Soaring wages leave food price rises in the shade

Remember the good old days when a meat pie was sixpence and food bills didn’t cost the earth? It’s a myth. According to research for Coles New World, Australians only had to work half as long to pay for their food in 1987 as they did in 1966. The humble sausage took 25 minutes to earn in 1966 and only 14 minutes in 1987. Tea for the traditional Australian cuppa required 15 minutes’ work in 1966 but by 1987 workers needed only seven minutes.

Howard urges Japan to re-arm

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Howard, called on Japan to increase its military spending and abandon its constitutional constraints on re-arming – which renounce war as a sovereign right – and expand into the role of a regional defence power, at an Australian Chamber of Commerce meeting in Tokyo. Mr Howard also called for a closer defence relationship between Australia and Japan in light of the USSR’s military presence in the North Pacific.

The sweet-and-sour dingo theory

According to an intriguing new theory by CSIRO scientist Dr Laurie Corbett, dingoes did not first come to Australia as companions to Aborigines but as takeaway meals for early Asian seafarers, some accompanying them back to Asia after picking up biting lice from kangaroos. Having studied dingoes for 20 years Dr Corbett says they are virtually indistinguishable from the wild dogs of southern Asia, both descending from the Indian or pale-footed wolf.