LETTER FROM MELBOURNE

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LETTER FROM MELBOURNE 1 AUGUST TO 4 SEPTEMBER to be trained in handling terror offences, The Herald Sun said. Police’s new powers. Police and security agencies are to be given unprecedented powers to search people’s homes and computers, sans court approval, under legislation before federal parliament. Witness’s reward Former lawyer, and star prosecution witness Andrew Fraser may be the first to claim a $1m reward following the conviction of Peter Dupas for the murder of Mersina Halvagis. Fraser shared a cell block with Dupas during a five year jail term where, and when, Dupas confessed to the crime, The Age reported. Up there Former Queensland emergency services minister Pat Purcell, 60, has been formerly charged over the alleged assault of two public servants. Purcell recently resigned from the ministry for ‘personal reasons’ according to Premier Peter Beattie, The Age reported. Comb required The Chief Judge of the Victorian County Court has decreed that horsehair wigs should no longer be worn in civil matters. Attorney-General Rob Hulls welcomed the decision. However, Victorian Bar Council chairman Michael Shand, QC, said there are different views about the matter, and that the wigs have the advantage of offering a degree of anonymity, the Financial Review said. Gatto and the ATO Renowned ‘corruption buster’ Tony Fitzgerald, QC, is heading an inquiry into the Melbourne branch of the Australian Tax Office, following concerns about links between one of its senior investigators and underworld figure Mick Gatto, The Age said. Vital role Anita Kwong has begun her role as the new CEO and Director of Programs at the College of Law Victoria, a joint venture between The College of Law and The Law Institute of Victoria which offers practical legal training as a path to being admitted in Victoria. Beat up The Herald Sun has diagnosed an ‘epidemic of drunken violence at Melbourne nightclubs and pubs that is killing and maiming young men and destroying their families lives’. The paper ran a front-page story with plenty of pictures of unfortunate victims from the last few years. Queen Street has taken over as the CBD’s biggest trouble zone, replacing King St. According to recent crime statistics showed a state-wide 5.2 per cent increase in assaults, with an increase of 17.5 per cent in the metropolitan area, The Herald Sun said. Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon announced the formulation of a public order taskforce to combat the violence. A study shows more than one in ten grade 5 boys had carried a weapon, The Herald Sun said. No proof, no piercing People under the age of 18 would need a written permission note from a parent to get a piercing under a plan soon to come before state parliament, The Age reported. Welfare agency director Colleen Pearce, has become Victoria’s first female public advocate, succeeding Julian Gardiner. Straight and narrow aperium Consulting -harnessing technology to serve your organisational goals A crackdown on jaywalkers in Melbourne (‘Don’t do your dash’) saw more than 700 people issued with traffic fines in early August. Former Victorian state cricketer David Plumpton has been jailed for 18 months over a hit-run accident that killed a cyclist in January 2005. A charter aircraft company is suing Mark Grollo for $1m after he allegedly caused damage to one of their planes’ engine by performing stunts, according to The Herald Sun. MelBurne Happy 172 nd Birthday The official Melbourne Day Flag Raising Ceremony took place in Enterprize Park on 30 August, at the site where the first European settlers landed on the north banks of the Yarra River in 1835. Lord Mayor John So pulled the lanyard to fire the (very noisy, very smoky) cannon out over the river. Councillors, MPs, community leaders, school children … scones and tea … There was the annual debate, see photos herein, and other special events. Docklands focus lessens/New projects Within a month of Docklands’ administration being handed over from VicUrban to the City of Melbourne, the council has abolished the committee dealing with issues specific to the area. Cr Peter Clarke, who was chair of the recently terminated Docklands and major projects committee, said it was a ‘slap in the face to the residents’ and claimed Lord Mayor John So had axed the committee to counteract the perception that Cr Clarke would be a competitor at the next lord mayoral elections. Cr So dismissed the claims as ‘ludicrous speculation’, The Age reported. So told The Age this month that he would run for mayor in next year’s election, then retracted his statement saying he would make an ‘iron-clad’ decision closer to the date. So nominated several key projects for the City, including improving connection to the western suburbs; decking over the Flinders Street rail yards to provide a new pedestrian link to the Yarra, reducing Swanston Street tram congestion, and improving cycling infrastructure. Well, good luck! The City of Melbourne will spend $50,000 over the next year to ‘skate-board proof’ the city, as a way of trying to stop the damage caused by skaters to sites 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 in the city, The Herald Sun said. One international skating magazine describes the inner-city riverside