The Australian Labour Party launched its official election campaign a few days ago in Brisbane, the hometown of its new found star, Kevin Rudd. On parade in this show, apart from the infamous “worm” (a gauge which sat at the bottom of the television screen during televised debate between the PM and Rudd, measuring audience reaction to a speaker’s speech – very shonky but had a huge impact in terms of creating the image of audience favouring or disliking a particular candidate), the other characters included past Labour Prime Ministers, Gough Whitlam (only Prime Minister in Australian history to have been forcibly removed from office outside of an election – read: sacked), Bob Hawke (he who publicly admitted to womanising and other moral flaws) and Paul Keating (he of the acid tongue and outrageous arrogance).

Each of these characters was charismatic in their own ways, very intelligent and very flawed character wise. Unfortunately Kevin Rudd is a bit like that. Finagling all the time, he has been caught out in these circumstances: drunk in a striptease bar, deceiving television audience, gagging his frontbench from saying the same things he has been saying and lying in a televised debate with his political opponent. Yet he is also extremely articulate and polished in his media appearances.

Earlier this week I watched Andrew Denton interviewed John Laws (a legendary institution in radio talkback host in Sydney). Laws related an incident where he pre-recorded an interview with Kevin Rudd. It was about 7 in the morning and Laws asked how the campaign was going. Rudd said he was so tired and Laws asked if he would rather be doing something else. Rudd said he was alright doing it but felt it was hard going and he was very tired. After saying this, Laws said Rudd was then pulled aside by one of his handlers and when he resumed the interview, he asked Laws if what he just said was recorded. Laws said of course it was – it was an interview for use in radio. Rudd said he didn’t realise it was recorded and said he’d rather Laws didn’t use that as he wasn’t aware of it. They agreed and when he “went on record” and restarted the interview, Rudd was a completely different person.

This told me two things. The first was that Rudd was a very inexperienced man – he should have expected that this exchange was going to be part of Laws’ show just over an hour away. That he didn’t suggested he was too tired to be attuned to this probability or he was too naïve, neither of which is a particularly glowing tribute to a leader’s make-up. The second was that Rudd was always careful about the image he projected. His media image is a creation. He plays the modern C-span politician to the hilt. He is a consummate modern, media savvy politician and would be unapologetic about having a media image which is completely manufactured. He isn’t necessarily the person he appears on television, radio or the newspapers. What he says or projects on television could be entirely different from who he really is, what he believes in and what he is likely to do.

I’m not sure I want someone like that as a leader.

Yet, John Howard proved a disappointment when he announced his education package a couple of days ago. He planned to provide rebates to all parents/guardians of school going children, including cash rebates to assist private school fees. This sounds to me like unadulterated bribery. It’s a sugary feel good quickie with no long term benefit to education (and therefore the skill levels and competitiveness of Australia) in general. Kiddo’s present school – the Mount Waverley Secondary College on Stephenson’s Road in Mount Waverley – may be a good school but the infrastructure is in shambles. Many classrooms are shed-like boxes. They are clean and comfortable but I don’t know if this is representative of the state of affairs of the public school system and the financial commitment of state and federal governments to education. I forget now what Howard’s package costs on the whole but surely if he could get states to match in on some agreed scale public education as a whole would benefit a whole lot more than dishing out lollies.

Is Howard thinking now defeat is staring at him unless he finds that rabbit soon? Was that why he took the step of cash rebates? Did he not think Danny Nalliah’s “prophecy” of his victory had credibility, or did he also think that “prophecy” was so circuitous and conditional one could never feel free to remove the quote marks? Whatever the reason for this disappointing step by Howard at the rate of progress it looks like Rudd would romp home. I honestly think Australia would be a poorer place (not just economically or financially) for it.

Kiddo, Theresa and I were at her Mac. Rob last night for an information night. It was the second time Kiddo visited the school, the first time for Theresa and the third for me. It was the first time we all heard the word “Mac.Robian”. I left work a little earlier than usual and drove the short distance from the office to the school, picking up Kiddo and Theresa along the way. They had made their way from the city by tram and stopped a block from my office. I was initially disappointed with the administration of the school, having found out that they had failed to act on my letter advising them of a change of address. Theresa had followed up with an email and that too wasn’t actioned on. We therefore missed out on a couple of communications and some forms, which they had sent to the old address. So we had to play catch-up with the notices and forms.

The sense of competition and the desire to do more was very evident during and after the meeting. A very passionate music director was faced with a queue of students and parents after the presentation which started at the front of the auditorium and snaked its way down to the hallway at the back. Most had simply wanted to hand in the music form (selection of instrument, tuition required and instrument hire). So again, the administration was a bit loose there. We finally left the place close to 9.30 and reached home only around 10.

