Month: March 1994

Red Hill residents called yesterday for a key Assembly committee to delay its decision on allowing medium-density housing in the old area of the suburb.

They said it would be wrong for the committee to make a finding until the Australian Heritage Commission has determined their nomination of Old Red Hill for entry on the register of the national estate; the ACT Heritage Council has finalised its citation for the Interim Places Register; and Professor Ken Taylor has conducted his study of the area for the National Trust and the University of Canberra.

Old Red Hill is bounded by Mugga Way, Monaro Crescent, Flinders Way and Morseby Street.

The Old Red Hill Preservation Group says medium-density housing in the area will spoil an essential part of Canberra as a planned city.
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The man shot in the legs at Dickson pool last year just before his assailant crashed into the Jolimont Centre later killing himself, was not fit to be a public servant and should have been sacked for rigging a pool cleaning contract, according to the Disciplinary Appeal Committee.

The committee said the man, Geoffrey Patrick McGibbon, had put up a “”front man” to get a cleaning contract at Civic Olympic Pool. The front man, Alex Stevenson, did not have a clue how to clean a pool and tender documents were “”like Latin” to him.

Mr McGibbon had used pool employees to partly perform the contract without telling his boss, and that the contractor had employed Mr McGibbon’s wife without Mr McGibbon telling his boss.

The committee also attacked the credibility of a Liberal candidate for the ACT Legislative Assembly.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_poolman”

The Royal Life-Saving Society is satisfied with the management of the Dickson Swimming Pool, according to its president, Justice Terence Higgins.

The pool’s manager was found unfit to be a public servant by a disciplinary appeal committee a fortnight ago over events surrounding his running of the Civic Olympic Pool.

The manager, Geoffrey McGibbon, ran the Civic pool for 18 years as a public servant in the ACT Administration before self-government.

Mr McGibbon is executive director of the ACT branch of the Royal Life-Saving Society of Australia. The society has a contract with the ACT Department of Sport for the management of the Dickson Pool.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_poolman2”

A former public servant, Geoffrey McGibbon, is to appeal to the Federal Court against a finding by the Disciplinary Appeal Committee that he should be dismissed from the Public Service.

Mr McGibbon is manager of the Dickson Pool. He was shot in the legs at Dickson pool last year just before his assailant crashed into the Jolimont Centre later killing himself.

The committee found he had put up a front man to get a cleaning contract when he was manager of the Civic Olympic Pool (a public service position in the ACT Administration) and had used pool employees to do work that should have been done under the contract, and that he had not disclosed that his wife had been employed by the contractor.

Mr McGibbon said yesterday he had not been represented at the hearing because of a confusion over notification of hearing dates. He defended his solicitor, Michael Higgins, who had been criticised by the committee. Mr McGibbon said Mr Higgins had given notice to the committee that he was unavailable on the hearing date, but the committee had continued the hearing.
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A groundwell of resentment about urban in-fill and planning had been under-estimated by ACT politicians and it would become a major issue at the next election, according to the chair of a group of 19 resident-action groups.

The groups were concerned about dual-occupancy, townhouse development and housing at the Tuggeranong homestead site. They have formed a group called the Save Our City Coalition under the chair of the Canberra Conservation Council.

The president of the council, Jacqui Rees, said ACT politicians had not tapped the level of distress by people affected by changes to the Territory Plan allowing for second houses to be built in gardens of existing houses and then for the title to be split and sold off.

Most ACT politicians “”think it is a few loudmouths, but it is not”, she said. “”They do not recognise the depth of distress. They have not tapped it. That’s why they are coming to us. It’s going to be a major election issue.”
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The pharmaceutical industry is heavily research-based. It costs around $200 million for a company to produce a new drug and get it approved by the US Federal Drugs Administration. That is the major barrier. After that approval in other countries usually follows, though it is not routine, nor cheap. In Australia, the Federal Government’s Therapeutic Goods Administration rigorously evaluates new products before approval.

