Crispin Hull

President Abdurrahman Wahid must be viewing with alarm the spate of religious violence which has struck Indonesia. The violence must also be causing Foreign Minister Alexander Downer some concern. At least 14 people were killed and 50 injured in bomb attacks on Christmas Eve outside Christian churches. The bombs were planted across Indonesia, including the capital. Hitherto anti-Christian violence was mainly confined to the Maluku Islands where the Christian minority is stronger. Overall, Christians make up 10 per cent of Indonesia’s population.

The spread of the violence is alarming. Perhaps more alarming is the alleged source of it – interests which had flourished under former President Suharto determined to stir strife between Christians and Moslems in an attempt to undermine the move to peaceful democracy under President Wahid. They want to maintain the privilege and power of the army and to continue economic corruption. They also want to prevent the success of separatist movements in several parts of Indonesia. The targetting of Christians in also troubling because many Christians are from the Chinese minority which provides Indonesia with some economic strength. Destabilising the Chinese minority could be very damaging.

At heart, President Wahid is a democrat. He would probably allow some parts of Indonesia to become independent – notably Aceh and West Papua – if he had his way. But the stirrings of the Suharto forces in the 14 months since Mr Wahid was elected President have made him feel less certain of his position, so he has avoided mention of any prospect of independence. The ambivalence of his position was once again illustrated this week, when he said the people of West Papua should exercise the right of free speech, but he would not tolerate acts of secession or violence.
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Over the past few decades the spiritual side of Christmas has had a harder task getting heard over the commercial side. It was not so much the secularization of the festival of itself that caused widespread dismay, provided the festival retained its emphasis on families getting together and peace and goodwill, though many Christians would have preferred the religious element of the festival to retain prominence No, the dismay has been caused by the secularisation of Christmas leading to the festival being more about buying, giving and receiving presents and about indulging in food and drink to excess.

And now a new phenomenon has further degraded the original Christmas spirit. Not only are people succumbing to the commercial pressures to buy and over-indulge, they are now doing it more and more on credit. So not only do they wake up after Christmas with a hang-over, but also with large credit-card bills that they cannot hope to pay off in minimum time, resulting in large fees for the banks. The burden is falling disproportionately on those who can least afford it.

The average outstanding balance will go over the $2000 mark, that is up 16 per cent on the same time last year. The growth in credit-card transactions has been alarming. After the Christmas binge total credit card debt will hit $20 billion. It has doubled over the past three years. It would not matter if the transactions could be put down to people preferring the safety and convenience of electronic transactions to cash one, but the evidence it pointing to people being sucked in to running up greater bills than they can pay for – particularly if unexpected expenditure arises the following month.
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The injunction granted by the ACT Supreme Court against Chief Minister Jon Stanhope over the Gallop inquiry into disability services in the ACT seems to have been cast far too widely. Justice Ken Crispin granted the injunction on the application of four senior ACT bureaucrats who feel their reputations might be adversely affected by the publication of the report.

Mr Gallop, QC, himself a former Supreme Court judge held an extensive inquiry over several months following the death of three disabled people. One of the reasons for the inquiry, instituted by the previous Government, was the rising public disquiet over the deaths. There has also been or continuing several coronial inquests.

Mr Gallop’s inquiry and the coronial inquests do not define rights – they are not empowered to fine or jail people or award damages. Their task is to come to conclusions fairly quickly about the circumstances of the deaths and whether there are systemic deficiencies that need to be addressed quickly. There is a great public interest in these inquiries. The public has a right to know if disability services are running properly or if there are any circumstances surrounding the deaths that warrant prosecution or police inquiry. That public interest is defeated if reporting by the inquirer is frustrated by the courts.
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The case of Daniel Heiss presents a great difficulty for not only ACT authorities but the prison system Australia-wide. Heiss was sentenced to life imprisonment 10 years ago in the Northern Territory. He was found guilty of a particularly gruesome murder in the Northern Territory and is serving his sentence in Alice Springs. The bulk of his family, however, live in the ACT.

