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About the House, your free colour magazine
 About the House is a free colour feature magazine produced five times a year by the Liaison & Projects Office of the House of Representatives. It covers the varied work of Members of the House, especially Committee investigations.
The magazine is available through the offices of every Member of the House of Representatives, or can be ordered directly through the Liaison & Projects Office (tel: 02 6277 2122, email: liaison.reps@aph.gov.au).
The current About the House magazine is the March 2004 edition (Issue 20).
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In the current edition (March 2004)
Cover story:
Feature articles:
Previous editions
Cover Story - March 2004:
Hannifeys Rules
The shocking and tragic road toll during the summer holidays has put additional focus on an investigation by the House of Representatives Transport Committee into how to improve national road safety. About the House reviews some of the evidence presented to the committee so far, including ideas from truck driver and road safety advocate Rod Hannifey.
There are more than 1,600 road deaths in Australia each year, and more than 22,000 serious injuries. Road crashes are a major cause of premature death, especially for young people, and in particular for young males. The Bureau of Road Transport Economics has estimated the economic cost of road crashes is about $15 billion per year, using a conservative methodology.
Thats the bad news.
The better news is that from 1970 to 2002 Australias road fatality rate dropped from 30.4 to 8.7 deaths per 100,000 population. The number of fatalities per 100 million vehicle kilometres travelled dropped from 4.4 in 1971 to 0.9 in 2001. Seatbelts, random breath testing, helmets, speed limits, road and vehicle design and law enforcement have all contributed to the fall.
But, according to Kym Bills, the Executive Director of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), Australia is still well short of OECD best practice.
Mr Bills is involved with implementing the National Road Safety Strategy. The 2001-2010 strategy is a cooperative framework for coordinating the road safety initiatives of federal, state, territory and local governments and other organisations and bodies capable of influencing road safety outcomes.
The strategy has a 40 per cent fatality reduction target, from 9.3 deaths per 100,000 population in 1999 to no more than 5.6 deaths in 2010.
The goal of 40 per cent is challenging but achievable if governments, the industry, road user bodies and others all work cooperatively towards it, Mr Bills told the House of Representatives Transport Committee at a day-long forum in Canberra.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
A unique alliance
Australias defence relations with the United States are being examined by federal parliaments Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. United States Ambassador to Australia, J Thomas Schieffer, gives an American perspective on the US-Australian alliance.
The alliance between the United States and Australia spans the distance between the Cold War and the War on Terror. In a world that is increasingly interconnected by globalisation, yet still torn by violent ethnic and religious differences, we now face the most fluid international situation we have encountered since the end of the Second World War. It is therefore an appropriate time to take stock.
For most of the period since World War II, our perception of the common dangers facing us was shaped by conventional concepts of military force at the disposal of nation-states, deterrence, blocs, and the balance of power. In responding to security challenges of the 1990ssuch as the 1991 Gulf War, the interventions in the former Yugoslavia, and INTERFET in East Timorwe formed diverse international coalitions by adapting the tools of alliance structures and the UN. But we continued to base our assumptions about national security and defence relationships on existing paradigms.
September 11th and October 12th changed those assumptions decisively and permanently. We now know that terrorists operating across national boundaries can be as lethal as national armies, that rogue states can be their deadly partners, and that failed states, wherever they are, can provide a safe haven for their operatives and funds. We need to consult and work with our Australian allies, with their exceptional capabilities and experience in this region, to develop new strategies and doctrines to meet the threats posed by this diabolical trinity. That necessity has reaffirmed the importance of our defence and security relationship.
The ANZUS Treaty remains the cornerstone of this relationship. The Australian governments decision to invoke the mutual defence clause of the ANZUS Treaty after the September 11 attacks in the United States, and the substantial contribution it made to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan based on that commitment, were tangible, courageous steps that demonstrated the continuing relevance of the Treatyactions that the US government and people profoundly appreciate.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
Shaping the ideal city
How do we wish to live? Its a key question for a House of Representatives inquiry into sustainable cities. Valerie Brown considers the issues and outlines a framework for shaping the ideal city.
