Crispin Hull

The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre has said that Australia risked becoming an international joke if it accepted alleged death camp officer Konrad Kalejs following his expulsion from Britain. The Australian Government has quite rightly taken that risk. In the end, Australia will be seen as applying the rule of law to the case. Australian authorities require evidence before they can arbitrarily refuse entry to the country of one of its citizens. Australian authorities will require enough evidence to arrest and charge Mr Kalejs under the War Crimes Act or evidence that he obtained his Australian citizenship by fraud before it can be taken away so that he can be deported to Latvia. The Wiesenthal Centre alleges that Mr Kalejs, 86, was a member of a death squad in Latvia during World War II. In response, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock says Australia will not be bullied into banning Mr Kalejs’ return.

Mr Ruddock is right. Australian citizenship carries with it a right of residence and a right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty. If Australian authorities deported a citizen, it would breach that right. Indeed, it would be stooping to the very arbitrary rule and abrogation of the rule of law that was so repulsive in the Nazi regime.

By all means Australian authorities should assess, as quickly as possible, whether Mr Kalejs obtained his citizenship by fraud and whether there is enough evidence to mount a case to revoke it. And Australian authorities should assess the evidence to make a war crimes charge. The latter, however, is fraught with difficulty. Britain, which has similar war-crimes laws as Australia and similar procedures for prosecution has not moved to arrest Mr Kalejs. It has moved to expel him, as it is entitled to do, merely on the ground that he is not a British citizen and therefore has no right of abode in Britain.
Continue reading “2000_01_january_leader06jan war crime”

The Howard Government has done much to change the $3.9 billion nursing home industry in Australia. This week saw the end of a 14-month accreditation period for federally funded nursing homes. The theory was that unless nursing homes met standards they would not get federal funding and presumably would be driven out. The result would be higher standards of care. The Government also did more to ensure that the cost of aged care is not borne solely by the taxpayer if the aged person had assets and income that could be used to help contribute to their own care. Before 1996 it seemed that the cost of nursing homes for the aged was getting out of hand with the aging population. Further, the standard of homes was not being effectively monitored. Something had to be done.

At the end of the 14-month accreditation period all but one of the 2950 nursing homes had been given accreditation and therefore funding. It sounds too good to be true. Surely, there were more bad homes in that number?
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Weather data for 1999 being published this week will probably cause less fuss than much of the economic data that is published through the year.

The latest data show that the 1990s was the warmest decade since 1910 when reliable records were made. Moreover, it is a steady increase since the 1960s, not a one-off event. The national annual mean temperature during the 1990s averaged 0.33°C higher than the average for the rolling 30-year reference period of 1961 to 1990. Compared to the beginning of the century, national annual average temperatures at the end are about 0.8°C higher. Five years during the 1990s were among Australia’s top 10 warmest years with 1998 being the warmest on record. Last year’s average maximum temperature was equal to the long-term average but the minimum was higher than average, as forecast.

The Australian experience is similar to that in the rest of the world. The 1990s was the hottest decade since instrument records began in the 1860s. And last year was the fifth warmest on record.

Increasingly, the evidence is showing that the world is warming. The question is whether the warming is being caused by increases in greenhouse gases, such as methane and carbon dioxide. The increase in greenhouse gases have come with industrialisation. These gases trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere.
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Russians and history may well forgive Boris Yeltsin his many sins because of his one triumph. He was the man who stood up to the tanks in 1991 and permitted democracy in Russia. In the wake of a failed coup against reformist communist leader Mihail Gorbachev. The hardline communists could easily have taken power had not Mr Yeltsin bravely climbed on the taken to demand peace. Events in China two years earlier are a clear reminder that democracy is not the inevitable winner when communist is defied.

After declaring the Russian Federation (one of the constituent parts of the Soviet Union) as independent, Mr Yeltsin paved the way for the other parts of the Soviet Empire to also break away to become independent states with varying degrees of democracy.

From that promising beginning, however, it was all down hill. In 1993, Yeltsin ordered the firing of shells from tanks into the parliament building when he could not get his way with opposition MPs. He then launched a disastrous invasion of Chechnya in 1995 which led to the death of thousands of civilians and thousands of young conscripts. All the while the Russian economy has suffered from a too-hasty transition to a full market economy and erratic decision-making in an attempt to curb the worst effects of the haste. The erratic decision making could often be put down to Mr Yeltsin’s habitual drunkenness. His trigger-happy dismissals of four Prime Ministers in as many years have added to a picture of a nation lurching like its leader from one crisis to the next.
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The Government will have to think seriously about revisiting its appalling legislation on digital television before too long. It was obvious at the time the legislation imposed unnecessary restrictions on digital television technology and now that digital has arrived it is apparent that consumers are voting with their wallets.

