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

1 A WW FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1997 No. 49,877 RRST PUBLISHED 1831 80 PAGES 90c Betty Churches1 says farewell ARTS PAGE 16 Tyson: he'll new safety fears be back SPORT PAGE 46 DRIVE MOTORING WEEKLY feVV V- ox Homosexual clergy row ravages Uniting Church i 0 1 "I IJ Vv Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, the Rev Djiniyini Gondorra, said that if the assembly decided to ordain homosexuals then Aborigines and Islanders might be forced to withdraw from the Church. Conservative elements within the Church have forecast a split whatever the outcome of the debate, and have called for the resignation of those ministers who outed themselves this week. Dr Moyes said the Church was in "in deep trouble" and "stalled by its obsession with "The future for those who cannot accept a Christian understanding of the authority of the scripture lies in one of the pretend churches established by the gay and lesbian lobby," he said. The Sydney Uniting Church minister and State MP, the Rev Fred Nile, said that appointing an openly homosexual person to a senior Church position was "like the hierarchy rubbing salt in the wounds of grassroots "We are heading for a split the Church leadership is out of touch with the grassroots a revolt will occur," he said.

Mr Nile warned that a revival By HELEN PITT Religious Affairs Writer A split within the Uniting Church Australia's third-biggest is inevitable following its decision to delay voting on a proposal for the ordination of homosexual clergy. This leaves in doubt the future of 10 homosexual clergy who "outed" themselves during this week's Uniting Church national assembly in Perth, including its national director of mission, the Rev Dorothy McRae-McMahon. Aboriginal and ethnic congregations asked the assembly to defer a decision for three years because they were not ready to discuss the ordaining of homosexuals. The Rev Dr Gordon Moyes, head of Sydney's Wesley Mission Australia's largest Uniting Church parish has called for Ms McRae-McMahon's resignation and said the decision to defer the issue would be "the death of the Church by a thousand While parts of the Church's controversial sexuality report were passed by the assembly last night, the proposals relating to the ordination of homosexuals were delayed until today. But the Church's national general secretary, the Rev Gre-gor Henderson, said a vote was unlikely because the assembly was divided on the issue.

"The assembly is highly unlikely to force something through if the Aboriginal and ethnic congregations object strongly to it," he said. "We don't want this to be seen as the Church turning its back on gay and lesbian people our status quo is that gay and lesbian people are welcome within the life of the Church." The chairman of the Uniting of the Methodist Church was likely if the Uniting Church eventually voted in favour of the ordination of homosexuals. The 1996 National Church Life Survey found that two out of three Uniting Church members are against openly homosexual clergy. Mr Simon Moglia, a spokesman for the Uniting Network, a support group for homosexuals in the Church, said the decision to defer a vote could mean that clergy who outed themselves might face disciplinary action from their parish councils. Future in doubt the Rev.

Dorothy McRae-McMahon. RAAF rescue force are COLUMN DON'T mess with Australia Post All 22 households in Kiora Avenue, Balmoral, have received copies of a letter asking a resident to control her dogs, which have become a "continual The letter adds: "The matter is not only affecting my staffs daily duties to ensure customer service standards but also the rest of your neighbourhood. While your dogs are unleashed and putting the health and safety of my staff at risk, NO MAIL WILL BE DELIVERED TO YOUR STREET until you have rectified this matter!" It is signed Lisa M. Jones, acting delivery manager, Spit Junction. WE have found still more grandchildren of; transported convicts (Column 8, yesterday).

The Rev Colin Dyster, 92, of Richmond, is the grandson of Thomas Dyster, transported to Australia in 1827. Young Thomas was lured by three older teenagers to break into a house in Essex. Convicted at 14, he was sentenced to 14 years in Tasmania. The others were hanged. "He made good," says Mr Dyster, "opening a skin and hide store in West Adelaide." Mr Dyster's younger brother, Ian, still lives near Adelaide.

