How to annoy Liberal women. Tell them they are ‘sufficiently assertive'
With the Liberal Party's founding father looming over their shoulder – quite literally – two octogenarian men from Victoria thought it wise to lecture women on the future of the NSW party. Women are now 'sufficiently assertive' in the Liberal Party, ex-Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale bemoaned, that it is probably time to start giving blokes a leg up.
Stockdale and former Victorian senator Richard Alston, combined age 164, positioned themselves under a portrait of Robert Menzies as they fronted the NSW Liberal Women's Council on Tuesday night to argue why they should continue to run the troubled division.
The sole female and NSW representative on the federal takeover committee, appointed by former leader Peter Dutton, is Peta Seaton, who was seemingly the third wheel as Stockdale held court, reminding the NSW Liberals exactly why they still have a women's problem.
'Women are sufficiently assertive now,' Stockdale told the virtual meeting of at least 50 women, 'that we should be giving some thought to whether we need to protect men's involvement'. Great idea. Reverse quotas for men. If it were not so ludicrous and offensive, it would be comical.
A brief look back to why Stockdale and Co are running NSW. Dutton imposed a federal takeover on the NSW Liberals after the embarrassing debacle of the party failing to nominate 144 candidates for last year's local government elections. The trio (which was initially going to be all men until wiser heads prevailed) was sent in to clean up the mess and help NSW secure an election win for the Liberals. They have failed to do either. Now the administrators are arguing for an extension of their term, which was due to expire on June 30.
After his comment, which followed discussion over whether he would commit to quotas to get more Liberal women preselected, Stockdale chuckled, according to several women who were on the call. But if it was meant as a joke, Stockdale did not read the room. These women were already angry. Now they are positively apoplectic.
Charlotte Mortlock, a former journalist and Liberal staffer who founded Hilma's Network, which supports women for Liberal preselection, last month launched a petition calling on the party to establish gender quotas. 'Women in the party and across the country more broadly have been demanding the Liberal Party improves its female representation for decades,' Mortlock wrote. 'We have failed to act.' As of Wednesday, the petition had 449 signatures.
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‘Game On': The minute-long message that unleashed the Brethren's election machine
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Hales' message signalled a step-change: 16,000 Brethren members were encouraged to get involved. The government needed to change. Another church insider, who also asked to remain anonymous for fear of recriminations, said Hales' sons amped the effort. In the week before pre-polling opened, a message went out from local Brethren leaders calling members to gather at one of a number of locations near where they lived. Across the nation, inside the houses of elders, church halls or business premises, the Brethren were played a video featuring Gareth, Charles and Dean Hales. 'How awesome was it to hear that recording on [Global Media Stream]?' the Hales boys enthused. Then, in the tones of a high-pressure sales call, they exhorted their members to step up their election efforts: 'Make sure our booths are manned and volunteers fired up each day to dominate the play.' Loading 'It's game on,' one of them added, according to a summary obtained by this masthead. 'Pray and take action'; 'It's all in the extra 1 per cents'. 'Make sure we don't leave any gas in the tank!' they said. Days later, the Brethren army was unleashed on the public. Members of this church generally are exempt from voting – they claim a conscientious objection, arguing that government is of God and should not be chosen by men. They are also taught to despise the 'world' and 'worldly people' because they will defile and contaminate them. Despite this doctrine, thousands took time off from Brethren company jobs and fanned out to marginal Labor seats nationally to hand out for the Coalition. A booth roster from the seat of Gilmore, obtained by this masthead, shows them listed as 'friends'. Gareth Hales was spotted at a booth in Bennelong. 'Make Australia smile again,' they would say, parroting the words of their leader. A significant third party? A Liberal source, who asked not be named to discuss internal matters, said numbers of the Brethren had long donated to the Coalition parties and had been well known by candidates for helping on the periphery in campaigning. This year, the source said, the effort was 'turbocharged'. It was driven by the Brethren and welcomed by the party, and unprecedented numbers – 20, 30 or more at some polling booths – turned out. The Brethren insider said the whole church had been geared towards it. Businesses lost up to three weeks of work and, 'Everyone was active. Everyone was out. This campaign controlled what time the [church] meetings were. This was the priority.' It was clear, both from the word of Labor members on the ground, and from church insiders, that the Brethren were required to travel outside their areas to campaign where they would not be recognised. Labor's member for Lingiari, Marion Scrymgour, told ABC Radio after the election that Brethren members were being flown into remote areas of her huge, central Australian electorate each morning to campaign, then flown back out again to stay the night in a resort on Groote Eylandt. The spending – in cash and kind – raises crucial questions about political campaign disclosures. Outside groups that spend more than $250,000 trying to persuade people during a campaign must register as a 'significant third party', which brings clear disclosure obligations. The ACTU, Advance and Climate 200 are examples. But the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church does not have this registration, and nor do any of its businesses, charities or trusts. A spokesman for the church has denied multiple times that the church was involved in any campaigning or spending. Anything done by members was simply the work of individual people or businesses, he said. 