Crispin Hull

Britain has always been ambivalent about one of the greatest geopolitical experiments in human history – – namely the drawing together of diverse European states into a unified structure that would ensure that dialogue and agreement would it replace war and conquest as the means of dispute resolution. The experiment arose out of the ruins and ashes left over after World War II. It was consummated in the treaty of Rome in 1956. But Britain remained aloof from that treaty which was between France, Italy, Germany and the Benelux countries. Britain at the time cited its obligations to the Commonwealth as the primary reason for not signing that initial common market treaty.

However, Britain’s reluctance to engage with, let alone lead, the move to European unity runs far deeper than any residual affection for its former empire. Successive British governments and many British people have had long-term suspicion of Europe. That suspicion has ranged from fear of aggression to a xenophobic aversion to funny foreign foods and habits. Much of that could perhaps be put down to the fact that Britain is an island separated from Europe by the English Channel. Other European countries share land borders with each other which makes interaction far easier and more commonplace. And with interaction comes understanding and appreciation of other people’s different ways.
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One has to be immediately suspicious whenever the two major parties agree on anything. Sometimes it is a matter of obvious public importance, but usually it benefits the politicians who serve the major parties and is a disservice to politicians of minor parties or independents and the public in general.

This week the two major parties in the ACT Legislative Assembly, Labor and Liberal, have agreed on a range of changes to the electoral law in the ACT. One must be immediately suspicious. The changes to the way ballot papers are printed to ensure that there aren’t freakish flows of preferences to undeserving candidates are reasonable and were recommended by the Electoral Commission.

However, other proposed changes dealing with political donations, the nomination process and the public funding of political parties are suspect.

Changes to the Electoral Act to be debated by the Assembly today include a proposal to allow anonymous political donations up to $1,500; a plan to allow an ACT candidate to use a Commonwealth return in a full satisfaction of the ACT requirements; a requirement that 50 people to nominate a candidate, instead of the present two; a restriction of public funding of candidates to those who win four per cent, as distinct from the present two per cent, of the vote at the previous election; a plan to no longer require political parties to account in any detail for the way in which the funds they receive are spent.
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President George Bush is getting a hostile reception in the Europe. And rightly so. The Europeans have several major differences with directions taken by the Bush presidency: global warming; the missile defence plan; human rights and trade. In each of these areas, the stance taken by the Bush Administration (away from the stance of the previous Administration) has either created or exacerbated the difference between the United States and Europe.

In that the broader historic context, the United States is following a long up running pattern of swinging slowly between isolationism an engagement with the rest of the world, and Europe in particular. Europe, on the other hand, has engaged in a major historic shift since World War II. European nations, who are members of the European Union or aspire to membership, have deliberately encouraged tolerance, human rights, protection of the environment, dialogue, and co-operation in defence matters. In the face of these historic trains, the attitudes been expressed by Mr Bush on his European tour look decidedly out-of-place and outdated.

Mr Bush’s first port of call was Spain. It seemed that Mr Bush thought that smiles, handshakes, back-slapping and oleaginous statements would be enough to paper over fundamental differences. Mr Bush said, “There’s so much more that unites us than divides,” and he would refuse “to let any issue isolate America from a Europe”. If those platitudes were to mean anything, Mr Bush will have to change his stand. It is not just a question of him having a lot of work to convince the Europeans that his positions are sound. In fact, he will never convince the Europeans to abandon their positions on the environment, defence, human-rights and trade in favour of the American positions. This is because the American position on these matters is by and large less justifiable than the European position.
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The Australian Republican Movement used to the occasion of the Queen’s birthday holiday at last weekend to make further suggestions about how Australia might become a republic. It also used the occasion to highlight the inappropriateness of Australia celebrating the Queen’s birthday when in fact it is not at the Queen’s birthday and of celebrating even a pseudo-birthday of a person who does not live in Australia and who is regarded by many as not being our head of state at all. Members of the ARM went to Government House to sing Happy Birthday to the Governor-General as a means of highlighting the inappropriateness of the Queen’s birthday holiday.

The chair of the ARM, Greg Barnes, said that his movement wanted to seek a compromise between those wanting a directly elected president and those in favour of a president appointed by Parliament. He said the ARM was floating the idea of an electoral college. The details were not put forward. However, Mr Barnes indicated that it would be an electoral college of delegates from the eight states and territories. Predictably enough, direct electionists poured scorn on the idea. The National Convener of Australian Republicans for an Elected President and Ipswich councillor, Paul Tully, said that if the ARM continued with its approach Australia might not become a republic for another hundred years.
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Of the case of Timothy McVeigh makes it difficult for even the most ardent opponent of capital punishment. Here is a man who murdered 168 people and injured almost 700 others when he blew up a government building in Oklahoma City in 1995. It was the worst act of peacetime violence on American soil. Last night (Australian timed) he was executed by lethal injection at Indiana’s Terre Haute penitentiary. He showed no remorse. Worse, he described his victims as collateral damage.

Perhaps worst cases could be imagined – – such as multiple murders on different occasions, or murders involving long and drawn-out deaths. Nevertheless, the McVeigh case must stand as one of the very worst when one considers crime and punishment as an exercise in dealing with threats to society.

