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Mark - Breakfast E.P. …

Congratulations to John O’Sullivan.

He’s the winner of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science for 2009, which was announced last night by Kevin Rudd at a ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra.

Until last night, you’d probably never heard of him - but odds-on you, or a member of your family, is using or has used the wireless technology for computers developed by John O’Sullivan and a team at the CSIRO.

In fact, it’s estimated that nearly a billion people every day use the patented WiFi technology developed by O’Sullivan and his colleagues, which makes wireless LAN systems fast and robust.

John O’Sullivan’s discovery is particularly interesting, because it goes to the heart of the old argument about whether taxpayers (through government institutions, like universities and research bodies) should fund so called “pure” or “blue-sky” research, or only fund specific industry-linked science which would initially appear to have a greater commerical appeal.

His great breakthrough resulted not from working in the IT area, but in fact in the seemingly unrelated area of astronomy.

Using a set of mathematical equations known as Fourier transforms, O’Sullivan developed technology designed to filter out much of the cosmic “noise” and distortion produced by the earth’s atmosphere when observing distant galaxies.

Years later, when CSIRO was looking to commercialise some of it’s research in the area of radio physics, John O’Sullivan and his colleagues realised that their expertise in trying to “clean” up images and radio signals from the furthest reaches of space could be put to other uses.

“We realised that our skills with antennas, signal processing, and radio design might allow us to cut the network cable that linked every office computer,” he says.

Their work eventually led to a computer chip incorporating their technology — a chip that lies at the heart of the LAN wireless connections of most laptops.

So far, their invention has meant nearly $200 million in royalty payments for the CSIRO, with more licencing agreements expected to be struck soon.

CSIRO’s head, Dr. Megan Clark, told ABC Radio’s Monica Attard this week that the windfall will all be invested back into research:

“We’re looking at really sort of four or five key areas. Particularly long term research. You know, you’ve seen it took 15 years. Our wireless LANs started in space research. Making sure we reinvest in those sort of opportunities that sometimes need nurturing. We’ll be looking at scholarship areas as we’ve done with the first announcement of 30 new scholarships. Certainly our partnership with Macquarie (University), a new chair at Macquarie - new infrastructure that has a national significance. So we’ll be looking at some key areas. So the national challenges, new frontiers, infrastructure, scholarships and really reinvesting back into areas that might produce the next one.”

Maybe “blue sky” research isn’t so “pie-in-the-sky” after all.

Marius - Politics: …

One of the more engaging recurring scenes in our great democratic pageant is, or are, “the doors.”

This is the scene played out each morning that federal parliament sits, which gives MP’s arriving at the doors of Parliament House their chance to get their eight seconds in the media sunlight.

Doing the “doors” is one of the daily tasks of press gallery journalists. Lying in wait in the expectation of another dissident spray from Wilson Tuckey, or Barnaby Joyce - red faced and dripping sweat in a torn footy jersey - adding some new strain to Coalition relations.

A recent contribution came from Tony Abbott, always a good man with a grab.

With the Government battling to find some way to find at least a temporary resting place for the 78 asylum seekers on board the Australian customs ship, the Oceanic Viking, various Opposition members were volunteering compelling metaphorical links between the ship adrift in northern waters and the Government’s refugee policy. But Tony Abbott narrowed it down.

The Oceanic Viking, he said, was like the “Maria Celeste.” A quick Google before he hit the doors would have reminded him that he meant the Marie Celeste. (In fact, Google says the ship in question was named the Mary Celeste, but popular mis-use has it as Marie.)

But the striking characteristic of the Marie/Marie Celeste when it was found drifting in the Atlantic in 1872 was that, far from being crowded with refugees or anyone else, it was deserted. Sailing in clear weather, in full sail, but nobody - not a soul - on board.

The Marie Celeste is a great, mysterious image, but a more compelling parallel in history with the Oceanic Viking, as it wanders from port to port in search of someone who will take its human cargo, is the St Louis.

