The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • 3

3 THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD FRIDAY MARCH 21 1997 Court plan limits rights of accused But Mr Cowdery said the defence had no similar obligation and could withhold its case until late in a trial which led to money being wasted at all levels of the justice system He said the changes agreed to at meeting would shorten trials and save the time of many witnesses because only matters disputed between the prosecution and defence would need to become central issues in a trial and require the appearance of witnesses Mr Cowdery added: have the very strong view that the defence should be required at the very least at the beginning of a triad to identify the issues on which the trial is to be And he said he could no longer see any justification for defence lawyers being able to withhold expert opinion until late in a trial He said meeting which he chaired had agreed that the NSW Law Reform Commission should investigate and report on the plan and he would ask the Attorney-General Mr Shaw to request it to do so Mr Cowdery said that among the biggest concerns of those government agencies at meeting was the time taken up by trials and delays to trials People facing trial on serious charges in the Supreme Court are now waiting up to 21 months Under the present system the prosecution must set out the full details of its case against an accused person at the outset of a hearing lawyers did not disclose details of his defence until the trial was more than halfway through Mr Cowdery said that under the present system accused people could give no details of their defence and hope the trial faltered because of prosecution mistakes can happen is that the whole trial runs without any contribution from the defence itself the accused person even get into the witness box just say: Fm not saying anything Prove your others agreed that at the beginning of a trial defence lawyers should have to outline issues they dispute with the prosecution and even disclose expert opinion such as medical evidence before trials begin The plan is certain to be resisted strongly by defence lawyers who will argue that it is a serious erosion of the rights of accused people on a scale not seen in any other State The DPP Mr Nicholas Cow-dery QC told the Herald yester day that while he agreed that requiring the prosecution to prove its case against accused people was fundamental most of the representatives of the 19 NSW Government law enforcement agencies at meeting now believed defence lawyers were obliged to reduce the waste of court time and money caused by the right to withhold details of a defence In last 18-week trial of Ivan Milat convicted of the NSW backpacker murders his By BERNARD LAGAN Justice Writer People accused of serious crimes will lose the right to keep all details of their defence secret until late in a trial under controversial changes being pushed by the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and other senior law enforcement figures to reduce court delays and cut costs A meeting last Sunday of the most senior law officers police senior court staff and Union revolt as staff go unpaid By BRAD NORINGTON Industrial Editor The financially troubled Australian Union has not paid 20 staff in its construction branch for five weeks and the national secretary Mr Steve Harrison has given his employees no indication when they might be paid The issue has prompted a revolt inside the union as employees try to seek help from the Industrial Relations Commission to recover the money Several of the 14 organisers and six office staff affected described yesterday how they had been reduced to borrowing from friends and relatives to survive Some were said to be facing immense difficulty paying mortgages and family bills Mr Harrison said he accepted that union employees were suffering hardship but he did not have the money to pay them He blamed an ongoing fight with the Queensland-based president of the union Mr Bill Ludwig for the shortfall The secretary of the national construction branch Mr Mark Busby said he believed AWU staff from other branches were being paid but construction branch employees were the victims of an internal political war and that Mr Harrison did not want the branch to continue want us so trying to chop us off at the Mr Busby said Mr Busby said it was a that the AWU was not paying wages but he was particularly upset that six office staff who had nothing to do with the political infighting were also denied pay is supposed to be a he said treat award staff like The wage issue is the latest in an unhappy saga for the right-wing AWU which has been plagued by financial problems and leadership infighting since a merger of the old AWU controlled by Mr Ludwig and the Federation of Industrial Manufacturing Engineering Employees controlled by Sydney-based Mr Harrison Media groups unite against Packer By ANNE DAVIES in Canberra Mr Kerry push to scrap the cross-media rules is facing mounting opposition from rival media groups including the Seven and Ten networks which have stepped up their lobbying efforts ahead of Cabinet considering the issue in about four to six weeks Although the Minister for Communications Senator Alston said publicly last week that he believed the cross-media rules were not working and should be replaced several media groups are lobbying for their retention at least insofar as they apply to major newspapers and capital city television stations Mr Kerry Seven Network is understood to have changed its position dramatically on cross-media in its written submission it supported the abolition of cross-media rules and has now joined Ten the Australia! Provincial Newspapers (APN) and several rural media companies in supporting their retention This leaves only Mr Kerry Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL) pushing for them to be scrapped Under the current law a person cannot control a television station and a daily newspaper in the same market Because PBL controls the Nine Network in Sydney and Melbourne it is prohibited from owning more than 1 5 per cent of Fairfax which publishes the Herald in Sydney and The Age in Melbourne Mr Rupert News Corporation also supported an end to the cross-media rules in its written submission but in the context of far-reaching deregulation of both foreign ownership restrictions and cross-media rules Sources said yesterday that News Corp was not enthusiastic about one-sided deregulation which would do nothing to assist the company in expanding its interests in Australia Because Mr Murdoch is a US citizen News Corp is regarded as a foreign company change of heart on cross-media follows the recent changes to the Fairfax share register which saw the Canadian media proprietor Mr Conrad Black agree to sell his 25 per cent interest to the New Zealand-based investment company Brierley Investments Ltd (BIL) Ultimately BIL was only permitted to buy 199 per cent While Seven had originally hoped it might have been a player in