the Jewish High Holydays are approaching

the Jewish High Holydays are approaching

Dear fellow members of the Sensational Seven tennis group.

We are a Jewish tennis group and the view has been stated that we should only admit Jewish members to our group. Noone has objected to this view.

So with Rosh Hashanah approaching now is the time, I suggest, to examine what should we as a Jewish group stand for? What are the Jewish laws that we should follow?

Rabbi Ralph Genende, senior Rabbi of the Caulfield Hebrew Congregation, has pointed out: “One of the most popular laws, mentioned more than any other in the

Pentateuch itself; in the Torah, – repeated 36 times – is that you shall not taunt or oppress the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” The Rabbi’s full speech is attached.

Rabbi Genende goes on to say: “And the asylum seeker / refugee is surely the stranger; the outsider – entitled to that special practical measure that is offered by Jewish law and underpinned by the commandment ve’ahavta l’ray’acha ka’mocha – love your neighbour as yourself.”

And the final words spoken by Rabbi Genende in his 2014 address to Limmud Oz are the following:

“ Rabbi Berel Wein opines that the greatness of the Jewish people is founded on acts of compassion – Ruth to Naomi; Naomi to Ruth; Boaz to Ruth etc. It’s a little book that’s a pointed reminder of the harmfulness of xenophobia and in many ways about the triumph of the stranger. Ruth overcomes the racial and xenophobic attitudes towards that Moabite woman to become the mother of Israel; the matriarch of royalty.”

In his Rosh Hashanah sermon last year Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black had this to say:

“First and foremost, these refugees, whether they are from Syria, Sudan, Iraq or Afghanistan, are people, human beings, like us, but uprooted from their homes, their extended families, their cultures, environments, languages, foods, jobs – so actually more like many of our parents or grandparents than most of us.  They need our help, our compassion, our patience and understanding.    Welcome the stranger – for you know what it is like to be a stranger – one of the most common instructions in the Torah.” 

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation of the Commonwealth, has written:

“It is terrifying in retrospect to grasp how seriously the Torah took the phenomenon of xenophobia, hatred of the stranger. It is as if the Torah were saying with the utmost clarity: reason is insufficient. Sympathy is inadequate. Only the force of history and memory is strong enough to form a counterweight to hate.  ‘Why should you not hate the stranger?’ – asks the Torah. ‘Because you once stood where they stand now. You know the heart of the stranger because you were once a stranger in the land of Egypt. If you are human, so are they.’ “

These remarks of Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks are included in my opinion piece published in the Jewish News of 27 November 2015 which is attached.

But some may continue to express anxiety over allowing more Moslems into Australia. My response to this concern is that Moslems are the victims of terror just as Jews and Christians are victims. The following link gives the story of a Kurdish Moslem woman, Henekal, suffering from hip dysplasia, who fled IS in Syria with her daughter who was suffering from cataracts and going blind. Henekal fled Syria after her husband went missing and she feared that IS would force her into servitude. Henekal managed to get to Lebanon where after months of unsuccessfully trying to find assistance, and distraught that her daughter could lose her sight, Henekal became hysterical. Luciano Calestini, an Australian working for UNICEF, happened upon her in the street and the end result was that Henekal and her daughter became part of the Government's one-off humanitarian intake of 12,000 refugees.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-18/escaping-raqqa-henekal-and-elenas-story/7426554

Luciano treated Henekal as a desperate woman needing help, and not as a Moslem.

Now some might respond to all of the above by saying: “I don’t have time for these human rights issues. I need all my time for my family, friends and myself.”

To this response I would refer to Rabbi Hillel, one of the most important figures in Jewish history, who said:

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?" Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14

In the speech I gave at my 80^th birthday celebration I said:

“And I will now advance 4 reasons why I believe that all of us here need to think about helping to bring about substantial change in Australia’s attitude towards refugees:

·       We are very privileged. Firstly we are privileged to live in Australia. Secondly we are privileged within the privilege because we live in metropolitan areas which have good access to infrastructure such as education, health and transport facilities. And thirdly we are privileged within the privileged because we all have beds to go to tonight and we know where our next meal is coming from.

·       Secondly, as Edmund Burke, prominent statesman of the 18^th century said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

·       Thirdly, and this applies particularly to those of us who are Jewish, we remember the injunction which appears 36 times in the Torah: Do not oppress the stranger, for you yourselves were strangers in the Land of Egypt.

