AAP Internet Bulletin 1100 Wednesday Feb 10, 1999

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-1999
AAP Internet Bulletin 1100 Wednesday Feb 10, 1999

[A][FLOODS QLD BOY][QLD]

Queensland floods claim four lives

Southeast Queensland's killer floods have claimed four lives, caused millions of
dollars worth of damage and left the town of Gympie partly submerged as rains eased
today.

Raging floodwaters swept a young boy and two men to their deaths in separate incidents
in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast hinterland. A 75-year-old man drowned on the Gold
Coast after falling into a swollen dam.

Eight-year-old Aron Lande drowned when he was trapped in a stormwater drain at
Palmwoods near the Sunshine Coast yesterday.

A 24-year-old man drowned when he was swept over a weir while bodyboarding in the fast
flowing Caboolture River, north of Brisbane.

In Brisbane's outer north a man, 60, was trapped by fast rising levels in the South
Pine River at Albany Creek.

Police said the man climbed a tree to escape the floodwaters and rescuers retrieved
his body from the branches.

On the Gold Coast police said a 75-year-old man died in Currumbin Valley after falling
into a dam while clearing weeds.

Ambulance officers said he may have had a heart attack before falling into the water.

Today at Gympie, 150 km north of Brisbane, floodwaters in the Mary River peaked at
3am, reaching 22 metres above normal, the river's highest level this century.

Almost 150 businesses were inundated, staff working throughout yesterday to move
stock.





[F][LAMB AUST][Fed]

US tariffs on Aust lamb unfair: Beazley

A US International Trade Commission lamb import decision reminded Australia there was
no level playing field on trade as it opened up to the global economy, Opposition Leader
Kim Beazley said today.

Mr Beazley said Australia should use whatever mechanisms possible to deal with the
situation which could see tariffs and quotas imposed on exports of Australian and New
Zealand lamb to the United States.

"We need to be aware of the fact that it isn't a level playing field internationally
and people are constantly acting against our interests," he told reporters, noting that
Australian tariff levels were now very low.

"And (we should be) using what mechanisms we can to deal with that when those
situations arise, this looks as though it will be one of those occasions."

The ITC voted 6-0 overnight that New Zealand and Australian lamb imports were unfairly
threatening US domestic lamb producers.

That finding means tariffs or quotas could be placed on lamb imports. The ITC will
hold a hearing on February 25 to consider possible penalties which must be approved by US
President Bill Clinton.

The US is Australia's largest lamb export market, worth around $90 million a year.

Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister Tim Fischer today declined to comment on the
decision ahead of releasing the government's annual trade statement later this morning.





[A][OSCARS AUST][FED]

Five Australians nominated for Oscars

Five Australians picked up nominations today for the 71st annual Academy Awards.

Actress Cate Blanchett was nominated for best actress for her role in Elizabeth. She
is up against Hollywood heavyweights Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love and previous
Oscar winner Meryl Streep.

Blanchett, from Sydney, recently won a Golden Globe award for the same role.

"I think by tonight I will be on the floor of my living room, passed out," an excited
Blanchett told Channel Nine from London.

Geoffrey Rush is in the running for best supporting actor for his role in Shakespeare
in Love while Rachel Griffiths received a nomination in the best supporting actress
category for Hilary and Jackie.

Director Peter Weir earned a nomination for best director for the Truman Show.

But he has a formidable rival in Steven Spielberg who stormed the list of Oscar
nominees for his epic World War II drama, Saving Private Ryan.

Finally, Melbourne composer David Hirschfelder was nominated for original dramatic
score for his work on Elizabeth.

Hirschfelder composed music for Australian movies Shine, Strictly Ballroom and The
Interview, as well as for the Hollywood hits The Truman Show and Sliding Doors.

The nominations were announced early today in Beverly Hills, California.





[T][TRI AUST][CRIK]

Eyes on the skies for Australia v England

The first Tri series final between Australia and England at the SCG will start at the
scheduled time of 2.30pm subject to further rain, Australian Cricket Board chief
executive Mal Speed said today.

The decision was made after a 9am (AEDT) inspection of the ground.

"The verdict is that subject to further rain we will play at 2.30," Speed said.