skate park as a ‘great warm-up spot before heading into Melbourne’s concrete jungle’. Capital cities seek federal capital Lord Mayor John So, and the other capital city mayors went to Canberra to visit the leaders of both Liberal and Labor parties to present their National Capital Cities Policy Plan this month, seeking a new alliance with the Federal Government. The capital cities seek transport funding. Under the Auslink program, the Federal Government pays only for interstate and intrastate road and rail freight links, The Age said. Community loses out Melbourne City Council may have to develop housing or offices on a site earmarked for community use to help pay the $10m bill for the site. The government is forcing the council to the pay full commercial valuation for the Southbank site – twice its value for ‘public use’ zoning, The Melbourne Times reported. Watch this space. Being less famous Famous Melbournians dressed down to look like homeless people in an alleyway off Collins Street for TV advertisements for the Heart of Melbourne appeal, which is concerned with the estimated 13,000 homeless in Melbourne, The Herald Sun said. Sam Newman, footballer turned media ‘personality’ has sold his Brighton home to move to a Docklands apartment by the Yarra. He is auctioning off a painting of himself naked, along with other memorabilia in order to fit into the new house, The Age reported. Fish market The shadow minister for agriculture John Vogel is concerned by the government’s compulsory acquisition of the Melbourne Wholesale Fish Market and is calling on the government to find a new and suitable location for the market. Evidently, there is no leadership amongst the stall owners. Nearby, in Church St, the popular Richmond Oysters is completing a big refit which seems to include a bar to have a drink as you purchase. Ready for Derby Eve. Celebrity restaurant Actor Robert De Niro and celebrity chef Nobuyuki have opened a Nobu restaurant (part of a world wide chain) in Melbourne in the casino precinct. There was a big opening night party with long list of VIPs, The Age reported. Mallory Wall from Rosati in Fitzroy won Maitre d’ of the Year at the Gourmet Traveller awards held at Nobu. The Age Good Food Guide 2008 has named Rockpool Bar and Grill best restaurant of the year, The Press Club best new restaurant and Ronnie di 16
1 AUGUST TO 4 SEPTEMBER LETTER FROM MELBOURNE Stasio (Café di Stasio), the professional excellence award, The Age reported. So team vision clear Lord Mayor John So was ‘jeered and hooted’ from the public galleries over staff cuts in late August, The Age said. Despite recent media coverage and its emphasis on people recently laid off, the City of Melbourne has been advertising a range of interesting positions including manager, strategic planning and sustainability, and manager, facilities and assets management www.sladegroup.com.au, as well as a new marketing communications executive resume@sacsconsult.com.au. Cheap parking! Every week 4000 drivers report faulty parking meters in this city. The city found 81,000 malfunctioning meters last financial year. Chief executive David Pitchford admitted the parking and traffic branch was under-performing, setting off fears (10 August) he was considering sacking the heavily unionised parking officers and tendering their jobs to the private sector, The Age said. The Australian Services Union secretary Brain Parkinson said bureaucrats had verbally threatened to outsource the task of issuing tickets if fine revenue did not increase, The Herald Sun reported. Metropolis 2007 The 12 th annual International Metropolis Conference (8 to 12 October), to be held in Melbourne, includes over 500 speakers looking at migration, economic growth and social cohesion, www.metropolis2007.org. Eves Show us your money The Royal Melbourne Show (20 -30 September) will be more expensive than ever this year, with the cost of a family ticket jumping from $60 last year to $75 this year, and adult tickets going up $5, The Herald Sun said. The second year in the new facilities. Top job up for grabs Applications are open for the position of chief executive of the Victorian Major Events Company. Current CEO Peter Abraam, who has held the position for eight years has a new job in Abu Dhabi with a property and finance conglomerate, The Age said. Planni Propery The new and the old A Bates/Smart designed ‘cutting-edge’ glass tower, for 171 Collins Street will be three storeys shorter (17 rather than 20 storeys) than originally planned, with the council (a majority of councillors including architect Peter Clarke but not the Lord Mayor) over-riding CBD planning controls. Heritage, planning and religious figures complained the original building would crowd out St Paul’s Cathedral, The Age reported. Planning minister Madden will have the final word. Muscling out McMansions Four architecture firms have been chosen from 51 firms to design sustainable and affordable housing that the Victorian urban development body VicUrban hopes will become and alternative to the oft-criticised McMansion. The firms are BKK Architects with Third Skin; Metropolitan Housing Laboratory; Zen Architects; and Croxon Ramsay/ Sense Architecture. They will design houses that meet the six star energy efficiency standard, and are affordable to the average family on