Crispin Hull

The move by Bob Carr to put the vice-regal officer in a city office has a precedent … from the equally republican-minded Prime Minister of the Irish Free State, Eamon de Valera.

In 1932, De Valera engaged in a concerted attack on the office of Governor-General and the incumbent, James McNeill, whom he saw as an unwarranted and unwanted English entity.

De Valera clashed with Governor-General McNeill over invitations to functions at Government House, culminating in McNeill threatening to make public correspondence about the clash which would have embarrassed De Valera unless De Valera apolgised for his behaviour.
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Not worth the paper it’s written on, like many quotes, has strayed from the original intention of Sam Goldwyn to mean the exact opposite of what he intended.

Goldwyn used the line “”not worth the paper it’s written on” when referring to verbal contracts. With typical Goldwyn cynicism he was suggesting that the wheelers and dealers of Hollywood could not be trusted; their word was as nothing. He was saying that the only way to get something enforceable is to get it in writing on paper so you could go to court.

Nowadays, with perhaps greater cynicism, people use the expression to say that certain written documents or agreements are worthless. For example, some might say the new treaty with Indonesia is not worth the paper it is written on. The expression was often applied to the Soviet Constitution which guaranteed freedom of speech and religion.
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Commerce, climate and environment combine to determine the best places to live. Planners may help, but people are not stupid.

In Canberra, the early settlers knew Burley Griffin had made a visionary mistake. His plan put all of the monumental and institutional buildings on the south side of the lake. They were elevated and looked north into the sun. The people, under his plan, were put on the north side looking to the monumental buildings that were lit up by the splendid sun.

Thus, under Griffin’s plan the people were to live with the cold southerly orientation. Moreover, on the eastern Ainslie side north of the lake, the slope of the hill gave them a westerly aspect, facing the worst of the weather, the hot afternoon sun and in the shadow of Mount Ainslie in the morning … the time when the sun is most welcome in both summer and winter.
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The most powerful nation on earth has shut itself down. The Government of the United States will be closed for business (or at least most of its business) until January 3. This is because the legislative arms of government, controlled by fiscally frugal Republicans, cannot agree with the executive arm, controlled by the more spendthrift Democrats headed by President Bill Clinton.

There have been signs of compromise, over payments of welfare to the most needy, but 260,000 federal employees remain on compulsory leave because no Budget law has been passed to pay them.
Continue reading “1995_12_december_leader26dec”

There is hope that for the first time in many years that Christmas will be celebrated this year in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, in peace and security. Last Thursday, Israel ended its 28-year occupation of the town and the Palestinian flag flew for the first time over the Church of the Nativity … a sign that will gladden the hearts of many Palestinian Christians. The occupation, which continues on other parts of the West Bank, caused security concerns for many Christians around the world who visited or wanted to visit Bethlehem at this important time in the Christian calendar. Manger Square, where 50,000 will gather today, was the scene of many Israeli-Palestinian clashes during the occupation. Now, it is hoped, these security concerns will disappear and it will be a foretaste of what may come to pass in Jerusalem itself for all three religions which regard the city as special.

That hope will be heightened by the presence of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the Christmas celebrations.

Bethlehem has a significant proportion of Palestinian Christians. They amount to about 30 per cent of its 30,000 residents, down from a majority in 1948 and about 90 per cent at the turn of the century. About 2.5 per cent of the Palestinians overall are Christian. Some Palestinian Christians are apprehensive, of course. They have seen how extremism, fanaticism and the intifada caused tourists to stay away, business to fall and Muslims buy up what were once Christian holdings. Earlier harmony and goodwill between people of different religions were lost.
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The Government’s media policy is being further unravelled over reasonable complaints that Optus’s coaxial cables over power poles is unsightly environmental vandalism. That Optus needs to string up a second cable network is the result of the foolish model the Government chose for its competition policy for media and telecommunications.

Competition is fine up to a point. However, under the Government’s model, everything was nominally to be subjected to competition: service provision, content, cables and service provision. Initially, Optus was to get access to Telstra’s lines to ensure some sort of level playing field, and then Optus could create its own network. But the intention was doomed while ever one organisation provided both cable network and service and content provision, and Telstra is now busily reverting to monopolistic practices by getting market share of pay television early. This has forced Optus to roll out its own cable early.
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This week’s Industry Commission report on the eight state and territory Governments’ efficiency and effectiveness gives independent verification to a message oft repeated in ACT politics: that we spend too much to too little on government services in the ACT. The Liberal Party went into the last election with that message and attained government. Before it, the Labor Government preached frugality and warned that federal subvention was waning and that we had to get more efficient at delivering services.

However, since February the Carnell Government has met some stiff resistance, particularly from public-sector unions, when it has attempted to do that.
Continue reading “1995_12_december_leader22dec”

This week’s Industry Commission report on the efficiency and effectiveness of the eight state and territory Governments gives independent verification to a message oft repeated in ACT politics: that we spend too much to too little on government services in the ACT. The Liberal Party went into the last election with that message and attained government. Before it, the Labor Government preached frugality and warned that federal subvention was waning and that we had to get more efficient at delivering services.

However, since February the Carnell Government has met some stiff resistance, particularly from public-sector unions, when it has attempted to do that.
Continue reading “1995_12_december_leader21dec”

On August 19, 1980, The Canberra Times published an article on Page 7, headed “”Dingo blamed over missing baby”. It said, “”The search for a baby girl snatched by a wild dog late on Sunday will continue at first light today near Ayers Rock.” The report took at face value the statement from Michael Chamberlain that his wife, Lindy, had see a dingo take their baby.

Fair-minded people should now acknowledge, whatever their belief at various times in the intervening 15 years, that the Chamberlains were telling the truth. The scientific evidence that backed initial police suspicion has been thoroughly discredited. And once baby Azaria’s matinee jacket was found in a manner that was consistent with the Chamberlains’ evidence, the finding of the Morling Royal Commission that the convictions were unsafe was inevitable. The Chamberlains were pardoned; the convictions quashed after special legislation was passed and compensation paid. That meant the legislature and executive had acknowledged error. But not the legal system. Last week a new coroner’s inquest returned an open verdict, refusing to accept the Chamberlains’ submission that a dingo took their baby. That finding is unfair. The coroner, in a way representing the Australian legal system, should have taken the opportunity to admit error. Once the scientific evidence goes and prejudice is put aside, there is only one conclusion … in the words of Lindy Chamberlain: “”My God a dingo’s got my baby.”