Weston DemocratI COMMONWEALTH 1Jean Jenkins | P A R L IA ~ H Y  llB R A R Y  |A u stra lia n  D em o cra ts Senator for W estern AUSiraliU 'Correspondence invited to: Senator Jean Jenkins, 15 Lawrence Avenue, P.O. Box 883, West Perth, WA 6005.Phone 321 2110. Fax 321 2103. Office Manager Madeleine Foster. Research Asst. Richard Jeffreys. Media Nick Goldie.N o 11 Decem ber ’88WITH IBIESTT WISHES JFOJR. THE FESTIVESEASO 1S T  JFIR-0> M BRIAN  STTv^JFIF Have so.  great break. Drive safely. Help t o keep alcohol  off  q t u l jt  irosudLs. Speak to someone  whio Is lonely.  JH Ee lp> someone who Is stinuiggllmLg. Brighten somme cfnIldL’s  life. ]M I a. 1c e it your resolution to work In 3 L  9 8 9 for the lessening of conflict, tine protection of tine wenlc, tine conservation of tine environment and a safe  and just society.HELP NEEDED: STATE ELECTION The Democrats will be running campaigns in all upper house regions and many Assembly seats for the State Election.If you are willing to help in any way, please let us know. We need help with ’How to V o te ’ cards in all areas and there are many other ways in which you can help.With the new L egislative Council voting system, we are poised to start "keeping ’em honest" in the WA State Parliament but to achieve our potential we will need maximum support.OFFICE CLOSUREWe will be closing the office betw een Christmas and the N ew  Year to give everyone a break. We’ll be back on deck, recharged and ready for action on Tuesday 3rd January.NEW YEAR’S DAY BBQ/SUNDO WNER All readers of the Western Democrat are invited to a BBQ/Sundowner at the Senate O ffice on N ew  Year’s Day January 1st, from 4.00 pm onwards.It’s a chance to meet, talk, relax and celebrate the beginning of a new year. We’ll have a couple of BBQ’s available. Please bring your own meat, a plate and something to drink. Or if you phone in and leave a message on the office answering machine, we can organise BBQ packs to be available at cost -  just let us know how many.Whether you’re a Democrat, friend, supporter or someone who has contacted us about any issue, you will be very welcome.

A  MARATHON SESSION We have concluded the year with a marathon  session in the Senate. The final session was

originally .scheduled .to, la s t - fo r  - a fortnight. Early on i t , became 'apparent it |would extend to  three weeks.; Then a1  fourth-w as| added. The  final straw camewwhen the Government decided

to call'u s-b ack  for -th e-first three days of

the Christmas week.

Two sitting weeks in a row is tiring. Three is

exhausting. Four and five are sheer insanity.  Everyone becomes exhausted, tempers become  frayed and efficiency falls away.

Part of the problem is that the Government,

which is used to ramming legislation through  the House of R ep resentatives after a token

debate because it has the numbers, cannot get  used to the idea that the Senate seriously

expects to debate and probe legislation.

Because the House of R ep resentatives can be  treated with contempt, the Government often  puts legislation through that house before it  is really finalised. Then they introduce  dozens of amendments of their own in the

Senate so that for some Bills we confront more

amendments than surviving text of the Bill  that went through the R epresentatives. This  makes careful scrutiny even more difficult and  slows things down a great deal.

The ACT Self-G overn m en t Bills and the War  Crimes Amendment Bill are two recent examples.

ACT SELF-GOVERNMENT FINALISED Previous issues of the ’Western Democrat’ have  referred to the ACT Self-G overnm en t saga. This  has occupied a great deal of my time as I am

Democrat spokesperson for Territories.

The final chapter was the usual miserable  story of the Liberal/National ’Collusion’  refusing to support amendments to the

Government’s legislation, which would have had  the e ffe c t of guaranteeing a fair system of

self-g o v e r n m e n t for the ACT.

In particular, the electoral system put in  place is a much modified version of the common  European d’Hondt system. Though a form of  proportional system, this is not the fully

preferential system Australian voters are used  to and it gives a clear advantage to major and

established parties.