·       Fourthly, I would argue that it is in the interests of self-preservation to keep in touch with and discuss what is going on in the country we live in and the world around us. At a time in Germany when it was still possible to leave, many Jews failed to take the opportunity available to them. There is the classical case of the woman who said: ‘ I can’t leave Germany. I have tickets for the Burger Theatre on Saturday.’ ”

To the 3 reasons explaining why we are privileged I will now give a 4^th i.e. our ability to play tennis on a regular weekly basis -  a privilege available only to the very few.

Concluding remarks

Rabbi Ralph Genende, senior Rabbi of the Caulfield Hebrew Congregation, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation of the Commonwealth,  and Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black of the Leo Baeck Centre have all cautioned about xenophobia against the stranger pointing out that we Jews were ourselves once strangers in the land of Egypt.

There is a clear implication that we must avoid xenophobia against Moslems when we are discussing asylum seeker policy.

Rabbi Hillel, quoted in Ethics of the Fathers, has stated: “if I am only for myself, who am I?”

And Edmund Burke, prominent statesman of the 18^th century said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

What are your thoughts? Grateful if you could let me have them by Friday 7 October.

Robin

Robin's 80th Birthday Thank you

Thanks to Paulette

I want to say thanks to Paulette for taking part with me in the tango dance. We did tango for my 70th 10 years ago but somehow it seemed more difficult this time to remember the steps so I am grateful to Paulette for hanging in there with me.

Paulette and I have been together now for 23 1/2 years and Paulette has been an enormous source of strength to me. So much so that there is a built in Paulette inside me. So that when I am about to say or write something to someone I will first ask the Paulette inside me for advice and very often I get the answer without having to actually ask Paulette!

Paulette is a wonderful part of the family. She is an amazing grandmother and apart from having 7 grandchildren of her own on whom she dotes Paulette also makes time for my grandsons. And if ever I turn up to see the boys without Paulette, they will ask "where is Paulette!?"

Thanks to Yael

I want to say thank you to Yael for sharing her beautiful voice with us. Yael's singing voice was first discovered at MLC which she attended for many years. Yael has taken part in two productions of Fiddler on the Roof and has sung in a number of choirs.

Yael commences study this year for a Masters in Neuro Psychology so I was very pleased that she was able to make time to sing at this celebration.

Robin's 80th Birthday Speech Addendum

Friends, to conclude this presentation I have two items of a lighter note.
Firstly, I should like to play for you the song Nakupenda Malaika sung by South African singer Miriam Makeba

I got to know this song during the 11 years I was working in Eastern and Southern Africa and the song means a lot to me. Nakupenda Malaika means “I love you my angel” It is a melodious but sad song about a young man in love with a woman whom he is unable to marry because he cannot afford the bride price.

The words of the song are in the Swahili language and of particular interest to me is the word ”nakupenda” which breaks down as under:

Na meaning “I”
Ku meaning “you” and
Penda meaning “love”

The construction is on the same lines as the French “je t’aime” which also means “I love you.”
I find it interesting that such a construction exists in a tribal language.

My daughter Deborah’s love of sun tan
Secondly, my daughter Deborah, who came to party 80 from the UK, is half Indian. Most Indians would prefer to have lighter skins and in India there is a mass market for skin lightening creams. But Deborah is different and whenever she comes to stay with me she heads straight for the swimming pool and lies on the banana lounge to try and get as much sun tan as possible. On her most recent trip, after 2 days of sun tanning herself, we compared the tan on our forearms and found that my suntan was significantly darker than hers. Deborah was downhearted at this discovery and wondered how this could be! Here is the answer. In the warmer months I expose my forearms to the sun 2 or 3 times a week while playing tennis. And have been doing this for decades.

Take care!
Robin

Robin's 80th Birthday Speech, Part 4 Israel Palestine

Friends I referred earlier to the booklet “Challenges facing Israel at 60” which I published after a trip to Israel in 2007 for the wedding of my niece.

I took the opportunity of this trip to visit a number of grantees of the New Israel Fund of which Machsom Watch an organisation of dedicated volunteers, mainly middle aged women, who endeavour to monitor the treatment of Palestinians by the military, particularly at the many checkpoints they need to cross when moving from one town or village on the West Bank to another.

