National Interest

A story about the link between booze and anti-social behaviour kicks off the National Interest round up - for the past eight weeks late-night watering holes in the Victorian town of Warrnambool have been refusing to serve double shots of hard liquor. The limits on sales of high-content alcohol were part of a compact with local coppers to help reduce post-pub problems on the streets - the trial has proved so successful that nightclub owners have decided to make the restrictions permanent.

But as alcohol-fuelled crime goes down, fuel-fuelled larceny goes up. The rising cost of filling the tank has inspired new forms of highway robbery. The Bendigo Advertiser reports that number plates were swiped from forty cars last weekend and police suspect the culprits are planning to use the stolen plates to commit yet further crime - drive-off petrol theft. They recommend fixing your number plate to your car with one-way screws.

The Hobart Mercury reports that opportunistic thieves are milking diesel from vehicles left unattended overnight - such as tractors, roadworks machinery and forestry equipment. At a dollar eighty a litre for diesel - it seems crime does pay.

The cost of petrol is encouraging commuters to dust off the deadly treadly - the bike racks here at the ABC are filling up earlier and earlier these days. In an effort to encourage two-wheeled travel in Brisbane, the City Council and the State government invested six and a half million dollars in a CBD facility to provide secure parking, showers and change rooms for up to 420 cyclists. But the Courier Mail reports there's a catch - a joining fee and a cost of five bucks a day - so you save much on the bus fare or petrol.

What would you do if you found an unexpected $20 000 in your bank account? Go out and celebrate perhaps? That's what a man from Corio in Victoria did - and within days the money was gone - most of it lost to the pokies.

Easy come easy go you could say - except that Bendigo Bank identified the transaction error and asked for its money back. The Geelong Advertiser says that the briefly happy father of four is now serving a prison term.

He also has to pay the money back - which is what Henry Bosch reckons Alan Bond should do too.

You can't have missed the news that former bankrupt Alan Bond this week made it back into the BRW list of Australia's two hundred wealthiest personages - Henry Bosch, the former head of the old National Companies and Securities Commission thinks this is a bit rich. On the Perth Now website he suggests Mr Bond use his new wealth to repay old debts.

Quote: "I think it's a defect of our system that a man can pay his creditors half a cent in the dollar and then go on to flaunt his riches.''

Perhaps Bondy will finance another victory in the America's Cup - then all will be forgiven I'm sure.

Sport and business certainly mix better than sport and politics - last month the Unly Council in Adelaide voted to fly the Tibetan flag over the town hall until after the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics - a sign of support for freedom in Tibet.
Now the Council has decided to take a stand for 'reconciliation anf harmony in the spirit of the Olympics' instead - it's taking the flag down.
Mayor Richard Thorne said there was a backlash from local residents and community groups who didn't want council to politicise the Games or distract from the achievements of Olympic athletes. Besides as he told the Advertiser "flying the flag for six weeks was enough to encourage cultural freedom in Tibet".

Presenter

Peter Mares

Producer

John Standish