the bushfires - Letter from Melbourne

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21 FEBRUARY TO 6 APRIL 2009 aperium Consulting -harnessing technology to serve your organisational goals Level 27 101 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000 +61 3 9653 9692 11/60 Marcus Clarke St Canberra ACT 2601 +61 2 6243 3628 www.aperium.com Nearby Uninsured bushfire victims who lost their homes to the black Saturday Blazes will receive funding from the bushfire appeal of to help rebuild. The head of the Victorian Bushfire Funds advisory panel, John Landy, said part of the total of more than $200 million raised would be used to rebuild the homes of those with and without insurance, The Age reported. Rebuilding begins The building of traditional timber houses will be banned in areas of extreme fire danger and property owners may soon be able to clear more land under measures announced in early March. Victims of the Black Saturday bushfires were able to begin rebuilding their homes from March 10 and can expect some help with the estimated $22,000 additional cost of meeting the toughest level of new building standards. Under the rules, every new Victorian home will be categorized within one of six ‘bushfire attack levels’, from low to extreme. Bushfire reconstruction authority head Christine Nixon pledged that the process of people trying to rebuild would not be complicated by red tape, The Age reported. Residents of Marysville are growing angry at new building regulations mandating fireproof homes, saying they will be brick bunkers that ruin the ambience of the town. Brumby and bushfires The Herald Sun reported that John Brumby hopes to have bushfire reconstruction almost complete by June next year. The rebuilding would be of the biggest project of its kind in Australia since Cyclone Tracy flattened Darwin on Christmas Eve in 1974. The Government would not be introducing a one-off levy to fund the rebuilding. No consideration had been given to linking family compensation payouts to restricting people’s right to sue. Compulsory fire insurance would not be introduced. Brumby said that with the assistance of the Federal Government and the publicly funded Bushfire Relief Fund, the State Budget would be able to pay for the rebuilding and still retain a small surplus in the next two financial years. Tax breaks for employers of volunteers Businesses that employ emergency services volunteers should be given tax breaks and other financial acknowledgement by the Government, according to the firefighting organisations that have been battling the state’s blazes. The CFA and Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria have held preliminary talks with state ministers on ways to recognise the unseen and ongoing contribution of employers – some of whom have willingly relinquished staff, and therefore productivity, for the month-long campaign against the fires, The Age reported. The waste Toxic waste including asbestos, chemicals, batteries and computer equipment and paint will be among the estimated 80,000 tonnes of waste to be dumped in specially approved landfills following February’s bushfires. The cleanup is expected to take about six months, and the amount of debris and tainted soil to be removed is almost equal to the total amount of industrial waste Victoria produces each year, The Age reported. Disaster tourism Kinglake residents are bracing for a steady stream of ‘disaster tourists’ after roadblocks were lifted in the bushfire disaster zone in mid-March. Cars streamed through the Yarra Valley as thousands of visitors/tourists heeded the call to return to bushfire affected pockets of Victoria for the Labor Day long weekend, The Age reported. Not so merchantable VicForests, the body that manages timber harvesting in state forests, estimates 25,000 hectares of ‘merchantable forest’ was burnt, The Age reported. Thinking ahead The Age reported that Victorian government agencies lack enough specialised scientists to manage an expanding fuel reduction policy, said Kevin Tolhurst, a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne’s department of forest and ecosystem science. He said a recent government strategy released in December went ‘a long way’ towards addressing problems in Victoria’s response to bushfire, but did not reverse the current emphasis on bureaucracy over science. He said land management agencies across the country often employed people ‘who were better at wordsmithing than knowing the actual area they are working in’. Look out! Extreme weather warnings were issued on March 3 and 4 in Victoria with every mobile phone receiving a wind and fire warning message. Telstra, Optus and Hutchison sent warnings from Victoria police to their mobile customers – more than 3 million phones, using technology that isolated Victorian numbers, and sent the text in bulk through a dispatch centre, The Age reported. THE Arts Not so poor boy The 500-seat Melbourne Theatre Company Theatre opened with Poor Boy, a play starring Guy Pearce. The theatre, along with the acoustically advanced Elizabeth Murdoch Hall, form the $128m Melbourne Recital Centre building at Southbank, the Herald Sun reported. Rebirth The Australian National Academy of Music has a new independent board, a new intake of 55 students and a program for the year prepared by artistic director Brett Dean. The new board is chaired by Ian McRae who is also chairman of the Australian Ballet School and was a director of the Melbourne Recital Centre, and is a director of Malthouse Theatre and Bangarra Dance Theatre. The board, which also includes Arts Victoria director Penny Hutchinson, the chair of Melbourne University’s steering group for a new music conservatorium, Professor Barry Sheehan, and the university’s pro vice-chancellor, Professor Warren Bebbington. ANAM is a subsidiary company of Melbourne University managed by the independent board under new arrangements set by federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett when he confirmed last year that the function of the funding of $2.5m would continue and that it would remain in the South Melbourne Town Hall building, The Age reported. Sharp move Chrissy Sharp, who has been general manager of Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London for more than four years and was previously general manager of the Sydney Festival has been appointed to run Melbourne’s new Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas, following the withdrawal of Caro Llewelyn from the position due to personal reasons. Sharp has also been director of policy at SBS and director of the Australian Writers Guild, The Age reported. 6
