The Sydney Morning Herald du lieu suivant : Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 1

1 12 III IL 7 VOw VII Mill III iallllil I lc SVt No. 49,833 RRST PUBLISHED 1831 60 PAGES 90c The hyping Woman of steel -of Rembrandt Welfare's new chief ARTS PAGE 14 FEATURES PAGE 13 1 NEWS PAGE 8 Stol en elhildren say It time to pay for tlhe hurt i 1 Share my pain: a victim's plea to PM By DEBRA JOPSON "I lived 32 years of my life not knowing who I was, where I came from, and hich racial group I belonged to. "I didn't see anyone who ever looked like me. In fact, I used to think that I'd come out of an egg, because there as no-one here on this earth who looked like me." These were the words yesterday of Ms Julie Lavelle -words she wants the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, to hear from her, face to face. Ms Lavelle thinks Mr Howard is afraid to confront Aboriginal pain.

"I need my pain acknow ledged, or I will never heal," she said. Ms Lavelle, 39, who was taken from her mother at three and only traced her after she had died, is the head of Link-Up, the NSW body hich reunites fractured indigenous families. She said she was "horrified" by the Federal Government's rejection of recommendations in the report on stolen children. "It breaks my heart," she said. "AH we've been doing and all the people involved in it has been in vain.

It is awful. It belittles hat we feel. This is about human beings ho experience pain." She said finally discovering that she as Koori as "absolutely wonderful" because "for the first time in my life, I had a Women at greater risk from passive smoking By MELISSA SWEET and agencies Passive smoking is far more likely to cause coronary heart disease than has been previously thought, suggests a major new study showing it almost doubles a woman's risk of heart attack. Health groups have hailed the United States study as the most significant yet of its type, and predict it will further encourage lawsuits against employers and others who fail to provide smoke-free environments. The findings have also fuelled claims by anti-smoking campaigners that lives will be lost among NSW's 120,000 hospitality workers as a result of the State Government's move to delay for five years the introduction of smoking bans in hotels, clubs and restaurants.

At the same time, one of the world's leading authorities on passive smoking, Professor Stanton Glantz, has launched an attack on Australia's efforts on tobacco control, saying it is marked by "lethargy and Professor Glantz, of the University of California, said anti-tobacco advertising had all but disappeared, that health promotion foundations had moved-away from tobacco issues, and that the Quit campaigns were "worn out and "The fact Australia's once cutting-edge tobacco control program has fallen into the doldrums is clearly illustrated by the data on smoking prevalence," he wrote in the latest Health Promotion Journal of Australia. Cigarette consumption has fallen in Australia, but anti-smoking campaigners say smoking rates have remained stuck at about 25 per cent for most of the 1990s. Dr Terry Campbell, a cardiologist and a NSW spokesman for the National Heart Foundation, said the latest results, which come from the prestigious Nurses Health Study, were the most convincing yet on passive smoking and heart disease. The study, involving more than 32,000 women who had never smoked, found that those who were regularly exposed to passive smoke at home or at work were 90 per cent more likely to suffer a heart attack over the 10-year follow-up than those not exposed. Dr Campbell said most previous studies had suggested the risk was about 30 per cent greater.

Those women occasionally exposed to passive smoke had a 60 per cent increase in risk, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health reported in the journal, Circulation. The study's main author, Dr Ichiro Kawachi, said the findings suggested that up to 50,000 Americans were dying each year of heart attacks caused by passive smoking. COLUMN WHEN Elizabeth Mooney, of Birchgrove, wanted to complain to Someone about "a most distasteful ad" on TV, she rang the channel. Complain to the Advertising Standards Council, she was told. She rang the ASC number in the White Pages, only to find it is a private home number and the householder is sick of complaints about ads.

HAS the council disappeared? Yes, Elizabeth, it died at the end of last year, and the TV station should know. To whom can you complain? No-one, perhaps, except the TV station. The Australian Association of National Advertisers has been trying for six months to set up a system of self-regulation, including an Advertising Standards Board but it will have no teeth. IF YOU'RE around Bowral, watch out for the number plate DB9994. It's the Bradman Museum car and any cricket enthusiast should be able to tell you what the numbers signify.

LAST SUNDAY, Lesley, of Elvina Bay, co-ordinator of the Red Shield Appeal around Pitt-water, sent out her people in small boats to collect along the western shores. With about $200, she rang the Salvos' collection point to apologise for being late. Actually, she was told, she was either 5 1 weeks late or a week early. The official collection day is next Sunday. Many thanks, anyway.

ALAN Holley, of Harbord, phoned a Brookvale liquor shop the other day and asked for its price on Grange Hermitage. "What brand is that?" the manager asked. Penfolds. "And is it a white or a red?" IT'S a nice ad, and they have been paying us to run it full-page the wishes from the AMP for the 2000 Games to be the best ever. A shame to be picky but it shows a young boy, dressed in Australian colours, standing on a dais in triumph as the Australian flag behind him is hoisted, hanging vertically, just like they do it at the Games.

