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EDITOR

LIAM CARSWELLliamc0@utas.edu.au

SUB-EDITOR

GEORGIA ALLEN

DESIGN

ALICE CAMM alicekazam@gmail .com

CONTRIBUTORS

GEORGIA BURKEDANIEL WESTBURYDAVID TAYLORJESS SMART

Insula is a new state-wide publication of the Tasmanian University Union (TUU), produced by the Publications and Communications Comittee. The opinions within are not necessarily those of Insula or the publisher. The copyright in this magazine remains with

the publishers.

Insula is printed by UniPrint and is released fortnightly.

www.facebook.com/insulatuu

Insula welcomes contributions from across the university. Please email your work or ideas to: studentobserver@tuu.utas.edu.au

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From The EditorThank you for picking up the final edition

of INSULA for semester one! Hopefully

you’ve finished major assessments and

only have exams to dread look forward to.

In this edition of the magazine,

Georgia Burke gives us an overview of

the Tasmanian theatre community and

why it remains relevant in our digital age.

Daniel Westbury looks at the Federal

Government’s move to recognise local

governments in our Constitution. David

Taylor looks at the emerging threat of

cyber attacks and we take a look at a new

society on campus: the UTAS Psychology

Society (UPS).

Thanks to everyone who has submitted

work or helped put together INSULA over

the semester. As always,

if you have any feedback, don’t hesitate to

contact us. I hope you enjoy INSULA #6.

— Liam Carswell

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Hand Me A ProgramGeorgia Burke

We are living in the age of entertainment

at our fingertips. Music is streamed at

whim, box-sets downloaded en masse.

A trip to Video City (‘Video’ – lol!) seems

far too onerous. Pay money? Leave the

house? To watch a movie? You can’t

be serious! Yet, there are some magical

forms of entertainment that persist

in getting us off our couch and out

the door.

Some unique forms of flesh and blood

story telling that refuse to be replaced

by an unlimited data plan.

One of those, is live theatre.

You see, it’s really quite illogical.

It’s not like we’re wanting for things to

DO. But whether it’s every few weeks,

once a year, or once in ten, to see a

Shakespeare or Puppetry of the Penis,

a great many of us continue to plonk

our bottoms in an often less than

comfortable chair, in front of a stage,

to watch people pretending to be other

people. And we partake in this social,

cultural and entertainment package why?

Because it’s human, it’s involving, and

it’s real. At then end of a day when we’ve

filled our tummy and loaded up our

brains, theatre feeds our soul.

Hobartians are fortunate to have

a good serving of this soul food at

their fingertips. The lights above The

Playhouse door regularly light up

Bathurst Street, letting passers by know

that the home of the Hobart Reparatory

Society is alive with audience. A full

house sign brings a grin to those on

one side of the door, and a tinge of

disappointment to those on the other.

One day, some day, Tasmanians will

learn to book.

The Peacock Theatre is a Salamanca

Arts Centre institution, with its quarry

wall backdrop providing a unique space

for anything from boutique musicals to

culinary theatre/puppetry collaborations.

The offices above are a-buzz with

creative know how, festivals such as Ten

Days on the Island and Festival of Voices

going from zero to hero in those small

but dynamic rooms.

Then of course there’s our grand

old dame, the Theatre Royal, the oldest

continuingly operating theatre in

Australia. Patrons and performers alike

wince at the thought of its demolition

near misses. That’s right, they’ve wanted

to pull her down not one but multiple

times, most recently after a devastating

fire in 1984. Thankfully she stands,

regal as ever, to house both touring

and local productions around the clock.

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Her technical limitations far from constrain

imaginations, a fact to which any witness to

the lowering of the Miss Saigon helicopter

can attest. That shit was cray. . .

