had been used in Dongara for decades, with little opposition from the community.

“As a council, we are neutral and we’re still seeking information … the recent moves are very positive,” he said.

“The DMP and permit holders AWE

CONFLICT: Questions raised over WA's fracking regulator.

DIAGRAM: Tyne Logan.

and Norwest have certainly been in regular communication with the local council.”

Minister for Mines and Petroleum Bill Marmion said the new regulations contained the “strongest disclosure requirements in Australia”.

“Some community members have concerns about this emerging energy source but we believe our strong regulatory regime means this gas can be extracted safely,” he said.

PHOTO: Dane Griffiths.

India uranium concern

Avocado prices to fall

Abbey Tobin

Louis Zambotto

Australia’s decision to send uranium to India will damage the environment, hurt local communities and weaken the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, according to an international anti-nuclear organisation.

Mayors for Peace WA conference organiser Adrian Glamorgan said India had promised to use the uranium for

peaceful purposes, however, there was nothing to stop them using their own uranium to make nuclear weapons.

According to the Federation of American Scientists, India already has between 90 and 110 nuclear weapons.

MFP is made up of mayors from across the world who work together to lobby for the abolition of nuclear weapons and push for world peace.

“Australia is weakening that nuclear proliferation treaty by selling ura-

LEADERS: Tony Abbott and Narendra Modi.

PHOTO: Creative Commons.

nium to the Indian government,” Mr Glamorgan said.

In September, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott signed a nuclear safeguards agreement with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that paved the way for uranium to be sent to India to be used in the production of energy.

Toro Energy is set to open WA’s first uranium mine by 2017 at Wiluna, about 180km east of Meekatharra in WA’s Mid-West region.

Toro Energy managing director Vanessa Guthrie said Australian uranium would bring clean energy to India.

“India is the third fastest growing nuclear economy in the world after China and Russia, committing to some 17 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2024,” she said.

“With 300 million people without access to electricity in India today, energy infrastructure is critical to the future growth of the Indian economy.”

Mr Glamorgan said the construction of a processing plant and the ongoing processing of uranium would harm the environment.

“After the process you have to work for the next tens of thousands of years to keep those areas safe,” he said.

Mr Glamorgan said India was quite advanced, however, it would be the poor people who would eventually live near the discarded nuclear waste from India's power stations.

Avocado prices are expected to fall over summer as WA farmers prepare for a record crop.

Avocados Australia chief executive John Tyas said avocado prices would fall because WA production was at an all-time high.

“We’ve got about 4.3 million trays forecast to come out of WA,” he said.

Mr Tyas said WA produced about one million trays last season.

“I think we will see average retail prices lower for longer during the next six months,” he said.

Manjimup-based avocado farmer Rodney Bamess said the price of large avocados could fall to as low as $1.70 each.

“You should be able to get bulk packs of three or four avocados for $2,” he said.

Prices have already fallen by more than half since April when the average price paid for an avocado in Perth was $4. Australia’s peak avocado industry body, Avocados Australia, said the average Perth price in September was $2.37.

WA Department of Agriculture and Food development officer Alec McCarthy said it was important to maintain a balance between supply and demand.

“The challenge that the industry will have to face over the next few

years is to make sure they lift demand for the product roughly at pace with the increasing supply,” he said.

Mr McCarthy said this would ensure growers could survive, but consumers still got value for their money.

“That will help keep prices at levels where it’s profitable for the growers to continue functioning,” he said.

“If they don’t do that, then prices could get down to levels where consumers like to think it’s great but it becomes difficult for the growers to function.”

Mr Tyas said avocado production in WA had increased significantly over the past two years.

He said that WA had produced about 20 per cent of the national crop in recent years. This year, it was expected to produce between 30 and 35 per cent.

This boom was partly the result of the avocado tree’s natural cycle, by which it produces big crops every second year.

Mr Bamess said that avocado trees were a good investment for South-West farmers.

“Every year people are putting more avocados in, so every year it’s going to be increasing anyway,” he said.

“Last year we probably had 10 people working for us, this year we have 30.”

Mr Tyas said that avocado consumption in Australia had doubled over the past ten years and was still growing.

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Bike lobby: new road laws needed Gareth Thomas and Jake Eckersley The State Government’s decision to reject a proposed bicycle safety law shows a lack of understanding and sensitivity to cyclists, according to a legal academic.

The law, which would have required motorists to leave a one-metre gap when overtaking cyclists, was introduced into state parliament in March by Greens MP Lynn MacLaren.

University of Western Australia Associate Professor Alex Gardner said the law would not have been difficult to enforce.

“It’s a very disappointing decision,” he said.

“It clearly shows a lack of understanding of safety for cyclists and it shows a lack of understanding of how the law would or could be enforced.”

Attorney-General Michael Mischin said the State Government could not support the Bill because there were too many variables.

“There has been no evidence presented that this provision will improve the situation currently faced by cyclists, or even save one life,” he said.

“It was suggested that in many cases prescribing a minimum distance may compromise rider safety.

“Drivers may use it as an absolute and try to measure out one metre rather

SUNSET FROG: Facing extinction.

than have a regard for a safe distance.”

The Bicycle Transport Alliance, which works with local governments to promote a safe cycling environment, said the rejection was based on incorrect statistics.

“It was disappointing to see not only did the Liberals oppose it, but the way they opposed it was actually based on false statements,” BTA executive officer Heinrich Benz he said.

Mr Benz said the Liberal Party based its decision on the belief that five per cent of all road incidents involving cyclists resulted in death or serious injury.

He said the number of road incidents resulting in the death or serious injury to a cyclist was actually 15 per cent.

According to the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics – a government body that analyses transport facilities – eight cyclists have died on WA roads this year and six people died on our roads in 2013.

A spokesman for WA’s peak cycling body, WestCycle, said the increase in fatalities was a major driver in the campaign.

“What it is doing is reinforcing that we do need more protection for cyclists on the road,” WestCycle executive officer Clint Shaw said.

“Outside of the helmet, there is little other protection offered to cyclists.

“This law is just one part of a whole range of measures that need to be taken.”

PHOTO: Jesinta Burton.

CYCLISTS: Safety concern.

Calls for more arson research Declan Bush More research into arson is needed to protect communities from bushfires, according to arson experts.

About half of Australia’s 54,000 bushfires each year are thought to be deliberately lit, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology.

Monash Sustainability Institute chief research officer Janet Stanley said not much was known about the reasons for bushfire arson.

“We really don’t know a lot about it because arsonists are usually not caught,” she said.

“Most fires are lit on the interface between urban and rural area.”

She said there was little incentive for residents in outer suburbs to report arson because of the lack of infrastructure and services.

“Most people light fires within 4km

of where they live,” she said.

She said the community often knew who the arsonist was and was reluctant to report them. Often, people thought they were just behaving like silly teenagers because youths were responsible for about 40 per cent of arson cases.

City of Karratha chief bushfire control officer Michael Booth said someone would eventually “lose a life or get seriously burnt” because of arson.

Ms Stanley said the Monash Sustainabity Institute was building a profile of the typical arsonist.

“What we need are programs to actually target these people and resolve the problems that they’ve got which has led them to do this,” she said.

Bond University’s Australian Centre for Arson Research and Treatment co-director Rebekah Doley said current programs did not consider why offenders committed the crime.

“Current rehabilitation programs are effective in dealing with criminal behaviour generally, but none of them specifically target the reasons for fire setting,” she said.

“Arson is not the same for everybody.

Not all arsonists can be treated the same.”

Dr Doley said funding for research into arson was irregular because the public was only interested in arson during summer.

“In 2012, we received funding from the Attorney-General’s Department to develop the first program,” she said.

“It’s the only program in Australia that’s developed for adult arson offenders.

“There’s been an unprecedented number of juveniles convicted of arson recently.

Dr Doley also said ACART was looking at changing the program for different cultural groups.

PHOTO: Bob Edwards.

Sun setting on threatened frogs Georgia Williss The few remaining habitats of a 30-million-year-old endangered WA frog species are being damaged by feral pigs, according to the Department of Parks and Wildlife.

The sunset frog – one of WA’s oldest frog species – is only found in a small area of the state’s South-West, about 400kms south of Perth.

Department of Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Tania Durlik said the area between the Bow River and the Franklin River regions, near Walpole, was the only place the sunset frog was found in Australia.

She said the peat soils found in these regions, which are an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation, were essential to the sunset frog’s survival.

“The species is likely to become extinct if major threats, such as loss and degradation of habitat due to bushfires and feral pigs, isn’t controlled.”

Only 12 sites in the region still show signs of the species. In 1997, the department found signs of the sunset frog at 27 sites.

Ms Durlik said feral pigs caused significant damage to peat swamps, where they dug in moist areas and contaminated the waterholes.

University of Western Australia researcher Dale Roberts said feral pigs were not an issue when he started studying the sunset frog in the 1990s,

but they were noticeably destructive now.

“It’s like a bulldozer has gone through the area,” Dr Roberts said.

The department has collaborated with councils, companies and community groups to protect the species from threats.

A spokesman for Australian forestry services provider PF Olsen Australia, which shares a site with the sunset frog, said the company was aware the frog was vulnerable.

Regional manager Dale Cameron said the company had tried to minimise its impact on the frog’s habitat.

“We have fenced off the swamp area to stop stock and human activity disturbing the habitat of the sunset frog,” Mr Cameron said.

In addition, authorised members capture the feral pigs and “kill them on site”.

Ms Durlik said the sunset frog could disappear altogether if the feral pigs were not controlled.

Since 2013, the department has culled about 90 feral pigs in the Walpole region, with the help of community groups.

Ms Durlik said hunting feral pigs in national parks and nature reserves could only be done by an authorised member of a registered group.

She said killing feral pigs on private property must be carried out humanely and in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act 2002.

PHOTO: Naomi Zuvela.

ARSON: More funding needed.

Psychosis research receives funding boost Chelsie Stone A study to investigate the benefits of cognitive training for psychotic patients has been granted a share of almost $1.4 million in State Government research funding.

The project was one of six proposals to win funding last month, receiving a State Health Research Advisory Council grant of $224,460.

WA Department of Health consultant psychiatrist Alexander John, who is leading the study, said the aim was to help people with psychotic illnesses integrate back into the community.

“People with psychotic illness, such as schizophrenia, have significant disability in various areas, such as

occupational functioning, activities of daily life, illness management skills and community functioning,” he said.

Professor John said traditional methods used to treat psychotic patients often failed to help those suffering from cognitive deficits.

“Cognitive deficits, such as impaired executive functions or memory processing speed, are common among these people and are robustly associated with the impaired community functioning,” he said.

“Unfortunately, treatment as usual, including antipsychotics, provides little relief to the cognitive deficits among these people.”

Health Department representative Neil Lynch said the funding program was aimed at converting research into

effective health treatments.

“Not only doing the research, but converting that into improved, or more cost effective, more efficient clinical practice or healthcare delivery,” he said.

Dr Lynch said the program could help reduce hospital and emergency department admissions, the amount of treatment required by patients and the length of their stay in hospital.

Professor John said his study would involve patients from the Bentley Health Service and the Peel and Rockingham Kwinana Mental Health Service.

“The training will be carried out over a period of eight to 10 weeks at the rate of one hour per day, five days a week,” he said.

The study will start in March 2015 and is expected to finish by late 2016.

October 2014

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Asbestos payments fall short Timothy Roberts A proposal by the Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund to pay asbestos victims in instalments has come under fire from the Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia.

Foundation president Barry Robson said it was not feasible to pay victims in instalments.

Formed in 2006, AICF manages and administers compensation claims by Australians who suffer from asbestos-related injuries caused by James Hardie Group products.

James Hardie recently sought approval from the NSW Supreme Court to pay its victims by instalment, rather than through lump sums, because it claimed it would otherwise run out of money within three years.

Mr Robson said victims relied heavily on the compensation they received from AICF. “They’ve got to pay medical bills, carers to look after their children in

some cases,” he said.

“To get money in dribs and drabs like a drip feed is not right. The people are under enough stress with their death sentence from the asbestos diseases.”

Asbestos exposure can lead to a rare cancer, called mesothelioma, which has caused more than 10,000 deaths in Australia since the early 1980s.

Australia has the second-highest rate of mesothelioma deaths in the world, behind only the United Kingdom.

A further 25,000 people are expected to die from mesothelioma over the next four decades, according to the Mesothelioma Centre - an advocacy group that provides resources and assistance to people affected by asbestos exposure.

The AICF said in a media release it expected all approved claims could be paid out by instalment, but there was no guarantee.

James Hardie said in a media release it could offer “no absolute assurance” that funding would be available for

current or future claims.

Mr Robson said the company could afford to pay its victims.

“If they can afford to spread $556 million to their shareholders - $200 million a year for the next three years - and pay their CEO $11 million in wages, then they can put some of those wages in the fund for victims, victims that were caused by their products,” he said.

“They caused it. They made these products that are killing Australians and will go on killing Australians for the next 50 to 60 years.”

Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia president Robert Vojakovic said payment by instalment should not be allowed.

“James Hardie’s appalling record should not give it the choice to decide how to pay for shocking injuries and deaths of at least three Australians on a daily basis, which will not cease for another two decades at least,” he said.

The AICF said the plan to pay

ROUND TWO: Robert Vojakovic rejects proposal.

claims by instalment would not affect the way in which claims were processed.

Those who were in urgent need of compensation would have their claims assessed by merit.

The AICF also said they expected to pay out more than $500 million

PHOTO: Tyne Logan.

in compensation over the next three years and, if approved, the new payment scheme would start in July next year.

James Hardie has so far contributed $721.4 million to the AICF and will continue to contribute 35 per cent of its net operating cash flow until 2045.

Pierra Willix

The WA parliament is being urged to pass laws that would require repeat drink drivers to install breathalysers in their vehicles.

WA Police and Road Safety Minister Liza Harvey said the alcohol interlock program was urgently required to help prevent further drink drivingrelated deaths.

The interlock device prevents drivers

from starting their vehicles if their blood alcohol level exceeds 0.02 grams per 100 millilitres.

The program forms part of the Road Traffic Amendment (Alcohol Interlocks and Other Matters) Bill 2014 that is before parliament.

Ms Harvey said she was confident the program would deliver positive results.

“Alcohol interlocks have been successfully used across Australia and in nations that lead the world in road safety performance,” Ms Harvey said.

