Month: November 1994

There has been only one tender for each of the three trunk-route service stations reserved for independents _ Burmah Oil, the existing Canberra independent, according to industry and other sources.

Tenders closed on Wednesday. Apparently some late tenders also came in.

The office of the Attorney-General and Consumer Affairs, Terry Connolly, said the tenders were a planning matter. The office of the Minister for Planning, Bill Wood, said tender information could not be divulged.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_petrol”

The Government, through Communications Minister Michael Lee, says there will be competition in both services delivery and in the means of delivering them.

There had obviously been some confusion about earlier government statements about preferential treatment for the new carriers. The Government’s position was that the owner of a new cable network would be able to restrict access to their networks by other operators for five years to enable them to get up and running.

Until Lee’s statement this week, the Government had been silent on how many carriers would be permitted in one area.

Lee’s statement prompted Optus to say that unless the Government gives it a monopoly it will now dump is $5 billion plan and buy space on the Telecom network.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_paytv26”

The ACT Government lost up to $15 million by allowing the private sector to develop the Gungahlin suburb of Palmerston, according to three academics who won a planning award for their work last night.

The academics say that, alternatively, the Government could have cut the cost of land by about $9000 a block.

The academics agree with the ACT Government’s position of taking a greater role in greenfields development by moving from privatisation to more joint ventures. But they say the Government could take the whole thing over.

That would result in better returns to government for turning rural land to urban or alternatively could result in lower prices. It could also help improve housing quality.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_neutze”

The British and Australian Governments have been called upon to start high-level talks on helping the 10,000 child migrants who were brought to Australia after the war as part of a populate-Australia-with British stock scheme.

The plight of the migrants became publicly known seven years ago with press and television programs, but governments and the responsible charities had done little to help. Many of the migrants still did not have birth certificates or got close to reunion with relatives, and many were still suffering social dysfunction.

The head of the Child Migrants Trust, author and social worker Margaret Humphreys, said this week that the children, mostly in their 50s “”are facing reunions in Britain at gravesides, if at all, because of lack of money”.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_migrants”

It has taken the ACT Government a long time to recognise the fundamental flaws in its planning policy. It did so yesterday in its response to the Landsdown report on urban renewal. It did so in the face of concerted community pressure which should not be mistaken for selfish anti-development NIMBYs. Most of those community groups have said consistently that they have no objection to in-fill or urban renewal provided it is done well. To date all the evidence is that too often it is done badly, which helps neither the efficiency of the city nor its environmental, heritage or aesthetic qualities. Further, the recent land glut in Canberra shows that much of the urban renewal push has been unnecessary _ driven by greed rather than need.

Yesterday, the government backed away from its 50-50 greenfields-renewal policy and its policy of prima facie allowing multi-occupancy throughout Canberra provided the building is within the footprint.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_leadernov22”

It was a small matter about staff, but the response was telling.The Minister for Planning, Bill Wood, was asked at his press conference yesterday whether he would increase staff at the ACT Planning Authority, as recommended by the Landsdown inquiry.

“”I wouldn’t dare pre-empt what the Government might say,” he replied.

Hang on a moment, this was the Minister who momemts before had issued a written response to the Landsdown report laced with the use of the first person singluar.

“”I have accepted the vast majority of the review’s recommendantions,” his statement said. “”However, I have added a number of other elements . . . .” etc.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_landscom”

A glut of building land in the ACT has caused the ACT Government to tighten supply by delaying some of its greenfields joint ventures.

The move was welcomed by the Master Builders Association yesterday but criticised by the Opposition, an Independent and an umbrella community group as evidence that the Government’s in-fill program has been unnecessary.

The Minister for Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, said two greenfields developments involving about 800 blocks would be postponed for five months.

He said the increase in interest rates, lower population migration into the ACT and a large jump in completed but unoccupied houses required steps to reduce the amount of land coming on to the market.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_landglut”

This is a tale about the big picture and the small picture.

Paul Keating likes pulling the levers and looking at the big picture.

When Treasurer he used interest rates as one of his main levers, though many economists would argue he should have used the steering wheel of reduced government spending for more controlled driving of the national economy.

It appears the Federal Government is at it again, using interest rates as its main lever of economic control.

The Government obviously thinks the squeals from voters who might lose from cuts in government programs are louder than the squeals of voters who lose from higher interest rates.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_interest”

The Federal Opposition called yesterday for voluntary voting.

The call came in a minority report by coalition members of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters.

They argued that compulsory voting was undermining efforts to prevent electoral fraud and it should be abolished.

The committee was reporting on the 1993 election. Most of its recommendations were unanimous and technical, usually concentrating on machinery matters to make elections and the count go smoother _ perhaps suggesting the state of Australian democracy is reasonably healthy.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_elect”

The ACT Electoral Commission is to launch a major education program tomorrow for the lead up to the February 18 election.

The campaign starts with a letter-box drop of all ACT households by Australia Post with addressed mail tomorrow and Friday. It will be followed by a series of newspaper and television advertisements.

The commission faces the task of explaining to about 180,000 voters the new elements of the ACT voting system: three electorates; Hare-Clark; Robson rotation.

(subs bold) Three electorates: (end bold) Voters will vote for candidates in one of three electorates: Molonglo, Ginninderra or Brindabella (see below for the suburbs in each electorate). On election day voters can go to a booth anywhere in the ACT all of which will be able to take votes for all three electorates, though the commission prefers people vote in their own electorate. There will be a polling booth at Bateman’s Bay on the day.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_elect30”