B01 The Australian 2012 words B01a The Australian - 28 October 1986 Forgive and forget? RE Nigel Jackson's letter (Forgive And Forget, 2/10), if it were not so sad I could have laughed. As a little girl in England, the little Christian children constantly reminded me that I had killed Jesus. This was taught in Sunday school and they didn't love me and they never forgave me. Wasn't I lucky not to have lived in Europe? I might not have been here to read Mr Jackson's plea to love and for+give my enemies as they have failed to do after almost 2000 years. LILY GILD Yokine, WA THE attitude of "forgive and forget" Nazi war criminals overlooks the vital point - jus+tice. If large-scale and systematic atrocities are left unpunished then we are saying that this behaviour is acceptable. It is not the revenge of crimes committed that is the issue, but upholding the moral code of justice which underlies Western societies. UNA BELL Mundaring, WA Plague of 'wimmin' creatures SIR - I am appalled that the Government is allowing rat+bags and fringe dwellers to camp on the lawns of Parlia+ment House in this nation's capital. Is this the sort of image of Australians we wish to show the world? The sooner the Government invests in a water cannon and blasts these creatures off the lawns and into Lake Burley Griffin the better. On second thoughts, the lake is already polluted enough. Maybe they ought to be ploughed into the lawn to help in its fertilisation when it has to be replanted after the illegal encampment is removed. C.W.ALLEN Cremorne, NSW THE plague of "wimmin" creatures which has infested the lawns outside Parliament House is not a phenomenon which is unique to Australia. Similar outbreaks have occur+red elsewhere in the Western world in recent years. What does, however, make the present pestilence different is that the "wimmin" parasites are being sustained by Aus+tralian taxpayers through the dole and supporting parents(?) benefits. They have even been given a grant by the Hawke Govern+ment to encourage their dis+graceful behaviour! J.K.McWILLIAM Bardon, Qld I WAS disgusted to read about the campers at Parlia+ment House. What hypocritical and degrading behaviour! These are the "wimmin" who give women a bad name. I, for one, refuse to be identified with them in any way. M>FISCHER Perth An artistic balancing act PREMIER John Cain took the opportunity of the Pre+mier's Literary Awards to attack the Australia Council claiming that Sydney writers had an unfair advantage over their Mel+bourne colleagues. A strange line of argument from a Vic+torian Premier who was pre+senting four of a total of five literary awards to writers from outside his State. The presence of so many "out of State" writers among those in receipt of these prestigious awards clearly demonstrates the fact that literary merit is not channelled within State or civic boundaries whatever might be the political requirements. As a contrasting example, more of the Literature Board's support for publish+ing goes to publishers in Melbourne, reflecting that city's leading role in this activity. Mr Cain's attacks on the council must now have something of a hollow ring, particularly for Victorian writers. Considerable effort is made in all artforms to ensure a balance of mem+bers are appointed from among the various States. Currently there are 15 mem+bers from Victoria among a total of 57 appointed to the boards of the council. Victorian members thus comprise 26.3 per cent of all board members which com+pares favourably with the State's national population proportion of 26.2 per cent. On a number of boards - Aboriginal Arts, Community Arts, Music and Visual Arts - there are more members appointed from Victoria than NSW.. The assessment of Litera+ture Board grants for 1985 and 1986 involved, respec+tively, panels of 18 and 17 board members and exter+nal experts including in each year five writers from Vic+toria. On a population basis, Victoria comprises 26 per cent of the national total; in both 1985 and 1986, Victor+ia's representation on the panels was slightly above its national population propor+tion. While an appropriate balance of State members is an important consideration in the selection of assess+ment panels, other factors must be taken into account in the final decisions on grants. These include national overview, gender balance, support for younger and older writers and for dif+ferent writing genres (from poetry to biography). These criteria must, of course, be satisfied within the overriding requirement that work assessed must show literary merit. The Australia Council is proud of its record in balancing these diverse fac+tors in its pursuit of its national arts support pro+grams. The use of peer group assessment panels, which bring together artists from across the country, is a crucial mechanism to ensure that decisions on the allo+cation of government sup+port for the arts are free from regional, political or other bias. DI YERBURY General Manager Australia Council North Sydney, NSW Job priority for married men I AGREE with W. Hawke's statement (Briefs. 17/10) that married men should be given priority in the work+force over married women who have a husband on a good wage. People say they work just to live, but one has only to look into the trolleys at supermarkets to see the unnecessary junk food piled high. It is a crime when families are starving because a man cannot get a job. MARY HILL Lakemba, NSW Nazi witch-hunt BEING of German extraction it makes me envious to see how good the Latvian community stands up for itself against the Nazi witch-hunt and can only hope the Germans do likewise. What is media reporting coming to when it can take hearsay and unsubstantiated evidence as being historically true? Much of the so-called evi+dence on war crimes has been proven not to be true by revisionists and historians in the past. Where will Australia be in the future if all ethnic minorities bring their grievan+ces here and then expect Aus+tralians to be a multicultural society. REINHARD ASCHENBRENNER Upper Ferntree Gully, Vic Plus factor NICE things do happen in, through and because of the let+ters page, so take a bow, Ed! B01b The Australian - 1-2 November 1986 Warm glow ADMISSION to the goodly fellowship of the Briefs (23/10) has provided me with a warm glow of satisfactory intensity and suggests that I should not now further consider doing meself in (as currently fashion+able for us old parties) while there is hope of further burst+ing into print - with other honourable mentions in despatches. As for dignity, in making one's exit from this vale of tears - perhaps one could say that those of us oldies who have not had much of it while they were here would perhaps not miss it so much in the out+ward passage. TOM FREEMAN Croydon, Vic. Try `tax payers' THE economic debate in this country would be a lot more meaningful if, instead of using the word "government" when talking about spending, everyone used the words "tax payers". In a democracy, governments derive their power and their funds from the people and, like God, what the people give the people can take away - but the people had better do it soon, while there is time, since both our freedoms and our funds are being rapidly dissipated. G.R.RYAN Taxpayers United Mt Pleasant, WA ID astonishment The other day when applying for a new passport I submitted the required authenticated new passport photos and statement regarding my identity, my still valid passport, my original birth certificate and my certifi+cate of naturalisation To my astonishment this was not sufficient proof and I was asked to submit my credit cards! If credit cards are the defin+ite proof of one's identity, then why issue passports and other legal documents? In fact, why not save millions of dollars on ID cards and use Medicare and credit cards. P.R.ZEEMAN Launceston, Tas The ABC way I CAN'T agree with Greg Sheridan (25/10) that the ABC ignores conservative points of view. I often hear far Left academics on Radio National expounding at length on what (they think) conservatives such as the New Right are saying. Followed by expounding at even greater length on why lis+teners should resist this grow+ing evil and fight for truth, justice and the ABC way. PETER BONAR Findon, SA Rort 1 S.C.HICKFORD (Letters, 27/10) may find the answer to his query on the meaning of the word "rort" if he tries Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary . The meaning is certainly given in the New Mid-century Version, 1954 reprint, under the entry "rorty". The entry, in full, is: rorty, ror'ti. adj. (slang) gay. -ns. rort (Austr.), a racket; ror'ter (Austr.), a spiv.(Ety, dub.) The reason for the current popularity of the word is, of course, that so many Aus+tralians have one going. IAN HOPE Kelso, NSW Rort 2 In answer to S.C.Hickford's query (Letters, 27/10) concern+ing the word "rort"; this is Australian cant, circa 1910. Reference; Dictionary of Slang, by Eric Partridge, 1969. The meaning - "A dodge, trick, scheme, racket". Hence "rorting, confidence trickery". Sidney J. Baker (Australian Slang 1942) mentions rort as "a wild party; ca 1930". I assume Mr Hickford is querying this word being used in a political sense. In this case it would typify the tactics of all parties, especially those of Labor. (Dr) NICK NICHOLS Buderim, Qld Entry note YES, PM Gandhi, the last time I went to Britain I was made most unwelcome at Heathrow Airport by a bearded Pakistani all dressed up in rac+ist attire and garlic who could not decipher my French ID card. So most obligingly I told him to take me to his Big White Master. Well this Spike Milligan became very irate, but he did take me to what sounded like the Under Secretary for Trans+portation and Deportation, who turned out to be a big Irishman. Paddy was cross, too, but as he could read, he let me into Britain, which was what I wanted in the first place as Spike was prepared to have me flown back to Paris or Wagga Wagga. Next time, I shall land in Hastings, which is a safer place, especially if one comes from Normandy. MARC de CHADBANNES Beaudesert, Qld Such abuse My wife regularly listens to parliamentary broadcasts and has attempted to develop my interests in this area. Having listened recently to the dual-sided hypocrisy follow+ing the death of Mr Justice Murphy and the common language fight over the Queensland "cronyism" issue I wonder why my taxes support the salaries of such people and why the ABC waste their efforts bringing such abuse of decency to air. R.F.HARRISON Kambah, ACT The lesson from 1975 SO Mr Whitlam has still not learnt from the Day of Remembrance, 1975 (article by Errol Simper, 25/10) that the will of the people is paramount. The two protagonists, Messrs Whitlam and Fraser, had brought our country to a state of non-government; according to our rules (Constitution), the umpire blew the whistle to let us, the people, decide the mat+ter. Mr Whitlam considers that situation could not have developed in Britain or in NSW. Whatever the situation in Britain would or would not be is quite irrelevant - the UK has no constitution but many unwritten rules which require honesty, integrity and responsiblity from politicians to make them work - as I said, quite irrelevant; to hold up NSW as an example of political jurisprudence ... Our Constitution was drawn up by apolitical wise men and has withstood the test of time and the ravages of politicians. Its basic principle is the very foundation of democracy - let the people decide. I hope one day Mr Whitlam will realise, as constitutional historians will realise, that that principle was applied on Remembrance Day, 1975. I.P.YOULES Middleton, SA Welsh answer MY sympathies to those who failed to win Indulgence Competition No. 60. Word has it that Len had a Welsh friend staying with him at the time. "Is there anything I can help you with, Boyo?" "Why, yes, you can judge this competition if you like." And so he did, but he dis+qualified all those entries con+taining a `q' as this letter doesn't appear in the Welsh alphabet. TERENCE V. DAVIES Pymble, NSW B02 Australian Financial Review 2013 words B02a Australian Financial Review - 23 September 1986 Time to work out how much return we get from costly arts subsidies PETER ROBINSON FOR a nation which has a remarkably high public investment in subsidising culture, Australia really is astonishingly fuzzy about what it wants to achieve from it all. The continued upheavals in the ABC and the endless saga of Government inquiries into subsid+isation of the arts are just two surface manifestations of what seems to be, not so much a cultural cringe, as a deeply abiding faith in the divine right of cultural czars. That the nation needs more writers, singers, opera companies, rock stars, ballet dancers, painters, ethnic performers, weavers, potters, television shows, theatres and mus+eums than it can achieve by means of public demand is accepted without question. The usual solution is to throw more money at the problem; if money doesn't work (surprisingly, it rarely does on its own), then throw some big-name managers at it. If that fails, have a public inquiry, call out a street march of eminent and experienced demonstrators and, as a last resort, get Mr Patrick White to issue a statement on the issue. The truth is that the most remark+able expression of contemporary Australian culture is the ceaseless, restless search for cultural enlighten+ment. Contained in that densely struc+tured example of national theatre is an exposure of all our characteris+tics, good and bad, and an interac+tion of conflict that could not be matched for extravagant wasteful+ness by a million big-spending movie directors. Take the example of the unfor+tunate Geoffrey Whitehead, a man+ager of proven competence, an expert broadcaster, but, alas, a Pom. Not merely a Pom, but a Pom who may well have been tainted by achieving some of his best successes in Kiwiland. Even worse (could the slothful bureaucracy at the ABC imagine anything worse?), he came in as a general manager imbued with the idea that his job was to improve the style, efficiency and productiveness of ABC management. Poor Mr Whitehead. He didn't realise that the ABC is unmanage+able, that it is the cockeyed product of an uneasy and ever-shifting coalition between political exped+iency and a vast range of self-inter+ested, mostly mediocre and long-established pressure groups. Already the victim of a racial prejudice so strikingly vicious, it would make Brisbane's welcome to a boatload of Vietnamese refugees look benign by comparison, Geof+frey Whitehead also found himself up against virtually every cultural pressure group in the country as well as most of its MPs. To top it all, he suddenly found he had a new chairman who also had a yen to manage things. Following well-trodden paths, Government obviously decided that if one hot shot manager couldn't keep the ABC in line, throw in another one. But typically, none of the people thrown in to make the ABC do what Government wants it to do - not that hot shot of all shots, Sir Henry Bland, not the plain speaking Leonie Kramer, not the unlamented Ken Myer, not Geoffrey Whitehead and, one can be quite confident, not David Hill - has a real task specification. The truth is there is no ABC boss who has the faintest idea of what the target is. All they know is that they have to wage this continual war among mutually exclusive objec+tives, trying to keep failures out of the press and Government free from political fallout. Some objective! The same situation prevails in other taxpayer-supported cultural institutions, from the Australia Council to the Australian War Memorial. No-one, least of all the Prime Minister and Cabinet, has done any hard-headed, rigorous analysis of what all this expense is about. What is it aimed at achieving? The money is not peanuts thrown to an organ grinder. Taking into account the ABC, SBS, Australia Council, State subventions to the arts (the subsidies to our elaborate State performing arts centres alone would not give you much change out of $20 million a year), the tax deductibility of certain donations to artistic enterprises, the book bounty, sporting subsidies (oh, yes, sport is undeniably an important part of Australian culture) and so on, I'd guess we are spending something of the order of $600 million a year on subsidising cultural activities. NOW the unassuming but quite hard-headed Leo McLeay, the Labor back+bencher who has chaired the latest inquiry into a national arts policy, is wondering why more subsidies can't be given to pop music. If painters or sculptors with potential talent are subsidised to live in great centres of culture like Venice or Paris, why shouldn't promising pop stars be subsidised to sip from the industry's founts in Los Angeles or London? Why not, indeed. After all, at least our successful rock stars contribute to improving the nation's balance of payments, which is more than can be said of those who practice many other categories of cultural endeavour. But Mr McLeay has put his finger on the nub of the issue. Where, in this egalitarian land, does cultural subsidy stop? Who deserves subsidy and who does not? Government had decided to abol+ish the independent SBS and merge it with the ABC on the grounds that Australia cannot afford two public+ly-funded broadcasting systems. Yet the truth is that you could get nearly 10 national broadcasting networks of the SBS's size for the price of one ABC. Which is the more cost-effective? If the object of subsidising various forms of cultural endeavour is to help the flowering of Australian talent, as Mr McLeay seems to imply, should there not then be a firm dismissal from the public trough of those would-be achievers who do not measure up? Why do we continue to subsidise mediocre writers, second-rate paint+ers, undistinguished opera com+panies, third-rate symphony orches+tras, almost ad infinitum. In many cases, the nature of subsidy itself (fair shares for all) is totally counter-productive. We do not have good orchestras in Australia because they cannot afford to pay decent wages to their players or attract first-rate, disturb+ingly individualistic conductors. We do not pay decent wages because even in this freeloading environment, there is only so much to go round; only so much largesse the taxpayer will stand for. We spread it as thinly as possible; therefore, the result is not excel+lence. It is the creation of jobs. Is that the object of the exercise? Perhaps it is. After all, successive Australian Governments have been quite prepared to distort the entire character of the nation's economic structure, encourage inefficient industry, place enormous burdens on the consumer through tariff protection, all in the name of employment creation. Why should cultural policy be any different? Probably, within the mixed-up porridge that constitutes the collec+tive mind of any government, there are innumerable motives and justif+ications, many of them conflicting and none of them drawn into any coherent specification as to what the large sums of money involved are supposed to achieve. David Hill, Donald Horne, Geof+frey Whitehead and so on are simply the patsies. They are responsibility-takers, since no Government in its right mind would want to take responsibility for what passes as cultural policy in this country. But is the issue really as intract+able as all that? It is undeniable that, what with subsidised accommoda+tion for artists and pop-stars in the world's highest rental cities, increas+ingly expensive sports facilities, expanding ABC responsibilities in a world of technological change and unbelievable improvements in the quality and availability of audio and visual records, the whole scene has undergone drastic changes even since the IAC conducted its arts inquiry 10 years ago. The kind of inquiry undertaken by Mr McLeay and his committee is mere nibbling at the edges - a bit of salt to flavour up Government's porridge-brain. Perhaps it is time that the very principle of public subsidy should be given a thorough examination. This would be the other side of the taxation coin. Simplifying, rational+ising and improving the taxation system is all the rage just now. Mr Keating tells us that we need a much fairer tax system, one that is less wasteful of national resources and one that encourages people to work harder, save and do all those other good things that the nation is said to need so much. Little is said about rationalising the other end of the process - the spending of taxpayers' money. The volume and diversity of subsidisation in this country has got out of hand and needs to be considered as a whole, with clear-cut, rational targets in mind. People like David Hill and Geof+frey Whitehead would be much more gainfully employed in looking into the purpose and effectiveness of subsidisation than they ever will be in the disastrously dead-end jobs they now occupy. B02b Australian Financial Review - 19 August 1986 Verdict of world's financial markets will be critical to Budget's success GLENDA KORPORAAL AS Paul Keating prepares to read his fourth Budget speech to the House of Representatives at 8 o'clock tonight he has one piece of good news - that the world financial markets appear to have temporarily expended their doom and gloom about the Australian economy. That is not to say they will not turn vicious again if the Govern+ment does not deliver what is seen to be a tough and responsible Budget. But at least the document is not being delivered in an atmosphere of irrational panic of the kind which we have seen in recent months. The news that the influential Barron's financial weekly (a paper which maintains Clarence Barron's tradition of perceptive financial analysis with a wry sense of humour) has delivered a cheerfully contrarian thumbs-up for the Australian econ+omy, and that the London market was moving back into Australian bonds late last week, is important for the relatively small Australian capital markets which so constantly take their lead from what they perceive to be overseas sentiment. In this atmosphere it should mean that the Australian financial markets - assured that the bears in London and New York are taking a quiet nap for the week - can sensibly analyse what will be a very crucial Budget for the Australian economy. It would be very easy to write off the almost neurotic preoccupation of the domestic markets with the sentiments of investors in the major world financial centres as being yet another example of the Great Australian Cultural Cringe. But that is only partly true. The fact is that the sheer size of international markets is sufficient for any major change in overseas sentiment to have a major impact in Australian capital markets. It was the sheer flood of overseas speculative capital which came into Australia in 1983 which eventually forced the Government to float the dollar. And earlier this year, a bullish recommendation from the great American bond trading house, Salomon Brothers of New York, was able to temporarily reverse the steady slide in the Australian dollar. (It is no wonder that Salomon Brothers economists were enthusias+tically prescribing a good tightening of Australian monetary policy when the dollar resumed its slide - one can only wonder what sort of phone calls the house was getting from its US clients who had just sunk their hard-earned greenbacks into Aus+tralian equities). The simple fact is that financial markets are now irreversibly inter+national, inescapably multinational. A combination of the floating of the world's major currencies in the early 1970s, the development of advanced communication and sophisticated telecommunications systems, cheaper air travel, the late 1970s push to recycle the petro+dollars, deregulation of financial markets and the subsequent intense competition across the board in the capital markets - from banking to investment banking and broking - has produced an international financial system which players ignore at their peril. Corporate clients, particularly the well-courted Australian company treasurers, now demand a full range of international financial services from their bankers and financial advisers. And if they cannot get it from one house they will shop around for another which can offer international products. These days it is almost mandatory for anyone in the financial business to have ready - that is, virtually real-time - access to sources of information about overseas mar+kets, and preferably informal or formal links with firms in the world's major financial centres. B03 The Daily Mirror 2010 words B03a Daily Mirror - 29 September 1986 CROCODILE BITES AMERICA! AUSTRALIA has a new roving ambassador - the tough, laconic, and phenomenally successful Crocodile Dundee, otherwise known as Paul Hogan. If the results of the film's launch in 857 theatres across Canada and the U.S. are anything to go by, the equally tough, laconic and enormously talented Hoges is about to become one of Australia's most affluent men. And Australia is also going to be all the richer because of it. Tourism, riding on the Croc's tail, is expected to benefit from publicity already estimated to be worth $15 million. And while a lot of it will go directly to Northern Australia, it will also benefit the economy*econmy and the rest of the country. More than a thirsty 'roo In the past three weeks Hoges has travelled more miles than a thirsty 'roo. He has visited 18 major cities and given hundreds of TV, radio and press interviews. And everyone of them is a plug for Australia - a positive, bright, breezy Australia bristling with energy and talent, not the whingeing, negative world-owes-us-a-living Australia some people seem to prefer. Only 22 weeks old, Crocodile Dundee is already one of the most successful films ever shown in Australia. It's taking well over $1 million a week and nudging E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial - for first place on the all-time grossing list. Which isn't bad for a film that cost less than $10 million to make, a fraction of the money Hollywood spends on its box-office extravaganzas. All The Daily Mirror has to say is: It couldn't have happened to a nicer fella. Or a nicer country. B03b Daily Mirror - 29 September 1986 FRINGE FOUL-UP THE Federal Opposition has a golden opportunity to cash in on the mess caused by the Government's iniquitous Fringe Benefits Tax. There is a growing community awareness that the tax is helping put people out of work, and particularly hitting small business. Yet the Opposition seems confused about whether it should promise to amend the tax or withdraw it altogether. No-one expects it to tolerate the abuse of fringe benefits. But at the same time the FBT as it stands is unworkable and hurtful. If the Opposition can get its act together it can win votes. If it doesn't it won't deserve to. B03c Daily Mirror - 6 November 1986 U.S.POLL BLOW TO AUSTRALIA THE success of the Democrats in the US congressional elections is almost as much a blow to Australia - and particularly to Australia's farmers - as it is to President Ronald Reagan. The Democrats gained a majority in the Senate and consolidated their control in the House of Representatives, making sure the last two years of the President's term will be that much more difficult. Although the election was fought largely on local issues, it will be harder for President Reagan to get congressional endorsement on matters like foreign policy, and represents a significant increase in the power of his opponents. The bad news for Australia, however, is that the new Democrat majorities will have a major influence on U.S. domestic matters, particularly the economy. Protectionist policies Historically the Democrats - like Robert Daschle, the Congressman (now Senator) who pressed for bigger farm subsidies earlier this year - favor more protectionist policies in support of US manufacturers and primary producers. This will undoubtedly have an adverse effect on exports from Australia as well as on other nations competing with the US. A Democratic Congress, for instance, will undoubtedly be much more inclined to block agricultural imports and subsidise grain sales, and it is significant that the Republican losses were particularly heavy in the American farm belt. Indeed the new Senate leader, Senator Robert Byrd, has already signalled a bill to help American farmers. "It is important for us to compete again and to protect American jobs, to sell agricultural products abroad," he said. `Mugged in the market' Nor will the Democrats restrict their protectionist moves to agriculture. Senator Byrd included steel and textile workers in his remarks, adding: "We're getting mugged in the international marketplace. We've got to put a stop to it." For Australia this means it is even more imperative that we establish competitive export industries and get our economic house in order by increasing investment and achieving a realistic wages policy. The Democrat victory has shortened the road to Treasurer Paul Keating's banana economy. If we don't act we'll be there before we realise it. B03d Daily Mirror - 5 May 1986 WHY THE SWANS WILL BE CROWING WITH much fanfare and Hollywood razzamataz the Sydney Swans yesterday made ugly ducklings of the NSW Rugby League. The Swans' stunning victory over Carlton - maintaining their outright lead on the VFL premier+ship table - was watched by 37,873 fans at the SCG. Yet five rugby league fixtures around Sydney yesterday ma+naged a total attendance of only 40,743, with the Penrith-St George match drawing the top crowd of 11,357. It would be easy to dismiss the alarming discrepancy between these figures: The Swans do have a certain novelty value, not least because the former South Melbourne Club, the disgrace of the VFL, have won six successive games this season. Dr Geoffrey Edelsten, con+troversial Sydney medical en+trepreneur and part-owner of the Swans, with his beautiful young wife Leanne, have focused much attention on this hitherto "for+eign" football code. Value for money Quite apart from the Swans' stupendous form, the Hollywood pizazz and the cheerleaders - corny as it all may be - show the club is really trying to give the crowds value for money. And it worked. Only 20 minutes into the first quarter yesterday, the gates were shut as thousands of fans still flocked to get in. Admittedly, rugby league is too thoroughly entrenched in Sydney to be knocked from its roost. But RL officials would be short-sighted indeed not to take notice of yesterday's crowds. Attendances have indeed been picking up these past couple of seasons after a concerted effort by League officials. But that the Swans are making big inroads can't be ignored. B03e Daily Mirror - 5 May 1986 LEST WE FORGET... THE Chernobyl disaster briefly diverted our attention from what is the greatest threat to world safety at this time - terrorism. Yet it is an ever-present threat as the incident at the opening of the Tokyo Summit has proved. Despite massive security precautions preceding the summit, leftist radicals were able to fire five rockets at the State guest house where Japanese Prime Minister Mr Nakasone was welcoming guests, including U.S. President Ronald Reagan, yesterday. One of the key issues at the week-long summit will, appropriately, be combatting terrorism. We wish them well ... B03f Daily Mirror - 23 June 1986 DRUGS: THE PENALTY IS DEATH NO-ONE likes the death penalty. No-one wants to see two young Australian men hang, side-by-side, in a foreign jail. In particular no Australian wishes to see Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers go to the gallows on Thursday in the grim Pudu jail in Kuala Lumpur. Even though they are convicted drug traffickers and they have exhausted every legal avenue of appeal available to them under Malaysian law. And even though there is an*a appealing logic to the argument that if anyone is going to be executed for dealing in drugs, it should be the bosses who organise and finance the trade, and not the traffickers - the employees. Barlow and Chambers cannot say they were not warned. Had they committed a similar crime in Australia they would have got a jail sentence - there is no death penalty here. But they were caught in possession of 179 grams of heroin in Malaysia in spite of warnings they could not possibly miss about the inevitable consequences. Other countries have different penalties to Australia - as the 70 or so Australians languishing in overseas*overseals jails*jail on drug charges know to their cost. In Malaysia hanging is mandatory for anyone caught with 15 grams of heroin. The Federal Government has made its views known to the Malaysian authorities. It has appealed for clemency and expressed its opposition to the death penalty. It can do no more than that. B03g Daily Mirror - 23 June 1986 TAX CUT RORT THE idea raised in Canberra of postponing tax cuts for higher and middle income earners from September 1 will undoubtedly appeal to the Government. Keeping the 60, 48 and 46 per cent marginal rates would give the Government considerable extra revenue. But the whole idea of reform is supposedly to: REDUCE punitive tax rates which discourage hard work and enterprise; COMPENSATE people for other tax measures like the Fringe Benefits Tax; and GET RID of unjust anomalies in the system. To retain the high tax rates even for a few months would be a unfair - a cynical tax rort. And it would certainly encourage tax evasion and avoidance and further erode what little economic credibility the Federal Government has left. B03h Daily Mirror - 27 June 1986 ARMISTICE BEFORE THE SUPER WAR IF the national wage case decision is an attempt to reach some form of armistice between business, the unions and the Federal Government it is a unique achievement. In fact it must be the only armistice ever signed BEFORE a war rather than at the END of it. The Arbitration Commission sought to satisfy all three parties. And it failed abysmally. Its decision: ENSURES the continuation of a system under which those who earn more get more, those who earn less get less, and those who earn nothing do without; GUARANTEES another rise in the CPI; HANDS a large part of the 2.3 percent pay rise to the tax man; FAILS to do anything to improve our competitive position; MOCKS any claims the unions or the A.L.P. might make to be concerned about social justice or creating jobs; and ABDICATES responsibility for stopping claims for superannuation schemes based on productivity, although it is obvious the economy cannot afford them. Knee-cap clause By promising to rubber-stamp superannuation agreements the commission has given the unions carte blanche to force schemes through whether the economy can afford them or not. It is, in effect, a knee-cap clause - a pay-up or else opportunity for the bullies of the union movement to see themselves right at the expense of others. There is a slender chance the Federal Government may be able to slow down the super rush by threatening to delay the tax cuts promised for September. The success of such a move is even now debatable. Few key cards Nevertheless the cuts represent one of the few key cards the Government can play in an economy in which progress is largely dictated by the unions with little regard for the future. Most Australians accept the need for reduced standards of living in a world of falling commodity prices where our competitors have lower costs and inflation and interest rates. To make sacrifices to get somewhere in the future is worthwhile. But to make sacrifices and see the gains dissipated by union bloody-mindedness before the country can benefit from them would be a complete tragedy. B03i Daily Mirror - 5 November 1986 STILL CASH AND TIME TO GAMBLE Times are tough. Money's short, we are told, and the economy's not in the best of health. But, amazingly, we still can find the time and cash to have a flutter, particularly on Melbourne Cup Day. Apparently we cannot resist the temptation to live up to our world-wide reputation as enthusiastic sports who'll bet on anything, including flies crawling up a wall. And we've got the figures to prove it. Within a period of just 24 hours this week NSW punters wagered the amazing amount of $30 million on just two events - Monday night's Lotto draw and yesterday's Melbourne Cup. And that doesn't include the rest of yesterday's races, or the various other forms of legal - and illegal - gambling we indulge in like scratch cards and poker machines, blackjack and two-up. Lotto's prizemoney pool - the amount distributed among the winners - on Monday night amounted to a massive $12.7 million, including the Division 1 prize of $7 million, shared by 11 syndicates. Yesterday the State had an enormous $16.4 million punt on the Cup itself or more than $17 million if we add the TAB in the ACT, which also works as the Northern Territory TAB. B04 The Daily Telegraph 2006 words B04a The Daily Telegraph - 27 June 1986 Boom times for our steel industry But industrial action threatens one of the world's few profitable operations From FIA CUMMING in Canberra IT HAS become a cliche to talk about "the ailing steel industry". In fact the steel industry is doing very nicely, thank you. BHP's steel division is no longer the sore spot of its corporate empire. It is running close to full capacity, selling strongly not only here, but overseas. Where three years ago it was threatened with closure, it is now one of the world's few profitable steel operations. And where the axe once swung over thousands of jobs, em+ployment is actually increasing. Sadly, better times are now being threat+ened by a rising number of strikes and indus+trial disputes. The number of man hours lost through dis+putes in March was the highest since the Fed+eral Government's steel industry plan began in early 1984. MONITORING SITUATION Port Kembla workers are now on strike over bonuses in a dispute that began several months ago, spoiling the record further. The Steel Industry Authority, representing unions, employers and the Federal govern+ment, is worried about the industrial pro+blems and will be closely monitoring the situation over the next few months. But in other areas, the authority has every reason to be pleased with the turnaround achieved since the plan was introduced. The latest report from the authority, issued this week, shows that more than 90 per cent of Australia's steel making capacity is used. Raw steel production by BHP during the March quarter was 1.57 million tonnes, up al+most 10 per cent on the 1985 March quarter. On an annual basis, that means steel output is up by more than a seventh on 1983. In January, Port Kembla recorded its high+est monthly production since the plan began. Locally-produced steel is also competing well with imported steel. Imports have fallen markedly and in the March quarter were 10 per cent less than the previous quarter and 23 per cent less than the March 1985 quarter. The local industry's market share has risen to 91 per cent, showing that our steel is now more competitive. The devaluation of the Australian dollar has certainly helped the steel industry, as im+ports have become more expensive. But the authority "believes that improve+ments in operational efficiency and market+ing by the company have also contributed to the improved position." Exports are doing better for the same rea+sons. In Australian dollar terms, steel exports rose by 48 per cent in the nine months to February, 1986, compared with the same period in 1985. One of the aims of the steel plan was to reduce employment, with greater investment in capital. Since January 1984, more than 1700 jobs have been shed. But in the March quarter net employment increased by 1.1 per cent, the biggest increase in more than two years. Meanwhile, productivity has jumped from 175 tonnes per man to about 285 tonnes and will rise to nearly 300 tonnes next year when a new steel making process is introduced. At Newcastle however, which has the high+est productivity, the output is already 300 ton+nes per man. With such good results, BHP has found it worthwhile to invest heavily in steel. At the start of the plan, it agreed to spend $800 million over five years, but the total will now be $950 million. Much of this will go on the new continuous slab-casting method for raw steel. Against this is the niggling worry of indus+trial unrest. Although they are nowhere near the levels before the plan, disputes seem to be growing more serious. SERIOUS DISPUTES In 1981, more than 70,000 man hours were lost in an average month. By last year, this had been slashed to just 8500 man hours. But the first three months of this year showed a sharp rise. In March, the number of hours lost was more than 20,000 and the continuing strike at Port Kembla promises more bad figures. Both the authority and the Industry, Tech+nology and Commerce Minister, Senator But+ton, are disappointed at the strike level. They want to know why it is happening and will at+tempt to stop the rot setting in. When Robert Holmes a Court made his bid for BHP, there were fears he would close down the steel division. NSW Labor Council secretary, John Mac+Bean, spoke for many when he said: "I don't believe Holmes a Court would maintain the steel division at its current capacity or in its present form. "It is not the most profitable section. He is looking at gas and oil and not at the