Crispin Hull

Conservation groups representing 400,000 Australians have rejected the Government’s draft national forest policy and called for plantation harvesting.

They have sent a detailed submission to the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, saying that logging of native forests is unnecessary, uneconomic and not as productive as plantation timber.

The submission says the present policy has cost $4.5 billion in public debt. Australia could be self-sufficient in paper fibre by 1995 using plantation pulpwood, residues from plantation sawmills and increased recycling. Softwood from plantation aged 25-40 years could replace the vast majority of uses met from native forests.
Continue reading “1992_09_september_forests”

The trashy novel was predicting sudden death. I was reading it on Flight AN4 to Darwin. It was a trashy novel but a prescient one.

The American accent came over the inter-com: “”Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Captain Miller. Today, we will be tracking over Longreach, Mount Isa and Katherine on route to Darwin. Our arrival time is now anticipated at 12.55pm Central Time. We do apologise for the current air turbulence and we do suggest you keep your seat belts fastened at this time.”

Since the pilots’ strike and the influx of American pilots, airlinebabble has become even more long-winded. The mellowness that comes with the American belief in giving service has replaced the clipped British tradition of giving orders. The word “”now” smacks of bossing people about, so it is replaced in airlinebabble with “”at this time”.
Continue reading “1992_09_september_flight”

The public appears to have a higher regard for of engineers than the engineers have of themselves, according to a survey published yesterday.

Women tend to have a higher regard for them than men, but those surveyed as a whole were more reluctant to recommend their daughter for an engineering career than their son.

However, people think engineering is for others: 76 per cent would recommend it for young males, but only 47 per cent for their sons and 46 per cent would recommend it for a young female but only 33 per cent for their own daughter.
Continue reading “1992_09_september_engine”

At the last ACT election in February, the people voted (nearly 70-30) for the Hare-Clark system and the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, quite rightly says she will give effect to the choice.

More technically, the people voted for “”a proportional representation (subs round brackets are correct) (Hare-Clark) system (as outlined in the Commonwealth’s Referendum Options Description Sheet”.

The description sheet provided for the Robson rotation which hacks into party factional power. It provides that the order of a party’s candidates be changed on different voters’ ballot papers. Voter 1 get a paper with Berry at Labor’s No 1 spot. Voter 2 gets a paper with Connolly’s name at the No 1 spot and so on. Thus voters have to think about the order they want to place the candidates in, rather than just accepting the party line. More of this later.
Continue reading “1992_09_september_elect”

It would impossible to draw three electorates in the ACT without splitting one or more of the major townships, according to the Liberal spokesman on electoral matters, Gary Humphries.

This made it more important for the boundaries not to be drawn by the proposed ACT Electoral Commission as suggested by the Government.

Mr Humphries thought the Chief Territory Planner and the Auditor-General should draw the boundaries, to add expertise and greater independence.
Continue reading “1992_09_september_elect24”

In the past people wanting to sue newspapers or the electronic media often did so in the ACT where the law is often better for plaintiffs and more difficult for publishers. Also, some plaintiffs do not like juries, so they sue in the ACT where there are none in the civil cases. For example, sports and pop stars like juries; politicians, lawyers and real-estate agents are less likely to do so. Technical cases are often brought to the ACT as well.

It is called forum shopping. It means the ACT court list gets clogged with out-of-town cases, delaying ACT trials.

As a result of a judgment brought down in the Federal Court last week, this will be more difficult.

Anthony John Earl Grey sued David Syme and Co, publisher of The Age, Melbourne, over the publication of a cartoon. The court ruled that under Commonwealth and ACT law the plaintiff was restricted, in this case, to suing over publication in the ACT alone, and not in the whole of Australia.
Continue reading “1992_09_september_defo”

Defence pay determination needed a complete overhaul, the Opposition spokesman for Defence Science and Personnel, Allan Rocher, said yesterday.

He was commenting after the Defence Force Advocate, Bob Buchanan, QC, resigned because those responsible for managing Defence resources were also responsible for approving and the initiation of pay cases.

The advocate, a part-time position, represents those putting pay cases to the Defence Forces Remuneration Tribunal.
Continue reading “1992_09_september_defence”

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions called the Australian Securities Commission yesterday a “”gentlemen commercial regulator” without enough interest in jailing corporate crooks.

Michael Rozenes, QC, said the ASC policy had resulted in one law for the rich and another for the poor. Rich corporate crooks got civil penalties, whereas those without any money left were prosecuted under the criminal law.

The policy brought the criminal law into disrepute.

The ASC’s emphasis was on protecting the creditor or the shareholder. Its policy seemed to be that if you imposed a commercial civil penalty that would be a deterrent.
Continue reading “1992_09_september_crook”

In the old days Parliament passed laws and to ensure they were obeyed provided penalties. If it is was suspected that someone broke the law the police investigated and pressed charged. That was fine for standard crimes: murder, arson, rape, burglary, armed robbery, assault and the like.

“”Look, there’s a body. Call the cops.” “”Help I’ve been robbed, call the cops.”

Then life got a more complex. New offences were needed in the public good. Criminal sanctions were used for a much wider range of things as the state interfered with individual behaviour more and more. Perhaps it was a response to more individuals not conforming with established religious and social mores. Perhaps it was an intolerance to what had previously be eccentric behaviour.

Anyway, the categories of crime have ballooned. In, say, 1930, for example, an individual could use heroin, go fishing in public waters for what he wanted and shoot which ever ducks he wanted and an individual could discharge whatever waste he liked into the rivers, to use four examples.
Continue reading “1992_09_september_cops”

The Chief Minister’s Investigation Unit has called in the police over the leaking of the ACT health budget.

Details of the Budget were published in The Canberra Times on Sunday.

Two police officers arrived at üThe Canberra Times with a search warrant directed at me and the Federal Capital Press yesterday.

The warrant said sought all documents, dairy notes and fax records pertaining to the ACT health budget and all documents or faxes to or from the ACT Health Department or the office of the Minister for Health, Wayne Berry.
Continue reading “1992_09_september_cops7”