Crispin Hull

IN A few days digital television will begin in Australia. Hitherto, Australians have shown a remarkable propensity to take up new technology. Not so with digital television. Consumers are taking precious little interest in it. Manufacturers are also wary.

The reason is that the Government has nobbled nearly all the benefits of digital television, just for the benefit of the existing three commercial broadcasters.

Quite rightly, consumers will not buy digital television sets or digital television converters until they get value for money and that cannot happen until the Government admits it got it wrong and changes the legislation.
Continue reading “2000_12_december_digital fiasco”

A federation can only be stable if there is a way of releasing the tension that inevitably arises among the constituent parts and between them and the central authority.

In Australia the tensions have been frequent and fierce. Indeed, Western Australia voted to secede in the 1930s. The tensions have been made worse by the friction between the left and right of politics. As one or other side held power in the centre it flexed central power to implement its philosophy across Australian life irrespective of notional constitutional deliniation of power.

The Australian Constitution provides two way of releasing the tension: a referendum process to change the balance struck in the Constitution between the Commonwealth and the states, and the High Court which arbitrates when disputes arise between the Commonwealth and the state.
Continue reading “2000_12_december_constituional power”

One of the tests of television’s capacity to educate is to ask someone who chants that David Attenborough-narrated nature documentaries are very educational – well what exactly did you learn. It does not get much beyond that the world is a wonderful green place full of amazing creatures that do very odd things.

Now we have the Blue Planet series. I have been transfixed by it. But all that had changed educationally is that the world is a wonderful BLUE place full of amazing creatures that do very odd things.

Well, The Blue Planet now has an educational supplement, the book of the series. It is packed with facts, explanations and analyses that cannot possibly be absorbed through the narration on the television series.
Continue reading “2000_12_december_blueplanet”

In 1972, the parents of a friend of mine had a political fight. Normally, the husband articulated the families politics and the wife nodded agreement. It was a small-business, private-sector family and the views were naturally high Tory. But in 1972, that nice education Mr Whitlam had replaced the working-class, gravel-voiced Arthur Calwell and the It’s Time slogan was taking hold. The wife indicated that she was going to – shock, horror – vote Labor.

“”This family votes Liberal,” articulated the husband.

On December 2, my friend described – with enormous amusement — how his father, in the primary-school hall, had to be physically restrained by Electoral Commission staff as yelled to his wife, “”You’re not voting for that socialist”, or words to that effect.

Commission staff were patiently explaining, “”Come along now sir, your wife is entitled to vote in her own way.”
Continue reading “2000_11_november_voting for oped”

The reason the vote in the ACT Legislative Assembly appeared to wander all over the place over the past week and a half was the freakish closeness of the vote.

Indeed, it was so close that Labor came within 350 votes of obtaining a majority of nine seats.

The ACT Electoral Commission did a computer crunch of the preferences after each day’s keying in of ballot papers. It treated all the votes counted as if they were the whole electorate and counted all the preferences of all of them.
Continue reading “2000_11_november_vote close”

A big storm hit the Colorado skifields during the week. Vail (North America’s largest single-mountain resort) has had 175cm of snow so far this season, leaving a base of 60cm for skiing. Vail has opened 270 hectares of the resort. It is being seen as the best season opening for decades, a bit like the season just passed in Australia, but equivalent to the season starting in mid-May.
Continue reading “2000_11_november_usski”

In 1969, as a consequence of the 1969 election, my parents bought a television set.

Hitherto, my father, who thought all music penned after 1890 was unbearably romantic smultchz or impossibly tuneless cacophony, would not have a television in the house.

I was the reason for the change of mind.

In 1966, television first came to Beechworth. Those who could not afford a set sat on the footpath outside Garland’s Electrical store. Or those who got their early enough in the evening could park their EJ Holdens at the kerb in front of the store and honk the horn at anyone who blocked the view. There was no sound, but perhaps that was a blessing in the days of Graham Kennedy’s In Melbourne Tonight.
Continue reading “2000_11_november_tv for forum”

It seems likely that the balance of power in the Senate will change when the new senators elected yesterday take their seats on July 1 next year.

The Coalition has successfully defended its good 1996 (SUBS: correct 1996) Senate result, the Democrats have possibly lost two seats and One Nation’s Pauline Hanson is close to election as a Senator in Queensland.

It will change the overall political position in the Senate. The Government can get a majority with One Nation or the Greens. The Democrats can no longer join Labor on its own to get a majority.
Continue reading “2000_11_november_senate2001”

They were at it again yesterday, as they have been for more than 100 years. The “”leaders” of the states squabbling with the Commonwealth over money.

They need the money to buy things so they will look good in front of the voters, so they will get get voted back into power. Once again, it is about that most basic instinct, survival.

The Commonwealth is not much better. We witnessed the petty ego of the Education Minister David Kemp this week demanding that the Commonwealth’s contribution be recognised when school buildings it has partially funded are openned. It means that he, or someone he appoints, must attend the openning and be invited to speak or do the openning depending on the funding level. Kemp was making his demands against Victoria and threatened to withdraw funding unless they were met. In short, Coalition politicians must be seen to look good in front of voters rather than state Labor ones. Labor is no better.
Continue reading “2000_11_november_republic for forum”

Late last month a piece of retrospective legislation passed through the Parliament agreed to by the major parties, making one law for political parties and Members of Parliament and another law for all the rest of us. The issue was privacy.

Every federal politician can now demand to be provided with an electronic version of the electoral roll. It will contain all the details individuals provide to the Australian Electoral Commission.

This information was provided by individuals to the Australian Electoral Commission for the purpose of getting themselves on the electoral roll to vote.
Continue reading “2000_11_november_privacy for oped”