Friday 21st March 1997
Search entire news archive by day | Search entire news archive by text |
Definitive Lifestyle Guide to over 5000 Australian webs | Global Web Builders Gold |
The Kid's Locker Room | World Wide Websters |
Issues - The banking system under the spotlight. Sadly, our predictions of a couple of days ago have come true with Papua New Guinea (PNG) now moving into a state of anarchy.
In developments yesterday:
It appears to all intents and purposes that Singirok is now running the country. Yesterday, flanked by a dozen armed officers, he held a news conference in which he said it was, "essential that those involved with the contract (to involve mercenaries) be exposed to the people."
He suggested that some government officials might have personally profited from the deal which cost PNG Au$40 million.
Meanwhile at Murray Barracks in Port Moresby an estimated crowd of 6,000 clashed with police who had remained loyal to Sir Julius Chan. The crowd chanting "Piss off, piss off", at the police.
The Native Title Tribunal opened its first day of hearing in relation to the Century Zinc project yesterday.
It was a day of accusations with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) being accused of usurping the Carpentaria Land Council (CLC) and the CLC being accused of not representing the Aboriginal people.
Two of the signatories who refused to sign the agreement submitted a request for the proceedings to be adjourned because they believed that the Queensland Government had not acted in good faith.
As at 9pm last night 27 had said that they would support it with 25 saying that they would oppose it.
The crucial vote has been postponed to Monday night after originally being planned to be taken last night.
A senior Labor Senator, Bob Collins, last night said that he disagreed with euthanasia but would oppose the Bill because it interfered with the Northern territory's right to make laws while not affecting other states.
Extensive political commentary and links can be found on Palmer's Australian Politics page.
Dear Editor,
The following is portion of an item posted by ABC News (20/03/97, 7:36pm AEDT) titled "Farmers back off on scrapping native title".
"Queensland National Party Senator Bill O'Chee says it would be cheaper to compensate Aborignes for extinguishing native title than to compensate farmers for breaching lease conditions."
Why should farmers be compensated for BREACHING lease conditions?
The views of you and your readers on this matter (I hope) will be interesting.
Phil Musgrave
Crowdy Head
He stressed that the Federal Government needed to meet its budget surplus by 1998-99.
MacFarlane was speaking at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association saying, "After a decade and a half of living with high inflation -1974 to 1989 - Australia in the 1990s has resumed its place among the ranks of low inflation countries.
"In underlying terms, the rate of inflation in Australia, is currently 2.1%. Our expectation is that inflation will continue at something like recent low rates in the foreseeable future."
His comments came as Prime Minister John Howard said in Parliament that he did not expect to see unemployment fall below 5% in his lifetime.
Federal treasurer Peter Costello was also upbeat saying, "We come into this pick up of an activity not just preserving low inflation but with the structural change in relation to fiscal consolidation of Au$7.2 billion by this government".
I believe that Taylor's back problems will be good enough reason for him to come back to Australia - and to let Ian Healy lead Australia against England in the battle for the ashes.
A regulated audit had revealed the antics of the public servants who "were abusing the department's facilities and tax payers' funds".
Staff involved would probably be sacked and Environment Minister Brian Littleproud said, "You will probably find all departments will have to check on all the sites within the various departments with access to the Internet."
Guess the bandwidth problem during working hours might ease considerably now...
Keep your eyes open for it and have a fabulous day!
Return to Australian National News of the Day