Fed: Howard likely to continue criticism of UN in New York

AAP General News (Australia)
08-30-2000
Fed: Howard likely to continue criticism of UN in New York

CANBERRA, Aug 30 AAP - The government's position on UN Human Rights investigations
set a dangerous precedent that other nations may use to justify ignoring UN treaties,
Australian Democrats leader Meg Lees said today.

Senator Lees said she was absolutely appalled by the government's reaction to UN criticism
on Australia's treatment of Aborigines and asylum seekers.

She also said Prime Minister John Howard was likely to continue his criticism of the
world body when he travels to New York next week.

Mr Howard will be in New York for the United Nations Millennium Summit, a three-day
meeting of world leaders to discuss the role and future of the UN.

Yesterday, the government announced it would veto nearly all visits by UN human rights
investigators in response to critical findings about Australia's conduct towards Aborigines
and asylum seekers.

Senator Lees said she was appalled by the government's response to the criticism.

"We've taken our bat and ball and gone home because we've had some criticism," she
told journalists.

"Are they such delicate petals that they can't take legitimate criticism."

She said she thought Mr Howard should be embarrassed about the government's reaction
when he visited New York.

"But given the venom and given the strength of their opposition to a United Nations
treaty organisation that in anyway criticises Australia I presume he is going to give
them another serve."

The government's position set a dangerous precedent that other nations may use to justify
ignoring UN treaties, she said.

"I think they are running a real risk of de-stabilising the UN treaty process because
if we pull out, one of the better nations, one of the nations that has actually got quite
a good reputation for human rights then what does that say to those countries that are
killing their citizens on sight and shooting people who belong to the wrong political
party?" Senator Lees asked.

"I think it is an incredibly dangerous precedent that they've set."

Senator Lees also questioned the government's motive for refusing to sign the UN treaty
against the discrimination of women.

"What are they planning in Australia that they will not sign that?" she asked.

By refusing to sign the treaty, the government denies Australian women the right to
take any cases of discrimination to the UN.

"Basically this government is saying we want to have the right to do whatever we like
to our citizens, we don't want them having any right of appeal," she said.

AAP eg/arb

KEYWORD: UN AUST LEES

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

Fed: Aust facing tough battle to protect whales

AAP General News (Australia)
04-15-2000
Fed: Aust facing tough battle to protect whales

CANBERRA, April 15 AAP - Australia is facing a battle against Japan and Norway in its
bid to better protect whales in the southern hemisphere.

Environment Minister Robert Hill has conceded Japan will not budge in its push to downlist
Minke and Gray whales from the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES) list.

Four key measures designed to protect the whales from hunting are hanging in the balance
at the CITES international convention in Nairobi this week.

Australia will vote against the Japanese and Norwegian push to reduce protection for
the whales, but a one-third majority is required to win.

"Well, Japan knows our position quite clearly and we know theirs," Senator Hill told AAP.

"Over time it is useful (to try to influence Japan), but in terms of the immediate
meetings, whatever we say won't influence Japan to change its negotiation position.

"We say to Japan, it's a matter of who wins the debate and who wins the numbers."

But it is not yet clear whether Australia and other nations supporting its stance have
been able to secure a majority.

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), attending the Nairobi convention running
until April 20, said Norway, Japan, Russia and Iceland were all seeking a resumption of
commercial whaling in the northern and southern hemispheres.

And they were bringing pressure to bear on the smaller nations, ACF national marine
campaigner, Margi Prideaux, said.

"All three Pacific Island states party to CITES - Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Fiji
- have received significant pressure from the proposal proponents to either support or
abstain," she said.

Any abstentions from voting could reduce the majority needed by Japan and Norway to
downlist the whales, allowing for more whaling.

The whales have not been officially hunted since a moratorium in the late 1980s, but
Japan conducts whaling on scientific grounds.

The decision was expected to be made late next week.

AAP lm/as/br

KEYWORD: CITES

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

Qld; Tool to find prawn spawning may boost catches

AAP General News (Australia)
01-20-2000
Qld; Tool to find prawn spawning may boost catches

Australia's prawn catches, depleted by excessive fishing in the past, may be set for
an upturn as scientists begin to pinpoint the most productive spawning areas.

CSIRO marine ecologist Dr NEIL LONERAGAN says the Gulf of Carpentaria is the largest
prawn fishery in Australia and a major centre of the $111 million a year Northern Prawn
Fishery.

He says the Gulf supplies around 8,000 tonnes of king, banana, endeavour and tiger
prawns each year, but that's far short of the catches taken in the past.

Dr LONERAGAN says around 6,000 tonnes of …

NSW: Sydneysiders will avoid Harbour for New Years : survey

AAP General News (Australia)
08-31-1999
NSW: Sydneysiders will avoid Harbour for New Years : survey
EDS: Embargoed until 0500 August 31, RTV 1999.



Fifty nine per cent of Sydneysiders will not spend the millennium New Years' on the Harbour
and 40 per cent intend to leave the city during the 2000 Olympics.

A Chamber of Commerce survey, conducted in Sydney last Friday, also shows half of those
questioned intend to stay in Sydney during the 2000 Games.

Chamber spokeswoman KATIE LAHEY says the public's reluctance to bring in the 21st century
in Sydney is likely due to uncertainty over planned activities and concern about large crowds.

Ms LAHEY says the sample of 276 people reveals 31 per cent of residents would be at or near
Sydney Harbour for the New Year.

