Crispin Hull

The ACT Law Society has condemned a move by ACT Attorney-General Terry Connolly to force people with claims under $5000 into the Small Claims Tribunal where they cannot get costs. At present people had an option of starting cases in the Magistrates Court (where they could get costs and where formal procedures applied) or they could go to the Small Claims Tribunal. Under Mr Connolly plans all claims under $5000 would have to go to the tribunal. Society president Robert Clynes said yesterday small businesses and tradespeople would be discriminated against because if they use a solicitor they would have to bear the costs themselves, including filing fees. It was discriminatory against companies because companies had to be represented by a solicitor in court. At law company officials could not represent the company in the way individuals could represent themselves. Present small-claims legislation allowed a magistrate to remove a case to the small claims jurisdiction where justice required it, so Mr Connolly’s proposal was unnecessary. Mr Connolly argued that big organisations used the Magistrates Court and it made it threatening for people to defend cases lest they be hit with costs. Mr Clynes said Mr Connolly’s move was yet another by the ACT Government to reduce the role of lawyers. He said it was counter-productive because when people used lawyers they tended to get settlements rather than fights in court. He cited car-accident-injury cases where there was a high involvement of lawyers and 90 per cent of cases were settled.

Australians wants a greater injection of life into the central national area of Canberra while keeping a sense of openness and space, according to most recent research. Details of the research into what people outside Canberra want from and feel about their national capital are to be released at the National Press Club on Wednesday by the Deputy Prime Minister, Brian Howe. Mr Howe will also make an address. The research shows that Australians do not point to the national flag, anthem or the Commonwealth crest when asked to express opinions about symbolism in the capital. Instead they find intangible things like peaceful coexistence, cosmopolitan society and a laid-back attitude as the most important symbols of national identity. The research was undertaken by a consultant to the National Capital Planning Authority, for which Mr Howe has portfolio responsibility. It was part of a review of the central national area _ the first review for 30 years. The research was detailed qualitative research with focus groups undertaken in each capital and a country town (Mudgee), a regional centre (Townsville) and a remote community (Port Hedland). It follows wider opinion-poll research several years ago which revealed positive attitudes to Canberra the city, especially by those who had visited it, despite some negative opinions of the occupants of Parliament House. Interested members of the public are invited to attend the lunch and can book on 2733644. It is likely that Canberra will play a major role in the lead up to and celebration of the centenary of Federation as it was created as a result of federation and one of the most potent symbols of it.

The Act Opposition has accused the Attorney-General, Terry Connolly, of hypocrisy over his suggestion that restricted liquor trading hours should be looked at for suburban areas. Mr Connolly made the suggestion of a 2am closing after police were forced to block a road at Manuka on New Year’s Eve. Opposition Leader Kate Carnell said yesterday that when the Legislative Assembly’s Select Committee on Drugs had recommended a 4am closure in May last year Mr Connolly had said it would be counterproductive. She quoted him from Hansard as saying, “”There would be a tendency for people to swill drink in the hour or so before the curfew came into force . . . At 4am or whatever time it would be, thousands of young people, probably in a fairly intoxicated state, would all be on the streets at the same time.” She said Mr Connolly had got it wrong in refusing a temporary closure of Franklin Street in Manuka for New Year’s Eve and the police had had to do it for him for public-safety reasons. His call for early closing was kneejerk, an attempt to bail himself out and cynical.

The Australian War Memorial has refused to pay the legal costs of the former director and present deputy director of the memorial in their Federal Court quest to overturn a report of the Merit Protection and Review Agency. The former director, Brendon Kelson, said he had legal advice saying it would be quite proper for the council of the memorial to fund the challenge because the advice was the MPRA inquiry into harassment at the memorial was procedurally flawed and beyond its jurisdiction and that the inquiry had directly affected the runnning of the memorial. The chair of the council, General Peter Gration, said yesterday that the council had taken advice from the Attorney-General’s Department and after careful consideration had decided it was not appropriate. The effect of the decision is that the Government gets the upper hand because it can use procedure and appeals to run up legal costs until the plaintiffs abandon their case. A recent example was Resources Minister David Bedall saying of a single-judge decision that these were routinely appealed. The deputy director, Dr Michael McKernan, is on a year’s leave working at the ANU. Sources from the council suggest the vote was very close and that some members said it would be a grave injustice not to fund the case. Other bureaucratic sources say the gist of the Attorney-General’s Department’s advice was that legal funding would be proper if the council thought the MPRA inquiry and report had been conducted improperly or beyond jurisdiction and that it would affect the management of the memorial in a way that adversely affected the ability of the memorial to perform its functions. The advice said that if the council thought that it was in the best interests of the memorial for the inquiry’s report to stand it should not fund the challenge. When asked, General Gration said the decision on the legal costs was a matter for the council and the Minister, Veterans’ Affair Minister Con Sciacca, had had no role. General Gration acknowledged that the MPRA inquiry had had an adverse effect on the memorial. Memorial sources say that at times during the inquiry up to eight people were away on stress leave.

