The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 3

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1997 Stupid! Speeder Singo smacks himself on the wrist as Shaw backs magistrate By MARK RILEY A magistrate's decision not to fine Sydney businessman Mr John Singleton for driving a car at 160 kmh 50 kmh above the speed limit -appeared appropriate, the Attorney-General, Mr Shaw, said yesterday. Mr Singleton, 56, pleaded guilty in court on Tuesday to speeding in his Bentley on the Hume Highway in April. The magistrate, Mr Jonathon Williams, found the charge proved but ruled that no conviction should be recorded in accordance with Section 556A of the Crimes Act. The offence can carry a $686 fine, a three-month suspension from driving and a criminal conviction. The decision followed evidence that Mr Singleton had incurred only four minor traffic infringements in his 40 years as a driver and that his car had been designed to travel safely at up to 260 kmh.

Mr Singleton said yesterday that he was told by police that he had "blown'" his licence when he was pulled over during the Easter holidays, at a time when double demerit points applied for driving offences. "I was on my own at 10 or 11 o'clock and the policeman said, 'Do you know what speed you were he said on Radio 2UE. "I said 'No mate, I'm sorry'. "He said 'Do you have any "I said, 'None at all. It's just a beautiful day, I've got cruise control, it was just sheer laziness, stupidity' not a good defence." Mr Shaw said that magistrates had broad discretion in cases such as Mr Singleton's which allowed them to rule that no action be taken.

"Apparently his record is a good one and, if that is so, he may have been an appropriate candidate for leniency," Mr Shaw "In any event, the magistrate determined that that was so and I have no reason to think that it wasn't an appropriate decision in this particular case." Mr Shaw said there was nothing in the reports that had gone to him about the case to warrant a review. "Any member of the public can ask for leniency and the courts have a wide discretion to grant that," he said. "I think if members of the public reflected on it, they would think that there might be circumstances which justified not receiving a fine in their ow particular cases." 1 Meals on Wheels price rise heartless9 1 -V CH "Ff rf-v. below. Photograph by dean sewell easy rider 1 $13bn debt in reward points scramble By TOM ALLARD Banking Writer Australians owe $13 billion on their credit cards and personal overdrafts, an increase of 25 per cent in a year, as the chase for loyalty "reward points" encourages consumers to take on more debt.

Figures in the Reserve Bank's September bulletin show that consumers are using credit cards more frequently and borrowing more along the way. Credit card debt cracked $8 billion for the first time in July, up from $7.1 billion in the previous year. The amount individuals, rather than business, owed on overdrafts was $5.1 billion, up more than 25 per cent. All up, personal debt on overdrafts and credit cards was up 25 per cent at more than $13 billion. The number of credit card accounts rose 7 per cent to 7.7 million over the year to July, but transaction volumes surged by 20 per cent to 26.5 million per month.

The discrepancy indicates that cards are being used more frequently as consumers flock to "loyalty programs" which offer reward points for every transaction. As the points accrue, consumers become eligible for free travel, discounted items and other prizes. "It's definitely the reward points," said the co-ordinator of Ryde-Eastwood Financial Counselling Service, Ms Narelle Brown. "People are making many more transactions on their credit cards. We have seen people with up to eight different credit cards.

With $5,000 owed on each card, we are talking about a lot of money." The general manager of West-pac's card products group, Mr Rob Bishop, agreed that loyalty programs offered by banks in conjunction with companies such as Telstra, General Motors-Holden's, Qantas and Ansett boosted credit card usage. But he denied banks were enticing customers into a debt trap. "This is absolutely not to encourage debt," Mr Bishop said. "We want to consolidate our customers away from other competitors and we are quite happy to do that" But the managing director of Marketfaxts, Mr Chris Gosselin, said the card-issuing banks would be rubbing their hands with glee. "They get a commission on every transaction and, if people can't make the payments, they are getting between 14 and 18 per cent interest on the cards, which is pretty nice," he said.

Chequered career Peter Fonda, still identified with that rangy symbol of outlaw freedom, Captain America, in Easy Rider, Of bikes and bees: golden chance for the but to increase charges. "The service has been subsidised for years, and health dollars are very tight, so we felt we needed to review the situation," a spokeswoman said. "The cost has been the same since 1988, and we have been subsidising that. It costs us $4.97 per meal, and we provide 130,000 meals a year." The hospital had told the three councils that the increase would come into effect from October 1. But Cr Pearce said the hospital cared more about saving money than caring for the local community.

"Apart from being inhumane, this move will end up costing the community more in the long term, as it will force older and ill people into nursing homes prematurely," he said. Meals would increase to $2.97 by next month, with a further rise to $4.88 by July 1988. Ths would mean a charge of $6 to the consumer because the council added food items to the meals, he said. Ms Antrum said the association fed 20,000 people daily across NSW, with about 60 per cent of the food prepared in hospitals. The community groups which provided Meals on Wheels not cooked in hospitals charged more because they were "competing on the open Cr Pearce said clients who could not afford the service at the new prices would miss out on more than food.

