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Since October 1995

Saturday 16th March 1996

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International:

The World Cup cricket final between Australia and Sri Lanka is sure to cause a few sparks. The match, which is being played in Lahore, India tomorrow will see two teams which have an intense dislike of each other fight for one of cricket's finest trophies.

The Australian team boycotted the match against Sri Lanka at Colombo because of the acts of terrorism taking place by the Tamil Tigers. Several of the Australian cricket team had had death threats in the mail prior to leaving to play in the World Cup and there was talk at one time of Australia pulling right out!

Political:

Federal Industrial Minister Peter Reith yesterday supported a wage rise for low-paid workers, but the ACTU said it remained convinced that pay rates would suffer under the new government. Reith said that it was up to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to determine if workers should get a "safety net" increase.

Not surprisingly, after the first talks between the ACTU President, Jenny George, and Reith, George ruled out union co-operation with the government's proposed changes to the industrial relations system.

Well she would wouldn't she! Otherwise she would be doing herself out of a highly paid job!

Business:

In a very surprising development the proposed Pay TV merger between Australis Media Ltd (Galaxy Pay TV) and News Limited (Foxtel) is all but dead. The wheels started to fall off when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman, Alan Fels, rejected their joint application on the basis that it would be monopolistic in the Australian market. The result would be a loss of access to Au$400 million worth of programming and equity support that Foxtel were to provide Galaxy.

Sport:

The rebel Super League players are all set to announce that they will run their own competition as early as next weekend - not under the banner of Super League and not under the jurisdiction of the Australian Rugby League (ARL) but as a totally independent sport. Representatives of players and coaches from the pro Super League clubs will meet in Sydney on Monday hours before the rebel first grade players answer as one that they will not play in a 20 team ARL premiership.

As suggested a few days ago the game of rugby league as we know it appears to be stuffed.

Social:

A slump in new housing starts announced yesterday prompted warnings that the housing industry was still in the grips of a major downturn. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said dwelling commencements fell 7.3% in the last 3 months of 1995 and were 35% lower than a year earlier.

Economists said that the worse-than-expected figures were consistent with evidence that the housing industry was still bumping along the bottom of the slump.

Personal trivia:

Good day in the big smoke yesterday. We had the local newspaper, the Queensland Times, visiting young 5 year old Alex to do a story on his Koala trouble site. The weather today is absolutely glorious. We again had morning mists and now have very pleasant temparatures and a sunny day ahead. Once again a perfect day in paradise.


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