LETTER FROM MELBOURNE Oscar night Heath Ledger became only the second actor to win an Academy Award posthumously when he won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as The Joker in the Batman movie Dark Night, the Herald Sun reported. Slum Dog Millionaire won best picture. Letter from Melbourne recommends it if you have some spare time. Go and see it The National Gallery of Victoria has purchased John Brack’s iconic Melbourne painting The Bar and it now sits in its ‘rightful’ place alongside its natural companion piece, Collins Street, 5 PM, at the NGV in Federation Square. Temporary K Shed at the Queen Victoria market will become a temporary opera house. The people to perform include soprano Yvonne Kenny, tenor James Egglestone, an orchestra of 65 and a 150-voice choir, conducted by Benjamin Northey. Opera in the Market is presented by Australian Music Events, which is giving net proceeds from the two concerts to St Vincent’s Hospital. AME also organises Opera in the Alps, near Beechworth, and Opera by the Loch, in Mildura, which were held earlier this year. A valuable purpose of these outdoor events is the involvement of younger singers, The Age reported. Up there Sydney artist Guy Maestri, 34, won the $50,000 Archibald Prize for his portrait of Geoffery Gurrumul Yunupingu, a blind singer from Elcho Island in northeast Arnhem Land whose self titled album has received widespread acclaim over the past 12 months, The Australian reported. Film opportunity Camberwell’s heritage listed Rivoli Theatre, a 1940s art deco building, is for sale and is leased to Village Roadshow until 2020, The Age reported. Are you ready to laugh? Melbourne International Comedy Festival programs are out, a 90-page colour magazine that fell out of The Age, from April 1 to 26, www.comedyfestival. com.au. Good stint at the helm National Gallery of Victoria director Gerard Vaughan was reappointed for five years from July, the Financial Review reported. Virtuous recommendation Letter from Melbourne saw an advanced screening of Easy Virtue, adapted from the Noel Coward play of the same name and thoroughly enjoyed it. En Francais The French Film Festival, in Melbourne between March 5 and 20, screened 25 French films. Docklands A softer community required Robert Doyle wants Docklands planning powers transferred to Melbourne City Council. He said he was very worried about Docklands, which lacked the social glue that other suburbs take granted. But VicUrban, the government agency in charge of developing Docklands, said it was happy with the way the area was evolving. Victoria State architect Professor Geoffrey London said docklands urgently needed attention, The Age reported. It needs a soul Premier John Brumby has conceded the Docklands is not working as well as it should have and has backed calls to improve its social infrastructure. Planning Minister Justin Madden has said he is open to the idea of a council takeover, The Age reported. The human touch Melbourne City Councillor Ken Ong said a primary school would keep families in Docklands and kickstart the social infrastructure that is now lacking in the infant suburb. The Victorian Education Department said it was monitoring population trends in Docklands to inform decisions on new schools, the Herald Sun reported. Neil Mitchell, who broadcast from 8:30am weekdays on 3AW, wrote in the Herald Sun that the Docklands is a windy, soulless place devoid of excitement and it’s time to get it right or face a century of mediocrity. Big shop Large US supermarket chain Costco has announced its landmark Australian store at Docklands will employ 225 staff when it opens in July at Waterfront City. Nearby, the Southern Star Observation Wheel will remain motionless for some months. Education The drift The drift from public to private schools could slow over the next year, according to some educators, “Installation of the most powerful technology, without the implementation of the most sound methodology; leads to mind-boggling apoplexy!” WordScribe ® /Dataworxs and ELPedium “Auto Updating” Speech Recognition integrations installed by the soundest methods, produce incredible increases in productivities. Clients for our digital voice technologies include the legal and medical professions as well as government agencies including the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. Nearing 50 years of “Supplying Choices; Delivering Solutions!” with practical advice SPEECH RECOGNITION AUSTRALIA PTY LTD Inc with: GRUNDIG DICTATION MACHINES PTY LTD 656 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne Vic 3000 Australia T +61 3 9347 5555 F: +61 3 9347 7706 divsys@divsys.com.au with government school principals, in a Australian Secondary Principals Association survey, reporting higher enrolments as the financial crisis intensifies, The Age reported. Big losses The higher education sector, which relies on income from overseas students and investments to cover federal funding shortfalls research and domestic students, is facing the prospect of a bad year in 2009-10. Melbourne University last year lost 22 per cent from its endowment portfolio. The university’s investment report shows the global turmoil helped cut $300m from the fund, with the value of the portfolio shrinking from $1.4b to $1.1b, The Age reported. Too many pie warmers The Herald Sun reported that school tuckshops have too many pie warmers and require upgrades to comply with a health food standards, Victorian School Canteens Association state coordinator Prue Cerin said. The kids will be disappointed Under changes introduced by the Government, state schools will find it harder to expel and suspend students, with suspensions to be limited to a maximum of three successive days instead of 10. More than 16,000 primary and secondary students were suspended in Victoria last year, the Herald Sun reported. Fees The Melbourne Times reported that under the Federal Government student services funding model, universities will charge students a $250 service and amenities fee to fund health, welfare and recreation services. Student unions will play no role in providing the services, as the extra money would filter through university administrations. National Union of Students Victoria president Mark Baker said the services and amenities fees should be managed by students, especially during times of economic hardship. “Invisible Miracle!” ELPedium Speech Recognition 1 RECORD 4 PAUSE 7 REWIND * CANCEL 2 PLAY 5 SEND FOR T YPING 8 FF 0 PAUSE 3 REW / PLAY 6 PRIORITY 9 FF/PL AY # END JOB 7
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the bushfires - Letter from Melbourne

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