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CELEBRATING
175
YEARS
First published 1831 No. 52,571 $1.20 (inc GST)
Wednesday March 15, 2006
NEW-LOOK MONEY LIFTOUT
HOW TO MAKE
IT, HOW TO
SPEND IT
M5 smog
rort: cars
forced to
go slow
CATE'S
GOLDEN
AGE
TONY
ABBOTT
UPFRONT
ARTS Page 15
Page 13
New column
No pressure, girls, but ...
Spy files
on wheat
kickbacks
kept secret
Marian Wilkinson
National Security Editor
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Extract of the RTA letter
Anne Davies
and Sherrill Nixon
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THE State Government is choosing to slow traffic into the M5 East
tunnel to keep air quality within
legal limits, rather than pursuing a
trial of filtration technology promised in 2003 and 2004.
Despite having received and
evaluated tenders for a filtration
trial in 2004, the Government
has made no progress on implementing it.
Instead, the Roads and Traffic
Authority is managing pollution
by slowing traffic, at a time when
the tunnel is carrying many more
cars than had been expected. It
has also asked the Department of
Planning to allow it to release polluted air more often through the
tunnel entrances, in breach of its
development consent.
A letter from the authority to
the Department of Planning,
dated July 2002, discussed what
could be done in incidents or
emergencies, including ‘‘degraded tunnel air quality’’.
Phil Gallagher, then motorway
and tollway operations manager
for the authority, wrote: ‘‘These
techniques include the setting of
variable message and variable
speed signage on the approaches
to the tunnel.’’
More severe cases would require on-ramps or lanes to be
closed, and, in the most extreme
events, the entire tunnel.
The Minister for Roads, Eric
Roozendaal, confirmed yesterday
that congestion and air quality
were managed by slowing traffic.
‘‘It can mean using the variable
speed signs to slow down the
traffic coming into the tunnel to
allow the emissions to stay
within the appropriate standards,’’ he told Channel Nine.
‘‘Under certain circumstances it
may mean closing a lane.’’
Last month a CSIRO
atmospheric research scientist, Dr
AFTER
THE
CARR
CRASH
Peter Manins, told the Cross City
Tunnel inquiry that the M5 East
tunnel was an example of ‘‘world’s
worst environmental practice’’ because it did not adequately collect
and disperse air pollution.
Before the 2003 state election
the then roads minister, Carl
Scully, reversed his position that
filtration was too expensive and
said the Government would develop new technology to tackle
air quality in motorway tunnels.
The following year he called
for tenders for the pilot project,
and in August that year a
shortlist of three groups was announced. Documents show the
bids from two of them: Kawasaki
offered to provide a system for
$9.3 million; Siemens said its
would cost $4.9 million.
But Mark Curran, a community member of the Air Quality Liaison Group for the M5, told
the Herald yesterday that at its
last meeting in February members had been told ‘‘there was
nothing to report’’ on the pilot.
Despite campaigns from local
residents, there are no plans for
filtration on the Lane Cove Tunnel, due to open in May next year.
And while the Government
fends off criticism for funnelling
traffic into the Cross City Tunnel,
Mr Roozendaal denied it would
have to pay $14 million in compensation to the M5 tunnel operators, Baulderstone Hornibrook
Bilfinger Berger, because it was
carrying 30,000 cars a day more
than original estimates of 70,000.
But he admitted there were
extra maintenance claims. ‘‘The
Continued Page 2
WEATHER
ISSN 0312-6315
9 770312 631032
Details – Page 18
Sydney city Showers 21°-27°
Tomorrow late shower 21°-29°
● Penrith Chance of storm 21°-29
Tomorrow late shower 19°-33°
● Wollongong Showers 18°-27°
Tomorrow Showers 18°-27°
●
Shouldering the burden ... Jodie Henry, Giaan Rooney and Shayne Reese at the pool yesterday, where the women will take centre stage when the Games begin. Photo: Steve Christo
John Huxley
in Melbourne
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READY, steady ... Melbourne! As
one of the thousands of banners
decorating the city proclaims,
after several years of trials and
tribulations, the most expensive,
most spectacular and almost
certainly most successful
Commonwealth Games ever are
about to go off.
