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Good evening, I'm Ken Hose. Welcome to News World.
Senator George Georges has won a last-minute reprieve from spending Easter in jail.
Earlier today the Senator was arrested at a picket line for the third time in as many days.
On appearing in the magistrate's court he was kept in custody after refusing to comply with a bail condition.
But late today he successfully appealed to the Supreme Court.
It was well past nightfall when Senator Georges was released from the City Watch House.
To the obvious delight of his supporters.
Despite his ordeal the ailing Senator was adamant he would return to the pickets.
I won't have much time next week but the week after there may be a need to give support to the workers.
Mike Stewart has the details that led to Senator Georges arrest earlier today.
Since the first picketers were arrested the number of protesters has grown daily.
Today more than 30 lined up outside the Taringa Depot.
Senator George Georges arrested twice in as many days was not among them.
Arriving late he stood well away from demonstrators near a big group of police.
However that didn't save him when arrests were being made.
He joined 19 others in the back of police paddy wagons as did university lecturer Dr Carol Ferrier
who was picked up as she carried her daughter away from the rally.
I'm moving along the road what's the charge?
What's the charge? I'm walking along the street. What's the charge?
State Labor MP Anne Warner comforted Dr Ferrier's daughter as her mother was driven away.
Despite threats in the Parliament police did not arrest any members of the media.
Though we understand they were taking down the names of television channels and newspaper
reporters taking pictures of workers arriving here today and they did repeatedly warn us to
stay off the roads and to stay out of the way. When Senator Georges and Dr Ferrier appeared in
court later in the day their applications for bail were subject to the condition that they
stay away from secret depots. They refused to comply and were returned to the watch house.
Regardless of the arrests sacked workers plan to continue and increase the size of their pickets
with a major demonstration planned for next Tuesday.
And tonight Senator Georges clearly agreed with their plans.
Well my role might be limited by the judge's verdict that although he removed the conditions
of bail which were prohibited and interfered with my rights as a member and as a citizen
nevertheless he seems to indicate that the next time that I breach the act the condition
ought to be an undertaking that I can no further breach the act. So it's a fairly long struggle
and I think there'll be others taking up the up the slate.
Meanwhile the Queensland Government has been warned that any moves to enforce new industrial
legislation in the power industry could result in a statewide blackout. Power station operators
are reportedly so angry about the legislation they're again preparing to turn supplies down.
One operator said today that any future dispute would make the last power stoppage look like a
picnic. A change of policy by the electricity commission means there'll be no more controlled
load shedding. He said the automated load shedding system referred to in these directives
has never been tested and the whole system could break down. That's a big risk but one the operator's
spokesman John Barrett told me today many of the men are angry enough to take. The spur would be
the Government using legislation aimed at prohibiting industrial action in the power industry
and again I was told there are plenty of issues brewing in the industry that could prompt just
that. The operators now feel and the power station industry workers feel that the legislation that
is now available to be used against them has put them in such a position that they can't retract
any further. So what you're saying is we could expect the operators to take some action in the
very near future? It's it's on the cards. MOA President Bob Warren represents about 40 percent
of the operators and believes they're much more united over this issue than they ever were during
the last power dispute. For the moment the unions have simply given notice they'll accept the
Government's challenge and double it. Michael Spencer reporting for News World. Australian Surf
Life Saving authorities believe that the USA and South Africa have joined forces to exclude Australia
the international leader in the sport from the 1986 World Championships in Hawaii. South Africa
has accepted an invitation from the Americans effectively preventing any countries that are
party to the agreement from competing. Surf Life Saving is a proud Australian tradition one in which
we excel having won world titles in every event at the two world championships to date. Australia
instigated the carnivals Bali in 1981 then Hawaii in 1983. President of the Australian Surf Life
Saving Association, Ellen Welton was one of the prime movers and believes the international
get-togethers were highly successful. Something which we could practice our life-saving skills
and show them around the world something which as Australians we're very proud of and I'll be very
disappointed if Hawaii 86 doesn't take place. He may well be disappointed along with 12,000 other
members if things don't change. Today Mr Welton sent a circular to members throughout the country
alerting them to the fact that Australia's participation is in jeopardy. America won the
honour of hosting the 1986 championships and promptly invited South Africa. Part of the
circular says that in the past South Africa has not sought to compete where it would deny the
attendance of any other country. Now they're flying in the face of that policy and aiming to
take advantage of competing in the USA. In effect that would result in a two-team event hardly a
world championship. With South Africa going it means that countries such as Great Britain, Canada,
Hong Kong, Bali and all the countries that participate in the last one, Australia and
New Zealand will not be able to go. So why are the Americans doing this? Well maybe the Americans
might want to see their name up in as world champions because the comment made by the
American delegate was that well if only two countries compete maybe we'll see a lot of new
world champions. There's not enough time to arrange a replacement event so all the Served
Lifesaving World can do is await the outcome of the Americans meeting later this month and hope
that they change their minds. The Australians won't break government policy and compete even to
