A little Father’s Day ode to my Dad.

One night, Mum and Dad had friends over and after the big Italian dinner, Dad was as the "special table" playing cards with some of his engineering mates from Uni.

Dire Straits playing on the record player, booming from the industrial sized-speakers in the next room.

I wandered over to Dad, picked up his cards and asked him, “Dad, what do these cards mean?”

I had revealed his hand to the entire table. Everyone laughed and I was absolutely mortified, not understanding what I’d done.

Dad never made me feel stupid for not knowing something. He pulled up a chair beside him and said, “Sit here with us, watch and learn.”

Then handed me a deck of cards and told me to practise shuffling quietly until I could shuffle like him.*

So I sat there for hours, listening to these engineers talk about property, land values, development, construction and finance. Plus more than a few jokes!

I wasn’t just learning to shuffle cards, I was listening to these men talk about power, politics and property. I was also learning to laugh. Loud!

I sat in on many, many, many more conversations like this over the next few decades, and I came to understand the intricacies of the role Councils and State Government have in deciding how and when property developments can access infrastructure and services, and ultimately what can get built, and where.

And what also became very clear was why it matters so much that the people making those decisions are upstanding citizens who understand that they are there to serve the people.

Politics and property can become a very murky game when the people at the top aren’t in it for the people.

Lately, given how some of these conversations are unfolding about community land and rezoning plans, I think it’s time we all got a little more curious.

It’s time to pull up a chair at the table and start really listening to what is going on around us. Who is making decisions about our community land, and who ultimately benefits from those decisions?

Do new rezoning plans actually make sense for the people who already live here?

What does “community” actually mean if the people who live in that community aren’t genuinely listened to?

You don’t need to be an expert, you don’t need to have a political viewpoint and you don’t even need to know what you think yet.

Start listening, start asking questions and start looking at the plans, even if you don’t understand what you’re looking at yet.

Make it your aim to find out who is making the decisions, who benefits, who is affected and who isn’t being included in the conversation.

And then when it comes to gender, and being excluded, or targeted, it's important we speak up.

Seeing Brisbane's Lord Mayor and Queensland's Premier normalising and accepting a regime run by a convicted sexual offender is not something women should be expected to shrug off or accept as business as usual.

It’s not normal and it’s not right.

Women: we legally have a right to be heard, and I think it’s important our leaders remember that.

We need way more curious people sitting at the table, even if you aren’t fluent in the language, even if you don’t understand all the rules, even if it makes you uncomfortable, and especially if you’ve spent your whole life thinking these conversations weren’t really for you.

Dad, thank you for pulling up a chair for me all those years ago, for showing me that my age didn’t matter, my gender didn’t matter and my level of experience didn’t matter when it came to being allowed to sit, listen and learn.

You showed me that when someone doesn’t know something, you don’t make them feel stupid for not knowing it. You pull up a chair and make room for them to learn.

I love watching dads and daughters setting up stalls together at our markets, watching them work things out, have a coffee and just do stuff together. Because that’s the good stuff, and I think just being around is how so much of what we know gets passed on.

So Happy Father’s Day to my Dad, and to all the dads who pull up a chair and make their kids feel like they belong.

If you just want someone to talk to, our markets are always a place where you can come, pull up and have a chat.

Everyone is welcome.
Love you for showing me that, Dad.