Crispin Hull

After the 1961 election when Prime Minister Robert Menzies was chided by a Cabinet colleague for taking up some Opposition policies, he is reputed to have responded, “”Well, 50 per cent of the people voted for the Labor Party.”

Much the same could be said now if the Government borrowed a critical element of the tax plan that Labor took into the last election – the tax credits system. But the Government should borrow the policy not because 50 per cent of the people voted for Labor, but because it is a good policy.

The tax credit system was a way of dealing with effective marginal tax rates of up to 70 per cent faced by people going from welfare to work. Typically the income earned from work results in rapid reductions in child support, dole and other welfare in addition to the tax on the income earned. These people also have to meet transport and clothing costs of going to work. It is a major disincentive.
Continue reading “1999_03_march_leader05mar tax credits”

Twice in week the defamation laws have been found spectacularly ill-suited to modern politics and the information age.

They are as out-of-place as a bewigged Jacobean in silk breeches and lace-sleeved coat at a corporate tele-conference.

Mind you, I don’t have a great deal of sympathy for Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett because he has thrown around a few defamation action in the past so he knows how fickle the roulette wheel can be. But must it cost $150,000 or more for the system to deal with what should be a straightforward privacy complaint?

Kennett lost his defamation action against The Australian which the day after the Kennetts split up ran a story citing unfounded rumours of extra-marital affairs with two named high-profile women. The women, presumably, have got more brains and guts than Kennett, treating the report with the contempt that such trivia deserves.
Continue reading “1999_03_march_kennet libel”

The Commonwealth Grants Commission has continued a trend of calling on Western Australia and Queensland to pull their weight in the federation.

The main beneficiary of this trend has been the Sydney-Melbourne-Canberra axis.

Expect some screams from Premiers Richard Court and Peter Beattie. The screams will be inconsistent with their boasts that their states are the new economic powerhouses of the Commonwealth. They are the new powerhouses and so should pull their weight under the general federal principle that the common wealth of the nation is distributed so each resident of the nation gets, as far as possible, equal access to government services.

The ACT used to help subsidise (although only slightly) the poorer states (South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory) now it will be slightly subsidised by the larger states.
Continue reading “1999_03_march_grants”

Have a look at the illustration on this page.

It’s a newspaper, isn’t it?

People familiar with the internet will at once notice it is in fact the ABC’s website. But there is precious little difference between it and, say, The Canberra Times. Sure, the method of delivery is different, but the substance is the same. With the ABC newspaper, the printing has been out-sourced to the reader.

The other three television networks have similar websites, though their content is nowhere near as comprehensive or as good. That’s why various commercial broadcasting interests would like the ABC to sell its internet arm. There has been much talk about it recently.
Continue reading “1999_03_march_cross media”

“”Call me a whore for $90,000.”

“”I’d admit to having an affair with John Howard for $90,000, but I might draw the line at Mal Colston.”

“”Say what you like for quarter of a million.”

“”I wish someone would say it about me for that.”

These were some of the reactions in our newsroom at the verdict in the Abbott and Costello defamation action.
Continue reading “1999_03_march_costello”

The Australian Capital Territory is in grave constitutional danger.

An argument is unfolding in the High Court in the Eastman case that threatens to set aside all of the cases decided by judges and acting judges of the ACT Supreme Court who were appointed after 1992.

Tangentially, it might result in the ACT losing its representation in the Federal Parliament.

David Eastman was tried for the murder of assistant police commissioner Colin Winchester before an acting judge of the Supreme Court. Eastman’s lawyers are arguing that the judge’s appointment was invalid so Eastman’s conviction was invalid.
Continue reading “1999_03_march_act eastman crisis”

Who better to judge the TED competition than Legislative Assmebly Member and Deputy Opposition Leader TED Quinlan?

Mr Quinlan is also an amateur cartoonist, having published in Public Eye newspaper.

His selections are as follows:

Open

Winner:

“Bus”ted. Beverlee Rhys, of Holt.
Continue reading “1999_02_february_teds”

This week Queensland stole the Sandown car races from Victoria. That was another small skirmish in competitive federalism. But there is a bigger picture that will affect us more profoundly, and signs of that also came this week with the annual Report on Government Services.

A few sporting events don’t matter much, even if the state dogs are sniffing around our territorial futsal competition (as they were this week), or even around Floriade.

Queensland gloated over Sandown. Hitherto, Victoria’s Jeff Kennett was the highwayman of state Premiers, kidnapping various sporting and cultural events from other states.

Before that Queensland was the leader in beating the other states as a low-tax state to attract people and industry, first abolishing death duties and more recently cutting stamp duties on share transactions.
Continue reading “1999_02_february_state fed rels”

THE Leader of the Democrats, Meg Lees,has presented a fairly cogent argument that the House or Representatives, rather than the Senate, is unrepresentative.

She has responded to assertions by the Coalition that the Senate is unrepresentative and obstructionist and that its electoral system should be changed. Earlier this month, the Coalition’s Senator Helen Coonan argued that you should only win a Senate seat if you or you party got a set quota of first preference votes, perhaps as much as 14 per cent. That would wipe out many minor-party senators, strengthening the hand of the Executive Government.

Senator Lees chose the same forum as Senator Coonan, an address to the Sydney Institute, which she gave last night.
Continue reading “1999_02_february_senate voting system”

Liberal Senator Helen Coonan has called on the Labor Party to support changes to the Senate voting system to reduce the power of minor parties.

Senator Coonan, of NSW, said that proportional representation introduced in 1948 combined with the increase in the size of the Senate in 1984 combined with an habitually opposing Opposition had resulted in too much power for minor parties in the Senate.

The Democrats had shifted their emphasis from “”keeping the bastards honest”, to laying claim to be the “”legislative powerhouse” of the Parliament.

The minor parties and independents had become “”an obstructional competitor in the government of the country, frustrating or at least substantially delaying urgently required responses to national problems”. Continue reading “1999_02_february_senate fix”