Crispin Hull

The American Civil Liberties’ Union is underwriting an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against the sentence imposed on the two boys who killed two-year-old toddler James Bulger in England last November.

They are arguing the indefinite sentence “”to be detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure” breaches the UN Convention on Human Rights because it will finally be determined by the Home Secretary, not the judicial system and that the two boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 11 at the time, suffered inhuman and degrading treatment when they were tried in an adult court.

Australian states and territories have trial by jury in adult courts for serious offences committed by children, but the “”detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure” is unnecessary or unusual with children in Australia because most states (including the ACT) do not have mandatory life sentences for murder, but up to life, so the court can fix a maximum and minimum sentence. Lesser offences by children are dealt with by magistrates usually in closed court.

However, Australian states do have “”Her Majesty’s pleasure” in cases where people are found unfit to plead or not guilty on the grounds of insanity. A woman was thus sentenced last week in NSW.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_boyslife”

Competition by private lawyers for Attorney-General’s Department services has been more restricted and will be introduced a year later than many in the private profession had hoped.

However, the Attorney-General, Michael Lavarch, says that 75 per cent of the non-policy legal work of Government departments and agencies will be open to private competition from July 1, 1995.

The private profession is to be excluded from litigation and policy legal work. Some private lawyers say they can understand the policy and Cabinet exclusion, but litigation is the most interesting work.

The profession has argued for widespread competition by July 1, 1994. A Department of Finance-Attorney-General’s review has now put that back to July 1, 1995, and narrowed the scope of work available for competition.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_ags”

Fourteen public sector unions will step up their campaign this week to delay the start of the separate ACT public service on July 1.

Also this week, the Assembly’s committee on the new public service is continuing to scrutinise the ACT Government’s Public Sector Management Bill which is the ACT side of deal.

The following is a summary of the main sticking points over the ACT and complementary Federal legislation.

(SUBS please use appropriate bold):
Continue reading “1994_05_may_actps04”

ACT Public Sector Employees will have a clear statement of principles and obligations from Day One in the new service.

And this will be the base of disciplinary practice.

Unlike the Commonwealth and most state public-sector employees ACT employees will have a code which can be found in one place, Section 9 of the Public Sector Management Act.

Further, all disciplinary matters a conducted with reference to the code. Section 179 says “”an officer shall be taken to have failed to fulfil his or her duty as an officer only if he or she fails to comply with Section 9.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_actps03”

There are several ways of looking at the new service: that there is no real change; that it will be a flexible, responsive body meeting the needs of a small government; or that it will be a centralist, corporatist body dominated by the ideology of the present Labor Government.

The no-real-change view is supported by the fact that the ACT service and the conditions of its employees is broadly based on what happens in the Federal Government. That is true, insofar as the ACT service will be broadly similar to state public services.

Which of the other views is better depends on how the “”management standards” work. The “”management standards” are provided for in the Bill. They will enable the commissioner to lay down standards on 26 matters, including industrial relations, terms and conditions, training, audit, equal opportunity etc.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_actps02”

This week we saw a very uncomfortable ACTTAB and government department chucking blame at each other in public at the Vitab inquiry.

However, there is a more deep-seated conflict here _ a clash of culture between private- and public-sector ways of doing things.

ACTTAB provides an example in the much wider debate about what sorts of bodies are best private and what public.

Private companies and firms want to make a buck. To do that they have to get on with it. But to get on with it they have to cut corners. When you cut corners, you take risks. When you take risks you can lose a lot of money, or you can make a lot of money, or fall somewhere between.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_actpol07”

Small electric recreational boats will be permitted on Lake Burley Griffin under a draft plan launched (at the ANU boatsheds) yesterday.

The management plan was put out by the National Capital Planning Authority which has taken over direct responsibility for the lake and its surrounds from the ACT Department of Environment, Land and Planning.

The authority’s acting chief executive, Gary Prattley, said there would be three months’ public consultation on the draft, with public meetings and briefings by authority officers to affected organisations.

Under the draft, electric boats would be restricted to 3 knots (about 5.5km/h) and would require a permit. But details have not been worked out because the public consultation might reject the idea.
Continue reading “1994_04_april_lbg”

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.
Continue reading “1994_04_april_lamont”

“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.
Continue reading “1994_04_april_ir”