AAP Internet Bulletin 0800 Monday Feb 15, 1999

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-1999
AAP Internet Bulletin 0800 Monday Feb 15, 1999





[A][RORTS][FED]

Govt faces fresh travel rorts row

The federal opposition will pursue Prime Minister John Howard and Special Minister of
State Chris Ellison when parliament resumes today over the latest travel rorts saga to
engulf the federal government.

Senator Ellison is to pay the government $9,000 for unauthorised flights taken by
Liberal Party members on planes he chartered between 1993 and 1996.

Prime Minister John Howard yesterday vehemently denied Senator Ellison had done
anything wrong, and rejected comparisons with the 1997 affair that claimed three of his
ministers.

"I think Ellison is being super correct, super proper and super respectful of the
taxpayer," Mr Howard told the Ten Network's Meet the Press.

"There is absolutely no question of his resigning, he has done nothing wrong, he
hasn't got anything, he didn't lie, he didn't involve the taxpayer in any additional
expense."

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley admitted it was too soon to demand Senator Ellison's
resignation, but has rejected Mr Howard's assurances.

"Clearly they thought something was wrong, otherwise why bother paying it back?" Mr
Beazley told reporters.

"Mr Ellison says out of the goodness of his heart he's repaying $9,000. Mr Ellison
says the Commonwealth is not owed that money. Well, why pay it if it's not owed?"

Mr Beazley said the opposition would demand to know of Mr Howard's involvement in the
affair, and would also be pursuing Arts Minister Peter McGauran over new travel claims.

Mr McGauran was one of the three to resign in 1997, but has since been reinstated to
the front bench.





[I][YUGO KOSOVO]

Glimmer of progress in Kosovo talks

Despite a conclusion that "nothing has really been solved," the United States and five
other nations gave rival Serbs and ethnic Albanians another week to consider their plan
for ending yearlong conflict in Kosovo.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, intervening directly, brought to bring the two
sides together Sunday, face-to-face, for the first time. She reported afterward that the
Albanians, at least, thought the plan that would give them self-rule but not independence
was a "fair deal."

But the Serbs resisted the prospect of a NATO peacekeeping force deployed in the
Serbian province in the event of a settlement, and Albright said even the Albanians had
not promised to sign the deal by the deadline of next Saturday at noon.

That's when the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia said the
talks extension will end.

"I hope very much the Serbs will see it in their interest also to sign on," Albright
said after talking jointly to four delegates from each side at the negotiations site, a
14th-century chateau at Rambouillet, 40 miles southwest of Paris.

If there is no settlement by the deadline, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said
at a news conference, "We would, no doubt, undertake an assessment of what is next." He
did not repeat the now-familiar U.S. Threat to bomb the Serbs, although Albright told
reporters separately that "the threat of NATO airstrikes remains real."

"We will hold both sides accountable if they fail to seize the opportunity," the six
ministers said in a joint statement.

They also lamented that "progress has been slower than we had hoped for," Vedrine,
co-chairman of the talks with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, told reporters.
"Nothing has really been solved."

The frustration of trying to end a conflict that has claimed more than 2,000 lives
with a plan that compromises both sides' goals was evident through a difficult day of
bargaining,





[A][POLLNSW POWER][NSW]

$1,000 lure for voters from sale

The New South Wales coalition has made unabashed pitch for the electorate's hip pocket
with its planned $25 billion sell off of the state's power industry.

Under the privatisation package every household in New South Wales will receive $1,000
cash or $1,100 in electricity shares in a bid to boost the coalition's electoral stocks.

Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski said yesterday the $2.6 billion payout would be
the "consumer dividend" from the planned sale -- the largest privatisation in Australia's
history.

The sell-off would also allow the coalition to slash average household power bills by
$300 over the next three years, embark on a $2.6 billion infrastructure program and fund
generous redundancy packages for power workers, Mrs Chikarovski said.

She denied voters would see the plan as an attempt to buy votes.

"What we are saying to them is that as people who've been involved in the electricity
industry for some time, who have contributed to the growth of the industry, they're
entitled to something from it," she told reporters.

Treasurer Michael Egan, himself a strong supporter of power privatisation before it
was rejected by the ALP in 1997, labelled it history's largest electoral bribe.

"We're not going to embark on a vote-buying splurge which is quite unprecedented, I
suspect, not only in the history of NSW and Australia, but I have never seen an electoral
bribe of this magnitude anywhere in the world," Mr Egan said.

