The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 3

TH SYDNEY MORNING HERALD FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1997 Packer on I don't think it's the act of a prima donna, says Jana following TV settlement top of the rich doctor Wfendt ends case after death threat list again By ADAM HARVEY Money can't buy you love but who cares? It will win you a place on the Business Review Weekly Rich 200 list, hich is may be puiFged. dominated this year by hungry property developers, ambitious media tycoons and entertainment high-fliers. Channel 9 and PBL head Kerry Packer is still Australia's richest man, and unless James Packer follows By MARION DOWNEY the lead of Warw ick Fairfax Health Writer Sweeping investigations of medical practices to weed out incompetent doctors are being considered by the NSW Medical and blow much of the family fortune, the Packers ill head the Business Review Weekly Board. The controversial move Rich 200 list for a long time. Mr Packer's fortune increased by about $600 million in the past 12 months and his wealth is estimated by I MLa k': s-'' 'X I''.

would give the board the powers to investigate a doctor's entire BRW journalists at $3.9 practice and records for evidence of general incompetence and would dramatically extend the present system, where investigations are limited to a single By JENNIE CURTIN and KATE McCLYMONT Jana Wendt, who accepted $1.2 million yesterday to settle her very public contract dispute with Channel 7, decided to end the legal action because of a death threat against her. Ms Wendt told the Herald that although she had been threatened in the past, the call made on Wednesday morning to the Industrial Relations Commission convinced her to get out. "I've had, over the years, a number of them threats but none in similar circumstances, none in circumstances where the daily focus on me was so great," she said. Ms Wendt vigorously denied rumours that evidence was to be given that she had made remarks about Aborigines or disparaging comments about the working class. "The statements were never made," she said, suggesting that anyone who knew her would say it was completely out of character and quite Ms Wendt went to the commission to get out of her contract She claimed she had been misled by Channel 7 executives who lured her from Channel 9 with promises of a high-quality program which would cover the hard stories.

She was seeking $6 million compensation, plus an additional sum for damage to her reputation. Instead, she has walked away with an amount which will be further reduced by a legal bill estimated at several hundred thousand dollars. It was a chance she felt she had to take. "I could have stayed and taken Channel 7's very generous salary but I chose not to and, ultimately, I was aware of the risk that I could lose that," she said. Channel 7's lawyer, Mr Stephen Rothman, SC, said outside the court that the network was "very satisfied and comfortable with the settlement.

We would not have made the offer unless that was the case and, as I understand it, Channel 7 looks forward to putting the matter behind it and continuing to run a successful Witness He suggested that Ms Wendt settled because she did not want to be cross-examined. Ms Wendt later rejected the remark as having "absolutely no truth She pointed out that she still would give evidence at the court case of her former colleague Mr Graham Davis, who was sacked from his job as a reporter. She described Witness as a show of "great stories but not great "I found that the program very rapidly disintegrated into a program that had no sense of its own identity. It would lurch from week to week from a quality program to a light and breezy one, sometimes even tabloid." It took an "enormous leap of faith" to leave Channel 9 after 13 years. "The only reason that I did is that I was given very specific representations about what the program would be like." She said those representations were never honoured.

Ms Wendt denied that adverse publicity prompted Wednesday's day-long settlement talks, although she admitted that some of the stories hurt, including a front-page headline describing her as the "$6 million prima "I don't think it's the act of a prima donna to actually try and ensure that undertakings that were made by an employer were adhered to, and I don't think it's the act of a prima donna to go out on a limb to rectify an employment problem," she said. There were no plans for future work, except to take a lot of "thinking time" to get over what had been a "very unhappy and very bitter Mr Dix emphasised that the aim would be to encourage doctors to improve their education, rather than punish them. "But like any process, somebody will come into the system where the level of competency is such that more serious action is needed." A classic example of the type of doctor who might be caught under the new system would be a doctor who had missed a diagnosis but a wider investigation revealed much broader failings, such as lack of records and failure to carry out basic medical practices such as taking blood pressure. Ms Merrilyn Walton, the NSW Health Care Complaints Commissioner, urged the medical defence organisations to come clean about the true rate of incompetent doctors practising in Australia. She said that recent research in the United States from the Public Citizens' Health Research Groups estimated that 5 to 10 per cent of doctors there were "dangerous or "The big issue for health for the rest of this decade is looking at the mechanisms that deal with health professionals maintaining competence," Ms Walton said.

