Crispin Hull

The Opposition accused the Government of presenting an election Budget and doing nothing to reduce over-spending in areas noted by the Grants Commission.

It said the deficit was really $64 million, to be funded by reserves $28 million and borrowings of $36 million. The Government was now committed to borrow $212 million over five years.

Revenue was up $11 million this financial year, though the Government had said it would fall.

The Opposition finance spokesman, Trevor Kaine, said the program of 2 per cent across the board “”efficiencies” had been mindless. It was better to target cuts.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_comment”

I AM glad that lawyer Jack Pappas has volunteered to break my arm and watch “”bear the pain and suffering like a man”, because it gives me a chance to revisit the third-party motor insurance debate.

For a change, I was basically supportive of the Law Society’s position that it would be a mistake to replace common-law damages with a capped, part-administrative scheme as in many states. Such schemes invariably are worse for the catastrophically injured, especially those on medium and high incomes with families to support (yes, they have rights, too).

Something has to give in the third-party equation. The reserves will be chewed up soon, so either premiums will have to rise, or benefits fall. Politicians, being politicians, will avoid inflicting broad-based pain like increased premiums when they can inflict pian on a disparate, nebulous group like those who might be injured in future car accidents.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_column28jun”

An upfront, precise fee for legal advice is brought to us by Telecom.

Many people are too scared to walk in to a solicitors’ office because they do not know how much it will cost them and they are too afraid to ask.

Perhaps lawyers, like restaurants, should be compelled to put their menus on the window outside their offices: Conveyancing (buyer) $820; Conveyancing (seller) $540; Wills $140; Divorce (no kids or property) $670; Divorce (full-scale brawl) $56,000, plus your house. And so on.

In its absence Telecom has announced a service called InfoCall. Service providers (including lawyers) can provide recorded or live information service.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_upgrad13”

The 34 telecommunications towers planned for Canberra, mainly on the hills, will now not go ahead without going through full-scale planning procedures, including community consultation and the possibility of ministerial or parliamentary disallowance.

The Minister for Housing and Regional Development, Brian Howe, said yesterday that he had received legal advice through the National Capital Planning Authority that any major expansion of the telecommunications network in the ACT was subject to the National Capital Plan which required a plan to be worked out by the NCPA and ACT Governments in consultation with the telecommunications industry.

The NCPA had advised it would move quickly to do this and that the plan would provide the basis for the consideration of future towers.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_towers”

Every now and then I am blessed with a harmless reminder that I am not destined to win anything substantial at gambling. More out of social duty than anything else I put my name in for a $5 sweep for the World Cup. And drew Saudi Arabia.

In Melbourne Cup sweeps my horse never wins. Indeed, it never even comes last, because there is often a booby prize for the last horse. Mine comes second last.

So I am lucky, very lucky indeed. My reminders are very cheap. Others who win every now and then get what they describe as a euphoria and a odd feeling that somehow they have contributed to the win or been clever or artful. They like that feeling so they gamble again until they lose.

However, some people always win at gambling. These people are called the government. Last week’s ACT Budget figures revealed the startling extent to which Canberrans gamble and that about 10 per cent of ACT tax comes from it.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_column21jun”

Better screening of existing telecommunications towers and avoidance of silhouetted towers on major view corridors are likely to be the result of bringing telecommunications structures within planning laws, according to Planning Minister Bill Wood.

Mr Wood said after a meeting yesterday with the National Capital Planning Authority and senior representatives of Telecom, Optus and Vodafone (the three mobile phone carriers); “”I’m sure we can achieve the companies’ objectives and at the same time respect the unique landscape character of Canberra’s hills.”

Mr Wood said a plan was better than the ad-hoc arrangements elsewhere in Australia.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_tower08”

In an ideal world sporting and charitable bodies would be made to surrender that part of their lease they did not want. It would then be publicly auctioned for some other purpose, like housing.

If those leasehold principles had been observed from 1913, the public coffers would be better off and land administration (historically a great source of corruption) would be done in the open.

However, it is not an ideal world. Yowani would rather keep the land it apparently does not want for golf than surrender it, and now the city has grown it would be an inefficient use and to the community’s detriment.

Former Commonwealth Grants Commissioner Rae Else-Mitchell correctly pointed out on this page on Saturday that under Yowani’s and like leases, the Government can force a surrender if the land is needed for a public purpose and he chided me for suggesting that this would result in an expensive wrangle over constitutional rights to just compensation.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_column13jun”

The ACT is a vulnerable little polity. And to do well in this grim competitive Federation our government has to be smart. If it is dumb, the citizens pay.

The TAB fiasco shows how vulnerable the ACT is in the face of the big states. This week another fiscal Achilles heel has been revealed: compulsory third-party car insurance. This insurance covers drivers at fault who are sued for causing personal injury.

This week’s announced $18-a-week increase to apply from July 8 is a trivial inconvenience compared to what might happen in the future.

The increase brings premiums to $178 per car per year. The NRMA says the real cost is $266. The balance is being paid by eating into reserves. That sounds like a typical ACT Government policy in the face of a looming February election: don’t upset the natives with a bit of fiscal responsibility. To the Government’s credit, however, it has put out an issues paper on what should be done. To the community’s discredit, the response has been negligible.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_thirdpty”

THE police did not arrive at The Canberra Times with a search warrant at the weekend.

Odd that, because on Page 1 of Saturday’s paper was an article about the as yet unpublished Vitab report leaked from a “”government source”.

Now, two years ago when someone leaked some health budget material which The Canberra Times published, the government got a search warrant and a couple of cops turned over a desk or two and found nothing.

Why no police this time? Could it be because the “”government source” was doing the government’s bidding in putting the government in a good light.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_column04jun”

There are only 14 shopping days until the end of the financial year.

Should you buy a new computer or upgrade your existing one, or its software?

To maximise your tax advantage it is a good time to upgrade _ just before the financial year. This is particularly true this year because the investment allowance cuts out at the end of this financial year.

That is the swing. What about the roundabout? Well, everyone is upgrading or buying now. So it is a sellers’ market and there are fewer crazy deals around. In Canberra it is worse. All those Government Departments are looking for ways to off-load any spare cash at the end of the financial year lest the Department of Finance takes it off them or gives them less next year. What better way to waste the taxpayers’ money than buying a whole lot of computer junk?
Continue reading “1994_06_june_taxcomp”