Crispin Hull

South Africa would not break down into a one-party state after majority rule, like other African states, according to visiting South African journalist Allister Sparks.

He said yesterday that the country had a strong base of independent institutions, including the media, whereas when colonial powers withdrew from black African countries they left an institutional vacuum. This was invariably filled by the single independence political party which took over everything, including the media.

South Africa, however, had strong unions, strong professional groups, including human-rights groups.
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Cost: take a company car 1600kms 80 litres at 70c equals $112.00, plus wear and tear, break-down risk etc and less one car at the office for three-four days.

Good one-liners seldom work in print. But they make a good night of theatre. There were dozens last night as Paul Lyneham, Bronwyn Bishop and Andrew Denton argued the uses of the Royal Family and Malcolm Turnbull, Wendy Harmer and Graham Richardson argued for the Republic.

Denton stole the show. But the audience let him down, as he knew it would, come time to vote at the end. He said they would vote for the republic because it was trendy.

But trendy things go out of vogue and untrendy things become trendy.
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A challenge to the first order under the ACT’s new planning legislation is to go before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal today (Friday).

The order was made on March 10 by the Department of Environment Land and Planning against Authentic System Pty Ltd to stop what the department said was a breach of a lease-purpose clause in Hume by food retailing in an industrial-wholesale area.

A nearby business, Hill Station, which had asked the department to make the order, has been notified of the appeal against it. Hill Station which has a retail-food-outlet purpose for a cafe said its business is being affected by a canteen, which opened on Monday, being run a kilometre away .
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Canberra must put aside petty rivalries and work co-operatively with other cities and states, according to the managing director of the Commission for the Future, Susan Oliver.

Ms Oliver warned of the dangers of internal competition in the face of changes in Asia.

“”Australia is poised on the very precipice of international irrelevance,” she said.

She was speaking at the National Gallery of Australia last night in the “”Canberra. Face of the Nation” series sponsored by the National Capital Planning Authority, the ACT Government, the Canberra Business Council and the University of Canberra.
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A tourist gateway to Canberra on the Federal Highway and no development on Mount Majura foothills are the major changes to a new draft plan for North Watson issued yesterday.

It is the first major part of the ACT Government’s urban infill program to get under way.

It will put 1300 dwellings in vacant land in an area north of the present suburb, bounded by the Federal Highway and Antill Street. They will be a much higher density than old Watson. It will also provide a tourist gateway to the National Capital along the Federal Highway.
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What are the three new ACT electorates to be called? Naming will be done as part of the redistribution process.

The Labor Party submitted that the electoral commission should “”consult local aboriginal groups to find appropriate aboriginal names for the electorates”.

The Liberal Party said the names should be different from the Federal ones and reflect their geographic position. They should be different from existing names. It suggested Ginninderra, Burley Griffin and Brindabella.
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Australia must act quickly to create certainty of land title following the Mabo decision or investment opportunities would be lost, the executive director of the Australian Mining Industry Association, Lauchlan McIntosh, said yesterday.

The future of the minerals industry depended on access to land. If access were cut or compensation costs imposed, the mining industry could not produce wealth at present rates.

However, the chairperson of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Pat Dodson, warned last week against the “”quick fix”.
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Before white settlement Australian was terra nullius, meaning vacant land, because Aborigines did not have cultivation or an organised system of custom and law.

Upon white settlement the whole of Australia came under the sovereignty of the Crown.

That on legal principles laid down in the 18th century, terra nullius land taken by settlement vested in the Crown which had to sole right to hand out title.

Once granted to individuals, the land could not be taken back by the Crown without parliamentary approval (and compensation in the case of the Commonwealth).
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The Australian mining industry is worried over what it sees as a sudden change in the rules through the Mabo decision in June last year. The uncertainty is affecting present and future investment in Australia.

The industry’s advertising campaign a year ago illustrated the importance of mining to Australia. Recently, it contributed about $4.5 billion a year to government coffers. It spends $800 million a year in exploration and produces about $11,000 million in non-fuel minerals, aside from all the benefits in wages and community facilities.

Now, it says, changes to the rules on land tenure jeopardise that. Miners simply do not know where they stand on exploration and exploitation of minerals. Who owns the land and the minerals in it since Mabo? They want a return to certainty.
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