In May, 1939 the St Louis sailed from Hamburg for Cuba. On board were more than 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler’s Germany.

They reached Cuba safely, but were refused entry. They were then bounced around the world. The United States would not let them in and tried to pressure Cuba to review it’s rejection. Finally about two thirds, more than 600, of the passengers were returned to Europe.

Of those, it’s estimated nearly half ended up back in the hands of the Nazi regime they had been fleeing and were murdered in the death camps.

Today, those refugees on the St Louis look out at us distantly from monochrome images, nervous smiles framed by the ship’s portholes.

How could those men women and children be sent back to Hitler’s genocide?

Compassion has always been in limited supply around the world, whether it’s 1939 or 2009.

Mark - Breakfast E.P. …

A minor correction to my piece about Radio Australia yesterday.

I got some of my audience figures a bit mixed up.

Radio Australia has about half a million regular listeners in Indonesia and it’s estimated about 2 million listeners overall.

Thanks to John Westland - RA’s Rebroadcasts Manager - for pointing out my error.

Westie’s an old mate of mine who’s been part of RA for years.

He’s been doing plenty of digging into the archives for the 70th anniversary celebrations and even he’s been surprised at what he’s found out about the organisation at which he’s worked for three decades.

For example, why was Sir Robert Menzies always so fond of Radio Australia?

Of course, “Australia Calling” (as RA was originally called) was set up the Menzies Government as Australia’s own wartime propaganda station.

It was officially opened by Sir Robert on the 20th of December 1939 - which also happened to be Ming’s birthday.

So when he turned 80, Menzies agreed to do only one broadcast interview: with Radio Australia.

Old Bob regarded RA as his baby, and always kept it close to his heart…along with Dame Pattie, the Queen, and probably most important of all, the Carlton footy club.

Mark - Breakfast EP: …

When I came into the foyer of the ABC early yesterday morning, I saw a big display to mark Radio Australia’s 70th birthday.

It made me feel rather mortal, as I was working at Radio Australia when it had its 50th birthday celebrations back in 1989.

For those who don’t know, Radio Australia is the ABC’s overseas service.

Bizarrely, it’s one of the success stories of Australian broadcasting that’s better known overseas than at home.

You may have heard us play a short montage during our programs on ABC NewsRadio this week with tributes to “RA”, as it’s affectionately known, from former PNG Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan, Solomon Islands PM Dr. Derek Sikua, and Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith.

“It’s a great part of the ABC and it’s a great face and a great voice of Australia offshore”, says Mr. Smith.

It all started in 1939, as the Menzies Government’s own wartime propaganda mouthpiece “Australia Calling” (at one stage it was shared between the Department of Information and the Orwellian-named Psychological Warfare Section) … but was soon taken over by the ABC and quickly established a reputation for independence, accuracy and unparalleled coverage of the Asia-Pacific region.

Often that fearlessly independent coverage of events got the ABC and the Australian government into hot water.

Authoritarian governments, like the Suharto regime, didn’t appreciate RA broadcasting unsanitised and independent news back into Indonesia in Bahasa…or English, for that matter.

It was one of the reasons the ABC wasn’t allowed to base a correspondent in Jakarta for a decade.

When I was at RA in the late ‘80s, we were still mainly broadcasting via the short-wave technology that had been around since the First World War.

One of the most listened-to programs then was the “Propagation Report” — to the uninitiated listener a strange 5-minute listing of solar activity.

In fact, the number and severity of solar flares on the sun had a direct impact on the quality of RA’s short-wave signal around the world.

It meant footy-starved expats in Europe wouldn’t be able to listen to the news or hear Collingwood versus Carlton at the MCG — like I once did on a bus in France.

Now, as well as short-wave, RA broadcasts through a number of local relays, FM transmitters and cable providers in major Asian and Pacific cities.

It was also one of the first radio stations in the world to take internet broadcasting seriously.

There’s no hard and fast numbers of listeners, but here are some pretty impressive figures.

