The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 6

6 THE AGE, Wednesday 25 May 1988 i 1 last Party deal straw, say mm $s4 i ALP Northcote rebels improves says doctor IT HAS A TENNIS COURT. BUT IT'S NOT THE HYATT. By philip Mcintosh il An Australian sports-medicine, specialist said yesterday that bcu would not be surprised if womeaj Greek-speaking ALP branch, Northcote East, resigning in sympathy with the Gogases. The state secretary of the ALP, Mr Peter Batchelor, said yesterday that the Westgarth branch would continue to operate and that many of the people who had allegedly resigned were not on record as renewing their party membership for 1988. Mr Batchelor said the people concerned were all direct relatives, close family friends or business associates of one family headed by Mr George Gogas.

Dynastic had seven of the 10 votes on the selection panel but that a deal between the Socialist Left and Centre Unity saw another Greek community candidate, Ms Tina Cross, from the Batman West branch, win endorsement for the Darebin seat Mr Socrates Papadopoulos, a former mayor of Northcote who has remained in the Westgarth branch, said yesterday: "All I think should be asked is what hap-, pened overnight to change a man who was seeking endorsement by the ALP into someone who is pre-pared to defect to the Democrats?" The Gogases had been members of the Socialist Left faction but left after Mr John Gogas defeated an endorsed SL candidate, Mr John Lewis, for a Cain Ward seat on Northcote Council two years ago. Later, he was made the Centre Unity candidate for the seat of Northcote in the Legislative Assembly which will become vacant with Mr Frank Wilkes' retirement But he lost Northcote to Mr Tony Sheehan following a deal at the party headquarters. Mr Spindler welcomed the members of the Westgarth branch, saying the unprecedented defection showed the dissatisfaction with both major parties. The Democrats will use Northcote as a test case following their successful showing in the recent Kew byelection where they won nearly 20 per cent of the vote. By DAM I EN MURPHY The leader of a mass defection of an ALP branch to the Australian Democrats said the failure of his father to win Labor endorsement for Northcote Council was the "straw that broke the camel's Mr John Gogas, a former chairman of the Westgarth branch and a Northcote City councillor, said yesterday that the ALP had lost touch with the working class on such issues as uranium and tertiary-education fees and the party's centralised decision-making process was ignoring the "grass roots" membership.

"My father had the numbers to win Northcote Council on the selection panel but it was overthrown by the ALP headquarters allowing a deal between the Socialist Left and the Centre Unity. That was the final straw." Mr Gogas said 63 of Westgarth's 110 members had resigned yesterday. Another 21 resignations were in the mail and he expected the "vast majority" to follow him to the Democrats where he will seek endorsement to contest Northcote. There are three Greek-speaking ALP branches in Northcote: Batman North, Northcote East and Westgarth. Local ALP identities are concerned that dissatisfaction with Labor among the Greek community could spread.

There is talk of a small number from another 624 BOURKE STREET. IT'S MORE LIKE A LUXURY HOTEL THAN A LUXURY OFFICE. "Earlier this year, Mr Gogas had unsuccessfully sought ALP preselection for the Northcote City Council where he wanted to join his son on council," Mr Bachelor said. "This dynastic approach to local government is not ALP policy." Mr George Gogas said that he was regarded as something of a "patriarch" by many in the Westgarth community. A Northcote councillor for six years before returning to Greece in 1985, Mr Gogas said he had failed to obtain ALP endorsement for a Darebin Ward seat last April during panel selection procedures.

He had phoned the state president of the Australian Democrats, Mr Sid Spindler, "about two weeks ago" to discuss certain possibilities. The Gogases claimed that they uuiicics 111 uic eastern didc were getting pregnant to enhance athletic performance, and then, having abortions. The Victorian president of the. Australian Sports Medicine Fed-l eration, Dr Peter LarUns, was commenting on a report in London 'Sunday Mirror', that, female track and field athletes in" Eastern bloc countries were deliberately using pregnancy teP improve their performance. "Nothing surprises me anjF more about what athletes will use-to try to gain an advantage," Dr Larkins said.

