1998 in Australia


The following lists events that happened during 1998 in Australia.

Incumbents

January

  • 1 January –
  • *The body of toddler Jaidyn Leskie is found, more than six months after he went missing.
  • *A volunteer New South Wales Rural Fire Service firefighter from Wingello dies and seven others are injured after becoming trapped in their truck while battling a bushfire in the Wingello State Forest.
  • 2 January – A helicopter carrying Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer makes an emergency landing in the Bougainville hinterland after its windscreen is smashed in a bird strike. Downer was travelling to Arawa to meet senior leaders of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army.
  • 5 January –
  • *In an address to the American Bar Association in Hawaii, Australia Attorney-General Daryl Williams is criticised by Justice Michael Kirby for failing to defend the High Court of Australia against political attacks especially after the Wik decision.
  • *Around 100 staff members are sacked by Mayne Nickless after the company closes its Ipec depot at Campbellfield in Melbourne.
  • 7 January – Prime Minister John Howard declines an offer to meet with British pop group, The Spice Girls.
  • 11 January – Pope John Paul II awards a papal knighthood to Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch who is officially made a Knight of St. Gregory the Great by the Catholic Church in Los Angeles.
  • 25 January – American tourists Tom and Eileen Lonergan are unintentionally left behind on the Great Barrier Reef after a scuba diving trip.
  • 26 January – In the aftermath of Cyclone Les, the town of Katherine in the Northern Territory begins to be affected by torrential rain causing major flooding which eventually claims the lives of three people.
  • 28 January – Prime Minister John Howard unveils a new plan for training, education and expansion of the Work for the Dole Scheme aimed at easing youth unemployment. Howard's plan is criticised by the president of the Australian Council of Social Service Michael Raper.
  • 29 January – A man opens fire at a real estate agency in the Perth suburb of Mundaring, killing his estranged wife and seriously injuring another staff member as well as a customer before fleeing. He crashes his car and then attempts suicide by shooting himself but was taken to Swan Districts Hospital in a serious condition.
  • 30 January – Prime Minister John Howard visits the flood ravaged town of Katherine in the Northern Territory as flood waters claim their first victim.

    February

  • 1 February – Some Sunday newspapers publish a Libra advertisement for ultra-absorbent menstrual pads accompanied by a caption which reads "Katherine could use some of these right now" while also depicting a flooded home. Northern Territory Deputy Chief Minister Mike Reed criticises the ads describing them as "un-Australian" and calls on the company to apologise. General manager of Sancellar Pty Ltd, the makers of Libra products, unreservedly apologises and commits $25,000 for the town's Red Cross appeal.
  • 2 – 13 February – Constitutional Convention is held to decide which model of republic should be put before the people of Australia in a referendum. The model chosen is one where the president is chosen by a joint sitting of both houses of parliament
  • 4 February – The Federal Government gives short-term credit insurance to exporters to Indonesia to counter-act the effect of Indonesia's economic problems.
  • 5 February – High Court of Australia judge Ian Callinan is accused of bias in the High Court challenge of the Hindmarsh Bridge.
  • 21 February – Elections in the ACT re-elect the Liberal Party government of Kate Carnell. It would be the last State or Territory election that the Liberal Party have managed to form government after until the Western Australia state election in September 2008.
  • 23 February–March – After generator breakdowns at four major coal-fired power stations, rolling blackouts hit the city of Brisbane and much of South-East Queensland.

    March

  • 3 March – Federal Speaker of the House of Representatives Bob Halverson resigns.
  • 8 March – New South Wales Premier Bob Carr opens the Olympic Park Station on the new rail link between Sydney and the site for the 2000 Olympics.
  • 12 March – The Federal Opposition alleges that Mining and Resources Minister Warwick Parer increased his ownership of a mining company during the first year of the Howard Government's office.
  • 16 March – Prime Minister John Howard pledges a $50 million crime database investment if the Liberal Party is re-elected.
  • 17 March – The Federal Government announces sweeping reforms to business rules to attract overseas companies to Australia.

    April

  • 2 April – Prime Minister John Howard pledges $270 million to keep the aged in their own homes and win back their support.
  • 7 April – 3 June – Patrick Corporation sacks 2,000 dock workers to try to improve efficiency on the waterfront. In response, the Maritime Union of Australia stages possibly the largest industrial dispute Australia has ever seen. In the end, the jobs are restored to the workers in exchange for improvements in efficiency.
  • 25 April –
  • *Prime Minister John Howard joins former prisoners of war in a ceremony at Hellfire Pass in Thailand, paying tribute to those who died building the Thai-Burma railway.
  • *After attending that morning's Anzac Day commemorations, 16-year-old Air Force Cadet Rachel Antonio goes missing from the North Queensland town of Bowen after being dropped off at the local cinema to see an evening movie.

    May

  • 5 May – Fires caused by unsafe fuel hoses aboard the replenishment ship HMAS Westralia kill four people.
  • 14 May – Prime Minister John Howard cuts defence ties and suspends all but the most vital humanitarian aid to India after the country carries out two more nuclear tests.
  • 18 May – The value of the Australian dollar slumps to 62 and a quarter US cents, its lowest level in 12 years. In a radio interview, Prime Minister John Howard attributes the fall in value on "poorly informed, economically illiterate money market people on the other side of the world".
  • 22 May – The Federal Court of Australia blocks construction of the Jabiluka uranium mine, granting to the traditional owners of the land a temporary injunction against work on the mine entrance.
  • 24 May –
  • *Prime Minister John Howard opens the new Central Synagogue in Sydney to replace the former synagogue which burnt down in 1994.
  • *Christopher Skase's passport is seized by Spanish officials and cancelled. Skase applies for a renewal of his Spanish residency, which expired on 13 May and the Federal Government asks Spanish authorities to refuse the application, hoping it will force him home.
  • 26 May – The first National Sorry Day is observed, on the first anniversary of the tabling of the report Bringing them Home which was the result of an inquiry into the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. The day was held annually until 2004. It was renamed National Day of Healing from 2005.
  • 27 May – The Australian Labor Party criticises the Queensland Coalition Government for its decision to put Pauline Hanson's One Nation party ahead of the Labor Party on how to vote papers for the upcoming Queensland State Election.
  • 30 May – Prime Minister John Howard expresses Australia's concern about Pakistan's nuclear tests.

    June

  • 1 June – The Terminus Hotel in Wodonga, Victoria, burns down.
  • 13 June – The Queensland state elections depose the ruling National Party government of Rob Borbidge & elect a minority ALP government, led by Peter Beattie. Pauline Hanson's One Nation scored 23% of the vote & 11 seats, leading to anti-racism protests & four former Prime Ministers to sign an open letter rejecting racism.
  • 26 June 1998 – While awaiting trial on child sex charges, former New South Wales state MP and former mayor of Wollongong Frank Arkell is murdered by Mark Valera. In 2000, Valera is found guilty of murdering Arkell and David O'Hearn and sentenced to two term of life imprisonment.
  • 30 June – The Mercy Hospital in Albury, New South Wales, closes down its maternity unit. From 1 July, all babies are now born at the Wodonga Hospital in Wodonga, Victoria.