A five-country survey in the Pacific last year showed that 10-15% of the available radio audience listened to RA at least once a week.

In Vanuatu, where a lot of RA material is re-packaged for local radio, that figure is a stunning 58%.

It’s estimated about 2 million people listen to RA in Indonesia every week.

And when RA started broadcasting English lessons on-air about 20 years ago, they were getting hundreds of thousands of letters every year — particularly from China and Indonesia — asking for the free reading material that came with course.

Audience survey experts have estimated that for every letter received, there’s between 20 and 50 more listeners who either couldn’t be bothered or in many cases can’t afford to send letters to request more information.

It’s an amazing achievement in terms of audience reach for a small unit of the ABC in Melbourne that’s been giving the world an Australian perspective for 70 years.

Marius - politics …

What is it about foreign affairs that brings out the ornate, the elaborate, the circumlocutory in a person?

There is in diplomacy a default setting of excessive formality in dress and address which seems to have a powerful effect on all who exercise the craft.

Australia’s longest serving Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, embodied the culture.

A patrician Adelaide up-bringing, topped up with a stint in Foreign Affairs, provided ideal preparation for the role he chose for himself when he stepped down from his brief, if eye-catching, spell as Liberal leader.

There was something about the Downer manner that gave the sense that he had stepped onto the stage of Canberra straight from the court of Louis XlV.

The Downer curls may not have cascaded across the his shoulders quite as luxuriantly as Louis’s. But the well-turned ankle, clad in hose, that Louis revealed in portraits was perfectly matched in the legendary shot of Downer in fishnets.

And there was a lot in the Downer manner that suggested he found many aspects of public life quite wearying, and only bearable when one held a well-perfumed kerchief to one’s nose.

Compared with the baroque manner of the former Foreign Minister, the incumbent - Stephen Smith - seems relatively straightforward. He is the foreign minister from central casting rather than the court of the Sun King.

But there is still something in the job that encourages little verbal flourishes when Mr Smith goes to microphone.

Where a lesser mortal might resort to an ummm, an uhrrrr or a pause the Foreign Minister is more inclined to pepper his remarks with phrases like: “……….in our view…of course….we believe very much…” And dissent is put in the gentlest terms: “Well I’m not sure that’s right….”

They are not the sort of deferential phrases that are necessarily heard from others when they’re busy stacking Labor branches or enforcing factional discipline. But, on the diplomatic circuit, they certainly help to gentle the chat along nicely - and they seem to exercise a seductive appeal for our premier diplomat.

___

Mark - Breakfast E.P. …

Well the Weekend Halftime At the Races team have done it again.

In this blog on Friday, our Racing Editor Helen Thomas predicted the winner of the Cox Plate would come from the trio of Heart of Dreams, Whobegotyou and So You Think.

She was dead right.

Now, after picking the winner of the Caulfield Cup, and narrowing down the top Cox Plate chances, the pressure’s really on.

We’ve locked Helen away until next week, with a year’s worth of form guides, going over all the possible scenarios for the Melbourne Cup, even though the final list of starters still hasn’t been announced.
(Racing Editors’ note: please send chocolate…)

Actually, Weekend Half Time at the Races gave all the racing writers for the major dailies a good flag for this morning.

Leading owner Lloyd Williams told Helen, Scott Wales and Max Presnell about the concerns of a number of trainers and owners about the firmness of race tracks in Melbourne this Spring, after his horse Zipping pulled up sore after its third place run in the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley.

Fourth place-getter El Segundo may not race again, either - although his connections are going to wait to make that decision - and the beaten favourite, Whobegotyou, will be spelled after what sounds like a pretty bone-jarring ride.

