Today's Headlines
an Aussie's viewpoint on Australia's first daily Internet newspaper.
Search news archive
Monday 19th August 1996
Monday 19th August 1996
In other news...
The former executive director of the Australian Republican Movement, Stephen Woodward, said it was a "bit poor" that Prime Minister John Howard has pulled out of attending a Sydney charity ball because Princess Di is going to attend.
Howard made his decision because he did not want to offend the Queen, and personally I think that he made the right move. It's going to be a media circus with the self-professed "Queen of Hearts" out to milk every little bit of publicity that's going...
The charity ball has been arranged to raise money for the Victor Chang Institute.
According to Mr Woodward, "The (Republican) movement does not want to cause offence to the Queen, but when a member of the British Royal family is the head of state in Australia, that is where we have the problem."
Not all Aussies would agree with you mate...
Mr Costello said that his first Budget would be about doing the "hard yards" to eliminate the Au$8 billion hole left in the kitty by the Labor Government with spending cuts worth about 2% of the national economy.
"If we don't do the hard yards now, the problems are going to get worse, the decisions are going to get harder, the opportunities are going to get dimmer in the future," Costello told the Nine Network's Sunday programme.
Opposition Treasury spokesman, Gareth Evans, warned of a Budget of "brutality and betrayal". Now that's what I call the pot calling the kettle black...
The following growth in net external debt to GDP ration during the Labor terms of office from 1983 to 1991 tell a story that need no embelishing:
The Institute's June data, released yesterday, showed median Brisbane house prices of Au$135,000.
The Sydney market showed the strongest growth with an 8.9% increase to a median of Au$208,000 while prices rose 6.3% in Melbourne and 2.9% in Canberra. However, housing prices plunged by 7.3% in Adelaide.
The current tally board looks as follows:
The release of figures last week showed that the divorce rate in Australia had risen by 25% in the last decade but the executive director of Relationship Australia Queensland, Ian Macdonald, said despite the changes to the Family Law Act there had not been any significant increase in inquiries.
"We had anticipated a surge in interest in the new Parenting Plans (encouraged under the changes to the Family Law Act) but this has not eventuated," Mr Macdonald said.
The amendments put a greater focus on the rights of children and were intended to encourage separating couples to make arrangements for their children and to resolve disputes through counselling and mediation.
Return to Australian National News of the Day