Month: May 1997

The practice of journalism as we (unfortunately) know it is at stake.

Lawyers from nearly every state and territory and every media organisation in the land are arguing the heady constitutional questions of freedom of speech in the High Court this week. At question is whether the 1994 Theophanous case granting a form of guarantee of freedom of political speech should be overturned.

On the sidelines, states-rights conservative politicians are talking about how the High Court has usurped the Constitution by finding implied rights in the document to strike out parts of state defamation laws.
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Lawyers from nearly every state and territory are arguing the heady constitutional questions of freedom of speech in the High Court this week. At question is whether the 1994 Theophanous case should be overturned.

On the sidelines states rights and the role of the High Court and the Constitution are being debated.

But there is more at stake: the way journalism is practised in Australia.
Continue reading “1997_05_may_oz and age version theophanous”

Robert Menzies was always cheerful, if somewhat bombastic, in his writings.
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Prime Minister John Howard has announced details of the constitutional convention to deal with the question of if and when Australia should become a republic and what sort of republic it should be.

Mr Howard has been sensible enough to exclude from the convention non-republic issues, such as the federal-state balance, firearms, bills of rights and the like which can easily side-track the essential purpose of the convention.

None the less, the convention is unlikely to solve the essential chicken-an-egg problem that the republic issue poses for the Australian people.
Continue reading “1997_05_may_leader29mar repub convention”

The Federal Government gets the chance to fill two High Court vacancies in the near future. Sir Daryl Dawson has decided to retire this year and early next year the Chief Justice Sir Gerard Brennan turns 70 and is forced to retire under provisions of the Constitution that came in to force in 1977.

Incidentally, one might lament the passing of that referendum question. Previously High Court judges were appointed for life. This paper was on of the few papers who argued against it. Two chief justices, Sir Harry Gibbs and Sir Anthony Mason were forced to retire under its provisions. Since they retired both have shown they have an enormous amount to contribute and both could easily have remained on the Bench.

There has been a great deal of discussion recently about the High Court. It has been accused of unwarranted activism; of deciding cases on social and policy values rather than strict legalistic reasoning; of finding implied terms in the Constitution that are discernible on a strict reading of the words; of extending central power by interpreting the powers of the Commonwealth very widely and so on.
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The Federal Government has taken an unwelcome paternalistic view on whether union dues can be deducted directly from public servants’ pay packets.

The Department of Industrial Relations has sent a memo to all departments recognising that unions can constructively contribute to workplace relations, “Accordingly, the Government has decided, so long as unions act responsibly in the workplace, that access by individual unions to payroll deduction of union dues will continue.”

If you don’t eat your brussel spouts you can’t have any ice-cream.
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A glimmer of rationality has appeared on the question of funding public hospitals. ACT Chief Minster Kate Carnell has suggested that the one-off 0.2 per cent extra Medicare levy raised to buy back weapons continue in force to fund public hospitals.

It may result in cynicism about broken promises, but the fact is public hospitals need extra money. There is a limit to the effectiveness of efficiency dividends, privatisations, corporatisations and the like. After a time it is necessary to put real dollars into public health if we are to maintain high standards of health (world’s best practice, as the management gurus say) in Australia in the face of an aging population and better and more expensive medical technology.

One of the reasons we seek a better economic performance must surely be so that we can have better health care.
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Independent MLA Paul Osborne has called for a more open system of freedom of information. He says he has been trying to get a redraft of the Freedom of Information Act before the Assembly since 1995. Under the present system, he says, getting information out of the ACT Government is like trying to track down an X File.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of truth in what Mr Osborne says, not only in the ACT, but also federally and in the other states. Freedom of information Acts have become more costly and difficult to use. The trouble is that legislative change may not help much. The ease of extracting information from government is as more a test of bureaucratic and political attitude than legal provision. If bureaucrats and government politicians do not want information to go out, they will stretch the exemptions granted under the law to their utmost, fighting requests in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the courts if necessary.

If, on the other hand, a bureaucrat wants information to come out, they will be very helpful. Indeed, the FOI Act is often used as a legal means for whistle-blowing bureaucrats to get information into the public domain. They do not have to leak the document in question; just leak the fact that it is there and that an FOI request would not be resisted.
Continue reading “1997_05_may_leader17mar foi”

He hails from Snowy River, up by Kosh-choosh-ko’s side . . .

And down by Kosh-choosh-ko, where the pine clad ridges raise . . .

Paterson would turn in his grave at the proposal by the NSW Geographical Names Board to revert to the “”correct” Polish spelling and pronunciation of Polish patriot General Tadeusz Kosciuszko, with an acute accent over the first s, for the name of Australia’s highest mountain.
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The writ of venditioni exponas is a blot on the jurisprudence of the ACT. It a weapon of injustice and should be expunged.

As with all Latin phrases, there is an English translation. Venditioni exponas means expose for sale. It is a writ taken out against people with debts to sell their property. It was taken out against a Canberra couple recently for payment of a $4600 debt. Their $250,000 house was exposed for sale and fetched $75,000 at an “”auction”.

The outrage by the couple who house was sold resulted in a scene of anger and violence and resulted last week in the conviction of the woman for resisting arrest.
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