Crispin Hull

Democracy was spread in small piles on tables throughout the counting room. They were like piles of exam papers at the end of school term. Careers in the hands of the markers. Usually the failed students return to school to repeat, but in this exam things are different. The students who pass, return to school _ the Legislative Assembly _ with joy. At the counting room yesterday exam papers were being sorted into merit order.

Animated election commission staff flicked papers like old-time bank staff counted notes while less animated but more mentally agitated scrutineers attempt to glean how their candidate is doing. Candidates are not allowed in the counting room _ perhaps they will make nuisances of themselves. So their scrutineers _ usually staffers or patient spouses _ with mobile phones relay the news. With the Hare-Clark system there are more permutations than Tattslotto. “”If Evans is excluded before Main and her preferences flow through the third Green and divide, say, 60-40 your way . . . .” The conversation trails away. At the other end of phone a career is in the balance.
Continue reading “1995_03_march_harecolumn”

The ACT Leader of the Opposition, Rosemary Follett, sailed very close to the wind on radio yesterday on naming the person involved in a sexual-harassment case contrary to a court order. Not that it matters much, practically, because half of Canberra knows who it is. Ms Follett said she was disappointed that the Chief Minister, Kate Carnell, had included him in her ministry. That narrows it to three: Tony De Domenico, Gary Humphries and Bill Stefaniak (in alphabetical order). She said NSW Premier John Fahey had done the right thing with the Terry Griffith case last year because he had moved to disendorse him as a Liberal candidate and had said he would not have him in the Ministry until the case had been dealt with. In the ACT, however, the alleged harasser has, according to Ms Follett, been sworn into the Ministry and should not have been. Is there an inconsistency? Not really, the two cases are different. In the NSW case, half a dozen women came forward with complaints about Terry Griffith. Statements he made himself about his personality gave rise to at least an apprehension that his conduct might approach sexual harassment. In the ACT case, there was only one complainant. Moreover, the timing of the complaint was consistent with a political motive.

It was made immediately before an election and without enough time for the appropriate commission to deal with it _ even though the conduct giving rise to the complaint occurred some time before. If the harasser were to be stood aside pending the case, he would have lost his political career because of the supervening election. Now, it may be this timing has an explanation. None the less, under the Follett view anyone accused of sexual harassment should stand aside until the case is heard. If that happens just before an election, it means the ruin of a career. It means also that anyone wanting to stir up political strife can put up a case of harassment on the flimsiest, or no, evidence. This would become more prevalent if it was normal procedure for those accused to be stood down.
Continue reading “1995_03_march_harass”

Used computers are becoming as big a waste menace as used cars. Cars make be bigger so take more space in landfill sites, but they take about 15 years to get to the scrapheap. Computers take only two years. In the US they are getting to be an equivalent weight. Peter Harris, president of the Society of Computers and the Law Inc, is going to do something about it. Earlier this month he announced the beginning of the society’s greening technology project. Harris said there were many organisations and needy individuals who would be happy with the sort of technology being throw out. The could upgrade from nothing to something. And the stuff being thrown out was in its day cutting edge.

“”Many organisations are upgrading their old 386 or 484 computers to Pentiums or their old 68030 and 68040 Macintosh computers to new PowerMac computers,” he said. Russell Tibballs the vice-president of the society said, “”We take the old computers from anyone in the ACT or surrounding areas and pick them up for free. We match the parts, add useful software and test thoroughly. Software provided is either licensed software or freeware public domain software. For example, people disposing of equipment may be changing from say Microsoft Word version 2 to WordPerfect 6.2 or from WordPerfect 4.1 to Microsoft Word 6. In some cases they may be left with surplus licensed software.
Continue reading “1995_03_march_greencom”

It’s the environment, stupid. That must be at least part of the message of yesterday’s Canberra by-election as the Greens Party took 13 per cent of the vote _ the highest Green vote in mainland Australian voting.