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Another federal secretariat member, Jane Buncle, a lawyer, agreed with Reynolds in the meeting, saying the party needed Brethren campaigners because 'we don't have enough members', but that their presence would deter people – particularly women – from joining the party. 'Engaging a group like the Brethren who actively diminish women of all ages drives those people away even further,' Buncle said. 'It's a matter for the leaders of this campaign why they needed that support ... but it will impact us long term.' A senior Liberal source agreed, saying the Brethren's values were 'not necessarily aligned with the values of the Liberal Party'. 'Having them represent us in the electorate is a bigger problem than the party has been prepared to admit so far,' the source said. Federal Liberal director Andrew Hirst declined to comment, but a spokesperson said the party 'does not ask its volunteers, members, or donors what their religious beliefs are, nor do we intend to'. 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'A traitor' While the church's campaign might have damaged the Liberal Party, it's been potentially life-changing for one young Brethren man. The man, who this masthead has agreed not to name because he fears the ramifications, has confirmed he took part in the political campaign, which he said was being run 'under guidance from the top, being Bruce Hales'. Asked about the church's line that it was simply individuals being motivated to help, the young man said: 'Absolutely NOT!!! There were teams organised in each locality who were each given T-shirts … There was absolutely no asking which party you would like to campaign for or what role in the campaigning you were comfortable doing. It was all handed to you and you were expected to get on with it.' The Brethren spokesman also insisted that different Brethren members supported different parties, but the young man said this too was wrong. Others campaigning 'for the likes of Labor were heavily ridiculed on the Zoom calls', he said. This young man had come to Australia from the UK for family reasons, but his time here was cut short by the church. Already unhappy in the church, he secretly recorded one of the election co-ordinating meetings and leaked it to former members – people the church regards as dangerous 'opposers'. He was sent home immediately to England 'because of the audio I recorded'. His 'assembly discipline' was to be kicked out of the family home. The man says he's now living in a small caravan in the backyard, his contact with his parents is limited, and he's unable to speak to his brothers and sisters. 'I have had multiple meetings with the local Brethren priests … I've been told that being a traitor is worse than anything else. They called me a traitor because I exposed private information to those who have left the Brethren. They say it has severely affected the Brethren in Australia.' After the Brethren's role in the campaign was exposed in this masthead and on social media, the church's spokesman suggested that for media to make inquiries about the religious affiliation of any individual volunteer was to encroach on their freedom of religion. Asked if he had any freedom now, including freedom of worship, the young man in the UK said there was none. 'If I decide to visit another church I would absolutely fear losing contact with my family. It would be seen as a severe crime.' Asked about the man's case, the Brethren in the UK responded that their 'pastoral care practices ... are never punitive or coercive', and that 'communicating with people outside our church community ... does not trigger any pastoral response'.
The Age
35 minutes ago
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It's about planning ahead: Kate Seddon's switch from advertising to landscape designer
This story is part of the June 7 edition of Good Weekend. See all 14 stories. Garden design is a collegiate affair for Kate Seddon. This she makes clear from the moment we sit down in the kitchen of her Victorian home in Melbourne's south-east – everything she does is a team enterprise, her business name, Kate Seddon Landscape Design (KSLD), aside. 'We work across all projects together, from the start to the finish,' she tells me, over a pot of tea and a plate of delicious home-made biscuits. 'I don't want this to sound like it's just about me.' Over the past two decades, the 50-something designer has made a name for herself creating dazzling private gardens for the well-heeled in Brighton, Caulfield North, Northcote, Hawthorn, Richmond, Fitzroy North, South Yarra and Toorak. There are also projects on the Mornington Peninsula and in Bendigo, Ballarat and Castlemaine. 'I don't want to spread myself too thinly, with a two hours' drive the max,' says the mother-of-two matter-of-factly. 'A sense of place and understanding the local terrain is extremely important.' She recently completed a garden for a new two-storey house at Barwon Heads on the Bellarine Peninsula, which falls within the designer's self-imposed geographical boundaries. Although the former cottage was demolished, the owners of the property were mindful that the locals loved the cottage-style garden. Rather than clear the site and start from scratch, Seddon and her team retained a number of the original trees, such as coast banksia and willow myrtle. She also brought in a few 30-year-old olive trees, replanted from another property. 