Crispin Hull

It was 36 degrees in Braidwood. The tar was melting on the Kings Highway. But a change was coming. The giant cumulonimbus clouds were building up in the west. Big splotches of rain were about to drop in callous randomness across the Monaro.

Some farms crying for it would miss out. Others, with dams full would get yet more. The great grey clouds could throw rain uselessly down the stormwater drains of Queanbeyan but leave the sheep farmers at Bombala in brown destitution. Sleet can lash the side of Kosciusko while bathers bask in the South Coast sun.

Welcome to the electorate of Eden-Monaro _ for the past 21 years Australia’s political barometer. When the Government changes, it changes.
Continue reading “1993_02_february_em”

The Opposition promised yesterday to “”give universities their autonomy back” by repealing the Government’s university funding model passed late last year.

Under the Government’s new model each university has to provide the Minister (in this case Peter Baldwin) with an educational profile. Based on that and the total appropriated for all 34 universities, the Minister decides how much money each university gets and the Minister can ensure the university follows its educational profile.

The Opposition spokesman on education, Dr David Kemp, said this Dawkins model (largely framed by the former Minister, John Dawkins) made universities subservient to ministerial will.

“”Universities cannot be independent if the Government controls the purse strings,” he said. “”But the question is how do you provide a Commonwealth subsidy without control?”
Continue reading “1993_02_february_educate”

“”There is no comfort for Jim in his 4.5 per cent; Eden-Monaro always goes with government.”

These are the confident words of the Liberal candidate Rob de Fegely. ÿ(subs: first e has an acute accent bottom left to top right)

For nearly a year he has crossed the electorate in his Pajero, talking to party members to get pre-selected and more recently to voters.

Paul Keating’s tactics on the election timing have hit their mark. Challenging candidates like de Fegely have to juggle work commitments with electoral ones, unlike the MPs they are challenging. While the big-picture watchers look at the effect on television advertising bookings and the machine behind the Coalition’s national campaign, the uncertainty over the date has had a more profound effect at the local level. De Fegely went back to work on Thursday after taking annual leave to criss-cross the electorate. Some of that work will get stale if the election is delayed much longer.
Continue reading “1993_02_february_defeg”

The sole remaining academic on the board of the University Co-Operative Bookshop, Maurice Dunlevy, has resigned, citing petty intrigue and a distancing of the co-op from the campuses.

In resigning, Mr Dunlevy called for a public meeting of members and the turning out of the board and the election of a new one.

Mr Dunlevy’s resignation comes after the surprise sacking of the co-op’s three most senior executives last month at a special board meeting called at short notice. The composition of the board (a third of which is elected every year on rotation) has changed over the past two elections with the removal of members with academic, publishing and business experience to a younger group.

Very few of the 570,000 members of the co-op vote at elections for directors. The co-op has shops at virtually every Australian tertiary institution.

The new group wants to implement changes at the co-op through a new executive. The board has ordered a examination of the financial management of the co-op by Einfeld Symonds BDV. Co-op sources revealed that “”inside-job” cash thefts from co-op shops amounting to $200,000 had taken place over the past 10 years and the board says this points to lax security. Managers point out, however, that it is a large cash business.

Mr Dunlevy, a senior lecturer in journalism at the University of Canberra, said the sackings of the executives had affected, staff, suppliers and customers. he had be deluged with calls expressing disquiet. With nine years’ service, Mr Dunlevy was the longest serving board member.

In his letter of resignation to the chairman of the board, James Emerson, Mr Dunlevy said, “”I find that trying to work on a board which during 1992 was racked by pointless petty intrigues and misapplied administrative energies a thankless task.”

This year, meetings had been called at short notice and agenda and financial papers impossible to get. and financial statements impossible to get.

Since he had joined the board it had turned a $700,000 loss to a succession of impressive profits. Of more importance, the discount to customers had increased from 5 per cent to 15 per cent. The board had moved in library and school supply and had begun an efficient journal service.

“”As most directors over the past 10 years were academics and students, we had our roots firmly in the campuses where our customers are,” Mr Dunlevy said. “”We had the incentive to serve them well because we could see their reactions every day.”

Mr Emerson, who works with the Department of Social Security in Brisbane, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Mr Dunlevy said he hoped the present board could chalk up an equally impressive record as that of the previous 10 years. However, he thought that when the customers saw what had happened tot he organisation that had served them so well, “”a movement will begin to win back the co-op for the campuses”.