BREATHALYSER BUST: Interlocks stop offenders.

PHOTO: Carmen Gostelow.

“Major evaluation studies of offender programs have shown an average reduction of 64 per cent in drink driving re-offending while an alcohol interlock is fitted.”

Under the laws, offenders would have to pay $1600 to install the interlock devices and would use them for a minimum of six months.

About 4000 West Australian drivers commit high-end drink driving offences each year.

Alcohol was the biggest cause of road fatalities in WA in 2013, accounting for 23 per cent of deaths, according to the RAC. Monash University Accident Research Centre Professor Maxwell Cameron said the program could save lives.

“What we do know is that convicted drink drivers appear to a very large extent amongst subsequent drink driving crashes,” he said.

He said the program would prove effective while the interlock device was fitted to an offender’s vehicle.

He said drivers usually returned to their previous bad habits after the devices were removed.

Opposition police and road safety spokeswoman Michelle Roberts said the laws were long overdue.

“It was originally proposed by Labor in 2008 and most other states have implemented it already,” she said.

Ms Harvey said alcohol-related crashes cost WA $460 million each year.

“I have no doubt that in the years to come in WA we will see fewer alcoholrelated crashes and fewer alcohol-related deaths and serious injuries because of the action we have taken today,” she said.

Draeger Safety supplies interlock devices to states and territories that already have interlock programs.

A Draeger spokesman said the devices varied, but all involved random breath testing and random retesting throughout a journey.

Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and the Northern Territory have alcohol interlock programs.

PHOTO: Carmen Gostelow.

Blow to drink drivers

BREAST OR BOTTLE: Claire De Silvio feeds her son Lorenzo.

Formula for trouble Jake Eckersley Babies introduced to milk formula before the age of six months are more likely to become overweight and obese, a West Australian study has found.

Telethon Kids Institute researchers recorded the weight of almost 3000 children from birth to the age of 20 during the study, finding formula-fed babies had an accelerated weight gain compared to breastfed babies Head author Wendy Oddy said the

Psychologist warns parents to ease exam pressure on kids Tori Lockley WA parents are being warned not to put too much pressure on their year 12 students ahead of their final examinations.

Clinical psychologist Leanne Lynch said she regularly had year 12 students visit her for counselling and advice.

“There is far too much pressure placed on these teenagers to achieve, but I don’t believe this pressure comes from the school,” Ms Lynch said.

“The students who come to see me are struggling to cope with the pressures of their final year and are stressed, anxious and sometimes even depressed.”

WA Education Department deputy director-general David Axworthy said learning to deal with the pressure of exams helped students in the long run.

“It is unfortunate that many students feel so much pressure, but a lot of this pressure is put on students by themselves,” he said.

“Stress is not always a bad thing

though, it can bring out the best and the worst in some teenagers.”

Mission Australia’s 2013 youth survey showed the top concerns for young people were coping with stress and study.

Ms Lynch said year 12 was a difficult time for students, but they needed to seek advice if the pressure became too much for them to bear.

“I suggest students set realistic standards and know there are alternative routes to university if they do not achieve their desired score,” she said

“It is integral to keep active, have a healthy diet and maintain social contact, and I like to provide the students with study skills and stress-reduction techniques.

“Every school has a counsellor or psychologist, so advice and support is readily available to them and the option to be transferred to a private psychologist is also there.”

Mr Axworthy said national and international trials of exam alternatives, such as portfolios and presentations, had been unsuccessful.

first few months of life was crucial in determining whether a child was likely to become obese.

“The earlier babies are introduced to other milk, usually formula milk before the age of six months, the fatter they became,” Professor Oddy said.

The results showed those teenagers who were breast fed less as a baby were more likely to be overweight.

The study’s results were consistent with a national recommendation that breastfeeding should be used exclusively until a child is six months old.

Australian Breastfeeding Association spokeswoman Kirsten Tannenbaum said only 15 per cent of Australian mothers exclusively breastfed at six months.

“Ninety-two per cent of mums leave the hospital breastfeeding, so they want to breastfeed,” she said Ms Tannenbaum said despite high rates of hospital breastfeeding, there was a large fall one week after the birth.

The rates fell again about three months after the birth.

She said there was not enough accurate information available to mothers.

A longer period of paid leave would also help encourage women to breastfeed, Ms Tannenbaum said.

“A lot of mothers are going back to paid employment sooner and that influences whether or not they’re going to breastfeed,” she said.

October 2014

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NEWS

Fear over religion in teaching review Denissa Goh

CURRICULUM REVIEW: Culturally exclusive.

PHOTO: Tyne Logan.

Any move to change the school curriculum to better recognise Australia’s Judeo-Christian heritage could “alienate” young people, according to an education research organisation.

After a recent review of the Australian curriculum, it was recommended that changes should be made to ensure students were taught about the influence Judeo-Christian ideology had in Australia’s development.

The review said educators should place more emphasis on morals, values and spirituality and “better recognise the contribution of Western civilisation, our Judeo-Christian heritage”.

Education Research Solutions general manager Robin Clarke said the curriculum already addressed “ethical understandings” and the proposed changes would make the curriculum lop-sided.

“The Judeo-Christian content I think is certainly unbalanced and would not appear in most curricula in the western world,” he said.

Mr Clarke said “a narrowing of the curriculum” did not accord with Australia’s increasing mix of ethnic, cultural and religious groups.

“I think the very use of the word ‘Judeo-Christianity’ itself sort of highlights some divisiveness and indicates inequity, and that it is without balance,” he said.

“We need to see breadth, balance, perspective, acceptance and respect for our young people to ensure they are given that capacity to make balanced decisions.

“Parents expect an education system that enables their children to understand society and to fit effectively into it.

“Any educational program which was going to alienate them from a part of society, I think, could be seen as a serious disadvantage.”

Swan Christian Education Association education consultant Mathilda Joubert said changes to the curriculum could help young people to grow up with “a good moral compass”.

“It could have a positive outcome in society,” she said.

Ms Joubert said the curriculum had

been founded on Christian values.

“Because that’s part of our country, and there was acknowledgement that this is what help shaped the developments of education and our society in Australia,” she said.

Murdoch University senior lecturer Alexander Jensen said the curriculum should represent the present, rather than the past.

“I think it is important to see that Australia, on one hand, the system, values and cultural reforms come out of that European inheritance,” he said.

“But, at the same time, be mindful that the Aboriginal culture pre-dates the European culture.”

Dr Jensen, who teaches systematic theology, said it was “inappropriate to impose any particular religious values and influence” on students.

“We’ve got people from so many different cultures, and the cultures they bring into the country, I think, it should be recognised one way or another,” he said.

“Explaining different ethical frameworks is very important, but you don’t want to impose anything that is explicitly religious.”

Chain store pre-release sales cost small businesses Brody Whiteman Large chain stores that regularly sell video games before they are due for release are hurting their smaller competitors, according to consumer organisation Choice.

Choice spokesman Kieran Pohn said small businesses that stuck to specific release dates couldn’t survive when bigger companies released games early.

Red Griffin Games owner Drew Van Schoohoven said the recent early release of two games cost him at least $2000.

Customers who placed advanced orders for those games asked for their money back so they could buy the game

elsewhere, he said.

Alien: Isolation was available at K-Mart five days before its official release, while Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was released a week early by online retailer Steam.

“Being a small business, we don’t have the ability to simply sell games before their release date … out of fear of being hit with huge penalties,” Mr Van Schoohoven said.

He said those penalties could include fines and lawsuits. The developers could also refuse to supply his store with games in future.

“It’s even worse knowing K-Mart can get away with it because it’s K-Mart,” he said.

“If they want to be fined, so what,

go ahead, but don’t have people come here and rip badly needed money from my pockets, especially when people had already paid for it in pre-orders.”

EB Games district manger Farrah Quach said it was important to ensure release dates were set, but it sometimes increased competition when an embargo was broken.

“When word got out that Alien broke its date, the majority of our WA stores started making huge signs to place out the front of our stores ahead of everyone else,” Ms Quach said.

She said the practice hurt independent businesses.

Mr Pohn said something needed to change in order to ensure small businesses did not suffer.

FEELING THE PINCH: Suffering businesses.

PHOTO: Jesinta Burton.

PROTECTION: Young people not using.

PHOTO: Heather Miller.

Little penguins, big problems Mark Tilly Garden Island’s Little Penguin colony could be threatened by the Mangles Bay marina project, according to a leading Australian conservation expert.

The Point Peron Peninsula development was approved by the Federal Government earlier this month, and includes 500 new boat pens in Cockburn sound, as well as tourist and residential developments.

Murdoch University research associate Belinda Cannell said more data was required to determine how the Little Penguin colony would be affected.

“We don’t have enough baseline information to be able to make an informed decision that the marina is not going to have an impact, either directly on the penguins or on their fish prey,” she said.

Dr Cannell, who has published several studies on Little Penguin colonies in the region, said there were too many unknown variables to allow the development.

“There’s a whole sweep of factors that we just don’t have an understanding of, so we really need to have more research before we can even begin to say that it’s not going to have an impact,” she said.

The proposal went through an exten-

UNDER THREAT: Garden Island’s penguins.

PHOTO: Heather Miller.

sive four-year public environmental review, the highest level of environmental assessment.

LandCorp chief executive Frank Marra said the approval would allow the development to proceed.

“This development will drive tourism and provide strong social and economic benefits for Rockingham and the wider region,” he said.

Dr Cannell said the penguins’ habitat in the southern half of Cockburn Sound would be impacted by dredging and increased boat activity from the marina.

“We’re going to have more boats in the area where the penguins will be foraging and we’re going to have dredging, which is going to occur over their major breeding cycle,” she said.

Hands Off Point Peron campaign leader Dawn Jecks said the planned marina should be moved to central Rockingham.

“It’s not a marina, it’s a canal housing estate,” she said.

“These places are a disaster in other jurisdictions and they’ve been banned in other states.

“Point Peron is a place of treasured childhood memories for thousands of West Australians.

“The land was always intended to be used as recreational parklands.”

Ms Jecks criticised the Federal Government for approving the project.

“They lull the community into a false sense of security, thinking all the significant matters have been addressed, and they haven’t,” Ms Jecks said.

No wrap, no play — experts Abbey Tobin Young Australians need to better protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections, according to a social health expert.

University of New South Wales Centre for Social Research in Health director John de Wit said young people regularly had sex without a condom, but did not often seek testing for sexually transmitted infections.

“The idea of condom use and STIs isn’t at the forefront of their minds,” he said.

The UNSW’s Annual Report of Trends in Behaviour 2014 said 62.2 per cent of participants in a survey of people aged 16 to 24 had unprotected sex with regular or casual

partners during 2013.

The report also said only 44.4 per cent of people involved in the study had been tested for STIs during 2013.

Sexual and Reproductive Health WA manager Rebecca Smith said the decision to have sex without using a condom was caused by several factors.

“Lack of knowledge, difficulty accessing it, peer pressures and the influence of drugs and alcohol are just a few,” she said.

“People need to be reminded that STIs can have serious consequences, if left untreated, and that looking after sexual health is an important part of their overall health and wellbeing.”

Professor de Wit said that testing for sexually transmitted infections needed to be made socially acceptable.

October 2014

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NEWS

Kiralee Smith Perth scuba diving businesses are struggling because of the way the media portrays sharks, according to WA’s peak diving group.

WA Divers spokesman Andrew Bell said there had been a decline in the number of divers taking to the water because of the media’s coverage of shark attacks.

“I think the portrayal of sharks in the media has been pretty poor, as a general rule,” Mr Bell said.

He said the media coverage of shark attacks “absolutely” had an effect on the profitability of diving businesses.

Perth Diving Academy partner Simon Jones said the number of people undertaking diving courses had halved.

He said this was because of “the increase in shark attacks and media hype”.

“It’s very hard to counter when we have ‘diver has limb ripped off by

great white shark’ all over the media,” he said.

“Hookah Dive in Wangara, Mindarie Dive in Mindarie and Australasian Diving Academy in Melville have all had to close down.”

He said more Perth diving shops would close if the number of shark attacks did not decrease.

Marine scientist Ben Jones said the media was at fault.

“Most of the fear is unnecessarily injected into the majority, courtesy of uneducated and inconsiderate media folk,” he said.

“To put things into perspective, in the past year no divers have been fatally attacked by a shark, but over two dozen have been killed due to unsafe practices.

“We’ve run a couple of campaigns to appeal to people’s gutsiness to get in the water, but it’s certainly harder.”

Mr Bell said there had been less focus on sharks in the media this year because there were fewer incidents.

PHOTO: Sebastian Neuweiler.

Scuba industry suffers

Digital media has its benefits

PHOTO: Isabel Moussailli.

Journalists hit out at hush law Nadia Budihardjo Recent changes to Australia’s terrorism laws that allow journalists to be jailed are “draconian”, according to the first Australian journalist jailed for not disclosing confidential sources.

The Australian’s former Perth bureau chief Tony Barrass was convicted of contempt of court, jailed and fined $10,000 in 1989 for a series of articles in The Sunday Times.

Barrass hit out at the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014, which was aimed at beefing up national security by updating the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979.

“I think journalists should have the capacity to do their job when it comes to reporting national security,” Barrass said.

“If that involves revealing mistakes or stuff-ups by ASIO or government departments, they should be allowed to do that and they should be allowed to do that without the threat of being jailed.”

Barrass said the laws were designed to save the Federal Government from being embarrassed by journalists who informed the public about government mistakes and misdeeds.

“Well, that is bad luck for governments because journalists thrive on the ability to be able to reveal hypocrisies, reveal government wrong-doings and reveal stuff-ups,” he said. “That’s their job.”

Under the new laws, unauthorised disclosure of information from a “special intelligence operation” is an offence which carries a jail term of between five and 10 years.

A “special intelligence operation” is one that involves an ASIO employee or affiliate and has been granted special authority by the Attorney-General.

The West Australian political reporter Nick Butterly said the law would

make journalists think twice before writing some stories. It could also stop government officials from providing information.

“It obviously would make it important if I were to get a piece of information that the government sees as very sensitive and would be relevant to a ‘special intelligence operation’,” he said.

“It would be a very difficult position for me whether I would publish that, risking being charged and going to jail.”

Murdoch University senior political lecturer Ian Cook said the new laws emerged from concerns that religious figures were encouraging anti-Western views.

