Month: July 1997

The Australian Reserve Bank appears to be taking heed of the proverb “”all that glitters is not gold”. The bank sold two-thirds of its 247 tonnes of gold reserve last week in order to re-invest the gains into other official reserve assets, notably foreign currencies. It follows similar large-scale sales by other central banks. It caused the world price of gold to fall and caused gold stocks in Australia, one of the largest producers of gold, to fall quite dramatically.

The sale highlights the nature of all markets. That they rely on confidence of assets holders and willingness of buyers. If gold slips further in the next few months, the Reserve will be seen as having done the smart thing. If the Australian dollar appreciates, however, the Reserve will be seen as having acted foolishly. But its actions should not be judged with hindsight.

It is a bitter pill for Australian miners, but a temporary one. The fact is that gold has not served the very functions that reserve banks hoard it for: as a stabiliser and as a hedge against inflation. The price of gold has fluctuated quite markedly in the past decade or so: from a low in 1895 of $US284, to a high of $US416 in February last year.
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An election eight months away is the most charitable explanation for the sudden change in emphasis on drug policy by Labor health spokesman Wayne Berry.

Hitherto, Labor, the Liberals, the Greens and one of the two independents had given support to a trial to provide heroin to registered addicts. True, they had done so with varying levels of qualification, but there was no concerted dissent.

Now Mr Berry has used the trial to assert what he hopes to be a vote catching message that the Liberals are soft on drugs. He has called for an expensive education campaign to encourage young people to say no to drugs. He hopes, of course, that his grand-standing will play on the fears on some ill-informed people who will change their vote on this issue.
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Telstra has proposed again to charge for directory-assistance calls. In a proposal that went to the Government yesterday, phone users who dial directory assistance to find a number correctly listed in their local White Pages would be charged 50 cents.

The last time Telstra proposed this, it was howled down, because people looked at the proposal too superficially, rather than in detail. In doing so they got the picture wrong. They thought about the aged and infirm and other residential users being stung for a service that should come as a matter of course when renting a phone. However, it is more likely to be mobile phone users (often well off) and the lazy (as likely to be fit and young as older infirm) who use directory assistance.

When Telstra’s proposal is viewed in detail it seems more than fair.
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We came to the lake like tens of thousands of Canberrans with mixed emotions.

We came for the spectacle, the carnival, the wow-ee of a building collapsing before us. We were in a unit on the 16th floor of Capital Tower.

In our group several had been born at the hospital. We had experienced hope and fear there. We thought about our lives and those of people close to us. Motor-cycle accidents; births; disease and death. We thought about chance.
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Aprofound feeling of guilt pervades Canberra this week. It arises from a wondering of how and why we could have been led to take part in the events of Sunday. And take part we did, just by being there to watch.

We now have a knowledge that, for a long time to come, every time we cross Commonwealth Avenue the beauty of the scene will be tainted.

The guilt is compounded. Every parent who took a child to the lake of Sunday feels they could have been endangering their child.
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Labor appears to be holding a threat to the Government over a double dissolution.

This came out in the weekend banter between Opposition Industrial Relations spokesman Bob McMullan and the Minister for Industrial Relations, Peter Reith.

The threat is the Hanson factor and it may give Labor more resolve to block things than we have seen recently with the back-flip by Kim Beazley with the work-for-the-dole scheme.
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Accordingly, this court should now declare that each member of the Australian community has an interest in disseminating and receiving information, opinions and arguments concerning government and political matters that affect the people of Australia. The common convenience and welfare of Australian society are advanced by discussion — the giving and receiving of information — about government a political matters.

With these words the seven High Court judges laid down once and for all yesterday a constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech in Australia. It is not absolute, but it is constitutional and it is a guarantee because the court ruled that no state, territory or federal parliament can take it away.

It is an historic moment for freedom of speech.
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My street runs east-west. In the 1960s when one was judged by the size of one’s house, rather than its quality, it was important to put the breadth of the house facing the street to at least give the appearance of a large house. So my front windows face west and the back windows face east.

Only two tiny windows face north. This is especially noticeable in July.

How I wish some giant scoop could pick the whole house up and turn it 90 degrees so all those western windows could face north. Too bad if only a narrow side faces the street.
Continue reading “1997_07_july_architects”