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

Witt THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1997 90c No. 49,960 FIRST PUBLISHED 1831 I have found it increasingly difficult to stand in the middle, trying to be endlessly fair both sides when I have grown so alarmed by the kind of politics being played out by the Coalition. qhb EmmmmH HhhmmbS 3 mrUSr Could this be her worst decision? -s. -fis. is 7- to ALAN RAMSEY however forthrightly and honestly, she may well have destroyed herself politically.

It isn't that Labor won't preselect her. It will, for that has already been determined by those with the power to make it so. It isn't that she won't win whatever marginal Liberal seat she runs in, for most likely she will. And, having won, it isn't that she won't sit on Labor's frontbench, be it in opposition or government. She will.

But in setting off this chain of event by walking out on the party that sustained her for seven years as one of its elected champions to keep the bastards honest she now has to live with the political reality that, in the end, she instead joined them. How she explains that, credibly and persistently, over the year she now sits out of politics until the election comes around, in the face of what will be an enduring campaign of abuse and by her opponents, will be anything but easy. Indeed, the taint will stay with her while she remains in politics. It will never be forgot ten, not by her opponents or the voters. The electoral standing Continued Page 6 the deal until three months ago.

But it had its origins in the connections established between Kernot and Evans in the last months of 1993, during the protracted negotiations which led to the landmark Mabo legislation. Evans and Kernot formed a close relationship a "mutual admiration society" according to some observers. Evans now recalls making a number of "jocular" attempts in the immediate post-Mabo period to entice Kernot to defect There was nothing specific in the overtures, merely an observation that "since we Continued Page 8 ble By MICHAEL MILLETT and TONY WRIGHT In a stunning political coup, the Leader of the Australian Democrats, Senator Cheryl Kernot, has defected to the.Labor Party, quitting the Senate to stand as an ALP candidate at the next Federal election. Under the terms of a deal concluded two weeks ago, Ms Kernot will be fast-tracked into preselection for the marginal Liberal seat of Dickson, on Brisbane's northern outskirts. She has been assured by the Opposition Leader, Mr Beazley, of a frontbench position if she secures the seat, which the Liberals hold by 3.2 per cent, at the election due by mid-1999.

It was the first time the leader of a Federal political party has defected to another since Mr Billy Hughes in 1916. The switch has stunned the Democrats, forcing them into a lengthy ballot of their rank and file to select a new leader. Democrat senators and staffers were given no warning of Ms Kernot's defection, with the deputy (now acting) leader, Senator Meg Lees, being told of the decision only 10 minutes before it was announced in a Kernot press conference in Canberra. The switch came only days after the Democrats' strong performance in the South Australian State election, which prompted Ms Kernot to claim a clear move by Australian voters towards third parties. Senator Kernot, 48, has been leader of the Democrats since the 1993 election.

In the immediate aftermath of the decision: Steps have already been taken in the Queensland Labor Party to ensure that Ms Kernot is given a smooth run in the preselection for Dickson. Mr Beazley said Ms Kernot would be given a high-profile role visiting marginal seats and would also advise on policy development in the run-up to the election. The ALP reported a sharp increase in demands for membership, with applicants citing the Kernot shift as the reason for their requests. The Government attacked Ms Kernot, describing her as a traitor to the Democrats and driven by personal ambition, exploiting a "leadership vacuum" in the Labor Party. In a long statement, Ms Kernot said her decision had been shaped by outrage at the Government's policies and a frustration at the Democrats' inability to influence them.

"I have reached the conclusion that, for me, the imperative at the Oh, Cheryl Kernot, what have you done? Maybe we could have seen it coming the night Graham Richardson quit politics to work for Kerry Packer. That night, in the Parliament, the Democrats' leader, just a year in the job, was among those who formally farewelled him in the Senate. "I think he is wise," she said, "to be embarking on a career at age 44. It is often a mistake to be locked into one career for the duration of one's life. Some of us, though, have not been in this line of ork quite as long as he has, so we have some years to go.

"But, if he is fortunate enough to be able to make a change, then I think I share a philosophy with him, hich is seize the day and do it He has often mentioned that without the capacity for change one dies in this business, and I think that is an important lesson for all of us here." That was March 24, 1994. Now, yi years on, Cheryl Kernot, at age 48, has abided by the lesson. She has shown she, too, has the capacity for change. She has seized the day and done it The point is, what has she done? For one thing, it was principled and honest and courageous. For the Labor Party it is a political coup of the first magnitude.

