Tasmanian Liberal leader denies plotting

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2000
Tasmanian Liberal leader denies plotting

Embattled Tasmanian Liberal leader SUE NAPIER has denied there is any plotting against
her and has declared she will lead the party to the next election.

Mrs NAPIER says local media reports that disillusioned MPs are counting numbers to
prepare for a leadership challenge are a beat-up.

It follows the weekend meeting of the Liberal State Council.

Mrs NAPIER easily beat BOB CHEEK in July last year to become the first woman to lead
a major Tasmanian party.

But the party has remained in the doldrums, languishing below 30 per cent in the polls,
split by branch-stacking claims and rarely putting the government under pressure.

Prime Minister JOHN HOWARD, who opened the council, didn't conceal his impatience with
the state party -- though not necessarily Mrs NAPIER -- over its failure to have a candidate
up and running in the marginal federal seat of Bass.

Mrs NAPIER says she has the full support of the parliamentary party.

AAP RTV dw/jx/jn

KEYWORD: LIBERALS TAS (HOBART)

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

Qld: Nurses meet on pay rise claim

AAP General News (Australia)
02-25-2000
Qld: Nurses meet on pay rise claim

Queensland Health Department officials will meet with nursing unions today to discuss
long-standing demands for a payrise and improved work conditions.

Queensland Council of Unions assistant secretary GRACE GRACE (Grace Grace) says …

Fed: Posters part of plan to deter illegal immigrants

AAP General News (Australia)
12-23-1999
Fed: Posters part of plan to deter illegal immigrants

The federal government will display hard-hitting posters around the world in a bid
to make illegal immigrants think twice about entering Australia.

Federal Immigration Minister PHILIP RUDDOCK says the posters aim to decrease Australia's
attractiveness to illegal immigrants by emphasising the country's tough new laws.

Following the recent influx of boat people, the government has removed immediate residency
provisions and increased the penalty for traffickers.

It has also expanded its powers to stop and search boats outside Australia's territorial waters.

Mr RUDDOCK will hand deliver some of the posters when he meets with government officials
in Iran, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey next month.

He says a large portion of the 2,631 illegal arrivals by boat in the year to November
1999 were Afghans and Iraqis who were actually already refugees in nearby countries.

He also says his visit will enable him to obtain a clearer idea of how the government
can most appropriately respond to the problem.





The posters read: You will NOT be welcome, you WILL be kept in detention centres, thousands
of kilometres from Sydney and you could LOSE all your money and be sent back.

AAP RTV jw/sb/jn

KEYWORD: BOAT RUDDOCK (SYDNEY)

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

QLD: Bulls balls may bring big bucks

AAP General News (Australia)
08-11-1999
QLD: Bulls balls may bring big bucks

By Gil Breitkreutz

BRISBANE, Aug 11 AAP - Tourists have stolen so many male clusters dangling from the seven
life-like statues of bulls in Rockhampton, the mayor has decided to auction a complete set of
spares to aid charity.

"Tourists have been snapping off sets of testicles for years and the council just keeps on
replacing them," Mayor Jim McRae said.

Rockhampton proclaimed itself the beef capital of Australia some time back because it
services one of Australia's biggest beef producing areas, has three meatworks, and hosts the
triennial International Beef Expo which brings almost as much money into the state's economy
as the Gold Coast Indy.

"The bulls symbolise the city," Mayor McRae said.

A council spokesman said engineers had tried for years to stop the bulls' machinery being
souvenired from the concrete and fibreglass statues of breeds including Brahman and Zebu.

"They tried casting the goolies around chain and iron rods but they still kept
disappearing," he said.

Fred Williams, the man organising the auction to benefit the Rockhampton North Special
School, said: "It got so bad the council now only hangs the testicles on the bulls for special
occasions. They rest of the time they go nutless."

He said donated testicles would be taken to the auction room under strict security for next
month's sale to be conducted by a professional auctioneer.

"We hope to get several hundred dollars a set," he said.

Mayor McRae said the auction "is a great chance for people to legally get their hands on a
set of bull's balls and help a worthy cause at the same time".

AAP geb/sd/ah

KEYWORD: TESTICLES

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

FED: Howard makes last ditch plea on unfair dismissal = 2

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-1999
FED: Howard makes last ditch plea on unfair dismissal = 2

Labor Senate leader John Faulkner later gave formal notice of the disallowance motion,
mirroring a motion moved in the lower house last week.

Meanwhile, opposition industrial relations spokesman Arch Bevis attacked the government's
claim the changes would create jobs.

"Mr Reith refuses to use his own department's research showing fewer than one per cent of
small business see unfair dismissal as a reason not to employ someone," Mr Bevis said in a
statement.

"He cites figures from the small business association that are no more than a guess made by
one person with no research."

AAP rmm/was/de

KEYWORD: SMALL N/L 2 CANBERRA (REOPENS)

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

QLD:Qld deputy premier has 'lost the plot'

AAP General News (Australia)
02-02-2012
QLD:Qld deputy premier has 'lost the plot'

By Larine Statham

BRISBANE, Feb 2 AAP - Deputy Premier Andrew Fraser has "lost the plot" and shown he's
willing to betray Queensland business owners for his own political gain, the opposition
says.

Deputy Opposition leader Tim Nicholls says business confidence has eroded following
Mr Fraser's admission on Thursday that he leaked a confidential letter from mining magnate
Clive Palmer to the media.

Liberal National Party leader Campbell Newman went a step further, saying Mr Fraser
may have broken the law.

Mr Fraser says he did …

QLD:No reports of deaths, injuries: Bligh=6

AAP General News (Australia)
02-03-2011
QLD:No reports of deaths, injuries: Bligh=6

A major logistical exercise in the coming days would be to free up evacuation centres
for people whose homes had been destroyed in the cyclone, Ms Bligh said.

"We know that there are roofs lost, we know that there are some homes very seriously
damaged," she said.

"We don't know …