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Friday 26th September 1997
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Prime Minister John Howard, as can be gathered from the above, had a less than happy day in Parliament yesterday. This followed the resignation of John Sharp and David Jull following a revelation of travel rorting on national television by Channel Nine's Laurie Oates. It was a day in which the Opposition Labor Industry spokesman, Simon Crean, took the gloves off and aimed in on the Coalition's Science Minister Peter MacGauran. MacGauran, despite misleading Parliament twice as a result of the attack on his travel claims, refused to resign.

What capped off the day was the revelation that David Jull's office had advised two senior members of Howard's Prime Ministerial office about the cover up of excess travel payments made to transport minister John Sharp as far back as May this year. This at a time when the Labor hit squad were zooming in on a traitor, Mal Colston, for allegations of travel rorts.

Howard said in Parliament, "May I affirm to the house and categorically assert without qualification that I personally knew nothing of these matters until the last few days. The staff members in question have affirmed to me that they had no discussions with me about these matters in May, or indeed until the past few days."

Now its got to be remembered that Crean, the man leading the assault on the Coalition because his leader, Kim Beazley, played an identical role as Jull in covering up Mal Colston's travel rorts in the 80s when he was "on side", is not as clean as a whistle.

In fact it is blatantly obvious that finding a clean politician in the halls of Canberra is becoming as hard as finding a live chook in a fox's den. The difference is not to get caught. If we take Crean for example he spent the winter break in France tasting wines in the valley - all at the expense of the Australian tax payer.... Mr Squeaky clean....  

This brings us back to the Trojan Horse again as it goes without saying that the walls of Canberra are so full of whispers and leaks that the role of the media moguls lobbyists on the inside obviously turn up some fertile grounds for breaking political stories on just about the whole shooting match when the time is ripe. The Coalition's decision not to support the Packer move to take over Fairfax just a few weeks ago was, I believe, the catalyst for some wayward ministers to be brought into line.

Is it any wonder then that earlier this year Fairfax journalist Margo Kingston said, "Now when you have a man so powerful that he can buy Graeme Richardson to talk the Labor party around and Michael Kroger to talk the Liberal party around, and Howard and Costello and Alston jump to his every need no matter how irrational, no matter how transparently incoherent their arguments, we have a huge problem. And yes, personally I am very scared, personally, of Mr Packer taking over Fairfax."

It looks like "blood money" may save the life of British nurse Deborah Parry. Parry was earlier this week sentenced to be beheaded in a Saudi Court after the murdered woman's brother Frank Gilford refused to pardon her.

Gilford lives in Adelaide, Australia and has always claimed an "eye for an eye" for his justification in refusing to waive the death sentence. Now a Saudi Arabian lawyer, Salah Al-Hejailan, suggests that negotiations are underway between the parties with Gilford seeking a financial settlement of US$500,000 for himself and US$700,000 for a South Australian hospital.

In exchange Parry would be pardoned.

The flack between poody tat Jim Soorley and an ever increasing band of people sick and tired of his blatantly naive and politically motivated rhetoric is starting to work its way up the system into the halls of Queensland's State Parliament with the State Government now attacking Soorley as a "two faced hypocrite".

Local Government Minister Di McCauley said that Soorley's attack on the proposed Integrated Planning Bill was "transparently political".

She revealed that he had requested nearly 1,500 rezonings not permitted under Brisbane's planning scheme but now wanted to lock out existing residential areas from currently prohibited land use.

"The fact that the Lord Mayor has had to come to the State Government on over 1,000 occasions to ask for these rezonings is the most compelling argument for the outdated planning laws to be overturned," she said.

Soorley's response was typical, "She is a bigger fool than I though she was," he said. "She should go home to the bush for the weekend and sit under a tree with the cows until she gets her head together. The Bill threatens to change the face of Brisbane suburbs by removing the council's ability to prohibit development that is incompatible with suburban areas."

The Local Government association president supported McCauley saying, "It (the Bill) will wipe out proverbial truckloads of superfluous red tape while preserving and enhancing the community's involvement in planning."

Political:

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), the ALP body behind the promotion of a boycott to the Sydney 2000 Olympic games has gone on the attack demanding that workers get a minimum increase of Au$20 per week.

The ACTU will now also argue to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission that small business exemptions from severance pay should be abolished. Tim Pallas, the ACTU's assistant national secretary, said, "The ACTU will also be seeking improvements in award standards in relation to notice of termination and consultation about the change.

The move brought big business out on the attack with comments that redundancy payments of up to eight weeks might have to be scrapped if the claim succeeded. 

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Another beautiful day in paradise... the staff pool is sparkling clean and if the day is hot could go and indulge myself there later today while enjoying a glass of wine.

First plunge in the spring.

Have a great day.

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