Month: June 1996

THE NATIONAL Capital Planning Authority is set for an overhaul. It seems the Federal Government is softening its anti-Canberra image by boosting tourism and investment activity in the city and the NCPA (to be renamed the National Capital Authority) is to be the vehicle in conjunction with the Territory Government.

The interest in extra tourism and investment is welcome, but it must not be at the expense of the NCPA’s primary function … the planning and preservation of the essential national elements of Canberra. The Federal Government must not walk away from its responsibility to the national capital, particularly this government, which has inherited the Menzies legacy. It should not think that the Territory Government should get a freer rein in the misguided belief that there is unnecessary duplication. There is a national interest here.

The dropping of the word “”planning” from the name is ominous. Though the planning function remains, it could signal an intent to be less active in that area while still fulfilling the statutory requirement.
Continue reading “1996_06_june_leader06jun ncpa”

Foreign Affairs is an easy target for government cuts. There are few votes in foreign aid and even fewer in foreign representation. And so it appears that the Government is about to cut some $400 million from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Budget.

Among the soft targets appear to be export development schemes and targeted aid that help medium-size Australian companies. Another target, apparently offered up by the depart to a government likely to be eager to accept, is the international public affairs branch.

The Government should be careful that its cuts are not counter-productive. It cannot at once proclaim that Australian needs to be more export-oriented and then destroy crucial assets that help Australia project itself overseas. The information branch brings knowledge about Australia to people overseas in a way that cannot be done as effectively as diplomats unfamiliar with the ways of the media. Its immediate effectiveness is hard to gauge and in the short-term might not be missed. In the long term, however, the absence of its groundwork will make commercial work in trade and tourism that much more difficult.
Continue reading “1996_06_june_leader05jun foreign aid”

Making ACT home-building more energy-efficient is going to be a harder task than promulgating a four-star energy rating. A wholesale change of attitude in the industry is required. And, according to architect Peter Overton, it is not happening. Builders are continuing to knock up three-bedroom, brick veneers in much the same way as they used to, with a few extras to meet the energy standard. The mindset appears to be that the four-star rating is a nuisance and bare minimum compliance is the aim. The focus is almost totally on cost.

A large problem is the first-home market where any deviation from the standard home incurs extra cost, and the standard home is not an energy efficient one. Chipboard floors, single glazing, standard floorplans irrespective of orientation on the block, and so on, result in energy inefficient houses. They also result in large heating bills, but as they are first, not to be lived in long, the buyers, like the builders do not care.

In the long run, of course, the whole community suffers through the long-term inefficiency. It is a good example of how the marketplace does not deliver the most efficient use of resources. Rather the marketplace provides the cheapest house, not the most efficient one.
Continue reading “1996_06_june_leader house energy”

Speaker Wahono of the Indonesian Parliament called publicly this week for greater democracy.

Last week, the former head of internal security, retired general Soemitro said publicly that the next president should be a young civilian.

The week before, a former head of the Department of Defence, General Hasnan Habib publicly attacked one of President Suharto’s babies … the security treaty with Australia.

There is widespread debate, both public and private, in Indonesia about the succession to the presidency given Suharto’s term expires in 1998 when he will be 76.

Dissent and debate, up to a point, is tolerated. The precise definition of that point, however, is not clear. Tough criticism of the Army or the financial affairs of the first family is not on. It can result in a newspaper’s licence being suspended or cancelled, or an individual journalist’s licence being cancelled. Outside the press, it can result in jail terms, as evidenced by the 34-month term (under appeal) imposed on expelled MP Sri Bintang Pamungkas for calling President Suharto a dictator. Sri Bintang could well argue that the jail term became a self-proving event. Moreover, his assertion was further confirmed when he announced that he was establishing a new political party only to be met with the official response that the Constitution does not permit another political party beyond the existing three … Suharto’s Golkar, which always gets between 60 and 70 per cent of the vote, and PKI and PPP which share the rest.
Continue reading “1996_06_june_indonesia op-ed”

IT WAS not possible. The bus stopped for even more people to get on. Where would they fit? There were now 96 people on the bus, according to my best count. There were boxes with chooks in them, chooks without boxes, mothers with babies, babies without mothers, people smoking and not smoking, bags, rags, people asleep and people who could not sleep.

This was an ekonomi bus on the most densely populated island on earth … Java. And they were nearly all smiling.

Lonely Planet, the guidebook every white pair of hands carries in Indonesia (and every other country come to that), warned not to travel ekonomi train or bus because they are too crowded. Moreover, for a tiny amount extra you can travel ekspres with a guaranteed seat, with no-one standing or crowding and no stops.

