Malcolm's beach party

Whispers has been privileged to attend a shindig at Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull's exclusive Point Piper mansion (pictured above) . It was charity fundraising event and well before Malcolm was Prime  Minister, merely the local MP.

It's a splendorous house with magnificent harbor views and it's own tiny beach at the base of the garden. Now a small group of protestors have taken up residence on that beach to agitate about the controversial proposed Adani coal mine in Queensland which it's claimed will do untold damage to the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef.
The freezing weather has driven off the protestors for the moment but I'm reliably informed that they have more plans to enliven life in genteel Point Piper- the most exclusive and expensive suburb in Australia. Meanwhile Mal & Lucy are residing at The Lodge (above right) in Canberra. It's freezing there as well. Not in the Lodge itself but Canberra. Winter in Canberra is something else. Life is just tough sometimes.

"Little Black Bastard"

An eagle-eyed regular Whisper's reader (we have thousands) draws our attention to the photograph we published of the late Stephen Hawkings (with walking stick) marching to protest the Vietnam War with Vanessa Redgrave, writer Tariq Ali and others in the late 1960s.
Directly behind Hawkings and holding the banner is a very young Australian dancer, actor, director and choreographer Noel Tovey.
Tovey is part Aboriginal and enjoyed a very successful theatre career in the UK including teaching at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre and the world famous RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art). At one stage he also ran a successful Art Deco antique store in London.
His autobiography Little Black Bastard is recommended reading.
The title refers to an earlier life as a teen in Melbourne when he worked as a male hustler for a time . The insult was hurled at him by coppers as they shoved him into a cell after arresting him.
By co-incidence Whispers just borrowed Tovey's second book And Then I Found Me from the local library.

The last time Whispers encountered Noel was at an event at the Sydney Town Hall where the guest of honour was then PM John Howard. As Howard got up to speak Tovey hurled some choice insults at Howard over the Iraq War, and then stormed out of the building.

Vale Stephen Hawking

OK he's not a "social" figure as such but he's the real Mr Universe. It's heartening to read the numerous tributes to Stephen Hawking who was so inspirational for so many given his physical limitations.
 Whispers never actually met him but we did once attend a presser for him. It's very hard to describe the feeling of being in the same room as Hawking. It's not something you ever forget.What can we say..others are saying it so much better.
Here is one our favourite pix of the great scientist. It's Stephen Hawking (with the walking sticks) before he was confined to that wheel chair. He was attending a protest about the disastrous Vietnam War in the 1960s.
# As a callow youth Whispers wagged school to attend a similar anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Sydney as the visiting US President Lyndon Baines Johnson was to drive by. The then NSW (corrupt) premier Robin Askin had coined the phrase "all the way with LBJ" and accompanied the President in his limo. As the US President's motorcade sped down College Street a bunch of us demonstrators surged out onto the road and temporarily stopped the President's car.
Askin ordered his driver to "drive over the bastards !". Fortunately he didn't but it became a small moment in history.
# Note: the very beautiful actress Vanessa Redgrave on the right.

They came in their thousands

Even the organizers seemed surprised. The occasion was a protest about Sydney's infamous Lock Out Laws that have been so destructive to Sydney's nightlife in Kings Cross and the so-called Golden Mile of Oxford Street.
       And it's not just venue owners and late night revelers who are suffering. Thousands of jobs are dependent on the nightclub trade as well as hundreds of small supporting businesses like cafes, coffee shops, fast food outlets and even taxi drivers. The Cross and Oxford Street have become like a desert as businesses close every day. In Oxford Street there are dozens of To-Let signs.
      This Sunday, as the anger is quietly building, people flocked to Belmore Park opposite Central Station to express their concern. At least 15000 of them. I think that is a conservative estimate. How the mainstream media report this event will be interesting. Meanwhile around the Star Casino precinct and the various pubs in Pyrmont, just outside of the lock-out area, you can drink 24 hours and alcohol fueled assaults have increased.