PRIME MINISTER TUESDAY, 26 FEBRUARY, 1980
From the Press Office lggqp L/
SUMMARY OF ABC'S
There are more allegations of police harrassment of
Aborigines at West Australian polling booths. A group of
Aborigines were allegedly taken from the Gooda Gooda Aboriginal
community and questioned about who they were going to vote for.
One of the community advisers, Tom Stevens, interviewed.
He says police gathered up seven members of the Aboriginal
community and took them to the police station.
Queensland's record on civil rights, particularly for Aborigines,
was attached last night by Liberal Senator Alan Missen. Alan Missen
is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional and Legal
Affairs. Addressing a meeting of the Civil Liberties Council
in Brisbane, Senator Missen claimed that Aborigines in
Queensland were often denied rights set down by international
convention and agreed to by the Federal Government. Senator Missen
interviewed. Doctors at" 2Pambula and Bega on the south coast of N. S. W. are on
strike. They are refusing to treat uninsured or public patients
because the State Government has reduced the fee for service
payable at hospitals from 85% to 75% of the scheduled fee.
The State Health Minister, Mr. Stewart, has attacked the strike,
saying the doctors in the area have stood over people for years,
forcing them to join private health funds. One of the doctors
in Bega, Gordon Hudson, interviewed. N. S. W Minister for Health,
Kevin Stewart, interviewed.
Australia's stock markets will be tested in the next few days
following yesterday's sudden drop in share prices. That is the
view of the Vice-Chairman of the Australian Associated Stock
Exchanges.. He says ithe drop can be explained by uncertainty
about interest rates and it is not likely to lead to a serious
market fall. Interviewed.
President Carter is trying to prevent-any American athlete from
going to the Moscow Olympic Games, but at the White House today
he played host to 150 Olympians, members of the-American Winter
Olympics team.. President* Carter hailed the 150 athletes. as
heroes. He thanked the athletes on behalf of al-Americans.
But the Americans are now facing a national boycott of the
much-larger Summer Olympics. There was silence as President
Carter asked for the same kind of patriotic fervour to support
his measure against the Soviet Union.
President Carter
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan has violated peace and
the principles of the Olympics. And it has caused us to
make a motion that the Olympics be moved or postponed this
summer.
Some of America's Winter athletes said they were opposed to a
Moscow boycott. Most nodded, rather sadly, that they would go
along with whatever their President decided in the interests of
the country and world stability. If America's good feeling over
these Winter Games was indeed unprecedented, it is largely because
it may be the only international competition they are in this year.
The plans for alternative Games are to be formally proposed at
the White House very soon, but to most Americans that/ 2is a stop-gap.
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The British Prime Minister, Mrs. Thatcher, is taking steps
to try and ensure unity within her Conservative Party. After
only nine months in office, she is faced with the prospect
of a wide rift within the Party. Report from Mark Colvin in
London. The Prime Minister is understood to have told her
Cabinet colleagues that they have a collective responsibility
for Government decision. They can argue about proposals before
they are decided on,. but once Cabinet agreement has been reached
members of-the Conservative Government are now being told to tow
the Party line. A backbencher, Julian Critchley, interviewed.
Said there are a number who are-anxious about the style of
the Government and its direction.
. Report from New York that-the latest in a series of attacks
on policeman has prompted the Mayor to renew his call for
the reintroduction of capital punishment.
This year's. Academy Award nominations have-* just been released
in Hollywood. The actual awards will be given on April 14.
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