Crispin Hull

The Victorian Government has come under increasing pressure in the past week to have an inquiry into the lead up to the resignation late last year of the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions, Bernard Bongiorno, and more particularly into the role in that of the Victorian Attorney-General, Virginia Wade. Allegations have been made in the ABC program Four Corners and elsewhere that Mrs Wade attempted to undermine Mr Bongiorno, by attempting to force him out by cutting his legislative powers.

The allegations were that she did this because Mr Bongiorno had played a key role in the prosecution of former Liberal federal president John Elliott and because he had mooted the prosecution of the Premier, Jeff Kennett, for contempt over comments he had made about the arrest of a serial killer. Essentially, the allegations involve the undermining of an independent quasi-judicial officer for political reasons. They are serious allegations and warrant inquiry. It is folly to dismiss the allegations by asserting an elected government has a right to rearrange the legislative base of the office of the DPP as it sees fit because the office, though a fairly recent one, has now attained an almost quasi-constitutional status, somewhat equivalent to the judiciary. England has had an independent Director of Public Prosecutions for more than three decades.
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What is the alternative? Well, the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse has come up with 101 alternatives to smacking children. Ore accurately, children themselves have come up with the 101 alternatives. The association asked children to come up with suitable alternatives to corporal punishment and published the results this week. Interestingly, the children did not come up with ludicrous ideas of being fed ice-cream or being sentenced to watch the next 20 episodes of the Simpsons. They took the thing seriously and put forward reasonable suggestions about non-violent punishment.

One can sympathise with the stressed parent in the super-market, the stressed parent arbitrating insoluble disputes about which television channel should be watched or dividing the small remnant of disposal income among vigorously disputing children. Too often, however, the solution is an instant resort to violence, to the smack. Surprisingly, when the children grow bigger, big enough to strike back, suddenly parents find that violence as a disciplinary mechanism is no longer available. Then they have to resort to other means, such as denying the car keys or refusing to budge on Saturday night to make way for a party. Of course, the fact that parents of older children have to resort to non-violent tactics once the physical balance with their children tilts the other way shows the bankruptcy of the earlier violent tactics. In short, violence against a weaker human being is morally inexcusable, even if it might be understandable in the context of the pressures of modern society. That being the case, the production of (ital) 101 Alternatives to Whacking a Child (end ital) is commendable and welcome. Violence begets violence. If children at an impressionable age are given the impression that it is acceptable and normal to resort to violence, they will tend to follow that pattern in their own adulthood.
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It is unfortunate that the very desirable fixed parliamentary terms in the ACT and NSW end with elections in February and March, rather than in December. It has meant that with the change of governments in both places a financial hiatus that would have been better dealt in the quieter summer months than in April, just before the Federal Budget. The result has been the postponing of both places’ Budgets. Ideally, it would have been better for Budgets to have been brought down just before the end of the financial year.

The dates of the fixed terms are unlikely to be changed, however. Besides, the ACT has a greater problem of a steadily mounting fiscal imbalance. The Chief Minister, Kate Carnell, says that a full range of reform measures cannot be ready by the earlier Budget date of June 20, so the full Budget is to be put off until September rather than locking in a lesser range of measures for a year from June 20. There is some merit in that approach. It is almost routine for incoming governments to declare the fiscal cupboard bare and that the poor management of the previous government calls for drastic financial measures. Usually there is some truth in it because governments that have been in power a while have a natural tendency towards financial optimism. In the case of the ACT, the former government has been accused of indulging in a $10 million off-Budget spending spree and the ACT Treasury has estimated that without spending cuts the ACT will have a debt of $275 million by the end of the decade.
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The High Court’s judgment last week to free a heroin trafficker because evidence used to convict him had been obtained illegally has been condemned more than it has been praised. Police had engaged in the controlled import of heroin in order to get the conviction. The court rejected a defence of entrapment, but said the illegality of the evidence-gathering was of such a grave nature that public policy demanded the exercise of judicial discretion to exclude the evidence. The result would be an acquittal. The High Court was between the devil and the deep blue sea. On one hand, it faced condoning the illegal conduct of the police. On the other, it faced freeing someone who was obviously a heroin trafficker. The six majority judges preferred the latter. The lone dissenter said the conviction could be upheld while condemning the police conduct, even suggesting they be prosecuted. The majority judges, however, thought that mere judicial statements condemning police conduct would be hollow. There is some truth in that.

They thought that as the police had engaged in the very conduct that the law in this case had been designed to prevent, namely the import of heroin. It is unfortunate that this has resulted in a quashed conviction of someone otherwise guilty, but that may be the price to get the whole issue fixed. One of the case’s leading critics has been Justice Minister, Duncan Kerr. He is proposing to legalise some police controlled activity that would otherwise be illegal. This sounds all right. But there are no easy answers. The history of Australian policing _ with corruption, at times, leading to the highest levels _ gives no cause for complete faith in the police to control the their own use of crime to catch criminals.
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After half a decade, some sanity has prevailed on Acton Peninsula and Kingston foreshore. Only by historical accident did the ACT get jurisdiction over Acton, and then only partial jurisdiction. That accident was that a hospital happened to be on the site and the Federal Government, in the lead-up to self government in 1989 was determined that health be a territory matter. In a word _ Acton came with the territory.