We observed many examples of the oppressive nature of the occupation but I shall give here just one example.

We saw a school child aged between 10 and 12 years waiting at a gate some 50 metres from the checkpoint for a signal from the soldier to proceed. Daphne, our guide, spoke to the soldier who then allowed the child through. But Daphne explained that that had she not been there the soldier would have made the child wait half an hour in the hot sun.

When back in Melbourne I spoke about my experiences at a number of social gatherings and was taken aback by the hostility shown by some members of the community to my reports. Clearly they did not want to hear this unpleasant news. There were even charges made to my loyalty to the State of Israel. Some of the remarks made were very, very ugly.

So I want to make it very clear the support which my family has provided to the creation of the State of Israel. I will quote from prominent Jewish historian Philip Mendes who has written, concerning the Jewish Council to combat fascism and anti-Semitism, an organisation in which both my parents were active members:

“As early as 1945, the Jewish Council expressed its support for a Jewish national home in Palestine. A pamphlet by Evelyn Rothfield, the information officer of the Jewish Council, called for free Jewish immigration into Palestine, and the establishment of a Jewish Commonwealth. A further pamphlet issued by the Council in March 1947 titled Whither Palestine was issued with a supportive foreword by the Victorian Attorney General William Slater. This pamphlet firmly attacked the British White Paper on immigration, defended the right of the large number of homeless and displaced Jews to enter Palestine, and attributed Arab-Jewish conflict to the malign influence of exploitative Arab landowners, and the extremist Mufti of Jerusalem who had collaborated with the Nazis. The pamphlet called for Arab-Jewish friendship and cooperation in an independent Palestine.

The Council also distributed 25,000 copies of a pro-Israel pamphlet, Israel Reborn, in 1948. The pamphlet argued that the only Arabs who opposed partition were the feudal landlords and chieftains from surrounding countries who ‘fear the progress and enlightenment which the Jews have brought to the Middle East’. The Council organised a petition in favour of immediate Australian recognition of Israel.”

Friends I would now like to quote from a section of Israel’s 1948 Declaration of Independence:

“The State of Israel will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.”

I would now like to turn specifically to the question of the occupation.
Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister and former Minister for Defence, addressed a security conference in Herzliya last November. Barak spoke for 30 minutes but I have managed to condense this to just under 2 minutes to get the essential point about Israel’s security.

Essentially what Barak said is that in the opinion of 80 – 90% of Israel’s defence and intelligence establishment, Israel would be better able to defend itself from the recognised international borders rather than the current borders.

Late last November Colonel Shaul Arieli was in Australia as guest of the New Israel Fund. Colonel Arieli was head of the Interim Agreement Administration under the Rabin government, and head of the Peace Administration in the Barak Government.

One of Colonel Arieli’s interesting observations was regarding projections of the population of Israel and Palestine combined ( i.e. the territory sometimes referred to as the Land of Israel being all the land from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River ( see map and note that the Mediterranean is to the left of Israel and the Jordan river is the vertical line in bold. Note that the bulge to the left of the Jordan river is the occupied West Bank.)

The projections indicate that by 2050 the proportion of the population which is Jewish will be one third only. Colonel Arieli goes on to make the point that the land of Israel will be neither Zionist or democratic.

I decided to investigate this scenario more deeply and came across the following table:

Population of Israel and Palestine (from the Mediteranean to the Jordan river) 

Percentage predicted to be Jewish in 2050

Fertility  rate assumption	Percentage
High	28
Medium	37
Low	47.5

Source: Israel National  Security Project and Professor Sergio Della Pergola

Professor Pergola is Israel’s top demographer.
The proportion of the population expected to be Jewish depends on assumptions of fertility but under all assumptions the proportion will be less than 50%. This backs up Col Shaul Arieli’s assertion that Israel will be neither Zionist nor democratic. Not Zionist because Jews will be in a minority and not democratic because Palestinians in the occupied territories do not have the vote.

So we can now confidently assert that not only is the occupation contrary to Israel’s defence interests but that the occupation is also contrary to the dreams of the founders of modern Zionism that one day there would be a state which could serve as a sanctuary for Jews world wide who had nowhere else to go. That dream can only be fulfilled if Israel recognises the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and agrees to a 2 state solution.

