Month: May 1993

The Australian Medical Association pledged yesterday that it was not trying to destroy Medicare.

Its newly elected president, Brendan Nelson, said, “”The AMA has no agenda to see Medicare dismantled or pulled apart.”

Dr Nelson was elected yesterday in the place of Dr Bruce Shepherd who stood down as president after three years to return to his practice full-time. His election marks a change in the AMA’s approach at the same time as the Federal Government’s approach has changed with the appointment of Senator Graham Richardson as Minister for Health, replacing Brian Howe.
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The National Capital Planning Authority called for tenders for outside cleaning of 5.5 sq km including the Parliamentary Triangle. It is part of a general takeover of the physical maintenance of national land in Canberra by the NCPA, and incidentally marks a growing power and influence of the agency, to the chagrin of ACT authorities.

The NCPA has long been a critic of the standard of maintenance of national assets in Canberra, which to date has been done by ACT Government agencies.

The day-to-day maintenance of national land is funded by the Commonwealth at a cost of $7.2 million a year.
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Canberra needed more than just the clinical school proposed by the ACT Government, according to a leading medical researcher. It needed a full-scale under-graduate medical school and it needed to nurture basic research.

Professor Bob Blanden, the head of the division of cell biology at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, said last week that Canberra had good medical research centres that needed a full under-graduate medical school to help bring together pure bio-medical researchers with those with practical problems.

The plan for the clinical school is for students only in their final years to come to Canberra from Sydney University.
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Men are worse off than women in several health and other aspects of life, an Australian Bureau of Statistics book on women inadvertently reveals.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics book Women in Australia published last week pointed to widespread economic and social disadvantage for women. In doing so, however, it showed (an admittedly much narrower) range of areas where men are worse off.

More women own their home outright than men and in some areas of health men are worse off than women.
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The ACT Government agreed yesterday to an inquiry into what was described in the Legislative Assembly as a development with “”a smell” involving departmental and developer “”mates”.

The allegations about a proposed development in Torrens Street, Braddon, by Bobundra Pty Ltd and the ACT Housing Trust were put by Independent MLA Michael Moore. The Minister for Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, said there had to be an inquiry to give an opportunity to those individuals named by Mr Moore to clear their names.

Mr Wood said he did not want to pre-empt the inquiry, but he was confident it would show the integrity of the system.
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The Canberra Conservation Council expressed “”grave disquiet” yesterday at the terms of the inquiry into a North Canberra development announced on Tuesday.

The president of the council, Jacqueline Rees, said the inquiry time of less than four weeks was far too short, given that no-one had yet been named to do it, and its terms of reference too imprecise.

The council was concerned about the sloppiness in attitude to meeting the Better Cities criteria with the development.
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The Prime Minister, Paul Keating, came face to face with indigenous people in New Zealand _ literally. It was part of the traditional Maori greeting.

He is also coming face to face with the question of native land title in Australia. While in New Zealand at the weekend he said legislation would underpin the Mabo decision, but in co-operation with the states.

Co-operation with the states is not only the courteous thing to do; it is in fact essential. Legally and constitutionally, the Commonwealth cannot act alone in dealing with Mabo, at least not satisfactorily.
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The Australian Government should go as far as possible in meeting sweeping Aboriginal demands over Mabo because it will only face litigation if it does not, according to departmental advice.

The departmental advice for ministers on the Government’s Mabo committee was obtained by The Canberra Times yesterday. It comes after Aboriginal groups met the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, on Tuesday and presented a list of demands. They were not made public at the time.

The demands include a veto over any new grants (by sale or lease) of Crown land in Australia and recognition in the Constitution of Aboriginal prior ownership.
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THE new Territory Plan brought presented to the ACT Legislative Assembly is a commendable piece of work. It is not only a sound basis for future development of the non-national parts of the territory but it also a significant milestone in the maturing process of self-government.

Self-government has been roundly derided in the past four years and the derision has been supplied with ample ammunition. That ammunition has ranged from the ludicrous electoral process and the Sun-Ripened Warm Tomato party to the Speaker being bitten by a monkey in Thailand. After this week’s plan, that nonsense can surely be put behind us.

The plan was the product of a committee comprising Labor’s David Lamont (chair) and Annette Ellis, Liberals Trevor Kaine (deputy chair) and Tony de Domenico and Independent Helen Szuty. Politically differences (internal and external) were obviously put aside to come up with a plan for Canberra.
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