"People being serviced by our Meals on Wheels staff get more than just a daily hot meal it's a regular form of social contact and a daily chat," he said. "Our volunteers also help with shopping, putting the gar By RICHARD JINMAN Entertainment Writer Peter Fonda reaches for a black leather jacket, then checks himself. "IS ah, too Easy he tells the Herald's photographer. "I'm trying to get away from all that It's almost 30 years since Fonda and Dennis Hopper kick-started their bikes and roared across America in the ultimate paean to drugs, rock n' the road. Yet people still identify him with that rangy blond symbol of outlaw freedom, Captain America.

When he tells film students the first thing they need to make a feature is money, they're often shocked. "It's like 'Oh my God, Captain America's gone capitalist'," he said laughing. Now in his late-50s, Fonda admits his career since Easy Rider has been chequered. Yet he's finally found "the part of a a "multi-dimensional character who doesn't say a lot, but has a lot to As Ulee Jackson, the taciturn beekeeper who leads his fractured family back from the brink in Victor Nunez's Ulee's Gold, Fonda seems to have discovered an overdue focus for his talents. There's talk of an Oscar nomination and comparisons with his illustrious father, Henry.

Fonda is anxious to give credit to Florida-based writerdirector Nunez. "He has this incredible gift for finding the character in quiet moments, finding ordinary things and involving us so much they become extraordinary," he said. Yet Fonda is clearly relishing his revival after years of being framed as Henry's son, Jane's brother or, more recently, Bridget's father. Hugely talkative, a legacy of anting people to like me because of my damaged Fonda has the energy and enthusiasm of a much younger man. He's hoping to direct a film in Australia and will inspect locations during his visit.

Drewe carries off a big prize at last V-J Novelist By LE0NIE LAM0NT It was the breaking of an awards drought for the veteran writer Robert Drewe, who last night took out one of the biggest prizes in Australian literature, the $20,000 Christina Stead prize for fiction, for his novel, Hie Drowner. The novel, set at the turn of the century and journeying from lush Wiltshire to the arid gold-fields of Western Australia, also was named 1997 Book of the Year at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Drewe, 53, also the Heralds am keen get some of it down." 1997 NSW Premier's Literary Award Winners: Douglas Stewart Prize for non-fiction: Alan Atkinson The Europeans in Australia: A History, Volume One. Kenneth Slessor Prize for poetry: Anthony Lawrence The Viewfinder. Ethel Turner Prize for children's literature: Junko Morimoto The Two Bullies.

Script Writing Award: Trevor Graham Mabo: Life of an Island Man. Play Award: Michael Gurr Jerusalem. Ethnic Affairs Commission Award: Mark Raphael Baker The Fiftieth Gate. Gleebooks Prize for literacy or cultural criticism: Alison Mackinnon Love and Freedom: Professional Women and the Reshaping of Personal Life. Special Award, contribution to Australian literature: Colin Thiele.

PAGE 19: A bitter wind beyond the tree line. Robert Drewe By AMANDA PHELAN The cost of the Meals on Wheels service, the daily food cooked in hospitals for distribution to more than 20,000 elderly and disabled people across NSW, is set to rise, quadrupling in some Sydney areas. Councils warned the cost would jump from $1.11 to $6 within the next 12 months, and branded the rise "The charge for the meals will have to increase by over 400 per cent," the Mayor of Waverley, Councillor Paul Pearce, said yesterday. "This is a heartless attack on one of the most vulnerable groups in the community. Next year council will have to increase the cost of a meal to around $6." This means Meals on Wheels would cost as much as some cheap restaurants, with the Sydney RSL Club offering a bistro menu for $5.50 and a Pizza Hut "all-you-can-eat" deal for $6.95.

However, the director of the NSW Meals on Wheels Association, Ms Jeanette Antrum, defended the price rise, saying the increase had the support of leading senior citizens' groups. "Hospitals are being forced to subsidise the service at present, and that's not right," she said. "This is the biggest single issue holding us back, because we can't address concerns over quality and good nutrition until the hospitals charge closer to what the meals are worth. "If we go to a hospital and say we want better meals for our clients, they say quite rightly 'What do you expect for the price However, local councils are warning that the proposed price jump from $1.11 a meal at present to $2.97 next month and about $6 by next July will cause "major hardship" to people who depend on the service for their daily sustenance. Cr Pearce said Prince of Wales Hospital had just told him of the increase.

The hospital, which provides Meals on Wheels to Botany, Randwick and Waverley councils, said it had no option IW7 Uamriy JUKI Pty Lid. AL'N (K70 film critic, has been short-listed for prizes for 20 years, but has won only two smaller awards. "It's such a perverse sort of lottery and you often get the feeling the judges are simply insane While I'm delighted that my ball has come up in the lotto barrel this time, I do sympathise with the other shortlisted people because that is usually me," he said yesterday. The Herald's literary editor, Susan Wyndham, one of the three judges, said: "We felt that with this novel Robert had taken a huge lundlinj. Thf lutfl liude logo and Kmtium rrpstcra) Iradraurtls of tattl creative leap forward; he has become a fully mature novelist" The book took 10 years, and Drewe said public patronage via an Australian Artists Creative Fellowship the so-called "Keatings" had been vitaL The Drowner has been published in Britain, and will be released next month in the United States.

Drewe has no wish to relocate overseas. "It's not just rabid nationalism. I think Australia is an interesting place culturally. We have a lot of things to say, still, and I CorpwaUoa. A valid crata card required iccat tbt Bi Pood UutnW bage out and health mainte nance.

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