It must put Federal Labor in a quandary. If it goes for the economy, stupid, in order to win back the middle ground, it can only further alienate the well-organised Greens Party. It is will not be enough to say that Canberra is somehow different from the rest of Australia _ full of armchair greenies and socialists who work for the Government, because yesterday’s vote showed otherwise _ that a largely public-sector town is capable of turning its back on Labor. True, the Democrats did not field a candidate to split the conservation vote, none the less, the Green vote was impressive. It was up from around 8 and a half per cent in last month’s Assembly election. The Greens candidate, James Warden, said the result was a “”timely and powerful message to Labor supporters”. “”Labor supporters must now tell their party that it must now change tack on its social, economic and environmental policies,” Dr Warden said. Even with a lack-lustre Liberal candidate and a Labor candidate with pro-conservation stand, voters wanted to send a message to the Prime Minister Paul Keating, he said. That message was one of disapproval of its forests policy and environmental policies in general, as well as a message against its economic rationalist approach. Voters had worked out that a pro-conservation Sue Robinson would make no difference on her own.
Continue reading “1995_03_march_green”

Sexual harassment should be treated in a more measured way, according to feminist author Helen Garner. Ms Garner said yesterday that sexual urges could never be legislated out of life, but “”some terrible things could be done in the name of trying”. Ms Garner was speaking after the launch of her new book “”First Stone” which describes the treatment of the former Master of Ormond College, Melbourne University, who was acquitted of sexual assault and later accused of sexual harassment by two students in the early 1990s. Ms Garner’s book said that the punishment given to “”Dr Colin Shepherd” (even if he did it) was grossly out of proportion to the offences _ touching a breast while on a dance floor and saying to another student that she was beautiful and that he had often had indecent thoughts about her and asking to kiss her. His career was ruined. Ms Garner’s book has caused ire from younger and university-based feminists. Ms Garner criticised the refusal by younger feminists to acknowledge gradations; it was thought of as “”ratting on feminism”, but she was not up with the latest feminist theories.

She said theoretical, university feminists did not like a practical person like her on their turf. Older feminists supported her. She quoted one as saying: “”Look, if every bastard who’s ever laid a hand on us were dragged into court, the judicial system of the state would be clogged for years.” Ms Garner said yesterday: “”People are anxious about the way sexual harassment is being treated.” It needed to be treated in a more measured way, without aggressive desires for excessive retribution for minor gropes or unpleasant approaches. “”There is a possibility for sex harassment legislation and structures where everyone can be decently treated, and I hope that is not a naive hope,” she said.
Continue reading “1995_03_march_garner”

Jeff Kennett is on a predatory, competitive prowl _ again. This time he is competing with the ACT to get the Australian headquarters of the French-based company Thomson CSF, which is at present in Canberra. Thomson chose Canberra because it was close to the Civil Aviation Authority, the government organisation it has most dealings with. Kennett wants to tip the balance by giving Thomson a range of incentives, which really amount to freebies, to move to Melbourne. They include lower payroll and land tax and help with infrastructure and training. It is parochialism at its worse.

It may be good for Victoria vis a vis the other states and territories, but it is not good for Australia. The money resulting from Jeff’s freebies will end up in France. Well done, Jeff. It takes competition too far. Competition can result in great efficiencies and it usually results in cheaper, better service for consumers. Now, if those consumers are foreign-owned companies, squeezing the best deal out of state governments, it is hardly of any benefit to Australia and ultimately is self-defeating. This is not being xenophobic. Foreign companies like Thomson provide employment for Australians and improve our standard of living with investment. However, Jeff’s carrot means that a company might relocate, causing disruption to the lives of Canberra-resident Australians currently employed by Thomson or Canberra-resident Australians who have contracts with it. This is done so that the Victorian economy might grow a little. The overall Australian economy loses, however, because the extra profit generated by the tax breaks goes to France.
Continue reading “1995_03_march_forum24”

A man would never get away with it: to state the dilemma of 1990s feminism so eloquently. A woman _ a self-described feminist _ has had a difficult time doing it. This month sees the publication of The First Stone in which Helen Garner tells the true story of the case of the Master of Ormond College in the University of Melbourne. In the book the Master is given the name of Dr Colin Shepherd. Dr Shepherd was accused of sexual harassment by two students at a college end-of-year bash in 1991. He was charged with two charges of indecent assault. One was dismissed at first instance; the other on appeal.