“We’re generally not wanting to encourage that sort of thing and so all the sorts of principles around free speech we otherwise should accept are thrown into doubt,” Dr Cook said.

“That is, in the sense that we’re going to think about controlling the speech of some people because we feel that speech is inciting religious violence.

“Journalists are trying to get all the perspectives. This might inhibit their capacity to get all these views out there.”

In a speech to Federal Parliament on September 30, Labor MP Melissa Parke said the new laws would infringe on the fundamental rights, values and freedoms of all Australians.

“I am particularly concerned that this Bill entrenches and amplifies the lack of protection for whistleblowers regarding intelligence information,” she said.

“It will penalise, with up to 10 years jail, the legitimate actions of journalists and others doing their jobs in holding the government to account.”

The second phase of the government’s counter terrorism measures will be put to parliament soon.

tions and is preferable among many employers,” she said.

Dr Richardson said digital platforms provided a “sense of connection” with others.

She said her research showed that there were benefits to being connected online.

Murdoch University teaching and learning Pro Vice-Chancellor Sara de Freitas said digital media gave children another dimension for communication.

“The positives outweigh the negatives,” she said.

Perth Psychological Services clinical psychologist Suzanne Midford said almost half of children aged two to 17 had at least one screen-based item in their bedroom, however, it was a “fairly large step” to suggest digital media was harming social development.

“Technologies people are using, like texting, gaming and social networking, all have social components to them,” she said.

She said it was not as simple as saying that kids spent more time than they should be on social media.

Driving lockout systems for mobile phones will save more lives if accompanied by changes in driver attitudes, according to an accident researcher.

Curtin-Monash Accident Research Centre research fellow Peter Palamara said lockout systems, which disable mobile phones while the user is driving, would reduce driver distraction.

Changes to societal norms would ensure a greater impact, he said.

“Some kids may engage in behaviours like texting and talking on the phone while driving because they’ve grown up within a culture that says it is okay to do that,” he said.

“There is enough research to suggest that just putting up fines or penalties is not enough to change behaviour.”

Fishing ban A seasonal ban on catching bottom-dwelling fish, such as pink snapper and dhufish, is helping replenish fish stocks along the WA coast, according to Department of Fisheries South-West bioregions manager Tim Nicholas.

The ban, which applies to a stretch of coast from east of Augusta to north of Kalbarri, was introduced in 2010 after a stock assessment indicated some species were being overfished.

It only applies from October 15 to December 15 each year.

Mr Nicholas said the recreational catch had been reduced to less than 50 per cent of what it was in 20052006.

“We’re on the right track, but we need to maintain our current course,” he said.

“It’s not something that can be addressed and corrected overnight.

Kiralee Smith

Older mums

SCREEN TIME: Children spend more time with technology.

PHOTO: Bridgette Stephens.

TERROR LAWS: Tony Barrass stands up.

WA experts claim digital media can have a positive effect on children, despite a recent US study linking exposure to digital screens with social problems in pre-teens.

The UCLA study found students not looking at digital screens were better at inferring human emotion than those who spent hours each day on their electronic devices.

Murdoch University digital media expert Ingrid Richardson said the focus should be on the positive aspects of technology, rather than the negative.

“There’s a need to understand the benefits and why people are so invested in it and look at ways it can be turned into a positive experience,” Dr Richardson said.

Dr Richardson said children were developing their skills by using other forms of communication.

“Having online communication skills is fundamental to many occupa-

Phone lockout

Aimee Hughes

SHARK FEAR: Simon Jones blames the media.

Kiralee Smith

News in brief

Historic train to Fremantle Emma Griffiths The State Government is funding a re-enactment of the journey taken by WA cadets who headed to war 100 years ago.

In 1914, Perth cadets travelled by train from the Blackboy Hill training camp in Greenmount to Fremantle, where two ships waited to take them to war.

On October 31, today’s cadets will re-enact the journey taken by their counterparts more than 100 years ago.

Australian Army Cadet Brigade Western Australian commander Bob Barber said all cadets would participate in the train ride.

“It’s not just army cadets participat-

ing, there are also navy and air force cadets,” Lieutenant Colonel Barber said.

Greenmount Primary School coordinator Glenis Burge said 100 cadets would set up camp on the school grounds before taking the trip to Fremantle on a heritage train.

“Our school choir will be singing and taking part in the event,” she said.

“We hope for a big turn out, all families are welcome to attend and take part in some family activities to remember the cadets.”

WA Veterans Minister Joe Francis said the State Government worked with private and not-for-profit organisations to ensure the heritage train would run on the Transperth network.

For the first time since 1932, middle-aged women are having more babies than teenagers in Australia.

The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show women aged 40-44 had an average of 15.4 babies for every 1000 women. The rate was 14.6 for every 1000 women aged 15-19.

According to the ABS, fertility rates for older mums tripled over the past 30 years.

The data also showed Australia’s overall birth rate for 2013 reached its lowest point since 2006.

Hannah Lawrance

Arthritis chair Dutch rheumatology expert Johannes Nossent has been appointed as the inaugural chair of Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Medicine at UWA. Arthritis and Osteoporosis WA executive director Ric Forlano said the position was created after research found 30 per cent of all medical appointments in Australia were for arthritis and osteoporosis.

“There needs to be a leader, someone who can lead the way forward in research, treatment and education in the medical profession,” he said.

Arthritis Australia estimated arthritis and osteoporosis cost the Australian economy nearly $24 billion a year.

Saket Dongre

October 2014

8

NEWS

Business hit by ebola Christie Bosworth The ebola epidemic is harming international business, according to the chairman of a Perth diamond and gold exploration company.

Golden Saint Australia executive chairman Cyril D’Silva said the company was one of the last international companies still operating in ebolaaffected areas, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to run.

“We can’t go now because of ebola,” Mr D’Silva said. “We can’t get any insurance and it’s not worth the risk.”

He said there was still about 100 people working in the ebola affected areas.

“We are one of the few companies

who are still continuing with operations.”

Forbes magazine has reported most businesses in Sierra Leone requiring international managerial assistance had “either halted operations or are functioning at a fraction of capacity” after expatriates fled the country.

According to the World Health Organisation statistics from mid-October, 2677 people have contracted ebola in Sierra Leone and 932 people have died from the disease.

Mr D’Silva said he was trying to keep his workers away from ebolainfected areas.

“We have 340 sq km over there, so we can work in other areas. It’s a big country,” Mr D’Silva said.

“We don’t force people to work for us, we give them the option.”

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has committed $18 million to help eradicate ebola in West Africa.

The Australian Medical Association said the Federal Government money was not enough.

“AMA is calling on the government to help people working in West Africa,” AMA president Brian Owler said.

Mr D’Silva said Golden Saint had donated $20,000 directly to local people in Sierra Leone and planned to establish a charity to help fight the disease.

“One of the biggest issues in Africa is, you give them money you think is going to the village but it doesn’t actually go down to the people.”

DEVASTATING: WA’s lemon shortage.

PHOTO: Sebastian Neuweiler.

Sour taste over price of lemons Rhiannon Shine

STILL SURVIVING: Local businesses helping the community.

PHOTO: Golden Saint.

A global lemon shortage has caused the price of lemons to jump to $1.50 each in WA, according to an industry group.

WA Citrus Improvement Group spokesman Richard Eckersley said he could not remember the price of lemons ever having been so high.

“Demand has picked up, but it’s also because California experienced frost followed by drought earlier this year,” he said.

California was one of the United States’ biggest citrus producers, but devastating frosts last winter led to

massive crop losses in the state.

Mr Eckersley, himself a citrus farmer, said the high prices would last about 12 months.

“It’s great for Australian growers, but they need to be aware that the high prices won’t last long,” he said.

Quality Produce International sales representative Gordon Berryman said consumers had complained about the price of lemons.

Mr Berryman said high prices would only benefit a small number of growers nationwide and did not necessarily mean the entire industry was doing well.

“A lot of crops here have been damaged,” he said.

Education reform will cause teacher shortage – union Tim Walker

Regional schools will struggle to attract teachers when 178 state schools become independent next year as part of the State Government’s education reforms, according to the State School Teachers’ Union.

WA Education Minister Peter Collier announced in August that more than half of the state’s public schools would operate under the independent public scbools model by 2015.

Principals of independent schools can recruit staff directly, reducing the number of teachers joining the

State Government’s country teaching program.

The program offers financial and other incentives that encourage teachers to take up rural positions.

WA State School Teachers’ Union senior vice president Lincoln Rose said the ability of independent schools to choose their own staff meant regional schools would struggle to attract teachers.

“When I started teaching, you could basically do your couple of years in rural areas and you sort of got a spot back in Perth, where you grew up, and that was the incentive,” Mr Rose said.

He said that schools in remote areas

Fears grow over use of BPA Saket Dongre Britain and the US are phasing out the use of the chemical Bisphenol A in some products because of concerns about its long-term health impacts.

A recent study by the University of Missouri found receipt paper containing the chemical was linked to obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, reproductive problems and behavioural problems in children.

The chemical, better known as BPA, is found in plastic water bottles, CDs, sporting equipment and thermal receipt paper.

University of Adelaide molecular

pharmacologist Ian Musgrave said the study was unrealistic because it used impractical and extreme testing methods.

“The participants needed to hold the thermal receipts for four minutes after using a hand sanitiser,” he said.

“The receipts have the lowest concentration of BPA to cause biological damage.

“There would be no effects whatsoever.”

Edith Cowan University biomedical science lecturer Anna Callan said BPA entered the bloodstream through contact with skin or consumption of food.

There were few studies on humans, according to Ms Callan.

would have a tough time getting teachers if that incentive was removed.

WA Primary Principals Association vice president Ian Anderson said public schools had to consider employing teachers referred by the department.

“If there is no one, then they have a look at the next category before they have the ability to select their

own person,” he said.

“An IPS school has far greater flexibility in terms of that selection process.”

Education Department school innovation and reform director David Price said that independent schools still had to follow a set of guidelines when recruiting new staff.

“At an IPS, you can’t say ‘I’ll choose my own staff, I’ll run my own budget, and also enrol who I like’,” he said.

“You are independent in having more flexibility to make more decisions at local level, but you are still connected to what it means to be a public school.”

Mr Anderson said IPS would have “a little bit more flexibility”.

Aussie men answer Watson’s call for equality Kathryn Croston More than 9,000 Australian men have answered Emma Watson’s call to join the global discussion on gender equality.

Watson launched the HeForShe campaign last month during her speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The campaign aims to get men involved in gender equality and convey “the idea and ambition” behind feminism.

Australia has the fourth highest number of signatures, behind the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

A United Nations Women Australian National Committee spokeswoman said the campaign had caused a lot of discussion on gender equality, and they were happy with the response from Australia men.

EQUALITY STANCE: Men join the movement.

PHOTO: David Cumming.

October 2014

9

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

PHOTO: Isabella Tranchita.

PAINT THE TOWN: Mt Lawley undergoes a paint-over.

Murals, murals, on the wall Michael Roberts and Nadia Budihardjo A new City of Vincent project involves local artists, residents and businesses to help prevent graffiti and bring colour to Mount Lawley’s neglected laneways.

The newly-formed Laneway Collective commissioned 30 artists to transform Mount Lawley’s Grosvenor Lane into a street art gallery for the upcoming Beaufort Street Festival.

Laneway Collective founder Mel McVee said she wanted to do something positive for Perth.

The collective was formed earlier this year when Ms McVee was commissioned by a local resident to paint a mural on the back wall of a Grosvenor Road home.

Ms McVee said she received a lot of support from local residents, many of whom said they wanted more street art along the laneway.

City of Vincent Mayor John Carey said local businesses and organisations had allocated $25,000

to fund more street art.

“We’ve identified across the city potential walls that could be used for street or wall art,” he said.

WA police have charged 190 people statewide as part of its crackdown on vandalism, known as Operation Eraser.

Earlier this year, however, City of Vincent council workers painted over a mural in Northbridge on behalf of WA Police.

Mayor John Carey said painting over artist Stormie Mills’ mural was an “embarrassing stuff up”.

Public Transport Authority spokes-

man David Hynes said urban street art projects were attractive and helped stop vandalism.

“Generally, when something has urban art, it’s not going to be tagged, which is the untidy, annoying, messy graffiti,” Mr Hynes said.

Mural artist Luke O’Donohue said the Town of Claremont had given him a $7,000 grant this year to fund a series of live painting demonstrations.

“One of the first projects they asked me to do targeted an area that was being regularly vandalised.

After I had painted there it never got touched again,” Mr O’Donohue said.

Local artist Hayley Fieldey originally started painting custom surfboards, but started painting murals about a year ago.

Ms Fieldey said her involvement with the Laneway Collective allowed her to “showcase” her work to the public.

Beaufort Street Festival art director and artist Rene Brink said the November 15 event would be a great opportunity to see artists at work.

Live poetry readings draw big crowds Louis Zambotto

POETRY PUNTERS: Live readings a hit.

PHOTO: Carmen Gostelow.

More people are attending live poetry readings in WA but event organisers are struggling to find venues they can afford to hire, and government funding has been cut.

Audiences at the Australian Poetry Slam competition, in which poets ‘battle’ each other through spoken word contests, have increased each year since 2007.

Australian Poetry Slam national co-ordinator Miles Merrill said 1,220 poets competed nationally in the competiton this year, compared to 230 poets in 2007.

“Live audiences have grown from 2,500 in 2007 to 30,000 this year,” Mr Merrill said.

“In WA, the number of poets annually has fluctuated from 40 in 2007 to 230 in 2014.

“Live audiences have grown from about 300 in WA to 1,300.”

WA co-ordinator Allan Boyd said the competition was good for Perth’s poets.

“The event is vital for the longevity of poetry, mainly because a lot of young people enjoy the Slam,” he said.

“They not only enjoy performing in it, but they actually enjoy watching it.”

WA champion Sukhjit Khalsa said the competition provided a good plat-

form for people starting out in poetry.

“I think it’s a really good incentive.

It just makes it more legitimate and it brings together like-minded people from all over Australia,” she said.

Boyd said it would be difficult, however, to promote the competition in future because it no longer received funding from independent group WritingWA, which had received money from the State Government to support the Slam.

“It was heavily funded and organised by WritingWA,” he said.

“It built up over a few years and then they pulled out.”

