Journalism and other writing
The National Party approach on Wik is ignorant, legally unworkable and probably self-defeating. (And that leaves aside the moral question.)
The Nationals want the Commonwealth to legislate to take away native title on pastoral leases.
Native title is a property right. The Constitution (Section 51) says the Commonwealth can legislate for “”the acquisition of property” but only “”on just terms”.
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It was the weekend after the over-turning of the world’s first voluntary euthanasia law.
Twynam is Australia’s third-highest mountain, near Kosciusko, but that is of no moment to this story. And I am afraid that this is a story of great pain and despair, though tempered by times of great hope and happiness.
My wife, Lynne, and I first climbed Twynam on cross-country skis in October 1992 after being driven back by blizzard or rain on two earlier occasions. It was a brave triumph for Lynne.
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The Victorian Supreme Court must now be wondering about the wisdom of interfering last week in the suspension of an AFL player. The court granted an injunction to put on hold a nine-week suspension imposed on Carlton’s Greg Williams. Williams was allowed to run on to the field in the next round of play. And, lo, he was charged again on video evidence from a field umpire for allegedly kneeing an opposing player.
We are seeing the gradual lawyerisation of sport in Australia. It has gone hand-in-hand with the growing commercialisation of sport. Both trends have been unwelcome, but particularly the lawyerisation.
Racing off to court to appeal against tribunal decisions undermines the authority of the tribunal. It can only instill an attitude that with enough money and lawyers players can sneer at the tribunal. Once one player is seen to get a suspension stayed, others will follow, particularly around finals time. And the hopeless inefficiency of the courts is such that a case would only come on after the finals were over.
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The dispute over the placing and naming of an ACT park to mark the sister-city relationship with the Japanese city of Nara should have been completely unnecessary.
There was a failure by the ACT Government to see the national perspective and a failure by national planning authorities to assert it when necessary. More seriously there has been a failure to open processes to enable early objection to proposals so they can be amended without loss of face by politicians and third parties.
Canberra is the national capital. It means that the people of Canberra have to accept that the Federal Parliament and Government, representing the people of Australia, have a role to play, but in the general context of Australia being a democracy, the people of Canberra are entitled to a wide degree of self-determination, especially on matters that directly affect them.
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Sure, judicial independence is important; it underpins of our democracy and is essential to the rule of law. It has virtually been taken for granted in Australia until this week when the chief justices of the state and territory supreme courts issued a declaration of principles asserting the need for greater attention to be paid to their independence.
Why has it come to this?
The judges assert this is the mere putting into writing by Australian judges of the Beijing principles which were adopted by a meeting of chief justices in Beijing in 1995. They say the timing is not linked to recent attacks on the judiciary by members of the executive arm of government.
Continue reading “1997_04_april_judicial for op-ed”