Crispin Hull

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.
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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”

Here is trivia stuff. general news; oz politics; canberra & foreign; sport; entertainment.

Alas, the answers have been numbered but not separated. if you ask peter knight nicely i’m sure he’ll do it. question compilers like to keep them together while working them up.

Strongly urge that someone with nouse like travis. max mc. or ken may subs them; there are bound to be nit-pickers about.
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In one of his last major tasks as an MLA, Abolish Self-Government Member Dennis Stevenson, will write the “”No” case for the February 18 referendum. The 2000-word “”No” case will be posted to all electors by the Electoral Commission.

However, electors might not get a “”Yes” case.

Mr Stevenson said yesterday that he was against the referendum because it had been proposed by politicians, not the people.

The referendum is to entrench the result of the referendum held at the last election in 1992 at with 65 per cent of voters approved the Hare-Clark system of voting. If the new referendum is passed, the basic elements of the system can only be changed by a two-thirds majority of the Assembly or by another referendum.

At present, the 1992 result can be over-turned by a simple majority of the Assembly.

All 16 other MLAs voted for the referendum. The Liberal and Labor Parties are expected to meet in the next two weeks to discuss preparation of the “”Yes” case.
Continue reading “1994_12_december_stevoref”

Next year will see elections in as many as six of the eight states and territories. It sounds like a lot of democracy, but in fact it shows the Australians are largely at the mercy of state politicians who have shown a consistent propensity to rig electoral systems to their own advantage.

The vagaries of dates and electoral systems in the Australian states and territories and have a distinctly undemocratic flavour that favours incumbent governments of either complexion. It contrasts unfavourably with the position in the US where fixed terms and one-vote one-value prevails.

The tragedy is that despite calls from two Royal commissions about the importance of fair elections the rorts and attempted rorts continue.

The following looks at each in order of electoral timing.

ACT: Election on February 18. Federal legislation fixes the date as the third Saturday in February every three years and fixes the number of members. A referendum is likely to entrench various key elements of the voting system which will make the ACT the most securely fairest system in Australia. The referendum was proposed after the Labor Government attempted to pervert the spirit of the advisory 1992 referendum by proposing party voting.
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Redevelopment of the Watson Starlight Drive-In site in its present form could cost the public up to $17 million, according to Moore Independent candidate Mark Dunstone.

Units on the site, called Karelia Park, are being sold of the plan, subject to approvals.

Mr Dunstone said yesterday that the present lease-purpose clause was for tourist accommodation and had not been varied for the new development. The development had not been approved and betterment tax had not been paid.
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Welcome aboard. There is no stopping light rail for Canberra now. The feasibility study by Booz-Allen and Hamilton issued during the week predictably enough said light rail is a goer for Canberra and we should move on to engineering, environmental and detailed costing study.

It fits a pattern of feasibility studies. Yes it is feasible. Let’s have some more studies.

The Government that runs a bus service propped up by a huge subsidy will move headlong into a $400 million light-rail and commit rate-payers’ money for 20 years. It will be the lowest population city in the world to have such a system.
Continue reading “1994_12_december_light”

For a long time New Zealand appeared to be substantially ahead and better than Australia at dealing with those occupying the land before European settlement. That changed last week with the offer by the New Zealand Government to settle all outstanding Maori claims for $NZ1 billion ($A825 million). The offer contained a fundamental inconsistency.

The New Zealand Minister for Justice, Doug Graham, said on one hand that the Government wanted a “”full and final” and “”honourable” settlement. On the other hand, he said it was a “”take-it-or-leave-it” package.

But surelu, a settlement can hardly be honourable if it is not negotiated and genuinely consented to by both sides. A settlement can hardly be “”full” if one side has pre-determined its upper limit.
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