Artists combine to fill growing gallery void Aimee Hughes The closure of several commercial art galleries is forcing emerging Perth artists to run their own exhibitions.

Since 2012, four of Perth’s leading commercial art galleries have closed.

Four artist-run studio-galleries have opened for artists to work together without taking big financial risks.

University of Western Australia cultural precinct director Ted Snell said “generational change” was a major

GALLERY OWNER: Jan Morskate.

catalyst for the closures.

“A lot of the galleries have been around for a very long time and, in most cases, they didn’t have anyone particularly interested in taking it on, so there wasn’t a natural successor,” Professor Snell said.

Professor Snell said the Perth art scene was changing. Commercial galleries were no longer the pinnacle of artwork sales and engagement.

“The initiatives that have opened in Perth offer a different way of thinking about developing audiences and creat-

PHOTO: Sebastian Neuweiler.

ing professional careers,” he said.

According to studio-gallery Paper Mountain, the new initiatives differ from commercial galleries because they focus on artist development rather than on profit.

Paper Mountain co-director Melissa McGrath said the emphasis was on giving young artists an opportunity and on giving established artists the chance to consider a new direction for their work.

“There is more value placed on ideas, execution and content because the existence of the space is not dependent on the sale of the art,” she said.

Ms McGrath said the growing number of artist-run studio-galleries in the city showed the public and government were willing to pay for art.

Emerge Art Space co-director Jan Morskate said commercial galleries like hers were a “dying breed”.

She said about 40 per cent of sales revenue went to the gallery.

The rest was used to pay for staff, rent, advertising and other overhead expenses.

“The worst part of the business is that we are constantly turning people away,” she said.

“We can only represent so many artists and we are constantly inundated by artists looking for exhibition space.”

WAM ADMISSION: Free entry for events.

PHOTO: Sebastian Neuweiler.

Festival opens doors Hannah Barry The WA Music Festival is offering free admission to some events in an attempt to attract bigger audiences for local artists.

Festival chief executive officer Mike Harris said the festival would expose artists to new audiences and provide them with access to important industry people.

Singer Nic Owen said the “modest” rate paid to bands for performing at the festival was offset by the exposure they received.

Lionizer drummer Bailey Lions said free admission would help draw bigger crowds.

Mr Harris said it was also important to give local artists an opportunity to play live.

“The current live scene, certainly in Northbridge, is at risk,” he said.

Lions said it was getting more difficult for bands to book live performances in Perth because several venues had closed and other venues had stopped paying retainers.

More than 80 bands are expected to appear at the festival, which will be held in Northbridge next week.

October 2014

10

PHOTO ESSAY

Greg Walsh skims through records after his bike ride.

S und year for rec rd stores A photo essay by Joseph Wilson At a time where the Australian music industry’s digital sales figures are dwindling, the old-school charms of vinyl albums are getting their groove back. According to the Australian Recording Industry Association, vinyl album sales increased by 77 per cent in 2013.

Noise Pollution store owner and musician Maurice Flavel says the increase could be due to the “more intimate” relationship between music and listener that vinyl provides.

Mr Flavel says it is vinyl album art and the printed lyrics that accompany it “which gives it a whole new feel”. He says records “have better sound quality and last longer” than digital downloads or CDs. Mr Flavel says the relationship customers have with vinyl demonstrates how record stores can act as cultural hubs. Artists and music fans alike discuss and share their ideas about music, like they did in vinyl's golden days.

Junction Records store owner Ben Woolwich says: “It is the desire for something to hold and to have” that drives people to buy vinyl instead of downloaded music.

Despite the increased sales, the ARIA report shows digital downloads have overtaken physical sales of albums and now account for 55 per cent of the market. CD sales have fallen by 25 per cent. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the last remaining record manufacturer in Australia, Zenith Records, plans to introduce two new machines to allow it to increase production from about 200,000 records a year to about 450,000.

Rows of records at Noise Pollution record store.

The wall of frames.

Maurice Flavel spends his days at Noise Pollution.

Ben Woolwich signs a record at Junction Records.

October 2014

11

PHOTO ESSAY

Wings for the wounded A photo essay by Heath Werrett The everyday drone of overhead planes is something with which residents of Perth’s southern suburbs, such as Atwell, Canning Vale and Forrestdale, would be familiar.

While some of the flying is recreational, many of the planes are flown by pilots responding to calls for aid and by other volunteer emergency and non-emergency groups.

Zach Froneman prepares to fly the Medical Air Citation II.

One of the service providers, Angel Flight Australia, has conducted more than 17,000 flights and helped more than 2,700 people since it started in 2003. Another service provider, Medical Air, has completed about 300 flights since it started about a year ago. The services offer emergency and non-emergency transportation for people who are medically or financially unable to do so.

Returning from his fourth volunteer job with Angel Flights, WA Royal Aero Club president Andrew Eldridge says: “It’s highly rewarding being able to assist people who cannot travel for medical reasons, or who are struggling with long distance transportation costs”.

At the other end of the airstrip, Medical Air Australia pilot Zach Froneman is busy working in the company’s helicopter hangar. Having flown more than 500 missions for various volunteer services, Froneman distinctly recalls transporting a seven-year-old boy across the UK in 2009.

Andrew Eldridge ready for a perfectday for flying.

“He had lost 70 per cent of his skin due to a viral infection, but made a full recovery once proper medical treatment was given in London,” he says.

It’s not just pilots keeping these services running. The volunteer air services also owe their success to people like Mike Calneggia, who lends his helicopter to Angel Flights.

The 54-year-old wine-maker says he wishes he had more time to help people in need.

Mike Calneggia with the R44 Raven II Helicopter.

The Cessna Citation II Jet ambulance loaded with medical equipment for the flight.

An instructor and learner pilot push their aircraft back into the hangar.

October 2014

12

PHOTO ESSAY

Washed out laundromats A photo essay by Siobhan Herne

The bright posters light up the Leederville Laundromat at night.

Laundromats are places to get your washing done, but is the industry itself washed up? Squashed between decaying video shops and cheap nail salons, the empty rooms and faded furnishings of some Perth laundromats are symptomatic of their struggle for survival. Western Australia has the third lowest number of laundromats in Australia and accounts for less than eight per cent of the nation’s share, according to the 2014 IBISWorld Industry Report.

Perth’s laundromats are not to be confused with the thriving laundry and dry cleaning services we use for garments too special to wash ourselves. Many of these laundromats operate vintage, rumbling coin-operated machines. Others have been re-fitted and appear gleaming new. These outfits, however, still command their faithful owners, who believe in breathing life back into Perth’s laundromats.

Maylands Laundrette.

Tricia Gregory and Lee Gregory bought their Victoria Park business about two years ago. Ms Gregory said she and her husband Lee visited Europe and found “the laundromats over there actually functioned and served their purpose a lot better than here”. “We wanted an opportunity to do something different and develop a concept,” she says.

Boris Miloseski, who owned the Leederville laundromat until recently, says his business was “convenient for everyone and a lot of it is very very good” but “it’s just maintenance” that is an issue. But, he says he has “had enough” because “he can’t take holidays”.

According to the IBISWorld report, laundromat use is at “critically low levels” and “although running a washing unit is highly profitable, the margins get eroded by rental expenses”.

The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show 97 per cent of Australian households have a washing machine, representing a threat to the industry.

The primary market, however, remains international students and backpackers.

Leftover life at the quaint Como Laundrobar.

Vintage machines at the Bayswater laundromat.

October 2014

13

PHOTO ESSAY

Boris Miloseski plays chess with his customers while they wait for their washing.

Tricia Gregory is trying to bring “culture� to WA laundromats.

Vic Park Radiant Laundry.

Como laundrobar.

October 2014

14

PHOTO ESSAY

Muslim women: what my hijab means to me A photo essay by Isabel Moussalli

The question of whether Muslim women should be allowed to wear a head covering, commonly nly referred to as the burqa, is once again under debate.

In light of the controversy, reports orts of abuse, including threats and attacks on women wearing hijabs, niqabs and burqas have caused the Islamic slamic Council of WA to encourage Muslims to report “politically politically or racially motivated hate crimes against them or anyone else to WA Police”.

Islamic Council of WA president nt Rateb Jneid says the head coverings are “a a universal act of utter peace and humility” and nd “to have Australian Muslim women harassed assed on the street for voicing this universal ersal right is not acceptable”.

“Muslim women wear the scarff as an act of modesty, the exactt same way Mother Mary did and d the exact same way all nuns do,” he says.

Hamdi Mohamud in a hijab.

The Western Independent p spoke p with some wearers of the attire to better understand their choice to wear the hijab, niqab or burqa.

Anuar says she usually wears a complete Malaysian woman Siti Anua small headscarf while holidaying in hijab, but only packed a sm Australia. me feel peaceful and calm,” she “Wearing hijab makes m says.

School teaching student Hamdi Murdoch Primary S Mohamud says: ““wearing a hijab makes me feel special because I know my beauty is only for my friends”. family and frie

The burqa iis the most concealing of all Islamic veils and covers the entire face and body, leaving jjust a mesh screen through which to see. The niqab is a veil for the face, accompanied by a headscarf, which accom leaves the area around the eyes clear. A leav hijab is a scarf that covers the head and hija neck, but leaves the face uncovered. ne Aminn Hassan says the hijab is a part of her and represents who she is.

Israa Herondale and Sheima Ahmed. Herondale says the hijab offers a “sense of unity”.

Malaysian tourist Siti Anuar wearing a hijab in London Court, Perth.

Nur Khairunnisa in a hijab.

October 2014

15

FEATURES

When storing turns to hoarding Isabel Moussalli

I

t is something most of us do, although the evidence is often hidden under our beds, in boxes covered in blankets of dust, and behind closed doors that make us cringe at the thought of opening.

Whether it is shoes or stamps, we all collect things. But when does collecting become hoarding?

For some people, the collecting habit can spiral out of control until it makes them feel anxious and trapped. They will think about it all the time and it will affect their lives in ways few people can imagine. In extreme cases, the local council must intervene because their home has become an environmental health hazard.

The US-based Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research says a hoarding disorder occurs when a person has difficulty discarding possessions, resulting in an excessive accumulation of items regardless of value.

Our understanding of hoarding, however, is changing.

Until July this year, councils often asked extreme hoarders to clean their house or face being evicted so that the council can do the job.

Now, new State Government guidelines have been drawn up that focus on the wellbeing of the occupant themselves and on how to help them declutter.

The WA Health Department says the new policy is not a response to an increase in hoarding, but because hoarding is being increasingly recognised as a mental health problem.

“The guidelines introduces mental health aspects to show local governments that hoarding is a broader issue than just a legislative one,” a Health Department spokesperson says.

“It requires greater compassion and consideration of the mental health aspects to address the issue and help the people involved.”

The new guidelines recommend councils meet the occupant to set goals and develop a cleaning plan that will help them decide what to discard and what to keep.

The occupant can also receive counselling to discuss their anxieties before the clean and will continue to receive support afterwards. This helps to ensure their house remains clean.

For the plan to work, it relies on the hoarder agreeing to de-clutter their home.

The council can still intervene, however, if it believes a person’s hoarding has created a public health risk or if it creates a significant risk to the

PILED HIGH: Collective clutter.

hoarder themselves.

University of Sydney clinical psychiatry Professor John Snowdon says many hoarders are well aware of their problem.

“They will be willing to go along with somebody who helps them if they are approached in an appropriate way,” he says.

Snowdon has researched hoarding and domestic squalor in Australia, publishing a book and contributing to many publications. He says people who live in squalor are less likely to accept help, while people who simply hoard too much will probably benefit from the State Government’s new guidelines.

Anita Sulcs, a self-confessed hoarder from Melbourne, says she supports government programs that work with hoarders, provided the clean-up plan is properly implemented.

“People may hoard because it’s a comfort thing, particularly after big trauma in their lives” “A lot of the time, the people who go and help have never experienced the problem or understand it,” she says.

In her blog Hoarders Helping Hoarders, Sulcs documents her own struggle to de-clutter. Her entries detail her setbacks, future goals and recent accomplishments and include beforeand-after photos of her home. The blog has been viewed more than 20,000 times and is one of the top-ten most recommended hoarding blogs.

Sulcs says readers have contacted her for support after receiving demands from local government authorities. She says councils should not use the threat of eviction or fines to pressure hoarders into accepting an intervention.

In cases where a hoarder rejects a plan for intervention, the new guidelines allow the home to be declared unfit for human habitation under WA’s Health Act 1911. It would then become illegal for the hoarder to remain on the property, allowing the council to clean the house.

The new guidelines also warn such an approach “has associated risks as it may destabilise a vulnerable individual”.

A 2012 Victoria Department of Health discussion paper on hoarding states: “Many people who have experienced a quick fix have had terrible reactions, such as severe depression and in some cases suicide.”

For this reason, some US states have banned government agencies from intervening.

City of Cockburn environmental health co-ordinator Phill Oorjitham says the council developed its

ORGANISED CHAOS: Cleaning around the mess.

own hoarding and domestic squalor policy in 2011. The policy is aimed at helping the hoarder.

“Generally, environmental health is based on issues to do with compliance and the easiest way to deal with compliance is to slam an order on someone, which is not what we want to do with people who are hoarding,” he says.

Oorjitham says hoarders who won’t agree to de-clutter their property receive visits from others who have been engaged to help change their minds.

“Otherwise, we can through the Health Act to get it done and, at this point, we haven’t yet. It is a last resort.”

Curtin University’s School of Psychology and Speech Pathology pro-

duced a research paper in 2013 that suggested hoarders struggled to discard many possessions because their brains lacked flexibility. This generated too many possible categories for their possessions.

Snowdon says there are many reasons why people might develop a severe hoarding habit.

“People may hoard because it’s a comfort thing, particularly after big trauma in their lives. They keep the stuff because it makes them feel better or they think the stuff might be valuable,” he says.

“It’s also something in families that people can grow up with, maybe they learn to keep stuff in families whereas

PHOTO: Alexander Kreher.

other families don’t.”

Sulcs started hoarding after her mother died. She inherited all her mother’s possessions and kept them in a small house.

“I was brought up that way. You don’t throw things away,” she says.

Sulcs says her readers have privately thanked her for being open about her problem and for helping them with their own hoarding.

She says her blog has helped people realise that hoarding is normal and she hopes hoarders will stop feeling ashamed.

