Vic: Workers keep canteen vigil over job losses

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2000
Vic: Workers keep canteen vigil over job losses

By Heather Gallagher, Industrial Correspondent

MELBOURNE, Aug 14 AAP - Workers at the soon to be closed Heinz Watties cannery have
vowed to continue a sit-in at the company canteen while union officials attempt to save
their jobs.

Almost 200 workers are set to lose their jobs when the Dandenong plant closes in November,
transferring most of its production of baked beans, tinned spaghetti and soup to New Zealand.

But the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) has written to Premier Steve
Bracks asking him to intervene and help keep the outer eastern suburbs plant open.

AMWU state secretary Craig Johnston said that workers would continue to occupy the
canteen and maintain a picket line outside the plant, while 11th hour talks with the company
continued.

He said that workers were ordering in food and planned to sleep over in the canteen tonight.

They would stay for "as long as it takes".

"Where there's a hope (of saving their jobs) there's always a chance ... so we haven't
given up on anything yet," Mr Johnston told AAP.

Another AMWU organiser, Ray Campbell, said that the chances of workers getting new
jobs in the lead-up to Christmas were minuscule.

Meanwhile, union work bans which have escalated since early August have forced the
plant to stand workers down and stop production for a week.

Heinz Watties' spokeswoman Glenda Orland said that the bans were affecting all manufacturing
operations, including product quality tests.

"Suspending production is a very serious step that we have taken as a last resort,"

she said in a statement.

"We are seeking urgent talks with the unions so we can resolve this matter and bring
our people back to work."

Ms Orland said that the company had worked to ensure workers were employed until the
factory's ultimate closure.

Heinz Watties have offered eight weeks severance pay and four weeks pay for every year
of service.

The company has also agreed to negotiate a lump sum cash settlement for workers.

"By any industry standard what we are offering is very generous," said Ms Orland.

She said that the stand-downs would not affect supplies of baked beans, tinned spaghetti
and soup.

Premier Steve Bracks was unavailable for comment.

AAP hmg/ra/mg/de

KEYWORD: HEINZ NIGHTLEAD

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

Diary for Friday, February 25, 2000

AAP General News (Australia)
02-25-2000
Diary for Friday, February 25, 2000
EVENTS ARE IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER AND IN LOCAL TIME UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE.


ADELAIDE


0830-1230 - Public Forum on Gene Technology Regulation, Theatrette, Ground Fl, Commonwealth
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0830 - Public Forum on Gene Technology Regulation, Theatrette, Ground Floor, Commonwealth
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0930 - South Australian v WA interstate lawn bowls series to contest the Ford/Wishart
Trophy, West Lakes. 0930. Info: Brian Selley 0408 835 657.

1130 - …

NSW: Four million birds vaccinated against Newcastle disease

AAP General News (Australia)
12-23-1999
NSW: Four million birds vaccinated against Newcastle disease

Authorities on the New South Wales central coast have vaccinated more than four million
birds after two sheds were found to be contaminated with a new strain of the deadly Newcastle
disease.

The air-borne virus was detected on a property in the Mangrove Mountain area earlier
this week in the same region where the disease was found in April.

More than two million birds were slaughtered during the outbreak, including family
pets on properties.

Scientists have been taking swabs from farm structures and birds since the major April
outbreak and swabs taken from two sheds this week returned positive results.

However, a NSW Agriculture spokesman says scientists are hoping an emergency vaccination
program conducted in the past few days will spare farmers from further stock losses.

Agriculture NSW chief veterinary officer Dr DICK JANE says Newcastle Disease is a major
economic concern for Australia's $2 billion poultry industry.

He says poultry farmers and the Mangrove Mountain community should be assured that
every effort is being made to prevent another disease eradication program, like the one
experienced earlier in the year.

AAP RTV ls/sb/rcg/jn

KEYWORD: NEWCASTLE (SYDNEY)

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

QLD: Fingerprinting may identify body, police say

AAP General News (Australia)
08-11-1999
QLD: Fingerprinting may identify body, police say

Police say fingerprints will be used in a bid to establish the identity of a man found dead
at the base of a waterfall in Queensland's Springbrook National Park.

