Crispin Hull

The Prime Minister, Paul Keating, has one thing going for him that John Hewson has not. Mr Keating can chose the date of the election. And true to his general style he is squeezing the juice of his advantage to maximum effect.

An odd hint in November of an early poll threw the Opposition into a mild panic, perhaps it was the final straw that scared it into putting retreads on Fightback.

The uncertainty causes greater damage to the Opposition, despite all the huffing and puffing that they are ready for an election any time. Gearing up for an election is a costly business, requiring great organisation. Volunteers have to be roped in, casual staff hired, television and radio advertisements booked (print media can just add pages any time someone puts up the dough; the electronics have only a finite amount of advertising time) and so on. How much better it would be if the Opposition knew the date.
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We haven’t heard too much from the Government about John Hewson’s Ferrari recently. Nor will we between now and the election. The Prime Minister, Paul Keating, likes to be the champion of the battler, the worker, the down and out. He has portrayed the Labor Government as the helper of those who cannot help himself.

Until four months ago, Mr Keating made much of Dr Hewson’s wealth, especially his Ferrari. He can no longer do that because Mr Keating is himself a millionaire, four times over. At least on paper. So the moment he makes a personal attack about Dr Hewson’s wealth, he will invite an attack in response. That will not stop colourful personal references of other kinds, because they are an important part of Mr Keating’s political armoury, and he is very good at it. His line this week that Dr Hewson, the “”flim-flam” man, only “”discovered his heart when he discovered fear in it” was a gem.

But there was no contrasting the Ferrari-owning of the Opposition Leader with the plight of the clients of the Australian Council of Social Service. That would be dangerous ground.
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The piggery group half owned by the Keating family has begun to make corrections to earlier reports lodged with the Australian Securities Commission.

A search last week revealed that a return of Euphron Pty Ltd, half owned by the Keatings, has been amended. The Keatings’ half share in Euphron is held through 100 shares owned by Mr Keating himself and 10,000 shares owned by the Keating family company, Pleuron Pty Ltd, which they have owned since December, 1989.

The original 1991 annual return of Euphron said that when the Keatings bought their half share they had paid $43,100. The search last week revealed that that has now been amended to $430,100.
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Brown and Hatton Group Pty Ltd, the piggery company half-owned by the Prime Minister’s family company, had still not filed group audited accounts as required by the Australian Securities Commission, the Opposition spokesman on the arts, Senator Michael Baume, said yesterday.

It has, however, filed separate audited accounts for the parent company and the subsidiaries.

Senator Baume said that these showed a $1.9 million worsening in the overall position from the previous unaudited accounts. They showed also that overall losses in 1989-90 and 1990-91 were understated in the unaudited accounts by $1.7 million.
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Audited accounts for the piggery half-owned by the Prime Minister’s family company show it to be worth $8 million less than stated in the originally lodged unaudited accounts.

The original unaudited reports for Brown and Hatton Group Ltd were lodged with the Australian Securities Commission in June. The ASC required them to be audited. The audited accounts were lodged last week and became publicly available yesterday.

The unaudited accounts put total shareholders’ equity at the end of 1990-91 at $7.5 million. The audited accounts put it at a deficiency of $528,000.
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The Government was asked two questions in the Senate yesterday on whether the Prime Minsiter, Paul Keating, had a conflict of interest over a piggery half owned by his family company.

Senator Brian Archer, (Lib Tas) referred to an article in üThe Canberra Times@ yesterday dealing with corrected accounts of the Brown and Hatton Group Pty Ltd. He asked if the company having a contingent liability of $4 million to a former Minister of the Crown, John Brown, was a conflict of interest. The Leader of the Government in the Senate, John Button, said he would not comment on private affairs of individuals and that the matter was not in his portfolio area. He said the Liberals were reluctant to pursue the matter where they ought to, in the House of Representatives. The Leader of the Opposition, John Hewson, wanted to be Mr Clean and let the Mr Dirtys in Senate do his dirty work for him.
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Further corrections to accounts of the Brown and Hatton piggery, half owned by the family of the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, have changed for the second time the status of money due to a company owned by the former Minister for Tourism, John Brown for goodwill.

The money was first stated as a straight debt of $4 million. It was then changed to shareholders’ equity and in publicly available accounts lodged with the Australian Securities Commission last week it was taken out of the accounts altogether and referred to in a note on the accounts. The note said Brown and Hatton Group Pty Ltd had a potential liability of $4m associated with the purchase of the pig business and naming rights. It called it contingent liability to be paid if the directors’ “”so determine and if the company make sufficient profits and has sufficient funds available to pay” it.

The Brown and Hatton Groups has entered a $80 million joint venture with the Danish company Danpork.
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The Prime Minister, Paul Keating, had to either acknowledge he had made a paper fortune of $3.8 million or acknowledge that the accounts of his half-owned piggery company were wrong, the Senate was told yesterday.

The Opposition spokesman on the arts, Senator Michael Baume, said, “”Mr Keating has denied on television that he has made a paper fortune. He said that one had to be able to read a balance sheet to understand. I have news for Mr Keating: people who know very well how to read a balance sheet confirm exactly this problem. If Mr Keating had not made this paper fortune, he has to deny the accounts; he has to demonstrate that the accounts are shonky.

“”Mr Keating cannot get away with saying both that the accounts are correct and that he did not turn the ($430,000) investment into $4.2 million.”
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The piggery half owned by the Keating family company revalued its land and buildings by $4 million in 1990-91 according to accounts put on the public register this week.

The accounts for Brown and Hatton Group Pty Ltd lodged with the Australian Securities Commission are unaudited. The company was converted from a public to a private company in May, 1991. Companies that are public companies at any time during the year are required to lodge audited accounts.

Mr Keating is not a director of any of the piggery companies and is not responsible in any way for the upkeep of their accounts. The accounts revalued buildings according to valuations made byt he directors. Coupled with revaluations of land, they form a new asset revaluation reserve of $4,062,000.
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What price peace of mind? Would you believe $219? Norton Anti-Virus 2.1 scans your computer for 1400 viruses that can invade your computer, eat data and programs and make hard disks unusable.

It loads extremely easily and creates a system floppy disk with essential details about your computer to enable you to get going quickly after a virus attack. This software will tell you that your system is clear of the 1400 known viruses and mutations of them, but more importantly will tell you how to get out of strife if you suffer a virus attack.

Using the Virus Clinic part of the program you can repair infected files or if unrepairable delete them.
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