an annual income of $50,000 to $70,000, the Financial Review said. Location, location, location … Melbourne now has 17 ‘million dollar suburbs’. Figures show sales in the three months to the end of June saw the median sale price of 17 suburbs above $1m, The Herald Sun reported. Last year’s census figures show that the centre point from which Melbourne’s suburbs are sprawling at a rate of 430 new houses a week is the corner of Bourne Rd and Gardiner Pde, Glen Iris, The Herald Sun reported. The top four sales at the $350m Salta properties project on the old site of the Mercy maternity hospital have averaged more than $15m each – almost twice previous records for Melbourne apartments, the Financial Review said. Transit city two The Victorian planning minister Justin Madden will take over planning power in Footscray to accelerate development as a part of the Melbourne 2030 strategy, making it the second ‘transit city’. Similar powers to vitalise Dandenong were granted VicUrban and other government agencies last year, however at $52.1m over four years, the Footscray strategy is a more modest project, The Herald Sun said. Moran rails against regulations Allan Moran has written in the Financial Review about the burden that land and other restrictions place on Victorians, criticising the creation of artificial land shortage through the 2030 urban growth boundary. Moran, along with Louise Staley authored Locked Out, which examines the effects of regulation on Victoria’s house prices, launched at Master Builders Association of Victoria in mid-August. Moving along (1) Planning minister Justin Madden has given Scots Church, in Collins Street, permission for a redevelopment of adjacent buildings on the corner of Russel Street and Little Collins Street to be redeveloped into a 13-floor with ground level shops, and three level basement car-park. Interestingly, part of the former car-park will remain to recognise it being the first multi-level car park in Melbourne, circa 1939. Moving along (2) Stuart Morris, QC, who quit as president of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and as a Supreme Court judge in March, has been hired to advise a council on overturning a VCAT decision (which was made by two of his colleagues while he was president). The VCAT Act forbids former VCAT members from representing parties at VCAT for two years but does not have specific restrictions on offering parties legal advice. At issue is the development of a resort in a green wedge zone in the Mornington Peninsula Shire, The Herald Sun reported. Trade offs Part of the government’s $1b convention Centre precinct resembles ‘a downmarket suburban homeware centre’ its critics say. Furthermore the retail centre – without any environmental rating – will effectively subsidise the 6-star green rated Convention Centre, raising concerns about tradeoffs made in Victorian major projects, The Age said. Like Southern Cross Station, the centre looks like it will be built around a clothing store. Looking after grandma no more Following a review of how Victoria’s cemeteries are run, the State Government is considering disbanding more than 500 cemetery trust boards. Their funds would be pooled and all cemeteries come under a single board answerable to a minister, or regional management boards may be set up to and be responsible for each region, The Herald Sun reported. Stonington Mansion Art dealer Rodney Menzies has bought Stonington Mansion for more than $18m – a Melbourne residential property record. A campaign had sought to keep the property in public ownership, The Age reported. Whither democracy Local councils may lose their power to approve or reject key development projects under a scheme currently under consideration by the Victorian Government. The proposed changes, akin to those in South Australia, would mean special panels (mainly made up of unelected experts) would determine major planning applications. The ACT and NSW are considering similar models proposed under the federal initiative known as the Development Assessment Forum. The changes are likely to please industry groups, but councils and resident groups will oppose them, according to The Age. Victorian Local Governance Association president Beth Davidson said ‘councils should be prepared to consider better methods of decision-making’. Planning minister Madden has assured Planning Backlash, an organisation representing more than 100 local planning groups, that the government will not attempt to take planning powers from local councils, The Herald Sun reported. lcal ernme Out with the groceries, in with the grog Shopping giant Woolworths wants to shut down its Doncaster East Safeway store and replace it with Dan Murphy’s discount liquor store, angering some locals, The Herald Sun said. Woolworths already has 24 Dan Murphy’s stores around the state but has never before attempted to substitute a supermarket for a bottle shop. Madden maddens Yarra Planning minister Justin Madden has upset Yarra Council with his recent decision to divest the council planning control over two key Richmond Abbotsford sites bordering the Yarra River, owned by development company Salta. Madden has approved developments which go against the existing ‘urban design framework’, The Melbourne Times said. 17
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