Month: July 1997

Perhaps some of the Scottish and Welsh devolutionists should come on a fact-finding mission to the ACT before they too readily embrace proposals for their own assemblies and law-making capacity as outlined by the British Government last week. Self-government is a wonderful ideal, but unless it is backed with reasonable financial security, all you get is a grumpy electorate and a legislature in an impossible position trying to fulfill great expectations from the wrong side of Micawber’s equation.

In addition to the financial squeeze, the fledgling assemblies will also find themselves in a sovereignty squeeze. On one hand, the Parliament in Westminster seems determined to keep a wide range of powers itself, including some that might reasonably be exercised on a more local level, such as abortion. Apparently, the Westminster MPs were worried that Scotland might take a more restrictive view than in England, but, surely, that’s local democracy. Irrespective of what one might think or feel about the issue, it is one that, if there is to be a Scottish Parliament, should be decided by that Parliament.

On the other hand, the European Community is taking ever greater leaps into legislative and administrative action eroding the national sovereignty of all European countries on matters as diverse as human rights and food standards. That environment makes separate Scottish and Welsh assemblies of less moment.
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So inflation is at a 35-year low. Treasurer Peter Costello, while outwardly pleased, cannot take to much pleasure from the figure yet. True, inflation can only be kept under control by governments willing to be frugal with the money supply and in their own spending. Vote-buying by governments has particularly pernicious effects on inflation. But that is not the whole story.

Inflation is low now because demand is so low that businesses dare not put their prices up. And demand is low because of insecurity in the workforce. With so much restructuring and downsizing people wonder if they will be next. A further cause of the low inflation figure is that declining interest rates have resulted in lower home-mortgage repayments and these payments comprise a significant part of the consumer price index.
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The Howard Government has been accused of not having an industry policy or of making up industry policy on the run. This was exemlified by the one-off decision to slow the reduction in tariffs on imported cars. This week David Mortimer, the managing director and chief executive of transport giant TNT, brought down a report on industry policy. It could have been the base for a coherent industry policy, but its recommendations were far too profligate with taxpayers’ money for political comfort. Moreover, before the ink on the report had dried, key elements of it were rejected by the Government. In particular, the Treasurer, Peter Costello, rejected the setting of a growth target, a recommendation described by Mr Mortimer as pivotal.

In this Mr Costello’s arguments are sound. Merely setting a growth target will not cause it to be achieved. And politically, setting targets is dumb. When they are not met they are ammunition for Oppositions and the media, and when they are met it means little.

There is a more profound problem. Economic growth, of itself, is no guarantee of lower unemployment. And even if it were, economic growth is no guarantee of more fulfilling and happier lives.
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As more detail of Noel Tanzer’s relationship with the ACT Government emerges, it is becoming clear he was not a good choice to do the inquiry into the failed Canberra Hospital implosion.

Mr Tanzer is a former head of the Federal Department of Administrative Services. In that position and others in his 40 odd years of public service in the federal administration he built up considerable expertise in public-sector contracting procedures. In that respect he was eminently qualified to do the inquiry.

But he has been engaged in several other roles by the ACT Government. He was appointed a member of the ACT’s Centenary of Federation Committee. Nothing turns on that. Indeed it shows Mr Tanzer’s community spirit. He is a member of the ACT Remuneration Tribunal. This means he is involved in setting the pay scale of people in the ACT Government, the people whose conduct he will be investigating over the hospital implosion. On its own, this might not matter much. He was also on a committee that oversaw changes to a business unit within the Department of Urban Services between January and June this year. Totalcare, the entity that engaged the contractor to demolish the hospital, does a lot of work that used to be done by Urban Services. The links between independent inquirer and the things being inquired into get stronger.
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The damage done by the secret briefing paper on South Pacific nations and leaders comes not from its content, but from the carelessness that enabled the document to be made public.

Australian officials should make frank assessments about nations with which Australia has dealings, in particular nations which receive large amounts of Australian aid. Australian politicians and bureaucrats need to be aware of anything in receiving that might jeopardise Australia’s aid effort, especially defects in governance. But having made the frank assessments, officials should ensure they remain confidential to those Australian eyes for whom they were made. This, after all, is one of the two fundamentals of diplomacy: to gather information about other countries to help your own, in addition to spreading the good word about your country in other countries.

