PM Transcripts

PRIME MINISTER MONDAY, 23 MARCH, 1981
From the Press Office
SUMMARY OF ABC's
An emergency meeting will soon be underway in Poland in anotherbid
to resolve the hardening of attitudes between the Government
and Solidarity, the free trade union movement. Report from
Mark Colvin in Warsaw.
The Chairman of Elder Smith Goldsborough Morts, Sir Norman Young,
has reacted angrily to today's decision by. the South Australian
Government not to interfere in the takeover bid for the company
by Mr. Robert Holmes alCourt's West Australian based Bell group
of companies. Report from Peter Rapp. Interview with Graham Scott,
Senior Lecturer in Economics at Flinders University.
Last year, the Federal Government was severely embarrassed when
Canberra journalist Laurie Oakes released substantial detailS6 of
the Budget two nights before it was delivered by the Treasurer,.
Mr. Howard. The story may have passed, but it has certainly not
been forgotten. Communications Minister, Ian Sinclair, was in the
uncomfortable position today of having to present an award for the
story and he didn't let the occasion pass without comment. Report
from Simon Nasht: Ian Sinclair certainly made i t clear today just
how far he and his Government colleagues took the definition of a
free press. If any other Minister had been given the task of
awarding Mr. Oakes the Thorn Company Award for Television News Story
of the Year, they probably would have let the matter pass without
too much comment. Not so a tough campaigner like Ian Sinclair.
Excerpt from Mr. Sinclair's speech at the Awards.
The ALP's National Executive has been meeting to consider what action
to take over the split in the Queensland Branch of the Party.
John Highfield ' reports they have not made a decision.
Within 20 years Australia will be one of the four super-powers in
the world with its inf Hence located principally in the Pacific
region. That is the view of a Professor of International Relations
at the Faculty of Politics and Law at a University in Tokyo. He lIi sted
the major powers of the future as the Soviet Union in the north, the
United States in the West, Japan in the East, and Au~ tralia in the
south: interviewed.
Actress Judy Davis has won the Bri ish Academy Award for best
actress for her role in the filzn(" My Brilliant Career".
The increase in interest rates is to affect Australian savings bonds.
" PM" understands they are to go up by three quarters of one percent
to 12.25% in an announcement expected to be made later this evening
by the Treasurer. 000---