“It can happen to anyone, at any time, and nothing needs to be wrong with you,” she says.

PHOTO: Alexander Kreher.

October 2014

16

FEATURES

Male contraceptives coming W

ho is in charge of contraception? Is it the man or the woman? More importantly, who is responsible if a woman falls pregnant?

Marie Stopes International Australia medical director Philip Goldstone says men are legally responsible for the children they father and might want to take control of preventative measures.

The sexual and reproductive health organisation aims to ensure women have the opportunity to make informed decisions about pregnancy by offering affordable health care and family planning services.

“If his partner gets pregnant, he’s the

INJECTION: Vas deferens are blocked.

father, with all the paternal obligations and responsibilities that carries,” Dr Goldstone says.

“In developed nations, an increasingly prevalent factor is that men are now financially responsible for any children they father.

“Ultimately, what we should be aiming for is a range of short and longterm options for men, similar to what currently exists for women.”

Executive producer of SYN Media’s The Naughty Rude Show and sex educator Patricia Niklas says, legally, men are now more financially responsible for their children.

Culturally, however, men aren’t as accountable for their children as the mother is.

“The thing that’s certainly changing for the better is that there are now legal structures in place to make men responsible for the consequences of their actions,” she says.

“There’s definitely a legal expectation that a male will provide for a child

PHOTO: National Institutes of Health.

he fathers, but at the same time, culturally, we still really expect that stuff to be a woman’s role.”

According to the British Library Board, the contraceptive pill was made available in 1961.

This meant, for the first time, women had control over their own bodies and

or contraceptive injection.

“Though there apparently aren’t side effects like that of the female pill, how can you be entirely sure?

“I’ve heard some horror stories of the female pill in the early days so I’d be pretty wary to take it,” he says.

Edith Cowan University stu-

careers because they had the freedom to decide when, or if, they wanted to become mothers. It also instilled in men an idea that contraception was the ‘woman’s job’.

Murdoch University student Tom Hawkes says he wouldn’t want to use the first male contraceptive pill

dent Lucas Glauch says a male pill could change the way we think about gender roles.

“It would be good in terms of power relations,” he says.

“With the male pill, it wouldn’t just be the woman having the power by herself.

“I would have medical concerns in the first year with erections and infertility, but it would definitely be

something I’d be interested in.”

Parsemus Foundation, a not-forprofit organisation that funds nonmainstream medical research, said this year a male contraception would likely be ready for sale to the public in 2017.

The contraceptive, called Vasagel, involves an injection into the vas deferens, blocking the flow of sperm.

The procedure can be reversed by a second injection, which clears the path for sperm to flow freely again.

PHOTO: Samantha Saw.

Caitlin Creeper

Trees on the chopping block Jesinta Burton

T

he 40-minute drive down Mowen Road is breathtaking.

The sun is shining, there’s not a cloud in the sky, and there are trees as far as the eye can see.

It’s difficult to understand how a forest of this size, an intimidating and seemingly impenetrable space, could be so easily disassembled.

“They stopped logging,” Margaret River Regional Environment Centre co-ordinator David Rastrick says.

“But when the forest is dry enough, they will be able to go in and start logging again.”

He looks exhausted.

The centre has already expressed concerns over the Forest Products Commission’s plan to log 1,610 hectares of Margaret River’s Mowen Forest later this year.

Rastrick says the commission logged in the Mowen Forest last summer, but residents did not know it was happening.

“At the same time as we became aware, the rain came and the FPC needed to stop logging because it is a dieback risk area. If it’s raining, they are not allowed in there,” Rastrick says.

“It’s kind of an undefined time as to when they’ll go back in there, but it will be a few weeks to months that we’re looking at.”

Although upset by the lack of consultation prior to the commencement of the project, Rastrick says it is “standard practice” for forestry projects.

“They don’t log right near the road, they log out of sight, so it’s not in the public eye,” he says.

“The community aren’t specifically consulted, there’s no information session for the logging of forests.”

Rastrick says the commission publishes a 10-year logging schedule on its website. State forests are “just up for logging”, he says.

“It’s really up to environmental groups to keep a look out for what’s happening and, now that the MRREC is aware of what’s happening, we’re keen to make sure that the rest of Mowen Forest is protected,” Rastrick says.

Western Australian Forest Alliance convenor Jess Beckerling says logging poses a danger to already threatened wildlife.

“Mowen forest is home to many threatened wildlife species including red-tailed black cockatoos, baudin's cockatoos, carnaby's cockatoos and brush-tailed phascogales,” Beckerling says.

“As the forest sees another sunset, it’s difficult not to dwell on just how many trees are left in Mowen” “All these magnificent birds and mammals are unique to WA and are threatened by logging.”

The commission says its forest management plan for 2014 to 2023 has a stronger focus on habitat retention.

It includes provisions for preserving additional marri trees and habitat for black cockatoos and other species.

“Protection of native fauna is a key consideration prior to harvesting,” the commission says.

But Rastrick says there will not be enough trees left to protect the threatened species.

Beckerling says WA needs a

DAVID RASTRICK: Making a stand against logging.

new comprehensive Biodiversity Conservation Act to protect threatened species and their natural habitat.

“The Wildlife Conservation Act was written in 1950 and contains numerous exemptions that allow logging to continue even when endangered species are relying on the forest for survival,” she says.

The commission says forestry has little impact on native forest fauna.

“Each year, less than one per cent of the South-West forests is harvested. The most common threats to native species include predation by cats and foxes and

permanent land clearing,” the commission says.

Forest Products Commission SouthWest forest manager Chaz Newman says the commission contributes to the Department of Parks and Wildlife’s Western Shield program, which has reduced the number of predatory species through baiting.

Rastrick hopes concentrating his attack on the commission’s bottom line will convince authorities that they should not be logging in Mowen Forest.

“The finances of the logging really aren’t that impressive, with just the

PHOTO: Olivier Marrill.

roading alone costing $160,000.

“We asked some questions in parliament and they are looking to make a $350,000 gross profit and, after the expenses we’ve been shown, we can see that there would possibly be a net profit of $80,000.”

As the forest sees another sunset, it’s difficult not to dwell on just how many trees are left in Mowen. Rastrick says the community has begun to protest, forming the Save Mowen Forest group.

He says it is up to private citizens and environmental groups to stand up for the local ecosystem.

October 2014

17

FEATURES

Warming up to clean energy A

ustralia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop approaches a podium in a room full of heads of state at the 2014 United Nations Climate Summit in New York. Bishop offers, on behalf of the Australian Government, a reduction of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent by 2020, the minimum amount pledged by any developed nation. Bishop also refers to Australia’s $2.55 billion contribution to an Emissions Reduction Fund, which includes a plan to improve the energy efficiency of Australian households.

Sustainable Energy Now WA chairman Cameron Power says he was “thoroughly embarrassed” that the Federal Government did not act “as decisively” as he would have liked at the UN Summit.

Power says embracing renewable energy is one of the best ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He says Australia’s commitment to a five per cent reduction is “strongly linked” to the country’s renewable energy sector.

“Renewable energy enables us to cut those emissions,” he says.

To contribute to Australia’s climate change goals, local government authorities are also taking action. On the same day as the UN Climate Summit, on the other side of the world, the City of Nedlands held a meeting of its own.

Five of the 10 councillors present voted for a new rule that would force homeowners to include an on-site source of renewable energy in all new homes built in the area. The Mayor’s casting vote ensured the motion passed.

According to one of Australia’s biggest solar energy companies, Energy Matters, Nedlands is the first local government in Australia to do this.

Sustainable energy experts say community and local government climate initiatives are gaining momentum in Australia. They say this grassroots approach could see Australia follow in the footsteps of Germany, one of the world’s most innovative and successful renewable energy generators. They say, however, Australia is still a long way off.

University of Technology Sydney Institute for Sustainable Futures researcher Nicky Ison says there is a lack of climate leadership at the federal level. This is, however, leading to more

“Let’s be visionary, let’s be leaders, not sheep” Meanwhile, more local governments are signing up to the WA Local Government Association Climate Change Declaration. Of the 120 local councils in WA, 33 are now signatories.

This means that 1.37 million people – more than half the residents of WA – are represented by a local authority that is committed to fighting climate change.

Latest Climate Institute polling reveals 71 per cent of Australians want the Renewable Energy Target to remain at 20 per cent or higher beyond 2020.

In August this year, the Australian Government conducted a review of the RET scheme. According to the Federal Government’s review, Australia’s generation capacity is not only on target, but is also contributing to a large surplus of renewably generated energy.

The review found the economic landscape has shifted significantly and Australia is on track to exceed its target and produce 26 per cent of energy renewably by 2020. The report then questioned whether the “objectives for the RET remain appropriate”. It pro-

WIND POWER: Denmark Community Wind Farm.

PHOTO: Madeleine Logan.

Rhiannon Shine

overall electricity needs by midday from renewable sources.

According to Ison, WA started one of the first operating community energy projects in Australia in March 2013 — the Denmark Community Wind Farm.

“That came out of a collaboration between the council, a local sustainability group and the utility for power,” she says.

There are no other operating community energy projects in WA. Ison is also the director of the Community Power Agency, which aims to establish a fair and sustainable energy sector by collaborating with other organisations to address the limitations of a sustainable vision.

This year, the agency held Australia’s first national Community Energy Conference in Canberra, where the Mayor of the German village of Wildpoldsried, Arno Zengle was a key speaker.

change at community level.

“I think there was a period there when we did get really good climate legislation – the clean energy package was some of the best climate legislation around,” she says.

“But, as that became politically toxic, communities and local councils started looking at what they could do more independently.”

Recent polling by The Climate Institute – an independent Australian research organisation – shows 61 per cent of Australians want the country to be a leader in climate solutions and 57 per cent think the Abbott Government should take climate change more seriously.

Australia, however, has lost ground in the global Climate Change Performance Index. The index compares the climate protection performance of the countries which produce 90 per cent of the world’s energy-related carbon dioxide.

Australia was ranked 57th out of 61 countries this year, falling from 40th place last year. Australia also has the worst rating in terms of renewable energy, which the CCPI study described as being “very poor”. According to the report, Australia lost ground after the Federal Government abolished several climate initiatives, including the carbon and mining taxes.

TURNING GREEN: Denmark turbines spin into action.

posed changes to reduce the amount of renewable energy Australia generates from 41,000 gigawatt hours to 26,000 gigawatt hours to meet, but not necessarily exceed, the 20 per cent target by 2020.

Power says the target of 41,000 gigawatt hours should not be reduced. He says the fact the country is on target to exceed its 2020 renewables goal is encouraging.

“I don’t see how that can be a bad thing,” he says.

“We should also seriously be considering that we don’t have a renewable energy target beyond 2020. Let’s be visionary, let’s be leaders, not sheep.

Why not have a target of 40 per cent renewables by 2040?”

University of New South Wales Institute of Environmental Studies researcher Franziska Mey, who is German, says Germany is a world leader in renewable energy and it all started from community action decades ago.

She says Australia is slowly starting to follow suit. Meys’s PhD thesis will compare renewable energy progress in Germany and Australia.

Mey says five years ago Australia had one or two community renewable

energy projects and a handful of active community groups.

“Today, Australia has around 11 projects operating and generating electricity,” she says.

In comparison, Mey says Germany has thousands of community renewable energy projects, some dating back 20 years.

She also attributed Germany’s success in this area to a “supportive” policy environment that allowed such projects to be “set up quite easily”.

In 2010, Ison conducted a research tour of about 30 community energy projects across four European countries and found that the countries with the strongest renewable energy sectors were the countries with the biggest community energy sectors.

“A couple of years ago, 51 per cent of all Germany’s renewable energy capacity was owned by individuals and communities,” Ison says.

According to the CCPI, Germany has one of the most innovative and successful renewable energy sectors worldwide. Earlier this year, the Business Spectator reported Germany had set a new world record after it produced nearly 75 per cent of its

“We have everything we need to take the lead for this world” “Wildpoldsried is just this small village in southern Germany, but it generates 400 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable energy. The council has led that program,” Ison says.

“It’s an example of how councils play a really important driving role in catalysing and making these projects happen.”

Power says Australia, particularly WA, has everything it needs to be leading the world in renewable energy.

“There are other countries in the world taking a lead on this issue and they are countries that don’t have the beautiful state that we do,” he says.

“We have some of the best wave resources on the planet. I think we are the third windiest city on the planet. We are definitely up there with the sunniest. Over the summer, we get more than 10 hours of sunlight a day. So, we have everything we need to take the lead for this world.

“It’s obscene that a country like Germany, which has a fraction of the sunlight that we do, has nearly 50 per cent of its power coming out of renewables. We don’t even get close to 50 per cent.

“We are starting to see it on a local level. What we would like to see now is it to be worked up from that grass roots community approach in local councils, to the State Government, and up to the Federal.”

PHOTO: Madeleine Logan.

October 2014

18

FEATURES

Racing dream back on track HORROR CRASH: Byrnes' life-changing accident.

Emma Griffiths

“D

ecember 30, 2010, is a date fused in my memory.”

It is the final practice for the upcoming Junior Sedan National Title race.

Speedway racer Laura Byrnes is sitting in the driver’s seat of a Daihatsu Charade G100. Her number is 27.

It is her final year of racing junior sedans and she wants to go out with a bang.

During the practice run, the constant velocity joint, which helps control the car’s steering, breaks.

The petite, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, 20-year-old doesn’t give up that easily.

She pressures the team behind her to fix the steering so she can have one last practice run.

Little does she know that this one lap will change her speedway career forever.

“I made it a couple of laps, using the line of the track, before the back of the car dug in and my car rolled over,” she says.

“Physically there was nothing wrong with me, however, mentally I was destroyed.

“We spent the full night fixing my car ready to race the next two days, but my heart wasn’t in it and I was frightened.”

Byrnes vanished from the sport.

She always dreamed about making a career out of speedway racing. Now she wanted nothing to do with it.

“I would just cry, so worried I would make the same mistakes” Ten months away from the driver’s seat, with only rare trips to the track to watch others race, Byrnes was still battling with that tortuous day.

“I convinced myself I wasn’t any good at speedway, I stopped trusting my driving ability, I had no faith in my race car and was paranoid I would roll in every corner,” she says.

In February 2012, a rare opportunity came her way when she was offered practice sessions in a modified production sedan.

She convinced herself she wanted to try racing again.

“The fear, however, was still there.

