Fed: Farmers flooding assistance package

AAP General News (Australia)
08-11-2000
Fed: Farmers flooding assistance package

Dairy farmers are rushing for a $1.7 billion assistance scheme a week before it closes.

The Dairy Adjustment Authority has reported it has received more than 13,000 applications
by farmers for part of the assistance package.

This is well up on earlier counts which forced the authority to issue a warning to
farmers they risked missing out on substantial funds.

The package has been put in place to help farmers adjust to the deregulation of the
dairy industry.

Authority board member TERRY O'CALLAGHAN says it appears people are now getting the
message their applications have to be in before August 17.

There has been criticism from farmers and dairy organisations about the way the authority
is handling applications.

Mr O'CALLAGHAN says applicants are now being telephoned as soon as their applications
are received.

He says up to 30 per cent of applications have been incorrectly completed, ranging
from putting information in the wrong box to conflicting responses.

AAP RTV sw/ss/slp/jx

KEYWORD: DAIRY ADJUST (CANBERRA)

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Fed: Scientists pin down malaria resistance protein

AAP General News (Australia)
02-24-2000
Fed: Scientists pin down malaria resistance protein

By Rada Rouse, National Medical Correspondent

BRISBANE, Feb 24 AAP - Australian scientists have discovered how the parasite which
causes malaria becomes resistant to drugs, raising hope of developing new treatments to
tackle the deadly disease.

A research team headed by Dr Alan Cowman from Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
of Medical Research has discovered a gene crucial to the parasite's reaction to chemical
attack.

They have shown that a protein called Pgh1 is involved in mutations of the gene which
prevent the drug …

Fed: Mining banned in Great Barrier Reef

AAP General News (Australia)
12-22-1999
Fed: Mining banned in Great Barrier Reef

Mining is now officially banned in the Great Barrier Reef.

Environment Minister ROBERT HILL says new regulations, effective from today, extend
bans on mining in the marine park off northern Australia.

He's said in a statement that under the changes, mining has been banned in the entire
Great Barrier Reef Region.

The government regulations will protect 28 significant areas along the Queensland coast
which are not yet part of the marine park.

Senator HILL says previous legislation prohibited all mining in the marine Park, but
drilling for petroleum was allowed in the region.

The new regulations extend the prohibition of all mining to the entire Great Barrier
Reef region -- which is a much bigger area.

Senator HILL says the new regulations remove any area of doubt and reassure all Australians
that the Great Barrier Reef will be safe from mining and drilling.

AAP RTV lm/daw/jn

KEYWORD: REEF (CANBERRA)

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

FED: China dialogue to continue despite incremental gains

AAP General News (Australia)
08-10-1999
FED: China dialogue to continue despite incremental gains

By Stephen Spencer, Diplomatic Correspondent

CANBERRA, Aug 10 AAP - Australia is to hold its third annual human rights dialogue with
China in Beijing this month, despite admitting the controversial talks have produced only
incremental gains.

Australian officials today pledged to frankly raise China's treatment of Tibet, its liberal
use of the death penalty and restrictive family planning policies in the August 16-20 Beijing
talks.

"We haven't got any no-go areas. We haven't quarantined certain sensitive issues from the
dialogue," one official told reporters.

"We intend to raise the full range in a direct and clear and firm way."

One specific issue to be discussed this year will be the recent crackdown on the Falungong
group, which China argues is a political movement challenging the central communist party.

But the Australian officials admitted the previous two dialogues in Beijing and Canberra
had produced only small gains and they were unable to point to any specific improvement in
China's treatment of political, ethnic or religious dissent.

"I would hope that over the longer term this would have an impact but I acknowledge it is
difficult to say that this dramatic change happened because of the dialogue," one official
said.

The controversial annual talks were agreed to by China as a reward for Australia abandoning
support for an annual United Nations motion condemning its human rights record.

The approach has seen a dramatic improvement in relations, and helped facilitate the first
visit to Australia by a Chinese leader when President Jiang Zemin visits next month.

However, the Australian Tibet Council says China has used the talks to buy Australia's
silence and called for the dialogue to be suspended.

"The third round of the dialogue seems certain to be at least as ineffectual as the
previous meetings when it comes to confronting the serious human rights abuses taking place in
Tibet," the council said in a statement.