And behind the red curtain, down

the alley, is the Backspace, home to

the Tasmanian Theatre Company who

themselves faced a premature end, due not

to fire but funding, or a frightening lack

thereof. Fortunately, they too were saved

at the eleventh hour. In this converted

blackbox theatre we see new work, intimate

work, thematically exciting work. It is a

place where ensembles speak to us straight

or in tongues, and solo shows let us into

someone’s life for just a night, a new

character for a new day.

But what gets us there? In any of these

spaces and others world over, it is that

moment where we assume our positions and

hand ourselves over to those equipped with

narrative nous that is so special. Phones

away, wi-fi useless, all we can do it sit still

“At the end of a day when we’ve filled our tummy and loaded up our brains,

theatre feeds our soul”

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and imbibe a tale, most often about

other people but sometimes, whether

we’re conscious of it or not, about

ourselves. Granted there’re occasions

where it’s just a whole lot of naff or

wank, a slap-dash job of a script holier

than your oldest pair of tights, perhaps

with a song-and-dance number thrown

in for good measure.

But a lot of the time, most of the time,

in one way or another, it’s pretty rad.

And so we buy the tickets, and see

the shows, and recite the stories to

those we know who missed the ‘must

see’ of the year. Because theatre gets

under our skin. It makes us think, reflect

and wonder. It leads us to scratch itches

that sometimes we didn’t know we

had, and to acknowledge feelings that

sometimes we wish remained unfound.

Today, still, in the face of all imaginable

alternate stimulants, we put down the

remote and surrender to the wonder of

the stage. To laugh, to cry, to discover.

To feed ourselves.

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(untitled) by JESS SMART

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The Other Vote in SeptemberDaniel Westbury

Did you know that this September, you will

be participating in a referendum for what

is likely the first time in your life? Did you

know that this referendum could give you a

safer, fairer, and more sustainable lifestyle if

you vote ‘yes’?

Recently, the Gillard Government

announced it would hold a referendum

to ‘recognise’ local government in

the Constitution, concurrently with the

federal election on September 14th. It fulfils

a deal that it made with key Independent

MPs Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott

three years ago when forming minority

government, and also has complete (well,

almost) bipartisan support. How nice!

But wait, what is this all about? What is

the referendum changing exactly? Why

are some people upset and why does this

even matter?

Local governments are the lowest tier

of government in our public administration.

They are usually known as councils. Crudely,

their powers can be described as being

“Did you know that this September, you will be participating in a referendum for what is likely the first time in your life?”

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concerned with the three ‘R’s’: Rates,

Roads, and Rubbish. In reality, their

potential is far greater. Particularly,

local councils are at the forefront of

environmental policy: they have the

potential to ensure far more sustainable

lifestyles and infrastructure. They

make roads safer, and in particular

have a great patronage for the arts.

They make our cities more convenient

and more liveable, provide public

transport and ensure our lifestyle can

be clean. In rural Australia, councils

are arguably even more important,

ensuring the geographically disparate

communities are united, and that rural

infrastructure and tourism industries

are well-maintained. After three times

volunteering for the Southern Midlands

Council, I have first hand experience of

the work of local governments.

Currently, the Constitution – the

owner’s manual and rulebook of the

nation – contains zero reference to local

government. They are mentioned in the

Constitutions of the states however,

and derive most of their funding from

state governments to the extent that

some have taken to describing local

governments as ‘mere state government

departments’. This, in my view, is wasted

potential; and there needs to be a

more detailed guide of the role of local

government within the federal equation.

What the referendum actually

proposes to do is to change section 96

of the Constitution to read:

. . . the Parliament may grant

financial assistance to any State,

or any local government body

formed by the law of a state, on

such terms and conditions as the

Parliament thinks fit.

As you may be able to see,

this isn’t just about ‘recognising’

local government. It has major

financial implications.

Section 96 of the Constitution has

allowed the federal government to

make what are known as ‘tied grants’

to state governments, who without any

major taxation revenue would be broke

without the grants. The text ‘on such

terms and conditions as the Parliament

thinks fit’ allows this. This equates to

a conditional loan to the states: ‘you

can have 60% of the money and do

what you want with it, but 40% you

have to spend on stuff that we want’

is a very crude way of explaining it.