PHOTO: Supplied.

Once the idea of racing actually became real, that we physically had a race car and were fitting it out for me, the doubt came back,” Byrnes says.

“I would just cry, so worried I would make the same mistakes.

“I knew mentally I couldn’t take another major crash.”

Byrnes pushed and challenged herself, taking it day-by-day, race-by-race.

People started commenting on her driving again and saying how talented she was. Before she knew it she was winning trophies for second and third placing at her Perth Motorplex home track.

“By developing at my own pace in the senior ranks, and having the support of my family, friends, and wider speedway community, I was able to rise from the ashes to become one of the most successful racers in my division,” Byrnes says.

Her coach and father, Mark Byrnes, says he is very pleased with how hard she pushes herself.

“She impresses me with her passion to succeed in whatever she does,” Mark says.

Things have only got better for Byrnes. She was selected as part of a ‘rising star competition’ to take part in a program at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Byrnes was the only production sedan

SPEEDWAY RACER: Laura Byrnes.

PHOTO: Supplied.

driver selected nationwide, and the only female selected from WA across all areas of racing.

Australian Institute of Sport rising star co-ordinator Shane Collins says Byrnes is a determined young driver.

“Laura was chosen for her high standards of application, which included a very decorated and successful young career and a real professional outlook on her future within the sport and her goals that she has set both on and off the track,” Collins says.

He says the crashes and rollovers

Byrnes has experienced have helped to shape the driver she is today.

“She has had a few knocks and crashes early in her career, but that has given her a real steely resolve to move on and be as successful as she possibly can be now,” he says.

Byrnes says she hopes to continue striving to be the best she can.

“I want to continuously improve, and continue to strive for excellence.

Even though I’ve been racing for nine years I still have a lot of learning to do.”

Wide awake while under the knife Edward Tikoft

W

hat is it like to have surgery? Ask this of most people who have undergone a major procedure and they will probably start talking about their preparation, the fasting, their recovery and the amount of time they spent away from work.

If you ask what it’s like during the surgery, they will look at you blankly. “It wasn’t like anything. I was knocked out.”

General anaesthesia took them from consciousness to unconsciousness and then back again — one of the crowning achievements of modern medicine and one of the most mysterious transitions in nature.

It’s mysterious because consciousness is a complex phenomenon and no one, not even the experts, are sure what it is.

Seven years ago, a pain specialist decided that an occipital nerve stimulator would help Claudia Wright, now a 23-year-old university student, in her battle with chronic migraines.

Wires were inserted along her spine to connect a battery pack just above her hip with implants at the base of her skull.

She can vividly recall surgeons cutting into her neck. She also recalls trying to scream and nothing coming out.

“I remember crying so much that I could hardly see,” she says.

Wright was lying face down during the operation, so it was some time before she managed to make some noise and for her consciousness to be noticed. The anaesthetists quickly set about adjusting her dose and she fell back to sleep.

When she woke in the recovery room, she immediately started yelling again.

This made her wonder: “Was my brain screaming for the last two hours?”

American philosopher Thomas Nagel wrote in 1974 that being conscious is like having a movie playing in your head — comprising sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches.

A definition of consciousness in more objective terms, however, has eluded philosophy and science.

In the hope of changing this,

researchers are turning their attention to drugs that alter consciousness.

Swinburne University Brain and Psychological Sciences Research Centre Professor David Liley is researching this link.

“At the moment, everyone is trying to approach studying consciousness in terms of saying, ‘what are the mechanisms of consciousness?’ rather than maybe asking a simpler question, ‘how do anaesthetics actually alter brain activity?’” he says.

“Was my brain screaming for the last two hours?”

According to a study published in the American journal Anesthesiology last year, three different types of anaesthetic disrupted communication between the frontal lobe, which is responsible for motor control, and the parietal lobe in the brain, which is responsible for receiving sensory information.

This provides new support for one of the key theories relating to consciousness — Professor Giulio

Tononi’s information integration theory.

Professor Tononi, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, suggests consciousness occurs when information is shared throughout the brain, rather than as the function of a particular structure in the brain.

University of Adelaide philosophy Professor Gerard O’Brien, who has been writing about consciousness for more than 20 years, says many factors play a role in generating a conscious experience.

“It’s not just about local information processing but how information from all those different sites across the brain get brought together to construct one global representation of information,” he says.

O’Brien says he doubts the ability of anaesthesia studies to explain how consciousness works. He says there are issues with the assumptions made about anaesthetised patients and how much consciousness the subject is feeling.

O’Brien says to guarantee general anaesthesia, a patient has to be administered anaesthetics continuously.

“When you take people a long way down, you knock out a lot of activity right across the cortex and

then it doesn’t really help you much in trying to think about what it was that was really generating conscious experience,” he says.

Professor Liley says anaesthetics are “fantastically successful” and because they can be delivered safely, he says clinicians are happy to use them.

He says it’s possible that because they are so successful, people have spent little time trying to understand how they work.

Research by the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists reveals that anaesthesiarelated death is low – 1 in 55,000.

An American Society of Anesthetists review shows one or two patients in every 1,000 is likely to wake up during surgery.

When a patient is under general anaesthesia, the anaesthetist will monitor a range of variables, including blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory levels and drug concentration, to ensure the dose is right.

Cases like Claudia’s are, however, unhelpful in studying consciousness and how the brain resists anaesthesia. This is partly because the equipment used in the operating room is not set up to determine the cause of cases like hers.

October 2014

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Pressure on film industry Michael Archer

will eventually save cinema.

“Older women are the ones going out to theatres like Luna and the Windsor and seeing movies like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. They want something life affirming, they will keep art house alive,” he said.

Ellis also thinks the film business will pick up.

“Eventually, more content will be created specifically for different types of screens, which will help to bolster the film and television industry,” he says.

TAFE film student Drew Kendell says the cinema offers a different experience to the home theatre.

H

ow long before we see the extinction of cinema?

Predictions by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg that the “implosion” of film is “inevitable” depicts a grim future for the film industry.

Spielberg’s comments that “there’s eventually going to be an implosion, or a big meltdown” were made during a building opening at the University of Southern California last year and made international headlines.

Both Lucas and Spielberg said the demise of the film industry would come because blockbuster films would eventually fail to reap enough profits for studios.

They said studios only backed projects which were likely to make money and audiences would eventually become bored with seeing the same type of product every time they went to the movies.

As a result, most cinemas would close and those that stayed open would become expensive.

Not everyone shares Lucas and Spielberg’s notions, though.

Film and Television Institute marketing manager Michael Ellis says something special will have to be produced to draw crowds back into the movie theatres.

“A lot of the cinemas have already realised the cinema experience they offer is no longer unique and can be replicated at home, through essentially pirating and downloading, or watching it at home on a big screen,” he says.

“That’s why I think we’re seeing a

“We’ll start seeing a shift in feature films.

Audiences are canny now” OPTIMISM: Michael Ellis says the industry will survive..

lot more gimmicks like outdoor cinema, Gold Class, festivals, 3D films or anything else that adds something a little bit extra, to create an event that they can attract significant numbers with.”

The problem, however, goes further than just creating innovative ways to get people into movie theatres.

Screen Australia reports the average price for a cinema ticket almost doubled between 1999 and 2013, going from $7.93 to $13.41.

Some Perth cinemas charge much more than $13.41 for a ticket. Hoyts and Event Cinemas both charge adults $20 and children $15 per ticket.

According to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia, the Australian box office made $1.09

billion in 2013 – $900 million less than was made in the previous year.

Ellis attributes a large part of this financial loss to pirating and illegal downloading.

“It’s really exacerbated in Australia where we have a culture of not paying for content,” he says.

Could there be a bigger issue?

In 2012, blockbusters The Avengers, Skyfall, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Dark Knight Rises were released, each grossing more than $1 billion each worldwide.

In 2013, Frozen and Iron Man 3 were the only films to make more than $1 billion each.

Was Spielberg right in saying the cinema is dying and studios are only will-

PHOTO: Heath Werrett.

ing to invest in blockbusters they know will make money?

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts associate head of performance Andrew Lewis laughs heartily when asked this question.

His message is clear – film is not dead but blockbusters are not the answer.

“We need to understand our audience and study our demographics right,” he says.

“Production companies will move away from super hero-themed blockbusters, which are targeted at teenage boys, because they aren’t the ones going out and spending money.

They are staying at home and downloading.”

Lewis says women over the age of 50

“I don’t think the cinema will ever fade out. I think people will always want to go to the movies, even though the whole digital downloads industry is becoming a bit more popular,” he says.

“When you pay for the cinema, you know you’re there to watch the movie and there are no distractions because you have the big screen with the proper speakers and nothing beats that.”

There is still one bankable genre of movie, Lewis says.

“There will always be parents needing something to take their kids to on school holidays. Holiday viewing is really important to the industry,” Lewis says.

“We’ll start seeing a shift in feature films. Audiences are canny now. They want a more clever plot.

“We need to look at what they want and make it or they are going to go ‘oh that’s not for me’.”

Phobias under the microscope Bridgette e Stephens s

and piercing of the skin.

“I’ve had doctors say they can’t find out what’s making me sick without a blood test. I’ve booked the test and just not shown up. I just wait until the symptoms have eventually gone away.

“When I was travelling recently, I got sick and had to go to the doctors in Switzerland. The doctor said I needed to get a blood test.

“I assumed she meant a needle in my arm and I started crying and shaking and saying ‘no’ over and over again. Then the room went kind of funny and I had to lie down. Turns out she just meant a finger prick,” Walsh says.

“That was still gross, though.”

“I

actually have no idea why I’m scared of belly buttons,” Claire Brennan says.

“When I see them, I cry, curl up in a ball, and sometimes vomit.”

This may seem like a joke to some, but for Brennan, this condition, known as omphalophobia, is a reality she struggles with daily. She has a morbid fear of the navel.

Brennan has been scared of belly buttons her entire life, but now that she is a registered nurse, the phobia is affecting her more than she ever imagined.

“I have been at work and started crying before,” Brennan says.

“I walked in on another nurse cleaning a patient’s abdominal dressing and she wanted my opinion on how the wound was healing. I just stared at the ceiling just thinking, ‘oh my God, don’t look, don’t look’. Then she started talking about cleaning the wound.

I started dry retching, ran to the bathroom and cried.

“I actually changed my graduate program rotation because of my fear.

I was meant to work in an abdominal surgery ward where all surgeries go through the belly button. I decided I couldn’t deal with that on a daily basis.

“I never realised how much of an effect my fear had on my life until then.”

Phobias can have a crippling effect on sufferers.

Clinical psychologist Matthew Dunsire says a phobia is an irrational fear.

“It is, by definition, an exaggerated response. A fly on the wall looking at the person experiencing the phobia can see that their reaction is out of propor-

“We don’t just throw people in a room full of spiders. We expose people in a very sensitive and gradual way” TRYPANOPHOBIA: The morbid fear of needles.

tion to what is happening.

“Their mind is interpreting it as if they’re going to die. Their body is reacting as if this is an imminent lifethreatening situation, but it’s not.”

Dunsire says watching someone in a fight-or-flight response over a bug or a belly button can be confusing for friends and relatives.

Statistics from aniety and depression organisation Beyondblue reveals specific phobias affect about 11 per cent of the Australian population.

University of New England psychology professor John Malouff says public speaking is one of the most common phobias.

“People would rather be dead than give a speech,” he says.

“There are an infinite number of

stimuli that people can be phobic about. In ordinary life, exposure to a phobic stimulus often leads to feelings of fear, sharply increased arousal, and avoidance.

“The person may cry, scream, freeze, or flee. Individuals with blood phobia may faint and injure themselves,” Malouff says.

“The evolutionary purpose of fear is to reduce the risk of harm, through a fight-or-flight response.

With phobias, this perceived risk of harm increases,” Malouff continues to explain.

The instinctive response becomes warped and causes the person to perceive a situation as being threatening, even when the situation should cause no harm, Malouff says.

PHOTO: Rhian Vlahos.

Phobias can have many sources.

Psychology Today suggests that some phobias are closely associated with intense feelings of disgust for the object.

Brennan says navels ‘gross her out’.

“I get that feeling down my back like someone’s just run their nails down a chalkboard,” Brennan says.

Malouff says the most dangerous phobias are of doctors, injections and blood withdrawals.

“Those phobias can end up killing you, unlike most phobias, because you don’t get the treatment you need. If you have some health problem and you avoid going long-term, you could end up dead.”

Edith Cowan University broadcast student Eloise Walsh has trypanophobia – a morbid fear of needles, injections

Like Brennan, her fear developed during childhood, rather than from one specific trauma.

Dunsire says many people do not seek treatment because the most effective treatment is ‘de-sensitisation exposure’.

“The research around anxiety disorders and simple phobias shows behavioural therapy is incredibly successful.

If people can be brave enough to come in for their first session, they’ll get a sense of what exposure therapy actually is.

“We don’t just throw people in a room full of spiders. We expose people in a very sensitive and gradual way.

“People are exposed to a little bit of anxiety, but not a level that’s going to panic or significantly distress them.” *Disclosure: Matthew Dunsire is the husband of the author’s tutor.

October 2014

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Brain cancer research plea Nicole Hamer

M

achievable this will be.

“There is not only a lack of awareness of brain cancer affecting children, but also a lack of funding towards finding a cure for this nasty cancer.”

A spokeswoman for the NHMRC says the diseases that attract research funding are actually decided by researchers because they apply for a grant to study a particular disease.

“The NHMRC does not set funding amounts for specific diseases,” she says.

Natalie and Bryan say brain cancer continues killing people but receives very little publicity.

They say they knew very little about brain cancer before their daughter was diagnosed, which was proof of how it was being brushed under the carpet.

“There’s so much focus on breast cancer and skin cancer with awareness and funding. What about brain cancer?”

Natalie says.

Littlefield says brain cancer treatments are available, but they are limited and often risky.

“Because a child’s brain is still developing, any treatment on the brain has to be carefully manoeuvred,” he says.

“Often, the quality of life decreases when patients receive treatments for brain cancer.

“She has the odd bad day, but she's always smiling and happy. She really is amazing” “Requiring the assistance of a carer for the remainder of a brain cancer survivor’s life is not uncommon.”

Cancer Council WA education and research services manager Emma Croager says there is less funding for cancers like brain cancer because it is much rarer than breast cancer, although it is dangerous. It is also why people are less aware of brain cancer, she says.

