The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 2

2 TH1 API THURSDAY 30 DECEMBER 1993 Yachtsman grits his teeth, and wife bears it Pictures: JOHN LAMB State clouds distance education: TAFE body By EU8SA BLAKE Once Craig Morton copi few drops of Port Phillip Bay In his face he can barely be dragged away Irom the water. Nothing could Hop this dedicated yaehtle from competing In the Australian Championships, not even the birth of his first child. Early on Tuesday morning, Mr Morton, 33, conspired with a senior obstetrician at the Mercy Hospital for a Caesarean delivery In between heats one and two so he could dash back for his race. "Hey, don't worry about me, guys!" said the new mother, Cheryl Morton, 32, from Blackburn. "I didn't want my husband to miss his race, and the doctor said he might like to head off to the tennis.

So we went Into theatre early." The obstetrician said the baby was In no danger, but needed to be delivered by Caesarean that day. It was possible to reschedule the birth only because the theatres were empty for the Boxing Day holiday. Stewart Leslie Morton arrived five weeks early, weighing 2.J kilograms. Dad still managed to hold his wife's hand throughout the birth before speeding back to Mordlalloc Sailing Club. "Craig was really good.

He was sitting beside me In a gown and mask the whole time. I had a sheet over me but I think his stomach ended up being stronger than Mrs Morton said. Another skipper was found when Morton was late for the start of heat two, and his boat came in sixth. By the time he pulled on his wetsult for heat three the race was cancelled because of foul weather. Morton and bis mates then spent the afternoon sinking a "couple of Bundles" to wet the baby's head, and watched the' two-metre wave crash against Mordlalllc pier.

"I'm very, very happy. Cheryl made such a big point of not upsetting the sailing. She supports me all the way," Morton said yesterday. Mrs Morton resigned from her administration job last year and bought a B14 Skiff for her husband with her long-service leave payout. "He loves It so much.

I have sailed a bit, but I'm more the type who Just knows to pull the red rope or the green rope, she said. The B14 Skiff Australian Championships continued yesterday at Mordlalllc as part of the Nissan International Regatta. Morton's boat, Number of the Beast (he works for a bar-code manufacturer), was Just pipped for second on the last leg. Many out for the mayday calls By ENRICA LONQO The crew member who shouted "Pan Pan, Pan Pan, Pan Pan" into the airwaves as skipper -of MEM, Mr John Quinn, was washed overboard, no doubt gave little thought to who might receive the mesage. Nor would the skipper of either the Clwyd or the Adjuster (which later sank) have thought who was behind the voice they beard say "we receive you" after their "mayday, mayday, mayday" calls on Monday night.

But the voices were Integral in all their rescues. The people behind the voices may have been from several radio monitoring spots. The main ones Involved in the Sydney-to-Hobart race are the Cape Schanck-based coastal station, Melbourne Radio, the race base, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the Canberra-based Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre and the radio relay vessel, the Navy sail training ship the Young Endeavour. Melbourne Radio alone monitors and receives radio calls from all vessels, including tankers, cruising and racing yachts in the treacherous Bass Strait waters. Mr James de Vroome, from the radio base, said the air traffic in the past three days had been the busiest all year and most likely the busiest since 1984.

The weather has been the prime cause of all the damage to yachts and the sinking of two vessels, he said. Melbourne radio had made 157 transmissions which cut across all ship radio messages to warn of bad weather gale force winds in three days. The race director, Mr Greg Halls, said from Sydney last night that the drama started on Monday about 10.30 pm with the first may-day call from Maglerie Wines, which later cancelled its call. "About 10.45 pm Adjuster made its call. The relay vessel directed' four yachts nearby to help.

Later -the crew from Adjuster got into' their liferaft and were recovered. "While the relay vessel was sending yachts to help Adjuster a second mayday was issued by Swuzzlebubble VIII. Then the Pan Pan (used if the vessel is not in danger) came through when Mr Quinn was washed overboard. At Crusing Club we were plotting and listening," he said. The work of the radio monitoring staff does not stop with the end.

of the race. They work all year round giving weather warnings, and receiving mayday calls week- ly from all vessels In Bass Strait. They plead with sailors to radio in their destinations, estimated times of arrivals and regular logs of their positions so they can be assisted in an emergency. "From an aircraft they all look like dots down there," Mr de Vroome said: PAGE 19: Results. which would be shifted across i the new unit.