With barely 24 hours before
competition starts, yesterday was
an opportunity for many of the
4500 athletes to experience the
Friendly Games. Hanging out in
the athletes’ village. Catching up
with old mates, making new ones.
Buying souvenirs.
And, like Australian swimmers
Jodie Henry, Giaan Rooney and
Shayne Reese, pausing from
training at the aquatic centre,
posing for happy snaps.
Tomorrow they must apply
themselves to their self-appointed
task of winning enough medals to
help the team, and the nation,
GAMES SPECIAL
JANA PULLS OUT
JANA PITTMAN’S hamstring has given the
Commonwealth Games its first real drama.
The runner has withdrawn from the Queen’s
Baton Relay at the last minute.
For the FULL STORY and all the best
Games coverage turn to the Herald’s
special four-page Commonwealth Games
preview, which starts on Page 21
overcome its disappointment at
losing favourites such as Ian
Thorpe and Grant Hackett.
The head coach, Alan
Thompson, explained: ‘‘Their
absence has put a bit of pressure
back on the team – but it’s a great
opportunity for both the men and
the women to enjoy the spotlight.’’
Among the Games’
supporting cast, the pressure is
off and it’s time to party. Royalty
is in town: the Queen, Prince
Philip and Prince Edward, and
Eddie McGuire.
The Prime Minister and sport
tragic, John Howard, recently
pictured taking an up-close and
personal interest in boxing, is in
place. So is the pretender, Peter
Costello. Britain’s Prime
Minister, Tony Blair, and the US
Secretary of State, Condoleezza
Rice, are expected next week.
Celebrities are beginning to
arrive: Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and
Delta Goodrem, either or both of
whom may perform at tonight’s
opening ceremony; sports legends
such as Cathy Freeman, Dawn
Fraser and Raelene Boyle; Telstra’s
Sol Trujillo.
Protesters – always permitted a
small part in the Games circus –
are here, too. Eureka republicans.
Anti-‘‘Stolenwealth Games’’
groups. Boonerwrung Aborigines
who have built a ‘‘sacred, healing
fire’’ in Kings Domain, 600 metres
from where the Queen is staying.
Most important, ordinary
people are, in the words of the
Games catchcry, ‘‘capturing the
spirit’’. Suddenly, Australia’s
premier sporting city has
succumbed to Games fever.
Despite worries about half-empty
venues, a record 1.4 million
tickets had been sold yesterday.
The streets of the so-called
Bleak City have been transformed
into ribbons of colour, with bands,
parades, street theatre, festival
shows and big screens.
As the last runners in the baton
TV revolution offers 30 extra channels
Tom Burton
and Lisa Murray
ADS ON THE ABC?
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CONSUMERS will get up to 30
extra specialist television channels – covering everything from
sport to shopping and religion –
as early as next year.
Under the Federal Government’s plan to deregulate the
media industry, announced yesterday, all TV viewers must convert from analog to digital, by
2010 in the cities and by 2012 elsewhere. They can either pay between $80 and $400 for a set-top
box, or buy a digital TV.
Helen Coonan has raised the
prospect of ads on the ABC,
adding: ‘‘It won’t be the
same ABC it is today in a
year’s time.’’ – Page 5
Editorial – Page 12
Eventually, the extra channels
will also broadcast to mobile
viewing devices still in development. The channels, to be run by
two new operators, will not be
allowed to look like existing freeto-air television, but instead will
be restricted to niche and socalled snack TV. Niche covers
special-interest shows such as religion and shopping, or programs
for a particular ethnic audience.
‘‘Snack’’ content would include
headlines, sport highlights,
music, entertainment and information services such as weather
and stock prices.
