Saturday Magazine

30 Jun 2014

Doyle and Burnside join the show

News & Politics, Podcast, Society & Culture

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Many Melburnians will tell you theirs is a small city, a quiet achiever with a low international profile. And for a tourist, hungry for that postcard-perfect shot of Sydney’s Opera House, it’s true – the Victorian capital is a city without a landmark.

But Monocle magazine wasn’t so concerned about postcards and souvenir shops when they conducted this year’s worldwide quality of life survey. Public transport, low crime rates, arts and culture are among the many threads that weave into the makings of a good city. And Melbourne, it seems, wears them all with pride.

At third spot, just below Tokyo at number two and Copenhagen at the top, Melbourne’s ranking will surprise many of its residents (and even more Sydneysiders). The city’s Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, however, isn’t the least bit shocked.

“I’ve actually met the editor of Monocle, the very charismatic Mr Tyler Brûlé. You know a bloke is charismatic if he’s not wearing any socks and his shoes don’t have laces in them. If you’re going to dress like that, it’s charismatic as far as I’m concerned”, he told host Ben Rylan on this week’s edition of Saturday Magazine.

“He’s a terrific guy with a great regard for Melbourne. And Monocle of-course is something of a style-bible, so we should be very proud.”

“He describes the sort of things you need to do in a city. Can you go out and get a great coffee and some breakfast, and have three meetings before lunch and cross town very easily in order to have that lunch, and then come back to the office? And are there beautiful parks and gardens, can you buy food on a Sunday, can you get a glass of wine at one o’clock in the morning?”

“He’s talking there about that liveable fabric of a city.”

In the second hour of this week’s program, Ben Rylan and co-host Sammi Whitehead are joined by lawyer and human rights advocate Julian Burnside QC.

For some time now, the topic of asylum seekers travelling to Australia in rickety old boats has never been far from the mainstream news. Less reported however is how the same issue is treated by media in other countries around the world.

For example, Italy has seen a surge of about 50,000 refugees from Libya in the past year. It has presented quite a problem for the Italian government, still reeling from the shock of the global financial crisis and more than its fair share of political turmoil.

Nevertheless, Rome’s mayor has visited an abandoned office building in a rundown area of the city that currently serves as a makeshift home for the displaced arrivals. His pledge to fix the crisis instilled some hope, but has so far gone unmet. Italy’s president referred to the building as a national shame, while the Pope has even donated shower facilities, a vast improvement to the short-term living conditions.

Why does Australia’s political and media coverage of the global asylum seeker crisis differ so greatly to many other nations? Let us know your thoughts over at the Saturday Magazine Facebook page.