PRIME MINISTER -THURSDAY, 3 April 198
from the. Press Office K
SUMMARY OF ZR~'
V / Y
Why the construction workers vacated the Noonkam Ise~ ati o yesterday
is open to debate. Amax workers claim they were forced to withdraw.
Report from earth mover and Liberal Party member, Mr O'Dristoll,
interviewed.. Says the Aboric~ inies did not have to ask him twice
to leave the station. Member for Fremantle Mr John Dawkins had
a different interpretation of what happened at the station. Said
the community leaders repeated a request they had made to Amax
workers that they wanted them to leave and Amax said they
understood the problems, and later in the morning, an Amax
representative came to where he was and said that the company
was withdrawing from the site. Says there was no suggestion of
intimidation or threats of violence. ALP spokesman on Aboriginal
Affairs, Mr West, agrees with Mr Dawkins account. Says if the
State government has any sense they will take the opporunity
to consider the matter deeply, and that it is the State government
who is itching for confrontation. A Melbourne Age journalist,
another eye witness to the Amax workers' departure, said the
incident was a friendly and low key affair. Sir. Charles Court is
adamant that the drilling will go on, and rejects any suggestion
that Amax may want to withdraw. Says if Amax wants to go onto
the station tomorrow, the government-will make it possible for
them to go on tomorrow. Says it will be a very sorry day for the
Aboriginies if they find that because of their actions, they have
denied other Aboriginies access to this type of pastoral lease.
Russia's export ban on titanium and soaring world prices for
this metal have raised hopes for another major mining development
in West Australia's gold fields, 400km west of Kalgoolie. They
are claimed to be the largest ever discovered, and two companies
are proposing to mine and process the metal. They are Ferrovenadiun
Corporation and Thomas McKinnon Securities of Florida. Interview
with two of their executives.
A violent riot errupted in Bristol, England, when police raided
a local cafe frequented by West Indians. 24 w'ere injured, 19 of them
police. Report.
The Australian mountaineering team which lost 3 of its members in
the Himalayas on Sunday is now trekking out of the mountain, having
abandoned both the expedition and the bodies of their dead colleagues.
Report from Dehli on other lives lost on the, Annapurna.
In France, the day may not be too far away when a newly married
couple are asked discretly by waiters, boy or girl. These are the
findings. of a French professor who has concluded that specially
chosen diet for women can apparently decide the sex, of their baby.
The Queensland Parliament has just passed a series of amendments
to the State Police Act, and according to Terry O'Gorman, President
of the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, Section 69C of the Act
is the most dangerous piece of legislation passed in the last
years. Says 4,000 police in Queensland can now gather information
on people who have never been before the court. They can feed
that information into a central system to make it available
to governments, agencies,-private insurance companies, and the
people on whom-the information is being kept have no idea i that that
it is being done.
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The statement issued by the Queensland Police Commissioner, Mr Camm,
has claimed that the only people who will be investigated by police
will be those who come under suspicion.
In Los Angeles it has been announced the earliest form of life
ever found on earth has been dated as 3.5 billion years old.
The evidence consists of fossiles produced by microscopic
organisms embedded in rock found in Marble Bar
Western Australia. The announcement represents one of the first
results of a 15 month project by an international team of scientists
who have joined together in California to learn when and how life
first began. Interview with man who found the rock, Dr Malcolm Walte:
In the Greek Islands, Easter is traditionally celebrated with
firecrackers but it seems that some of the large Greek community
in Darwin have added a typically Darwin twist to the tradition.
Their zeal in constructing these homemade firecrackers about
the size of an easter egg, led to the roof of a neighbourhood
factory being blown in by one of these eggs. N. T. police have
issued a warning against these Greek easter eggs. Police spokesman
says they are the non-eating type.
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