We’ve been having a family (just the wife/mom and their 10 year old boy) with us for about a week and a half now, and last night when we got home, Theresa and I caught up with her to chat about how she has been doing with all the preparatory work. I feel her fear and her concerns and generally, appreciate her disorientation. There is so much to do. I’m disappointed with some of her friends, who helped her find their rental property. Against my advice, they committed to the lease without even seeing the property, when they were still in Malaysia. They relied on their friends to inspect the property and committed to the lease on that basis. It turned out that the property is in shambles. It is dirty and parts of the house are dilapidated, with a backdoor even missing a knob/lock. Their friends have not offered to help her with the fixing or cleaning and generally left her to her own defences. They came around and took her out for dinner last Friday but did little else. I’m sure they have their reasons but I feel that having committed her to a property which required so much work they could have at least asked if they could help. I kept asking myself how these friends could have advised this family to apply for a lease for a property like that. As a result, this family has been extremely slow in getting this place ready and despite having the lease approved and keys collected well before they arrived the house is still not ready and they are still squatting with us. Maybe I’m being unfair. She’s a nice person and the boy is generally well behaved so they have not been bad guests in any way and are welcomed to remain as long as they need to. On the other hand, I felt she should do more to quickly settle into her own house and prepare to live this new phase of their lives as early as possible. Postponing this would not help her in anyway, except maybe save a few dollars. If this was her motivation for not expediting preparation of her house then it is disappointing and she is being near sighted.

I remember my experience well. Theresa and I came to Melbourne in October 2004 and lived with her uncle in Blackburn, just up the road and as the crow flies from our present home. Theresa left to return to Malaysia after a week. I stayed on and 1 week later found the house on Muir Street in Mount Waverley. A day or so after signing the lease, I went furniture shopping, buying just enough to fit out 2 bedrooms, the living area, dining and a study desk. I also bought appliances – basic necessities like fridge, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, kettle, iron, television, dvd player and some pots and pans. These were basic models – enough to make the house a home. Not a luxury home by a long shot, just enough to provide comfort to cushion the pain of adjustment and being away from our home we’ve known all our lives. I cleaned, scrubbed and fitted and assembled the furniture. I took almost a week to do all of these. As soon as I fixed a bed, I moved out from Blackburn and into this house on 18 Muir Street, Mount Waverley which was to be our home for the next 15 months. While I enjoyed staying in the home of Theresa’s uncle, I wanted to quickly settle in so that I can be in a better position to help my family settle in, when they arrived. I guess we’re all different.

We knew this family (our present guests) from Klang, where they attended the church we used to attend there. Another one who was there before but is also in Melbourne now, called a couple of nights ago and wanted to have breakfast tomorrow with this family. We have so much to do, as does this new family, so last night we decided we won’t do this just now. Sometimes we lose sight of things. The new migrant tends to lose sight of the fact that for the migration to work it has to be seen as a permanent thing. I think too many migrants have a let-give-it-a-go attitude. So when things get a bit rough, they reconsider the whole move and let doubt set in. Of course things will seem rough. My constant line on this issue is that things in Malaysia seemed better and easier because we had then spent most of our lives there. Many took 10, 20 years to build the sort of lives they were enjoying. Why then do we dislodged ourselves, kitchen sink and all, go to a different country with a very different culture several thousand miles away and think life can have the sort of stability and normalcy again within a much shorter period of time, often months? The expectation is simply unrealistic. It would take a few years before life can resume any semblance of stability and equilibrium again. One must give it time.

And so that brings me back to my earlier point about settling in as quickly as possible. Settling in takes time. We must give it as much time as possible. It is therefore, in my mind, imperative that we make our home here in as many ways as possible, as quickly as possible. To facilitate that we must avoid the little things which tend to create the mood and atmosphere of living in a transient mode. Postponing decisions like purchasing basic requirements add to that. We simply have to recognise the decisions and steps which have to be taken take them and move on.

The established migrants also tend to lose sight – they forget how things were like when they first came here. They forgot how helpless they were and how much needs to be done before the home and surroundings can become warmer, friendlier and more secured and stable. I don’t know if meals together help settle one down

It is late Friday afternoon. I started this piece last night. It has been a long week. My colleague has so much on she’s freaking out and exposing frayed nerves everywhere and is near hyper. Another colleague, the departmental personal assistant, is whacking on a number stamp, numbering pages on a document. She was pulling and punching holes on a binder earlier. A Board meeting is coming up and she’s prepping the board papers for distribution. Combining these two activities, you get a cacophony of corporate hoopla which on a good day sets the adrenalin flowing a little faster. On a Friday afternoon it tends to make me give up as it tends to take my mind off to hinterland. Concentrating is too hard work and too frustrating. I have therefore been having trouble on this advice I have been working on and have decided to give up and maybe take a look at it sometime over the weekend. I thought I’d use this time to finish off this piece instead.