“The new track at Flemington drains so well that it doesn’t matter how much water you put on it, it dries out immediately,” was Williams’ ominous warning.
“It is a problem. Maybe Dermot Weld had it right, not bringing his horse (Profound Beauty) out here.”
Yes, it is a problem. Part of the excitement of the Melbourne Cup is that in recent years it has been able to attract top overseas starters, like Weld’s Vintage Crop (the 1993 winner) and Media Puzzle (2002) and the two Japanese horses, Delta Blues and Pop Rock who quinellaed the cup in 2006. Not to mention the odd Godolphin hopeful.
And that excitement has spread.
I’ve been to the area around the Curragh in Ireland where Weld has his stables, and the Melbourne Cup is now a real big deal there.
Vintage Crop even has his own spacious paddock at the Irish National Stud, befitting his status as the horse who claimed the top race Down Under for the Emerald Isle.
It would be a real shame if the race that stops nations only ends up stopping one nation again, because overseas trainers are no longer interested in risking an injury to their hopefuls and keep them at home.
That might be something Racing Victoria and the powers-that-be at Flemington need to think very carefully about.

Mark - Breakfast E.P. …

Thanks to Anna Hipsley for sitting in for Glen Bartholomew as host this week.

A couple of listeners rang in to ask where Glen is.

Actually, he’s in New York, enjoying the benefits of a relatively strong Australian dollar.

Perhaps he should have waited until next March to book his flight.

You may have heard Rob Henderson - Chief Economist, Markets, with National Australia Bank on the show this morning.

Rob and the economics team at the NAB are now predicting that the Aussie dollar will reach 98 US cents by the end of the year and parity with US dollar by next March.

If they’re right, it would be the first time the $A has been at parity with the Greenback since 1982.

Gee, Duran-Duran and Men at Work were at the top of the charts then.

Don Lane was on the box.

And it was the third time in a row that a certain horse called Kingston Town won Australia’s greatest weight-for-age race, the Cox Plate.

That, of course, is a seamless segue to a plug for “Weekend Halftime At The Races” at 10am on Sunday with ABC NewsRadio’s Scott Wales & Helen Thomas and veteran turf-watcher Max Presnell.

Well, Max and Helen both tipped the winner of the Caulfield Cup this time last week.

What do they think this week?

___

Helen - Racing Editor …

In many ways, the W.S. Cox Plate is the defining moment of the Australian Racing Calendar. The winner is usually the most outstanding horse in the country; not necessarily a champion, but a genuine star.

They have to be, as the picturesque track where the race is run - Moonee Valley - and the 2040 metre journey favours only the fearless.

Tomorrow afternoon, that should be Heart of Dreams, a young horse on his way to racing’s top echelon … along with his arch rival Whobegotyou. Of course, the master Bart Cummings’ even younger contender So You Think could run both of them down. But whatever happens, the winner won’t be faint of heart!

___

Fiona Ellis-Jones - ‘Out of Africa”:

It’s not too often we’re able to report on good news out of Africa.

Famine, drought, war …

But this week, a change of pace.

The head of UNICEF’s HIV/AIDS program, Jimmy Kolker, has made a rare visit to Australia from New York to hold talks with the Federal Government.

He brings with him with some surprisingly positive news from the continent.

UNICEF has produced new research which shows we are now closer than ever to producing the first generation of children with HIV-positive mothers, born AIDS-free.

Jimmy Kolker says there’s been major progress in the distribution of antiretroviral drugs to stop HIV transmission.

In the past, the cost of delivering these drugs was hindered by stringent patent laws.

HIV/AIDS has infected an estimated 22 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa alone.

That’s around two thirds of the global total.

In particular, the spread of the disease has had a devastating effect on Africa’s children … leaving behind 15 million “AIDS orphans”.

This week on ‘Out of Africa’, Jimmy Kolker tells us why pregnant women and children are still accessing treatment at a significantly lower rate than the rest of the population - and what Australia can do to help battle the pandemic.

That’s ‘Out of Africa’ …at midday Eastern Summer Time on ABC NewsRadio.

Marius - Politics: …

There is a quiet conspiracy at the heart of journalism - in Australia and around the world of the free press - which you as listeners, viewers and readers should be aware of.

It is the “leak”.

