10 December 18, 2007 Byron Shire Echo
www.echo.net.au
Local News
Dances with pollies: the book David Lovejoy ‘This is a time to get pissed and dance in the street,’ proclaimed Mungo MacCallum at the end of his book launch last week. New Labor MP Janelle Saffin and new Labor Minister Justine Elliott smiled nervously, aware of their new responsibilities as high-profile politicians unable to express any natural human feeling. The rest of the room roared appreciatively and set off to follow Mungo’s suggestion, although the average age of those assembled for the ceremony rendered the second part of the agenda a bit problematic. The launch of Poll Dancing: the Story of the 2007 Election took place at the Byron Bay Community Centre on Friday evening. Northern Star editor Russell Eldridge welcomed ‘contributors to John Howard’s super fund’, and reminded us that ‘we’re burying Caesar, not praising him’. Then he introduced Justine Elliott. The MP for Richmond noted the contrast in atmosphere between this event and Mungo’s last election book in 2004 and thanked him for being ‘a guiding light throughout the last eleven dark years’. She
also said mysteriously that she had collected stories about Mungo which she hadn’t used at the 2004 book launch and couldn’t use now either. Mayor Jan Barham was the official launcher and she explained that the book in her hand was the first hard copy she had seen. She had been preparing for her duties by trying to read the electronic file and had not quite
been able to finish it in the time. (Mungo later remarked that he wasn’t sure he had finished writing it either.) Nevertheless, the Mayor had made judicious selections from the book and read them out to great applause. In reply Mungo said he was relieved that the rest of the country had finally caught up with the political bubble that is Byron Shire; political evolution can be
Mia makes it to Art Express swift after all, as was shown by the events of the past year. He remained impressed by new PM Kevin Rudd and hopeful that the enormous damage Howard had done to the body politic was not irreparable. Instead of drinking or jiving I spent the night reading Poll Dancing and I recommend it. The book relates the political events of the momentous year between Rudd becoming ALP leader and prime minister, a campaign diary written in an easy, conversational style with plenty of jokes. As Jan noted, the front bar of the Billinudgel pub is evoked from time to time like a Greek chorus to put the plain man’s view. Plenty of perspective too from Janette Hyacinth Bucket Howard. The last chapter was written after the actual election of course and it is a tribute to Mungo’s professionalism and the speed of Black Inc’s printers that it is available as a Christmas gift for the political tragic in your life. In fact, the accessible style and plentiful humour means that it would be a useful introduction to Australian federal politics for anyone, even your non-political great aunt in Ocean Shores.
Mullumbimby High School student Mia Robinson has had her HSC art major work accepted into the NSW Art Express exhibition. The hugely popular exhibition, held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney early in the new year, features a selection of outstanding student artworks developed for the artmaking component of the NSW HSC exams in Visual Arts.
Mia, a focused and articulate student, created fantastical clothing made of vast expanses of handcrafted felted material from designs inspired by fairy folklore (pictured above). Her mother Denise Robinson told The Echo, ‘We took a felting workshop and she literally has not stopped felting since.’ Mia’s talent is obvious and her place in the Art Express well deserved.