Monday 11th November 1996
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Irvine who had an Australian visa application refused has asked his solicitor to seek an apology from Mr Howard over the remarks. If Mr Howard did not apologise Irvine would proceed with defamation proceedings.
Howard said on Friday, "I think he's a crackpot historian, but it doesn't alter the fact that he was convicted in the United Kingdom, he was convicted in Germany, he was convicted in Canada and two of the offences as I understand it, are related to passport, immigration or visa issues."
Queensland's reputation as a holiday destination was further battered when 100 Japanese tourists suffered food poisoning after catching a Qantas flight from Cairns.
Health Minister Mike Horan said that Queensland health officials were investigating an outbreak of salmonella in Cairns. Four food handlers at two Cairns food manufacturers have tested positive to salmonella Heidelberg bacteria.
Queensland Health's chief health officer said health officials that Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV was planning to run a story last night on the poison scare.
This comes at a very bad time following food poisoning scares through an outbreak of eschichia colon in Japan which killed ten people and effected a further 9,500.
Guess this is one the media can't blame Pauline Hanson for. In fact a joke going around Queensland last week reflected the view that the media are still trying to find a reason to blame Ms Hanson for the Australian cricket team's poor form in India.
Last week I spoke with a travel wholesaler on the Gold Coast who told me that he had received a cancellation for a block booking of 400 Singaporean tourists because of media reports. He put the blame totally on the media's biased reporting of the Hanson comments not on the comments by Ms Hanson.
Bishop Hilton Deakin and nine other Australians were deported from Malaysia last night after being arrested for attending a pro-East Timor independence conference.
Howard said the delegates had broken Malaysia's rules by attending the conference, which had been opposed by the government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
Deakin had said earlier, "These youths (members of Dr Mahathir's Malaysian Action Front) were screaming at us, hurling abuse and I honestly had no idea if they were going to turn on us. I thought it could be the end for me.
"Now I am being detained against my will by armed guards and I have no idea when I will be able to return home.
"This whole episode where innocent people have been arrested and detained is outrageous and the Australian government should immediately contact Dr Mahathir about this."
Interesting is the suspected collusion of police in the riots. Organisers claim that it took the police over an hour to arrive after the mob first broke into the conference, and then the only people arrested were the delegates.
St George Bank is now progressing with its takeover of Advance Bank. The merger of Queensland based Metway bank with the government owned institutions, Suncorp and QIDC, is expected to get the nod at a shareholders meeting later this week.
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed 749 people died from asthma in the year ending June 1995, 76 fewer than the previous year and 215 fewer than in 1989.
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