However horrific his crime, however obvious his guilt, and however lacking in remorse he is, the question of whether the state is justified in taking human life as a form of punishment, retribution or deterrence remains. The problem is that opponents of capital punishment will face the obvious question, “Well what do you do in cases like Timothy McVeigh?” It makes it difficult for those who oppose capital punishment. However, the answer must be “life imprisonment”. This is because once the state starts on the execution path for any case, however horrific, it betrays the principles of the sanctity of life. The pre-meditated taking of human life can at only lessen the stature of the state and its citizens – they lower themselves to the murderer’s level. The state’s taking of a life appeals to the baser emotions of its people. It appeals to the vengeful and the violent. And it excludes the better emotions of mercy, compassion and the hope for redemption.
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The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is under siege. This financial year its costs are expected to increase by a $774 million, a 21.5 per cent jump to $4.26 billion. that is far greater than the nine per cent predicted a year ago. Some changes are clearly necessary.

A large part of the blow-out can be put down to the cost of just two drugs, Celebrex, an anti-inflammatory drug, and Zyban, a drug which is used it to help people give up smoking. Both these drugs can be categorised as lifestyle drugs. Perhaps more significantly, both these drugs have been advertised widely in the community. Celebrex, was expected it to cost about $40 million a year when it was listed nine months ago. It has already cost $140 million. Zyban has cost $40 million against an estimate of $10 million.

It would be a tragedy for their health care of Australians if advertising by pharmaceutical companies coupled with the high cost of some drugs were it to wreck the benefits scheme, particularly if the drugs that do it the threatening are not life-saving but merely drugs that alleviate conditions largely self-inflicted by an ageing baby boom generation.
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The national accounts of figures published yesterday by the Australian and Bureau of Statistics will be a welcome fillip for the Federal Government which has been lagging in the polls so badly in the past six months that it has looked as if its defeat at the election due later this year is inevitable. However, the figures published yesterday can give the Government some hope of presenting a case to the electorate that it deserves re-electing.

True, it has made a complete hash of many other areas of policy – – health insurance, digital television, reconciliation, treatment of asylum seekers, to name a few. However the Coalition has always presented itself as the better economic manager of the two major parties. Three months ago that claim looked hopelessly weak in the face of a December quarter growth figure of minus 0.6 percent. Many had predicted that the March quarter figure would also be negative, which would have meant Australia was in a technical recession – – technical recession being defined as two consecutive quarters of what the economists call negative growth. At best, economists had predicted a slight increase in growth in the March quarter. They were taken aback yesterday at the 1.1 percent figure which annualised forward would mean 4.4 per cent.

The only downside is that a large part of the extra growth can be put down the Government’s recent vote-buying spending spree which in turn might cause some over-heating in the economy. That would result in a serious risk of the Reserve Bank increasing interest rates. If that happens, the Government’s reputation as an economic manager would be in tatters, along with its re-election hopes.
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Peter Andren is the sole genuine independent in the federal House of Representatives. He has been making a nuisance of himself again. Not a nuisance in the eyes of most of the people of Australia, but rather a nuisance in the eyes of his fellow Members of parliament. Mr Andren has raised the ticklish question of the generosity of the superannuation scheme for federal parliamentarians. He quite rightly points out that it is far too generous, especially when compared to the superannuation entitlements of others in the community. He is also concerned that the salary and allowances of MPs should not be out of kilter with community standards.

As far as Mr Andren is concerned, there are three areas of concern. First, parliamentarians have access to superannuation funds immediately upon it leaving Parliament, irrespective of whether they have turned 55, the age at which others in the community have to attain before they are given access to their superannuation funds. Second, the amount of their superannuation benefits is far too high for the amount of contributions they put in and the length of service needed to qualify. Third, Mr Andren disputes claims by some of his fellow parliamentarians, including Prime Minister John Howard, that MPs are quite poorly paid compared with the private sector.

Mr Andren is certainly right on the first two points, and he has a fairly good argument on third.
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The plight of employees of the failed OneTel company illustrates the need for action by the Federal Governments to improve the state of corporate governance in Australia. It is unacceptable that quite low-paid workers should have to queue up with a large-scale trade creditors in order to get some of their entitlements in the winding up of the company.

It is made more unacceptable by the fact that this is not an isolated incident. Last year when National Textiles went belly up with 300 employees owed about $11 million, politicians from all sides acknowledged the need to reform corporations law and to set up under government schemes to ensure there was no repeat. In that that case, the Federal and NSW Governments did a one-off bale out. As it happened, the Prime Minister’s brother, Stan Howard, was a key figure in at the management of National Textiles. On a charitable interpretation, the Federal Government showed concern for national textiles employees by organising the bale-out. Given the conduct of the Federal Government since then, it seems that its concern for employees was short lived. There have been several other company collapses with employees owed substantial sums of money and the government has done little.
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The leader of the ACT Opposition, John Stanhope, has announced that his party is opposed to the Government’s $27 million free school bus plan. That is a reasonable policy decision to make. Labor had obviously come to the conclusion that a free bus scheme that applied to children travelling more than a certain distance after-school favoured people going to private schools because by and large those going to government schools tend to attend the closest government school and therefore do not qualify for the free bus. Further, Labor argues that the money would be better spent more directly on education, on such things as reducing class sizes, increasing school facilities and providing textbooks and the like.

Leaving aside for the moment Mr Stanhope’s earlier statement that he would not make any new policy statements until closer to the election, Labor’s promise to scrap the free bus scheme if it comes to office is a sensible position to put at the next election.

However, to go the next step and state that the party will attempt to prevent the scheme getting off the ground when the Budget comes before the Legislative Assembly is another matter. That step would require an amendment to the Appropriation Bill, specifically prohibiting spending on a free buses and that would get the Opposition and crossbenchers into logical and legislative difficulties. Then might even be forced to legislate for compulsory bus fares as it is difficult to see how they can legislate to prohibit the Government from providing a free service.
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