If rehabilitation is to have any place in the criminal justice system, it would be better if criminals were jailed at a place reasonably close to their families. Even in the case of the most heinous offences, the system should not give up on criminals but aim for their rehabilitation one day. The question is – how is that day determined.

The Northern Territory has a minimum term of 20 years for those sentenced to life imprisonment. It is not a minimum mandatory sentence – it is a period sent from those who have already been sentenced. In an ideal world, it would be better if each case could be reviewed regularly, rather than have blanket minimums. It may be that one person can reform more quickly than others and be returned to society to perform a useful role more quickly than others. However, the elected parliament of the Northern Territory has set its minimum for people sentenced to life – for the worst sort of crimes. Heiss’s crime fits that category.
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The Queensland seat of Ryan is held by the retiring Minister for Defence, John Moore, on a margin of 59.5 to 40.5 on a two party preferred-basis. At the 1996 election Mr Moore got the seat on a 67 to 33 per cent margin. On any measure it is a very safe Liberal seat. Now Mr Moore has resigned, the question is whether the Labor Party should contest the by-election.

Labor got a swing of more than 7 per cent last election. So it is not coming off a low base. It would be a very difficult seat to win for Labor. Combined with that is the fact the Labor in Queensland has been going through a difficult patch – one of its own making. The machinations of the faction system have caught Labor out. An earlier attempt to clean up branch-stacking resulted in a new rule that prove credentials of a new branch member he or she had to be on the electoral role for that electorate. But it did not clean up the branch-stacking. Rather the stackers falsely registered people on the Commonwealth electoral roll in the electorate to be stacked. So rather than merely breaching Labor rules, they broke the Commonwealth Electorate Act as well. The branch stacking would ordinarily be Labor’s business alone. Now it is the business of law-enforcement authorities and indeed the whole community. Labor is on the nose in Queensland, mainly at a state level, but it is rubbing off federally. An independent inquiry in Queensland has heard confessions from Labor MPS and others about enrolling people contrary to law. Several have been expelled. One Labor member has been jailed. Labor has attempted to throw some mud back alleging branch stacking in the Liberal Party, particularly in the seat of Ryan. But it does not involve the Commonwealth Electoral Act and is not so public.

Labor, therefore, has more reason than the Coalition to lie low in Queensland. A by-election in the seat of Ryan might be as much as test of Labor credibility locally as a test of the Howard Government nationally. And with nearly 10 per cent start, Labor would find it very difficult to win. There have been by-election upsets in the past. The famous Bass by-election which was a portent for the defeat of the Whitlam Government in 1975 and the Namadgi by-election in the ACT which was a portent for the defeat of the Keating Government. Bass and Namadgi were very safe seats for the Government. The Opposition won them and won Government in each case with a year. In the case of Namadgi there was also some initial thought that the Liberals should not contest the safe labor seat caused by the resignation of Ros Kelly. That historical background puts a lot of pressure and expectation on Labor leader Kim Beazley. If he is to win Government, surely he must win Ryan would be the thought.
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The ACT has been caught in the crisis over medical negligence insurance.

The crisis began in NSW when the chair of neurosurgery at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Professor Michael Besser threatened to resign his public-hospital position because of very steep increases in medical indemnity insurance. He faced an increase of $100,00 a year. At that rate, he said, it was not worth his while to continue public-hospital practice. Other neurosurgeons and obstetricians joined the threat, undermining the whole system of visiting medical officers at public hospitals.