Thank you!

Robin's 80th Birthday Speech, Part 3 Refugee policy

Prior to last year’s ALP National Conference I was interviewed on ABC News 24 by Jane Norman

Here is a video of the interview. 

You may note that I predicted that the motion against turn backs would go through but that I was wrong, it was not carried. And the reason it was not carried, according to inside sources , is that the CFMEU which has 20 votes, did a deal with Bill Shorten that they would vote against the motion in return for the support of the Parliamentary Party on the issue of the China free trade agreement.

This was of course disappointing but even more disappointing for Labor for Refugees was the refusal of the National Left to endorse our policy of closing down the detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island. The opposition of the Left to this proposal meant that it was not even raised on the floor of Conference.

So all in all it was a very disappointing conference. But there were a few positive initiatives and I shall mention just one of these.

Late last April I flew to London to attend the wedding of my daughter Deborah. Because National Conference was only a few months away I asked Pauline Brown to act for me as National Co-convener of Labor for Refugees and she did a splendid job.



On the plane I read the book by Professor of Law Jane McAdam entitled Why seeking asylum is legal and Australia’s policies are not.

Then in chapter 10 of this book I came across the following:

“One of the main obstacles to the fulfilment of human rights in practice is translating them from International obligations into domestic law. In Australia these international obligations need to be formally adopted into national law before they are enforceable. Hence, international human rights obligations are only justiciable ( i.e. capable of being decided by a court in Australia) to the extent that they are reflected in national law.”

I emailed my colleagues in Labor for Refugees on the desirability of raising this issue at National Conference and it was agreed we do so.

As a result we have the following addition to paragraph 36 of chapter 9 of the ALP National Platform:

Labor will adhere to Australia’s international human rights obligations and will seek to have them incorporated into the domestic law of Australia and taken into account in administrative decision-making and whenever new laws and policies are developed. 

Friends, those who hysterically point to Australia at one time in recent history having had to cope with 50,000 asylum seekers in a year (but the maximum number was actually 25,173 in 2012/13) should consider the case of Germany which last year took in 1.25 million asylum seekers or 1.5% of their population of 80 million. If Australia took in 1.5% of its population of 24 million that would amount to 360,000. Australia as an island can never expect to face the problem of a mass influx of people as experienced in Europe.

There are those who argue that we must solve our own problems in Australia before helping refugees arriving from outside our borders. But if this attitude were adopted to the letter we could be cutting of all foreign aid. But Australia as a wealthy country has an obligation to help the less fortunate members of the international community.

Let’s consider one particular social problem in Australia which has been in the news lately, that of homelessness. It is a huge shame that in a wealthy country like ours that we have failed to solve the problem of homelessness.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the number of homeless people in 2011 was 105,000.
And the number of occupied private dwellings was 8,182, 000.
That means that for every homeless person we had 78 occupied private dwellings

It should not be beyond the imagination and capability of the community to devise a scheme for the accommodation of every homeless person in a dwelling. 

The scheme could include but not be restricted to taking in a homeless person under one’s own roof for a period of time. But there could also be an alternative option of a contribution towards the payment of rent.

Robin's 80th Birthday Speech, Part 2

Friends, you may be asking me, OK you have told us about the property you enjoy in Fairfield, but what have you done to show for yourself over the last 10 years?

My first reaction to such a question would be to point to the 3 publications I have been responsible for, jointly with Labor for Refugees in the case of the two of them.

These publications are:

• Firstly, Challenges facing Israel at 60, a booklet which I wrote in 2008 after going to Israel in 2007 for my niece Ilana’s wedding. During the trip I visited a number of grantees of the New Israel Fund, an organisation to which the family has been a contributor. 
• Secondly, Alternatives to Offshore Processing, a book published in 2013 jointly with Labor for Refugees, and 
• Thirdly, The Drownings’ Argument, published in 2014 also jointly with Labor for Refugees. 

The first of these publications, Challenges facing Israel at 60, has a foreword written by Barry Jones. The second, Alternatives to Offshore Processing, has a foreword written by Malcolm Fraser who also sent me a letter of congratulations on its publication.

