Crispin Hull

It was a masterstroke.

The appointment of Labor MLA Terry Connolly as Master of the ACT Supreme Court by the Liberal Government would have made Machiavelli proud.

Sure, Connolly is well-qualified for the job, at least in an academic legal sense. Also his term at Attorney-General has made him very familiar with the minutiae of ACT legislation. He’ll need to burn some midnight oil brushing up on the rules of practice and procedure of the Supreme Court and perhaps revisit his Evidence I textbook.
Continue reading “1996_02_february_column13feb”

Cheryl Kernot and Liz Cunningham should engage in some deals.

Kernot’s Democrats are likely to hold the balance of power in the Senate (or at least part of it) after March 2 and Cunningham is an Independent who will hold the balance of power in Queensland after the Mundingburra by-election result is declared.

Some things are worth making deals over. While Telstra and environment packages come and go, institutional reform tends to endure and is worth trading off some transient advantage for.
Continue reading “1996_02_february_column06feb”

Twenty-three per cent of people changed their voting intention in the past two weeks, according to polling in the set of Namadgi.

Canberra Times-Datacol polled the same sample twice, once two weeks ago and again this week. The second poll returned to the same people who were polled in the first poll, rather than taking a sample. Datacol says this is a more accurate way of gauging trends in voting intention.

The overall undecided vote fell 10 percentage points with Labor gaining 7 percentage points, and the Liberals 3. But those raw figures disguise a far more volatile electorate.
Continue reading “1996_02_february_churn”

Poll Conducted : Sat 10 Feb 1996 to Tues 13 Feb 1996

Sample Size : 542 registered ACT voters in the Division of Namadgi

Sample Method : Simple Random Sample of 1995 Telecom White Pages

Survey Method : CATI Telephone survey of telephone connected dwellings
Continue reading “1996_02_february_abtpoll”

Rosemary Follett no longer has the numbers to keep her leadership of the Opposition, according to informed Opposition sources.

However, an immediate challenge is not on the cards. A change is more likely later in the term.

It now seems that Opposition attorney-general spokesman Terry Connolly would support Andrew Whitecross being leader with him (Mr Connolly) as deputy. Mr Connolly would most likely bring with him the support of Bill Wood and Mr Whitecross would bring the support of Roberta McRae, giving a majority of four for the new team, against two, Ms Follett and her Deputy Wayne Berry, for the status quo.
Continue reading “1996_01_january_follett”

“Bring out yer dead.” Bring out yer dead. The words come from Jabawocky or a Monty Python skit in a grim portrayal of a dog-eat-dog world.

It is about to come to the ACT, at least metaphorically, if the ACT Community Law Reform Committee has its way. The committee recently brought out its recommendations for defamation law reform. One of its recommendations was that it should be possible to take an action for defaming the dead. The personal representatives of the dead person could bring the action.

Also, the committee thought that legal action for defamation by living people should not cease just because the person dies. The dead person’s representatives should be allowed to continue the action.
Continue reading “1996_01_january_column30jan”

The third wave is upon us. First upper management in pin-stripe suits got mobile phones; then tradespeople and now it is young people.

They have nothing to do with pose or statements of self-importance. They are wonderfully practical.

Some highly mobile young people I was talking to at the weekend use them as sole phones. They said the mobiles saved connection and disconnection costs. More importantly, as so many young people are casual and part-time workers they need to be contactable to get and keep work. That was their prime reason for buying it.
Continue reading “1996_01_january_column23jan”

And every creek a banker ran, and dams filled overtop.

We’ll all be rooned, said Hanrahan, if this rain doesn’t stop. (End ital).

In fact the Queenslanders loved it. Not only because it broke the drought, but because they took a pride in overcoming the inconvenience and the hardship.
Continue reading “1996_01_january_column16jan”

The ACT will be one of the most interesting parts of the federal election.

In the past, it has been dismissed as boring because it has almost invariably returned Labor members.

An independent held the sole ACT seat from 1949 to 1951 and a Liberal held Canberra from 1975 to 1980.
Continue reading “1996_01_january_actseats”

In the Senate, it is very unlikely that the Coalition can get a majority. More likely, Labor will pick up a little. The Senate election is also unlikely to be kind to the Democrats.

This is because of numbers, quotas and history rather than what might happen in the campaign or the merits of policies.

These should favour the Labor Party; be fairly neutral for the Coalition and not be kind to the Democrats. The reason for this is that the senators up for re-election are those that were elected in 1990.
Continue reading “1996_01_january_senate96”