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

3T'i' 1 Sir 1 fl PRIME DRIVERS TO FJ1CE EISSTJif JT BAH Page 2 Late Edition No. 46.957 First Published 1 831 Telephone: Editorial 282 2822; General 282 2833; Classifieds 282 1 1 22 50 cents' 64 pages Monday, June 27, 1333 io)n o) j3 iM SLAMI'g PALI i i THE INSIDE STORY Three Men and a F4a4ion A gup ii fiqf (0 XT fyk FD)Finro)n -rue x- Ell 5 18 "II UlliS IlllTOE 1 I Cracked walls Rotting carpets Broken phones Lots of rot in the blackboard jungle -t ch- LiLiLj region with maintenance problems, said Mr Robert Herman, the Education Department's chief administrative officer for the south-west region. Several other schools have problem roofs, Mr Herman said. Some leak, others provide a home for birds from which to spread lice. Mr Herman said Prairiewood High's roof had not been fixed because the Labor Government's $4.5 million maintenance allocation to the region for 1987-88 was insufficient.

The school could expect funds for the repairs to be approved in the next financial year, he said. PAGE 17: Why parents have to patch our schools. More than 4,000 students from about 120 schools marched through Sydney's streets yesterday to protest against State Government changes to education. Most placards were directed at the Minister for Education, Dr Meth-erell. PAGE 2: Full Report Drip patrol Belinda Way and Greg Rudd of Year 9 try and place bins to catch water leaking from the roof.

loir. Jw 1 -f -0y "-v -4 1--, fa maiy torn" phones which water seepage caused to ring without reason. Despite his sense of humour, the principal is concerned about his 1,430 students health and safety and has made several submissions to the Department of Education's South-West Metropolitan Region to have the roof repaired. All have proved fruitless. "TT" By PAUL GRIGSON CANBERRA: Some members of the Federal Government's top advisory body on housing believe interest rates could jump as high as 15.5 per cent in the coming year despite official predictions they will remain stable.

However, the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, suggested yesterday that interest rates might not rise much more. Several members of the Indicative Planning Council (IPC) have argued strongly that housing interest rates could rise by up to 2 per cent in the 1988-89 financial year. IPC members held a heated debate in Adelaide two weeks ago about forecasts for the housing industry in 1988-89. Some members supported a Government-backed assumption that interest rates would not rise in 1 988-89. They argued banks needed to last the next few weeks without lifting their rates and the pressure on housing rates would ease.

But private sector members considered the continuing upward movement in professional rates meant housing rates would be forced up. Industry sources said yesterday most private sector TT iFiioime rates Mr Harmer said the $2,000 maintenance grant the school received from the department would go "nowhere near" covering the repairs to the roof. Most of the grant was spent on light fittings to replace those which had short-circuited because of water damage. Prairiewood High is not the only new school in the south-west 6 It is now evident that the Australian economy is in the best shape it has been in since 1973.9 MAX WALSH, Page 13 members of the IPC had been opposed to a prediction of no change for the coming year. But they said the 1988-89 forecasts would contain this prediction.

However, a warning about the direction of rates would be included in any report. On the basis of no change, the IPC is expected to predict housing starts of more than 150,000 for 1988-89 a revision up of early estimates of between 147,000 and 150,000. Some IPC members believe the target will not be met if interest rates jump up and down. Mike Steketee writes from Austin, Texas: The Prime Minister suggested yesterday that interest rates and the Australian dollar might not rise much further. As well, he said there was a change of culture in Australian For the last two weeks, Mr Rocard has supervised lengthy discussions between delegations from New Caledonia and a six-man mission he sent to' the territory after the presidential election.

Mr Rocard said that the leaders of the two New Caledonian delegations had agreed that France should take over the administration for a year to "guarantee impartiality" of public actions. He said there would be new plans for development and training, especially for disfavored regions, put into place soon. i By KIM LANG LEY Prairiewood High School has dangerous light fittings, broken phones, warped blackboards, rotting carpets, blocked drains and cracked walls. These are maintenance problems you might expect at a school built two decades ago. But Prairiewood High, in Sydney's rapidly expanding south-west, is only five ears old.

The problems are largely due to the school's $6 million roof, which State Government architects estimate will cost about $250,000 to repair. The principal, Mr Frank Harmer, said the roof a flat aluminium structure with box gutters held 50 mm of water for most of the year and only dried out in the heat of December and January. "We have a joke at Prairiewood that if it rains at Pokataroo, our rooms get flooded," Mr Harmer said. Another standing joke at the school, he said, was the "phan- Tough new drugs powers for police By LUIS M. GARCIA The NSW Police Force will be given considerably wider powers to seize the assets of convicted drug traffickers under radical drug-fighting plan due to be discussed by Cabinet within the new few weeks.

The plan, outlined yesterday by the Minister for Police, Mr Pickering, would involve the creation of a new, centralised "super agency" with overall responsibility for combatting trafficking and other drug-related crimes. The agency will bring together police, lawyers and accountants and will come under the control of the Police Commissioner, Mr Avery. It will replace the State Drug Crimes Commission (SDCC) and incorporate the police drug squad and various health-related agencies presently spread over several portfolios. Speaking at a ceremony to launch the first International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Mr Pickering said he wanted the agency to be in operation by next January. He said the agency would combat drug trafficking on a number of levels, targeting users as well as "middle management" the distributors and pushers.

