MotherhoodsMatter

An Open Letter To Jess Wilson – For All Mums

Dear Jess Wilson,

A friend of mine, whom I will call S in this letter, is very sick in St Vincent’s Hospital. Your former running mate, Chris Crewther, generously made time to meet her earlier this year and discuss some of her problems and hear her input into some of his portfolio concerns.

S is a wise, caring woman and wonderful mother. I say that as her friend and as a man who was a Registered Midwife for thirty years.

I love to use my camera to celebrate motherhood with S, just as I have celebrated decent down to earth values this year with Chris.

I want to photograph S in front of some of St Vincent’s wonderful public art in St Vincent’s public spaces, especially the wonderful statue of the mother and child in the Healy Wing.

For both S and for me, photography is a way for us to look at, understand and express ourselves about the world. We do this to share our insights with others.

St Vincent’s hospital staff are saying that what I want to do violates their privacy policy.

How does celebrating Mother Mary at Xmas invade anybody’s privacy?

I take their response as an attack on my right to freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of religion.

Please help me, Jess, to persuade St Vincent’s to change their minds and to take seriously what I believe is their responsibility under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006: to consider human rights in every decision they make.

As a society, Australia should be celebrating mums and dads more in as many ways as we can.

That is a public need and public right.

Not an invasion of privacy.

Geoff Fox, former Registered Midwife, December 4, 2025, Melbourne, Australia

The above word art with an image of Jess Wilson is cropped from and has words added to an original photo authored by “We Did Creative” and sourced form Wikimedia Commons. I publish this word art under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

A THANK YOU NOTE TO SUSSAN LEY AND MICRO-MOVIE ART FROM TRAWALLA

Dear Sussan,

yesterday you made a major speech on the problem of Australia’s national addiction to debt.

Far too few people paid attention. I did. Thank you.

Today is the birthday of James Scullin, a Labor Prime Minister whose government collapsed because 1930’s Australia refused to risk becoming addicted to debt.

In Joseph Lyon’s United Australia Party, conservative Australia united to hold back debt-funded big government. Ten years later, when faced with a hostile Japanese empire, Australia was fiscally strong enough to fund the building here of tanks for the army, corvettes for the navy and bombers and fighter planes for the airforce. Now Australia creates billion dollar financial packages to fund plans for building submarines that don’t actually have to get here.

Today I went to Scullin’s birthplace Trawalla to see what I could see.

In the James Scullin Memorial Park, I found a tree with dry convoluted branches that looked to me like the sick distortionss of a sometimes vicious modern Australia where only debt can grow. This reminded me of the brilliant slogan of a now tragically disaffected modern UAP 2022 federal candidate: “You can’t spend your way out of debt.” to which I added: “The more you owe, the less you grow.

Nearby, on the banks of the Mount Emu Creek, a beautiful bunch of flowers filled me with a yearning to prey.

Sussan, my hunch is that your current job is one of the most difficult bits of piloting you have ever had to do.

I pray for your success.

When those who believe in freedom unite, Socialist Left stupidities cannot get out of control in Australia.

At least, that’s my prayer.

Geoff Fox, 18th September, 2025, Beaufort, Australia

FREEDOM AND HOME

On this, the first day of Spring, it is Wattle Day in Australia, in honour of the Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha), which is Australia’s national floral emblem.

September the First is also the 74th anniversary of the signing in 1951 in San Francisco of the ANZUS pact between Australia, America and New Zealand.

Today, in 2025 , I choose this day to launch this website with a statement of values from Chris Crewther, who is an urban member of the Victorian parliament but whose origins are in the bush.

The solid moral, cultural and emotional groundedness shown above give Chris the strength, integrity and work ethic that the cause of freedom needs.

Geoff Fox, September 1, 2025, Melbourne, Australia