And for the third, The Drownings’ Argument, I received a letter of appreciation from Professor Gillian Triggs, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Before I go any further I should acknowledge that a very good friend of mine told me after my 70th birthday celebration that there was too much politics. Now the word ‘politics’ can have different meanings. It can refer to grubby back yard deals aimed at getting certain people elected to parliament. Or it can refer to the struggle to achieve basic rights for everyone, including especially the least privileged members of society.

The rights which I as a member of Labor for Refugees have been struggling for are often termed human rights. And if the struggle for human rights is political, then yes I am engaged in the discussion of politics.

Now friends, imagine that you came to this celebration and there was food, drink, a band, singing and dancing, but no speech about politics or human rights. You might say what a great party! But there would be one problem. It would not be a party hosted by Robin Rothfield!

Given my family background, it would be difficult to imagine me being a non-political person. My father joined the Labor Party in 1941 and was a member until he passed away in 2010 and my mother was a member for most of this time. And my father had me letter-boxing for Labor in the 1946 federal election when I was 10 years of age. And Norman and Evelyn were both active in the Jewish community.

But their political activity started in the UK as members of the Hampstead Constituency Labour Party in the 1930s and at one time my mother was Secretary. Norman was fond of telling the story that before he proposed to Evelyn he asked her if she was a Socialist. Many of you will be aware of Norman’s political activism but not so many will have heard of Evelyn’s. In the Hampstead Constituency Labour Party there were, as in normal Labour Party politics, two factions, the Left and the Right. Evelyn’s younger brother Edmund usually voted with the Left as did Evelyn. But Edmund had a mind of his own and on one memorable occasion Edmund voted with the Right. Evelyn was furious and as they were leaving the meeting she laid down the law to Edmund with the following instruction: “When you see my hand go up, you raise your hand also!” This was probably the start of Edmund’s move to the right and he went on in later years to become the Secretary of State for Trade in the government of Harold Wilson.

So friends with that background I hope you will understand why politics is part of my DNA. But in recognition of the concerns expressed by my dear friend after my speech made 10 years ago, I have decided this time not to invite any other speaker apart from my brother David who has opened the proceedings.

As most of you will be aware, my main activity is working as a member of Labor for Refugees to bring about a more humane refugee policy within the Labor Party. And I will now advance 4 reasons why I believe that all of us here need to think about helping to bring about substantial change in Australia’s attitude towards refugees:

• We are very privileged. Firstly we are privileged to live in Australia. Secondly we are privileged, within the privileged because we live in metropolitan areas which have good access to infrastructure such as education, health and transport facilities. And thirdly we are privileged within the privileged, within the privileged because we all have beds to go to tonight and we know where our next meal is coming from. 
• Secondly, as Edmund Burke, prominent statesman of the 18th century said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” 
• Thirdly, and this applies particularly to those of us who are Jewish, we remember the injunction which appears 36 times in the Torah: Do not oppress the stranger, for you yourselves were strangers in the Land of Egypt. Now there are some who say, we cannot let in more refugees because most of them are Moslems. To those who think like that let us remember the Evian Conference in 1938, called to discuss the issue of increasing numbers of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution, Australia’s Minister for Trade and Custom, Thomas White, said: “It will no doubt be appreciated also that as we have no real racial problem we are not desirous of importing one by encouraging any scheme of large-scale foreign migration.” Now the response I have received when relaying this piece of pre-war history is that Jews unlike Moslems are not terrorists. Well friends, so Jews unlike Moslems are incapable of becoming terrorists according to this assertion. Well let’s look into this claim more closely. People resort to terror when they are desperate and when they feel they have no choice. A small number of Moslems have resorted to terror but so have a small number of Jews when the circumstances creating terror have been present. Consider Palestine under the British mandate in 1946 when members of the far right group Irgun Zvai Leumi felt desperate at the behaviour of the British Mandatory authorities of Palestine and so bombed the King David Hotel killing 91 people. There have been several other acts of Jewish terrorism in the years since but I don’t think I need to detail them here. 
• Finally, I would argue that it is in the interests of self-preservation to keep in touch with and discuss what is going on in the country we live in and the world around us. At a time in Germany when it was still possible to leave, many Jews failed to take the opportunity available to them. There is the classical case of the woman who said: “ I can’t leave Germany. I have tickets for the Burger Theatre on Saturday.”