The NSW Government has come to the rescue by offering indemnity coverage for all doctors treating public patients in public hospitals for past, present and future claims. It now seems that the ACT will have to flow suit or face a mass exodus of visiting medical officers from the public hospital system.
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The bodies-in-barrels murder cases in the South Australia is highlighting some of the difficulties of the administration of the criminal law in Australia. A committal hearing is being held in Adelaide as to whether there is enough evidence against four men to stand trial for murder after 10 bodies were found in barrels at a disused bank in Snowtown in South Australia. The dead people were social security recipients. The Crown is alleging that the accused took the social security payments after the victims’ deaths. That allegation and much more evidence has been suppressed in South Australia. Magistrate David Gurry suppressed all of the Crown prosecutor’s opening address and the evidence of three pathologists who performed post mortem examinations on the victims. The public of South Australia is left in the dark about one of the most publicised murder cases in South Australia’s history and more bizarrely left in the dark about why it was being left in the dark.

Presumably, Magistrate Gurry thought that publication of details about the committal across the state might prejudice potential jurors if the men are committed for trial. We shall know in the next few days as the Supreme Court sensibly ordered that his reasons for granting the suppression order should be published. The Supreme Court is still hearing an appeal by media organisations against the suppression order itself.
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Prime Minister John Howard has called his new ministry “”a new line-up for the new millennium”. Not so. He has chosen state balance over political balance. He has missed an opportunity to bring some moderates into the ministry. The message to his backbench is: brains, talent, education and the holding of moderate views are a bar to ministerial promotion and of more import is the state you come from, services rendered, usefulness to the Government’s re-election and political views to the right.

And his allocation of Cabinet spots and portfolios have the same drawback, with one exception. The exception is the appointment of Amanda Vanstone into Cabinet. That was a good appointment. She has performed well and has been an occasional voice of moderation in a Cabinet and Ministry which is looking uniformly right-wing. However, it seems Mr Howard appointed her out of necessity. He had to have a woman in Cabinet.

With Senator John Herron retiring, the portfolio of Aboriginal Affairs became vacant. Mr Howard could not have made a worse choice with Philip Ruddock, who adds the portfolio to Immigration. It is almost as if Mr Ruddock becomes Minister for Non-White Australians. He has had a history of refugee-bashing. He will not inspire confidence in the Aboriginal community. Rather he will inspire a fear that he will take a similar hardline in Aboriginal Affairs as he has in Immigration. These two portfolios each require the attention of a single minister. That they have been shoved together indicates that Mr Howard regards these important social portfolios with less importance than they deserve.
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The photograph on the front page of The Canberra Times told a story of enormous poignancy. There were two girls – perhaps aged five or six — hand in hand. They could have been at a school holiday camp, except the camp they were in was not a holiday camp; it was a prison.

The two children were photographed within the grounds of the Woomera detention centre for people who come to Australia without visas – usually by boats across the ocean.

The children were photographed behind a high wire fence in front of a detention centre building which had been extensively damaged by fire and rioting. The damage ran to about $1.5 million and was caused by the inmates. The criminal damage is inexcusable, but it is understandable.
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The road toll is on the rise again. It follows nearly two decades of falls. In 1981 the Australia-wide toll was a shocking 3321, falling to a low of 1760 in 1997. Since then, different states have had different experiences, but in the two most populous states, the situation looks fairly grim in 2000. Victoria and NSW both already have a higher toll so far this year, than all of last year. Interestingly, both have adopted a similar tactic this year – advertisements that are designed to shock.

This week NSW launched advertisements through the eyes of a boy filming a home video from a car’s back seat. Victoria’s campaign will concentrate on drink-driving. Victoria will also place a Christmas tree on the steps of Parliament House and dim a light for every road death.

Both these campaigns have some merit. It seems no single approach is effective indefinitely. Rather, the toll seems to fall when authorities change emphasis or add a new weapon to the fight against road trauma. Perhaps some complacency crept in around 1997 after long stretch of successful campaigns: seat belts, Breathalyzers, radar, speed and red-light cameras and double demerit points. There were even some foolish suggestions that, at 1760, Australia had taken the toll as low as could ever be expected. Not so. Australia should aim for zero road deaths. A road death should be an unusual, extraordinary thing, not something commonplace. We need a change of attitude away from present acceptance of nearly 2000 dead Australians being an acceptable price for the convenience of road transport.
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