Month: July 1994

The age of government paper-shuffling is drawing to a close.

The Australian Government Publishing Service announced last week a major electronic publishing development and there are signs of greater E-mail use in government and greater public demands on government to accept e-mail as a standard way of doing business.

The AGPS announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Canberra-based SoftLaw Corporation for electronic publishing within government.

At present most departments have four or five critical internal-use publications which are forever being updated. They are usually one or more Acts of Parliament, some regulations, a set of head of department’s instructions and perhaps a manual or two on how the department administers its Acts.
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The new seat, made necessary because the ACT’s population had grown faster than the national average, was carved out of the two existing seats, Fraser and Canberra, which at the last election were had the most (94,000) and second-most (90,000) electors in Australia.

The two existing seats were safe Labor seats, but it was thought that the new seat might be a possibility for the Liberals if the carve up was right because some of the inner south suburbs of the affluent and well-heeled are more likely to vote Liberal.

Last week the electoral redistribution committee for the ACT published its proposed names and boundaries for the new seats. Objectors have until July 27 to lodge an objection. Objections will be considered by an augmented committee.
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Schools are in danger of being by-passed by the information super-highway, according to Apple’s managing director in Australia, Steve Vamos.

He identified the need for more and better hardware, attitude changes, resolution of copyright issues, ease of use and reasonable costs if schools were to benefit from the IT revolution.

Computer ratios of one in 10 or 20 students were not enough, he said. Students needed individual access and access out of school hours and beyond the school walls. Otherwise the information highway would pass Australians schools by.

“”Many schools still cannot share information between classes, let alone between districts or countries,” he told the “”Information Highway and Australian Schools” conference in Sydney last week.

Beyond hardware, though, he warned that information overload could be a problem.
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The electronic law market is about to get more competitive and better for consumers.

Lawyers and others who use Commonwealth statutes and case reports are likely to be beneficiaries of a government project designed to bring the law to the people.

The Attorney-General’s Department has put its Scale service into Australian Government Publishing Service shops for people to browse Commonwealth statutes, regulations and court judgments for nothing. There will be a formal opening of the service soon (when the pollies come back from the winter break most likely).

However, SCALE is virtually unusable by the new generation of computer users who demand point-and-click. The department has let a tender to put a friendly Windows, Mac and DOS face on it so ordinary mortals can find the law on cheques, social security, native title or whatever.
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Townhouse development in Old Red Hill should be stopped, a heritage consultant to the ACT Government, Professor Ken Taylor.

Professor Taylor recommended the Territory Plan be amended with the aim of protecting Old Red Hill’s cultural heritage significance.

Some residents welcomed the report yesterday but were concerned that the Heritage Council’s draft citation based on the report was vague and could permit townhouses and multi-resident dwellings.
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The Territory Plan, which became law late last year, has changed the fabric of residential land tenure in the ACT: the market, development opportunities and residential amenity.

Initially, the plan was greeted with silent acclaim by developers and ostrich-like apathy by all but a few residents.

Before the plan, land uses were fairly rigid. People in single-dwelling areas could, by and large, expect the housing profile of their suburb to stay the same. People were more worried about vacant land being built upon than by existing houses being demolished for units.

The Territory Plan changes that. It allows existing single-dwelling blocks to become two-storey multiple-dwelling blocks and for the title to be divided. Everywhere in the ACT. The only limit was to meet footprint criteria, including set-back and plot ratios.
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Now is the time to buy; prices are soon to go up. Unless you are selling, in which case now is the time to sell; there are plenty of buyers for your area now, but they won’t last.”

That is the real-estate industry view of the Canberra residential market between, say, 1913 and through to the indefinite future.

But what is really happening in the Canberra residential market now?

There are several influences. First, the rest of Australia coming out of recession is starting to have a significant impact. Second, a major fragmentation of the market. Third, in-fill.
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An early electoral test of republican issue will come in February’s ACT election, following this week’s thinly disguised threat to Liberal leader Kate Carnell by constitutional monarchists.

The major parties federally will be able to see whether the issue carries much weight with voters. And republicans may get some joy out of the risky target the monarchists have chosen.

The chair of ACT council of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, Alan Fitzgerald, wrote to Ms Carnell saying the council “”has a membership now approaching 750 persons (double that of the Liberal Party) each of whom, together with their adult family members, will be entitled to vote in the coming ACT elections.”
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The system of annual government inspection of cars for registration in the ACT is likely to be scrapped, following the removal of any political opposition.

A consultants’ report to the Department of Urban Services has recommended its replacement with a system of stronger random checking and checking on ownership transfer.

Independent Michael Moore said yesterday that annual inspections should be scrapped and the money used for more effective road-safety measures. He based his conclusion on a South Australian report saying checks could not be justified.
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Mine comes from the early 1970s when I took a car over the ACT pits for the first time _ a NSW-registered Morris Minor. I had just bought it for $180. There was a lot of scratching a jabbing underneath and then a sickening crunch of metal as the blade of large screwdriver appeared between my legs.

I was young, indigent and naive. Nearby convenient Dodgy Brothers mechanics shops awaited the rejectees. It cost more to weld the rust than the car cost in the first place. Welcome to Canberra.

I was incensed then, but grateful now.
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