FED:Major events in Australia in 2011 = 2

AAP General News (Australia)
12-30-2011
FED:Major events in Australia in 2011 = 2

July

1 - The Civil Aviation Safety Authority grounds all Tiger Airways Australia's domestic
flights while it investigates safety concerns, after two of the airline's planes flying
to Melbourne were detected at an unsafe low altitude. The suspension is lifted only August
10.

- The Australian Greens gain the balance of power for the first time in the Senate
with nine sitting members.

3 - Australians clinch both junior titles at Wimbledon when 15-year-old Ashleigh Barty
from Queensland wins the girls' trophy, a day after 17-year-old Luke Saville from South
Australia takes the boys' championship.

4 - Australian soldier Sergeant Todd Langley, 35, from the Sydney-based 2nd Commando
regiment, dies after being shot in the head in a firefight with insurgents in southern
Afghanistan, bringing to 28 the number of diggers killed in the conflict since 2001.

- Lieutenant-General David Hurley becomes the next chief of the Australian Defence
Force, replacing retiring Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston.

7 - Rupert Murdoch's News International closes Britain's biggest-selling newspaper,
News of the World, amid mounting accusations that its journalists hacked into the phone
voicemails of hundreds of celebrities, politicians, rival journalists and even 13-year-old
murder victim Milly Dowler.

10 - The federal government unveils its carbon pricing scheme, with a starting price
of $23 per tonne, $9.2 billion in industry assistance and a $10 billion renewable energy
fund.

16 - British actress Googie Withers dies at her Sydney home aged 94.

24 - Cadel Evans, 34, wins cycling's great race, the Tour de France, after two runner-up
finishes. He becomes the first Australian - and oldest rider since World War II - to win
the Tour de France.

26 - Renowned Australian artist Margaret Olley dies aged 88.

- The Hendra virus is found in an apparently healthy dog, the first time the potentially
fatal virus has been found in a species other than bats, horses or people.

27 - The Australian dollar hits a new 28-year high, approaching 111 US cents after
the release of higher-than-expected inflation figures. It reached a post-float high of
110.62 cents.

August

2 - All states and territories sign up to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's national health
reforms after a 15-month stand-off with Western Australia. Under the deal the commonwealth
will fund up to 50 per cent of rising public hospital costs from 2014-15; the deal is
worth an extra $16.4 billion to the states in the first six years.

3 - Schoolgirl Madeleine Pulver, 18, is held hostage in her Sydney home, with a device
believed to be a bomb placed around her neck by a man wearing a balaclava and carrying
a baseball bat. The suspect, Paul Douglas Peters, 50, is arrested in the US on August
16 and charged over the offence.

6 - The last of the Australian troops serving in Iraq are withdrawn, more than eight
years after the conflict began.

8 - South Australian Premier Mike Rann announces he will stand down on October 20,
to be succeeded by Education Minister Jay Weatherill, after he was was ousted by factional
Labor bosses on July 29.

- Australia's most decorated World War II heroine Nancy Wake dies in London at the
age of 98. Living in France with her French husband Ms Wake saved thousands of Allied
lives by setting up escape routes and sabotaging German installations.

13 - Queensland Police charge a 42-year-old Perth man, Brett Peter Cowan, with the
murder of missing boy Daniel Morcombe, who was 13 when he was last seen waiting for a
bus in December 2003.

18 - Craig Thomson, the federal member for Dobell in NSW, faces scrutiny from Fair
Work Australia over his former Health Services Union credit card allegedly being used
to pay for prostitutes. The allegations date back to December 2008. Thomson denies any
wrongdoing.

- Veteran ABC news gatherers Paul Lockyer, Gary Ticehurst and John Bean are killed
in a helicopter crash at South Australia's Lake Eyre while working on a story.

22 - Bluescope Steel's announces it will close two of its last remaining steel export
facilities, at Port Kembla in NSW and Hastings in Victoria, resulting in the loss of 1000
jobs.

23 - The cost to the Queensland government of implementing the flood inquiry recommendations
is put at $76 million.

24 - Eleven people including children are killed in a house fire at Slacks Creek, south
of Brisbane, the worst such tragedy in the state.

- Mining giant BHP Billiton reports Australia's highest ever corporate financial result
with a full year net profit of $22.46 billion.

31 - The federal government's planned refugee swap deal with Malaysia is ruled unlawful
by the High Court, effectively stymieing the government's so-called Malaysia Solution.

September

1 - The Victorian government announces the remains discovered at the former Melbourne
prison Pentridge are those of notorious bushranger Ned Kelly, more than 130 years after
he was executed.

3 - Sally Pearson claims gold in the 100m hurdles at the world athletics championships
in Daegu, South Korea. Her gold-medal winning effort of 12.28 seconds in the final is
the fastest time for the event in 19 years which moves her to fourth on the alltime list.

5 - Kyle James Burden, 21, is killed by a shark off the popular beach of Bunker Bay,
in Western Australia's southwest, about 300km south of Perth.

