The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 6

Wednesday, May 5, 1993 6 The Sydney Morning Herald Fairfax journalists win all law awards for print Move afoot to speed tip business In the House ment would be talking to the Opposition over the next few months on options to improve Parliament's performance. The objective would be to give MPs a bigger role in i i Ml. Colleen Ryan, Bill Pheasant, Jacquelyn Hole, Rocco Fazzari and Ward O'Neill. Ukstrrnon by ROCCO FAZZARI investment down Customs will face searching questions Fairfax journalists have won all of the awards in the print section of the annual Law Society of NSW Golden Quill Awards for excellence in legal journalism. The winner of the print section was Bill Pheasant of The Australian Financial Review for his article on the landmark High Court Mabo decision which overturned the concept of terra nullius the doctrine that Australia could be regarded as uninhabited before British colonisation.

The Sydney Morning Heralds Jacquelyn Hole was highly commended for an article on court delays, as were the Heralds Colleen Ryan and Kate McClymont for an article on the law firm Allen Allen and Hemsley. Herald artist Rocco Fazzari won the illustration section this year and Ward O'Neill, also from the Herald, was highly commended. Fazzari was runner-up in the section in 1992. A Wollongong journalist, Jodie Duffy, of Prime Television, won the television section, with a documentary on domestic violence and a series of news reports on youth and crime. SBS's Vox Populi reporter Sarah Turnbull and producer Irene Buschtedt were highly commended in the television section for an examination of Aboriginal tribal law.

Channel 9's Sunday reporter Graham Davis was also highly commended for a report on family law. In the radio section, the ABC's Radio National Law Report took out all of the awards. The then Law Report presenter, Jon Faine, won with a series of reports, while Jillian Hocking was highly commended. The chairman of the Law Week Committee, Mr Patrick Fair, said: The standard of entries was again extremely high and the Law Society would like to thank the winners for their entries and congratulate them for their efforts." Each of the winners received $1,000 and a trophy at a presentation ceremony yesterday at the Hotel Inter-ContinentaL By MICHAEL MILLETT Political Correspondent Reforms to ensure a more efficient operation of Federal Parliament, particularly in the "bear pit" Question Time period, could be implemented in the Budget session. A former Cabinet minister, Dr Neal Blewett, who has been assigned by the Prime Minister to look at parliamentary reform, said he was aiming at producing a committee report on the issue, before the Budget session began in August.

Dr Blewett, a former political scientist, is likely to be appointed next week as chairman of parliament's procedures committee, which has a brief to suggest reforms to Parliament's operations. The committee has already said that the best way to improve Question Time would be to hand total responsibility to the Speaker. The Speaker would have to make a statement at the beginning of the Parliament outlining how he intended running the session. The new Speaker, the NSW right-winger Mr Steve Martin, appears to have adopted this option, indicating in a number of media interviews his desire to impose a time limit on ministerial answers. He has also, proposed a more flexible sin bin" penalty for MPs infringing the standing orders.

However, the Government is looking at more radical reforms, such as the rostering of ministers in Question Time, and the use of electronic voting to reduce time-wasting divisions. Mr Keating said the Govern- From left, Kate McClymont, Foreign By STEPHEN ELLIS CANBERRA: Investment by foreigners in Australia, approved by the Government, dropped to $16 billion in 1991-92, down S4 billion from the year before. This drop came, according to the Foreign Investment Review Board's (FIRB) annual report, despite the fact that the vast majority of investment proposals from foreigners wishing to buy or develop Australian assets were given the green light. The FIRB, a Federal Government body, examines foreign proposals for investment in Australia. It recommends approval, amendment or rejection, and advises the Government on foreign investment matters.

During the 12 months to June 1992, FIRB received 3,274 proposals for foreign investment. It approved 2,981 proposals (the majority with conditions), and rejected 66 proposals. Some 277 proposals were later Dr blewett reform brief. the parliamentary process "one in which they feel they can take part in the business of Parliament and the affairs of the nation and where their efforts will be recognised and noted beyond the portals of this particular Dr Blewett said his task was to come up with a package of reforms acceptable to both sides. The Opposition Leader, Dr Hewson, said the Coalition had not been happy with Parliament's performance in the last session.