Former ALP fund-raiser Charles Wright had been proposed as a founding major shareholder of the holding company of Vitab in July 1993, according to a letter to the ACTTAB at the time obtained yesterday. This is contrary to government efforts to dissociate Vitab and Mr Wright. Last year, Mr Wright’s appointment as ACT Tourism Commissioner was attacked by the Opposition because he had been named in the WA Inc Royal Commission report as having passed $80,000 in raised funds to the secretary of former WA Premier Brian Burke and because he had been a director of a company that had gone broke leaving staff unpaid.

When the Vitab affair started to come under fire, informed sources say that Mr Wright was asked to take a back seat and not have a formal role because of the earlier bad publicity surrounding him.

The Vanuatu-based Vitab signed an agreement with ACTTAB last year under which it would get access to the ACT betting pool which in turn was pooled with Victoria. It resulted in Victoria pulling the pin on the ACT, sending ACT dividends into chaos
Continue reading “1994_12_december_wright”

By CRISPIN HULL People can be very house proud. They like to show you their latest furniture, their new kitchen bench, vegetable garden or some other accoutrement of modern suburban living.

But this night it was different. It was a coolish night about six of seven months ago. We were over at some friends’ place in Kaleen for dinner.

What was it to be? A new tropical-fish tank perhaps? A new CD player? A modernised bathroom?

No. We were led outside and proudly shown two green plastic wheelie bins.
Continue reading “1994_12_december_waste”

The appointment of the new chair of the National Capital Planning Authority was a “”worst case” of the Labor mates system, according to Independent MLA Michael Moore. The new chair is Professor Evan Walker, a Minister in the Victorian Labor Government from 1982 to 1990, including Minister for Planning and Minister for Major Projects. He was appointed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Brian Howe.

Mr Moore said he could find no substantive publications to Professor Walker’s name.

“”So how did he get appointed professor?” he asked. “”It followed a donation to the University of Melbourne by a major developer who happened to get a major controversial project through when he was Minister for Major Projects.
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The ACT TAB was unlikely to meet its debts because the Vitab deal, the ACT Auditor-General reported yesterday. The report said ACTTAB had lost $3.5 million arising from the Vitab agreement and was now unlikely to meet its obligation to repay the Government which had underwritten the loss.

Under the agreement ACTTAB gave the Vanuatu-based Vitab access to its betting pool (which in turn was linked to Victoria’s) in return for a percentage of turnover. The deal turned sour when Victoria cut the ACT out of its pool and ACT dividends fell or became erratic. Vitab then sued ACTTAB which settled.
Continue reading “1994_12_december_vitab02”

Virtue is having its 15 minutes of fame in America _ well, 40 weeks of fame on the New York Times best-seller list, actually. A book by William J. Bennett called The Book of Virtues has been on top of the list for 40 weeks and it to be published in Australia this month by Bookman Press.

The book is a collection of “”moral” stories illustrating what Bennett calls the ten main virtues: self-discipline, compassion, responsibility, friendship, work, courage, perseverance, honesty, loyalty and faith. Its aim is to teach children character.

In America, the book has sold 1.4 million copies and the publishers hope a success of similar proportion in Australia _ say 100,000 copies.
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Add trivia… General Knowledge

1. What is the capital of Rwanda?

2. Who is the head of Microsoft Corporation?

3. What does CD-ROM stand for?

4. What is the chemical symbol for copper.
Continue reading “1994_12_december_trivial2”