This is important because it profoundly

changed the nature of federalism: it gave

Canberra massive influence over areas

of policy that were framed to be ‘state

powers’ via proxy. This referendum is

proposing that this system be extended

to local governments as well, meaning

that tied grants could be potentially

made to councils.

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This change is mainly motivated by a

desire to protect current programs –

such as the $350m a year Roads to

Recovery program – from a potential

legal challenge. It also seeks to

preserve the role of state and territory

governments in establishing and

maintaining local governments.

It is not simply tokenistic change

however. It also has major consequences

for the roles and responsibilities for all

three levels of government.

In theory, this gives Canberra greater

power over areas of policy such as

local development and infrastructure,

environmental waste disposal, and

patronage of the arts. It also takes the

power over local affairs away from

state governments, and increases the

role of local governments. Earlier this

year in April, when the Prime Minister

visited Western Sydney, transport and

infrastructure were suddenly pushed

to the top of the agenda. As this is

normally a pitch done by a Premier,

heads were suddenly scratched. My

prediction: expect a lot more of this

if the referendum passes.

While the Opposition has pledged ‘in-

principle’ support to the referendum, not

all is well. Conservative firebrand, author

of the YouTube channel where ‘common

sense’ is disputed to live, and known pet

lover Cory Bernardi has gone freelance

and is speaking out against the party

line on the issue. His argument, which is

also one made by Chris Berg of the IPA

and psephologist Charles Richardson is

that this referendum strips away states’

rights, gives more power to Canberra

and messes up an already disfigured

federal system. Berg in particular has a

low view of local governments, declaring

them ‘unaccountable’ and undemocratic.

This is not my view, I simply see local

governments free from the theatrical

politics and dysfunction that can be a

blight on many state governments.

Personally, I am all in favour of a

‘yes’ vote in the upcoming referendum.

I am in favour for two major reasons.

The first is politics. By constitutionally

guaranteeing a direct funding path from

Canberra to the local governments,

those pesky states with their petty

politics can by bypassed. It is my

“I beseech you: don’t miss a chance to have an important say in your future.”

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personal view, that state governments

are increasingly used as a tool or proxy

for a federal government or opposition.

Take for instance, the recent and

ridiculous reluctance by the Queensland

Premier to recognise a provision that

meant female descendants of royalty

could become the sovereign of the

British Commonwealth ahead of a

younger male sibling. His reasoning?

Queensland wanted their own laws to

recognise this. Local governments are

above this petty form of politics, and for

the most part, are genuinely interested

in serving the community that elected

them to the greatest possible extent.

The second, and main reason that

I support this referendum is about

policies. Say what you will about Section

96, and how it has stripped the rights of

the states and blemished the intentions

of the constitutional framers: the fact is

that it has probably given you and me a

better quality of life.

Allowing Canberra to make tied

grants to local councils and governments

opens windows for exciting reform

opportunities. Conditional grants could

allow a future federal government to

introduce exciting reform for local

infrastructure, better environmental

policy, safer roads and cleaner public

transport. Local government could

be a vital tool in providing better

arts policies, national social inclusion

strategies, and the like. In the century of

globalisation, local government cannot

be neglected.

The main point of this piece was to

draw your attention to the upcoming

referendum and get you thinking about

it. It is a divisive issue of utmost

importance to our nation: too important

for you to just tick a box and get it

over and done with. Australians have

an abysmal record when it comes to

modernising our constitution: only

8 out of 44 attempts at reform have

succeeded. This is a proposal that has

bipartisan national support as well as the

enthusiastic backing of the Australian

Local Government Association, who have

called it ‘a win for local governments’.

My final pitch: if your quality of lifestyle

and the future of your community

matters to you, you should definitely

vote ‘yes’. But more importantly, I

beseech you: don’t miss a chance to

have an important say in your future.

