Phil Cleary for Brunswick

Phil has spent his whole life in Coburg and Brunswick, was a premiership winning player and coach with Coburg and is a former federal member for the area. He has had three books published.

May11

A Real Republic or Malcolm’s Jingoism?

Everyone knows that the ARM model was defeated in the 1999 referendum because it excluded the people. ARM supporters cheered when Malcolm Turnbull flew the nationalist flag in Sydney on Friday 10 May. Surely republicans such as Andrew Denton know that the people want more than symbolism. Surely they know that an elected president - without executive power - is what the people want. If that person had the power to make some key appointments to the body politic, wouldn’t that capture the imagination of voters? Wouldn’t that enhance democracy?

Up the Republic Malcolm Turnbull was witty and charming as he rewrote history at a republican dinner in Sydney on Friday 10 May. It was a fear campaign that sunk the republic on offer in 1999, he said. Actors Bryan Brown, Rachel Ward, Sam Neil, and Andrew Denton were among those in attendance.  Unfortunately Turnbull has learnt nothing and remains the republic’s biggest problem. Identity, symbolism and the right of every Australian to become an Australian Head of State; it was the same old jingoism. The idea that Australians want a president who might play a role in political reform is lost on Turnbull and his Sydney mob. Not once did he acknowledge that the model on offer and the jingoism of 1999 failed to capture our imagination and that he had misread the mood of the people. We shouldn’t forget he is part of a reactionary Abbott team that looks like forming the next federal government.  

Up the Republic

Malcolm Turnbull was witty and charming as he rewrote history at a republican dinner in Sydney on Friday 10 May. It was a fear campaign that sunk the republic on offer in 1999, he said. Actors Bryan Brown, Rachel Ward, Sam Neil, and Andrew Denton were among those in attendance.  Unfortunately Turnbull has learnt nothing and remains the republic’s biggest problem. Identity, symbolism and the right of every Australian to become an Australian Head of State; it was the same old jingoism. The idea that Australians want a president who might play a role in political reform is lost on Turnbull and his Sydney mob. Not once did he acknowledge that the model on offer and the jingoism of 1999 failed to capture our imagination and that he had misread the mood of the people. We shouldn’t forget he is part of a reactionary Abbott team that looks like forming the next federal government.  

Apr10

Remembering Thatcher Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams captured the legacy of Margaret Thatcher when he said ‘Working class communities were devastated in Britain because of her policies.’ She did not savage the rich or powerful. It takes little courage to do what she did. Meeting Adams on the Falls Road in Belfast in 1994 was a memorable moment. I’ll save that thought for when next an AFL ‘star’ says he doesn’t have time to talk, during an ABC televised VFL match!  

Remembering Thatcher

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams captured the legacy of Margaret Thatcher when he said ‘Working class communities were devastated in Britain because of her policies.’ She did not savage the rich or powerful. It takes little courage to do what she did. Meeting Adams on the Falls Road in Belfast in 1994 was a memorable moment. I’ll save that thought for when next an AFL ‘star’ says he doesn’t have time to talk, during an ABC televised VFL match!  

1 notes

Mar26

Mar25

Andy Irvine and Paul Brady in Brunswick It was one of those classics, in an old picture theatre - The Estonian - where young Brunswick couples like my own mum and dad dreamed of life and love in the late ’40s. Two of the greats of traditional music who’ve adapted to modernity. Working class anthems, alluring ballads and words with a razor sharp  political edge. What a night!

Andy Irvine and Paul Brady in Brunswick

It was one of those classics, in an old picture theatre - The Estonian - where young Brunswick couples like my own mum and dad dreamed of life and love in the late ’40s. Two of the greats of traditional music who’ve adapted to modernity. Working class anthems, alluring ballads and words with a razor sharp  political edge. What a night!

Mar13

Jill Meagher’s killer walks an old path

It’s impossible to ignore the similarities in the explanations offered by men who kill women. ’What have I done?’ Adrian Bayley told police in the aftermath of raping and strangling Jill Meagher in September 2012. Peter Keogh (my sister’s killer) used the same words, allegedly, when collected by a female friend after stabbing my sister to death on 26 August 1987.

‘She flipped me off and that made me angry, because I was actually trying to do a nice thing…I didn’t take well to her response, you know. I just don’t wanna go through it in detail.’

‘I lost it,’ said Keogh, as a consequence of my sister (Vicki) allegedly telling him to fuck off or piss off when he confronted her only a short distance from where Jill Meagher was killed. Vicki was parking her car for work, three months after ending the relationship.

Saying no to a relationship or to an unwanted suitor can be dangerous for a woman.  Keogh was found not guilty of murder.

Feb25

Just another little murder

My 2001 book about the 1987 murder of my sister, Vicki, is titled ‘Just another little murder’ for good reason. The killing of the woman in a man’s life is never treated as seriously as other acts of violence. That’s why Oscar Pistorius is out on bail despite being charged with the murder of his girlfriend. As that Professor Rachel Jewkes, director of gender and health research unit at the South African Medical Research Council, said: ‘This sends exactly the opposite message to what we want. It shows that the courts do not take gender violence seriously, especially in a situation as extreme as this. It’s a symptom of a problem we have in South Africa.’

I’d only add that it’s symptomatic of a worldwide problem. 

