Fed: Tim Costello backs Howard on IVF ban

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2000
Fed: Tim Costello backs Howard on IVF ban

CANBERRA, Aug 14 AAP - Social justice campaigner Reverend Tim Costello today backed
the federal government's stance on preventing IVF treatment for single women and lesbians.

The idea of bringing children into the world where a father was never anticipated was
a quantum leap for society and created huge ethical questions, he said.

"On this one I must express some sympathy with (Prime Minister) John Howard's position,"

Mr Costello, normally a critic of the coalition's social policies, told reporters.

"I know that gay people and single mums often can be as good and much better parents
than people who are in a heterosexual, orthodox marriage.

"It's not a question of their fitness or their care, for me.

"For me, it is the question socially and culturally and, in terms of the taxpayer subsidising
IVF treatment to where, say, a father is never anticipated, I think that is a very significant
quantum jump in the culture."

Mr Howard plans to introduce legislation early next week to amend the Sex Discrimination
Act to allow states to restrict access to IVF.

Mr Costello said that in a world where 40,000 children died each day from malnutrition
and preventable diseases, he was a little uncomfortable with the idea of allowing IVF
for women without male partners.

"I know infertility is an awful curse ... but to spend huge dollars on IVF medical
technology and seeing children come into existence where a father may never, ever be anticipated,
in a world of such suffering for children at large, raises huge ethical questions for
me," he said.

AAP dep/mfh/cjh

KEYWORD: IVF COSTELLO

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

Oly: Top anti terrorist squads brief NSW Police Commissioner

AAP General News (Australia)
02-24-2000
Oly: Top anti terrorist squads brief NSW Police Commissioner

SYDNEY, Feb 24 AAP - New South Wales Police Commissioner Peter Ryan today said he was
briefed by British experts on the recent Afghan plane hijacking drama as he finetuned
security for Sydney's Olympic Games.

A spokesman for the commissioner confirmed Mr Ryan, who is currently in London, had
been testing Sydney's Olympic anti-terrorist plans against the action taken by British
authorities in the Afghan hijacking.

British police negotiated an end to a tense eight-day standoff at Stansted airport
this month after hijackers seized an …

Fed: Port Kembla BHP workers vote for 24 hour strike AWU

AAP General News (Australia)
12-23-1999
Fed: Port Kembla BHP workers vote for 24 hour strike AWU

The Australian Workers Union says the first of two stopwork meetings at BHP's giant
Port Kembla steelworks has voted for a 24-hour strike in January.

The union says the other meeting this afternoon is also expected to vote to strike.

The AWU, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Electrical Trades Union,
are protesting at what they believe are BHP plans to introduce non-union contracts.

Last month, BHP Iron Ore enticed a third of its 1,000-strong Pilbara mining workforce
to sign Western Australian Workplace Agreements, and refused to renegotiate the existing
enterprise bargaining agreement with unions.

AAP RTV dep/rcg/smf y

KEYWORD: BHP CONTRACTS KEMBLA (CANBERRA)

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

QLD: Opposition says government set for savage building cuts

AAP General News (Australia)
08-11-1999
QLD: Opposition says government set for savage building cuts

Queensland's opposition claims the state government will carry more than $700,000 into this
year's budget to hide massive cuts to capital works funding.

Opposition treasury spokesman DAVID WATSON says leaked information shows almost $2 billion
will be cut from capital works in the Sepetember 14 budget.

Dr WATSON says Queensland Rail, electricity industries and the health and education
departments have fallen behind in their capital works spending over the past 12 months,
leaving the excess in carry-over funding.

He says about 30,000 jobs in the industry will go if funding is cut.

Dr WATSON says the leaked information about the budget shows capital works will be funded
with $3.4 billion, compared with funding of $5.1 billion last year.

AAP RTV ap/rp

KEYWORD: BUILDING (BRISBANE)

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

FED: Two arrested at tent embassy protest

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-1999
FED: Two arrested at tent embassy protest

CANBERRA, Feb 15 AAP - Two Aboriginal protesters have been arrested on the lawns outside
Parliament House, the Australian Federal Police said today.

The men were allegedly trying to stop police from removing ceremonial white spears which
the protesters say represent each year of genocide since white settlement.