But 59 per cent say they will stay away and 10 per cent are undecided.

Meanwhile 40 per cent of people surveyed say they will leave Sydney during the Olympics, 54
per cent say they will stay and six per cent are undecided.

AAP smf/wz/rat

KEYWORD: SURVEY (SYDNEY)

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

SA: Qantas boss will not board a plane on New Year s Eve

AAP General News (Australia)
04-08-1999
SA: Qantas boss will not board a plane on New Year s Eve

ADELAIDE, April 8 AAP - Qantas chief executive officer James Strong today ruled out himself
or other key Qantas executives boarding one of his company's planes next New Year's Eve.

Mr Strong also rejected reports that the British Airways board required its management team
to be in the air at midnight at the start of 2000 to demonstrate its certainty that the
millennium bug would not cause its planes to crash.

"I will be at our headquarters stone cold sober watching what happens and ready to take
quick actions," Mr Strong told a national meeting of accountants in Adelaide.

"The last place I'd want a key executive to be is in the air, I think that would be the
same with most businesses, we will have all our key people there making decisions."

Mr Strong said he was certain Qantas itself had no Y2K compliance concerns but he could not
vouch for international airports and air traffic controllers.

"Our business, like just about every other one, will need on New Year's Eve as much
preparation as possible, but then to have key people together ready to make decisions
according to circumstances around the world," he said.

"We'll have to see how air traffic systems are operating, how airports are operating, we
will have plans and then we'll make adjustments to those as necessary.

"It's very similar to how we would normally look at conditions for our operations, it's
just that this will be a very intense period of it."

Mr Strong said he did not expect much disruption to the normal flight schedule but Qantas
would cancel flights if there were any doubts about safety.

"I think everybody knows Qantas as being a conservative company which makes very precise
evaluations and we will always err on the side of caution in terms of where we operate on New
Year's Eve," he said.

Mr Strong said the story of British Airways requiring its management to board a flight on
New Year's Eve was incorrect.

"This is a great furphy, it is a press invention, that the board of British Airways
requires all their management to be on board a flight," he said.

"The board didn't meet on the day mentioned in the article, there were people mentioned who
weren't on the board and there was no such decision taken."

AAP scl/bm

KEYWORD: Y2K QANTAS

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

QLD: Grain growers face lean Christmas after harvest hit

AAP General News (Australia)
12-22-1998
QLD: Grain growers face lean Christmas after harvest hit

BRISBANE, Dec 22 AAP - Many Queensland graingrowers faced a lean Christmas and continued
uncertainty because of delays in a federal response to a disastrous wheat harvest, the
Queensland Graingrowers Association (QGGA) said today.

The QGGA has been pressing for federal exceptional circumstances assistance after the
unseasonably wet winter wiped up to $350 million off the value of the state's wheat crop, QGGA
president Brendan Stewart said.

"This translates as a $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion loss to the Queensland economy, due to
the flow-on effect from primary production," he said in a statement.

"We've been inviting Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Mark Vaile for several
months now to tour the worst hit grain regions.

"With Christmas almost upon us, we're still waiting. I'm concerned that the longer the
Minister leaves his visit, the more likely growers are to feel forgotten."

The wet winter causes disease and sprouting problems, leading to massive drops in income as
crops are downgraded, according to Mr Stewart.

"For many growers, who invested heavily to produce the crop in the first place, costs will
outweigh income," he said.

"And for central Queensland growers, it's a double whammy, coming on the back of years of
drought."

The QGGA has supported a submission from the Queensland Department of Primary Industries to
the federal government requesting exceptional circumstances assistance.

"We now expect the minister to urgently dispatch a rural adjustment advisory committee team
to examine the extreme losses, which should trigger the assistance so desperately needed," Mr
Stewart said.

AAP jhm

KEYWORD: GRAIN

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

SA:Unsafe teeth-whiteners recalled

AAP General News (Australia)
12-09-2011
SA:Unsafe teeth-whiteners recalled

ADELAIDE, Dec 9 AAP - Nine teeth-whitening products have been recalled after causing
injuries including chemical burns to users' gums and the mouths.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it had acted to stop
the supply of the do-it-yourself teeth-whiteners which contained unsafe levels of peroxide.

"The ACCC is concerned that high concentrations of peroxides used in these products
have resulted in injuries such as chemical burns to gums and the mouth," commissioner
Sarah Court said.

Other injuries including blistering or ulceration of the mouth and throat, tooth sensitivity,
marbled or unnaturally coloured teeth, tingling around the mouth and headaches.

The products recalled included three by White My Bite, four produced by WhiteSmile
Pty Ltd and two by DaVinci Elite Pty Ltd.

The ACCC said more recalls were likely after it recently notified suppliers that products
containing more than six per cent hydrogen peroxide or more than 18 per cent carbamide
peroxide were unsafe.

It checked on the do-it-yourself teeth-whitening kits after receiving reports of injuries.

"Consumers should be extremely cautious before undertaking any do-it-yourself teeth-whitening
treatment," Ms Court said.

"If the concentration of the bleaching agents is not clearly labelled, consumers are
advised not to use the product."

Safe limits for bleaching agents are based on the requirements of the Poisons Standard
2011, expert clinical advice published by the Australian Dental Association and a scientific
risk assessment published by the European Union's Scientific Committee on Consumer Products.

AAP tjd/mjs

KEYWORD: WHITENING (WITH FACTBOX)

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