Tonight, John Olsen fails to hose down talk of an early election.
Pulling back, Pauline Hanson condemns racist attacks.
And the power of sun, our Olympic village, to be the greenest yet.
Good evening, John Lombard with ABC News.
Premier John Olsen is refusing to rule out an early election.
He can call one any time after the 31st of March.
The Labour opposition believes he'll go soon after that.
But the Premier is keeping his options open.
Today he was wooing small business.
And although pushed several times, he declined to eliminate the early poll option.
More money for electricity bill rebates and study positions for women wanting to be owner
operators are the cornerstones of John Olsen's revamped small business package.
The success of which will eventually be crucial to the Premier's political longevity.
Today's step on small business is just but one step of many, a series of measures that
we will be putting in place over the course of the next year.
Just in time for an early election, claims some.
And although questioned closely, Mr Olsen wouldn't rule out a poll in the first half
of next year.
I'm not concentrating on election dates.
I'm concentrating on the job that I've got to do.
The opposition claims otherwise, saying today's business boost is questionable because of
the Liberals' lack of support for Labor's shop lease legislation.
When it comes to a battle between the shopping centre owners and the small retailers, the
Liberals are on the side of the big business.
Mr Olsen disputes that, claiming discussions will continue next year.
Dorothy Cots is the first female Liberal lower house minister for more than a decade.
She's been working with her two portfolios, employment and correctional services.
But she's coy about just how far she'll push her past platforms of curfews on children
and capital punishment.
There are many things on my agenda at the moment.
That's not necessarily one of them.
But there are certainly plenty of other that I'm going to be focusing on in the next few
weeks.
Dean Brown's move to Aboriginal affairs has not been taken well by local Aboriginal leaders.
This public comment just two weeks ago following the change of Premier indicates just how little
respect there is for Mr Brown.
What's his name again?
He used to be, I think, a Premier.
It says, Dean Brown, go, go, go.
He's going all the way.
Wonderful.
Traditionally, it's a difficult portfolio, but Mr Olsen denies his decision is part of
a personal vendetta.
John Howard has signalled a new go slow on the Republic.
The Prime Minister says he doesn't think Australia will be ready to become a Republic before
the turn of the century.
He's also ruled out a vote on constitutional change until after the next election.
Political correspondent Jim Middleton.
Olsen heads for work as Parliament wends its way at a snail's pace towards Christmas.
Inch by inch, division by division, the Howard government is getting the bulk of its budget
cuts through the Senate.
The question is resolved in the affirmative.
To mark the end of the parliamentary year, John Howard held a rare Canberra news conference
revealing snail's pace would apply too to constitutional reform, rejecting a plebiscite
on the Republic before the next election.
No, I've never said that.
I said, what I've said in relation to votes is that the Australian people will have a
vote on this issue before the turn of the century.
The Prime Minister also hit out at Social Justice Commissioner Nick Dodson, who's accused
him of having an atrocious record on Aboriginal rights and racism.
Mr. Dodson's remarks were inaccurate and quite intemperate.
They didn't really do his own cause a great deal of justice.
No support on that from new AdSic chief, Gajorja Kura, who Mr. Howard has been casting as an
ally.
He says, Mr. Dodson enjoys a great deal of support and this should be acknowledged by
the government.
For the past few weeks, rumours of a cabinet reshuffle have been rife in Canberra, but
today John Howard publicly rejected the idea he should reward the good performers in his
team and demote the failures.
I have no intention of having a reshuffle.
Among the success stories apart from Mr. Howard himself have been Treasurer Peter Costello,
Industrial Relations Negotiator Peter Reath, Health Reformer Michael Waldridge and Schools
Minister David Kemp, who Howard insiders acknowledge would have been in cabinet had he performed
better in opposition.
Accident prone Alexander Downer is on notice not to make another mistake or else.
Amanda Vanstone has struggled, as has John Heron, but for now all can look forward to
a happy new year.
Merry Christmas.
But not before a cabinet meeting in Sydney next week to plan the agenda for 1997.
Independent MP Pauline Hanson today took steps to modify her public image.
She called on supporters on the Gold Coast to express their views through the political
process and she denounced racial hatred.
Ms. Hanson also indicated she may be ready to form her own political party.
Void by the overwhelming support of 500 Gold Coast retirees, Pauline Hanson admitted to
journalists that her own political party is now a possibility she's considering, but she
firmly ruled out any alliance with expelled Western Australian Liberal Noel Crichton Brown.