labor-intensive steel division, even though its pro+ductivity is as good as any other steel industry in the world." But last year, the steel division made $164.5 million profit and this year is expected to make more than $200 million. Despite good intentions, Mr MacBean may be selling the steel industry short. B04b Battler's novel work-for-dole scheme Daily Telegraph - 19 September 1986 By MIKE SAFE on the Gold Coast THE Gold Coast, with its long, lazy days in the sun, is the last place to expect passion about the hottest topic of our time - working for the dole. Its lifestyle - forgetting the high-rise moguls who make big dollars - centres on having a good time. However, Noel Evans, 46, a small businessman, believes Australia's good times have sunk like the summer sun over the Coast's rich hinterland, and the shadows of recession are closing in. A former motel and restaurant owner, he once employed more than 30 people. He still has money to invest, ideas to launch and possibly pro+fits to make. But at the moment, he would rather lay low, living off his as+sets which include land holdings built up over the years. He says while small business+men - the real makers of wealth, the innovators and creators of jobs - are forced into such a mood the nation will stay in the doldrums. Mr Evans' complaints are com+mon enough among the business community - taxes and interest rates that are too high, profits too small, an economy headed for re+cession and, despite all the politi+cal hot air, no immediate answers. As it all winds down, not even the easy life on the Coast can console him - he intends selling his house and heading back to Melbourne, his original home, where new investment opportuni+ties could be offering. Mr Evans says he is simply being a realist - not a cynic. And behind his hard-headed at+titude, he expresses real concern for where Australia is headed - and especially for the true victims, the unemployed. Out of this, he has formulated his own scheme which he believes will give both job-seekers and the community paying their benefits a decent go. The scheme, which has been running about in his mind for months, involves the controver+sial idea of working for the dole, but it enables the jobless to have a say in the sort of work they do. Mr Evans has given his plan the wordy title Let's Create Wealth And Give The Jobless A Go. He says working for the dole schemes, as advocated by the hard-line New Right, achieve lit+tle - no wealth is created and the unemployed are further alienated by work that doesn't interest them. Ridiculous "I think working for the dole is a damn good idea, but certainly not cleaning the streets or Meals On Wheels, which in the end become ridiculous," he says. "You can only employ so many and you are going to have an army of people running around trying to supervise it all. "That sort of thing is non-pro+ductive for the country, and so I put together this idea." This is how his plan would work: The Government would make it compulsory that to collect their benefits the unemployed would have to do two days work a week. The two days would be at any business willing to take them on. On completion, the worker would be given a Government chit to be exchanged for a cheque at a Government office, such as the CES or the Post Office. People working in productive industries, such as building or manufacturing, would receive an extra payment from either the Government or the employer. If the work situation proved favourable, the two-day period might even lead to a permanent job. Unemployed who tried to abuse the scheme by not being diligent would be pin-pointed through a point score system that assessed attitude to be shown on their pay chit. Unreasonable attitudes could mean suspension of benefits. Employers who tried to exploit the system - such as laying off workers to replace them with what would in effect be free labour - would be banned from the scheme and have their names published. Wealth The basis of the scheme would be creation of wealth by produc+tivity while giving training to the unemployed, who would be at lib+erty to change employers until they found something that suited them. From this, business should be able to spend more, thereby boosting industry. Other benefits from the scheme would be: - Training in an occupation for those who may not have work experience. - Wealth creation for Australia because more people would be producing. - Less unemployment and lower taxes where there will be reward for effort. Mr Evans is under no illusion his scheme will have some magic result - there will need to be an immense co-operative effort. "It's like anything - if no one wants to co-operate, be it big business, the Government or the unions, we can all go down the gurgler together," he said. B04c Daily Telegraph - 19 September 1986 `Rambo' fights back for free enterprise From Motoring Writer WAYNE WEBSTER in Munich AUSTRALIA'S embattled automotive industry will get a $20 million shot in the arm thanks to an ambitious export program about to be under+taken by BMW. In a bid to salvage its almost decimated share of the Aust+ralian car market, BMW Aus+tralia is desperately hoping to stitch together a lucrative ex+port deal with the German head office. The managing director of BMW Australia, Mr Ron Meatchem, said here yesterday that the vital export program was the only thing that stood between BMW and "extinction" on the strife-torn Australian market. Mr Meatchem is planning to ship Australian components to Germany in a bold bid to earn life-saving export credits to offset BMW's ballooning import bill, which has skyrocketed because of the falling Aussie dollar. "We want to become an impor+ter/exporter, a whole new role in the Australian car industry," said Mr Meatchem. "In this way we can survive the holocaust of the past six months." Mr Meatchem, the outspoken head of BMW Australia, has re+cently been nicknamed "Rambo" because of his verbal attacks on the Federal Government's motor industry policies. "Senator Button's motor in+dustry plan has turned from a path for importers into a rocky path to destruction," he said. According to Mr Meatchem, over the next 18 months impor+ters are going to find it difficult to survive, battling not only the Government's controversial Fringe Benefits Tax and sales tax increases on luxury cars, but also the sick and sorry Aussie dollar. "Under the present Labor Gov+ernment philosophy, we're com+pletely expendable," he said. "But we are an Australian com+pany in Australia." BMW Australia's bold plan is to sell fully-finished car components back to Germany in a bid to earn export credits and ease the terri+ble burden of importing cars. BMW Germany has already had a team in Australia looking at the local suppliers, and at least 15 local companies will be ap+proached to take part in the scheme. Mr Meatchem hopes to send Australian glass, aluminium, electrical products and suspen+sion gear back to Germany in order to earn cost-cutting credits. "The Government is making it tough for us to survive in Aus+tralia," he said. "In January, 1985, a BMW 735i cost $62,000, but by the end of this year it will be almost double - and the government is taking al+most 50 per cent of that in tax. "If we don't have the free enter+prise system, Australia is doomed as a nation." B05 The Sun/The Daily Telegraph 2026 words B05a The Sun - 27 June 1986 FAIR PLAY The Sun SAYS THE Arbitration Commission may yet change itself into a force for national eco+nomic sanity. The super scheme decision continued the commission's shift from industrial peace-keeper - at any price - to eco+nomic umpire. And the commis+sion promises to pay more attention to the economic consequences of future wage deci+sions. National ben+efit has, at last, become a measure of trade-union demands. This new forum effectively chal+lenges Mr Hawke to argue a case for economic action where previously he has publicly given only a wink, a nod or a hint of what he wants. Instead of half+backing a review of holiday penalty rates and passing the buck to employ+ers, the Prime Min+ister can now appeal to an umpire who will pay him more attention. The commission's latest decisions are a setback for unions. The strain on the Accord will increase, with polit+ical complications for the Government. But having a national umpire with two good eyes on the economic play should inspire widespread confi+dence. B05b The Sun - 4 August 1986 THE Sun SAYS ROCKDALE was always going to be a tough hurdle for the apprentice Premier, Mr Barrie Unsworth. He had little time in which to find a winning formula of his own. The amazing thing about this by-election, and the one for Bass Hill, is that so much could go wrong. The results are shattering to Labor's confidence in NSW. Ten years of almost uninter+rupted easy-riding are over. Mr Wran took his coat - and the coat+tails - with him when he quit poli+tics. Federal Labor, too, is shaken. Its economic struggles are a gloomy backdrop for any election. With a Federal Budget in the making, Rockdale and Bass Hill are vivid reminders of Mr Hawke's pledge to do the right thing for the nation - even at the risk of political defeat. But it would be wrong to see Barrie Unsworth as helpless politi+cal flotsam. What went wrong for him, however, were matters of style more than substance. Mr Unsworth came to the Pre+miership in a display of power politics which was both breath-tak+ing and offensive to many people. His humbling is a lesson for machine politicians that manipulat+ing or intimidating each other is not the same as winning popular votes. Tweed Heads - home or holiday house - hurt. Certainly, an earlier decision to live in Rockdale would have helped Mr Unsworth. The Premier flirted with a smiling image but quickly settled for brusqueness. And the monorail, not a key issue for Rockdale, helped to confirm the Premier as more at home with back-room deals than open Gov+ernment. Should he scrape in, Mr Unsworth will need to run a Gov+ernment less by the divine right of the NSW Labor Council than in response to popular will. And Opposition parties, State and Federal, have to start looking like alternative governments if they want to benefit. They can't count on Labor disas+ters mounting to crisis point. Anti-Labor parties have to show they possess not only hope for power but some chance of doing a better job. B05c The Sun - 12 November 1986 VIEWS TALKBACK THE Sun SAYS TICK UP a new charge against the Aussie Tax+man. Long reputed to be greedy, he is now revealed as having been a bumbling incompetent. Over a decade, says a parlia+mentary committee, the tax office failed to spend $39 million it was given to improve its computer equipment. As a result, it lost $2 billion a year because it could not process all the information avail+able to it. No doubt many people are laughing their heads off because some of that $2 billion a year is still in their pocket or stashed away in a Swiss bank. But put your last cent on this red hot certainty: the average worker with a weekly pay packet has being paying more to make up for the deficiencies of the Tax Office. That has happened with grim and automatic efficiency as mar+ginal rates of income tax put ordinary workers into tax brack+ets intended years ago to embrace the rich. Now, PAYE workers have to live with the knowledge that they not only subsidised the tax evasion games of the wealthy but also a Tax Office which leaked like a sieve. Efficiency has been the motive, if not always the method, of Mr Keating's tax reforms. That is why the Tax Office pressed for a national ID card to cut into the cash economy and prevent social security fraud. Efficiency may well have to start at home - before the Tax Office is given new powers. The Tax Office claims to be catching up with new computer systems. But the parliamentary watch+dog will be justified in treating that tax claim with suspicion and calling for proof. B05d The Sun - 8 September 1986 THE Sun SAYS MR HOWARD correctly identi+fies lower taxes, excessive union power and smaller gov+ernment as issues now in the mainstream of Australian life. Those also happen to to be issues which the New Right has highlighted and - with union work practices - pushed to the limit. But the Opposition Leader is mis+taken if he thinks he can claim the "freedom and independence" of the Liberal Party as a magic formula for warding off the New Right's more extreme pressures. He is kidding himself, just as was the New Right guru and former Treasury head, Mr John Stone, when he said the aims of the H.R.Nicholls Society lay outside party politics. Ideas are the true currency of politics. It takes more than wishful thinking to keep a particular set of ideas out of the political process. Some New Right thinking has already found public approval and is nudging the Liberals to positions where Mr Howard feels more comfort+able. He should be grateful. What he must guard against is the extremism which, in unstable eco+nomic times, would welcome a "strong leader" arriving on horseback to rescue the nation. Mr Howard, under pressure, could then find that his "free and indepen+dent" Liberals are part of Australian life - not above it. B05e The Sun - 10 October 1986 THE SUN SAYS ... CLEAN OUT THE RORTS THE State Government wants to abolish some wasteful work practices among its public servants. Now, in the spirit of effi+ciency and sweet reason, department and union repre+sentatives are to talk things over. The Premier should make clear that he expects real savings to the public purse, not a shuffling of the same old pack of industrial tricks. Only three months ago, the State Public Accounts Com+mittee noted that prison offi+cers were blatantly abusing sick leave rights to generate increased overtime. Then, after three years of talks, prison officers agreed to give up certain practices, including some overtime, in the interests of greater effi+ciency. But there was a pay-off. They work fewer hours and received a lump sum payment for a delay in introducing the new scheme. Also, the Gov+ernment had to hire more staff to make the system work. That kind of cosy deal appears to change very little, except to draw more wool over the public's eyes. The Accounts Committee will need to check next year how prison officers are using sick leave and, if necessary, get stuck into any woolly "efficiency" deals which remain. B05f Daily Telegraph - 19 September 1986 Less haste on judging the judges BOTH Attorney-General Terry Sheahan and Chief Justice Sir Laurence Street have made it plain they do not want to become involved in a public slanging match on the Judicial Commission issue. Unfortunately their exchanges have already embroiled them in an unprecedented public debate. This has left the distinct impression that the entire situation has been poorly handled. Mr Sheahan says he and his department have been working on the concept of the Judicial Commission for 12 months. It therefore seems strange that the Chief Justice, and the legal profession generally, only became fully aware of the Government's plans last week. It is ridiculous that the proposed legislation could reach the eve of its introduction to Parliament and not have been considered by the profession it will effect most. Mr Sheahan can hardly expect public confidence in legislation which has been so roundly condemned for the indecent haste of its introduction. Both the NSW Bar Association and the Law Society of NSW have now called for the deferral of the legislation. They rightly point out that the first the profession learnt of the proposed tribunal was by way of a press release on September 12. A copy of the first proposed draft bill of 31 pages was delivered to each of their members two days ago. A copy of a second draft Bill of 32 pages was delivered today with a request for comments to be made by tomorrow. Mr Sheahan*Sheehan and his department have been working on this important reform for 12 months and then expect the legal profession to accept it in 24 hours. His argument that the haste was necessary because of the need to deal with the special case of Judge Foord hardly holds water. Mr Sheahan yesterday admitted the allegations against Judge Foord could be dealt with by special royal commission if State Cabinet rejected his plans for the judicial commission. Proper consultation No one suggests that Cabinet reject the proposal out of hand. But there is definitely a case for the matter to be deferred and be given the due consideration it deserves. It would also allow time for proper consultation across Macquarie St and elsewhere. If that had occurred in the first place Mr Sheahan's reform would have been introduced without the brawl that has errupted. We have had too many instances of laws, especially Federal, being introduced in haste and amended in embarrassment. It would be wise for State Cabinet not to catch the disease. B05g Daily Telegraph - 16 October 1986 No overtaking proposal, just not practical THE NSW Staysafe Committee has completely missed the mark with its latest proposal to do battle with our rising road toll - they have tried to design an orange and ended up with a lemon. Its proposal to ban overtaking on all two-lane roads in NSW will go down in history as one of the silliest pieces of bureaucratic nonsense ever to grace the pages of a government report. Already the NRMA and the NSW Police Association have called the proposal impractical and likely to be ignored by many if it ever becomes law. There is no denying that there are idiots on the road and that the casualty rate from irresponsible overtaking is far too high. More Mayhem But to enshrine in law a system in which the only legal means of travelling on the open road is to drive in Indian file is to invite even more mayhem and the probability of increased driver frustration with its inevitable results. Oppressive laws are never the answer to difficult situations. Driver education can be. The Staysafe Committee has done a commendable job in the past in highlighting the dangers of and possible solutions to what has become one of the most devastating problems of modern living. It has come up with several commendable proposals which have made real improvements in the battle to keep the road toll down. But it has entered into the realms of the unrealistic when it suggests a solution which is neither practical nor capable of being adequately policed. As Police Association president, Lloyd Taylor, pointed out it would need at least another 200 police officers to enforce. It is not difficult to realise that the NSW force just does not have the manpower to handle that situation. Police presence And the NRMA proposal to spend the money involved on more overtaking lanes is surely a far more reasonable proposal than that envisaged. On the other hand, the Staysafe Committee may have hit on a winner with its suggestion that an increased police presence with giant electronic boards showing motorists how fast they are travelling may help in cutting down that other killer - speed. Any motorist knows the sobering effect the presence of a police car in a stream of traffic can have. The committee should be reminded that as bad as the problem may be, it calls for reasonable and practical solutions, not a cumbersome and unworkable system which could only have the effect of adding to the difficulties road users already face. B06 Sydney Morning Herald - 24 September 1986 2014 words Double standards SIR: I can longer support a govern+ment which finds it acceptable for me to be required to carry an identific+ation number in case I may be a tax cheat, yet which also can find it acceptable that our Treasurer can be allowed to claim more per year in living-away-from-home expenses than*that I bring home each year in after-tax salary. Graham Howard, Princes Street, Boronia Park. September 21 Policy fallout SIR: By breaking the ban on uranium sales to France, Australia virtually gives tacit approval to the continua+tion of French testing in the Pacific - the very reason the bans were imposed. The argument that France is obtaining uranium elsewhere has no bearing on this. By flouting party platform and conference resolution, and so aban+doning traditional, ethically-based Labor policy, the Government is depriving the public of a real choice between main parties at the next election. There is little point in having democratic elections if a party dishon+ours its commitments to the electorate when it attains government and thereafter. People don't elect politi+cians to use their discretion on major policy matters as Bob Hawke has done, but to carry out those policies. Alan Catford, Kingsford Avenue, Turramurra. September 18 Amazing grants Sir: The Australia Council's grants to foreign countries to exhibit art (Her+ald, September 13) is typical of its lack of sensitivity to Australians with the same ambitions. My company is going bankrupt and the Australia Council is giving money to outsiders with indirect terrorist connections. Amazing. M.P Gardiner, Director, Parramatta Theatre Company, Parramatta. September 18 Packaged Pope SIR: I was appalled at the seeming crass commercialisation (Herald, Sep+tember 15) that appears to be assoc+iated with the organisation of the tour of His Holiness, Pope John Paul II. Is there such a lack of faith in the relevance of the gospel message which the Pope ought to be representing that it needs to be packaged and sold like a pop festival? What is expected to be the outcome and achievement of the papal tour of Australia? One can only hope that the medium is not the message. Mary Hidden, Thomas Avenue, Roseville. September 18 Judging judges SIR: With all the brouhaha about the judges, one significant matter has been overlooked. It all started with rumours about sentencing anomalies and all of those matters were criminal matters under the "control" of the Crown. The Crown did not appear to have felt that something was "amiss" or to have sought to appeal against lack of severity of sentencing. Surely it is more appropriate that a panel of judges look into the conduct of the Government than the reverse. J.E.McDermott, Hollowforth Avenue, Neutral Bay. September 19 Single parents SIR: K.Silard (Letters, September 11) must surely realise that there is a price to be paid for receiving single-parent benefits. Increased surveillance is to prevent abuse of the welfare system. If there was no abuse, there would be no surveillance. I disagree that "attacks on privacy will tend to diminish self-esteem and increase dependence in the social security system". If anything, visits by social security officers have the effect of encouraging welfare recipients to assess their situation and weigh up the consequences of having their lifestyle monitored in this fashion. (It is often an incentive to go and get a job, especially when the children reach school age.) I haven't seen many single parents "reeling from the emotional trauma of child birth or a marital breakdown". The single parent tends to be better balanced emotionally than the unfor+tunate parents who battle to save a failing marriage. I applaud the Hawke Government's plans to make single fathers contribute to the financial upkeep of their offspring. I don't agree that the government is creating a second-class citizen out of the sole parent. We have a choice in this modern age. We can choose to be parents or to remain childless. We can choose to be married or single. All our choices have consequences. What does the Govern+ment have to do with it? Georgia Cummings, Westminster Boulevarde, Elanora (Qld). September 18 Beach traffic SIR: John Wyndham's scenario (Letters, September 17) of illegal four-wheel-drives sharing his seclusion at Hawks Nest is taken one step further on the coast at Harrington and Crowdy Head. On those picturesque beaches, access has been constructed to facili+tate the intrusion of four-wheeled monsters in order that their occupants may enjoy the sights or do a spot of fishing without actually using their legs. Despite our desire to enjoy a weekend at the beach, we would have been foolhardy to dare to lie down to sunbake and let the children loose at the water's edge. The risk of not being seen and hence run over is enormous. The only solution appeared to be to take a vehicle along with us as protection or erect a large warning flag. Are our lovely stretches of coastline destined to become mere car parks for the lazy, encouraged by compliant local councils. In the words of the song "The day Paradise put up a parking lot" is indeed here. What a lot of Norms we Australians are. Carey Buls Gundy Road, Scone. September 19 Out of his field SIR: I found Lynden Barber's review of Ronnie James Dio's concert to be one of the most aggressively acidic reports I have read in your paper (Arts and Entertainment, September 6). His criticism of one of the most respected musicians in the "hard rock" industry of the past decade was unjustified. Barber was obviously too pre+occupied with the excessive number of "dictionary-discovered" 10-letter words of such explicit grandeur and vivid splendour for his review to appreciate Dio's exciting and captivat+ing performance. Dio's whole stage act centres on the realms of fantasy. "My music is very steeped in fantasy," says Dio in one interview, "I think it's sometimes better not to remind people how awful life can be." Had Barber been aware of what Dio was trying to express on stage, he might have used more scope, and less bias, in his review. Comments like "side-splitting" and "self-parody performed without a hint of self-knowledge" emphasise that L.Barber is more accustomed to going to the opera, and listening to his Bach records over and over again, than appreciating a variation on an other+wise unrelentlessly boring rock scene. I certainly hope that L. Barber will stick to opera reviews (or take them up) and leave reviews beyond his field to more knowledgeable sources. M. Ivanovic, John Oxley Avenue, Werrington. September 17 Members ignored SIR: As active members of the ALP for the past 14 and seven years respec+tively, we write to protest at the current attitude of the leadership of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party. It is clear that the Parliamentary Labor Party does not consider itself accountable to the membership. The federal leaders have treated with contempt policies formulated by the party, policies endorsed by Austral+ians at the past two federal elections. The most recent examples of such a contemptuous attitude are the decision to expose our small economy to the fluctuations of international finance and the decision to sell uranium to France. Members of the party and others who voted the Government into power are effectively disenfranchised by this attitude. The time has come for members of the party and concerned members of the community to let the Parliamen+tary Labor Party know that we are withdrawing our support for a Gov+ernment which refuses to acknowledge the policies it was elected to imple+ment. Robert Cavanagh and Peter McDowell, Macquarie Street, Sydney. September 18 City is an architectural mishmash SIR: The suggestion by the Sydney City Council that the present slate roof of the Town Hall be replaced with a tin one, highlights the deplorable level of this city's aesthetic standards. In the almost 200 years of white settlement of this splendid landscape, we have managed to produce, in the Central Business District, but one significant building structure, the shells of the Opera House (the interior is a disaster), a few colonial buildings of note (of note only because they were built by a very, very young country which still fortunately clung close to its parent's aesthetics) and a vast mass of what must be the worst buildings anywhere in the world. Were it not for the harbour, our blue skies and our sunlight, Sydney would be recognised for what it is, a mishmash of crude, poorly designed, oversized structures, mostly ill-shaped, poorly proportioned, faced with nasty materials and producing, for the city's users, a deplorable urban environ+ment. Having recently returned from Italy and the US where I studied their urban fabric, Sydney's horrors are all the more clearly evident. To visit Pier One or wander about The Rocks or in Martin Place is to see the "tin roof" syndrome of this city's creators in evidence everywhere. In what self-respecting city would its principal pedestrian space be paved with a disease like Martin Place's pebbles or furnished with red plastic seats and gypsy caravans? More like a poor suburban shopping centre. Let's start to do everything with quality and with style so that we, as citizens, can enjoy a beautiful city and leave things of significance for those who are to come. Neville Gruzman, Queen Street, Woollahra. September 20 Ethnicity not evil SIR: While your editorial, August 17, recognises the dilemma of the Indo-Chinese and Lebanese youth and the shortcomings of the Ethnic Affairs Commission report, it fails to suffi+ciently stress the need for urgent action. The reply of the commission's chairman, Dr Totaro (Letters, August 12), tends to distract us from the real issues. Frankly, I don't care who is causing the trouble out west; the fact is it's being caused, and it must be stopped. The pecularities of the groups causing the problems must be identified so that solutions to accom+modate those pecularities can be found. In this case, ethnicity is highly relevant. Ethnicity is not evil. No-one in Australia is expected to have cultural amnesia. Differences in affectations, imaginations and historical experi+ences are mutually appreciated and all people are asked to do in Australia is simply to be themselves within the framework of Australian law. The Ethnic Affairs Commission was cre+ated in this environment. Through a process of selection based on humanitarian and other grounds, Australia has brought in workers for her industries. However, during periods of economic decline, the burden of unemployment will be carried by the most disadvantaged. Now those are the Indo-Chinese and Lebanese youth whose families have come here in the last decade or so and who are now competing for jobs, recognition and low-cost housing. In Britain and in other West European countries that burden is carried by second and third generations of immigrants of the 1960s. There is no use in dodging this dilemma, and ad hoc measures will not suffice. Any measures taken (such as providing centres with youth-oriented activities, counselling, and educa+tional - particularly language - courses) must be part of an overall pattern designed by today's govern+ments. That plan must attempt to exhaust the complexity of the interests and needs of these youth. And implementation must begin now. Richard Mitry, President, Sydney Lebanese Lions Club, Castlereagh Street, Sydney. August 15 Wattle Threat SIR: I was perturbed at Shirley Stackhouse's recommendation for the general planting of Acacia saligna (golden wreath wattle) (Style, August 14). Acacia saligna, among other spec+ies, is a great threat to the local vegetation of the Sydney region. As Mrs Stackhouse points out, this wattle has already become "naturalised" in a lot of areas around Sydney, thereby endangering local species. The fact that the DMR has been planting A. saligna on roadside verges is to be deplored and is a further reason to discourage the introduction of yet more plants of this species. The DMR must itself now devise a plan for more appropriate management of its plantings, the main thrust of which should be suitable plantings of locally indigenous species of trees, shrubs and ground covers wherever possible. In the meantime, it is very disap+pointing to read that the Herald's garden columnist is encouraging the disintegration of Sydney's very special floral identity. B07 The Canberra Times 2003 words B07a The Canberra Times - 27 November 1986 CREDIBILITY IN TATTERS President Reagan of the United States has ensured that he will be a "lame duck" during his final two years in office. The exposure this week of secret arms sales to Iran and the redirecting of some of the proceeds to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, has stripped him of much of his credibility, especially in foreign affairs. He seems to have eschewed advice from the professionals of the State Department, including his Secretary of State, Mr Shultz, and placed his trust in the amateur conservatives that he appointed to advisory positions in the White House. These people had the backing of Mr Reagan's right-wing supporters in the Republican Party, who have made Mr Shultz a target because of his desire to achieve arms-control agreement with the Soviet Union and his support of President Aquino of the Philippines. The extreme right in the US wants no truck with communists and puts its trust only in superior US military strength. The right has encouraged Mr Reagan in his opposition to the left-wing Sandinista Government of Nicaragua and has financially supported the Contras. The shipping of arms to Iran, a nation that the President accused of sponsoring terrorism, was a blow to his reputation, aggravated by his public explanation that the deal was to build better relations with so-called moderates in the Iranian Government, rather than to secure the release of American hostages held by Middle East terrorist groups. Surveys indicate that most Americans do not believe him, knowing well that freeing hostages is a sacred cause with the President. But apart from their doubts about the reasoning behind the sale of arms, many people regard it as poor tactics. Could it not encourage Iranian-backed terrorists to grab more hostages so that they could be bartered for arms? Could the sale merely extend the long bloody war between Iran and its neighbour, Iraq? Who are the moderates in Iran and will they actually have any influence in securing peace in the Middle-East? There has been little evidence of a rise of moderate feeling in Iran, and, contrary to what Mr Reagan told his people, there is none that terrorist acts by Iranian-backed groups have decreased since the arms were delivered. Resignation and dismissal There was another shock for the American people in the revelation this week that money from the sales to Iran had been improperly diverted to the Contras during a period in which the Congress had refused to sanction such aid. The revelation has led to the resignation of the President's National Security Adviser, Vice-Admiral John Poindexter, and the dismissal of his deputy, Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver North. The White House is insisting that Colonel North acted alone in arranging the transfer of the funds to the contras and that the President was not informed. This, however, is not washing with either Congress or the public, even though Colonel North had helped raise private money for the Contras. If people are expected to believe that a second-rank aide was running his own foreign-affairs program in secret they are entitled to ask just what sort of foreign policy is being conducted by the White House and who is directing it, experts or Mr Reagan's supporters on the far right. Neither Admiral Poindexter nor Colonel North had expertise in foreign policy before his appointment to the White House staff and it is no wonder Mr Shultz and his senior deputy, Mr John Whitehead, have distanced themselves from the arms sale. Mr Whitehead told a Congressional committee hearing this week that the Iranian affair had marred the credibility of Mr Reagan and the United States. The reaction of the world had been "universally negative", he said. It is rare for either the Secretary of State or the Department of State to contradict the President in public and the fact that it has now happened indicates the deep rift between the department and the White House. If Mr Reagan succumbs to outside pressure and asks Mr Shultz to resign because of his lack of support over the arms deal, the reputation of the US will fall further. Mr Shultz is a trusted negotiator and well liked both in and outside the U.S. If he went there would be no brake on the excesses of the White House hawks. The US, the Western superpower, is the nation that small countries depend on to preserve peace and negotiate with the Soviet Union on reducing the nuclear arsenal. Over the final two years of the Reagan Administration it will be difficult for the small nations to put their full faith in the US or to end suspicions that the US says one thing and does the opposite. Israel too has harmed its reputation by its role in helping to facilitate the arms sale and because of allegations that it had a hand in the transfer of funds to the Contras. The quest for peace in the Middle East will be set back now that Israel has been revealed as helping to secure arms for Iran, a nation distrusted by the moderate Arab states. B07b The Canberra Times - 26 September 1986 TIGHTENING UP THE P.S. THE PRIME Minister, Mr Hawke, put Commonwealth public servants on notice yesterday that their future work practices would be much closer to those in private enterprise. In a statement to Parliament on public-service reforms, he said the Public Service reflected the management and work-style of the "lucky" Australia of the 1960s and 1970s, but that the nation could no longer afford that. Managers in commerce and industry were being urged to greater efficiency to help get the nation out of the economic slump, and the same applied to public-service managers. In a 15-page statement to Parliament, Mr Hawke announced a series of measures, including the establishment of an Efficiency Scrutiny Unit to oversee all public-service operations, a requirement for all departments to reduce administrative expenses, redeployment or dismissal of redundant and inefficient staff, and a review of flexitime. In addition, managers will be given greater powers in staff promotions, and procedures are to be simplified to reduce delays in filling vacancies. Many public servants will feel aggrieved by Mr Hawke's statement, since, as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, he supported the Whitlam Government's measures to make the Public Service a pacesetter for working conditions and an example for private enterprise to follow. But the present economic conditions demand that the Public Service look more like commerce and industry rather than vice versa. However loudly the public-service unions complain, there will be little sympathy for them in the community, where many people have long wondered why public servants are virtually safe from the sack, whatever their ability of performance. The Public Service will, if the reforms are effectively carried through, no longer automatically provide a job for life in which the deadheads can bide their time waiting for a generous superannuation interspersed with long-servie leave and sick leave. The Public Service has too many people known as "promotion barriers", occupying positions they have little interest in and preventing the young hopefuls from gaining experience. A welcome innovation announced by Mr Hawke is the abolition of appeals against promotions above the Class 8 clerical level; for lower levels, the appeal process will be streamlined. For too long the Public Service has endured long delays and tedious appeals processes that have left senior positions vacant for months. However, in the eagerness to streamline the promotion and appeal system an important difference between the Public Service and private enterprise must not be overlooked. Cronyism, personal preference, even religious and political preference may be the prerogative of a private employer: after all, the private employer pays the wages. But the public pays the wages of public employees, and the public is entitled to a Public Service based on merit alone. There is no place for political, religious or personal preference in the Public Service, and the economies of any changes to the promotion and appeal system must be weighed against the possibility of a long-term erosion of the high tradition of a neutral Public Service. But economy and efficiency are important. Many people will applaud the end of automatic higher-duties allowances for those temporarily in higher positions. When a relatively senior person is placed on higher duties someone sits in his or her chair on higher duties and there is a ripple effect all the way down to the junior staff. Further, a person briefly in a higher post does not carry the same responsibility as the long-term occupant, and should not be paid as much. More freedom for managers The higher-duties allowance should have been reviewed years ago. Also long overdue is an end to the nonsense that a department has to spend its budget outlay within a set year or risk a lower allocation the following year. This has led to a rash of spending on interstate trips, publications and other items towards the end of the year. Under the new arrangements, money, within limits, can be carried over into the next financial year and departments will have greater freedom in how they spend it. If the Government wants public-service managers to act like private managers it must give them greater freedom. The keen and energetic public servant will welcome the new measures but he or she may be concerned about the operations of the proposed Efficiency Scrutiny Unit, which will report direct to the Prime