The “leak” is a cornerstone of some of the great moments in journalism.

Leaks generated Watergate.

Leaks involve the relatively powerless, acting in the public interest, revealing unauthorised material that the powerful would like to keep private.

That’s the idea anyway.

The term now almost never refers to that admirable action.

It is now almost always refers to the powerful - ministers, the Prime Minister - releasing material themselves, selectively, to one or a few journalists, as part of their management of the information flow.

This technique serves a number of purposes. It can allow the government to fly a kite, gauge public reaction to a policy direction, before publicly committing to it. It lets the government gradually release information which it feels might be awkward.

If, say, the government wants to cut a service or increase a charge it “leaks” the plan to a newspaper. The idea is out there but when journalists then quiz the relevant Minister on the issue he or she can say: “This is just speculation, I’m not commenting.”

Then when the matter is declared officially, it has to an extent been defused and the Minister can respond in part by saying they don’t want to go over old ground.

The arrival of asylum seekers is a good case in point. Few issues make a Labor Government more nervous. From the right, they fear a stirring of community anxiety over “border protection”; on the left, parts of the heartland demand Labor take the high moral ground.

The latest Government response has been dubbed “the Indonesian Solution”. It’s understood to mean lobbing a lot of money at Indonesia to stop the refugee flow there. So far, the Government hasn’t officially detailed any new arrangement with Indonesia.

Instead - and this is my assumption, I haven’t asked any journalists about their sources - government press secretaries are privately giving selective glimpses of the policy to a few journalists, including newspapers and ABC TV News which reported it in these terms:

“The ABC can confirm Australia is planning to compensate Indonesia for the cost of intercepting boats… and could pay de facto bounties for each asylum seeker dealt with on Indonesia soil.”

Make of that what you will. It allows Government Ministers to respond to any questions on the material put out by the government:

“……that’s a news report that’s not been substantiated by anybody…” (Immigration Minister Chris Evans)

“I understand there’s a lot of speculation and interest in this..not very helpful….” the Government has to get on with governing…(Finance Minister Chris Bowen)

An incumbent government has enormous power in directing political debate. It is able to turn the volume up and down on many issues and the “leak” - the official “leak” - is one of the best forms of volume control.

Mark - Breakfast E-P …

I see the former Manly Sea Eagles boss Grant Mayer has been appointed as one of the top executives heading the new AFL franchise to be based in western Sydney.

That’s quite a coup for Aussie Rules.

Mayer is a smooth operator and is regarded as one of the best sports administrators in Australia, with terrific contacts in the Harbour city, particularly in Sydney’s west, where he spent many years with the Canterbury Bulldogs as a marketing manager.

His departure from rugby league is a blow, at a time when that code needs all the decent administrators it can get.

Actually, Mayer’s premature departure from Manly is symptomatic of the troubled state of the NRL.

Rugby league loss is AFL’s gain.

But what about the bigger question?

The feasibility of a western Sydney AFL team.

Although a Greater Western Sydney team will take the field in 2012, Dale Holmes, the AFL’s manager for New South Wales and the ACT, yesterday admitted it would take 25 years for the yet-to-be named club to really establish itself, despite all sorts of generous concessions from the AFL, such as having access to nine of the first 15 picks in the previous year’s draft and being able to pick the country’s best 17-year-olds at the end of next season.

And what about encroaching on to what’s traditionally been seen as rugby league’s heartland — Sydney’s west — home to Penrith, Parramatta, the Bulldogs & Wests Tigers?

Well, here’s a newsflash.

The real threat to the AFL is not from rugby league and vice versa.

The reality is that both codes will struggle, as soccer makes greater and greater headway in this country.

Think about the way the A-league has captured public imagination in this country in just five years.

Football Federation Australia recently granted a licence to a western Sydney franchise to take the field in the 2011-2012 season.

They’ll be called the Sydney Rovers.

Think about the way soccer is now marketed as the “World Game” and how we can watch Liverpool, Man United, Arsenal or Chelsea any night of the week on pay-tv.