Dr Shepherd lost his job and the academic community closed ranks with the women and he has not been able to get a job in academia since. When the court case came up, Garner read about it in the Age and wondered: Has the world come to this? She rang women friends of her age, feminists pushing 50. They had all noticed the item. One said, “”He touched her breast and she went to the cops? My God _ why didn’t she get her mother or her friends to help her sort him out later, if she couldn’t deal with it herself at the time.” Another said, “”Look, if every bastard who’s ever laid a hand on us were dragged into court, the judicial system of the state would be clogged for years.” Garner points out that the punishment given to Shepherd (even if he did it) was grossly out of proportion to the offences _ touching a breast while on a dance floor and saying to another student that she was beautiful and that he had often had indecent thoughts about her and asking to kiss her. Sure, sleazy conduct. Garner argues in her book that it did not warrant loss of career. For writing this she has been ostracised by many of her feminist friends.
Continue reading “1995_03_march_fems”

The strength of multi-media text searching is as much in finding what is not there than what is. CD-ROM encylopedias, with powerful searching, reveal their weaknesses just as quickly as their strengths. Here, Gough Whitlam would agree. He does not rate a full entry in World Book Information Finder on CD. He would be incensed that Malcolm Fraser does and if you search for “”Whitlam” you are directed to that entry. Unlike the book version, a searcher does not look under the volume “”W” to see if Whitlam is mentioned and then thumb through an index lugging out one volume then another. Rather the computer scans the full text of the encylopedia for “”Whitlam” and produces the results: Whitlam does not have the grandeur of his own entry. Rather he is dismissed in the entry under Fraser and Australian politics.

Stephen Hawking gets a brief history. Beethoven gets noted in 11 articles: 56 times under his own name, 11 under symphony, 5 under another article and then once or twice in the rest. The resource-number box notes there are 56 times and lets you click back and forth between them. I have now messed around with three CD-ROM encyclopedias. Microsoft’s Encarta, Encyclopedia Britannica and the latest, World Book. World Book sits between the other two for price and content. Each is on one CD. For text content Britannica leads, World Book is next and Encarta last with very large gaps between them.
Continue reading “1995_03_march_encycl”

The new Minister for Planning, Gary Humphries, served notice on developers yesterday that they could not undermine the low-cost planning appeals system by lodging expensive points-of-law appeals to the Supreme Court. Mr Humphries said his message was that he would defend residents’ expectations that they could take cases to the Land and Planning Appeals Board without fear of being dragged into an expensive lawsuit in the Supreme Court.

He was speaking after instructing the solicitor for the Department of Environment, Land and Planning to take an active role in defending a board decision which upheld a case brought by residents in Yarralumla. Earlier the department’s solicitor was going to say he would “”abide by the court’s decision” and let the developer and residents fight it out.

The residents feared legal costs would prevent them from defending a victory they had in the board last month over the developer who wanted to build three units on a site that previously contained one house.
Continue reading “1995_03_march_devel”

The usual pattern is that religious people, especially Christians, think that humans are very special. Only humans have souls, consciousness and consciences. Atheists and agnostics, on the other hand, argue one of two ways. Either intelligent life is a natural, almost inevitable development of evolution and is likely to appear elsewhere in the universe; or they say the development of intelligent life from evolution was an off-chance and if humans wipe themselves out there is little of no chance it will recur. On the atheist-agnostic side, therefore, one’s view of the human condition would not be profoundly affected by the discovery that we are not alone and that out there intelligent life is working away producing Beethoven’s Ninths; Hamlet and Blue Poles, even if in slightly different forms. From the Christian view, however, intelligent life out there is a bit of a problem.

Fundamental to the Christian view is that God incarnate came down to earth as Jesus; told us what we should do; gave us the free will to do it or not (we’ll leave Calvin out of this for now); sacrificed himself and then ascended into Heaven. Now if SETI (the search for extra terrestrial intelligence) finds next week that half a dozen stars are sending intelligent signals to us, or finds an “”unmanned” or “”manned” spaceship coming our way or whatever, the Christian view of the world has to change a bit. Did Jesus visit all these planets as God incarnate spreading the Word and getting Himself crucified, albeit sometimes with six arms? This problem for religion is being placed before the public by the Australian physicist and professor of natural philosophy Paul Davies. Davies, fresh from winning Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, is touring the country selling his latest two books, About Time and Are We Alone? The former is a desriptive book about relativity.
Continue reading “1995_03_march_davies”