Well, not quite. The flag is back to front The Union Jack should be in the top left corner and not, as shown, in the top right. And we'll quote The Australian National Flag, put out by the Federal Government, as our authority. BROWNED off by bad reviews for his latest film, The Fifth Element, Bruce Willis was quoted on Page 1 1 yesterday as saying: "No-one pays any attention to reviews. Frankly, like most of the written word, it is going the way of the dinosaurs.

Most people get their information from the cinema or the electronic media Alan Hyman, of Lane Cove, a teacher, clipped this profundity, then noticed what was on the back of the clipping. From Page 12, it was the application form for the Herald Young' Writer of the Year award. By JAMES WOODFORD Victims of government policies which saw generations of indigenous children removed from their parents should be compensated for their pain, Aboriginal leaders and the Federal Opposition said yesterday. Bringing them Home, the final report of a major inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, details almost 200 years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. It calls for acknowledgment and apology from all national and State parliaments, guarantees against repetition, measures of restitution, measures of rehabilitation and monetary compensation.

The president of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Sir Ronald Wilson, who completed the report on April 5, told the ABC last night that the consequences of this policy of separation was still with us "touching the health of this "It's imperative they Aboriginal people should hear the Australian people, every parliament, every church that had anything to do with the policy and the body of Australian people to collectively say to their Aboriginal brothers and sisters 'look, we're sorry for this chapter in our past history and we are determined to do everything we can to heal the breach'." He also said he was determined to see the report's recommendations implemented and would sell it in every State. The Opposition's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs spokesman, Mr Daryl Melham, said it was an outrage that the Government had sat on the report since April. "Where there's liability there should be compensation," Mr Melham said. "Are we saying they are not entitled to compensation because they are black?" The chairman of ATSIC, Mr Gatjil Djerrkura, and the executive director of the Kimberley Land Council, Mr Peter Yu, also called for compensation. They should be compensated for the enormous moral physical and spiritual damage, Mr Djerrkura said.

The report, which will not be made public until it is tabled in Federal Parliament next week, damns successive State and Federal governments which oversaw the removal of Aboriginal babies and children from their parents. In some States, rates of physical abuse among Aboriginal children were reportedly as high as 62 per cent Disease, through poor hous- 4) Julie Lavelle says Mr Howard is a i ii imt i 1 1 iiwTi fcei9 Stleo from m- Tj left Sc(f4 ard without- 'c(trY ttt-n ing and hygiene conditions, was rampant and some Aboriginal children grew up to become so psychologically and emotionally numbed by their experiences that they were unable to form adult relationships. The report explodes the myth that Aboriginal children were taken from their families for their welfare. In fact, the children, especially young girls, were exploited as cheap labour, with some as young as 12 being raped by their white foster fathers, 'church leaders and the employees of public institutions. The 700-page document, ordered by the previous Federal Government and in the possession of the Attorney-General, Mr Williams, has found that Australia was in breach of international law and was guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

"The United Nations Charter of 1945, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination of 1965 all imposed obligations on Australia relating to the elimination of racial discrimination," the report says. "The Australian practice of indigenous child removal involved both systematic racial discrimination and genocide as defined by international law. Yet it continued to be practised as official policy long after being clearly prohibited by treaties to which Australia had voluntarily subscribed." On Monday, Federal Government sources attacked the credibility of the report and said both compensation and the establishment of a national "Sorry Day" were unlikely. Yesterday, both the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Senator Herron, and Mr Williams, said they were unable to comment on the report until it was tabled. Next Monday, the National Reconciliation Convention begins and the Federal Government's handling of the Stolen Children report and the Wik High Court decision are expected to be high on the agenda.

PAGE 5: Bringing them Home the stolen children. Jana Wendt $6m claim. She did not seek any "veto" clause in her new contract because she had "great faith" in the executive producer, Mr Peter Manning, and others who had been appointed. Channel 7 claims the money paid to Ms Wendt since she was stood down in January is sufficient compensation. Ms Wendt believes she is entitled to more because Channel 7s contract became unfair when she did not get what she was Weather today sydney cool to mild and LA LA Liverpool 11 to NSW: Scattered of the i inriHMii nwr Hi i nwi mr :a.i afraid to confront Aboriginal pain.

Soeharto family 'deals' mar Indonesia's top rating In the Witness box, Wendt names her price $6m, plus damages "So in 1990, 1 decided I would look for my people. That took about six months and Link-Up came to me and I thought they had found my mother. What they had found as her death certificate. My mother had passed away three years before my search began. "To this day, I will never meet her.