Think of what getting into the World Cup and being competitive has done for the Socceroos.

Been on a train in Sydney lately?

I remember seeing a giant billboard with Liverpool’s Fernando Torres on it.

Can’t remember seeing Jarryd Hayne or Adam Goodes staring back at me.

Drive around western Sydney on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and odds-on you’ll see a lot more people playing competitive soccer than rugby league….or AFL for that matter.

There are eleven council areas that make up what’s loosely known as “Western Sydney”.

The 2006 census showed that 33 percent of the 1.8 million people who live in “Western Sydney” were born overseas, and the proportion of those born overseas is increasing faster in Western Sydney than it is in Sydney as a whole.

I bet you not too many of them were handed a Sherrin or a Steeden for their 5th birthday, or for Eid, Hanukkah, the Lunar New Year or Orthodox Christmas.

I reckon the ball would’ve been round.

Marius - Politics …

In electoral terms, John Howard was as comprehensively excised from the Australian political scene as any government leader ever has been.

He lost power and lost his seat. And in the past two years, Labor has been trying to exercise the traditional prerogative of the winner to be the writer of history.

The Howard Years, in Labor’s telling of history, are condemned as a “do-nothing” time. Donald Horne’s Lucky Country thesis is adapted to portray the 12 years of Howard as a time when a slothful and inept crew rode the dumb luck of the resources boom.

Harnessing history to your contemporary political purposes is one of the key tools of government.

John Howard contrived to reduce the record in economic management of the Hawke-Keating government to a single number: “17%.”

Keating was dragged out as the Ghost of Recessions Past any time the Coalition wanted to give the electorate a pre-election scare.

It’s interesting to remember that the interest rate peak did not immediately cost Labor power: they won the election after the 17% peak. In fact ,you can argue that those rate spikes were more potent in the 2004 vote than after the early 1990’s recession and rate hikes.

Arguably the most significant and remarkable achievement of two years of the Rudd Government has been to establish Labor as the party of better economic management.

Economic management has always been the most gleaming item on the shelf in the Coalition’s stock in trade.

Now Newspoll says Labor is streets ahead on that count.

You could believe that the Howard legacy has been eclipsed by the dazzling dawn of Rudd Labor. But when you listen to the current leaders, it is easy to hear the echoes of a Prime Minister past.

For example, who said?: “I make absolutely no apology whatsoever for taking a hard line on illegal immigration to Australia.”

That’s Kevin Rudd, channelling John Howard.

And on ETS who said?: ” The only issue today is jobs…Australian jobs…is Penny Wong going to make herself a hero by slugging our biggest export industry….?”

That’s Malcolm Turnbull, the former Environment Minister who tried to win his then Prime Minister over, to sign the Kyoto Treaty - now emphasising different aspects of the climate change debate as he tries to find a lead that his Coalition colleagues are prepared to follow.

John Howard may be gone, but he is far from forgotten.

___

Mark - Breakfast EP …

I started getting all dewy-eyed and nostalgic a couple of weeks ago, when my colleague Dianne Comrie excitedly mentioned that she had tickets to see Lloyd Cole, the British singer and songwriter, who’s touring Australia later this year.

It brought back happy memories of a fresh-faced student heading off to university on the train listening to “Rattlesnakes” on a cassette on his rather chunky Walkman.

(A younger colleague of mine from the IPod generation, who shall remain nameless, recently saw me with a circa-1990 Walkman and asked in horror “What on earth is that THING?!!”)

For those who don’t know, “Rattlesnakes” is Lloyd Cole and the Commotions classic 1984 album.

The critics initially dismissed it as “student pop” … but more recently NME listed it as among the 100 greatest albums ever made.

It includes the classic “Perfect Skin”, the outrageously catchy opening track which features Neil Clark’s twangy acoustic and electric guitars, providing a nice counterpoint to Lloyd Cole’s deadpan delivery and acerbic observations:

“I choose my friends only far too well
I’m up on the pavement, they’re all down in the cellar
With their government grants and my IQ
They brought me down to size, academia blues.”

