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Tuesday 3rd September 1996

International:

The dispute with Singapore based Region Air was over trifling amounts of money in the region of Au$500,000. The grounding led to weddings and holidays being missed and has cost Kiwi Air Au$400,000 already, according to Kiwi's chief executive, Ewan Wilson.

Political:

In the past the coalition policy has claimed that only one third of Telstra will be sold off. The opposition Labor and Democratic parties have jumped on the gaffe by the Communications Minister - who say that his comments show the Federal Coalition's real strategy goes beyond the one-third sale.

Prime Minister John Howard was forced to publicly rebuke Alston saying that Coalition policy had not changed... however the comments have created a new air of mistrust among the Independents who had previously expressed support for the bill to sell one third of Telstra - a bill which still has to go through the Senate.

Business:

The result dod not include after tax losses of Au$73.3 million from the sale of business and goodwill write-offs which saw the bottom-line profit fall 85.4% to Au$11.6 million.

The directors declared a 50% franked final dividend of 15 cents a share payable on October 31st.

Their shares yesterday fell 7 cents to Au$8.40.

Social:

Figures from the Keep Australia Beautiful national office reveal an environmentally threatening trend back towards littering:

The dirty dozen are:

• Cigarette butts: 50%
• General Paper: 19%
• Confectionary wrappers: 12%
• General Plastic: 8%
• Bottle can/tops: 7%
• Straws: 6%
• Paper cups and takeaway boxes: 5%
• Cigarette wrappers: 4%
• Plastic bags, wrap: 3%
• Vending tickets: 3%
• Plastic takeaway boxes and cups: 3%
• Packages (boxes and cartons): 2%

Personal trivia, from the global office:

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