WA: ACC may get more powers in wake of new corruption claims

AAP General News (Australia)
08-09-2000
WA: ACC may get more powers in wake of new corruption claims

PERTH, Aug 9 AAP - Western Australia's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) may get greater
powers in the wake of fresh police corruption allegations.

In a report to be tabled in parliament tomorrow, the parliamentary committee which
oversees the public sector watchdog has recommended the body be given the power to compel
witnesses under investigation to answer questions.

Currently, the ACC receives allegations of corrupt or criminal conduct and determines
how those claims will be investigated.

But it can force witnesses to answer questions only if it has appointed a special investigator.

Liberal MP Derrick Tomlinson, chair of the ACC parliamentary committee, said the committee's
report to be tabled tomorrow recommended extending the ACC's powers.

And Mr Tomlinson said he believed a royal commission into corruption in the WA police
service was inevitable.

New claims of police corruption, presented in the ABC's Four Corners program on Monday,
prompted renewed calls for a royal commission, calls WA Premier Richard Court has opposed.

The state opposition has pushed for such an inquiry even before comments by ACC chair
Terry O'Connor earlier this year that corruption existed among some detectives.

"We've now reached the stage where those police officers who are under scrutiny are
fingering one another," Mr Tomlinson told ABC radio.

"The history of these sorts of exercises is that, when rats turn on one another, one
of them squeals.

"When one of them squeals, the squeal will reverberate through a royal commission.

"There is the air of inevitability about it."

But he said now was not the appropriate time to call such an inquiry.

"At this stage all that we have is police officers under scrutiny starting to turn
on one another.

"They still have not squealed and when they do squeal that will be the time for a royal
commission."

Mr Tomlinson said the new report focused only on the issue of greater powers for the
ACC, and in the future the committee would look at a more general report on ACC operations.

Mr Court said the ACC was a well resourced and powerful body but if the parliamentary
committee made a reasonable recommendation for further powers the government would consider
this favourably.

The premier said he did not believe a royal commission was inevitable.

AAP sd/maur/bwl

KEYWORD: POLICE (CARRIED EARLIER)

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

NT: Never Never people set to be handed back their land

AAP General News (Australia)
02-21-2000
NT: Never Never people set to be handed back their land

By Catharine Munro

MATARANKA, NT, Feb 21 AAP - Elsey Station, immortalised in Jeannie Gunn's outback classic
"We of the Never Never", is set to be handed back to its Aboriginal owners this week.

The descendants of Goggle Eye, Maudie, Nellie and other 'black boys' and 'lubras' who
featured as servants in the book published in 1907 will receive freehold land title to
the massive cattle run of 5,334 square km after more than 100 years of white ownership.

Mrs Gunn - the "little missus" of the station for a year in 1903 before her …

Qld: New energy policy to rely on natural gas

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-1999
Qld: New energy policy to rely on natural gas

Queensland's electricity retailers will have to rely more heavily on gas and renewable
energy sources under a new clean air strategy.

Premier PETER BEATTIE has revealed plans for the state's first energy policy.

The policy is an attempt to second-guess Federal moves to impose caps on greenhouse
gas emissions or fines for excess production.

The final details of the Queensland policy will not be released until next year.

But Mr BEATTIE put electricity retailers on notice they will be expected to get a more
of their energy from gas and other renewable resources.

He has assured consumers the new policy will not hit their electricity bills as energy
suppliers will be banned from inflating prices.

The Australian Gas Association has applauded the announcement.

AAP RTV bja/arb

KEYWORD: ENERGY ( BRISBANE)

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

VIC: Signs placed in military style operation

AAP General News (Australia)
08-07-1999
VIC: Signs placed in military style operation

Drivers in the Melbourne CBD could have been forgiven for thinking the enemy had landed
this morning as a helicopter helped install two giant signs in a military-style operation.

Sign manufacturer Signcraft says it's the first time in Melbourne, and most likely
Australia, that a helicopter had been used to install the giant sky signs.

The new logos were placed at the corner of Collins and Williams Streets, at the National
Mutual headquarters building, as part of the group's rebranding to AXA Australia.

A Bell 205/A Iroqois helicopter was used to lift the signs to the 22nd floor.

AAP RTV so/am

KEYWORD: HELICOPTER (MELBOURNE)

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

FED: Howard defends softer conduct rules

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-1999
FED: Howard defends softer conduct rules

By James Grubel, Chief Political Correspondent

CANBERRA, Feb 10 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard accused the ALP of playing the politics
of envy as he defended the decision to allow ministers to retain shares in companies linked to
their portfolios today.

Mr Howard said the code of ministerial conduct was changed in line with recommendations
from senior public servants and not because of any political motive.

But the opposition launched a scathing attack on the new rules and said ministers could now
have a conflict of interest because they could make decisions which benefitted their
investments and family wealth.

Under the original code of conduct, ministers were required to divest all shares in
companies linked to their portfolios. But under the new rules, ministers can hand over control
of their investments to their adult children or to blind trusts.

Mr Howard said the changes made the code of conduct more contemporary and reflected the
high level of share ownership in Australia.

"The changes that were made to the code were, with one or two very minor exceptions, the
direct recommendation in the incoming brief, the brief to an incoming government, of the
Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet," Mr Howard told parliament.

"They make the guidelines more contemporary. They are totally defensible.

"I completely reject the envy credo of the Labor Party.

"I do not intend to be prime minister of a country which allows a situation to develop
where men and women who've been successful in business, men and women who have accumulated
assets, are intimidated out of offering themselves for public service."

But Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said Mr Howard had sunk parliamentary standards to a new
low.

"We've had yet another depth plumbed yesterday and today with his presentation of and
explanation of the guidelines," Mr Beazley said.

"The guidelines in the past have been replete with reference to appearances as well as
actualities. Because that is what has been required of ministers through the history of the
Commonwealth, but is required of them no longer."

Mr Beazley said the shares could also be handed back to the minister once they leave a
portfolio.

"This is the lowest point standards of ministerial conduct have reached in this country,"
he said.

The changes follow problems with the original code of conduct which led to the forced
resignation of three frontbenchers - Jim Short, Brian Gibson and Geoff Prosser - over
conflicts of interest and the resignation of four others over incorrect travel claims.

AAP jg/mfh/gl

KEYWORD: CONDUCT NIGHTLEAD

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

FED:Murdoch accuses Google of aiding piracy

AAP General News (Australia)
01-15-2012
FED:Murdoch accuses Google of aiding piracy

SYDNEY, Jan 15 AAP - News Corp chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch has accused
internet giant Google of aiding film piracy.

The Australian-born media mogul used his recently activated Twitter account to blast
the search engine, branding it a "piracy leader".

"Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts around them," Murdoch wrote.

A short time later he added to the rant, saying film making was "risky as hell", with
piracy hurting actors and writers.

Murdoch then added: "Google great company doing many …

AAP National News Wire Round-Up for Breakfast, Jan 12

AAP General News (Australia)
01-12-2011
AAP National News Wire Round-Up for Breakfast, Jan 12
Breakfast Round-Up: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AAP RTV FILE AT 0430


Floods Qld (BRISBANE)

Brisbane and Ipswich are now the focus of Queensland's flood disaster .. with power
outages and a rising death toll.

It's feared the toll will rise dramatically from the 10 people whose lives have already
been claimed by the floods .. with torrents of water sweeping through communities west
of Brisbane.

Record flood levels are being predicted for the Brisbane and Bremer rivers .. prompting
electricity authorities to shut off power in the Ipswich …