News briefs
`Hot' tourist spot?
ADELAIDE -- The state government announced on July 16 that the Maralinga atomic test site, in SA's outback, would be converted into a tourist attraction, once the $100 million decontamination process has been completed.
Land surrounding the test site is due to be returned to the Tjarutja people, who have suffered ongoing health problems and disruption since the first test in 1951. Part of their traditional lands were returned in 1984, but some areas, such as Emu Fields, have been so highly contaminated with plutonium and uranium that they remain uninhabitable.
NTEU rejects Monash pay offer
MELBOURNE -- Management at Monash University has offered university workers a basic 5% pay rise, with a further 7.5% conditional on meeting revenue targets and the abolition of leave loading. The deal explicitly rests on the successful introduction of full-fee paying places for undergraduate students.
The Monash branch committee of the NTEU voted on June 25 to impose bans on exam results. The committee's decision was ratified at general meetings in early July. Management has not made any fundamental changes to its first proposal, and negotiations are stalled.
Sydney airport divisions
SYDNEY -- Differences have emerged in the anti-airport-noise campaign.
Twenty-three community and environment groups, including the No Aircraft Noise party, the Greens and groups based in the areas that would be affected by a new airport at Holsworthy or Badgerys Creek, have called for an airport to be built outside the Sydney basin and for Kingsford Smith to be phased out.
Now Labor MPs Anthony Albanese and Leo McLeay have joined Liberal MPs and 15 city councils in the Councils for a Second Sydney Airport, which calls for the immediate construction of a new airport in Sydney's west.
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