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) national secretary John
Maitland said power prices would rise and thousands of jobs would be lost under the plan,
particularly in regional areas.

"People in these regions have already been hard hit by the policies of economic
rationalism. They need more employment opportunities not more job cuts in vital
industries," he said.

Mrs Chikarovski said the sale would boost the state's economy and create 160,000 new
jobs.





[A][RONA][QLD]

Prevent future flooding: Beattie

As Queensland continued to recover from devastating floods, the state government
called for the setting up of a special fund to rebuild damaged bridges and roads to
withstand future onslaughts.

Premier Peter Beattie said yesterday the emphasis should be on flood prevention rather
than damage repair.

"At present if a bridge gets knocked over, we repair it, instead of re-building the
bridge that can handle the next floods," Mr Beattie said.

His call came as Queensland's north and parts of the south-east continued to emerge
from flooding.

The rain brought by ex-tropical cyclone Rona continued to taper off, easing the threat
of further flooding between Cairns and Townsville.

The worst affected areas today were Ingham and the nearby hamlet of Gairloch, where
the Herbert river was expected to reach a second peak of 11.8 metres tonight before
starting to fall slowly overnight, the Weather Bureau's flood warning centre said.

Ingham police said the road to the south was open to four-wheel-drive vehicles but the
Bruce Highway was cut to areas north of Ingham.

"There's water under high-set houses but Ingham's okay," a police spokeswoman said.
"There are no actual problems."

The highest rainfall in the state in the 24 hours to 9am (AEST) yesterday was 208mm at
Tully and 137mm at Cardwell, a bureau forecaster said.

"The rain will ease further," he said.

"There'll be the odd heavy fall in the next few days, mostly between the Gulf and
Bundaberg, but nowhere near as widespread as in the last few days."





[F][AUST DOLLAR]

Dollar strengthens

The Australian dollar was stronger this morning, having burst from its offshore lows
aggressively after a choppy session Friday.

Bankers Trust vice president international, Geoff Bowmer, said the currency bounced
hard off its low of $US0.6395 in London and left New York at 0.6450.

However, this morning's strength has little basis, he said, with the market quite
illiquid ahead of the US holiday tonight and the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations.

At 0700 AEDT the Australian dollar was trading at $US0.6476/81 from 0.6460/65 late
Friday.

It was buying 73.99/74.08 Japanese yen from 73.74/83, 0.5738/43 euro from 0.5750/55,
1.1781/801 New Zealand dollars from 1.1737/61 and 0.3968/72 British pounds from
0.3980/85.

At 0700 AEDT the US dollar was buying 114.25/30 Japanese yen, from 114.15/20 in late
local dealings Friday.

The euro was trading at $US1.1284/89 from $US1.1233/38 and 128.95/129 Japanese yen
from 128.20/25.





[A][SOCCER POLICE][NSW]

Police meet over soccer hooliganism

Police will meet with Sydney Olympic soccer club officials today after 30 extra police
were called to Belmore Sports Ground last night to contain crowd violence at a match.

Police reinforcements were called in as some of the 6,000 Sydney Olympic and Sydney
United supporters became volatile as they changed ends at half-time, a police spokeswoman
said.

They were also called to Belmore two weeks ago when Olympic played the Melbourne
Knights and a similar situation developed.

"We had eight officers on duty but required the 30 other officers as fights started
between supporters, who were chanting ethnic songs as they changed ends," the spokeswoman
said.

"Police are going to meet with Sydney Olympic officials today to discuss a user-pays
system because these extra officers who are called to attend the matches are missing from
their usual posts."

Four men were removed from the game but there were no arrests.





[A][SMALL][FED]

Unfair dismissal bad for jobs: ACCI

Unfair dismissals legislation is having a devastating impact on employment, with
almost 40 per cent of businesses scared off from hiring new employees, Australia's peak
employer body said today.

The Senate could move as early as this week to overturn government regulations
exempting small business from unfair dismissal legislation for new employees.

The move looks likely to succeed, but in an attempt to turn up the pressure on
independent and minor party senators, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(ACCI) today released the results of a survey on the impact of unfair dismissal
legislation.

"In looking at whether or not to remove these regulations, the Senate should be aware
that the existing unfair dismissals legislation is having a devastating effect on the
labour market," ACCI chief executive Mark Patterson said in a statement.

"The survey showed that 39.7 per cent of businesses had employed fewer employees
because of unfair dismissal legislation.

