Crispin Hull

Now is the time to buy; prices are soon to go up. Unless you are selling, in which case now is the time to sell; there are plenty of buyers for your area now, but they won’t last.”

That is the real-estate industry view of the Canberra residential market between, say, 1913 and through to the indefinite future.

But what is really happening in the Canberra residential market now?

There are several influences. First, the rest of Australia coming out of recession is starting to have a significant impact. Second, a major fragmentation of the market. Third, in-fill.
Continue reading “1994_07_july_resid23”

An early electoral test of republican issue will come in February’s ACT election, following this week’s thinly disguised threat to Liberal leader Kate Carnell by constitutional monarchists.

The major parties federally will be able to see whether the issue carries much weight with voters. And republicans may get some joy out of the risky target the monarchists have chosen.

The chair of ACT council of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, Alan Fitzgerald, wrote to Ms Carnell saying the council “”has a membership now approaching 750 persons (double that of the Liberal Party) each of whom, together with their adult family members, will be entitled to vote in the coming ACT elections.”
Continue reading “1994_07_july_repforum”

The system of annual government inspection of cars for registration in the ACT is likely to be scrapped, following the removal of any political opposition.

A consultants’ report to the Department of Urban Services has recommended its replacement with a system of stronger random checking and checking on ownership transfer.

Independent Michael Moore said yesterday that annual inspections should be scrapped and the money used for more effective road-safety measures. He based his conclusion on a South Australian report saying checks could not be justified.
Continue reading “1994_07_july_regonews”

Mine comes from the early 1970s when I took a car over the ACT pits for the first time _ a NSW-registered Morris Minor. I had just bought it for $180. There was a lot of scratching a jabbing underneath and then a sickening crunch of metal as the blade of large screwdriver appeared between my legs.

I was young, indigent and naive. Nearby convenient Dodgy Brothers mechanics shops awaited the rejectees. It cost more to weld the rust than the car cost in the first place. Welcome to Canberra.

I was incensed then, but grateful now.
Continue reading “1994_07_july_rego”

The recession over, Canberra’s commercial property market is reshaping.

The outward sign is that three big buildings have changed hands in the past couple of months, but there are some more subtle currents ebbing and flowing that could result in some changes to the functioning of Civic.

But the prospect for new building remains bleak, partly because of government policy.

Canberra if often touted as recession-proof, or at least carrying greater immunity to recessions than other capitals, but that is not entirely true.
Continue reading “1994_07_july_property”

The Windows version of Australia On Disc _ a directory of every residential and business phone in the country _ is being launched this week.

A Windows version of The Green Pages is also due out shortly.

While having obvious environmental benefits, there are equally obvious privacy implications.

The Green Pages are two CDs, one residential and one business. The residential one contains the 5 and a half million entries in the White Pages with some extra information. Suburb names are spelt out and postcodes added, so you can print address labels.
Continue reading “1994_07_july_phones”

Definition of a computer security: a system devised to keep legitimate users out while doing nothing to exclude hackers.

Why have passwords? To give network managers power over users who forget them and get locked out.

Why do most systems require at least two non-alpha characters like in every password? To ensure that people forget their password occasionally.
Continue reading “1994_07_july_password”

Bob Menzies is credited with converting Canberra from a country town to a Bush Capital.

In the late 1950s he pushed the development of the city politically and administratively. He moved departments from Melbourne to give the city a population base. He set up the national Capital Development Commission. These things were very commendable.

But Menzies was responsible, indirectly, for a fundamental deviation from the Griffin plan and vision, which only now is being thought about being corrected.
Continue reading “1994_07_july_ncpa”

This is a pertinent question right now for the National Library of Australia on two levels.

The first is that it is one of the most frequently asked questions by non-research visitors to the National Library. They imagine a library full of books they can see, like the local library. But when they arrive they do not see shelves and shelves of books as they imagined. The vast bulk of the collection is hidden from public view.

The second is that more and more information is to be found electronically. Either the search is done electronically to find the information on paper, or both the search and the information are electronic.
Continue reading “1994_07_july_libbrk”

The proposal by the Deputy Prime Minister, Brian Howe, for a social performance charter is well worth further consideration. Mr Howe put the idea forward this week that Australia have a charter of rights and responsibilities. It was not a Bill of Rights in the classic sense, nor even a set of enforceable legal rights. Those are separate issues. Rather Mr Howe was talking about all levels of government setting objectives endorsed by the people and measuring performance against them for things like the delivery of housing, health and education.

Mr Howe was putting his ideas quite tentatively. They deserve exploration and debate. He pointed out that there was strong public support for Medicare, public education and housing and social welfare benefits, but these values had never been formally articulated.

Perhaps more importantly the performance of the service providers has not been measured well.

In the private sector, competition and the profit motive have a strong self-regulatory influence to ensure organisations deliver efficiently or at least go some distance to satisfy public complains when that delivery breaks down.
Continue reading “1994_07_july_leader15jul”