Crispin Hull

LAMBERTUS is injured in a car accident. It is the other driver’s fault. Lambertus needs 24-hour care. He has psychiatric problems caused by the accident. His wife is a part-time nursing aide. She gives up her job to care for Lambertus full-time. It is expected this will go on for seven years when Lambertus will go to a state-run hospital for the rest of his days.

Lambertus seeks damages. What should he get _ the amount of wages his wife has lost for seven years or the full market value of full-time care for seven years? Or something in between?

The question was answered by the High Court last week. The question was loaded with policy and moral issues. What is the value of “”women’s work”? Why should Lambertus get money compensation for services his wife was providing anyway? Why should the other driver or his insurance company benefit just because their victim has a loyal wife willing to sacrifice herself for her husband? and so on. And then there is the possibility that the wife might stop the self-sacrifice for reasons unconnected with the accident or because the accident makes the husband unable to fulfil his part of the partnership by doing things for the wife. Lambertus might be left high and dry.
Continue reading “1992_11_november_column9”

Evidence given by the mother of a baby who died after an operation at Royal Canberra Hospital, if true, would cast doubt on whether those named should hold the positions they do, the ACT coroner said yesterday.

However, the coroner, John Burns, suppressed the evidence, saying it was not relevant to his inquiry as it happened after the events surrounding the death of Brian Lankuts, who died aged five months after an operation on his skull two years ago.

Paddy Bergin and Stuart Littlemore, representing several doctors connected to the case, objected to the evidence saying it made accusations against doctors who were not represented at the inquiry and who had had no formal notification of it.
Continue reading “1992_11_november_brian20”

Two obstetricians verbally abused a woman and told her no specialist in Canberra would treat her because she had dared to tell the Press about the case of her son who died after an operation, the ACT Coroners’ Court was told yesterday (mon16nov).

The court is inquiring into the death of Brian Lankuts who died after an operation at Royal Canberra Hospital two years ago.

The father, Michael Lankuts, who is representing himself and his wife, Carol, said from the Bar table he wanted to make a statement.
Continue reading “1992_11_november_brian17”

Ben’s adult son came in with a packet of cigarettes. It seemed a bit lazy for some trying to salvage self-respect after years of compulsive gambling. Not so.

“”I don’t allow myself access to money,” Ben says. “”My son goes to get the cigarettes.

“”No two ways about it. If I have money I will go to the club. I don’t want it. I don’t want control over it. I don’t carry a credit card, or a keycard. If I need milk or bread something during the day, my wife gives me exactly enough for it, and then never much.

“”I’ve got the love of my family. I’m buggered if I know why. But I’ve got to work to get their trust back. That’s my ambition now, and to get a job.
Continue reading “1992_11_november_ben”

People leave some strange things in banks. A customer of the Belconnen Mall branch of the ANZ Bank left a parcel containing an anguished letter from President Abraham Lincoln to Mrs Bixby, of Boston, in November, 1864, expressing his sympathy over the death of her five sons in the American Civil War. It looks like a replica. The parcel also had several 1950s colour photographs of smiling babies.

Bank supervisor Leighanne Hobden said the parcel had been left around noon and not claimed by close of business. The owner can claim the parcel (on proof of ownership) at the bank today, after which it will be sent to police lost property. Perhaps the whole thing was intended as a frame up.

A short distance away Robert Gordon Menzies is telling us how the mining of uranium at Rum Jungle will contribute to world safety.

It was a white Australia. A fawning Australia. A paranoid Australia. And a land of full employment and promise. It can be seen in a splendid exhibition called “”Within Living Memory” by Australian Archives at Parliament House until December 20.

The pictures are a drawcard. They are there to attract attention to the gems in the documents beneath. But you can’t have an exhibition of boring old documents.
Continue reading “1992_11_november_archives”

The law of Tasmania should apply in Antarctica, not the law of the ACT and Jervis Bay, according to a parliamentary committee.

The committee is headed by Duncan Kerr who represents the Tasmanian seat of Denison. The committee said that the law of the state closest to an Australian territory should be the one that applies to the territory.

The committee said in a report issued yesterday (thur5nov) that Australia should declare a 200-nautical-mile fishing zone around the territory to protect marine life and regulate fishing.
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Legal aid totalling $179,000 was paid to three of the four candidates for the Federal seat of Wills involved in the High Court challenge.

A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General’s department said yesterday that the aid had been given under the public-interest and test cases part of the legal-aid guidelines.

The department thought that it was in the public interest that a dispute on Section 44 of the Constitution be properly constituted.
Continue reading “1992_11_november_aid”

The Australian Constitution already had a Bill of Rights implied in it, according to an argument put by a High Court judge yesterday.

Justice John Toohey hinted that a court could go much further in implying a bill of rights into the present Australian Constitution than it did in the two freedom-of-speech cases brought down last week.

He said also that Australia did not protect individual liberties as well as those nations with bills of rights.
Continue reading “1992_10_october_toohey”

The Premier of Tasmania, Ray Groom, condemned yesterday what he called “”coercive federalism” to give the central government more power.

He said coercive federalism had come about in two ways: the Commonwealth’s “”ruthless” use of its superior financial power and the High Court’s redefinition of the Commonwealth-State balance of power.

He was speaking at a conference on “”Constitutional Changes in the 1990s” held by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory.
Continue reading “1992_10_october_state”