Jan19

Burying Ned in Greta  It will pay government to give those people suffering innocence, justice and liberty Jerilderie Letter At last Ned Kelly will be back with his loyal cousin Tom Lloyd in Greta. Ned did kill three troopers at Stringybark Creek but if you’re in doubt about his view of the world the Jerilderie Letter is a must read. The Letter, a sometimes rambling diatribe spiced with brilliant political asides is a work of art. Against the Kellys was a sanctimonious judge, Redmond Barry, so constrained by the tenets of bourgeois society he couldn’t publicly acknowledge the mother of his children. His private life was a metaphor for the hypocrisy of the broader political world against which Kelly aimed his gun and his words. What happened around Greta in the late 1870s was a version of a civil war between the Kelly gang and authorities. Had Kelly been a man of letters one suspects the Left might have embraced him much earlier. 

Burying Ned in Greta 

It will pay government to give those people suffering innocence, justice and liberty

Jerilderie Letter


At last Ned Kelly will be back with his loyal cousin Tom Lloyd in Greta. Ned did kill three troopers at Stringybark Creek but if you’re in doubt about his view of the world the Jerilderie Letter is a must read. The Letter, a sometimes rambling diatribe spiced with brilliant political asides is a work of art. Against the Kellys was a sanctimonious judge, Redmond Barry, so constrained by the tenets of bourgeois society he couldn’t publicly acknowledge the mother of his children. His private life was a metaphor for the hypocrisy of the broader political world against which Kelly aimed his gun and his words. 

What happened around Greta in the late 1870s was a version of a civil war between the Kelly gang and authorities. Had Kelly been a man of letters one suspects the Left might have embraced him much earlier. 

Jan18

Helen Spowart defends Adrian Bailey’s Rights

We read today in the media that ‘An application by defence lawyer Helen Spowart for an extension of a suppression order preventing the publication of any damaging material related to Adrian Bayley was granted and also applied to a previous name he has used, Adrian Earnest Edwards.’

This is entirely appropriate, as an alleged killer should not be prejudged in the media or blamed for something he hasn’t done. We trust Jill isn’t about to be blamed for being murdered, as so many women, my sister included in 1989, are!



Dec9

Another Woman Dead

Yes, George Hampel was the judge who granted Peter Keogh a provocation defence after stabbing our sister Vicki to death in 1987.

Yes, he did send him to gaol for three years and eleven months in February 1989.

Yes I was highly critical of the provocation ruling and the sentence.

Yes, I have read the article in the Age today about his son Antony’s girlfriend’s death in 2010.

Yes, reading the article today I understand why the family wants an inquest, which of course in no way reflects on Antony. The loss of a child, as I saw with my Mum, is a catastrophic event for a mother, so it’s understandable Phoebe’s mother Natalie wants to find out if there was foul play by a third party.  

1 notes

Shane Howard is a great Australian. Last night, 8 December 2012 at the Forum, he was truly brilliant as the north west of Australia formed the backdrop to his love of indigenous Austraila. He is one of the few Australian artists who brings the political imperative alive with his music.  And like his Irish ancestors, he loves nothing better that singing with his daughter only an arms length away. As coincidence would have it, the Clearys of the Galtees lived alongside a family of Howards. Not his direct mob - who come from Silvermines in Nth Tipperary - but probably distant clan relatives. 

Shane Howard is a great Australian. Last night, 8 December 2012 at the Forum, he was truly brilliant as the north west of Australia formed the backdrop to his love of indigenous Austraila. He is one of the few Australian artists who brings the political imperative alive with his music.  And like his Irish ancestors, he loves nothing better that singing with his daughter only an arms length away. As coincidence would have it, the Clearys of the Galtees lived alongside a family of Howards. Not his direct mob - who come from Silvermines in Nth Tipperary - but probably distant clan relatives. 

Nov27

Digging up Ned Kelly I love wandering through old cemeteries and historic sites. So on the way home from the 2012 White Ribbon Day gathering at Yarrawonga Football Club, how could I resist a visit to Greta, the last home of bushranger Ned Kelly? A conversation with Kelly historian Ian Jones led me to the site of the old town. This photo shows roughly where O’Brien’s pub stood, on the right of the road. Ned had a major confrontation with Constable Hall in front of the police barracks here in 1871. It took a cluster of them to bring him down! 

Digging up Ned Kelly

I love wandering through old cemeteries and historic sites. So on the way home from the 2012 White Ribbon Day gathering at Yarrawonga Football Club, how could I resist a visit to Greta, the last home of bushranger Ned Kelly? A conversation with Kelly historian Ian Jones led me to the site of the old town. This photo shows roughly where O’Brien’s pub stood, on the right of the road. Ned had a major confrontation with Constable Hall in front of the police barracks here in 1871. It took a cluster of them to bring him down! 

Nov7

Nov6

Provocation; Brutalising women with words and pictures

In 1987 Christine Boyce was shot dead by her estranged husband, Kevin Crowe, in front of her two children. It culminated in one of the most astounding arguments by a defence barrister, Bob Kent, who sought to have an album of nude photos of Christine admitted in evidence, to be viewed by the jury.  He won the debate by way of this argument:

We would submit it is a proper and valid argument to say it is relevant to know that the person who is deceased in this case was an attractive woman both in face and body and was in fact the wife of the accused man.  And that in those circumstances a juror might say, ‘an ordinary man in this man’s situation may well have acted, lost control and acted in that way [the photos show] she is somebody whom we could understand him having a great passion for.

 Crowe was found not guilty of murder and did about four years in gaol. Is that your idea of justice?