Hard living undercuts Cousins` hard work Rudd`s big cash

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BUSINESSDAY 12
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TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2010
High-rise
push to
halt the
sprawl
INC
$1.50 GST
Hard living undercuts Cousins’ hard work Rudd’s big
cash boost
for GP
training
By CAROLINE WILSON
New towers planned for city
By MARIKA DOBBIN
and DEWI COOKE
SKYSCRAPERS have been declared
the answer to Melbourne’s urban
sprawl by two leading developers,
with both revealing plans for more
towers as the city struggles to cope
with a surging population.
Developer Lorenz Grollo, whose
family co-owns the Rialto Towers on
Collins Street, is planning to build
more skyscrapers modelled on the
iconic building.
And Tony Brady, the developer of
Melbourne’s next skyscraper, says he
will take on more high-rise projects
once his 67-storey development on
the site of the old Stork Hotel on
Elizabeth Street — scheduled to
begin this year — is finished.
Mr Brady, who specialises in residential developments, has three other
mid-sized towers of more than
30 storeys under construction, but
says he is looking to go higher.
The developers have declared
their intentions as The Age today
launches a series examining how
Melbourne’s planners will cope with
a predicted population of 7 million
by 2050, an increase of more than
3 million people.
Better use of available city land
has been identified as a key to maintaining Melbourne’s liveability, and
halting urban sprawl.
But the skyscraper plans drew
immediate criticism from designers
including high-profile urban planner
Rob Adams, director of Design and
Culture for the City of Melbourne.
Professor Adams, a leading voice
in the push for more targeted lowrise developments across the city,
said high-rise developments often
had more to do with profitability and
image than ‘‘sensible’’ town planning.
‘‘Really what it is about is buying
the land as cheaply as you can and
then maximising the development on
it. That’s all about dollars. It’s got
nothing to do with good design or
sustainability, it’s all about economics,’’ he said.
High-rise buildings tended to be
less environmentally efficient than
low-rises, he said, and greater housing density could still be achieved
without the need for more towers.
Mr Grollo would not reveal specific plans for a new tower, but said
PROJECT MELBOURNE
TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE CITY
IT WAS once much simpler. Houses ran in
neat rows, bookended by pubs and butcher
shops. Each part of our city — the villages
— had trams, parks and factories. And sport,
of course. Now everything is much faster,
busier and congested. A city of human
scale has morphed into a 21st-century city.
Apartments are towering over quarter-acre
blocks. Melbourne has grown out and up,
sometimes without rhythm. We are on our
way to becoming the nation’s biggest city, yet
a shared vision of how we would like to live
is still lacking. Project Melbourne is a special
series by The Age and theage.com.au aimed
at encouraging and broadening public
debate about Melbourne’s future —
particularly the future of the inner 40
kilometres. We are keen to get your views
and feedback.
PAUL RAMADGE
Editor-in-Chief
FOCUS PAGE 9
OPINION PAGE 11
he was looking for high-profile Melbourne sites that could accommodate skyscrapers. ‘‘We are looking at
some potential developments in the
future which are largely modelled on
Rialto,’’ he said.
‘‘Skyscrapers are part of Melbourne’s future without a doubt. With
population increasing, density in
building and cities is critical.’’
Mr Grollo argued that there was ‘‘a
better, greener outcome when you
get a bigger mass on the one footprint’’.
‘‘Having said that, it needs to take
into consideration the right urban
design and how the building sits
within its context of a wider precinct.
You can’t just build tall buildings for
the sake of it,’’ Mr Grollo said.
‘‘I’m certainly not a believer in
massive towers like in Dubai, that’s
bordering on ridiculous, but you go
to New York and the average buildings there are 50-odd storeys. Just
because of our land mass here,
50 storeys seems very high.’’
Continued PAGE 2
Ben Cousins, warned over his binge drinking, is unlikely to play in Richmond’s season opener.