Many of us are worried that a precedent has

been set which may incline governments to try  to introduce this system elsewhere, which

would be a backward step. Our quota  preferential system as used for the Senate,  and now for the WA L egislative Council, is one  of the best and fairest systems in the world.

But it does not necessarily yield a parliament  easily dominated by the executive -  and that

the ALP does not like.

THE GRADUATE TAX The Bill to implement the Government’s new  Graduate Tax proposal also passed the Senate a  few days ago with the support of the

Liberal/National ’Collusion’.

We opposed it from the ou tset because:

o once a link is accepted b etw een income and

access to education the ’rich and thick’  will come to have a b e tte r  chance of access

than the poor and gifted;  o graduates already pay more tax, not for a

few  short years but for life;

o graduates forego a lot of income while

studying and it takes them up to twenty

years to break even; o not only graduates but all taxpayers benefit

from tertiary education; therefore all  taxpayers should share the cost;  o the measure makes it clear the Government  intends to lower the amount of public money

spent on education; o the tax will hit hardest the PAYE taxpayer,

already the main bearer of the tax burden.

We have a detailed paper on this issue. Please

contact us for a copy.

WAR CRIMES AMENDMENT BILL The War Crimes Amendment Bill has been a very  contentious piece of legislation and has taken  up an enormous amount of the Senate’s time.

It caused a great deal of soul-searching

amongst Australian e x -s e r v ic e  organisations,  because o f fears that former servicemen might  be charged in connection with acts of  hostilities, and amongst ethnic communities,

who feared that trumped-up charges might be  brought against individuals, or that people  would would be victimised through cases of  mistaken identity.

The legislation is aimed at people who

committed gross acts of inhumanity. Although  not entirely happy with all aspects of it, I

b elieve that if there are war criminals in

Australia then they are b etter tried under our  legal system than extradited or deported, as  'Would be the case without the legislation. I

therefore supported the legislation.

NUCLEAR POWER In part because of shaken public confidence,  at least five planned nuclear power stations  have been cancelled in the USSR since the

April 1986 accident at Chernobyl in the  Ukraine.

Work has been suspended at other sites and the  list of abandoned projects may grow.

Costs to the Russian government to date of

Chernobyl are estim ated at $12.8 billions.

Someone read recently that in the US it is

calculated that 14% of electrical energy  consumed is used by domestic clothes dryers. 14% of the electrical energy generated in the  US is produced by nuclear power stations.

Therefore, if Americans went back to the  humble -  but perfectly satisfactory -  clothes

line, all nuclear plants could be closed down  without adverse effect.

If these figures are correct, they demonstrate  that the need for nuclear power is greatly

exaggerated, and the prospects for  conservation are very considerable.

SENATOR PRONOUNCED FIT! Early November saw the National Heart  Foundation conducting a Heart D isease Risk  A ssessm ent Clinic in Parliament House, for the  b en efit of Senators and Members.

This an annual service and it is good, with

the high pressure, high stress life of

politicians, that this preventive measure is  available to us. Democrat health policy  regards the further development of preventive  measures as being of supreme importance.

Fortunately, in my case the results were all

good with no deterioration since the last  Tests so I seem to be coping with the stresses

and strains OK.

If you haven’t had a check-up recently, do  yourself a favour and go ahead and have one.

Talk to your doctor or phone the National  Heart Foundation on [09] 386 8926.

A suitable diet, sensible exercise and cutting  down on alcohol and smokes is a help.

SOCIAL SECURITY FRAUD JAILINGS I have been shocked in recent weeks by

information on the number of WA women being  jailed on Social Security fraud charges and  the severity of the sentences.

I have had considerable help in investigating  this m atter from Christine Tonkin, Anglicare’s  research and development coordinator, Women in  Transit spokesperson Jean Kirk and social  worker Jill McClements. B etw een them these  people have supplied me with a considerable  volume of information.

I am very concerned that exactly the same  offence under the same Commonwealth law may  result in a probation order or a suspended  sentence in one sta te  and a twelve month jail

sentence in WA.

I am concerned that the mothers of young  children are being sent to prison. Their  children then in some cases have to be taken

into care, at the cost of enormous emotional  trauma to both mothers and children and great  expense to the community. These women are in  most cases first offenders.

