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Tuesday 9th July 1996

International:

Christopher Skase is to be brought to book. This bankrupt fled Australia for the island of Majorca in Spain in the 1980's after leaving thousands of Mums and Dads destitute after pocketing their savings through some very dodgy dealings in the public company Qintex. He squirreled away millions of dollars in "consultancy" fees and gifts to his family overseas - in an effort to escape the banks and the trustee in bankruptcy.

Now the trustee, Max Donnelly, is seeking Federal Government funding for a bid to recover assets worth abouth Au$10 million from the fugitive's estate. He said that a team of lawyers were finalising a report detailing Skase's alleged holdings in paintings and antiques - valued at close to Au$10 million.

The court action would be launched in Spain. When contacted about the latest moves against him Skase said that any moves to reclaim assets claimed to be part of his estate would be "resisted by the true owners".

I always cringe when I hear the name Skase as the name should really be "scum" after what he did to so many fair dinkum Australians.

In other news Murrandoo Yanner is back at it again stamping his feet and thumping his chest. This time he called on moderate Aborigines from around Australia to unite against the Century Zinc mine and to oppose the "moderate" Aboriginal leaders.

Mr Yanner said a second meeting of Gulf Aborigines had unanimously rejected the Century Zinc mine 19-0 and "slam-dunked" the project.

Now, you might recall that Murrandoo was the fellow who said that "there would be blood in the streets" last week when talking about the project going ahead.

Political:

The Federal Government is being pressured by the timber industry and workers to make its long awaited decision on relaxing the woodchip export ceiling.

Cabinet will today consider lifting the 5.2 million tonne limit on woodchip exports imposed by the former Government last December.

The forest industry wants the quota lifted to 9 million tonnes a year - a move which will add another Au$240 million to the economy and create hundreds of jobs throughout rural Australia.

Business:

Nervous investors yesterday wiped Au$5.6 billion off the Australian sharemarket with a 39.6 drop after the 115 point fall on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. On the money markets the Australian currency rocketed to its highest level in almost four years against Japan's yen as prospects of higher interest rates ignited world currency markets.

A higher dollar against the Yen is likely to blow out Australia's deficit because it will be cheaper to buy imported Japanese products.

Sport:

An explosive training session by Susie O'Neill has convinced head coach Don Talbert that the ice-cool blond of the Australian swimming team is about to turn red hot for the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta.

Her form comes soon after her coach, Scott Volkers, was allowed to return to international coaching after being banned earlier this year because of an incident involving head ache tablets.

Social:

The Aboriginal community were at risk of suffering HIV epidemics similar to those that had devastated East Africa the Federal Health Minister, Michael Wooldridge, warned yesterday.

Dr Wooldridge, who visited Uganda and Zambia in 1994, said Australian Aboriginal communities had the same risk factor - a high level of sexually transmitted disease, poor health services and a highly mobile population - as in those AIDS stricken countries.

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Another day in the global office ahead. It was cool last night, but today we expect warm weather with brilliant blue skies overhead.

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