Tourists found the man's body late yesterday, and National Parks and Wildlife officers
alerted police before the body was carried from the park.

The man, believed to be aged about 30, was not carrying any identifying documents.

AAP RTV sd/rp

KEYWORD: FINGERPRINT (BRISBANE)

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

NSW: Bribery allegations fly at NSW coalition s power plans

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-1999
NSW: Bribery allegations fly at NSW coalition s power plans

By Catharine Munro, State Political Correspondent

SYDNEY, Feb 15 AAP - Allegations of electoral bribery flew at the New South Wales
opposition today following the release of its audacious plan to pay electricity consumers
$1,000 in exchange for privatising the power industry.

NSW Public Service Association (PSA) president Maurie O'Sullivan wrote to the New South
Wales' corruption watchdog questioning whether the handout would be considered a bribe.

"In my book you are offering people money for votes and that doesn't go down too well with
me and I'm sure I don't monopolise that feeling," Mr O'Sullivan told reporters.

But a spokesman for the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) indicated that the
offer would not be considered a bribe.

While the ICAC would not know until early next month whether it would investigate Mr
O'Sullivan's allegations further, party policies made in the context of an election campaign
were generally not considered bribes, the spokesman said.

Deputy coalition leader Ron Phillips hotly denied the offer was a bribe.

"This is not a bribe in any way, what this is doing is transferring the shares to the
community, they are entitled to participate," Mr Phillips told reporters in Sydney.

His denial was supported by the NSW Electoral Office, which said that a bribe had to occur
at the time a vote was cast.

"There's no more difficulty with this particular proposal than any proposal at the time of
an election," a spokesman said.

Mr Phillips said the handout, which can also be taken in the form of $1,100 in shares in
Energy Australia, would be tax free but any rise in the value of the shares would be subject
to capital gains tax.

But an Australian Taxation Office (ATO) spokesman cast doubt on Mr Phillips' assurance that
shares would not be taxed.

"We cannot comment on the shares," he told AAP.

"That situation is too complicated, there's too many variables and it would have to be
decided on a case-by-case basis."

The ATO had not reviewed the mechanisms of distributing the handouts, he said.

He said that as a general rule the $1,000 cash would not be taxable because it was a
one-off gift.

Mr Phillips admitted non-NSW residents, such as backpackers, who had electricity accounts
in the state could receive the handout.

"There will be anomalies around the edge and they will be determined by the electricity
ombudsman in determining the fairest way of handling those issues and making recommendations
to government," he said.

New South Wales Premier Bob Carr came his closest to making an absolute promise that the
ALP would not sell off the industry.

Asked if power privatisation was off the agenda for the next four years, Mr Carr replied,
"yes".

Treasurer Michael Egan, who is Upper House government leader, refused to make a commitment
not to block any sale by the coalition in the Upper House.

AAP cm/sb/cfm/ms/de

KEYWORD: POLLNSW POWER NIGHTLEAD

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

WA:Brian Burke's corruption charge dropped

AAP General News (Australia)
02-02-2012
WA:Brian Burke's corruption charge dropped

EDS: Reissuing to clarify job title of Mr Hondros in opening par and spelling of Brian
in headline



PERTH, Feb 2 AAP - Prosecutions have been dropped against former West Australian premier
Brian Burke, lobbyist Julian Grill and former ministerial staffer Nathan Hondros, due
to a lack of public interest.

The three were charged in November 2008 by the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC)
and Justice Michael Murray acquitted them in May 2010.

It had been alleged that Mr Burke and Mr Grill improperly procured information …

FED:More change needed in Egypt: Rudd

AAP General News (Australia)
02-03-2011
FED:More change needed in Egypt: Rudd

CANBERRA, Feb 3 AAP - Continued violence in Egypt proves there is still a need for
political reform, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd says.

About 500 people were injured and one killed after partisans of President Hosni Mubarak
stormed a crowded anti-regime rally in central Cairo on Wednesday.

Mr Rudd said the latest showdown proved the political crisis was far from over.

"The Egyptian people have made clear their aspirations for …