The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 1

i i I I I I I I I I I I Ba w-m at by I 1 Pn I -4! 3f LS I L( c'V mm arrows cj ift Welcome to GST day one PMtafe fetar Low-key Costello plays to history if lb MAg A RSPOdT?) I -5J' A I i'X''''''fl'M4 ST Plea to review abuse laws John Howard says voters will deliver a positive tax verdict by. Christmas. By MICHAEL CORDON and PHILLIP HUDSON CANBERRA Inside Last-minute bargain buying Essential telephone numbers Prices watchdogs on patrol Up go beer prices Exodus of the politicians The new super equation Book changes under fire Taxi drivers and the GST NEWS 12-15 John Howard talks to Michael Gordon NEWS EXTRA Mr Howard's hallmark in his 26-year parliamentary career has been his 389 By CHLOE SALTAU SOCIAL POLICY REPORTER The former Family Court judge whose investigations into child protection helped pioneer mandatory reporting in Victoria, John Fogarty, has implored the State Government to review the laws before a child dies as a result of sustained, unreported abuse. Mr Fogarty said successive state governments had failed to follow through on the laws, which compel professionals such as teachers, doctors and nurses to notify the Department of Human Services if they suspect a child is being physically or sexually abused. His comments follow a Supreme Court decision in which a teenage girl successfully sued the state of Victoria because teacher at her primary school did not act on suspicions that the girl was being sexually abused.

Notifications of child abuse have been steadily increasing since the legislation came into effect in late 1993, putting extreme pressure on the DHS. which can investigate less than half of them. The chief executive of the Children's Protection Society, Rosi Lever, said professionals compelled by law to notify the department of child abuse were not always adequately trained and supported. Mr Fogarty, who conducted a ministerial inquiry into the violent death of two-year-old Daniel Valerio nearly 10 years ago and in 1993 made a series of recommendations to the then state government on Victoria's child protection services, told Hie Age the Bracks Government had inherited a "time bomb" that could result in the death of a child. He said the previous government had dropped the issue and "done -nothing" after the public outcry over the battered toddler's death died down.

He was strongly critical of the fact that many professions Continued pogeS Prime Minister John Howard declared yesterday he had put his "head on the block" to secure tax reform, signalling he will wear the blame if the system introduced today fails to deliver a stronger ana fairer nation. In an llth-hour media blitz, Mr Howard predicted that voters would deliver a positive verdict on the GST by Christmas, effectively conceding that his leadership was on the line. "The reason I have done this and I have taken the risk and I have put my head on the block, and accept it, is that I believe it is good for the country," he told Brisbane radio. "I've invested a lot in it, not for some kind of ego trip of my own." In an interview with The Age, Mr Howard said: "If the colleagues want me to lead them into the next election, I will. I'm in their hanJs, completely." More than 20 years after first advocating tax reform, five years after saying a GST would "never ever" be Coalition policy and almost three years after embarking on the "great tax Mr Howard insisted that politics would not be the same in Australia.

A new 10 per cent tax now applies to most goods and services, although basic food, health, education, child care and exports will be tax-free. The GST will replace the 1930s wholesale sales tax. The government will pay S12 billion in income tax cuts with 80 per cent of taxpayers having a top rate of 30 per cent. Families with children will gain extra tax breaks worth $2.4 billion, pensions will be increased by 4 per cent, rent allowance rises by 10 per cent, and retirees will be eligible for a savings bonus. The headline company tax rate today falls from 36 to 34 per cent, provisional tax will be replaced by the new pay-as- By SHAUN CARNEY The street and stores of Melbourne yesterday were packed with shoppers In a wild pre-GST rush.

But Ave floors above the din, In the controlled atmosphere of a media room adjacent to his office at the top end of Lonsdale Street, Treasurer Peter Costello predicted that the clamor about today's tax changes would fade to nothing. In the future, he said, Australians would look back at this period and wonder what the argument was all about. While declaring that July 1, 2000, would go down as the most significant date in the history of Australian taxation, he also suggested that people would one day be bemused by the heat of the tax debate. Drawing on his own childhood memories of the 1966 conversion to decimal currency, Mr Costello said the need for the changes was so clear that those who opposed the new tax system would go the way of those who had wanted to retain the Imperial currency pushed to the margins of history. By all accounts, Mr Costello was bouncing around his office yesterday, doing little to hide his excitement that the big day was almost upon him.

