Flowers and Powers
Oct. 15th, 2005 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringDD had the car yesterday, so I set off on foot to Parliament House. A pleasant walk throght the bushland along the lake shore, over the bridge and up Kings Avenue. Half an hour's walk in the spring sunshine, though as I crossed the bridge and felt the wind I was somehow reminded of the time I crossed the Potomac to the Lincoln Memorial from Arlington, except that Lake Blue-Green doesn't freeze.
Passed through security and into the Main Committee Room, just as the lecture began. Professor Greg Craven, one of my favorite constitutional scholars, giving one of the Senate Occasional Lectures. He talked about the innate conservatism of the Constitution, and how it is so dedicated to federalism, that "if you took a Stanley knife to it and removed everything dealing with federalism - the separation of powers, the division of money, relations between the States and so on - you wouldn't finish up with a constitution so much as confetti."
Very true, and he spoke of how if the current conservative government persisted in its push to centralise power still further, the Labor party (which controls the State governments) might find it expedient to backflip on their historic stance and seek to divide power further.
Fairly dry stuff on the face of it, but Craven has a way with words and drew a chuckle or two from the audience, which included at least one Senator.
I admired the artworks on the way out and ingered in the souvenir shop. Some lovely portraits there, including a few by Ivor Hele, who won the Archibald Prize seven times. Hard to pick the difference between his style and that of his contemporary William Dargie, but as many of Hele's paintings were done in the 50s and 60s, when his style had tended more to the "textured" than his earlier works, that was a help. I play a game with myself, trying to identify the painter before looking at the signature, and though you might think that one painting of a politician looks much like another, it ain't so.
Must return and take some photographs, now that the construction work is complete and many of the temporary barriers are gone.
Our garden is blooming, and there is a bold show of white daisies in the garden, which I photographed and then discovered a smudge on the lens when I looked at the results. Have to do it again tomorrow. For now two close-ups will suffice.
Passed through security and into the Main Committee Room, just as the lecture began. Professor Greg Craven, one of my favorite constitutional scholars, giving one of the Senate Occasional Lectures. He talked about the innate conservatism of the Constitution, and how it is so dedicated to federalism, that "if you took a Stanley knife to it and removed everything dealing with federalism - the separation of powers, the division of money, relations between the States and so on - you wouldn't finish up with a constitution so much as confetti."
Very true, and he spoke of how if the current conservative government persisted in its push to centralise power still further, the Labor party (which controls the State governments) might find it expedient to backflip on their historic stance and seek to divide power further.
Fairly dry stuff on the face of it, but Craven has a way with words and drew a chuckle or two from the audience, which included at least one Senator.
I admired the artworks on the way out and ingered in the souvenir shop. Some lovely portraits there, including a few by Ivor Hele, who won the Archibald Prize seven times. Hard to pick the difference between his style and that of his contemporary William Dargie, but as many of Hele's paintings were done in the 50s and 60s, when his style had tended more to the "textured" than his earlier works, that was a help. I play a game with myself, trying to identify the painter before looking at the signature, and though you might think that one painting of a politician looks much like another, it ain't so.
Must return and take some photographs, now that the construction work is complete and many of the temporary barriers are gone.
Our garden is blooming, and there is a bold show of white daisies in the garden, which I photographed and then discovered a smudge on the lens when I looked at the results. Have to do it again tomorrow. For now two close-ups will suffice.
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Date: 2005-10-29 02:17 am (UTC)Thanks for this post, Pete. I found it very interesting, as I know very little about your country except for you and Hollywood. Which probably means I only about it from you :)
The pics are truly lovely -- postcard-like, and
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Date: 2005-10-29 02:45 am (UTC)Usually a stifling hot day, and we cram ourselves full of roast turkey and plum pudding and then go out and play a game of cricket or have a swim. By mid-afternoon the house is usually littered with horizontal adults while the children play with their new toys.
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Date: 2005-10-29 02:46 am (UTC)