11 - Sam Stosur becomes Australia's first female grand slam singles champion in 31
years after beating American Serena Williams 6-2 6-3 in one hour and 13 minutes. It was
Australia's first major tennis title since Evonne Goolagong-Cawley secured her second
Wimbledon title in 1980. The previous female Australian winner of the US Open was Margaret
Court in 1973.

14 - The Australian government announces the first major independent inquiry into the
media in two decades, to be headed by former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein and assisted
by journalism academic Dr Matthew Ricketson.

21 - The Tasmanian parliament becomes the first in Australia to pass a motion supporting
same-sex marriage.

- Treasurer Wayne Swan is named Euromoney magazine's Finance Minister of the Year,
only the second time an Australian has won the prestigious award in its 29-year history.

28 - The government opens all frontline combat roles to Australian women, the first
time in the nation's defence force history.

29 - Matthew Charles Johnson is found guilty of murdering underworld assassin Carl
Williams in a high-security unit at Barwon Prison last year.

October

4 - The government holds its two-day tax forum for 200 participants at Parliament House.

The GST and the carbon tax were not up for discussion.

- Australian National University astronomer Brian Schmidt is named a joint winner of
the 2011 Nobel Prize for physics for research that revealed the expansion of the universe
was accelerating. He shared the $1.58 million prize money with two US scientists, Adam
Riess and Saul Perlmutter.

6 - A 14-year-old boy from Morisset Park, south of Newcastle, NSW, is arrested for
allegedly being in possession of 3.6gm of marijuana while on holiday in Bali.

- Former Canterbury Bulldogs forward Ryan Tandy is found guilty of match-fixing and
is fined $4000 and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond for interfering with the outcome
of a game between the Canterbury Bulldogs and the North Queensland Cowboys in August 2010.

7 - Actress Diane Cilento dies in North Queensland at the age of 78.

12 - The Gillard government secures passage of its controversial carbon tax through
the lower house of federal parliament with the support of key crossbench MPs.

19 - Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by Prince Philip, makes her 16th trip to Australia ahead.

20 - Commonwealth Ombudsman Allan Asher resigns only 14 months into his five-year contract
after revelations he scripted questions for Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young to ask at
a Senate estimates hearing in May.

21 - The Occupy Melbourne protest turns violent as protesters and police clash. The
protest began a week earlier with similar protests in all capital cities, but turned ugly
in Melbourne. The protesters are part of a world-wide movement against corporate greed
that began on New York's Wall Street.

- Jay Weatherill assumes the mantle of office as Premier of South Australia.

23 - The Occupy Sydney protest is broken up by police in riot gear in a dawn raid on
Martin Place. Activists accuse the police of violence, saying they were bashed and manhandled.

About 100 people were arrested with most released without charge.

28 - The Queen officially declares open the Commonwealth of Heads of Government Meeting.

CHOGM kicked off in Perth with foreign and finance ministers meeting in special sessions
ahead of the official session, which runs from Oct 28 to 30.

30 - Qantas announces it will ground its entire domestic and international fleet because
of a protracted seventh-month labour dispute that has seen rolling work stoppages. After
emergency hearings, Fair Work Australia orders the termination of industrial action 30
hours later, and services resume.

- Three Australian soldiers - Corporal Ashley Burt, 22, Lance Corporal Luke Gavin,
27, and Captain Bryce Duffy, 26 - are shot dead and seven others are wounded, one critically,
by an Afghan National Army soldier during a morning parade in Kandahar province.

November

1 - After the closest Melbourne Cup in the race's 151-year history, French horse Dunaden
is declared the winner by a nose in a photo finish, beating British horse Red Cadeaux,
with German stayer Lucas Cranach third, another nose ahead of last year's French winner
and race favourite Americain. The first seven horses to finish are all foreigners.

- The Reserve Bank of Australia cuts the official interest rate by 0.25 percentage
points, to 4.5 per cent, for the first time since 2009.

2 - The government introduces legislation for its minerals resource rent tax into parliament.

3 - The government introduces a bill into the lower house to replace the construction
watchdog, the Australian Building and Construction Commission, with a new body, the Fair
Work Building Industry Inspectorate.

- Doug Ashton, the patriarch of the world's longest family-run circus, dies in Perth
aged 92 after a year-long battle with cancer.

8 - The Gillard government's controversial carbon tax passes parliament with Labor
and the Australian Greens forcing the 18 clean energy bills through the Senate.

- Perth bar manager Cameron James Mansell, 39, is sentenced to a minimum 18 years in
prison for murdering Perth multi-millionaire Craig Puddy, whose body has not been found.

12 - The Gold Coast wins the the right to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games, beating
out Sri Lanka's Hambantota.

14 - Ken Lay is appointed the new Police Chief Commissioner of Victoria, five months
after the resignation of Simon Overland.

15 - Prime Minister Julia Gillard urges her party to reverse its policy and allow uranium
exports to India.

16 - The ACT's Legislative Assembly officially declares its support for same-sex marriage.

17 - US President Barack Obama makes his first visit to Australia, during which he
announces a military pact that will eventually see 2500 US troops, aircraft and warships
deployed for training in northern Australia.

