The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 5

THE AGE, Monday 17 February U3S 5 Hotline will give advice on welfare overpayments during national amnesty Lukin company may press action over ship's seizure sSIIIIPt jvv-''- -1 1 i hi "The amnesty applies only to people who are, or at least were at one stage, genuine clients of the do-, partment but who have failed to notify of a change in circumstance that would otherwise reduce their level of payment" he said. The shadow minister for social security. Mr Blunt said the amnesty showed that double standards and hypocrisy were the mainstays of the Government's administration. He said the Government had rejected calls for a social security fraud phone-in, had an amnesty for overpayments, but called for patients to dob in doctors who did not charge the scheduled fee. The Government's amnesty hotline number in Melbourne Is 663 3382 and in rural Victoria it is toll-free 008 136 379.

By RUSSELL BARTON CANBERRA. The Federal Government will open a telephone hotline service today to offer advice to people who are being overpaid by toe Social Security Department The hotline is part of the Government's amnesty on social security overpayments which will run until 31 May. People who ring seeking advice about overpayments will not be asked to identify themselves. Those receiving overpayments will be directed to their nearest social security regional office where they wil be asked to make a signed statement The Social Security Minister, Mr Howe, said yesterday that the amnesty was part of a campaign to significantly reduce social security overpayments. Caulf ield woman abducted, say police The woman was blindfolded and forced to He on the floor of the car as she was driven to Chelsea Heights.

Police said the woman escaped about 3.15 pm. Witnesses have been asked to contact Detective Senior Constable Peter Bowen at Elsternwick police station on 528 5577. Police are appealing for witnesses to an alleged abduction of a woman from her Caulfleld home early yesterday. Police said the woman, in her 20s, was taken from her home about 12.40 am and forced into a mustard yellow or red Toyota sedan by a bearded man in his late 20s wearing jeans and silver-rimmed glasses. Council adviser forecasts guerilla war on council amalgamations By GAYLE AUSTEN A local government consultant has warned that guerilla warfare will soon be the only path open to councils opposed to the State Government's amalgamation proposals.

Dr Michael Jones, a Canberra academic, said the government had refused to listen to reasonable arguments, based on overseas experience, against amalgamation. "It's really a war situation," he said. "Unfortunately, I suspect this government is a very insensitive, dogmatic Melbourne-based government that doesn't understand, he said. Dr Jones is the author of a discussion paper on council amalgamations commissioned by the Goulburn Group of rural councils. He has also been recruited by the South Melbourne City Council, with the approval of the Mayor, Mr Ken Hickey, who is head of the government's media unit "It's like parachuting behind enemy Dr Jones said.

He has researched much of the criticism which the Goulburn Group has directed against the State Government during the summer and believes the government has adopted an arrogant attitude on the matter which will force councils to take more direct action. "To smash those rural councils at the time of the worst rural crisis this country has suffered, that's foolish, Dr Jones said. "There will be resistance you've got all of these councils on death row." He believes the government has decided to restructure local government without considering the electoral damage it could suffer. "Sooner or later, reformist governments run the risk of getting bad advice," he said. Dr Jones is also critical of the government's refusal to use refer-endums to gauge public opinion on proposed amalgamations.

"Why do they have this fear of referendums?" he asked. "If any issue was suited to referendums it's this, because it's all about public feelings." He said refusing to accept referendums was a denial of natural justice and that councils would have a good chance of challenging the government's decisions in court The leader of the National Party, Mr Peter Ross-Edwards, yesterday called on the Cain Government to test its amalgamation proposals in Parliament and through referendums. Picture: SIMON COKOEN Max Kremke took his $25,000 Staggerbipe aircraft to Tullamarine on Saturday for Ansett Airlines' 50th anniversary. He found the plane he built in Ringwood East fitted neatly under one built in Seattle, Washington. ADELAIDE.

The family fishing company of Olympic weigbtlifttng gold medallist Dean Lukin may press action over a $750,000 compensation claim against the Federal Government after a fishing vessel was seized by armed naval personnel and its tuna storage tanks sealed by fisheries officers. A spokesman for Lukin and Sons, which supplies the Daito Maru. said six armed sailors and two fisheries officers had boarded the vessel about 8.30 am on Friday after alleged fishing breaches. Lukin and Sons' injunction against the vessel's seizure will be reviewed on Wednesday. Witnesses sought Police are seeking witnesses to a collision in Monbulk Road, Bel-grave at 10.30 pm on Friday in which Patricia Doogood, 42.

of Cornell Street, Camberwell, died. Two other people died on the state's roads at the weekend. John Joseph Sweeney, 57, of Thomson Street, Tatura, died when the car he was driving collided with another on the Midland Highway at Tatura on Saturday. Srebenka Stephanie Maglica, 19, of Lexia Street. Ashburton, died when she was hit by a car about 10 pm on Saturday in Toorak Road, Burwood.

