1998_02_february_how hare clark works

Tom Stoppard’s pearl of wisdom: “”Democracy does not lie in the voting, but in the counting,” said Tom Stoppard.

A simple system does not mean a fair system. Similarly a system that is difficult to understand is not necessarily unfair or should be done away with.

The Hare-Clark system is complex and fair _ if you define fair as providing seats in reasonable proportion to votes and at the same time giving some geographical representation.

It is important in Hare-Clark to number preferences right through the ballot paper so every candidate has a number against him or her. This is because preferences flow not only from excluded minor-party candidates but also from excluded major-party candidates, given each major party puts up five candidates for five seats and cannot possibly win all of them.

The ACT has been divided into three electorates: Ginninderra, based on Belconnen, with five seats; Brindabella, based on Tuggeranong, also with five seats and Molonglo, based in the centre, with seven seats.
Continue reading “1998_02_february_how hare clark works”

1998_02_february_leader08feb flag

The Australian flag is an object of pride and passion for many Australians. Many Australians who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam feel they served under the present flag. Some Australians feel that the Union Jack in the corner expresses a significant part, if not the most significant part, of our history, heritage and culture. These people see no reason to change the present flag.

Other Australians, however, feel that the Union Jack is no longer an appropriate part of our flag. It is not uniquely Australian and in the past 50 years a huge number of migrants have come to Australia for non-British nations. They have added to the heritage and culture of the nation. Indeed, they may have changed it. Moreover, many migrants from the British Isles and their children have made Australia their home and their nation. Many of them feel the Union Jack is no longer appropriate as the second-most or most dominant symbol on the flag.

Many former British colonies which had the Union Jack on their flag have changed their flags to something more symbolic and identifiable of their nation. Canada and Papua New Guinea are good examples. Indeed, the Canadian flag is one of the most instantly recognisable and most elegantly designed flags in the world. Previously, a quarter of the Canadian flag was taken up by the Union Jack.
Continue reading “1998_02_february_leader08feb flag”

1998_02_february_leader05feb us execution

The execution of Karla Faye Tucker in Texas will stain the credibility of the United States in any forum in which it tried to argue about human rights. Tucker, a convicted axe murderer became the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War, after being put to death by lethal injection.

Elements of the execution were sickening, and reflect poorly on both Texas and the United States. Tucker has been in jail for 14 years awaiting execution. It took her several minutes to die. The execution was done by lethal injection which requires an element of medical pre-meditation that defies ethics of anyone associated with medicine or science. The execution was witnessed by members of the victims’ families. Other family members of victims had forgiven her. A grotesque pantomime of supporters of the death penalty were allowed to congregate and cheer outside the jail. In the 14 years she was in jailed she became a changed woman, no longer a drug-addict prostitute. She had repented, pleaded for and expressed genuine remorse.

That she was a woman should not have been an issue. An axe murderer is an axe murderer, male or female.

That she “”found God” was not as significant as the general change in her character. Indeed, the support given to her by two leading right-wing television evangelists, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, was an exercise in hypocrisy because they are otherwise death penalty supporters. Mercy is only available for followers of their brand for religion, apparently.
Continue reading “1998_02_february_leader05feb us execution”

1998_02_february_leader05feb murdoch tax

A vast number of Australian wage-earners and taxpayers will be appalled and disgusted at the news that Rupert Murdoch’s New Corporation is paying an average 7.8 per cent tax on its nearly $2 billion operating profit. The standard company tax rate in the three countries he does most business in, Australian, Britain and the US, is around 30 per cent.

Many wage earners, of course, are paying marginal rates of 30, 40 or nearly 50 per cent. They do not have access to smart legal advice. They expect the system and the politicians and administrators responsible for it to work in a fair way.

News Corp has acted in a perfectly legal manner. But that makes the situation that much more aggravating and frustrating from the wage-earning taxpayers’ point of view. It shows them that their elected politicians have failed them.
Continue reading “1998_02_february_leader05feb murdoch tax”

1998_02_february_leader04feb election funding

Weaknesses in the systems of both federal and ACT electoral funding disclosures have been revealed this week. In the federal sphere, the Liberal Party received a loan of $4.6 million in order to avoid scrutiny from the Australian Electoral Commission, according to Opposition Leader Kim Beazley. Apparently only gifts to parties have to be declared.

In the ACT the Liberal Party received $74,000 in gifts without their source being revealed, according to Independent MLA Michael Moore.

Mr Beazley rightly points out that the loan mechanism does nothing for the integrity of politics. The law insists on declarations of donations to prevent undue influence over government or even the appearance of undue influence.

From a donor’s perspective, donations to political parties may be seen as a method of influencing government. Up to a point that is legitimate. It is not legitimate if the corporate donor is seeking special advantage for that corporation over its competitors or for some special advantage for that corporation alone. It is not legitimate for individual donors to seek such preferment. However, it is legitimate for donors to support a political philosophy on ideological or pragmatic grounds and to provide money to the party that pursues it.
Continue reading “1998_02_february_leader04feb election funding”

1998_02_february_leader02feb iraq

The US has issued its strongest warning yet that it will use force unless Iraq complies fully with UN resolutions requiring it to submit to UN weapons inspectors who have to determine whether Iraq has eliminated all non-conventional weapons. This was part of the terms of the ceasefire which ended the 1991 Gulf War.

