AAP General News (Australia)
08-30-2011
AAP National News Wire Round-Up for Evening, Aug 30
EVENING ROUND-UP: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AAP RTV FILE AT 1630
MANUFACTURING (CANBERRA)
Prime Minister JULIA GILLARD has rejected union leaders' calls for an inquiry into
Australia's ailing manufacturing sector, suggesting they're confused over the matter.
The prime minister's been attacked by union leaders, outspoken backbencher DOUG CAMERON
and Opposition Leader TONY ABBOTT for ruling out an inquiry when many thought one was
on the cards.
Australian Workers Union boss PAUL HOWES and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union
national secretary DAVE OLIVER both walked away from talks yesterday thinking Ms GILLARD
was considering an inquiry.
Ms GILLARD says she told that meeting she wasn't looking at a free-ranging, free-wheeling
inquiry into manufacturing.
But she says the government will take the best of expert advice along the way.
Opposition Leader TONY ABBOTT says he can't understand why the government doesn't want
to be informed of the facts, after it ruled out an inquiry.
Meanwhile, Ms GILLARD's pledged to work with the Illawarra community after meeting
trade unions and workers in Wollongong today.
Also on the economy, building approvals figures appear to confirm the sector isn't
going to come galloping to the rescue of a struggling economy.
FEENEY (MELBOURNE)
Police are still trying to identify the white powder found outside Labor Senator DAVID
FEENEY's office in Melbourne.
A female employee found a handful of the powder sprinkled on the doorstep of the Brunswick
office about 9.30 this morning (AEST).
Police evacuated and cordoned off the area while two officers from the chemical biological
and radiological unit, clad in orange jumpsuits, examined the substance.
The apparent attack on Senator FEENEY's office comes days after a shovel was symbolically
placed outside the home of Health Services Union national secretary KATHY JACKSON, following
her move to refer issues relating to union accounts to NSW police.
WIKILEAKS WRAP (CANBERRA)
Wikileaks has published details of 23 Australians believed to have links to a radical
Yemen cleric with ties to terrorist group al-Qaeda.
The latest series of Wikileaks diplomatic cables have been released and contain one
from the US embassy in Canberra that recommends 11 Australians be placed on a no-fly list
and a further 12 on a select watch list.
The
new details also show US officials described former prime minister KEVIN RUDD's
handling of the 2009 Oceanic Viking asylum seeker crisis as heavy-handed and awkward.
And Wikileaks revelations show former HOWARD government minister MAL BROUGH told United
States officials MALCOLM TURNBULL cared only about TURNBULL and some Liberals only supported
his leadership because they wanted to set him up to fail.
RUSSIA ISS (BOSTON)
All astronauts will be pulled off the International Space Station by mid-November if
scientists and engineers can't quickly determine the cause of last week's supply ship
crash.
An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying three tonnes of supplies to the space station
crashed in Siberia on August 24.
According to the Los Angeles Times, officials say astronauts will temporarily abandon
the station if Russian Soyuz rockets aren't cleared to resume flights before the current
station residents are slated to leave.
SHOTS (SYDNEY)
Shots have been fired into a home in
New South Wales's central west while a family
of five were sleeping.
Police say two of the three bullets penetrated the loungeroom of the house at Orange
sometime last night or early this morning (AEST).
No one heard the shots and the damage was not discovered until 7am today.
No one was hurt.
MILNE (CANBERRA)
Prime Minister JULIA GILLARD has launched a scathing attack on The Australian newspaper
for publishing false allegations about her connection to a former boyfriend's fraudulent
activities.
A column, written by GLENN MILNE yesterday, was removed from the paper's website and
an apology issued to the prime minister.
MILNE wrote that Ms GILLARD's problems with the CRAIG THOMSON affair were about to
worsen with suggestions she had been implicated unknowingly in a major union fraud of
her own before she entered parliament.
However, opposition Leader TONY ABBOTT has defended the media, saying says Australia's
vigorous press is a very good thing.
MEDICH (SYDNEY)
A Sydney court's been told prosecutors have amassed more than 24-thousand pages of
evidence in the murder case against against property tycoon Ron MEDICH AND four other
men.
Prosecutor FIONA ROWBOTHAM's told Sydney's Central Local Court the brief of evidence
was previously 13,000 pages but has surged in recent weeks.
Ms ROWBOTHAM also told the court the case will include 10 other witnesses that do not
include MEDICH'S four co-accused.
MARTIAL (CANBERRA)
Legal action has finally ended against a group of Australian commandos charged over
a raid which killed six Afghan civilians in 2009.
The Director of Military Prosecutions has today applied to formally withdraw the last
of the charges, against a regular Army officer.
Manslaughter charges against two commando reserve soldiers, a sergeant and a lance
corporal, were previously withdrawn at a pre-trial hearing in May.
CLIMATE (CANBERRA)
The Gillard government and the coal industry have criticised a
new report which says
Labor's carbon tax compensation package is far too generous and will protect companies
that don't deserve to survive.
A Grattan Institute analysis says even with zero assistance and a carbon price as high
as 40 dollars a tonne coal mines would remain open and major LNG projects wouldn't be
significantly affected.
But junior climate change minister MARK DREYFUS disputes the findings, telling the
ABC the government makes no apologies for supporting Australian jobs and competitiveness.
The Australian Coal Association says the analysis relied on just one year of estimated
coal emissions data.
BORDER (SYDNEY)
New South Wales Premier BARRY O'FARRELL and his Queensland counterpart ANNA BLIGH have
committed to expanding cooperation on health, policing, primary industries and disaster
management along the length of the border.
Meanwhile, Ms BLIGH says Queensland is back in business after its flood and cyclone disasters.
BRIEFLY IN OTHER NEWS ..
ACCC TELSTRA (CANBERRA)
The competition watchdog says it can't accept a crucial aspect of Telstra's move to
structurally split its retail and wholesale arms.
RAIL (SYDNEY)
Australian Greens Leader BOB BROWN says cash from the resources boom must be used to
build a 100 billion dollar high speed rail link between Brisbane and Melbourne.
Cities (MELBOURNE)
Melbourne is now the best city in the world to live in, having claimed the top ranking
from Vancouver in the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest global liveability survey.
HENDRA QLD (BRISBANE)
Nearly 40 Queenslanders still haven't been cleared of the potentially fatal Hendra
virus following a cluster of outbreaks.
IN SPORT ..
RL WRAP (SYDNEY)
Melbourne and Manly have reluctantly accepted the $50,000 fines and on-field charges
issued by the NRL for the ugly fighting which marred Friday night's match at Brookvale
Oval.
And, Canberra winger DANIEL VIDOT has been released from the final year of his contract
and has signed with NRL premiers St George-Illawarra.
AFL TRIBUNAL (MELBOURNE)
Richmond's JAKE KING will fight to avoid a two-match suspension at the AFL Tribunal,
after being charged with rough conduct against Adelaide's ANDY OTTEN.
Meanwhile, fullback ALIPATE CARLILE has agreed to a contract extension with AFL club
Port Adelaide, a week after his teammate JACKSON TRENGOVE also recommitted to the Power.
And, dogged by injury early in his career, Melbourne midfielder SAM BLEASE has been
named the AFL's Rising Star nomination for round 23.
TEN OPEN (
NEW YORK)
ROGER FEDERER has defeated Colombia's SANTIAGO GIRALDO 6-4 6-3 6-
2 in the first round
of the US Open.
ENDS EVENING ROUND-UP
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