If he were a sportsman and not a politician, he would be regarded a a big-occasion player. However, the combined effects of Jet lag and the government's desire to keep a firm grip on what was being said meant the Treasurer's final public appearance In a GST-free Australia luted only IS minutes. Mr Costello returned to Melbourne after a week In Paris early on Thursday morning. He then shuttled to Canberra, took briefings, appeared in Parliament, took more briefings, stayed In Canberra overnight and took more briefings before flying back to Melbourne yesterday morning. He sparked up twice at his press conference.

The first time was when he said "the days of operating In the black economy are coming to an prompting a passing look of delight and a baring of the Costello fangs. The other came when he riffed on the three-letter acronym he enjoys talking about even more than the GST: the ALP. He said the Labor Party had said there would be mass rioting, so if today produced no mass riots, the government would regard the Implementation a success. He even adopted what might have once been regarded as leftle rhetoric, damning the ALP as a word Labor used to use against the Liberals pre-GST. After revealing that the first day of the GST was so Important that he would be working today rather than attending the Mchmond-Essendon game, Mr Costello made to leave.

Was he afraid of being booed at the footballt a reporter asked. Thank throng five floors below had any of It. Hf doggedness and tenacity. Without those qualities, is difficult to imagine such a risky and comprehensive reform being converted from rhetoric into reality. 7 NEWS EXTRA Editorial be worth $24 billion in year one, even though the Federal Government will wear any political blame.

Democrats leader Meg Lees who rescued Mr Howard's tax dreams last year by delivering her party's support in the Senate in exchange for the exemption of basic food yesterday predicted the GST "will raise billions more than Before his departure on Monday for centenary of Federation celebrations in London, Mr Howard has followed a televised address to the nation with more than 10 media interviews. He plans to highlight price reductions under the system at a Sydney shopping centre today. Despite the Coalition's original plans being changed by the Democrats, Mr Howard, who this week described himself as the "unashamed architect" of the tax package, yesterday pledged that he would not seek to extend the reach of the GST in contrast to Labor's undefined promise to roll it back from political hot Continued page. 12 ou-go system, tne tax on aiesei tuel will te cut by 24 cents a litre and first-home buyers can receive a $7000 rebate. The deal also overhauls federal-state relations with the states receiving the entire proceeds of the GST, estimated to Peter Costello: A crucial GST day at work takes precedence over a relaxing day at the football.

Ptctur RAY KENNEDY First home buyers Get a 7700 headstart with us Magpies legionnaires' infection fears grow Health officials believe she was infected by inhaling the fine By MARY-ANNE TOY HEALTH EDITOR Hundreds of people may have been exposed to legionella -bacteria from a contaminated spa In the players' room at the Collingwood Football Club. A 32-year-old woman, who was a part-time masseuse at the club, is stable but still critically ill with legionnaires' disease. She is in the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre. Hart, head of disease control for the department, said three people suffering respiratory illnesses and who had had contact with the club came forward yesterday. Up to six other people, none of them players, indicated they had some symptoms and wanted to be tested after players, staff and club officials met at the clubrooms yesterday moming for a briefing by a government infectious diseases expert.

Collingwood chief executive officer Greg Swann said no players had shown any symptoms and none would be tested for legionella unless they showed flu-like symptoms. The spa Is considered to have been safe since it was heavily chlorinated on Friday, June 23, when health officials traced it as the possible source of infection. Given that the incubation period is from two to 10 days after exposure, any further cases are likely to be evident by early next week. Club doctor Paul Blackburn said none of the players fell Into the high-risk category aged over 50, heavy smokers or drinkers, diabetic or having chronic lung disease or Continued page 6 NEWS 6: Ruction SPORT IS: Report spray from the spa surface. Another three possible cases are being investigated by the Department of Human Services.

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