Crispin Hull

The Treasurer, John Dawkins, should be wary of allowing Canadian media enterpreneur Conrad Black to increase his company’s share of the Fairfax Group from 15 per cent to 25 per cent. Mr Black’s application is being considered by the Foreign Investment Review Board. The board has only advisory power and the decision ultimately is in the hand of Mr Dawkins. The board, which advises on general considerations of national interest, has a record of recommending in favour of more than 95 per cent of foreign investment proposals in the past. That is largely because foreign investment in Australia has been generally in the national interest. In the case of Mr Black’s proposal, however, there are factors which suggest to the contrary.

Unlike much valuable foreign investment, Mr Black’s investment would not be of otherwise unavailable capital for a new venture. There is plenty of existing Australian capital available if Fairfax were to seek it, as was proved by the public float a year ago. Shares were then issued at $1.20. The float was fully subscribed and the price is now around $1.60. Further, there is no evidence that Fairfax would gain new technology or new expertise not otherwise available to it or not now being put into the group. New expertise and new technology is another important reason for seeking foreign investment.
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Gary Johns, the parliamentary secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister, Brian Howe, has suggested reducing the retirement age for men from 65 to 60 to help unemployment. He says, also, that it is inequitable to enable women to get the pension at 60 while men have to wait till they are 65. There is some truth in the latter proposition, by it can be met equally by raising the female pension age to 65 than by reducing the male pension. The former proposition has no merit. It is a costly and inefficient plan. It is likely to cost $725 million a year, and there is no guarantee that for every old person retiring earlier that a young person will get a job. More likely, companies will not replace many of those who leave.

Australia needs skilled labour, so it seems silly to encourage the experienced to leave their job for government support just so a younger person can leave government support for a job.

Mr Johns is right when he says that something must be done in the face of continuing high unemployment. But shuffling dependency on the government from the young to the aged is not the answer. There are other more effective and attractive solutions than taking experienced 60-to-65-year olds out of the workforce. This will only lower industy’s productivity and competitiveness. The government should instead make the employment of youth more attractive by reducing high award wages and conditions, cutting payroll tax and cutting business overheads. It should also cut immigration during the recession.
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When the US calls, Australia usually snaps to attention. This was certainly the case with Vietnam and the Gulf War when Australia snapped to attention a little too smartly. Yet on the occasion of the US asking for Australian troops for Somalia we have dithered. On this occasion Australia should have responded to with alacrity. The former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, virtually asked the US to ask us to send troops to the Gulf where they would be engaged in a war. Yet now, when Australian troops are needed to ensure food gets to starving Somalians we are dithering.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Gareth Evans, told the Senate last week that the US had asked Australia to contribute. “”The Government is considering various options in this respect and decisions will be taken shortly. I’m not in a position, however, to indicate right now what our reaction will be,” he said. He said the disarmament part of operation would be difficult, dangerous and perhaps protracted. The famine relief part should be over within two or three months.
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At last an Australian Prime Minister has recognised who was responsible for the act of dispossession of the Aboriginal people. The statement by Paul Keating this week was a leap not taken by the two of his predecessors who did more than other Prime Ministers for Aboriginal people: Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser. Whitlam recognised the appalling plight of Aborigines in Australia: their lower standards of health, education and housing. He poured money in to rectify it, but with sadly little effect. Fraser recognised the need for Aboriginal possession of land and passed the Land Rights Act. Sadly, it was restricted to the Northern Territory.

Me Keating has gone a leap further in recognising who did the dispossessing and the destruction of traditional lifestyle and therefore who has the moral responsibility to do the repairing. He said, “”We brought the diseases and the alcohol. We committed the murder. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion.” Mr Keating quite rightly cautioned against the destructive emotion of guilt.
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There was no proof that violence on television or videos caused acts of violence in the community, but community attitudes should determine the issue, according to the Australian Chief Censor, John Dickie.

This was the view of the National Committee of Violence and that of the Australian Institute of Criminology.

“”The cause of violence are complex,” Mr Dickie said. The included family factors, drug abuse, biological factors, mental illness and cultural matters. The media (including film) were at the bottom of the list. However, they could not be taken out of the picture.
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The ACT has the lowest road toll and the greatest fall of fatal road accidents of any state or territory, according to statistics issued this week.

The ACT has 0.62 deaths per 100 million kilometres travelled, half the Australian average of 1.34. The next best state is Victoria with 1.02 and the worse is the Northern Territory with 3.14.

The statistics were issued by the Department of Transport and Communications.
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Some of the Members of the ACT House of Assembly may have felt slightly nervous in their seats as the Electoral Bill came before them last night. For some, it could spell doom.

As approved in the referendum, the Bill provides for three electorates. One will have seven members and the other two will have five.

From now on we can expect the 17 MLAs to regionalise themselves, taking greater interest in “”their area” to identify themselves among the electors of it.
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This is the prediction of John Connolly, of Creditline in Sydney. Credit Line, an off-shoot of Lifeline. He said last week that all the international and Australian experience with new casinos is that pawn-broking shops open near casinos within six months to a year.

So there is money to be made from the casino, he says with irony, preying on the victims.

Mr Connolly says Canberrans can expect an increase in the call on welfare services. However, they will be slow to recognise it as a gambling problem. Gamblers hide their problem, and welfare people might not have the experience to identify it. The right questions won’t be asked.
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The director of the Nolan Gallery at Lanyon, Angela Philp, said yesterday that of 300 works at the gallery, about 100 had been lent by Nolan. The rest had been given by him.

“”He loved Lanyon,” Ms Philp said. “”We wanted to be buried here under a tree.”

Ms Philp hopes the lent works will remain with the others at the gallery.

Nolan gave a foundation collection of 24 works to the nation in 1975. Because he loved Lanyon so much, they were housed at the Lanyon homestead, just south of what is now Tuggeranong. The gallery was built in 1980 and it housed the growing collection. The collection includes the first painting in the Ned Kelly series among many in the Kelly series. It has works from the Rimbaud Cezanne series and For the Term of his Natural Life series, among others, and a Burke and Wills painting.
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It was suggested last week that Canberra be nominated for world-heritage listing. The suggestion is ill-founded in both logic and common-sense.

Let us draw and analogy. The English common law has as one of its many elements some principles of property law. It recognises several estates in land, two of which are estates in fee simple and entail.

Estates in fee enable the owner to do what he likes. Estates entail enable the owner to enjoy the profits of the estate and to live on it, but require its maintenance and its passing to the eldest son indefinitely down the family line. The estate entail was aimed at preserving the family lands for the family, down the male line, indefinitely.
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