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Friday 12th April 1996

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International:

Sam Watson, shown here, typifies the element within the Aboriginal Legal Service who has brought so much mistrust in the way that so many Aboriginal bodies are run. Sam Watson, the former general manager of the Brisbane Aboriginal Legal Service (BALS) spent BALS money on groceries, barbeque equipment, as well as making sizeable cash withdrawals without any form of receipting.

Allegations are that BALS officials wrote out cheques totalling over Au$50,000 for cash; over Au$100,000 in expenses which are "not clarified"; Au$37,000 in cash on corporate credit cards; bill of sale taken on vehicles for QIDC loan of Au$82,000; tax and superannuation not paid; double dipping in regard to travel allowances; consultancy fees paid to staff on wages.

The result is that BALS is now having to sell off assets, including motor vehicles, to maintain its tax-payer funded service to the city's 25,000 strong Aboriginal and Islander community.

Now let us remind you that these allegedly corrupt officials are the ones that Pauline Hanson was writing about. Comments which stirred up an outcry against her which echoed across the nation with comments of "racist" mainly levelled by the likes of Sam Watson. It is about time political correctness the vanguard of the minority movements defence was removed altogether.

Political:

Queensland Premier Rob Borbidge will push state leaders for a major overhaul of the Native Title Act at the state premiers conference today. Mr Borbidge said that the uncertainty created by the act would lead to mining companies abandoning Australia and particularly Queensland's rich north-west which is being assessed by at least six miners.

He confirmed his push against the act as former Aboriginal Senator, Neville Bonner, was drafted by the State Government to chair tomorrow's summit on the Century-Zinc project in north-west Queensland.

This Au$1 billion project is to be scrapped if the handful of Aboriginal elders in the area do not reduce their compensation claim amounting to tens of millions of dollars.

Business:

Century Zinc's claim as the world's largest zinc mine could be toppled by 1998, given plans to increase production at Canada's Red Dog Mine. CRA Limited planned for Century to be the world's largest zinc mine - producing 450,000 tonnes of refined zinc a year by 1998. Red Dog, if expanded, would increase to an annual production of 460,000 tonnes - just topping Century's mark.

The Century project, if allowed to proceed, will generate over Au$2 billion in economic activity during its construction phase and Au$816 million a year in production.

In other business news we will follow, Alan Bond, the maverick entrepereneur of the 1980s is to stand trian for fraud. The trial will relate to the transfer of more than Au$1 billion in cash from Bell Resources Ltd to Bond Corporation Ltd.

We will follow this story closely!

Sport:

Geelong star Gary Ablett has been sidelined by the AFL tribunal for 5 matches following an incident in which he was reported following a match played last weekend. The Australian Football League is starting to warm up with more and more reportings being the order of the day.

Social:

About 1.5 million Australains will have diabetes by the year 2010 at a cost of more than Au$1 billion a year unless people stop eating too much fat and start doing more exercise a report on diabetes has warned.

Personal trivia:

I went down early this morning to have a look at the early morning dancing mist on the Brisbane river. I have always meant to do it but today I made the short walk. It was quite entrancing, the only thing missing was music from Enya. I will post a photograph of this amazing phenomenon soon.

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