WENTWORTHVILLE'S Margaret Harrison has four aunts Clarice Menton, 98, Florence Ayres, 92, Elizabeth Rutherford, 90, and Ellen Bryce, 85 all granddaughters of James Connor, transported for life at the age of 19 from Ireland in 1837. He earned his ticket-of-leave in 1851. A READER reports that the Coke machine on Meadowbank Station has a notice saying: "Insert Dimes, Nickels or Quarters." GOOD Samaritans come in many shapes. Middle Harbour's Probus Club hired a bus for a Hunter Valley day tour. The bus had a flat on the way up and another on the way home.

Stranded on the F3 with no spare, 100 kilometres from Sydney, the 25 club members were wondering how they would get home when an empty coach from It's Easy Tours, returning to its Kariong depot, stopped to offer a lift to a nearby Caltex station. There the driver, Stephen, met his boss, David Orchard, and asked if he could drive the 25 home, at no cost The boss agreed. "Stephen had already done a full day's shift," said a grateful Probus member, Peter Watson. RACHAEL, of Dulwich Hill, is still pondering the Chinese-made plastic litter liner she bought for her cat, Thelma. "Distasteful!" notes the wrapping.

Thelma won't mind. MARS mania has led to more than 100 million "hits" on NASA's Pathfinder Web site, the Herald reported yesterday. A reader called to say he is not surprised. "All those aliens, calling home." PM backs tax incentive to stay at home Full-time employment hits record low war zone Bound for Cambodia Australia's rescue force boards a Hercules at Darwin yesterday. Photo by JOHN DONEGAN i if lwav vA l'f 1 1 V' 1 I i Mi SxM i Jl" fj I ZZl "'-'i'ii'iiii iiiiii LawiiaaiiiiiiiriiriJ heads for "utterly condemned" reported summary executions.

About 30 armed Australian soldiers will provide security during boardings of the Hercules flights, known as Operation Vista. Four of the aircraft three from Australia and one from New Zealand flew out yesterday. Three more Hercules are on standby. The Foreign Affairs Department estimated about 400 Australians would be evacuated, including a number holding both Australian and Cambodian passports. Officials said there was now a "significant new mood of fear" among those waiting to leave.

PAGE 10: The Cambodian coup; David Jenkins analysis. off buyers The mine's manager, Mr Allan Davies, immediately condemned the letters, saying they amounted to telling customers to buy coal from union-approved customers and preferably overseas. "Why would they buy in Australia? Why not South Africa, Colombia or Indonesia where none of this bull occurs?" The Minister for Industrial Relations, Mr Reith, attacked the union letters as "un-Austra-lian" and said they were a stunt Continued Page 6 PAGE 6: Future flashpoints. 46 Editorial ..92822822 in Touch 24 Classified 10-12 General. ...9282 2833 By PAUL CLEARY Economics Correspondent The Prime Minister yesterday endorsed tax incentives to persuade married women to leave the workforce after figures showed that full-time employment had slumped to a record low.

As Mr Howard floated the plan, the Governor-General, Sir William Deane, issued an unprecedented warning on the consequences of high unemployment, particularly for the young (Full report, Page 8). The Prime Minister told Sydney radio that he was attracted to increasing the family tax incentive to encourage women to stay at home. He was asked if he supported a "home-maker's allowance" to encourage 200,000 parents who 4 FAU-idTdose FOR lOORK would prefer not to work to give up their jobs. "The principle has enormous merit," he said, admitting that the family tax incentive was not a "princely "We have made a down payment on it and I certainly wouldn't rule out taking further action in that respect" The family tax initiative, which came into effect on January 1, offers a maximum incentive of $34 a week for single-income families, while child-care fees have been rising steadily over the past six months. Mr Howard said the previous government had encouraged families to "be two-3ftome whereas his plan was aimed at "going in the other But it appears that the family tax incentive has already Max Walsh Jobs gloom points way to rate cut It doesn't matter what spin is put on them, yesterday's labour market figures were a disappointment.

The Federal Government -and the financial markets were expecting a better outcome because of favourable vacancy data. Both the official ABS vacancy survey and the ANZ's regular analysis of job advertising suggested that the labour market would pick up in June. In fact, the market went sideways. The Treasurer, Mr Costello, emphasised the news that unemployment was down from 8.8 per cent in May to 8.5 per cent in June, but that was the only touch of good news in the figures. Trend employment was down for the fourth month in a row the worst result for more than four years.

