Brisbane’s liveliest columnist are in your Indie!

From her days twirling her taffeta across the sprung dance floor of long-gone Cloudland Ballroom to hot tubbing with the boys after a hard game at what we used to call Lang Park, Ann Brunswick draws on her inner-Brisbane roots to bring you her provocative but thoughtful views on contemporary events and issues. Of all the phone calls that flood into the Indie office between the publication of the Indie's hardcopy versions each fortnight, both usually want to talk to Ann about the latest provocative social, lifestyle or political issue she's raised.

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Ex-PM is not yet out of site

So, Australia goes to the polls on August 21. As usual my prediction made several weeks ago came true. When asked to pick the possible election day I said it would be a Saturday, and once was proven correct. Why nobody has employed me as a senior political adviser is truly a puzzle.

Nevertheless, once the election was called at the weekend your columnist checked out the websites of the various major parties to see how they were handling the news. On the Labor Party’s site there was a search box for checking candidates or their seats. So, out of curiosity I typed in “Rudd” to see what the party he once led is now saying about him. To be precise, this is what they are saying: “Kevin Michael Rudd was sworn in as the 26th Prime Minister of Australia on December 3 2007, after he led the Australian Labor Party to an election win on November 24.” It goes on to note Mr Rudd is the Member for Griffith, became party leader in December 2006, and has strong interests in foreign affairs, notably China. It ends after giving some details of Mr Rudd’s wife and children. But nowhere does it speak of his demise as PM last month. Why that could be so was soon obvious to me when reaching the very bottom of the page where Mr Rudd’s contact details were given as his Griffith electorate office at Morningside, and “Parliament House, Prime Minister, Canberra, ACT 2600” as well as the prime minister’s switchboard phone number. A search for “Gillard” in the candidates’ list brought up her profile, including the fact she was sworn in as our nation’s 27th prime minister on June 24. Someone needs to update the ALP website, and pretty soon. Surely not even Labor Party rules would allow for two PMs at once.

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It was an offer too good to resist, so your columnist threw her fascinator into the ring and lodged an application form for one of the 400,000 free Go Cards being given away by Translink with each card holding $10 worth of credit.

My application was posted even though it contained insufficient postage. I had affixed an old 55-cent stamp to the envelope even though postage charges for standard letters had risen to 60 cents by the time I shoved it hard into the slot of a big red box. Too bad, was my rationalisation, the government can pay the extra five cents. There is sense in shifting commuters to automated ticketing systems such as the Go Card. But what happens when buses and trains no longer sell paper tickets after the end of this year? How will overseas, interstate, or even intrastate tourists in our city get on? Will they be turned away by bus drivers if they don’t have a Go Card? That should do wonders for our reputation among potential visitors. And what happens if your Go Card has insufficient credit to make a trip? Again, will you be told to get off the bus, train, or ferry, and have to hunt down an outlet or machine to top up your credit? A search of the Translink site turned up no answers to these sorts of questions. Let’s hope someone in the Transport Department has thought of solutions. But then again, what are the odds of that?

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Lord Mayor Campbell Newman this week declared the new bridge across the Brisbane River from the inner-city bypass at Hale Street to West End open for business. And business it is, given it’s a toll bridge and we all have to pay to use it, unless you are on foot or on a bike.

It seems gone are the days when the Brisbane City Council or the state government used our money to build things for us and then let us use them without dipping further into our pockets. Cr Newman has won some plaudits for naming the bridge after one of Brisbane’s best-known musical groups, the Go-Betweens.
Unfortunately the name put up for a public ballot was the “Go Between Bridge”. Well, either we recognise the band by its correct name or we don’t. That means a hyphen as the band itself used and an “s” at the end.
So at your columnist’s instigation the editor of this newspaper has agreed to refer to the new structure only as the Go-Betweens Bridge from now on. If we all do it, maybe Cr Newman might fork out the cost of a new plaque.

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Past provocative, but thoughtful, views From My Corner

Got some gossip for Ann? Email her at: ann@theindependent.com.au