Month: January 1995

While everyone is carrying on about the information super-highway, a quieter revolution is taking place in information technology which may have just as a profound influence on humans as social animals. This is the gathering together of information about people from dozens of different public sources and putting it on easily accessible CD-ROMs. In the 1960s we talked about the global village because of the telephone and air-transport. The gathering of personal information on CD-ROM makes the nation a village _ in the sense that the village is a hot bed of gossip and a marketplace. The amount of public information about individuals is astounding. In disparate form it is of no moment. Collected, it is valuable and perhaps dangerous.

A Melbourne company, Oracle Library Service, is already doing this and has 2.5 million Australians on its biographical list. Oracle keeps personal and credit information separate and does not give it out without permission. However, the computer technology is getting so good that there is nothing stopping other companies from building up databases of personal, public information. Some examples. Names in newspaper articles. Several major papers are on CD now anyway, so the collection is even easier. Royal commission reports are easily scanned in. Searching names in the book form is hopeless; searching for names in CD form is a breeze. Other include: professional body disciplinary proceedings, criminal and civil court reports, bankruptcies, ICAC, Queensland’s Criminal Justice Commission, the Australian Securities Commission companies database, Who’s Who (only available in book form) could easily be scanned in, electoral rolls, phone books, the Commonwealth and State Directories of the several thousand senior and middle-rank public servants, dictionaries of biography, authors from bibliographies, press releases, Vice-Regal notices. And so it goes on. As time goes on more information is stored electronically and searching capacity improves. It will not be long before huge range of people will have access to very detailed information about millions of Australians. Debt-collectors, marketers, politicians, journalists, lawyers, recruiting agencies, credit providers and police will be able to get information very quickly which previously required memory. “”Wasn’t he named adversely in the Stuart Royal Commission?” “”Didn’t he go bust a while ago?” It may not seem to matter much. So what if someone can access huge amounts of detail quickly? Indeed, there may be a bonus that the electronically archived material is more accurate than memory.
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The ACT Government has built part of a pilot storm-water recycling plant over land designated in the National Capital Plan as an extension of Ginninderra Drive. Federal law requires the ACT not to do anything inconsistent with the National Capital Plan which is administered under Federal law. Moore Independent candidate for Molonglo said the ACT Government was using stealth closing off the Ginninderra extension which would help ease traffic in North Canberra suburbs The Minister for Planning, Bill Wood, said yesterday that the joint parliamentary committee on the ACT had recommended against the extension in 1991 and the Federal Government had accepted that, even though the plan had not formally been changed. Mr Dunstone accused the Government of using stealth instead of public processes. Also the housing development at Yowani would make it more difficult to extend Ginninderra Drive from where it presently ends at Mouat Street through to Northbourne Avenue. He thought this a better option than permitting Belconnen traffic to go along Mouat Street and other residential streets. Traffic claming measures were band-aids, often creating problems and noise for residents as heavy traffic tried to negotiate S-bends, roundabouts and humps. Mr Wood said that the 1991 recommendation was made as part of the Gungahlin External Transport Study which had received 60 submissions and had engaged in public hearings. The committee recommended that traffic calming begin immediately and the Federal Government supported that but noted it was an ACT responsibility. Four years later no traffic calming has been constructed in affected streets in adjacent Lyneham and O’Connor. Residents groups have complained to the ACT Government about it.

The Federal Government said also in its response that it would seek an amendment to the National Capital Plan, which requires a public consultation process. Four years later, no steps have been taken.

The Minister for Urban Services, David Lamont, said yesterday that letter from the accountants of the La Grange in Franklin Street had put the lie to Opposition statements that red tape had prevented the closure of Franklin Street for New Year’s Eve. Mr Lamont said the letter from Bates and Pickering endorsed the Government’s position that the street only be closed with the agreement of traders themselves _ something which the owners of La Grange and Opposition Leader Kate Carnell had failed to secure. He issued a copy of the undated letter seeking withdrawal of the request for temporary closure because of inability to get the public-liability insurance of $10 million per incident required by the department; failure by traders to give firm undertakings to meet the costs of closure leaving the Grange to be saddled with the costs; some traders reversing their position and being openly hostile to the closure; the requirement by the department made on December 21 for portable toilets to be installed. Mr Lamont said the letter had noted that departmental officers had been helpful. Mrs Carnell said that in fact the letter supported her position that the traders had been happy to have the street temporarily closed on New Year’s Eve if it could be done cheaply and easily by putting up some barricades, getting some security staff and cleaning up any mess. Once the department had started insisting on costly and unrealistic public-liability insurance and for portable toilets of course some of the traders changed their minds. Red tape had prevented the orderly closure of the street around 6pm. The proof of her position was that the police had had to close the street before midnight for public-safety reasons in any event. They had done so without public-liability insurance and without portable toilets, and had done it in the face of likely political flak because they knew the Government was opposed to a closure. The traders had only wanted closure for public safety and to generate a fun atmosphere without cars; they had not wanted to increase their licence areas.

Attorney-General Terry Connolly has acknowledged several ACT agencies have not responded within Freedom of Information Act deadlines to requests for access to documents about the Vitab affair. The requests were made by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Tony De Domenico, who said the $3.5 million payout by the ACT was a significant amount and more details should be made public. Mr Connolly said that under the Act the failure to met the deadline would be deemed to be a refusal for access. He thought that much of the request would have been refused in any event because the information was commercial-in-confidence. The delay had been caused by collating three FOI requests into one. Mr De Domenico could appeal the deemed refusal. Mr Connolly said he thought it inconsistent for the Liberals to be talking about openness in the light or recent events. Mr De Domenico said the ratepayers of the ACT had the right to know how their $3.5 million had been spent. Unless the Government released the information “”you could presume they have something to hide”.

