Crispin Hull

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”

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.
Continue reading “1994_04_april_forum16”

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.
Continue reading “1994_04_april_forelect”

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.
Continue reading “1994_04_april_elect”

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.
Continue reading “1994_04_april_elect9”