Highlights of the AAP National wire at 15:30 = 2

AAP General News (Australia)
08-02-1999
Highlights of the AAP National wire at 15:30 = 2

CANBERRA - Farmers today warned the federal government planned tax trade-offs in return for
a lower company tax rate could cost them $5,000 to $6,000 and were unacceptable. (TAX NFF to
come, see also TAX N/L to come)



CANBERRA - A spokesman for Australian Democrats Deputy Leader Natasha Stott Despoja today
denied she had been rolled in the party room over her push for a parliamentary inquiry into
High Court judge Ian Callinan. (CALLINAN DEMOCRATS)



CANBERRA - Disabled pensioners will not be forced onto work for the dole schemes under a
social security crackdown, the government said today. (DISABILITY)



CANBERRA - The ACT recorded a budget deficit of $121.8 million last financial year, $17
million better than the budget forecast and a slight improvement on the previous year.
(BUDGETACT to come)



GOULBURN - The jury today has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of two brothers
charged with murdering Canberra doctor Peter Rowland. (PRIVETT, N/L to come)



SYDNEY - Parties in the industrial dispute over New South Wales firefighters' death and
disability entitlements moved closer to a resolution today but disagreements remain.
(FIREFIGHTERS END LEAD, see also FIREFIGHTERS N/L to come)



SYDNEY - New South Wales Police Minister Paul Whelan should stand down until the state's
corruption watchdog had investigated allegations against him, the opposition said today.
(WHELAN CHIKAROVSKI, see also MISSING WHELAN)



SYDNEY - An escapee caught near where a woman was found stabbed to death yesterday was a
serious violent offender but had apparently walked free from his minimum security prison, the
NSW opposition said today. (KNIFED OPPOSITION, N/L to come)



SYDNEY - A young woman has been charged with murder after an 81-year-old woman collapsed
and died during a bag-snatch at Lismore in northern New South Wales. (BAGSNATCH)



SYDNEY - Disgraced Sydney doctor Geoffrey Edelsten today withdrew an application to be
allowed to practise medicine in New South Wales. (EDELSTEN)



MELBOURNE - Victorian Liberal backbencher Victor Perton said today he was considering court
action over an attempt to smear him ahead of the preselection vote he won yesterday.
(PRESELECTION)



MELBOURNE - The Victorian Government had increased the risk of young people abusing drugs
by ripping support networks out of schools, Opposition leader Steve Bracks said today. (DRUGS
BRACKS)



MELBOURNE - Australia's consumer watchdog is set to investigate soaring country petrol
prices in rural New South Wales after a delegation today called for a fair deal for the
bush. (PETROL)



MELBOURNE - An entire forest with small forest creatures and more than 8,000 plants from
120 different species will greet visitors to the new Melbourne Museum. (MUSEUM)



MELBOURNE - More than 60 dancers, stuntment and motorbike riders are busy jiving to the
classic rock and roll hits of the television hit Happy Days. (HAPPY)



BRISBANE - A palm reader accused of the vicious stabbing murder of a high profile cat
devotee was today convicted on the basis of sophisticated DNA evidence. (FITZHERBERT N/L)



BRISBANE - Some children suffered from too much schooling and should be encouraged to leave
before year 12, an employment summit in Brisbane was told today. (SUMMIT SCHOOL)

BRISBANE - Conservationists were partly responsible for Australia's world record youth
suicide rate because they forced regional industries to close, federal MP Bob Katter said
today. (JOBS KATTER)



BRISBANE - Australia's longest serving mayor, Rockhampton's Rex Pilbeam, died in the Royal
Brisbane Hospital on Saturday aged 91. (PILBEAM)



FRASER ISLAND, Qld - The annual three-month whale watching season began this week with
sightings of young humpback whales in the calm waters of Hervey Bay, 260kms north of
Brisbane. (WHALES to come)

GOLD COAST - Comedy legend Jerry Lewis has been hospitalised in Darwin with a virus, a
spokeswoman for the entertainer said today. (LEWIS)



PERTH - Rain has washed away footprints searchers hoped would lead them to an Alaskan
cyclist missing on a trek across the Great Sandy Desert in West Australia. (CYCLIST)



PERTH - The West Australian police major crime squad has begun an investigation into the
disappearance of a 17-year-old hitchhiker missing since Thursday. (STEPHENSON)



ADELAIDE - Car maker Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited (MMAL) today cut prices across its
locally produced Magna and Verada range as it continued to talk up the future of its
Australian manufacturing operations. (MOTOR MITSUBISHI)



ADELAIDE - Australian hospitals could get an extra $180 million in federal government
funding if the commonwealth accepted Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures on hospital
cost increases, South Australian Human Services Minister Dean Brown said today. (HOSPITALS)



ADELAIDE - Members of Animal Liberation staged a pre-dawn raid on a battery egg farm north
of Adelaide this morning in a bid to expose what they said was the suffering of thousands of
hens. (EGGS)



ADELAIDE - Pregnant women with gum disease were up to seven times more likely to have a
premature, low birth-weight baby, than other pregnant women, the Australian Dental Association
(ADA) warned today. (GUMS)



AAP mo

KEYWORD: HIGHLIGHTS NATIONAL 2 SYDNEY

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