Minister. Despite the promise that the scrutiny of departments will be co-operative ventures between the unit and the departments, it would be wrong to assume that the unit, to be partly staffed by outsiders, will be infallible. Mr Hawke's statement is deficient is several ways. The question of increasing the efficiency and accountability of statutory authorities has been further delayed while ministers consult the authorities. Despite previous promises of reform, the statutory authorities have been left untouched. Mr Hawke announced a review of flexitime to end abuses. Many people believe the Government should be able to restrict flexitime and prevent situations that occur on the afternoon before a long weekend, when many offices are almost unstaffed. But to abolish it altogether could be counter-productive; not only through lost staff morale, but because flexible working hours can result in efficiency. Not many in private enterprise work a strict nine-to-five day. If they did, industry would suffer. B07c The Canberra Times - 30 August 1986 HEALTH CARE DECLINES "It's got to the stage where people have to die before anything is done." This disturbing statement, published on the front page of The Canberra Times on Thursday, was made by a doctor who had tried for 10 days to have a patient with heart trouble admitted to a Canberra public hospital. Health authorities say the doctor "clearly has not followed standard admission procedures". Whatever the reason, it emphasises the growing frustration of the medical profession, not just in Canberra, but in most parts of Australia, with the shortage of hospital beds, especially for patients requiring elective surgery. In Canberra, it appears that the longer an elective surgery patient is likely to be in hospital the longer he or she will have to wait for a bed. Preference goes to those expected to be discharged within a day or so. To get patients to hospital, some doctors have, in desperation, sent them to casualty departments hoping that from there they would gain admittance to a normal hospital ward. The word "elective" is not strong enough to convey the urgency of the needs of many patients. Too often the word is associated with cosmetic surgery - a facelift or a "nose job". While many people accept that cosmetic surgery has a role in improving the appearance and therefore the self-esteem of a patient, it is generally accepted that when hospitals are crowded the cosmetic patients should drop to the end of the queue. However, elective surgery can be much more serious: it can reveal that the patient is seriously ill, as when elective surgery to remove a lump reveals the presence of cancer and the need for urgent treatment. B08 The Age 2010 words B08a The Age - 20 May 1986 Keating rude, but also right FROM worry over a trade imbalance, the Federal Government has managed to create a full-scale crisis of confidence in its unity, leadership ability and hence the prospects for the economy. It has been a thoroughly unimpressive performance by some senior ministers and the Prime Minister. So inept has their handling of the matter been that attention now is focusing on the so-called rift between Mr Hawke and Mr Keating, instead of on the balance of payments and related economic problems. Instead of all debate being on the most effective short and long term measures to turn the trade figures around, the nation is being distracted (if not entertained) by the pathetic*bathetic sight of a Prime Minister trying to run the country and protect his ego from half way around the world and a Deputy Prime Minister who is able only to wheel out the tired excuse that the media somehow got it all wrong. Let us put that notion to rest. It was the Treasurer who spoke of Australia becoming a third-rate economy, possibly a banana republic, and who told a press conference that the expanded Advisory Committee on Prices and Incomes meeting in two weeks would be "the most comprehensive discussion of issues since the summit" three years ago. The Industrial Relations Minister, Mr Willis, raised the possibility of the Government telling the national wage bench the outcome of the meeting. Mr Bowen said and did nothing to dispel this view until Mr Hawke pulled the strings from China. Indeed, the Minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce, Senator Button, reinforced Mr Keating's line over the weekend with his speculation on the agenda for the meeting. The message the media got on Friday was exactly the one Mr Keating and Mr Willis wanted. It was, moreover, the proper message for them to be passing on. None of the Government's squirming in any way diminishes the severity of the trade imbalance. When a country is so reliant on mining and rural exports, and its manufacturing sector is so underdeveloped that it cannot take advantage of even a 30 per cent devaluation in the currency, there is cause for alarm. Unless there is a concerted effort by governments, unions and business, we can look forward to continued deterioration in our living standards until world commodity prices pick up. There is no sign of that happening. The volume of our rural exports, for example, is expected to drop three per cent this year, and the value is expected to fall four per cent. Coking coal volumes are static and prices are depressed or falling. Steaming coal exports are likely to grow slightly, but prices have been kept low by the oil slump. On the other hand, import prices are high because of the devaluation, meaning our terms of trade are likely to remain bleak. However indelicate his words and methods might have been, Mr Keating was on the right track last week with his warnings of economic misery and his announcement of the special ACPI meeting. A shock was needed to focus attention on the real structural problems inhibiting the nation's economic development. That Mr Keating sent the dollar plummeting on world markets is regrettable but, in the longer term, it might be a small price. That he made the PM feel a bit left out is neither here nor there. Mr Keating took advantage of bad economic news to convince the spending ministers and some of the dimmer union officials of the need for restraint. He also served notice on industry that important changes had to be made. The Government ought to proceed with the special meeting, while containing expectations. It should not pretend it is just another routine get together. The ACPI meeting should discuss the tax cuts, superannuation, and public sector spending. It must also, as Mr Crean has said, consider industry development policies and other measures to prevent a recurrence of the problem. To its great credit, the ACTU is willing to negotiate delays to superannuation and tax cuts. The meeting should seize on the ACTU's flexibility and lay the groundwork for restraint in the Premiers' conference and Loan Council meeting, and in the budget. In the longer term, there will need to be dramatic improvements in productivity and innovation, and reduction in disputation in manufacturing industry to restore some balance to the economy. If Mr Keating's often flamboyant language can push governments, business and unions in that direction, we would do better to applaud what he does than to blanch at the way he does it. B08b The Age - 20 May 1986 Let them go free It takes an extraordinary man and an extraordinarily worthy cause to bring nearly a third of a million people out on to the streets of New York City. Mr Anatoly Shcharansky, the Soviet Jew who survived 13 years of persecution before being allowed to emigrate to Israel several months ago, is such a man. His cause is the tragedy of up to 400,000 Jews who have asked for permission to leave the Soviet Union and thereby fallen foul of the authorities. To apply for an exit visa is an act of courage in itself for, more often than not, it means instant loss of position in Soviet society. To be Jewish in the Soviet Union, even for those who have no desire to leave, is to experience a form of discrimination that is tolerated, indeed encouraged, by the senior leadership in Moscow. Anti-semitism, usually in the guise of anti-Zionism, is a part of life. Practising Jewish families are harassed. Conspicuously intelligent children mysteriously fail to pass university entrance examinations. Innocent individuals find themselves being convicted of crimes and sent to labor camps. Yiddish is no longer allowed to be taught in Soviet schools. Hebrew fares even worse. The disproportionately large Jewish contribution to Soviet art and science is disregarded. Only by the very widest stretch of imagination could most of those who wish to leave be termed dissidents. Most still simply want to go to Israel, although a great many would rather go on to the United States. But the message that Mr Shcharansky was trying to get across at his rally in New York was that the refusniks have pathetically few opportunities for publicising their plight in a closed and repressive society. Similar problems are faced by any number of other ethnic or religious groups which find themselves at odds with the Soviet system, including Armenians, Pentecostals, Lithuanian Catholics, Ukrainian nationalists, Crimean Tartars, and individuals who for various reasons find themselves in conflict with the state over issues of conscience or principle. Yet the Soviet Union is obliged by the Helsinki accords on human rights to respect individual liberties, including the right to emigrate. The fact that no attention is paid to this commitment, even by a new Politburo which prides itself on a more open style of government, shows that the Soviet Union remains morally moribund. It falls to governments, organisations and individuals in the West to ensure that international attention remains focused on the appalling lack of human rights in the Soviet Union. Seven years ago, the Australian joint parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and defence recommended the formation of a standing committee on human rights to remind the Soviet Government of its obligations. The Federal Government could set an excellent example by acting on that recommendation. B08c The Age - 15 September 1986 A link in the festival chain Perth and Adelaide have their arts festivals, and so does Sydney. From today it will be Melbourne's turn. For the next 18 days Melbourne will be host to the Spoleto Melbourne Festival of Three Worlds, so named because it will be linked with sister festivals in Spoleto, Italy, and Charleston, South Carolina. The original Spoleto festival was the brainchild of the composer, Gian Carlo Menotti. He is artistic director of the Melbourne festival, and the official program, which will be launched tonight with Ken Russell's controversial production of `Madam Butterfly', bears the stamp of his vision and personality. Experience shows that arts festivals tend to work best in small centres where all, or almost all, of the main events are located within walking distance of each other. In large sprawling centres they can be lost. It was for this reason that Mr Menotti demurred when the idea of a festival for Melbourne was first submitted to him. The next three weeks will show whether his initial instinct was right, or whether Melbourne will prove the exception to the rule. Melbourne lacks the intimacy of Spoleto, Dubrovnik or Avignon, or other such European festival cities. What it does have, though, is the best performing arts centre in Australia. It can also boast a range of museums, galleries and theatres which, like the Arts Centre, will help to show off the artists and performers to the best advantage. The official program is rich in diversity and quality. The original fears that the festival would be dominated by imports to the exclusion of local works and artists have been dispelled. The dance, music and drama programs, for example, each feature new home-grown works devised especially for Spoleto alongside the major productions from abroad. As with Adelaide or Edinburgh, the festival has also attracted a huge number of fringe activities which should find a ready audience, particularly among younger people and those whose interests run to such things as cabaret, circus and improvisation rather than "high art" forms like opera. The Melbourne festival has been backed by the Victorian Government to the tune of $2.5 million. The money is coming not from the arts budget, but from a special state development fund. The Government has recognised that as well as enriching the cultural life of the community, a festival is important in generating tourist income. The Government's support, self-interested though it may be, is welcome. It should not be forgotten, however, that while the Government has thrown its weight behind the Melbourne festival, it was the Italian community and those involved with the Italian Arts Festival in Melbourne who first floated it. It has yet to be decided whether Spoleto Melbourne will be an annual or a biennial festival. Either way, it promises to be a stimulating event in the city's cultural life. B08d The Age - 15 September 1986 A turn for the worse in Chile GENERAL Augusto Pinochet, Chile's military ruler since overthrowing the Allende Government 13 years ago, once liked to say that he was introducing a new era of order and stability to a troubled society. The recent dramatic attempt on his life demonstrates just how false that boast has proved to be in a country with a strong democratic tradition. Chileans are becoming increasingly polarised over the future of the dictatorship now that his intention to remain in power for life is out in the open. Last month the septuagenarian President announced that he needed to stay on until 1998 in order to ensure that his "new order" took firm hold. Under the 1980 constitution, which stipulates that a sole government candidate must be chosen on a straight yes or no ballot, General Pinochet has the power to nominate himself for re-election in 1989. Even members of the junta from the air force and navy balked at the news that he wants another term. For the moment, however, his support among the military is strong. So is his backing from the bulk of the business community. The opposition admits that it is divided and weak after so many years under an oppressive administration. Things might have been different if General Pinochet had recognised a national accord worked out last year between a wide variety of political groups and given the blessing of the church. The idea was to promote a genuinely democratic alternative in the 1989 election. But the President has done everything he can to discredit the accord in particular and civil protest in general on the ground that these matters lead to unrest and instability. Several thousand political protesters were detained in the first half of this year. Now General Pinochet can say that the assassination attempt merely proves his point. B09 The Herald 2037 words B09a The Herald - 17 November 1986 Planely, a new train of thought Peking. - "Would everybody please get off the plane," the stewardess announced. "We apologise for the delay. The aircraft has been struck by a truck." The announcement almost came as a relief. We had been sitting on the steamy tarmac in Canton for just over an hour, waiting to take off for Peking. I had been flying with this particular airline, because in China, it's the only airline in town. At first we had been de+layed because we were wait+ing for some late passengers to board. This was most un+characteristic. The late passengers had to be high ranking party cadres. And then we were delayed some more, ostensibly be+cause there had been a mix-up in boarding passes. This particular airline had been known to take whole gaggles of tourists bound for Hong Kong and deliver them to the Tibetan plateau and not seem to care overly much. "Probably got wind of some+body on board with a bomb," a fellow passenger quipped blackly. We laughed together. And then we were told the plane had been struck by a truck. We disembarked as we were told. And sure enough, it had. Mobile stairs had been driven into the tail assembly of our aging Trident, and re+mained jammed under the plane. The pilot and co-pilot had taken advantage of the conve+nient stairs, and had climbed up to the tail with flashlights. In the pitch darkness they were running their flashlights back and forth over the tail assembly in search of damage. We were told to wait in the terminal, and that we would be told when we could re+board. Reboard? Contrary to all expecta+tions, I have discovered the Chinese to be among the most happy, carefree, utterly laid-back people I have ever en+countered. I have also deve+loped the firm conviction that happy, carefree, utterly laid-back people are the very last people you would want to be running an airline. "X-ray! X-ray! Aren't you even going to X-ray the bloody thing?" I demanded of a bemused airline employee. To be fair they may have done in time. A fortunate few among us were shifted to a different flight, and arrived in Peking only a few hours be+hind schedule. Ominously, a notice board in Peking's Capital Airport still showed the original flight as "delayed". They were apparently still planning to try to get the thing off the ground. "Probably waiting for the chewing gum to set", a fellow passenger quipped blackly. We laughed together again. Why not? We were on the ground. On the ground is where you can enjoy some of the stories you hear. Like folding chairs being put in the aisles to accommodate surplus passen+gers on routes in the back of beyond. Probably an exaggeration. And like a co-pilot finding himself trapped on the passenger side of the flight deck door by a faulty lock, only to be joined there by the pilot who came out to investi+gate and also got trapped. In full view of appalled passen+gers the pair then proceeded to smash in the door with a fire axe in order to get back to the controls. At least so the story goes. I was not a witness. I have been witness to emergency exits piled high with passengers' hand lug+gage. And I have been witness to flights where 10 to 20 per cent of the seat backs were broken and would not go into an upright position. And I have been witness to a Trident, carrying media during the recent Royal tour, loaded to the hilt with camera gear requiring every last pre+cious millimetre of runway at Kunming to get airborne. The angle of attack was such on take-off that several passen+gers reported hearing the fuselage scrape the runway. I did not hear this myself, but then I was trying very hard to faint at the time. And I have been witness to an aircraft in which I was sitting being struck by a truck. And that will just about do me for one lifetime. B09b The Herald - 29-30 November 1986 Still standing after bruising year Derryn Hinch So you thought you had a lousy year! I come to the end of another year on Mel+bourne radio battered, financially bruised, but - to again quote from Elton John - "I'm still stan+ding." It may also surprise some people that for me the end of 1986 looms closer on an optimistic note. Optimistic despite the fact that still hanging over me (awaiting a Supreme Court Full Bench appeal decision) is a six-week jail sentence and a $25,000 fine for two contempt of court convictions. Optimistic despite the fact that I will go into 1987 appealing against a sent+ence of 250 hours community service after a Magistrate's Court conviction for naming a judge in a controversial rape-in-marriage case. Optimistic despite a four-day suspen+sion without pay last week by a 3AW management frightened of having its license to broadcast affected by a future decision of an omnipotent and at times anti-journalist attitude of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal. (I had my say on that in the The Herald last week and won't rehash it here.) Optimistic because basically, I guess, I AM an optimist. Cynical ... true. Harsh at times ... true. A bull terrier (I'm told) on some issues ... true. Dis+illusioned and disappointed sometimes .. true. Angry about, and often despair+ing of, politicians ... true. And angry and emotional about the lack of funds, the lack of police, the lack of counsellors, the lack of governmental and at times judicial understanding about a cancer gnawing away at our society ... a plague called child moles+ting ON THAT I will not, and cannot, say more because of legal matters men+tioned above. Maybe it is naive to talk about optim+ism when you look back on 1986. Both at home and abroad. It brought us political terrorism and a car bomb in South Yarra. It brought the car bomb to the city during lunch-hour and a promising policewoman, Angela Taylor, dux of her Police Academy class, had body and career shattered. It brought us more Mad Max bullets. There and elsewhere we saw again the poignant TV news pictures of policemen wounded. Bullets for men who were just doing their jobs - protecting you and me. It brought Australia international headlines that we expect to see from other countries: the two words that make you cringe when put together - the words "Pope" and "assassin." (And if you need propping up when thinking of optimism then think of the extraordinary bravery of the man in white who in Australia plunged into crowds despite having felt the pain of a gunman's bullets in the past.) Internationally it was, tragically, bul+lets and bombs as usual. And near year's end we saw the twisted logic of President Reagan trying to explain that by selling weapons to arch enemy Iran he - as a man of peace - was trying to shorten the six-year Iran-Iraq*Irak war. On that basis, by selling them a cut-price H-bomb he could make a bid for the next Nobel Peace Prize. The president kept insisting that sell+ing weapons to Iran "moderates" through Israel was a correct and proper foreign policy stance. The fact that he announced the cancellation of the illegal deal after he was found out didn't change his public stance. Neither did the sacrificial, scapegoat+ing, dumping of two senior White House advisers. Shades of Nixon and the exit of Haldeman and Ehrlichman as he tried to cut off the tide of slime before it seeped under the door of the Oval Office in the White House. BACK home we had the protected parliamentary prognostications of Senator Howe and the Minister of Social Security, start to sound hollow when more and more dole cheats were flushed out. Some got thousands of your dollars... and at least one went to jail for getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in a multiple identity scam. Some people gasped when the Na+tional Times claimed last week that in a new dole fraud crackdown social secur+ity investigators had found that one in five people investigated were cheating - 20 per cent! Forgive me if I say "I told you so." As you may know from my 3AW program... or earlier columns... when investigators ran a check on single-parent benefit-claimers who had been getting deserted wife benefits for seven years or more they discovered that 75 per cent were cheating. And how does your P.A.Y.E. wage slip look this week? We've had the disillusioning nurses' strike which has brought physical suffer+ing to patients, mental and physical suffering to 30,000 so-called "elective" (read that non-emergency) surgery pa+tients, doubts and trauma to nurses who feel they are in a last-chance bunker fight and embarrassment to a Labor government which inherited some of the problems but could have handled this better. We've had: - Paul Keating's dollar-plunging "banana republic" predictions. - The re-election of Joh, in his own right, despite the predictions. - The FBT and the poll evidence that Bob Hawke can not only no longer walk on water but that he and the Treasurer are stirring the mud at the bottom of the pond. - And the inexorable decline of John Howard into the political quicksand called the opinion poll while he and his sidekicks complain about the things that Peacock's sidekicks are doing. They are the same familiar destabilising things that Howard and his people did to Peacock. ANYHOW back to optimism. Taxes, direct and indirect are squeezing the middle class. So are rates and other hidden charges. Pensioners get treated as if they hadn't spent 30, 40 or 50 years paying taxes. They get told that a pension and some basic warmth and comfort in your old age is not a right but a privilege in the lucky country. Nobody ever told them that on the election campaign trail. So why be optimistic? Because we have the potential for greatness. Not sabre-rattling world pow+er greatness. We are not, and will never be, "a world power." But we have a chance, perhaps unique, to take moral positions and principled positions and tell our ene+mies (and our friends) where we really stand on mining uranium and South Africa and Star Wars and Afghanistan and socialised medicine and the drug industry and corruption. Just imagine how tall we would stand in the world if we were known as THE country in the world which treated our old people at home or in hospital better than any other country, East or West. Nice thought to end a year of columns with. P.S. Have a happy and meaningful time in the weeks ahead. And if you drink, don't drive. B09c The Herald - 29-30 November 1986 Bearing in mind Parents' pride goes before the fall ... Dr Kenneth Isaacs Only upon the birth of one's own child can one know the full meaning of the trite phrase, "bundle of joy". Proud parents respond to the event of birth with intense pleasure, and along with concern for immediate care, start fantasising the child's future. Sometimes it is because a parent per+ceives a child as an extension of self rather than as a separate being, that sense of competition with other parents emerges, with vicarious parental participation in each step of progress of the developing child. The desire for a super-child creeps into mother or father. That desire can yield disaster. At minimum, the dang+ers lurking along the paths are ser+ious enough that it should make parents cautious when they find themselves thinking in terms of super-child. Numerous plans are available to teach children to read at one year, be toilet trained at six months, play the piano as*a soon as they can sit, and do maths at two years to support the glittering promise to have a college graduate at 15 years of age. Some parents leap to the opportunity to enter their child in an infant olym+pics. The tour de force of complex math capacity before the child can deal well with words to describe the problems, toilet training before nerve fibre has developed a myelin insulat+ing sheath that can allow the child to have clear messages anticipating the event, or listening to philosophic treatises in which words are not understood, etc. can create lifelong problems. B10 The Sun News-Pictorial/The Herald 2009 words B10a The Sun News-Pictorial - 17 November 1986 Who's most important, Ms Bolger? CONGRATULATIONS, Irene Bol+ger. You are the first to unite the nurses. Compassion and love for nursing seem to be illegal tender when paying the SEC, gas etc. Stick with it, nurses. Supporter (Middle Park). B10b The Sun News-Pictorial - 23 September 1986 Fred just has to stay, his loyal fans say I FIND it unspeakably horrendous that you suggest putting down dear old Fred Bassett. His loyalty to and com+ments on his humans beat all other strips for intelligence. Why not euthanasia for Norm, or Robotman? Loves Ya, Fred (Frankston). Leave Fred Bassett alone. Read something else. There is plenty to read in The Sun. Mrs Rushton (Thornbury). B10c The Sun News-Pictorial - 29 October 1986 Botham, leave your killer instinct home! IAN BOTHAM intends living here because of the great fishing and shooting. How old was the 31 kg sailfish he caught, and what exact+ly does he like killing with a gun? Stay in England Ian, we have enough people like you here already. Mrs B. Ferris (Mont+morency). B10d The Sun News-Pictorial - 29 October 1986 MY farmer husband is incapacitated (accident) and I have to manage the finances. I asked Rural Finance for help and they said the farm was viable and I should go back to the bank. The bank now charges me 24 per cent, plus other charges. What hope do I have? Kicked When Down (Kerang). B10e The Sun News-Pictorial - 1 December 1986 WHY do Australian and state selectors allow district clubs to play international cricketers? We should promote our own to have more potential from which to choose at all levels. Surely we could produce a John Emburey? Lofty Pearce (Pascoe Vale S). B10f The Sun News-Pictorial - 1 December 1986 DEAR Peter Harley: The white waratah found at Errinundra is not unknown in East Gippsland. Several years ago three residents found white waratahs in an area between Bonang and Bendoc. Each was a separate discovery, years apart. Mrs A. Nation (Orbost). B10g The Sun News-Pictorial - 1 December 1986 DEAR 3Rs & Former Infant Teacher: Illiteracy is caused by teaching methods used since 1968, physical handicaps and parental non-cooperation. Methods in school's first three years are crucial. Modern methods have failed for the past 20 years. Mother & Former Infant Teacher (Fawkner N). B10h The Sun News-Pictorial - 23 June 1986 BRUCE DOVER (Sun Weekend, May 24) never heard of the 12th Australian Infantry Battalion in Vietnam. The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, cap+tured that tunnel system in the Hobo Woods in January, 1966. The tunnels didn't win the war for the enemy. We beat him every time. It was the gutless civilians back home. Gordon Peterson. Ex-1 RAR (Mulgrave). B10i The Sun News-Pictorial - 23 June 1986 IF Mr Hawke wants to help young unemployed, would it not be better to donate the un+employment benefit, where applicable, to an employer who could use this as a subsidy, mak+ing it a more attractive proposi+tion for him to take on a young unemployed person for training. Gainful (Swan Hill). B10j The Sun News-Pictorial - 23 June 1986 DEAR Fed-Up Mother: In the 1930s Depression we didn't have dole cheques. Our parents kept us while we tried to find jobs. They expected to do that for the child+ren they had brought into the world. J.Anderson (Elsternwick). B10k The Sun News-Pictorial - 23 June 1986 FAMILY allowance now stops when the fulltime student turns 18. It is then means-tested. A single-income family with two children is allowed $293 a week. Senator Ryan, do we HSC stu+dents quit school and claim the dole? Strug+gling, Confused (Geelong). B10l The Herald - 1 December 1986 Don't fail the HSC THE HSC examination now in prog+ress has renewed the debate about its usefulness and fairness. The criticism is often heard that the HSC creates too much pressure on school children and for this reason should be replaced by another system. The argument relating to pressure is misconceived. Without doubt, candidates sitting the HSC face enormous pressure to succeed. But this pressure is generated not so much by the nature of HSC but by the scarcity of employment, which makes it imperative for students to engage in desperate competition for jobs. The HSC did not create the unemployed problem. On the contrary, widespread un+employment has made success at HSC crucial to obtaining scarce jobs. The argument about pressure is part of a general attempt to downgrade the value of examina+tions as a form of academic evalua+tion. No examination is perfect and the HSC is not an exception. The chief merits of the examination sys+tem are objectivity*objectively, anonymity and uniformity. The alternatives to the HSC, such as internal school assess+ments are bound to be tainted by subjective standards and judgments and are very much open to error and abuse. A system which permits subjec+tive and individual assessment can+not provide fairness or equal opportunity across the board. Examinations can and do cause hardship in individual cases. These are unavoidable consequences, and are in the very nature of human life. All that can be attempted is to lay down fair rules for everyone. Attempts to give individual treat+ment to students invariably pro+duce*pro+duces abuse and leads to greater hardship. If the HSC is abolished and school-based assessment is intro+duced, students from schools with good reputations will be at a dis+tinct advantage. Good students from schools in unfashionable sub+urbs will be judged by the school - as will poor students from reputed schools. This will be to the disad+vantage of the former and the advantage of the latter. The HSC provides an indicator of intellectual ability, discipline and commitment. What is the alterna+tive? Pressure is a part of life. It is unavoidable. Learning to handle pressure is part of a child's prepara+tion for adult life. What the schools can do is pay more attention to this aspect and help students to cope with pressure. The attempt to eliminate pressure by abolishing examinations is futile and can only succeed at the expense of the integrity and quality of educa+tion L.J.M. Cooray, associate professor, Macquarie University, NSW. B10m The Herald - 1 December 1986 Palestinians forgotten AS a Palestinian Austra+lian of Christian back+ground, I would like to express my anger at those who organised the Papal tour. I believe the organisers used the Holy Father for political ends. While the Palestinian community in Australia was denied the request made by their Palestine Liberation Organisation representative to meet the Pope, Zionists were given half an hour to discuss political matters. How can it be that the oppressors are respected and listened to and the victims and oppressed are denied the right to be heard? If Jesus was in Austra+lia now, I strongly be+lieve that he would sure+ly have refused to meet the criminals, and he would have held and prayed for the Palesti+nian victims. After all, aren't the Palestinians the children of Jesus of Nazareth? Elias Majjar, Mul+grave. B10n The Herald - 1 December 1986 Doubts on water audit figures AFTER publication of my letter concerning excess water rates I was offered a water audit by the MMBW. It was helpful but revealed no significant wastage and supported my conten+tion that 150,000 litres a year is a most unrealistic level on which to base future water taxes. Without garden watering or a dishwasher, our consumption rate continues to be around 900 litres a day, some 300,000-plus a year for two adults, making a joke of the MMBW chairman's reported contention that 190,000 litres a year for two elderly people was "inordinately high". B. Freeman (Nov. 18) supported my belief that the Board is selling us a "pup". No one can object to paying for water but the MMBW should admit that its figures are based on only 11 months' consumption and are set at an unreal level to enable more taxes to be col+lected. B.E.Welch, East Malvern. B10o The Herald - 24 October 1986 Pope's tour is lacking in soul I COMMEND you for your timely and pertinent editorial (Oct. 15) re+garding the marketing of the Pope's visit to Australia. Letters to the press indicate a ground-swell of rejection of this display, by catholic and non-catholic members of church com+munities. Monsignor Walsh has manipulated the Press of this country to promote the Pope as some kind of supernatu+ral Santa Claus who likes everybody. The truth is the Pope is a highly political person who is at logger+heads with many christians who espoused the spirit of Vatican 11. Michael A. Crilly, Glen Iris B10p The Herald - 24 October 1986 Water rate a ripoff MY wife and I were measured to use 575,000 litres of water in the 12 months to 19/8, an average of 1575 litres a day. Modified use and little garden watering since has consumed 61,000 litres in 62 days, a rate of 359,000 litres a year, without normal garden watering in summer. How then can the MMBW defend statements in its brochure that a typical water user consumes only 250,000 litres a year and that a high water user is around 350,000 litres when there are only two adults in our house and we are not wasteful. If we're going to have to pay higher rates, God help those with big fami+lies. B.Welch, East Malvern B10q The Herald - 24 October 1986 Horses are not cheap AN article by Jane Sandilands (Oct.10), could be misleading. It suggests that the approximate cost of a reasonable horse would be $400-$500 including saddle and bridle. I would agree that it is possible to purchase a horse for $400-$500, but the saddle and bridle would be an additional cost. A reasonable second-hand saddle could range from $100 up, depending on quality and condition, and a bridle with bit would cost around $25 up. In addi+tion to this, your horse would prob+ably need a rug ($35) and perhaps a set of brushes ($30). It is suggested that the approxi+mate monthly cost of keeping a horse is approximately $90. Agistment fees vary from say $6 per week at the lowest, usually in a paddock with little feed and many horses, but is becoming increasingly difficult to find at this low rate. In addition to this, you will need to feed your horse, the amount of feed needed depending on the amount of good green feed available, the time of year, and the number of other stock in the paddock. A conservative estimate for feed (excluding agistment) would be around $10 per week. With regard to shoeing it is sug+gested that a horse only needs shoes once a year. In actual fact, farriers recommend that a horse is re-shod every six to eight weeks at a cost of approximately $30 per time. Veterinary costs can cost any+thing, depending on the ailment, but vets are certainly not cheap. The cost of buying and maintain+ing a horse is far in excess of the figure quoted in the article. Yvonne Jacques, Willowmavin. B10r The Herald - 24 October 1986 Come clean on waste IF the MMBW and State Gov+ernment have not caused your municipality's resi+dents to be concerned as to the siting for the new toxic waste dump, then your area is one of the lucky ones. I feel strongly that the public relations exercise undertaken by the MMBW and State Government is fast proving to be badly man+aged. It is causing annoyance and concern to a vast num+ber of communities and or+ganisations unnecessarily, all because, hypothetically - "anywhere is a possible site," or so says Mr Allan Thompson of the MMBW. Surely, it is time that they can at least own up to where it will not be going, and put an end to the unnecessary anxiety that is sweeping Vic+toria. Let them show some guts, because their credibil+ity for competency is serious+ly declining. Mrs J. Love-Linay, Carrum Downs. B10s The Herald - 21 May 1986 Forget revenue, just prevent accidents IN his report of speed camera use over the weekend (Monday, May 12), Bill Ayres quotes Mr Reg Bak+er's (Assistant Commissioner Traf+fic) dismay "that despite publicity a section of Nepean Highway at Sea+ford was still one of the worst sections for speed". It would be interesting to read the accident statistics for this sec+tion, it would appear to be relative+ly safe with the beach on one side and very few intersections on the other. Let's hope the speed camera isn't being used as an easy revenue raiser instead of an accident pre+vention device. I have seen speed tapes set up at the bottom of hills or just after speed restriction signs many times. It would gladden my heart to see such devices set up near shopping centres, schools, or on suburban streets - it would not be as lucra+tive for the Government but maybe dangerous speedsters would be pre+vented from causing accidents, which surely is better than filling quotas or making easy dollars. B11 The Courier Mail 2017 words B11a The Courier Mail - 15 October 1986 Powerful case against tax THE coal mining industry has mount+ed a powerfully persuasive and logi+cal case against the fringe benefits tax. A responsive, responsible government might well be persuaded but this Govern+ment has not given any indication so far of listening to logical argument. Thanks to a mixture of stubbornness and poor advice, it is in an almighty mess on the fringe benefits tax and shows little sign of finding an easy and practical way out. The mining industry believes that the tax will cost an extra $17 million a year. Anoth+er $17 million will be paid in increased com+pany tax and about $6 million will come from the non-deductibility of entertainment expenses. Of the three, however, the fringe benefits tax is attracting the most criticism from the mining industry. The industry's main argument is that housing provided in remote areas should not be treated as a fringe benefit because the houses are needed to attract labor to those areas and, as such, is an essential and neces+sary cost of production. It is a compelling argument, particularly in this State. The towns servicing the central Queens+land coal mines are there because of the mines; they simply did not exist before. As well, mining companies have provided the cost of infrastructure, such as roads, rail+way lines and rolling stock, which should have been a responsibility of the taxpayer. Governments have also, through company taxation, export levies and royalties, enjoy+ed their share of the mining riches. Times, as the mining companies point out, have changed. The great markets for mining products are no longer there; the prices for those products are much lower. Under these circumstances, governments should be encouraging mining, not hitting it with extra imposts. The Opposition realised the difficulties in taxing miners' housing after Mr Howard's abortive