Crispin Hull

The trouble is not the Westminster system in the ACT Legislative Assembly, as Kate Carnell suggests. The trouble is the calibre and actions of the people who have been elected to run it. True, it has improved since the first self-government election, but the letters, talk-back, opinion polls (though there have been no recent ones) and public meetings suggest there is little confidence in the people running the show.

This is not peculiar to the ACT. Indeed, one MLA cynically pointed out despite their much larger Parliaments, NSW and Victoria still have difficulty putting together a government of people you could trust to run a modest business, a medium-sized charity or a bush hospital, let alone a department of state.

The trouble in the ACT is that with only 17 members, even if our drongo-to-competent ratio is better than elsewhere, we still have a tiny number of people who can be trusted to put together policies and get a department to implement them.
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ACTION was becoming more efficient, the Minister for Urban Services, Terry Connolly, told the Legislative Assembly said yesterday.

In answer to Ellnor Grassby (Lab) he said that ACTION’s ratio of employees to vehicles was the second lowest in Australia, he said. Liberal members interjected: but how many vehicles have you got?

Mr Connolly said ACTION had exceeded it target in reducing its deficit, and its per head subsidy was $167 per head, less than Sydney and Melbourne. Its cost recovery would improve from 22.4 per cent last year to 24 per cent this year.
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Behind the familiar gold-tiled columns of the South Building in Civic Square unbeknowns to many people in Canberra, the new ACT Legislative Assembly is under construction.

It is almost half-way through. The new $12.7 million Assembly is expected to be ready for occupation in February and the MLAs and their many support staff can move out of the present building in the ACT Administration Centre which costs $2 million a year to rent.

The Speaker, Roberta McRae, led some tours of the building yesterday _ the builders’ rostered day off.
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People who get injured at sport or being hit by vehicles from skateboards to trucks would no longer be eligible for criminal-injuries compensation under legislation introduced in the ACT Legislative Assembly yesterday.

The Attorney-General, Terry Connolly, said yesterday that the purpose of criminal-injuries was to compensate against violent crime. It was not for sports injuries or people being hit by cycles, as the Supreme Court had found in recent cases.

The new legislation would enable the Minister to declare categories of events that were not compensible, subject to disallowance. Cars, skateboards, sport and dog bites would not be compensible; these sorts of matters were better treated with insurance, civil damages or social security.
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Poker machine bets of up $10 a time will be allowed up laws passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly yesterday.

The law will permit linked jackpots with other clubs, to provide bigger jackpots and will permit clubs to increase the percentage of turnover on average paid out to players.

The Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, said the new rules would make clubs more competitive with NSW. The law would contain new anti-corruption provisions.
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The 1255-dwelling North Watson development would save the community $13 million, according to the Minister for Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood.

Mr Wood has referred to the development to an Assembly committee for further public comment.

The Watson Community Association, however, disputed his costings yesterday.
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The Left has not done as well as expected in the vote this week for the 40 members of the ACT pre-selection panel, according to Labor sources.

Of the 40, 25 are from the Left; 11 from the Right and four are independent.

Under the new collegiate system of pre-selection the 40 on the panel together will have an equal share of the vote as the mass membership.
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We saw another example of the Australian Labor Party’s great historic strength and weakness last week: stick by your mates. And especially stick by mates who have stuck by other mates in the past.

And thus the ACT Labor Government stuck by Charles Wright, defending his appointment as chairman of the ACT Tourism Advisory Board.

Looking at the public record in the companies office, the transcript of the proceedings of the WA Inc Royal Commission, the report of that commission, and what was said the Legislative Assembly, it is easy to conclude that Mr Wright is an unsuitable appointment and should be removed if he does not resign first.
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The ratepayers are restless. A meeting on Thursday night called to set up a ratepayers’ association was told that Kerry Packer has a much lower rates bill for his Sydney harbourside mansion than the upmarket places in Canberra.

It is an emotive example. However, it shows the sticky position the ACT Government has got itself into. Essentially, the ACT Government is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Peculiarly, the ACT embraces both local and state government functions. In the other states and territories they are divided. The local councils collect rates revenue and levy some other charges for the provision of services like garbage collection and road maintenance. The state governments collect revenue and levy charges to run schools and hospitals.
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One cannot help feeling a little like Voltaire when looking at Wayne Berry’s decision to put a hospice on Acton Peninsula.

I disagree with what he is doing, but I will defend (if not to the death at least in print) his right to do it.

It is troubling that the Deputy Prime Minister, Brian Howe, has chimed in on the issue and that Kate Carnell wants the Federal Parliament’s joint committee on the national capital to flick the respirator switch attached to Berry’s plans.
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