However, it would concentrate on fighting the big boys" who finance the billion-dollar industry by seizing their assets and profits. "If the Government is, in effect, able to remove those profits from these people, then the incentive to get into the drug trade will be reduced and our young people will be greater Mr Pickering said that, at the moment, some convicted drug traffickers regarded their time in jail as something of a holiday because they knew there was often lots of money waiting for them upon their release. The NSW assets seizure laws, introduced three years ago by the Labor Government, were obviously not tough enough and needed strengthening, he said. During the three years, about $300,000 had been seized by police from drug traffickers. The courts needed more power to identify assets and profits from drug operations and to be able to seize them.

Vhat we have now is not good enough, especially when you compare it to the Federal laws and the Victorian laws," he said. "In fact, the Victorian police, I understand, have financed a new computer system from the seizure of assets I would like to see that in In Victoria, more than $1.5 million has been seized and distributed since laws similar to those in NSW were passed by the State Parliament in October 1986. There, the seized money is put into a special fund and distributed later to groups involved in drug research, rehabilitation and prevention. The setting up of a central drug agency was promised by the Liberals while in Opposition. The agency will be very different (and probably much more powerful) than the SDCC, which was set up three years ago by the former Premier, PAGE 2: Beat police make it tough on thugs.

TIIE NEW Parliament House is already showing signs of wear and tear. Not only do the shoes of visitors carry gravel inside, thereby scratching the marble, but catches are being souvenired from lavatory doors. FROM Britain's Guardian Diary: "Times must be hard. Tfie Sunday Times must be feeling the pinch, too. Staff at News International are being urged to cut down on Tippex, by using the correction fluid in a thinned-down form.

"In view of the fact that we are presently spending in excess of 161 ,600 per annum on Tippex. perhaps everyone concerned would be willing to partake in this small economy, says an internal memo, which bears no visible smudges. WHAT'S IN a name? When Michele Nielsen married her fiance Bob Rogers last week, her brother-in-law, who could not be present, sent two telegrams from Rockhampton. They were marked for a post office box in Warringah Mall but instead of going to Michele's Bob, they were redirected to Bob Rogers's (of radio fame) Wearhouse in the mall. He inadvertently tore one of them up.

Michele and Bob II are negotiating with Australia Post to obtain copies. TWO motorists, both obviously fuming over a previous disagreement, jumped from their cars at the Hornsby traffic lights and stormed towards one another, the younger man stripping off his sweater. He executed a series of menacing karate movements in front of his opponent a tail, spare man in his 60s who watched the performance for a few seconds, then knocked him down with one quick left jab. 1 hey returned to their car and drove off. BIOFOULING is a journal dealing with the growth of micro-organisms and other marine matter on surfaces immersed in water.

The name of one of the editorial board is Mr John Barnacle. A MOSMAN reader who likes to keep an ear open for odd or interesting names assures us there is a firm of solicitors in Plymouth, England, called Whyte and Trem-blyinge. AN ADVERTISEMENT for an Italian restaurant in the Manly Daily says "Group Poisoning Catered THE GREINER Government is big on lifting the priority of the three Rs but was their schooling anything to go by? John Fahey's speech on Thursday to the Employers' Federation said it was the Government's 105th day of office when it has been only 97 days since the election. And, complaining about a Public Service appeals process, it spelt cumbersome as TTTTrrnr Agenda 17 Amusements 25-27 Arts 16 Business 29-31 Chess 48 Comics, Crosswords 48 Computers 18-21 Editorials 12 Law Notices 48 Lottery 25 Mails 48 Puzzles 48 Shipping 48 Sport 49-56 Stay in Touch 28 Television The Guide Today's People 28 Personal Notices Page 31-32 Classified Index on Back Page Classifieds: 282 1 122 Metropolitan: Sunny with light to moderate north-west winds. Temps: City 8-21, Liverpool 3-21.

Pollution: High. Yesterday: City 9-19, Liverpool 3-20. Pollution: Medium. NSW: Early fogs and frosts. A few showers in the north-east, fine over the rest of the State.

The Sea: Slight seas on a low swell. Tides: Low 12.21 am (0.5); High 6.01 am (1.2). Low 11.43 am (0.5); High 6.23 pm (1.7). Sun Rises 7.0 1 sets 4.55. Moon: Rises 2.12 pm, sets 4.10 am.

Full details, Page 48. Dr Frumar, an ophthalmic surgeon, operates on his very unusual patient. Her eyes are just like yours ophthalmic surgeon who admits he has not operated on a chimpazee since medical school. To him, Mary's problems were routine shared with many in his North Shore waiting rooms. "It is probably the first rime in the world that any such operation has been carried out on a chimpanzee," Dr David Blyde, one of the zoo's veterinarians, said yesterday.

