Month: December 1998

The ACT had a batch of mosts, leasts, highests and lowests in the voting for the Senate at the last federal election.

According to the latest Electoral Newsfile put out by the Australian Electoral Commission, the ACT had the lowest vote for the Coalition of any state or territory; the highest vote for Labor; the highest vote for the Democrats; the lowest informal vote and the highest below-the-line voting.

The ACT has had the lowest informal vote in every Senate election since 1987.
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Aweek ago a group of eminent republicans, among them former Chief Justice Sir Anthony Mason, put forward a detailed model to give effect to the constitutional convention’s resolution on the selection of the president.

Sir Anthony opined that the greatest threat to the acceptance of a referendum proposal for a republic was from those who wanted a directly elected president, rather than from monarchists.

Others, like Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, suggest the biggest threat would be the failure of the Coalition, particularly the Prime Minister, to endorse the proposals.
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It has been another sad year in the history of Australian media regulation.

So sad indeed, that it might have been better to abandon regulation altogether, other than to allocate the broadcast spectrum by auction to ensure there are no technical clashes of signal.

The highlight of the year was the Government’s final balancing of the account between the major media interests in Australia (namely Packer and Murdoch) while taking no notice of the interest it should be balancing — that of the public.

In March, Communications Minister Richard Alston announced the Government’s policy on digital television. This wonderful new technology should have been used to improve diversity and choice in television. Instead the Government balanced off the moguls.
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At first blush it might seem that an independent inquiry was needed into the Sydney-Hobart yacht race. However, this is not a case of suspected malfeasance, corruption or other criminal conduct. Nor was there such a large drain on public resources or large public impact as to warrant a public inquiry into the conduct of the race. As it is there will probably be a coroner’s inquest and internal inquiries by the Cruising Yacht Club and rescue services. The club and rescue inquiries are probably better handled by people actively involved in the incident. Those inquiries will be largely directed to technical matters and procedures to improve performance next time.

The loss of life in the race was caused by horrific weather. There was little human element. When the race began on Saturday there was no cause for belief that the weather would be so horrific, even though it was obvious that a southerly was coming through. By the time the severity of the weather was known, there was no point in calling the race off because all the boats were out in it.

It is not as if innocent members of the public got caught up by relying on race organisers. To the contrary, even those in the race know the rules. It is for the skipper of each boat to make an assessment as to whether to take part.
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One Nation adviser David Oldfield is a cunning opportunist. He picks a slow news day to reveal that his policy for the up-coming NSW election. And the policy itself is pitched to a slender market in the hope that he can catch enough votes to take a seat in the NSW Upper House.

He said he would give the voters the toughest possible stand on law and order. This follows the last NSW election which saw an unseemly auction between Bob Carr’s Labor Party and John Fahey’s Liberals Party on who would put up the toughest platform on law and order. Mr Carr attempted to disguise his policy as tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. The result in the past four years has been an increase in the jail population but little change in crime. The evidence suggests that tougher penalties provide little or no deterrent. Indeed, the evidence points the other way. Those societies that provide compassion, leniency, a sense of proportion and concentrate on rehabilitation seem to have lower crime rates.

Mr Oldfield promised a referendum to reintroduce mandatory death sentences. It may make Mr Oldfield feel good, but it will do nothing to reduce the murder rate. The murder rate is more closely correlated with the availability of guns, racism, poverty and inequality than severity of punishment. The United States, with the death penalty, has a far higher murder rate than any European country or Canada, where there is no death penalty.
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Early next year the Federal Government proposes to present legislation to make membership of student unions voluntary. The Victorian and Western Australian Parliaments have already legislated that way.

Some have seen it as a misguided ideological pursuit of the Minister for Education, David Kemp, to silence student protest at the government education policies. On campus, students who oppose compulsory union membership fear that the student unions are political rather than pastoral and are more interested in odd causes than student welfare.

