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Friday 13th September 1996

International:

Prime Minister John Howard yesterday launched a programme to make Australia the "supermarket of Asia" and secure a greater share of the Au$600 billion market in this region.

The Prime Minister said Australia produced clean, high-quality foods and there was enormous potential to profit from Asia's growing middle class.

He said, "we shouldn't be just knocking at the door of Asian markets. We should be removing the hinges to provide Asian consumers with Australian food." (Wonder who thought up that one....)

The Government has made available Au$10.2 million to investigate ways of removing trade barriers to food exports, particularly in Asia.

Four senior ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer, will make up the Prime Minister's Supermarket to Asia council. It will be responsible for improving Australia's reputation as a supplier of high-quality food stuffs.

Political:

Seems like the Democrat leader, Cheryl Kernot, is pulling her head in a bit and starting to see reason... at last. Latest reports suggest that her position is shifting to cautiously support that of the Coalition on the controversial Workplace Relations Bill - which is heavily supported by business.

The Democrats have now promised to vote to support the bill but only after a few minor amendments have been made. This follows a meeting between Kernot and Industrial Relations Minister, Peter Reith.

The Democrats key point of contention remains the powers of the Industrial Relations Commission.

Business:

Sliding metal prices have seen a massive fall in the revenues and profits of RTZ-CRA during the last half of the 1996 financial year. Group earnings plunged 25.9% from Au$731 million (1995) to Au$714 million (1996) in the period January to June this year. The merged RTZ-CRA group declared a lower dividend of 26.65 cents a share compared with 30 cents in the first half of 1995.

The higher Australian dollar contributed to the loss in earnings as most of RTZ-CRA's products were exported.

Sport:

The Australian Football League (AFL) is now moving into top gear with the Brisbane Bears taking on Carlton at the Gabba and the West Coast Eagles taking on Essendon at the Melbourne Cricket Ground tomorrow.

My predictions? Highly pedantic - Brisbane Bears and West Coast to win... must be threads of my time in Perth...

Social:

The Simpsons and Bananas in Pyjamas are among the most favoured television programmes of young Australian children according to an Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) report.

Children have given the news, some documentaries and programmes with "grown-up humour" the thumbs down.

Sport was a big attraction with the Atlanta Olympics taking four of the top ten slots for kids' entertainment.

The top ten choices of our younger Australian generation over the last few months were:

Got to say that ABA list looks really sus to me - can imaging some middle order bureaucrats scratching a wish list up on a white board somewhere.... will we ever know?

Global Gripe of the day:

Back off Bill! You Willy wanker...
So Starfleet Commander Bill Clinton is once again preparing a well-publicised attack on Iraq. It's in the wind just as much as you can "feel" an approaching rain storm.... last night we were once again bombarded with propoganda on television about Saddam Hussein's atrocities and his "provocation" in a lead-up to justifying the launch of another vote grabbing attack on the defenceless Iraqis.

Although I don't want it to happen, I wonder how outraged the American citizen in the street would feel if the tables were turned... JUST FOR ONE DAY!

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Gorgeous day... warm temperatures - with 34 degrees celcius yesterday. Once again travelling into the big smoke, but only for a brief visit... thank God. I hate traffic.

We had a very successful day yesterday landing two more major Internet related projects.

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