Day 7: Sunday, August 15 Conference
I woke up at 2:30 so there were problems in that regard. In that regard I had the alarm set for 3:00 and a wake up call for 4:00 just to be certain. My ride was there right on the dot and I was at the airport by shortly after 5:00 for my 6:10 flight. I thought that such an early flight on Sunday morning would be fairly empty but, boy, was I wrong. It was the first completely full plane I have been on the entire trip so far.
When I got to Brisbane around 8:30 I took my time because I know that check in time at the hotel was 2:00 and was worried about getting here so early. On the way in the taxi driver told me that it had been the coldest night since 1899 at 13 C overnight. Felt just fine to me but everyone else was shivering. Sure enough the hotel was full and since checkout time wasn't until 10:00 they had no rooms ready and told me to come back after 2:00. After I whined for a while one of the clerks took pity on me and said that as soon as someone checked out they would have the room cleaned for me and I should check again at 12:30. That appeared to be the best they could do so I went to the restaurant and had breakfast - a humongous buffet of eggs, bacon, sausages, hash browns, mushrooms, baked beans. Also fruit and cereals plus juices, coffee, tea and water. I got through the hot stuff but by then was too full for the cold. Even though I ate as slowly as possible and read at the same time I only managed to kill a half hour. By then it was nearing ten so I still had two or three hours until I could safely approach the desk again so I sat on a bench and read and read and read. At 10:30 a clerk came out and told me that they had a room ready for me. Great service (which I praised vociferously) and quite a relief. It got even better. When I checked into the room the first thing I saw was that it was a river view room - so much more pleasant than the one I had last time. I think that it is also a bit larger.
After I unpacked and got my stuff organized I read for a while and had a short nap until it was time to go to the convention centre to register. The conference brochure said that it was about a fifteen minute walk from here but as taxi drove on and on the driver and I decided it would be more like a half hour. Glad I didn't start off walking as I wasn't up to a half hour walk.
Registration went easily and quickly as there was no one in line ahead of me. So far the fates seemed to be on my side. It was not to last much longer. As I was looking through my conference package I noticed that there was no information related to the post conference Sunshine Coast tour so went back in to inquire about it. The ladies on the desk looked a little shocked but then proceeded to tell me that the tour had been cancelled because they did not get the minimum number of people to sign up. That is amazing to me. Out of more than 2,000 delegates (from forty-four countries) only five registered for the tour. I can't help but wonder if more would have done so at the time they arrived here and whether the organizers had cancelled it too early (last Thursday). Of course this threw me for quite a loop and throws a mammoth monkey wrench into my plans. I had difficulty concentrating on the speeches because I was worrying about what I will do and how I will get hotel reservations, etc. The tour desk provided me with an option that isn't bed but half of it is much like what I have already done only in the subtropical forest in this case. I am thinking that I will try to call the woman who put together my other package and see if she can come up with something in a hurry. When I got back to the hotel I immediately asked about the availability of rooms in case I end up staying here and taking day trips. The clerk told me that if I make a decision today I might be alright though the hotel is rapidly filling up on the 22nd and 23rd. Help! Problems like this I definitely do not need. I will try to call the travel office (if I can figure out the phone system and numbers) at the break this morning to see what I might be able to do.
The conference openning wasn't all that inspiring but of course my mind wasn't quite into it. The usual greeting speeches droned on and on. A troupe of aboriginal dancers from the Torres Islands was entertaining but again there wasn't enough information supplied to help me interpret what they were doing or to relate it to their culture. Following that there was a panel discussion and it was much more interesting. One comment that struck home for me was that when government goes to communities to consult it should be negotiating with them instead. That makes ultimate sense in the NWT in my opinion. I was surprised to learn that aboriginal people here account for only three per cent of the population. Not sure if that is just Queensland or the whole country. Small wonder they have such a struggle to make progress. The state government here takes the parliament out to various communities several times a year and also takes the Cabinet and Deputy Ministers out to twelve communities a year for two days at a time to hold public meetings and individual appointments. The Government of Timor makes its Cabinet members and Deputy Ministers walk the streets to talk with people when they visit small communities. All good ideas. The premier seemed quite happy that 31,000 people had attended the meetings in the past year. Sounded impressive until a professor from Melbourne University said, Yes, that's a good number but what about the 4,000,000 who didn't show up!"
One of the UN representatives said that in recent surveys they have done 90% of people claim they don't feel part of their governments and 77% don't trust their governments. All of those figures are up significantly form similar surveys done thirty-five years ago. The Government of Queensland broadcasts the parliamentary sessions over the internet, allows people to sign petitions on the internet and carries out a number of other activities to try and get or let people involved.
When the openning session ended there was a reception with canapés and all of the beer and wine you wanted for two hours. I had a few canapés (not sure what I was eating most of the time) and three glasses of wine and left after less than an hour to come back here and try and figure out what sessions I would attend today and what I might do about the post conference travel.