It ends with a typical Coleism: “Strikes me the moral of this song must be there never has been one”

Bizarrely, Lloyd Cole - who styled himself as a bit of a detached antihero - became something of a sex-symbol for the “alternative” scene.

(They call them “Emos” these days).

And when the band toured Australia , their concerts sold out in minutes.

I read a lovely review in Melbourne’s “Age” of a Lloyd Cole and the Commotions concert.

As teenage girls in the front row screamed their undying for love for Lloyd Cole between songs, he shyly confessed:

“That’s really very sweet. But unfortunately I can’t actually see any of you. I’m rather short-sighted, and I’m afraid I left my glasses back at the hotel.”

Mark - Breakfast EP:……

Well I hope you heeded Helen Thomas and Max Presnell’s advice in this blog last week.

If you did, you should have a fat wallet this morning.

Two out of the three “Weekend Halftime at the Races” hosts tipped the Bart Cummings-trained “Viewed” to win the Caulfield Cup.

To be fair, Scott Wales’ tip, “Baughurst”, didn’t get a start.

But if you’d backed the powerful gelding in the race he DID appear in on Saturday, the Coongy Cup, you would have collected as well.

Back to the Caulfield Cup.

Wasn’t it interesting how the two big name international horses, Kiklees and Cima De Triomphe failed to fire?

They were widely tipped to take out the $2.5 million dollar race and were early favourites.

Even Victoria’s most high-profile racing analyst, Sport 927’s Deane Lester, was seduced by the prospect of a foreign affair, tipping Kirklees.

But the bookies obviously knew something.

For example on Friday afternoon, TAB Sportsbet was offering nutty promotions.

For ONE bet of up to $20, you’d get odds of $8 if EITHER Kirklees or Cima De Triomphe won.

Unheard of.

Why were they so confident those two horses wouldn’t win?

In fact high-profile Melbourne bookie Michael Eskander had branded the two overseas runners “a perfect lay” and said fellow bookies would be “mad” if they didn’t take on Cima De Triomphe and Kirklees.

This is what he told The Age newspaper on Friday:
”Just have a look at the figures. Punters always come for them and most of them get beaten,” he said. ”They’re a perfect lay. They’ve come halfway around the world and they’re competing on surfaces that are foreign to them and in a style of racing that is far more hectic than they are used to.”
”You get waves of stories about how good they are and that momentum builds up to a flood of money and so often it goes down the drain,” Eskander said. ”Sure, there’s been the odd time that they’ve been successful, but largely they’ve been a gift to bookmakers.
”You’ll find that the two overseas horses to win Caulfield Cups (”All the Good” last year at $41 and “Taufan’s Melody” in 1998 at $67) proved to be skinners starting at huge odds and giving us the best Caulfield Cup result in decades … I know they add another dimension to the race, but as far as gambling on them, you’ve got to take them on every time.”
And this is what crack Melbourne trainer Mark Kavanagh told ABC NewsRadio’s Weekend Halftime at the Races yesterday:

“Australians are actually the convict society aren’t they? And you know, anything that comes from the “Home” country or Europe is always perceived to be better. Anything that’s imported is always perceived to be better. And in this day and age, it’s not.”

“There’s no faster or pressurised racing than Australian racing and, you know, on faster and harder ground. It’s a totally different concept.”

Especially at a tight track like Caulfield, when you’re trying to fight off 17 other runners in heavy traffic over only 2400m.

International horses have a much better record in the Melbourne Cup at Flemington.

Longer distance, more roomy track, with a big, long straight.

But this year, I’ll be putting my money on the local starters.

And particularly anything with “J.B. Cummings” next to its name.

Marius Benson - politics

Is Kevin Rudd the most religious Prime Minister Australia has ever had?

I was kicking that question around over a couple of schooners with a friend after we had seen Gethsemane by the British playwright David Hare, at Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre.

