Crispin Hull

THE LATE Chief Justice Sir Owen Dixon is reput ed to have come out of an ABC symphony concert quipping to another judge: “”The concert was splendid but I don’t know what it has got to do with telegraphic, postal and other like services”

Those services are in the Constitution as a federal head of power and they are the words which enabled the Federal Government to set up a national broadcaster

These days one might well ask what the sexual relationships of Tasmanians have to do with “”external affairs”
Continue reading “1994_11_november_columnnov01”

Independent Michael Moore and Labor’s Annette Ellis did exactly the opposite of Mark Antony at Caesar’s funeral.Last week they formed a majority on a committee that moved to defer citizens’ initiated referendums until the next Assembly, where the numbers might be different.

Antony said he came to bury Caesar not praise him; and promptly praised him and immortalised his name. Moore and Ellis said they came to praise CIR; and promptly buried it.

A sensible government with nothing to fear would have welcomed CIR (where upon the gathering of the signatures of 5 per cent of the electorate a referendum has to be put at the next election).
Continue reading “1994_11_november_circomm”

Independent MLA Michael Moore yesterday ended the Liberals’ hope of passing their citizen’s initiated referendums law before the next election.He joined Labor’s Annette Ellis in a majority committee report saying there were defects in Bill and its implications for ACT democracy had not been fully worked out. The report said the matter should be inquired into by a committee of the next Assembly.

The Bill would have forced a referendum on an issue if an organising committee collected signatures from 5 per cent of the electorate.

The fate of CIR will now depend on the composition of the next Assembly.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_cir”

The ABC’s jump into pay TV was questionable and done without ABC examining its role in Australian broadcasting, according to the chairman of The Canberra Times, Kerry Stokes.

The ABC had two important roles: to reflect Australian culture and to service needs which are not catered for by other media, Mr Stokes said in his sixth and final Boyer lecture being broadcast today on Radio National (at 8.30am and 9.30pm).

“”The problem is to some extent these roles are contradictory,” he said. “”How can one reflect the culture of a nation if one is catering only to that segment of the audience not being satisfied by other services? Surely that means excluding a large part of the Australian cultural mix?
Continue reading “1994_11_november_boy6”

Those manic user-pays, economic rationalists are at it again with the Australian War Memorial _ memorial, that is, not museum.

They want to charge people to go in. They tried it in 1991 but it was knocked back by the Senate after a storm of protest by ex-service groups.

A confidential report (leaked to soften people up for the fees suggestion) by KPMG Management Consulting warns that the memorial faces a shortfall of $9 million in the next four years.
Continue reading “1994_11_november_awmfee”

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.
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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”