Police moved in just after 4pm, removing the spears and extinguishing a ceremonial
cleansing fire.

The protesters vowed to relight the fire, which was extinguished in a similar raid last
Wednesday night, and keep it burning until Prime Minister John Howard came out to meet them.

"We want him to come to our ceremony, our fire, the fire for peace and justice, that's what
it's all about," tent embassy spokeswoman Isobel Coe told reporters.

"The fire hasn't been put out, the fire comes from the fire for justice which is burning at
the Aboriginal tent embassy.

"We'll be back, we're not going to give up and go away. We can't, we've got no other
choice."

The Aboriginal leaders said a meeting with Reconciliation Minister Philip Ruddock would not
be useful after the arrests.

"I think today they've just shown us what they're really like, what they're really on
about," Ms Coe said.

"They don't want to talk to us."

The protest began last week following speculation the government planned to clear the tent
embassy from its traditional site opposite Old Parliament House.

AAP sf/mfh/ms/de

KEYWORD: TENT ARRESTS

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

NSW:Mine may be forced offset carbon emissions

AAP General News (Australia)
02-02-2012
NSW:Mine may be forced offset carbon emissions

SYDNEY, Jan 31 AAP - New coal mines in NSW, or those seeking to expand operations,
could be compelled to offset their greenhouse gas emissions if a landmark court case is
successful.

In the first case of its kind, the NSW Land and Environment Court indicated last November
that the expansion of an open cut coal mine near Mudgee may only be granted if it offsets
its direct emissions.

The matter returns to court in Sydney on Friday.

If it expands, the Ulan Coal mine, a joint venture between Xstrata Coal and Mitsubishi
Development, is expected to pump out approximately 575 million tonnes of carbon dioxide
over its 20 year life span, according to a submission by the Environmental Defender's
Office.

Of this, direct emissions - or scope one emissions - are expected to produce an average
of more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, sustainability consultant David
Blyth told the court.

In a decision handed down on November 24, the court said that although forcing a mine
to offset these emissions was the "first such condition imposed on a coal mine in NSW"

it was not "necessarily discriminatory."

"As other operating coal mines seek approval to modify or extend their operations,
or new coal mines are opened, it would be open to the consent authority which may be the
(planning) Minister, to impose a similar condition," Justice Nicola Pain said in her decision.

She said approval should "in principle" be granted to the project, "subject to conditions".

These conditions are to be discussed in Sydney on Friday by both parties before they
are finalised.

Principal Solicitor Kirsty Ruddock from the Environmental Defender's Office said the
case could have wide-ranging ramifications for future coal and coal seam gas projects
in the state.

"It will set a precedent ... if this happens, that other communities could argue, in
particular circumstances, that scope one emissions should be offset," Ms Ruddock told
AAP.

"There are 20 or 30 mines sitting on the books in NSW to be approved in the next year.

"It will certainly impact on those."

Ulan has argued that making them offset their greenhouse gas emissions would be unfair.

"The conditions are discriminatory, not being imposed on any other coal mines in NSW,"

the court heard.

Meanwhile the NSW Department of Planning argued in its submission that the proposed
conditions pre-empted the Federal Government's carbon reduction scheme.

"The proposed conditions pre-empt the imposition of a national policy, and in a manner
that would be anomalous to the way that the structure of the international climate change
regime was set up," the court heard.

However, Ms Pain said "no such system is yet to operate in Australia or NSW and this
approval is sought now".

AAP lcf/jjs/wf

KEYWORD: ULAN

� 2012 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

QLD:Worst may be over for Cairns

AAP General News (Australia)
02-03-2011
QLD:Worst may be over for Cairns

By Kym Agius

CAIRNS, Feb 3 AAP - A second major evacuation centre in Cairns is riding out the cyclone
without power, but the worst of the ferocious winds from cyclone Yasi appears to be over
for the city .

Two police cars have patrolled parts of the city following the category five cyclone
overnight and officers have reported minimal damage at this stage in parts of the city.

"There's no major structural damage, just vegetational," a spokesman for Cairns Regional
Council Mayor Val Scheir told AAP.

"We just heard reports that one garage door …