Iraq should obey those terms. The trouble is that every time the work of the UN inspection team is interrupted, it gives Iraq the chance to move weapons or move the factories that produce them. It is far too easy to convert facilities from chemical factories that produce things like paint and fertilizer to factors that produce deadly chemical warfare products. The inspection effort has to be continuous.

Given the horror of chemical and biological warfare, it is important that the international community keep up the pressure on Iraq to submit to the inspections. The horror and danger of Iraq possessing these weapons was highlighted by the chief UN weapons inspector, Richard Butler, in an interview he gave to The New York Times in which he said that Iraq had enough biological weapons to “”blow away Tel Aviv, or wherever”.
Continue reading “1998_02_february_leader02feb iraq”

1998_02_february_leader02feb const convention

Let the debate begin in earnest. Today, 152 ?? delegates to the constitutional convention meet in Canberra. Over the next two weeks they are charged with discussing what constitutional change, if any, should take place in Australia before the centenary of federation on January 1, 1901. However, it seems that the issues will narrow quite quickly. The question of whether Australia should remove the shared arrangement with Britain and become a republic with its own head of state has to a large degree been decided. The voting for the convention revealed, on all but the most churlish interpretation, a significant majority in favour.

Even Australia’s best-known constitutional monarchist, Prime Minister John Howard, has acknowledged the inevitability of a republic. He has acknowledged that ending the shared arrangements with Britain are the best reason for moving to a republic. Mr Howard has very sensibly urged the convention to come forward with a single model which can then be put to the people. He has also, quite rightly, given his own party a conscience vote on the matter. Perhaps that is recognising the inevitable as more members of his party come out in favour.

The critical question for the convention therefore will be what sort of republic. The Canberra Times has long favoured a minimalist change. It would be better if the president were nominated by the prime minister and ratified by a two-thirds majority of a joint sitting of both houses of parliament. However, it seems that a majority of Australians do not accept that view and that there is no discernible trend that way. This is unfortunate because a directly elected president has dangers. So it is critical that if Australia is to have a directly elected president, as the people seem to want, that the dangers are recognised and addressed.
Continue reading “1998_02_february_leader02feb const convention”

1998_02_february_latestcount

Liberal MLA and Speaker Greg Cornwell is not assured of capturing the third Liberal seat in Molonglo.

Instead it may go to the Liberals’ Nick Tolley.

Mr Tolley, 22, describes himself as a “”student working in a pub and service station”.

The past couple of days have put the result of the election in more doubt than was previously thought, according to scrutineers from all sides.

Further, there are at least 4000 further postal and declaration votes to be counted which could chnge the picture in other seats. These will be counted in the next two days.

Declaration votes are where people do not show on the roll and prove they were unjustifiably removed from it.

The problem for Mr Cornwell comes with the direction of preferences from Kate Carnell. Scrutineers say about 55 per cent of them are going to Gary Humphries, assuring him of a seat, but after that they are not going with enough consistency to Mr Cornwell to assure him of a seat. The other 45 per cent of her preferences are going to other Liberals or elsewhere.
Continue reading “1998_02_february_latestcount”

1998_02_february_last poll

Kate Carnell Liberals are far enough ahead of Labor for her to retain the Chief Ministership, according to the latest Canberra-Datacol poll.

The Liberals are ahead in all electorates and have picked up more of the undecided than Labor. They are nearly 10 points ahead in Molonglo, 3.5 in Brindabella and 1.2 in Ginninderra.

However, the lead is nowhere near enough for a Liberal majority government. It is possible Mrs Carnell could form government relying only on two Osborne group independents.

Most likely the Liberals will win seven seats and Labor six with four going to minor parties and independents. The Liberals have a good chance of retaining three seats in Molonglo, but much will depend on preferences of the minor parties. Labor will get two in Molonglo and the Greens one with one seat in doubt, going to the Democrats or perhaps Michael Moore. The Greens’ Kerrie Tucker MLA has polled well in Molonglo (9.7 per cent), almost doubling the support of her Green colleagues in the other seats.
Continue reading “1998_02_february_last poll”

1998_02_february_how hare clark works

Tom Stoppard’s pearl of wisdom: “”Democracy does not lie in the voting, but in the counting,” said Tom Stoppard.

A simple system does not mean a fair system. Similarly a system that is difficult to understand is not necessarily unfair or should be done away with.

The Hare-Clark system is complex and fair _ if you define fair as providing seats in reasonable proportion to votes and at the same time giving some geographical representation.

It is important in Hare-Clark to number preferences right through the ballot paper so every candidate has a number against him or her. This is because preferences flow not only from excluded minor-party candidates but also from excluded major-party candidates, given each major party puts up five candidates for five seats and cannot possibly win all of them.

The ACT has been divided into three electorates: Ginninderra, based on Belconnen, with five seats; Brindabella, based on Tuggeranong, also with five seats and Molonglo, based in the centre, with seven seats.
Continue reading “1998_02_february_how hare clark works”