The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 2

A THE ACE MONDAY 22 DECEMBER 1997 raveleirs wmediif Camto(0)dliaini; danger By GERVASE GREENE, Canberra Travellers hoping to take advantage of the relative value of the Australian dollar in South-East Asia have been warned that Cambodia has become a significantly more dangerous destination. The abduction of a 40-year-old Australian in Phnom Penh has highlighted a trend of widespread banditry, according to Foreign Affairs Department officials, who this week will review its status. An Adelaide man, Mr David Kellaway, was kidnapped late on Saturday night by two armed men and taken to the edge of the city before being let go. The kidnappers kept the 40-year-old communications worker's car. "Two captors armed with rifles drove him to just outside the north-east of the city where they held him for several hours before releasing him and taking his vehicle," a Foreign Affairs Department spokesman said.

"The Australian ambassador, Mr Malcolm Leader, has spoken to the man and, while the motive for the abduction is uncertain, it does not appear to have been politically related. "The man is uninjured and at this stage requires no medical treatment, although it was clearly a stressful situation and he was very fortunate." Mr Kellaway's kidnapping is the latest example of a rising tide in Cambodia, which has experienced increasingly violent and random incidents since the mid-year coup that gave Mr Hun Sen power by ousting Prince Norodom Ranariddh. "It seems to have been a basic car-jacking, as far as we can a Foreign Affairs Department spokesman said, "although that makes five abductions this week. What makes this one unusual is that it happened in broad daylight in Phnom Penh, so there's clearly a trend occurring." Of particular concern is the increasing kidnappings and minor harassments in the cities, which had previously been relatively safe from bandits. Where- as- earlier examples, including the brutal kidnapping and murder of a Melbourne man, Mr Davidi had occurred in areas Where central government control was historically weak and renegade-Khmer Rouge units operated with abandon more recent Incidents suggest a more widespread The abduction of Mr: Kellaway followed the reported kidnapping in central Cambodia last Thursday of two Malaysian and two Filipino men.

A Cambodian newspaper said the men, who work for a logging were abducted while on an inspection trip of forests in' Kampon'g Thorn province after their convoy was attacked by about 10 heavily armed men. The standard Foreign Affairs travel advisory will be reviewed in light of the latest case, but diplomats are anxious not to highlight the problem beyond what has always existed in the strife-torn country. "The advisory is already pretty strong, for obvious rea-. -sons, so I don't know that there's much more we can do," a spokesman said. "We suggest people don't go'' out at night and things like that, but we will look at it again this week." PAGE A6: Ceasefire hope.

Victoria support leans to republicans Escaper wanted oyer $450,000 WA bank heist tm. 1 1 K3ff fli Australia's most wanted man, Brendan Abbott, is a suspect in Western Australia's largest bank hold-up, police have confirmed. Police investigating a bank hold-up last Friday said Abbott fitted the description of the bandit who held up a Commonwealth Bank at gunpoint, netting about $450,000. Petective Sergeant John Newnham, of the state crime squad, said the bandit's method fitted Abbott's usual style. Dubbed the Postcard Bandit, 32-year-old Abbott is the last of five escapers still free after an armed break-out from Brisbane's high-security Sir David Longland prison on 4 November.

Police said unlike the colleagues he led to freedom Ab- bott was an experienced fugitive, breaking out of Fremantle jail in November 1989 and evading capture for almost six years. He is wanted for a long list of armed robberies across the country. Police are investigating dozens of reported sightings of him. The Western Australian police, Federal Police and agencies from the eastern states are involved in the Perth robbery investigation. Police said a man disguised as a grey-haired businessman walked into the Mirrabooka Commonwealth Bank branch at 8.50am, before it was opened to the public, and forced staff at gunpoint to hand over the contents of the safe.

A grey wig, ammunition, black bags and a tie found behind a hardware store in Belmont have undergone forensic examination. Detective Stigeant Norm Wil-cock, of the crime squad, said Abbott was the prime suspect. The bandit evaded the. bank's security camera and alarm system, and appeared to have detailed knowledge of the layout of the. bank.

The description of the bandit given by staff 185cm tall with solid build. matches that of Abbott. Abbott also has been linked to a Melbourne robbery at the Rosanna ANZ bank, where the bandit wore a rubber mask. AAP Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, which secured three positions. Heading the group will be the Australian Democrats founder, Mr Don Chipp, accompanied by the young Melbourne lawyer Ms Sophie Panopoulos and the ACM's state director, Mr Jim Ramsay.

