AAP General News (Australia)
12-03-2003
AAP National News Wire Round-Up for Midday, Dec
3Midday Round-Up: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AAP RTV FILE AT 1130
Rates (CANBERRA)
The Reserve Bank has lifted rates by another quarter of a percentage point.
This means home buyers will have to fork out an average $30 extra a month on their
mortgages before Christmas.
It's the second rise in two months after about 18 months of level-pegging.
And it takes the official rate to 5.25 per cent -- its highest level in more than two
and a half years.
If the rise is passed on in full by lenders, standard mortgage rates will rise to just
over seven per cent.
This will add $30 to monthly repayments on the average $189,100 home loan.
Buying a home is already harder than even during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when
interest rates were more than twice as high.
Rates Anderson (CANBERRA)
Deputy Prime Minister JOHN ANDERSON says he hopes today's rate rise will be the last for a while.
Mr ANDERSON says he has a very high regard for the Reserve Bank board, and he knows
they take into account all the things they must.
But he says enough is enough.
Mr ANDERSON says the latest rate increase will send the necessary signals to any parts
of the economy that may be overheating.
He says higher interest rates will put upwards pressure on the Aussie dollar, and hurt
farmers and manufacturers.
Opposition Leader MARK LATHAM says the rate hike is a sign the federal government's
failed to address the housing bubble.
He says the rise is bad news for Australian home buyers and small business.
Labor Party (CANBERRA)
Labor leader MARK LATHAM says the sole purpose of his party is to kick the HOWARD government
out of office.
Mr LATHAM's admitted there remain differences of opinion within the Labor party.
But he says MPs and senators are determined to reconcile and focus on defeating Prime
Minister JOHN HOWARD at next year's election.
Mr LATHAM has also signalled he'll make education a priority.
And he's ruled out changing negative gearing laws if Labor wins government.
Forty-two-year-old Mr LATHAM narrowly defeated former Labor leader KIM BEAZLEY in the
caucus ballot to replace SIMON CREAN yesterday.
Election (CANBERRA)
Prime Minister JOHN HOWARD has left open the option of calling an early, double dissolution
election next year.
But he's told the Nine Network it's more likely the election will be held in the second
half of the year.
The HOWARD government holds a handful of double dissolution triggers -- with legislation
repeatedly blocked in the Senate.
They include bills on industrial relations and removing northern islands from Australia's
exclusion zone.
Mr HOWARD, meanwhile, has vowed to keep a close eye on MARK LATHAM.
Despite Mr LATHAM's poor showing in opinion polls, Mr HOWARD says he won't underestimate
the opposition leader.
Floods (MELBOURNE)
Melbourne has been lashed by its worst thunderstorms in 100 years -- stranding people
on car roofs, and flooding roads, homes and businesses.
The storms, which began around midnight, centred on the western, northern and inner
eastern suburbs, with more than 100 millimeters of rain recorded in two hours in some
areas.
The Metropolitan Fire Brigade says it had to use two boats to rescue 10 people forced
onto the roofs of their cars by chest-high water under the Bulleen Road Bridge on the
Eastern Freeway.
Severe hailstorms also damaged cars in Lilydale.
The weather bureau says the storms in the northern and eastern suburbs were the worst
seen in a century, and more are expected to hit parts of the city this afternoon.
The State Emergency Service has responded to more than 1,000 calls for assistance.
Clark (MELBOURNE)
A Victorian county court judge has overturned a conviction on a charge of riotous behaviour
against suspended ATSIC head GEOFF CLARK.
But the judge has ruled that a second charge faced by CLARK -- of obstructing police
-- must proceed.
CLARK has now taken the stand in a county court sitting in the Victorian city of Warrnambool
to give evidence relating to the remaining charge.
The suspended Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Commission chairman is appealing
against his conviction on charges arising from a scuffle with police and local Aboriginals
at a Warrnambool hotel, on Victoria's south-west coast, last year.
CLARK, aged 51, was originally charged with 19 offences, but 17 have been either withdrawn
or dismissed.
