Month: March 1998

The Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is up to his old tricks — tricks that cause great bloodshed and homelessness.

He has yet again stirred up nationalistic Serb feeling in an area where there is a significant non-Serb population. In the past it has been Slovenia, then Croatia, then Bosnia. Now it is the province of Kosovo which has a population of ethnic Albanians. The pattern continues. Mr Milosevic vows that certain territory is and will always be part of greater Serbia. He stirs up violence and refuses to yield either in the form of giving territory up or giving local populations greater autonomy. Then follows international pressure. Then Mr Milosevic becomes an indispensible figure in a “”peace process”. Eventually there is a peace, at a huge cost in human suffering. Invariably, the peace settlement requires some sort of compromise on the part of the Serbs that should have been given before the bloodshed. But Mr Milosevic wins because he has deflected attention from the woeful economic performance of his Government with the classic tactic of the totalitarian — to focus attention on an outside force in order to bolster political support at home.

Must it happen again in Kosovo? Surely, it is not beyond the wit of the international community to show Mr Milosovic that his old tricks will not work this time.

Trouble has been inevitable since 1989 when Kosovo’sAlbanian majority lost their autonomy and found themselves subject to a police state controlled from the Serbian capital Belgrade. Under great provocation, some formed the Kosovo Liberation Army and resorted to arms.
Continue reading “1998_03_march_leader14mar kosovo”

The Industry Commission has criticised state and territory governments over their industry incentive schemes on several counts. The first is that most of these schemes just transfer industry from one part of Australia to another, often at an overall cost to Australia, even if the receiving state occasionally gets some short-term advantage. The second is that the taxpayers and businesses in the receiving state often have to pay higher taxes to support the subsidy. Mostly, governments trumpet the created jobs, but with the jobs comes the need to provide infrastructure and services like roads, schools, social welfare and so on. The third is that many payments under these schemes are not transparent. Typically, governments hide under the excuse of commercial-in-confidence.

The ACT is one of the worst offenders on the secrecy front. The commission looked at two forms of assistance: that given in budgetary outlays and that giving in payroll-tax exemptions. The former, of course, is more transparent. It appears in the Budget papers. The latter is less transparent without a lot of further information. The ACT has the highest dollar-per-head payroll tax exemption of all the states and territories, at $256 per head, compared to the average of $176. And it has the lowest assistance per head in budgetary outlays, at $27 compared to the average of $137.

When helping industry, the ACT, it appears, prefers to do it under the table.

Overall, however, the ACT gives less assistance per head than any state or territory than Queensland. That is probably because we are a less industrial jurisdiction. But more importantly, the ACT is the youngest jurisdiction and so has had less time for its politicians to dream up self-congratulatory schemes to attract jobs.
Continue reading “1998_03_march_leader07mar industry aid”

There has been a slight glitch in the counting in the central seat of Molonglo in the ACT election. Opposition Leader Wayne Berry has used this in yet another attack on the Hare-Clark system, calling it unfair, inhuman, crazy and lowering the whole standard of government. Earlier he attacked the system because it produced on this occasion a poor result for women.

The election was held only 13 days ago. It is still likely that the result will be known on Monday, 17 days after the election. At the last federal election it took three weeks and five days for the last two seats to be declared, and several more seats took more than three weeks. So what if it takes three weeks to determine beyond doubt who won the seat. It is more important for democracy that confidence in the electoral process is secure than to worry about a few candidates sweating it out a few extra days. Uncertainty is an inevitable part of politics.

Sure, we can have a simpler system and guarantee every seat is decided on election night. We could have 17 single-member seats and voters could put a X against the one candidate they wanted to vote for. Dead simple. But on the votes cast booth-by-booth on February 21 that would have delivered either 15 or 16 Liberal MLAs with an Opposition of one or two Labor MLAs. And next election it could sweep back the other way. That would be crazy and would lower the whole standard of government.
Continue reading “1998_03_march_leader06mar count delay”

Liberal MLAs Trevor Kaine and Louise Littlewood were just 46 votes apart at close of counting last night in their tussle for the last seat in Brindabella.

The seat will be decided tomorrow, and bizarrely will depend on the preferences of Labor voters.

Labor MLA Andrew Whitecross was excluded yesterday, falling several hundred votes behind Labor’s John Hargreaves after distribution of preferences from other excluded Labor candidates. Mr Whitecross got significant support from Green preferences but it was not enough.

In Ginninderra, Liberal Harold Hird is now certain to be elected and Liberal Vicki Dunne will be excluded, after distribution of other Liberal candidates’ preferences, though the ACT Electoral Commission has not formally declared it.

The position in Molonglo did not change much yesterday.

The overall position now is (an asterisk marks those formally elected):

Brindabella: Liberal: Brendan Smyth* and either Mr Kaine or Mrs Littlewood; Labor: Bill Wood* and Mr Hargreaves; and Independent Paul Osborne*.
Continue reading “1998_03_march_latest count”

We have learned (or had reinforced) several things about the ACT electoral system in the past couple of weeks.

First, there is an unacceptable level of chance in the system. This time it favoured older men against younger women in the Liberal Party and it favoured candidates on the right of the Labor Party over the left. But it was just luck that it happened that way.

Second, the system gives voters an opportunity to promote women in a way not readily available in other systems, and that many voters, presumably women took advantage of it.

Third, it is a complicated system, both in the voting and the counting.

Let’s deal with these separately.