But some will argue that political action is pointless because we can’t change anything.
So I will give just three examples of where political action has led to major reforms:

Firstly, the abolition of slavery. The anti-slavery movement began in 1783 and in 1833 the Slavery Abolition Act passed through the UK parliament, the effect of which was to abolish slavery in the British Empire.

Secondly the end of apartheid in South Africa. The anti-apartheid movement began in London in 1959 as a consumer boycott movement followed in 1961 by South Africa’s expulsion from the Commonwealth and in 1970 by South Africa’s expulsion from the Olympics. Apartheid in South Africa ended in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first black president.

And thirdly the right of women to vote which has been a critical part of the struggle for the rights of women generally. Some of you may have seen the film SUFFRAGETTE which shows the struggle for the right to vote in the 1900s leading to women having the right to vote in the UK in 1928. Interestingly, women in Australia got this right much earlier.

Emily
Emily G is a nurse at the Alfred Hospital and last February she was house-sitting in the unit below and came upstairs to cook. I was watching the news but her focus was on the stove. But then suddenly on the news there was talk of the babies from Nauru. Emily left the stove to come and watch. We got talking and one thing led to another and I ended up handing over to her the 2 books on refugee policy for her to read at her leisure.

Next day when I went for a swim I saw Emily lying on the banana lounge. And she was reading this book, The Drownings’ Argument. I found that very gratifying.

Robin's 80th Birthday Speech Part 1: Welcome and property

Thank you David and I would first like to pay my respects to the elders of the Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung people who are the traditional owners of the land on which we now stand.

Thank you everyone for coming and for making this occasion special for me. In particular I must thank those who have come from overseas and interstate. – my daughter Deborah who has come from London, and Nizza and Max Siano who have come from Sydney. I thank also Mim Bergman who made a special trip back from Canberra to be here tonight.

I congratulate Lillian Klein whose 73rd birthday is today and Val Campbell whose 74th birthday will be tomorrow.

Regrettably my son-in- law Wayne, Deborah’s husband, cannot be with us due to work commitments. Since Wayne is not here I can relate the story of his career without making Wayne blush. Wayne started his early career in the Royal Navy and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. What is the significance of that rank you may ask? Well the significance for the family is that during the war my uncle Sidney joined the Navy and he also rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander!

Wayne was in Melbourne on business some months before the wedding and when he came over I seized the opportunity to check out his standard of tennis. I am pleased to say that Wayne performed admirably. Here is a wedding photo of Deborah and Wayne.

Friends, I had hoped to host this event on the property at home in Fairfield, but regrettably that was not to be. So instead I have this video of the property to show you.

My mother had enormous vision in deciding to move here from Caulfield in 1952 because this was an industrial suburb at the time with smoke billowing out of the paper mill and because we were moving in the opposite direction to that of the general movement within the Jewish community. There were occasional comments that Fairfield was in the sticks, but over the years there has been a perceptible difference in the way people speak about this suburb. I will now show you the video.

My mother had many good qualities but she also had some upsetting qualities. At my daughter Deborah's 21st birthday party I was immensely embarrassed to learn the next day that when a male guest came to use the downstairs toilet in the house, if it was for number one only my mother told him to do it behind a tree! So when in later years I became the owner of the property one of the renovations I had done was to build a changing room with all facilities next to the pool.

People often remind me of events held at home in Fairfield in years gone by. And I frequently get admiring comments on the property from tradesmen, delivery persons and taxi drivers. And when an ABC cameraman came last year to record an interview for ABC News 24 he remarked that this was a wonderful spot. You will see the video later. 

In the late 1990s I was on the executive of the Northcote ALP and a few of our meetings were held at the treehouse. After one such meeting, fellow member Annette remarked: “I now have to go back to suburbia!”

Now as you might imagine this property together with the swimming pool, spa and tennis court requires enormous upkeep. And that in turn requires considerable practical skills which I don’t have. So the question I have often pondered on is why my father chose to leave this amazing property to me.

There was one incident of the kittens which Norman related to me in later years. What happened was that Norman discovered some kittens in my cupboard, but when he questioned me about these kittens my response was “I didn’t put them there, I don’t know anything about them, they have got nothing to do with me!” A few years later I was working as a bricklayer’s labourer during the vacation between school and university. My job was to scrape used bricks so they could be used again. At the end of the day I saw the foreman doing some calculations. The foreman then paid me off and said they won’t need me anymore. That night when I told Mum and Pop what had happened, Pop remarked: The foreman obviously calculated that it would be cheaper to buy new bricks than to pay you to scrape used bricks. Pop then burst out into uncontrollable laugher, so much so that my mother got quite worried!

