This blog collects the journalism of John Stapleton from the 1970s to the present day.
Monday, 29 July 2002
Thursday, 25 July 2002
Gatecrash subject charged, The Australian, 25 July, 2003.
Gatecrash suspect charged: [6 - NSW Country Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 25 July 2003: 5.
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A 22-YEAR-OLD man has been arrested after a six-week investigation into the party gatecrashing death of teenager Nathan Garriock.
Detectives tracked the 22-year-old man, who is believed to have been the driver of the car, to a property at Eatonsville near Grafton in northern NSW.
A 22-YEAR-OLD man has been arrested after a six-week investigation into the party gatecrashing death of teenager Nathan Garriock.
The 17-year-old was hit by a car alleged to have been deliberately driven into a crowd of people in the early hours of the morning outside a party in Sydney's west.
Garriock died in hospital from head and chest injuries after he and seven other people were hit by the car, which rammed into partygoers in the early hours of June 15.
He was also hit with a hard object during a melee with gatecrashers. The apprentice tiler, said to always have a smile on his face, loved his ute, his motorcycle and playing soccer.
His death received widespread coverage in Sydney and provoked considerable community outrage.
Detectives tracked the 22-year-old man, who is believed to have been the driver of the car, to a property at Eatonsville near Grafton in northern NSW.
The man will appear this morning in Grafton Local Court, where he will face multiple charges of assault, dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.
Police said it had been a difficult investigation, with about 150 people interviewed.
Monday, 22 July 2002
Friday, 19 July 2002
Seduced by a dell-ightful place in the country, The Australian, 19 July, 2002.
Seduced by a dell-ightful place in the country: [1 Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 19 July 2002: 24.
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Abstract
If you live in Sydney and answered yes to both these questions, you may be interested in Cherry Dell, at Exeter outside Bowral on the Southern Highlands.
Cherry Dell is part of the break-up of Invergowrie, the 1937 estate of Australian Iron & Steel co-founder Sir Cecil Hoskins. It was built on the site of Headlands, the original Yates Seed and Bulb Farm.
Cherry Dell agent Duncan Hill, of Richardson & Wrench in Bowral, said there was a definite movement of people in their 30s and 40s to the Southern Highlands.
* Rural
FANCY a nice little weekender out of town -- but not too far out of town? Got a spare million or two?
If you live in Sydney and answered yes to both these questions, you may be interested in Cherry Dell, at Exeter outside Bowral on the Southern Highlands.
The newly listed 4.8ha property is for sale for $1.35 million.
These days that's starting to look like a pretty average price in the sought-after region.
Agents say it's now hard to find a one-acre property in Bowral for less than $800,000.
Cherry Dell is part of the break-up of Invergowrie, the 1937 estate of Australian Iron & Steel co-founder Sir Cecil Hoskins. It was built on the site of Headlands, the original Yates Seed and Bulb Farm.
One of Invergowrie's features was that much of the original Hoskins gardens was intact. They were designed by landscape gardener Paul Sorensen.
His legacy can be seen in the many mature trees, hedges and banks of daffodils that dot the former grounds.
Danish-born Sorensen came to Australia in the early part of last century, designing gardens for many leading families of the era. Everglades at Leura in the Blue Mountains is considered his greatest surviving work.
Invergowrie was bought in 1967 by solicitor Carnegie Fieldhouse. In 1997, the estate was subdivided, and Cherry Dell was created. Enter the Byrne family, who say they fell in love with it immediately.
The Byrnes are not among the "suits" -- stockbrokers, lawyers and pilots -- who have made Bowral such a sought-after spot for weekenders.
They're an example of the other demographic being drawn to the rural charms of the Southern Highlands -- families with young children who appreciate the safety and security of the region.
The Byrnes were living and working in Canberra when they discovered Cherry Dell.
"We think we got the best part of the Paul Sorensen gardens," says Amanda Byrne.
"Invergowrie has the main house and beautiful rhododendrons, but ours has a hidden valley, which is supposedly hand dug.
"We don't know if that's correct, but Paul Sorensen was against the use of heavy machinery, and it's possible.
"We just fell in love with Cherry Dell. The name comes from the hidden valley. It has a whole series of flowering cherries down through it -- lots of rhododendrons, masses of bulbs, and beautiful, mature trees, including golden elms."
Mrs Byrne said she found the area ideal for bringing up children, and can't speak highly enough of the local public school at Exeter.
And it takes only an hour for her husband to get to work in Nowra -- no more than many Sydney commuters face every day. Joanne Gowland, part-owner of the Bowral Property Group, said the local property market had completely turned around from a decade ago, when it was dominated by retirees.
"There is definitely a pick-up," she said. "People want bigger blocks, they want space, they want safety for thekids. People want to bring their kids up in less crime-ridden zones. They look to Bowral for these things. There are a lot of people escaping the stress of Sydney.
"The market for upmarket weekenders is strong, but families are taking over," Ms Gowland said.
"They're looking for the benefits of small-town life, without feeling they're removed from civilisation. People want mod cons, but they want to know their local shop-keepers at the same time."