“Of the 116,580 people diagnosed with cancer each year, around 1,600 people are diagnosed with brain cancer,” she says.

“To put this into context, the most common cancers in Australia are bowel, breast, prostate, melanoma and lung cancer, which account for over 60 per cent of cancers diagnosed in Australia.

“This is why there is a lot of awareness about these particular cancers.”

Dr Croager says the Cancer Council offers research grants, but it’s a competitive process and the council funds the best research proposal, regardless of which type of cancer it involves.

“Overall, more funding needs to be

PHOTO: From The Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research by Sona Saksena.

adison Molloy is a happy 10-year-old girl with an infectious smile and a contagious joy for life.

She looks happy every day, except Wednesdays.

“I hate Wednesdays because I know that’s hospital day,” she says.

“I find it very hard to smile in hospital.”

Every Wednesday, Madison travels with her mum from their home in Secret Harbour to Princess Margaret Hospital to have a check up or receive treatment for brain cancer.

In February, after having seizures, chronic nausea and vomiting, Madison was diagnosed with stage-four glioblastoma.

After numerous MRI brain scans and examinations from several doctors, her parents Natalie, 35, and Bryan, 42, were shattered to hear their daughter had the most aggressive form of brain cancer.

Glioblastoma cells are highly malignant and are capable of spreading tumourss to other parts of the brain quickly. y.

The five-year survival rate for those diagnosed with glioblastoma is about five per cent.

Since being diagnosed, Madison has become familiar with Princess Margaret Hospital, having undergone surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy to shrink her tumours.

“These treatments have managed to control her tumours from spreading,” Natalie says.

According to the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, brain cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among Australian children. Recent research shows nine in 10 Australians are unaware of this.

Cure Brain Cancer Foundation head of engagement Barrie Littlefield says there is an urgent need to find a cure for brain cancer.

He says the disease receives an average of three per cent of the National Health and Medical Research Centre cancer funding each year, which makes it difficult for medical professionals to find a cure.

“This is a disease that kills a classroom of primary school students every year,” he says.

“Our mission is to increase the survival rate of brain cancer to 50 per cent over the next 10 years.

“The more funding allocated to finding a cure for brain cancer, the more

SMILING: Madison is determined to beat her cancer.

put towards all areas of health and medical research because there are many rare diseases … that would benefit if more funding was available,” she says.

She says WA’s brain cancer research, much of which is done by the Telethon Kids Institute, is among the best in the world.

Telethon Kids Institute brain cancer researcher Raelene Endersby says there have been significant advances in brain cancer research over the past five years, particularly for childhood brain tumours.

“With advances in genetic sequencing technology, we now understand brain tumours much better than ever before,” Dr Endersby says.

“These projects have identified many new drug targets which could be potential new avenues for therapy.”

Dr Endersby says researchers could do more to develop new treatments and better tests if they had more funding.

“At the moment, there is no way of easily screening brain tumours, which means that they often don’t get diagnosed until they are quite

PHOTO: Supplied.

large,” Endersby says.

“This makes the treatment for patients even more difficult.

“For brain tumour research, increasing awareness about the disease within the community is the best place to encourage more funding in our field, as the community are our best advocates.”

For Natalie and Bryan, life is very different since their daughter’s diagnosis.

“It is a curve ball we did not see coming,” they say. “We just take each day as it comes now.”

Madison, meanwhile, remains determined to beat her brain cancer.

She goes to school, has dance classes two days a week and has sleepovers with friends.

“She has the odd bad day, but she's always smiling and happy. She really is amazing,” Natalie says.

Madison admits she was terrified when she found out she had a brain cancer which had a five per cent survival rate. She now lives by the saying: “what doesn't kill you makes you stronger”.

Learning to accept cerebral palsy Madeleine Palm

“I

need to chat to you about your daughter’s brain ultrasound.”

Jen Prior knew, even before her daughters’ doctor uttered these words, that something was wrong.

Compulsory brain scans on Jen and husband Luke’s newborn twin girls, after they were born prematurely at 29 weeks, showed abnormalities in Emily’s brain.

When Emily’s scan took more than twice as long as twin Reese’s, the mother-of-four just knew.

Jen’s dream has always been to have a big family and enjoy everything that comes with being a mum.

She says she has never had longterm career goals.

She never wanted to climb the corporate ladder. She just wanted a happy and healthy family.

Jen’s suspicion that something was wrong with Emily was confirmed when the scan showed her baby had a bleed in the brain.

That was when the doctor told Jen and Luke that Emily probably has cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy is a congenital disease in which physical movement is impaired. In about one-third of cases, the person affected may also have difficulties with sensation, communication and depth perception.

The disease is caused by damage to the brain’s motor control centre.

More than 80 children are born with cerebral palsy each year in WA, according to the Centre for Cerebral Palsy WA. More than two months after the initial diagnosis, Luke and Jen finally brought their baby daughters home to start their lives.

Luke says waiting was torturous.

“The hardest bit was when they were first born and they spent the first 10 weeks of their life in the hospital,” he says.

“Seeing them every day and not being able to take them home was really tough.”

After months of waiting and missing out on the milestones some families take for granted, Emily was officially diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of one.

Three years later, twin Reese was also diagnosed with the disease.

Jen says Reese’s symptoms were subtler and more progressive than Emily’s and it took her years to realise Reese had the same condition.

“If I couldn’t learn to embrace her disability, then it would be a part of her that I’m not loving” “When she was about three, we were walking down a hill and I was holding her hand and she fell, as she did, she did a weird arm movement and I just knew she had cerebral palsy,” Jen says.

The severity of the disease varies

from one person to another, causing varying levels of intellectual and physical disability.

Luke and Jen see these variations in their girls every day. Emily and Reese are starkly different.

While Reese can do most physical activities with only slight co-ordination and balance issues, Emily needs assistance with almost every task, even walking.

Since diagnosis, regular hospital visits and weekly physiotherapy and occupational therapy treatment has become part of the girls’ daily lives.

Jen even chooses toys for the girls based on their therapeutic benefits.

Twenty-five year old Isaac Middleton lives with cerebral palsy and understands the physical and mental struggle Emily and Reese will face as they grow up.

Middleton’s first surgery was a double osteotomy when he was nineyears-old, in which surgeons broke both his femurs to change the alignment of his legs.

He has also suffered through procedures to lengthen his hamstrings and calves, had Botox in his abductors and had a muscle in his knee removed.

Middleton says his biggest struggle at school was public speaking because he had trouble projecting his voice.

Instead, he would pre-record his speeches the night before and play the recording in class so he could control the volume.

“You have to play the card you’re dealt,” is a saying that Middleton lives by. He says he sees his disability as a motivator.

Four years since Emily’s diagnosis, she is nearing one of the biggest milestones a child will achieve – she can almost walk independently.

Jen says embracing Emily’s disability is crucial in helping her child’s development.

“If I couldn’t learn to embrace her disability, then it would be a part of her that I’m not loving,” Jen says.

Having four children under the age of 13, two of whom have severe disabilities, would stress most parents, but for Jen, the hectic nature of her home is symbolic of what a true family should be.

Despite the hurdles along the way, Jen still sees her story as being that of a young girl who pursued her dream of having a happy family.

October 2014

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None other than God’s will

Work for the sisters means cooking, gardening, and making altar breads, packing and sending them to other churches for communion. Whatever the activities, most of the day is spent in silence.

The nuns here have access to phone, email and a website designed to help people contact them, and to help them to keep in touch with other religious communities throughout the state.

Terese says life in the monastery is very connected and rarely dull.

“We belong to the world. Ecology’s quite big in our thinking, saving water and all the things everyone else is worried about. The neighbour puts the paper in for those who want to read it.

We don’t watch the ordinary news. We do watch some DVDs – some religious, some not.”

n Kira Carlin

D

riving through the imposing stone gates of the monastery, I don’t know what to expect.

I’ve come to the Carmelite Monastery in Nedlands to meet a pair of nuns. Discalced Carmelite nuns to be precise.

I wait in a small anteroom, bare of furniture save two chairs and several framed pictures of saints.

Set into the wall is a barred window, backed by a wooden shutter. After a few minutes, a rustling noise and what seems to be the dragging of furniture becomes audible from behind the shutter. Abruptly the shutter opens to reveal two women behind a set of bars.

After a second or two, it dawns on me that we must speak through these bars.

‘Discalced’ means barefoot.

Historically, sisters were meant to go shoeless as a symbol of their devotion and simplicity.

I’m here to find out why these women have chosen – in an age of convenience, technology and opportunity – to come to a community like this for a life of quiet prayer.

The women wear simple brown habits made from coarse cotton. Their hair is covered by a black veil trimmed in white with wisps of clean grey hair poking out from underneath. They look something like my idea of how a nun should look, except with much broader smiles. I can’t see from here if they are wearing shoes or not.

Is there really still an interest in this lifestyle?

Catholic Vocations Ministry Australia executive officer Father Tony Cox says there is.

“I think there are lots of young

“Salvation is still the ultimate for everybody”

SALVATION IS KEY: Sister Deborah at the Carmelite Monestery.

people who are attracted to the church.

I think people are searching,” Cox says.

Sister Deborah, the younger of the two, joined the church in 1988 when in her late twenties. Now in her fifties, she exudes energy and a joie de vivre.

Before becoming a nun, she studied psychology and spent time as a youth worker, as she puts it: “working with human suffering and pain”.

“I did start to go through a period in my life that was a search for a deeper meaning,” she says.

At 74, Sister Marie Terese has spent more than two-thirds of her life as a nun. She says this was tough on her family at first.

“I joined in 1962. I was 22 when I joined. I knew it was God’s will.

“I think it was pretty painful for them,” she says. “I was about 16 when I first told them. They’ve always been very supportive, but it was painful I think. People have some odd ideas about it, that you never talk again, and that makes it hard.”

Just like the outside world, mental health issues are a problem inside the monastery walls. With engaging frankness, Terese admits she has suffered several breakdowns herself during her time as a nun.

“I was in hospital for quite a while when I was about 30,” Terese says. “In Carmelite teaching, there are what we

PHOTO: Clare Kenyon.

call ‘the dark nights’. It can happen when people spend a lot of time praying and in silence. Things come up from underneath that need to be dealt with.

“Sometimes they need a professional person to deal with them.”

Terese says it is a life that requires you to live in faith, even if you don’t necessarily see the results.

“Now I look back on it, I wouldn’t have missed a second of what I went through. It was so valuable spiritually and in my relationship with God.” The nuns’ lives are governed by routine. Their days starts at 5am and is filled with alternating periods of prayer, contemplation, work and community gatherings until the utter silence at night.

Over the years, life has changed for these women. They now do their shopping online, dress standards have become less formal, they sleep on foam mattresses rather than straw beds and they go out for dental work and medical treatment instead of only receiving in-calls. Cox says times have changed, but what attracts people to a life of God remains the same.

“God is about a fullness of life for each and every person. It’s not just the spiritual, but the material and the psychological. Everybody can experience, everybody can share and respect each other,” she says.

“Salvation is still the ultimate for everybody,” says Terese. “I think it’s probably more necessary now than ever.”

I never figured out whether they were wearing shoes, but I get the feeling it's not particularly important anyway.

Promoting Indigenous employment Jai Price

L

ook up “Aboriginal inequality” in any Australian online search engine and a large number of results are about closing the gap in Indigenous employment and education.

In WA, culturally specific Aboriginal training programs are addressing these problems.

The chief executive of a Perth-based mentoring and training provider says Aboriginal people need the right kind of support, that acknowledges family dynamics, to find employment.

“You can’t just educate in isolation,” says the Wirrpanda Foundation’s Lisa Cunningham.

“You’ve got to know what the family dynamics are, the politics, whether there’s some things in the family that are happening that are stopping that person from getting to training or a job.”

“It’s kind of a ripple effect really, actually changing someone’s life” Cunningham says the program’s participants need supportive role models to ensure they sustain constant employment.

“Often it’s hard for parents who have never worked or partners who have never worked to understand that it’s important to get to work on time, or to have regular attendance or to communicate,” she says.

“There are just really basic things that a lot of non-Indigenous families already know, but a lot of the time

PHOTO: Supplied.

EDITH WOLGAR: At work in the Goldfields.

Aboriginal families miss out on that information.”

Cunningham says one of the program’s participants had never been employed before joining the foundation, but has since found a job. All eight of his children now go to school.

“It’s kind of a ripple effect really, actually changing someone’s life.”

According to a 2012 study, there was a large employment gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, with the employment rate for Indigenous men at 59 per cent, compared to 85 per cent for nonIndigenous men.

Aboriginal people have many employment opportunities, according to the general manager of a wholly

Indigenous-owned mining contracting company.

“Historically there has never been a greater emphasis on creating opportunities for Aboriginal people, whether it be employment, training or economic development,” says Carey Mining general manager Gavin WoodleySmith.

He says the company’s strategies to increase retention include mentoring programs and the promotion of crosscultural awareness.

Woodley-Smith says Aboriginal elders are crucial in helping participants feel comfortable on-site and in sharing their stories with them.

“They’re working immediately with participants, and they understand their

culture and talk about their own life, those sorts of things,” says WoodleySmith.

“We can just about support anyone in some form or another, including those that need assistance with numeracy or literacy.”

Thirteen of the 14 particpants in the most recent program completed the course.

Edith Wolgar, a Wongi woman from Kalgoorlie who completed the program last year, says she always admired her FIFO father and was naturally attracted to the program. She now works for a blast crew on a mine site.

Wolgar says enough support programs are available for Aboriginal people to get full-time employment,

but not enough guidance for them to find those programs.

“They’ve just got to get there and choose if it’s the life they want, because it does change. People do go for the FIFO life and it can change your life,” she says.

Wolgar says family bonding helps to relieve the stress of the FIFO lifestyle.

“I miss my family when I work. I ring them every night and day when I get the chance to speak,” she says.

“Then, when I get home, I just spend time with them, enjoying it as I go through, make sure everyone’s okay.

“It was hard sometimes, but I got through it, and each day I just do the hours I have to work.”

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Millions watch virtual world cup Lucy Rutherford and Andrew Charlton On Sunday October 19, the 42,000seat World Cup Stadium in Seoul was sold out.

But it wasn’t a soccer match that drew the crowd, it was the League of Legends World Championship Series grand final.