The poor results put the prospect of a further interest rate cut on the Reserve Bank's agenda. It could move on this as early as today. However, it is more likely that the Reserve will delay any decision until it has studied the consumer price index and the average weekly earnings data due to be released on July 24. In political terms the bank prefers to tie interest rate cuts to positive economic developments such as lower inflation or Continued Page 8 I encouraged women to reduce their hours or give up working. The June labour force survey by the Bureau of Statistics showed that females made up more than the entire drop in full-time employment in the month, with their decline of 23,000 offset by a rise of 5,000 for males.

Since January, female full-time jobs are down by 28,000, while part-time jobs are up by 5,000. The June figures also showed a decline of 17,000 in full-time jobs after seasonal adjustment, contributing to a total loss of 66,000 full-time jobs since January. This was offset by a rise in part-time employment, but total employment remains in decline down by 25,000 this year. The number of full-time jobs, 6,235,000, is the lowest since June 1995, but as a proportion of total employment they are at a record low, just 74.3 per cent, after falling 1.2 percentage points since the election. The bureau confirmed that this was the lowest proportion of full-time jobs since its labour survey began in 1978, when it stood at 85 per cent Reserve Bank figures going back to 1964 also confirm that it is a record.

The bureau defines a full-time job as a person who works or usually works more than 35 hours a week, although the Federal Government defines a "real job" as 20 hours a week. The unemployment rate fell sharply in June by 0.3 points to 8.5 per cent, while the number of jobless fell by 32,000 to 778,000, but this improvement reflected a sharp drop in the number of people looking for work. Financial markets interpreted the result as increasing the chance of an interest rate cut, but the Treasurer, Mr Costello, hosed down these hopes by saying the most recent cut was yet to flow through to consumers. This comment, however, contradicted a remark on Tuesday by Mr Howard that he would like to see rates "still Part- fA tm By CRAIG SKEHAN Foreign Affairs Correspondent As it ordered RAAF C-130 aircraft to begin evacuating hundreds of Australians from Phnom Penh, the Federal Government threatened to slash aid to Cambodia if the political violence worsened. Australia has sought a meeting with major international aid donors including Japan, France and the United States in the wake of the weekend coup.

Japan, the largest foreign aid donor, yesterday announced a freeze in its aid of $120 million this year. At an emergency meeting in Kuala Lumpur, foreign ministers of the Association of South-East Asian Nations decided to delay Cambodia's admission to mm 3113IECasCri: the regional grouping, which had been planned for July 24. Officials in Canberra warned that further summary executions of politicians allied to the ousted First Prime Minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, may result in cuts to Australia's $32 million aid program. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, noted that the Australian contribution formed part of a total $450 million pledged by the international community this year, a major prop to a country whose GDP is about $3.8 billion. "To overthrow the First Prime Minister in this way through military means is a matter of very deep concern to us," he said.

Australia The letters to power companies in Japan, the Australian Stock Exchange, merchant banks and major fund managers mark a serious escalation of a strike which began as a test of the Howard Government's workplace laws. Mr Maitland said last night that he sent the letters when it became clear yesterday that talks held in the Industrial Relations Commission to find a settlement to the four-week-old strike at the Hunter Valley Nol mine were leading nowhere. He did not believe the letters were provocative, although they might seem so to the company. Coal union warns IZ2 MAY-JUNE 1997 ti i PAGE 8 I TO FIT! iIT.ri.GYr.Iir IT PAGE 9 3 By BRAD NORINGTON Industrial Editor The coal miners' union warned Asian customers and local investors yesterday that Rio Unto export contracts worth millions of dollars are at risk because the strike at its Hunter Valley colliery could last more than three months. The president of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Mr John Maitland, sent letters advising that the strike over individual contracts and disputed work practices was likely to severely affect the capacity of Rio Tinto to fulfil contracts.

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