The Age du lieu suivant : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 3

WEDNESDAY 22 JULY 1992 THE AOIa In Brief TWU to Meet om dispute I Al4ave refill CIO pn the date, Kirner heeds (pay thee yoice within co.v.?:znt By MEOAN BACKHOUSE and JACQUI MACDONALD offer a fire sale The proposed sale of the State Insurance Office was a financial scandal that should be Investigated, SHAUN CARNEY, by the auditor-general, a State Public Services -Federation official said yesterday. Mr Bill Deller, jv vice-president of the union, said he had obtained two confidential letters from an SIO board member to a state minister. They showed that there had decision to return to work. Six Qantas flights arrive and five depart from Melbourne Airport today. All will be cancelled unless the dispute ends.

The spokesman said that If flights were cancelled today, passengers would be transferred to other Sydney flights to connect with International flights. Passengers landing in Sydney would continue to be transferred to other flights to Melbourne. Qantas handles baggage for nine other airlines: Cathay Pacific Airways, Singapore Airlines, Air Pacific, UTA French Airlines, Thai Airways International, Air New Zealand, Gar-uda Indonesia, Philippine Airlines and Lauda Air. PAGE 13: Editorial Mr Bryant told the commission that the company could not continue to sustain the damage caused by the dispute and that It had a number of "unpalatable" options open to it, Including sacking the striking workers, seeking the deregulation of the union or parts of It, or cancelling the baggage handlers' award. The dispute began on Saturday when about 100 baggage handlers walked off the Job after two workers were asked to resign last week over misconduct allegations.

Mr Bryant said that while one worker resigned, the other, a TWU member, refused and was later dismissed. A Qantas spokesman said yesterday that contingency schedules would remain until the union made a firm airline could not resume normal operations until tomorrow. He said overseas flights leaving for Australia last night would be forced to make contingency plans would stick to them even if Industrial action ended today. All International Qantas flights In and out of Melbourne were cancelled yesterday. The Australian Hotels Association warned yesterday that the dispute was already having an Impact on Victorian tourism, with several international hotels reporting cancellations.

The federal Minister for Tourism, Mr Griffiths, said yesterday that there were no merits In the dispute, which, he said, totally devalued the concept of unionism. Mr Lester told the IRC yesterday that the union was optimistic that workers would return to work, but It would not make a recommendation to workers. It would be up to members to decide whether to return to Mr Bryant told the commission that the Industrial action had caused "immeasurable damage" and that the dispute had reached a "very, very, serious Outside the commission, the Qantas manager at Melbourne Airport, Mr Peter logs, said that between 4000 and 5000 International passengers using the airport had been affected each day by the union's action. About 120 tonnes of freight a day had not been moved into or out of the airport. The flight arrangements of up to 17,500 passengers have so far been disrupted by the Qantas baggage-handlers' dispute, which may be resolved today when members of the Transport Workers Union meet.

A federal organiser for the union, Mr Morrie Lester, told the Industrial Relations Commission yesterday that TWU baggage handlers would meet at Sam today to reconsider their position. But the Industrial relations manager for' Qantas, Mr David Bryant, warned that even if the baggage handlers, who have been on strike since Saturday, returned to work today, the been no proper evaluation of the costs and benefit Ttje loneliest person ln 'polltics is not Joan Kirner- It Is the person with haa nnt tolri' Jnan Kirner what of selling the SIO. In copies given to 'The Age', the Norris slams critics of 'friendship' trip Pkaure: NEIL NEWITT toido. about calling an election. Federal ministers.

Labor machine 'men-from Canberra, her oppont eifts? newspapers, pollsters have tried to outdo each other In telling 'bejr the same thing: go now; Btft through the din, Mrs Kirner has listened only to herself; she Is holding to her strategy. Through the din, few have listened to what she has told them. Mrs Kirner has ruled out calling an election before the state Budget. iWhen is that? According td Government sources, It Is on 12 August On 1 July, Mrs Kirner gave, a substantial bint of her strategy In a letter to the Opposition 'Leader, Mr Kennett. She wrote that she did not Intend to call an election before the Budget.

iTae delivery of the Budget would allow Victorians to consider election commitments "within the sharp focus of the Budget Mjr! Kirner wrote. The tjen requires a campaign to run a minimum of 33 days. So does Mrs Kirner mean the Budget will be passed by Parliament in the dying days of August, followed by a 33-da; campaign culminating in a 3 October election? Not necessarily. Just because a government delivers a Budget, it ddes not mean it has to be passed bit parliament before an election Is tailed, especially If the Government wants to make the Budget a key 'election issue. Significantly, Mfs Klrner's Uuly letter to Mr jnA Att i-Atom to -Vlrtnrifins.

nnt If Law -C names of the board member and the minister have: been blacked out. The letters suggest that the proposed sale to the New South Wales GIO would cost Victoria millions of dollars. The SIO board meets today to discuss the proposed sale. Adelaide loses Games bid Kuala Lumpur has won the right to stage the 1998 Commonwealth Games, defeating Adelaide by 40 'J votes to 25 In a ballot by the Commonwealth Games Federation in Barcelona. The South Australian Premier, Mr Bannon, said there was no question that Adelaide had a superior bid but had been defeated because of political considerations.

