Fed: Top news stories on 2007

AAP General News (Australia)
12-17-2007
Fed: Top news stories on 2007

AAP Senior Correspondent Doug Conway reviews the top news stories of 2007:



1. RUDDSLIDE BURIES HOWARD

No John Howard in parliament, no Peter Costello or Mark Vaile at the top, no conservative
government in office anywhere in Australia at federal, state or territory level.

Australia's second longest serving government, which lasted almost 12 years, was not
just beaten, it was buried like Pompeii.

The pillars of the Howard era came tumbling down under the Vesuvius-like eruption of
Kevin Rudd's Labor Party.

The former diplomat and bureaucrat worked a minor political miracle to pick up 23 seats
inside 12 months as Labor leader.

Australia ended up with mirror image male-female leadership teams as Julia Gillard
became the nation's first female deputy prime minister and the decimated Liberals installed
Brendan Nelson and Julie Bishop.



2. SPORTSMEN BEHAVING BADLY

Ben Cousins and Andrew Johns, once jewels in the crowns of Australia's top two football
codes, typified the social problems embroiling sports stars.

They were the most famous names among a relentless parade making headlines for the
wrong reasons, from drug and alcohol abuse to violence.

Cousins, a former winner of AFL's highest honour, the Brownlow medal, was sacked by
his club West Coast Eagles and found guilty by the AFL Commission of bringing the game
into disrepute.

On one trip to a US rehabilitation clinic, he ended up in a California hospital after
a five-day cocaine bender.

Johns, rated among rugby league's greatest players ever, retired after suffering a
serious neck injury, then confessed to a long history of recreational drug use after being
arrested in London for possessing ecstasy.



3. WAR ON TERRORISM BECOMES A QUAGMIRE

President George W Bush looked increasingly isolated on Iraq as Britain announced a
timetable for withdrawal, his great Australian ally John Howard was defeated at the polls
and surveys showed the American people want their troops out.

The $8 billion-a-month war headed towards its sixth year, US casualties climbed towards
4,000 and Iraqi civilian deaths approached 80,000 despite President Bush's "surge" of
21,500 extra troops.

Three Australian soldiers were killed fighting Taliban forces in Afghanistan, where
Australia sent a further 300 troops.

David Hicks was sentenced at Guantanamo Bay to seven years for providing material support
for terrorism, with all but nine months suspended and being served in Adelaide.

Frenchman Willie Brigitte got nine years for planning terrorist attacks in Australia.



4. TERRORISM BUNGLE

Mohamed Haneef, an Indian doctor working at the Gold Coast hospital, was arrested over
suspected links to failed UK bomb plots in a case bungled by authorities.

He spent four weeks behind bars and was deported after then immigration minister Kevin
Andrews cancelled his visa.

A charge of recklessly supporting a terrorist organisation was dropped after the Director
of Public Prosecutions (DPP) admitted there was insufficient evidence to sustain a prosecution.

The DPP and Australian Federal Police blamed each other for the collapse of the case.



5. HORSE FLU GIVES INDUSTRY PNEUMONIA

It was discovered in a stallion at Sydney's Eastern Creek in August, and ended up costing
Australia's racing and breeding industries hundreds of millions of dollars.

The industries were shut down and all horse movements were prohibited following Australia's
first outbreak of highly contagious equine influenza (EI).

Three months later racing in New South Wales and Queensland was staggering back.

Victoria remained free of EI after closing its borders to all horses from the north
to protect its big spring carnival and the Melbourne Cup.

An inquiry is underway and biosecurity measures remain in place indefinitely.



6. HISTORIC RESCUE OR BLACK TAMPA?

Then prime minister John Howard won widespread plaudits for his bold intervention to
stop child sexual abuse and violence in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

Mr Howard sent in extra police and troops, banned alcohol and pornography, and instituted
welfare restrictions and health checks for children.

The intervention was criticised by some as a heavy-handed, paternalistic "black Tampa"

or racially-charged vote winner.

The issue of indigenous sexual abuse sparked outrage again in December when a Queensland
judge decided not to jail any of nine males who pleaded guilty to raping a 10-year-old
child at Aurukun.



7. BILLIONAIRE IN DISGRACE

A judge called it Australia's worst case of price-fixing, and said Australia's third
richest man, Richard Pratt, had approved it and knew it was "seriously unlawful".

Mr Pratt's packaging company Visy was fined a record $36 million over a five-year deal
with rival Amcor to carve up the $2 billion cardboard market which, the judge said, would
still be flourishing today if it had not been accidentally exposed.

Some called on Mr Pratt to give back his Order of Australia honour awarded in 1998
or to quit his presidency of Carlton Football Club.

Kevin Rudd, then in opposition, repeated his call for cartel behaviour to be criminalised.



8. ECONOMIC GOOD TIMES ROLL ON

Interest rate rises started worrying home owners, but the economic boom driven by Australia's
miners powered ahead.

The rampant economy grew at an annual rate of 4.3 per cent, unemployment hit 33-year
lows of just over four per cent and job ads hit a record high in November.

The Australian dollar cracked US90 cents for the first time in over a decade.

The Australian share market bounced back quickly after suffering its biggest one-day
fall in five years in a global meltdown caused by problems in America's sub-prime mortgage
market.

Home owners, however, felt the pressure of the Reserve Bank's 10th successive rate
rise since 2002, including the first ever announced during an election campaign.



9. AUSSIES DIE IN INDON FIREBALL

Five Australians were among 21 people killed when an Indonesian Garuda passenger jet
crashed and burst into flames on landing at Yogyakarta in central Java.

A report found the pilot, Captain Marwoto Komar, was fixated on landing despite 15
loud automated warnings that he was flying too fast to touch down safely.

He has been officially named a suspect.

The Australians killed were Australian Financial Review journalist Morgan Mellish,
36; diplomat Liz O'Neill, 37; AFP agents Brice Steele, 37, and Mark Scott, 41; and AusAid
Indonesia head Allison Sudradjat, 41.



10. WORKING CLASS HERO

Australians love a battler, and few have captured their hearts the way Bernie Banton did.

He fought corporate giant James Hardie all the way to his death bed, winning compensation
for thousands of Australians affected by asbestos diseases.

Though sick himself with the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma, he won a second
compensation payout for his family and also won a long campaign to have the palliative
drug Alimta included on the government's subsidised PBS list.

At his state funeral in Sydney, new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hailed the 61-year-old
as a "great Australian hero".



AAP dc/sp/bwl

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