He said negotiations were under way between TOCCA and the Western Metropolitan College of TAFE about the transfer of the program. The college had also been asked to provide a plan which would address problems with delivering the service to some students. Mr Elkner said 1000 distance education students at the Western Metropolitan College of TAFE, many of whom are midway through their courses, were last month told that off-campus programs were no longer available. The former off-campus coordinator at Western Metropolitan College of TAFE, Mr Paul Dahan, confirmed there was considerable uncertainty surrounding distance education courses at the college. "We have told the students their needs will be taken care of but we are not sure how.

(TAFE) colleges are waiting for direction from the new authority but they have not had time to communicate their ideas to other colleges. "In the interim period, some people will suffer. Every educational innovation results in there being a number of guinea pigs on whom these are tested There are 13,000 distance education students enrolled in 295 subjects at Victorian TAFE colleges. While industry and business are major users of the service, others include working parents, small business people, prisoners, rural people and students who missed out on a tertiary place. Under the new system, materials previously developed by TOCCA will now have to be developed by the individual colleges or their departments if they choose to provide distance education.

Mr Elkner said he recognised the need to adopt innovative technology and to reduce costs, but that the changes would disenfranchise many people who most benefited from the service. "From 1994, TAFE colleges may or may not choose to enrol distance education students as part of their overall programs," he said. A taskforce on regional development, chaired by the ACTU secretary, Mr Bill Kelty, last week highlighted the need for increased distance education when it recommended the Federal Government ensure that every region In Australia had at least one open learning access centre. By JOANNE PAINTER, education reporter Uncertainty surrounds the future of TAFE distance education in Victoria after the State Govern- merit's decision to scrap a key coordinating body and replace It -with a TAFE contractor. A senior coordinator with the TAFE Off-Campus Coordinating Authority (TOCCA), Mr Brian Elkner, said more than 13,000 TAFE distance education students faced disruption to their studies and the possible cancellation of courses.

The service Is used by country people, businesses, the unemployed and disabled people to study topics ranging from wool classing to book-keeping. Mr Elkner said there was "some doubt whether Victoria's TAFE system will continue to provide any quality distance education programs at This followed the Stale Government's decision to abolish the Victorian TAFE Off-Campus Network and TOCCA and replace them with a unit specifl- cally dealing with flexible learning programs. The new body, TAFE Flexible Delivery Services, is designed to meet the training needs of business and industry. The successful tenderer, the Western Metropolitan College of TAFE in Footscray, plans to operate the new system with 14 staff, compared with more than 60 at TOCCA, by relying on satellite, CD-ROM and other interactive communication technology. Distance education courses currently rely on printed material, written exams and telephone contact with tutors.

Mr Elkner said the provision of distance education was included in the original tender but had now been dropped. Staff at TOCCA say the changes benefit business at the expense of students. They are also concerned that some TAFE colleges are unwilling or unprepared to Include distance education in their range of flexible delivery services, leading some colleges to scrap distance education altogether. The Minister for Tertiary Education and Training, Mr Storey, dismissed the claims as mischievous nonsense. A spokesman for the.

minister said the Government had no intention of scrapping the current correspondence base. The proud father, Craig Morton, with his other great love. it JjB 1 nt. ii Cheryl Morton, in the wake of her own triumph: giving birth to Stewart Leslie, a caesarean delivery five weeks premature and between heats, as it were. And baby makes three.

Stewart Leslie, oblivious to his arrival on race day, is destined to become a yachtie. White Christmas becomes a melting memory and 94 per cent for reservoirs on Risky strategies for a desperate leader Comment bushfires to the south of the state but people shouldn't be lulled into a false sense of security." Mr Nicholson said fire restrictions had been imposed in parts of Victoria and people living in high-risk areas should take precautions to protect their property. A senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology, Mr David Kupsche, said yesterday the raid had not fallen evenly across Victoria. "The heavy rain came in the southern, central and eastern parts of the state, with the heaviest of this in a narrow band around Melbourne," he said. "But In the north-west the Mallee and the By MARGARET COOK The Victorian mountain resorts' freakish carpet of Christmas snow began to melt yesterday as alpine temperatures rose to between seven and eight degrees.

A spokesman for the Bureau of Meteorology said last night there had been no reports of snowfalls since Monday. He said the bureau did not monitor Snowfalls in the mountains outside the ski season, but temperatures in the Alps had risen to the point where even substantial snowfalls, such as Boxing Day's 20 centimetres of cover at Mount Hotflam, would melt. Light rain over-the mountains was also likely to wash away some of the snow. Wlmmera the rainfall was fairly light." Mr Kupsche said rain in November had been above average for most of Victoria. This followed floods in October.

