Crispin Hull

In 1964 Justice William Brennan of the United States Supreme Court summed up the grievous flaw in the English and Australian laws on the people’s right to free speech.

He said: “”Erroneous statement is inevitable in free debate . . . it must be protected it the freedoms of expression are to have the breathing space that they need in order to survive. A rule compelling the critic of official conduct to guarantee the truth of all his factual assertions _ and to do so on pain of libel judgments virtually unlimited in amount _ leads to a comparable self-censorship. . . Under such a rule, would-be critics of official conduct may be deterred from voicing their criticism, even though it is believed to be true, and even though it is in fact rue, because of doubt whether it can be proved or fear of the (legal) expense of having to do so.”

English and Australian libel, of course, has the rule that compels the critic to prove the truth of everything he or she asserts.

Justice Brennan was ruling on the US constitutional provision that guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press. There is no such provision (nor such freedom) in Australia.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_freesp”

Can police move-one powers save the Food and Wine Frolic? In a way, yes. Let me explain.

Since the first Food and Wine Frolic a decade ago the nature of the event has changed. Evolved is not the right word. Evolution is supposed to have brought life on earth from the primordial slime to a higher state of consciousness, whereas the Food and Wine Frolic transmogrified many patrons from a high state of consciousness into unconsciousness and indeed back to wallow in the primordial slime of rubbish and drink leftovers on the lawn. No; a word meaning the opposite of evolution is needed. Revolution? Revolting.

The first few frolics did something for Canberra. They brought the usually retiring dinner-party set out into the open. The quality restaurants joined in. You could sample from the stalls of nearly two dozen restaurants. Wine merchants sold small tastings. Jazz played. It used to be the last weekend of daylight saving and mark the onset of the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
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None of the models in Sirens has acted a significant part in film before. Elle MacPherson acted as herself in a very short part in a Woody Allen film, but for the others it was an acting debut.

Fischer, who acts as Prue in the film, is daughter of Canberra radio journalist Prue Goward. She went into fashion modelling at an early age, winning a covergirl competition with Dolly. By aged 16 she was in New York doing shoots with Bloomingdales, Glamor magazine and Mademoiselle.

In the film she and Sheela (Elle) gang up in the most lascivious way to undermine the stuffy Anglo-centric Estella — with some success.

Director and writer John Duigan said, “”I was first drawn to Kate by her face. She’s got one of those faces that painters love. She reminds be of the most celebrated model used by the pre-Raphaelite painters in England.”
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Employers are worried. Employees are bemused and lawyers are salivating.

On April 1, the Industrial Relations Reform Act will come into force.

The most significant part of the reform are the provisions about unfair dismissal. Unions have welcomed the changes, without understanding that they carry the potential to undermine union power.

The reforms could eliminate some of the worst aspects of the Australian workplace. To explain why, some legal history is necessary.

Late last century Victoria was protectionist and NSW free trade. When they came together at federation with the other colonies, much of the debate about the nature of the new federation was economic.
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The Deputy Leader of the ACT Opposition, Tony de Domenico, called yesterday for the ACT Government to outline what procedures the Vanuatu-based VITAB had to ensure that no large Australian punters would use VITAB to bet on Australian races.

Mr de Domenico said there were many unanswered questions about contract between VITAB and the ACTTAB, including the role played by former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, a shareholder in VITAB.

Under the contract ACTTAB has provided to VITAB computer services and access to the TAB super pool of money bet from the ACT, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory in return for a commission of between 1 and 2 per cent of turnover. VITAB will return 85 per cent of takings to the punter as with Australian TABs and a further 1 to 2 per cent to the Vanuatu Government. However, it keeps the balance of 11 to 13 per cent for operating and marketing costs. Australian TABs return the 15 per cent balance to government, the racing industry and operating costs.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_dipper”

The Washington Post is delivered in Canberra before most Washingtonians get it. It is dumped about two metres from the edge of my the front lawn. That’s where my computer terminal is _ on a desk next to the front window. It arrives about five or six hours before it hits the front lawn of suburban Washington houses because the Washingtonians have to wait for it to be printed on paper a delivered by petrol engine.