Police ‘racially abusing’ African youths
By SELMA MILOVANOVIC
LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER
POLICE across Melbourne are
racially taunting young Africans, with
some calling them ‘‘monkey’’ and
‘‘black c---’’, an explosive report
claims.
People interviewed about police
treatment of young Africans in Flemington, the City of Greater Dandenong and Braybrook said police were
becoming increasingly aggressive
towards youths of African background while complaints against
police were routinely ignored.
The project was funded by the
WEATHER
WATER
MELBOURNE Sunny. North-westerly winds
averaging 15-25km/h and afternoon sea
breezes.
Min 18 Max 31
TOMORROW Sunny
THURSDAY Shower or two
FRIDAY A few showers
SATURDAY Shower or two
PICTURE: JOE ARMAO
RICHMOND has warned its troubled
midfielder Ben Cousins to curb his drinking.
Revelations that the recovering drug addict
has overindulged in alcohol over the past
year came as he was readmitted to hospital at
midnight on Sunday with stomach illness.
The club fears that Cousins, 31, could further shorten his already diminished career as
a result of binge drinking. The former West
Coast champion, who has been regularly
drug-tested by the AFL since being given a
second chance at elite football by the Tigers,
is now unlikely to play in Richmond’s seasonopener against Carlton on March 25.
Cousins returned to Epworth Hospital for
further tests after being in acute pain. He
remained there last night. Although there is
no suggestion Cousins’ illness is directly
related to alcohol abuse, no one at Richmond
could deny that his health issues could be
linked to the footballer’s long-term drug
addiction and occasionally savage lifestyle.
Football operations manager Craig
Cameron vehemently denied the drug
rumours that have haunted Cousins since he
was first admitted to hospital five days ago,
pointing out that the player had had a blood
test last week. Club president Gary March
said he was unaware alcohol had become an
issue for Cousins.
However, The Age can confirm that senior
Richmond personnel raised the drinking
issue with Cousins several times last year.
Cousins was re-signed at the end of last
season after playing a solid 15 games and
finishing in the top five of Richmond’s best
and fairest.
Cousins, who came to Richmond at a
bargain basement price, is believed to have
doubled his wage in 2010 but has been
advised that to extend his career he must cut
down on drinking. He was also admonished
shortly before Christmas for a relative lack of
fitness, which was blamed on a personal
issue not related to drugs.
Cousins’ former manager, Ricky Nixon,
has told friends in recent weeks that he has
been concerned about Cousins’ lifestyle and
mentioned alcohol abuse. Nixon and the
player split last month.
Until last week’s illness, which was
described by doctors as gastroenteritis, the
Tigers had been satisfied with Cousins’
response to his pre-Christmas rocket, his
improved fitness and well-known work ethic
on the track.
The club has been forced to keep a close
watch on the player’s off-field activities as a
result of the massive risk involved in taking
on the game’s first admitted drug addict.
‘‘Ben is under the care of a gastroenterologist and at this stage it looks as if he
will stay overnight,’’ said Greg Hickey,
Richmond’s club doctor.
‘‘Unfortunately Ben’s symptoms from last
week have not yet fully resolved so we have
asked for some more tests to be performed,’’
Dr Hickey said.
Cousins’ long-term drug addiction has left
him with a legacy of a high resistance to
painkillers and he reportedly has been in
acute pain in recent days.
Min 20 Max 30
Min 21 Max 28
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Min 17 Max 24
Details PAGE 17
MELBOURNE DAMS:
Legal Services Board in 2008 and
managed by three community legal
centres.
Helen Yandell, director of the
Springvale Monash Legal Service,
said police were unfairly targeting
young African people, using phrases
such as ‘‘monkey’’ and ‘‘black c---’’
and overusing their new stop-andsearch powers.
‘‘Almost every single young person
we spoke to reported being asked to
give police their name and address
several times in a single day. For
some, this was a regular occurrence,’’
Ms Yandell said.
