LETTER FROM MELBOURNE

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LETTER FROM MELBOURNE 1 AUGUST TO 4 SEPTEMBER Punishing the victim The Hume Council threatened up to 100 rate-payers, who were victims of graffiti, with fines if they did not remove the graffiti before a deadline. Mayor Gary Jungwirth has subsequently said no-one has or will be fined and described the approach as heavyhanded. Greater Dandenong has a similar approach and has fined some residents. Casey has a very different approach offering a hotline residents can call to have the council remove the graffiti for free, The Herald Sun reported. Spor Congrats Cadel Australian cyclist Cadel Evans came second in the Tour de France to Spaniard Alberto Contador. Evans was just 23 seconds behind the winner after three weeks of racing. They won’t Mexican wave, but … A brawl involving at least ten people broke out in a bar in the exclusive Melbourne Cricket Club members’ area after a match between Collingwood and Melbourne. Chairs were thrown. Glasses smashed, The Age said. Collingwood won the match by 11 points. The people’s prices/Flu Tickets to the Spring Racing carnival are on sale, as much as $7 more than last year, according to The Herald Sun. The Melbourne Cup entry remains $50. Quarantining of the Equine Flu in eastern Sydney has been partially successful, since its arrival evidently from Japan. Horse racing, except for one week, continued in Victoria. Tabcorp suffered losses … but betting on greyhounds went up 87 per cent, The Herald Sun reported. Equestrian events will not be held at the Royal Melbourne Show. MSAC upgrade Sports minister James Merlino announced a $4m upgrade to the Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, including an adjustable floor to change a pool’s depth so it can be used for teaching children to swim. The Age reported that the government is also considering developing a water park, featuring water-slides and rides. The water park was decided against when the centre was built for the Commonwealth Games, but the government may be changing its mind. Competing sports A provisional schedule for the 2008 Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island has the race set for the last weekend in September – the same day as the AFL Grand Final, The Herald Sun said. AFL Again, there are four Victorian teams in the final eight, which means football will be played in Melbourne on each of the four successive final weekends. A Channel Seven news report alleged high drug usage at a top Melbourne club, using as evidence private medical records of players that were ‘allegedly found outside an Ivanhoe rehab clinic’, The Herald Sun said. A court injunction prevented further publication of the names of the club or individuals. Players, angered by the mishandling of private medical records, decided to protest by refusing interviews to Channel Seven. AFL chief executive officer Andrew Demetriou argued in The Age ‘helping young men beat drugs should not be turned into a publicity circus’. The names of players and the club have become an open secret. Police have interviewed a journalist. The AFL and Channel Seven seem to have shaken hands. Footballers in the AFL will be warned of the dangers of binge drinking as they begin their annual holidays following research that shows footballers are most likely to cause or get into trouble at the beginning of their break, The Age said. Watch this space, as the three strikes policy might disappear. Next step Kevin Sheedy and James Hird’s joint Melbourne farewell attracted nearly 90,000 people to the MCG. The pair have been involved collectively in 1136 AFL/VFL matches. Over there (1) The Victorian Racing Club has joined a $2b bid by a New York consortium to take over thoroughbred racing in New York. The group will use the VRC blueprint for the Melbourne Cup to revitalise racing in New York, The Herald Sun said. Over there (2) Austrade, in Paris, is focusing its attention presently on the coming Rugby World Cup about to be held in Europe and linking the Australian health industry, and other particularly interested firms, into business opportunities/events. Give them a call. Letter From Melbourne was recently given a detailed briefing on site. ranspor Rail Private transport Melbourne’s trains and trams will stay in private hands indefinitely following a government decision to extend current franchises for a year and opening them up to international tender for 2009, The Age said. Premier Brumby stressed that ministers had been unanimous in their decision to keep the systems in private hands. The Age’s transport reporter Stephen Moynihan outlined the five biggest challenges for Connex and Yarra Trams. Connex: improve punctuality; secure next franchise agreement; maintain quality service during infrastructure upgrades; deal with increased patronage above the 20 per cent rise over the past two years; improve public image. Yarra Trams: ensure tram priority in traffic, and at traffic lights; fight fare evasion; more new trams; more investment in track conditions, depots and power supplies; increase patronage. Where to The Age’s city editor Royce Millar and transport reporter Stephen Moynihan gave a nicely detailed analysis of public transport policy (4 August), highlighting the need for infrastructure development and simplification of bureaucracy which they say has been described as ‘a confounding maze of public and semi-public agencies, quangos and private companies’. The Age also discovered through a leaked blueprint of potential infrastructure upgrades ‘Transit Opportunities Kept Open’. It includes 20 potential new stations and new tracks connecting Chadstone shopping centre to Dandenong and Glen Waverly lines, and trains may run to Monash University and Rowville. See The Age (9 August) for a map. The Herald Sun reported that a 50 per cent increase in the number of passengers using the train system has been met with only a 15 per cent increase in services. The Sun also said big-ticket projects, such as Southern Cross and the ‘smartcard’ ticketing system have ‘taken precedence over basic service improvements’. The 300,000 people who use the trains each day are angry. The Brumby government has announced public transport as a key concern and says it is considering several initiatives that will ease some of the congestion. The Herald Sun commissioned a list of transport priorities from Transport and Tourist Forum. TTF’s first three recommendations were a third rail track to Dandenong and replacement of level crossings; new trams trains and busses; and key road transport projects (including east-west tunnel). Transport tunnel A proposed multi-billion dollar rail tunnel under central Melbourne has received backing from key figures in the transport sector, The Age said. The new line would run from Footscray to Parkville then under the city centre to South Yarra. Growing