David Hare is a political writer and his play Gethsemane is largely a political work.

One line that struck me was an observation that, as the first world generally grows less religiously observant, its political leaders seem to be growing more pious.

Not a universal rule - the US for a start is not seeing a decline in religion - but there have been some noticeably religious hands at the helm of several national governments.

Blair, Bush and now Obama and here Rudd and Turnbull are both more eye catchingly religious than our leaders have tended to be.

Kevin Rudd is the first Australian Prime Minister who I can remember routinely delivering Sunday morning pronouncements with a church as the backdrop.

John Howard maintained the Methodist faith of his childhood, but not in a way you would notice. He saw religion as a private matter and was seldom seen in a religious setting, apart from when visiting the church going George Bush in the United States.

Before him Paul Keating had the tribal-Catholic faith of a true Labor believer, but that was as much a cultural artefact as a religious conviction.

Bob Hawke abandonned the faith of his father, a Congregational minister, declaring himself an agnostic.

Go back to Malcolm Fraser and you find another Prime Minister who kept a comfortable distance between church and state. A Presbyterian of the old, undemonstrative school.

Gough Whitlam took a lofty view of religion, as he did most of human endeavour. His attitude is indicated by an anecdote from a caucus meeting he presided over when questions of religion and state aid for schools brought a spirited attack on the Catholic church from one Labor member.

Gough, to the surprise of some, came to the defence of that church saying that in fact if he were to join any church, it would be the Catholic church.

“Yeah,” came a derisive call from the depths of the caucus room, “……as Pope!”

Before Gough as Labor leader was Arthur Calwell. His political life ended with him bitter and whisky-soaked, prowling the corridors of non-power railing against the fates and the people who had prevented him rising beyond opposition leader.

“Come on Arthur,” one colleague, maybe Gough, reportedly urged on one occasion: “What about a little Christian charity.”

“I’m not a Christian,” Arthur snarled back, “I’m a Catholic.”

So the rivers of religious belief have run relatively shallow in Australian political history.

But now, even as religious observation declines, we have elected a devout Christian as Prime Minister. And after hearing his sermons on the church steps each Sunday for two years we have raised him to a level of opinion poll acclaim normally reserved for angels.

God moves in mysterious ways.

___

Helen - Racing editor:

One thing’s for sure about the Caulfield Cup: whatever the state of the track, whichever barrier your favoured horse has drawn, he or she will need luck throughout the run of the big race to win.
It’s one of Australia’s oldest races and it’s also one of the toughest, due to the testing 2400 metres and the tight turning track along the way.
So best we stick with a strong horse, a horse with a true stayer’s heart - and that looks like VIEWED to me!

He’s already won the Melbourne Cup for the grand master Bart Cummings and ran a ripper trial for this a fortnight ago.
And with just a little luck, he should find his way home to the winner’s stall again tomorrow.

In fact, the way Bart’s stable is going, his other two runners - Allez Wonder and Roman Emperor - could fill the minor placings.

Stranger things have happened..

And as we all know, when it comes to Truly Amazing Things on the Turf, Bart Cummings is no stranger!

___

Mark - Breakfast EP:

Believe me, Helen Thomas knows what she’s talking about.

This racing writer and enthusiast (and wannabe champion breeder) famously picked the Caulfield Cup trifecta 3 years ago.

Helen’s also one-third of “Weekend Halftime at the Races” and will be tearing the Cup apart and previewing more of the Spring Racing Carnival with veteran racing writer and commentator Max Presnell and Weekend Halftime’s very own Scott Wales at 10am Eastern Summer Time on Sunday morning.

For the record, Max has also firmly nailed his colours to the Bart Cummings camp.

He’s tipping “Viewed” as well.

Scott’s bunkered down going over the form for the big race …..over and over again.

But, if it makes the final field (it’s currently one of the Emergencies), Scott is leaning towards Baughurst each-way.

Me? What would I know?

Allez-Wonder.