Crispin Hull

Every electiontide, boring commentators and analysts say things like, “”This is the most important election since the war.” Or this is the most important election since 1949, or whatever.

Importance is more a mantle for historians to bestow than for journalists to predict. Obviously, an election is likely to be important if there is a change of government and if the new government takes a machete to the existing jungle, carving a new way forward.

In that respect 1949 and 1972 were important, whereas the changes of government in 1975 and 1983 much less so.
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A. Nourlangie Rock, Kakadu National Park.

B. The repainting was done at Nourlangie in 1964. It shows the story of Namandjolg, top centre, who broke the incest law with his sister and turned into Ginah the saltwater crocodile. Namarrgon the lightning man, top right, married Barrginj, mid-left, and had children called Aljurr the insects that white men call Liechhardt’s grasshopper that comes before the rain. Below are the men an women on their way to a ceremony.

C. This very early painting of unadorned white and red ochre is at Nourlangie. It shows the hunting of what must have been a huge kangaroo, bigger than the man and therefore of a size not seen in Kakadu or anywhere else in Australia today, unless, of course, the hunter was exaggerating.
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The figures are painted high on the rock overhang. Too high for anyone to have reached them, so they must have been painted by spirits.

Thus goes the Aboriginal legend to explain how the rock art got so high. No-one had any ladders or any way to get up that high. The figures are in the crude style with unadorned colours. Presumably they were the earliest.

There is another possibility. They were painted so long ago that the ground was closer to them, less than a man’s height, perhaps.
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Pipes or news ed. please put in featuresed and send message to bill goodall to say it is there. he wants it first thing Friday. Also can you send a message to macklin to water my indoor plants. ta

The earth circles the sun and we have 10 fingers. The combination of these two facts has an inexplicable power in human activity. We mark anniversaries in lots of 10 encirclings of the earth around the sun.

The anniversaries garner us into activity, into pledges, into acknowledgment of change. Four tens make middle age; six tens make retirement and one hundred tens, beyond the lifespan of nearly all humans, garners even greater cause for reflection, celebration or mourning, and commitment to renewal.
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The Big Republicans are not satisfied with pencilling out the word “”Queen” in the Constitution and substituting it with “”President”. They want a fresh start with a completely new Constitution, putting sovereignty firmly in the hands of the people, not in any way derivative of the British Crown and the divine rights of kings.

The small republicans, on the other hand, seek the smallest change possible. This is the view of the Australian Republican Movement. It seeks only one thing: that the highest office in the land under our Constitution should not be filled by a foreigner.

The small republicans are headed, among others, by Donald Horne who wrote a book called (I think, from memory) The Lucky Monarchy.
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A former secretary to five Governors-General, Sir David Smith, condemned the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, for accusing monarchy supporters as being un-Australian, unpatriotic, even disloyal.

He said patriotism and pride in being Australian were not the sole preserve of only one side of politics.

Sir David accepted that if a majority wanted a republic, then change must happen _ that was the democratic ideal.
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The Canberra Women’s Health Centre has applied for legal aid to pay for private lawyers for its defence against an allegation of sex discrimination brought last year, even though the ACT Government Solicitor was willing to represent the centre.

The bill could reach as much at $51,000.

This was revealed by documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and subsequent inquiries.
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The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Marshall Perron, said yesterday that the size of the Senate should be halved.

If each state had six senators, instead of the present 12, it would make statehood for the Northern Territory easier to attain.

There was urgent need for constitutional change in the Northern Territory he said, but the question of representation in the Federal Parliament would be a stumbling block.
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Gladiator Keating stabs viciously with his short sword. Gladiator Hewson goads him with his trident waiting to throw the net into which Keating will fatally stumble.

It is Question Time. In the public gallery and in the loungerooms of the nation, the masses turn their thumbs down.

They are putting their thumbs down to politicians and politicking. But matters are more serious than that. We are watching the failure of Parliament to do its job. Parliament has two essential tasks: to provide a check on the Executive and to legislate. It is failing in both.
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The Federal Government was silly enough to introduce the ban on political ads on the telly, and now the High Court has over-turned it.

Bob Menzies’ Government was silly enough to introduce the ban on the Communist Party, and, in 1950, the High Court over-turned it.

Both were flagrantly anti-liberty laws, but there was a difference. Bob Menzies at least had the courage of his misguided conviction to say the High Court was wrong and the people should decide the issue at referendum. This Government would not be silly enough to do that.
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