League of Legends is a multi-player online battle arena (or MOBA).

According to developer Riot Games, it is the most popular PC game in the world and several million players log on every day.

A match usually comprises two teams of three or five, with each player controlling a ‘champion’ to destroy the other team’s base.

Championships feature multiple players who battle on their computers, but have a big screen behind them so the audience can see the action.

Riot held its first championship series in 2011. It was watched by 1.6 million viewers and had a prize pool of $100,000. This year, the first prize was $1 million. It featured a performance by Imagine Dragons, who wrote a song for the occasion.

Playing League of Legends is a full time job for those who take competition seriously. In 2012, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services started recognising players as professional athletes, granting several of them five-year visas. eGaming Network journalist and spokesman for the DireWolves League of Legends team Blake Mitchell says competitions have become bigger than those for other online games.

Other eSports have, however, become successful overseas and US sports cable channel ESPN recently broadcasted Dota 2 championships, the sequel to a user-created modification of the game Warcraft III.

This year’s League of Legends championships were screened at Universal Bar in Northbridge.

Universal Bar general manager Trevor Candido says more than 200 people registered to attend the event, but more than 300 people attended throughout the day.

“The cheering was so deafening at some points, you could not even hear your own voice if you tried to talk to someone,” he says.

Although Australian teams have competed in ‘wildcard’ competitions, they have not qualified for the world championships.

Mitchell says Australian teams have more incentive to compete now that bigger prize pools are on offer for the Oceanic region.

“Since Riot’s involvement, we’ve seen teams increase their dedicated time towards the game, devise practice schedules and just, in general, treat it a lot more seriously,” Mitchell says.

VIRTUAL EXERCISE: eSports have a gaming edge. PHOTO: Blake Furfaro.

WA clubs give FFA red card over funds Saxon Durrant

ON THE RISE: Australian men are bulking up.

PHOTO: Rebecca Metcalf.

Male body image the catalyst for steroid use Georgia Williss Male body dissatisfaction is the driving force behind Australia’s growing steroid problem, according to medical experts.

University of New South Wales Kirby Institute lecturer Jenny Iversen said she had noticed a significant increase in the use of performance and image-enhancing drugs among people involved with needle and syringe programs.

“In 2010, two per cent of respondents in the Australian Needle and Syringe Program Survey reported last injecting PIEDs, however this increased to seven per cent in 2013,” Dr Iversen said.

Monash Health head of endocrinology Peter Fuller said the increase was worrying because it represented an increased health risk.

“The use of testosterone and other hormones can cause health problems, such as infertility, decreased testicular volume, breast growth, dangerous rises in red blood cells and, in a small number of cases, aggressive behaviour,” Professor Fuller said.

“These steroids are prescribed by doctors to effectively treat a range of medical problems, but when people obtain the drugs from unspecified sources, outside the clinical environment, the health risks become much higher.

“The guys in the gym are using all sort of synthetic hormones from unknown sources which can lead to much more serious problems, such as liver cancer.”

University of Sydney School of Psychology researcher Scott Griffiths said body dissatisfaction was a leading cause of steroid abuse among men.

“Portrayals of men in the media are becoming bigger and more muscular,” Mr Griffiths said.

“When young men compare themselves to what they see on TV, they are less likely now to feel

positive about their own body and their attractiveness.

“This pressure causes men to want to become bigger and bigger, and in some cases develop eating disorders.

“Most people think of eating disorders as being a predominantly female issue but actually males are four times more likely to have an undiagnosed eating disorder.”

Mr Griffiths said eating disorders and body image problems often led to steroid use.

“When men with eating disorders want to take it to a clinical level, they move from dieting to using performance and image-enhancing steroids,” he said.

Mr Griffiths said men often did not seek proper treatment because they perceived eating disorders and body image

problems as being female issues.

“Doctors are aware of the problems, but the medical profession, in general, is lacking the appropriate frameworks to address the imbalance,” he said.

National Drug Research Institute researcher Kate Seear said authorities should focus on harm minimisation strategies, rather than on trying to restrict supply.

Dr Seear said authorities should help to increase the availability of clean needles and engage with steroid users to raise awareness about safer injecting practices.

The 2013 Australian Crime Commission Illicit Drug Data Report said steroids were used mostly by males.

Only nine per cent of steroid-related arrests occurring between 2011 and 2013 involved females.

BODY IMAGE: Steroid use is increasing.

PHOTO: Ben Martella.

All national registration fees paid by WA soccer clubs should be kept in the state, according to local soccer clubs.

Football Federation Australia introduced the national registration fee in 2008 as a way of raising funds to help develop the sport nationally.

The $130 annual registration fee includes a fee charged by Football West – WA soccer’s peak body.

Junior players are charged up to $85 per year.

Melville City Football Club treasurer Ruth Boyle said many parents had complained about having to pay the fee.

“Football West should start putting money down into clubs and not take away from us,” Boyle said.

Cockburn City Soccer Club president Heidi Lazzaro said keeping a portion of the money raised by charging

the fee would help soccer in WA. “WA money staying in WA would always be beneficial to WA players, but I don’t see that happening,” she said.

Football West chief executive Peter Hugg said the national registration fee raised more than $550,000 each year for FFA from WA alone.

Hugg said funding the FFA with a state fee was not ideal, but it was required if soccer was to compete with other sporting codes.

“Unfortunately, the national body does not benefit as much as some of the other codes like rugby league and AFL,” he said Hugg said Football West wanted more of the money to be available to promote soccer in the state.

“The money should remain in WA, so that we can help the clubs, help all the community groups expand and grow the sport rather than sending it over the coast,” he said.

COCKBURN DEFENDER: Alex Castiello (right).

PHOTO: Peter Simcox.

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Perth to host fierce match-up Tori Lockley

CHIRPING KOOKABURRAS: Aran Zaelewski celebrates in style.

PHOTO: Grant Treeby.

Perth Hockey Stadium will host four matches between the Australian and Indian men’s teams next month.

The last time the two nations met, Australia defeated India 4-0 to secure the Commonwealth Games gold medal at the Glasgow National Hockey Centre.

Perth Hockey Stadium general manager Jason De Wind said he expected the great rivalry between the teams to continue.

“It will be very exciting hockey, as India play a very similar style to Australia – heavy attack and high goal scoring,” he said.

It will be newly appointed Australian coach Graham Reid’s first competitive match in charge of the Kookaburras.

De Wind said that there would be added spice to the contest because Reid and India’s coach Terry Walsh were former team-mates.

Walsh announced his resignation as coach of India, but will still lead the side for its trip to Perth.

Reid announced the 27-man Australian squad, with five new inclusions, earlier this month.

Kookaburras defender Jeremy Hayward, 21, said he was looking forward to playing with the new squad.

“We have a really young and enthusiastic squad who want to play well to be selected for the Champions Trophy team,” he said.

Hayward is set to make his return from a foot injury, which saw him miss selection for the Commonwealth Games.

“My injury is going well, but it has been a long road to recovery,” he said.

Hayward said that he was also looking forward to playing with his older brother Leon, who had been selected as a goalkeeper.

The four test matches against India will be held between November 1 and 4 at Perth Hockey Stadium.

Brothers head for the top Luke Worthington Western Australia’s top tier rugby union competition will return as a 10-team league in 2015 following the promotion of Joondalup Brothers to the division.

Only nine teams competed in this year’s WA Premier Grade because Rockingham Rugby Union Club was unable to find enough players to field a side.

Joondalup Brothers secured promotion after a strong season in the Premier Reserves competition in which the club finished fourth with a record 18 wins and three losses.

The three teams that finished above Joondalup already fielded a Premier

VICTORIOUS: Justin Langer after the win.

Justin Langer’s strict coaching techniques have spurred the Western Warriors to their recent on-field success, according to wicketkeeper Sam Whiteman.

The Warriors won the domestic one-day tournament for the first time in more than a decade this season after finishing on top of the table.

Whiteman said Langer’s disciplined approach to coaching had helped the entire squad.

“Justin Langer coming in as coach has brought his hard work ethic to the group,” Whiteman said.

Warriors captain Adam Voges made his List A debut in 2004, the season after the Warriors last one-day tournament victory.

Hill said the inclusion of Joondalup Brothers in the Premier Grade competition would help Western Force.

“The more players that are playing in the Premier Grade competition, the more players there are to pick from,” he said.

Joondalup Brothers director of rugby Dave Wells said perseverance helped earn the club’s spot in the Premier Grade.

“We’ve had this aspiration to be there for at least the last five or six years,” he said.

Wells said the club had already began preparation for their first Premier Grade season, with more than a dozen people working between four and six hours a day.

PHOTO: Siobhan Herne.

Whiteman: Langer influential in WA tournament victory Zach Relph

Grade team, so were ineligible for promotion.

RugbyWA game development general manager Andrew Hill said that Joondalup’s promotion to the Premier Grade would help balance next season’s fixtures.

“The important thing from a RugbyWA perspective is that there was a 10-team Premier Grade competition next year,” he said.

“In the Premier Grade it’s more important that there are 10 teams there because it’s an even run of home and away games and it keeps the competition as viable as it can be.”

Premier Grade players are eligible to be selected for WA’s Super Rugby competition team the Western Force.

Voges said it was a “sweet feeling” winning the one-day competition.

“It’s been a long wait, it’s been 10 years,” Voges said.

Whiteman said the Warriors could be a dominant team this season.

“We knew we had a chance, but it comes down to what is happening on the day,” he said.

Last season, the Warriors won the domestic 20/20 competition for the first time.

Whiteman said Langer had helped the Warriors improve their mental game.

“We are really taking our cricket serious now, we have a sound setup at the moment, and a lot of younger guys coming through,” he said.

WA has not won the Sheffield Shield, which is presented to the winner of the domestic four-day competition, since the 1998-99 season.

PREPPED AND READY: Dave Wells is set to tackle the coming season.

PHOTO: Isabel Moussalli.

Soccer star considers Australian return Zach Relph West Australian soccer player Callum Richardson says he has not ruled out returning from Europe to play in the Australian A-League.

Richardson, 18, was signed by English Premier League team Burnley to play in the under-21 Premier League Cup. He said returning to Australia to continue his soccer career could be beneficial.

“I would always consider coming back home to play A-League,” Richardson said.

“The standard of the A-League is

good and I’d be closer to home.”

Richardson, who is originally from Bunbury, said it was tough moving to the UK at a young age.

“It’s very difficult living away from home and the people you love, especially leaving Australia to come to England as there is such a massive lifestyle difference,” he said.

“But I always tell myself you have to take the bad with the good.”

Burnley, which was promoted to the Premier League for the 2014-15 season after spending four seasons outside the top flight of English soccer, started a development academy in Perth in 2012.

The high performance academy allows WA soccer players to undertake

professional training similar to that used by players at the club’s academy in England.

Richardson, who is one of four Australians signed by Burnley on a youth contract, said the club’s promotion back to the English Premier League had helped his development.

Burnley Football Club Australasian head of football development Paul Wozny said the Perth-based academy was designed to provide an avenue for WA players to play professional soccer in England.

“The focus is to offer well-structured football coaching initiatives and to provide pathways for the more talented players,” Wozny said.

OCTOBER 2014 – Volume 20 No 2

Sport Champ hangs up the helmet Zach Relph WA motocross champion Shelley Connor says a lack of professional racing opportunities in Australia is forcing her to abandon any thoughts of making a career out of the sport.

Connor, 19, is ranked second in WA for motocross riding and first for endurance motocross — a crosscountry form of the sport.

Connor said there was little opportunity for female Australian riders to turn professional because motocross was not a prominent sport.

“I’m not going to put the pressure on myself to make it into a full time job if I know the opportunities

CONNOR: Geared up.

PHOTO: Tyne Logan.

are not there,” Connor said.

“In the US and Europe, there is a big motocross market. It’s similar to the AFL over here.

“Anywhere outside of the US or Europe you would be better off working a full time job, like a receptionist, than you would be trying to make a career racing.”

Connor said it was frustrating there were more opportunities for males than for females.

“The boys who compete at the professional end, nationally, are going to get a salary out of it,” Connor said.

“There is no way you would get a salary as a girl, no way at all.”

There are 197 registered female motocross riders in WA and 133

EXTREME RACING: Connor ripping up the dirt.

of them race at a competitive level.

Motorcycling Western Australia spokeswoman Linda Russell said it was difficult for women to become professional motocross riders but there were chances to secure jobs in the industry.

“Successful female racers might end up working in the industry during the week, and race on the weekend, with their employer catering their work hours to their race schedule,” Russell said.

“A female racer with a good plan, good sponsorship and wellthought-out approach, mixed with on-track success, might just attract the means to make motocross a career.”

PHOTO: Gordon Pettigrew.

Young Swans set to fly Zach Relph Swan Districts is preparing to lose up to five promising youngsters in this year’s national AFL Draft, according to league coach Greg Harding.

Harding said as many as eight young Swans players had been in discussion with various AFL clubs.

He also said losing young players to the draft could affect the club’s chances of success in future seasons.

“If we happen to lose three, four or five players, which is a possibility, it could affect our immediate success,” Harding said.

“But we are in the business of getting young kids from our football club an opportunity at the level above.”

Midfielder Connor Blakely, 18, was invited to attend the national draft combine in Melbourne after playing 15 league games for Swan Districts this year.

Harding said exposing Blakely to mature opposition in Swans’ league side helped develop him into an AFL prospect.

AFL experts have touted Blakely as

a likely top-30 selection in this year’s draft.

Harding said Blakely’s poise and ability to quickly adapt to the physicality of league football made him a future AFL player.

“Playing a season of league footy has helped him develop as a player and prepared him for the rigours of AFL football in 2015,” he said.

Harding said Blakely was the most likely player to get drafted from his club, but midfielder Ethan Hughes had also attracted plenty of interest.

Hughes, 19, played two league games and 19 reserves games in the WAFL this season.

He started the 2014 campaign at Peel Thunder, but sought a transfer to Swan Districts after round five.

Hughes said playing senior football at Swan Districts helped improve his game.

“The atmosphere around the club has helped the way I’ve played footy this year and it’s been good in my development personally,” Hughes said.

The 2014 national AFL draft will be held on November 27 at the Gold Coast Convention Centre.

DRAFT HOPEFUL: Blakely breaks away from the pack.

PHOTO: Rick Anderson.