Of most surprise to observers -was the strong performance of the Victorian HSL chief, Mr Bruce Ruxton, whose Safeguard -The People ticket appears to 1 have secured as many positions as the ACM team for Mr Ruxton, Mr Vernon Wilcox and Mr Petar Vlahos. Less certain is the role to be played by the Shooters' Party's Mr Eric Bullmore, who both the ACM and ARM concede is most likely to pick up the final position. High-profile candidates who narrowly missed out include former ABC and Seven Network journalist Ms Jill Singer, former independent MP Mr Phil Cleary and Ms Misha Schubert, who ran a strong campaign as a youth candidate. It is believed that moves between the republican camps are under way to ensure that their differences on detail are not exploited by those in favor of the status quo. Although broad support for a republic substantially outweighed pro-monarchy forces, with all states and territories replicating the Victorian vote, there is no certainty this will be reflected at the convention.

Suspect: Australia's most wanted man, Brendan Abbott. Little Pleasure: Dylan Murphy, 2, watched by his mother, Naomi, with seven-week-old Kyralee. makes the most of an early Christmas present yesterday. The Smith Family brought early Christmas cheer to thousands of needy Melbourne families by delivering donated food hampers and toys. Picture: jerry galea JUST BRIEFLY A cruel game of chance is at work for the unemployed Job sharing not the answer, says employer group Shortening standard working this year, was a "proper job" a retainer of $400 a week and a capacity to earn sizeable commissions.

But he admits to having made a mistake there that ended their association, and he regrets it deeply. He doesn't want to elaborate. But the most insidious effect of; never knowing where the next. dollar was coming from was to flip him into bad habits. It was an 'easy escape from the worries about chaotic home finances to slip into the casino.

"The sort of people who got into gambling problems are the people who are in my situation, living on hope." For himself, he says, the problem was a corrosive perception that all his work fortunes rested upon luck. He went through a rough time, finally being forced to snap out of his problems with his finances and his marriage. It is now behind him, and as he plans a future with the help of unemployment case manager Malcolm Press and Associates, he vows that living on the certainty of the dole's minuscule payment is better than pie-in-the-sky commission and he'll hang out for a real sales job. industrial cleaners. The jobs lasted from four days to four, months.

He lost one job in a showroom because he asked why there were no chairs. The answer was that salesman were not allowed to sit down on the job. Another ended because the boss had not liked the way he had answered the phone. He was mystified about what had caused the offence. Only the time-share job, which he held for four months Narbethong fire under control A FIRE at Narbethong, between Healesville and Marysville, has been contained after burning 15 to 20 hectares of mountain ash countryside and no longer poses a threat to houses.

Seventy firefighters, two helicopters and a water-bombing plane helped to bring the fire under control. Police motions UP TO 2000 rank-and-file police officers unanimously passed a motion of no confidence yesterday in Western Australia's police commissioner, Mr Bob Falconer, over his suspension of six detectives accused of drug-related Police also passed motions of no confidence in the State Government and senior police executives who have voiced support for Mr Falconer, a former deputy commissioner of the Victoria Police. Clothes burned A FIRE at Bancrofts Dry Cleaning, in Toorak Road, South Yarra, has ruined about 15,000 items of clothiffirAnd police are investigating a tire-at a bed-spring factory in Campbellfield, Which left A damage bill of John Laws for TV THE Sydney radio broadcaster John Laws has' signed a long-term, multi-million-dollar deal with the pay TV operator Foxtel for a talk show five nights a week starting early next year. Errors and clarifications ON 16 December The Age reported under the heading 'Jealous ex-husband beat priest with shoe' claims that Father Victor Rophael had been defrocked and that he had had an adulterous relationship. Those claims are strongly denied by Father Rophael.

He is a fully serving priest. The accused pleaded guilty, and accordingly the claims were hot tested in court. An article in The Age on Saturday reported on the sentence of Anthony John Attard who molested 27 young girls over almost a decade. The article and caption said that Attard had been given a suspended jail term and a Community-based order. In fact, as reported in the last paragraph of the story, the Sentence was two years and five months in jail, wholly suspended for three years, i)nd an intensive corrections order for one year.

was a dream that proved to be a delusion. Over, two years, he has applied for about 80 jobs, got about 35 interviews and landed 21 jobs but all bar one of them' had serious inherent The jobs were "dodgy" and he would leave of his volition, usually out of desperation because it took too-long to get paid. Frequently, he says, they are wrongly described as sales jobs. There's a blurring of understanding about the differences between sales, marketing and promotion. Just last week, he answered a sales advertisement that 'turned out to be a job for someone to dance on a bar.

