Vic: Victoria honours its Paralympic heroes as elite athletes

AAP General News (Australia)
12-02-2000
Vic: Victoria honours its Paralympic heroes as elite athletes

MELBOURNE, Dec 2 AAP - Victoria's Paralympians received state medallions today honouring
their return home from the Sydney Games as elite athletes in their chosen sports.

Co-captain of the national team Sandy Blythe said the Sydney Paralympics had heralded
a "new dawn" for recognising Paralympians as sports people in their own right.

"Today is very much about athletes first, second, and third - not whether they're disabled,"

said Mr Blythe, who also captained the wheelchair basketball team.

"People now realise there are sensational Olympic athletes in the country, there are
sensational Paralympic athletes in the country."

Community Services Minister Christine Campbell presented the glass-etched medallions
to the 34 athletes available from the state's contingent of 60.

"None of us ever expected the depth of feeling that permeated not only Victoria but
Australia but indeed the world," Ms Campbell said.

Victorian Paralympians contributed 17 gold, 4 silver and 12 bronze medals to Australia's
haul of 149 medals which topped medal tallies.

"The overwhelming success of the Sydney Paralympics is more than the final medal tally,"

she said.

"The Paralympics and the Olympics prompted many of us to reflect on what it is to be
human," she said.

"People in the community recognise you as elite athletes and it has been your skills
as athletes that has been recognised by the community."

Ms Campbell thanked the Paralympians for creating a "seachange" in community attitudes
toward people with disabilities ahead the International Day for People with a Disability
tomorrow.

AAP nl/cjh

KEYWORD: PARALYMPIC VIC

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Fed: Sydney conference tourism to boom after Olympics

AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-2000
Fed: Sydney conference tourism to boom after Olympics

By Chris Herde

BRISBANE, April 19 AAP - The perception that accommodation will be too scarce or expensive
in Sydney during the Olympics could spark a post-games tourism boom, a leading industry
group said today.

Inbound Tourism Organisation of Australia (ITOA) managing director Peter Shelley said
the post-Olympic period should not be a let down for the tourism industry, especially
in the conference and convention sector.

"Some inbound tour operators ... believe that the perception Sydney is expensive or
that Sydney accommodation is scarce over the Olympics will catapult post-Olympic growth
due to pent up demand for Sydney and anticipated price reductions," Mr Shelley said.

"One inbound tour operator reported a 30 per cent increase of (visitors) in the UK
and US markets and strong conference bookings immediately after the Olympic Games."

Mr Shelley said Sydney's conference and convention sector had already benefited from
the promotion of Australia generated by the Games.

"The seven per cent growth in overall conference and convention business for the year
ending January 2000 is significant, especially when some European markets have recorded
well over 100 per cent growth," Mr Shelley said.

"Many inbound tour operators have allocated rooms in Sydney pre and post the Olympic
Games for conference and convention business."

However, Mr Shelley warned that the Games had scared some away from Sydney.

He said ITOA members had been promoting the Gold Coast and Cairns as destinations for
the Japanese honeymoon market, leaving their Sydney room allotment for Olympic-specific
groups willing to pay a premium.

"This shift in strategy for the Japanese leisure market to promote ... destinations
such as Cairns and the Gold Coast over Sydney is not just price driven," Mr Shelley said.

"It's motivated by issues concerning the accessibility of Sydney sights due to demands
on transport infrastructure and Olympic Games events."

AAP ch/jhm/cjh

KEYWORD: OLY DEMAND

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Vic: Bracks warns of legal sanctions over power crisis

AAP General News (Australia)
02-04-2000
Vic: Bracks warns of legal sanctions over power crisis

Victorian Premier STEVE BRACKS has warned that he'll invoke legal sanctions if unions
and the power firm Yallourn Energy don't immediately resolve the state's power dispute.

Speaking before mediated talk this morning, Mr BRACKS has said he won'd telegraph the
nature of the sanctions to either the company or the unions.

More than 300,000 consumers across Victoria and South Australia were hit by power blackouts
yesterday -- a day of searing heat.

The situation is being worsened by …

SA: Half of state loses power

AAP General News (Australia)
12-02-1999
SA: Half of state loses power

Half of South Australia has been affected by a massive power outage.

A spokesman for SA electricity transmission company ElectraNet SA says the power outage
occurred about 2pm and had affected half the state.

He says the supplies should be back to normal by 4.30pm (CDT).

ElectraNet SA says demand exceeded the available supply because of problems with the
interconnection with Victoria and local SA generators.

Rolling interruptions to power supplies will occur throughout the metropolitan area
until about 4pm to ensure supply was shared by customers and to allow the system to be
stabilised.

After 4pm industrial consumption of electricity is expected to decline.

AAP RTV vm/pjg/jn

KEYWORD: ELECTRICITY (ADELAIDE)

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

VIC: Kennett preamble irrelevant, says opposition

AAP General News (Australia)
04-14-1999
VIC: Kennett preamble irrelevant, says opposition

MELBOURNE, April 14 AAP - Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett should be more concerned with
police numbers than writing a constitutional preamble, opposition leader Steve Bracks said
today.

