Wednesday 9th April 1997
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Issues - timed calls for Internet use.See which Senators voted timed calls in. Tell Communications Minister, Senator Alston how you feel about timed calls.
"The allegations, aired by ABC Television's Four Corners programme on Monday, relate to ANI's disasterous purchase of the European waste management business ABT from Mr Packer's private company, Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH), in 1991.
"The Stock Exchange and the Australian Securities Commission have expressed interest.
"Four Corners alleged ANI received legal advice in September from Malleson Stephen Jacques that it had grounds under the Corporation Law and Trade Practices Act for against CPH and four former ANI directors over the ABT deal."
That article is hidden away on page 27 in the body of the business section.
Interesting then that a lead story on page one of the same paper is the earth shattering news that former international swimming star Tracey Wickham is to take her husband to court.... can any journalist anywhere in Australia explain to me where the balance in reporting has gone in Australia. Yeah, right out of the window.
The Kerry Packer files The Kerry Packer files The Kerry Packer files The incident took place at about 2.30 am on March the 22nd outside the Volt, an Ipswich nightclub.
Federal Defence Minister Ian McLachlan said yesterday he understood that US authorities were investigating the "nature and scope" of the Marines involvement.
"Naturally, we expect visiting military forces to behave at all times in an appropriate and acceptable fashion," McLachlan said.
The incident has polarised the local community with the local citizens defending the action of the police while expressing concern that they are scared to go out at night because of "marauding groups of Aborigines".
Well respected Aborigine, Neville Bonner, who heads the State Government's newly created Indigenous Advisory Council said that council members would meet today to make recommendations to the Government about the incident.
Ipswich councillor Paul Tully, who had previously come to the defence of the Aborigines involved in the incident, changed track yesterday when it was revealed that one of the Aborigines involved had a knife in his hand which could be seen flashing in the light (a piece of the video tape which had previously not been carried on television news reports). Yesterday Mr Tully lashed out at critics of the police saying, "There are two or three allegations where the police acted improperly but if you listen to the reports you would think it was like the Rodney King beating tape.
"It appears the knife was produced and thrust out (by an Aborigine) in response to the action (of the police apprehending suspects). It's quite unmistakeable."
The head of the Ipswich office of the Aboriginal Legal Service Ms Pat Thompson said, "To see the police use such force and violence against people is a shock, because it is not every day you are able to see that on tape. To see the violence, the kicking, the punching and the kneeing, it's absolutely outrageous."
ATSIC Deputy Chairman "Sugar" Ray Robinson said that the US military "whisked their personnel out of the country to avoid prosecution" when they became aware of US involvement in the incident.
Mr Robinson also released a copy of a letter from the National Aboriginal and Islander Legal Services Secretariat to the US President Bill Clinton asking for an investigation into "the extent to which the civil rights of those indigenous Australians may have been violated even under American law."
The Ipswich police facing a Criminal Justice Commission probe have defended their actions. An officer involved in the incident says that he and his colleagues were outnumbered and under pressure at the time.
Now what was it that Pauline Hanson said in her Maiden Speech to Parliament? "The distinction I make is this. A social problem is one that concerns the way in which people live together in one society. A racial problem is a problem which confronts two different races who live in two separate societies, even if those societies are side by side. We do not want a society in Australia in which one group enjoy one set of privileges and another group enjoy another set of privileges."
If it had been a group of whites behaving in the same fashion with the same resulting action by the police the incident would not even have been heard about outside the courts when the suspects were brought before the court to face charges at their own expense.
Is it any wonder then that Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party will take the nation by storm?
The launch is set to be a fiery one with the group which organised a 2,500 strong rally against racism set to picket outside. A spokesman for the Brisbane Anti-Racist campaign said the dinner launch, which begins at 7pm, looks set to attract strong support from Brisbane and Ipswich.
"We'll be demonstrating opposition to her ideas," spokesman Mark Gillespie said.
"She goes to Katherine and Kingaroy... we want to demonstrate that not everyone is behind her. There is opposition to her ideas."
Mr David Thomas, Pauline Hanson's media liaison officer, said that she would treat the picketers as "rent-a-crowd".
Up to 400 people are expected to attend the dinner with supporters from as far as Cairns in Queensland's far north confirming that they would attend.
In other news related to the launch of Pauline Hanson's One Nation party it now appears that the Federal Government is studying claims that Ms Hanson's bid to launch One Nation has breached Electoral Commission guidelines.
Administrative Services is investigating a claim centered around the use of Ms Hanson's use of her Oxley electorate office as the registered address for One Nation.
"The electorate office is there as a service to her constituents, not to serve party political purposes," said Mr Jull.
The politicians are still flapping their gums over the Mal Colston travel rorts. I guess you could call him a soft target in comparison to Wik and Packer.
In the latest development Prime Minister John Howard last night announced that the Australian Federal Police had, at last, been called in to investigate the allegations against Colston. His change of heart came when Colston's office manager Christine Smith changed her evidence that she had been the cause of the sloppy book keeping - now refusing to take the blame for the Senator's travel claims.
The Prime Minister told the media conference last night, "The character of the letter (from Mrs Smith) substantially alters the way this matter has been seen recently."
Mrs Smith's statement read, "I now want to advise that my (earlier) statement was incorrect.
"I was not responsible for preparing the Senator's travelling allowance claims, nor required to keep a record of dates of travel.
"The Senator always prepared his own claims. I think he recorded his travel dates in his pocket diary and completed the TA claims from those records. I cannot say, however, that I never advised him of travel details."
Senator Colston could not be contacted for comment following the statement by John Howard.
Extensive political commentary and links can be found on Palmer's Australian Politics page.
South African captain Hanse Cronje and Pollock nearly turned the game around in the last few overs but Pollock's departure 4 overs from the end saw South Africa fall just 10 runs short of the target.
Australia now lead the series 3 games to 2.
Have a great day.
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