There are really two issues here. One is freedom of association and the other is the gathering and proper spending of funds for student welfare.
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After 18 months in office, the Blair Government in Britain has hit its first significant trouble. Last week, the Secretary for Trade and Industry, Peter Mandelson, resigned after disclosing he had received a $1 million loan to buy an up-market property in London from millionaire Paymaster-General Geoffrey Robinson. The loan itself was not improper. However, given that the Trade Ministry was investigating some of Mr Robinson’s business affairs, it should have been disclosed a repaid immediately.

There were two refreshing elements to the scandal. The first is that Mr Mandelson has a reputation for political spin — the capacity to put a good light on the worst of circumstances to keep the party’s image intact, but when the crunch came the spin doctor could not spin himself out of trouble. Anything that weakens the position of spin doctors in modern liberal democratic politics is to be welcomed.

The second is that Mr Mandelson and Mr Robinson did not take much persuading to resign, for the good of the party, the Government and the country. In Westminster systems, the principle of ministerial responsibility has been weakened so much that only fear of significant voter backlash is likely to result in resignation. Principle usually has nothing to do with it. In recent years in Australia we have seen a huge amount of ministerial squirming and stubbornness (on both sides of politics) despite obvious circumstances to warrant a resignation.
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George Mallory said he was attempting to climb Mount Everest “”because it is there”. That was in the 1930s. More recently, Three separate teams have been attempting to go around the world non-stop in a balloon. On of which is expected to take off from Alice Springs this morning (Dec 29). Every year yacht crews set out from Sydney to race to Hobart attempting to beat all others in the race, to beat the race record or be best in their class. Also, yacht crews are competing in the Around Alone race which often sends them to the Southern Ocean, notorious for its furious weather.

The events have several things in common. They are a quest to be first. They are a test of human endurance in the face of possible death or injury. They push inventiveness and technology to the limits. And when they fail, they invariably require some form of rescue.

At least two people have died in the Sydney to Hobart race. The balloon manned by Richard Branson, American millionaire Steve Fossett and Swedish balloonist Per Lindstrand ran into bad weather last week and they had to ditch off the coast of Hawaii required rescue. French yachtswoman Isabelle Autissier who had to be rescued four years ago from the Southern Ocean was in trouble again this summer. A rescue was almost required, but she managed to limp her yacht to safety.
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At last the gurus of globalisation and the free market have woken up to the fact that some regulation is needed in world capital markets. Unfortunately, it has taken a great deal of pain before they have come to this conclusion. People in less well off countries like Indonesia and the Philippines have been hard hit in the past year by the fall-out from large movements of capital on financial markets. The steady economic gains made in South-East Asia over the past decade have been laid waste.

Now, at least in Australia, there is recognition that some sort of international regulation in financial markets. Three obvious things appear to have reached the consciousness of leading people in government and financial institutions. The first is that capital is extremely mobile, unlike goods and services which are far harder to move from one country to another. Secondly, that the leverage gain by hedge funds and other institutions puts them in command of larger amounts of capital than available to some nation states. And thirdly, that this in turn can threaten a whole currency which in turn can threaten other currencies and, indeed, the whole global financial system.

There is a circle of paradox here. Market theorists were so committed to markets and free trade they would not brook any regulation of international commerce. But by failing to recognise that capital was different from goods and services, they allowed it to go unregulated, which in turn led to a financial crisis that did more to jeopardise free trade than permitting some regulation.
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By all accounts ACT health authorities dealt with the HIV scare at Canberra Hospital by the book, insofar as there is a book by which these things can be dealt with.

The health worker who found out he or she was subject to exposure to the HIV and the hepatitis C virus acted promptly by notifying the hospital and withdrawing from work in any area which might pose a risk. The health worker later was tested positive.

Health authorities then very quickly assessed the risk and quickly came to the correct conclusion that it was better to notify the 250 new mothers who had undergone any procedures involving the health worker and to make the incident public. (It would, of course, inevitably have become public given the number of people involved.) It notification came by phone and then follow-up letter and came with an offer of fast-track testing and counselling. As it happens none of those tested have proved positive and only 10 of the women have yet to be contacted. In all, it is difficult to see what other steps the hospital could have taken.
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