attempt in 1980. If, as it is gener+ally expected to do, the ALP loses the seat of Mount Isa in the State election, the fringe benefits tax can be fairly blamed. Mr Hawke and Mr Keating are supposed to be working on minor revisions; they will need to perform major surgery to placate the mining companies and their employees. B11b The Courier Mail - 15 October 1986 More of the same THE balance of trade figures released yes+terday show, once again, the serious nature of the problems confronting the Australian economy. The much-hoped-for effects of devalua+tion on restricting imports has yet to occur, while exports were sluggish. Admittedly there were some seasonal factors affecting the month's figures but no amount of statistical explanation can dis+guise the fact that, as a nation, we are still spending more than we are earning. The Government has every reason for concern and none for complacency. B11c The Courier Mail - 13 September 1986 Sir Joh and the terrorists THE Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Peter+sen, already on the election stump, made some outrageous claims this week about terrorists and the Federal Gov+ernment. To give the impression that the Government is deliberately promoting ter+rorism was going too far even for an election campaign. It is however, interesting to note that Sir Joh made exactly the same claim in October last year without incurring the wrath of his Labor opponents. If the Prime Minister had continued to dismiss such claims without over-reacting, it might have been better for Labor's chances in the coming State elec+tion. His personal remarks about Sir Joh were in extremely poor taste. However, the Premier would not have been far out if he had suggested the Federal Government may be - and it must be said that it would be unintentional - helping terrorists. The Defence Minister, Mr Beazley, has admitted that 25,000 rounds of ammunition produced at the Army's munitions factory at Footscray have not been accounted for. The minister has also been reported as say+ing a former employee at the factory has been charged with stealing about 500 rounds. A television current affairs reporter found after his own investigation that the security was a joke. What an invitation this is to terrorist sympathisers or to terrorists themselves. Australia has to take into account not only international, but also internal, terrorism. It should not be necessary to say that ev+erything must be done to ensure that securi+ty is as efficient as possible. Obviously, there is something wrong with the security at the munitions factory. B11d The Courier Mail - 13 September 1986 Our space race IT was not a good week in many ways for the National Party. There were more claims of party cronyism, one allegedly involving a Cabinet minister. There was also Sir Joh's cousin, Les. And towards the end of the week, the Pre+mier's political opponents must have had a good laugh on first hearing of his plan for a space station on Cape York. But Sir Joh has long had a reputation for landing on his feet, and an apparently far-fetched idea ap+pears to have been basically sound. One expert says Australia would have an advantage over other nations, because a sat+ellite-launching base close to the equator would mean larger payloads. Another de+scribed Sir Joh's $93,000 feasibility study as a "serious" project. But what must have pleased the Premier most is that he beat the Federal Govern+ment to the gun. The day after his announcement came the news that Canberra was to establish a National Space Board to co-ordinate space technology activities by Australian companies. B11e The Courier Mail - 21 May 1986 Not the right time for a rise THERE is probably no right time for politicians to be given a wage rise, but now is probably the worst possi+ble time. Thanks to some alarming balance of payments figures and some equally alarming statements by the Treasurer, there is a grudging acceptance that the economy is in trouble and wage restraint is necessary. But do the politicians think so? The inevitable row about politicians' in+creases should have been defused slightly - had it not been for their cleverness last time. Then, they opted to take increases in allow+ances rather than increases in salaries. The logic of such a decision was inescapable; al+lowances were tax-free. Now, of course, the politicians have been neatly caught in the fringe benefits tax web and they are squeal+ing long and loudly. It is difficult to sympathise with the poli+ticians' plight. If the Government votes to tax fringe benefits, then there is no good reason why politicians should be excluded. Admittedly many spend heavily in their electorates but they also enjoy subsidised meals and accommodation in Canberra and Commonwealth car travel to and from air+ports. It is not the onerous or demanding life that we are led to believe. The rewards are not too bad, either. The Government backbench might very well be revolting on the taxation of their al+lowances but so long as their Ministers per+sist with the taxation plan, there is every reason why they should be treated the same as any other wage or salary earner. Of course, if the Government backbenchers were really serious in their opposition to the fringe benefit taxes, they could stage a little Caucus revolt and force the Government to change its mind. The prospect of that happening is about as likely as the prospect of a heatwave in Canberra next month. The backbenchers are stuck with the consequences of an un+popular decision. They should grin and bear it, with as much good humor as possible. Af+ter all, what a perfect opportunity to dem+onstrate the restraint and reason they are so fond of prescribing for others? B11f The Courier Mail - 21 May 1986 Red tape waste THE Government Business Regulation Re+view Unit - itself a bureaucratic mouthful - has produced some horrifying figures on the cost of red tape. Australia, it is said, has a characteristic talent for bureaucracy. That talent is cost+ing us up to $80 billion a year. Of course, it is outlandish and fanciful to suggest that all government regulations can be abolished. But there is clearly vast potential for the red tape burden to be shed. According to the Confederation of Aus+tralian Industry, business regulation is cost+ing 20 cents in the dollar. That is far too ex+pensive. It must be trimmed quickly. B11g The Courier Mail - 17 May 1986 Dilemma for rugby heavies THE Australian Rugby Union should not accept the invitation to send a Wallaby team to South Africa next year. No doubt the invitation is tempting and the officials could easily argue a per+suasive case for acceptance, but the South African offer should be politely declined. There is no possibility of Federal Govern+ment approval for the tour. The Sports Minister, Mr Brown, has already said the Government's opposition to sporting links with South Africa will not change. More+over, Caucus would not let the Government get away with such a change; it would argue that*than the Gleneagles Agreement does not al+low official sporting contacts with South Africa; it would point out, with much validi+ty, that rugby supporters are not Labor vot+ers. Why then accommodate rugby official+dom? As well, there is the threat posed to both the Commonwealth Games and Bris+bane,s bid for the 1992 Olympics. So much for the politics. The Australian Rugby Union is, however, entitled to feel that the Government is applying different standards to different sports. Individual sportsmen are free to compete in South Af+rica and trade between the two countries is actively encouraged. As well, South African rugby officials can point with some pride to the continuing desegregation of the game. It is a great pity that the more vehement oppo+nents of sporting links with South Africa cannot see the real progress that has been made in both cricket and rugby. Sport breaks down more barriers than it builds. But Australian rugby officials should have reason for concern about the prospect, horror of horrors, of rugby turning profes+sional. As Kim Hughes and his colleagues discovered, there is a lot of money to entice sportsmen to South Africa. Professional tours If South African rugby fans are deprived of official tours from the Wallabies and the All Blacks and unofficial tours by current internationals in other colors, it is extremely likely that they could see professional teams on the tour circuit. The South African Rug+by Union, as stubborn and unresiling off the field as on, has already said as much. That would be the greatest blow to the "game they play in heaven" since the breakaway of the Rugby League. It will be easy for the Federal Govern+ment simply to refuse the Australian Rugby Union's request for an official Wallaby team to tour. Despite what the rugby offi+cials might say, it will be difficult for the ARU to prevent an unofficial team, howev+er composed, from touring. Of all sports+men, rugby players are entitled to argue that they play their game for enjoyment and no material reward. However, there is also the potential for huge financial induce+ments to be offered to tourists. For the ARU, still basking in the reflected pride of the 1984 Grand Slam Wallabies, the result+ing furore of such acceptances could not be faced with equanimity. B11h The Courier Mail - 27 June 1986 Fence-sitting Commission THE decision by the Arbitration Com+mission to award the 2.3 percent pay increase is unfortunate, but it was to be expected. It has not demonstrated a sig+nificant propensity to accept arguments based on economic logic alone. If it had, it might well have rejected outright this in+crease or at least postponed it. Its decision to reject the claim by the Australian Council of Trade Unions for a 3 percent productivity-based increase is to be welcomed, but it might have gone further. It might have found that the claim was spuri+ous and lacking economic logic. Certainly, on the basis of argument put to the Commission by employers, that finding was open. Instead, it chose to hand the ques+tion back to unions and employers. That might well prove to be a mistake. Two issues are in question. The first, and less contentious, is the matter of extended superannuation entitlements to cover work+ers not already members of schemes. On the whole, that issue is less difficult to accept. Superannuation is both socially and eco+nomically desirable, particularly is it helps relieve the burden on the public purse. The second, much more contentious is+sue, is the question of funding the proposed wider superannuation coverage. That pro+posal relied upon an agreement reached in secret between the Government and the trade unions, essentially as a trade-off for accepting discounted wage increases. B12 The Daily Sun 2010 words B12a The Daily Sun - 9 December 1986 Drafting a workable Constitution Special report by MALCOLM FARR ONE of the most eas+ily read parts of Aust+ralia's Constitution - Section 92 - has caused 86 years of dis+pute and litigation in+volving our most senior courts and judges. And it could continue to do so for another 86 years unless Justice Mervyn Everett and his colleagues can suggest a workable re+placement. Section 92 says quite clearly "trade, commerce and intercourse among the States... shall be ab+solutely free". Essentially, it is taken to mean that a State cannot impose a tariff or a duty on goods coming from an+other State. What else it means has been the subject of great debate, often in the High Court, from grain growers, egg producers, dairy far+mers and others. Submission collection Their evidence is now being collected by Justice Everett, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Trade and Economic Man+agement - one of five spe+cialist committees which will report to the Constitu+tional Commission. The commission, headed by former Commonwealth Solicitor-General Sir Maurice Byers, will make its report on a revised Constitution in June, 1988. Since October 13, Justice Everett's committee, curr+ently sitting in Brisbane, has been collecting sub+missions on matters rang+ing from the Constitut+ional position of local gov+ernment to the Trade Practices Act and the im+portance of consumer pro+tection. Its brief to cover hard economic matters doesn't seem particularly exciting but is perhaps the most important handed out by the commission, as it deals with dollars and cents and the nation's economic fu+ture. The report will probably be the thickest to be con+sidered by the Constitut+ional Commission. Scheduled for delivery at the end of April, it could be delayed until May. One of the reasons for the delay will be that at every stop, at every hear+ing, someone raises Sec+tion 92. "Now, those words of Section 92, I think to most people, would appear to be extremely simple," says Justice Everett, who is also president of the In+terstate Commission and a Federal Court judge. "But the sad fact is that after 86 years, the situa+tion is that most of the cases which have gone to the High Court involving Section 92 have resulted in split decisions between the judges. "To the average person, I imagine it would seem extraordinary that in 86 years there couldn't be an accepted and adopted in+terpretation of those words. "But the judges have brought their own philos+ophical concepts to the in+terpretation of those words. "They posed the quest+ion `freedom from what?' and their ideas differed." Committee's obligation For example, can a State marketing authority, such as a grain board, prevent a farmer selling produce across the border outside its authority and against its wishes? The farmer might argue that Section 92 means the authority has no right to stop the transaction. Can a dairy board, which licenses milk production in one State, prevent dairy farmers jumping the bor+der and selling their sur+plus without a license? Only the High Court can decide when the Constitu+tion is cited in these cases and some judges say yes to some questions and others say no. "It is our committee's obligation to point out the drawbacks, which for the whole of the Australian nation occur as a result of that varying interpretat+ion," Justice Everett said. "I suppose if you analyse all the cases - and I sup+pose there are hundreds, if not thousands, of them over a period of 86 years - some of them were not very important within themselves. "But in numbers, cer+tainly, and in potential im+portance." Justice Everett also sees a much broader question attached to his brief. "The question is: Should Australia's economy be treated as one national economy, or in practical effect have we got six of them?" he asked. "Or if you add the terri+tories, eight of them? "In other words, can we do better than we are doing at the present?" The overall review, an+nounced almost a year ago, will also draw atten+tion to the Constitution it+self, which according to Justice Everett has be+come a subject of apathy. "That apathy, in my opinion, is the product of lack of information about what the Constitution really is," he said. "Very few people have seen that document, let alone know what's in it." People must be educated in their Constitution if they are to understand and endorse or reject any changes which might be proposed in a referendum, Justice Everett says. "There are no other ways, except revolution," he says. I'm serious when I say that." B12b The Daily Sun - 28 October 1986 STATE LEADERSHIP ELECTION '86 AS speculation increases that Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen will retire from politics or enter the fed+eral arena, Daily Sun special writer MALCOLM FARR concludes his two-part series on the men most likely to be our next State Leader. Credentials give Ahern a chance MIKE AHERN can seem so alien in the National Party Cabinet that he sometimes has to remind people he is a farmer, like many of his colleagues. He is Minister for In+dustry but his degree is in agricultural science. His home is the beach resort of Caloundra but his family roots remain at Connemara, a property near Conondale. His Dutch-born wife, Andrea, would be consid+ered an exotic on the CWA circuit but she is a good mother and a hard-working political partner. Other factors make Mike Ahern stand out, not the least his height, age (44) and Catholic faith. Most significant is the perception that he is a rebel - but not the type to cross the House floor. Because of this percep+tion, Mr Ahern is often singled out as the man who will take over from Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen and lead the way into a high-tech era. Because he has been seen so long as a threat to the leadership, even if an involuntary one, there has been fric+tion, starting with Sir Joh and his deputy, Bill Gunn. Mr Ahern's credentials are too good for him to be beyond suspicion: Federal president of the Young Australian Country Party; party whip from 1972 to 1980; and a Minis+ter at the age of 38. Although in full accord with many of the policies and actions of his govern+ment, he is no puppet. He has an intellectual and moral independence which, within the strict discipline of the National Party, is close enough to being a rebel. Being reasonable is a prime element of his political style, but so is being realistic. He has built his own net+work of business contacts in a process some party el+ders might construe as the start of a power base. No doubt Mr Ahern, who won Landsborough in a 1968 by-election, would like to be Premier. In 1982, he tried to be+come Deputy Premier but Mr Gunn pipped him. Mr Ahern would not want to be a fill-in party leader, as might be the case for the man who fol+lows Sir Joh. But being deputy leader would be a good place to start the climb to the top. B12c The Daily Sun - 28 October 1986 Austin cautiously aims for the top AFTER several months of trying, Brian Austin has not sold his Ascot house and has been un+able to find one with complete appeal in his new electorate of Nick+lin. His rented base during this election campaign has been a high-rise unit, above the fray and re+moved from the clamor caused by his candidature. He has been particularly cautious in his assault on the new seat of Nicklin, which in theory is a Na+tional Party enclave with a hefty 16-20 per cent cushion of voters. The 43-year old Minister for Health is cautious about most matters, in+cluding his ambition to be+come Premier. He has been tossing it about in his mind for more than a year, has discussed it with friends and even sounded out reporters during occasional late nights over beers and off the record. Advice Mr Austin would not di+rectly challenge Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen but has cast his eye over the rest of the field. His leap, a few days after the 1983 election, from the Liberal Party to the Na+tional Party was a calcu+lated risk and with his am+bition was hardly incau+tious. He was able to stay in Government and main+tain the prominent Health portfolio. This was a good move as the Health Minis+ter has two great advan+tages. He has departmental of+ficers on whom he can rely for advice on technical matters, and he can be the bearer of good news when he announces and opens hospitals and other impor+tant facilities. He has backed his ex+perts on all major issues, has used departmental publications and advertis+ing for some helpful per+sonal publicity and is re+garded as one of the more effective ministers. But there is a portfolio better even than Health for an aspiring leader. The Minister for Works and Housing has an even greater ability to be asso+ciated with good works and his duties take him around the State and pro+vide contact with a wide cross-section of voters. Mr Austin, along with other Cabinet members, has been interested in the Works portfolio. It could not have escaped him that Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen held it for five years be+fore becoming Premier. A major problem inter+vened when his Brisbane seat of Wavell was abol+ished in the recent red+istribution and he needed another electorate. Some National Party members in Nicklin, the newly-created seat sur+rounding Nambour, ob+jected to party headquar+ters insisting on the Health Minister ahead of hopeful locals. The matter has not been completely resolved and is certain to have an effect on voters on polling day. Should Mr Austin win the seat he would have an ideal electoral base which would be rock-solid Na+tional for many years. And should the job of Premier come up for grabs, he would be ready to grab. He is still cautious and would not necessarily go into the contest alone and might prefer to be part of a ticket. B12d The Daily Sun - 28 October 1986 CONTENDERS Nev Warburton's steady rise A FEW months ago, four Labor Premiers came to Brisbane to support Nev Warburton in his bid for Queens+land's top job. It was something of an exotic holiday and, like many Aussie tourists, they set out to show the natives how amusing, dashing and superior they could be. Comparisons were made and the obvious result was that Nev Warburton was seen as considerably less than amusing, dashing and superior. The dominant logic was that because he was not like successful ALP lead+ers in other States, it was doubtful that he, too, would become a Premier. This did not take into ac+count that Queenslanders might not want a glib Brian Burke or a trendy John Bannon heading their government. He has been the perfect figurehead in an ALP campaign which has con+centrated on government negatives. The months of accusat+ions might have appeared as ugly and desperate muck-raking coming from a flashier Labor leader. If such a nice and unex+citable bloke as Nev Warb+urton says all these nasty things, there might be something in them. He remains rather hide-bound, relatively inflexible and threatens to bore on occasion. Campaign But he has grown into the Opposition Leader's job rather than shrinking it to his proportions. After a demanding elec+tion campaign, some obs+ervers are beginning to believe Mr Warburton could also grow into the job of Premier. His political career is traditional ALP. He moved from top-level sport through the trade union ranks to local gov+ernment and finally to Parliament as the mem+ber for Sandgate in 1977. His progress up the party ladder has been through predictable fac+tional support. In this election cam+paign, internal ALP divi+sions have been kept hid+den. In part, this is a credit to Nev Warburton's leadership. ALP tacticians have tried to get him to be more aggressive, but he has in+sisted on sticking to his own pace. The opinion polls have indicated he has done the right thing. It is unlikely that Nev Warburton will become Premier via the ALP win+ning an outright majority of seats in this election. But a hung Parliament opens up all sorts of pro+spects, including the ex+treme possibility that Labor might be asked to form a minority govern+ment - giving Mr Warb+urton the top job. B13 Telegraph/The Courier Mail 2024 words B13a Telegraph - 1 October 1986 Parents can teach too Dear Sir Pearl Wickenden complains that the Gov+ernment is failing to educate children about the dangers of AIDS. I am sick to death of reading such letters. Why is it always the Government which has to take on all the teaching of our children? Teach your children yourself, instead of taking the easy way out. Jeanette Smith, Sandycamp Road, Wynnum. SMOKE MENACE In asserting that by smoking he harms only himself P.U.J.Parsons, betrays a lack of knowledge about the scientific findings of passive smoking. Smokers should be aware that the smoke drifting from their cigarettes contains greater concentrations of cancer-causing chemicals than the smoke they inhale. Fortunately, this sidestream smoke is diluted appreci+ably with air before it reaches bystanders' lungs. However, they do not have the protection of cigarette filters, which prevent a good deal of this pollution from entering smokers' lungs, yet cannot save many from de+veloping smoking-related diseases. Elaine Henry, executive director, NSW Cancer Council, Sydney. ANIMAL? NO, HUMAN! I must protest at your use of the word "animal" on your front page headline (24.9.86) to describe the killer of two Beenleigh women. How dare you insult animals in this way. You should have used the word "human". Maureen Gee, Bray Road, Lawnton. B13b The Courier-Mail - 27 June 1986 Television news disgusting THE tastelessness of television news and current affairs programs has amazed me for years. However, their performance of late extends beyond mere tastelessness, and leans towards absolutely disgust+ing. Not long ago they conducted a phone-in poll asking members of the public if they thought Lindy Chamber+lain was guilty or not guilty of murder+ing her baby. Now, in the past few days we find them asking us to play jury once again, this time in relation to the Brian Chambers/Kevin Barlow drug traf+ficking case. It would seem that televi+sion news producers see themselves in the almighty position of judge. By conducting and presenting such surveys on their programs, they only serve to try to convict the people in question, and for that I offer them no respect. I also have no respect for those who phoned in and and took it upon themselves to act as jury. What did you hope to achieve? The decision to hang the two men does not rest in the hands of the Australian public, nor does it rest in the hands of the media. - Craig S. Jenkins, Bi+nowee St, Aspley. The same old hodge-podge AS I understand it, at the last State election Sir Joh and his National Party set out to and almost did annihilate the Liberal Party - even getting a bonus of two defectors. Yet despite this, the Liberals still give their preferences to the Nationals and keep them in office. Surely they should give their preferences to any minority party and defeat the Nationals, as they don't owe them a thing. Yet we are constantly hearing of an+other coalition, and the Liberals will work with the Nationals. The Premier of Tasmania has been taken back into the fold and now supports his own party, and not the Nationals. I am sure that there are many would-be Liberal voters who do not want to see the old hodge-podge dished up to us again. If the Liberals have something to offer Queensland, they should go it alone and defeat the Nationals on merit. Many of us want a change of State Government to one that is accountable to the people, and a younger Premier who will live through his decisions. We will never get it on present Liberal policies. - A. Conway, Willow St, Biggera Wa+ters, Gold Coast. Prices body a paper tiger I REFER to the intention of Australia Post to increase its charges from Aug+ust 25 with the approval of the Prices Surveillance Authority. In view of the alarming state of the economy, plus the almost certain Budget blowout of up to a billion dollars this fi+nancial year, and the Prime Minister's constant call for national wage restraint, there is every reason for Mr Hawke to veto such a callous intention. Australia Post should not be exempt from exercising restraint. It should keep within its income and defer the increas+ing of its presently exorbitant+presently-exorbitant charges instead of planning for future expendi+ture on postal services and capital proj+ects. The Prices Surveillance Authority is only a paper tiger. It has no power to leg+islate and can only act in an advisory ca+pacity. Its weakness does not justify its existence, as it cannot actually control prices and charges. It appears to be just another burden on the economy. - J.W.Mooney, Manson Rd, Hendra. Hard work a fact of life S.MOLLY (C-M, June 12) is talking through her highly educated hat. Surely she does not believe that work+ing at night, working hard, working weekends, grabbing lunch when you can, is exclusive to the teaching profession. Let me assure you that it is part of run+ning a small business these days. Like a lot of others in "the silent ma+jority" she talks about, she probably as+sumes if you have your own business you are wealthy and greedy. The fringe benefits she talks about re+late to a small percentage, yet she is of the opinion all business should be subject to this political tax that will cost a lot of jobs in certain areas. As an employee of the Education De+partment, you are the recipient of a gen+erous annual leave scheme. You also get paid whether business is good or bad. No risks for you! No borrowing money at high interest rates, no risk on mortgaging your home, no risk of debtors going into bankruptcy overnight, no becoming an unpaid tax collector for the Government for you. It is also hardly the fault of the "greedy businessmen" that you are struggling to pay off a home, a third of your wages going in tax, and trying to live week to week. You can blame your friends in Canberra for that. As a self-employed businessman and a father of four children, for whom I am trying to provide a reasonable standard of living, and a future, your last para+graph is not worthy of comment. - Ron Franklin, Byambee St, Kenmore. Progress in education I WOULD like to respond to a recent article in your newspaper by Terry Black and Norman Savage entitled "Private universities: Is this the way ahead?" Mr Black puts forward the absurd proposition that if full tertiary fees were charged "there no longer will be artifi+cial quotas stopping students from un+dertaking the course they prefer", and that the "well-motivated students" would still be keen to undertake tertiary education. I would put it somewhat differently. If students were forced to pay full fees of around $7000 per year (much higher for engineering and applied science cours+es), very few Australians, and then only the very wealthy, could contemplate a tertiary education. Mr Black goes on to propose a loans scheme, with graduates repaying loans based on full fees after they have estab+lished themselves in employment. Some basic calculations based on Mr Black's loans proposal show that a loan of $7000 per year, on current interest rates, over a four-year course could result in repay+ments of the order of $700 per month for the next 30 years, a total repayment bill of some $250,000. Figures for engineering and applied science would be twice this amount. Even the wealthiest in our society would not contemplate a higher education un+der these terms. This Government has considered and rejected the tertiary fees/loans option, concluding that it is both regressive and a disincentive to participation. We be+lieve that fees would run sharply against our long-term goal of reducing inequali+ty in education. Without fees, a wider group of stu+dents apply for places, the competition is greater and therefore performance and standards are better. The Government acknowledges that there is a degree of unmet demand for higher education places, partly due to the success of our policies of encouraging students to complete their secondary ed+ucation. The main reason is because of the backlog created by the Fraser admin+istration. However, most of the claims that appear in the press are wildly exag+gerated. This Government has made signifi+cant progress both nationally and in Queensland to increase higher education participation rates. By 1987 there will be more than 28,000 more higher education enrolments than in 1983. In addition, we have taken steps to redress the dispropor+tionately low level of participation in Queensland. The growth rate in Queensland's high+er education sector over 1985-87 is ex+pected to be nine percent, well in ad+vance of the national figure of six per+cent. - Susan Ryan, Minister for Education, Parliament House, Canberra. They must live somewhere THE decision of the Redland Shire Council to bulldoze up to 400 Moreton Bay island properties which do not sat+isfy building regulations is a callous and socially-irresponsible decision. The same may also be said of the 122 show-cause notices served on island property owners by the council under the Queensland Building Act. These latter properties face the bulldozer after June 25. Cr John Bonney's recent remarks em+phasise that the council decision will pre+vent the islands from becoming "slums", discourage the sale of sub-standard dwellings as weekenders, and clean up unsightly sheds and telephone box lava+tories. He did not say, however, that the council decision would also bulldoze homes - illegal structures under the Building Act - but homes nonetheless. This decision involves many people living in caravans or shacks while they save the money to build a home - people who perhaps did not have the money to erect a standard dwelling on their own land, and the squatters who have been living in derelict structures on Crown land for years. With apologies to Anatole France, the Building Act forbids the rich as well as the poor to live in shoddy buildings. The council still has not told us what provi+sions (if any) have been made for these people. Rents everywhere are skyrocketing. All over the city, new glass and concrete filing cabinets rise over the demolition of older buildings, which were low-rent ac+commodation. So the question remains for councils and developers to answer: a boom for whom? Where exactly are these people going to live? They must live somewhere. Why shouldn't they live on the islands? - Lynda Brownsey, Flaxman St. Banyo. Real reason for cheap care QUEENSLAND'S hospital doctors are probably the lowest-paid in Aus+tralia. They work long hours (more than 50 a week) with no penalty rates for weekend and night shifts, and no entitlement to public holidays. They bear the responsi+bility for assessment, diagnosis and treatment of all public and intensive-care patients, and are repeatedly exposed to infectious illnesses. They are a population carefully select+ed for academic prowess and ability and are paid at between $10 and $16 an hour (I net $7 per hour) - which makes them a cheaper source of labor than nurses, cleaners and wardsmen - all of whom are entitled to generous penalty rates. This is the real reason why Queens+land's hospitals are so cheap to run. - Dr Stephen Woodford, junior house offi+cer, Mount Isa Base Hospital. There! This proves they can read I REFER to John Seeck's letter (C-M, June 23) on bad drivers in Queensland. I thought I was the only one. Mr Seeck, you made my day. As a recent arrival in Queensland and now a per+manent (I hope) resident, I have been flabbergasted, absolutely flabbergast+ed by Queensland drivers. But I am a quick learner. This is what I have picked up. - Freeway driving: 1. Stay in the right-hand lane and proceed at 5km to 10km under the speed limit. 2. Try to find a vehicle in the left-hand lane, drive up next to it and pro+ceed in tandem for the next 20km. 3. When exiting the freeway, stay in the right-hand lane until 50m from the exit and then pull left - don't worry about other traffic. - Suburban driving: 1. Stay in the right-hand lane. 2. When the traffic lights turn green, wait 10 seconds, accelerate as slowly as possible to a maximum of 50km/h in a 60km/h zone, and travel 10 to 15 car lengths behind the car in front. B14 The Adelaide Advertiser 2021 words B14a The Adelaide Advertiser - 1 August 1986 A clouded alternative If, as British politician Harold Wilson once observed, a week is a long time in poli+tics, the Liberal Party should contemplate how different might be circumstances 18 months hence, for the next Australian election could be that far away. This perspective should be tempering the heady scent of an election victory floating from the undoubtedly successful conference this week of the party's Federal council. That said, however, the Liberal Party has not in recent times presented itself as such an attractive alternative gov+ernment, even if there is an element of default through the Labor Government's poor showing at the moment. The Liberals appear even to have united behind their leader, Mr Howard. And the Leader of the Opposition has tapped a com+munity feeling and touched these troubled times to present some potentially sound poli+cies on such crucial issues as taxation, economic manage+ment and industrial relations. Mr Howard's message of hope is based on working for ourselves, in contrast to the Hawke theme of working together, on incentive rather than consensus. And in being radically drier than the Labor Government, Mr Howard wants to dismantle much of the wel+fare approach of the Whitlam, Fraser and Hawke decade that has so come to stifle initiative in Australia. We are at last starting to see the Liberal Party being bravely and re+sponsibly the Liberal Party and presenting a real choice in an era of wimpish political centralism. There are, however, dangers which cannot be ignored. The truly disadvantaged must be reassured that they will not be ditched should a Howard gov+ernment be elected. Australia and the international markets will need to be certain that we will not suffer disastrous dis+ruptions through confrontatio+nal attempts to reform union excesses. Most of all, electors will need to know that prom+ises are backed up by details and costings. "Trust me" worked for Mr Fraser and for Mr Hawke but, in an electorate made increas+ingly sophisticated and edgy by awareness of the country's eco+nomic difficulties, a philoso+phy alone is no longer enough. The Liberals may feel that by being vague about their prom+ises they are immune from criticism or misrepresentation, but it might also be construed as cynical manipulation or an admission of uncertainty about those promises. Only by being more detailed can Mr Howard help us fully to understand and feel comfortable with his far-reaching proposals. The Liberal Party is looking good but it cannot assume an automatic election. It must maintain its image with solid parliamentary performance and build on it by taking more into its confidence those who so desperately want to believe in its message of hope. B14b The Adelaide Advertiser - 1 August 1986 Management in schools Education is big business. In SA, the Education Department employs 22,000 people and has a wage bill of about $590m. Yet there has been increasing evi+dence - through disputes over staff appointments and plan+ning and the growth of such modern employment diseases as stress-related illness - that the management of education needs a thorough overhaul. So the announcement by the Minister of Education, Mr Craf+ter of a major review of staff management by a leading Aus+tralian expert on industrial relations and personnel issues is most welcome. Professor Di Yerbury, of NSW's Macquarie University, a United Nations consultant, has excellent credentials for this important task, which will seek to im+prove management practices, to the benefit of students as well as teachers. The staff management prob+lems within schools have been exacerbated by several factors, not least economic pressures which demand greater value from the money spent on edu+cation. There are other, appar+ently conflicting, pressures from the decline in enrol+ments. While this could be seen as freeing some teaching resources to cope with wider choices in curriculum for stu+dents, it has not emerged in that light. Instead, the department and the SA Institute of Teachers have been in conflict over "dis+placement" policies which have forced teachers to change schools at short notice. And the issue of stress, which resulted in an astounding $1m in com+pensation payments in the past financial year, has become a major management problem which requires urgent atten+tion. Professor Yerbury has an exacting task ahead. B14c The Adelaide Advertiser - 3 October 1986 A grim shadow The news that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Hayden, has been given the names of suspected World War II criminals living in Australia must cause dread at the thought of reopening old wounds and sickness at the idea that our postwar hospital+ity towards displaced persons has been abused. But, in the confusion of postwar days, and given Australia's large intake of people from war-shattered countries, it is possible that some who should have faced justice made their way with impunity to this country and have for more than 40 years escaped punishment for acts no less abhorrent now than when they were committed. Mr Hayden will pass the information to the War Crim+inals Review which is due to report to Parliament next month on whether war crim+inals are or have been resident in Australia and, among other matters, whether there was any policy by any Australian gov+ernment to allow or assist their entry. Investigation is inevit+able and proper, and we must prepare ourselves for what it may reveal and the effects on our society. There could be the spectacle of people who are now aged and infirm being arraigned for acts perpetrated when they possessed the full powers of youth, for acts that seem in+compatible with their restruc+tured lives, for crimes which their bewildered descendants may find impossible to believe could ever have concerned their families' past. Thus does the brutality that afflicts man+kind from time to time cast its long and merciless shadow on the lives of successive genera+tions. But we must remember those who perhaps have no descend+ants, whose families were wiped out. The ghosts of those who were brutalised must haunt us still, and require us to pursue justice. Our duty is not only to them but to the future, to show that brutality is never justifiable; that violence, even when it is part of the greater violence which