Chemical leak CFA firemen and emergency workers evacuated houses and' blocked the Genelg Highway at Hamilton early today after a toxic chemical leak. Police said organic pyroxide had leaked from a steel container at the Rowe Trucking yard. Concert tickets A further 1200 tickets for Dire Straits' seven concerts at the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre will go on sale today through Bass. A few tickets will also be sold at the door. Baby girl drowns A two-year-old Ferntree Gully girl drowned in a backyard pool at a house in Narre Warren North yesterday.

The girl is thought to have drowned about 4 pm. Her name has not been released. Back bench forces Cabinet to reconsider bill of rights The Hon. John Cain PREMIER OF VICTORIA invites the Citizens of Victoria to witness the Inauguration of Dr. Davis McCaughey AS GOVERNOR at an open air ceremony on the steps of Parliament House, Melbourne Tomorrow, Tuesday February 18th, at 10.15 a.m.

which would cost up to $1000 million, is many years off. The new airport would probably not operate until after the year 2000. The question of where to put Sydney's second airport has been a live issue for more than 25 years. The search for a site for Melbourne's international airport and Sydney's second airport started about the same time. The Tullamarine site was selected in 1959 and the airport opened in 1970.

The full ministry will meet on Friday for a discussion, as one Government source quipped yesterday, about "how to stay in The meeting will get a pep talk from Mr Hawke, a rundown on the economy from the Treasurer, Mr Keating, and possibly a lecture against spending from the Finance Minister, Senator Walsh. The big decisions on oil pricing and aid to the rural sector, which Cabinet must make soon, are crucial for the budget. The Government has also to decide whether it will have a May statement on spending. Whether the bill actually comes to Cabinet today has been complicated by the fact that the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, will be attending the funeral of his uncle, Mr Bert Hawke, a former premier of Western Australia, who died in Adelaide on Friday after a long illness. He was 85.

The pressure is there for a Cabinet decision today, however, because the bill of rights is likely to be raised in Caucus tomorrow. Government sources said that a proposed discussion by the ministerial committee considering the oil price issue had been put off because of Mr Hawke's absence. The ministers have plenty of time to work on this issue after last week's deferral Cabinet is not due to make a decision for at least another week. Cabinet is today to look again at the vexed issue of a site for Sydney's second airport The sites under consideration are Badgery's Creek, west of Sydney, and Wilton, to the south-west Cabinet deferred a decision on the site before Christmas. The Wilton site is much cheaper $2 million compared to about $30 million for Badgery's Creek on government valuations.

One reason is that a lot of the Wilton land is in the water catchment area. The Government is trying only to safeguard a site. A decision to build the airport. By MICHELLE RATTAN CANBERRA. An embarrassing backbench move to strengthen the bill of rights legislation, now before the Senate, is expected to be considered by Federal Cabinet today.

The reconsideration comes after an 1 1 to one vote by the backbench legal committee, last week in favor of amendments, to be moved by the Democrats, which would apply the legislation to state law, especially state electoral law. The Democrat amendments are specifically designed as a way in which the Feder-al Government could attack the Queensland electoral gerrymander. A former attorney-general. Senator Evans, is in favor of accepting the amendments, which are similar to proposals from a Senate committee last year, but the Attorney-General, Mr Bowen, and the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, are strongly against them. Under the Democrats' proposal, a state could exempt particular laws, on a two-year basis, from the application of the bill of rights, but this would not apply to the provision for "equal The bill of rights is not on the formal Cabinet agenda, but Mr Bowen is expected to raise it as an "under the line" item.

The Government has left the way open for Discount fares SYDNEY. Air New Zealand has introduced discount family fares on its Trans-Tasman run. The four-month deal applies to travel by up to four people and can mean savings of more than $1300 on fares to New Zealand. this, but it is running later than last year with Its budgetary process, which makes a May statement more difficult How Ericsson can take Our fight is for all, says Chamberlain some of the drama out of moving. SKYLINE GARAGES ed in Australia again." Mrs Chamberlain said the goodwill of her supporters was the greatest comfort to herself and her family.

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The congregation was larger than normal, partly because it was the first service in a new church building erected at the college, and partly because the Chamberlains were there. Mrs Lindy Chamberlain said at the weekend that her fight for justice would be a fight for all Australians. She told a congregation of more than 1000 at Avondale College Church, Cooranbong, near Newcastle, that her ordeal must never happen again. "The real fight for justice is now beginning. This is not just for our freedom; it is for you as well," she told her fellow Seventh Day Adventists.

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