A few days later I got a job as a builder’s labourer. Jobs were easy to come by in those days.

My mother also had concerns that I had blinkers over my eyes. And that appears not to have changed over the years because my daughter Yael on a recent visit told me that I could not see the cockroaches in the cupboard even though they were only 30 centimetres away from me. I am sometimes asked if snakes come onto the property and my reply is that I myself have never seen any snakes on the property or on the adjacent river bank but that others have reported seeing them. What I can however inform people is that in recent years the average number of deaths due to snakebite in Australia is about 2 per year. Compare this with the average number of deaths due to car accidents which is about 1300 per year averaged over the 5 years ending in 2013.

We also have bee hives just south of the swimming pool. The proximity of the property to the flora along the Yarra makes this an ideal place for bees to rebuild their populations which are under threat world wide at this time.

Friends, the property would be impossible for me to run on my own but I was fortunate to inherit the services of Trish and Ginny to do that for me. And here is a photo of Ginny and Trish with their 2 boys Rory and Gus.

In my young adult days I was totally unaware of the notion of 2 women being in a relationship and having children. I was not even aware of the L word. But here you have Trish and Ginny on their own having produced 2 boys. That turns traditional notions of the role of 2 sexes to produce a child on its head, does it not? Here friends is the clear evidence of 2 females being sufficient to produce offspring! Does anyone want to query the evidence here in front of you?

I would now like to introduce you to Charles and Wilma Cameron who lived and looked after the property for 17 years, together with their daughter Emily who grew up here from the age of 15 months.

One of the unfortunate aspects of this property is the heavy underutilisation of the tennis court and swimming pool. Given the health and therapeutic advantages of swimming, especially for those of us in their advanced years with bodily aches and pains, it has always surprised me why more people don’t take the opportunity to get in the pool and swim laps. The pool is 15 yards in length, longer than most backyard pools. When Pop was contemplating the construction of the pool in the early 70s, Jonathan insisted that the pool be long enough so that he would not bump his head when swimming laps!

And with the swimming pool it is amazing the number of excuses I have been given, including pool not clean enough, too much chlorine, too cold, too hot, too many leaves, worries about the ants, and worries about the bees and and I don’t want my hair to get wet! Have people not heard of bathing caps? But my favourite excuse is not having a bathing costume!

My mother and father, when they got to their 80s, would take a dip in the pool in their birthday suits. So it occurred to me that wearing a bathing costume is perhaps not so critical to having a swim. Accordingly I decided at my housewarming party to demonstrate that a bathing costume is actually not essential to having a swim, as you will now see. You may note that I had Maurice, who is a cardiologist, on standby in case anyone had palpitations over getting one’s hair wet.

Friends, a few of my guests who are in their 70s have told me that they don’t want to be reminded that they are approaching 80 and have asked if I have any suggestion as to what can be done to delay the ageing process. My own solution is to engage in fitness activity including tennis which is something I very much enjoy. But there is a problem for me and name of the problem is Wingate.

Here is Michael Wingate.

Because I am by nature a competitive fellow it frustrates me that even when I am playing well it is enormously difficult to win a point against Michael because he is so fast on the court and gets everything back. Now the secret to Michael’s fitness is that he takes part in Israeli folk dancing 5 times a week. I have appealed to Michael that instead of going to Israeli folk dancing 5 times a week that he take up bridge or chess 2 or 3 times a week and reduce the folk dancing accordingly but Michael has responded that he has a partner for each dancing session and doesn’t want to let his partner down.

Michael has his favourite partner here tonight so I shall try and talk to her later.

So those of you like me who have to face the Wingate factor week by week it is a case of no rest for the wicked and here is one example of the fitness training I go through.

Now those of you who are in your 70s and wondering if you need to go through this routine, my answer is that it all depends on whether there is a Wingate in your life. If there is no Wingate in your life then you don’t need to bother.

However I have had to come to the harsh realisation that there is a limit to what I can do about fitness and my best strategy is to make my shots so powerful that the point is over in one or two strokes.