Other misrepresentations were only apparent once in the jobrEyen so, there were elaborate preparations, often a number, of. Interviews. He became aware-how choosey firms were about who represented them. Then, though he would find himself driving his own car, spending hundreds of dollars on petrol, getting no payment at all if he made no sales or, if he did, having to wait up to a month before the came through. Sometimes the companies would go leaving.

Him with a bouncing Or they would lose their contracts and make staff redundant. In two years, he has sold pizzas, mobile phones, Telstra products, security alarms, barter systerns, business cards and printing products, time share cookware, secondhand showroom stock and nours or introducing job sharing would only lengthen dole queues, Australia's peak employer group said yesterday when releasing policies it claims could slash unemployment within five years. The chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Mark Paterson, said the Government, which has said that Australia would have set a job creation benchmark for the world over the next 12 months If not for the Asian crisis, had already undertaken several key measures. And Australia might still set a benchmark, Mr Paterson said, In a statement accompanying ACCI's latest Review publication. "The combination of a growing economy, a flexible labor market and an appropriately designed program for skills development will ensure that all but the most entrenched of the unemployed will find work," he said.

'But there are also a series of traps which look like the easy path to lowering unemployment but which never work In practice these should avoided like the plague." Mr Paterson said Italy and France were In the process of Introduclne a 35-hour stun. cern oneself about whether such a program will work it won't," he said. "Australia tried cutting hours to lower unemployment in 1982 and the bottom fell out of the economy." Groups Including the welfare lobby have called on employers to take on new staff Instead of increasingly relying on existing workers to put In longer hours. But Mr Paterson said job sharing, and programs such as early retirement schemes, only added to unemployment. Cutting hours reduced productivity, and early retirement simply removed skilled employees from the labor market, he said.

ACCI's guide to lowering unemployment includes maintaining strong economic growth, introducing wider mlcroeconomic reforms that improve the adjustment capabilities of the economy and stimulating productivity growth while containing labor costs. The guide also calls for changes to social security to encourage participation in the workforce. "If this guide to action were adopted, the unemployment problem In Australia could be eliminated within five years," the publication said. Unemployment is now 8,4 per cent. AAP Quote of the day "The sort of people who got into gambling problems are the people who are in my situation, living on hope." Mr Drlss Regague, 33, a former tour guide who speaks six languages but cannot find a full-time job.

Online Predict the Boxing Day Test result in our Crystal Ball virtual crjeket competition at www.theage.com.au dard working week to ui-'uiH On capitalisms lowest rung, Dnss Regague has had 21 jobs in the past twoyears-n victim of wjiqt bureaucrats call "churning'. picture: There; 1 no Heed to conr mm 7 V' -Bank Sportswear HOUSE We make CURTAINS ROMAN a AUSTRIAN SHADES Free Quote 521 Chapel Street South Yarra 3141 Picas trigs minim Current Interest Rates pa Phone 9626 9957 UcNrSgft Monthly Quarterly Half Annual Interest Interest Yearly Interest 3yrs 4.75 4.90 5.10 5.20 5yrs 5.20 5.40 5.60 5.70 7yrs 5.35 5.55 5.80 6.00 lOyrs 5.60 6.76 .6.00 6.25 mm A twiw short cmtm sptkMa hi Tbt Jlft ea Friday Mb mi Tmtitr 13th JaMrt, 19M About 70 per cert of Victorian students taking up adult education courses are women, but more and more men are Joining In as they opt to work part-time or assist with caring for children home. Students are as young as 16 and some are even In their 90s though many choose a course or a hobby to Improve their emptoyrriefit opportunities. On Friday, 9th and Tuesday, 13th January, The Ago wW publish the first "Courses for Everyone reports for 1996 which prospoCuve students win be advised about the steps they should take before enroMng In a course. Examples of oourses waHabto from eduMttorrt Instrajbons this mimmet wM also be featured.

These special reports provide a highly targBted audience for ah advertising mMsage. Ne1y 445,000, or 45 par cent of a Victorians who attended a short course, seminar or purjfc lecture In. the lest 12 months are weekday readersof The Ajb. ftr mtmdtom iti iataiptiMs pgeteaj Annual Compound Interest Option is available For an information brochure phone 1 800 817 618 or visit any Commonwealth Bank branch. Put! termi nd onndklou are available on application.

Government charges may PPly. tRatea are applicable for amount from $5,000 to less than 1100,000 and are subject to chane without notice. Rate for amounts i 100,000 and orer are available on application. Term are approximate. We wish you Jojout Christmas THE GE I j' a.