Today's Headlines
Wednesday 7th February 1996
International:
The Australian cricket team have been branded "chickens" and "sissies" by The Times, Sri Lanka's major newspaper. The Times said
"The current Australian cricket team may be good at winning cricket matches but... in deciding to forfeit their match against Sri Lanka... have
acted neither with courage or with diplomacy. Instead, they have upset the organisation of a complex tournament and handed a propoganda victory to the murderous
Tamil rebels who hold Sri Lanka to ransom. Not since bodyline has the game been such a fecund source of diplomatic friction." (Anybody know what 'fecund' is?
Looked it up in my dictionary if you, like I were stumped. It means: fertile, fruitful, and get this one - fertilising!) The last one sounds more like the source of this article!
NOTE: the Australian cricketers asked for the venue to be changed from Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, (where 100 people were
killed in a blatant sucide bomb attack last week) to a venue in India. They were not alone in their refusal to play there and have been joined by the West Indies who
have also refused to go to Sri Lanka. On top of the blast several of the Australian cricketers have received death threats. Sri Lanka have refused to let the venue be moved.
Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating is getting desperate in his bid to retain power at next month's Federal
Election. In a blatant attempt at pork barrelling he sat up in front of a large group of Labor colleagues and promised every Australian family an unfunded $500 medical
rebate. (ie Put the Au$300 million cost to fund this promise on the old government credit card). You might remember Health Minister Carmen Lawrence who was recently
found guilty of lying to the Royal Commission into the Penny Easton affair in Western Australia. Who better
to stand up there with Keating and lap up the glory. Opposition leader Liberal John Howard calls the whole thing "shonky" and who can blame him! The other
politically motivated announcement was that James Cook University in a marginal Labor seat would get a medical school at a time when other Universities have been forced to lower
the number of medical students as Australia has too many doctors per head of population.
Business:
Media group News Limited is expected to announce a smaller profit than last year because of the continuing problems with their investment in Ansett.
The group is expected to announce a profit of about Au$650 million. Analysts are expecting the 1995-96 result to come in at about Au$1.4 billion just 2% up from last year.
Sport:
The golfing circus has moved on to Adelaide where Greg Norman has again had to face questions about appearance money. Wonder what the Aussies will do when
this Australian born superstar and number 1 in world golf refuses to come here again? (Norman lives in Florida, USA). Norman said: "I don't play for prizemoney,
I play the game of golf because I love the game of golf." Sounds fair to me...
Social:
Families are spending Au$240 extra on their weekly household expenses than they were 10 years ago new figures released yesterday show. The average Australian
family now spends Au$602.11 a week on household costs including food and drink, housing, transport, medical and recreational expenses. Tasmania was the cheapest state
to live in at Au$535 per week and New South Wales the highest at Au$624.
You will need Netscape 1.2 or later to view this table of household spending by state:
| Category | Qld | NSW | Vic | SA | WA | Tas | AUSTRALIA |
| Au$ weekly | 576 | 624 | 602 | 551 | 596 | 535 | 602 |
| Food | 103 | 118 | 111 | 99 | 108 | 102 | 111 |
| Alcohol | 18 | 18 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 15 | 17 |
| Medical | 26 | 29 | 26 | 28 | 26 | 24 | 27 |
| Transport | 95 | 94 | 94 | 84 | 92 | 77 | 94 |
| Recreation | 75 | 78 | 81 | 76 | 78 | 78 | 79 |
Personal trivia:
Young Alexander Balson had a big day yesterday, starring in a television current affair program about his Koala Trouble
web site which ahs caught international attention and acclaim.
On the weather front it was again very warm with little relief from the spell of high temperatures that we
have been having. Its either feast or famine. A month ago we were getting too much rain now somebody has turned the tap right off!
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