Drummond's bio continues 4 - Towards Centre Stage: Public life 1922-1927

Drummond's life 4 - Towards Centre Stage: Public life 1922-1927 continues my biography of David Drummond. It covers NSW politics, including the transformation of the Progressive Party to the Country Party, fights over railways and the Sydney Harbour Bridge Bill; along with continued new state agitation at state and national level, including the initially disastrous Cohen Royal Commission and the further articulation of the Movement's constitutional position. 

Continued collapse in NSW Labor support

The latest Newspoll released in the Australian made interesting reading. On these numbers, Labor could be reduced to as low as 24 seats in the NSW Legislative Assembly.

The difficulty this creates from the viewpoint of those seeking change lies in the fact that such an unbalanced possible result actually  makes it harder to get real change.

This may sound paradoxical. Surely a coalition Government with such a large majority would have a mandate to bring about change? Well, yes and no.

Yes, because the Government to do things. No, because the incentive to do things is reduced. From a New England viewpoint, there may be less incentive for the opposition to focus on New England issues, including the need for fundamental constitutional change.

This is not a party political comment, nor is it meant to be negative. It's just that if, as an increasing number of New Englanders appear to want, we are to get another vote on self-government, then we need support at candidate and party level. This may be more difficult to achieve.

It is quite a while since I looked at the detail of coalition policy statements from a broader New England perspective. I will try to do an assessment over the next few weeks.  

Still searching for the Diggers Graveyard mine

I am trying to write. As a holding device, this post follows yesterday's Searching for the Diggers Graveyard mine.

The photograph shows the view from the Macleay River looking back towards the spot from which yesterday's photo was taken.  

I wonder what Gordon will find.

Searching for the Diggers Graveyard mine

All of us who live or have lived in New England have our own perspectives of the place based on where we lived and our experiences. I have written on this quite a bit in one way or another, attempting to bring different perspectives alive.

The gorge country that forms the eastern edge is a unique world in its own right. This was once flat country with rivers flowing to the west from distant eastern mountains. Then came continental drift and uplift. Western flowing rivers were forced to flow east, creating great gorges and a sometimes crazy river pattern.

Gordon Smith often explores this country in his lookANDsee photo blog.

Just at present, Gordon is searching for the Diggers Graveyard mine. This photo shows the valley view before descent. Gordon's caption reads:

  If I’ve got my bearings correct, this is looking upstream (north) as we descend into the valley with the Macleay River just visible behind the trees in the foreground (left of centre). At this point we’re about 13 km (8 miles) south of Hillgrove.

It's beautiful if very rugged country. Perhaps it's time for another geography post!     

New State arguments 11 - the importance of a dedicated public service

One of my former public service colleagues died recently, something that I recorded in Death of John Martin. It got me thinking on the importance of a dedicated New England public service.

I have spent a bit over two decades as a public servant, more time working with public servants in other capacities. I actually have a very high opinion of public servants.

One of the problems that we have at present lies in the fact that there are no public servants working for New England, no one to provide the focus and type of support that might help drive New England forward.

This is not a criticism of NSW public servants presently working within New England. The reality is that they can do very little and for two reasons.

The first is that New England does not exist. Public servants must work within existing structures, including the varying regional structures imposed by agencies. In general, those structures do not reflect the broader New England. They are far narrower. No one looks at the broader entity.

The second is that those in regional offices have limited power. Not only do they have to work within NSW state wide policies and parameters, but their policy depth is limited. Their real input into policy making is therefore limited.

Imagine what it would be like to say to the head, for example, of the new New England tourism agency, we want a New England tourism plan. Your performance will be measured by the increase in the dollar value of spend by those visiting New England. No need to worry about Sydney, just get the job done.

Or the head of the new New England Department of State Development. We want New England's inland population doubled over the next ten years. How might we do this? Will it have adverse effects on other parts of New England? How do we manage this?

