Crispin Hull

The idealism is there. The Braidwood boy (youngest of 14 _ eight boys and six girls) now Deputy Chief Minister wants Canberra to retain its essential goodness.

David Lamont was installed yesterday as Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for the Three Rs _ not Education, but Urban Services, “”rates, roads and rubbish.”

Already the famous “”Yes Minister” briefs and boxes have arrived. He snatched 15 minutes between them yesterday to fulfil his open-door policy to the press.
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“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “”it means just what I choose it to mean.”

Parliamentary drafters are a bit like Humpty Dumpty. And sometimes like Alice. They use words in legislation. Sometimes they rely on the ordinary and natural meaning. Sometimes they behave like Humpty Dumpty. When they behave like Humpty Dumpty, they can do some weird things.

“”In this Act “state’ includes “territory’,”” for example. Sometimes black is defined as white.

This makes legislation very hard to read. Especially big Acts, like the new Industrial Relations Act (about 400 pages). You do not know if Humpty Dumpty has been to work on a particular word, or what Humpty means by it, without constant thumbing back to the definition section.

Moreover, Humpty can sneak in definitions in other parts of the Act.

The new Industrial Relations Act which came in to force on March 30 is causing quite a deal of fear and loathing out there.
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The powers are separating in the ACT.

Remember John Bjelke-Petersen, the former Queensland Premier, faltering under cross-examination in the Fitzgerald inquiry. He did not have the faintest idea what the doctrine of separation of powers is.

“”You, you, you tell me,” demanded the former Premier, head of Executive Government, leader of the majority party which dominated the single House legislature and which had made every judicial appointment for the past 10 years and which had passed laws limiting judicial discretion for a decade.
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This may sound far-fetched, but it is possible.

An adviser to independent, maverick, no-self-government coalition of one Dennis Stevenson has proposed a cunning new below-the-line party voting system.

A couple of months ago the Follett Government backed down on an above-the-line party vote system. It was to have been grafted on to the Hare-Clark system. A tick in the party box would be deemed to be a vote for the party list lodged in the Electoral Commission before the election.

The Liberals and Independents squealed foul.

They said it would be a breach of the 1992 referendum result. Independent Michael Moore threatened a no-confidence motion in Chief Minister Rosemary Follett.
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The ACT will go to the polls in February with how-to-vote cards, the last contentious issue in the new electoral laws.

The ACT will have three electorates of seven, five and five members with Robson rotation and no form of party-line voting on the Tasmanian model.

Abolish Self-Government MLA Dennis Stevenson sided with the Government to accept how-to-vote cards.

How-to-vote cards are not permitted in Tasmania, but the issue was not put as part of the 1992 referendum which voted 70-30 in favour of Hare-Clark and Robson rotation.
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A form of party-line voting for the ACT Legislative Assembly election is not out of the question, following an all-party meeting of MLAs on the electoral law yesterday.

The Liberal Party and two Independents, Michael Moore and Helen Szuty, are vehemently against any form of party-line voting. However, an alliance of maverick independent Dennis Stevenson and the Labor could result in a de-facto party-list system.

The 1992 referendum voted 70-30 in favour of the Tasmanian Hare-Clark with Robson rotation system. Under Robson rotation there are no party boxes like the Senate. Party candidates are not put in a set order on the ballot paper. The ballot papers are printed in batches. Some batches might have Follett in the No 3 spot with Lamont No 1 and Connolly No 2; other batches have Connolly No 1, Follett No 2 and Wood No 3 and so on. Voters place the candidates in the order they want.
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A group of 19 residents groups would launch a campaign to seek rates reductions for people affected by dual occupancy, a spokesperson said yesterday.

The group, representing suburbs all over Canberra, says that people whose living amenity has been permanent affected by nearby dual occupancies should get a reduction in rates because their unimproved land values had been affected.

The president of the Conservation Council of Canberra, Jacqui Rees, whose council is chairing the group, said the Save Our City Coalition would urge people affected to lodge objections to their unimproved land value valuations at rates-assessment time.

This had been decided at a meeting of the group on Thursday night.
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It may have been intentional, but The Canberra Times computer pages that day ran what could only be The Guardian’s April Fools’ Day spoof as a real computer story.

The story told of how newspapers had first got rid of linotype operators and keyboard operators when journalists keyed directly in to computers. Then newspapers got rid of compositors as full-page make-up was done on computers. Now, it was the journalists’ turn, the spoof reported. A program costing a couple of hundred dollars could generate sports stories, complete with cliches, after basic information was fed to it.

The spoof told of how several newspapers in the Mid-West of the US had replaced some sports writers with the program.
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“They come off the dual carriageway with their mind in neutral and hit the Lake George stretch.”

The change in the road conditions without a change in driver concentration is what causes the prangs on the Lake George stretch according to Collector’s lone policeman, Constable First Class Jack O’Brien.

Every town has his quirks. In Collector it’s prangs.
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THE ACT Government is seeking views on third-party (personal injury) motor vehicle insurance and has put out a discussion paper.

It says the premium will have to rise by $80 unless something is done.

Of course, the political pressure is to keep the premium low because nearly every voter has to pay it. There is little imperative to keep benefits and damages high because only a few are injured.

The paper says there have been an increase in minor claims (under $25,000) to 75 per cent of claims which take 40 per cent of total payouts.
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