"There hasn't been any rain here for quite a few hours, there's plenty of clouds
circling but at this stage we're very hopeful of playing at 2.30."

Speed said the weather forecast was for showers during the day.

"There will be some rain in the course of the day, and we will play around that," he
said.

Speed said the SCG had improved overnight.

"I wasn't out here in my gumboots but there have been plenty of people who have been
last night working very hard to try and put the game on today," he said.

Speed acknowledged the northern end of the ground had caused the most concern
yesterday.

"That was the worst area yesterday, but that's come up pretty well, there's the
occasional slippery spot on the ground but that's to be expected after the amount of rain
we've had here," he said.

"At this stage unless we get a lot of rain play will go ahead."

Speed confirmed there was the option of playing tomorrow should the game be washed out
today.

"I think at this stage the forecast for tomorrow is worse than for today, so we'd like
to go ahead today if we can and we'll just have to wait and see."





[A][REPUBLIC FISCHER][FED]

Fischer warns preamble could go too far

Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer today gave guarded support for a new constitutional
preamble recognising prior Aboriginal occupation - so long as it does not pave the way
for more Aboriginal land rights.

Mr Fischer said he would be holding further consultations with colleagues on the
preamble issue. It would be discussed at the joint government meeting of Liberal and
National Party MPs next week in Canberra.

"I am reminded that the constitutional convention one year ago this month voted
unanimously for consideration of a preamble," he said on Channel Nine.

"I am totally opposed to any preamble with legal ramifications which would allow a
High Court at some future date in the next century to go down a pathway of judicial
activism.

"A factual acknowledgement of the historical antecedents of Australia, narrowcast, is
fine - but these are matter to be further resolved."

Mr Fischer's comments follow those of Prime Minister John Howard, who yesterday warned
against going beyond recognition of indigenous occupation of Australia in any new
preamble to the constitution.

"But once people start upping the ante and saying: 'We've got to go further, we've got
to have custodianship mentioned, we've got to have ongoing rights of a particular kind
mentioned,' you'll lose me, you'll lose middle Australia," he said on ABC television.





[A][CONDUCT][FED]

Howard lost sight of standards: Labor

A new code of conduct which allows ministers to keep shares and investments in
companies lowered the hurdle for government frontbenchers and their staff, the federal
opposition said today.

Under the new rules tabled yesterday in federal parliament, ministers and
parliamentary secretaries will be allowed to use blind trusts or outside nominees as a
way of keeping their investments in companies associated with their portfolio areas.

Prime Minister John Howard said the changes were only minor and did not represent
softer standards.

But opposition public administration spokesman John Faulkner said the new code lowered
the hurdle for government frontbenchers and their staff.

"By any measure this is a weakening of the previous standard," Senator Faulkner said.

"John Howard has no credibility on standards.

"He failed to apply his original code of conduct in his first term.

"The problem with John Howard's original code of conduct was not the quality of its
content, but the prime minister's lack of resolve in implementing it."

Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer today said the requirements for disclosure were
still quite demanding.

"This is an improvement in those standards. It is a practical improvement to reflect
the reality of the situation," he said on Channel Nine.

"More so it is a whole lot better that what existed under (Labor prime ministers)
Hawke and Keating when these guidelines were never really dealt with or produced.

"It is very demanding, let me tell you. As a minister, as a senior minister, you have
to cough up a lot of information to be in accord with these guidelines."

Mr Howard foreshadowed the changes last year during his defence of then resources
minister Warwick Parer, under attack for his family trust's continued $2 million interest
in a Queensland coal mine.

Under the new rules tabled in federal parliament yesterday, ministers and
parliamentary secretaries will be allowed to use blind trusts or outside nominees as a
way of keeping their investments in companies associated with their portfolio areas.

However, they must ensure they retain no control on the operation of the trust.

But in a further significant change, ministers will be allowed to pass on their shares
and investments to their adult children.

Mr Howard took great pride in his initial code, which he personally tabled in federal
parliament shortly after he won power in 1996. But the revised code was quietly tabled
along with other documents by government House leader Peter Reith.





[F][CBA BUYBACK]

Comm Bank offers buy-back on profit jump

Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd announced an 18.4 per cent profit surge in the six
months to December 31, then offered to buy back another $650 million-worth of its
shares.

