Month: January 2002

Costs, conflict and delay have been the hallmarks of the saga over disability services in the ACT.

Three young men died in share homes for the disabled run by the ACT in 2000. Something was obviously wrong. Coronial inquests were required for each death, but there was growing concern towards the end of 2000 that individual inquires into individual deaths would not get to the nub of any systemic problem with ACT disability services. There was merit in that concern.

The then Liberal Government resisted the idea under the usual principle that Governments think the world is wonderful and Oppositions whinge about its imperfections. The Government thought the coronial inquests were enough and that any other inquiry would run into conflict with those inquiries.
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Labor leader Simon Crean has won support, particularly within Labor ranks, for forcing Duncan Kerr to serve out his full term in Parliament.

Kerr announced his intention to leave Federal Parliament to contest a seat in this year’s Tasmanian state election after which he could expect to be made a Minister in the Labor Government in the likely event of Labor being returned.

He made his announcement just six weeks after being elected to the Federal Parliament and after failing to get a position on Labor’s frontbench. Kerr was a Minister for Justice in the Keating Government.
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The European Union has threatened to take against Robert Mugabe and his Government unless it agrees to certain conditions by Sunday. The EU is determined to send observers to the March presidential election to determine whether it is free and fair and the ensure media freedom to cover the election.

The EU move is a welcome one. The action threatened by the EU against Zimbabwe is to impose smart sanctions. These would put a travel ban on Mr Mugabe and his main Zanu-PF leadership group. It would also freeze their overseas assets. There would be a ban on the export of any equipment that might be used for internal repression. These sanctions would apply from Sunday unless Mugabe’s Government allows the first group of observers in.

These smart sanctions are a far better weapon than general sanctions, which do more to hurt the poor within the country than the rich ruling elite.
Continue reading “2002_01_january_leader31jan zim”

The NSW Premier, Bob Carr, took on the role this week of adviser to Federal Labor. He is perhaps the most successful and powerful Labor leader at present. He is down a bit in the polls, probably coming off Labor’s federal loss, but he does not face an election for well over a year and has every chance of picking up and winning a third term.

Mr Carr pointed out that one of the reasons for Labor’s loss federally last year was the Labor was seen as a poor economic manager. Voters felt the low-interest-rate environment might be threatened by a Labor Government. So the thrust of Mr Carr’s advice to Federal Labor was to go for economic growth which meant keeping public spending under check which in turn ensured low interest rates.
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The attempt by authorities to move the media back several hundred more metres from the perimeter fence of the Woomera detention centre was more to do with protecting the Government from adverse publicity than protecting detainees’ safety. Apparently the Australian Protective Service made the decision to move the media back from positions they had occupied for several weeks without apparent safety concerns. The APS apparently made the decision after a security review and it had nothing to do with the Department of Immigration. If so it is a convenient thing for the Government, but it will inevitably backfire, as has the decision to house asylum seekers in the distant outback town of Woomera (and other outback places) in the first place. Refugee support groups, lawyers, air agencies and the media have managed to travel to Woomera and to give help and report events despite the Government’s best attempts to keep the detainees and the conditions they are living in out of the public eye.

In any event, it is ridiculous for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to pretend that the APS’s decision is one out of the Government’s purview. Ultimately the Government is responsible for access to the centres and to the Commonwealth land that surrounds them.
Continue reading “2002_01_january_leader29jan press”

The statement made last week by the new Federal Minister for Education, Brendan Nelson, that some young people should not worry about finishing Year 12 if they felt they were not cut out for academic life, was the wrong message.

Dr Nelson said, “Let’s not create an environment that says to a Year 9 or Year 10 student that if you don’t complete Year 12, the if you don’t go on to university, then in some way that you and your life is less valuable. . . . There are some young people in this country who are dealing with the most horrendous family and social circumstances for whom compeletion of Year 12 is a utopian dream.”

Dr Nelson said that apprenticeships and vocational education were just as valid as university degrees.
Continue reading “2002_01_january_leader28jan education”

The ACT is failing to make use of a critical weapon in the fight against crime. In October 2000, the ACT Parliament passed the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act which allows for the compulsory testing of prisoners who have been convicted of an offence carrying a penalty of two or more years in jail. In effect, this means every prisoner because virtually no-one goes to jail in the ACT for an offence with a maximum penalty of less than that.

The ACT Deputy Chief Police Officer Andy Hughes says police have been evaluating options to find the best way to collect the samples. He cited the fact that ACT prisoners go to NSW jails as a difficulty. In fact, it should be an asset. NSW tests all prisoners in its system. ACT prisoners have protested against the procedure without much success. Perhaps the ACT arms of the Australian Federal Police could politely ask the NSW corrections service for the samples, or for the results of the samples.
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Few other nations on earth would have so much debate and ambivalence about its national symbols than Australia. The debate will no doubt get a fresh head of steam today – Australia Day. Much of the debate is heated and emotional rather than rational and calm – that is because it is about emotional things. Many Australians question whether we should change the national day, the head of state and the flag. In other countries such questioning would be looked upon as odd or even treasonous. In Australia, it is a perfectly respectable, even majority, viewpoint to be in favour of changing all or some of these major national symbols.

The reason for this is that these symbols are unsatisfactory to very many Australians. Many regard the presence of the Queen in our constitutional arrangements as unsatisfactory because an Australian should be able to aspire to office at the constitutional apex, and it should be a democratically selected position, not one based on right of birth.
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The Minister for Small Business, Joe Hockey, has suggested that the state and federal governemnts look at a national compensation scheme, such as that in New Zealand, as a means of reducing crippling insurance premiums for public liability.

The insurance industry says it is running these policies at a loss. Mr Hockey has revealed how business, sporting and charitable organisations have been hit with premium increases this year of up to 400 per cent. In some cases it was threatening profitability or threatening activities undertaken by sporting and charitable organisations.

Mr Hockey laid the blame squarely at what he called greedy lawyers and asked whay was it that someone injured by falling off a chair at home bore the loss, but the same person falling off a chair in a shop would sue. Mr Hockey said he would like to see a scheme that capped damages.
Continue reading “2002_01_january_leader24jan insurance”

For half a century it was unexceptional that these places should be residences for Canberrans. But given the proximity of Parliament House, the value of the right to occupy this land has increased enormously. There are clearly more worthwhile things to place upon the land than residences.

The residences are built upon leasehold land with a 99-year term and a stipulated purpose of residential. In the original scheme of Canberra, it was envisioned that at any stage, the Federal Government could resume any lease by just paying the leaseholder compensation for the improvements. But since the early 1970s, ground rents for lease-holders have been abandoned and tenure has been closer to freehold, but subject to the purpose clause. A change of use would therefore need a new lease arrangement. Any building work would also need approval by relevant authorities.

The land is administered by the National Capital Authority as part of land identified at self-government as having national elements. Over the past year, there were negotiations between the levels of government to return the section which contains these blocks to ACT administration – largely on the ground that it is residential.
Continue reading “2002_01_january_leader23jan state circle”