salvage an event that they have worked so hard to establish and had so much success in. Four Vietnamese
hunger strikers including a 67 year old woman were today ordered to leave their protest camp
outside Parliament House in Canberra but despite having their tents and belongings removed the four
say they will continue without shelter. These Vietnamese are mostly refugees who fled Saigon
during the communist takeover. The decision to allow 22 students to study in Canberra has angered
them. They say the students are communist spies sent by Hanoi to cause trouble. That's why six
of them started a hunger strike two weeks ago. On Tuesday two including this 67 year old woman
couldn't go on. Today against doctors advice Mrs Thieu Mai returned but the government decided it
was time for the demonstration to end. The tents came down and the hunger strikers were told to
leave but even without tents the four planned to defy the government and stay even if it means
starving. Australia is on the verge of lucrative defense contracts through Europe with a world
beating anti-ship missile decoy system. It's the Wynon project that's had a special task force
touring Europe seeking buyers. Lee Hatcher our European correspondent reports. The first rule
of naval warfare 1985 is there's no time for thinking. For many years armed forces around the
world have been developing decoy systems that attract the missile away from the ship. Through
these tests Australia has developed a world leader. After the decoy leaves the ship it hovers emitting
the same range of signals that comes from a ship and its key is that it moves at the same speed as
its host. It's far more convincing than any other in attracting the sea skimming missile away from
the ship. John Trippert has been leading a joint government industry task force that's presented
the Wynon decoy to Europe. We have had industry throughout Europe I would like to say aggressively
interested in the vehicle and again we must follow up because we are saying in this area that
Australia is open for business and therefore I think that it is up to Australia to provide the
follow-up. If as seems likely the selling campaign through Europe bears concrete orders it'll mean
contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Australia an exercise in which government and
private enterprise can actually work together. Lee Hatcher in London for News World. Israeli forces
have mounted a new search and arrest raid in south Lebanon today. Earlier Israeli occupation troops
began freeing hundreds of prisoners from their main south Lebanon prison camp. It was said the
Israelis a humanitarian gesture designed to ease the tensions between the Israeli army of occupation
and the population of south Lebanon. But the majority of the 750 or so prisoners released today
seemed uncowled by their imprisonment and bent on continuing what they see as a holy war against
the Israelis. God is great they chanted the by now familiar battle cry of the Shia Muslims.
Others taunted their guards with chants of death to Israel long life to Ayatollah Khomeini. We they
sang have the bombs and the bullets. 1200 of their comrades had already been moved into Israel.
They say the Israelis will be detained as long as the security situation demands it.
Most of those are accused by the Israelis of taking part in operations against Israeli soldiers.
Those released today are said to be less active supporters of the resistance against Israel's
occupation of their country. Though the Israelis thought it necessary to keep a close watch on them
until the last moment. The operation was supervised by the international Red Cross who say the removal
of some prisoners to Israel and their continued detention is a breach of the Geneva Convention,
something the Israelis deny. The Israelis were anxious to try and portray today's releases and
the closure of Ansar as a goodwill gesture. In fact they had no real alternative to the closure
as they are retreating south from here within a few weeks.
Thanks for joining us on News World tonight. Australia's dollar is still falling against all
major world currencies. Today's record low was 64.1 cents against the US dollar although by end
of trading today it was improved slightly to 65.5 cents. Across the country today talk no doubt
centered on the falling dollar. Wise heads discussing the current account crisis, the
interest rates squeeze, commodity prices and all those things that make them so-called financial
experts. But if you wade through all that maybe it's not so complex. Look at it this way if you
borrowed too much money and found the cost of clothing and food constantly going up while your
wages were going down you'd have trouble convincing anyone that you were a good financial risk and
that's about where Australia has landed itself. We're paying something like 700 million dollars
a month more for goods than we're taking in. Our exports aren't earning us enough to pay for our
imports and the government keen to remain popular at home is keeping interest rates as low as
possible which means there's not much point investing in Australia if you can do better
elsewhere. Add to that concern over ANZUS, MX missiles and the like and you have a very nervous
financial world filling much as you and I do when contemplating a big financial commitment. There's
no simple solution with a falling dollar. Part of it is out of our control. Part of it relates to
low mineral prices and low agricultural prices as we've known for some time but it's happened
for such a long time now that it is a view which is taking hold around the world of Australia's
relative importance in the world financially and for the first time I think that we've got to
take stock and take some quite radical steps to do something about it. The government of course says
don't worry. If you look at prices, employment, the housing sector, retail sales, sales of motor
vehicles, all the fundamentals are strong and bear comparison with any other economy in the
western world. But the opposition naturally disagrees. The combination of reasons including
the very heavy devaluation of the Prime Minister's own leadership of the party on economic and other
matters. There are some overseas reasons like the strength of the US dollar, low commodity prices
but domestically people are getting worried about the quality of Mr Hawke's leadership. In the end
it's a question of making hard decisions, something Australian politicians are not noted for. It's
also a matter of recognising that Australia isn't quite the rich young cousin we often think we are.