He also cited Mr Kennett's reference to the right for people to speak freely, saying
Victoria's police, public servants, teachers and nurses have had their free speech
hobbled.

Mr Bracks said Mr Kennett's version was irrelevant.

"Victorians are more concerned about the lack of police on the street than they are about
whether or not Mr Kennett's drafted a preamble," he told reporters.

"The premier's preamble lacks a lot of content and I think it's one which may be considered
by the prime minister, but considered very briefly."

Mr Bracks said he preferred the version written by Gareth Evans for federal opposition
leader Kim Beazley.

Labor tried to block Mr Kennett from detailing his version during question time in the
Victorian parliament today.

Mr Bracks unsuccessfully argued it was a misuse of question time for Mr Kennett to address
a federal issue.

AAP lmw/ra/jnb

KEYWORD: PREAMBLE BRACKS

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Highlights of the AAP National wire at 20:30 Dec 30 = 2

AAP General News (Australia)
12-30-1998
Highlights of the AAP National wire at 20:30 Dec 30 = 2

CANBERRA - A woman awarded the Order of Australia Medal for her work with drug addicts had
16 balloons filled with heroin under her car seat when she was arrested in Canberra on
Christmas Eve, a court heard today. (HEROIN)



CANBERRA - The ACT government will consider introducing laws to legally protect people who
go to the aid of others in emergency and to compel people to allow others to use their phones
to make emergency calls. (SAMARITAN)



CANBERRA - One Nation was trying to whip up fear among extremists and bolster flagging
support with its pro-capital punishment New South Wales law and order policy, federal
opposition justice spokesman Duncan Kerr said today. (NATION KERR)



SYDNEY - Fred Kelly rarely talked about the horrors of the Great War and never once marched
on Anzac Day. (KELLY)



SYDNEY - A man and a woman found dead in a car wreck possibly staged to conceal a
murder-suicide had been involved in a long-term relationship in France, police said today.
(CLIFF NIGHTLEAD)



SYDNEY - Disgruntled amateur boxing officials will try to form an alliance of contact
sports and put pressure on the NSW government to lift its restrictions on junior and female
boxers. (BOXING GIRLS)



PERTH - A drug-fuelled Christmas Day riot in one of Western Australia's maximum security
jails would be thoroughly investigated by an independent inquiry, the Justice Ministry said
today. (RIOT)



BRISBANE - One of the regular figures seen on the six o'clock news during Queensland's
Fitzgerald corruption inquiry in the late 1980s was "the big man", Hector Hapeta. (HAPETA)



BRISBANE - The Queensland government has dismissed claims the state's ambulance service did
not have the capacity to deliver free services to an estimated 850,000 pensioners from Friday.
(AMBULANCE)



BRISBANE - Police have arrested a 26-year-old labourer and charged him with the murder of
16-year-old north Queensland schoolgirl Rachel Antonio, whose body has never been found.
(RACHEL)



MELBOURNE - Fresh plans were approved today for a new $250 million private university for
Melbourne, but they could still mean the demolition of 15 historic terrace houses.
(UNIVERSITY)



MELBOURNE - Firefighters are confident they will control a bushfire burning through a fauna
and flora reserve in Victoria's remote and semi-arid north-west tonight. (BUSHFIRES VIC
CONTROL)



ADELAIDE - The South Australian government today offered a $1,000 reward to catch those who
spray painted a racist slogan on and ringbarked a 300-year-old tree that is significant to
local Aborigines. (TREE)



ADELAIDE - An Adelaide council is poised to launch a speed limit on all its residential
streets in what is believed to be an Australian first. (SPEED)

AAP jnb

KEYWORD: HIGHLIGHTS NATIONAL (UPDATE) 2 SYDNEY

1998 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

FED:Consumer confidence down, Westpac says

AAP General News (Australia)
12-14-2011
FED:Consumer confidence down, Westpac says

SYDNEY, Dec 14 AAP - Consumer confidence has dropped to its lowest level since August,
despite last month's cash rate cut, a survey finds.

The Westpac/Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment fell by 8.3 per cent in
December from 103.4 in November to 94.7 the following month.

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said the result was surprising, and notable.

"On face value it should be a surprise that the Index has not risen following a second
rate cut from the Reserve Bank (which was eventually passed on in full by the major banks
to mortgage borrowers)," he said.

"However the history of previous easing cycles shows that rate cuts do not guarantee
an improvement in sentiment.

"The likely explanation is that respondents' concerns over the reasons behind the rate
cut may overwhelm the perceived benefits of the cut itself."

Confidence amongst mortgage holders fell by 9.5 per cent, while sentiment dropped 8.3
per cent for people who own their house mortgage free, he said.

Confidence for tenants fell by 3.5 per cent.

Mr Evans said respondents' sentiment seemed to reflect the general concerns about global
economic conditions.

"The news on economic conditions, international conditions and Budget and taxation
was considered the most negative since 2008/09," he said.

"News on interest rates was the most positive since that period." The index was 14.6
per cent below its level last year."

Westpac expects the RBA to cut rates again when it meets on February 7.

AAP css/jcc

KEYWORD: CONSUMER WESTPAC

� 2011 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.