'These established trees come with gnarled trunks and the structure is beautiful,' says Seddon, who likes to use a combination of native and exotic species, selecting the most appropriate plants for the site as much as for the climate. She often clips certain species to add form, allowing a looser arrangement to spill over them. For the Barwon Heads house, she used Elio cobblestones for pathways and a local sandy gravel for the driveway to complement the colours of the house bricks. It took Seddon some time to find her creative pathway, despite her pedigree. After finishing high school, she studied arts at the University of Melbourne, majoring in psychology. This was despite her late father, Chris Seddon, being a prominent architect, having done work for Sir Norman Foster's studio, including the iconic HSBC building in Hong Kong. 'I think architecture just seemed too close,' recalls Seddon, who pursued a career in advertising instead, working with companies such as Schofield Sherbon Baker (Leo Schofield, the cultural buff, was one of its directors). 'Advertising is a young person's field,' she notes. 'It's exciting, but it demands night and weekend work and is not particularly amenable for starting a family.' She bit the bullet and made a career change in 2002. 'I was always attracted to gardens and the broader world of design, given my father's career, and seeing numerous buildings on family holidays.' Seddon enrolled in a graduate diploma in horticulture and design offered by the University of Melbourne, located in Burnley on the banks of the Yarra River. 'From the first moment I arrived, I knew that I had made the right choice,' she says. 'The setting was magical. It's like a small botanic garden, full of birdlife, with a fabulous mid-20th century building. My lecturers were truly passionate and deep thinkers.' Landscape architect Andrew Laidlaw, who was one of many who taught Seddon and now works at the Royal Botanic Gardens, explains why she was dux of her year. 'Kate would always 'gobble up' as much information as she could, continually asking questions and always eager to learn more. I could tell even then that she would be successful. In this profession, you need to be a great listener. But you also need to have an innate ability to design. Most of the great landscape designers I know have little ego, and Kate is certainly not about her, but the work.' Like most new graduates, Seddon began with a small project, which was in the bayside suburb of Brighton – only a driveway and a side path to redesign. She brought in a copse of trees on one side and installed a meandering timber path leading to the front door at the side of the house. The meandering path was later implemented on a much larger scale for the Besen family's TarraWarra Museum, an hour's drive from Melbourne. 'If you develop too many concepts, a design loses its strength and becomes a 'Frankenstein'.' Among her many other projects: the landscaping for a mid-20th-century home in Caulfield North. The owner already had succulents and cacti dotted around the house. The pool's pebbled 'crusty and awkward lip' was removed and the pool retiled. One of the inspired choices was a curvaceous steel fence that enclosed the new crazy-paving, a style popular in the 1950s that matched the age of the home. The garden beds were also replanted and reshaped with kangaroo paw and coastal rosemary, along with native grasses. Closer to the city, she reworked the garden of a Victorian house in South Melbourne, which lacked a midpoint in the vista, with a swimming pool positioned at the very end of the backyard. Hence, her redesign included a new paved area in limestone and an alfresco dining area, with a pergola to screen a neighbouring church. Shutters that were no longer required in the house were fashioned into curved garden bench seats. For Seddon, it's not only understanding what her clients are looking for but also, as importantly, their dislikes. And rather than confuse the client with too many different schemes, she presents just one. 'If you develop too many concepts, a design loses its strength and becomes a 'Frankenstein',' says Seddon, who sees the importance of creating a 'dialogue' between the house and its garden rather than having different 'voices'. 'I think the best gardens happen when the clients also get involved, whether or not they put their fingers in the dirt.' Architect Anne Hindley, director of Hindley & Co, is currently working with Seddon on a property in Brighton. As well as refurbishing the house, the brief included screening the back garden from a palazzo directly behind. 'Kate's suggestion was to demolish the old pool house on the edge of the site, provide some dense planting and build a new pool house that would also accommodate the family's needs,' says Hindley. All gardens mature, of course, evolving with the seasons and as a family moves through their life cycle, but over time they can take on a different nature as properties change hands or owners imprint their own character. One that Seddon revisited three years after designing it introduced a series of garden gnomes across the front flower beds. Each plaster figure carried a ball or a cricket bat, lined up into teams. At another house, a Japanese-style bridge had appeared. But given the owners' children's affection for using it as a backdrop for fairy stories, the bridge was retained and enhanced with new plants around it. Loading Our interview over, Seddon shows me around her own back garden on this overcast afternoon. At the end, there's a separate nook where she stores plants. Some of these are waiting to be planted or perhaps used for a client's garden – she calls this spot her 'laboratory'. There are mounded plants such as Persian shield plants, Pittosporum ' Miss Muffet' and unusual sculptural and succulent plants sprinkled throughout. If there's one piece of advice Seddon can give, it's to plan ahead, as gardens can add considerable value to a home. Unlike building or renovating a house, gardens and landscaping more often than not are left as an afterthought. A fairly simple garden, including structures, can start at $80,000 and go anywhere up to a million dollars, and this needs to be factored in when building a house. What may seem a tidy sum initially can pay big dividends over the longer term.
