Friday 27th December 1996
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Katter said, "Obviously something has to be done absolutely as soon as possible. I'll give them until the third week in January but they absolutely have to have it sorted out by then."
Katter's electorate embraces nearly half of Australia's cattle industry... which he now says in danger of being wiped out by the court decision.
"Racism is increasing up here - the Pauline Hansons are multiplying, I don't know how long we can hold off something terrible happening," Katter said.
"I'd say one in two cattle farmers are having problems and this decision has meant that the black property operators, and there are a few, are copping abuse.
Mr Katter said that the pastoralists now believed that they would lose their properties.. "I don't believe that (the properties are safe) for a moment. Legal means nothing. We thought properties were safe until Mabo."
The president of the Mt Isa Chamber of Commerce John Thinee said,
"The fairest way is for the Government not to give anybody anything like this whether they are white, Chinese or Aboriginal. A lot of Aboriginal people are distancing themselves from the claims because in the long run they know they will probably get less than if they had worked and bought the land themselves."
Currently Telstra charge 25 cents for local calls and Optus (in areas that they service) 20 cents. These charges are amongst the highest in the world today.
Senator Alston also promised that there would be a significant drop in the cost of long distance calls following deregulation.
"It will be cheaper for anyone who is on the phone less than 3 minutes, whether it is to confirm a restaurant booking or leave a short message," said Richard Vinvent managing director of American Company World X Change who plan to offer local calls at 8 cents in Australia following deregulation.
Industry sources expect untimed local calls would drop to as low as 10 cents with a connection cost of 1 cent a minute and most calls only lasting three to four minutes.
The West Indies are now odds-on favourites and were 29 for 1 wicket at close of play last night.
Have a great day!
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