Doug PollardSerge Thomann, bringing a bit of Culture to Albert Park
Serge Thomann is an Independent candidate for the seat of Albert Park, and he's French. Very French.Also, he's not Ted Baillieu, who was booked for this spot. Serge talked to Doug on Thursday about putting some culture into government.
DOUG: We were going to talk to Ted Baillieu this morning but the man is unaccountably busy; he suddenly remembered yesterday that it was Remembrance Day so I thought – okay – we’re not going to get a Liberal. We’re not going to get anything from Labor, they’ve all gone off to these Remembrance Day services. But we do have of course, other people besides major parties standing. Here at Joy of course, we like diversity and we like to have people from all walks of life in here so we decided we would invite an independent candidate. His name is Serge Thomann, he’s already a councillor in Pt. Phillip and he was one of the people fighting against the St. Kilda Triangle development but now he’s standing for parliament and he joins me here in the studio. Good morning, Serge.
SERGE: Good morning, Doug and I will be going, too, to the Remembrance Day celebration in St. Kilda in an hour-and-a-bit; so - - -
DOUG: Yes.
SERGE: I was quite happy to arrange my time and being French – you know? It is something that’s quite important to celebrate.
DOUG: It is I think, it’s important for everybody.
SERGE: So, yes – so I’m the councillor in St. Kilda at the moment, for the City of Pt. Phillip and I’m a true Independent. A lot of people have asked me – let’s just do something different, give people a voice and so here we are.
DOUG: So what exactly are you standing for, we know you didn’t like the St. Kilda development - - -
SERGE: M’mm - - -
DOUG: - - - and you had quite a bit of success with that. There’s more to you than that isn’t there?
SERGE: I started the whole campaign against the St. Kilda Triangle because at the end, it was a shopping mall and it was – m’mm, a nightclub precinct for the 11,000 and we successfully when we got elected to council, I ran the whole campaign against that at the time and we stopped development. It is supposed to be an entertainment and cultural precinct - - -
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm.
SERGE: - - - you know? There’re many more things we can have there - - -
DOUG: Is it going ahead now, in a new format?
SERGE: But what we’re doing is we are re-engaging with the community to see what actually, people really want. We’ll just update the urban-design framework - - -
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm?
SERGE: - - - but at the end council doesn’t have the resources to pay for anything significant and if I do get elected to parliament I will make sure – you know, I think there’s one thing – I look at things differently because I’m French - - -
DOUG: [laughs]
SERGE: - - - [indistinct] of the country and – m’mm - - -
DOUG: Well, I come from another country – it’s not France [laughs]
SERGE: So – yes, so – sometimes I’m a bit loopy and sometimes a bit crazy – and sometimes – but I’m always passionate and I’ve got a lot of commonsense. There’s one thing that I don’t understand especially coming from the Labor Party, the minute you want to spend money on a – on – like, refurbishing the Palais Theatre for example people tell you, you can’t do that – because the money has to be spent on infrastructure, roads, schools and hospitals.
DOUG: Right, I get that?
SERGE: But for me – for me, a cultural – you know, culture is part of the fabric of a society and it should not be – you know, people should not be saying you can’t refurbish a theatre because the money has to be spent on a school.
DOUG: It’s one of those things I think, where your native country France does things a bit better because you do actually value cultural - - -
SERGE: Correct.
DOUG: - - - things much more I think – well, it’s not just Australia. I think it’s a lot of the English-speaking countries - - -
SERGE: Yes.
DOUG: It’s the same back in the UK, they tend to get pushed down the agenda and say they’re not important and all the rest of it but – compared to these “practical” things - - -
SERGE: Yes.
DOUG: - - - m’mm - - -
SERGE: The French budget one percent has always been put aside for culture. The Minister of Culture is very, very important and – you know - - -
DOUG: Do we have a Minister of Culture in Victoria?
SERGE: - - - no. We’ve got a Minister of Arts but we don’t have a Minister of Culture. Peter Batchelor is the Minister of Arts - - -
DOUG: (and)He’s leaving - - -
SERGE: - - - he’s leaving. Yes. So and in France, even if you know the government’s cut spending there’s no way they will ever cut the one per cent in Arts and there’s another example which is every president - - -
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm?
SERGE: - - - builds a museum – you know, Chirac built a museum Musée du Quai Branly, the Pompidou Centre - - -
DOUG: Yes.
SERGE: I think Sarkozy is too busy doing other things - - -
DOUG: [laughs]
SERGE: - - - he’s a - - -
DOUG: If he does build one it’ll have to be a really big one ‘cause he’s only a little fella - - -
SERGE: Correct.
DOUG: - - - compensate.