21 - Negotiations between Qantas management and three of its unions over a long-running
industrial dispute fail, forcing them into compulsory arbitration with Fair Work Australia.

23 - The federal government's mining tax legislation passes through the lower house
of parliament, following a last-minute deal with the Australian Greens.

24 - Harry Jenkins surprises the House of Representatives by resigning as Speaker to
return to the Labor back bench. He is replaced by now-disowned Liberal MP Peter Slipper.

26 - The 14-year-old NSW boy caught for possessing $A25 worth of marijuana while on
holiday in Bali is sentenced to two months in jail, allowing him to return home within
nine days with time served.

28 - The Murray-Darling Basin Authority releases its much-delayed draft management
plan, drawing criticism from farmers, irrigators and the Greens.

29 - Treasurer Wayne Swan announced $11.5 billion in new savings as part of the federal
government's Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO).

- The South Australian parliament passes indenture legislation to clear the way for
the $30 billion expansion of BHP Billiton's existing copper and uranium Olympic Dam mine
in the state's north. It would be the world's largest open-cut mine if the company gives
final approval next year.

30 - The Queensland parliament passes the Civil Partnerships Bill, allowing same-sex
couples to enter into legally recognised civil unions.

December

1 - British American Tobacco launches its promised High Court challenge to the government's
cigarette plain-packaging legislation.

- Indigenous rugby league immortal Arthur Beetson, 66, dies after suffering a heart
attack on the Gold Coast.

2 - Former NRL player Ryan Tandy is found guilty of one of three charges over giving
false evidence to the NSW Crime Commission in January about his betting activities with
jockey manager John Schell.

3 - The Australian Labor Party votes in favour of same-sex marriage at its national
conference, reversing its party platform. It also backs a motion to allow state and federal
Labor MPs a conscience vote on the issue if a bill comes to parliament.

4 - The Australian Labor Party votes in favour of selling Australian uranium to India,
overturning the party's long-standing ban.

6 - The Reserve Bank of Australia cuts the cash rate by 25 basis points, from 4.5 per
cent to 4.25 per cent, for the second consecutive month.

8 - Former NSW Crime Commission assistant director Mark Standen is jailed for at least
16 years for conspiring to import $120 million worth of drugs into Australia.

9 - Sir Zelman Cowen, Australia's 19th governor-general, dies aged 92.

12 - Prime Minister Julia Gillard unveils an expanded 22-member cabinet in the third
reshuffle in 18 months, including Nicola Roxon as Australia's first female attorney-general.

- Police take into custody Hohepa Morehu-Barlow, also known as Joel Barlow, 36, who
is accused of defrauding Queensland Health of $16 million.

15 - Music industry icon Molly Meldrum has a bad fall from the roof of his Melbourne
home while putting up Christmas decorations and is placed in an induced coma.

- A hefty payrise is recommended for all federal MPs and public service chiefs by the
independent Remuneration Tribunal, including a $114,000 boost to the prime minister's
salary.

16 - Three Islamic extremists - Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, 35, Saney Edow Aweys, 28, and
Nayef El Sayed, 27 - are jailed for 18 years for plotting to kill Australian soldiers
in a terrorist attack on Sydney's Holsworthy Army Base.

- Indonesia announces it will slash live cattle imports by almost half from next year,
with most parties blaming the government's live export ban earlier in the year for the
decision.

- Law firm Maurice Blackburn says it will file class actions against the other big
banks for charging exorbitant customer fees after the partial success in a court case
against ANZ.

18 - The Northern Territory government confirms a new inquest will be held on February
24 into the death of baby Azaria Chamberlain more than three decades on, in the final
legal chapter in the case.

19 - Qantas reaches an agreement with the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association,
ending a long-running dispute, with the key 1600-member union accepting a three per cent
annual pay rise and a guarantee to protect the domestic workload. This follows an agreement
on Dec 16 between the airline and its short-haul cabin crew.

20 - The federal government announces a review of its industrial relations policy,
the Fair Work Act, to be carried out by Reserve Bank board member John Edwards, Justice
Michael Moore and legal and workplace relations academic Ron McCallum.

- Tobacco giant Philip Morris becomes the latest cigarette manufacturer to file a High
Court challenge against the federal government's plain packaging laws.

23 - The Duke of Edinburgh, the 90-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth, undergoes successful
heart surgery for a blocked coronary artery after complaining of chest pains.

25 - Residents in Melbourne's northwest and northeastern suburbs are hit by a series
of storms, which brought huge hailstones, torrential rain, flash flooding and even a tornado.

- The NT's Top End is lashed by Cyclone Grant's torrential rainfall and winds of 100km/h,
but Darwin is mercifully spared with the cyclone weakening to a tropical storm within
hours.

26 - A fire at their Sunshine Coast home leaves celebrity chef Matt Golinski with terrible
burns and kills his wife Rachel and their three daughters, Starlia, 13, and 12-year-old
twins Sage and Willow.

27 - Ex-tropical cyclone Grant continues to dump rain across the Top End, with floodwaters
derailing a freight train and raising fears of a chemical leak.

AAP cdh/sn/mo

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