Once the hospital went, there was no need for the ACT to retain control. Similarly with Kingston. Once a new home could be found for the Federal government printer, there was no need for the Federal Government to have the site. Current land use was a silly determinant what should be “”national” land and what should be “”territory” land. A better determinant is natural geography and proximity to national institutions.
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The committee reviewing Australia’s honours system has found widespread dissatisfaction that the system is rewarding too many public servants, politicians, judges, doctors and academics and not enough people who do voluntary community work and women and people from ethnic groups. The committee has received submissions from around Australia and is to report to the Government later in the year. People did not like people getting honours for just doing their job or merely for long service. There is merit in those views.

It often seems that the honours list is in inverse proportion to degree of effort. Some appear to get a top honour for working in business or the public service where they are well paid and get status and respect from the job anyway, while voluntary community workers, especially in rural areas, get the lower awards. That said, the system permits anyone in the community to nominate someone. True, the more highly educated are more likely to know the system, none the less, with broader knowledge of the system, more voluntary workers, women and people from ethnic communities should get nominated. Whether they get the top awards, however, is another matter.
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There are mutterings around that Paul Keating will put an Australian Bill of Rights on the agenda for the next election campaign _ just as he put the republic on the agenda last time. In 1988 a pathetic attempt by Labor to put some human-rights issues to a referendum failed, but the environment has changed markedly since then. Late last year a parliamentary sub-committee recommended that the government set up an inquiry into whether Australia should have a Bill of Rights; what it should contain and whether it be statute-based or in the Constitution. Now the chair of that sub-committee, Senator Stephen Loosely has written to the Attorney-General, Michael Lavarch, suggesting the Government get on with it.

Perhaps the biggest development since last year was the result of the three referendums in the ACT and NSW in February and March. The three were all given overwhelming Yes votes. All were about matters of constitutional importance. All either cut the power of the head of government over the legislature or cut the power of the legislature over the people. In short, they were similar in form if not substance to typical Bill of Rights clauses. The results show that the people can vote Yes in referendums.
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Billy Wentworth, at 86 and 23 years after retiring from Federal politics, is re-entering the fray by standing in next week’s by-election in the seat named after his grandfather, the publisher and explorer. He entered Federal Parliament in 1949. Menzies never gave him a Ministry because he was always a maverick and seen as on the left of the Liberal Party. It was after Menzies and Holt that got a ministry _ Minister for Social Serives and Minister in Charge of Aboriginal Affairs in 1968. He held them until the Liberals lost office in 1972. The ministries’ names reflect the attitudes of the times _ some of which Wentworth has retained.

While agreeing in a discussion last week with H. C. Nugget Coombs on economic issues, they parted company on Aboriginal policy, in particular the need for a settlement. Wentworth is more assimilationist and Coombs more self-determinist. Coombs: “”The means are pretty clear now. We should either give it back to them or compensate them for having taken it.” Wentworth: “”I think the second is right. I’m very much in favour in giving the Aborigines a fair go, but I don’t think some of the later developments have been good either for Aboriginal or for Australia.” Coombs: “”They want the decisions to be their decisions not ours. That is the truth of the matter. The moment we are honest about ownership of the land we will see their demands are modest. They want a treaty. Some sort of negotiated settlement.” Wentworth: “”I’m worried about this treaty. There are two troubles. The first is you do not know who to negotiate with. Aboriginal people were divided before we came and are still divided.
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The Liberal-National Party coalition improved its position in all five seats surrounding the ACT. The Liberal Party won the South Coast following the retirement of Independent John Hatton. The other four surrounding seats are all safe coalition seats with two-party-preferred margins before the election as follows: Monaro 12.7; Burrinjuck 8.9; Bega 12.8; Southern Highlands 6.5. In Monaro, to the south-east, sitting National and long-time logging supporter Peter Cochran, increased the two-party preferred vote for the coaltion by between 2 and 3 per cent, taking 59 per cent of the primary vote. In Burrinjuck, to the west of the ACT, the Liberals’ Alby Schultz took his vote up, by something less than 1 per cent, to easily retain the seat with 59 per cent of the primary vote. In Bega, to the east and including Bateman’s Bay, Liberal Russell Smith, also with 59 per cent of primary vote, increased the two-party-preferred by something less than 1 per cent. In Southern Highlands, the Premier John Fahey, took the coalition’s two-party-preferred vote up by between three and four per cent. In all the local seats, except Burrinjuck, the Greens, who were not present or insignifant four years ago, took between 4.5 and 7.25 per cent of the vote _ mostly from Labor and Democrats. The Greens did not stand in Burrinjuck. They did nowhere near as well as in the Federal seat of Canberra at the weekend, but Federal Labor is seen in a worse light by the Greens than NSW Labor. In South Coast, Mr Hatton, a long-time corruption fighter, retired, leaving the way for the Liberals to capture the seat. Mr Hatton’s son, John, stood this time in his father’s place as an independent, but got only 18 per cent of the vote. His father held the seat with an 18 per cent margin.

The Internet boom in Australia may be too much of a good thing for leading modem maker NetComm. NetComm has announced it will scale down export-development activities to concentrate on meeting domestic demand. During the past six months the modem division had a 40 per cent revenue growth and 86 per cent volume. NetComm managing director Chris Howells said best returns in the immediate future would come from within Australia. Work in hand included the acquisition of Internet access provider Connect.Com.Au Pty Ltd; ISDN modems; and high-speed cable modems which, with more hybrid fibre-coax cable for telephone and pay TV, will help Australian users to be the first beneficiaries worldwide of 10 MBs/sec PC interconnection into the home. According to Howells, the $41 million ISDN market in Australia is restricted to larger corporate networking customers. He said there were indications that the total ISDN market in Australia would grow to over $200 million in 1997. Of this, about $50 million that should fall into the area of high volume commodity products.