Net profit for the bank, after abnormals, was $713 million, up from $602 million in
the first half of 1988.

CBA managing director David Murray said that in addition to some one off asset sales
the bank's customers responded well to the range of services resulting in favourable
business volumes.

Mr. Murray said the bank must continue to find growth areas outside its traditional
business.

"Although we have made a very good start, better than most, the ageing of the
population and changed regulation of the system both mean that demand for financial
services will be stronger than that for traditional banking services," Mr Murray told
reporters.

However he said that the bank is making progress in non traditional areas,
particularly at its Internet site.

"The bank estimates that Internet activity on its web site is the highest for any
finance category in Australia," Mr Murray said.

"As at 31 December 1998, Commonwealth Securities is the most popular finance related
web site in the country.

The bank will also undertake an off market $650 million share buy back to be completed
by the end of March. The Bank undertook two major and successful buy-backs of ordinary
share capital in 1996 and 1997, totalling $1.65 billion.

The directors have since reviewed the CBA's capital structure "on an ongoing basis as
part of the overriding objective of adding to shareholder wealth".

The CBA said it has continued to generate capital in excess of that required for
prudential purposes to support its activities and therefore the directors had decided to
undertake a further off market buy back to reduce the Bank's capital.

"The directors believe that the buy-back is in the best interests of all shareholders,
whether they participate in the buy-back or not, because the buy-back is expected to
increase earnings per share and improve return on equity," the CBA said in a statement.

This buy-back is similar to the previous one. The CBA will offer to buy-back up to 15
per cent of each shareholder's holdings as at February 22, 1999, subject to a limit on
the total buy-back of $650 million.





[A][CASA][FED]

Opposition points finger at Dick Smith

The federal opposition believes Dick Smith's chairmanship of the Civil Aviation Safety
Authority has proven counterproductive.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Cheryl Kernot said she had no confidence in CASA
despite the government ruling out another inquiry into the air safety body.

Ms Kernot said Mr Smith seemed to be blaming everyone else whenever problems with CASA
were raised.

She said she had no confidence that CASA was working out its problems.

"I think you can argue quite strongly that things have never been worse," she said on
ABC radio.

"Because every time somebody points out to CASA that something's going wrong - for
example CASA failed to give proper education to pilots about the class G trial - Dick
Smith says: 'sorry, it's everybody else's fault, it's the pilots, it's the unions'," she
said.

"It's never CASA's fault and I just think perhaps we've got to the stage where the
chairman's presence is a bit counterproductive and I just don't think that the industry
in general has confidence that CASA has the ability to address its internal problems."

Federal Transport Minister John Anderson last night said he had put CASA on notice to
wipe out cronyism.

But Mr Anderson ruled out an inquiry into CASA, saying he had full confidence that its
board had the determination to fix its problems.

However, he released terms of reference for an inquiry into the country's second
aviation body, the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (BASI).





[I][FRANCE AVALANCHE][EUR]

Four dead in French avalanche

Two avalanches buried about a dozen chalets under deep snow today just north of the
popular ski resort of Chamonix in the French Alps, killing four people, police said. Five
people were missing.

About 200 rescue workers, some using sensors and others with dogs, were searching for
those believed trapped inside wooden chalets or under the snow in the villages of Le Tour
and Montroc-le-Planet. Rescue efforts were expected to continue all night even as snow
continued to fall throughout the region.

Peter Borgaard, owner of the Hotel les Becs Rouges in Montroc, was looking out a
window when a giant wave of snow came crashing toward the building.

"My biggest fear is now that my friends are trapped under the snow, yet people are
pulling together to evacuate the victims," Borgaard said.

He said some injured hotel workers were being treated by doctors in the hotel lobby.

The force of the avalanche in Montroc ripped out trees and rocks. In Le Tour, France
Info radio reported only the tops of some chalets were visible after the snowslide.

Police said witnesses saw people near the chalets shortly before the avalanches.





[X][ABC ONLINE]

Kroger suggests ABC Online sale: report

Liberal Party heavyweight and ABC board member Michael Kroger has reportedly called
for the broadcaster to partially privatise its online service.