"Moreover, the data further showed that the smaller the firm, the more likely it was
to have not employed someone because of concerns with unfair dismissals."

The survey's findings appear to conflict with the recent fall in the number of unfair
dismissal applications being lodged, a trend being used by the ALP and Democrats to argue
there is no need for the government's exemption.

But Mr Patterson said the fall in applications was meaningless, because business was
now so scared of unfair dismissal legislation many were not even prepared to risk such
action by hiring new employees.





[A][REGISTRATION][FED]

Fight looms over electoral reforms

Legislation to be debated in the Senate this week could deny thousands of first time
voters the chance to take part in the next federal election.

Under the legislation, electoral rolls could close as soon as the day after the
election is called, leaving tens of thousands of people just 24 hours to register to vote
or update their details.

The change will be bitterly opposed by the Greens and the ALP, along with many other
measures in the Electoral and Referendum Amendment Bill.

They include plans to strip the vote from all prisoners, not just those serving long
sentences as is currently the law.

The bill would also allow political donations up to $10,000 to be kept secret, up from
the present limit of $1,500 and remove the need for political parties to declare
donations under $5,000.

The ALP says the changes are aimed at protecting Liberal Party donors, while Greens
Senator Bob Brown said the shorter time limit for new voters was a full-scale government
assault on democracy.

"This provision will mean young people and those who generally move house more are
much more likely to miss out on voting at the next election," Senator Brown said.

He said under the legislation the electoral roles would close at 6pm on the day of the
issue of the writ for an election, effectively giving people no more than a day to
enroll.

"It is estimated that some 80,000 new enrolments occur in the one week period, to be
eliminated under this legislation, before the close of rolls in the election period," he
said.





[A][PREAMBLE HOWARD]

Howard: preamble shouldn't go too far

Government MPs meet this week to decide on the fate of a proposed preamble to the
constitution, with Prime Minister John Howard warning them not to go too far or risk
losing public support.

Republicans and the ALP are divided over whether to include a question on a preamble
acknowledging prior Aboriginal ownership in November's vote on the republic.

They fear confusion over the two issues could see both defeated, but Mr Howard has
backed a question on the preamble, provided it does not go beyond simple recognition of
prior Aboriginal ownership.

"It's then that you start to lose people and it's then that you start to imperil
widespread community acceptance," he said.

"I mean, if there is to be a reference to the indigenous people in a preamble, the
envelope should not be pushed too far. And people will wreck it if they push the envelope
too far."

Mr Howard said this week's joint party meetings would consider what form the preamble
would take, and whether it should be put forward at the same time as the republic.

However, he has received backing from Opposition Leader Kim Beazley for God to be part
of the preamble.

"Well, I'm all for God, and I think He has a place in the preamble," Mr Beazley said.

But he said the preamble could not just be the work of the government, and had to be
acceptable to all Australians.

"We must have a preamble which is acceptable to all of us and which is jointly
supported by him and me if it's to go to the Australian people any time soon," he said.





[A][POLICE PAY][WA]

Police chief attacks union claim

Police Commissioner Bob Falconer has attacked claims by the Western Australian Police
Union that officers around the state will take part in massive industrial action if their
demands for a pay rise are not met by tomorrow.

Union president Michael Dean said in a report in The Sunday Times that the State's
4,000 officers would launch "the biggest confrontation between police and any government
in the history of WA" if the state government failed to meet their demands.

At a media conference, Mr Falconer said he was appalled at the union's scare tactics
and promised his police officers would not abandon their duties.

"I'm perturbed at the words attributed to Mike Dean from the union; I don't think it's
the right way to achieve anything," Mr Falconer told reporters.

"I'm not saying our people shouldn't get a pay rise or don't deserve one but I don't
want the union spooking the community and saying they're going to embark on some
heavyweight industrial campaign."

Pay negotiations broke down in October when the union, chasing a 12 per cent pay rise
over two years, rejected the government's offer of seven per cent with trade-offs.

Mr Dean said the police campaign would start with public meetings and rallies and
escalate to disruptive meetings and finally a complete work-to-rule.

"All the goodwill and the thousands of unpaid hours that officers put in will be
removed," he said.

"Regrettably, the public will suffer but the government will have to shoulder the
blame."

Mr Falconer said WA police officers were "extremely well" paid compared with their
eastern states counterparts and also enjoyed very stringent and expensive overtime
conditions.





