Economy: Economic bust eagerly
awaited
A recent report has added to the debate over whether the
US economic slowdown has passed over Australia or if the
'Lucky Country' is actually headed for a fall.
The report, Long Term Forecasts 2002 to 2017, was released
this month by BIS Shrapnel and is the latest in a string
of studies that speculate on why the Australian economy
has not been hit by the economic gloom engulfing the
US and Europe. The report predicts that the economy
will continue to putter along steadily for the next
year but will truly take off by mid-2003, fuelled by
business investment in non-residential construction
activity.
By mid-2005, BIS Shrapnel expects a major commercial
building boom to be in full swing and the economy to
be warping into hyperdrive. It says inflation will top
4.5 percent by 2006 and the Reserve Bank will have no
option but to raise interest rates above 10 percent
to douse the overheating economy.
According to the report, these double-digit interest
rates will then lead to the long-predicted economic
bust.
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Business: Australia secures
record LPG contract with China
Both government and private sectors cheered this month
after an Australian consortium beat out rivals to win
an AUD$12 billion contract to supply liquid natural
gas to China. The 25-year contract was clinched when
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji wrote Prime Minister John
Howard a letter assuring him Australia had won the deal.
The Australian consortium, which includes Royal Dutch/Shell,
Chevron Texaco, BHP Billiton, Mitsubishi and Mitsui,
beat out a partnership between Indonesia's Pertamina
and British Petroleum. Insiders say Australia's stability
and proven gas reserves led China to chose it over the
less expensive Indonesian bid.
According to the deal, at least 3 million tonnes of
gas will be shipped from the field in the northwest
of Australia to China's first dedicated LNG terminal
near Shenzhen in Guangdong province. Howard called the
contract Australia's biggest-ever foreign trade deal.
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Human Rights: UN Blasts Aussie
Detention Centres
A United Nations human rights report has labeled Australia's
treatment of asylum seekers as a "great human tragedy".
UN special envoy P.N. Bhagwati released the report this
month after visiting the Woomera detention centre on
the edge of South Australia's desert.
The report accused Australia of breaching human rights
conventions on the treatment of children and an international
covenant relating to torture and other cruel or degrading
treatment. The report blasted the Australian government
for keeping children locked in the centre and for the
length of time the asylum seekers had to spend in the
prison-like camp before their cases were resolved.
Bhagwati, a former Indian judge, said the detainees
were being treated as criminals although they had not
committed an offence, saying most had simply wanted
to find a better life. The Australian government hit
back saying the report ignored the fact that all of
the detainees had entered the country illegally.
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Environment: Steep fines for
reef damage
A ship that ran aground near the Great Barrier
Reef this month might face the stiffest environmental
fine possible, according to the authority that overseas
the marine park. Virginia Chadwick, head of the Great
Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said the owners
of the Doric Chariot could be fined as much as AUD$1.1
million for the damage caused when the ship hit Piper
Reef on the edge of the park in northeast Australia.
If fined, the Greek owners would be the first to fall
under tough new rules put in place to protect the park.
Last year Australia raised the maximum fine tenfold
to $1.1 million for vessels found damaging the reef.
The authority imposes the fines after it assesses the
damage.
The 2,300km-long reef is a World Heritage site and
a major tourist attraction.
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Science: Supersonic travel
propelled forward
A team from the University of Queensland completed the
first successful test flight using supersonic combustion,
a technology that may revolutionise air travel. Known
as a scramjet, the air-breathing supersonic ramjet engine
could one day reduce travel time between Sydney and
London to a mere two hours.
The engine runs on oxygen from the atmosphere, meaning
it does not have to carry much fuel.
The university's vice-chancellor Prof. John Hay said
the immediate benefit of the successful test would be
to reverse the "brain drain" of Australian
scientists to the more lucrative centres in the US and
Europe.
The team is now negotiating with various groups to
conduct a $50 million program of six flights to develop
a free flying scramjet engine.
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