A frequent criticism of the Hare-Clark system is that it is complicated and too hard to understand. I think a lot of that is unfamiliarity. This is only the second Hare-Clark election. The system does not get the same level of criticism in Tasmania where it is used for much the same reason as in the ACT. A small place needs a form of proportional representation to prevent wild swings of seats from one party to another. Opposition Leader Wayne Berry, who has been a critic of some elements of Hare-Clark, acknowledges this. Also, pure proportional system across the whole territory or state would lead to some very fringe groups getting in with a quota of 1/17th of the vote, or 5.9 per cent.
Continue reading “1998_03_march_hare-clark op-ed”

Federal Attorney-General Daryl Williams has asked for the impossible.

He wants a referee with both hands tied behind his back and a gag in his mouth to take control of a wrestling match in which the original wrestlers are hapless by-standers to be replaced in the ring by their seconds who will not heed the time bell but will fight using everything at their disposal.

This week Williams called on the judiciary to help with the task of reducing the cost of justice. The trouble is the judges cannot do much. In our adversary legal system, the lawyers have virtually a free hand to present their clients’ cases as they see fit. The judges have a very passive role. The theory is that truth will come out best if two adversaries test each other and the judge sums up and decides at the end.

The more money a client has (whether his own or from legal aid) the more time and effort can go into testing the other side’s case, and there is little the judiciary can do about it.

However, Williams got on the right track last week when he held fast on the amount of legal aid the Commonwealth was going to make available to the states. Significantly, since the Commonwealth cut back on legal aid, state legal aid commissions have had to streamline the way they pay lawyers. They have done radical things like pay them fixed amounts. And surprise, surprise hearing times have come down for legal-aid cases.
Continue reading “1998_03_march_forum law”

Last Friday for Saturday’s paper I wrote (yet another) article about the shortcoming of the legal system, with a short reference to juries.

Unbeknown to me an AAP reporter was writing and article for wider publication that illustrated the point. Jury in Sydney had just awarded an entertainment promoter a record $2.5 million in damages for defamation. There will be probably another $500,000 in costs and interest.

The award was made because The Sydney Morning Herald ran an article in 1992 asserting that the promoter had threatened to send someone out to kill a business rival.

The amount is utterly idiotic. People made quadriplegics in car accidents don’t get as much.

I hereby invite The Sydney Morning Herald to devote an whole issue saying whatever they like about me for $2.5 million. But you cannot have my little finger for $2.5 million.

Because of this jury’s stupidity, the price of The Sydney Morning Herald will have to go up by 4c over the next year to recoup, or put up the price of classified ads for people selling cars and houses. The jury is dreaming if they think it will come out of shareholders’ profits.
Continue reading “1998_03_march_foolish juries”

There are good reasons for abolishing double dissolutions.

The present situation provides a good example of why.

There are better ways of resolving differences between the Houses.

At present the Howard Government is stacking up the Bills for a double dissolution: Wik, public service reform, industrial relations and so on.

Later this year it will face a choice: to have a double dissolution or to have an ordinary election.

An ordinary election presents a problem for the Government. With an ordinary election only half of the Senate retires. It is unlikely the Government would get a majority in the Senate. Excluding the territories for now, 17 Coalition senators are up for re-election — three in each state except Tasmania where there are two. To increase its numbers, the Government on would need 57 per cent of the vote to crack a fourth seat in any state, or beat independent Brian Harradine in Tasmania. Not possible.

Further, only two Democrat senators are up for re-election, whereas last half-Senate election five Democrats were elected. So the Democrats would be looking for some extra seats, possibly from the Coalition.

So an ordinary election with a half-Senate election would result in much the same position or worse for the Government. It would still have a hostile Senate and critical bits of its legislation would be rejected.
Continue reading “1998_03_march_double dissolution”

Well may technology race ahead, but the questions for government have remained virtually the same since television first came more than 40 years ago.

Communications Minister Richard Alston is wondering how to deal with the onset of digital television. At present each analogue transmission takes a certain amount of bandwidth, a channel if you like. Using the same amount of bandwidth, digital transmission can send about six times the amount of information. That enables either transmission of six different similar-quality signals, or the transmission of one signal with six times the quality because it enables six times the amount of information to be sent. This can eliminate ghosting and enable the reception of high-definition television.

I saw high-definition television in Japan. It comes in a rectangular 3 x 5 format, unlike the present square format. It retains quality even on cinema-sized screens. I could see the sweat beads on the sumo wrestlers.

Or you can have a mix. Some of the time you could deliver one high-quality channel and the rest of the time you could deliver six different lower-quality signals, some picture, some telephony, some data.

The interested players are hovering around Senator Alston like vultures (ornithological metaphors seem more tasteful than feline ones these days).
Continue reading “1998_03_march_digital tv”

The Osborne Group’s Dave Rugendyke had won the last seat in Ginninderra at close of counting in the ACT election yesterday.

With Paul Osborne elected in Brindabella and the seven Liberals it means Kate Carnell has the nine seats needed for a majority in the Assembly, without needing to rely on Independent Michael Moore or the Greens.

(This presumes the Osborne Group will not do the unthinkable and support Labor — which got 27 per cent of the vote — under a new leader.)

Trevor Kaine won the final Liberal seat in Brindabella from Louise Littlewood by a mere 45 votes.

The final standing of the Assembly is: Liberal 7, Labor 6, Osborne Group 2, Michael Moore and the Greens’ Kerrie Tucker.

The Molonglo count is still going. Mr Moore and Ms Tucker have not yet been formally elected, but their position seems unassailable. Labor will win two seats in Molonglo but who gets them will depend on preferences — probably Ted Quinlan and Steve Garth, but sitting MLA Simon Corbell is not out of the running.
Continue reading “1998_03_march_count4”