Crispin Hull

It was folly for the Labor Party in the ACT to adopt euthanasia as part of its official policy in 1991, whatever one thinks of the ethics or merits of active euthanasia. It was folly because, once it is part of official policy, Labor MPs are bound by it. For many years the Labor Party has had various items on its official platforms … at state and national level … which it just does not bother to do anything about. Often they become policy as part of factional deals or feel-good motions at conferences. Official policies on uranium, public ownership and various moral issues have been made policy … usually while the party is in Opposition … and Labor Governments have just conveniently failed to get around to putting them into effect. Appeasing a party faction is one matter; alienating a portion of the electorate is another.

This strategy has worked well elsewhere. In the ACT, however, it is a time-bomb. Since self-government, the ACT Government has always been in minority or an unstable coalition. It is ripe for a minority or independent MLA to test the sincerity of a policy item of a major party through a Private Members’ Bill, especially when that policy item is dear to the independent. Michael Moore has done this with consummate skill over the past six years … embarrassing both the Labor and Liberal Party with their own policies.
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The question of kangaroo culling raises issues about governance in the ACT as much as whether or how kangaroos should be treated. Opinion is divided. Rural lessees want greater freedom to shoot kangaroos. Animal liberationists want no killing; just contraception and reflectors to divert kangaroos from roads; and conservationists seek a place for all species and a long-term solution to balance their numbers which may or may not include some culling. They also want reflectors.

The Government cannot please all. Initially avoided the wrath of any group by setting up an advisory committee. It was fortunate to have one of Australia’s leading marsupial experts, Professor John Rodger, to chair it.
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Childish Anti-Europe xenophobia is breaking out in the British Conservative Party again. Defence Secretary Michael Portillo … perhaps with an eye to the leadership … has pandered to base nationalism by saying he would never allow the European Union to control Britain’s defence policy nor allow any British soldiers to fight in a single European army. “”Don’t mess with Britain,” he said. The statement was nonsense, in any event. The EU has no plan for a unified army, nor is it involved with military decision-making. However, the statement gives fuel to misguided opinion in Britain that blame for any woe in Britain can be sheeted home to the EU. The facts, of course, are different. The European Union, and its predecessors, have been responsible for an unprecedented period of economic prosperity and peace in Europe.

It has been far too easy for some politicians in Britain to further their short-term ends by blaming Brussels. The EU has had a difficult task in assimilating individual national regulatory regimes into single European codes which protect consumers and promote free trade and competition. It is too easy to point to the occasional odd or inconvenient regulation or change from a familiar British way while ignoring the benefits to all EU members that have been brought through the unified market.
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The battle for the battlers in the phoney election campaign continues. The battle highlights some significant differences in the two major parties, despite the popular view that the ideological divide has narrowed. The narrowing has been exemplified by the end of the cold war, extensive privatisations and support by both sides for user pays and competition policy. In the past year it is also manifesting itself in the Coalition softening some policies that cost it the 1993 election … notably in industrial relations.

None the less, the fundamental philosophic differences remain and Opposition Leader John Howard’s headland speeches, if anything, highlight them largely because of their absence of specific detail. The Coalition still stresses the importance of the individual. Labor still emphasises the importance of collectivity and a greater role for the state. Nothing that Mr Howard has said in his headland speeches, including his speech on social security yesterday, indicate a change of philosophy.
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For all the deserved criticism our legal system gets from time to time, Australians can count their blessings when they look at recent events in China and the Gulf. The appalling treatment given to Australian national James Peng and the inhuman treatment given to women, especially foreign maids, in some Gulf countries reveal an absence of civilised behaviour.

Australia and other western countries are frequently attacked for meddling in internal affairs or not understanding cultural differences when they criticise human-rights breaches in other countries.

But there are certain values that transcend culture and breach of them by nations is of international concern. Paramount is the rule of law. A sub-set of that is no retrospectivity, a right to representation, to know the case against you and have a proper chance to test it by calling witnesses and testing prosecution witnesses, no double jeopardy no arbitrary arrest, no personal influence, and so on. Other human values include no capital punishment (especially for juveniles) or cruel or unusual punishment.
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The ACT is caught in the bind of competitive federalism. State and territory governments are competing for businesses. They think that by attracting new businesses, their states will benefit by providing employment and taxes. To some extent that is true. The trouble is the competition has got harder, especially since Jeff Kennett became Premier in Victoria and began a jingoistic campaign to attact events and businesses to his state.

Businesses are now not only asking the receiving government for an incentive to move, they are putting their hand out to their home government with a threat of moving unless they get tax breaks and other advantages. This happened this week in the ACT with Australian Optic Fibre Research and the Rally of Canberra.

None of this is good for the nation. Uprooting a business from one state to another is costly for the business, and for the staff, too, both emotionally and financially … whether they move too, or stay. There may, however, be an argument for engaging in competition for overseas businesses.
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A healthy debate is under way. On one side, several urologists and prostate cancer patients are arguing for routine screening for prostate cancer among men over, say, 55. They say that if caught early, the cancer is quite treatable and the spreading of the cancer to other vital organs can be prevented. On the other side, some public-health doctors are pointing to the downside of routine testing. They say the test is relatively unreliable. Depending on where the cut-off point is set, it gives too many false positives and too many false negatives, both with unfortunate effects. Some men might be put on unnecessarily debilitating treatments like surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy when if left alone they would most likely die from some cause other than the cancer. Conversely, some men might go away with the false knowledge that they are free from cancer.

This debate can be quite constructive. Viewed sensibly, it indicates that more research is needed. It will require greater investment (and nearly all medical research should be seen as investment rather than just funding).
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Federalism is bad for our health. The drift from private health insurance is having a huge impact on the ACT health system, particularly Woden Valley Hospital. Public hospitals charge privately insured patients much more than Medicare patients. The trouble is people are dropping out of private insurance. It means that private patients comprise a lower percentage of patients at Woden. They were 41.3 per cent in 1989-90 and only 17.6 per cent in 1994-95, and will fall to 12.6 per cent this financial year. It has meant revenue for Woden Valley has fallen $20 million for providing the same service.

The reasons for people deserting private cover have been apparent for several years. Medicare, which everyone has to pay for anyway, provides virtually the same benefits for catastrophic or life-threatening illness as private cover. Indeed, some private patients end up financially worse off. Seriously ill patients virtually get choice of doctor or are in a situation where choice is irrelevant (their life is threatened and only one is available; or there is only one or two specialists in the town who can treat the patient).
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Parents will be somewhat comforted by this week’s report on computer games which says they are not addictive and children playing them will not become more aggressive. The report even suggested that some games could even improve family relations because encouraged joint family activities on a scale rarely seen since the advent of television.

For generations parents have been worried about the latest fad engaging their children. Computer games, like previous fads, were not part of the childhood experience of present parents, so parents are largely ignorant of their influence, perhaps exaggerating it while having an idealised view of their own childhood.

The research, by Kevin Durkin, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Western Australia, indicates that computer games are not all that different from the fads of previous generations … apparently capable of generating obsessions but in fact just one of many activities. Obviously, children might be better off spending less time on the games and more on homework, reading or sport. But computer games appear to be better than a lot of television watching. Television is more passive. Computer games, the report showed, are an entree to the use of computer technology for children and appear to help them learn to think better and improve their ability to solve problems, adding to cognitive, perceptual and social development.
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