The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 11

at THt API THURSDAY 17 DECEMBER 1992 Letters to the Editor Edited by JOHN KIELY 3 Plutonium ship Access Age is using 670 1601 Access letters must be no more than 50 words. Lines are open between 8 am and noon, 1 pm and 4 pm weekdays. the highest safeguards Letters should be no more than 300 words. Shorter letters will be preferred: All letters must be signed and the writer's name and address clearly written. (A box number is not sufficient.) Telephone numbers should be provided so that letters can be verified A letter may be edited for reasons of space or clarity unless the writer specifies that it must be published in full.

The score is: sport goes first shall be financially decimated; The Interest alone will be $30 bllllonl Be warned: the result of this, travesty of financial ment will be divisive and for our children. Richard Camberwelli The Akatsuki Maru: plutonium in 100 small containers. from R. Knight, chief executive. Energy Resources of Australia Ltd The letter to the editor on Plutonium (812) was written by people passionately opposed to nuclear power and the nuclear fuel cycle.

Your readers deserve better. To be hazardous to a person's health, plutonlum must either be inhaled or ingested the radiation from its decay is not strong enough even to penetrate a person's skin. Therefore, in considering the health risks associated with the present shipment, the Australian public must take into account the chances of actually inhaling or ingesting the plutonlum. Such a study was commissioned during the extensive preparation for the putonium voyage, concluding that even under the catastrophic scenario that the Akat- suki Maru sank 40 kilometres off the Japanese coast, in 500 metres of water and instantly released one tonne of plutonlum, there would be no hazardous dose of radiation to the Japanese population. But let us consider what would be required for this scenario to occur.

First, 100 of the 10-kilogram containers holding the pluto- nium would have to Instantly rupture (the canisters can withstand pressures at depths of 10,000 metres and temperatures of 1000 degrees Celsius for 90 minutes). Then, according to the scenario, each Japanese citizen would have to eat 260 grams of contaminated fish a day, for a year. The result would be an individual dose of less than 0.0S4 mllllsleverts a year, one fortieth of the average radiation dose Australians naturally receive each year. In the event of a fire on the Akatsuki Maru, the graduated fire-fighting strategy would under the most severe of fire conditions completely flood the hold containing the plutonium and still not effect the ship's stability and Finally, the plutonium being shipped to Japan is not in a form suitable for use In nuclear weapons. In fact, the plutonlum Is being recycled from spent nuclear fuel from Japan's nuclear power program.

The plutonlum will be reused and burnt in existing nuclear reactors and those under development, not In nuclear weapons. Clearly, the shipment of plutonium is a complex and highly technical issue. Those responsible are well qualified and competent to do the task. Plutonlum transportation is subject to the highest level of safeguards and as such is far from being the hazard represented by some of your previous correspondents. Richard Knight, Sydney.

Money determines health waiting lists from R. Kelly, health policy analyst A single radical move would address the real problem at the heart of present waiting lists for public hospital treatment, which is doctors' admitting and charging practices. The National Health Strategy proposes that there be an acceptance by the medical profession of an agreed fee for all patients in public hospitals, including private patients. At present there Is a financial incentive for doctors to treat private patients in public hospitals in preference to public (Medicare) patients; in simple terms, they earn more by treating private patients. Doctors are determining admissions to public hospitals for elective surgery not on the basis of clinical need but on the basis of patients' health Insurance status.

This is an indictment of the medical profession and is a situation which proponents of private insurance as a "cure" for the problems of the hospital system choose to Ignore. The federal coalition's proposals under Fightback fail to come to grips with the real Issues in health and, by their encouragement to individuals and families to opt out of Medicare into private health Insurance, would only exacerbate the present problems, cost the public more, boost the incomes of the medical profession and, probably, undermine the viability of Medicare. The three National Health Strategy proposals to restructure financing and access to public hospitals rely on eliminating the capacity for doctors to discriminate between public and private patients in public hospitals, at the same time retaining Medicare. Unless the question of doctors' charging and admission practices is addressed there will never be any real reform of financing of our hospital system or any guarantees of equity of access to treatment based on clinical need. Rosemary Kelly, Wodonga.