The Government’s mistakes were to impose high definition television on the three commercial and two public networks; to prevent any significant multi-channelling which the technology is ideally suited to and to restrict the way datacasting can be used, even though the technology would allow huge datacasting innovation.

The requirement for high-definition, rather than standard-definition, digital was at the behest of the three commercial networks. With high-definition, only one program can be transmitted at the time, with some minor enhancements. It means the commercial networks could concentrate their production costs and their advertising revenue. The Government obviously did not want to offend the commercial networks. If standard definition had been chosen, the five networks could each have delivered four or five different programs at the same time – increasing choice and diversity.
Continue reading “2000_01_january_leader04jan digital”

The decision by President Clinton to sign a treaty to establish a permanent international war crimes tribunal under the United nations was a good one, even if its timing suggests that there were ulterior motives. Mr Clinton obviously wanted to get a few achievements on the board given his presidency ends this month. Further he would like to get up the nose of his Republican opponents who oppose the treaty.

He left the decision to the last possible day upon which the treaty could be signed as an originating nation. The pity is that the US did not sign it earlier. It would have given a very worthwhile cause great impetus. That impetus was illustrated by the decision of Israel to immediately change its mind after the US decision from being opposed to the treaty to being in favour.

Hitherto, the US objection was based on a Catch-22. It was opposed to signing a treaty which would subject soldiers and nationals of non-signing nations to it – it was opposed to extraterritoriality applying to its troops. But if it signed, then that objection would disappear. US troops would be subject to the treaty without breaching US sovereignty because the US would have agreed to US troops being subject to an international tribunal by force of it ratifying the treaty and incorporating it into its own domestic law.
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One of the reasons Australia put itself forward to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in 2001 was that they year would be the centenary of federation. That being the case, Canberra was the obvious city to hold the event. And in due course, Prime Minister John Howard announced it would be held in Canberra. In the lead up to that announcement he warned the Premiers that they would be wasting their time if they engaged in any lobbying to get the meeting in their state.

Last week Mr Howard changed the decision on the venue. In October 2001, just before the federal election is due, CHOGM will now meet in Brisbane. Queensland is critical to the Coalition’s fortunes in the election. It is there that it faces the greatest threat from One Nation and where it lost the most seats in 1998.

The ACT does not matter to the Coalition electorally. Indeed, Canberra-bashing is a Coalition sport. The ultimate Canberra bash is Mr Howard’s refusal to live here. Mr Howard just does not like Canberra.
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The revelation that Konrad Kalejs lied in his application for citizenship puts the Australian Government on the spot — especially as the key evidence is held by the Government itself in its own archives.

Up to now, Australia has said it does not have enough evidence to prosecute Kalejs for war crimes. Maybe. But it now appears it does have the evidence to question Kalejs’ right to continued citizenship.

And that changes the equation. As a citizen, Kalejs cannot be forced out of the country except by extradition, presumably to Latvia. Extradition can only take place if there is a warrant for his arrest issued in Latvia, which there is not.

If he is not a citizen, however, he can be deported, presumably back to his country of origin, Latvia, irrespective of whether Latvia has charged him or issued a warrant for his arrest.

Latvia has launched another investigation, however, and because it is in the county of the alleged crimes it would have more chance of leading to prosecution than Australia’s merely-keep-the-file-open approach. And in any event, life in Latvia would be more uncomfortable for Kalejs.
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The past couple of weeks have seen a carry-on over the GST, over whether it should be imposed on tampons, local governmetn services, movie tickets and so on. There has also been a carry on over other minor teething problems like lay-bys and the like. These and the other debates over food and the cost of introducing the new tax have shifted attention away from the fundamental, long-term political change the tax will have on Australia.

The case for reform of the wholesale sales tax system was clear. There has been an argument over whether the compensation to low incomes and people on welfare is enough to counter the GST. But the move to an efficient, broad-based tax which included services has many benefits.

The trouble is that John Howard gave far too much away in his determination to introduce the tax. Not just to the Democrats, but more importantly to the states and territories.
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ADD… GST…

Hockey has no idea… GST too complex… like 28cent cheque.

Insurance pro rata.

Lay-by. Delivery not payment… check the Bills.