Australia is about 2 per cent of the world pharmaceutical market.

The marketability and financial return for the new drug will depend on many factors, the most significant being the difference between the new treatment and the old in effectiveness, side-effects, ease of administration, price and acceptance by patients, pharmacists and doctors.

The high price of producing a new drug is mainly in the cost of failures. It is an uncertain business. Some companies can get several quick hits and other might languish with failures. So there are often there are corporate shake-ups, mergers and break-ups.
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In the Middle Ages witches used to tell fortunes and prescribe cures for ills demanding only that the patient “”cross my palm with silver”.

All of the fortune-telling and part of the cure prescriptions were nonsense, but some made sense. For example, witches prescribed thyme-leaf tea for colds and flu. Nowadays, pharmacists prescribe various pills which contain the active ingredient thymol, C10H13OH2.

The range, purity and accuracy of prescriptions have grown exponentially since the Middle Ages. And so has the amount of silver crossing palms.

In the Middle Ages, governments persecuted the witches. Now they join in the business of drug prescription, and rightly so. Without intervention, drugs would be denied the poor and research incentives for drug companies would disappear.
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The scene is the Erindale Centre in Tuggeranong last Thursday night. About 100 people are playing competition squash and volleyball.

In the room normally used by the squash people for a few drinks and supper after a hard game, seven people sit on plastic chairs listening to someone talk. Seven people. It could be a class in esoteric Japanese silk painting, or a class in Galbraithian economics. It is not. In fact it is a public meeting and information night about appeal rights under the new Territory Plan.

It is hard to get people interested. It was the same during the consultation process before the plan became law last November. People are not interested unless it directly affects them. Then they get very active. They suddenly wake up to find their neighbourhood is being changed.

This is happening in Canberra now, five months after the plan became law. People are putting in development proposals under the new plan and neighbours are getting worried.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_perma”

The masses were effectively kept out of the big PC94 Personal Computer show at Darling Harbour last week.

Signs said: “”No children under 18 allowed”. And if that was not enough, there was a $15 entry fee. Naturally serious buyers could get free tickets, in the same way serious gamblers get free beer at the casino.

So it was all suits and ties and mobile phones in a great exhibition hall with 300 exhibitors (three of Exhibition Centres five halls were joined for purpose). None the less, having excluded the kids, the sounds were unlike past computer exhibitions. Instead of soothing elevator music being piped homogeneously throughout the hall, a cacophony emerged from competing computer sound and games systems such that it was impossible to hear yourself talk on a mobile phone.

Business and kids stuff dominated the show. Education took back desk. Accountancy packages and games dominated the software displays. We have heard so much about multi-media. Well the junk is coming first. Movies, movies, movies. Games, games, games. And dinosaurs. Pick a movie; click the director; up comes a head shot; and there are all the other films she directed. There are one or two encyclopedias on CD ROM and the birds of Australia and a couple of Atlases. But there is a long way to go on the range of CD ROM books. It’s a pity because keyword and concept searching is a superior way to work, learn and research.
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Some people were putting worthless extensions and renovations on houses in North Canberra’s new development zone, and agents, architects and builders could be sued for not telling them about the changes, according to a landlords’ spokesman.

The president of the ACT Landlords’ Association and a principal of Cotswold Real Estate, Peter Jansen, said yesterday that there was widespread ignorance about changes to the Territory Plan, especially to what is known as the B1 Area. The B1 area is in the Northbourne Avenue corridor and affects about 900 blocks of land. Under the Territory Plan and guidelines that came into effect last week, these blocks can be amalgamated and three-storey units built on them.

Mr Jansen said people were doing renovations and extensions in areas that would be redeveloped. When they sold to developers, however, the price they got would be dependent upon land area; and extension or renovation would be irrelevant.

Builders, agents and architects either did not know or were not telling people about the changes. People misadvised could sue for negligence or breaches of the Trade Practices Act. He called on the ACT Government to advise all affected land owners by letter.
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