The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • 1

y- j- WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 12 1997 Garage sales: how to make a profit MONEY LIFTOUT No 49749 FIRST PUBLISHED 1831 58 PAGES 80c usrasoe ultimate challenge SPORT PAGE 46 OSS GITTINS PAGE 17 Teachers told: back to scMooI of the Statewide pupil-free days win be devoted to literacy in all schools AO literacy consultants will have six days of training this year and literacy support teachers win receive four extra training before June Rrimary schools will hold at least six staff meetings as part of die training but schools wul also be able to use funds from and development budgets to to courses outside schools using one approach to teach children to read am sending out a menage to all the teachers in our schools that we expect them to adopt whatever teaching requirements are necessary to ensure the children in their classroom are able to read and write" he said High school teachers will undergo training as part of the introduction of die Year 7 language and literacy and at least one The president of die NSW Teachers Federation Mr Denis Fitzgerald said teachers welcomed die acceptance drat there was no one methodology that would meet the needs of children But he said the strategy would fail if the results were used to shame and demean some schools this annual reporting process is connected to a literacy program it wiD set literacy back significantly" he said those falling behind" he obviously the results show that die system has failed a ngnrfif nt number of children and that is why we are pouring unprecedented amounts of resources into literacy" A national study released last year found die percentage of Year 9 students who failed to gain basic literacy skills had risen since 1975 and performance had fallen significantly Mr Aquilina has ruled out and writing including use of the phonics technique where students sound out individual letters to read the word He said it had been assumed that teachers knew how to teach reading even though there was no specific emphasis on the training of teachers in this area they would often teach rintmr in which most students learnt to read naturally they would not always have a systematic set of teaching tools to help Government yesterday But a crucial part of the strategy literacy tests for Year 7 students was in doubt last night after the NSW Teachers Federation threatened to ban the tests scheduled for March 7 The union wants a guarantee the test results will be confidential and wQl not be pubHshed in the upcoming annual school reports Mr Aquilina said yesterday teachers would be specifically trained in how to teach reading fight for justice ends with guilty verdicts COLUMN A RYDE reader who had to leave her car at a Roselle garage on Monday tried to book a taxi with a child-capsule so that she could ferry her baby on to his day-care centre One cab company said it couldn't help another said it could but she might have to wait to two hours" A third promised a cab with capsule within 15 minutes of the 815 am booking At the garage however the mother waited and waited By 1 120 am the taxi had still not arrived but a sympathetic mechanic had fixed the faulty fan belt and petrol cap So much for trying to stay within the law FLICKING on the television on Sunday afternoon Deborah Elias of Paddington was just in time to see an announcement flash up on SBS: following program is in gibberish and subtitles will not be supplied" For a moment Ms Elias won dered whether SBS's subtitlin department had rebelled or hi assumed Australians were fluent in gibberish The 20-minute program The Screw was indeed in a nonsense language KEVIN Finnerty of Lewisham winced when he saw an advertisement on Saturday The Olympic Co-ordination Authority and Energy Australia gave notice that Bennelong Road Homebush would be dosed on February IS and 26 part of the under-grounding of die 132kV cables" Mr Finnerty thinks it would be easier to bury them THE mystery of the 10 golf buggies on the M2 (Column 8 yesterday) has beat solved David Jensen AAFs executive director of corporate affairs explains that die bizarre scene wes arranged and filmed as part of AAFs charity golf tournament This February 21 event at Pennant Hills golf course will be followed by an evening charity auction and it is at this that the film of the buggies (complete with police chase) will be shown Most of the buggy drivers were senior finance executives AAP plans to distribute $1 million to 14 charities from the day SORRY wrong Two readers have noted new sign outside Telstra's Coogee exchange in Dolphin Street gives its address as "Dolphone Street" A PYMBLE woman was more than usually upset when her house was burgled on Friday She and her husband were ttewding her father-in-law's funeral at the time and when they returned to their Mona Vale Road home they realised their camera was among the stolen items The film inside it contained last pictures taken of her father-in-law Our reader hopes that the thief's conscience win be pricked enough to return the film By STEM Education STEPHAME RAETHEL All teachers in NSW have been ordered back to the clast-room for training in how to teach children to read and write after the Minister for Education Mr Aquilina admitted the system had failed a significant amber of students Up to 60000 teachers will undergo specialist training as part of an SIM million literacy strategy released by the Carr Howard said yes to extra perks for Colston By MIKE SECCOMBE The Prime Minister personally approved extra peiks for Senator Mai Colston and his staff worth up to S75000 on the eve of the Senate vote on the part-privatisation of Telstra Mr Howard approved the hefty pay rise for a junior staff member of the Senate deputy president despite objections by the Department of Finance The rise was outside normal guidelines and made the position anomalous with other staff performing similar duties Mr Howard was forced to re-enter Parliament yesterday to deny he was trying to votes" after he had declined to respond to Opposition questions on the matter Approval of the Colston demand was conveyed to the Senate President on the eve of the Senate vote on the Government's legislation to sell one-third of Telstra on December 1 1 The legislation passed by one vote Senator Colston voted with the Government The base salary of the staffer concerned went from about S34JXX) plus overtime of about S4000L to about $47600 phis a full ministerial staff allowance of $11000 a travel allowance and approval to travel with Senator Gaston within Australia All up the cost of granting Senator Colston's wish may be as much as $75000 say Labor Party estimates based on sitting patterns and the past travel regime Departmental estimates suggest