She said young people who parti-
cipated in the study had spoken of
police on horseback often taking
photos of them on the street. In one
instance, officers allegedly took off
their uniforms to attack youths of
African background in a park.
Young Africans also reported that
police often became aggressive or
violent or arrested them if they
refused to respond to informal questioning or asked officers to identify
themselves.
But Ms Yandell said Africans’
complaints of police misconduct
were often ignored.
‘‘At best they are getting no results;
at worst, complaints are resulting in
ODD SPOT
34.6%
THIS TIME LAST YEAR: 30.1%
police increasing their harassment,’’
she said.
A Victoria Police statement yesterday said the force was disappointed
by the allegations. Officers worked
tirelessly to build relationships and
trust among African communities, it
said.
‘‘Victoria Police expects its members to take a fair and professional
approach when policing the community,’’ it said.
‘‘Our key focus is on crime, not
specific cultural groups. We have
various checks and balances in place
to ensure the conduct of our
By MICHELLE GRATTAN,
JULIA MEDEW
and PAUL AUSTIN
THE Rudd government has committed $632 million over four years to
train thousands more doctors, as it
throws out carrots to woo the states
to back its hospitals reform package.
But Victoria is still holding out for
more incentives, amid warnings from
doctors that the state stands to lose
much more under the deal than previously estimated.
Harry Hemley, Victorian president
of the Australian Medical Association, says Premier John Brumby
should demand $1.5 billion for a new
hospital or other infrastructure
upgrades before agreeing to the plan.
Under Mr Rudd’s latest move to
appease states, the number of places
for medical graduates to train as GPs
will jump from 700 a year currently to
1200 by 2014, while specialist places
will rise from 360 to 900.
Work experience places in general
practice will more than double to 975
a year by 2013.
Mr Rudd said the government
would deliver an extra 5500 new or
training GPs, 680 specialists, and
5400 pre-vocational GP program
training places over the next decade.
It is estimated an extra 3000 GPs
will be needed by 2020 to maintain
current levels of services.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott
said Mr Rudd was ‘‘all hat and no
cowboy — he’s all announcement
and no follow-through . . . none of
what is announced today is going to
make any big difference any time
soon’’.
But the Australian Medical Association welcomed the initiative — and
called on the states to play their part
by funding more training positions in
hospitals.
Mr Brumby said the training
money would ‘‘help in ensuring that
more people are treated by their local
GP, hopefully before they need hospital treatment’’. But he called on Mr
Rudd to also increase spending on
nursing home beds and preventative
care to ease pressure on hospitals.
He said despite Sunday’s ‘‘constructive’’ talks, Victoria, which wants
an extra $1.2 billion a year from Canberra, was still ‘‘miles away’’ from an
equitable hospital funding deal with
the federal government.
The AMA’s Dr Hemley said Victoria stood to lose a lot more than
$1.2 billion, and should be demanding an extra $1.5 billion instead. He
said that under Mr Rudd’s scheme,
the states would be paid 60 per cent
of their existing funding for two years
until the new model was adopted.
This meant poor-performing states
like NSW would be rewarded, while
the most efficient one, Victoria, lost
out.
“Victoria’s hospitals are 9 per cent
more efficient than average, while
hospitals in NSW are 7 per cent less
efficient than average. That means
that Victorian hospitals will receive
$1.5 billion less than NSW for treating the same number of patients,’’ he
said. “The Commonwealth will be
paying almost 10 per cent more to
Continued PAGE 2
INDEX
Impoverished Bolivia has dropped its bid to host the
Miss Universe pageant because it is too expensive.
President Evo Morales had lobbied for the pageant, but
Culture Minister Zulma Yugar said a closer look at estimated costs had forced the government to pull out.
THE ARTS
PAGES 12, 13
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BUSINESSDAY 8
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ISSN 0312-6307
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