Pardons for Australian draft resisters

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33093, 7 December 1972, Page 18

Pardons for Australian draft resisters

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) CANBERRA, December 6. The interim, two-man Labour Government of Australia today pardoned seven imprisoned draft resisters, disclosed that the Ambassador in Taiwan had been recalled, and abolished an excise duty on wine.

Spokesmen also said that moves had been taken to have the Rhodesian Information Centre in Sydney closed, and that a letter had been written to an exiled Australian journalist, Wilfred Burchett, tellhim he would be issued with an Australian passport should he apply for one. In another swift move, the Government moved to reopen a hearing of proposals for equal pay for women before the Arbitration Commission, which had been opposed by the previous Government. If successful, this would give women the same pay as men in all industry. The two-man interim Government comprises the Prime Minister (Mr Whitlam) and his deputy (Mr Barnard), who between them have taken 27 ministerial portfolios until the full ministry can be sworn in next week, after all results from Saturday’s election are in. The pardon for the seven draft resisters in prison was signed by the Governor-Gen-eral (Sii Paul Hasluck) today. The first man was released within hours. Mr Barnard said that the Government would release as quickly as possible all national servicemen who did not want to finish their 18-month term of service. Ambassador’s recall The Australian Ambassador to Taiwan (Mr Wah Dunn) is expected home in seven to 10 days, Government sources said.

Mr Dunn, who speaks Chinese, and who is a former Rhodes scholar, is officially returning for consultations, but the sources said that he would not return to Taipei. The Ambassador in Paris (Mr A. Renour) is to begin talks about Australia’s recognition of Peking with the Chinese Ambassador in Paris (Huang Chen) today. Information centre Government sources said a letter jointly drafted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Attorney-Gen-eral’s Department was being sent to the Premier of New South Wales (Sir Robert Askin) asking him to deregister the Rhodesian Information Centre in Sydney. In April, the LiberalCountry Party Government repected the advice of the Department of Foreign Affairs that, the centre should be closed on the grounds that it was an unofficial diplomatic office. The centre is registered in

New South Wales under the State’s Business names Act. Exiled journalist The letter to Mr Burchett, aged 61, who lives in Paris, was sent by a senior member of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Observers said the gesture reflected the embarrassment felt in the department by the refusal of the former Government to issue Mr Burchett with a new passport. Mr Burchett has reported extensively from Korea, Russia, China and Vietnam. He covered the Korean and Vietnamese wars from the northern sides, and was an intermediary between North Vietname and the United States while President Johnson was in office. An excise tax of 25c a gallon on wine sales would be removed tomorrow, the Government announced. The removal of the tax was one of Mr Whitlam’s election promises.