APPENDIX (1)
BARRIE WIGGHAM/AUST PAGE 13
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FOOTNOTE: An article appearing in The Australian of Saturday 3/3 following the briefing was largely inaccurate and in one case wrongly quoted Barrie Wiggham commenting on a subject which was not even raised. Fortunately The Australian's foreign correspondent Roy Eccleston (who missed the briefing because of the limited airline flights from Sydney) briefly interviewed Barrie Wiggham subsequent to the briefing and was able to access the tape recording made by The Australian reporter. This clearly showed the reporter's errors. Eccleston offered a correction, although admitting that this would be difficult. We stressed that we did not want to see the incorrect article appearing in the South China Morning Post (part of the Murdoch empire). On Monday, 5/3, a more balanced report effectively rebutting The Australian's earlier editorial accusing the British of a Hong Kong "sellout" appeared on Page 2 with a picture of Barrie Wiggham (pic supplied by us from selection taken at HKABA luncheon in Sydney).
Our original tape of the Canberra briefing is with Barrie Wiggham should future questions be raised on the inaccurate report.
MELBOURNE: Monday 5/3: 7.45.am: Briefing
K
Business Review Weekly: Robert Gottliebsen, Chairman and Editorial Director; David Uren, Editor.
Interested in outlook for business/investment, current levels of business activity and political outlook.
reaction: Briefing extended for 90 minutes and could easily have been extended. Gottliebsen commented that he was most grateful for the briefing, which had been "fascinating". BRW is the major weekly business magazine in Australia and we should seek to follow up with information on current issues.
MELBOURNE: Monday 5/3: 9.30.am: ANZ Banking Group, hosted by Douglas
Watson, General Manager, Asia & Pacific Islands and Dr Bob Edgar, Group Executive, Strategic Planning & Economics.
Watson expressed deep concern about brain drain and loss of ANZ staff in Hong Kong. Said his figures were down 20 per cent and falling dramatically and he was sceptical of the outlook. Edgar took the complete opposite view and said he was very optimistic vis-a-vis Hong Kong/China.
Watson said business groups, including ANZ, had expressed concern to the Australian government re the staffing problem.
reaction: As an aside at the end of the briefing, Watson said Hong Kong had been the "jewel in the crown" of ANZ in Asia which is why the downturn so disturbed him. He was perhaps more worried about his short-term profit figures than the long-term outlook but certainly seemed genuine in his concern re staffing.
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