is war, can never be condoned and that justice cannot be set aside because of the passage of time and the intervention of other wars and other cruelty. Our history must continue to show what we abhor and that we call to account those who act with brutality, lest we forget and allow the misery of the past to be repeated. B14d The Adelaide Advertiser - 3 October 1986 Button fingers a problem The impish Labor Party thorn, Senator Button, has again touched a truth by pres+sing for a simplification of the the fringe benefits tax's "hor+rifying paperwork". The frank senator, who also has recently questioned growth forecasts and some other Government policies, must be giving the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, cause to wonder just whose side he is on. In fact, he is on the side of common sense, and the Prime Minister would be wise to listen. The Government, in its en+thusiasm to stop tax-dodging rorts, failed to think through adiministrative simplicity, as well as general equity, before bringing in this tax. The prin+ciple is sound, morally, finan+cially and politically, and New Zealand has managed to accept it without the hysteria gener+ated here. Now we even have business leaders such as Mr Bob Ansett talking of breaking the law and publicly branding themselves as tax dodgers in protest. The Government's clumsi+ness should have been a god+send for the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Howard. But he has been unable to cash in while he does not offer an alternative. It is understand+able for an Opposition Leader, especially one who has seen too many of his aspirations to thunder plundered by the Gov+ernment, to want to leave his options open until nearer an election, and Mr Howard has some right on his side in want+ing to spell out his stand on fringe benefits tax later as part of an overall tax strategy rather than making policy on the run; but he gives the im+pression of flailing in the dark and of even being unable to discipline his disciples. Mr Howard, like all right-minded citizens, would clearly like some form of fringe bene+fits tax; and it is easy to suspect that the simplifications Sena+tor Button wants, albeit unspe+cified as yet, are rather what the Opposition Leader would propose if he proposed any+thing. Mr Hawke, meanwhile, cannot go on forever hoping the fuss will die down. It will not. But when one of his senior Ministers proposes simplifica+tions it could be the excuse for backing down a little and cut+ting his political losses. If so, it will be a welcome move to+wards common sense. B14e The Adelaide Adverister - 2 July 1986 Black Tuesday Australia will watch with fas+cination the campaign, laun+ched yesterday, to raise a $10m Australian Farmers' Fighting Fund, some of which will be directed to attacking the Fed+eral Government's economic policies. With the dubbing by busi+nesses of yesterday as Black Tuesday - the day some extra+ordinary new tax laws came into effect - an obvious target will be the fringe benefits tax. This tax, arising from the first of three options for reform which the Treasurer, Mr Keat+ing, put to the tax summit a year ago, has a rough modicum of justice in seeking to tax backdoor pay given in the form of perks. Few could oppose the principle; but the Government has singularly failed to distin+guish between taxable rorts and legitimate and even essen+tial benefits, and it has further been clumsy with administra+tion and collection. Some time must be given for businesses - those which adapt rather than whinge - to come to terms with the changes. But already we can see that the implications of the fringe benefits tax are more complicated and dangerous than has been suspected. Businesses may well seek administrative ease by even+tually phasing out anything re+motely resembling a benefit, and this would threaten the accord and industrial har+mony. And as it stands now, the tax lowers productivity by was+ting human resources, inhibits enterprise and positively in+vites the Australian person+ality to seek more ingenious ways of tax evasion. It may be futile to expect the Government, at this stage, to reconsider the tax, even when faced with the new-found muscle of the farmers. But tax officials might help us by issuing complete and compre+hensible guides to just how nasty and extensive the fringe benefits tax is going to be. And the Treasurer might take cour+age in his hands and reassess the possibility of selling again to the people the alternative Option C for a broadly based consumption tax. B14f The Adelaide Advertiser - 2 July 1986 A false alarm signal Vanuatu's decision to estab+lish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union will be taken by many in Australia as an alarm signal. It will confirm their view that Moscow is embarked on a long-term strategy to penetrate the South Pacific politically so as to dominate it strategically. As support for their argument, they will note the recent fishing agreement signed by Kiribati with the Soviet Union and the similar commercial deal planned by Vanuatu with the Russians. Soviet trawlers, according to this cautionary thesis, will serve also as spy ships and prepare the way for fully-armed warships. Before considering whether such a reaction is realistic or merely an over-reaction, it needs to be noted that Vanuatu or any other Pacific nation has an unchallengeable right to arrange diplomatic links with any country it chooses. The Pacific nations are no longer colonies obliged to subvert their own preferences or in+terests to those of their impe+rial rulers. This would seem self-evident but, judging from some of the statements emer+ging from official Washington, it does not yet seem to have been accepted fully by the US. One illustration of this unfor+tunate mental block is pro+vided by overbearing be+havior of the American Tuna Boat Association in its refusal to pay the Pacific islanders for fishing rights. It is that refusal, supported by the US Govern+ment, which has persuaded Kiribati and Vanuatu to turn to the Russians, who are willing to pay. On present evidence, we have no reason to believe that these Soviet fishing deals are other than legitimate commer+cial operations. The Russians need the fish to help feed the big Soviet population; the islanders need the cash to help their fragile economies. B15 The News/The Adelaide Advertiser 2032 words B15a The News - 12 August 1986 Has Labor hit rock bottom? Just scraping home in NSW, shrouded in pre-Budget gloom, reeling from polls... By TONY BAKER This time last month political eyebrows shot up when Labor's commissioned pollster Mr Rod Cameron revealed the Hawke Govern+ment would lose a theoretical election held now. The risen eyebrows were the result of the assessment being made to business observers attending the A.L.P. national conference in Hobart. What did it all mean in terms of conference factional politics? Also was it true? The published polls still were generally pretty good for a government in mid-term. Afterwards Mr Cameron was heard to observe that it was true and, since it was, there were pluses in being the first to say it. And how right he was. Hobart seems an age away and the days when Paul Keating was the world's greatest Treasurer and the nation made jokes about charismatic Bob Hawke's Messiah status seem like pre-history. Mid-term blues are headaches affecting all govern+ments. But rarely has it been such deep blue. The king hit came two weekends ago with the now famous NSW by-elections which saw Labor lose Neville Wran's old seat and his successor Barrie Unsworth barely scrape home in another safe seat. The anti-Labor swings were bad enough on the numbers, sufficient if re+peated nationally to sweep the A.L.P. out of office nationally and in the States, including SA, in the biggest landslide of the cen+tury. But that, calamitous as it is, does not explain wholly why it was so devastating. For that one has to go back to the mid-70s after the Whitlam dismissal and the Fraser landslide. Morale was rock bottom. Then Neville Wran won State Government in NSW. Then came the famous Wranslide re-election. NSW became the jewel in the Labor crown. In the party's view NSW became the power base from which it clawed back to govern+ment across the mainland, except Queensland, and federally. To face such a backlash, to lose Mr Wran's very seat, was truly traumatic. How traumatic can be shown by the time Mr Hawke and Mr Unsworth spent on Sunday analysing the result. What has been learnt about their talks is predict+able to those who know that while victory has many fathers defeat is an orphan. Mr Unsworth has blamed all but himself and identified such issues as the fringe benefits tax. Mr Hawke, who with Mr Keating is stoutly defend+ing the tax while having what might appropriately be called a bob each way in hinting at administrative changes, says this affected only 1 per cent of a swing in the order of 17 per cent. The evidence suggests Mr Unsworth was more correct. The latest published opinion poll, in the Sydney newspaper the Sun-Herald, conducted in three mar+ginal seats identified Fed+eral rather than State issues as worrying voters. It showed 85 per cent of voters blaming either the Federal Government or both Governments for the economic decline which is at the heart of the present turn of the tide. In a hypothetical Federal election it gave the co+alition parties 54 per cent, Labor a derisory 30 per cent, the Democrats 10 per cent and other 6 per cent. ISSUES governing Labor defectors were economic policy, union influence, taxation and poor govern+ment. The best that can be said for the result, not to men+tion the by-elections, is that Labor faces a long battle in persuading voters its poli+cies are right and will work. And this before it has begun to sell what it ac+knowledges to be an un+popular Budget. This goes to the core of the biggest puzzlement of the Hawke Government. No government in Aust+ralia has been more public relations and public opinion minded. The Government's fond+ness for advertising cam+paigns to sell its policies is well known, as well known as the Prime Ministerial taste for addresses to the nation. But this Government's support now has slumped to the extent that although the next election need not be until 1988 it may well be too late to recover. In the pre-history of its early days, the Hawke Government made its cen+tral appeal to the electorate that it, and especially the Prime Minister and Treasurer in tandem, were better economic managers than the Opposition. On those terms it mani+festly has failed. The by-elections and the opinion polls show the elec+torate simply does not be+lieve either that the man+agement is better or that events are beyond the con+trol of any government. Labor had a Messiah. As of today it needs a Lazarus. B15b The News - 21 October 1986 The hard sell sinks in BAKER'S DAY I am today reminded of the immortal words of Samuel Goldwyn: `What we want is a story that starts with an earth+quake and works its way up to a climax.' When that brewery started Fostering the Grand Prix by plastering its Blue Thunder posters every+where I thought it neat pro+motion. When they hoisted their banners absolutely every+where I thought it very neat promotion. Now they have wrapped the entire city in their streamers and their flags I am awed. It is gloriously over the top. If I had a dollar for every Foster's badge in this city I reckon I could buy Bond, Holmes a Court and Elliott and still have enough bucks to sponsor the Grand Prix. But what prompts these reflections are the also rans. You cannot go into a shop, a pub, a restaurant, a motel without being hit be+tween the eyes with Grand Prix memorabilia, from funny hats to old cars. Much of it is frankly com+mercial. There is a decent quid to be made from funny hats. But no matter. For years now we have billed ourselves as the Fes+tival State. But we have been too timid about it. We have whispered our wares abroad. We have lacked conviction. This year, this Grand Prix, for the first time we are witnessing Adelaide col+lectively selling itself with the wham, bam thank you ma'am conviction of a New York selling the Big Apple or the British a Royal Wed+ding. At last we have learnt, with a little help from the brewers, to sell ourselves as if we mean it. And that's more than half the battle. I think it's marvellous. That greatest of showmen Samuel Goldwyn would have approved for he also is supposed to have said dur+ing the filming of The Last Supper: `Why only twelve?' - `That's the original number.' `Well, go out and get thou+sands.' B15c The News - 12 August 1986 Yes, Bob, a new plan of `action' BAKER'S DAY I WONDER what Bob Hawke was doing last night? If given proper advice he was in front of what Clive James calls the Crystal bucket watching Yes, Prime Minister. Like its predecessor, Yes Minister, this is a curious show. Much of it is frankly puerile, the wit not much beyond that of the average American sitcom which is to say tailored for back+ward five year olds. But there are flashes of a cynical and brilliant wit almost worthy of George Bernard Shaw. If you are not a regular of this show it will take more space than I have at my disposal to explain why Jim Hacker, politician, and Sir Humphrey, bureaucrat, have arrived at No 10 Downing Street and why it should be funny. Suffice it to say that the best piece of advice Jim PM got on how to run the job was to embrace mas+terly inactivity. When he questioned this pithy wisdom he was told to embrace firm mas+terly inactivity. Through one and-a-half terms of government Bob Hawke and company have been telling of all the great things they have done to put Australia to rights. As a result we are skint, depressed and soon to be up to our earlobes in unsold wheat. Which brings me back to The Lodge, Canberra, and some constitutional advice. Just in case he missed it I think I shall send a video recording of Yes, Prime Minister to Mr Hawke. Masterly inactivity, firm or otherwise, seems to me an increasingly at+tractive policy. B15d The Adelaide Advertiser - 2 July 1986 Cold hands and a hot hearth COLQUHOUN Well, at least we'll have the telly to keep us warm. It might be all we have soon, what with rising costs of electricity, gas and oil - and now a Big Brotherly interest in the returning popularity of wood fires. I'm told that, in the US, one can buy videos of cosy fires. You pop the cassette in and, presum+ably, stretch your chilblained tootsies towards the TV and hold out your palms to absorb the imagined warmth. Nothing much wrong with that, I suppose. Wood fires are notoriously inefficient and much of their warmth comes from the imagination, anyway. A lovely log fire is as much in a man's heart as in his hearth. It's always been so. A fire is as atavistic as suckling and its dis+covery as fundamental in the gentling of the human beast as the invention of the wheel. Who still does not enjoy the primitive mysticism of huddling over a camp fire while the billy boils - a friendly cauldron brew+ing spells to ward off the black sorcery of the night while star+dusting us with the eternity of the heavens above? Even in the urban blandness of our cream-brick castles we can gaze into our little manicured fires and pretend we are strutting squires or lonely adventurers or Joan of Arc at the stake. God, what would Scott of the Antarc+tic have given for one blazing log to die by? Those flames are the stuff that dreams are made of. And as they die we can snooze off, snug in a momentary immortality. But such are the petty tempor+al concerns of our fusspot neighbors, not everyone sees it that way. Hard to sleep According to a report in The Advertiser yesterday, the SA Department of Environment and Planning has received about 80 complaints a year recently about soot from wood fires falling on neighbors' washing, smoke en+veloping their houses and smells making it hard to sleep. Smells! Hell, wood smoke must be the most romantic fragrance outside a boudoir. Still one sympathises. And only a cad would let his ash fall on a neighbor's washing or burn wet wood or chemically treated timber which gives off toxic fumes. The department has issued guides on how to use wood heaters correctly and efficiently. It has also discussed the educa+tion of us domestic pyromaniacs with the people who sell "solid fuels". With the use of such fuels still growing spectacularly, it is prop+er that our authorities should be concerned about pollution and citizens' rights. But it is nonetheless morbid to think that we have so civilised ourselves that we have to be taught how to make something as instinctive as a good fire. Before long we'll have to pay for a license to light one in our own hearths. - Des Colquhoun B15e The Adelaide Advertiser - 9 June 1986 Does God listen to prayer? The Rev. Peter Rice "All my life I never care what people thought about nothing I did, I say. But deep in my heart I care about God. What he is going to think. And come to find out, he don't think. Just sit up there glorying in being deaf, I reckon. But ain't easy, trying to do without God. Even if you know he ain't there, trying to do without him is a strain." THESE ARE the words of Celie, the heroine in Alice Walker's book The Color Purple. But they could equally be the words of millions of people who, like Celie, no longer pray to God. God just doesn't seem to hear the cries of human suffering, so most people have stopped asking. And that presents a dilemma. On the one hand, on every Sunday, in every church, Christians pray for God to act in this world to bring about an end to human suffering. And in some churches it seems to work better than others - everything from backache to ingrown toenails are healed at the drop of a "Bless you Jesus". And yet Christians around the world are in the vanguard of the peace move+ment whose motivation is the real fear that, faith or not, four billion people could be wiped out in a nuclear holo+caust, ingrown toenails not withstand+ing. B16 The West Australian 2023 words B16a The West Australian - 22 May 1986 Cars v trees THE Perth City Council's plan to widen Riverside Drive was questionable from the start. That was even before it was known that the project might involve the destruction of many of the majestic trees which line the foreshore. The council will now consider realigning the road to save some of the threatened trees. But that would take it closer to the river and encroach even further on recreational activity. The council's determination to press ahead still goes against the advice of its own city planner and flies in the face of public submissions to the Central Perth Foreshore Study. Widening Riverside Drive may not even fix the bottleneck problem it is intended to solve: It may simply attract more traffic. In any event, there is more at stake here than the convenience of motorists. The tree-lined riverfront is essential to the city's character. If the council had a proper regard for public opinion it would take its whole road-widening scheme back to the drawing board. There must surely be a more environmentally acceptable option, such as that proposed by Perth architect John Oldham to re-direct Riverside Drive along the present route of Terrace Road. Why did the council reject Mr Oldham's idea? It is not just a matter of keeping up appearances for the America's Cup, important though it is to make Perth as attractive as possible for tourists. The City's river environment must be preserved in perpetuity for West Australians themselves. B16b The West Australian - 22 May 1986 WHAT OTHERS SAY WAGES FOR MPS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Members of Parliament are in an unenviable position. They feel they deserve a pay rise because they have fallen behind the community standard after failing to win catch-up flow-ons from the 1982 wage freeze. On the other hand, they can hardly be seen to demand pay rises while the Federal Government is preaching restraint to everyone else. However, there is a case for a moderate pay increase for MPs. If we are to attract the best candidates to the difficult task of governing the country, we must ensure that the salaries they can command are comparable with those offered in the business community. B16c The West Australian - 18 September 1986 Lagging law LAW reform can be a painfully slow process. But 28 years is an extraordinarily long time to deny a group of Australian citizens the right of trial by jury. Though Christmas Island has been an Australian territory since 1958, its criminal law is a hangover from the days of British colonialism. Even the death penalty still exists on the Christmas Island statute book - though under overriding Austrlian law it can never be invoked. At the other extreme, the serious offence of drug trafficking carries a maximum three-year gaol sentence - a legacy of a time when drugs were not regarded as a deadly menace. The WA Law Society has rightly called for the island's laws - which are similar to those applied in Singapore during the "Malayan Emergency" - to be brought up to date. The legal anomaly does not seem to have caused practical problems till now because the small island community has been free of serious crime. But that is no excuse for allowing it to go unremedied for so many years. B16d The West Australian - 18 September 1986 Cricket pitch WITH the completion of a $4 million lighting system at the WACA Ground, Perth has the facilities it needs to host more top-class cricket matches. All that is lacking now is a decent programme of matches for Perth to give the cricket-starved WA public a long overdue fair go. That will require a change of attitude by Australia's cricket administrators and more than a few one-off matches this summer to coincide with the America's Cup. Despite WA's major contributions to Australian cricket, the State has been a poor relation when it comes to hosting big matches. For instance, though WA has reached the final of the limited-overs competition 11 times, only two of those finals have been staged here. The rest have been held to cash in on potentially bigger crowds - and financial returns - in other States. WA cricket fans are entitled to better treatment. With the provision of the new lights, local facilities can no longer be used as an excuse to deny WA a better share of top cricket action. B16e The West Australian - 14 November 1986 So near ... IT would have been too much to expect the State Government's latest attempt at electoral reform to have a trouble-free run through Parliament. The political acrimony that this issue has aroused over the past 25 years was hardly likely to evaporate and suddenly be replaced by sweetness and light. Nevertheless, the apparent deadlock over the Bill now before the Legislative Council is a big disappointment, coming as it does after the opposing sides had shown an inclination to retreat from previously entrenched positions. For the first time in the long history of the electoral-reform debate, it had seemed that a spirit of compromise - albeit a grudging one - might prevail. But the latest legislation is now in danger of being sacrificed - along with its predecessors - on the altar of political self-interest. If this legislation fails, some major reforms which have the broad agreement of the parties could be lost with it. These include the proposed independent electoral commission and a system of regional proportional representation for the Legislative Council - steps which would go some way towards making the Upper House a more democratic institution. The major parties have each given ground, and the prospect of genuine electoral reform has been brought closer than at any time in the history of the WA Parliament. The Liberals have shown a significant change of attitude from their previous refusal to budge from the status quo. And the ALP now seems to accept the need for some electoral weighting in favour of rural areas in the Upper House. But the parties have also done their arithmetic, assessed their respective electoral fortunes and locked horns over numbers and weightings. Having come so close to consensus, it would be a great pity if they were unable to thrash out their remaining differences. There are flaws in the arguments of each side - and still room to manoeuvre. The road to electoral reform has been long and rocky. To abandon the recent progress that has been made would be a shameful waste. B16f The West Australian - 17 May 1986 Costly heroics SEARCHING for new Everests to conquer is a perennial human obsession that frequently results in failure - even loss of life. In the notoriously treacherous waters of Bass Strait last weekend, one man's thirst for adventure led to two tragic deaths, and brought needless grief to two families. Tony Dicker's attempt to row across the strait appears to have been more foolhardy than daring, particularly as he was not wearing a lifejacket. And in endangering his own life he also jeopardised the lives of others - with disastrous results. As our report in Page 27 today acknowledges, the law cannot entirely protect people from themselves; nor should it be invoked arbitrarily to stop people from pursuing their goals. But society needs some protection from people who embark on perilous expeditions for which they are plainly ill-equipped or inexperienced; and there are times when rescue groups should think twice about risking innocent lives to save people who knowingly take dangerous chances in their quest for glory. It comes down to a question of moral responsibility. Anyone setting out in search of adventure should have the sense to ensure that he or she is not about to put someone else's life at risk. B16g The West Australian - 17 May 1986 More talk A HINT of desperation has crept into the Federal Government's economic management. First we had the rare spectacle of a Treasurer voicing fears of Australia's becoming a banana republic. Then, two days after giving assurances that the tax cuts promised for September would stand, Mr Keating leaves open a possibility that they may be deferred to save revenue. And now we are told there is to be yet another summit-style talkfest to decide future economic directions. The overall impression is of a Government that is formulating economic policy on the run. Where is the political leadership that Australia needs? B16h The West Australian - 14 July 1986 Labor's test WITH the forces of moderation having triumphed at the Labor Party's national conference, Australia is a lot better off than it might have been. The Government flew out of Hobart with a considerable achievement: Union and party faith in the prices and incomes accord had been reaffirmed, the ACTU had implied that it would entertain further wage discounting and the Government's economic strategy had been resoundingly endorsed. But the story doesn't end there. The Government, despite the warm feeling that the conference must have given it, knows that what happened in Hobart was not the bottom line. It was a theatrical victory with the real battle still to be fought. The test will come when the fine words spoken in Hobart have to be put into action. Though both the ACTU president, Mr Simon Crean, and the senior vice-president, Mr John MacBean, walked a long way down the path of brotherly co-operation with the Government in Hobart, it is yet to be seen whether they will be able to persuade the more tempestuous unions to accept further restraint. The feeling is strong within the union movement that the philosophy of restraint is being imposed principally on the workers and not on other sectors. The new Hawke catch-cry of restraint with equity, and the emphasis repeatedly placed on such things as price restraint, industry policy and the social wage will convince hard-headed unions in the building, transport and metal trades only if there is visible substance to match the rhetoric. There is no question, of course, that all members of the union movement have responsibility to co-operate with the Government, just as industry does. The country is approaching economic crisis-point, with an enormous trade deficit and the possibility of having its international credit rating downgraded. In those circumstances there is no room for selfishness, bloodymindedness or political grand-standing. As the next wage case approaches, the accord will undergo its most severe test so far. Success or failure will determine whether events in Hobart had a firm grounding in reality or were merely a piece of empty symbolism staged by a Government about to lose its grip. B16i The West Australian - 26 June 1986 Loaded leave MR BURKE suggests it is illogical, Mr Hawke declares it is not sacrosanct, and Mr Clyde Cameron, the former Labour Minister responsible for it in the first place, now admits it was a mistake from the start. Have our political leaders been blessed with sudden insight? Or is their new found interest in abolishing the 17 1/2 per cent leave loading limited to talking about it? Mr Burke's strong comments got a surprisingly positive response from Mr Hawke, who left open the possibility of Government support for a move to scrap the loading. Saying is not doing, of course, and translating the comments of the past few days into action would be a tough assignment, especially for Labor governments. It would be fraught with conflict - as yesterday's heated reaction from a number of Federal Government MPs demonstrated - and it would put a serious dent in government-union relations. Many workers would resent losing a benefit they have come to regard as a right, even though logic may tell them that the leave loading is an absurdity. Perhaps the blow could be softened if the loading was scrapped in concert with a national wage increase. At least then it need not involve an immediate net loss of income. And workers might be more prepared to accept such a measure after they finally see some evidence of the real cuts in taxation, first promised by Mr Hawke more than three years ago. Meanwhile, if the Government is to consider the issue seriously, it should also take a look at the wider question of penalty rates - another subject that elicits occasional sympathetic noises from politicians, but nothing in the way of concrete action. The old concept of the nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday working week is gradually disappearing, and wages need to be made flexible enough to adjust to this changing trend. B17 The Daily News 2031 words B17a The Daily News - 26 June 1986 On the carpet over buying NZ John Arthur PARLIAMENT HOUSE IS NEARLY ALL HOME-MADE Australians hate the idea of overseas products being bought to furnish the lavish billion-dollar new Parlia+ment House. And they are as keen as rabbits to buy Aus+tralian-made items in supermarkets. But the ideal is not easy to live up to. It is an ideal which forced Prime Minister Robert James Lee Hawke to do a near-strip on national tele+vision this week to prove HE was buying Australian from his jocks to jacket. And, wary that Aus+tralians quickly spot the nonsense of Gov+ernment waste or stu+pid purchasing poli+cies, he made the right noises. Question Easily the most popu+lar question put to the PM was: Why are we buying New Zealand carpets for the new Parliament House? Why are we buying Italian glasses for the new Parliament House? "I just don't agree with those decisions," said Mr 68 per cent. "I can't answer for every authority but I would say to you quite clearly that as far as this Gov+ernment is concerned now we are going to be pushing at the level of government purchases for a preference for Australian products." It was great stuff, even though it didn't mean much. The Parliament House Construction Author+ity already gives pre+ference to Australian-made products. Over+seas tenders are loaded with a penalty averag+ing about 20 per cent. Thus the authority claims that 95 per cent of the input for the new Parliament House is Australian. New Zealand carpet is an exception because there is a reciprocal agreement between the two countries for free trade. The biggest non-Aus+tralian purchase prob+ably has been in small wares (crockery, cut+lery, linen, crystal+ware). The authority claims it's impossible to buy locally-made knives and forks. And there are other problems in buying Australian. A Brisbane marble manufacturer who complained that his product was as strong and reliable as overseas marble purchased for the House mailed some samples to my office. They broke. And, as Mr Hawke was told during his hour-long TV appear+ance this week, con+sumers will have prob+lems discovering what IS Australian. "OK, the products in the supermarket may be grown in Australia, but it is packaged overseas," one woman consumer told him. "In the clothing line, (there are clothes) de+signed in Australia but manufactured in Taiwan, (or) manufac+tured in Hong Kong ... China. CHRISTMAS Island, 3 1/2 hours from Perth by air, sounds like the place to go for frus+trated Swan River crabbers. Perth developer Frank Woodmore, who on Tuesday got Cabi+net's in-principle approval for a $30 mil+lion casino-hotel com+plex there, reports: "In the crab season, starting in November and going through to February, these giant red land crabs come running out of their burrows and cover the roads like a thick coat of vegemite. It's unbelievable. They're endemic to Christmas Island. They are about the size of a dinner plate and relatively inedible. "There's also the blue robber crab, which is very good eating. They're enormous, ab+out 1 1/2 dinner plates across." B17b The Daily News - 26 June 1986 Sydneyside By Mark Thompson ILLEGAL CASINOS FACE BAD STREAK The NSW Government faces its greatest test of strength with the opening of its new casino. Yet again the government has proposed the introduction of "tough legislation" to combat the 200 illegal casinos in Sydney. It is a statement which has hit the headlines regularly for the past five years. But this time they mean business. For a start the NSW Government would not stand for the competition which would syphon valuable revenue from their own 100 per cent government-owned casino. With more than $140 million at stake there can be no doubt the government will ensure that every single illegal casino has been closed. The $750 million casino and hotel complex will stand majestically in the Darling Harbour, which until recently was a neglected piece of real estate just outside the business district. Construction will be completed for the Bicenten+ary in 1988 but the hotel complex will not be finished until 1990. 400 tables It has been described as Australia's biggest casino and, when compared with our own achieve+ment just over the Causeway, you can see why. The Sydney casino will boast 400 gaming tables and 1500 video slot machines with a capacity for 11,000 people at one time. The Perth casino has room for 4500 patrons, with 142 tables and 300 video slot machines. The Sydney casino will have a 28-storey hotel with 700 rooms of five-star standard. The Perth casino and hotel complex, which will cost $280 million, will have a 12-storey hotel with 412 rooms. It is obvious the NSW Government is already getting itchy over the revenue generated from the casino. Plans are under way to set up an interim casino which will be operating within six months. The problem is that both the government and the developers are still "tossing up" between several possible sites. B17c The Daily News - 14 November 1986 MELBOURNE with LEE TINDALE BLASTS OVER DUCK HUNT THERE are Victorians cal+lous enough to get together on the eve of the duck season and run sweeps on the number of human casualties the weekend will produce. In some sophisticated competi+tions, there is a bonus prize for correctly guessing the number of foot wounds, shot feet being com+monly associated with the pro+cess of loading a shotgun. Those who play these games are the extremist fringe of a silent majority who regard the February duck opening as a joke. At the other end of the scale are two vocal minorities. The shooters, who regard it as a reli+gion, and the conservationists-animal liberationists, who call it an outrage. Then again, there is Joan Kirner. MS Kirner is State Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands and she copped both barrels from the hunters this week for suggesting a few amendments to their ritual. Quite apart from advocating a shooter-education programme, including a bird-identification course (ducks go quack, peli+cans don't), Ms Kirner proposed that the first shot next season be held back four hours, until 10 am. It might she said, separate responsible duck hunters from those who go out to "booze and blast." Ten o'clock? As Charlie Brown might say, good grief. Earthy former Premier Sir Henry Bolte, a keen duck shoo+ter from way back, was among the front-runners into the fray. "What if it's a stinking hot day?" said Sir Henry. "You'll be shooting in all the heat." A NEW benchmark for crass stupidity, said Ms Kirner's National Party counterpart, David Evans. "How naive is she to believe that shooters will sit by, seeing ducks flying overhead and watching their clocks tick slow+ly towards 10?" Mr Evans said. Victorian Field and Game Association publicity officer Graham Eanes tacitly admitted that some liquor might be in+volved in duck-shoot openings. He said a delayed start would give irresponsible shooters more time to "suck more cans." Personally, the duck season brings annually to mind the opening verse of a work by Tom Lehrer, American musical satir+ist who made waves in the 1960s: I always will remember, 'twas a year ago November, I went out to hunt some deer on a morning bright and clear, I went and shot the maximum the game laws would allow: Two game wardens, seven hunters and a cow. WE have heeded the words of Frank Purcell and sworn off skinny-dipping at Werribee this summer. You could tell Mr Purcell, a local councillor, was displeased this week when Campbell's Cove, a beach in his precinct, was proclaimed for nude bath+ing. But did he jump up and down and froth at the mouth? No. Rather, he took a fully-clad reporter to the scene and pointed out some home truths. For one thing, Campbell's Cove adjoins an RAAF shooting range. For another, he said, it's polluted. And he indicated a drain which carries water and various nasties through the shire into Port Phillip Bay. The sand is not only sparse, but coarse. Not really the stuff to comfortably accommodate bare buttocks. The beach stinks of seaweed and it's hard to ignore the rubb+ish tip. And the clincher: "This is a great area for tiger snakes," said Mr Purcell. "There are lots around here." It takes a spartan sort of sun+lover to get it all off on bayside beaches, which are none of your Scarboroughs or Cottesloes. We wonder what sort of masochist will bare the lot at Campbell's Cove. B17d The Daily News - 14 November 1986 Sydney with Mark Thompson Fortune unclaimed Forgetful Sydneysiders are sitting on a fortune worth $8 million through unclaimed inheritances. Dozens of un+claimed wills - many involving more than $200,000 - are lying dormant inside the vaults at the NSW Public Trust office. The office is given the unen+viable task of trying to trace the hundreds of beneficiaries who are in line to collect cash. And the stumbling block is that nobody knows where they are ... or even if they are dead. It seems as though Sydney folk are a trifle blase when it comes to checking on those skeletons in the closet. And the heartache is that the money isn't kept longer than six years and doesn't go to charity. Last year the Trust handed over $711,000 in unclaimed estates to the Federal Govern+ment after failing to find the rightful claimants. IF they are not squabbling about each other, NSW parliamenta+rians don't seem happy unless they have some other bone of contention. They are currently embroiled in what to do with surplus com+mittee funds. Some MPs want to spend the funds on a baby grand piano; others have expressed an avid interest in an executives*executive espresso coffee machine. But he three minutes needed to make a cup of cappuccino would cause chaos in the dining room. Now one firm has come up with the solution and has offered Parliament a free trial with a cappuccino unit that automatic+ally sucks milk from the contain+er and delivers it, hot and frothy, directly into the cup. Just what aggressive par+liamentarians need after one of their quiet, eloquent little de+bates. NSW butchers have declared war on the Health Department over the difference between rib and sirloin steak. The long-running dispute centres on the last three ribs of the hindquarter of a carcass of beef. The butchers say the ribs have traditionally been sold as sirloin, while the remaining ribs are sold as rib steak. But the Health Department says only the thirteenth rib should be regarded as sirloin beef. And as usual the entire dis+pute is over money. This week the butchers' case took a hard blow when one butcher was fined $100 and ordered to pay $6000 costs over the issue. The Meat and Allied Trades Federation is now appealing against the decision, but mean+while it is telling butchers not to sell the ribs as sirloin steak. NSW police vehicles are ex+tremely versatile. It seems they are used more often to take officers to and from their homes than in official pa+trols*par+trols, according to a Govern+ment report. The NSW Public