National Interest

The National Interest round-up begins with the news that if you drank beer at the footy at Melbourne's MCG between mid June and mid-July, then you were ripped off by at least one gulp's worth.

According to the Sunday Herald Sun, Consumers Affairs Victoria has found that catering firm Spotless was serving beer in cups that held only 419 millilitres, rather than the regulation 425 ml.

The company has agreed to donate $18,000 to charity as compensation for the error, which it blames on a manufacturing glitch that produced undersized cups.

We all know that daylight saving has some costs, like extra sunlight fading the curtains. But having a democratic choice about daylight saving is expensive too.

The Sunday Times in Perth reports that a stand-alone referendum on daylight saving in WA will cost $7 million - ten times what it might have cost if it had been held together with last month's state election.

Also today, welcome news that one of Australia's longest running legal disputes has been settled.

When Priest Michael Joseph Treacy died in 1938, he left most of his 10,000-pound estate to church-related charities - including a gift of 500 pounds to Pope Pius the Eleventh for "the propagation of the faith in pagan lands".

But his will was complicated, because the Priest's promises exceeded his means and because Father Michael held some assets in trust for an older sister, who had her own will.

The matter has been before the courts since 1943 and has confounded many a judge and solicitor over the decades. Apparently the file was constantly handed on to new lawyers - none of whom ever stuck with the job long enough to resolve the matter.

But according to The Sydney Morning Herald , Supreme Court judge William Windeyer was not to be denied. Determined to put the matter to rest before his own retirement, Justice Windeyer has made orders for the funds to be distributed to the charities chosen by the Priest, or the foundations that succeeded them.

The estate is now worth in excess of $200,00 - which by my calculation means the current Pope can expect a cheque for about $10,000 to "propagate the faith in pagan lands".

The Tasmanian government has taken an old-fashioned approach to a contemporary legal problem: it's threatening to name and shame fine defaulters.

The Mercury reports Justice Minister Lara Giddings as saying Tasmanians who fail to pay outstanding fines by the end of the month will have their names and addresses published online.

The Greens reckon the government may well be in breach of privacy laws if it carries out the threat while lawyer and columnist Greg Barns describes it as the "modern day version of putting someone in the stocks for public humiliation".

Barns also points to some practical problems with the plan. What, for example, if the list includes someone who lives in fear of a violent ex-partner and who does not want that person to know his or her current address?

The Tasmanian parliament has set new standards in political behaviour. Hobart's Mercury calls it "masturgate".

Liberal Leader Will Hodgeman was forced to apologise to the house after directing "a masturbatory gesture" at Labor backbencher Brenton Best during an adjournment debate.

Premier David Bartlett condemned the school yard behaviour of the Opposition, but the juvenile antics continued in his own ranks. When Mr Hodgeman attempted to apologise personally to backbencher Best for the insulting gesture, the Labor MP ran away with his fingers in his hears, saying 'not listening, not listening'.

Australia's list of big things is getting bigger.

We're all familiar with the palatial pinapple at Nambour, the massive Merino at Goulburn and the Bulky Banana at Coffs. Less well known are the whopping worm in Gippsland, the king-size koala in the Grampians and Larry the Lobster - the colossal crayfish at Kingston in South Australia.

I have to admit to having visited all of the above - though I'm not sure if that's something to be proud of - and I've not yet seen the big Barra, the over-large oyster, the prodigious peanut or the ample abalone.

Soon there'll be a new giant thing to visit. Cessnock's The Advertiser The Advertiser reports that Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley will soon be the proud home of a 4.5-metre high aluminium kookaburra.

Let's just hope it has a laugh to match its size.

Presenter

Peter Mares

Producer

James Panichi