But although pregnancy could theoretically improve performance, her believed that the advantages were far outweighed by the drawback-of morning sickness and fatigue which are common in early pregnancy. Dr Larkins said the main bene' fits of pregnancy for an athlete were increased blood volume and oxygen-carrying capacity, and, a possible increase in blood-cell count "Theoretically, you'd say; the endurance capacity of the' female athlete would therefore bev better with those factors." The 'Sunday Mirror quoted a-Finnish sports-medicine practitioner, Dr Risto Erkola, as saying that pregnancy was becoming the favorite way of gaining an edge competitors, now that drug testing was routine. It said some track and field officials were encourage ing athletes to use artificial insemination to become pregnant" This, Dr Larkins said, would'! allow them to match the period of greatest theoretical advantage, say 10 weeks of pregnancy, with the date of a championship. The abortion would be done after the 6 event '-a CALL RICHARD ELLIS ON 654 3333 Mr Sid Snindlertfar left I utate nmaAmtnt tho Australian Vmn. crate, with three recruits: from left.

Con Poulopaulos, George Gogas and John Gogas. Bjelke says he feared loss on Bond's offer 22 By SHAUN CARNEY, communications reporter, Sydney Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen said yesterday that in 1986 he was concerned about possibly losing money if he accepted Mr Alan Bond's offer of a special $350,000 property transaction as part of a defamation settlement Sir Joh said that when Mr Bond suggested the transaction, as part of a $400,000 settlement, the idea of dealing in property did not appeal to him. He told the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal that dealing in properties about which he might have little knowledge could have left him with "much The former Queensland Premier has told the tribunal that in February 1986 Mr Bond asked him to accept the settlement in two stages: a $50,000 first payment and the rest to be paid either as a loan with no obligation to repay or through a property transaction in Australia or overseas. Yesterday, Sir Joh said he rejected the proposal partly because he believed that it could have been interpreted by others as something Asked by the chairwoman of the tribunal, Miss Deirdre O'Connor, why it was unsatisfactory, he said: "It is not the way you usually carry out a transaction." Asked why, he said: "Well, simply because it can be suggested there was some ulterior motive behind wanting to pay me overseas. You could infer, or someone could infer, there was something sinister about wanting to pay me overseas." A tribunal member, Mr Kim Wilson, asked Sir Joh if one of the Opening the retrial, with evif dence not presented at the origin nal court martial, Mr Jennings9 said that it was the first occasion on which all available evidence-about the events on the Transvaal in 1901 had been presented in the same place at the same time.

Much of the testimony last nighP centred on whether Morant and his co-accused were acting with1 due authority when they auth0P-': ised the shooting. Opponents and supporters of 5 Morant and Handcock have argued for years whether they were war criminals or whether Lord Kitchener, the British commandMo er in South Africa, manipulated1 the trial so that the three soldienm could be used as scapegoats in au war that seemed about to end. However, crucial new defence evidence a statutory declara-H tion from a retired colonel, Mr At- Ian (Leonard) Heron, of Kedron 2 in Queensland, about statements by his late grandfather, George Heron was ruled inad-n missible because it did not bear a-; duty stamp. Colonel Heron was of Lord Kitchener's staffs A local police sergeant Kevins Nitschke, who prosecuted lastM night told the court it was clearcn that Morant had ordered the kill--ings and that he was acting emotionally after the death, at the hands of the Boers, of his superior Sir Joh: did not want more properties. reasons he was unhappy with the proposition was that he thought he might have been "done out" of some of the $400,000.

Sir Joh replied: "That is quite correct That thought went through my mind as well as these objections." He said he had plenty of properties and did not want any more. "I was only interested in finalising it straightforward I believe in that way there would be no undue criticism or unfair criticism." The tribunal is examining Mr Bond's fitness to hold a broadcasting licence in the light of the April 1986 defamation payment to Sir Joh. The then Premier claimed that he was defamed by a report on the Brisbane television station QTQ-9 in 1983 about his alleged financial dealings. Bond Corporation Holdings Limited bought QTQ-9 in January 1985. The inquiry adjourned yesterday and will resume tomorrow to hear legal argument I Si I officer, Captain Hunt .7 You want a new cellular mobile phone? Then a word of advice.

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