Police at house Homicide squad detectives were at a house in Dandenong North last night, where it Is believed a man was stabbed to death before his body was dumped In a removal van in a nearby street. Detectives went to the house after bloodstains were' found. Police sealed off the area and called in forensic experts. The body of Malcolm Carlyon, 41, was found on Monday. Chemical spill Emergency workers were battling last night to contain a serious chemical spill In central New South Wales after a freight train carrying sodium cyanide pellets and a truck collided at a level crossing outside Condoblln, about 60 kilometres west of The truck driver was killed.

Farmhouses and a nearby agricultural college were evacuated. Child abuse agreement The Minister for Community Services, Ms Seiches, last night announced an agreement between workers in community services and the Family Court to exchange information on child abuse. Kelty reappointment The Federal Government yesterday reappointed the ACTU secretary, Mr Bill Kelty, to a second five-year term on the board of the Reserve Bank. The Opposition Leader, Dr Hewson, bad opposed Mr Kelty's reappointment. $12m writ against Connell The liquidators of Rothwells Limited have Issued a $12 million writ against the Perth businessman Laurie Connell.

Documents lodged In the Supreme Court In Brisbane claim Mr Connell owes the money because of an agreement In January 1989. Zoo chief named The Zoological Board of Victoria has appointed Mr Chris Larcombe as chief executive officer to manage the Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens, Healesville Sanctuary and the Werribee Zoological Park. Mr Larcombe spent 28 years with BP Australia and was also the managing director of the Llnfox Group, IlV'vi "iS Parliament, being informed by the debate. suggestion here Is that the debate will be carried out not the Victorian grandeur of Spring Street, but in television stu-dfpson radio and in the papers. It tsialso worth noting that the most 4 vl fay xi recent "Dear Jeff letter also contained an offer to hold a series of televised debates between Labor Jf, 7 aaq lav coauuon.

'So the probability is that the Budget will be delivered on Wed nesday 12 August and an election date1 3 or 10 October will be announced soon after, possibly as early as that afternoon. This would aHow Mrs Kirner to have a Budget debate that Is also a long, long election campaign debate. Jlhe thinking within the torian Government is that a period of sustained scrutiny of Liberal- xhe Deputy Speaker of fhe Legislative Assembly, Mr Terry Norris (left), and the President of the Legislative Council, Mr Alan Hunt, at their news conference, By HUOO National coalition policies will minimise the swing against Labor to about five per cent. -(The Liberals, are locked Into, their election strategy. No matter bow temotinn it is to start "1 releasing policies before the election date Is announced, they will notfto it.

According to senior Lib erals, mere are two reasons. I One is that a lack of discipline hM already robbed Mr Kennett of victory once and maybe twice. The plan has to be adhered to. The heads of the political mental midgets who have done the bad-mouthing," he said. He criticised the former Liberal Tourism Minister, Mr Graeme Welde-man, accusing him of a "memory lapse" for waiting until the trip was under way before speaking up.

Mr Weideman revealed the trip last week. Mr Norris said: "I see his comments, made well Into our trip, as a political hatchet job done on the most respected member of his party, Alan Hunt, on behalf of Mr Weldeman's leader." Mr Hunt, however, dissociated himself from Mr Norrls's remarks. He refused to criticise Mr Kennett, but said: "However, I would say that (Mr Kennett) might not have recognised the purpose of the trip." Mr Hunt conceded that he had made "an error of judgment" In not announcing the trip before the two left Australia. "It happened very quickly, and I would hope In the future the purpose of any delegation would be adequately announced In advance." Mrs Kirner said the $40,000 advance would be paid back, and Parliament made to finance the trip. But Mr Hunt, who said he was unaware of this, said he would be "very disappointed" if the money had to be found from Parliament's budget.

