Month: May 1993

Two years ago, Brian Howe, then Minister for Health and Housing, launched a brave new plan to get the three levels of government to co-operate in fixing Australia’s cities.

Shortly afterwards, as part of the same policy push, the Industry Commission was asked to inquire into our cities.

Australia is one of the most urbanised countries on earth. Despite our affluence, on the world scale, however, many people in the centre of our cities live in comparative squalor _ not compared to Somalia, certainly, but compared to other parts of Australia.
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Two people are to lose their jobs after a cafe in Hume closed yesterday because of what the proprietor says is the system’s failure to enforce lease-purpose clauses.

The cafe, at Hill Station, has served the workforce in the industrial suburb for three years, though it is some distance away from the main businesses in the suburb. The proprietor, Paul Smith, said that last month, a staff canteen had opened at Cannons wholesaling outlet. Since it opened his trade had slumped dramatically and he could not stay open.

One full-timer and one part-timer would lose their jobs. Another part-timer would be able to work at the Hill Station Restaurant.
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The three ACT electorates will be named Ginninderra (based on Belconnen), Brindabella (based on Tuggeranong) and Molonglo (based on central Canberra, Woden and Weston) under the provisional electoral redistribution announced yesterday.

The choice has received support from the two major parties and the independents.

The new boundaries put the Woden suburbs of Torrens, Pearce and Chifley into Brindabella to ensure one-vote, one-value as required by the Electoral Act. The Oaks Estate goes to Molonglo as do the new Gungahlin suburbs and Hall goes to Ginninderra.
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Women in Australia, 292 pages, is published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It was jointly researched, written and co-ordinated by Julie Cole, Evan Jones, Colin McDowell, Lydia Rutter, Natalie Bobbin, Norma Briscoe, Beth Wright, Robert Letheby, Dot Russell amd Marion McEwin.

It is available from ABS bookstores in capital cities for $30, including postage and handling.

The ACT Government took another step yesterday in its policy of taking back land development from the private sector.

It called for expressions of interest from developers interested in taking part in joint ventures in which the Government would have a far greater say than previous joint ventures or previous purely private land development.

The Minister for Environment, Land and Planning said in a statement that the new joint ventures would be for 630 dwellings in West Belconnen.
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The committee hinted that in the long term Canberra would expand into NSW over the ACT’s north-western border.

The committee look a sub-regional approach, looking at how the city sat in the whole region, not just the ACT.
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Tickner’s use of the 1960s textbook is not, alas, an anachronism as evidenced by the events in the Australian Football League recently. There crowd behaviour and racist taunts have be exacerbated by the comments of Collingwood Football Club president, Allan McAlister, who said that as long as Aborigines “”conduct themselves like white people, well, of the field, everyone will admire them.” The comments were a bizarre 1990s echo of the 1960s textbook.

On the brighter side, the 1990s comments have not been allowed to stand. McAlister has be forced to see the error of his ways and went to the Northern Territory to meet Aboriginal footballers and has promised that his club will play and Aboriginal all-stars team.

In a way it is an educational-awareness program for McAlister. From Tickner’s point of view, meeting, talking directly can be far more effective that crude legalistic mechanisms. There could hardly be a better result for reconciliation than a bi-annual Collingwood-vs-Aboriginal All-Stars game.

add two ….. Mabo has, of course, caused concerns among miners and pastoralists. Oddly enough, the vigorous expression of those concerns by miners and pastoralists enabled Aboriginal groups to say with some force that the land rights issue is urgent, cannot be put off, must be addressed and must be settled.

Three leading community groups have condemned a north Canberra redevelopment project which has attracted federal Better Cities funding so it can be a model for urban-renewal. The Royal Institute of Architects, the National Trust and the Conservation Council of Canberra called on the Minister for Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, seeking the inquiry into a joint ACT Housing Trust-private redevelopment on Section 22, Braddon.

Mr Coe, speaking on the Ten Network’s program, üMeet the Press,@ said the High Court had not given sufficient clarity to native title.

He thought test cases could be run in the High Court. It was scaremongering to say they would take years to resolve.

“”If people acknowledged that Aboriginal people have a right to land and resources that attach to land, and first asked the consent of the owners of the land as to how that land should be used, you’d find that most Aboriginal groups would agree to some form of land usage and mining by non-Aboriginal people,” he said.
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There’s been some jockeying for positions over at The Little House of the Limestone Prairie is the past couple of weeks.

Part of it results from the drawing of the electoral boundaries.

The electoral committee carved out three electorates and we may as well get used to the new names now: Ginninderra equals Belconnen; Molonglo equals the centre and Brindabella equals Tuggeranong. I’ll use the new names from here on.

It’s a big problem for the major parties. The Labor Party has too many sitting members in Ginninderra and not enough in Brindabella. The Libs on the other hand have too many in Molonglo and no-one in Ginninderra.
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