The chairman of the ACT board of health should not be a smoker who dislikes exercise.
Jim Service is.
He is manager of J. G. Service Pty Ltd, which co-ordinates the construction of buildings, among other things, and chairman of the Advance Bank and a director of Canberra Centre Holdings.
At lunch at the Nineteenth Hole overlooking the Federal Golf Course in Narrabundah, he agrees that golf is a selfish game. The trouble is, each player has his own ball and attempts to do the impossible: shoot a round of 18 holes in 18 shots. It is a recipe for a a self-centred game.
But where else but Canberra would you get such a view so close to the centre of the city _ its big blue sky, wide horizon and open expanses?
Jim Service came to Canberra in 1964 with Moteliers Ltd, so he wouldn’t have to commute to Canberra from Sydney two or three days a week. Now he commutes from Canberra to Sydney a couple of days most weeks, in a different role.
He has to see the people across the table. “”What do you think of this, Joe?” “”What about that, Bill?” He needs to see the face, not just hear the words.
“”I suppose I could use tele-conferencing, but it would not be the same.””
“”Yes,” I reply, “”I could work from home, using a portable computer and fax machine, but only one day a week at most.”
“”You need to feel the reactions. Humans are social creatures.”
“”Pryor says that. He of all people could work at home, technologically. He just needs a pad and pen. But he says it wouldn’t work. He’d dry up in no time.”
This is a great comfort for Jim Service. His company helps build the office buildings where these social animals feed off each other’s thoughts. The cottage office can’t work. We have to congregate.
That takes care of the longer term, but what of the medium term?
“”You can’t have a national capital with little bits all over the place. This CSIRO move is madness. They came to Canberra to get close to government because their relationship with government was so bad. Now they are going back to Melbourne.
“”They talk about Canberra being cocooned. But people in the Public Service and in the private sector here travel a lot. They meet people all over Australia. They are the least cocooned people in Australia.
“”People in Sydney and Melbourne sit in the their offices and think it is the centre of the universe.”
The dispersion worries him. Government is not going to expand in the foreseeable future. We have to do something about it.
“”Let’s say you and I own Canberra. What would we do? We’d have to get out there and market the place. It’s no good giving subsidies for industry to come here, but we can go out there and tell them the advantages of Canberra _ the well-educated population, the open spaces and so on.”
The future of the city required it.
“”There is no reason, in this hi-tech age why American Express card-processing and similar industries could not be in Canberra, rather than Sydney and Melbourne with their high costs.”
He gave other examples. It was a way to keep the young people here.
He has two sons in the family business. It was their choice. Some years ago his daughter was his secretary.
“”The young people are better than our generation. There are some ratbags, but on balance they brighter. I’m an optimist.”
The people at the next table were talking about Lotto.
“”Hmm. Two million on the table?”
Inevitably, it was travel. South America.
“”I have a low boredom threshold. That’s why I take on things like the health board. Yes, of course, it’s a no-win, but you feel you can contribute something.
He’s also has leading positions on the Floriade board, the Australian National Gallery Foundation, the Building Owners and Managers Association, the Naval Aviation Museum Committee and other boards.
“”I like new things, though I get tired of having to ask people for money and then on the bank telling people who ask for money they can’t have it,” he said with a smile. “”But I like new things; that’s why I said yes to being your first lunch subject.”