By Lyn Maccallum
Number one budget victim
As a drinker (port and the odd Scotch), a smoker ("50 cigarettes sadly a day") and a driver, Helen McFadden could be called Treasurer Paul Keating's Number One Budget Victim. To top it off she's got fair skin (don't forget the 32.5 per cent tax slug on some cosmetic suntan creams) and she loves the beach. "I feel I've been singled out ... The only thing he hasn't nailed me on is a pension – I haven't got one," she said.
The tunnel to nowhere
"Sydney City Council will order the owners of the American Express Tower, on the corner on George and King Streets, to build a tunnel which will end in a brick wall. The council has decided to force the construction of a tunnel from the corner of its site to a mid point under King Street. There the tunnel will end. The 'tunnel to nowhere' was part of the council's conditions of approving the 29-storey building in July 1971."
$1 coin generates $100m
"The Federal Government's decision to replace the one-dollar note with a coin has provided Commonwealth revenues with a $100 million bonanza. This comes about because the Royal Australian Mint, which stamps the coins, sells them at their face value to the Reserve Bank. But each coin will cost significantly less than $1 to make, leaving a healthy profit." This procedure, known as seigniorage, is normal practice.