Month: March 2002

The Federal Labor Party announced this week that it would reject the majority of the Government’s proposed industrial-relations changes and instead put forward its own list of changes.

Labor’s own list has no hope of getting past first base because Labor does not have the number sin the House of Representatives. Nonetheless, it is a welcome sign of a change of attitude in the Opposition. Hitherto, the Opposition has made itself a small target with as little policy detail as possible put out until just before the election. That was based on the fact Prime Minister John Howard when in Opposition did the same thing and got himself elected in 1996 and the fact that John Hewson before him had lots of detail and lost. This theory ignores the more pertinent point that voters also look at what the policy is even if on occasion they have prefer the unknown to a continuation of an existing Government.

The Opposition should work over the next year or two to put more detailed policy up, even to the extent of draft legislation.
Continue reading “2002_03_march_leader14mar ir”

The past two days has shown a different side of Canberra to the rest of Australia, and indeed parts of the rest of the world. The Bush Capital, the metonymical expression of government and bureaucracy, the planned city, the peopleless place divorced from reality, the good sheep station spoiled, the city without a soul and the suburbs in search of a centre were all put to one side.

In their place was the city of entrepreneurial spirit and creativity. The city and region were showcased in the Focus on Business conference.
Continue reading “2002_03_march_leader13mar focus”

An independent review revealed yesterday that the Government has become over-zealous in catching and penalising people in breach of social security rules. The review as chaired by former Commonwealth Ombudsman, Professor Dennis Pearce, and funded by nine national welfare bodies.

The review found that Centrelink staff had been exposed to pressure and incentives top find breaches; were not communicating effectively with job-seekers; and imposed unreasonable conditions so that breaches were more likely. It called for less draconian penalties and a greater concentration on getting people into work.

Family and Community Services Minister Amanda Vanstone dismissed the report saying it was old because Centrelink had implemented or was about to implement 26 of the reports recommendations. Professor Pearce said that Centrelink had got hold of a draft of the report a month ago and made recommendations to the Government which were endorsed two weeks ago. They bore an uncanny resemblance to the review’s recommendations. But Professor Pearce said the authors of the report did not want to get into a fight about the origin of ideas. They just wanted to see the system improved.
Continue reading “2002_03_march_leader12mar social security”

The people of the ACT should be especially concerned about the pay television deal struck between Foxtel and Optus. Subscribers to either service will now get access to the content of the other. Essentially, it makes Foxtel the monopoly provider of content for pay television. Foxtel is partly owned by Telstra. The Foxtel cable and satellite delivery network reaches 70 per cent of Australian households. Optus is happy with the deal because it can bundle some worthwhile pay television content with telephony packages to attract custom, and it is relieved of the burden of long-term commitments to paying for choice Hollywood content at very high prices. Telstra and Foxtel, too, can bundle telephony and pay television content to attract custom.

So where does that leave TransACT, the ACT cable network that is being rolled out using Actew’s access to the electricity easements and poles that reach every household in the ACT? TransACT has huge advantages on the hardware-infrastructure side. And under federal law it has access to the Telstra telephony network so it can provide telephony services at competitive prices.

Also under federal pay television content providers can get access to Foxtel’s cable network.
Continue reading “2002_03_march_leader10mar pay tv”

Amid all the controversy over the children overboard and the Governor-General, the Australian economy has been bubbling along quite nicely, thank-you very much.

Figures issued yesterday show that in the December quarter the Australian economy grew by 1.3 per cent, to make an annualised growth rate of 4.1 per cent. That is a much better result than most industrialised economies.

The Government can take considerable credit for that. Despite its ghastly divisive social record, it has managed the economy better than the Hawke-Keating Governments in critical respects. Under its tenure, interest rates have fallen dramatically. This has reduced the amount people have to pay on their mortgages, thus improving the living standards of many Australians. It has also ensured that the value of savings of retirees and other in the form of cash and liquid deposits has not been eroded. The low interest rates have been the result of fiscal rectitude in the early years of the Howard Government. It took the hard decisions on Government spending and hauled the Budget into surplus, despite the pain and screams from those who had hitherto benefitted from large government spending programs.
Continue reading “2002_03_march_leader08mar economy”

Australia should leave security out of the argument about trade with the US. The security relationship with the US must stand or fall on its own merit. Australia has much to gain from being part of the US security umbrella and from sharing intelligence with US forces. Waving the security card will not help.

It means, therefore, that we must argue the trade card with greater force.

The US has imposed the tariff because, it argues, cheap foreign steel is being dumped on the US market from countries that subsidise steel production. That is not true of the Australia steel industry which is one of the most efficient in the world. The Australian industry has reformed and restructured and can now land steel on the west coast of the US for $40 a tonne less than east-coast US manufacturers. That point should be argued. Australia should have been exempted from the tariff. The US should be asked to either identify what subsidies Australian steel gets, or exempt Australian steel. The US says that its tariff is allowed under World Trade Organisation rules. Once again that point should be argued in WTO forums. Australian should seek whatever penalties the WTO can impose. Further, Australia needs to point out more forcefully the US hypocrisy in this decision. President Bush frequently appeals to the world to open up markets and to apply free trade. But as soon as his home market gets the whiff of some competition, he retreats to protectionism.
Continue reading “2002_03_march_leader07mar steel”

Whenever someone abuses parliamentary privilege, the cry goes out to restrict it.

This time NSW Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan has made an outrageous attack on High Court judge Justice Michael Kirby.

All four elements of the attack are laced with holes, but more of that anon.

The outrageousness of the attack is made obvious by the statement from NSW Police Minister Michael Costa that police previously had investigated Senator Heffernan’s information and found no need to continue investigations. If dissatisfied with the police investigation Senator Heffernan could have taken his information to the Police Integrity Commission. If he was still unsatisfied, a speech in Parliament was still open to him, and this is important.
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This week’s federal-state conference on the crisis over personal-liability insurance premiums came up with solutions that defied the facts, defied logic and defied morality. It was a classic of blaming the victim.

The obvious long-term solution was not even talked about – campaigns to make Australia a safer place in which to work and play.
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The property market continues to boom, but buyers and sellers in the ACT are poorly served by government inaction to improve the costly system of conveyancing.

Several factors are making property buying and selling more expensive than it should be:

Stamp duty rates have not changed for more than 20 years, so bracket creep has put the average house into a stamp duty bracket that was designed only for the very wealthy.
Continue reading “2002_03_march_convey for forum”