pains Connex, the company that runs Melbourne’s rail system, has released a series of advertisements claiming that as Melbourne grows, Connex is growing with it and ‘meeting Melbourne’s growing needs’. The advertisements describe a company ‘working hard to maximise the use of the current fleet’ and looking forward to the $3b that is to be invested in the rail network over the next ten years. Another campaign, ‘A Better Way’, has been postponed due to concerns there will be a backlash from frustrated commuters, The Age reported. The campaign will be launched in print, radio and television in September. Fewer trains Connex plans to run fewer trains in the city loop to avoid congestion on the rail system. The rail operator conceded some passengers will lose out, but says more will benefit. More fines Yarra Trams is about to reap almost $1m from fines issued to fare evaders this year, almost twice what it collected two years ago, The Herald Sun said. Kosky casts out cuffs idea Public transport minister Lynn Kosky vetoed the idea of staff on public transport carrying handcuffs. The idea, which aimed to reduce assaults on staff and stop fare-evaders from escaping, was being discussed by Connex, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, and the infrastructure department, The Herald Sun said. Staff already have the power to arrest people. Freight Week 2007 2007 Freight Week, from 15 to 21 September, 18
1 AUGUST TO 4 SEPTEMBER LETTER FROM MELBOURNE climaxing with the Australian Freight Industry Awards Dinner is detailed in a ten page booklet, which tells all, or www.freight2007.com.au. Not Myki Disability support groups have criticised the new Myki ticketing system, which they say offers no improvements for Victorians with disabilities, and also that validation machines are too high. The government says the new system complies with the Disabilities Discrimination Act, but the support groups say the government’s interpretation of the law is ‘mean’, The Herald Sun reported. Federal funding Amid disputes over how $16.8b dollars of federal funding for transport should be divided up, federal transport minister Mark Vaile said federal departmental staff would be better trained to ‘investigate cost estimates in State Government pitches for funds under the Howard Government’s Auslink2 blueprint for land transport upgrades’, the Financial Review reported. road Albert Park-ing Pay parking has been in place at Albert Park for just over a year and some local groups are complaining. Parks Victoria’s manager of Albert Park, Phillip Ross, said the meters were introduced to give extra funding to the park, and also to discourage office workers from taking the spaces during the week. The meters are, however, active at night and on weekends, and ‘more than two thirds of the revenue was spent on upkeep of the pay/parking infrastructure’, The Age said. Ross said he doesn’t believe recreational users of the park have been put off by the cost of parking!! Bigger bicycle budget! Professor Nick Low, director of the Australasian Centre for Governance and Management of Urban Transport argues in a report commissioned by The Age that by 2030, 30 per cent of all city trips should be made by bicycle. The State Government has earmarked $70m for cycling projects over the next decade, but Low says state funding for cycling programs and infrastructure should be $100m annually. An Age Editorial also argued for a shift in planning and perception to make cycling an everyday part of Melbourne life. Bicycle Victoria is opening two ‘bicycle parking pods’ in the CBD. The ‘pods’, funded by the City of Melbourne, include showers, toilets, and lockers, and will hold up to 50 bikes, The Age said. Melbourne City Council is also pushing for more ‘Copenhagenstyle’ bike lanes (which means the bike lane has a lane of parked cars between it and the traffic). As part of the Inner Melbourne Action Plan, which aims to ‘join the dots’ for Melbourne’s web of bike paths, a new route will join the northern suburbs up to Port Phillip Bay. Cyclist will have to cross just 10 intersections between Swan Street and Dandenong Road as compared to 70 on the existing Chapel Street route, The Age reported. Despite the boom in bikes amongst the adults, the number of children riding bicycles has reduced dramatically according to a Deakin University study linking the decline to increasing childhood obesity rates, The Age said. Melbourne’s myopic transport policy Elliot Fishman, director of the Institute for Sensible Transport, responded to the State Government’s $8.6b transport wish list inThe Age, saying that that projects such as the $2.2b widening of the Western Ring Road treat symptoms and ignore the problems. Fishman argued the government’s policy would be detrimental to Victoria in the long term for four reasons: climate change; oil shortages; traffic congestion; and sedentary lifestyle disease. On Fishman’s account more effective methods of dealing with Melbourne’s transport problems would be to encourage the use of bicycles and improve public transport. Fishman notes that the rail system in this city has not had a significant extension since the 1930s when the population was just one million. Changing hands Tenix will no longer staff and manage Victoria’s mobile speed cameras, although it will continue to manage the enforcement process. British firm Serco will take over the front line job, following a series of mistakes by Tenix (including setting cameras to wrong speeds, programming wrong locations, and setting cameras up, such that their view was obstructed). The new contract includes up to $50,000 fines if cameras are incorrectly operated, The Herald Sun said. A good job Two sections of the EastLink project (the Ringwood and Dandenong bypasses) will open before the rest of the road and are expected to be free for a period. The entire project appears to be ahead of schedule and may be open before its planned finish date of November next year, The Herald Sun said. 62 of the projects 88 bridges are already completed. Ashley Mason, head of operations, said good LETTERFROMMELBOURNE Since 14 - A monthly newsletter distilling public policy and government decisions which affect business opportunities in Victoria WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE ‘A vital contemporary source on Victorian politics and legislation’ Geoffrey Blainey in A History of Victoria “As an Australian working overseas, I find Letter From Melbourne’s sharp and succinct briefings integral to staying informed about business, policy and cultural news and events in Melbourne & Victoria. If you’re a frequent traveler or expatriate, it’s a must-have when keeping tabs on Home.” Leith Doody Regional Director - Europe, Middle East & Africa, The Australian Trade Commission, Australian Consulate-General, Frankfurt, Germany 19
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