AAP ss/mfh/ah/br

KEYWORD: CHINA AUST

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

VIC: Woman charged with attempted murder, child stealing

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-1999
VIC: Woman charged with attempted murder, child stealing

A 35-year-old woman will appear in Melbourne Magistrates' Court today charged with
attempted murder and child stealing.

She allegedly abducted a baby girl and set fire to a house in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

Police had feared the eight-day-old baby may have been burned to death in the house fire in
Bellara Street, Doncaster, on Saturday.

They say the girl's mother had awoken to find the house ablaze and her baby gone.

The baby has since been found safe and well, and she is back with her parents.

The 35-year-old woman also faces charges of criminal damage by fire and false imprisonment
and is in police custody.

AAP RTV gfr/jmt/jv/msk

KEYWORD: BABY (MELBOURNE)

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

QLD:Wivenhoe Dam head to front floods inquiry

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-2012
QLD:Wivenhoe Dam head to front floods inquiry

By Kym Agius

BRISBANE, Feb 1 AAP - The senior engineer of Wivenhoe Dam will take the stand at the
Queensland floods inquiry on Thursday amid accusations the dam was mismanaged in the days
leading up to flooding in Brisbane and Ipswich.

The Australian newspaper has said the dam's operator, Seqwater, breached its manual
by failing to move fast enough to a higher water-release strategy, W3, which is designed
to protect urban areas from inundation.

It said this resulted in the dam banking too much water on January 8 and 9, the weekend
before the Brisbane flood, and officials were later forced to make huge releases quickly,
which caused flooding in the capital.

In light of the fresh allegations, the commission will hold nine days of extra hearings,
which begin in Brisbane on Thursday.

Senior flood operations engineer, Sunwater's Robert Ayre, and fellow dam operations
engineer, Seqwater's John Tibaldi, are due to give evidence on Thursday.

Mr Ayre gave evidence in the 2011 hearings that contradicts The Australian's claims.

He told the inquiry that the correct W3 strategy had been in use from 8am on Saturday
January 8 but it had only been "inadvertently recorded strategy W2" in a situational report.

The outcome of the inquiry could be a political headache for Premier Anna Bligh because
the Queensland government could be liable for a high damages bill if the dam operators
did not follow the manual.

Some of the Bligh government's top bureaucrats have been called on to give fresh sworn
statements to the inquiry, but have not yet been called on to give evidence.

They are the head of Ms Bligh's department at the time of the floods, Ken Smith; his
successor, John Bradley; water minister Stephen Robertson; Department of Environment and
Resource Management (DERM) director-general Jim Reeves, and DERM'S assistant director-general,
Debbie Best.

The Australian reported last week that Mr Smith had been aware that the wrong water
strategy was in use on the weekend before the Brisbane flood.

It said he received an email to that effect from the director of operations at Queensland's
water grid, Dan Spiller.

The opposition Liberal National Party seized on the claim and accused the government
of a cover-up.

The commission has been given permission from the government to hand down its final
report three weeks later than planned.

It is now due to be released on March 16, a week before voters go to the polls.

Ms Bligh said this week that she didn't care how ugly the truth was, and Queenslanders
deserved no less than that.

AAP ka/tab/wjf

KEYWORD: FLOODS QLD

� 2012 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

NSW:Power restored to more Sydney homes

AAP General News (Australia)
02-02-2011
NSW:Power restored to more Sydney homes

SYDNEY, Feb 2 AAP - Power is gradually being restored to homes in Sydney's inner west
as hot weather continues to sweep across the city.

More than half of 12,000 premises had their power restored by 11.45am (AEDT) on Wednesday
after a fault at a substation in Enfield cut supply.

Energy Australia crews were called to the substation after the interruption at 8.40am,
which impacted homes in South Strathfield, Belfield, Burwood Heights and Croydon Park.

Some 6800 premises are now back on the grid.

Service crews remain on site and are continuing to make repairs to restore the power
supply to the remaining 5200 homes affected.

Sydney is in the third day of a heatwave that has already seen temperatures climb above 40C.

A top of 38C in Sydney's west has been forecast for Wednesday.

AAP dmg/klm/apm

KEYWORD: SUBSTATION 2ND UPDATE

� 2011 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.