Crispin Hull

The Government was asked two questions in the Senate yesterday on whether the Prime Minsiter, Paul Keating, had a conflict of interest over a piggery half owned by his family company.

Senator Brian Archer, (Lib Tas) referred to an article in üThe Canberra Times@ yesterday dealing with corrected accounts of the Brown and Hatton Group Pty Ltd. He asked if the company having a contingent liability of $4 million to a former Minister of the Crown, John Brown, was a conflict of interest. The Leader of the Government in the Senate, John Button, said he would not comment on private affairs of individuals and that the matter was not in his portfolio area. He said the Liberals were reluctant to pursue the matter where they ought to, in the House of Representatives. The Leader of the Opposition, John Hewson, wanted to be Mr Clean and let the Mr Dirtys in Senate do his dirty work for him.
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Further corrections to accounts of the Brown and Hatton piggery, half owned by the family of the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, have changed for the second time the status of money due to a company owned by the former Minister for Tourism, John Brown for goodwill.

The money was first stated as a straight debt of $4 million. It was then changed to shareholders’ equity and in publicly available accounts lodged with the Australian Securities Commission last week it was taken out of the accounts altogether and referred to in a note on the accounts. The note said Brown and Hatton Group Pty Ltd had a potential liability of $4m associated with the purchase of the pig business and naming rights. It called it contingent liability to be paid if the directors’ “”so determine and if the company make sufficient profits and has sufficient funds available to pay” it.

The Brown and Hatton Groups has entered a $80 million joint venture with the Danish company Danpork.
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The Prime Minister, Paul Keating, had to either acknowledge he had made a paper fortune of $3.8 million or acknowledge that the accounts of his half-owned piggery company were wrong, the Senate was told yesterday.

The Opposition spokesman on the arts, Senator Michael Baume, said, “”Mr Keating has denied on television that he has made a paper fortune. He said that one had to be able to read a balance sheet to understand. I have news for Mr Keating: people who know very well how to read a balance sheet confirm exactly this problem. If Mr Keating had not made this paper fortune, he has to deny the accounts; he has to demonstrate that the accounts are shonky.

“”Mr Keating cannot get away with saying both that the accounts are correct and that he did not turn the ($430,000) investment into $4.2 million.”
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The piggery half owned by the Keating family company revalued its land and buildings by $4 million in 1990-91 according to accounts put on the public register this week.

The accounts for Brown and Hatton Group Pty Ltd lodged with the Australian Securities Commission are unaudited. The company was converted from a public to a private company in May, 1991. Companies that are public companies at any time during the year are required to lodge audited accounts.

Mr Keating is not a director of any of the piggery companies and is not responsible in any way for the upkeep of their accounts. The accounts revalued buildings according to valuations made byt he directors. Coupled with revaluations of land, they form a new asset revaluation reserve of $4,062,000.
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What price peace of mind? Would you believe $219? Norton Anti-Virus 2.1 scans your computer for 1400 viruses that can invade your computer, eat data and programs and make hard disks unusable.

It loads extremely easily and creates a system floppy disk with essential details about your computer to enable you to get going quickly after a virus attack. This software will tell you that your system is clear of the 1400 known viruses and mutations of them, but more importantly will tell you how to get out of strife if you suffer a virus attack.

Using the Virus Clinic part of the program you can repair infected files or if unrepairable delete them.
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The ACT has a mixed bag of advanced and archaic laws on mental health and human rights, according to a paper issued last week by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

The report said, “”The Legislative provisions covering people with mental illness in the ACT are a patchwork of some of the oldest provisions in force in Australia and the most recent.”

It said there were still significant areas not covered by legislation.
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A parliamentary committee says the public does not know enough about the Federal Government’s scheme for data-matching between agencies, the LEAN scheme.

LEAN stands for Law Enforcement Access Network. It aims to enable agencies to link data held by other agencies in an attempt to combat fraud. The main two databases are land titles and company information. These can be accessed by the public, but the LEAN scheme will enable agencies to access them in more comprehensive ways. Searches can be done matching people’s names, not just on land or company description.

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Banking, Finance and Public Administration said in a report tabled this week (week ends sat dec19) that it “”has some major qualifications about the facility and the way in which it is being developed”.
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It seems far more appropriate for migrants becoming citizens of Australia to swear allegiance to Australia and its people that to the Queen of Australia who live half way accross the world and whose loyalties are first to Britain and then to the Commonwealth countries. Cabinet’s decision last week to change the Citizenship Act to reflect this is therefore welcome. The new oath will be: “”From thsi time forward, (under God) I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey.” The existing oath is: “”I swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Australia, her heirs and successors according to law, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Australia and fulfil my duties as an Australian citizen.”

It must seem especially silly for migrants from Commonwealth countries to unswear their allegiance to Queen Elizabeth as the Queen of whatever country they come from and to reswear it as Queen Elizabeth of Australia. Moreover, it seems sensible to allow the words “”under God” to be omitted if the new citizen so chooses. Many people are not theists and the present insistence on an oath might lessen its value among non-theists.

The reaction was predictably mixed and took fairly standard forms. The Leader of the Opposition, John Hewson, said: “”This won’t do much to help the one million unemployed get jobs in the this recession.” Very true, but irrelevant. Getting unemployed Australians to work is important; indeed it is the most important task of government right now. But it is not the only task. Surely, the Australian community is intelligent enough and mature enough to think about more than one issue at a time.
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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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