I will never know her. I ill never speak my mother's tongue. "You want to know the effects? I live ith them. They won't go away tomorrow and they won't go aw ay next year. I think they might go away hen I die." Ms Lavelle said she was prepared to meet Mr Howard anyw here to tell her story of being adopted into a loving Chatswood family hich gave her plenty of privileges but left her with no identity and a "very large hole" in her heart.

Continued Page 5 promised, namely a high-quality current affairs program. Seven rejects her complaints. Mr Rothman said Ms Wendt "deliberately" set out to undermine Mr Manning, and to change the normal regime where he would determine the editorial content of the program and its style. Mr Rothman also said that Channel Ts owner, Mr Kerry Stokes, denied any editorial interference in Witness. He had spoken to Ms Wendt after the broadcast of her interview with Mr Rupert Murdoch but only to ask for advance notice of any other stories that may affect the network's commercial interests.

Earlier, Ms Wendt's counsel accused Channel 7 of abandoning her after she took court action. Mr John West, QC, said that Ms Wendt "had become a prisoner of the channel, unable to speak unless it said so and only then if it approved the terms on which she The hearing continues. PAGE 6: Quiet on the cash. 12 to 19- Eary showers then partly cloudy. I i i 5 iK I vyv.t Photograph by ROBERT PEARCE School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the university.

The report acknowledges that President Soeharto and his advisers have got the Indonesian economy moving along at a brisk clip, with continuing "robust" growth. Gross domestic product grew at an average rate of 8. 1 per cent a year in the six years to 1995 and recorded a respectable 7.8 per cent increase in 1996. Average incomes are rising substantially, inflation is under control, the country remains competitive in the global market, tariffs have been greatly reduced, the private sector is becoming more important, capital inflow remains high, the stock market is at an all-time high. However, the report says there is concern over "the failure of President Soeharto to prepare the way for his successor and the high level of social unrest, reflected in numerous outbreaks of violence over the past year or so.

"This unrest appears to Continued Page 12 Commercial Property By DAVID JENKINS Asia Editor The Soeharto Government has $US11 billion ($14 billion) "squirrelled away" in banks and has alienated many Indonesians by "the increasingly blatant manner" in which an "unending stream of special deals and privileges" has benefited members of the ruling family and some crony businessmen, says a review partly sponsored by BHP and the National Australia Bank. In an assessment which pulls few punches, the survey describes the Indonesian "national car project" of President Soeharto's youngest son as a "farce" and speaks of "the unedifying spectacle" of the Soeharto family fighting to acquire a stake in the Busang gold project, which turned out to be worthless. It says that observers were "astonished" when President Soeharto decided to sink $US2 billion into the development of an Indonesian passenger jet The highly critical comments on Indonesia are contained in By JENNIE CURTIN Jana Wendt wants $6 million from Channel 7, plus compensation for damage to her reputation and an amount to cover her legal fees, the Industrial Commission heard yesterday. Mr Stephen Rothman, SC, appearing for Seven, revealed the amount after Ms Wendt's counsel withdrew any objection to the mention of figures which had previously remained confidential. Mr Rothman told Justice Marks there was no evidence to support Ms Wendt's assertion that she had lost job opportunities or had become unemployable since her time with Channel 7 hosting Witness.

"The mere calculation shows the preposterousness of the proposition. He Ms Wendt's counsel is effectively speaking of damages for unfair contract in the vicinity of, and I understate it, $6rnillion plus reputation plus costs," Mr Rothman said. Giving evidence yesterday, Ms Wendt said she left 60 Minutes at Channel 9 after feeling it had become "sensational and Internet www.smh.com.au HOME DELIVERY (02)92823800 ISSN 0312-6315 We specialise in every aspect of commercial property and development finance. A close-knit specialised team focussed on secure, tailor-made solutions adds value to every project. Make a decisive move.

Call Max Leslie, Chief Manager, St.George Commercial Property. You'll quickly discover we're small enough to respond, big enough to count on. 1800 500 208 You know where you stand with Asia Pacific Profiles, 1997, a 437-page survey of the East Asian economies prepared by the Asia Pacific Economics Group of the Australian National University and published yesterday by a unit of the Financial Times group. The report, sponsored by Time magazine, the National Australia Bank, BHP, Cathay Pacific and the ANU, was prepared under the direction of Dr Peter Drysdale, professor of economics in the Research TOMORROW Sydney The chance INSIDE Crosswords 27 Opinion 17 PHONE of a shower and a maximum of 19. Features 13 Personal notices 35 NSW: Fine in the north-east of the Amusements 24-26 Law notices 42 4348 Editorial ..92822822 State.

Patchy rain or showers Arts 14,15 Letters 16 Stay in Touch 28 Classified persisting in the remainder. Business 29-34 $2 Lottery 6255 24 Television 28 132535 DETAILS Page 27. Classified index 48 Mails, Shipping 43 World 10-12 General. ...9282 2833 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY 19 Richmond 10 to 19. i showers along the coast jFQ)-south Hunter.

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