Chimpanzees in captivity normally live to 50 and Mary is still only 32. The zoo's veterinarians believed the mother of four and quite recently grandmother of one was Caledonia to vote businesses, which no longer looked merely to the value of the dollar before determining that they could compete in international markets. Speaking near the end of his US visit in an interview on the Channel 9 program Sunday, Mr Hawke said that Mr Michael Dukakis, the Democratic presidential candidate, had expressed interest in Australia's economic performance. This was not surprising because the IMF, the OECD and the former chairman of the US Fed-era! Reserve, Mr Paul Volcker, all had commented favourably on the Australian economy. But favourable overseas assessments did not mean that Australians would have to learn to live with a higher dollar.

"The higher it goes, the more difficult, relatively speaking, that is for exporters," Mr Hawke said. "But the level of the dollar is a. function not merely of the success of your policies but it is also very importantly a function of relative interest rates. "So you can't say that the 'Australian dollar is necessarily on a free and uninterrupted rise. I don't accept that it is." PAGE 2: PM at Texan 'barbie'.

PAGE 5: Wheat deal off, Hawke says. in 10 years Mr Lafleur said that the two leaders had "learnt to understand that we must know how to give and Mr Tjibaou, in similar mood, said that in the long-term his militants would realise the agreement was "an important Mr Tjibaou remains opposed to the project to divide New Caledonia into three parts, to the proposed calendar, and he also wants a clear guarantee that the Kanaks will finally gain independence. Mr Rocard hopes to make a personal visit to New Caledonia in the next few months. grew out of the 50s and 60s when teenagers were different creatures, completely unlike their parents. "Now, if anything, you have a lot of 40-year-old teenagers running around; people whose views would have been called youthful and rebellious 20 years ago.

"The people aged between 12 and 18 are infinitely more conservative. It's difficult to think of any product, apart from some clothes and music, that is targeted specifically at teenagers these days." And as for those youngsters with 7i Pictures bv BKUCfc MILLfcR entitled to enjoy her years as one of the zoo's senior citizens. "We wanted to ensure that she has a good quality of life," Dr Blyde said. Dr Gary Reddacliff, veterinary curator at Taronga, said all the doctors were surprised at Mary's human-like eyes. "A horse eye, a dog eye, a cat eye they're all grossly different from oureyes but the chimpanzee's is quite remarkable in its structural simi-larites," he said.

It will be several days before doctors can gauge the success of the 214 hour operation carried out by Dr Smith and Dr Frumar. wide tyres a Torana he has owned for 18 months in spite of not having so much as a learner's licence. Evenings are spent with friends on the footpath outside his parents' house, working on cars. Suzi, 17, gets as much money as she asks for. She buys clothes, clothes and more clothes, jewellery, make-up but no cigarettes, no alcohol.

She dances for a hobby and spends hours in her bedroom with a bunch of girlfriends. "What do I get most excited about?" she gasps. "Boys!" In the last year, Mary, matriarch of the Taronga Zoo chimpanzees, had become blind. She was missing out in the battle for food and was sticking nervously to the side of her youngest offspring, two-year-old Monty. But then Dr Jeff Smith, a veterinary eye specialist, had an idea.

It was an idea that probably created a little surgical history yesterday afternoon. Since a chimpazee's eyes are so remarkably similiar to our own. Dr Smith reasoned, why shouldn't Mary be treated by one of Sydney's top human eye surgeons? Enter Dr Kim Frumar, an A touch sharp haircuts and well-made suits? Well, they must be just "a group defined by a set of attitudes, and advertising-speak for the new social demographics. That kind of talk has buried the Teenager. This may be news for the kids in Year 11 at Kogarah High School.

They can still summon the numbers to fill a dance club. They still have cash to spend. Sydney's population is still 15.9 per cent teenage, down from 17.2 per cent in 1966. But they don't of human kindness for a chimpanzee. By MARGARET MURRAY PARIS, Sunday: France signed a surprise agreement today under which it will directly govern New Caledonia for one year.

The agreement also means the French public will be consulted by referendum about the island's new constitution and the New Caledonians will have a referendum on "self-determination" in 10 years. The agreement was signed today by the Prime Minister, Mr Michel Rocard, the FLNKS leader, Mr Jean-Marie Tjibaou, and the settlers' leader, Mr Jacques Lafleur. Goodbye, Peter, a friend and the Torana. cruel world. The Teenager is dead and buried By WANDA JAMROZIX Burn your heavy leather jackets.

The experts, for once, are united. The Teenager is dead. Dead, vanished, gone, swallowed up by the inexorable law of demographics. Consigned to the dustbin of history like so many Sean Cassidy pin-ups. "Teenagers? I think the teenager is largely irrelevant today," says David Chalke, the director of strategy planning with the advertising agency McCann-Erickson.

The whole idea, even the word. seem to identify themselves as teenage anymore. Music is out as a big income burner apart from the dance beats pumped through hundreds of Sydney clubs every weekend. Drinking is on the decrease and magazines are in the occasional basket. Peter, 16, gets about $40 a week from his parents.

About $20 goes on lunches and travel to and from school. The rest finances entertainment discos or parties once a week, movies now and then. His real passion is red with very.