Crispin Hull

Night fell in the hills of eastern Nepal. It was utterly dark and silent, yet Nepal is one of the most densely populated countries on earth. The darkness was because there was no electricity and the silence was because there were no cars. It was several years ago and on return to Canberra I imagined a great hand reaching down from the sky and grabbing the roads and pulling them up like spaghetti and with them the cars, the services stations, the car ports and the car parks. And then the rest was compacted.

You could walk or cycle from one end to the other in less time it now takes to drive. And it would be so peaceful.

Such cities will never be built. The car is such a necessary luxury.

It is Public Transport Week. It is always some week or other. (Next week it’s All Those Who Missed Out Last Week Week.)
Continue reading “1994_05_may_transp”

A Russian Journal” are being published this month by Reed Books. The first under its William Heinemann name and the others (both republications) under Minerva.

Does Steinbeck prove the cliches about writing and writers to be truisms?

You have to have human misery and suffering to provide the counterpoint of human sacrifice to make good writing. Good writers have to live in turrets, poverty and financial deprivation. Good writers are awful to their family and friends because they are so single-minded about their work.

Jay Parini, in the plainly titled “John Steinbeck, a biography”, provides enough material to make the case.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_steinbek”

An ACT proposal for citizen’s initiative will become a spark for other states and the Commonwealth, according to Opposition frontbencher Peter Reith.

He said yesterday that he was developing a “”green paper” on direct democracy under which citizens could after collecting a threshold of signatures force a referendum on a new law or to repeal an existing law.

He wanted more public debate.

“”It’s a great idea; it’s like all good ideas, it is simple as anything,” he said. “”But hardly anybody really knows anything about it. Once people understand they will be overwhelmingly in favour of the idea, but it will not happen over night. I want to see people talk about it and understand it.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_reith”

The government-appointed ACT Heritage Council called yesterday for a halt to townhouse development in Old Red Hill until after a report by National Trust president Professor Ken Taylor can be considered.

The chair of the council, Eric Martin, met residents this week. He said he would recommend the delay to the Minister for Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, and the Assembly’s Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee.

A spokesman for the Minister said Mr Wood would met Mr Martin next week.

Government sources suggest the delay will be agreed to, because planners would not want egg on their face if Professor Taylor’s came down against the development.

Old Red Hill Preservation Group members, Ernie Digweed and Ann Howarth said, “”Residents are more determined now to stop the Kingstonisation of Old Red Hill.”
Continue reading “1994_05_may_redhill”

The Public Sector Union is to campaign against the July 1 start-up of the separate ACT Government Service saying the Federal Government knocked back yesterday all of its outstanding claims on mobility between the services.

However, the Commonwealth says it is still willing to talk.

A stop-work meeting will be held at 12.15pm today in the Canberra Theatre. The union will also lobby Green and Democrat senators to delay or change the legislation in the Senate. It will also lobby ACT Independent and Opposition MLAs about the complementary ACT legislation.

At an Assembly committee hearing yesterday …….. (take in top few pars of Bachelard copy then back to this …. then end with rest of Bachelard.)
Continue reading “1994_05_may_psact25”

The ACT’s population is projected to be at a high of 577,600 in 2041, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

At present it is 299,000.

For a long time the ACT had the highest annual growth in population among the states. Now Queensland has overtaken and heads the table. On ABS projections Queensland will have to cope with a doubling of its population between now and 2041.

The ACT will continue to have the youngest median age at 39 of all states except the Northern Territory.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_popact”

The development of electronic cameras, which store the image on a disc for later showing on computer or TV screens threaten the ordinary film and camera market.

Fuji has three developments in the pipeline. The first is a magnetic see-through overlay on colour film. The second is a method of showing colour negatives as positives on the TV or computer screen. And the third is much higher resolution film or faster film at the same resolution.

The first two will enable people to call a picture up on their computer screen an encode instructions to the photo shop for reprints, blow-up or cropping. The instructions will be encoded on the magnetic strip.

The computer viewing will enable all the advantages of electronic photography.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_photos”

My parents, being English, used to get the annual collected Giles cartoons.

Sometime in the 1950s, or perhaps early 1960s, the British Government allowed commercial stations to compete with the BBC.

Giles did a splendid cartoon of a manservant pouring petrol over a television set atop a huge bonfire and an old cricketing buffer in a blazer below saying: “”More on still, Harvey! I won’t have my Test cricket brought to me by someone or other’s miracle pills.”

I have felt like that old buffer on a couple of occasions this year. A Collingwood player had run from the back of the ground, dodging and weaving and bouncing and then kicked a goal from 60 metres out.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_paytv”

The ACT Liberal Party is seeking some quality women candidates for the next Legislative Assembly election in February.

The ACT president of the party, Gwen Wilcox, said yesterday that seven candidates would be chosen for Molonglo and five for Brindabella. Five had already been chosen for Ginninderra.

The party’s leader, Kate Carnell, the only woman of the six Liberal MLAs, said the party was looking for good women candidates.

The Liberal Party does not have an affirmative-action policy like Labor which re-orders candidates if necessary to give women winnable positions.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_libs”

Professor Ron Sackville and his Access to Justice Advisory Committee have done an extraordinary job in the past seven months in producing a 500-page report on ways to improve access to justice. Professor Sackville delivered his report this week to the Attorney-General, Michael Lavarch, who has outlined a process to convert the recommendations of the report into action.

Among its recommendations were: contingency fees (no-win, no-fee); lawyers to freely advertise everything, including fees; abolition of scale fees and a requirement that lawyers tell clients the fees beforehand; an complaints body independent of the legal profession; televising of some court proceedings; abolition of wigs and gowns; more and better directed legal aid; more alternative dispute resolution; more court-controlled case management; simpler legislation; cheaper electronic access to legislation on database; better harmony of the laws of the states.

A couple of commendable aspects to the recommendations stand out. Often the major recommendations of committee involved in questions of social justice respond with calls to throw dollars at the problem. The vast majority of this committee’s recommendations are commonsense changes to practice that will cost nothing. Secondly, the vast bulk of the changes will not result in a transfer of money from the well-off to the not-so-well off. Indeed, the wealthy will have as much to gain from the recommendations as the not so well-off.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_leader25may”