a tussle for Fairfax should the laws change it now regards PBL as a certainty to gain control The Ten Network is also arguing for the retention of cross-media laws in the major capital city markets but it is arguing for a liberalisation of foreign ownership to 35 per cent from the current limit of 1 5 per cent for an individual and 20 per cent in aggregate Norman granddaughter Helen Glad with an original Magic Pudding drawing at a Sydney luncheon to announce the sale of film rights Photograph by ROBERT PEARCE Magic! to come to life on the screen at last By GERALDINE 'll enjoy this Puddin said Bill handing him a large slice is a very rare a again said Sam a Christmas steak and appledumpling said Bill a Shall I tell he asked looking at Bill Bill nodded and the Penguin leaned across to Bunyip Bluegum and said in a low voice a Magic Puddin whispering shouted the Puddin' angrily Speak Back after World War I Norman Lindsay placed a bet: children he wagered were more interested in food than fairies Canny man For out of that bet after the horror of the Great War and his mourning for his brother Reg who had been killed on the Somme he wrote and illustrated The Magic Pudding the picaresque adventures of Albert the cantankerous Mr Gerry Travers said the company had been bidding for the rights since 1992 Lindsay not only bought a great story to life but provided great drawings for it book itself is like the Magic Pudding a resource that just run For what child could resist the chant: away chew away munch and bolt and guzzle Never leave the table till full up to the Or what adult resist the Australian-ness of the courtroom scene: was nobody in Court except the Judge and the Usher who were seated on the bench having a quiet game of cards over a bottle of Or the rules for members of the Noble Society of Owners: duties are light The members are required to wander along the roads in conversation song and story at regular intervals at the "Optus Access 1300 brings my customers closer" again and his friends think he won the bet fair and said granddaughter Helen Glad yesterday For The Magic Pudding has never been out of print since it first appeared in 1918 Children still delight in its anarchic lunacy adults relish the satiric jibes and film companies including Walt Disney have been begging for the rights for years Now however the film rights have been sold for an undisclosed sum to Energee Entertainment a local film and television production house The company which has produced programs for the Disney Corporation and Virgin Entertainment has contracted the author Morris Gleitzman to write the script for the animated feature-length film which should be completed towards the end of next year say Optus Access 1300 is the ideal business tool to create an effective dialogue with our customers If they need to talk to us for half an hour from anywhere in Australia they can all for the cost of a local call For an immediate competitive advantage that brings your customers closer Optus Access 1300 is a brilliant Sue Kerr Director Kerr Insurance Advisors Pty Ltd Dingoes attack boy at island resort A five-year-old boy was being treated in Gympie Hospital in southern Queensland yesterday after being attacked by two dingoes on Fraser Island on Wednesday night The parents Peter and Jane Bartram said the attack happened as their son Andrew was playing hide and seek with his three-year-old sister near the open-air dining area of the Eurong resort Andrew had been hiding behind a tree about eight metres from where his parents were sitting when two dingoes which had been sprawled on a grassy rise nearby circled behind the boy One attacked him and bit him on the thigh The boy pulled away and tried to run but collided with a tree branch and was pinned to the ground by the second animal which mauled him on the lower left leg He also suffered a groin injury Mrs Bartram said the first she knew of the attack was when she heard screams She rushed towards the dingoes and they fled leaving Andrew with a 35-centimetre wound in his upper right thigh and 10 gouges from the second teeth in his lower left calf For more business solutions call the Optus Business Solutions Hotline now on 1800 500 001 Family waiting for news of missing yacht Optus Business Solutions OPTUS Missing sailor Cadelia Bradley left her mother Mrs Denise Bradley and the owner and skipper Mr Bob Cornell By JUUE DELVECCHI0 A night mission to drop flares over in the Coral Sea 600 nautical miles off the Australian coast where the missing yacht Queen Charlotte is believed to have sunk has failed to find any signs of life And the mother of the only woman on board the missing yacht told yesterday how she had tried to talk her daughter out of making the voyage Cadelia Bradley 18 was one of five people on board the 1930s-built two-masted schooner New Zealand sources said four men -Robert Murray 17 of Dunedin Justin Lee of Auckland Mark Jacobs 30 of Auckland and skipper Bob Cornell 53 were also on board the yacht Ms mother Mrs Denise Bradley of Jimboomba south-west of Brisbane said: talked to her the night before she left and we were concerned with the weather and the cyclones so we sort of tried to persuade her not to go left New Zealand on was expected to become even weaker today Mr Gray said rescue planes and ships had been searching the area 60 miles west of where the debris was found The Navy frigate HMAS Melbourne would arrive today with a Seahawk Helicopter The yacht was travelling from Noumea to the north of Papua New Guinea on its way to a tall ships race to Japan Asked if she was still optimistic Mrs Bradley said: know You know how you have that fear in the bottom of your stomach all day You sort of get your hopes up and then they go right to the floor That is the terrible part not knowing The fear is really terrible It is such a shock your world turned upside down in one Mrs Bradley said her daughter had some sailing experience was just so happy to go on the Queen Charlotte It was her dream She was determined to get there she have any funds or anything like that she went and she was February 28 and she was happy with the crew and she was confident to sail with them She not go So we left it to her Mrs Bradley said the latest news she had from rescue officials was the yacht had sunk and that three life jackets and a life jacket attached to a beacon had been found A spokesman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority Mr David Gray said a distress beacon carrying the name Queen Charlotte had been recovered together with life jackets and wooden debris would hope we would find a liferaft is other debris that been recovered because it is still quite choppy out However the Weather Bureau said Tropical Cyclone Justin was continuing to head back towards the Queensland coast and the storm Customers calling a 1300 service from a mobile phone will be charged at their applicable mobile carrier rates for the call Optus the Optus logo and are trademarks of Optus Communications Pty Ltd ACN 052 833 208 PATTS OA463 2.