Accounts Committee has revealed that in some areas as few as 30 per cent of police vehicles are actually used on any given day. The committee's report said many vehicles either sat idly at the back of police stations or were taken home overnight by officers. The committee has ordered an immediate review into the High+way Patrol and "performance indicators" should be devised to check on vehicle effectiveness. B17e The Daily News - 14 November 1986 State Round with Tony Robertson This could be the start of something big LAST week Brian Burke handed Peter Dowding a double-edged sword. The Premier wants his Indust+rial Relations Minister to hack his way through the State bureaucracy. Mr Dowding was given the task of implementing the Govern+ment's reform of the Public Ser+vice and its workforce of about 95,000. His official title is Minister assisting the Premier on Public Service Management. Forgetting the jargon, that means acting as troubleshooter in a priority area for the Burke Government. For Peter Dowding, the appointment could be the most significant in his political career. In a tough job, Mr Dowding will have the chance to show what he's made of. And with Mr Burke making no secret of his desire to get out of politics in the next few years, all eyes will be on the man acknowl+edged as a leading contender for the crown. B18 The Mercury 2016 words B18a The Mercury - 21 October 1986 US statistics point to paradox in drugs fight By Geoffrey Barker WASHINGTON. - "The Americans... frequently allow themselves to be borne away, far beyond the bounds of reason, by a sudden passion or a hasty opinion and sometimes gravely commit strange absurdities". Simon de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835). Could the anti-drug hysteria now sweeping the United States be an example of one of those "strange absurdities" observed by de Tocquevill 150 years ago? In raising this question I am not suggesting that drugs are not a serious social and economic threat to the United States; nor am I suggesting that the US administration is necessarily over-reacting to the public demand for action to combat the drug menace. But there is this paradox: the public outcry over drugs, and the political response to it, is intensifying at the same time as the use of all illicit drugs except cocaine is either stabilising or declining. And while it is true that the number of cocaine-related deaths has tripled since 1981, Time maga+zine reports that more Americans (570) died from appendicitis last year than from cocaine abuse (563). Furthermore the deaths, suffering and economic costs related to illicit drug use remain minute compared with those related to alcohol and tobacco abuse. So why are President Reagan and Mrs Reagan so heavily into the anti-drug campaign? Why this rash of lurid articles that talk of "Crisis" and "The Enemy Within"? Why the rush to extend testing for drugs through urine analysis? Why the attempt (it failed) to legislate for the death penalty for drug-related killings? Confronted by figures showing that one in every five Americans over the age of 12 used one or more drugs in the past 12 months, worried Americans now rate drug abuse as among the country's most important problems. For many it is more important than unemployment and/or arms control. These concerns were magnified and reinforced by the deaths in June of two prominent American athletes - University of Maryland basketball star Les Bias and footballer Don Rogers. Horror stories about the effects of the extremely addictive form of cocaine known as "crack" have generated more anti-drug hysteria. These developments have occurred against the background of a sustained White House campaign on drugs. Last month President Reagan and Mrs Reagan went on TV together to press their anti-drug campaign which Mrs Reagan has taken to the nation's schools. At the same time President Reagan signed an executive order requiring that Federal employees in "sensitive" jobs submit to urine tests. He, Vice-President Bush, and 78 White House staffers set the example by submitting to the tests which were immediately called "jar wars" by one amused sceptic. Following reports from Dr Carlton Turner, who heads the White House Drug Abuse Policy Office, that drugs were costing the US economy more than $100 billion a year, some of America's biggest companies started insisting that job applicants submit to urine analysis. And last week, caught up in the anti-drug mood, Congress came within an ace of imposing the death penalty on drug-pushers whose customers died from overdoses. Public fears have been confirmed and reinforced by scads of statistics: nearly 6,000,000 Americans use cocaine at least monthly; 20 million use marijuana once a month; 65 per cent of those entering the work force have used illegal drugs. Small wonder, then, that massive national public+ity was given to three cases of children turning in their drug-using parents to the authorities. Dr Turner said these cases showed (a) how much the children loved their parents and (b) the emerging American attitude towards drugs. Perhaps he is right. But emerging American attitudes towards drugs seem to have appeared more clearly in studies showing that, in fact, most drug abuse is either stabilising or declining. While pointing out that drug use was still very high throughout the US, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported recently that the number of regular marijuana users had declined from 20 million to 18.2 million between 1982 and 1985. Heroin use had stabilised at about 500,000 users - the same number as 15 years ago. There had been a modest increase in the number of cocaine users, but a strong perception that "crack" was extremely dangerous. Cocaine remained, the institute said, the most addictive popular drug, but the number of "current users" remained below 6,000,000. But subjective perceptions matter more than objective trends, and America remains, as de Tocquevill said, "borne away ... by a sudden passion". A clue to the reasons behind America's current concern about drugs may lie in the country's history. In the late 19th century cocaine and opiate drugs (basically heroin) were widely and legally used throughout the United States to treat most aches and pains. They were outlawed by a tough act of Congress in 1914 after a 1910 Presidential report declared that cocaine was "a vice", a "creator of criminals", a substance that turned negroes into rapists. In the 1920s, in what was clearly one of de Tocqueville's "strange absurdities", the US imposed prohibition on alcohol - a "noble experiment" that proved disastrous. Until the 1950s other illicit drugs remained marginal and mostly restricted to mari+juana. Then through the 1960s and 1970s, as attitudes to marijuana became more liberal, there was an explosion in the use of drugs like LSD, and heroin - and a revival in cocaine popularity. The devastating effects of these drugs - and their links to organised crime originating outside the US - prompted a tough crack-down. Drug seizures and arrests have increased sharply. Now, in the afternoon of the rigorously conserva+tive Reagan era, the United States is again moving away from tolerance of drug abuse. The statistical trends are beside the point. National mood, national fear, is the relevant consideration. The point, as usual, was well made by de Tocqueville in remarks immediately after the epigram quoted above. "In despotic states men do not know how to act because they are told nothing; in democratic nations they often act at random because nothing is to be left untold. The former do not know, the latter forget; and the chief features of each picture are lost to them in bewilderment of details". B18b The Mercury - 3 December 1986 Iran scandal damage to President is serious From GEOFFREY BARKER WASHINGTON. - In a moment of inspired verbal malevolence, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan has said Ronald Reagan's pres+idency is "tottering" - a word redolent of senility, uncertainty, absurdity. "Tottering" is, perhaps, an over+statement. But President Reagan has been seriously and per+manently damaged by disclosures that the US secretly sold arms to Iran and that up to $30 million of the proceeds were skimmed off for the benefit of the Nicaraguan Contra rebels. Now that the broad domestic and foreign policy consequences of the arms scandal are painfully apparent, political attention is focusing increasingly on three narrow questions of detail: (1) What happened? (2) Who did it? (3) Who knew about it? The answers are still unclear, and are likely to remain unclear for some time. But Congressional and media investigators are swar+ming over the events to try to reconstruct the complex evolution of the scandal. So far they have provided only fragmentary glimpses into the murky world of "unconventional" government activities, and into the amoral world of international arms dealers. They are worlds of looking glass duplicity. One example: While one arm of the US Government was secretly selling arms to Iran, another arm was scheming (ultimately successfully) to trap 17 individuals doing the same thing. They are the worlds of shadowy Israeli Government links to the White House, of a luxury-loving multi-millionaire Saudi Arabian arms dealer, of retired right-wing American generals running pri+vate anti-Sandinista crusades. And, inevitably, there are glimpses of the melodramatic apparatus of clandestine govern+ment activity - the acquisition of "safe" houses in third countries, the establishment of Swiss bank accounts, the shredding of sensi+tive papers. Nobody is sure how all these tantalising pieces will finally stitch together, but it is clear that the trail does not end at the door of Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver North, the gung-ho Marine Corps war hero who was fired last week from his job on the White House National Security Council. Lt-Col North and his boss, Admiral John Poindexter, who has resigned, seem immediately responsible for having developed and executed the disastrous scheme in an apparent effort to satisfy President Reagan's desires to (a) win the release of American hostages held in the Lebanon, and (b) to assist the Nicaraguan Con+tras despite a Congressional ban. But the origins of the scheme predate the secret trips to Tehran in May and September this year by Lt-Col North and former Na+tional Security Adviser, Robert McFarlane. For some years Israel has secretly sent arms to Iran, and US and Israeli leaders have acknow+ledged that Israel helped facilitate the US deals with Iran which reportedly began in August, 1985. The New York Times has re+ported that American investiga+tors will ask Israel for permission to interview four Israelis. They have been named as David Kimche, former Director-General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Al Schwimmer, a founder of the Israeli aircraft industry, Amiram Nir, the Israeli Prime Minister's adviser on terrorism, and Yaacov Nimrodi, a London-based arms dealer. Mr Nimrodi said yesterday he had helped to arrange one ship+ment of weapons at the request of the Israeli Government, and that he had done so without profit in efforts to help to secure the re+lease of the US hostages. Associated with Messrs Nimro+di and Schwimmer has been the billionaire Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who is reported to have told guests at his birthday party in Marbella, Spain, in July last year that he was coming up with a plan to free the hostages. Even before then, according to the Israelis, Mr Khashoggi in mid-1985 had contacted a Mr Manucher Ghorbanifar, an ex+patriate Iranian businessman with ties to the Tehran regime. He reportedly put Mr Ghorbanifar in touch with Mr Schwimmer and the talks, according to the New York Times, turned to arms for hostages. Present at some of these meet+ings, at least, was a Mr Michael Ledeen, a consultant to the US National Security Council who worked closely with Lt-Col North in perhaps August last year Mr Kimche, then Director-General of Israel's Foreign Ministry, met Mr McFarlane in Washington where arms for hostages were discussed. Yet in April this year, while these secret machinations were in train, the US Customs Service revealed that it had charged 17 men - including Mr Khashoggi's London lawyer Samuel Evans - with plotting to sell US weapons to Iran. The men are due to go to trial on February 2 next year in New York, but the US Govern+ment now says the case will be reviewed following the disclosure that the Government had been doing the same thing. It is still uncertain how much US war material*materiel found its way to Iran, or how it got there. Accord+ing to President Reagan, everything would have fitted into one cargo plane, and consisted of some 3,000 TOW anti-tank mis+siles and spare parts for anti-aircraft batteries. The reported value was some $12 million. But reports persist that at least 10,000 TOWs were sent and that the the total value of the weapons was more than $1 billion. Most is reported to have been flown in by Israelis, but there have been re+ports that Mr McFarlane took some on his covert trips. B18c The Mercury - 6 September 1986 Seoul blast reopens Olympic wounds By PETER WILSON TOKYO. - The worst night+mare of the Olympic movement was reborn at Seoul's Kimpo airport with a bomb blast that tore the air with slivers of glass and metal and took five lives. Sunday's devastation raised the memory of Munich in 1972 and the horrifying possibility of far worse carnage in Seoul in 1988. It also proved what a breath+taking risk the International Olympic Committee took when it decided to hold the 1988 Games in the tense, divided battle-field that is the Korean Peninsular. A giant political time bomb now hangs over Seoul's Olym+pic stadium, and it may go off at any time*anytime in the countdown to this Saturday's Asian Games. B19 Northern Territory News/Daily News 2011 words B19a Northern Territory News - 18 November 1986 Remarks relevant SIR, The CLP vice-president, Bill Forwood, suggests (Northern Territory News, November 14) that my comments about CLP pre-selection proposals to oust sitting members are irrelevant. Mr Forwood agrees that overall Govern+ment is a good and balanced team and our main concern is to pro+vide good government to the Northern Territ+ory. The first step in doing this is to elect sufficient members to form Gov+ernment. The second step is to have the members serve sufficient time to gain experience and make a mature contri+bution. Branches consider primarily candidates they believe will win. They also take into account qualities that might enable members to achieve high office. It is healthy to main+tain a competitive en+vironment for pre-selection. This normally occurs when sitting members retire and on the rare occasion elected repre+sentatives fail to meet the requirements of the party or the electorate. If the replacement of a sitting member is necessary because of the latter, it should come after branches have had close com+munication with their local member about the member's perform+ance and shortcomings. If normal procedures are going to be changed to oust sitting mem+bers, it would also be reasonable for the new pre-selection rules to be known 12 or 18 months in advance and not thrust upon branches and sitting members while pre+selection is in progress. It is really a matter for the branches to pre-select or remove mem+bers when this needs to be done; it is the branches who reflect the view of the com+munity that the mem+ber is expected to serve; it is the branches who work hard on the ground to ensure that their member is elected; it is the branch members who, in the interests of good gov+ernment support the man they have chosen to represent their area when the going gets tough. Without the branches there can be no good government. Given the Govern+ment is a good and well-balanced team, and the importance of branch participation in the pre-selection process, any move by the CLP Cen+tral Council to declare open season on one-third of the sitting members raises serious questions. In this context my remarks are entirely relevant. Ian Tuxworth, MLA for Barkley. Electoral danger SIR, In the continuing saga over why the ALP lost the Queensland State election and the weeping and wailing that has followed the loss, the ALP has been supported by Senator Janine Haines (Aust+ralian Democrats Leader) in calling for Federal Government intervention into the Queensland electoral system. Senator Haines has obviously failed to con+sider the ramifications of changes proposed by the ALP that would ef+fectively eliminate the preferential voting sys+tem, not only in Queens+land but Australia-wide. With the introduction of a first-past-the-post voting system the elec+torate would be polar+ised into two distinct groups, the supporters of socialism and the free-thinking, free-enterprise anti-socialists. The major conserva+tive parties would be forced into unity to de+feat the greatest enemy Australia has ever faced, the socio-communistic Aust+ralian Labor Party and minor parties and splin+ter groups would cease to exist. Should that occur the rising tide of anti-socialist, anti-ALP feel+ing that is sweeping the nation would ensure unity of purpose and the ALP would face certain defeat. The predicament that faces Senator Haines in supporting ALP elec+toral changes is two-fold: she is condemning the Australian Demo+crats to certain extinc+tion and she is inviting her own political de+mise. Syd Dart, Garbutt, Q. It's all in the name SIR, On July 1, 1978, the title of "Chief Minister" was first used to describe the leader of the Territory Government. Before this the leader of the majority party in the House was known, not surprisingly, as "Majority Leader" and for a short while during 1977 as "Chief Secre+tary" which probably was acceptable under the limited scope of the NT Government then. After the enactment of the Northern Territ+ory (Self-Government) Act 1978 with its attend+ant increase in powers and responsibilities, a more suitable title for the head of the Territ+ory's Administration was sought. The options were: 1. Prime Minister 2. Premier 3. Chief MInister. By (snivelling) elim+ination the advisers on such matters decided that options 1 and 2 were usually associated with the heads of the Federal or State Gov+ernments and that the Territory should not in+trude upon the niceties of these conventions. The "Chief MInister" tag was adopted. Since that lamentable decision, the title has in many ways set the Territory Government apart from the other Governments of Aust+ralia, to the Territory's detriment seen as the "new boy" with quasi-recognition. To hang this "some-sort" of identity on the elected Government's leader was no more than an ill-thought-out attempt to appease Federal and State polit+icians' egos by letting them see that the Terr+itory admitted to being subservient and not equal to the supremacy of the sovereignty of those established gov+ernments. It was a forelock+tugging, fawning, am+blyopic, protocolic (sic) cringe, a ratting on those who had sup+ported and eagerly awaited Territory self-government. The title has been a boon for the cartoonists and derisive comment of the political pundits of the media and was fundamental in causing a former Chief Minister to describe himself as "King of the Kids". Now that the de+clared intention of the Federal Treasurer and the policy of the Fed+eral Treasury is to treat the Territory financi+ally as a State, it is most opportune that our Government Leader should be seen as a "State" leader at all levels. In future dealings with the Federal Gov+ernment, the States or private sector, I urge that the Territory Gov+ernment do away with the inapt (to me offens+ive) tag of "Chief Min+ister" and replace it with the far more ap+propriate title "Prem+ier of the Northern Territory". This overt positive and confident state+ment of identity and intent would set on stream the move towards sovereign statehood of the Territory. Pete Lawrence, Anula. B19b Northern Territory News - 17 November 1986 Barriers to reform SIR, Bill Goff's recog+nition of the way the Australian Constitution underpins the existing industrial relations sys+tem in Australia and provides a barrier to reform of that system ("Push by Right is turning full circle, Northern Territory News, November 6) is very welcome. However, the impli+cation that the Consti+tutional Commission stands for preservation of the existing system is mistaken. Mr Goff quoted from the issues paper of the Constitutional Com+mission's advisory committee on distri+bution of powers. That paper correctly makes the point that there are more consti+tutional and insti+tutional barriers to re+form of the existing in+dustrial relations sys+tem than the critics of that system have ac+knowledged. Australia's industrial relations system is very much a product of the existing Constitution. The Constitutional Commission is receiv+ing submissions, in+cluding about whether the existing Australian Constitution is appro+priate to our industrial relations requirements today and into the fu+ture. Submissions can be made to the commiss+ion at PO Box E2, St James, NSW, 2000. I.G. Cunliffe, secretary, Constitutional Commission, Sydney. Water to cost more SIR, This Government has broken another promise. Your water bill is now being assessed in quite a different manner and it could cost you a packet. Previously you had a basic allowance and if you did not exceed 500 kilolitres you paid no extra. Now there is no basic allowance or charge. You pay 25c for every kilolitre used. I'm off to buy a water tank and get as much as God sends me, free. Stella Kirk, Darwin. Wagait disgrace SIR, The Wagait de+cision on traditional ownership is unjust and a disgrace to the North+ern Land Council and Clyde Holding, the Fed+eral Minister for Abor+iginal affairs. The full-blood people have every right to con+tinue to seek a fair decision in accordance with Australia's Lands Rights Act and not to accept a decision which was made under such controversial circum+stances. For the Northern Land Council to have this opposition from the very people they are supposed to be advanc+ing, points to the fact their decisions are not as knowledgeable as we are led to believe or the Aborigines are not as involved as they should be in the decision-making processes. Ten years ago the part-Aboriginal el+ement had nothing to do with Aboriginal tra+dition. Now they all seem to be experts. The NLC white staff are employed to make decisions informed as much as possible, but on Wagait the white staff's recommendat+ions were ignored and vocal colored people overrode the true Abor+igines. In the particular Wagait case even the council admits they do not have any idea who originally had pos+session of this land. They were asked to listen to oral reports from the contesting groups. This put the bush people at a disadvan+tage immediately as European debates are not the Aboriginal way of making decisions. At Lake Bennett, a meeting was held two years ago. Wagait was discussed and finally all the full-bloods were asked to go and sit down together and come to a decision. They agreed the Marranunggu people were the rightful Abor+iginal owners and de+livered their decision to NLC members present. The NLC did not ac+cept this decision and no reason was ever given why they did not. If the NLC makes a decision no common person has a channel to contest this unless he can produce finance on a large scale. Aboriginal people are worse off as they have not even the knowledge to go about complaining as Europeans do. If NLC decisions are wrong, bad luck you cannot change it unless they change their minds themselves. As a result of the Marranunggu people's fight for their land and this latest revision of ownership and current decision, the NLC should take a look around Berrimah shops and Knuckey's Lagoon fringe camp where methylated spirits is being used to console frustrations at their latest decision on Wagait. Who are they trying to help, the Aboriginal people or the Aborig+inal-claiming conmen who are most vocal. Name and address withheld by request. B19c Northern Territory News - 19 November 1986 Animal welfare SIR, I note with con+cern the letter (Northern Territory News, November 11) on uncontrolled dogs ruin+ing the Nightcliff beach net safety area and people's enjoyment. At its October 31 meeting, the Animal Welfare Com+mittee recommended to the Darwin City Council that dogs be prohibited from Night+cliff beach. This we regretted, but considered necess+ary because of recent complaints and the possibility of damage to the safety net. It reflects, of course, on the owners of the dogs and each of us should be aware of the need to draw attention to those irresponsible people the error of their attitudes. The committee, rep+resentative of various bodies interested in re+sponsible animal own+ership and appointed from a series of public meetings, has been meeting monthly for two years. Recommendations from this body to the council and im+plemented include en+forcement of dog regis+tration, development of an education program, appointment of an ani+mal welfare officer and the establishment of a euthanasia centre where unwanted and nuisance dogs can be disposed of by owners. Educational posters have been delayed, but these, plus input from the council officers at such activities as the Obedience Dog Club open day and school programs will eventu+ally lead to more in+formed and responsible dog ownership. While these meas+ures help problem areas, the effects must gain momentum. The public can help by being involved in educational programs and providing details of problems to council of+ficers. If there is a particu+lar area of concern the Animal Welfare Advis+ory Committee would be pleased to discuss it. Please address com+munications care of Darwin City Council. Dr Jan Hills, chairman AWAC. Sham on road toll SIR, I can see the road toll rising with the ad+vent of TAB facilities in bars. Statistics already show that some motor+ists drive with over-the-limit alcohol readings, but with an enticement to linger longer in bars (either to win back lost wages and wagers or to celebrate a good win) the "Jewish Piano" in the pub will tinkle longer because of in+creased sales. The Government's concern over the ghastly Territory road toll is obviously a sham. Mark Wilson, Nightcliff. B19c Daily News - 3 December 1986 opinion Motorists watch their taxes gurgle away THE recent statement by the Prime Minister that American motorists were paying in the vicinity of 45c a litre for their petrol seems to be at variance with the facts. B20 National Times on Sunday 2019 words B20a National Times on Sunday - 28 September 1986 If he lost, do we know he'd go? IN EVERY conventional election, defeat shadows governments and weighs heavily on the shoulders of their leaders. Oppositions look taller, and even the most abject opposition leader acquires at least some of the allure of power, as the day comes nearer on which - if even only by electoral accident - he might be elevated to power. This is not happening in Queensland. Why? Only part of the answer rests with the three-corneredness of the competition - an extra, unhelpful, complexity that destroys the satisfying symmetry of parliamentary elections. Nor is much of the answer to be found in the decidedly limited appeal of the leaders of two corners - Warburton and Knox - compared to that of Sir Joh of the Third Corner. No, the dreariness of this contest, the misery and even squalor of it, has a different cause, at once attributable to Joh and traceable beyond him to the dingy political traditions of Queensland. A case might be made for the suspension of compulsory voting in this election, in order to allow honourable people to avoid becoming accomplices in the corruption of suffrage. In two ways are voters disenfranchised in Queensland. The first is the direct disenfranchisement that is caused by perhaps the most brazen gerrymander anywhere in the parliamentary world. The zone system and the creative map-drawing are so audaciously unfair that even their architect hardly cares to defend them, beyond saying that Labor Governments did the same. When he was asked last week whether it was an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, Sir Joh replied: "Well yeah, fair enough." The second disenfranchisement is more complex, though hardly more subtle: it is the attrition of the value of each vote caused by the regime's campaign of concealment, harrassment and pretence. On the Four Corners program last week, Sir Joh gave what might be considered a definitive exposition of the political bluff: a line of non-logical response that goes like this, "what allegation? - you know it's false - who are you anyway"? A politician who renounces the responsibility to answer questions not only scorns the electorate; he also diminishes its capacity to exercise its right to vote. The Queensland electorate is impaired through lack of knowledge; when it casts its votes (already distorted by gerrymander), it does so in a fog of misinformation. Whatever the result, these elections are flawed. That being so, it is interesting and useful to ask what outcome would be needed to convince Sir Joh that he had not been re-elected. Mere failure to attain a majority would not do the trick. Would the swearing-in of another Premier be enough? One wonders, and it is not an idle thought. Sir Joh, in his thoughts, is the saviour of Queensland. Those who fail to recognise this are, by definition, enemies of the State. Why should he defer to them? That's where you get, once you allow a politician to acquire delusions of sanctity. ROBERT HAUPT B20b National Times on Sunday - 21 December 1986 Christmas all the year round THIRTY years ago, if you lost something of value - a ring or a fountain pen - in the street there was a good chance you would get it back. These days, the probability is high that you wouldn't. It is no secret that Australia has changed. We have come to know growth and unprecedented personal wealth, and the people who know the latter best have also, of course, accrued power and influence. Our role models, even heroes, these days are Bond and Holmes a Court, Murdoch and Packer - Australians (most of them) out of Dallas. In the 1950s we most admired Test batsmen who walked long before the umpire lifted his finger. Pragmatism, ruthlessness, unflinching competitiveness are the rules of today's game, which promises big prizes to its winners. Whereas the 50s demanded that we co-operated with one another for little reward, the 80s have seen whole sections of society become an irrelevance to many social and political processes. Who asks the poor what they think or how they vote? A growing minority, their voice is nonetheless small amid the cacophony of persuasion that harangues our opinion-makers and political leaders. Who asks the family man or woman - people who were typical Australians not so long ago - whether he or she is satis+fied? Nobody. Not seriously, anyway, because in modern times what is left of the family is often a broken body hinged together by the State and supported by welfare payments. Better to listen to the real beat of society, to hear the people who know its savage rules and can play its cut-throat games. So where does this leave Christmas? Families still reunite, gifts get exchanged, turkeys are carved and plum pudding is slept off in the recliner rocker. Marvellous things all. And for a week or two around the event a miracle occurs: the goodwill is palpable, the spirit of Christmas lives. But a week or two of goodness is all, it seems, we can afford. For it can be argued that one of the casualties of Australia's devel+opment in recent decades has been basic decency. And that is perhaps the greatest pity of all. It is less important that professing Christians are fewer these days. Christianity's funda+mental message seems an encumbrance to modern life. Yet what a message! There is not a doubt in the wide world that the mean+ing of Christ's life is more relevant than ever, that in the long run it is better to love than to destroy and that the rewards for doing so are far more profound than money in the bank. The OECD has forecast an Australian GDP growth rate next year of 3.25 per cent - a handy figure at the best of times and greater than the average for member countries of 3 per cent. Assuming continued steadiness in government policies and commonsense management and union reactions to them, there is every reason to believe our economy is not so fragile as we thought. There will be cake to go around. If only it could be Christmas every day, say the dreamers. If only the baby in the manger, the self-sacrifice on a knotty cross, were lasting images. Too much to ask? perhaps, but if we can make the effort to accommodate the views of the person on the other side of the table - even if it stings (and it has never been easy to walk before the umpire gives you out) - then we could celebrate a kind of Christmas all year round. B20c National Times on Sunday - 2 November 1986 Malcolm, you seem more human now JOHN HOWARD is entirely wrong when he says that Malcolm Fraser's night on the town in Memphis is no laughing matter. That's exactly what it is - no more (unless you believe the theory about South African agents out to sabotage our Eminent Person) and certainly no less. What are we supposed to do, confronted with this bizarre story of drink, drugs and trousers? Put our hands over our ears? Australia, in fact, did entirely the opposite and the story took off like wildfire. There was an almost palpable improvement in the national mood, as the story took over from our preoccupation with fringe benefits, inflation and the dollar. People in our neck of the woods - the media - have a particularly fine appreciation of a good story. And the Memphis incident is the story of the decade. Why? Well, for one thing it involves the high and mighty brought low, and that's a delicious theme, above all in Australia. Then there is the seediness of the locale: whatever the true reputation of the Admiral Benbow hotel, it is no place for an Eminent Person. And to add to all that, there is the element no really good story can do without: mystery. It will be appallingly unfair to Malcolm Fraser if indeed he was slipped a mickey finn, since that story - the "poisoned ice-cube" theory of aberrant behaviour - has been around since the day the first grape was fermented. Dorothy Parker, feeling poorly, blamed a piece of celery from the night before. True, she allowed, the celery was surrounded by a bloody mary at the time, and preceded by a procession of brandies and soda that took half an hour to pass a given point. But it was the celery that did it. Most of all, we love the story because it concerns Malcolm Fraser. When he was Prime Minister he seemed to thrive on being aloof. Unloved and unloveable, he lectured us on our shortcomings and reminded us of what life was not meant to be. Patrick Cook, our cartoonist, once drew him on a psychiatrist's couch, being asked to say the first word that came into his mind. "Rectitude!" declared Malcolm, and that seemed to sum him up. Now we've seen another Malcolm Fraser, and if it's not one we ought to admire, at least it's one we can more readily sympathise with. Perhaps if he'd shown us a little more of his human side, we might have been more forgiving of his prime ministership. But then again, now that we have the Leader Who Weeps, Malcolm's stiff upper lip doesn't seem so bad. Bob Hawke, of course, suffered a hotel robbery, too - the Boulevard Hotel affair about which he is uncharacteristically reticent. Bob can't use the one powerful argument Malcolm has on his side in all this: that anyone exposed to the American Mid-West talk circuit can be expected to go a bit strange. There is no romance in places like Memphis, St. Louis or Nashville, despite all the songs. They are fast-food cities, hollow at the centre. When he went for a late drink in Beale Street, he found the one genuine thing in Memphis: the blues. ROBERT HAUPT B20d National Times on Sunday - 26 October 1986 Can the truth be told? If so, who'll listen? A TEN Can the truth be told? If so, who'll listen? T is put up. A peaceful demonstration begins. But since the issue is peace and the demonstrators are neither retired generals nor military strategists but radical women (who have demonstrated for peace before, and can be counted on to do so many times again), the beginning of the affair is, from the standpoint of the Australian public, invisible. The media are generally interested only in demonstrations that do violence, either physical or to the sensibilities of their audience. When both kinds of violence occur together, as the peace women of Parliament House found in the second week of their protest, the media become very interested indeed. There are many affronts to logic in the clash on the parliamentary lawns, and all of them have been exhaustively covered in the media save the one contained in the media's own rules: if the protest is peaceful, ignore it; if it is violent, deplore it. We are not, in general, sufficiently aware of how much the media are limited to telling only stories that fit prevailing images. In Salem, it would have been difficult to publish a news report sympathetic to a witch. Unconventional behaviour may be reported - indeed, its reportage is encouraged - but only from a conventional point of view. The stranger the behaviour, the more distant the coverage. Thus the women of Parliament House, for all their extraordinariness, were presented to us like stereotypes in cardboard - for all their clamour, they remained mute. This might be called the popular end of the limit to the media's power. At the other end is the limit set by authority, and it, too, was on display at Parliament House this week. In the days after Lionel Murphy's death, the media (and this newspaper in particular) were dealt with by those in power in a manner that can only be construed as intimidatory. It is not a time to go over the events of the past three years, save to say that they would have taken a different course had the Prime Minister stuck to his instincts and established a judicial inquiry into the judge's conduct at the outset. B21 The Sun-Herald 2044 words B21a The Sun-Herald - 9 November 1986 Some hope at last in crime fight EVER since this State was founded by a ragged col+lection of convicts and soldiers, citizens have been confronted with jarring reports of corruption in high places and crime bosses running around with apparent immunity. Tales abound of crooked cops, taped telephone calls, rigged tri+als, bent judges, ministers on trial, hit-men and drugs, police and politicians' friendliness with the Mr Bigs of crime. Human nature being what it is, there will always be a few rotten apples to spoil the barrel. But the fact remains that the administra+tion of justice in the elevated realms of NSW for many years has been pursued with somewhat less vigour than in some other places. Anger and frustration at times have been spawned in many people. Regrettably only a few still feel this way. A far worse social disease is disillusionment and apathy. Yet the reports this newspaper carries today offer a glimmer of hope that perhaps, at last, some+thing is moving. Much of this depends on the fortitude of the Police Minister, George Paciullo. Mr Paciullo has achieved something unique in his 10 months in the portfolio. He has won the confidence of the police like no other minister and it appears his pledge to take on the Mr Bigs of crime is not just hollow words. Mr Paciullo has shown he responds to public complaints, is pre+pared to name the guilty in Parliament and weed out corrupt police even though he has received death threats. He has been kept on in one of the most crucial jobs in the NSW Cabinet by Premier Barrie Unsworth. Mr Unsworth may well be somewhat lacking in charisma, he may be regarded as humour+less and deadpan, but on the question of crime and corruption he has one of the best track records in Parliament. Since 1977, when his 20-year-old son Anthony died from an alleged drug overdose in Malay+sia, Mr Unsworth has vowed to pursue organised crime. He has been accused of being a headkicker, a man who pulls wings off butterflies. Perhaps this, and not slick charisma, is what it takes to pry open the can of worms and sort out the mess inside. B21b The Sun-Herald - 5 October 1986 S. Africa's trial by gold starts IT now looks as though South Africa is at the portal of new agonies which will combine trial by gold with trial by blood. This is the real meaning of the US Senate's decision last week to override any possibility of a presidential veto for real, hard-hitting sanctions against the separate, increasingly desperate tribes that make up the political entity of South Africa. The gigantic forces that are being unleashed in that beatiful and gravely unhappy country now seem to be accelerating toward what may be a long period of bloody revolutionary and counter-revolutionary activity. But in reality, the threat is not merely to southern Africa, but to the prospects of world security. Just as we all might have had cause for hope that the world was entering a period of unprecedented peace and security underwritten