Friday 6th December 1996
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Terry Fischer, Mr Adam's Brisbane based solicitor yesterday lodged documents in the Federal Court seeking a review of the refusal to grant him a temporary business entry visa.
The court can only order that the Minister's decision be reconsidered. Mr Adam's lawyer said last night that his client had been "denied natural justice".
"The man's not advocating violence, he's trying to further the peace process and should be allowed to talk," he said.
The legal challenge is based on three grounds
There is no doubt that Telstra is the jewel in the Government's money making crown and the sale of such a money spinner will dramatically dissipate the money being recovered to compensate long term taxes. In fact many in Australia have seen Telstra as a form of indirect taxation in the past.
The bill will be passed early next year after the crucial votes of Independent Senators Mal Colston and Brian Harradine were won over at a cost of about Au$500 million. 35 voted for and 33 against the bill.
The only dispute now is over how much one-third of Telstra is actually worth. Previously it was valued at about Au$8 billion but Harradine reckons that it should be worth nearly double that at Au$15 billion.
The passage of the Bill has been set for May 1st, but the actual sale will probably be delayed until 1998 as Telstra chief executive Frank Blunt has suggested that at least nine months will pass after the adoption of the bill before the sale of Telstra takes place.
The cost of the two Senate votes has angered the Labor opposition and the Democrats who have been calling the Independent votes "bought". The cost was a Au$100 million environmental package especially for Harradine's constituents in Tasmania - where the money will be used to protect the environment.
To satisfy Mal Colston the about Au$250 million has been set aside to develop telecommunications infrastructure in the rural areas. Queensland, Mal Colston's area, can expect at least Au$53 million with regional towns such as Roma getting money to develop the infrastructure of their current telecommunications systems. A bit of a side show was the formation of a Senate committee which will look at the Harradine proposal that redeemable preference shares be sold in the Telstra privatisation.
Excluding the Internet, the US$12 billion music industry is the last of the big media bastions where News is not a big player.
News Corp currently owns about 50% of Australia's Mushroon Records and 100% of Festival Records, and Australian music label, distributor and publisher.
Seems like all the kids are getting into dad's act now! 28 year old Elisabeth Murdoch is general manager at the British Sky Broadcasting satellite TV venture in London and 25 year old Lachlan Murdoch is general manager of Australian based News Limited.
Have a great day!
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