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Cyber Attacks:Apocalypse or New Era?David Taylor

Like many products of that hazy, baby-

making period in the 1980s known

as Generation Y, I am hopelessly and

shamelessly addicted to the Internet. It

is the opium of our time. So when the

world’s smartest chess-playing computer,

Deep Blue, beat reigning world chess

champion Garry Kasparov in a best-of-

six-matches chess tournament in 1997,

it’s needless to say that I was suitably

concerned. As a teenager experiencing

the Terminator films for the first time,

Deep Blue’s victory set off all my alarms.

The recent ‘global-cyber attack’ (I use

inverted commas because it seems to

suit this issue), then, took my mind back

to Deep Blue’s exalted victory.

There’s something titanic about

the underdog taking on the faceless

Leviathan, the struggle to keep freedom

of information and activity secure from

the stranglehold of an unseen nemesis.

For argument’s sake, let us say, for

now, that Spamhaus is Leviathan of

Hobbesian imagination; the master

pulling the strings, and let CyberBunker

be the battler. The recent clash between

Spamhaus and CyberBunker was

purported to have slowed down the

internet across the globe. Sven Olaf

Kamphuis, the alleged culprit, is

a divisive figure with whom, due to his

attributed anti-establishment position,

many students would identify. However,

he is also a figure liable to elicit

shrieks of fist-waving fury from others.

Comparing himself to figures like Julian

Assange – presumably due to his stated

mission to lift the veil on Spamhaus’

censoring of items it deems to be spam

– Mr. Kamphuis is accused of taking the

leading role in the cyber-attack due to

his vocal stance against Spamhaus.

The crux of this issue is the debate

over who gets to decide what goes

on the internet. The suspicion that

exists in all of us when control and

transparency are removed from any

equation is exponentially worse here.

In a world where almost anyone can

upload, download, send viruses and spam

others, organisations selling themselves

as being able to stamp out unwanted

materials are asking for trouble. There’s

a glitch in the decision making process

here that is frighteningly apparent when

I open my email inbox. Who has decided

to divert some of my mail to the spam

folder? Granted, I am grateful that my

email provider does screen my incoming

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mail to prevent my computer from being

overcome by flesh-eating viruses and dodgy

businessman lunging for my life savings.

So how should we view Mr. Kamphuis,

then? Is he a kind of neo-Luddite, saving

us from tyrannical technologists aiming to

make our freedom of choice redundant?

Are his (alleged) actions those of an axe-

wielding maniac, intent on bringing down the

veil of manipulated information, or is his

agenda precisely to usurp those he claims to

be against? History is full of heroes claiming

to work for the good of the masses,

and then being seduced by their newly

acquired power. Were Kamphuis to produce

revelatory evidence of a mass cover up

on the part of Spamhaus, exposing their

activities as manipulative and hegemonic,

then would that make us feel any better

about the whole scene? It must be said

that reading of the power of both

Spamhaus and Kamphuis doesn’t make

one or other emerge as the saviour of my

Facebook account.

“The crux of this issue is the debate over who gets to decide what goes

on the internet.”

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Returning to my fear of Deep Blue –

albeit tinged with shades of admiration

from the geek side of me - what I mean

to say about all this is that technology

has the capacity to produce a human-

technological conflation, and it is

important for us - as students who utilise

the internet probably more than any other

demographic – to retain this line between

humanity and technology. We should be

wary of associating ourselves entirely with

our online personas and our ‘online lives’.

I wouldn’t like to have Deep Blue beat me

at chess one day and then pop up the

next as my Art Theory lecturer. There

was a manic, morbid fear that the internet

would crash and our worlds would be

over. Yes, Skynet, the intelligent computer

system in the Terminator film series,

was capable of reducing humanity to a

smouldering pile of analogue televisions

and broadsheet newspapers, but neither

Kamphuis nor Spamhaus are capable of it.

