The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 1

Jo PC WEDNESDAY, 1A 1997 90c if vyy vyy jlJV in SHARES Why ir there are fewer jobs for women C5; What to buy for LIVING LONGER Getting your finances right )7 i iU your children ADELE HORIN PAGE 11 Tough new standards will force closures as bond scheme COLUMN 30 test Association of Nursing Homes and Private Hospitals, Mr Arthur Brotherhood, estimates that about 300 nursing homes have failed to pass a Department of Health and Family Services inspection and so will not be allowed to charge the bond expected to average about $50,000. Altogether, 10 to 15 per cent of the nation's 3,000 residential aged-care centres had failed to get certification, with nursing homes making up a high proportion, the minister's spokesman is introduced $90,500. Single people with assets of more than $22,500 and couples jointly worth more than $45,000 will be liable to pay the bond. The family home can be counted in the assets test unless a spouse or dependent child is living in it and consumer groups have warned many will have to sell their homes to raise the bond. Mr MacDonald said the legislation was ill-conceived and was being hastily introduced after only minimal industry consulta no ICSULL By DEBRA J0PS0N The Federal Government has confirmed that many nursing homes will be forced to close, and according to an industry group one in five will learn this morning that they cannot charge new residents an accommodation bond.

The bond system requires asset-rich residents to make an upfront payment apart from normal accommodation charges and will operate only in certified nursing homes. The system comes into force with older buildings would be caught in a Catch 22, as they failed to get the financial backing of bond money which could help them upgrade, he claimed. He said many nursing homes would not understand the implications well enough to explain them to old people and their families. From today, the assets test applies to all people entering the 1,200 nursing homes which receive certification. Mr Brotherhood estimates that the bonds will be between $26,000 and The big scrum: a city stops to welcome its heroes PM's office linked to 'f fY tion.

The upfront pay scheme would not provide capital funds for nursing homes to lift then-standards because the accommodation bonds were locked up in prudential funds. But Mr Brotherhood denied Mr MacDonald's claims that beds would disappear, saying the industry overhaul would result in larger, wealthier operators buying up inefficient nursing homes. "Some of the housing the minister has seen she has said she wouldn't put a dog in." I. i the face of the Steel City. For 2.

Photograph by nick moir on By MARG0 KINGSTON in Canberra The Attorney-General, Mr Williams, ordered the Law Reform Commission not to give evidence damaging to the Government to the Wik parliamentary committee after he had consulted the Prime Minister's office and been told to "address the it was revealed yesterday. Mr Howard disclosed yesterday that when Mr Williams learned on September 19 that the commission would give evidence this Friday, his chief of staff, Mr Hugh Funder, met two of Mr Howard's staff, including his principal private secretary, Mr Tony Nutt, for advice. The Prime Minister did not say how Mr Williams could "address the given it is a contempt of Parliament and a criminal offence to seek to improperly influence a witness, and denied personal knowledge of the matter until the Herald revealed the clampdown on Monday. The commission president, Mr Alan Rose, alleges that on September 23, the head of Mr Williams's department threatened that unless he pulled the submission and did not give evidence, Mr Williams would in future insist that Mr Rose act only with his consent He agreed because "we were really given no Mr Williams last night reversed his denials that Mr Rose was asked to withdraw the submission, increasing the pressure for an inquiry. He told the ABCs 7.30 Report: "What was suggested to him was that he had a choice: either to go down the route he wanted to go, or not if he fjodged the submission he would know that he would be acting contrary to the view I had Last night, the Government used the casting vote of the Wik ON MONDAY, September 22, while Lina Paino, of Croydon Park, was shopping at Ashfield mart, someone stole her wallet from where she'd momentarily left it on her baby carriage.

Last Saturday, a friend, Gianetta Hartge, was trying on trousers in a fashion shop in the same shopping centre when she felt something in the hip pocket It was (Oh, you guessed?) Lina's wallet, minus S300 but with cards (already cancelled) and photos intact. At least the thief didn't dump it where it would never be found. TWO women breakfast announcers pregnant (Column 8, yesterday)? Make that all three Jean Kittson, of Radio MIX, is also pregnant Must have something to do with waking up early in the morning. WE LIKE to get messages like this. The reader asked not to be identified "Irony in the sky: Flew Air Rupert (aka Ansett) from Auckland to Sydney.

