Crispin Hull

A Canberra couple has been hit with a full year’s land tax after an ordinary residential sell-and-buy which happened to span the new financial year. Patricia and Tony Tart wanted to upgrade from their house in Fisher to a house in Waramanga.

They put their Fisher house on the market in April. In May they found the house they wanted in Waramanga before the Fisher house was sold, so they bought it using bridging finance pending the sale of the Fisher house.

They then sold the Fisher house, with settlement expected on June 30. Alas, through no fault of theirs, settlement was delayed until July 7. It was empty up to that time.
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The formation of a new “”apolitical” ratepayers’ association was announced yesterday (sun aug15).

It comes after a separate group resolved at a public meeting at Hughes Community Centre last week to form a similar body.

The president of the new ACT Ratepayers’ Association of the ACT, Peter Jansen, said his group had reserved the name quite some time ago and had filed for incorporation under the Associations Incorporation Act. He said yesterday that after incorporation membership will be open to ratepayers.
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You can almost feel sorry for Bill Wood. Indeed, if I were Bill Wood, I would be thinking about wandering around to Rosemary Follett’s office asking for a Cabinet reshuffle, so I could get out of the hot seat.

No, hot seat is the wrong cliche _ hot seats would be more correct. I’d only be thinking about it, because there would be dangers, as we shall see.

One of the difficulties with ACT politics is that only four Ministers have to share the whole range of portfolios that come with the ACT Self-Government Act’s requirement to provide for the “”peace, order and good government of the ACT”.
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The High Court’s Mabo decision was not a judicial decision at all, but a usurpation of the powers of the people and Australian Parliament, according to a Queensland professor of law.

Professor Geoffrey Walker, of the University of Queensland, said yesterday that the decision was right according to the facts as they applied on Murray Island in the Torres Strait, but the judges had gone well beyond their judicial function because it was “‘a sweeping change of policy” requiring legislative implementation rather than a judicial settlement of one claim applying the law only to the case at hand.
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The use of the term “”minimalist” should be abandoned, the chair of the Republic Advisory Committee, Malcolm Turnbull, urged yesterday.

It meant different things to different people.

He said also that Australians wanted a popularly elected president, but wanted a non-politician, according a large body of opinion expressed to the committee.

Mr Turnbull said, however, that the two views were inconsistent.
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The ACT is to ban commercial surrogacy but look at regulating non-commercial surrogacy, the Attorney-General, Terry Connolly, said yesterday.

His comments come after a meeting of community services ministers in Melbourne and an appeal by a Canberra couple for a surrogate mother.

Mr Connolly said the ACT was now like NSW _ in a legal vacuum. Victoria, South Australia and Queensland have made it a criminal offence to enter into surrogacy arrangements or to publicise them, punishable by between one and three years’ jail. In those states the agreements are void.
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1. McMullan confident of $26m election promise on museum despite specualtion that Finance wants to chop it at ERC because private sector has not come up with the goods. Private sector says it has promised nothing. ACT is still behind museum.

2. chasing resutls of Libs abortion poll.

3. Rates and land tax notices going out.

Torres Strait Islanders are organising a series of sea-rights claims in the High Court and will ask the court to stop fishing by non-Torres Strait boats.

One claim has already been filed in the High Court by Carlemo Wacando on behalf of the people of Darnley (Erub) and Stephens (Ugar) Islands, claiming the islands and the seas around it.

Mr Wacando said yesterday that he wanted all the councils of elders of islands in the Strait to join his claim. He said fishing by non-indigenous boats should stop immediately.
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Angus Rigg, who was found hanging in a NSW police cell in July, 1991, is suing the NSW police for damages for negligence in the Victorian Supreme Court.

Mr Rigg, now aged 20, is in a vegetative state with severe brain damage in Melbourne Albert Hospital. His mother, Carolyn, is also suing for pain and suffering.

The Rigg case sparked great controversy over a dispute between the then Minister for Police, Ted Pickering, and his police commissioner Tony Lauer, over the extent to which Mr Lauer had informed Mr Pickering about the case.
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Graham Richardson is a practical man; not an ideological one. He is also a long-term politician; not a short-term one.

His suggestion this week that private “”gap” insurance should be allowed tilts at the sacred windmills of 25 years of Labor health policy _ free and universal health care.

He did not wake up one morning and decide to spout it on the John Laws show. A least a week ago, he told some health-insurance people to listen to the show carefully. They would not normally be Laws listeners. And then he made sure the Press Gallery got the transcripts.
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