Crispin Hull

The retirement of Sir Daryl Dawson from the High Court gives the Howard Government its first chance to make a High Court appointment.

Some have seen this as a chance for the Government to change the balance of the court and to turn the tide against activism as seen in Mabo, Wik and the freedom of speech cases. Nonsense.

The first Howard Government appointment to the court will make the court slightly more judicially active. How so?
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Present media law is a complicated jungle created by various governments wanting to play favourites but at the same time having to meet the requirements that all are equal before the law.

It is further complicated by constitutional limitations to the Commonwealth’s power, though these limitations have been used as an excuse for inaction against concentration of media ownership. A determined government could quite easily create a constitutionally valid framework of media law that provided the four things that Australians want: high standards; local ownership; diversity of content; competition between a lot of media providers; and clear statements of principle.

When the Constitution was framed, there were no radios or television. But the Commonwealth Parliament can still legislate to control the media because the Constitution gives it power to make laws over “”postal, telegraphic, telephonic, and other like services”; “”foreign corporations, and trading or financial corporations formed within the limits of the Commonwealth”; and trade and commerce with foreign countries.
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You cannot legislate for doing the right thing.

Queensland Premier Rob Borbidge says he has legal advice that if Queensland Senator Mal Colston leaves the Senate (over accusations about travel allowances), he can replace him with an independent, despite the clear and obvious words of the Constitution (as amended in 1977).

Colston was elected under the Labor Party banner. It was stated as much on the ballot paper. He has since become an independent.
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Canberra is to host several Olympic rowing events under an arrangement between the ACT Government and the Sydney Olympics Organising Committee. (?)

Under the arrangement the ACT has to extend the present 1800-metre rowing course in Lake Burley Griffin (between the Governor-General’s residence and Lady Denman Drive) to a full-size 2000-metre course and build two spectator stands.

To accommodate the extra 200 metres, some modification to the lake shoreline will be needed. Several hectares along Yarramundi shoreline will be sliced off and pushed into the lake. (See map.)
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April Fool’s Day is being celebrated on the wrong day, according to a paper published in this month’s edition of the University of Canberra Humanities Journal.

The paper was written by UC historian Dr Hartley Quinn based on a research project he undertook at the University of Aberdeen last year. He said that his research showed that the date had been changed for religious reasons during the reign of Mary I and that all Roman and Medieval tradition showed the true date for fools’ day should be March 21, on the equinox. But Dr Quinn thought that it was now probably too late for the day to be changed back.

Dr Quinn said the Holi festival in India and the Roman Feast of Hilaria were both celebrated at the equinox.
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The National Party approach on Wik is ignorant, legally unworkable and probably self-defeating. (And that leaves aside the moral question.)

The Nationals want the Commonwealth to legislate to take away native title on pastoral leases.

Native title is a property right. The Constitution (Section 51) says the Commonwealth can legislate for “”the acquisition of property” but only “”on just terms”.
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It was the weekend after the over-turning of the world’s first voluntary euthanasia law.

Twynam is Australia’s third-highest mountain, near Kosciusko, but that is of no moment to this story. And I am afraid that this is a story of great pain and despair, though tempered by times of great hope and happiness.

My wife, Lynne, and I first climbed Twynam on cross-country skis in October 1992 after being driven back by blizzard or rain on two earlier occasions. It was a brave triumph for Lynne.
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The Victorian Supreme Court must now be wondering about the wisdom of interfering last week in the suspension of an AFL player. The court granted an injunction to put on hold a nine-week suspension imposed on Carlton’s Greg Williams. Williams was allowed to run on to the field in the next round of play. And, lo, he was charged again on video evidence from a field umpire for allegedly kneeing an opposing player.

We are seeing the gradual lawyerisation of sport in Australia. It has gone hand-in-hand with the growing commercialisation of sport. Both trends have been unwelcome, but particularly the lawyerisation.

Racing off to court to appeal against tribunal decisions undermines the authority of the tribunal. It can only instill an attitude that with enough money and lawyers players can sneer at the tribunal. Once one player is seen to get a suspension stayed, others will follow, particularly around finals time. And the hopeless inefficiency of the courts is such that a case would only come on after the finals were over.
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The dispute over the placing and naming of an ACT park to mark the sister-city relationship with the Japanese city of Nara should have been completely unnecessary.

There was a failure by the ACT Government to see the national perspective and a failure by national planning authorities to assert it when necessary. More seriously there has been a failure to open processes to enable early objection to proposals so they can be amended without loss of face by politicians and third parties.

Canberra is the national capital. It means that the people of Canberra have to accept that the Federal Parliament and Government, representing the people of Australia, have a role to play, but in the general context of Australia being a democracy, the people of Canberra are entitled to a wide degree of self-determination, especially on matters that directly affect them.
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Sure, judicial independence is important; it underpins of our democracy and is essential to the rule of law. It has virtually been taken for granted in Australia until this week when the chief justices of the state and territory supreme courts issued a declaration of principles asserting the need for greater attention to be paid to their independence.

Why has it come to this?

The judges assert this is the mere putting into writing by Australian judges of the Beijing principles which were adopted by a meeting of chief justices in Beijing in 1995. They say the timing is not linked to recent attacks on the judiciary by members of the executive arm of government.
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