Friday 20th December 1996
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Three Aboriginal children are now behind bars after allegedly spitting on Oxley Independent MP and hitting her in the face in her electorate office on Wednesday.
A fourth child involved in the incident (a nine year old) is too young to be arrested.
The three, two brothers aged 11 and 12 and their cousin, 11, were refused bail when they appeared in the Ipswich Children's Court yesterday.
Police allege that at about 4.50pm the group went into Ms Hanson's office and asked to speak to her. Ms Hanson came out and spoke to them for about five minutes leaving the front counter to find something to sign after the children asked for her autograph.
The court heard that the children spat and hit her in the face when she returned.
Three of the children were charged with aggrieved assault, unlawful assembly and wilful damage after a screen was damaged in the police watch house. They were refused jail and remanded to appear in custody until January 30th.
Now imagine the outcry in the media if the shoe had been on the other foot......
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have tipped Australia's unemployment rate to fall to around 8% by 1998. The pace of economic growth is forecast to drop from 4.1% to 3.3%, but the report wanrs that inflation in Australia is likely to jump to 3% by 1998 - noting that wage increases of between 5% to 6% in the private sector are the greatest threat to inflation.
It goes on to say that promised government reforms could lead to further improvements in the economy.
It blames previous (Labor) governments for the high current account deficit - resulting in low national savings.
"This decline is greater than that which has occurred in most other OECD countries, leaving Australia with a national saving rate far below the average for OECD countries," the report says.
The government's approach is aimed at hitting the overpaid wharfies head-on in a "whatever-it-takes-to-win" approach.
Yesterday Howard, Reith and Transport Minister John Sharp denied the claims, but they do remain a distinct possibility causing the Maritime Union spokesman, Col Davies to respond with the comment that the government would have to face a "huge blue" if waterfront negotiations failed.
"If we go on strike for four hours, we're told we're bringing the country to its knees. They're saying they could last for nine months.
"I don't think the Australian public would put up with troops coming in intimidating us - it's un-Australian," Mr Davies said.
Subject: Article on Rothwells
This was an appalling distortion of the facts on the Rothwells collapse. There were no individual losses of capital by individual investors in Rothwells. The bigest loser was the WA Government, who lost under $25 million. The WA government spent over under $23 million in the court case, and if you include the other millions spent in the Royal Commission, then then has spent in excess of their original loss in legal costs.
The process of the Royal Commission brought about the unfortunate premature deaths of three of the directors.
I cannot agree with the comments made above. I lived in Western Australia at the time and I know of many, many people who were adversely affected - losing a whole heap of money, because of Laurie Connell and his cohorts.
NAB manamging director Don Argus yesterday called the current scheme of arrangement between St George and Advance Bank to merge as "unprecedented and ineffective in law".
Earlier St George managing director Jim Sweeney had a go at the NAB when he questioned the reason behind the Australian Security Commission's (ASC) turnaround towards the proposed merger which had been on the table until October saying, When the scheme was structured it was on very good advice.
"All that was on the record before as part of the structure, so one wonders why it is suddenly an issue and one wonders who made it an issue."
This after the ASC suddenly asked for more information before it would give the proposal the green light.
However teenagers are leading unhealthy lifestyles while almost two out of three adults do little or no exercise.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey found that the proportion of adults who smoked had dropped from 28% to 25% since 1990.
Similarly only 8% of people drink alcohol at medium or high risk levels - more than three drinks a day - down from 10% in 1990.
Australian Medical Association federal president said that, "There are some black spots.. for instance, the overall smoking rates for adults are not matched by young people. We know that 100,000 teenagers are taking up smoking every year (in Australia).
"It shows that the tobacco industry is still winning the war with kids.
"They (young people) see a racing car with cigarettes painted on the side, so they rush out and buy cigarettes."
The most commonly reported illnesses in the ABS report were:
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