The average December rainfall for Melbourne was 58 millimetres but 192.4 millimetres had fallen by 9 am yesterday, he said. A spokesman for the Rural Water Corporation said its reservoirs and dams held about 96 per cent of their capacity last Thursday, which was average for December. This included Dartmouth, full; Eildon, 96 per cent of capacity; Eppalock, 97 per cent; The Country Fire Authority warned yesterday that Victorians should not assume that heavy rain over the past few days had reduced the bushfire risk. Deputy Chief Officer John Nicholson said the rain had brought only temporary relief and that January and February were traditionally the most dangerous months for fires. "The grass has been drying out across the state for several weeks and, at this time of the year, the rain won't stop that process," he said.

"Once the sun shines, the moisture that's been absorbed by the grass will only dry out again. "This rain has brought a temporary respite from the risk of the Loddon River. The spokesman said the catchments probably held the same amount this week, despite the heavy rain, because little had fallen north of the Great Dividing Range. The Environment Protection Authority yesterday warned swimmers on Port Phillip Bay beaches to beware of waters polluted by this week's heavy rain. A spokeswoman said swimmers should stay more than 100 metres clear of stormwater drain outlets, as large amounts of rubbish and animal droppings had been washed into drains and into the bay, increasing bacteria levels.

GEOFFREY BARKER He announced on Tuesday that he had persuaded the NSW Liberal organisation to reverse an earlier decison not to contest the Werriwa byelection on 29 January. As a result, the Liberals will run a candidate and Dr Hewson will play a personal role in the campaign, trying to slash Labor's 1S.8 per cent margin in the safe outer-suburban Sydney seat that has been vacated by Mr John Kerln, the former Minister for Primary Industries and a former Treasurer. To drive the campaign, Dr Hewson has deferred a planned country get together of Liberal MPs. Australian vets perfect world's first camel embryo transfer We don't sell cigarettes to any person under 18 years of age But it is a test, another test, to which Dr Hewson has to submit himself In his efforts to main-, tain Liberal Party support for" his leadership. In my judgment it will probably be a futile effort, whatever the result: Dr.

Hewson has, in fact, been a bust- -ed flush since he led the als to defeat in the unlosable election last March. Whatever the reason for that" defeat (and let us accept Dr David Kemp's analysis that it resulted from the decision to promote a complex and controversial tax reform that left the party open to a deceitful Government campaign), the fact is that Dr Hewson has not managed, despite his best efforts, to rally the party behind his leadership and to restore its morale. Dr Hewson had one Idea: the extremely detailed and radical Fightback proposal of economic, measures. Since it went down in flames (especially the proposed goods and services tax) Dr Hewson has not known where to find policy alternatives. Judging from some of his public remarks, he seems to believe that it's just a matter of getting the GST out of Fight-back, giving it another name, and presenting the whole thing -again in slightly less damaging detail next time.

Neither Labor nor the media are likely to let him get away with that. Dr Hewson also badly In the debate over the Government's Mabo legislation. His approach gravely damaged the Liberals' farming and miming constituencies, and betrayed a mean-spirited narrowness of vision at a moment that called for generosity. In fact, an air of almost comic sadness now pervades Dr Hew-, son's leadership. His deferred country retreat for Liberal MPs had nothing to do with policy development for a great political party.

Rather his invitation: read more like the outline of a motivational weekend for used-' car salesmen. The star turn was to be a psychologist specialising In "performance enhancement" with sporting and business clients. In a series of sessions the MPs were to be subjected to an "overview" of "the mind-set of' world competitive Individuals' and team activity, per-' sonal performance and "the psychology of the If Dr Hewson wants to stare' Poor John Hewson. Even through the Christmas-New Year dog days the Federal Opposition Leader gains no respite from the torments of the hostile political world in which he is struggling to hold his place. His every action is scrutinised for evidence that his grip on the Liberal leadership is slipping further; his motives are questioned and he under perpetual test.

Ambitious princelings (and a princess) press closer, closer to his beleaguered throne. And things are not likely to Improve for Dr Hewson when Parliament resumes next month. The reality is that his days as leader will be numbered from the moment a viable successor emerges from the ranks. Already the preliminary contests are under way. The Victorian MP Mr Peter Costello advanced his leadership claim with his sustained and slashing parliamentary attack on the Sports Minister, Mrs Kelly, over the "sports rorts" affair earlier this month.

The South Australian Alexander Downer has done extremely well as shadow treasurer. Mr Costello is amassing significant support on the right of the Liberal Party where his strongest admirers tend to congregate. Mr Downer has made his pitch for the conservative Liberal mainstream by offering a highly structured declaration of what he called his "progressive conservative" values. And Messrs Costello and Downer are only two of the threats emerging against Dr Hewson. Dr Hewson's former deputy, Mr Peter Relth, is rarely out of sight for long and his bludgeon is always to hand.