Continuing financial news tonight, Australian share markets hit another record high this
afternoon as foreign investors took advantage of the weak Aussie dollar to buy stocks. At the end
of half day trading before the Easter weekend, the all-ordinary's index closed four and a half
points higher on a turnover of 23.7 million shares. Arnott's was the focus of another takeover. It's
believed the American company Campbell Soup purchased one million Arnott's shares in an
attempt to gain 15 percent of the biscuit makers issued capital. As we told you earlier the Australian
dollar hit an all-time low against the American greenback hitting 64.1 US cents before closing
at 65.5. In response gold trading was quiet because of the Easter holiday. In New York this morning
bullion closed at $316 per ounce. Life may have evolved not from the sea but from clay. That's a
theory being examined by scientists at NASA's research center near San Francisco. Most scientists
speculate that life started in a primordial soup of simple organic molecules back when the earth
was new. But the latest theory says that life started not in the ocean but on land patterning
itself after simple life processes associated with clay. One group of researchers has discovered that
clay can store energy and transfer it during cycles of thawing and drying. The cyclic wetting and
drawing reaction process that we have found to be so effective in producing the chemicals that
were necessary to the first living to the first living cells. There's also evidence that clay
performs other lifelike functions that it can replicate or copy its own molecular structure
and pass chemical information on to other systems similar in a primitive way to growth in living
organisms. At some point the theory goes these patterns of activity were passed on to complex
organic compounds and living cells emerged. I'm not imagining it to be to have been a leap. I
imagine that it was a gradual process in which the thing became better and better. The old systems
were one by one dropped and new systems were one by one brought in. The scientists said they may never be
able to prove their theory but they offered it as the most plausible one so far and predicted that
future discoveries will back it up. Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney has just introduced its latest
residents comparatively rare red pandas to the public. Taronga Zoo produced its twin red panda
babies just in time for Easter. Born four months ago mum kept the babies hidden in a log nest.
Just this week the babies began to explore their treetop home and found today's gathering of Sydney
media very interesting. Red pandas come from the high altitudes of the Himalayas and are becoming
rare in the wild. But the birth of the twin girls makes a total of five red pandas at Taronga.
Time for a look at sport now and hot on the heels of the disabled Olympics last year in America
athletes from all around Australia and Canada are gathering in Canberra to take part in our own games
but as Tyrone Marega reports the star of the show Tracy Lewis may have a battle to achieve her goal.
18 athletes from all over Queensland departed tonight on board coach instead of a plane.
In a sombre reminder of the plight their sporting association has endured since its establishment
nearly five years ago. A lack of financial assistance as a result of limited recognition
they're bound for the fifth annual Australian national sporting titles in Canberra.
Already the Australian Amputee and Disabled Sporting Association has competed in the
American Handicapped Olympics slashing 25 seconds off a world swimming record
and tonight champion swimmer Tracy Lewis who has numerous gold silver and bronze medals
was awarded the National Sportswomen's Award for the disabled. Again ironically the awards
ceremony taking place in a bus depot but despite this and the adoration of an entire Queensland
country town it seems that it's not enough to join the famed Australian Institute of Sports
although misfortune doesn't seem to have faced Tracy at all. How do you feel with the award?
Really good it's it's quite it's quite an honour I feel um just shocked really good I suppose.
And what are your plans after the week at the Institute? Well um I'm looking forward to getting
a scholarship at the Institute if possible but otherwise a sponsorship from someone more
training more hard training um just more competition just more competition in general I suppose.
The Institute has said a sporting scholarship is forthcoming but until then Tracy and many others
like her may just have to wait. Tyrone Moraga reporting for Sevens News World. Malcolm Rabie
today seriously quizzed the security surrounding swabs taken from racehorses in Queensland. Rabie
trainer of picnic in the park started what could be the test case which ends the caffeine doping
fiasco in Queensland. Today's inquiry into the caffeine doping of picnic in the park on February
16 at Mackay the day he equaled the Australian record was expected to be a formality with Rabie
getting the usual six month suspension but armed with a tape recorder which he was refused permission
to use Rabie began a lengthy questioning of QTC analyst John Loth over security surrounding the
swab samples once they reached Brisbane. The hearing lasted almost three hours. I think it's
going to bring out a lot of you know unanswered questions and I did cross question a lot of
people you know with relation to the swabbing procedure especially after it gets to the lab.
I think that you know there's not too many people have stood up I think there's been a
hell of a lot of innocent people convicted and I think this case will bring it all to a head.
Rabie is backing his case with picnic's example that the urine sample proved positive in the horse
but the saliva sample was negative and he has a solution. There will be three swabs taken they'll
be glass bottles they'll be wax seals with a government stamp and only one can go to that
laboratory and then if it does come up positive then at least the trainer and the owners have got
the other swabs to fall back on if they're not positive well they're definitely not guilty
and I think you'll find out that there won't be any more positives once that happens.
And now the weather outlook for Good Friday. Brisbane will be fine with light winds and a
temperature range of 15 to 28 degrees. That's all we have for you on Newsworld for tonight.
Thank you for joining us. Don't forget our major bulletin of the day at six o'clock tomorrow.
Have a happy and safe Easter. Good night everyone.