Federal govt maintains existing policy on parallel importing of books

The federal government has decided to continue the existing policy on parallel importation of books.

This is disappointing as it puts the interests of producers ahead of consumers. It’s hard to see how this benefits consumers.

It’s also difficult to see how this is different from many of the issues dealt with since the 80s or earlier, such as tariffs. What is it that makes the book industry so special as to require state-mandated subsidies from consumers?

Abdullah quits the Afghani Presidential election

Reuters reports (1 Nov) that Hamid Karzai’s main challenger in the 1st round of the Afghan Presidential election, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, has pulled out of the 2nd round due on 7 November 2009.

Reuters reported:

Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah quit an election run-off on Sunday after accusing the government of not meeting his demands for a fair vote, but said he was not calling for a boycott.

Speaking to supporters and tribal elders in a huge tent in Kabul, Abdullah made no mention of any power-sharing deal with his rival, President Hamid Karzai, an indication that earlier talks to strike an accord had possibly foundered.

Paul Howes speaking out on refugee policy

Good on Paul Howes, national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, for speaking out (reported in the SMH) against the considered wisdom in the federal ALP and Liberal/National Parties to take a “tough line” on refugees.

The current policies, on both sides, are low-rent ones that “hard heads” must have decided are the only electorally possible ones. The hard heads should reconsider this view.

Fewer councils in Sydney? Report by the Association of Consulting Engineers Australia

A few days ago I blogged on the idea that less-than-optimal planning in Sydney may have resulted from multiple (as opposed to a single) councils covering Sydney.

There was a related story in the SMH today (Abolish councils, make drivers pay), on a report Sydney Towards Tomorrow by the Association of Consulting Engineers Australia, which amongst other things advocated merging Sydney’s 42 local councils into 11, to reduce administrative costs in the light of the Sydney population growing towards 10 million.

Here is the link to the Sydney Towards Tomorrow, which can also be downloaded from the Association’s webpage.

One issue that should be remembered is that, if there were very large councils covering large parts of Sydney, or even a single council covering all of Sydney, it would still be possible for people in local areas to have coverage of particular policy areas. Locals could still have a say on local issues rather than everything being decided through large central councils.

The Intelligence Squared debate “That democracy is not for everyone”

While I only saw the last three speakers on the BBC on the Intellgence Squared debate “That democracy is not for everyone”, I enjoyed those speakers and was really surprised by some of the comments from the audience.

More than half the audience agreed with the debate proposition before the debate, and about a third still agreed with it after the debate. Audience members’ comments at the end of the debate mostly agreed with the proposition on the basis that democracy doesn’t work or is pretty awful in how it functions.

However, as Dr Michael Wesley of the Lowy Institute (a speaker against the proposition) responded, the key point is that democracy allows a population to sack a government, not that democracy functions optimally. This is the old trap of not taking the good to be the opposite of the perfect, which many audience members appeared to take. It wasn’t clear which country, region or people audience members thought that democracy was not suitable for – none was ever specified.

Improving the way democracies work is a different and entirely legitimate point – but shouldn’t be confused with democracy itself.

On holiday

I havn’t been very active on my blog recently due to work being very busy and having been on holiday. I may be more active in a few weeks when I’m back from holiday.

One City Council for Sydney?

When travelling, something I often notice is how many cities are governed by a single city council, or at least that the central urban core, comprising a million or more people, is governed by a single council. London has a Greater London Council covering a number of london-wide issues in the greater london area while having many small borough councils.

Sydney appears to have suffered from Sydney-wide issues (e.g. transport) not being properly focussed on – those issues have to be dealt with by the state government as there are many small Councils each covering a small part of sydney.

Has the apparent lack of focus on Sydney-wide issues been a result of the non-existence of an elected single entity covering the wider Sydney area?

Letter to the Editor of the Wentworth Courier – control of Waverley Council occurring via an annual draw from a hat

I sent the following letter to the editor of the Wentworth Courier today. It refers to the current control of Waverley Council being decided by an annual draw from the hat – as there are effectively two sides on Council each with half the number of Councillors. Waverley Council annually elects its Mayor, and upon a tied vote, a name is drawn out of a hat. This has happened twice in the last two years.

The quite unsatisfactory part of it is that the Mayor, as chair of the Council, has a deliberate vote and a casting vote. Hence, if Councillors act as coordinated teams, control of the Council rests on the annual draw of the hat.

Dear Editor,

It’s ridiculous that control of Waverley Council now rests on an annual draw of the hat. There are two solutions – remove the Mayor’s casting vote in the event of a tied vote (which needs legislative change), or change the number of Councillors so that there’s an odd number elected. A directly-elected mayor won’t necessarily solve the problem – as they could face a hostile Council.

It’s much easier to have an odd number of Councillors – say 9 or 15 in total. Retaining proportional representation would mean having 3 or 5 wards. This change could be introduced next Council election following a constitutional poll if needed. There’s no need to keep the current arrangements which could lead to a half-half split Council in future elections.

Regards,

Some bike riders impacting on pedestrian safety

The Wentworth Courier has recently published a few stories on bikes and bike riders, sparked in part by a call by a Woollahra Councillor that bike riders should be licensed, and by the ongoing introduction of separated bike lanes in the CBD and Bourke St in Woolloomooloo through to Surry Hills.

Bike riding should be accommodated for and made as safe as possible in Sydney. Obligatory licensing seems silly. I’ve never ridden a bike in inner-Sydney as I found the prospect scary (after having ridden in Brisbane). But this post is about an element of bike riding not often mentioned.

It’s not uncommon for bike riders in inner-Sydney to ignore the safety of pedestrians they’re riding amongst or around – e.g. on footpaths or across intersections. It’s as if these riders are unaware of their potential impact on pedestrian safety. This could be quite serious as collisions between bikes and pedestrians have been known to kill pedestrians.

Thoughts?

“Where are Australia’s female political bloggers?”

There are currently numerous blog threads about the underabundance of Australian women political bloggers (e.g. Possum Pollytics and Larvatus Prodeo). I’ve always found this type of discussion quite odd. Putting aside the question of whether it’s true (and some people have suggested it isn’t - perhaps women aren’t attracted to demonstrably political blogs), it just seems like an interesting sociological question.

A more interesting question is whether there are any barriers to any people or group of people participating in blogs – the answer to which is no (provided people have access to the internet). I understand the interest in the question the focus of the threads, but it’s way down on the list of interesting things to talk about.