She could not be a hjpocrite, she says, given she had come to believe the Howard Government had to be defeated. She could not compromise the Democrats by staying, feeling as she did. Yet for Kernot it could be the worst decision she'll ever make. In doing what she has done, attack the announcement would precipitate, with inevitable accusations that Kernot had sold out her party for personal gain. Labor would wheel out as many senior people as it took to protect her.

But the assurances were not really needed. Kernot had already made up her mind. There would be no turning back. Yesterday's sensational developments in Canberra mark the end of what has been a patient and exhaustive campaign by the Labor Party to entice the Democrat into Labor ranks. It was a campaign that did not really take serious shape The new face of Labor Senator Kernot, after announcing her decision, at her press conference yesterday.

The chat over coffee that sealed Si Photograph by MIKE BOWERS for Labor at the next election. Kernot confirmed she was willing after considerable anguish to embrace the Labor offer of a "fast-track" preselection run for the marginal Liberal seat of Dickson at the next election. The Labor trio assured Kernot enough arms would be twisted to ensure her preselection. Beazley also made it clear she would be given a high profile role in the interim and, provided she cleared the final electoral bar, a frontbench role in a future Labor team. There was discussion about the looming political problems notably the full-on Government onlookers, a young Japanese woman approached him, and gave him a dozen roses.

"Please accept my apologies for the way my ancestors acted," she said. Ross gratefully placed them with the other floral tributes. HOSE THIEVES (Column 8, Saturday and Tuesday) almost certainly are looking for DIY bong bits. Sam Golden, of NZ, says that at his family's coffee shop in a Queensland town the hoses out the back often lose small sections. The considerate thieves, however, pull off the nozzle and chop bits off the end, not from the middle.

SANDRA Slappendel, from a Kempsey caravan park, was puzzled when plastic hose on the washing machine was being chopped off until a resident explained about bongs made from hosepipe and plastic orange bottles. "Fortunately the cost of replacement hoses is offset by the brisk trade in orange juice in our kiosk." JESSICA Mallett, of Turra-murra, says her mother keeps horses in a couple of fields and their water trough is filled via a long hose. "Recently we noticed that the hose was getting shorter Sure enough, in the surrounding bush, I found nine home-made bongs with nine lengths of my mother's hose." err care very much about," she said. The Prime Minister reacted with cynicism, saying Ms Ker-not's decision was "all about Cheryl Kernot's personal ambition, nothing He said Ms Kernot "senses a leadership vacuum in the Labor Party and she wants to fill it." However, Mr Beazley said Ms Kernot would bring "new ideas and new blood" to the Labor Party, playing an important role in the renewal and resurgence of the Labor Party. "This is a bold judgment, implemented by her today at some personal risk, but with immense integrity and principle," he said.

PAGES 4,5,6 and 8: The defection. PAGE 6: Gerard Henderson. PAGE 18: Editorial. developed septicaemia and has had both feet amputated. She is in a serious but stable condition in Liverpool Hospital.

The girl's mother said her daughter was in good spirits. Asking not to be named, she said everyone knew her daughter by her nickname, Sunshine, and "she is certainly living up to The other two students, a 17-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, have reportedly since been released from hospital and will soon return to school. A NSW Health infectious diseases expert, Dr Jeremy McAn-ulty, said no further cases had been detected since the three Chevalier students were admitted to hospital about two weeks ago. "However, with three cases being linked to a confined environment, in light of the recent cases at the University of NSW the department is taking extra precautions," Dr McAnulty said. Investigations by the Health Department revealed that all three Chevalier students were infected with the same strain of meningococcal bacteria.

ir 41 It looked like no more than a regular strategy meeting. Beazley, anxious to distance himself from the "closed door" approach of his predecessor, Paul Keating, keeps in close contact with his key frontbenchers. But there was nothing regular about this meeting. There, they were greeted by Faulkner and a fourth person the Australian Democrats' leader, Senator Cheryl Kernot. Over plunger coffee, the group sorted out the finer detail of a breathtaking deal which would see Kernot abandon the party she had led for the past four years to campaign COLUMN WE ARE constantly amazed at how some great news stories slip by us.

