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23 February 2000
Northern Territory News headlines
'Shoppers fight drunks menace'
Stuart Park shopowners have become the first front page by-election promise seekers today, complaining about drunks and itinerants hassling residents outside their shops. Their shops are about 50m away from a St Vincent De Paul centre where the homeless and helpless receive food and shelter. The CLP candidate, whose party has been in government for many, many years, said that she was too afraid to go near there at night. The ALP candidate said that shopowners had complained about the problem to him. The St Vincent De Paul centre manager, who is not standing as a candidate, said the issue was complicated and bulldozing wouldn’t solve the problem because there were still two liquor outlets and a park nearby.
‘$5,000 damage: girl, 13, on bond'
One of four teenage girls who broke into a primary school was released without conviction on a bond to be of good behaviour for six months. The Chief Magistrate said that he had taken into account the girl's young age, that it was her first offence and that she had been disciplined at home. The disciplining at home included strapping and grounding and according to her mother, the girl has not been in trouble since. I haven't heard any outcry from the proponents of mandatory sentencing yet.
'Lawyers blast Burke claim'
Mr Burke, the Chief Minister and Attorney-General of the NT has labelled the judicial system as corrupt. There were even claims that he had broken sedition laws. But Mr Burke qualified his remarks, claiming his definition of corrupt should have been interpreted as corrupt when referring to a computer disk. Does this mean that us simpletons in the public who believe that the NT Government is not working properly can call the NT Government corrupt (in the computer sense of course). How incredibly outrageous. Surely this is one of the lowest points in Australian politics.
Meanwhile on page 7 the real news begins
'Shut up, you snot-gobbler'
Scouts Australia has produced a booklet to encourage children to silence bullies by calling them such names as 'snot-gobbler' or 'weasel-breath'. The book also says that you can call bullies 'wastoids' or 'bog-trotters' with gusto and determination and that will leave them speechless. I'm speechless.
'Slap on sunblock to repel stingers'
A James Cook University ecologist believes that swimmers may soon be able to slap on a box jellyfish repellent with their sunscreen. The ecologist has tested the compound in the lab over 18 months but didn’t indicate whether or not he had tried it in the box jellyfish capital of the world, Darwin. It may well be a bit like throwing the dog in to see if a croc is around. This time throw in the ecologist and if he survives, throw the dog in and then think about it.
'Pregnant Catherine to stay in movie'
We have certainly been starved of Zeta-Jones news in the last few days. It looked as though she might have to drop out of a film because of her pregnancy. But all that was needed was to make her character pregnant as well. Such a simple solution, it could have come out of NT politics.
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