I am concerned that people are often unaware  of their rights; that there are allegations of

heavy handed tactics by investigators who  conduct lengthy (three hours in one case) and  very intimidating interviews, without the  presence of witnesses, in women’s own homes;

that it is alleged that women have been

verbally promised immunity from prosecution if  they admit to an offence and then, having

signed an admission, have been prosecuted  anyway; that the women are often not properly  represented when they appear in court.

It is well known that there are significant

and serious poverty traps in Australia. Many  Government reports have carefully documented  this, e.g. some of the reports of the Social

Security Review. While I do not condone fraud  I believe that a person trapped in such a

situation who engages in minor cheating should  not be treated like a dangerous criminal. A  jail sentence in such circumstances, with all  its associated stigma and the fact that even

in jail apparently the women are being  harrassed to make restitution to the DSS, can  only exacerbate the poverty which in many  cases was the prime cause.

The other day a tw e n ty -fo u r  year old woman,  the mother of a baby of twenty months and a

child of four, a person with no previous

criminal history, was jailed for six months.

That’s not the sort of Christmas present I

would like to be associated with.

Meanwhile, the big criminals who  misappropriate millions and are involved in  all sorts of questionable dealings continue to  cruise the city in their Rolls Royces.

MINING INDUSTRY TOUR & VISITS  At the invitation of the Chamber o f Mines (WA)

I was taken in November on a two day tour of

mining operations and developments in the  South-W est. I was accompanied by five senior  WA Democrats with policy and other special  interests related to mining, particularly the  environmental aspects.

The tour covered the mining and processing  aspects of the mineral sands industry, bauxite  mining and rehabilitation operations on the  Darling Scarp and the new Boddington gold  mine.

All of us who participated appreciated the  opportunity to learn more about the industry  and the fact that the links established will

enable us to exchange ideas and information in  the future. Information gained is being fed  into the development of a new Democrat State  Policy Paper on Mining.

During November I also visited Kalgoorlie and  made contact with mining interests.

GOLD TAX Legislation recently passed the Senate which  will introduce taxation on the profits from  gold mining from 1991. Gold has been exempt

from such taxation for some 64 years.

I received many letter s and requests urging me  to vote against this legislation and asking me

to persuade the other Democrat Senators to do  so but we felt that on equity grounds a

concession to the gold industry was not  defensible. This issue is however one which we  will continue to study and which is being

looked at in detail in the Democrats’ new

Mining policy paper referred to above.

YAKATUNYA During November I also visited the remote  Yakatunya Aboriginal Community, whose country  is far to the east of Kalgoorlie well towards

the SA border.

The Yakatunya p eople’s traditional lands  extended across the border into SA and it is

they who were displaced by the Maralinga  atomic tests. They are still prohibited from  r e -e n te r in g  much of this country because of  plutonium and other radioactive pollution.

I investigated the community’s request to  relocate their community to a preferred new  location at Tjuntjunjarra and discussed health  and education issues.

PRIVACY LEGISLATION AMENDMENTS  The Government’s Tax File Numbers Bill and  associated Privacy legislation passed the  Senate early in the present session, with the

support of the Liberal/National ’Collusion’.

When the Privacy Bill first came into the

Senate the Opposition and the Democrats moved  and carried important amendments to strengthen  what was a thoroughly inadequate Bill. The  Bill then went back to the House of

R ep resen tatives for its concurrence.

The amendments were however rejected in the  Reps and the Bill came back again to the

Senate.

Faced with the opportunity to insist on the

amendments, the Liberals and the Nationals  went to water. Not only did they refuse to

support Democrat amendments which they had  supported before, they also refused to  r e -in s e r t their own amendments.

We Democrats then moved the Liberals’ own  amendments, word for word, and the Liberals  joined with Labor to vote them down. The  result for ordinary Australians is that your  privacy protection has been severely reduced  by this astounding ab o u t-fa c e  by the  ’Opposition’ Senators.

Political commentators failed to comment and  this extraordinary series of events by and  large went unreported and unnoticed.

Registered by Australia Post  Publication No WBG 2237

