Rodney Croome . gay advocate

g) Lots of non LGBT issues

The Great Victorian Denial

This article was published on Online Opinion in April 2010.

The recent ABC documentary about William Buckley was strangely silent about this man's many connections with Tasmania.

The omission has not gone unnoticed in Tasmania.

According to Tasmanian historian, Michael Tatlow, writing in the Hobart Mercury,

"The Victorian Government's film production fosters a virtual conspiracy of denial."

To illustrate this denial is systemic he recalls,

"I searched in vain at the time for any crediting of pioneers from Tasmania among a host of articles published in Melbourne to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the city's founding."

"They are ashamed it seems that the founding fathers of their grand metropolis were piddling Tasmanians."

Michael Tatlow is right. Victorians have a collective amnesia about their Tasmania origins.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

g) Lots of non LGBT issues

A case for coalition government in Tasmania

This article was published on New Matilda and Tasmanian Times on 26.3.10.

Following the Tasmanian election on Saturday, where no one party won a majority of seats, a coalition government between one of the state’s major parties and the Greens is essential if the state is to be governed well.

With its previous complement of fourteen members (minus one to fill the role of Speaker), the Labor Party was barely able to form a viable ministry.

When a minister left office, it was difficult to find someone with the talent and/or experience to take his or her place.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

g) Lots of non LGBT issues

Thylacine loyalty

The following comments on a proposal to renew the Tasmanian Government log were published on the 'Rebrand Tasmania' website on 24.11.09.

1. How would you define the heart and soul of Tasmania?

The fundamental characteristic of the Tasmanian experience is that whatever our island and its people are, we are also, and just as extremely, the exact opposite.

In the one vista we see sublime beauty and sickening ugliness. In the one historical or political episode we witness cowardice, atrocity, bravery and sacrifice. In the same family, grey, anxious conformity and eccentric creative brilliance lie side by side. In so many Tasmanian minds obstinate amnesia exists alongside centuries-long memory. From so many Tasmanian hearts emerge both deep prejudice and saintly generosity of spirit.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

g) Lots of non LGBT issues

Bring human rights home

This opinion piece was published in the Canberra Times on 1.7.09.

Should Australia have a charter of human rights? This question is being asked across the nation by the human rights panel appointed by the Rudd Government last year.

But it’s a question that has never made sense to me because Australia already has a de facto charter of rights.

Since December 1991 individual Australians have been able to complain about human rights violations to the UN Human Rights Committee.

The Committee judges if the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has been breached, and if it has, issue a non-binding directive to the Australian Government.

The first such complaint from Australia was about Tasmania’s former laws criminalising male-to-male relationships with a maximum penalty of 21 years in gaol.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

g) Lots of non LGBT issues

Tasmanian dreaming: the leader who understands Tasmania’s imagination will have its support

This article was published on ABC News opinion on 30.5.08.

The biggest challenge facing Tasmania’s new Premier, David Bartlett, are expectations too high for him to meet.

This might seem counter-intuitive.

Surely Tasmanians will be pleased with anyone other than Paul Lennon after two years of government pugnacity, scandals and resignations.

But to assume Bartlett’s ascendency will simply be greeted with a sign of relief is to misunderstand the hopes and frustrations modern Tasmanians share.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

g) Lots of non LGBT issues

Pinkwash

This article was published on On Line Opinion on 7.4.08.

After a promising beginning, the proposal for a Tasmanian Charter of Rights has stalled.

In 2006 the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute (TLRI) was asked by the State Government to conduct an inquiry into a state Charter of Rights. After receiving substantially more submissions than similar inquiries in other states, 94 per cent of which supported a Charter, the TLRI issued a report strongly endorsing reform.

While the TLRI supported a statutory rather than constitutional Charter, consistent with existing charters in Britain, New Zealand, and on continental Australia, it recommended that state courts be given unprecedented powers to remedy as well as investigate human rights breaches.

It also took the unprecedented step of recommending that a Tasmanian Charter enshrine social, cultural, and economic rights, as well as civil and political rights.

Tasmania was on track to achieve a world-class Charter of Rights to match its powerful anti-discrimination and relationship laws. Then, suddenly, the momentum stopped.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

g) Lots of non LGBT issues

'Sex was better in the 60s'

This address was given as part of a fundraising comedy debate at the palyhouse Theatre in Hobart on Friday April 13th, 2007.

When it comes to sex in the 60s, the decade of free love speaks for itself.

Woodstock, flower power, women’s lib, gay lib, black lib, animal lib (?): the swinging 60s is synonymous with casting off old inhibitions, being yourself and doing what feels good.

The decade’s nickname makes the point just as well.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

g) Lots of non LGBT issues

"Royals make the best queens"

My contribution to a charity debate at the Playhouse Theatre, 24.2.06

He who loves not tobacco and boys is a fool.

So said one of the English language’s greatest gay playwrights, Christopher Marlowe.

And he should know.

He was an expert on gay royals down through the ages.

He even wrote a play about one the best, Edward II.

And what he gleaned from all this study was that royals definitely make the best queens.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

g) Lots of non LGBT issues

"Sex is (not) better if you’re single"

This case that sex is better in marriage was given during a Playhouse Theatre debate titled "Sex is better if you're single", 28.1.05

This evening we will convince you that there are other, more satisfying and hornier options than jumping from one mediocre one night stand to the next, prowling around T 42 drooling over stoned Uni students, or wasting days on the internet trying to find someone who’s not an ex-partner, or worse your cousin.

Yep, single sex in Tasmania is a disaster.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

g) Lots of non LGBT issues

Three days on Maria Island

Maria Island is an argument for the virtue and goodness of nature

(published in the Gay Australia Guide, March 2003)

At least since the first French explorers stepped ashore on Maria Island in 1802, and probably for thousands of years before, the place has bewitched everyone who encounters it.

Take Diego Bernacchi, a late nineteenth century entrepreneur. Inspired by the island’s beauty and Mediterranean climate, he twice tried and failed to transform it into the Capri it superficially resembles.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]