Ending the use of drinking water to water Parliament’s lawns, an ACT population and growth study, native fauna corridors, a charge on plastic bags at shops and a ban on battery hens are among a comprehensive log of claims for the next Assembly made public yesterday by the Canberra Conservation Council. The Public Service should end provision of cars and parking fees as part of pay packages, the log said. The log ranged across 11 policy areas including nature conservation, air and water, planning, transport, waste and animal welfare.

The president of the council, Jacqui Rees, called also for the replacement of “”the undesirable system of patronage through ministerial appointment to government bodies” with a system of public nomination and vetting of appointments. On water, the council wanted lake water, grey water and storm water to be used for public place park watering, especially in the Triangle. It called for schemes to encourage reuse of waste water at private dwellings. It said the ACT should seek full membership on the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. On air, it sought air testing for benzene and other compounds in unleaded fuel; enforcement of penalties on excess pollution from fuel-burning heaters and stoves; encouragement of firewood plantations; mandatory public disclosure of excess pollution levels. “”Growth” should be replaced by sustainability as the imperative for planning and as a goal for industry.
Continue reading “1995_01_january_environ”

The result of the ACT election will not be known until at least a week after the vote _ due to the nature of ACT electoral law and the nature of the electorate.The result in the final seat in each electorate is expected to be known on the night of Saturday, February 25, or on March 3 by the latest.

On election night _ February 18 _ the ACT Electoral Commission will count only first-preferences. But more than 95 per cent of them will be counted on the night, unlike Federal elections where only 85 per cent are counted.

This is because the bulk of out-of-area voting in the ACT will be recorded as ordinary votes. People can cast an ordinary vote at a polling booth in any of the three electorates, irrespective of which electorate they are enrolled in. In Federal elections, these are out of area votes and because of verification procedures cannot be counted on the night.
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The count is done on a exhaustive quota preferential system. Individual candidates with quotas on the first count are elected. In Molonglo the quota is 12.5 per cent of the vote and it is 16.6 per cent in the other two seats. Any over quota surplus for elected candidates is distributed according to preferences. This is done by distributing all the elected candidates’ ballot papers, but they will be transferred at a reduced value to account for the percentage of them used to elect the candidate. If that distribution gives any candidates a quota they are elected and again surpluses are transferred. If after all the surpluses have been distributed, vacancies remain, the candidate with the lowest vote is excluded and his or her ballot papers are distributed according to preferences. It is likely that the last one or two seats in each electorate will be decided on preferences and the others will be decided by distributed surpluses among the major-party candidates. The suburbs in the three electorates are as follows:

Ginninderra: Aranda, Belconnen, Bruce, Charnwood, Cook, Dunlop, Evatt, Florey, Flynn, Fraser, Giralang, Hall, Hawker, Higgins, Holt, Kaleen, Latham, Lawson, MacGregor, Macquarie, McKellar, Melba, Page, Scullin, Spence, Weetangera.
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Please ensure last sentence stays in to correct the misimpression. A semantic correction is not enough! The log of conservation claims for Assembly candidates published yesterday was made by the Canberra Conservation Council, not the Greens as stated in the headline. The text was correct. This was a sub-editor’s error. The council does not stand candidates and has a different view on issues such as urban renewal and light rail than the Greens who are standing candidates.

The ACT Opposition promised yesterday to renew all commercial and residential leases free of charge. Opposition Leader Kate Carnell said that, if elected next month, the Liberals would overturn the ACT Government’s decision to charge 10 per cent of unimproved value to renew commercial leases.

Last week the Minister for Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, announced the renewal policy for 99-year and 50-year commercial leases. He said they could be renewed any time in their last 30 years for a payment of 10 per cent of value, provided the land was not needed for public purposes.

Residential 99-year leases can be renewed upon payment of an administrative fee. Mr Wood said that as commercial leases were for profit it was appropriate to charge a renewal fee and it was necessary to preserve Canberra’s leasehold system.
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Ministers of the Crown probably have the direct least training for their than any occupation in the nation. The wonder is not that you get an occasional Collins, Bedall or Kelly, but that there are not more of them.

The most stark illustration of lack of theoretical knowledge of the job of Minister came when Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen was asked during the Fitzgerald inquiry what he understood by the doctrine of separation of powers. He had been a frontbencher for two decades yet did not have a clue. As Premier with a rubber-stamp Parliament he had no need for such a doctrine. He imagined that as the practical power to create or change legislation was his, too, Ministers did not have to bother much about what it said. In theory, the courts interpreted and applied legislation in particular cases and could question executive action made under it. And so the separation of the powers helps prevent tyranny and abuse of power. When, however, one party led by one person gets a majority in a single-house parliament for a long time, the legislative and executive functions and powers tend to fuse. And sometime later parts of the judiciary fall, too. In the future, I suspect we are going to see the doctrine of the separation of powers less easily pushed aside, for several reasons: the composition of parliaments; greater intrusion of federal power; and more active pressure groups. Australia is seeing more minority governments and Upper Houses not controlled by the governing party. It means more legislation has to go through by compromise and watchful non-government MPs do not like legislation that gives Ministers too much power. Legislation tends to have far fewer words like “”The Minister may do X, Y or Z” and more words like “”The Minister (ital) shall (end ital) do X, Y and Z”. Greater federal intrusion comes when the Federal Government wants to make political forays in fields not specified in the Constitution as federal powers. Human rights and the environment are prime examples. It does it is two main ways.
Continue reading “1995_01_january_column30jan”