Cotton Ward

SCENE: N, K and T are feasting on vegan soup when C arrives. There’s an amazing fluoro artwork on the wall by a bloke who decorated the Kit Kat Club in Berlin. N’s three flatmates are sitting nearby in the living room.

“Let’s not do two days. I don’t have the energy.
“I’d never thought it was two days – only a night.”
“Three of us work full-time.” I can’t get any extra time off work.”
“That clashes with Biversity.”
“Is that any good?”
“Yeah, really friendly.”
“We could put some sofas around and they can recover.”
“Dunno if I can make it then – some of us might go to Queeruption in Berlin.”
“That’s two weeks after the State of Emergency gig.”

“Which day is easter egg day? I’ve got a two-year-old.”
“On Sunday!”
“I didn’t know that.”
“No, that he had a two-year-old.”

[Pointing to a can of Coke]: “That’s the product of the evil corporate machine!”
“I’m tired.”
“Can I have one?”
“Yeah, but it’s at room temperature. I’ll get some ice.”
“Dunno if I’m going to Berlin – it depends on my mental health.”
“There’s nothing a couple of Coca Colas and a stint in a mental hospital can’t fix.”

“Can we get films reflecting different sexualities and agendas? We need a political film, an activist film and a fluffy film.”
“There’s a good film about intersex people who are campaigning for unisex toilets.”
“But it’s quite expensive.”
“It’s free if you’re a worthy group.”
“We’ve got more chance of getting the film free if we have proof of campaigning for unisex toilets.”
“I hate unisex toilets.”

“We could send them pix of us out the front of the unisex toilets at Home and the Civic.”

“I hate Home – you can’t get near a mirror cos all the guys are reapplying their foundation.”

“Did you see The L-Word last nite? It’s rubbish. Nobody’s like that.
“They had a bunch of lesbians talking about bush confidence!
“It’d be good to do a sendup skit with some butch dykes saying: `I’m really worried about bush confidence’ in a totally non-worried way. You wouldn’t even have to change the script.”
“I like Sex and the City. Especially when I’m stoned.”

“Performance – open mike – that’s easy to organise. Publicity, legal info. Food. Art. Discussion ideas. OK – we’ll take two tasks each and report back.”

“We need more members. Can we get those girls who came last week – I’d like to suck them in.” “Not suck them in! Attract them!”
“Help, I’m stuck to my chair! I can’t move! Queeruption has captured me!”

“Are you going to recycle those Coke cans?”

“Yeah, put them there and the recycling fairy will take them away.”

“We’ll send out a wish list. People will plug in when they see it.”
“I’ll check out the buildings. Maybe that cake shop.
“What if the cops catch us painting the walls?”
“If the paint’s fresh and they find the materials we’ve had it.

“Wait, I’ll see you to the front door.”
“Why? Are you going to kiss us goodnite?”
“No, he’s going to fuck us goodnite.”
“Well make it quick. I’ve gotta go.”
“We’re all going in the same direction? We could have brought one car instead of three!”

These two stories I wrote on the same day.

A bit difficult to read, so some excerpts:

Car dealers back Libs’ FBT stance

Federal Opposition leader John Howard addressed more than 400 people who attended the fringe benefits tax protest rally at Denlo Motors, Parramatta, last week.

Plainclothes security guards mingled with the crowd before Mr Howard, who attended the rally 30 minutes late and arrived with a police escort.

Mr Howard said Treasurer Paul Keating had said the Hawke Government brought in the FBT to eliminate rorts and stop the “haemorraghing of revenue”.

“FBT was introduced clumsily and has done enormous damage to the industry, sending it into a deep recession.”

He emphasised the Liberal Party’s proposed abolition of the fringe benefits tax to a cheering audience and attacked Labor Party criticisms of his proposed reduction of $1.5 billion in payments to the States.

CAR DEALERS FACING CRISIS

Parramatta car dealers are facing their worst crisis in 28 years, local dealers claimed at the fringe benefits tax protest rally in Parramatta last week.

Federal Opposition leader John Howard addressed the rally at Denlo Motors.

Mr Howard said, “FBT was introduced clumsily and has done enormous damage to the industry, sending it into a deep recession. The consequences and loss of sales and profitability has been immense.”

Parramatta dealer John Trivett, of Trivett Classic, said, “This is the worst crisis since the Menzies era of the 1960s when people stopped buying cars because of credit restrictions.”

He said Parramatta was the busiest and largest car sales strip in Australia.

He said the smaller dealers on Parramatta Rd were most threatened by the FBT (which was introduced in July 1986) and increased sales tax, but the larger dealers, which were mostly based in Church St, would continue to operate.

“The small dealers are hurt because they don’t have a lot of financial clout. The effect of these taxes will change the face of Parramatta Rd.”

Local dealers claimed they would go out of business if the fringe benefits and current sales taxes continued.

At the rally, a message was read out from Paul Betar, formerly of Betar and Coorey, Parramatta Rd, which closed on May 26 last year, leaving 14 staff unemployed.

Mr Betar had attended the rally last year, and his message said: “The FBT put the boot in when we were down. The bid spending, big taxing Government has destroyed the will to have a go.”

After the interview, I joined him for lunch with 60 business people. I was seated at his table, opposite Pixie – who was wearing a diamond-encrusted ring in the shape of the letter “P”. Skase was wearing a tie that featured criss-crossed tennis racquets.

I wrote the story, below, from the same event, as SEQ was a big regional topic.  I was always reluctant to show these pieces as a sub-editor had automatically added a “u” to Qintex.  Most embarrassing – the sub-editing was done in the evenings, as it as a daily newspaper, and noone checked with me. Argh!

By 1989 Skase’s TV and tourist industry companies had collapsed, $1billion in debt. He started moving money offshore in July 1989, planning his escape.