Fingleton (BRISBANE)
Former Queensland chief magistrate DI FINGLETON has walked free from prison, promising
to one day tell her side of the story.
An emotional Ms FINGLETON has embraced her husband JOHN MCGRATH and brothers JOHN,
HAROLD and RONALD outside the low security Helana Jones Correctional Centre after completing
a six-month sentence.
She says she's unable to make public comment about her case because she's waiting for
her appeal in the High Court against her conviction.
However she says she's looking forward to one telling her story.
Ms FINGLETON went to jail after a jury found her guilty of threatening to retaliate
against a witness, with the case centring on an email she'd sent to a magistrate.
Ecstasy (CANBERRA)
Police have warned drug users that a recent batch of the drug ecstasy may be linked
to the sudden death of a Canberra man.
A spokesman says the tablets being investigated are green and embossed with the figure
of a woman.
Police say a 20-year-old man from the south Canberra suburb of Narrabundah died several
hours after he was was believed to have taken a green coloured tablet -- suspected of
being ecstasy.
Similar tablets found with the dead man have been sent for chemical analysis.
In 1995 15-year-old Sydney girl ANNA WOOD died after taking ecstasy at a Sydney club.
Shooting (BRISBANE)
A 30-year-old man's been shot and wounded by police after a car he was in allegedly
tried to run down a police officer in a Brisbane carpark last night.
An investigation has been launched into the incident by the Ethical Standards Command,
overseen by the Crime and Misconduct Commission.
Police say an officer fired a shot about 6.40 pm (AEST) as a car containing two men
and a woman was driven straight at him, and then sped away.
The car, spotted at a McDonalds restaurant on Sandgate Road in Virginia, was wanted by police.
A short time later police were told that a man with gunshot wounds to his upper chest
was at an address in Boondall.
The man was taken to the Royal Brisbane Hospital, where he is under guard.
BRIEFLY.........................
A man's been sentenced to more than 16 years' jail for the shooting murder of a hotel
manager during an armed robbery in Sydney's inner west.
Police say 12 shootings along a small stretch of highway in the American state of Ohio
this year are connected. One person has died in the attacks.
An ultralight pilot has escaped without injury after his aircraft crashed in a remote
area of Tasmania's south-west.
Prime Minister JOHN HOWARD has donated $30,000 on behalf of Australians to former Test
cricketer DEAN JONES' charity walk from Sydney to Melbourne.
FINANCE.........................
The all ordinaries index was 9.7 points HIGHER at 3206.4 at 11.10am AEDT while the
benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 12.2 points at 3199.9.
The Australian dollar was HIGHER at 73.23 US cents from 72.88 yesterday.
Against the euro, the Aussie is buying 60.56 euro cents, down from 60.81 yesterday.
In Sydney gold was trading $US3.125 HIGHER at $US403.75 an ounce.
AND IN SPORT....................
Golf Masters (MELBOURNE)
Staff at Melbourne's Huntingdale Golf club are frantically working to get the course
ready for the start of the Australian Masters tournament tomorrow after fierce overnight
storms.
The storms left bunkers at Huntingdale filled with water but it's believed the greens
are undamaged.
Staff have been pumping water from the bunkers since early this morning however more
storms are forecast for the area later today.
The masters gets underway tomorrow with STEVE ELKINGTON, ADAM SCOTT and defending champion
PETER LONARD headlining the field.
Cricket Aust (BRISBANE)
Fast bowler JASON GILLESPIE is reading nothing into India's poor form ahead of the
first cricket Test against Australia, starting on Thursday in Brisbane.
GILLESPIE says practice matches don't mean much.
Wicketkeeper ADAM GILCHRIST is expected to be fit to play after missing training yesterday
because of a viral infection.
Hockey Trophy (SYDNEY)
Australia is in a precarious position in the women's Champions Trophy after a 1-0 loss
to China at the Olympic Hockey Centre last night.
Australia is third in the standings -- a point behind joint leaders Argentina and China
-- and needs to at least draw with Argentina on Thursday to stay in contention for the
gold medal.
ENDS MIDDAY ROUND-UP
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KEYWORD: MIDDAY ROUND-UP
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