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Sunday 3rd March 1996

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LABOR PARTY MASSACRED

International:

The Australian made car has gone onto the endangered list as the country is swamped by cheap imports. Toyoya, Holden, Ford and Honda are expected to release "cheap" cars shortly which will sell extremely well in Australia. In 1986 there were over 10 brands of car manufactured in Australia, today there are only 5 - Ford Falcon, Holden Commodore, Toyota Camry, Toyota Corolla and Mitsubishi Magna. Evern these are now under risk.

Political - Federal Election 2nd March 1996:

Well it seems that even small, tightly funded specialist media like this daily news brief are more accurate than the traditional daily press - both television and print. Right up to yesterday they were calling the election to close to call. Their polling was all over the place. All they had to do was check out our prediction of a massive loss by Labor.

One of the most interesting outcomes was in the seat of Oxley where the dumped Liberal candidate, now independent, Pauline Hansen, who was accused of racism thrashed the sitting Labor member. This win was even more dramatic because Labor had held the seat since coal was first mined in this Labor heartland. There was a 24% swing against sitting Labor Party member Les Scott. In fact all candidates accused (wrongly I believe) of racism won their seats. Dumped Labor MP - now independent - Graeme Campbell at Kalgoorlie; Bob Katter of the National Party and of course Pauline Hansen.

The current standing is the Australian Labor Party with 44 seats - down from 89; the Liberal Party with 70 seats; the National Party with 19 seats; 4 Independents including the "racist" members - Pauline Hansen and Graeme Campbell; and 11 still to be decided. With 75 seats required to form a majority the Liberal/National Coalition already have the numbers.

Even in defeat Prime Minister Paul Keating tried the "vision thing". John Howard stood up and delivered an excellent thank-you speech. The image of his family at his elbow in victory was very powerful.

If I was to sum up the defining moments of this campaign they would be:

Business:

Despite big drops in recent days in the price of beef there is good news for cattle farmers. Australia won back its share of the Korean beef market after a successful tender was accepted on Friday. In doing so it beat New Zealand who have been actively breaking into traditional Australian beef markets.

Sport:

Next Sunday the 1996 Formula One racing season will kick off in Melbourne. The new race track at Albert Park was the scene of great controversy last week as locals tried to stop the development. Victoria beat South Australia in the rights to run this year's Australian Grand Prix previously run in the streets of Adelaide.

Personal trivia:

Well Alex, mum and I had a truly wonderful day at the Koala Hospital. We got to meet Tony Wood a veterinarian extraordinaire. In the very near future we will be posting the story behind this remarkable hospital, this remarkable man and the gorgeous Koalas that they care for. We watched Tony, who is an unpaid volunteer, operate on the eyes of a mature koala who suffered from clamidia which had made him blind. Tony has a 100% success rate in these operations.

Today is another lovely sunny example of paradise.


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