But, by accident and force of circumstance, my wife, Lynne, and I travelled ekonomi in both bus and train, in a journey from Jakarta to the great Buddhist ancient temple of Borobudur near Yogyakarta … via Bogor, Puncak Pass, Garut, Papadayan volcano and Tasikmalaya (see map).
Continue reading “1996_06_june_indon ekonomi to borobudur”

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving.

Othello.

Shakespeare’s assessment is far better than the lofty words of defamation lawyers who declare that reputation is more important than anything. After two centuries, though, the view that puts reputation on a pedestal and prices it with huge damages awards is becoming less widely held.

Last week at a defamation conference run by the Free Speech Committee, the ACT Attorney-General, Gary Humphries, took an interesting line as a throwaway teaser amid more serious questions of reforms proposed in NSW.

Humphries said that the right to a good name must be very low on the list of human rights.

When one considers the right to be free from arbitrary arrest, to sue if someone negligently injures you, the right to sue for breach of contract, the right to obtain divorce, the right to marry and so on, the right to reputation is fairly small beer.

Humphries said if there is no progress towards sensible defamation laws with effective correctional remedies and which are cheap to apply, why should we have defamation laws at all. If it is all too expensive, ties up public courts and serves on the very rich, why not abolish the right to sue for loss of reputation? Humphries, somewhat tongue in cheek, suggested that instigating defamation proceedings was more a privilege (for the rich) rather than a right. He thought that the Internet, where anyone can publish sting and counter-sting in robust debate, would obviate the need to have a defamation law at all and that the courts could be freed up to deal with more important rights.
Continue reading “1996_06_june_defo reform”

The single compulsory third-party insurer in the ACT, the NRMA, has announced a 7 per cent increase in premiums. The increase was approved by the ACT Government after independent advice, and in the context of the present system, it seems reasonable enough.

Registering a car in the ACT will be $17 more expensive from July 1, but

still cheaper than in NSW, after the NRMA announced yesterday a 7 per cent

hike in compulsory third party premiums for private vehicles.

The rise, from $252 to $269, takes the total cost of registering a car in

the ACT to $480. The ACT Government approved the increases after independent

expert advice agreed the rates were appropriate.
Continue reading “1996_06_june_column11jun tpi”

The similarity between euthanasia laws and guns goes beyond the mere fact that they both kill people.

The two issues are classic examples of the democratic gulf: where large and clear majorities of the Australian population favour one thing but their political representatives refuse to give it to them … at least until now, and then only piecemeal, begrudgingly.

Polls show consistently that large majorities do not want automatic and semi-automatic weapons and probably that they do not want any firearms of any sort in cities and towns, other than for police.

Polls show consistent majorities for the proposition that people in pain with terminal illnesses should be able to have a doctor assist them end their life at a time of their choosing, so they can end the pain and die in dignity, provided there is proper consent and cooling-off arrangements.

Legislatures have refused to act until very recently. It took the massacre of 35 people in Tasmania for them even to think about guns, and it took the ghastly death of the mother of a very popular Chief Minister in the Northern Territory whose word largely became law before a euthanasia law was passed.
Continue reading “1996_06_june_citizen’s init”

From a distance, through the clutter of houses and roadside stalls, it looks like a hill covered in rocks and short trees. Closer, the “”trees” are better defined. They are stupas … stone constructions … at the top of Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple on earth, in central Java.

It is strange that it should have been built at the very fringe of Buddhism’s influence, not its centre, and that shortly after its completion in 830AD, after 70 years of construction, it was neglected, became overgrown and buried, not to be disturbed for almost a thousand years.

Around it today are hundreds of traders who hound foreign tourists with the usual range of carved models, whistles, cloth, hats, drinks and guides.
Continue reading “1996_06_june_borobudur and prambanan”

In layman’s terms Barry Hart has been completely done over by the medical and legal professions.

On February 28, 1973 he walked into Chelmsford Private Hospital. Two weeks later he woke up with double pneumonia, pleurisy, deep vein thrombosis and anoxic brain damage. He had been given deep-sleep therapy and electric shock treatment against his will.

Last week the NSW Court of Appeal brought down a judgment against him with costs. He is left broken, heavily in debt on the verge bankruptcy, his life in tatters. The brain damage was not immobilising, but with the other injuries enough to prevent employment.

On the other hand, his psychiatrist, Dr John Herron, who the Royal Commission described as “”manipulative both as a witness and as a person” and who administered at Chelmsford a “”thoroughly dangerous” treatment that killed and injured people, is still practising. Counsel assisting the commission, Brian Donovan, QC, said the evidence was capable of sustaining manslaughter charges against Herron.
Continue reading “1996_06_june_barry hart”