Tuesday 25th March 1997
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Issues - The banking system under the spotlight. The Northern Territory's right to die vote was squashed (just) this morning at about 1.30am in the Senate. The margin was just three votes - but just like the Wik decision in the High Court by a margin of one vote - the implications are quite astounding.
Quite simply the Australian Senate has overridden the democratic process within a territory.
In the process Tasmanian Senator Bob Brown failed in a late attempt to have a "grandfather clause" adopted by the Senate which would have allowed two terminally ill patients to to die at a time of their choosing in the near future.
Senator Brown was shocked saying that he could not believe the lack of compassion that his colleagues had demonstrated and expressed the view that the Senate had failed to represent the Australian people with 70% of Australians supporting voluntary euthanasia.
"I have my right to feel a compassion for these people you have voted into a painful finish here tonight," he said, "It's a moment of shame on this Parliament.
"It's a moment of failure to connect with the compassion of the Australian people. It's a moment of great indignity - an abrogation of the democratic process."
Dr Philip Nitschke said that his dying patients have had the law pulled out from under their feet.
"They will both make immediate contact with the Governor-General," he said.
The passing of the Bill has created a State's rights uproar because the impact of the Senate now clouds regions like Norfolk Island and the Australian Capital Territory.
In Papua New Guinea (PNG) the heat has really been put on Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan with four of his cabinet ministers resigning before the start of today's crucial Parliamentary session.
The four, who are all opposed to the use of mercenaries, are expected to be joined by four other ministers before today's session starts.
PNG's Governor-General, Sir Wiwa Korowi, added to the drama by saying that Chan had breached the Constitution in a contract to employ the mercenaries and was calling for him to step down.
The Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, flew to PNG last night to meet all sides to warn them of the danger of departing from the Constitution.
General Singirok made an emotional address to the army at Murray Barracks in Port Moresby yesterday saying, "We are fighting for our freedom, we are fighting for our defence force."
Colston blamed his office manager, Christine Smith, for the oversight and apologised to the Senate repaying an amount of Au$6,880.
Interesting that Mrs Smith agreed to take the full blame, just four months after she was given a Au$20,000 rise in salary after Prime Minister John Howard agreed to promote her to the unusual position of "special assistant" to Senator Colston.
Extensive political commentary and links can be found on Palmer's Australian Politics page.
In the past small business faced the same expense as big business if sacked employees sued them for unfair dismissal - with those employing less than 15 staff now being able to hire and fire staff without fear of an unfair dismissal action being brought against them.
The other small business initiatives announced by Howard include:
Taylor, an opening batsman, scored only 5 runs in the second innings in which Australia crashed to 185 all out - leaving South Africa a target of just 29 runs which they passed with ease at a loss for two wickets.
We are celebrating four weeks of peace since the Cyber Cop Patrol pages were released on the Internet in December last year. No environmental vandals have set foot in our domain since this time.
We also launched the Computer Gym Web Site yesterday.
Have a great day.
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