Weekly World News, that US "journal of information and reports: SYDNEY, Australia Adventure-lover Julia Malone was a carefree 29-year-old brunette until her first bungee jump scared her so much it turned her lovely brown hair completely gray! WE'VE tried to find FreefaU Fantasy Productions, the bungy-jump company she is suing for $4 million, but it's not in the phone book. We can't trace "her attorney, Charleston Brock" he's not in any legal directory. In fact, we can't find Julia. Meanwhile, well read on about "Lee Harvey Oswald is alive and living in Russia!" and "Swindlers are swiping orangutans from game parks and selling them to gullible couples as human babies!" AT NOON on Tuesday, Ross Scribner, of Randwick, former Able Seaman on HMAS Hobart at the surrender in Tokyo Bay, was at a Navy Week ceremony at the Cenotaph. From the Disease scare: Army called to vaccinate 1,100 students next Federal election lies not in battling to extract a share of the third party vote to keep balance of power in the Senate," she said.

"It is to play a more direct role in the removal of the Coalition Government. It is to stop the enormous damage the Coalition parties are doing to the fabric of this society." Ms Kernot said her feelings had been growing for the past 18 months, since the Howard Government was elected. She had reached her final decision, the hardest she had ever made, only two weeks ago. "I am giving up the leadership of a party, I'm moving on my own to uncharted territories, I don't know whether I will win, succeed or fail and I am hurting a lot of people that I pill? symptoms'" inr Meningococcal septicaemia is a type of blood poisoning caused by bacteria Symptoms include fever, rash, a stiff neck, nausea, and drowsiness Infection starts in lining around brain and can spread to bloodstream within two to 10 days i Spread mainly by fluids from nose and throat; transmitted by coughing, sneezing, sharing drinks, cigarettes and kissing championships at Penrith two weeks ago but health officials have been unable at this stage to say whether the outbreak among university students was linked to the regatta. More than 1,550 students have now been vaccinated this month against this new strain of the bacteria.

About 200 UNSW students were inoculated on Tuesday. One of the three Chevalier students, a 16-year-old girl, By MICHAEL MILLETT Chief Political Correspondent It was Wednesday night two weeks ago. A lull had descended over Parliament House, with the traditional early close of both chambers forcing a temporary cessation of hostilities in the bitter travel rorts row. While most MPs fled Capital Hill for Canberra's many close-by restaurants, the Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, and his deputy, Gareth Evans, took a quick walk through Parliament House's snaking corridors. Their destination was the office of Labor's Senate leader, Senator John Faulkner.

Tourists injured in Tamil attack Bomb explosions and gun battles left 1 1 people dead and more than 100 injured, including 31 foreign tourists, in Colombo yesterday as Tamil rebels brought their secessionist war to the Sri Lankan capital for the first time this year. PAGE 13: Full report. Downer role in sparing nurse Mr Alexander Downer played a secret role in the deal which sees Mr Frank Gilford accept $1.7 million for waiving his right to have the British nurse accused of killing his sister executed. PAGE 3: Full report. Taylor comes up with a timely ton Mark Taylor has scored 116 not out for NSW the day after being dropped from Australia's one-day side.

The Test captain's partnership of 186 with Michael Bevan (104 not out) left NSW on 3-290 at stumps against Queensland. PAGE 50: Full report. TEACH SOMEONE YOUNGER ONE OF LIFE'S GREAT LEARNINGS! "GET YOUR EARNINGS EARNING By ARDYN BERNOTH Responding to a dramatic escalation of the meningococcal scare, the NSW Health Department called in the Army yesterday to help vaccinate 1,100 students at a college in Bowral after three of them were diagnosed with meningococcal disease. Three students from Chevalier College in Bowral were admitted to hospital two weeks ago with meningococcal disease. Fearing the disease may be transmitted to other students, the Health Department vaccinated all 1,100 pupils in a massive operation involving 14 staff from the South-Western Sydney Health Service and 15 Army officers from the First Army Field Hospital at Holsworthy.

The deadly bacterial infection has become a national alert involving hundreds of students after a West Australian university student, Amanda Young, 18, died of the disease and a 19-year old from the University of NSW was diagnosed as having it Both women had attended the Australian universities rowing Internet www.smh.com.au HOME DELIVERY (02)92823800 ISSN 0312-6315 llll BT Funds Management A subsidiary of Bankers Trust TOMORROW Sydney Dry and cool INSIDE Crosswords 25 Opinion 19 PHONE Weather today sydney 14 to 22-nne and Sunnv- Light westerly winds and late seabreezes. taitoriais io personal Notices J4 Classified Index 50 Features 15 Sport 50 Editorial ..9282 2822 Amusements 20 Law Notices 46 Stay in Touch 26 Classified Arts 16,17 $2 Lottery 6365 41 Television 26 132535 Business 27 Obituaries 34 World 11-14 General. ...9282 2833 witn a maximum ot zi degrees NSW: Showers about the south-east and the north-east. Cool to cold in the south. FULL DETAILS Page 25.

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