58. Possums

Hi. I am Greg and I want to grumble about the possums that kept me awake on a bushwalk recently.

Now you would think that after a week holiday in spectacular Tasmanian mountain wilderness and among beautiful gardens, I would have little to grumble about. But every bushwalker has experience or has heard the stories of possums that get into huts, rip through tents or backpacks (or even learn how to use the zippers) and eat into the walkers’ food supplies.

The first night on a high Tasmanian plateau it was paddy melons sidling up to the tent in search of food, and on the second night possums made regular attempts to get into the historic but crude hut.

The third night we were camped in a spectacular spot by a mountain lake, but as the sun set another possum poked its head out of the dead tree next to our campsite.

It did not take long for it to be on, and this was no timid wild creature. Unable to shoo it away by shouting and banging on the tent, and with throwing things at it providing only very temporary relief, at 1am we tried hanging the food bag on a stretch rope from the limb of a tree.

There was some rest, but after a few hours the possum was on the bag noisily nosing through the rubbish at the top. I got up, grabbed my walking stick and poked the possum away – but only as far as the ground where it circled around to have another go at the food. I swung the stick to frighten it, but to no avail.

In hindsight, with a torchlight in its eyes the poor nocturnal creature was probably blinded, and it was only when the stick hit him that he took flight (NB. Curiously, I have now gendered the possum, when really I have no idea).

I was horrified. How did a vegetarian respecter of animal rights so quickly move to violence against a native animal in its own habitat?

I was tired, I had a right to a night’s sleep and I had worked hard to carry the food there – although in reality there was plenty of food.

And though we were on his patch, I was also steeped in the folklore demonising the other and angry that he had refused to leave us alone or to be dissuaded by warnings and gentler methods of persuasion. Force was necessary.

Hmmm. Sound familiar?

Yet again, I find myself talking about the processes of colonialism.



This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast.
First Broadcast: 21 April  2015

57. Chloe Valentine Inquest

Hi. I am Greg and I want to grumble about the Chloe Valentine Inquest.

Like many people, I watched the news in horror as the Coroner revealed the appalling failings of our child protection system. And I was moved to tears watching a grandmother dealing with the tragedy. I can not begin to imagine her pain and the fury she must feel having begged the authorities for custody of her grandchild.

But then came the Coroner’s recommendations, and frankly, I am sorry – but extrapolating from a case study is not really a good basis for social policy. Yes, in this case the actions of the Department are indefensible and there is little doubt that this child should have been removed from her parents, but it is not that long ago that we apologised for a generation stolen from their parents for what at the time seemed like good reasons.

There are costs to removing children from their parents as there are risks to leaving them, and we know that a change in policy to favour removal over risk management will lead to another generation of Aboriginal kids taken from their parents. The word Aboriginal did not appear in the Coroner’s report – and maybe that should be pause for thought when we move from reaction to policy.

And talking of dodgy policy, on what basis did the Coroner decide that Income Management would have helped the situation when most credible public policy analysis shows there is no basis for believing that restricting the expenditure of people on income support has any impact on behavioural choices or child welfare?

Income management was a paternalistic racist policy borne out of anecdotes, political expediency and at best a desperation to do something, anything. But it is not good policy and the Coroner’s report provided no evidence or argument about the success of Income Management – just an assumption and some moralistic judgement of what he thought was right.

Blokes at pubs make pronouncements on policy based on their own experience and anecdotes – but real public policy is more complicated than that. I’m no expert on child protection, but I know it is a fallacy of liberal philosophy that society is nothing but a collection of “individuals making their way” (to quote the late but not great invader of the Falklands, Margaret Thatcher).

Is it such a dream that we might start a serious public policy debate from an analysis of history, power and social structures?

And if we were doing that, would we start with lawyers in a quasi-judicial processes, or with someone who was an expert in child protection?

Of course as we grieve for an innocent child, this critique of the inquiry which is calling Families SA to account won’t make me popular. But for the record, SACOSS called for an independent inquiry into South Australia’s child protection system in January 2013. The government responded saying it was under control and a review wasn’t needed.

I am Greg and I am grumbling.


This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast.
First Broadcast: 14 April  2015