Month: September 2005

The Income Tax Assessment Act now comprises 1,376,875 words.

The Act, for example, has a Section 82KZBB(1)(a)(iii)(B). The section deals with record keeping for travel expenses and the like – things ordinary taxpayers have to deal with. The whole section is 1346 words long and utterly unreadable.

About the only thing holding it together is the diligence of the Australian Tax Office which puts out English translations of the Act in the form of the Tax Guide and other information sheets. It also provides the wonderful E-tax computer program which was used by more than a million taxpayers last year. Without it, the accounting profession would make even fatter gains from the unwieldy law.

The law is so bad that even the Tax Office says forget the law, you can rely on our translations.

Still, why should the system be so complicated that so many Australians need a special computer program or an expensive accountant to do our tax returns?

Last weekend parties offering tax reform in New Zealand and Germany got increased support. In Europe economists point to the higher growth rates in places with simple tax systems – mainly in Eastern Europe.

In Australia this week the new National Party federal president David Russell called for a flat tax system. Usually flat-tax proposals state that there should be no deductions. That makes them simple and appealing.

Flat tax has it difficulties. It is unfair to people whose method of earning an income requires a lot of inputs which would otherwise be deductions.
Continue reading “Forum for Saturday 24 September 2005 tax”

The public interest took the back seat over the coronial inquiry into the 2003 bushfire while political and individual interests attempted avoid scrutiny. Nearly three years later the public is waiting for answers.

Let’s hope the same thing does not happen with the Clea Rose case.

Clea was hit by a car in the bus interchange in Civic in the early hours of July 30 and died some days later in hospital. The car, allegedly stolen and speeding, was being driven by a juvenile. Earlier the car had been spotted by police who had given chase with lights flashing.

Charges have been laid against the driver. Police are continuing their investigation into that. They are also conducting an internal inquiry into the conduct of the police officers – an inquiry by the Professional Standards Unit.

The big problem here is that major elements of both of these hearings will not be open to the public.

The public has a major interest in this case, as obviously does the family.

The police inquiry will be closed. There will be no advocate for the public interest at it. The police say they will make their findings public – whether any blame has been attached, punishment imposed of changes to procedures recommended. For example, earlier this year they made their findings in weapon-firing case in Wanniassa public.

But they cite privacy reasons for not making the whole process public. Privacy is a spurious ground in these cases. This event happened in a public place. If you are worried about privacy, stay at home.

It is reasonable and valuable for any organisation to have internal inquiries into incidents which might indicate failings, so the organisation can improve. And no doubt those conducting the inquiry will do so thoroughly and diligently, but it will always be with a police eye.
Continue reading “forum for saturday 17 sep 2005 clea rose case”

In the mid-1970s reporters on The Canberra Times produced used not merely a single carbon copy, but five – hammered out on upright Remington typewriters.

There were no photocopiers, you see. The original went to the Chief Sub-Editor – for publication or the spike. One copy went to the Chief of Reporting Staff. And the remaining four went from The Canberra Times office in Mort Street to CTC- Television, Radio 2CA, Radio 2XL in Cooma and Radio 2GN. There was only one television and one commercial radio station in Canberra. Fairfax owned both, and the two rural stations.

We thought nothing of it. The broadcasters just added The Canberra Times material to whatever else they had. Without it, their audiences would have been the poorer.

Discussion about media ownership in the past week or so reminded me old system.

Before television came to Australia in 1956, a Royal Commission was held. It said a broadcast licence was a public trust and recommended that only existing newspaper companies could be given that trust. So Fairfax, Herald and Weekly Times and Consolidated Press were handed the lion’s share of the television licences very cheaply.

However, in 1956 they were perhaps the only ones with the money and experience to do anything with the new technology.
Continue reading “Forum for Saturday 10 sep 2005 cross media”

The John Brogden story reveals Australian journalism in a state of moral confusion and publishers easy prey to manipulation.

Brogden resigned as Leader of the Opposition in NSW a month after events at the Hilton Hotel. These events – insulting the former Premier’s wife and touching up and propositioning two women – were heard and witnessed by half a dozen journalists and the two women were themselves journalists.

Why did it take a month for the story to get to the public?

The journos cannot have it both ways. They might have thought that on July 29, the date of the events, that the conversations and actions were essentially a private matter. After all, the public says it is sick of the media intruding into private lives even if it is the private life of public person and even if it shows that person in a bad light.

If that was the case on July 29, surely it was still the case in late August.

If it was not the case in late August, then it was not the case on July 29. In that instance it means the journalists and their publishers failed the people of NSW by making them endure a man not fit to be alternative Premier for a month longer than necessary.
Continue reading “Forum for Saturday 3 sep brogden journalism”