This is ABC News, I’m John Logan16 March, 2004
The Federal Opposition leader says he’s disturbed by reports that Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Kelty was harangued by staff from the Prime Minister’s office after his comments on terrorism over the weekend. Mr Kelty said the Madrid bombings were likely to be linkedto the country’s involvement in the war against Iraq, and that could make Australia a more likely terrorist’s target. Today the “Australian” newspaper reports that Mr Kelty was chastised by senior members of Mr Howard’s staff after making the claim. Mark Latham says the Police Commissioner should be given the respect he deserves:
Due to our Australian Federal Police got something to say about the security of the country we should listen, we should all listen, and to have intervention calls haranguing you from the Prime Minister’s office is totally inappropriate.
The head of Railcorp has defended the decision to disable the emergency door system on Tangara trains. One of the train’s chief designers told the Waterfall disaster inquiry yesterday. New South Wales isoneof the only places in the world, which doesn’t give train passengers any means of independent escape. Railcorp’s Chief Executive Vince Graham says a containment policy was introduced 14 years ago after passengers on a train that stopped near Redfern Station decided to get off, and narrowly missed being struck by passing trains:
There is no perfect answer, but one has to take a judgement on the balance of what will save lives in ah, the majority of circumstances, and that is the judgement that is being made, as I say back in the early nineties in this jurisdiction.
Swarms of locusts are covering the streets of Dubbo in the state’s central west. They’re also causing problems in Wellington and have destroyed 80 percent of a farmer’s oat crop at Peak Hill. Walter Sprat of the Australian Plague Locust Commission has spent the past few weeks controlling the pests by spraying more than 200,000 hectares of land in northwestern New South Wales and southern Queensland, but aerial spraying can’t be done in the Dubbo district because of its relatively high population and the existence of several major watercourses. The locusts are, they also prevent a problem in Coonamble to the north west, but Mr Sprat says that weekend rain has made it too wet to spray there:
With this rain we’ve had, we’ve had to shutdown operations in Coonamble for two reasons, A: the shift of the population has reduced the number of viable targets that we can treat there and B: there’s just too much surface water around, and it’s difficult for aerial spotting operations.
The New South Wales Agriculture Minister, Ian McDonald, says the state needs to be vigilant with previous plagues costing New South Wales dearly:
In the past it’s caused up to 60 maybe 80 million dollar damage to crops, ah, we will be, ah, ensuring that wherever, with the help of landholders, that wherever the ah, densities have reached plague proportions that we hit those areas with ah, aerial spraying. That can, ah, control them; we have plenty of chemicals onhand to be able to handle the situation.
A new report on Australian parents says more than half of parents lack confidence in bringing up their children, but won’t admit it because of a fear of being criticised. The “Concerns of Australian Parent’s Report” released today was conducted by the Australian Childhood Foundation and the National Research Centre for the Prevention of Child Abuse at Monash University. The report says that 71 percent of parents find it difficult to spend enough time with their children, usually because of work commitments, and that more than 50 percent are unsure on how to discipline their children effectively. Co-author of the report Joe Tochie says the findings indicate parents are desperate for help, but are too worried about criticism to ask.
Zimbabwean police have finished charging seventy men accused of being mercenaries. Africa correspondent Sally Sahra reports the men are being held in custody in the capital Harare:
The suspects have been charged with firearms and immigration offences. The men were arrested more than a week ago when their plane was impounded at Harare International Airport. The Zimbabwean government says the men are mercenaries who are on their way to take part in a coup in the West African nation of Equatorial Guinea, but lawyer for the group Jonathon Senkangi says the men deny the charges. Mr Senkangi says those arrested are security guards who were travelling to the democratic republic of Congo to protect a mine. The men are expected to appear in court on Wednesday.
In tennis: Lleyton Hewitt haslost his third round match at the Indian Wells Open in California. He went down to Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela in three sets 6 – 3, 4 – 6, 6 – 1.
Now around New South Wales today: scattered showers along the northeastern border, the north coast and the ranges, becoming isolated in the southern half. Isolated thunderstorms about the northeast. In Sydney: a chance of a shower or two, up to 24 degrees in the city, 26 at Penrith and Richmond. It’s on 21 in the city now, that’s three above average, humidity 83 percent and a chance of a shower again tomorrow.
It’s five past nine.