1997 in Australia


The following lists events that happened during 1997 in Australia.

Incumbents

January

  • 1 January – The Tri-Nation ODI cricket match at the SCG between Australia and Pakistan is marred by poor crowd behaviour. The game is interrupted six times due to pitch invasions with eight men arrested and charged with "entering a playing field" and 86 spectators ejected from the ground. NSW Minister for Sport Gabrielle Harrison asks the SCG Trust to provide her with a report with a number of options to be considered to discourage future pitch invasions. The crowd's behaviour is also condemned by Sydney district chief superintendent Darcy Cluff who also says two female police officers will be reprimanded for performing the Macarena in front of spectators during the game.
  • 9 January – HMAS Adelaide rescues British yachtsman, Tony Bullimore, from the Southern Ocean, after his boat, Exide Challenger, capsized three days before.
  • 17 January – After an exhaustive 18-month search, one of Australia's most wanted men, former businessman and accused paedophile Philip Bell is arrested in South Africa. The 62-year-old is arrested in Jeffreys Bay after being monitored since Interpol tipped off South African authorities about his entry to the country in October 1996. It's revealed Nelson Mandela's annual Christmas party had been interrupted so Mandela could sign a surrender warrant enabling Bell to be extradited back to Australia after his arrest. Task Force Indus had been established the previous April to gather evidence about Bell. An arrest warrant for Bell was issued by Justice James Wood who had heard evidence from Bell's alleged victims during the Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service.
  • 20 January – Prime Minister John Howard calls a meeting of State Premiers to discuss the implications of the High Court's Wik judgment.
  • 26 January – Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty is named Australian of the Year.

    February

  • 4 February –
  • *Prime Minister John Howard wins Parliamentary support for a constitutional convention on the republic.
  • *More than 1000 residents in the South West Queensland town of Charleville are evacuated as the Warrego River floods the town. Makeshift accommodation was provided for evacuees at the local racecourse, the high school and at the showgrounds. 47 homes in Augathella are also evacuated.
  • 9 February – Prime Minister John Howard announces that unemployed 16 to 20-year-olds will be forced to work up to 20 hours a week on community-based projects in trial work-for-the-dole schemes. Participants will be paid award rates and will be obliged to work only the number of hours that equate to their dole payment.
  • 10 February – Prime Minister John Howard convenes meetings between miners, farmers and Aboriginal leaders, to discuss the Wik native title issue. Howard also reveals the details of the Government's Work for the Dole plan.
  • 11 February – Prime Minister John Howard admits he approved a requested pay rise for one of Labor defector Mal Colston's staff shortly before last year's crucial Senate vote on the partial sale of Telstra.
  • 14 February –
  • *Arnott's Biscuits begins withdrawing its biscuits from supermarket shelves as authorities issue a health alert over an extortionist's poison threat. A pesticide strong enough to kill a small child had been found in some of the biscuits.
  • *The New South Wales Health Department warns for the first time that oysters from Wallis Lake may be the source of a Hepatitis A outbreak after 150 cases are reported in the previous three weeks. The outbreak goes on to worsen with hundreds more people becoming infected and one man dying after eating oysters from Wallis Lake. The outbreak has a detrimental effect on the local seafood and tourism industries. It also prompts a class action to be launched against Great Lakes Council by those who became infected after eating Wallis Lake oysters. It's reported that the most likely source of the outbreak is faecal contamination from sewage overflow running into the lake onto oyster beds.
  • 22 February – Reflecting on his first year in office, Prime Minister John Howard talks of a "10-year leadership transition" and said that "while my health lasts and I've got my marbles and I'm delivering good leadership and political success, you stay. But when that changes, you don't".
  • 23 February – Federal Independent Senator Mal Colston denies new allegations that he had rorted his parliamentary expenses, saying the claims by a former employee were "malicious".
  • 25 February – The Minister for Administrative Services, David Jull, announces a departmental investigation into Independent Senator Mal Colston's use of chauffeur-driven Commonwealth cars and warns he would have no hesitation referring the matter to police.
  • 26 February – Arnott's Biscuits restocks Queensland supermarket shelves with its biscuits three weeks after it was rocked by an extortion threat. The threat has cost the company at least $10 million.

    March

  • 6 March – In Cairns, Paul Streeton is sentenced to life imprisonment for setting fire to school boy Tjandamurra O'Shane.
  • 16 March – After a third woman goes missing from the Perth suburb of Claremont, the Western Australia Police Force confirm that they are now investigating the crimes of a serial killer in what is to become known as the Claremont serial killings.
  • 24 March –
  • *Senator Mal Colston admits he's guilty of claiming an extra $7,000 for travel expenses, but blames sloppy book-keeping.
  • *A conscience vote by the Senate overturns the Northern Territory's controversial voluntary euthanasia legislation, The Rights of the Terminally Ill Act.
  • 26 March – Prime Minister John Howard announces plans for a constitutional convention in Canberra to consider the republic issue.
  • 29 March – Prime Minister John Howard arrives in Shanghai, China to promote trade relations.
  • 31 March –
  • *Prime Minister John Howard meets Chinese Premier Li Peng in Beijing and proposes a strategic relationship that focuses on trade, with regular military consultation and a human rights dialogue to manage differences between the two countries.
  • *In what is the first case of its kind in Australia, a 14-year-old gay high school student says he intends to sue his former school, Cranebrook High School, for failing to provide a safe environment alleging he was subject to ongoing homophobic vilification. The case is expected to determine if Australian schools are liable for the safety of gay students. The case prompted much commentary in the media.

    April

  • 1 to 30 April – This is the driest area-averaged month since at least 1900 over New South Wales, with an average of, over South Australia, with an average of, and over the Murray–Darling basin, with an average of.
  • 2 April – Governor-General Sir William Deane urges action to address the widening gap in health between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
  • 8 April –
  • *Prime Minister John Howard refers travel rort allegations against Senator Mal Colston to the Australian Federal Police and calls on his to stand down as Deputy President of the Senate. Liberal Senator Bob Woods and National Party backbencher Michael Cobb are also under investigation for allegedly rorting parliamentary expenses.
  • *New South Wales Premier Bob Carr announces plans to abolish or amend the law which allows diminished responsibility to be used as a legal defence.
  • 9 April – Senator Mal Colston agrees to stand down as Senate Deputy President but refuses to resign from Parliament.
  • 11 April – Pauline Hanson launches the One Nation party in Ipswich, Queensland.
  • 14 April – Prime Minister John Howard announces that the Government will no longer accept the vote of Senator Mal Colston.
  • 17 April – The Charter of Budget Honesty Act becomes law, setting a framework for sound fiscal management and informing the public about public finances.
  • 21 April – Former West Australian Premier Carmen Lawrence is charged with perjury over her evidence to the 1995 Easton Royal Commission.
  • 29 April – BHP announces it will end steel-making operations in Newcastle in 1999, with 2,500 job losses.
  • 30 April – Prime Minister John Howard speaks on Melbourne's 3AW about Pauline Hanson saying that she is "articulating the fears and concerns and the sense of insecurity that many Australian feel at a time of change and instability. Now it's easy to sort of finger the fact that people feel uneasy and unhappy. The next step is to say, 'Okay, you've fingered the uncertainty. What are you going to do about it?'"