Senator Andrew Bartlett
Sunday, September 05, 2004
 
Saturday and home again, after a 6.30am flight out of Adelaide. Some light campaigning today, but nothing too frenetic. I've got a brief interview with Laurie Oakes on the Sunday program on Sunday morning and a couple of local candidate launches after that before flying down south again in the afternoon, so a bit of lower key day to recharge is probably in order.

The frustration of an election campaign during the football finals may not be immediately apparent to most people, but it sure is immediately obvious and irritating to me.

I managed to see the last 15 minutes of the Brisbane Lions THUMPING win over St Kilda after arriving back from Murray Bridge, which was nice. However, seeing the first 3 quarters would have been much nicer. Managed to see most of the afternoon clash between the Demons and Essendon - a good close game which I would have preferred had been won by Melbourne.

I grew up supporting Carlton (courtesy of my grandfather, who grew up in Carlton from 1900) before we had a Brisbane team and I know Essendon are equal with the Blues in terms of flags won, so it wouldn't do for them to win another one (although give Brisbane another 15 years and it might not be an issue). I also have a soft spot for Melbourne, as it's so long since they've won a flag (1960 is in my head, but that may be wrong). I'm sure I've read somewhere that they are the oldest surviving football club in continuous existence anywhere in the world. This may or may not be true, but they're certainly the oldest Australian football club and I'm surprised that their 'brand' doesn't have much acknowledgement of this.

Another function this evening, so I missed the Swans vs Eagles final. My Chief of Staff supports the Swans so I guess it's good they won, as it will mean she's in a better mood, which is always good in an election campaign.

Having been complaining about missing footy finals, this was one function I was glad to get to and did not want to miss. It was a farewell for someone I believe is the most effective and honest environmental activists I know - Imogen Zethoven. She has most recently been working for World Wide Fund for nature, particularly on their campaign to strengthen protection for the Great Barrier Reef. I first met her in 1990 when she was an environmental advisor to Democrat Senators, but she has been doing many other things since 1994 and one of the reasons she has been so effective is that she has worked with anybody and everybody who can contribute to environmental protection, across all party lines.

You always learn by watching how somebody like that operates and it is no coincidence that by far the biggest positive action of the federal Government in the last 3 years has been the massive increase in protected areas in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

There's always more work to be done to address threats to the Reef, but this gives a hugely better foundation from which to do so. It will also be influential on a global scale, as countries around the world undoubtedly look to Australia to see how to address threats to their own coral reefs and other significant marine ecosystems. Imogen is leaving for Berlin to work on climate change issues (still with WWF). I have always been pessimistic about the chances of being able to prevent major climate change impacts, but I now feel a little more hopeful.

People such as Imogen have far more influence and effectiveness than some people of much higher profile, but then that's part of the reason why she is so effective, because there is no agenda of self-promotion clouding the focus of her work for the environment.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Sunday, September 05, 2004 Permalink
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