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JACK WATERFORD: WHY PEOPLE SMUGGLERS DO MORE GOOD THAN SOME PUBLIC SERVANTS – TIMES2 LIFT-OUT

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REPORT – PAGE 16

PLANET DISCOVERY

COULD IT BE AWATER WORLD

SPORT – BACK PAGE

INJURY WOES

BRUMBIESPAIN GAME

Thursday, April 23, 2009

PLUS: FILMS, GIGS, REVIEWS

FLY LIFT-OUT

ATTACK OFTHE DRONES

WEATHER

CANBERRA: Fine, mostly sunny,20Chance of rain: 10 per centWind: E-NE, 10-15km/hUV index: 4 (moderate)Outlook: Rain developingSYDNEY: Becoming fine, 22MELBOURNE: Becoming cloudy,25Details: Page 14

Vol 81 No 27,01952 Pages

2020 vision sees bioniceyes, children’s ABCBy David McLennan

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Continued Page 4Public talkfests not justhot air – Page 21

Australia is a step closer todeveloping a bionic eye and willsoon send civilians to help soldiersin war-torn and disaster-strucknations, but it will have to wait a bitlonger to become a republic.

A year after the 2020 Summit,Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issuedhis response to the 962 ideasgenerated at Parliament House.

He singled out nine big ideas:■ A deployable civilian capacity torespond in addition to the militaryto emergencies in our region.■ Taking the first steps towards anIndigenous Cultural Education andKnowledge Centre.■ A mentoring in the workplaceprogram to help pass knowledgebetween skilled older Australians,

dubbed ‘‘Golden Gurus’’ and busi-ness and the community.■ $50 million of governmentfunding for research towards thedevelopment of a bionic eye.■ A Prime Minister’s Australia-AsiaEndeavour Awards Scheme to sup-port scholarships for students inAustralia and Asia and deepencultural understanding.■ A dedicated ABC children’s tele-vision channel.■ A B u s i n e s s a n d S c h o o lConnect ions Roundtable toenhance opportunities for businessand schools to partner together toimprove educational outcomes.

Navy stops another boatload of refugeesBy David McLennanand Emma Macdonald

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Continued Page 8

NEW WAVE: The boat intercepted yesterday carrying 32 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers.

Another 32 Sri Lankan suspectedasylum-seekers are on their way toChristmas Island after Australianauthorities intercepted their boat offthe West Australian coast yesterday.

The Government had warnedrecently of thousands of potentialasylum-seekers waiting in Indonesiato come to Australia, but it is the firstboat to arrive since last week’sexplosion killed five people andinjured many more.

Home Affairs Minister Bob Debussaid Armidale-class patrol boatHMAS Wollongong intercepted thevessel about 47 nautical miles south-west of Barrow Island in an oper-ation coordinated by Border Protec-tion Command about 12.30pmCanberra time.

‘‘The vessel had just entered our

migration zone, that is to say thevessel had just entered the zone thatextends 23 nautical miles off ourshore,’’ he said.

‘‘The people on board will be

transported to Christmas Island andas I speak to you now I am told thatthe boat is secure and the operationis proceeding very successfully.’’

The men were believed to have

travelled directly from Sri Lanka, butMr Debus did not know how longthey had been at sea.

Officials had spotted the boat fromthe air about 24 hours earlier, afterintelligence had indicated it was onits way. Border Protection Commandpersonnel had to wait until the boatreached Australia’s migration zonebefore it could be intercepted.

Mr Debus would not say whetherthis was the same boat the Govern-ment had reportedly been trackingsince the weekend.

It is the seventh boat of asylum-seekers to arrive in Australian watersthis year and the fifth in the pastfortnight, and comes after a vesselcarrying 49 people sank following anexplosion off the West Australiancoast last week.

ABS incourt for‘illegal’sackingsBy Markus MannheimPublic Service Reporter

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Continued Page 8

The public servants’ union willbegin legal action against theAustralian Bureau of Statistics forallegedly illegally dismissing staff.

The bureau handed letters to 31senior employees last week sayingthey were not needed becausethey were either incapable of theirjobs or excess to agency needs.

The staff were asked to decidewithin two weeks to retire, accepta demotion or be sacked, andseveral were told to leave thebuilding within minutes of receiv-ing their letters.

The bureau said it needed toremove about 180 staff – of whomhalf would be mid-level managers– over the next 18 months to funda pay rise.

But the Community and PublicSector Union said the bureaubreached workplace laws and thestaff wage agreement by failing toconsult about the dismissals.

The law requires employers whoplan to sack 15 or more staff to firstdiscuss ways to avoid the job cutswith the affected employees’union, while the agreement saysthe bureau must consult with staffabout dismissals before taking anydecisions.

The union’s deputy nationalsecretary, Nadine Flood, said yes-terday the staff had been deniednatural justice.

‘‘Sacking people based on asecret assessment of them, wherethey have no input, is entirelyagainst accepted public servicepractice,’’ she said.

‘‘Everything about the waythey’re doing this suggests it’sbeing done to cause the maximumdamage to these people’s careerand self-esteem, especially makingthem pack up their desk and leaveimmediately.’’

