Month: August 1993

The Canberra Ratepayers Association has been angered by the refusal of the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, to cap rates to the CPI and to move to a user-pays system.

The convener of the association, Peter Blackshaw, said yesterday that residential rates had gone up 20 per cent in the past year. He said that at a meeting with Ms Follett last week she had showed no sympathy for inner-city residents who had been forced out by high rates.

However, Ms Follett rejected the suggestion, saying the Government had provided help in hardship cases.
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At the best of times the theory that the Government knows best is treated with a fair degree of scepticism. Government now is getting so large that instead of being an impartial proponent of the public good, it has become a force of its own and acts for its own good first, against the best interests of the whole population.

The challenge to “”government knows best” has been mounting in the ACT as the Government pursues is 50-50 in-fill to greenfields policy. It culminated in a public rally on Sunday which expressed anger, determination, and thoughtful opposition.

As the next election draws closer, individual ACT politicians are going to have to be a bit more careful about branding opponents of the 50-50 policy as simplistic, ignorant and selfish. Indeed, the calibre of the challenge is such that it might be the Government that is seen by the public as simplistic, ignorant and selfish.
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The Budget also provides $4 million over two years for a committee to work with the Northern Territory to help develop Darwin as Australia’s northern link to Asia. It would be chaired by former NSW Premier Neville Wran.

The Minister for Transport and Communication, Bob Collins, said the railway survey would be “”put to open tender”. Presumably, a deposit will be required to establish bona fides.

The survey would give private-sector proponents a better idea of costs. Senator Collins said the Government “”would welcome any commercially viable proposal for a Darwin to Alice Springs rail link and would support private investment through taxation incentives such as infrastructure bonds”.
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In a Question Time when the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, proudly announced that the ACT’s economy had overtaken that of Tasmania, it was difficult to reflect upon anything, let alone the sin of pride, because of the incessant quipping and interjection from around the House.

The sin of pride was briefly referred to by Tony de Domenico who said the Minister for Urban Services, Terry Connolly, “”with chest blown out” had taken credit for achieving efficiencies in ACTION when in fact it had the lowest cost recovery and the lowest kilometres per vehicle in Australia and the second-lowest performance on a list of other measures.

Trevor Kaine interjected that any improvement were a result of Alliance Government initiatives. When Helen Szuty asked the Minister for Health, Wayne Berry, when would the ACT get a health-complaints unit, Mr de Domenico interjected sarcastically: “”In the fullness of time. When the time is ripe.”
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The ACT Attorney-General, Terry Connolly, announced yesterday that nine departments and agencies keep a total of 312 databases with personal information in the ACT Government _ perhaps Little Sister is more appropriate.

Unlike Big Brother, Little Sister will allow you to peek at the files. To help the peeking, Mr Connolly, and the Federal Privacy Commissioner, Kevin O’Connor, launched yesterday the ACT Government Personal Information Digest.

It is hard to swallow how much information is kept by government on its citizens: from the punishment book to the registrar of bee-keepers; from birth certificates, to death certificates and beyond to wills and probate; from applications for grants by artists to applications for trade licences from artisans; from records of those who have hired the Erindale Centre to those who have had x-rays.
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They are the change spots of Canberra. They have drawn heated debate over the past few years as the population grows from natural causes (because it is a young one) and from political causes (because the Federal bureaucracy, despite what they say, is growing relentlessly). The ACT Government has to provide about 3500 new dwellings a year to cope with this. The growth causes pressure on the bush parts of the Bush Capital and on the centre.

First to the suburban encroachment on three cultural sites. Picture One shows Mount Stromlo Observatory with the nearby hatched area showing proposed extensions to Duffy-Holder. The ACT Government is committed to a 50-50 program. Fifty per cent of development will be in-fill and fifty per cent greenfields. It argues that this is the best use of resources such as schools, shops, health centres and the like because the population in inner areas has fallen. It says it is cheaper to provide electricity, water and sewerage to inner areas.
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The only sensible thing for people to do in the Optus-Telecom election is not to vote. Of course, ideologues may wish to vote on sentiment, like many do in Federal elections. Those who favour public-sector, highly unionised provision of services and dinky-di Australian industry working behind a tariff wall to exclude the rapacious multi-nationals will vote Telecom. Those who believe in vigorous international competition, individualism and service will vote Optus.

Their votes will be quite off target; neither company remotely fits those stereotypes. However, ideological prejudice is as good a basis as any to vote in this ballot. That people will vote that way, however, puts the kybosh on both Keynesian and economic rationalist belief that people will act according to their best interests.

What is more surprising is that the Government and its telecommunications regulatory authority Austel imagine that even the rest of us non-ideologues should take this ballot seriously or that we will follow the course of human behaviour set out in economics books and work out which company will provide us the best deal according to service, cost and benefit.
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The Government is to provide the money over four years for restoration and replacement of Commonwealth assets in the national area of Canberra.

It will be partly funded by introducing parking fees in the parliamentary zone and managed by the National Capital Planning Authority.

The chief executive of the NCPA, Lyndsay Neilson, said last night that work in 1993-94 would include repairs to the major bridges, repairs and improvements to the Captain Cook Memorial Water Jet, reconstruction of the King George V statue in front of Old Parliament House, and restoration of facilities in Commonwealth Gardens and Old Parliament House gardens.
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A model for Aboriginal self-government need not cost any extra and would replace paternalism an improve Aborigines economic position, according to a former Grants Commissioner and Federal Government taxation adviser.

Russell Mattews, who is professor of economics at the Australian National University, has put up a model for Aboriginal self-government, that would not require constitutional changes, saying the present system of high level of government funding was not achieving living standards for Aborigines that other Australians enjoy.

He argues that giving Aborigines responsibility for themselves will mean better living standards with the same level of government support. In the past solutions had been too legalistic and paternalistic.
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ACT residents need have no fear about their residential or commercial leases being claimed under indigenous title, the ACT Attorney-General, Terry Connolly, said yesterday.

He was responding to statements by his Opposition counterpart, Gary Humphries, and the Queensland Premier, Wayne Goss, about the consequences of a claim by the Wik people in Cape York.

The Wik people have asserted that the Queensland Government is in breach of trust under a common law made clear in an English case in 1977 that said governments could be liable for breaches of duty to indigenous people if they were obliged to act on behalf of or in their interests.
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