by a growing detente between the US and the Soviet Union, an explosion in South Africa could open up another running sore of bitter confrontation and raging propaganda. The proposed US sanctions are far from the stroke of a feather wielded by Mr Hawke and Mr Hayden (who on recent indications would be quite happy to see Australia step in to take over America's grain market in South Africa). They will put tremendous pressure on existing American investment there, bringing about at the very least a complete cessation of industrial expansion and rising unemployment (and discontent) among both black and white workers. THE great irony is that in all probability the only government in the world which is really prepared for the ramifications of an effective network of sanctions is that of South Africa. The more sanctions bite, the worse the violence becomes, the higher the price of gold and platinum soars and the stronger the financial foundations of the government become. Pretoria has the demonstrated power and the brutal will to smash mass demonstrations by the black workforce. It has the financial, material and military resources to sustain its authority. Just as importantly, it has the propaganda skills to create major divisions in the Western world, particularly that part of it which is white, middle class and in many cases vaguely racist. The truth is that any truly effective measures taken by the outside world to help any particular population group in South Africa are going to end by hurting all the inhabitants of that country. Sanctions are the beginning of a new and intensified period of agony. Before they contribute to irreversible violence, those imposing them should make another, concerted effort to find the basis for a non-violent solution. B21c The Sun-Herald - 14 September 1986 A fine job, Mr Premier MR UNSWORTH has had an ill-starred start to his premiership, so it's pleasant to be able to offer him congratulations on the comprehensive, sensible and overdue changes to the system of justice in NSW. The Attorney-General, Mr Sheahan, joined the Premier in announcing the overhaul, but Mr Unsworth's will was clearly discernible in persuading Cabinet to support the measures. Following on the decision to deny the casino contract to the Hooker/Harrah's consortium, the establishment of a series of new judicial bodies indicates a new and firm will to boost public confidence in the State Government's attitude on moral and ethical issues. The new Judicial Commission will be charged with offering guidance to judges and magistrates on consistent sentencing. Its conduct division will deal with all complaints about the behaviour of judges and magistrates and it will have the powers of a royal commission, which will be exercised for the first time in an inquiry into the conduct of John Foord. The establishment of the post of State Director of Public Prosecutions is ironic, in the light of what the former Premier, Mr N.K. Wran, had to say about the federal holder of this post, Mr Ian Temby QC. But to pass responsibility for higher court prosecutions out of political hands makes good sense. In particular, there is much to like about the decision that the new DPP will adjudicate on no-bill issues, the cases in which the authorities decide to take no further action. MR Sheahan, a man of good sense, will feel no regret at the passing of that poisoned chalice. Some of the traditional diehards, who like to arrange many matters out of public sight, may feel the decision is naive, but this is more a measure of their cynicism than of public benefit. The Opposition talks of "knee-jerk reactions". Well, they would, wouldn't they? And there are some criticisms and arguments among the legal fraternity about the detail of some of the new arrangements. The new scheme of things is complex and some amendments might be made with advantage. But generally the response among concerned citizens and organisations has been warm. The Chief Justice, Sir Laurence Street, carries heavy responsibility in the new system. He will have the good wishes and encouragement of many people previously sceptical and bitter. As for Mr Unsworth, if he continues to build public confidence in State institutions and systems, he may yet find the public opinion polls playing sweet music for him. B21d The Sun-Herald - 7 December 1986 America equal to the task THE United States is in the process of proving yet again that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance against its own government. Whether President Reagan himself ordered and presided over a system+atic campaign to hoodwink, bypass and defy Congress is not yet proven but there is, at the very least, the strongest cause for concern. It is now undoubted that such a campaign was run and that its aim was to shrug off the limits on foreign adventurism imposed on the Reagan administration by a wary Congress. Who was responsible will be revealed as inquiries proceed in the full glare of media spotlights. There are two messages for the thoughtful. The first is that one of the two most powerful men in the world must, whoever he is, chafe under restraints on his power. But some presidents have managed to achieve greatness without regarding them+selves as above the law. The second message is that there was genius indeed in the ranks of those who drew up the American constitution. The strength of US institutions which carried the nation through Watergate and its aftermath is being drawn on again now, and will prove adequate to the challenge. America is often reviled and berated around the world, but it is the country's greatest attribute that for every question asked and criticism heard outside its bound+aries, five of each are heard within. No nation is so self-questioning, no country more aware of its own imperfections. NOW a new bout of navel-contemplation will ensue as the tragic flaws in one of the most popular presi+dents in US history become daily more plain. It is a process both painful and self-renewing for America, and ultimately it is cleansing. Much of the criticism of the US heard in Australia is at least partly justified. But even America's critics would do well to pause now, to watch and listen and to marvel. At times careless of foreign friends, arrogant and even imperialist, the United States can be the most irritating of friends as well as the most ominous of enemies. But it is a great nation in its defence of its own democracy even against itself. At bay now, President Reagan is saying the present crisis is all the fault of a too-inquisitive press. Only his most unquestioning admirers will agree with him. Richard Nixon said something similar and, finally, no one agreed with him. B21e The Sun-Herald - 3 August 1986 The ghost of Murphy IT IS the Australian convention that judges' private lives should be not only discreet but unobserved. Yet Justice Lionel Murphy has not only lived publicly these past two years but now, it seems, he is to die publicly as well. The force of will which has driven Justice Murphy back to the High Court bench may be founded on courage (as his friends insist) or on obsession (as his enemies assert). Which is immaterial. What matters is that he has returned, that his brother judges have permitted him to return and that the position of Chief Justice Sir Harry Gibbs, as a result, is both difficult and controversial. To the Chief Justice, nearing retirement and deeply worried about the future of our highest court, it is wrong that a judge should sit while his conduct is under investigation. To Justice Murphy, the right of a High Court judge to sit until removed by Parliament is clear and now reinforced by his own conduct last Friday. Even many legal authorities worried by some aspects of Justice Murphy's conduct agree that the right so carefully inserted in the Constitution at the behest of the great Sir Isaac Isaacs is beyond question and above convention. For its part, the Government has backed Justice Murphy this time around and shrugged off Sir Harry Gibbs's misgivings. But so many questions remain unanswered that even from the grave the ghost of Lionel Murphy will haunt both his old party and his old court. The continued functioning of the Parliamentary Commission now seems pointless. Hounding a dying man would be unseemly. But the provision of answers to those questions, questions which could even place Sir Harry Gibbs's own position in jeopardy, is essential. Was the High Court threatening to strike back in May if Justice Murphy resumed his seat? Or was it only Sir Harry Gibbs and perhaps one other? Why did the Government agree to the setting up of the Commission? If Murphy could not be seated then, why can he be seated now with Government support? Whatever the answers, the Chief Justice must now be deeply regretful he ever took the court into politics, because that is what he did in the early days of May. And former members of the Whitlam Government must now be rueful about that fated decision to put a politician on to the High Court bench, just as the more thoughtful members of the last Menzies Government came to rue the sending of Sir Garfield Barwick, then Foreign Minister, to the court. B22 The Sunday Press 2011 words B22a The Sunday Press - 30 November 1986 The JON HALL view NEXT time you're out in your car, cruising through your local suburban streets, take a good look around. Among your fellow road-users you will notice some good drivers, some not-so-good drivers, and some bloody awful drivers. It is the latter group that I wish to discuss. Let me attempt to describe your average weekday morning drive to work. You pull out of your drive and proceed along a single lane road. Approaching a street off to the right, the car in front of you slows and moves to the right hand side of the lane. You naturally move to the left hand side, anticipating the vehicle in front doing a right hand turn. Wrong. You're about five metres away, about to pass on the inside when suddenly, with a single flash of the left blinker, the ignoramus whips across in front of you into a driveway. Fortunately, it is early, and your mind is alert. You slam on the brakes and swing right, easily avoiding a collision by a good three inches. Bert Newton is chatting happily away on the radio, and you have a chuckle at one of his ad-lib ads. You continue down the same single lane road. Up ahead there is a school bus taking on some passengers. Estimate distance You estimate the distance be+tween the bus and yourself and calculate how long it is going to take for the remaining four kids to board. The answer? The last child should be on board about the time you pass the bus. So right! For as soon as that last leg disappears inside the door, on goes the bus's blinker, and out it pulls, apparently oblivious to your presence on the road. So it's down through the gears and on with the brakes. It's at this time that the oncom+ing lane, previously deserted, now becomes choc-a-bloc, giving you no chance to overtake the bus until 10 minutes later, about five kilometres further on, when it stops to pick up another load. The eight o'clock news comes on the radio. It is all very depressing. You come to a roundabout. Only one other car is in sight, about to enter from the right. You slow down and come to a stop, law-abidingly giving way, even though you could have prob+ably flown through without hinder+ing the other car. The other cas slows down and comes to a stop. You look across, wondering what is going on. You notice the driver staring intently into the rear-vision mirror, brushing her hair. "Oh well," you think, "I might as well go for it." You edge out into the roundab+out, only to be almost wiped out. The hair-brusher, finally realising that she has right of way, has dropped the clutch and kangaroo-hopped at breakneck speed through the intersection. Heart misses Your heart misses a few beats. You continue your journey, notic+ing the petrol gauge is below empty, and the temperature gauge suggests you haven't checked the radiator for three weeks. You fail to see any humor in Bert Newton playfully tongue-lashing his sound man. You come to a T-intersection where you need to turn left. You look right and see a single car approaching. You decide to jump on the gas and get into the lane. No, too late, it's too close. Well, it is going slow, I could make it. Bugger, too late now. All these thoughts cross your mind, and you end up waiting. The car turns left just before reaching you, no indicator signall+ing its intent. Enough is enough. Down goes your window as you scream "What d'ya think those flashing lights on your car are used for goose." So you complete your left hand turn. Just up ahead, you spy a truck nosing out of a side street. "No," you think to yourself, "he wouldn't." He does. You check your rear vision mirror. There's absolutely nothing else on the road behind you, yet this misbegotten driver decides he can't wait another ten seconds, and labor+iously drags his 16-wheeler out in front of you. Winding hill Naturally enough, directly ahead is a winding, one kilometre hill. The truck manages to accelerate to a magnificent 15kmh, before dropping back below double figures on the steep gradient. By the time you get to the top of the hill, there is a line of 18 cars trailing along behind you. The law of the jungle then prevails, as all 18 cars move into the right lane to overtake, while you sit tucked behind the truck, suffocat+ing on diesel fumes. You successfully negotiate your way onto the freeway and pull out into the right lane to pass a slower car. Naturally you leave a safe dist+ance between yourself and the car in front. This safe distance is regarded as an ideal opening for one of those dreaded lane-switchers. You know exactly what is about to happen when you notice a car streak up on your left. He drives into the gap you have left, and then, finding himself almost on top of the car in front of him, slams on the brakes. Your body and mind go on full alert as you expertly apply the brakes just enough to avoid slam+ming into the lane-switcher, and not quite enough to allow the tail+gater behind you to ram into your rear end. You finally arrive at work and turn off the engine and slump back in the seat, bathed in sweat. You tell Bert Newton to shut up about what a nice day it is. And just think, in eight hours, you've got to do it all again. B22b The Sunday Press - 30 November 1986 All talk, no contracts THINGS are tough these days for radio's growing legion of talking heads! Except for the people at 3AW, no open line gabsters in Melbourne commercial radio have contracts. Even 3AK's highly paid breakfast man John Blackman admits he's on a hand-shake agreement ... and 3DB supremo Bert Newton is also on a week-to-week deal. Whatever happened to the good old cast iron, long term contract of yesteryear? Maybe managements got sick and tired of writing massive severance cheques for overpaid "names" that never quite cut the mustard on air. I could think of a few who have found themselves out on the pavement much richer for having poor ratings. The last contract personality on DB was aggressive drive time host Bill Tuckey, who was axed recently, but not for low ratings. Meanwhile, things are a little more relax+ed at AW where the station has had a long run at the top of the ratings. It would be hard to imagine the ubi+quitous Hinch without a solid gold agree+ment ... and breakfast pair Bruce Mans+field and Darren James have scored well enough to have the station willing to tie them up. Otherwise contract lawyers aren't getting much business in the wunnerful world of wireless these days! B22c The Sunday Press - 30 November 1986 TO DAY RADIO'S funny lady Liz Sullivan will stay at 3KZ next year despite two attrac+tive offers from other stations. The effervescent Ms Sullivan, whose breakfast partnership with Peter Meehan rates a good second to AW's Bruce Mans+field and Darren James, has decided to stay put. "Yes, there have been good offers and one sounded very promising," Liz told me. "But I have made up my mind to continue at KZ next year. "Peter and I have strong on-air chemis+try and I have great affection for my boss, Les Heil. He's been very good to me." However, while she was keen to chat about KZ, the usually talkative Ms Sulli+van was very tight-lipped about the source of the offers. I believe the excellent 1986 ratings for both KZ and the Meehan-Sullivan break+fast team were the deciding factor. One of the stations involved was almost certainly 3UZ, where Ms Sullivan's former 3XY partner Peter Harrison now does the breakfast program. There is also a strong whisper that another station might have been trying to buy both the Liz Sullivan on-air talent and her knack of writing topical comedy. The Meehan-Sullivan humor is one of the main reasons the pair rate so well. They went number one in the year's second ratings survey. While Liz Sullivan won't name the sta+tions romancing her, she did admit that one offer was a very good one and "was some+thing more than just on-air work." B22d The Sunday Press - 30 November 1986 dave pincombe ... on TV, radio and showbiz There was movement at the stations ... Aiton, Scanlan to return? THE big names are flying in the wake of last week's dramatic ratings results - and two former 3DB stars are top of the list. Morning talkster Doug Aiton is the hot+test of HOT favorites to take over from Alan Stokes in the 10 o'clock to noon slot on 3LO next year. And acid-tongued sometime-breakfast man Denis Scanlan is tipped to return to the Melbourne Airwaves, too. Aiton, who has been doing weekends on 3AW since his displacement when Bert Newton took over DB in May, will fill Derryn Hinch's shoes over the next six weeks while the Mouth That Roars gives his vocal chords a rest. But come 1987, the betting is odds-on that the amiable Douglas will get the nod from Broadcast House. Aiton's easy-flowing, non-controversial style would suit Aunty's needs very nicely for the late morning program. Scanlon, too, could be on the way back. For the past four years he has been program manager at 3GL Geelong, but he still has a large metropolitan following. I believe he's been sounded out by at least one station. Scanlan left 3DB in anger early in 1982 after the management dropped his morning program to make way for Keith McGowan. Despite the offer of an evening program, the controversial Scanlan severed his long association with DB ... and some bitter+ness remains. Properly produced, he would be a real force in Melbourne talk radio, God knows, there are some stations that need a few winners. He told me: "There have been fairly regular approaches by Melbourne stations. "But I've been very happy and it would have to be an extremely appealing proposi+tion. The lifestyle down here is hard to beat." Meanwhile, back at 3LO, I also believe there'll be movement at the station in the breakfast show, where those in the know say Rod McNeil, the man who took over from the late Peter Evans, will not be back to accompany our Corn Flakes, coffee and early morning indigestion next year. My spy deep within the fusty portals of LO tells me the honeyed tones of Mary Adams are favored to greet us as we somnambulate around the kitchen and bathroom and headache our way through peak-hour traffic next year. CHANNEL Two 7.30 Report host John Jost is now odds-on to stay with the program next year. I believe Jost has decided to turn his back on a tempting offer to replace Mark Day as compere of Channel Seven's Day By Day. It's now odds-on that he will re-sign with Two .. and the never-ending saga of the search for a Day By Day compere con+tinues. Since Mark Day announced his decision to quit, the industry has played a busy game of "pick the compere". But unfortunately for Channel Seven all logical contenders seem to have pulled out of the race. The program finishes for the Christmas break on December 19 and resumes on January 5. Producer Mike Daly left Day By Day a week ago and Norm Beaman and Marianne Latham are producing the show until Christmas. Paul Barber will take over the reins in January, but he might be faced with an embarrassing problem. Like who will be up front as Day By Day anchorman? So far, industry scuttlebutt has had everybody from Mickie de Stoop and Geral+dine Doogue to Lois Lane as a potential compere. One thing IS certain. Day By Day would need a host with the powers of Superman to lift it above Sale Of The Century and Neighbors in the ratings. B22e The Sunday Press - 30 November 1986 Brian White Dear Admiral, in reply to your SOS THE Kerry Packer station 3AK again performed disas+trously in the latest radio rat+ings. B23 The Sunday Sun (Queensland) 2001 words B23a The Sunday Sun - 30 November 1986 Jumping the gun AUSTRALIAN businessmen habitually criticise government restrictions and regulations that limit the activities of free enterprise. Yet, on the rare occasions that a government does act to introduce greater freedom for enterprise and competition, there is usually an equal crescendo of complaint from the same business organisations. The State Government's decision to allow Queensland retailers to trade around the clock for a month from December 15 has been received with the predictable objections. There is some justification for criticism of the lack of consultation by the Government before its bold move. Industrial Affairs and Small Business Minister Vince Lester justifies the Government's decision to go ahead without exhaustive discussions by saying it would have been impossible to arrive at agreement. The response to the announcement of the trial period shows there is some justification for Mr Lester's assessment - although that, in itself, does not totally justify sweeping and unilateral decisions by Government. But what should be kept in mind is the fact - as Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen emphasised yesterday - that this is a trial only. He has given a firm undertaking that all interested parties will be given the opportunity to present their case to the Government after the one-month trial period. Those involved - and particularly those representatives of free enterprise who are usually so vocal about red tape and restrictions - should accept the Government's word and treat the trial period in that light. The Government must take fully into account the representations of the wider community when it comes to make an assessment of the trial period before introducing permanent and radical change. B23b The Sunday Sun - 30 November 1986 Two fighters THE recent sad deaths of two men carried a message of inspiration for other Australians. Phil Thompson, the dedicated campaigner for the rights of Australia's 47,000 Vietnam veterans, was a man who put the problems of others above his own. Although in constant pain from wounds he received in action in Vietnam and involved in an 11-year battle with cancer, he gave everything to the cause - undertaking a strenuous and constant work load. He represented Australian veterans in a successful class-action against US chemical companies and was a force behind the Senate inquiry and subsequent Evatt Royal Commission into the effects of chemical herbicides. He will be sadly missed by Vietnam veterans, but his example will endure. John O'Malley, Australia's first heart and lung transplant recipient, fought his own battle with quiet and cheerful courage. He knew the risks of the pioneering operation he underwent and accepted them philosophically and with optimism. During his long wait for a suitable donor to be found his bravery was an inspiration not only to his family, friends and the medical team but also to others who face similar tragic illness. B23c The Sunday Sun - 7 December 1986 We must not forget prisons ... The State Government has begun its new term with a burst of activity - revolutionising trading hours and planning space stations. But it is also obvious it has neglected two long-standing blights on the commu+nity as revealed by Sir David Longland's inquiry into the prison system and the Sturgess Report on sexual exploitation of young people. The State Government cannot totally shrug off all responsibility for the latest riots at Brisbane's Boggo Rd Jail. The behavior of the prisoners cannot be excused and the ringleaders must be identified and punished. But it is obvious the outbreaks of de+struction and violence have underlying causes that have been publicly identified and which have not been corrected. Senior figures in the State Govern+ment are obviously of the view - and shared by many electors - that there are no votes to be won from prison reform or enlightened treatment of criminals. But that alone is not an excuse for the continuation of practices and conditions that have been the breeding ground of re+peated disturbances. The fundamental problem within the State's prison system is the lack of ade+quate accommodation. Prisoners have, in fact, been kept in police lock-ups on a long-term basis, while in the jails there is serious overcrowding. The Government has acknowledged some of the problems, both by introducing alternatives to prison sentences and planning new jails. But it has been a case of too little, too late. Last year's report of the inquiry by Sir David Longland into the State's prison system also revealed a wide range of other inadequacies, ranging from poorly qualified and trained staff and manage+ment to allegations of corruption and drug use within jails. More than half the prisoners in Bris+bane Jail had no work allotted*alloted to them. They spent their days behind a wire mesh fence in a concrete yard half the size of a tennis court. The new Prisons Minister, Don Neal, has had a baptism of fire like his prede+cessor Geoff Muntz. Both he and Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen have indicated they will take a hard line with those involved in the riot. That is a justifiable attitude but more fundamental and thorough-going changes to Queensland's prison system also will have to be implemented if the scenes of Friday night are not to be repeated. ... and vice Many people a year ago said when the Sturgess Report was tabled in Par+liament: "Of course, nothing will hap+pen despite all the recommendations." The sad fact is, the cynics have been proved correct. Mr Sturgess, a man much respected for his knowledge of the law, said police had the power to put massage parlor proprietors out of business. Not only are parlors still thriving but this week 13 escort agencies openly touted for staff, in Mr Sturgess's words: "Attempting to procure for prostitution." Mr Sturgess fears victims will often be young girls on the run and needing cash. As well as lack of action in dealing with criminals, none of Mr Sturgess's re+commendations for law reform has passed into the statute book. B23d The Sunday Sun - 28 September 1986 Stamp out the rip-off temptation The idea of a public accounts committee as an ever-alert watch-dog able to instantly sniff out the misuse of public money is attractive to voters. We will hear much support for the establishment of such a Queensland com+mittee from the Liberal and Labor par+ties during the coming election. It is certainly true that the handling of public funds in some areas of the Govern+ment services in the State in recent times has left much to be desired. But electors not familiar with the operations of public accounts committees in other States and at Federal level should not be misled into believing that such a move here would, with a stroke, correct the present problems. The simple fact is that public accounts committees as established elsewhere operate after funds have been misused - and after that offence has been detected by the Auditor-General. Their operations almost inevitably amount, in a real sense, to shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. The committees are made up of politicians who for all their other virtues are not often skilled accountants or law+yers who can unravel complex frauds. They are most often confronted in their inquiries by trained bureaucrats who are anxious and determined to pro+tect both the reputation of their depart+ments and their independence from out+side intrusion. And it has never been within the char+ter of such committees to reach a view on whether public money has been wisely al+located or prudently spent. It is simply to establish whether the money has been handled within the bounds of proper Treasury procedure. As some notable inquiries have shown, departmental officials are as likely as not to get into trouble with a public accounts committee for being too frugal and not spending all funds allocated to them. The philosophy underlying such criti+cisms is that some other Government area would have been only too happy to dish it out. For all their inadequacies, however, public accounts committees serve a num+ber of useful purposes - and it is difficult to understand the implacable opposition of the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, to the establishment of such a body here. But it should not be thought that all problems would then be solved. The debate should be widened and ex+pert advice sought on methods for the earlier detection of sloppy systems that allow a tiny minority of dishonest public servants to try to rip off the system and the taxpayers' dollars. B23e The Sunday Sun - 28 September 1986 Well run race Over the next fortnight, the Bris+bane Olympic Games delegation will filter into the small Swiss city of Lau+sanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva. The Queensland capital will be on cen+tre stage before the elite of the Olympic movement - the delegates to the Interna+tional Olympic Committee. At stake is the 1992 Olympics. We may win the right to host the Games, but we have already been highlighted to the world through an adventurous and suc+cessful campaign. Sydney lawyer John Coates and his Olympic Project Office team have put Brisbane clearly on the world map. Lord Mayor Sallyanne Atkinson can rightly say Brisbane is now on equal foot+ing with those other great cities of Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam. B23f The Sunday Sun - 26 October 1986 Coalition best poll outcome Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen's National Party over the years has been a shining beacon for private enterprise in Australia. In an over-regulated country, Queensland stood out as a State where business could get things done. An enterprise could always get a quick yes or no answer out of the Queensland Government on a proposed development. Also, private enterprise paid its share, some would say more than its share, of taxes and charges towards the running of Queensland. The Bjelke-Petersen Government also has been a front-runner in reform of industrial relations. It led the way in the Queensland power industry dispute in establishing a strike-free environ+ment for an essential service. In essence, the Government took on bad unionism and won. The Queensland Government has been diligent and persuasive in cham+pioning State rights at a time when it has been increasingly fashionable to give way to centralism. Image tarnished In recent years the `positive' Queensland image has been tarnished by allegations of corruption and cro+nyism and, increasingly, the Queens+land Government message has seemed to move on from `we are putting Queensland first' to one of `we know what is best for the voters, just trust us, never you mind your heads about how we do it'. In fact, in its enthusiasm, the Queensland Government has almost be+come Queensland Incorporated. It has failed to keep a proper dis+tance between the elected Government and private enterprise. Favors have un+doubtedly been given that should never have been bestowed. We believe country electorates should have some weighting in the elec+toral system, especially in a State that relies so much on rural industry. But in its efforts to keep Queensland Incorporated in business free of chal+lenge, Queensland now has a shame+fully gerrymandered electoral system. Possible results There are four possible results of next Saturday's election: - Absolute majority for the Nationals and continuation of the status quo. - Retention by the Nationals of its position as the larger of the two non-Labor parties, but without an absolute majority, and where Labor did not have the numbers to form a Government by itself. - Absolute majority for the ALP. Opin+ion polls indicate this is unlikely. - Emergence of the Liberal Party as the larger of the two non-Labor parties, which together would outnumber Labor. This could result in the forma+tion of a Liberal-National coalition with the Liberals the senior partners. We believe the best outcome would be the election of a coalition in which the Liberal Party would be returned in a much stronger position. This would bring in some new faces and broaden the base and the appeal of a non-Labor Government. B23g The Sunday Sun - 24 August 1986 Economic gloom far from over The Federal Budget went part of the way towards correcting some of the worst features of our recent economic management. But in significant respects Treasurer Paul Keating's actions did not fully match his bold words. The moderate majority of Australian people has generally agreed a period of tight wage restraint is needed at this criti+cal period. B24 The Sunday Mail (SA) 2008 words B24a The Sunday Mail (SA) - 26 October 1986 URANIUM ROW FLARES AGAIN ONLOOKER Randall Ashbourne The uranium de+bate is about to ex+plode again within the Labor Party fol+lowing the leaking of internal BP briefing notes on the backroom political manouevres relating to Roxby Downs. The papers reveal: which Hawke Government Minis+ters want to over-ride Labor's already watered-down uranium policies; how pressure might be applied to bring about a satisfactory result; and the backstabbing of at least one Bannon Government Minister by an+other Minister's assistant. Explosive In short, the papers are as potentially explosive as uranium itself. The documents were leaked last week to anti-nuclear groups in Mel+bourne. They are confiden+tial briefing notes prepared for the Roxby Downs joint ventures, Western Mining and BP, and have been con+firmed as authentic. And they're explosive enough to tear apart the Federal Cabinet, State Cabi+net and the A.L.P generally. For example, several of the documents reveal the battle between State Health Minister, John Cornwall, and Mines Minister, Ron Payne, over doubts about health and safety at Roxby. Dr Cornwall has been try+ing since early 1985 to tighten radiation control measures at the mine - a move first revealed in The Sunday Mail a month ago. The papers reveal J. Austin and R. Ritchie (of BP), G. Whitlam and Hugh Morgan (Western Mining) discussed the proposed changes with Premier John Bannon and his then chief assistant, Geoff Anderson, in Adelaide, on September 18. The documents state: "Bannon said he did not wish to negotiate the issue in this meeting, because the Minister of Mines and En+ergy and the Minister of Health would have to be present to do this. "He expressed his desire to settle the matter soon, but said there were yet further changes to be made to the proposed amend+ments. "After the meeting we moved to Parliament House to visit Hon. Ron Payne, Minister of Mines and En+ergy. Radiation "Payne left little doubt in his comments that he ac+cepts our view that the policing of radiation regu+lations at Olympic Dam should be in the hands of the Mines Department. "Payne said that Cornwall takes the view that he doesn't want on his shoulders the 40 extra can+cer deaths'." A later "strictly confiden+tial file note" reports that it will be "important for BP to be active in community sponsorships etc, in and around Adelaide, in order to ensure community accept+ance of BP if the uranium debate heats up in that State." The note also reports these details of a visit to Adelaide on October 6 and 7: "Discussions were held with Des Petherick, sec+retary to the Minister of Mines and Energy, and Paul Woodland, assistant to the Minister. "Des is the public servant and has held the position for 8 years. Paul is a recent appointment and is the pol+itical adviser with a very good awareness of the pol+itical scene and the conse+quences of any decisions that may affect Roxby Downs. He came to the Min+ister's office from the Office of the Opposition Leader in the Northern Territory. "The radiation problem is currently with Paul and has assured me that it will be solved and will phone me with the result perhaps next week. "It was confirmed to me that the Minister of Health has taken the uranium de+bate very seriously mainly because he is up for preselection and, as he has made a number of blunders lately, he may well be pan+dering to the Left to secure preselection. "There appears little like+lihood that the Bill will get anywhere near the Parlia+ment in its current form. "The Minister's office did raise one concern with me and that was the habit of Roxby Management Ser+vices and Hugh Morgan to continually run to the top every time a problem with the project comes to light. Offside "They said the result was that the public service was being put offside and that we shortly will be labelled like `the boy who cried wolf." The note goes on to say Dr Cornwall's stand on tighter radiation controls for Roxby workers is being backed strongly by the Health Commission, par+ticularly the Director of Public Health, Dr Chris Baker. And it recommends keep+ing an eye on the Minister. It states: "The Minister will con+tinue his current line, but I have been assured rational decisions will be taken by the Premier and Minister for Mines and Energy. In view of the Minister's need to gain preselection and with his recent defeats, namely marijuana and re+distribution of wealth, I suggest RMS (Roxby Man+agement Services) be asked to monitor closely any new schemes he may come up with." There are several points in the notes with which Labor's anti-nuclear sup+porters are going to have a field day at tomorrow's Cabinet meeting and the next A.L.P. State Council meeting. The first is that Ron Payne apparently acknowl+edges there will be "forty EXTRA cancer deaths" at the mine. Other points are: the news that BP plans to boost its public relations spending to "ensure community accept+ance"; that a Ministerial as+sistant has been discussing a Minister's preselection in unfavorable terms; that WMC chief, Hugh Morgan, goes running to the top every time a problem oc+curs; and that BP wants to closely monitor the activi+ties of a Minister. The notes also are certain to create a new split in the Hawke Government, still reeling from the party's re+action to the renewal of uranium sales to France and the issue of mining at Kakadu. They reveal that Roxby wants to sell uranium to Taiwan, even though the proposal is against Australia's nuclear safeguards policy and the Foreign Affairs Department believes it could upset re+lations with China. They also discuss infor+mal agreements with the Trade Minister, John Dawkins, for "special con+sideration" to be given to get around the floor price for uranium sales on some con+tracts. "Revisions" One document, dated Oc+tober 8, states: "During our earlier discussions with him concerning revisions to the (floor price) formula, Dawkins made it clear that his preferred situation would be to do away with the floor price controls. "The political costs of such a move would be un+acceptably high, however, and we can expect that the reversed formula will be with us for a while." One Federal Labor backbencher said last night the revelations meant "Dawkins is gone." B24b The Sunday Mail (SA) - 30 November 1986 MPs PUT ON THINKING CAPS FOR PAY RISE ONLOOKER Randall Ashbourne State MPs have started considering how they might achieve a post-Christmas pay increase of the Clayton's variety. The Parliamentary Salaries Tri+bunal sent out letters last week to the State's 69 MPs telling them to prepare their arguments for a hearing on the matter in mid-February. The tribunal is likely to hear some imaginative submissions. Because of public controversy about MPs' pay rises in recent years, when many workers have suffered pay cuts in real terms, the tribunal no longer sets salaries. They're adjusted automatically, in line with national wage decisions. Nowaday's the tribunal considers only the MPs' electorate allowances, which top-up the pay packets by amounts ranging from $35,200 (for the scattered seat of Eyre) to $10,850 (for those with metropolitan electorates). Approved increases Those electorate allowances were set last April when the tribunal ap+proved increases which ranged from $3065 to $6601. Despite the rises, most MPs claim they were better off a year ago - before Federal Treasurer, Paul Keat+ing, decided MPs allowances were a taxable perk. Many say that the new rules have left them up to $8000 a year out-of-pocket, compared with the old, tax-free allow+ance system. And the new rules are complex, disallowing some of the claims MPs regard as legitimate expenses - such as having lunch with a particular lobby group to discuss the effect of proposed new laws. Now that the allowances are taxed at the highest marginal rate, there is little benefit to MPs in having them considered as a separate arrangement. So, some are considering suggesting to the tribunal that the allowances should