I call it up on a local telephone number, scroll through the headlines, get a paragraph summary of any item that looks interesting and if the summary is tasty enough, I can order the whole item. And there’s some pretty good stuff in there. Or I can download the whole lot unseen and take the notebook and read in peace anywhere in whatever typeface I want.

There was no Foreign Investment Review Board inquiry into why another American should own what is in effect another newspaper circulating in Australia. It just happened.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_communic”

Cross the South Australian-NSW border near Broken Hill something remarkable does not happen.

You do not change time zones. If you drive into Broken Hill, about 50km inside NSW, the clocks are all on South Australian time. Business opens and shuts at the same time as Adelaide.

If you leave Broken Hill and drive towards Canberra, after about 20km in dead flat country with virtually no habitation, you come to a sign telling you to wind your clock forward half and hour to NSW time.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_column28mar”

Stuart Littlemore sound like an opinionated, pompous git? I think it is a shame he has to sound like that, but I can understand why. It has nothing to do with his character. For all I know he might be a meek, self-effacing man in real life. But on television he cannot be like that.

(For the uninitiated, Littlemore presents Mediawatch, 15 minutes of ABC television that has journalists throughout Australia at the edge of their seats with delight at the pasting of disliked colleagues or fear of a pasting of themselves.)

In an age of concentrated media ownership where Packer Murdoch and three TV networks own virtually the lot, we need Littlemore and we could do with a few more of him. He is at his best when he highlights what he sees are journalists’ conflicts of interest: journalists’ whose writings co-incide with their employers’ interest or, worse, journalists who have direct interest in things they are plugging.

Last Monday, he got stuck into three writers on the Australian: Greg Sheridan, over a piece saying Indonesia is okay; Bryan Frith over a piece saying super-share schemes are okay and Paddy McGuinness over a piece saying smoking is okay. He then said Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Australian, has a business interest in all three things, the last because he is a director of Philip Morris.

Then (and this is when he sounds and looks most like the opinionated pompous git we have all come to love to hate) he concluded that in his opinion, it showed these three journalists were not behaving with independence but blowing their owners’ business trumpet.

Now, Littlemore is a Queen’s Counsel with an extensive knowledge of libel law. He well knows that to assert as fact that the three journalists had surrendered their independence to their master would be defamatory and could sound heavily in damages.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_column21mar”

Are seldom seen to be responsible — the in literal sense. Whenever a news editor quietly refuses to run a story, or cut some bits from it, or downplay it because it is violent, obscene, racist, likely to stir up violence, induce people to commit suicide or whatever, the public does not see this act of “”responsible behaviour”. It only sees the “”irresponsible”. The media are always being portrayed as “”irresponsible” for running this or that story.

But there is a danger here. At least when the “”irresponsible” story is run, people get a chance to make judgments about it. If the media were to become “”more responsible” as it is forever urged to be, the result could be quite dangerous. People in readerland would never know what the media are being “”responsible” about.

Take suicides for example. Most media rarely cover suicides because journalists know of the copycat syndrome. So for years we have “”responsibly” put suicide on the spike. The result has been a major social ill has not been given the attention in should get. There are dangers with a “”responsible” media.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_column14mar”

Paul Keating wants to get rid of the turbulent minorities in the Senate. Just as Henry hated his executive power being interfered with the turbulent priest Archbishop Thomas a’Becket in the 12th century, Keating hates the exercise of his executive power being questioned by the Senate. Just as Henry sent a few knightly thugs to murder a’Becket, Keating is musing with changing the Senate election system to rid himself of the turbulent Kernot.

His scheme, however, has some very high constitutional and practical hurdles.

At present the Senate is elected by proportional representation with each state as one electorate. In a half-Senate election for six senators, a candidate needs 14.3 per cent of the vote to get a seat, or a lot less if it is the last seat and preferences are counted. If it is a double-dissolution election for 12 senators a candidate needs only 7.7 per cent. It means minor parties are able to get seats.

Keating and the Government leader in the Senate, Gareth Evans, have mused about electing the Senate like the House of Representatives, on a single-member electorate basis. Essentially, only major parties win single-member seats. An alternative is to keep each state as a single electorate but change the voting system from preferential to first-past the post. Under that plan voters would mark six crosses and the six candidates with the most crosses would get seats, instead of marking them 1, 2, 3, etc as now. Once again only major party candidates would win seats.
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