The former frontbencher Mr Warwick Smith, who was seen as a potential leader, is considering a possible return to politics as a senator for Tasmania. Then there Is Bronwyn Bishop. When she transfers from the Senate to the House of Representatives early next year, every waking moment of her life will be devoted to replacing Dr Hewson so that she can take on the Prime Minister, Mr Keating, in the main game. She has little party-room support, but desperate MPs may be tempted towards a desperate remedy. It Is too soon to Judge how Liberal parliamentarians will resolve the tensions now wracking the party, but there was evidence this week that they were taking their toll on Dr Hewson.

ri-L Some of the camels rounded up by Dr McKinnon near Marble Bar in Western Australia before going to the Middle East. Dr Hewson: air of comic sadness. By TANIA EWINQ, science and technology reporter Take three wise men, a desert landscape and a camel named Sumhar and you have a science Christmas story. Two Australian veterinarians and the heir to the United Arab Emirates have carried out the world's first embryo transfers in camels. Dr Angus McKinnon, a vet specialising In horses at the Goul-burn Valley Equine Hospital in Shepparton, and his Dr Alex Tlnson, now living in Abu Dhabi, have been consultants to the United Arab Emirates since 1989.

In 1988 Dr McKinnon was approached by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, the son of the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, to develop embryo transfers In Abu Dhabi. While Dr McKinnon is a specialist In equine fertility, he was unsure about working with camels. "Before going to Abu Dhabi we needed to develop the techniques on a large number of camels," he said. Dr Tlnson suggested Marble Bar in Western Australia one of the hottest places in the country. Using helicopters the veterinarians rounded up 300 wild camels In the desert.

The female camels were given a drug to make them produce many eggs Instead of the usual single egg produced with each ovulation. The vets then anaesthetised the male camels and used electroejaculation to stimulate the production of sperm. "These camels were wild and would not breed or produce sperm In our presence," Dr McKinnon said. After a month in the desert Dr McKinnon and his team had Inseminated and recovered the first fertilised eggs from a (XfljllS) Supported by your local Fjiviraamcnlal Health Officer progeny without having to go through numerous pregnancies. Since Dr McKlnnon's success, the Sheikh has built a $10 million facility devoted to camel embryo transfer technology which has produced more than ISO baby camels.

Two other such clinics have also been built in Abu Dhabi and Dhubal. Dr McKinnon Joins Dr Tlnson in the Middle East up to four times a year to discuss new embryo transfer techniques and to refine existing techniques. According to Dr McKinnon he and his colleagues are actively Involved In developing and refining techniques such as embryo freezing, semen freezing, artificial Insemination and ln-vitro fertilisation. "These techniques not only have Implications to racing camels, but will also have a hlge impact on Third World countries that rely on camels for milk and meat production by Improving the efficiency of camel breeding," he said. "Having demonstrated that we had the techniques we went to the Middle East for four weeks," he said.

The object of Dr McKlnnon's attention was Sumhar, the fastest camel bred In the Middle East. The veterinarians super-ovulat-ed Sumhar and fertilised her eggs with sperm from the Sheikhs best male camel. Thirteen fertilised eggs were transferred to an equal number of female camels. Six became pregnant and carried the foals to term, although one was bom dead. "This was a huge result we had successfully produced the first non-experimental embryo transferred baby camels," he said.

At birth Sumhar's five baby camels were worth almost I million each. According to Dr McKinnon the advantage of embryo transfer with prime stock, like Sumhar, Is that she can produce multiple Through his Werriwa initiative, the embattled Dr Hewson hopes to demonstrate to his Increasingly sceptical parliamentary colleagues that he can be instrumental in at least reducing Labor's majority in a blue-ribbon NSW seat. It Is the move of a man desperate to show that he is not finished. It Is also a risky strategy for Dr Hewson. The Liberals cannot hope to win Werriwa.

In any byelection, the Government candidate Is expected to suffer a five per cent swing; given Mr Kerin's personal following, the candidate might expect to lose another two or three per cent So unless Dr Hewson can achieve a swing of say 10 to 12 per cent against the Government, he will not be able to claim that his intervention was a significant factor. From January 1994, shopkeepers will display this sign, highlighting the new law on the sale of cigarettes. You may be asked for photo identification as proof of age eg 'Proof of Age' Card or Driver Licence. Contact the Environmental Health Officer at your local Council for more information. down the enemy, he needs only id nana in ironi oi a mirror..