Crispin Hull

Australians abroad rejoice. No more scratching frustratingly through English-language newspapers to find one-paragraph briefs: “”Small earthquake in Newcastle, not many dead”.

No more p39 stories on Friday saying: “”Australian leadership spill on Tuesday”, only to find that the sole Australian story the following week is about a funnel-web spider or a shark.

Australian Associated Press is now on Compuserve. Compuserve is the worldwide computer network that contains everything from AIDS research to computer games.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_aap”

Forty years ago there was some wide open land just north of a country town called Canberra. A lease over it was given, virtually for nothing, to a golf club called Yowani.

Land was plentiful. The government was giving leases away to people for houses, to charities for their purposes, to churches for church and sporting clubs for sport.

The country town slowly grew to a city and the land became very valuable. People were willing to pay a lot for it.

The golf club had an idea. Why not flog off some of its golfing land for housing and make some money so it can improve the rest of the course?
Continue reading “1994_06_june_yowcomm”

Whistle-blower provisions in the ACT Government’s Public Sector management Bill were attacked yesterday as restrictive, inadequate an unlikley to be effective.

In an submission to the Legislative Assembly’s committee on the separate public service, Opposition Leader Kate Carnell, said the Government’s Bill protected public sector employees revealing “”restricted information” if it showed an indictable offence, gross mismanagement or a substantial danger to public health a safety.

The Bill she had put forward earlier this year gave a wider protection. It protected anyone (not just public-sector employees) revealing any information (not just restricted information) that showed not just indictable offences, gross mismanagement and danger to health and safety, but also corrupt conduct, dishonesty, breach of trust, any criminal offence, public waste or unlawful reprisal.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_whistle”

ACTEW would like to move towards tenants getting water bills, rather than landlords, without increasing overall charges, its chief executive, Dr Mike Sargeant, said yesterday.

This would help conservation in the long run and bring down overall costs, but he said it was a complex matter and would take at least a year.

He was responding to criticism for the Landlords Association over Thursday’s announced changes to water billing.

At present about 30,000 of the ACT’s 100,000 households are tenanted. At present these people do not see a water bill, but under most tenancies excess water charges get passed on to them.

The president of the Landlords Association, Peter Jansen, says for efficiency and conservation the bill should go to the user direct, who would respond to larger bills with conservation. Landlords should reduce their rents accordingly _ he estimated by $1.70 a week.

“”A third of the ACT is not getting water bills and so will not be responsive to conservation,” he said.

However, he thought Thursday’s change was a step in the right direction.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_water”

The ACT Attorney-General, Terry Connolly, has legally pulled the rug from under a major part of the Opposition’s submission to the Vitab inquiry.

The Opposition tried to say the former Minister for Sport, Wayne Berry, behaved badly by telling the Assembly that all was well with ACTTAB when he fact he knew all was not well, because Victoria had given notice that it was withdrawing from its super-pool arrangement with the ACT which would result in ACTTAB losing revenue and exposing ACTTAB to a breach of contract action by Vitab.

Connolly has written to Speaker saying the 1688 English Bill of Rights as incorporated into Australian House of Representatives practice and thence into ACT Legislative Assembly practice has held that freedom of speech by Members of Parliament is paramount. It is so important that no-one can question it in a court of law, Royal Commission or inquiry. Quaint, a hang-up from the 17th century wars between Parliament and the English Crown, but quite right. And the Speaker, Roberta McRae, agrees.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_vitcom18”

The Great Communicator was to arrive.

It was Friday Bob Hawke was to give evidence at the Vitab inquiry. The place: First Floor of the AIDAB Building in Civic. He had to come out of the lift and walk 15 metres to inquiry room. He was trapped.

A gaggle of Television Teenagers awaited his arrival.

He answered one or two inane questions in a croaky voice and went inside not adding one iota to the store of public knowledge.

Nor did he inside. Vitab inquirer Professor Dennis Pearce has allowed the Great Punter and others to give evidence in private.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_vitabcom”

The Vitab inquiry finished taking evidence yesterday and inquirer Professor Dennis Pearce is expected to give his report to the ACT Government in a month or so.

Yesterday the inquiry took evidence in private from the present and former heads of the Victorian TAB.

Professor Pearce is inquiring into the contract with the Vanuatu-based Vitab and ACTTAB under which ACTTAB gave computer access to the multi-state super-pool and other services in return for a percentage of turnover, enabling Vitab to run phone and other betting on Australian races. He is also inquiring into why the Victorian TAB terminated it super-pool arrangements with the ACT.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_vitab20”

Mr Hawke nursing a sore throat complained about Canberra’s cold was greeted by a gaggle of cameras between the lift and the 15 metres to the hearing room and said anything he had to say he would say to the inquiry.

Asked about the Australian cricket captaincy, he thought that Allan Border had made the right decision.

He then entered the inquiry room where he gave evidence in private.

Professor Dennis Pearce is inquiring into the contract with the Vanuatu-based Vitab and ACTTAB under which ACTTAB gave computer access to the multi-state super-pool and other services in return for a percentage of turnover, enabling Vitab to run phone and other betting on Australian races. He is also inquiring into why the Victorian TAB terminated it super-pool arrangements with the ACT.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_vitab14”

The involvement of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke had help make ACTTAB boss Philip Neck think the Vitab deal could help ACTTAB start a major international operation in Asia.

Mr Neck, ACTTAB’s chief executive, told the Vitab inquiry that he thought that if he had not looked at the deal he could have been criticised 12 months down the track for not seizing the Asian opportunity.

He had in the back of his mind Mr Hawke’s extensive contacts in Asia and interest in racing and his involvement in a scheme to set up a race track in China.

Mr Neck said that at the time Vitab seemed like the answer to a maiden’s prayer. After years in the red, it looked as if Vitab could put ACTTAB back in the black. So he had been enthusiastic.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_vitab13”

Two Independents are considering a censure motion against the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, after questioning yesterday whether she also knew about Victoria giving notice to end its TAB arrangements with the ACT while the then Minister for Sport, Wayne Berry, was telling the Assembly that all was well with the TAB.

Mr Berry was forced to resign after a successful no-confidence motion asserted he had misled the Assembly.

Independent Helen Szuty asked at Question Time whether Ms Follett had known before the public announcement. Ms Follett said she had discussed it with Mr Berry and had received a document, but was uncertain of dates.
Continue reading “1994_05_may_vitab12”