HighLights of the AAP National Wire at 15:30 = 2

AAP General News (Australia)
04-14-2000
HighLights of the AAP National Wire at 15:30 = 2

CANBERRA - A parliamentary committee today defended Tax Commissioner Michael Carmody
against accusations he delayed a fraud investigation until after he was reappointed. (TAX
CARMODY)

CANBERRA - Governments collect an average $9,400 tax from every Australian, with New
South Wales residents carrying the heaviest burden, and Tasmania the lowest taxed state.

(TAX STATES to come)

CANBERRA - People living in disadvantaged areas are more likely to die from accidents,
poisonings, violence and disease than wealthier Australians, an atlas of Australia's health
status shows. (ATLAS)

CANBERRA - Kosovar refugees will be urged today to comply with federal government orders
to fly home on the weekend. (KOSOVO AUST DAYLEAD)

CANBERRA - A major study of the health of Gulf War veterans is underway. (VETERANS)

CANBERRA - Long term unemployment costs between $50,000 and $150,000 per person, with
early intervention for school leavers and the newly unemployed the key to tackling the
problem. (JOBS to come)

SYDNEY - A woman was jailed today over the horrific death of a teenager whose 12 days
of torture included being gagged, hogtied, and left overnight in a cold bath with a fan
blowing cold air on him. (MCDONALD NIGHTLEAD)

SYDNEY - Staff at Sydney's Star City Casino say management's failure to address concerns
about safety is behind tomorrow's first strike at the facility. (CASINO)

SYDNEY - Aussie troops who served in East Timor will be welcomed home in an emotion-charged
parade through central Sydney next week. (TIMOR AUST)

SYDNEY - Qantas Airways Ltd will not increase flight services to Japan for at least
a year because of uncertainty over the effect the Sydney Olympic Games will have on Australian
tourism. (QANTAS JAPAN, see also TIMOR QANTAS)

SYDNEY - The death of former New South Wales Liberal MP Marlene Goldsmith was marked
by a minute's silence in the upper house today. (GOLDSMITH)

SYDNEY - Support for voluntary euthanasia has been partly caused by ignorance of proper
pain treatment of terminally ill patients, two leading palliative care specialists said
today. (PAIN)

BENDIGO - The people of Benalla faced a pork barrel by-election campaign by Labor,
Victorian National Party leader Peter Ryan warned today. (NATIONALS VIC, VIC NIGHTLEAD
to come)

MELBOURNE - Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said today he wanted to recoup funds used
by the former government to commission a book praising its achievements. (KENNETT BOOK
NIGHTLEAD)

MELBOURNE - Billionaire businessman Richard Pratt is reportedly being blackmailed by
staff over his private life. (PRATT)

MELBOURNE - A Victorian coroner has again supressed a report and the brief of evidence
on the Linton bushfire tragedy in which five men died. (LINTON)

MELBOURNE - A coroner's recommendations on tackling Victoria's heroin problem has met
with mixed reactions from police and social workers. (HEROIN DAYLEAD)

MELBOURNE - The former Kennett government had a secret plan to sell off millions of
dollars worth of inner-Melbourne public housing and relocate residents on the urban fringe,
the Victoria government said today. (HOUSING VIC, N/L to come)

BRISBANE - The Australian Democrats today denied selling out the trucking industry
despite brokering a deal with the federal government to restrict diesel rebates. (TAX
FUEL)

BRISBANE - A team of researchers is investigating whether ship ballast water has introduced
overseas marine pests into Moreton Bay and the Brisbane River. (PESTS)

BRISBANE - A truck driver, who pulled an injured young boy with a severed arm from
an overturned vehicle and treated him, today won the annual Goodyear Highway Hero award.

(HERO)

BRISBANE - Scientists believe advances in DNA research will enable them to compile
identikit pictures of criminals from hair, semen and other genetic fingerprints left at
crime scenes within five years. (DNA)

BRISBANE - Another hassle-free parliamentary week for Premier Peter Beattie further
underlines the weakness of the conservative Opposition in Queensland. (NEWSCOPE QLD)

ADELAIDE - Sandbag levees were built in the South Australian mid-north town of Gladstone
this morning as floodwaters threatened several homes and other buildings. (GLADSTONE)

ADELAIDE - Pro and anti-gambling forces clashed at an international conference in Adelaide
today with a US anti-gambling campaigner suggesting it was simply a fight between right
and wrong. (GAMBLING CONFERENCE)

ADELAIDE - South Australia is one seat away from becoming the first Australian state
to meet a key Australian Labor Party affirmative action target. (ALP SA to come)

HOBART - The federal government today promised to put ecological sustainability above
commercial interests in managing Australia's vast oceans. (OCEANS)

PERTH - Visitors to Western Australia's north west have been warned to take precautions
against Australian encephalitis following the hospitalisation of four people with the
disease. (ENCEPHALITIS)

AAP mo

KEYWORD: HIGHLIGHTS NATIONAL 2 SYDNEY

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