Crispin Hull

The Real Estate Institute of the ACT welcomed yesterday the ACT Government’s draft planning proposals for North Watson.

The institute’s general manager, Bruno Yvanovich, said the plan would present a better northern gateway to Canberra and be a more efficient use of schools, roads, sewerage and water.

He criticised the narrowly based, extravagant claims by some community groups that the development would put a strain on shops and schools and would cause traffic congestion and lack of open space.
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People who helped Pol Pot and engaged in “”ethnic cleansing” in former Yugoslavia are not covered by Australian war-crimes legislation and should be, according to former war-crimes investigator, Bob Greenwood, QC.

Mr Greenwood said this week that present war-crimes legislation applied only to World War II, and even these investigations had been stopped, leaving unfinished cases, including one involving systematic multiple murders by a Latvian who joined the Germans. The man, in his late 70s, now lives in suburban Melbourne.

The war-crimes legislation should be extended to all conflicts, Mr Greenwood said. He expressed concern that people who engaged in crimes with Pol Pot were resident in Australia or citizens and there was no law to prosecute them. There was some evidence that there were such people in Australia. They could not be extradited to Cambodia because the country was a shambles and there could be no trial, similarly with former Yugoslavia.
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The Latvian is now an Australian citizen and lives in Melbourne.

He will never be prosecuted, though Australian authorities have a great deal of evidence against him. The evidence is that the Latvian joined the German Arajas Kommando squad; that he trained and commanded 100 men who were sent to Minsk to round up and murder Jews. From the middle of 1942 to mid-1943 he took part in the murder of at least 10,000 Jews, who were buried in mass graves outside Minsk.

He now looks like any other other old just another elderly man walking the suburban streets of Melbourne.
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The Federal Government has spent $22.6 million on war-crimes investigation since 1987.

Of that $19.2 million was by the special investigations unit; $2.2 million by the Director of Public Prosecutions and $1.2 million in legal aid to the accused.

There is now only one case before the courts. A trial is expected later this year. After that, there will be no more war crimes trials or investigation by Australian authorities, though there have been calls to change the War Crimes Act to make it apply to all conflicts. At present it applies only to the European theatre of World War II.
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A very-fast train link between Canberra and Sydney could enable Sydney’s second airport to be built in Canberra instead of Badgery’s Creek, according to a technology consultant.

Dale Budd, who formerly worked for the VFT consortium, said no-one questioned that Australia should have world-class road and air links between Canberra and Sydney, with dual carriageway and new jets. However, as soon as world-class state-of-the-art rail was mentioned, the sceptics said it would not work.

Mr Budd was speaking at a forum, including a panel of 15 academics, at the University of Canberra last week on “”Future Options for Canberra”. It was a lead-up to the September “”Canberra: Face of the Nation?” conference sponsored by the university, the Canberra Business Council, the ACT Government and the National Capital Planning Authority.
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His motives for his high profile pro-Republican stand were under vicious and severe scrutiny. Did he want a Republic only so he could be president?

Why had he turned against what would seem to be an anglophilic, high Tory upbringing: Sydney Grammar School, Oxford, the Bar and a merchant bank?

The attack was coming from Bronwyn Bishop, merciless cross-examiner of taxation commissioners, and Paul Lyneham, pitiless exposer of political hypocrisy.
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The head of the Prime Minister republic advisory committee, Malcolm Turnbull, said yesterday that he hoped the Opposition would change its mind on being on the committee.

The Leader of the Opposition, Dr John Hewson, has refused to nominate someone for the committee.

Mr Turnbull said the views of all political parties, including the Liberals, would none the less be welcome.
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Independent Ted Mack has questioned the use of Better Cities money for North Canberra rather than for “”more serious problems in larger cities”.

In questions on notice tabled in Parliament last week he asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Community Service, Brian Howe, (subs: plse check if it is Howe. it might be someone else since the election. ta) he asked whether Better Cities money was being used for the development of Section 22, Blocks 6-9, Braddon, along Torrens Street; whether architects had described the development as “”an alienating downmarket block of flats”; whether met guidelines on open space, streetscape, siting and design, sunlight and energy efficiency; and whether it should have funding.

He asked whether Bobundra Pty Ltd was associated with the development for its own profit and whether Peter Phillips was a director of Bobundra and whether Mr Phillips was on the staff of a minister in the Hawke Government and chairman of the ACT Electricity and Water.
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An inquiry into a North Canberra development was condemned by the Canberra Conservation Council yesterday after the inquirer rejected all of the submissions to it by the council.

The inquiry was set up by the ACT Legislative Assembly into difficulties identified with the redevelopment of Section 22, Torrens Street, Braddon.

The council put 21 points to the inquirer, former Administrative Appeals Tribunal member Robert Todd. He rejected them all saying they did not identify difficulties, but asked a wide range of questions.
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Robert Tickner reaches into the shelves and drags out a school social-studies textbook. The page falls open easily on to a page on Aborigines that he, as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, has used before to illustrate a point.

“”That was my text book for the NSW School Certificate in 1967,” he says, pointing to some underlined bits.

“”Look at this stuff,” he says.
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