The only newspaper enthusiastically offered to steerage-class passengers The Sydney Morning Herald. No sign of those other rags." PAUL BRADLEY, of Asquith, used the first ride on a Travelten bus pass on December 1, 1994, and used the 10th ride on September 18, 1997. "I'm impressed," he says, "that the card held together that long, that I didn't send my wallet through the wash, and that Sydney Buses hasn't changed its ticketing system in that time." WE ONDERED why George Mackenzie, of Leura, had called his private company SBRM Pty Ltd (Column 8, September 22). It went back, he says, to when he wanted to register a business name. At Corporate Affairs his first few attempts were frustrated because the names he chose were too close to existing names.

Eventually the clerk at the counter told him, "Don't worry, shell be right mate." "Can I use that?" asked George. SBRM was born. IN 1947, you expected to stay in a job for a long time. On Saturday it was "Miss Ish" celebrating 50 years' teaching at the Williams Business College. Yesterday, it was Annie Pang celebrating 50 years as a receptionist-secret ary-mail room worker with Abbott Tout the lawyers.

She started when the firm was Abbott Tout Creer and Wilkinson, in the NRMA building in Spring Street KEEPING us puzzled. At Franklins, Birkenhead Point, on Saturday, Phil Breaden, noted that all Panadol products had "Special" signs with "Save In yesterday's Classifieds, Holroyd City Council advertised a "POSITION TITLE" position of SF-00-00 within the division a salary range of to a Name your own job and salary? 3.0L 24 Valve V6 Hydractive 1 1 99SE confirmed. They will learn this by fax today and some would inevitably close. "There have always been occasions where, unfortunately, homes have had to close but it is done in an orderly fashion to ensure continual care for residents," the spokesman said. However, the shakeout will "exacerbate the shortage of the executive director of the Uniting Ministry with the Ageing, Mr Les MacDonald, said.

Operators of nursing homes Travel rorts: Now it's Labor The Federal Opposition Leader, Mr Beazley, will be drawn further into the travel rorts scandal today over the involvement of a staffer in the South Australian State election. PAGE 5: Full report. New blow to indoor smoking The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has found a Sydney nightclub discriminated against an asthmatic by allowing smoking. PAGE 3: Full report. Wallaby coach seeks $500,000 Former Wallaby coach Greg Smith is seeking $500,000 compensation from the Australian Rugby Union after he was left with no option but to resign as national coach last month.

PAGE 46: Full report today and applies stringent new conditions on all aged care accommodation. A spokesman for the Minister for Family Services, Mrs Judi Moylan, said last night: "For some homes there is no hope because clearly there are old buildings with no smoke alarms and no lifts in a multi-storey building. "It is unfortunate. Some of those homes will close because of being unable to charge accommodation bonds." The head of the National Wik committee chairman, Mr Warren Entsch, to block attempts to require the commission to give evidence. The shadow Attorney-General, Senator Bolkus, asked the Senate President, Senator Reid, to refer the issue to the Senate for reference to its Privileges Committee.

The Democrats leader, Senator Kernot, said the "intimidation" was "just another example of a cover-up from this She has asked the Senate to order the tabling of all documents on the affair, and said the issue showed how "the tentacles of this Government reach into every organisation to stifle The Government's sensitivity on its Wik legislation is intense, with no favourable independent legal opinions lodged with the Wik committee. The saga began when the Government wrote a form letter to the commission on July 3 requesting a submission on the draft Wik legislation. The commission was highly critical of the bill, saying it was unconstitutional, would increase uncertainty, and result in crippling compensation from taxpayers to Aborigines. It is understood senior Government figures were incensed and, on August 28, Mr Williams wrote to the commission accusing it of acting outside its powers and demanding it not make any submissions without consulting him first This was the first time Mr Williams raised such concerns, and he had not objected to 21 other commission submissions to parliamentary inquiries made without his prior consent Mr Williams's spokesman said he "wasn't aware of any of the other PAGE 15: over Wik. Mean spirit hangs I Direct relationship with employees Control of the business Hire and promote the best Get what you pay for Flexibility and adaptability Continuous it operation Mr Wright said the American-owned company wanted the right to speak freely with employees, but this had proved impossible when the CFMEU insisted that management should talk to the union first.