The Opposition Leader, Mr Kennett, said the two MPs should not have gone because they were both retiring at the forthcoming election. Yesterday, Mr Norris (ALP, Dandenong), accused Mr Kennett of hypocrisy In criticising the trip. He said Mr Kennett had allowed three Liberal backbenchers, who had lost preselec- tlon for their seats, to take Commonwealth Parliamentary Association trips this year, yet bad called the latest trip a waste of money. Mr Norris said he was staggered by controversy caused by the trip, and was concerned It could affect the sister-state relationships. "If anything that's happened as a result of the speculation made about our trip (should) damage that relationship, be it on the o(her Is that voters are believed to be far more Interested In getting One of, two retiring state MPs.

who returned from an Asian "friendship'' trip yesterday accused "political mental midgets" of damaging Victoria's relationship with key provinces In China and Japan. Mr Terry Norris, the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, denied that the taxpayer-funded $40,000 trip, which he took with the President of the Legislative Council, Mr Alan Hunt, was a junket. The politicians and their wives made a 19-day trip to Jiangsu province in China and Aichl prefecture in Japan. Last week, the Premier, Mrs Kirner, was caught up In a row over who authorised the trip and who paid fortt. Mrs Kirner Initially denied authorising extra money for the trip.

But she later acknowledged that an extra $40,000 had been allocated by the Finance Ministry to cover the trip, and blamed a senior bureaucrat for the nja or Labor than savoring the minutiae of coalition policy, so the release of policies will never become the most important issue in Victorians' minds. 'i But as the federal ministers Snaon Crean and John Button, the Labor official-Bob Hogg, Mr Ken- nfctt et at have demonstrated in went weeks, the thing that most ehfertalns political minds is when the Government will go. Struggling Eastern-bloc athletes lead in free-market Olympics ippfong iVidbriain) BARCELONA DIARY CARRY LINNELL To further increase the power of your investment no account keeping charges apply and Citibank will even pay Financial Institutions Duty (FID) for you. T. je attend.

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iThe Premier recently announced wage -1 subsidies to provide 5000 new jobs to unemployed young Victorians ('Subsidies of up to $6000 are available to the employers of new trainees. Tralneeships offer young people aged 16 -19 a year ot employment combined with TAFE training. Tralneeships are ir available in a wide range of non-trade 4 'j Trainees are paid 75 of the award. -together with Government subsidies v4ils could mean you pay as little as 0 of a young person's wage. Call the Traineeship Hotline class diving tournament In the United States, two of Australia's young female divers developed friendships with a pair af their Soviet opponents.

At the end of the tournament a gala dinner was held to officially close the event The two Soviet girls were embarrassed. "They'd virtually come to the tournament with Just a track-suit or two and very little else," says the section manager of the Australian diving team, Geoff Sussman. They obviously felt very uncomfortable that they really had nothing to wear to the dinner. "So my girls took them out shopping one morning and with their own money bought them a couple of dresses so they could go along and not feel out of place. I was very proud of my kids for doing that" Part af the Olympic traditlan Is the swapping af badges, cam-' memorative plna and other paraphernalia.

With the collapse af their atate-fnnded sporting pregrama, and the sadden disappearance of the luxuries which tace accompanied lateraatlaaal aaeeess, Eastern bloe competitors no longer have time far sach miner matters. As Edwin Moses observed, medals are aat the most atrisas Item to fill the belly. Bat they eaa help ta aat food aa the plate. "You can't tat medals. Edwin Moses, former world hurdles champion.

Almost 1S.M of the werld's elite athletes have came vie Spain In search of gold. A few ot them are alsa hoping sell It The Irea Cortaln Is In tatters and se, tea, are the I Inaaees ef athletes from the old Savlet-bloe countries. With their state- ran sporting factories elated down, the suppert system which for sa long catered to their every whim Is no more. Life ia tough. Success In Barcelona for many of the athletes representing the Cemmen-wealth at Independent States will no longer guarantee a villa by the sea, a luxury car and a healthy pension for life.

Which is why these Olympics are like- ly, ia some instances, ts more closely resemble a freniled auctten than a sporting esntest For the past tw years, athletes and officials tram around the world have grewa seen-tamed te being approached by Soviet, Palish aad ether East- era Enropeaa athletes offering everything far sale short af the kitenea slak. Nathlag is expeeted to eh'aage here daring these Game. Ia fact, if anything, the area nsnstag the CIS athletes ia tat athletes7 village ceald well resemble scenes at a Myer etecktakiag sale. The manager of Australia's boxing team, John Davles, was In Barcelona several months ago far a pre-OlympIc qualifying tournament. You only had to turn a corner, he recalls, to hear a valce with a thick Russian accent beckoning yon to come upstairs and peruse the merchandise.

-j "It was amatlng," he said. Just about anything you'd want was there tracksults, medals, running shoes the works." Davles discovered that a tracksult with the hammer and sickle Insignia waa np for sale. Such aa item these daya In the sporting cemmunlty ia considered extremely valuable. But ha pat his wallet back Into his packet when he discovered the going rate mere than $AU. are many such sterles, bat the tales sf hardship experienced by many af the Eastern European athletes often have a poignant edge to themu Earlier this year, at a world- Opening an Investor Power Account is easy.

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