In saying that, though, should they ever

acquire such power, we would have been

prepared against it by holding on to our

humanity, and not so closely associating it

with computers that we go to bed at night

counting Macbooks jumping over a fence,

lest the sheep get jealous.

“We should be wary of associating ourselves entirely with online personas and our ‘online lives’.”

15ADVERTISING

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UPS Quiz Night

UTAS Psychology Society (UPS) is one

of UTAS’s newest societies, and after our

AGM on April 30 we are now affiliated with

the TUU and ready for action!

Our first event is a trivia night open to

everyone from 7-9.30pm on Wednesday

29th May 2013, upstairs at Hotel Soho.

There will be a range of categories,

including general knowledge, travel/

geography, music, movies, sports, history,

famous faces, and of course, psychology.

We expect each segment to take approx.

15 minutes with a small interval and

activities in between each category.

There will be an array of prizes up for

grabs for the winning table, and for a lucky

few during the evening.

Table sizes are to be between 4-6

people. There is a participation fee of a

gold-coin donation for people who are not

UPS members, and 50% of profits from the

evening will be donated to our nominated

charity for 2013, Beyond Blue.

We hope to see you all there!

OUR INAUGURAL TRIVIA NIGHT IS BEING HELD FROM 7PM — 9PM

ON WED MAY 29th, UPSTAIRS AT SOHO!

GOLD COIN DONATION FOR MEMBERS, $5

FOR NON-MEMBERS

50% OF ALL PROFITS GO TO BEYOND BLUE!

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And now for some information about

our society: After attending mutiple events

held by different societies during my first two

years at university, I realised the School of

Psychology and all its students were missing

out on something really special. There was

little opportunity for students sharing a

passion for psychology to get to know each

other outside of the classroom setting. It was

this that motivated me, and a small group of

third year psychology students , to create the

University of Tasmania Psychology Society

(UPS). UPS will aim to provide all of its

members an opporunity to get to know one

and other and create bonds with students that

may or may not be from your year group. We

will offer a series of social, educational and

professional development events throughout

the academic year which will be offered to all

students, regardless of membership. We aim

to provide students with an alternative support

network for their time at university to help

guide and advise them through any challenges

they may face using the knowledge we have

already obtained from our own experiences.

We will also act as an adovate for the

psychology student cohort. Please support our

society by becoming a member today!

Contact me, Emma Jackson (President of UPS), at emmaj4@utas.edu.au for further information.

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Events Guide

Tue 28 May Stressless Day Launceston

The northern TUU is having a Stressless

Day, enjoy FREE massages, live

entertainment & a light lunch with us.

Location: Cafeteria Newnham

Campus 12 noon-1.30pm

Hosted by: TUU

Wed 29 MayStressless Day

Come along and relax! The TUU Cradle

Coast is having a STRESSLESS DAY

enjoy FREE massages and reflexology,

live entertainment & a light lunch. From

Location: Cafe Courtyard & Learning

Hub 11.30am-1.00pm

Hosted by: TUU

Fri 31 MayEnd of Semester Geo Barrel

Veggie Burgers and Snags available,

cider, beer, punch and much much more.

Location: Uni Bar Rooftop 5pm-10pm

Hosted by: Geo Society

TULS End-of-Semester

Winter Warmer Barrel

Warm yourself from the inside the

TULS way: Beer, cider, MULLED CIDER,

UDLs and toasted marshmallows.

Yes, you read that right: TOASTED

MARSHMALLOWS.

Location: Law Café 4pm-7pm

Hosted by: TULS

[Engi] Laneway Festival

What better way to unwind after

13 weeks of hard slog than with the

sweet strum of guitar strings, followed by

serious hip-hop talent, awesomely

dirty blues/rock and smooth beats taking

you into SWOTVAC.

Location: Engineering

Laneway 4pm-9pm

Hosted by: Engineering Society

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“Meow” by Alice CammIllustrator and graphic designer — to contact Alice, email her at alicekazam@gmail.com