be abolished and the amount paid as normal salary. One might think such a move would be merely a Clayton's pay rise, since the average MP would not be getting any more than under the existing system. Yet. The cleverness behind such think+ing is that all MPs eventually retire. And their superannuation lump sums and pensions are based on the six best years of salary. How much better to claim a pension based on a salary of $55,000 or $75,000 a year, than on a salary of about $42,000, with one's electorate allow+ance discounted. If the tribunal approved such a move, some MPs would get another $100,000 in their lump sum payout and pensions would increase by more than $5,000 a year. Whether, however, the potential for a better golden handshake would be enough to turn around the growing problem of attracting high-calibre can+didates is another matter. Liberal Party State secretary, Nick Minchin, conceded recently that MPs pay is not sufficiently attractive to many private sector high-fliers who aren't independently wealthy. Recently a study of more than 200 Australian companies made by the executive recruiting firm, Korn-Ferry International, discovered many com+pany directors were receiving con+siderably less than many accountants and lawyers. It put the average director's salary at about $104 an hour. But a backbench MP working a 40-hour week earns only $18 an hour - and with night sittings of Parlia+ment and electorate functions ranging from school council meetings to sports days, many politicians work at least a 60 hour week. Corner garage Even the Premier, Mr John Bannon, with a salary roughly double that of backbenchers, probably averages less than $30 an hour - somewhat less than the labor rates commonly applied by the corner garage, the TV repair-man, and a good number of self+employed tradesmen. Certainly $800 a week would seem like the impossible dream to shop assistants and clerks earning only $280, and even vehicle builders earning less than $400, which explains much of the public animosity directed towards MPs' pay rises. But it must seem like petty cash to many lawyers, accountants, and business+men and other professionals. So far, the problem has had little effect on the Labor Party. But the impact on the Liberals is obvious already and likely to grow considerably worse. Coupled with its no-guarantees preselection system, the salary levels seem to be preventing the Liberals from finding a street-smart lawyer to run for a Lower House seat. Labor, too, may run into problems eventually. Many of its best performers are products of the protest movement of the 1970s. Vietnam and conscription politi+cised then university students like John Bannon and Lynn Arnold. Their anger and commitment lived on, even after Whitlam pulled out the troops - giving the SA Labor Party a pool of street-experienced and highly-educated talent to push into Parliament. So far, the '80s have produced no similar catalyst. If anything, the lack of surefire job security has depoliticised the universities, making many students more concerned with high marks than high ideals. Meanwhile, however, the issue of MPs' pay isn't the only one being discussed in Parliament House. The parliamentary attendants, who earn about $320 a week excluding overtime, have been pressing for a pay rise for more than a year. They're unhappy that few of the politicians have taken any interest in their wage case. Because of the long hours they work when Parliament is sitting, the attend+ants asked also if they might not have access to the proper meals served in the three MPs dining rooms at night. No, said the MPs. B24c The Sunday Mail (SA) - 7 December 1986 A LIBERAL DOSE OF CONFUSION ONLOOKER Randall Ashbourne A year ago on this date, South Australians were up and running to the polls. The result is history - John Bannon went from being the leader of a minority Government to a record Labor victory, and the Liberal Party suffered a crushing metropolitan de+feat. And despite the brave face John Olsen was showing to his troops on Friday night, the Liberals have done little to regain metropolitan support. He told a Liberal women's council gathering, "You will have noticed the cockiness of the Bannon Government, so apparent earlier this year, has largely dissipated in past months. B25 The Sunday Times (WA) 2004 words B25a The Sunday Times - 30 November 1986 Parents must be made responsible CONGRATULATIONS to Howard Sattler for his sup+port of Ian Laurance's Pri+vate Member's Bill to make parents responsible for the consequences of their chil+dren's behavior. This commonsense proposal is long overdue and deserves the full support of all our parliamentarians. This one single act would go a long way to restoring order in our community. For years now the com+munity has suffered the con+sequences of libertarian law+makers and civil liberties pro+pagandists who have pro+moted the concept of rights and ignored responsibilities and consequences. The practical effects of this now confront us all. To name just one, increas+ing taxes and government charges are needed to fi+nance Australia's massive welfare bill caused in the main by the breakup of families and the abandon+ment of parental responsi+bility. Also the financial cost to the community of vandalised schools and stolen cars would be enormous. BARRY T. MORGAN, Samson. A grave threat John Ormond's article ab+out "union images" in the Sunday Times of November 23 is correct in reporting that I am in WA to discuss with the unions the propaganda war that has been launched against them by the New Right. But I am certainly not here, as Mr Ormond sug+gests, to "teach" or "show" the unions how to use the same propaganda techniques to combat New Right pro+paganda. Indeed, I am flatly opposed to their doing so be+cause I regard those tech+niques as a grave threat to our democratic system. ALEX CAREY, University of NSW. Tour agents hit CONGRATULATIONS on publishing the letter, "Travel Trouble" by Michael Warren+er (ST. Nov 16). I have been a travel professional for more than 20 years. There is no way we can compete with non-profit organisations and I often wonder how the non-travel+ling members of credit unions would feel if they knew how much they were losing by the huge discounts given on travel sales to members and non-members alike. JANE BLADES (Mrs), Gooseberry Hill. Let's hear it for Australia EVERYBODY is gearing up for that lovely time of year, Christmas. Carols By Candlelight should cause us to reflect on what we are celebrating - the birth of a Savior - and that this is not just a time to give gifts just for the sake of giving. Although I enjoy these nights of carol-singing, I wish more Australian carols could be included in the repertoire. They are beautiful, both in words and music, and are something to be proud of, along with our flag and anthem. The carols I have in mind are those by John Wheeler (words) and Wil+liam G. James (music), but I have never heard them sung in the 18 years I have lived in Australia. M.BAILEY (Mrs), Wanneroo Kids have to sweat it out IT has taken our first hot day with temperatures over the 30s, for the yearly plight of teachers and pupils, to come to the fore. It was heartbreaking to watch the children pass my door - hair wet and looking absolutely exhausted after a day in classrooms, especially pre-fabs, which have no coo+ling system whatsoever. I wonder what condition our politicians would be in if they were brought out of their air-conditioned, comfortable offi+ces and put into one of the classrooms for just one whole day during the summer. It's strange money can always be found when it comes to vote-catching items, such as the "dolling up" of Freo, or casinos, but not, it seems, for the basic comfort of students and teachers. IDA GOODY, Forrestfield. Time for truth THE WA branch of the AMA is to be highly recom+mended for its Smoking De+ath Cards Project. As the son of an emphy+sema victim, and the brother-in-law of a lung cancer vic+tim, I feel it is time for po+liticians - and the tobacco industry - to acknowledge the facts and stop clouding the issue with trivia and falsification. G.W.W. DRINKALL, Director of Health Services, Western Australian Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists. Hoist missing HAVING just experienced the pleasure of sitting in a bus talking to my friend who happens to be an electric wheelchair user in America, I am struck by how we take non-accessibility for granted here. When I saw the America's Cup buses, new and modern, I looked in vain for the wheelchair hoist. Perhaps when all the po+tential users and their friends write to TransPerth, this issue will be given adequ+ate attention. LEONIE RAMONDT, Maylands, Tuition impeded REGARDING your article, "Education `rush' stirs Oppo+sition" (ST. Nov, 16), how can the Government justify salar+ies totalling more than $290,000 for four new positions in the education system when it cannot even provide funds for computers and four-year-old pre-school as promised in its election campaign? If those who supposedly run the department cannot do the job, then the Government should get rid of them, as any normal business would. As a parent and ex-teacher, I am appalled to know that my children's education will be severely impeded because of this blatant waste of tax+payers' money. N.D. BYFIELD, Lockridge. Gold in Australian Nugget all ours STATEMENTS made in the article in the Sunday Times of November 23 that gold used in the production of the Australian Nugget gold coins originates from South Africa and Russia can+not pass uncorrected. The Australian Nugget gold coins are being produced from Australian gold. GoldCorp Australia borrows gold under commercial ar+rangements with the Reserve Bank of Australia for the gold required in each stage of gold processing and coin pro+duction. As The Australian Nugget gold coins are sold, Aus+tralian gold is purchased from institutions in Australia to replenish stocks. No gold from Zimbabwe is being used to produce The Australian Nugget. Arrange+ments were made by the Perth Mint at the outset to ensure gold from Zimbabwe is refined separately. Contrary to the claims of Mr Lightfoot, no South Afri+can gold is being used to pro+duce The Australian Nugget gold coins. No Russian gold is being used to produce The Australian Nugget gold coins. We do not need other countries' gold to produce The Australian Nugget. Aus+tralia is the fastest growing gold producer in the world. MICHAEL NAYLOR, Deputy Chief Executive, GoldCorp Australia. B25b The Sunday Times - 9 November 1986 Bigger penalties won't stop problem drinkers LATELY there have been suggestions there should be heavier penalties for offen+ders under the influence of alcohol. The criminal law is, gener+ally speaking, concerned with voluntary and intentional acts, and this is why it does not punish infants and those suffering from mental inca+pacity. Alcoholics under the influence of alcohol fit well into this classification. To simply punish alcoholics for their anti-social acts is an expensive exercise in futility. For unless treated, they will continue to offend. Diversion of such a person into treatment is the practical way of insuring that they will not continue to be public nui+sances. It's the only possible step that courts can take to make them useful and pro+ductive members of society. I fully support the view that offenders, who do not accept treatment or after treatment have lapsed into their old ways, should be treated as totally responsible for their actions and should be punish+ed for what they are, selfish and anti-social. KEN ASHTON, Administrator, Serenity Lodge, Rockingham. Snakes are people, too! I WAS appalled to read (ST, Nov 2) the way in which a poor snake was destroyed. I do however, commend Mr McKeekin for his efforts to obtain help. Had we been contacted, the reptile would have been re+moved alive with the minimum of fuss. Once again, we see man, through ignorance and fear, become the predator and the snake the unfortunate victim. All I ask is that the public get to know the character+istics and habits of these reptiles and I can assure you fear will be overcome. You don't have to kill them. Leave them alone and they will move on. They are not villains. An amendment on the number of venomous reptiles found in WA - five of the larger species of land snake are considered dangerous to man, not 47. We already have people killing indiscriminately, harmful and harmless reptiles. We do not have any venomous liz+ards in Australia. Mrs S. GAIKHORST, High Wycombe. Trapping is threat to our rare birds IT seems Mr Nelson and his friends (ST, Oct 26) have very little idea of how delicate the ecological balance is and how quickly a species can be wiped out. Some Australian birds are already extinct and many others are endangered species partly because their habitats are within confined areas. Parrots, such as our "white tailed black cockatoos" can be found only in the South-West of WA and although they may appear to be "plentiful" to us, the few flocks we have are all that can be found in the whole world. Australian birds fetch a good price overseas only because they are protected. I am not against earning the export dollar and letting others share our rich herit+age. But let those who wish to export breed their own stock and let there be strict Government controls in this regard. B. SARALAM, Booragoon Parents want sporting chance REGARDING your article: "Crisis over sexes in sport" (ST. Oct 26): The policy of gradually introducing inte+gration in sport at primary schools still stands, regardless of the wishes of parents and children. The schools in our area fol+lowed the recommendations in the guidelines by introduc+ing integration for running events at the recent interschool sports. The parents and children at our schools and we believe, at Central Busselton Primary School, did not want this. Our efforts, through the Education Department, to prevent the implementation of this policy into our school system, were blocked by the Equal Opportunity and Sex Discrimination Act. Our regional director stated in his letter to us "neither the schools nor the Education Department can amend the Acts, which are matters of parliamentary decision". The parents of our school want our children to have the opportunity to experience both integrated and segregat+ed sport in the future. BEVERLEY J. STEFANOU, West Busselton Parents and Citizens' Association. It's enough to make you mental THE psychiatrists have done it again with another first for mankind. If we are going to label*lable pre+menstrual tension as a men+tal disease (ST, Oct 26) we might as well go ahead and label drunkenness as a form of insanity (some grounds for that, actually) or even invent a name for the grumpiness or unhappiness which follows exhaustion. We could go further than this and label all sorts of personality traits - such as haughtiness or even chronic happiness - and then have a plethora of mental illnesses that we could use for all occasions. HENRY BARTNIK, Lathlain. Give our youth a reason to live "WHY live?" This appears to be a question hundreds of young Australians are asking themselves every day, and when we look at the suicide statistics, one can't help but won+der whether they are finding any answers at all. Statistics show that our under 25s have one of the highest self-inflicted death rates in the world. We also know that 100 people today all over Australia will attempt to take their lives. Pretty haunting figures, don't you think? Maybe as a nation we should be asking our+selves the question "why is it that young people in our country seem to have no mean+ing in life?" Why is it that so many of Aus+tralia's future generation are frustrated with life if this is supposed to be the "Lucky Coun+try"? Could it be that as a community we are not providing space for the younger generation? Is their search for meaning, futile because they are aliens within our society? Could this also be the reason for such a high incidence of drug addiction and alcoholism among the young? Could it be that our youth are feeling the need to "escape" from feelings of alien+ation and lack of significance? These questions send shivers down my spine. It compels me to ask "what am I doing to help the youth of Australia?" Maybe as a whole nation we should be addressing this qu+estion more deeply. B26 Sunday Tasmanian 2012 words B26a Sunday Tasmanian - 14 September 1986 YOUR LINE Blocked accounts better The Chinese national Peoples' Con+gress, held in Beijing in March and April this year, was addressed by Premier Thao Zijand on behalf of the State Council covering a report on their Five Year Plan. The report quoted China's output of grain for 1985 reached a total of 370 million tonnes*tons, an increase of 58 million tonnes*tones over previous years. The Chinese Premier said that China is now more than self-sufficient in grain and has a surplus for export. So, who is kidding whom amongst our politicians regarding subsidised wheat sales (subsidised by taxpayers - not by the large grain companies who make billions every year out of wheat sales to China and Russia. Yet, we still hear the Right and the Left claim that Capitalism and Commun+ism are inveterate opponents) to China. It is about time that we acknowledge the unconscionable fact that international trade benefits no one except the multi-nationals and international financiers. If interna+tional trade is deemed necessary, then it should be undertaken on the basis of "blocked accounts." "Blocked ac+counts" are a bilateral method of exchanging goods between nations without the aid of international fi+nance. "Blocked accounts" would not only obviate the onerous necessity of international debt (caused by de+veloped countries all trying to achieve a favourable balance of trade) but would dispense with the utter absurdi+ty of dumping (invariably below cost) goods in communist countries whilst concurrently expending billions on nuclear arsenals against the very enemy with whom we aid by exporting subsidised primary and secondary pro+ducts. J.D. HUME, Lindisfarne. We wouldn't really miss Miss, Mrs or Ms Non-sexist language is needed to pre+vent us associating every position or activity with a person's sex. Perhaps even more important than non-sexist job descriptions is the need for non-sexist titles and pronouns. Can some+body invent simple, non-sexist words that mean: (a) Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms; (b) He or she; (c) His or her(s); (d) Him or Her? Nothing ponderous please. Some of the expressions in the recently released US Guide to Non-sexist Language make me cringe. Phrases such as "craftsperson" and "wait person" forget that effective language requires simplicity. We should be reaching for simple alternatives eg "waiter" instead of "waitress" not "wait person". Of course, we would still be faced with thousands of individual names that draw attention to sex eg Nathan, Natalie, George and Mary. Any sug+gestions? DAVID BREWER. Glebe. Specialised timbers are being destroyed I am a craftsman in wood and earn my living, along with hundreds of others in this state, whether they be woodtur+ners, furniture makers, tourist shop proprietors, small sawmillers, timber merchants, art college lecturers, etc, from the specialised timbers that are available to Tasmania. These specialised timbers are called minor species by the woodchip com+panies and left on the ground and burned to provide a seed bed when they clearfell and slashburn our forests. Do you realise Mr Gray, that you are currently permitting, one might even say encouraging, the destruction of the resource base of what is a very impor+tant industry for Tasmania? An indus+try that properly*property nurtured and de+veloped could provide thousands of jobs throughout the state and bring Tasmania the reputation of a high quality manufacturer of specialised woodware. ANTONY DE LARA. Moonah. The percentages were absolutely pointless We read with interest the article (Sunday Tasmanian, Sep 7) on cook+ing with bean curd, of Tofu, but I would take issue with Sue Waterworth when she states "It pro+vides... 300% less cholesterol (than mince). If a quantity of mince con+tained say, 10 grams of cholesterol, then 100% less of 10 grams would be nil. Therefore it would be impossible to arrive at a 300% figure. She had already said that Tofu has no cholesterol at all, so why not just leave it at that, instead of going into point+less percentages? P.BROWN Blackmans Bay. B26b Sunday Tasmanian - 26 October 1986 YOUR LINE Hodgman not `minister for exemptions' VINCENT MAHON won't like me refuting his good story (Sunday Tasmanian Your Line 12-10-86) with facts, but the record should be put straight concerning my responsibility as Minister for the Environment. - I have not exempted GHD Planner West from using sandstone cladding on the International Hotel. Sandstone cladding was never proposed. - I have not exemted Pioneer Concrete from using the most modern technology. The plant will operate in accordance with all the Environmental Appeal Board requirements. - It is true than ANM have an exemption, but they had that exemption long before I became Minister. - It is also true that Golconda Minerals have an exemption*excemption but that was granted on the basis that it would be better to allow a small amount of water and cyanide into the Tamar to relieve the pressure on the dam wall, than to do nothing and face the prospects of the dam wall breaking and the complete contents of the dam spilling into the Tamar. PETER HODGMAN. Minister for the Environment. Hobart. How to be flexible I WAS intrigued to hear the Federal Employment Minister, Mr Ralph Willis, claim that there should be more flexibility and room for negotiation in the wage fixing mechanism. A fine ideal that Mr Howard has been trying to get through for the past three years. However, the September issue of the journal of The Association of Consulting Engineers of Australia states: "A new factor has arisen however. The Department of Employment and Industrial Relations has decided to involve itself in the discussions on free charges and a great deal of time and effort is applied to satisfying them." I wonder what Mr Willis' interpretation is of the word "flexibility." MAX BURR, MHR Launceston. Upside-down logic WHOOPEE! The new telephone book for `87 is out! Last year's design is a success it seems, but would some clear-headed person explain exactly what the advantages are of having the yellow-page section upside down? Is it part of the "Keep Fit" campaign? Or "Life be in it"? Or something to do with "Performing Arts? Is it easier than pushing a finger a quarter of an inch lower to find your number? (Perhaps it is to assist the colour-blind?). Does no-one else get furious with the "flipping thing" when table space, or desk space for that matter, is almost always very limited? Busy business personnel are going to have to watch out for the dreaded RSI! JOAN TUCKER Sandy Bay Random danger THE statement by Supt Hoodless (Sunday Tasman+ian 12-10-86) regarding the visibility of police officers at random breath testing locations requires a comment. I witnessed an evening RBT session being carried out in Davey St in front of the Customs House. It was a chilling sight to see the police officers, only 30 metres from the Market Place corner, working four lanes of traffic, pulling their selected motorist across as many as two busy lanes to the side of the road. In such circumstances is it any wonder that motorists, for their own safety as well as that of other road users, are reluctant to "obey the signals of a police officer?" The practice of conducting RBT's on multi-lane roads, for the safety of both the participating police and the travelling public, should be urgently re+viewed. K.J. BOLTON Bridgewater B26c Sunday Tasmanian - 30 November 1986 YOUR LINE Auction company clarifies position IN reference to your article in The Sunday Tasmanian (16-11-86) "Woods full of fake Forrests", I am writing to clarify the comment made by Mr Hurst, "I haven been to auctions where out of five Forrests for sale three were forgeries". Our firm, Andrew Wright Auctions Statewide, conducts more auctions of fine art than any other firm in this State. In a period from August 7, 1986, to September 20, 1986, it auctioned some 16 paintings signed by Captain Haughton Forrest, 14 of which were sold. We took the precaution (as al+ways) of having an expert authenti+cate these paintings and in this case it was Mr Hurst. There was one other painting which was unsigned but Mr Hurst attributed this to Captain Haughton Forrest and it also sold. This amount of Forrest paintings being instructed to one firm to auction in such a short period of time is unprecedented in this State as only a handful have turned up at auction all round the State in recent years. Through this and the three major art auctions our firm has conducted in Hobart and Launceston this year we have developed a reputation for being the "firm that auctions all the Haught+on Forrest paintings." Prospective purchasers know they can bid and buy with confidence as our firm also allows a two-week period for return of forgeries. In cases when we discover a forgery before auction, the particular painting is returned to the owner immediately and it will not be offered for auction under any circum+stances. This is why people have confidence to both buy and sell through our firm. The excellent rep+utation we have developed and enjoy Australia wide is of the utmost import+ance to me. Like Mr Hurst, our firm is certainly aware of the problems associated with forgeries and we take every possible step to avoid auctioning one. The prices we have achieved for Forrest paintings led the way at auction in Australia and if anyone had been under the misapprehension Mr Hurst was referring to our firm in his comments, I am certain I have clarified this. ANDREW WRIGHT, General Manager, Andrew Wright Auctions Statewide. Article `surprising' MY attention has been drawn to Ian Colvin's article Festival of Fine Films (The Sunday Tasmanian 9-11-86) in which he states "it is good to see one cinema chain making the effort to bring a selection of `arthouse' films for the more discerning cinema goer". While applauding and supporting the festival members of the Hobart Film Society would read Mr Colvin's statement with some surprise. The Hobart Film Society has been presenting monthly public screenings of first release quality films from all over the world to Hobart audiences since the early 1950s. In recent years it has also organised the annual Hobart International Film Festival - the 18th festival has just ended - and provided over 50 programmes each year for its members. With over 1300 members the society is by far the largest community-based film society in Australia. Its initia+tives during the past 40 years have contributed much to the cultural life of Hobart and helped to build an appreciative and supportive audience for "arthouse" films. On behalf of present and past mem+bers of the society, I extend an invita+tion to Mr Colvin to join us and experience the excitement and stimulation of quality cinema every week! PAUL BYWATER PRESIDENT HOBART FILM SOCIETY HOBART - While appreciating Mr Bywa+ter's comments, the quote high+lighted from the original article explains that I was talking about the cinema chains - that is, Hoyts and Village West End - and not smaller organisations such as the Hobart Film Society and the State Cinema which continue to bring quality films to Hobart - IAN COLVIN SOB report denied THE article "What, no organ grinders?" (Sunday Tasmanian 23-11-86), writ+ten by Sandy Onslow-Browne, implies that the Commonwealth Grants Com+mission was unimpressed with the way in which evidence was presented to it by public officials during its visit to Tasmania last week. I would like to place on record a categorical denial of the inference contained in the article that this commission was in any way dissatis+fied with the manner in which arrangements were made for the com+mission's visit to Tasmania. Your correspondent, Mr Onslow-Browne, is clearly unaware that no less than seven heads of Tasmanian Govern+ment departments presented evidence to and briefed the commission during a general session conducted in the con+ference room of the Land Department building at the commencement of the inspections on Monday, November 17. During the course of the inspections in the ensuing week, the commission was accompanied by the under treasurer and his senior colleagues, the Director-General of Education, the Commissioner of Police and the Direc+tor of Hospital and Medical Services within the Health Department. Senior personnel from other departments joined the commission at relevant points for varying periods during the programme. B27 The Weekly Times 2021 words B27a The Weekly Times - 8 October 1986 Speaking out for and against wage flexibility Canberra Comment By David Kidd CANBERRA - The Federal Govern+ment intends to consider and might propose a more flexible wage fixing system to enable different wage levels at different firms and industries. This was announced last week by In+dustrial Relations Minister, Mr Willis. The government is doing this in the context of the next national wage case. But it believes any new, more flexible approach will have to be within the centralised wage fixing system to keep control of overall wage levels. But in a speech he gave in Canberra Primary Industry Minister, Mr Kerin, seemed to contradict Mr Willis. Mr Kerin referred to more flexibility in relative wages, or wage relativities across industries as distinct from the average wage level. Mr Kerin went on to say a deregulated labor market and a wage freeze were fundamentally incompatible. In Melbourne, the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission also wound up its hearing into the National Farmers Federa+tion claim under the federal Pastoral Award, that the farm sector could not pay the recent national wage increase. These developments also coincided with a seminar in Canberra dealing with im+plications of wages and industrial policies on the competitiveness of agricultural export industries. It was sponsored by the ACT branch of the Agricultural Economics Society. It was here Mr Kerin made his remarks. Trade Unions were represented at the seminar by ACTU research officer, Mr G.D. Bellchamber. Those opposing the wages and incomes accord and centralised wage fixing were wrong, he said. The benefits of the accord to the economy and to agriculture were clear in terms of economic growth employ+ment growth, lower wage and price infla+tion, lower unemployment, greater pro+fitability, and reduced industrial disputa+tion. The agricultural sector stood to benefit from the greatly improved international competitiveness which the devaluation brought*bought, if it could be secured for the medium term. Mr Bellchamber said a centralised wage system offered the best prospects for lock+ing in that improved competitiveness. Continuation of that policy offered the best proposals for a sustained beneficial impact on the agricultural sector over the medium and long term, Mr Bellchamber asserted. He argued that Australia's economic predicament arose through a succession of high current account deficits since the beginning of the 1980s. Professor Tom Valentine, director of the Macquarie University's centre of money, banking and finance, criticised Labor Ministers and the union movement who persistently attacked the people advocat+ing deregulation of the labor market. He said it was not necessary for central+ised wage fixing to have the form of the Australian system. It could be more flexi+ble. Wages could be indexed to export prices, and this would implement basic wage increases on the ability of the in+dustry and the economy to pay. Indexation Prof. Valentine said wages could also be indexed directly to the unemployment rate, so wages fell when unemployment was high. Additional flexibility could be introduced through profit-sharing. He said some reform of the Arbitration Commission was needed. The government must stop appointing lawyers to decide questions of economic importance. Lawyers, he said, saw their role as dispute settlers and took little account of the impact on the economy of any decisions. It was about time people who had economic knowledge were appointed to the court. Prof. Valentine also argued the government must stop appoin+ting people to the court who were members of the "industrial rela+tions club", who supported the union view that "one could never go backwards on a wage increase or a condition when granted." There was no alternative, he said, to adjust to a massive fall in national income, other than by reducing wages. In the absence of wage flexibility the whole burden of adjustment was put on the unemployed. The current high level of unemployment was due almost entirely to the lack of wage flexibility. Whether it was stupid militancy or militant stupidity, the unions had gone a long way to contributing to the unemployment level, Prof. Valentine said. ACIL Australia's consultant, Geoff Car+mody, who represented the NFF in the ability to pay case, criticised the assertion by Mr Kerin that Australia could not and should not try to introduce more flexibility into the system. Interesting He found this interesting as the Com+monwealth and ACTU had engaged in discussions on introducing more flexibil+ity, when the new wage fixing principles were not three months old. Mr Carmody said unfortunately as fast as Australia devalued, its export prices fell on world markets, resulting in off setting declines in the terms of trade. If devaluation was to generate net ex+ports the increased production must not be regarded as being available for distribu+tion in higher wages. In effect it must go to overseas markets, or to replace imports, in order to preserve current living standards. Mr Carmody said the offsets to the Australian dollar's devaluation effects, meant that exporters of farm products would not be moved to increase produc+tion, indeed the converse was likely. Net exports would not be forthcoming to the extent required and the external account problems would have to be solved by deflation of domestic demand, in+creased unemployment and ultimately by lower living standards. The rural sector was now below the level it fell to in the 1982-83 drought, which was regarded as a post war low point. Mr Carmody said a rigid centralised system could not easily cope with that sort of situation. If the court could not cope with the NFF case it was doubtful if Australia as a whole could retain the present system if its living standards were to be preserved, he said. Comparative wage justice, he said, generated comparative economic injustice. There was a world of difference between adjustment spurred on by price collapses and layoffs on a large scale, and a more voluntary response with more flexible prices and wages. Price and wage signals were to be preferred every time. In the end they were inevitable, Mr Carmody said. B27b The Weekly Times - 23 July 1986 New fighting fund gives the farmers lot of punch Canberra Comment By David Kidd CANBERRA: In three short years, the Hawke Government has managed to unite farmers in a way which has not been achieved before, as shown by the broad national support given to the Australian farmers' fighting fund, now expected to reach $15 million. The fund will bankroll legal challenges to Government legislation. It will also be used to take militant trade unions to court when they move outside the law. In the words of NFF president Ian McLachlan, the main use of the fighting fund in year one will be for what he calls clearing Australia's industrial passage ways. But there will be an early move to develop profiles of all federal rural electorates, as well as country-city marginal seats. The profiles will cover the demographic and psychographic aspects of each electorate. When the NFF conducted its recent animal welfare survey, one of the features was the collation of the responses on animal welfare, against the psycho+graphic aspects of where people lived, how old they were, whether married or single, if they worked or were on the dole and what their incomes were. THE exercise was instructive with clear patterns in responses related to life styles. In the lead up to the next federal election, profiles in hand, the NFF will be able to plan its strategies to make sure that people understand the issues and if possible ensure candidates are chosen sympathetic to NFF and small business economic imperatives. Just over a year ago the fighting fund was born at the farmers' rally in front of Parliament House in Canberra in a display of unity which should have alerted the Government that all was not well. While there was deep anger in the farm community then, the sector had few means by which it could back its words with actions. But from now on it will be actions which speak the loudest. At the Canberra rally in a display of political independence Ian McLachlan accused the leaders of the three major parties of being out of touch with rural problems. This led to a furious reaction from the National Party leader, Ian Sinclair. This public rift broke the perceived nexus between the NP and NFF which the federation had been trying for years to break. THE success of the fighting fund was largely due to the perception that Labor is a city-based party which has no interest in the problems in the bush. This view helped to galvanise its large electorate to boost the NFF, which was already well organised, vocal, and effective, into a now well funded opponent for this Government, and all others which follow, no matter what their political persuasions. The unity between farmers and business has resulted in a war chest for the NFF, which will use the $2 million annual interest from the fund at the discretion of trustees. The trustees are the former Premier of Western Australia, Sir Charles Court; the fighting fund director and prominent Adelaide businessman Tony Summers; National Farmers Federation president, Ian McLachlan; and NFF executive director Andrew Robb. While the Minister for Primary Industry John Kerin understands the problems in rural Australia, the majority of his colleagues do not apparently appreciate the devastation there caused by the combination of rising costs, the drop in the value of farm commodities and the use of monetary policies which forced interest rates to an intolerable level. FARMERS in the Victorian Mallee were generous contributors to the $1.5 million raised in Victoria, despite recent tough times. Peter Fischer, the Na+tional Party member for Mallee, told this Column that since July 1 this year never had so many constituents turned up at his electoral offices and at other meetings he arranged in the electorate, just to talk. Nor had he seen them so confused over things like the fringe benefits tax (FBT). He summed up their feelings, when he said they believed that starting with the assets test on pensions, the FBT and the capital gains tax, coupled with high interest and inflation rates, all the Government had achieved was to erode their capital base, and they did not like it one little bit. The mere threat of a capital gains tax was sufficient to force down the value of farm land significantly, in some cases resulting in demands from lending institutions to reduce overdrafts be+cause of reduced equity in the security. While all this adverse comment was getting wide currency, the Government failed to successfully communicate to the rural electorate the positive aspects of its policies such as the improved com+petitiveness for farm commodities overseas, result+ing from the massive devaluation of the Australian dollar. THIS was acknowledged last week by the chair+man of the Prime Minister's rural task force, Barry Cunningham. The task force has not been a major public relations success for the Government, judging by the reception it got in its recent swing through central Victoria. Mr Cunningham admits to a particularly tough time in Mr Fisher's electorate when the task force visited St Arnaud, where it was subjected to a tirade of criticism. The Government at this stage is not acknowledg+ing that it is in trouble in the rural seats it holds. But a measure of its concern was the outburst by national ALP secretary Bob McMullan, who last week called on the NFF to return any overseas contributions to the fighting fund and added that he was worried about what the federation would do with all the money. B27c The Weekly Times - 5 November 1986 Textile industry protection debate swinging growers direction Canberra Comment By David Kidd CANBERRA - Consumer transfer from industry protection for textile clothing and footwear (TCF) manufac+turing is estimated at $1000 million a year, with these industries getting one third of all protection provided to manufacturing. The Industries Assistance Commission (IAC) has given the Government three op+tions for reductions in TCF protection - targets to 75 per cent, 50 per cent and 25 per cent. Federal Cabinet is due to make an announcement on its protection policy before the end of November. National Farmers Federation (NFF), miners and others have been campaigning hard for a cut of at least half the assistance given to Australian TCF manufacturers.