"And I have no doubt that in the eyes of most people in Australia the standing of politicians has fallen, and fallen quite dramatically. There's a very real challenge for all of us to lift our game and to clean up our act in this place A former Speaker and recently retired Labor backbencher Mr Gordon Scholes said he opposed Question Time rostering. While it worked in the British Parliament where there were nearly 100 MPs with ministerial status and the House sat virtually every week of the year, he said the system would not w- rk here because of Parliament's short sitting periods. real estate remained strong (accounting for $5.7 billion of expected development), with most interest centring on properties in NSW and Queensland. Apart from the Fairfax bid, other major proposals which came under FIRB's scrutiny during 1991-92 included the bid by Optus for shares in Aussat and a bid by New Zealand brewer Lion Nathan for National Brewing (formerly Bond Brewing).

Investment approval for foreigners to acquire roughly $13 billion of Australian assets broke down into the following sectors: real estate $4.3 billion; manufacturing $1.6 billion; mining $2.1 billion; services $3J billion; and tourism $800 million. Approval for foreign interests to develop about $3 billion of Australian assets broke down as follows: new mines $900 million; new tourism $300 million; new manufacturing $600 million; existing real estate $1.4 billion; and existing tourism $100 million. Most of the rejected proposals related to foreign purchases of residential real estate. The average time taken to approve proposed foreign investment proposals fell from 21 days in 1990-91 to 15 days in 1991-92. Japan remained the largest source of expected investment, with $2.6 billion (16 per cent of investment), with the United States second with $1.9 billion.

Other major sources of expected investment in Australia included Britain, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong. In 1991-92 there was a shift away from the mining and tourism sectors, which traditionally have been of greatest interest-to foreign investors, and an increase in expected investment in services. However, a large part of the $3.5 billion investment in non-tourism services ras attributable to one large proposal: the Tour-ang consortium's $1.4 billion bid for the Fairfax group. Foreign interest in Australian best incompetent, or at worst conspiratorial and It made 134 recommendations including compensation for Midford and other defendants. The five-year war waged against the company had cost taxpayers $8 million.

Midford spent a similar amount. The investigation centred on Midford's importation of shirts manufactured in Malaysia, and claims that the company had conspired to defraud the Commonwealth by under-valuing the shirts and manipulating its import quota entitlement Charges alleging fraud of $4.5 million were laid against Midford in 1988 but later discontinued. The review will look at whether Customs should retain its right to issue search warrants, or whether they should only be issued by judges. PAUL CHAMBERLIN CANBERRA: The Australian Customs Service is to undergo a comprehensive review in light of the disastrous Midford shirts case where it was labelled at best The review, announced by the Minister for Science and Small Business, Senator Schacht, yesterday, will look at the service's responsibilities and accountability in an attempt to overcome the shortcomings identified in a parliamentary report into the case. While Senator Schacht praised Customs for fighting the illicit drug trade and smuggling, he indicated that the Midford case had seriously damaged its reputation.

The Joint Committee of Public Accounts reported last December that Customs, particularly the NSW office, had bungled an investigation into the Wollongong shirt manufacturer and importer Midford Paramount The report said Customs was "at Govt calls for report on $20,000 lottery payout David Burgin, bought a $5 scratch lottery ticket on January 11, 1990. The ticket bore the words "match three numbers and In one game he found the numbers 7, 3, 3, 7, 1, which he claimed was a winning combination as the 7 matched with the 7, the 3 with the 3 and the 1 with the 1. But the lotteries office The NSW Government has called for a report into its possible financial exposure after a court granted a lottery ticket holder a $20,000 prize for a ticket the State Lotteries Office said was worthless. The Sun-Herald reported at the weekend that a Central Coast solicitor, Mr said the words meant it was necessary to get three of the same number to win. On March 12, the District Court ruled that a $20,000 prize be paid to Mr Burgin, plus $6,000 in interest The lotteries office has since changed the wording on the scratchies.

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