Crispin Hull

In the Middle Ages witches used to tell fortunes and prescribe cures for ills demanding only that the patient “”cross my palm with silver”.

All of the fortune-telling and part of the cure prescriptions were nonsense, but some made sense. For example, witches prescribed thyme-leaf tea for colds and flu. Nowadays, pharmacists prescribe various pills which contain the active ingredient thymol, C10H13OH2.

The range, purity and accuracy of prescriptions have grown exponentially since the Middle Ages. And so has the amount of silver crossing palms.

In the Middle Ages, governments persecuted the witches. Now they join in the business of drug prescription, and rightly so. Without intervention, drugs would be denied the poor and research incentives for drug companies would disappear.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_pharm”

The scene is the Erindale Centre in Tuggeranong last Thursday night. About 100 people are playing competition squash and volleyball.

In the room normally used by the squash people for a few drinks and supper after a hard game, seven people sit on plastic chairs listening to someone talk. Seven people. It could be a class in esoteric Japanese silk painting, or a class in Galbraithian economics. It is not. In fact it is a public meeting and information night about appeal rights under the new Territory Plan.

It is hard to get people interested. It was the same during the consultation process before the plan became law last November. People are not interested unless it directly affects them. Then they get very active. They suddenly wake up to find their neighbourhood is being changed.

This is happening in Canberra now, five months after the plan became law. People are putting in development proposals under the new plan and neighbours are getting worried.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_perma”

The masses were effectively kept out of the big PC94 Personal Computer show at Darling Harbour last week.

Signs said: “”No children under 18 allowed”. And if that was not enough, there was a $15 entry fee. Naturally serious buyers could get free tickets, in the same way serious gamblers get free beer at the casino.

So it was all suits and ties and mobile phones in a great exhibition hall with 300 exhibitors (three of Exhibition Centres five halls were joined for purpose). None the less, having excluded the kids, the sounds were unlike past computer exhibitions. Instead of soothing elevator music being piped homogeneously throughout the hall, a cacophony emerged from competing computer sound and games systems such that it was impossible to hear yourself talk on a mobile phone.

Business and kids stuff dominated the show. Education took back desk. Accountancy packages and games dominated the software displays. We have heard so much about multi-media. Well the junk is coming first. Movies, movies, movies. Games, games, games. And dinosaurs. Pick a movie; click the director; up comes a head shot; and there are all the other films she directed. There are one or two encyclopedias on CD ROM and the birds of Australia and a couple of Atlases. But there is a long way to go on the range of CD ROM books. It’s a pity because keyword and concept searching is a superior way to work, learn and research.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_paint”

Some people were putting worthless extensions and renovations on houses in North Canberra’s new development zone, and agents, architects and builders could be sued for not telling them about the changes, according to a landlords’ spokesman.

The president of the ACT Landlords’ Association and a principal of Cotswold Real Estate, Peter Jansen, said yesterday that there was widespread ignorance about changes to the Territory Plan, especially to what is known as the B1 Area. The B1 area is in the Northbourne Avenue corridor and affects about 900 blocks of land. Under the Territory Plan and guidelines that came into effect last week, these blocks can be amalgamated and three-storey units built on them.

Mr Jansen said people were doing renovations and extensions in areas that would be redeveloped. When they sold to developers, however, the price they got would be dependent upon land area; and extension or renovation would be irrelevant.

Builders, agents and architects either did not know or were not telling people about the changes. People misadvised could sue for negligence or breaches of the Trade Practices Act. He called on the ACT Government to advise all affected land owners by letter.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_nthcba”

The NSW TAB has conducted dummy race days in Las Vegas and is technically able to take bets, according to its general manager, Allen Windross.

NSW races would be broadcast into Las Vegas casinos by Kerry Packer’s Sky Channel, he said yesterday.

The move comes after the ACTTAB has set up off-shore betting in Vanuatu with an agreement with a company called VITAB.

Both systems will allow punters overseas access to the Australian pools. The VITAB deal has been criticised because big Australian punters might be able to bet through Vanuatu (with a discount or kickbacks) and thereby deprive the Government and the racing industry of revenue.
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The Native Title Act is only the first of 15 rounds in the Mabo saga, according to the retiring chief executive of the Australian Mining Industry Council, Lauchlan McIntosh.

The land-title position was possibly more uncertain now than it was before the Bill was passed. He warned that unless changes were made and complementary legislation passed by the states, investment would go to other countries.

“”Given there is no state with complementary legislation, and all titles are issued by the states, then there is a long way to go because some states are not issuing titles and others are being delayed,” he said. “It will be only six months before it really starts to burn.

“”And even Aboriginal people claiming native title will find the process very difficult, trying to deal with a state that has no complementary legislation. It’s just going to become messier and messier.”
Continue reading “1994_03_march_mine”

Lauchlan McIntosh has seen in the workings of the Federal Government from near and far. And he sees too much regulation, duplication and ministerial lack of training.

“”Who trains the Minister?’ he asks.

“”Why do we need a Federal Department of Industry, or Education?”

“”How can we learn to trust ourselves not to be regulated?”

Mr McIntosh leaves the Mining Industry Council later this month to take up the chief executive’s position at the Australian Automobile Association. He has been with AMIC for eight years and before that managed mines in many parts of Australia: several years at Mount Newman, five years at Groote Island, two years at Yampi Sound and Southern Cross and several years in Melbourne.

“”There is a view in Australia, which is different in other countries, that if you can’t provide for yourself government will provide it. People believe government creates wealth. It doesn’t; it just redistributes wealth created by business.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_mcintosh”

Matt Abraham says he will never live it down.

He was new at ABC Radio and was doing a pre-recording session in one of the studios at Northbourne Avenue. His daughter was there, too. Suddenly people starting appearing at the studios window, waving their arms about and pointing at various buttons on the console.

Abraham or his daughter had pressed some wrong buttons and he was being broadcast on Radio National Australia wide, telling his daughter not to touch those buttons and to play quietly.

As it happens, he need not have worried much 2CN far out-rates Radio national, so his audience wasn’t listened.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_matt”

Norman Lindsay would have enjoyed the recent tryst between the ABC and the Mardi Gras organisers on one hand and the conservative legislators and religious figures on the other.

Lindsay, lifelong artistic and literary combatant against wowserism, might have been saddened that the battle goes on, but he would surely have applied his wit to brawl.

The religion vs sex and art theme is the subject of a new film with Lindsay the centre. Art is played by Sam Neill (as Lindsay), Religion by Hugh Grant as the Reverend Anthony Campion and Sex by Elle MacPherson and three others as Lindsay’s models. The four (one is Lindsay’s wife) are modelling for a painting called Sirens, which is also the name of the film.

Sirens has just opened in New York and will open in Australia in late May or early June, though there will be a private screening at Parliament House on March 23.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_lindsay”

The Victorian Premier, Jeff Kennett, wants to extend daylight saving from its present four months to just shy of six months _ from the first weekend in October to the last weekend in March. The main reason he has given is social _ the running of the grand prix and the various autumn festivals. The ACT has similar autumn festivals and it, too, would concur with Mr Kennett’s concerns.

Mr Fahey, on the other hand, has been unmoved by the social arguments. The only thing that has moved him from intractable support for the present four month-period has been a business argument. The Melbourne Stock Exchange would get an hour’s jump on Sydney for two months of the year.

Daylight saving was shortened to the present four months by NSW three years ago and the ACT, Victoria and South Australia felt they had to fall into line. Tasmania, girt by sea, stayed with the six months. Now Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania have called for a six-month and want NSW to follow.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_leader30mar”