Fed: Beazley says lack of knowledge nation behind dollar slide

AAP General News (Australia)
08-31-2000
Fed: Beazley says lack of knowledge nation behind dollar slide
PARLY 017

CANBERRA, Aug 31 AAP - The dollar was sliding because competitor nations judged Australia
as falling behind in its quest for the knowledge economy, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley
said today.

Mr Beazley said Prime Minister John Howard clearly saw national development in 1950s
terms of building infrastructure and monuments.

"There are many factors in the value of the dollar," he told parliament.

"One of the critical factors happens to be this - we are not perceived as at the leading
edge of the new economy on this globe .

"We are being judged on the old basis of Australian development.

"As other countries look to us and work out what the value of our currency ought to
be, at the back of their minds is this fear that we may well not be a successful or relevant
nation this century."

Mr Beazley said Australia needed to increase its national skills base and substantially
increase investment in science if it was to succeed as a knowledge nation.

He said that would be a key issue for the next election.

Education Minister David Kemp accused Mr Beazley of having the most abysmal record
of any education minister since the second world war when he held the post.

He quoted from Mr Beazley's biography in which the Labor leader reflected that as education
minister he had lost ambition.

"When he was minister for education himself he found it was a very uninteresting portfolio
and developed extraordinarily little interest in it," Dr Kemp told parliament.

AAP mb/sm/daw

KEYWORD: KNOWLEDGE

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

NSW: Young people don t distinguish between unions and bosses

AAP General News (Australia)
04-18-2000
NSW: Young people don t distinguish between unions and bosses

A new study reveals young people don't distinguish between unions and employers - considering
the two groups part of an establishment that acts against them in the workforce.

The Daily Telegraph reports the study by the Employment Studies Centre at the University
of Newcastle was carried out to pinpoint the reasons behind falling union membership among
young people.

Currently, union membership among 15 to 19-year-olds is at 14 per cent while in the
20 to 24 age group, it's at 17 per cent.

One of the study's author's, Associate Professor DAVID ROWE, says that while young
people generally support unions in theory, many see no reason to join one.

The study's also found that most young people have little understanding of what unions do.

Most participants also said they lack information about their rights in the workplace,
and how to go about getting their problems addressed.

AAP RTV jo/rp

KEYWORD: UNIONS (SYDNEY)

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

FED: Sacked textiles workers and adminstrator seek Shaw meeting

AAP General News (Australia)
02-02-2000
FED: Sacked textiles workers and adminstrator seek Shaw meeting

Workers sacked from National Textiles will meet New South Wales Industrial Relations
Minister JEFF SHAW today, to tell him their tales of personal hardship.

The Rutherford factory's 342 former employees have been told by company creditors they'll
only get $7 million of the $11 million in entitlements that's owed to them.

And they could be forced to wait up to two years for their money.

Textiles Clothing and Footwear Union organiser STEVE DAVIES says the workers will attempt
to persuade Mr SHAW to either come up with some money, or devise a scheme for them to
get their money.

Mr DAVIES says the workers will try to convince Mr SHAW to use his influence on the
state and federal government.

AAP nd/sb/tso/jn/kbw/smf

KEYWORD: SACKED (SYDNEY)

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

Fed: Beazley to visit East Timor today

AAP General News (Australia)
12-01-1999
Fed: Beazley to visit East Timor today

Opposition Leader KIM BEAZLEY will visit Australian troops in East Timor today in a
bi-partisan show of support for the peacekeeping operation.

Mr BEAZLEY's one-day visit follows that of Prime Minister JOHN HOWARD last week.

The opposition leader will visit troops and a hospital as well as meet with East Timorese
independence leader XANANA GUSMAO and Dili Archbishop CARLOS BELO.

Mr BEAZLE's visit comes as Foreign Minister ALEXANDER DOWNER tries to hose down diplomatic
tensions with Indonesia sparked by the East Timor issue.

Mr DOWNER yesterday played down an accusation from Indonesia's President WAHID that
Australia had a childish attitude towards his country.

He says the remark was probably aimed at the Australian media, not the government.

AAP RTV daw/msk/as

KEYWORD: TIMOR AUST (CANBERRA)

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

VIC: Building union angered by ANZAC Day holiday loss

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-1999
VIC: Building union angered by ANZAC Day holiday loss

The Victorian government has decided not to give workers a day off for ANZAC Day.

The move has angered the building workers' union which is calling on its members to take a
day off anyway.

MARTIN KINGHAM, from the Construction, Forestry Mining and Energy Union, says any building
site not providing a holiday on April 26 could become a battleground for workers and
employers.

He says the union is directing its members to take the day off anyway and demand payment.

Mr KINGHAM says it's time workers kicked back against the decision.

AAP RTV ag/ra/lw/jn

KEYWORD: ANZAC UNION (MELBOURNE)

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

SA: Lightning sparks bushfires in SA, VIC

AAP General News (Australia)
12-26-1998
SA: Lightning sparks bushfires in SA, VIC

ADELAIDE, Dec 26 AAP - Lightning caused several bushfires in South Australia and Victoria
overnight, including a conservation park fire that burnt 600 hectares of scrub.

A Country Fire Service spokesman said a fire in the Ngarkat Conservation Park in SA's far
south-east, was one of several caused by severe weather and thunderstorms across the states.

Ten CFS crews and several Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) crews from Victoria put
in 20 metre wide firebreaks on the north and eastern sides of the fire.

The spokesman said the eastern breaks stretched as far as the Victorian border.

He said the fire was set by lightning late yesterday afternoon near the Kirra Homestead and
quickly engulfed the surrounding Mallee scrub.

NRE crews had returned to Victoria to continue fighting several smaller fires also started
by lightning.

He said lightning was believed responsible for several other small bushfires in SA's upper
south-east.

He said a spotter aircraft was being used to monitor the fire and look for any additional
fires in the park.

AAP ja/cjh/de

KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES SA

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

FED:Gillard reshuffles ministry=5

AAP General News (Australia)
12-12-2011
FED:Gillard reshuffles ministry=5

Tanya Plibersek will join cabinet as the new health minister.

She was formerly human services and social inclusion minister.

Mental Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler retains his position but will join cabinet.

He will also take on social inclusion responsibilities.

MORE lpm/rl/jel/bwl

KEYWORD: MINISTRY GILLARD 5 CANBERRA

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