The damage caused by the publication of details of this document can easily be exaggerated. In some quarters it might show Australia as arrogant, insensitive and intolerant. But in other quarters, including in the Pacific, it will show Australia as perceptive and not a sucker for aid money in dealing with governments which have a lot to do to put their own house in order. A lot of the flak, of course, is that much more vehement to the extent that what the paper says is true. Obviously, the paper is not the official policy of the Australian Government. None the less it will be necessary, and embarrassing, to express that overtly to those governments named.
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A pilot scheme by the Department of Social Security for covert optical surveillance of people who receive social-security benefits carries with it some dangers. The department appears concerned about people getting cash payments for work that should disentitle them for benefits and people getting disability allowances when they do not have the level of incapacity claimed. The impetus for the pilot plan apparently came for departmental staff who felt frustrated that non-covert means are not enough to catch cheats.

It is fine and commendable for the department to be careful about taxpayers’ money. It is also understandable that non-covert means are often not enough to catch cheats. The department cited examples of anonymous tip-offs about cheating that required further evidence, particularly video evidence.

However, there are several important issues. The first is privacy. Before outside contractors are given the job of spying on social security recipients, presumably there must be a trigger of suspicion. If that were not the case, the department would be talking about engaging in very dangerous random acts of surveillance. But if there is a trigger of suspicion, surely that should be enough to call in the Australian Federal Police to investigate. Deliberately taking social security while knowing one is not entitled is a criminal offence. If the department is after these sort of cheats it must first explain how and why ordinary police investigation is inadequate before bringing in private contractors.
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The Federal Government seems neither well-informed nor realistic on questions of regulating the internet, judging by a joint statement on the matter put out by Communications Minister Senator Richard Alston and Attorney-General Daryl Williams this week. They said they “”will encourage the on-line service provider industry to develop codes of practice in relation to on-line content in consultation with the Australian Broadcasting Authority”.

They talked of a regulatory regime to stop things like bomb-making instructions and pornography being available on the internet, saying this was consistent with election promises and ABA recommendations. They acknowledged “”that on-line service providers were often not in a position to be aware of all material transmitted through their service, and cannot be held responsible in every case for material they have not created.”

This statement indicates only a glimmer of understanding about how the internet works. It indicates more strongly that the two politicians want to be seen to be doing something about a widespread, but hopelessly exaggerated, concern about internet nasties.
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Federal Attorney-General Daryl Williams has again expressed his concern about costs and delays in the legal system. He told a conference in Brisbane this week that the “”ordinary, prudent and self-funding litigant” should be the benchmark for the setting of fees. Mr Williams said there was more to the law than running a business and making a profit. There is some merit in this ideal, but the steps needed to achieve it are likely to be difficult.

During his tenure as Attorney-General Mr Williams has recognised that reducing costs to ordinary users of the law cannot be done by throwing money at it. The more money government throws at the legal system, the more it gets soaked up by lawyers. He took the highly unpopular step of restricting Commonwealth legal-aid funding to federal matters, arguing that the states should pick up the rest. The trouble has been, however, that this step has left many people out in the cold.

More change is required within the legal system if costs are to be contained. That cannot be done by the Commonwealth alone.
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The High Court’s judgment this week on freedom of speech is a welcome one on several grounds.

First, it clears away the uncertainty of the past three years arising from the Theophanous case. That case asserted a right to free speech arising directly out of the Constitution, but only on a 4-3 majority. Its authority was undermined when two of the majority left the court, a newcomer questioned its validity and a member of the minority invited the case to be reopened.

Secondly, it asserts a basic right of Australians to receive and disseminate political information. It recognises that in modern Australia government enters so many areas of life that every one has an interest in receiving political information and a correlational duty to disseminate it.
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Citizens of the ACT were put to a lot of unnecessary inconvenience last week when a defamation case before a jury was settled on the morning of the hearing. And the legal system was put to a lot of unnecessary expense, when it has much better things to do.

Justice Deirdre O’Connor was suing over an article in the Weekend Australian. The case a little to do with the ACT, given that the vast bulk of the Weekend Australian’s circulation is outside the ACT and Justice O’Connor does not live here. The case had already taken up a lot of ACT Supreme Court time in argument over whether there should be a jury and other interlocutory matters.

The reason the case was brought here was because the legal advisers of one side thought there would be some advantage to it and that ACT law permitted it. There is not much one can do about the former, but the latter can be altered, particularly in defamation actions.
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