SERGE: He does have a tall wife - - -
DOUG: [laughs]
SERGE: - - - he’s making-up for his shortness.
DOUG: Yes, indeed – now aside from planning issues and culture, they’re two things which obviously mean a lot to you - - -
SERGE: Yes.
DOUG: - - - where do you stand on things like the environment because those are things that are becoming more and more important - - -
SERGE: Correct and the thing is, even having been a councilor now for two years – you know, I have looked at – I’m quite pragmatic and I’ll read – and listen, a lot. When it comes to climate change there are so many views out there that it’s sometimes quite confusing what to do – you know?
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm.
SERGE: Green energy, you know – like, it’s even at council we’ve got different advice - - -
DOUG: Yeah.
SERGE: So, it’s very complicated to actually understand what is the right thing to do and we’ve got a councilor at the City of Pt. Phillip who’s a member of the Greens and sometimes he’s got views that – you know, I would have thought are obvious he shouldn’t have - - -
DOUG: [laughs]
SERGE: In terms of Green energy and refurbishing – you know, looking at buildings and stuff so it’s even more confusing that he – so – one of the main things that I suggest is that the political Parties should stop taking the environment as a kind of, balloon that they throw at each other - - -
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm?
SERGE: - - - and they should talk to each other because at-the-end-of-the-day we live in a capitalist world. The world will always recover whatever you do. But will the planet recover if what is predicted is going to happen? Maybe not – so, I think when people say carbon tax we can’t have it because it will cut jobs and all those kinds of things, you know – when are the beaches of Elwood and Middle Park going to be under the water – is it going to be in 20, 50-years?
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm.
SERGE: Should we plan it – should we build walls up, at sea. To stop it? It’s – you know, obviously, there are some - - -
DOUG: So, you’d like to take the environment in a sense, almost out of politics and try and find a consensus on what we’re to do?
SERGE: Absolutely. They should be – it should be completely a bipartisan approach and once – you know, the big boys actually sit together and – and – people will actually understand what is there to do – and people will understand that even if they recycle their rubbish and stuff it’s maybe just a little something but a little something – like, [indistinct] is .1 per cent of the world – of carbon emissions, .1 per cent. That’s one-out-of-a-thousand; if you close ten of those that’s – you know, it’s one per cent and everything matters - - -
DOUG: Every little helps.
SERGE: - - - m’mm.
DOUG: You’re going to be running a fundraiser to help your campaign, aren’t you?
SERGE: Yes.
DOUG: Do you want to tell us about that?
SERGE: There are two ways for me to raise money for my campaign – first, next Wednesday night I’ve got a concert. I’ve got lots of my friends who said what can we do, how can we help – so, I’ve got a concert at the Palace Theatre in the city which is called: “One Step From Parliament” – it’s literally, you know - - -
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm.
SERGE: - - - outside parliament and – m’mm, I certainly wanted our world to be represented and I was going to have Barbra Quicksand and Miss Candy - - -
DOUG: [laughs]
SERGE: But Barbra is away, to see her mum. But Miss Candy will be there in full flight - - -
DOUG: Good.
SERGE: - - - and there’ll be Rene Geyer to Kate Ceberano – to – unfortunately, James Freud was going to be there and he’s – you know, he’s being buried today. So maybe, we can have a thought for him – and the other fundraiser Mirka Mora has allowed me to use one of her most amazing paintings, if you go on my website you can see it and it’s available as a - - -
DOUG: Which is: serge2010.com.au.
SERGE: Very easy to remember.
DOUG: That’s: serge – S-E-R-G-E. serge2010.com.au – Serge, thank you very much for joining us today.
SERGE: Yes, so I’m Independent - - -
DOUG: An Independent, standing in - - -
SERGE: Albert Park which is - - -
DOUG: In Albert Park.
SERGE: - - - not everybody knows Albert Park because you’ve got a lake, you’ve got a suburb - - -
DOUG: [laughs]
SERGE: You’ve got a district - - -
DOUG: We had Martin Foley on the other day, we know where Albert Park is.
SERGE: - - - ah, yes. Do the people know – it’s basically, everywhere from The Yarra all the way to Glenhuntly Road - - -
DOUG: Including St. Kilda.
SERGE: Including – not all of St. Kilda - - -
DOUG: Not all of St. Kilda - - -
SERGE: - - - there’s a little triangle missing - - -
DOUG: There’s always a triangle missing - - -
SERGE: That’s right – a triangle where in the middle of that triangle you actually have Greeves Street - - -
DOUG: - - - oh dear. Thank you very much Serge, for joining us here today.
SERGE: Thank you for having me.
DOUG: That was Serge Thomann, there. The Independent candidate for Albert Park.
