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an Aussie's viewpoint on Australia's first daily Internet newspaper.
Since October 1995

This on-line paper is now archived for perpetuity in the National Library of Australia

Monday, 5th January 1998
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International:

Roman Catholic church? What a joke!

The old religious values are not worth, it would appear, a tinkers cuss. Rupert Murdoch, the man US media baron Ted Turner described as more dictatorial than Adolf Hitler, is to get a papal knighthood from Pope John Paul II. This will Murdoch a knight in the Pontifical Order of St Gregory.

The Pope awards the honorary title to people who are considered to be of unblemished character who had promoted the interests of society, the Catholic Church and the Holy See according to the Los Angeles archdiocese spokesman Rev Gregory Coiro.

St Gregory will be turning in his grave... that's for sure.

Indigenous mineral rights in Canada foreshadow new claims in Australia

The Canadian Supreme Court has handed the country's mineral rights to the indigenous population in a racist landmark decision.

The decision by the court was based, partly, on Australia's Mabo decision and will be reviewed by our High Court. The decision is expected to open up a floodgate of Aboriginal claims in Australia over productive mines and large mineral rights with the legal scumbags in the frontline of the moneytree.

The unanimous Canadian Supreme Court decision applies only to the indigenous people who have not signed away their land in treaties. It has enraged the powerful Canadian mining and logging industries with claims by the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en First Nations claiming ownership of 58,000 square kilometres of Canadian territory.

 Skase's missing millions found.

Disgraced Australian businessman Christopher Skase who now lives on the Spanish island of Majorca has been caught out. Skase had claimed he was bankrupt and living off the financial support of others - but now Australian authorities have tracked down a sum of Au$10 million salted away by the conman trying to hide from his creditors.

Skas declared himself bankrupt in 1991 saying that he had personal debts of Au$172 million - claiming that he only had assets of Au$6,000 at that time.

Here is a summary of the Skase legacy:

• March 1989: Skase signs a US$1.2 billion deal for Qintex to buy Hollywood's MGM studios but cannot raise the deposit of just US$50 million. His empire collapses leaving debts of Au$1.6 billion.
• Early 1990: Skase does a runner moving to the Spanish island of Majorca.
• May 1991: Skase returns to Australia to face an assault charge and, while here, declares himself bankrupt with personal debts of Au$170 million - then flies back to Majorca refusing to return to Australia to face the courts.
• January 1994: Skase surrenders to the police in Majorca and is held in a Spanish jail for eleven months while claiming to suffer from chronic breathing difficulties.
• December 1994: Australian government fails to secure the return of Skase to face 32 charges of alleged criminal impropriety.
• June 1995: Queensland Supreme Court told that tens of millions of dollars paid by Qintex to Skase in secret fund transfers.
• March 1997: The Federal Government investigates Skase again after rumours that Skase is negotiating to buy a Caribbean Casino.
• May 1997: Skase fails in an attempt to become a Spanish citizen after claiming that he has been displaced by the Australian authorities.

Old news is good news for Murdoch and crew.

A single paragraph was extracted from a comprehensive book by the Centre for the Study of Australian-Asian relations at Griffith University has made the headlines almost a year after the survey was published.

The paragraph claims that Asians thought that Australians were rude, lazy and dishonest and that Australians still lived by the "white Australia policy" of the 50s.... with the Hanson debate being blamed of causing a reflection of views over a generation ago to re-surface.

It appears that Pauline Hanson has such an effect on the trash that the Murdoch media regurgitate day after day that even this year old survey was worth turning into headline news.

However, perhaps the biggest promoter of the book was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation who took great trouble in trying to attach Pauline Hanson to the negative views of Australia expressed in the book.

It took immigration minister Philip Ruddock to call the finding absolute rubbish saying that Australia was enjoying a massive growth in foreign Asian students being educated in Australia, a massive growth in Asian tourism and of course... the desire to immigrate here.

Indonesia looks like breaching the IMF rules 

President Suharto's new budget was likely to breach the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) economic bailout package despite tough new measures being introduced.

There is expected to be a slash in government spending, tax hikes and cuts to fuel subsidies in Suharto's new budget.

The IMF's chief economist, Michael Mussa, predicted that the continuing fall in Indonesia's rupiah will continue despite a US$23 billion package being put together to assist the country.  

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Another day in the canoe on the Brisbane River yesterday.

Below are some images taken on a 500 metre trip up the river to College's Crossing.

Left to right: Youngsters enjoy the river at College's Crossing; the river just upstream from our home; the riverbank below our home (with the island in the foreground); our jetty; a cloud masks the sun late in the afternoon.

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