I could give many more examples. My point is that none of these things will happen under present structures. The people aren't there, nor is the power, nor even the data.

NSW Parliament remembers Don Day

In Deaths of Paul Johnstone, Don Day I talked a little about the history of that doughty North Coast Labor member Don Day, a man I fought against at one point because of his opposition to New England self-government. I was opposed to him, but had a high regard for him. 

In that post I mentioned that I met daughter Jenny at UNE. Though one of those lovely coincidences that make the internet so powerful, Jenny saw my story and contacted me. That's nice, because Jenny and I share so many things.

Jenny emailed me to let me know that Don's death had been recorded in debate in the NSW Legislative Assembly. You will find the Hansard here.

One thing that I thought was nice was the way National (previously Country) Party members spoke of Don's death. To quote Steve Cansdell, National Member for Clarence:

I recently attended the funeral of Don Day and was struck by the deep love and respect expressed in eulogies by his sons and grandchildren who spoke on behalf of the family. It was very touching. As I said, if I can finish my stint in Parliament with as much respect as a politician I will be a very proud man, but if I can finish my life with the same love and respect of my family as Don took with him I will believe I have done a great job. Congratulations to Don on being such a great man and the loving family person he was, and also on being, in politics, a very uncompromising and hard man to deal with if you stood against him.

City people sometimes find it hard to understand why country parliamentarians have such a high regard for their opponents. I think in the country parliamentarians actually have a much closer relationship with their electorates. As part of this, they actually understand and respect their opponents at a personal level. As I did in a small way (talking about time, not respect) with Don Day.

Postscript:

Just drove eldest (Helen) to work. I told her about this post and the background story.

One of the really nice things about this blog, and others like like it, is the way that it helps knit together the past. For most of us, to be a New Englander is to leave. Some come back, most don't. There aren't the jobs. Those who leave lose access to their past, to many of their links, the things that make up that past home. Their children can lose total context.

Each in their own small way, this blog and others like it play a small role in rebuilding the links destroyed by time and relocation. I think that that's nice. Certainly, its rewarding.     

New State arguments 10 - technical issues 1

In this post I want to look at some of the technical issues raised by New England self-government. These are important not just in a practical sense, but because people have a tendency to say that it's all too hard. It's not. The list that follows simply lists issues that have been raised so far.

NSW Public Servants

All NSW public servants within New England will automatically become New England public servants, preserving their entitlements. Public servants who do not wish to join the New England public service will have the opportunity to relocate to NSW.

NSW Laws

Pending any subsequent action by the New England legislature, all NSW laws will continue in place.

Allocation of Assets and Liabilities

A commission will need to be formed to apportion assets and liabilities between New England and NSW. This is quite complex in a technical sense. As the process proceeds, interim arrangements may need to be set in place focused especially on state owned enterprises. New England may choose to allow NSW to continue to operate New England assets for a period.

New England Constitution

New England will need to adopt its own constitution. Pending the formal election of the first New England Parliament, a constituent assembly may be required.

Existing New England State Members

Once a decision is made to separate New England, but before formal separation and the first election, by far the easiest course is to turn current New England Parliamentarians into a constituent assembly. In this period, they will be members of the NSW Parliament as well as the New England assembly. The core role of the assembly will be to set arrangements for the first New England elections.   

The ABC needs to learn geography

Listening to ABC radio, I heard that there had been a fatal road accident in North Western NSW. Then I found that it was near Ben Lomond on the New England Highway.

Get real, ABC. This growing tendency of yours to use the term North West for New England Tablelands' news is very annoying and  geographically incorrect. Western NSW does not begin at the escarpment.

If we are going to apply your geographic measure, then we have to start saying things like a road accident in the South Western towns of Goulburn, or Queanabeyan or Cooma. The ACT itself was incised from Western NSW.

It's all very silly.    

Belshaw's World - rumblings of independence on the radar

I have been watching with interest the return of agitation seeking to create further new states in Australia.