She said the job cuts were notcaused by a future pay rise, butwere tied to the Government’s3.25 per cent cut to agencies’operating budgets last financialyear. Six of the 31 managers areband 1 senior executives, while therest are executive level 2.

The bureau will decide this weekwhich of its 500 executive level 1officers will go.

Outlookfor Austgrimmer,IMF saysBy David McLennan

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Continued Page 4

The Government is warning Aus-tralia’s economic growth, unem-ployment and budget deficit will be‘‘substantially worse’’ than pre-viously thought after a new reportsaid the world was experiencing itsdeepest post-war recession by far.

The International Monetary Funddowngraded its forecasts for worldgrowth for the fifth time in about sixmonths, in a report published over-night.

It predicted advanced economieswould contract 3.8 per cent thisyear, because of ‘‘a severe recessioninflicted by a massive financial crisisand acute loss of confidence’’, andwarned its predictions could still berevised down further.

‘‘While the rate of contractionshould moderate from the secondquarter onward, world output isprojected to decline by 1.3 per centin 2009 as a whole and to recoveronly gradually in 2010, growing by1.9 per cent,’’ it said.

‘‘Achieving this turnaround willdepend on stepping up efforts toheal the financial sector, whilecontinuing to support demand withmonetary and fiscal easing.’’

The Australian economy wouldshrink 1.4 per cent this year, beforea recovery to 0.6 per cent growthnext year, when unemploymentwould rise to 7.8 per cent. Thiswould put another 240,000 out ofwork, making a jobless total of890,000.

Treasurer Wayne Swan pointedout Australia had one of the best-performing economies, butdescribed it as a bleak assessment.

‘‘The deepening global recessionwill have severe consequences forthe budget’s forecasts for economic

growth, unemployment and rev-enue, which will be substantiallyworse than reported in the UpdatedEconomic and Fiscal Outlook inFebruary this year,’’ he said.

The now-outdated outlookpredicted the global recessionwould strip $115 billion from gov-ernment revenue in the next fouryears, leaving annual deficits of$22-55 billion, and said unemploy-ment would peak at 7 per cent.

Mr Swan said Treasury’s nextupdate would be in the May 12budget.

The fund’s World Economic Out-look said Australia’s previously con-servative fiscal and monetary policyput it in a better place than others todeal with the crisis, and itrecommended the Reserve Bankcould ‘‘cut still further’’.

However, it said Australia waslargely reliant on the world econ-omy recovering.

‘‘Owing to relatively high depen-dence on demand from the UnitedStates and Asia and on externalfinancing, there are limits to whatdomestic policy measures canachieve,’’ it said.

The fund is calling on countrieswith room to spend more on stimu-lus measures to do so, and Mr Swanhas indicated his May budget woulddo that.

There had ‘‘probably never been atime where putting together abudget is more difficult’’.

‘‘We’ll have to do more, and we’llhave to do it with less money, and ofcourse that certainly means toughchoices,’’ Mr Swan said.

The budget is expected to focuson infrastructure spending.

ANU thrusts back into space race

INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE: ANU physicist Christine Charles with the thruster prototype. Photo: KATE LEITH

By Emily Sherlock

A revolutionary ‘‘plasma thruster’’engine designed by an AustralianNational University researcher willbe launched into space in the nextfour years to power a prototypesatellite.

It will be the first time in sevenyears that a piece of Australianhardware has been sent into spaceand the first time a satellite with aplasma engine will be tested.

The satellite will incorporate ANUresearcher Christine Charles’sHelicon Double Layer Thruster, anelectrode-less plasma engine usingtechnology first developed at theANU.

It is also the first plasma engine ofits kind to be applied to satellitestation-keeping and – potentially –interplanetary space travel.

The satellite will test the thruster’scapacity for orbital maneuvering.

Dr Charles said news of the enginegoing into space was ‘‘fantastic’’.

‘‘It is really exciting, we didn’t evenhope this would happen,’’ she said.

The thruster uses an electricdouble layer which accelerates theions that are formed in plasma,before they are ejected into space.

‘‘What comes out of the rocket is alarge-area energetic ion beam, whichis the source of thrust,’’ she said.

Dr Charles said she would like tosee the thruster developed as aproduct for general use in spaceexploration.

It would also be suited to deep-space missions as ‘‘it is very safe, hasno moving parts and works with avariety of propellants’’.

The discovery of the double layerinitially occurred at the ANU in 1999.

Dr Charles said it took time toconvince people of their find.

‘‘We tried to convince thecommunity that this was real, themeasures were correct, it took a littlewhile,’’ she said.

But in comparison to othertechnological advances, she said thepath had been relatively quick.

‘‘If you look at how long it took forthe other types of thrusters todevelop that occurred over decadesso it is going quite fast, which isgreat,’’ she said.

The prototype will be built in acollaboration between the ANU’sSpace Plasma Power and Propulsiongroup, European aerospacecompany EADS-Astrium and theUniversity of Surrey.

ANU Plasma Research Laboratorydepartment head Professor RodBoswell said external funding wasessential to get the prototypeproduced, as Australia did not have aspace program. ‘‘It’s a coup for theAustralian space community . . .someone else is going to do the hardwork of getting the spacecraftintegration going which is seriouslydifficult to do in Australia.’’