Primary schools sport is intact from J. M. McConville David Ginsbourg (1412), said education cuts would demolish Interschool sport. The views he expressed relate to secondary school sport only. Since there will benefit, which cannot be provided as widely and cheaply by private enterprise.

A historian would point out that the payment of wages by bonds in the past baa a dream for speculators and a disas-ter for wage earners. Professor Parrtsh's suggestions are typical of persons In economic faculties. Such advice to governments is partly responsible for the economic difficulties facing Victoria. Unlike academics, public servants do not have the advantage of being able to supplement their wages by private consultancy. How someone, who is employed in a leave-loaded, super- annuated, tenured public office on a base salary treble that of most public servants, has the gall to crit-Icise those less privileged public employees, leaves me flabbergasted.

Is Professor Parrish prepared to make the same sacrifices himself which he suggests for others in the public interest? Robert Evans, Parkville. I Australia facing a class struggle from R. Pearse John Kenneth Galbraith's "economics of contentment" is a just euphemism for Commissioner Brian Burdekin's "barbaric It loudly rings a divisive, angry chord among those who are less endowed. Former President Jimmy 'Carter reminds us that the greater discrimination among human beings is not religion, nor is It color, nor even culture; it is wealth, and the enthusiastic protection of it by those few who have It. In his endeavors to educate Australians with social justice and the distribution of wealth in an equit able manner, Gough Whltlam lit the imagination of a politically complacent people, striking a tune of welfare need for continuing delivery by subsequent, but inept governments.

As the last two decades of his enlightenment diminish into a hazy, uncaring past, perhaps we should ponder the realities of governments being able to deliver anything. Having lost forever the vision for a better future for our children and their children, I predict we shall see a class struggle this country could never have foreseen 20 years ago. With a Government-publicised debt forecast of $360 billion by the year 2000, supported by the Opposition's own forecast of $340-plus billion should it gain power, we What strange values our Victorian society has: we can raise $7 million tor a scoreboard, but cannot find $1.5 million to keep Northland Secondary College open. Sonja Delander, Hawthorn. Reprieve a facade The reprieve to Northland is a tacade.

The more Northland succeeds, the more bureaucratic, technicalities will ensure Its failure. Robin Gregory, Northcote. Impossible amounts How dare the Kennett Government force the disadvantaged school community at Northland to find impossible amounts of money to maintain school buildings. It is a government school, not a charity foundation. What a precedent! Kathy Tyson, West Brunswick.

Church all-embracing Perhaps the Ballarat clergy Should be reminded that "Church catholic" means "Church Joan Harper, Heathmont. Quick-fire solutions The Federal Government needs years to bring a few changes to our waterfront, yet expects to resolve all of Somalia's problems In just 17 weeks. Geoff Chatfleld, Mt Eliza. Colonial cringe The colonial cringe Is still in evi-' dence with our jump into Somalia at the request of the US. It hints of gunboat diplomacy.

Bill Backhouse, Ringwood. Policies all too clear Dr Hewson insults our intelligence by suggesting that a better understanding of Mr Kennett's policies will improve the federal coalition's standing in Victoria. His problem Is that we now understand them only too well. Keith Price, Clifton Hill. Tea-trolley riddle This year, 1992, is the Silver Anniversary of the great tea-trolley disaster of '67.

Will we ever know exactly what happened? Anton Raymond, Pascoe Vale South. Mindless booing Australia's great victory at the MCG last Tuesday was overshadowed by mindless booing of West Indies' fielders and incoming batsmen by what seemed a majority of the crowd. Australia's reputation will suffer unless cricket leaders and commentators work actively to revive values of sportsmanship. Philip Eldridge, Taroona (Tas). The heartless one Prime Minister Keating says that the Liberal coalition are a heartless bunch.