I'll tell you something straight, right from the beginning there has been no affiliation
between myself and Noel Crichton Brown and there will not be.
Earlier in a speech which blamed high immigration levels for everything from unemployment to
increasing rates of tuberculosis, Ms. Hanson also called on her supporters not to engage
in racist attacks.
We must voice our opinion, but do it in a civil way so this hatred isn't felt out there
with our children and in the schools.
And you know, I need your help there as well.
And proving that she is in touch with the mood of the people, she admitted she's sick
of the Pauline Hanson debate.
Because when I open up a newspaper or I turn on the TV and I see this woman, Pauline Hanson,
I think I'm like, oh God, not her again.
Honestly, I get to a stage where I think I get sick of seeing her.
But that's only likely to intensify if the Pauline Hanson party gets off the ground next
year.
Sydney's planned Olympic Village is being hailed as an international landmark in green
design.
Unveiled today in the Harbour City, it will be one of the most advanced urban developments
ever seen, powered completely by the sun.
Report reporter Alan Tait.
To be created here at the Olympic site at Homebush, the athletes village will be the
world's largest solar powered suburb.
The concept is to develop an integrated power plant on the site using renewable energy.
Each house will effectively be a mini power station, receiving enough energy from the
sun through solar panels on the roof to power the needs of the householder.
All houses will also be connected to the grid, able to feed excess energy back for use by
the rest of Sydney.
There's a big win in pointing the way to residential development, minimising any contribution to
the greenhouse impact.
Greenpeace congratulated the government.
If the Premier's announcement becomes reality, it's great news.
We think it's the beginning of the solar age internationally and it's actually going to
happen in Australia, which is very exciting.
All buildings in the village will be designed to optimise solar access.
Insulation will be of a high standard.
Doors and windows will have weather seals.
Air conditioning will be obsolete.
Wastewater will be treated on site and then reused for toilets and irrigation.
After the Games, it will become one of the world's most technologically advanced high
density suburbs.
We are conservative and we've been in business 25 years, but the solar village makes a lot
of sense to us.
It's important to the power industry here in Australia and it's very important for the
opportunities we see to export the technology and skills to the growing Asian market.
And that's the corporate strategy.
Use the village as a showcase to export Australian technology in renewable energy to the rest
of the world.
The United Nations has moved one step closer to selecting a Secretary General to replace
Butrus Butrus Gali on the third day of informal polling among Security Council members, Ghana's
Kofi Annan won by 14 votes to one.
But as the ABC's Michael Gleeson reports, it's the one vote that was crucial.
Were he to be chosen UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan from Ghana would be the first black
African to hold the post.
Today during yet another straw poll of Security Council members, he won overwhelming support.
14 countries to one, the French.
We do hope that we'll reach this result.
Secretary General will come from Africa and very likely he will speak French.
A 30 year United Nations veteran, Annan does speak French, but he's from English speaking
Ghana.
His backing included the United States.
That fact alone, possibly enough to prompt France to threaten to use its veto power.
I think he's his own man, he has his own views, which he expressed quietly but persuasively
often.
The fact that he is supported by the Americans, I don't think should be considered a complete
disqualification for being Secretary General of the UN.
Some UN insiders are confident the process is nearing an end.
No, I don't think we are in a deadlock, not yet.
And maybe we never will be.
It was worth meeting this morning.
We had a positive discussion.
There was further evolution in the position.
We'll come back in 24 hours.
And who knows, thank God it's Friday.
France is now completely isolated, just as the US was when it vetoed Boutros Boutros-Ghali
for a second term.
Diplomats are banking on the French speaking African countries to persuade France to change
its mind.
The World Trade Organisation's first ministerial conference has ended in Singapore on a high
tech note.
The key agreement, a declaration backing duty free trade in information technology products
by the year 2000.
But as our correspondent Catherine McGraw reports from Singapore, it's only a beginning
with the fine detail yet to be thrashed out.
After five days of deliberations, now it's being hailed as a success.
There's been very good outcome from the five day ministerial, first ever ministerial of
the World Trade Organisation.
So far as Australia is concerned.
More liberalisation, more openness and reduced tariffs on products to increase competition.
The centrepiece, the start of an agreement to slash tariffs on computer products.
But for some, the WTO...