Cherry Dell agent Duncan Hill, of Richardson & Wrench in Bowral, said there was a definite movement of people in their 30s and 40s to the Southern Highlands.
"They're people with money," he said. "They've invested in property and stock and done well. A home purchase from $1 million to $1.5 million is well within their range.
"The market for weekenders is usually older -- 50s to 60s. They have a house in Sydney's eastern or northern suburbs," he said. "Sometimes they're looking for a place which might suit them in retirement. Often they're just looking for seclusion and privacy."
Mr Hill said local papers were reporting an 11 per cent influx of people since the completion of the M5 motorway last year. The highway has significantly cut travelling times to Sydney.
"The comment you hear most often from buyers is that the hustle and bustle of Sydney is getting too much for them," he said.
"You can't go to the opera down here, but you can go to your local shop without having any hassle parking."
Illustration
Caption: Claim to fame:Cherry Dell is on the site of the original Yates seed and bulb farm, the Invergowrie estate; Photo: Photo
Monday, 15 July 2002
Thursday, 11 July 2002
Wilful colour-blindness and its damage to media health, The Australian, 11 July, 2002.
Wilful colour-blindness and its damage to media health: [1 Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 11 July 2002: M.09.
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Abstract
In Coloring the News, [William McGowan] provides examples of what he sees as the diversity crusade distorting coverage, from promoting hysteria over AIDS while ignoring the sexual practices most implicated in its spread, to allowing ethnic partisanship in thecoverage of crime, riots, drugs and welfare. Ultimately, says McGowan, "the press's diversity crusade has performed its greatest disservice to the country's broader civic culture by oversimplifying complicated issues and by undermining the spirit of public cooperation and trust without which no multi-ethnic and multi- racial society can survive."
MEDIA BOOKS
Coloring the News: How Crusading for Diversity has Corrupted American Journalism
By William McGowan, Encounter Books, 278pp, $US29.95
THE subtitle of this book is an increasingly familiar refrain in US journalism, and of growing relevance here.
Author William McGowan argues that US print and electronic media have become slaves to political correctness. He says that far from bolstering sagging readerships by catering to minorities, the push for diversity in today's newspapers has driven away many white middle class readers who have "embraced the alternative news of conservative talk radio -- arguably the Frankenstein's monster created by the [politically correct] press."
In the US, McGowan says editors have been promoted or withered on the corporate vine depending on how many ethnic-minority journalists they hire. The Gannett Corporation, whose 91 newspapers include USA Today, used a system for evaluating their editors and reporters according to how many minority faces appeared in photographs and how many minority voices were quoted in news stories. By the early 1990s the USA Today diversity committee was combing on a daily basis through every article to determine theethnicity of every person quoted.
McGowan, who has worked for Newsweek, the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, provides an insider's view on how the so-called "media elites", in slanting news coverage to benefit minorities, have in fact harmed thevery groups and progressive political causes they intended to help.
In Coloring the News, McGowan provides examples of what he sees as the diversity crusade distorting coverage, from promoting hysteria over AIDS while ignoring the sexual practices most implicated in its spread, to allowing ethnic partisanship in the coverage of crime, riots, drugs and welfare. Ultimately, says McGowan, "the press's diversity crusade has performed its greatest disservice to thecountry's broader civic culture by oversimplifying complicated issues and by undermining the spirit of public cooperation and trust without which no multi-ethnic and multi- racial society can survive."
Instead of making public discourse more sophisticated, McGowan argues the crusade has dumbed it down. Instead of promoting a wide range views on race, gay rights, feminism, affirmative action and immigration, a narrow orthodoxy has emerged which favours allegedly "oppressed" groups over others, with contradictory facts or stories being ignored.
Coloring The News concludes by quoting the 19th century political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville's inspirational observations on how the many "wandering minds" of a young US were united by their newspapers. McGowan argues that while the news media is now "under a cloud of its own creating", as the primary shaper of our civic culture "the mirror the press holds up to our nature ... must show the whole picture".
ORIGINAL COPY:
ORIGINAL COPY:
Monday, 8 July 2002
Sunday, 7 July 2002
Thursday, 4 July 2002
Evans lied about Kernot affair, The Australian, 4 July, 2002. Page One. Picture Alan Pryke.
Evans lied about Kernot affair: [2 Edition]
Steve Lewis * Chief political reporter, John Stapleton, Jamie Walker. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 04 July 2002: 1.
Abstract
Mr [Gareth Evans], now living in Brussels as head of the International Crisis Group, had persuaded Ms Kernot to join the ALP with the promise of a frontbench position.
According to Nine's political editor, Laurie Oakes, the affair began when Ms Kernot was leader of the Australian Democrats -- before she led the party to the 1996 election -- and Mr Evans was foreign minister, and ended in November 1999 after a "long period of recrimination".
The revelations follow this week's launch of Ms Kernot's political memoirs, Speaking for Myself Again. The book gives no hint of an affair, and she says the first approaches for her to consider switching to the ALP were made by Mr Evans and senator John Faulkner.