In a big concession to the existing networks, the Government
will not issue any new commercial TV licences at least until the
conversion to digital is complete.
The Minister for Communications, Helen Coonan, confirmed
she wanted to abolish cross-media
and foreign ownership rules, but
she prefers that this would be conditional on the introduction of the
two new digital services.
Currently, a company can control either a newspaper, television station or radio station in
any market. Senator Coonan
said they would be free to operate in any medium where there
were at least five commercial
media groups in a metropolitan
market, or four in a regional
market. Owners could not own
more than one television
relay make their way ever closer
to the MCG, speculation grows
over who will make the final
handover to the Queen. The
Victorian Governor and former
miler, John Landy, perhaps.
As all is made ready, remarkably
little is heard of the infamous
‘‘Sydney Olympics Factor’’, by
which some Melburnians feared
their Games would be judged.
Sandy Hollway, the former chief
executive of the Sydney Olympics
organising committee and a
special adviser to the 2006 Games,
said: ‘‘The Sydney-Melbourne
thing can be overdone. Cooperation has been excellent. This
is all about Australia, and showing
the world what we can do best.’’
As Perry Crosswhite, the chief
executive of the Australian
Commonwealth Games
Association, says, ‘‘The only real
worry is the weather.’’
But what would Melbourne be
without lashings of weather?
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Editorial – Page 12
INTELLIGENCE reports that
raised the alarm on oil-for-food
kickbacks as long as six years ago
have been suppressed by the Cole
inquiry at the request of the Federal Government, which claims
their release could jeopardise
‘‘national security’’.
The existence of the reports
had never previously been disclosed by the Government. At the
inquiry yesterday, 15 of the reports were handed to a senior
Foreign Affairs official, Bronte
Moules, to read in silence in the
witness box.
Counsel assisting the inquiry,
John Agius, SC, questioned Ms
Moules on the documents, but she
could not reveal their contents.
Ms Moules, a senior official
who dealt with AWB and the UN’s
oil-for-food program in Iraq, said
she had no recollection of seeing
the reports, which were described as relating to the ‘‘circumvention’’ of the program. She
said she knew the contents of a
few of them ‘‘in broad terms’’ because they were raised by the UN
committee enforcing economic
sanctions against Iraq.
AWB’s barrister, James Judd,
QC, objected to the suppression of
the intelligence reports, warning
that it might lead to ‘‘a breathtaking denial of natural justice’’
for AWB and its executives, who
are under investigation for paying
almost $300 million in kickbacks
to Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The commissioner, Terence
Cole, agreed to suppress the reports but said he had asked the
Government for a sanitised ‘‘summation’’ of their contents, which
he promised to make public. The
Government argued that disclosure of the reports would reveal
the ‘‘sources and methods’’ of
intelligence collection.
It is believed they were produced by the overseas intelligence
service, ASIS, the Defence Intelligence Organisation and possibly
the Office of National Assessments. They appear to date back
at least six years, when the UN first
told Ms Moules AWB had been
accused of paying kickbacks for
wheat contracts. The UN warning
followed a complaint by the
Canadian government in 1999.
Mr Agius told the inquiry the
intelligence reports related to
‘‘potentially relevant information’’
Continued Page 6
Flu warning: wear a mask
Fears that Australia will be hit by a flu
pandemic have prompted this advice from
the NSW Health Department – people who
suspect they have flu should wear a mask.
Public health specialist Ron Penny,
pictured yesterday, said advocating masks
was similar to promoting condom
use to prevent HIV/AIDS. Page 3
COLUMN 8 More – Page 20
Army drug quiz out
Claude Pelosi, of Paddington,
may have the real reason for
the $1.4 billion buyout of
Myer. ‘‘Could you imagine
how many FlyBuys points this
purchase earned?’’
The defence force has
decided to stop asking new
recruits whether they have
taken illegal drugs, in an
effort to solve its dire
recruitment problem. Page 7
Continued Page 5
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