He called for a meeting of members to elect an entirely new board.

The University Co-Operative Bookshop has appointed one of its directors, Ted Seng, to a senior position and appointed a new chief executive, John Oldmeadow.

The appointments follow the sacking last month of the three most senior executives.

Mr Oldmeadow was formerly general manager at Murdoch Magazines.

The sacking of the previous executive followed changes to the composition of the board after the past several elections, removing academics and people experienced in publishing. A third of the board is elected every three years on rotation.
Continue reading “1993_02_february_coop”

Commonwealth Parliament has been at it again. Late last year it passed a law preventing people from urging others to vote informal.

The section says (in English) that during an election campaign a person shall not encourage other people to vote informal.

Penalty: imprisonment for six months.

Is the Parliament serious? How on earth was this section allowed through. Six months is the maximum penalty for drink driving and is the actual penalty (after trendy remissions and parole) imposed upon armed robbers and rapists. (Indeed, a child rapist, albeit 75-years-old, got a bond in NSW last week).
Continue reading “1993_02_february_column29”

A year ago an episode of üA Country Practice I chanced to watch had the Friends of Tree Park chaining themselves to a huge tree in protest at plans to develop the park.

I think now that the image is entirely out of date: noisy, selfish NIMBYs chaining themselves to a tree to prevent reasonable town-planning objectives being pursued in the broad public interest.

I shall be offering the producers an updated script which shows a changed role for both sides, set in Wandin Valley.

The futile protest is out. Chaining yourself to a tree does no-one any good. The network of “”friends” does not exist among the people opposed to development. The people opposed to development are quite disparate. Only some are selfish opponents of the vacant block next door being developed. Nearly all of them are idealists. Many of them don’t mind some development, but they want some intelligence applied to it. They want it done in the broad public interest to improve the lives of the people who live in Wandin Valley.
Continue reading “1993_02_february_column22”

Section 10(c) of the Workers Compensation Act. Refer back to Section 10(1) multiply it out. Yep. That’s the result. If a worker, in an accident at work, losses the lot, both testicles and his penis, he gets a maximum of. wait for it. $41,860.46. So, what’s all this about a footballer in Sydney getting $350,000 last week for just having a photograph of his vital parts in a magazine? They weren’t chopped off or anything. Just a photograph of them.

There’s something seriously wrong here. A worker with his vitals gone forever gets $41,860 yet a star football player with just a photograph of his in a magazine which virtually nobody had heard of until this case gets $350,000.

The law is an ass and a lottery. It’s enough to turn anyone into a socialist: one law for the workers and another for the famous football stars. And it’s not as if the footballer has to go to any great deal of proof to get his damages. He only has to prove publication (hold up the magazine or ask the publisher how many copies he sold) and suggest the publication hurt his reputation. He does not have to prove it actually did hurt his reputation. Indeed, many people came along to court say what a jollly chap he was.
Continue reading “1993_02_february_column12”

A patient is in desperate agony. He had a terminal disease of the blood, can hardly breathe and cannot keep any food down. Pneumonia is about to set in.

Dr Priest takes one look at him and called in the nurses. “”Quick, put him on a respirator,” he said. “”Give him some anti-biotics to prevent the pneumonia. Connect him to a dialysis machine to clear his blood. Give him some morphine for the pain and connect a drip to his arm to feed him.”

The man lives on in a daze or pain with the help of medical technology.

Some days later Dr Priest goes on leave and is replaced by Dr Levite. Dr Levite disconnects the respirator and the dialysis machine and stops the anti-biotics and the drip feed. He continues the morphine, and the patient continues to go from daze to pain. But Dr Levite thinks it will not be long now _ now that the machines have been disconnected.
Continue reading “1993_02_february_column8”

The Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, had no difficulty with the chairman of ACT Electricity and Water, Peter Phillips, being a shareholder in a North Canberra urban-renewal development, Mr Wood said yesterday.

Mr Wood said he was aware of Mr Phillips’s shareholding in a joint development with the ACT Housing Trust in Braddon.

Mr Phillips has defended his investment saying he was proud to be a joint investor in providing a public-private housing mix.

North Canberra development has been mentioned in the Better Cities program.
Continue reading “1993_02_february_cities”