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an Aussie's viewpoint on Australia's first daily Internet newspaper
Since October 1995

Wednesday 24th January 1996

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International:

On Friday Australia celebrates National Australia Day - if you look at our home page you will see how close we were to becoming a French, not British, colony!
In business news Australia will join 17 other countries planning to privatise their telecommunication assets in 1996 if the coalition wins the upcoming Federal election. Senior brokers welcomed the move as the Au$8 billion float would create an enormous boost to the struggling stock broking industry.

Political:

In a major political policy speech coalition leader John Howard said yesterday that if the coalition were elected they would sell of 33% of Telstra in a public float for Au$8 billion. This would be the biggest public float in Australian history. 65% of that float would be reserved for Australian buyers. The other area that the coalition would have a good look at is cross-media ownership laws. Currently the Australian media and our way of thinking is dominated by News Limited and Kerry Packer's assorted media companies with Fairfax and Western Australia's Kerry Stokes playing bridesmaid roles.

Business:

That major West Australian "farming oriented" company, Wesfarmers Limited, has warned shareholders not to expect profits as high as last year. The depression in the wool and housing industries is expected to dramatically effect their performance compared to last year's profit line of Au$65.8 million.

Sport:

The huge gap between the best and the rest in women's tennis was clearly demonstrated yesterday when joint no 1 seed Monica Seles disposed of 7th seeded Croatian teenager Iva Majoli 6-1, 6-2 in only 58 minutes at the Australian Open Tennis Tournament yesterday. Seles advance to the semi-final to meet American Chanda Rubin. The men's matches were postponed because of rain.

Social:

The latest study shows that Queensland students are dropping out of high school at the highest rate in years. Only 76% of high school students who started high school finished year 12 last year. The figures, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, show a drop from 82% only two years ago.

Personal trivia:

Spent the day in Brisbane yesterday looking up old friends and preparing my consultancy time with key clients. The staff joined me at a little presentation by the Information Industries Board on doing business on the Internet. Don't know how, but young Alex's Koala Troubles became the highlight of the presentation! His little web site has attracted nearly 10,000 vitiors in just 4 days! Seems like the kids both big and small like it too!

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