Crispin Hull

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”

ACT Ministers and staff had overspent their Budget and were setting a poor example to other departments, according to Opposition Leader Kate Carnell.

She said the Budget for Ministers and staff had over-spent by $136,000, a 10 per cent over-spending in the Government Executive which set a poor example to departments which were required to make 2 or 3 per cent across-the-board savings.

The Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, said the spending was due to pay rises, extra costs in moving to the new Assembly building and the employment in her office of an extra staffer who had come from the office of former Sports Minister Wayne Berry when “”the Liberals ousted him”.
Continue reading “1994_10_october_estimate”

The storn abates enough to get out the camera: Jack Thurgar and Toni O’Neill ride the gentler waves.

Neg 32 and 33: The kayaks attract interest from locals and yachties at Tilos harbour.

Film XIII

Neg 30: Deserted residence at Embereios village on Niseros.
Continue reading “1994_10_october_blines”

Turkish authorities are clear-felling the pine trees at the Anzac site on the Gallipoli peninsula following the mid-year bushfire there, leaving remaining trench formations exposed to erosion as the summer dry ends.

The fire affected 5000 hectares. Workers are now clear-felling the pines, including many that survived the fire, from Anzac Cove on the coast up past the Lone Pine Memorial to the high point where the Australians reached in April 1915. The exposed site makes it easy for scavenging and bottles, shells and bones are easily found.

Australia is in no position to object to the logging, but is exploring ways of helping the Turks with reafforestation, according to Australian authorities. The Treaty of Lausanne 1922 refers only to actual cemeteries, not the surrounding land. The Gallipoli cemeteries are looked after by the six-nation Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Continue reading “1994_10_october_anzacnew”

In the context, the word “”uncle” was tragic. “”Uncle” means jovial, middle-aged, slightly wise, certainly knowledgeable. The nephew is young and sees the uncle as a figure of perhaps indulgence. Not this time. Kevin Grieves had come to pay respects at his uncle’s grave.

It was marked 376 Pvt H G Grieves 1st Australian Infantry, 19 May 1915. Age 20.

Killed in action at Gallipoli. Buried in Shrapnel Valley.

Kevin and his wife, Gwen, placed two small Australian flags on the grave and stood back a moment. Their Turkish taxi driver stood to attention.
Continue reading “1994_10_october_anzac1”

The Liberal Party was snubbing one of the greatest achievements of its founder, Sir Robert Menzies, by pretending the party was founded in Albury when it was founded in Canberra, according to the ACT Labor Attorney-General, Terry Connolly.

Mr Connolly said yesterday that the Liberal Party had been founded in Canberra 50 years ago, not Albury, and the Liberals should be holding their anniversary conference here.

He condemned the Liberals’ leader, Alexander Downer, for saying on Friday that the Liberal Party had been formed “”here in Albury”.
Continue reading “1994_10_october_albury”