In future, the company would be guided by six pillars that came from what he described as the company's "magic Among them were a direct relationship with employees, hiring and promoting the best and regaining control of the business. Weather today sydney later with a late fit? mm I i I 4 1 -11 Up to 100,000 people crowded the streets of Newcastle yesterday to welcome home the team that has put a smile back on the players, in the foreground, it was a slightly bigger scrum than usual but nothing they couldn't tackle. Full report, page Mine bid to oust union Thousands flout gun amnesty Mr Wright said that the company had the right to offer non-union contracts, although it accepted that candidates for jobs may not want them. The miners to be retrenched today will leave with packages including four weeks' pay in lieu of notice and three weeks' pay for each year of service. They will be evicted from company housing by the end of the month.

Management at ARCO first tried to close the Gordonstone underground mine earlier this year and restart a "new organisation" with just 190 miners. But the company has been thwarted until now by CFMEU appeals to the Industrial Relations Commission and the Federal Court. The shutdown is a model for companies such as Rio Tinto when it can be argued that the business is not financially viable under present conditions. The president of the CFMEU, Mr John Maitland, said that the union would launch unfair dismissal claims for all retrenched employees at Gordonstone. He blamed the sackings on Federal Government laws which allowed companies such as ARCO and Rio Tinto to "attack 11 to 22- Cud developing thundery shower.

dealers' registers but I don't think anyone is going to adopt a stormtrooper approach." According to even the most conservative estimates there are still at least 1 million illegal weapons in the community. There have been some attempts to estimate the number of guns in society, notably a survey in 1990 by the National Committee on Violence against Women which said there were about 1.5 million. Another by the Gun Control Association nominated 4 million guns while sections of the gun lobby now say the number of banned weapons may be as high as 10 million. Government officials are not prepared to estimate the numbers but one bureaucrat described all estimates as "barely worth writing on the back of an It was also revealed yesterday that buyback officials fear they may be facing a blowout in compensation payments to dealers Continued Page 4 PAGE 14: Editorial By ROBERT WAINWRIGHT Hundreds of thousands of people are this morning flouting national gun laws and risking jail sentences by withholding at least one million, and possibly several million, firearms banned in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre. When the Firearms Buyback scheme ended at midnight last night, an estimated 620,000 automatic and semi-automatic weapons had been handed in during the 12-month amnesty in an attempt to rid the nation of the weapons used to commit the worst multiple murders.

In NSW, the figure is likely to reach about 148,000 with about 5,000 handed in yesterday. Gun owners still holding illegal weapons face fines of $5,500 or jail sentences of up to 10 years. However, police in all States are likely to take a "low-key approach allowing an unofficial amnesty to continue for the time being. Mr Mick Roelandts, spokesman for the NSW scheme, said: "Police will be checking firearm By BRAD N0RINGT0N Industrial Editor A model for union-busting across the coal industry will be established today when the Atlantic Ritchfield Company (ARCO) sacks its entire workforce at the Gordonstone colliery as a prelude to restarting operations with hand-picked employees. ARCO won the right to retrench all 312 workers at its north Queensland mine yesterday when the Federal Court rejected a union attempt to stop the mine closure.

From today, the company will place the Gordonstone mine under indefinite "care and maintenance" by 100 management staff who will not lose their jobs. Management will then propose a plan to reopen the mine with a vastly reduced new workforce. New workers would be offered non-union contracts with work practices that deny a role for the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). The assistant to the managing director at Gordonstone, Mr Garry Wright, confirmed that management would propose reopening the mine in "weeks or Internet www.smh.com.au Home delivery (02)92823800 ISSN 0312-6315 Ml The appropriately exclusive 1998 Citroen Xm 24 Valve V6 has landed on our shores. Its innovative, Citroen-signature styling and luxurious, leather interior defiantly declare you have arrived, while advanced, computer-controlled suspension and silky new 140 kw power plant ensure you do.

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