Friday 21st February 1997
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Issues - The banking system under the spotlight. Dozens of small boutique mining companies in the far north are now at a stand still, and further to the south the struggling tourism industry in Cooktown is in a state of collapse with operators like Don Sinclair claiming that the freeze meant that his plans to build a 17 metre wharf for his tour boat were now dashed.
Sinclair has already sunk tens of thousands of dollars in getting materials for the wharf which has already been approved by the Cook Shire Council.
"Everything was ready to go, the Transport Department had their pile driver up and working in the (Endeavour River) on a wharf for heavy shipping. Then I was told I couldn't go ahead," Sinclair said.
"This will effectively stop Cooktown from expanding its water-based tourism industry indefinitely because no-one here has the money to pay for a pile driver to come up to build a wharf."
Sinclair said the chronic lack of suitable berthing at the point where Captain Cook landed during his exploration of Australia meant that the town was now missing out on badly needed dollars.
The freeze is the last straw for Sinclair who now wants to sell his Cooktown Cruises operation and retire.
"Hobbs (State Natural Resources Minister) has allowed the Wik decision to ruin my development and I am going to lose a substantial amount of money," he said.
Kernot said, "The banks are getting Au$59.4 billion worth of customer's money for virtually nothing. That's on top of Au$15.7 billion in deposits they already hold on which they pay no interest."
Kernot claimed that the interest rate paid on bank transactions and investment accounts with balances less than Au$2,000 plummeted from 2.1% in June 1993 to just 0.3% at the end of last year.
The average interest rate on accounts with balances between Au$2,000 and Au$10,000 also fell from 2.5% to 0.5%.
"Despite slashing interest rates paid on transaction accounts over the past six months and despite healthy profits, they are crying poor and moving to increase fees on transaction accounts," Kernot said.
He said that it was quite laughable that the media barons pointed to the influence of the Internet as a factor to be considered by the committee investigating the "reform of media ownership in Australia".
Interesting that his conerns with Packer centered on gambling - as Packer had acquired Casino's and other gambling operations over the years and could use his control of the media to push Australians into bad gambling habits....
Ju Ping Tian said, "It (the inquiry) was really bad for the kids really bad for Australia, because they had to qualify for Atlanta."
"They had to make the top 12 to qualify and the inquiry was distracting for me and distracting for them."
In Atlanta trouble flared after she reduced two young gymnasts to tears after a disappointing training session but she shrugs this off, "Kids cry; it is normal. They cry at school and in front of their parents and nothing is said."
Ju Ping believes that Australia could have finished even stronger than the tenth place at Atlanta - Australia finished seventh a t Barcelona in 1992 - if the pressures of the inquiry had not been there.
There are 15 female gymnasts training for the 2000 Olympics with another 15 training for 2004.
The young girls idolise Ju Ping with Alysia Harvey,14, summing up their feelings by saying, "She is very tough on us, but she gets the best results for Australia."
Yesterday the police called in response to the stealing of my rowing boat "Bootlebumtrinket". A full report on the incident and background is available from the cyber cop.
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