FORMER Democrats leader Cheryl Kernot and one-time foreign minister Gareth Evans were in the middle of a five-year affair when she defected to the Labor Party in late 1997.
In an explosive revelation, the Nine Network last night published excerpts from an email, allegedly from Mr Evans to Ms Kernot, confirming the relationship.
In the email, Mr Evans admitted lying to parliament about the relationship: "I don't think I can yet live with the consequences of that revelation."
Rumours of the affair were raised in the House of Representatives in early 1998 by then Liberal backbencher Don Randall, who questioned whether Ms Kernot's "affection extended to the member for Holt" (Mr Evans).
Mr Randall later retracted his words, which an angry Mr Evans told parliament on March 23, 1998, were "totally baseless, beneath contempt and a disgraceful abuse of parliamentary privilege".
"I have experienced nothing like it in my 20 years in this parliament, and I hope that no one else has to experience anything like it ever again."
Senior Labor figures said yesterday the alleged affair was unknown to the ALP hierarchy at the time of the defection of the then Democrats leader and senator.
And Labor figures claimed last night the leadership would have blocked what was the biggest political defection in decades had they been aware of the affair.
Mr Evans, now living in Brussels as head of the International Crisis Group, had persuaded Ms Kernot to join the ALP with the promise of a frontbench position.
The move saw an immediate jump in voter support for the ALP, but Ms Kernot only narrowly won her seat of Dickson at the subsequent 1998 election. Her four-year period as a member of Kim Beazley's front bench was punctuated by outbursts against the media and claims that she was receiving insufficient support from her ALP colleagues.
According to Nine's political editor, Laurie Oakes, the affair began when Ms Kernot was leader of the Australian Democrats -- before she led the party to the 1996 election -- and Mr Evans was foreign minister, and ended in November 1999 after a "long period of recrimination".
"Within days, Ms Kernot entered hospital suffering from what she describes in the book as immune-system breakdown as a result of emotional and physical exhaustion," Oakes said.
Ms Kernot, once thought a potential deputy prime minister, was beaten at the last election, blaming a lack of support from the Labor machine and her harrowing experiences with the media for her loss.
The revelations follow this week's launch of Ms Kernot's political memoirs, Speaking for Myself Again. The book gives no hint of an affair, and she says the first approaches for her to consider switching to the ALP were made by Mr Evans and senator John Faulkner.
"I hadn't previously known Gareth particularly well, but working closely on the Mabo legislation and its successful outcomes had forged a strong friendship between us and mutual intellectual respect," she wrote.
Last night, the publishing director of HarperCollins, Shona Martyn, remained "totally confident that all relevant information pertaining to Cheryl's move from the Democrats to the Labor party has been fully and accurately covered in her book".
But the publisher called off the rest of Ms Kernot's book tour because of "a potentially dangerous car chase by media representatives".
Speaking from London last night, Labor leader Simon Crean said: "It is a deeply personal issue and it is up to them to comment." But if the claims were true, "they require a full explanation from both Gareth and Cheryl".
Mr Evans, who is also understood to be in London, was unavailable.
More reports -- Page 2
`It seems to be okay for a female to have an affair with a younger person but for a male it is taboo. Does this affection extend to the Member for Holt (Gareth Evans), we often wonder. Is she honest?'
Liberal backbencher Don Randall March 12, 1998
`The ugly and untrue words used under cover of privilege by the Member for Swan to directly attack Cheryl Kernot, and by innuendo to pervert the nature of my friendship with her, have had their effect.'
Gareth Evans replies in parliament, March 23, 1998
Illustration
Caption: People in glass houses: Ms Kernot tries to avoid the media as her car leaves the ABC studios in Sydney yesterdayPicture: Alan Pryke; Photo: Photo
Wednesday, 3 July 2002
Reactor springs radioactive leak, 3 July, 2002
Reactor springs radioactive leak: [1 Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 03 July 2002: 3.
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A SMALL leak of radioactive water at Australia's nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in southern Sydney has led to renewed condemnation from anti-nuclear campaigners.
Industry regulator, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency reported yesterday that there had been a water leak from a pond used to cool nuclear fuel rods.
A SMALL leak of radioactive water at Australia's nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in southern Sydney has led to renewed condemnation from anti-nuclear campaigners.
Industry regulator, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency reported yesterday that there had been a water leak from a pond used to cool nuclear fuel rods.
The leak was contained within a specially built sump and there was no contamination of the surrounding area. Bores dug around the facility detected no radioactivity.
A spokesman said there was no threat to public safety and the incident did not justify the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation making theincident public.
But Greenpeace spokesman Stephen Campbell said it wasn't good enough for the Government to say the public was not at risk, and it was up to the public to determine whether it was significant to them.
Environmental scientist with Sutherland Shire Council Garry Smith said that even though the leakage had been contained it was still ominous. "It implies that there are structural deficiencies."
A spokesman for ANSTO Peter Russell said it was the biggest non- event of the decade. He said the fact the water had been found showed safety systems were working.
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