Crispin Hull

The ACT Government has to be concerned about the High Court’s ruling in the X-rated video case last week, at least in the long-term.

In the short-term it is of little moment. The tax can be quite easily restored.

But first let’s look at what the court said. Section 90 of the Constitution says the power of the Federal Parliament to impose excise is an exclusive power. That means State and Territory Parliaments cannot levy excise taxes. But the precise definition of excise has troubled the High Court for the past 80 years.
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Lanhupuy is the Member for Arnhem in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. As an Aboriginal representing many traditional Aboriginal people and a member of a Westminster-style law-making body he is in a good position to talk about the application of the two different sorts of law.

“”In Aboriginal eyes, European law meanders like a river on a flood plain that has no barriers to constrain its flow or direction,” he said in Darwin last week. “”Although we can see merit in having a law that can adapt to changing circumstances, it is in complete contradiction to Aboriginal law and custom, where practices and beliefs have carried on for many thousands of years in much the same way.”

Aboriginal society “”has a complex and intricately developed set of laws and a cultural relationship which is based not only on the individual, but also the family and community.”
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Dawson is now in a minority of one on a High Court Bench on a fundamental constitutional question: the location of ultimate sovereignty in Australia.

Dawson’s approach is the classic legalistic one. He says the power and authority of the Constitution comes from the British Parliament, not the Australian people.

In the broadcasting-ban case last week he said: “”And the Constitution is itself a law declared by the Imperial Parliament to be “binding on the courts, judges and people of every state and every part of the Commonwealth’. It does not purport to obtain its force from any power residing in the people to constitute a government. The legal foundation of the Australian Constitution is an exercise of the sovereign power by the Imperial Parliament.”
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The Leader of the Northern Territory’s Labor Opposition, Brian Ede, has called for the chemical castration of repeat sex offenders.

He told the Northern Territory’s Legislative Assembly courts should have the power to order that “”repeat sexual offenders submit to a program of treatment which may include a requirement that the offender take Depo-Provera or a like drug, being the option commonly known as chemical castration”.

“”Sometimes jails are not sufficient deterrent,” he said on Wednesday. “”Among the people I am talking about _ repeat sexual offenders, pedophiles and the like _ jail is not a deterrent. They have been there before, and they go into jail and big-note themselves about some poor little girl to which they did something. I can tell you that out there in the pubs where this mob gets together and big-note themselves, chemical castration is a deterrent. People start to think twice when they think about that little item.”
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The common-law rights that might be expected in an implied bill of rights would be such things as freedom of speech, assembly and religion, freedom from search and seizure without a warrant based on sworn evidence and stating what can be searched and seized, freedom from arbitrary arrest, freedom from confiscation of property without compensation and no torture or other cruel and unusual punishment and a right to trial by jury for serious crimes.

The following appears in a US legal database: “”My name is Barry Krusch, and I am president of an organisation called Americans for a Constitutional Convention. üWhy We Need an New Constitution@ was written to provide a summary of the defects and obsolescences of the Constitution. This essay is the product of over six months’ extensive research, involving the analysis of dozens of books, law review articles, historical documents, debates printed in the Congressional Record, and newspaper clippings. The essay itself took over 200 hours to write, and is the most compact and complete document of its kind this author has yet seen.”

Barry is obviously very impressed with his own essay.

Essentially, the essay points to a military-industrial complex in the US that corrupts members of the House of Representatives by pork-barrelling and blackmail. The essay itself is less impressive than by the fact its author wrote it and put on a public database.
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The story you have been dying to hear: the do-it-yourself will kit. You will be coughing up a mere $14.95, instead of undertaking to pay a lawyer perhaps $100 or more for the relatively easy task of disposing of your property to you near and dear upon death.

The Blue Ribbon Will was launched this week by Senator Barney Cooney at Mortuary Station in Sydney. It is published by Legal and Commercial Publishing PO Box 583 Potts Point 2011. Phone 02 3681015.

The kit sets out the legal requirements for a will and gives a dozen examples. It provides definitions of terms.
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A law lecturer at the Australian National University has begun defamation proceedings against 18 students.

The lecturer, Peter Waight, asserts he was defamed over a letter of complaint they made to the Dean of the Law School, Professor Dennis Pearce, which he says was circulated beyond what was necessary.

Mr Waight’s solicitor, John Little, said yesterday that the action had begun in the ACT Magistrates’ Court. About half a dozen students had apologised to Mr Waight or had indicated they would do so and they had not be sued. Many of the 18 students were in Mr Waight’s class, others not so.
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The ACT Government was accused yesterday of “”tin-pot fascism” over the sending of police to The Canberra Times on Tuesday with a search warrant to discover the source of leaked Budget documents.

Two detectives came to The Canberra Times on Tuesday armed with a search warrant directed at Federal Capital Press, publisher of üThe Canberra Times, and journalist Crispin Hull. The warrant was for all documents, diary notes and fax records relating to ACT Budget records, or matters to or from the ACT Department of Health or the office of the Minister of Health, Wayne Berry.

The Canberra Times ran an article last Sunday detailing the health budget. The ACT Budget is expected to be brought down by the Chief Minsiter, Rosemary Follett, on September 15.
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This time last year the Australian Football League was under attack for the unfairness of its finals series.< New par begins. This year it has changed the system slightly. The result is a completely fair finals system. Let me explain.< New par begins. Last year the AFL had just moved from having a final five to having a final six.< New par begins.

New par type two. The new final-six system was branded as unfair. It was unfair (for reasons which don’t matter now) and needed modifications. As a result of the changes no-one should complain. This is what happens.
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