The city is the core of the Australian way of life. We flock to the beaches and are proud of the outback; but over three-quarters of us live in the cities. The other quarter of the population supports them. Humans have always shaped their social and natural environments through the ways they live. In every era, they have learnt to manage the changes they themselves have made, for their own survival. What is new is that the city has become the unit for both causing and responding to major global, as well as local, change; and the inhabitants want far more than mere survival. As 21st century citizens we seek a humane, just and sustainable future.
From the ancient Egyptians worship of the life-giving Nile, and the druids incantations for the seasons to continue, we moved on, to using our technology to shape a city almost any way we chose. This power has proved a two-edged sword. We must now reduce the heavy impact of life in cities on the long-term sustainability of the planet and revisit the ground rules for how we want to live. In 2003, the predicted temperature rise from global warming hit the worlds most beautiful city, Paris, and 10,000 people died; the predicted sea rise claimed its first Pacific atoll.
The thirty-year window of time to respond to the changes before disaster hits is documented in a combined report of the World Bank, United Nations and World Resources Institute, appropriately called The Fraying Web. The House of Representatives Environment Committee inquiry has the potential to be the most important inquiry this century, with its terms of reference including a blueprint for the decision-making process for ecologically sustainable patterns of settlement, and collaboration in bringing about urban development reform.
We are facing the age-old question: How shall we live? The answer does not lie in fixing this or stopping that. Nor does it lie only in the impact of cities on the physical environment. The task is to re-consider the whole pattern and rhythm of how a city works, plays, crosses generations, and houses its communities. As we move into the future we have to decide what to keep and what to leave behind. Utopias have become unfashionable, but it is utopian thinking that we need now.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
A fair slice of the cake
With the completion of a parliamentary investigation into cost shifting onto local government, Graham Sansom reviews the report and outlines why adequately funded and properly administered local government is essential.
Setting a national framework for local government is difficultvery difficult. There are significant differences between the seven state and territory systems. Local councils vary enormously in size, characteristics, resources and what they choose to do. Local government's national representative, the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), is dominated by the state associations that fund it. And no association can bind its members, whilst state governments direct councils pretty much as they wish.
Federal agencies and politicians often find all this just too hard, and apparently try to avoid thinking about local government too often. Its much easier to fall back on the Constitution and deal with local government as an addendum to agreements with the states. This perhaps explains why for three decades the federal government has provided most financial assistance to councils, currently around $2 billion annually, but has done little to ensure that states administer local government fairly, wisely and in the national interest.
That situation may be coming to an end. The trigger for a review was cost-shifting: states (and less so the Commonwealth) increasing local governments responsibilities without either providing necessary funds or enabling councils to generate additional revenue of their own. This became the focus for a wide-ranging inquiry into local governments roles, relationships and funding by the House of Representatives Economics, Finance and Public Administration Committee.
The committees report Rates and Taxes: A Fair Share for Responsible Local Government proposes sweeping changes to the way federal funding is allocated to councils and the associated framework of intergovernment relations. Even partial implementation of the committee's recommendations would transform current arrangements. Significantly, the report is bipartisan.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
Straight Shooter
The chairman of parliaments financial watchdog is known for his forthright views and direct approach. In the lead up to his retirement from parliament at the next election, Bob Charles tells Peter Cotton why he would like to see an overhaul of the parliamentary committee system.
As youd expect of a mechanical engineer who became a politician, Bob Charles values precision and functionality. He likes systems to operate smoothly.
For the past seven years, hes been Chairman of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit (JCPAA). Its probably the most powerful of federal parliaments seven joint statutory committees.
We have a veto over the appointment of the Auditor-General and the independent auditor, and approval powers over the budget of the Audit Office, says Mr Charles. We examine the Audit Office budget and report on that to the parliament. In effect, the committee has budget powers. We can also inquire into anything affecting the income or expenditure of the Commonwealth.
As well as being powerful, the Public Accounts and Audit Committee is probably the parliaments most successful in terms of having its recommendations accepted by the government.
To read the entire article, you can open this pdf document, or ask the Liaison & Projects Office for a copy of the magazine.
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