[1][US CLINTON REPUBLICAN]

Republicans say Clinton case not proven

Some Republican senators who broke with colleagues and voted to acquit President Bill
Clinton on impeachment charges said prosecutors' own witnesses undercut the case.

Others explained they voted with the president because his actions, while
reprehensible, did not warrant removal.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, the Illinois Republican who led the
House prosecution of the president, said today that he "was terribly disappointed to hear
people say we didn't prove our case. We did prove our case in my judgment, a compelling
case."

Asked on ABC's morning news show "This Week" about the possibility of Independent
Counsel Kenneth Starr indicting Clinton while he is in office, Hyde said: "I would close
that book. I think indicting the president would not be appropriate."

All 45 Democrats in the Senate voted on Friday to acquit the Democratic president on
the two impeachment charges brought by the House, and 10 Republicans voted against one or
both the charges.

Explanations of several key senators' votes began to surface as Clinton turned his
attention to foreign policy, especially the decision to commit ground troops to a
peacekeeping force in Kosovo and a planned summit in Mexico with President Ernesto
Zedillo.

"In the end, the witnesses, all of whom were sympathetic to or allies of the
president, provided direct evidence that failed to corroborate the House managers' case,"
said Senator
John Chafee, who was one of five Republican senators who voted against both impeachment
charges perjury and obstruction of justice after a 21-day trial and 20 hours of
closed-door deliberations.

"Removing the president from office in the face of a conflict between direct and
circumstantial evidence, in my view, would be mistaken," Chafee argued during the closed
deliberations. He said he favoured censure.

His remarks were found yesterday in the Congressional Record.

Clinton, meanwhile, telephoned congressional leaders, including one of his lead
antagonists, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, of Mississippi, to discuss the Kosovo
situation. A White House spokeswoman would not say whether the impeachment vote came up.





[T][LEAGUE BULLDOGS][RL]

Hint of bright future for Dogs

Canterbury's Darren Smith and halfback Ricky Stuart gave a hint of what is to come in
the National Rugby League season by spearheading the Bulldogs to a 38-12 win over Penrith
in the Country Carnival match last night.

Smith, who spent the last three years with premiers Brisbane, celebrated his return to
the Bulldogs with two tries and helped set up another two more.

The centre revelled playing outside former Canberra and Australian halfback Stuart who
continually put the outside backs into gaps in a floundering Penrith defence.

"I found it pretty hard particularly the second half when I knocked up," Smith said.

"I think there were a lot of good things to come out of the match for us particularly
the young guys who played well."

Canterbury winger Gavin Lester scored three tries while lock Glen Hughes and winger
Hazem el Masri scored a try each and el Masri kicked a conversion.

Stuart, who was replaced late in the game, said he was enjoying playing with his new
club but felt the Bulldogs still lacked cohesion in the backline.

"I think there are a lot of expectations about this team and that brings out the best
in people, but it's up to us not to listen to other people and do it out on the field.

"We've still got to get some cohesion going and that could take up to another six
weeks," Stuart said.

Canterbury coach Steve Folkes was realistically understated after the match, saying it
was only a trial game.





[A][ADOPTION][FED]

Adoptions plummet to new low

Adoption is now proving almost impossible for childless couples, with a new report
today revealing less than 200 Australian-born children were adopted by non-relatives last
financial year.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found just 577 children were adopted in
1997-98, down 132 or almost 20 per cent on the previous year, and the lowest number on
record.

It's a far cry from the peak year of 1971-72 when unmarried mothers were routinely
persuaded to give their babies up and 10,000 Australian babies were adopted.

It's now virtually impossible for childless couples in Australia to adopt locally,
with just 178 Australian born-children adopted by non-relatives last financial year.

Another 154 Australian children were adopted by relatives, while 245 children born
overseas were adopted by Australians.

However, even overseas adoption is proving increasingly difficult, with the number of
children brought to Australia for adoption down by over 40 per cent in the past decade.

The most popular location for Australians seeking to adopt is Korea, which provides
more than a quarter of all the children adopted from overseas, followed by Ethiopia,
India and Thailand.

Another dramatic change has been the treatment of Aboriginal children, with just four
adopted in 1997-98, and in line with government policy, all but one of these children was
adopted by another Aboriginal family.

Boys and girls are evenly represented amongst children brought from overseas for
adoption, but it's a different story amongst those put up for adoption in Australia, with
60 per cent of them boys.