Isn't it, though, more heartless that fewer than half of all first-degree graduates found full-time jobs this year because of his policies over the past 10 years? Ezeklel Lucena, Malvern. An unfair burden Self-funded retirees endure high taxation, social security deprivation and lack of indexation exactly the opposite of well-protected aged pensioners who enjoy social security indexation and a doubled taxation threshold. Margaret Carter, Macedon. A horrible accent If Mark Taylor is being groomed as next Australian cricket captain, let us hope the cricket authorities will see that he has some coaching in public speaking, particularly to overcome that horrible ocker Sydney accent. John Tracey, Richmond.

Oil tanker spill will: wipe out penguins fromJ.Martyn As a postscript to Meredith letter (912) the Aegean Seals Oil; spill Is destroying fishing and tourP 1st Industries, and precious marine; ecosystems, despite the fact that it' had a double hull. It Is not "when" a similar disaster strike an Australian When 43 oil-smeared penguins were found dying near; Cowes in 1971, It was the Liberal candidate for Gippsland West, Mr: Robert MacLellan, who rightly led the attack on the Federal ment, suggesting that it should ban; all oil tankers from Western unless escorted by naval Minister MacLellan, how. refuses requests from Hastings; Council, from the Phillip Island! Conservation Society, from, Western Port Protection Council: and from many concerned dents on the Mornington Peninsula and on Phillip Island, fof an; environmental impact before dangerously old tanker are allowed to bring tonnes of oil Into the heart of West-; ern Port. In the next few this will almost certainly destroy; not just 43 penguins, but the whole; penguin colony, plus the unique! mangroves and mud-flats that pro vide one of the world's most led and sensitive ecosystems. Wth; the bay's strong tides and enclosed waters, there is no way for Oil; leaks.

to be contained. John Martyn article spoke of the decision as coming as a "blow" to me. The statement is simply not true and it appears that the reporter failed to understand the meaning and effect of the decision. The High Court upheld the validity of the scheme of custody under division 4B. Only one provision of the 11 sections in division 4B was held invalid (section 54(R)).

This was because it would prevent the courts from releasing a person held in custody unlawfully. But section 54 (R) was never intended to have that effect. I wish to emphasise that at no time has the Government attempted to stop boat people having access to the courts to determine the legality of their detention. Rather, the Government's intention was to prevent the courts from ordering the release of a person held in lawful custody. The High Court ruling upheld this result, as all judges appeared to be of the view that the court be no reduction in staffing to the Victorian Primary Schools' Sports Association in 1993, the association will continue to deliver its statewide programs and services, unchanged, at all levels.

John McConville, Spotswood. High Court ruling was not a 'blow' from G. Hand, Minister for Immigration On 8 December, the High Court handed down its decision on the constitutional validity of provisions dealing with the custody of boat people, in division 4B of the Migration Act. That decision was reported in 'The Age' next day under the heading, High Court Foils Hand Move on Boat People, in a way which can only be described as disappointing and misleading. The would be prevented from doing this by other sections, regardless of section 54(R).

Indeed, some members of the court expressed the view that the problem with section S4(R) stemmed from a drafting error. Therefore, the High Court's decision upheld the intention of the Government on the border-control measures contained in division 4B. Gerry Hand, Canberra. PS pay in bonds is speculator's dream from R. Evans, senior lecturer in law, University of Melbourne It would be interesting to know what real contribution Professor Ross Parrish (1212) has made to the economic wellbelng of Victoria.

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and others, believe that the continuing crises' within the monarchy; must, at the very leastj force us to focus, on, whether the oath of atle-t glance remains! relevant; to modern Australian society. Surely allegiance; sworn by new Australian citizens, the arreted; forces and members-of Parliament should bp to; Australia, her people and her laws, rather tbari'tb distant and declining-institution. Chris Schachb Medindie Gardens (SA). BOND UNIVERSITY Gold Coast, Australia QELEBgATIOJ Carols under The Cone mm HI PARAGRAPH ADVERTISEMENTS- ii iniiyj LLUVI AAAA SOFTHANDS AAAAAA.MALAYSIAN Massage lor your cpnyenljKe. lower temolestowel AAAA RELAXATION- GIVE SOMEONE QUALITY TIME THIS CHRISTMAS.

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