Mr Kroger told a monthly ABC board meeting last week that the sale of 49 per cent of
ABC Online could raise up to $250 million, The Australian newspaper reported today.

He said the extra money could be used to support program-making at the cash-strapped
national broadcaster, the report said.

It was understood his proposal was not rejected out of hand and would be discussed at
next month's board meeting.

The federal government cautiously welcomed discussion on the idea with a spokesman for
Communications Minister Senator Richard Alston quoted as saying the ABC should consider
any commercial activities which did not conflict with its public charter.





[F][BRIERLEY]

Shamrock attacks Brierley board

US-based Shamrock Capital Advisers has attacked Brierley Investments' directors,
complaining about the company's shareprice and business plan.

Shamrock said in a letter to the board that BIL's price was, at 45 cents, 10 cents
below the level when a new board and chief executive were installed.

It also said the discount to net asset value was the greatest in recent memory.

"We find the current situation intolerable and believe that the price of our company's
stock is evidence other investors agree," Shamrock president Stanley Gold said.

"Notwithstanding the fact that the company's net asset value is somewhere between 68
cents and 70 cents and notwithstanding the fact that the board authorised the sale of
many of the company's premier assets as part of a plan to pay off the company's banks,
the investing public continues to substantially discount our company's stock," Mr Gold
said.

Mr Gold blamed the fact that BIL still did not have a "genuine" chief executive, nor
an "authentic" management team.

"You still do not have a realistic business plan or for that matter any business plan
that is discernible to us or the public," he told the board.

"More importantly you have no prospects of asset growth to build flagging shareholder
value. You are simply proxies for the creditors, having totally abandoned your
responsibilities to shareholders."

Mr Gold said there were numerous opportunities for significant growth.

"Your cavalier conduct as directors is preventing Brierley from capitalising on an
improving economy."





[A][CHILD][VIC]

Bloodstains found in missing boy case

Bloodstains in a car have prompted grave fears for the missing 15-month old son of a
woman who has been charged over his disappearance.

James Dean Sette was allegedly taken by his natural mother Julie Jane Sette, 31, from
near Daylesford in central Victoria on Sunday.

She had gone there for an afternoon meeting with a couple who were about to adopt the
boy, police said.

On Monday police found Ms Sette and her car at a hotel at Moama, near Echuca on the
Victoria-NSW border. The boy was missing and Homicide Squad detectives were called in.

Ms Sette faced Echuca Magistrates Court yesterday charged with false imprisonment of
the child and was remanded in custody to Melbourne Magistrates Court on February 17.

Homicide Squad Inspector Dave Reid said today police had told the court that what
appeared to be bloodstains were found in the car.

But the stains had to undergo forensic testing and it could take some time to
establish whether the blood came from the boy, he told AAP.

Insp Reid said her explanation that she had driven to Sydney and had left the boy with
his father before returning to Moama could not be corroborated.

Insp Reid also said a knife found in the car had been forwarded to the police forensic
section for testing.

Insp Reid said police were hoping to get information from people that would lead them
to the boy.





[S][OLY BRIBES REPORT][OLY]

Salt Lake report targets top bid players

The top two officials of Salt Lake City's Olympic bid were condemned today in an
internal ethics investigation of the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the
games.

The report concentrated on the actions of Tom Welch, who directed the successful bid
for the 2002 Winter Olympics, and Dave Johnson, his top deputy.

The report also identified Craig Peterson as a central player. Peterson handled
finances for the bid committee after he joined in 1990 and continued in that job after
the city won its bid and formed the Salt Lake Organising Committee.

In summarising the report, SLOC chairman Robert Garff said Johnson and Welch made
unauthorised payments to International Olympic Committee members and their relatives, and
carried out a concerted effort to conceal their actions from the bid committee's board.

Nobody disputed the mission of the bid committee was to secure IOC votes, Garff said,
but "what was not part of the plan was Mr Welch and Mr Johnson's direct payments to IOC
members."

Garff said large disbursements of cash and scholarship funds lacked documentation. And
he said while the bid board could have provided better oversight, the ethics panel did
not fault its members for the excesses of Welch and Johnson.