about $55000 The Opposition asked why the Prime Minister involved himself in the case of a junior staffer working for an Independent senator Mr Howard also insisted that the extra money come out of the of the Senate a unique arrangement And although he later claimed be acted on bureaucratic advice it was only after the Department of Finance refused to act unless on the written orders of the Prime Minister The payment was revealed in Question Time when the Opposition's Treasury spokesman Mr Gareth Evans asked whether Mr department had approached the Finance Department seeking an upgrade for one of Senator Colstons staff Mr Evans asked: the Department of Finance respond by saying that to give such approval would be transparent?" Mr Howard said he unable to give an immediate response but later said he had acted on die advice of his department justification for this was to bring Senator Colston's clerical assistance into that applying in the office of the Deputy Speaker Senator Colston's equivalent in the House of Representatives The anomaly between the two offices had existed for some time under the previous government" he said In fact the new arrangement creates an anomaly While the S13JX)0-odd rise in base salary brings the staffer into line with the equivalent House the travel component Htle bit of justice for a great Injustice" Fay and 1 Photograph by JASON SOUTH By ALAN ATTWOOO Herald Correspondent in New Yorit Mr Norman first reaction was to release the breath been hoMfag Then he folded Us friend Mr Isaac Abraham in a bear-hug The two has dsojSaablhftt crowded Brooklyn courtroom Mr Abraham then sank to his seat sobbing Mr Rosenbaum remained standing! straggling to hold back the tears staring ot the members of the jury who had just found two men responsible for the death of his younger brother Yankd in August 1991 Two guilty verdicts were what Mr RosenbAmn 39 a Melbourne lawyer had hoped for bat not expected Justice has been a long time coining for the family Mrs Fay Rosenbaum mother said from Melbourne last night she was stunned when Norman phoned her early yesterday morning just said guilty I wi stunned I just choked Just starting to realise been a little bit of justice for a great she said Mr Norman Rosenbaum said outside Federal Court building: is a great ihrase for justice To parapl Neil Armstrong this is small step for Justice one hell of a giant leap for the Justice system in this country The case had begun on a hot night in August 1991 By DAVE) HAY in Los Angeles The aerfainuMi Australian film Shine won seven Oscar nominations from the Academy of Motion Pictures in Hollywood early this morning They included best actin' Geoffrey Rush best film best supporting actor far Annin Mueller-Stahl beat director for Scott Hides and best original screen jday for Jan SardL Others nominated in the best film category were The English Patient whim has emerged as tins year's front-runner with 12 nominations Fargo Jerry Maguire vul Secrets aid Tin dvu rights Ndsou had been charged with inflicting at least one of the four stab wounds that led to the death of Mr Rosenbaum 29 after he was confronted by a gan of Mack men in Crown Heights Price was charged with instigating the attack having urged a crowd earlier to "Get a Jew" When the verdicts were delivered yesterday Nelson col- Sied face first on the defence le and sat crying He was remanded in custody and will not be sentenced tor several weeks He faces between six and 20 years in jaiL Price who has a longer criminal record and was already in custody on other to the winners of the Academy Awarda in March Shine hat won nine Australian Film Institute (AFI) awards was named Film of the Year by the United States Board of Review and was voted most popular film at film festivals in Toronto St Louis Fort Lauderdale Hawaii and Aapen The film's distributor in the United States was believed to have spent more than the film's original budget on an advertising campaign designed to win the Oscar nominations for best film best director best actor and best supporting actor The case is not over for Mr Norman Rosenbaum who said that others involved in the attack were still free still the rest of the mob out there still on the street equally responsible for my murder Each and every person responsible for my murder will be brought to he said One of the prosecutors Mr Alan Vinegrad said he was especially pleased for the Rosenbaum -family: 5Vt years and a long hard road they have finaHy achieved measure of Continued Page 11 One-tick vote on republic A Senate-style voting system with voters being allowed to vote "above the line" for monarchist or republican tickets win be used to select 76 of the 152 Convention cm PAGE 3: Fnll report Rates cut carrot The Reserve Bank Governor has offered hope of a further cut in interest rates if the ACTTTs coming wage claim" and future enterprise bargaining agreements do not cause wage grpwth to blow out PAGE 29: Full report Seven Oscar nominations for Shine when a seven-year-old black child Gavin Cato was struck and killed by a car driven by an Orthodox Jew and an angry crowd went looking for a Jew to attack In revenge Mr Yaukel Rosenbaum a visiting Hasidic scholar was stabbed and died a few hours later in hospital Racial violence raged for tour nights in what became known as the Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn Nelson who was accused of wielding the knife was acquitted in October 1992 But yesterday in its fourth day of deUberanoa after a trial that lasted more than a mouth and received Intense media coverage in the United States Nelson now 21 and Charles Rush's competition for the best actor Oscar includes Ralph Fiennes for The English Patient Ton Cruise for Jerry Maguire Billy Bob Thornton for Sling-blade and Woody Harrebon for The People ts Larry FlynL Melbourne-based Rush 45 who plays pianist David Helf-gott in the hit film is odds-on favourite to win an Academy Award after picking up a Golden Globe for best actor last month according to the latest betting in Lot Angeles The Golden Globes are pres--ented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and are considered to be accurate pointers TOMORROW Sydasy Showers and a maximum of 25 degrees NSW: Rain areas and local thunderstorms Hand Coastal rain easing to showers DETAUPage27 Agenda Amusements Aits Business Commercial Property We specialise In every aspect of commercial property and development finance A dose-knit specialised team focussed on secure tailor-made solutions adds value to every project a Cmtrmm Jirlrfii Pril Max Tealta Chief Manager St George Commercial Property buTl quickly di scover we're small enough to respond big enough to count on 1800500208 You know where you stand with 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