Crispin Hull

Two families have been evacuated from their Tuggeranong homes after arsenic residue from an old sheep dip was found.

The arsenic levels were found to be higher than the recommended levels.The ACT Government has offered to buy the houses from the families. In the meantime it has found, and paid for, alternative accommodation.

ANU chemistry professor Ben Selinger said arsenic was not an immediate threat to life and limb but if children were crawling about the garden and sticking their hands in their mouths “”you have got to be concerned”. Arsenic was a long-term problem and could chronic problems because it took so long to leave the body _ through the hair and fingernails.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_arsenic”

The ACT is following a long Australian history of what should be unnecessary legal rigidity. The latest example comes out of what is likely to be the ACT’s first binding referendum _ on February 18. Opposition electoral spokesman Gary Humphries has at least in-spirit support from the independents for his plan announced this week to entrench the provisions of the Hare-Clark voting system.

Of course, it should not be necessary. The spirit of the referendum held in 1992 should have been enough. However, the Labor Party followed a long Australian tradition of resorting to legislative tricks, semantics and legalisms to defeat the substance of the referendum result.

The Liberals have done the same thing. They defeated the Australia Card on a legal technicality. They refused to abide by the 1974 election result and tipped Whitlam out of power. The Nationals in Queensland loved the gerrymander and so on.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_actref”

Ronald Regan believed in the trickle down effect _ help the rich and society will benefit right down to the bottom. Some wits responded with comments that only one thing trickles down.

Trickle down also works with government, especially in a three-level federation.

In the past week Graham Richardson revealed _ almost as an aside _ a prime example. His main point was that John Kerin was a hopeless Treasurer because he did not query programs brought to Cabinet.

Richardson wrote: “”One of the proposals in the Budget was a “better cities” program [they are Richo’s cynical quote marks], to cost $800 million over five years. It was proposed by Brian Howe and the only explanation for Hawke’s supporting it was that he owed Howe and the Left for backing him in the leadership ballot. When it was discussed at the ERC [Expenditure Review Committee], it had no support at all; hundreds of millions of dollars were sought with virtually no detail on how they should be spent. . . .
Continue reading “1994_11_november_actpol05”

REPLACE … plse leave in reference to Gulf Air. Bill the break-out is only 200 wds. It fits best with the Greece leg. Awaiting offical comment to add to anzac piece which I will file this arvo.

By CRISPIN HULL The original Folbot went out of business in 1940 and were recreated in the war. Now an American company has refloated the name and the kayaks with modern materials.

The five-metre, two person kayaks have a aluminium frame, polycarbonate cross frame with rubberised canvas and hypalon hull and cordura nylon deck. Optional extras include a mast and sail. The things wrap into two bags 1400x400x400 cm and 600x600x30 cm and weigh about 50 kilograms. This enables them to be put on aicraft. We put them on Gulf Air which generously waived the excess baggage fee on the flight to Istanbul via Athens and Bahrain.
Continue reading “1994_10_october_safety”

A Canberra family will not a get a rural lease returned to them after it was unnecessarily resumed despite an admitted bureaucratic bungle by the Commonwealth department before self-government.

Dr Leo Shanahan and his wife Joan got the 325-hectare block on the western side of the Murrumbidgee in the early 1970s but it was resumed in 1975 for housing.

Later the Commonwealth decided Canberra would not expand west of the Murrumbidgee so the block was no longer needed.
Continue reading “1994_10_october_rural”

Former Senator Graham Richardson has openly admitted to lying in the cause of putting Paul Keating in the Lodge.

A spokeswoman for the Leader of the Opposition, Alexander Downer, said Mr Downer would not be commenting on it yesterday.

However, the Leader of the National Party, Tim Fischer, said yesterday that it was no wonder people had such a jaundiced view of politicians when a former Cabinet Minister cheerfully admits he is a liar”.
Continue reading “1994_10_october_richo”

The daylight saving fiasco is on again.The ACT, NSW, Victoria and South Australia began daylight saving yesterday. It has already been running since the beginning of the month in Tasmania. In the ACT and NSW it will run to the first weekend in March and in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania it will run until the last weekend in March and Western Australia, Queensland and Northern Territory will not have it at all.

The differences have nothing to do with geography or the wishes of the people whose clocks and watches are being wound forward and back. They are set according to the parochial intransigence of state politicians. It is blatantly silly to set time zones along state boundaries, which in some places have high population centres.

It is time the state and territory governments sat down and took a national approach. The national approach should take into consideration several well-known factors about daylight saving. Urban and the more populated south-east and south-west of the nation are generally in favour. Rural north-west and the western parts of the eastern states are generally against. Different time zones along the NSW-Queensland and NSW-Victorian borders are very inconvenient, both for business and ordinary people. There is no reason why times zones have to be contiguous with state borders as the local time zones around Broken Hill and the eastern part of Western Australia on the Nallarbor show.
Continue reading “1994_10_october_leader31oct”

This week the Industry Commission delivered its report on charities. It would be fair to talk about a “”charity sector” in Australia these days. Australia has about 11,000 community social welfare organisations which spend more than $4.4 billion a year, employ about 100,000 workers and use about 1.3 million volunteers. The sector is almost the size of a small state.

Some purists argue that charities should be subject to the same taxation regimes as other corporate entities. Others argue they should be given more governmental help and tax breaks because they deliver social welfare more efficiently than the better paid and more highly unionised workforces of government.

Both those view carry a grain of truth. Few, if any, charities dispense their charity outside a value context, usually a religious one. All charities are capable of delivering welfare more cheaply than government because of the very commitment engendered by that value context. So there is a trade-off for the community: take cheaper “”value-added” charity or pay for more expense “”value-free” charity.
Continue reading “1994_10_october_leader29oct”

The very first days of Israel’s existence, every Israeli Government has enforced the policy that every Israeli citizen is a front-line soldier and that none could expect to be bailed out if taken hostage by terrorists.

Further, the Israeli Government refused to negotiate with hostage-takers.

It would do its best to rescue them militarily, but it would never meet the demands of those responsible for taking them. The taking of Israeli hostages at Entebbe Airport in Idi Amin’s Uganda was a good example.

The theory was that if you give in, they are only encouraged to do it again. The state being blackmailed is seen as a sucker for delivering cash, arms, propaganda or freedom for jailed comrades.
Continue reading “1994_10_october_hostage”

They took no notice of the sleek yachts. The yachts arrived flying German, Swiss, Norwegian and Danish flags. Four or five bronzed youths gambolled off the yachts and on to the wharf.

They were a routine part of the summer invasion of the Greek islands.

There was nothing unusual about a $300,000, 14-metre yacht with hi-tech sails and a big motor in case anything went wrong.

There was nothing unusual, either, about the Greek fishing boats with their engines. The children ignored them.

Then two specks appeared at the entrance of Vathi harbour on the island of Kalymnos. As they got nearer, the children looked in amazement. Two sea kayaks appeared _ just five metres long with two people in each. At their stern they flew two small Australian flags.
Continue reading “1994_10_october_greece”