An active movement has re-emerged in North Queensland, leading Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser to remark at a community cabinet meeting that North Queensland would never get self-government because Queensland might lose the state of origin.

In a sop to his audience, Mr Fraser did concede that Australia's state boundaries could move as settlement patterns changed, but not until the next century!

In New England, too, agitation has re-appeared, this time centred in the Hunter.

Back in March 2008, Newcastle Herald columnist Jeff Corbett floated the idea of a reformed New State Movement and self-government for the North. He wrote:

“Just think how well off we'd be if the regions of New England, the Hunter and northern NSW could spend all rather than some of their government contributions on themselves.”

Since then, the idea has kept re-surfacing, especially in reader comments on newspaper columns. One here, one there, then a spurt. Now a small but active group exists seeking to reform the New England New State Movement.

Those from Armidale who have been involved with the self-government movement will appreciate the irony. After all, we lost the vote in 1967 on the no vote in Newcastle and the milk producing areas of the lower Hunter and Manning Valley who were frightened of losing their then preferential access to the Sydney milk market.

The yes vote elsewhere was 67 per cent.

In considering the apparent irony of a surge in support for self-government in the Hunter, we need to remember that each wave of New State agitation has come from a different part of New England.

During the colonial period, initial agitation was Tablelands and Clarence based, with the next campaign coming from the Clarence. While these were sporadic, they established a separatist tradition.

Towards the end of the First World War, it was again the Clarence that called for self government. However, the sustained agitation that emerged from 1920 was initially driven out of Tamworth, before spreading widely across the North.

The reformation of the Movement at the end of the Second World War, the start of sustained agitation that culminated in the 1967 plebiscite, was driven from Armidale. Now we have the Hunter.

One of the interesting features of the growth in Hunter Valley interest lies in the source of the new state ideas.

In the forty years since the Movement effectively dissolved in the sometimes bitter local infighting that followed the 1967 loss, there has been almost new state coverage of any type in the Hunter.

So where does the idea come from? Well, talking to some of those involved, a key feature seems to be expressions of regret about the no vote in 1967 from the diminishing number who actively remember it.

One of the new activists, for example, heard about the idea from older unionists who said that we made a mistake. We were loyal, but have been betrayed.

Our activist had never heard of the new state movement, but became interested and started to investigate. This convinced him and led him to seek out others who were interested.

There is a further irony in all this.

When I was Chair of Tourism Armidale, I argued that we should use the fact that Armidale was to be the capital of New England in our promotion.

Yes, part of the idea was that it would help keep the New England dream alive. More importantly, however, it gave Armidale a unique identifying feature that could help the city stand out in a crowded tourism market place.

I could never get this across. 

Why irony?

Well, while all the old debates about capital and system of government are still there, there is also a general acceptance of Armidale’s traditional role as capital in waiting.

The new state activist I am talking about was working with someone from Armidale. Enthused, he talked to this person about the need for New England to have statehood, only to find that his colleague knew nothing about the new state cause, nor about Armidale’s role!

I have been asked by my colleagues in the Hunter to see if there is anyone in Armidale who would like to play a role in reviving the New England New State Movement.

If you would like to join the group, please email me and I will put you in touch.

Finally, the attached photo shows a New England New State Movement float in a 1963 Newcastle parade.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express on Wednesday 16 June 2010. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the Express columns are not on line. You can see all the columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010

L J Hill's Pretty Bird Tree

I have mentioned New England singer-song-writer L J Hill before. I have found several of his songs on You Tube videoed by an amateur during L J Hill's performance at the Basement in Sydney on 29 March 2009.

Part Australian Aboriginal, part Cherokee Indian and part Irish, L J Hill now lives in the Armidale area. His songs focus on the New England Tablelands and Western Slopes. One song follows - Pretty Bird Tree. You can find all the clips here.

According to the Armidale Express, L J Hill is in the process is in the process of making a fully professional video to show on You Tube.

You can order L J Hill's Namoi Mud album here.