"We know what happened here wasn't right, and we are setting it right," Governor Mike
Leavitt said just before the report was released. "Olympic corruption did not start here,
but it must end here."

Meanwhile, Nagano officials said today they had found no wrongdoing in the Japanese
city's bid for the 1998 Winter Games.

The Japanese Olympic Committee has been investigating Nagano's bid at the request of
the International Olympic Committee. The Nagano city and prefectural (state)
investigation was carried out in response to the JOC inquiry.

Nagano city hall said in a statement that it had found four cases in which family
members of IOC officials visited Nagano by themselves, at the expense of the bidders. It
did not elaborate.

City bidders also presented IOC officials with soccer balls, judo outfits and other
athletic equipment, but they were donations for nations where such items were lacking,
and not personal gifts to IOC officials, the statement said.

Nagano Governor Goro Yoshimura was quoted by Kyodo News service as saying the
investigation showed the bidders' treatment of IOC members was "within the scope of
common sense."





[S][OLY QUEEN][OLY]

British press begins its Olympic winge

Rumblings of disquiet emerged in London today over another perceived snub to the Queen
in the decision over who should open the Sydney Olympics.

However, at this early stage, it appears it will be left to the media to take up the
running against the recalcitrant would-be republic for its cabinet's nod towards Prime
Minister John Howard as the spectacle's ribbon-cutter.

Sparking what could become the biggest Aussie-bash from the British press since Paul
Keating became "the lizard of Oz" for "manhandling" the Queen, the nation's most popular
broadsheet, the Telegraph, today showed its indignation.

But Buckingham Palace, the Labour Government, the opposition Conservatives, British
Olympic chiefs and the International Olympic Committee all showed they wouldn't be
joining the campaign at this stage.

The Telegraph pointed to Section 69, by-law I, of the International Olympic Committee
charter, which states: "The Olympic Games shall be proclaimed open by the head of state
of the host country".

The paper said this clause was "hardly ambiguous". It blasted federal cabinet for
making its feelings public before informing Queen Elizabeth, and said Mr Howard would be
no fit substitute for the 74-year-old monarch or one of her representatives.

"The position Mr Howard - who describes himself as an anti-republican - has taken is
absurd," the paper said in an editorial.

"If the Queen is Queen of Australia, it is preposterous that she should not open the
Games.

"At the very least, they should be opened by her representative, such as the Olympic
Princess Royal (Princess Anne).

"But Mr Howard will not do."





[I][ETHIOPIA ERITREA][AFR]

Ethiopian planes bomb border village

An Ethiopian plane bombed an Eritrean village of homeless people today, killing at
least five civilians as it escalated the border dispute in northeast Africa.

Two bombs landed 4km from Badme, where the latest round of fighting between Ethiopia
and Eritrea began Saturday. The two Horn of Africa nations are fighting over an unmarked
portion of their 965km border.

The fighting first flared in May, killing 1,000 people before ending two weeks later
in a tense standoff. US officials had brokered a moratorium on airstrikes, but the deal
appeared abandoned Tuesday.

An Associated Press photographer and television cameraman watched an Ethiopian Antonov
aircraft drop two bombs just before dawn today on the village of Lailaideda, where
Eritrean civilians deported from Ethiopia had taken refuge.

But reports on fighting elsewhere were difficult to confirm, with both sides making
contradictory claims.

The Eritrean government reported today its forces had killed more than 1,500 Ethiopian
soldiers and wounded another 3,000 in fighting yesterday near the border at Tsorena, 97km
south of Asmara.

The government also claimed to have disabled at least three Ethiopian brigades in
fighting at the Badme-Shiraro front, 152km southwest of Asmara.

But in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, government spokeswoman Selome Tadesse
denied Eritrea's version of the fighting around Tsorena. She said Ethiopian forces had
captured Konin and Konito - which she said were two Eritrean strongholds overlooking
Tsorena.

Selome also denied Eritrean reports that their forces still hold Geza Gerelasie -
known to Ethiopians as Geza Gersale - even after journalists visited the village
yesterday with Eritrean officials.

"The Eritrean government has taken its public relations schemes to new heights by
accompanying correspondents to a battlefront, telling them that it was Geza Gersale,"
Selome told reporters.

KEYWORD: NETNEWS 1100

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