While births out of wedlock no longer attract the social shame of the early 1970s,
just 11 per cent of the children adopted by non-relatives are born to unmarried mothers.





[S][SKI WORLD STEGGAL]

Steggall enjoys title afterglow

Zali Steggall produced the run of her life yesterday to become Australia's first
skiing world champion but she caught organisers by surprise when they failed to find a
version of Advance Australia Fair and played the funeral march instead.

Steggall, the Olympic bronze medallist, stormed from sixth place to slalom gold at the
alpine world championships in Vail, Colorado in a knife-edge race that pushed the alpine
nations right off the podium.

The 24-year-old, who was only .13 seconds off the pace in sixth position following a
tightly bunched first run, nailed the bottom half of her second run and had a combined
time of 1 minute, 33.97 seconds - an impressive .79 seconds ahead of Sweden's silver
medallist Pernilla Wiberg.

"After the first run I was just 13 hundredths out so basically I had nothing to lose,"
Steggall told AAP.

"There are no medals for sixth ... so I went for it, I just smoked it."

Steggall, from Manly on Sydney's northern beaches, said she was "stoked" with her new
title.

"I like the sound of that," she said when asked how it felt to be world champion.

"I'm pretty happy. It's been a pretty tough season. I've had a few ups and downs but I
was always skiing really great and it was nice to get it all together on the day it
counts."

But Steggall was saved an emotional scene by the organisers' blunder.

"If they had played the anthem, I would have cried," said Steggall, who saw her flag
raised to the strains of an unfamiliar song.

"I don't know if it was the funeral march, I think it was an Eastern bloc anthem, it
sounded like it," Steggall said.

An embarrassed Gian-Franco Kasper, president of the International Ski Federation,
said: "It was absolutely ridiculous, we don't know what the problem was. This was
inexcusable."

Steggall welcomed the apology and accepted an invitation to attend a second award
ceremony before the men's slalom today where the Australian anthem will be played.

"There was quite a big Aussie crowd around and they sang the anthem and (today) they
(the organisers) are going to get the right anthem," she said.

At the awards ceremony for her first World Cup win in Park City last season organisers
were also without Advance Australia Fair and played Waltzing Matilda.

"I've never had a medal presentation where they've played the national anthem,"
Steggall said.





[T][GOLF AUST][GOLF]

Spence beats Shark to win Masters

Young Victorian Craig Spence chose one of the best theatres in Australian golf to
showcase his first professional win, made sweeter when he delivered the knockout blow to
Greg Norman on the last hole for the Ericsson Masters crown yesterday.

An arrow-straight six-iron to within a metre of the pin at the 18th sunk the Shark.
Spence's victorious birdie three gave him a memorable one shot win over Norman, who was
denied a seventh Masters title.

The 24-year-old treated his home club, Huntingdale, like his own backyard, leading the
tournament from the start and standing firm throughout the final round, dodging the blows
Norman aimed at him and counter-punching like a wily veteran.

Spence finished 16 under the card after rounds of 64-73-69-70 and pocketed a cheque
for $144,000.

Norman rebounded valiantly from an unsteady opening round 74 to race home with rounds
of 68-66-69 but became prey to just one of the new breed of young Australians vying to
snatch his mantle.

Three-times champion Craig Parry, New Zealander Greg Turner and West Australian
amateur Kim Felton finished in a tie for third at 13 under.

Spence has dreamed about winning the Masters in precisely the manner he did.

"When I'm driving down the road just day-dreaming I dream of chipping in or hitting a
shot close to win the Masters," he said.

"Just to win it like that was doubly as good."

Spence played fearlessly before the ferocious Norman spectre but said a well-thought
out plan, in which he was never going to win, kept his mind under control.

"It was the most nervous I've been for the week but I kept myself calm by saying
you've done all the hard work, you've led all week.

"If you hit a bad shot (on the last green) then, Greg Norman's not a bad person to
lose to.

"Rather than go in thinking everyone was expecting me to win ... the expectations
weren't there," Spence said.

"I knew today would be a huge challenge and I knew if I could get through it it would
be the biggest positive experience I've ever had."

Norman said afterwards he continued to be impressed by the quality of the young
Australians he has encountered.

"He was very impressive, I thought he played exceptionally well today," Norman said.

"He hit the ball close and it seemed like he was in control of his game, he wasn't in
any hesitation sort of mood."

KEYWORD: NETNEWS 0800

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