Crispin Hull

LAST week the chairman of the Press Council, Professor David Flint, called for an attack on the contempt law that fines and jails journalists for refusing to disclose confidential sources.

He thought the use of the implied freedom of political communication in the Constitution enunciated in the High Court last year should be used to this end. That freedom was used to strike out the Federal law restricting political advertisements in the electronic media at election time.

At the time the case came down, commentators thought it would be used in other cases to expand the right of free speech. It was fairly clear, however, that it could not be used to attack defamation laws because they provide, albeit in a very limited form, defences that enable free political communication. They strike a balance between an individual’s right to reputation against the public right to know, even if cogent arguments could be made that the balance is too heavily weighted in favour of the former. Further, communication is not prohibited before the event, it merely has to be justified afterwards.
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The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission is to be revamped and made fully elected, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Robert Tickner, announced yesterday.

Mr Tickner said it was part of greater management of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders of their own affairs. Under the changes, which would require legislation, the Minister would no longer appoint the chairperson and two commissioners.

(subs: next par is me backgrounding; it is not Tickner speaking, so leave it in existing tenses)

ATSIC was created in 1990, taking over many of the functions of the old Department of Aboriginal Affairs and some other bodies. It has a budget of about $600 million and a staff of more than 1000, 900 of whom are permanent and 420 of whom are Aboriginal or Islander. About $84 million of its budget is spent on administration and the rest on programs. ATSIC’s main functions are to devise and supervise government programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and give policy advice to the Government.
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An appeal against the first order made under the lease-purpose section of the ACT’s new planning law was adjourned in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on Friday until next month.

The order was to come into effect on April 30, it will be stayed. The Department of Environment, Land and Planning issued the order against a business in the Hume industrial area, asserting it was retailing.

The Returned and Services League of Australia called on the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, to promote the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Senator John Faulkner, into Cabinet.

The RSL’s National President, Digger James, said he would be pleased if speculation that Senator Faulkner was to be promoted to Cabinet, while retaining Veterans’ Affairs, was correct.

He said Senator Faulkner had been responsive and able to make up his own mind independently of advisers, departmental officers and vested interests.
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Canberrans are the highest users of water among the temperate capitals in Australia. Our water is the among the costliest to supply and yet is charged at the cheapest rate.

In fact, those three elements are closely linked.

We use a lot of water because it is cheap. It is expensive to supply because the city is spread out. Because the city is so spread out we have big gardens, so we use a lot of water.

If we continue to use water a present rates an expensive new dam will have to be built by 2002, given population trends. Something has got to give.

The ACTEW has put out an issues paper prepared by the CSIRO asking Canberrans for their comments on what is to be done.
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It will be two hours into the count on election night before the polls close in Western Australia, given the difference in time zones. Usually Western Australians can tune into the box minutes after voting booths close and find out the result of the election Australia-wide. Unless it is close, that is.

With some polls now showing the Coalition only one point ahead on first preferences or dead level on the two-party preferred vote, it may well be that the election will be too close to call without seeing what happens in the West.

There is no joy in Western Australia for Labor. Realistically, Labor can only lose seats in the West; there are none to gain. The Liberals most vulnerable seat is Moore on 7 per cent. Moreover, Labor is defending a very favourable result in 1990 which was produced with a distributional quirk that is unlikely to be repeated.

Labor holds four seats by tiny margins and two others with moderate margins. There are two safe Labor seats and six safe Liberal seats.
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University classes started yesterday after last week’s Orientation Week, during which first-year students worked out where they are and where they are going.

However, it is more like Orientation Yearfor everyone on campus. In Chinese terms, universities are living in interesting times. For universities, it would be easy to lapse into a swag of cliches about “”crossroads”, “”the most important election since the war”, “”revolutionary change” and so on. The trouble is, most of these cliches are at least partly true.

Changes of government usually bring big changes, but not always so. There were no big changes immediately after the 1975 or 1983 elections. However, if a radical Opposition takes power (like this one or that of Gough Whitlam in 1972), then big changes follow.

In this instance, moreover, big change is due whichever side wins in 12 days’ time. The Liberal change is promised; the Labor change has been legislated.
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The residents of a cul-de-sac in the Tuggeranong suburb of Conder are angry at a proposed medium-density development which they say will destroy the very reason for moving into a quiet street.

The residents of Darebin Place have put in a formal objection over a lease variation over what used to be six blocks and its now one to permit medium density development. Previously, it was low-density with a ümaximum of six dwellings.

A notice went up on the land saying that LAND Corp would seek a change to permit a üminimum@ of six dwellings.

Tony and Judith Day, who live opposite, say the development could result in more cars and noise and danger for children, blocking of views, destruction of old trees and lowering of their property value.
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Canberrans were urged yesterday to overcome the mind-set that the rest of Australia has against it and to overcome the introspection of being a company town so that a love of the capital can become part of the sensible patriotism of all Australians.

The chairman of the Federal Capital Press of Australia Pty Ltd, publisher of The Canberra Times, Kerry Stokes, made the call in the first of half a dozen major addresses leading to a conference in September entitled “”Canberra: Face of the Nation?” at the University of Canberra.

“”When the Federal Government makes an unpopular decision, the people of Canberra tend to be apportioned some of the blame,” he said. “”In that sentiment lies the most daunting challenge facing Canberra: It’s the national mind-set against the place, a coast-to-coast resentment ingrained from generation of derision, cynicism and misunderstanding.
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An sign advertising medium-density units on a joint ACT Housing Trust development on Section 22 Braddon along Torrens Street is to come down because it breaches building regulations.

The Chief Territory Planner, George Tomlins, said yesterday that the developers had agreed to take the sign down. The sign is at the front of one of four detached residences on the site.

A complaint was lodged last week saying that the sign contravened building regulations that said temporary advertising signs shoud not exceed 2.5 metres.
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