She said people had the right to know the extent of the problem among doctors in this country. "Medical defence organisations have this information about doctors but will not supply it on the basis that it is commercially sensitive and should remain confidential." Dr Craig Lilienthal, medical secretary of the AMA, denied that competence was a big issue. "The standards of medical care are extremely high in Australia," Dr Lilienthal said. "There are some bad apples but we do not support any over-the-top investigations. It is too invasive." billion.

His nearest rival is Westfield owner Mr Frank Lowy, ho is worth an estimated $1.4 billion. The list contains plenty of the usual suspects from the media world, such as John Laws, Reg Grundy, and James, John Tim and Lady Mary Fairfax. The combined Fairfax wealth is $990 million. Some of the better-know WEALTH OUR TOP 10 Estimated fortunes million) KERRY PACKER 3,900 FRANK LOWY 1,400 RICHARD PRATT 1,300 HARRY TRIGUB0FF 1,200 SM0RG0N family 1,000 DAVID HAINS 950 MYER family 750 JOHN B. and TIMOTHY FAIRFAX 670 JOHN GANDEL 600 KERRY STOKES 600 names on the list include Lindsay Fox ($330 million), Kerry Stokes ($600 million), Janet Holmes a Court ($200 million), John Singleton ($70 million) and Mike Willesee ($55 million).

It's not all old money. Nearly a third of those on the list are post-w ar migrants, said BRW's Rich 200 editor, Ms Narelle Hooper. Most successful in that category is Meriton's head, complaint against a doctor. The plan was revealed by Professor John Horvath at the first National Health Care Complaints Conference, held in Sydney yesterday. Professor Horvath told the meeting that the plan would require changes to NSW legislation.

Although the board can in theory request an audit of a doctor's practice, the present rules made it difficult to do this, he said. "Quite often during the course of the investigation it becomes obvious that the practitioner's general clinical knowledge would be considered marginal and there are significant concerns regarding other aspects of their practice." Professor Horvath emphasised that the plan was still in very early stages and would be discussed by the board at a workshop in July. But he added that the board "feels very strongly that this matter must be Mr Andrew Dix, registrar of the NSW Medical Board, said: "We have become aware that we have got better and better with dealing with misconduct and impairment but not with issues of competence." The board was looking at models in Canada which as well as targeting a particular doctor, also target at-risk groups such as the over 70s. Jana Wendt at home yesterday no plans for work, but a lot of "thinking Photo by rick stevens Mr Harry Triguboff, who falls 1-. Segaworld forced to cut prices fourth with an estimated fortune of $1.2 billion.

He had built about 38,000 apartments in the past two decades, Ms Hooper said. One of the biggest jumps last year was by Multiplex ow ner Mr John Roberts, hose worth has doubled from $140 million to $310 million. Multiplex i 2 Constructions has the contract WHY NOT STAY HOME TONIGHT AND WATCH A LITTLE CD to build the Olympic Stadium at Homebush. One of the most startling new entries is Ms Pnina Feldman, ow ner of the recently floated gemstone exploration company Diamond Rose. One of 14 the complex can be fully leased.

According to the Darling Harbour Authority, 70 per cent of the retail component has been committed, with tenants planning to open over the next few months. However, the project still requires another anchor tenant to fill a large vacancy on the south end of the ground floor. The poor level of leasing of the retail component has raised question marks over the location. Mr Bermeister said Darling Harbour, "as a location is very quiet during the and that the Darling Harbour Authority and the other tenants were progressively working to attract more people. "The whole of Darling Harbour has a problem linking to the city that certainly has been something for a long time.

There tends to be some competition between the Darling Harbour Authority and the city, and that does not help to integrate the two facilities." By ANTHONY HUGHES Sydney's latest entertainment park, the Segaworld at Darling Harbour, has cut its ticket prices less than two months after opening, trying to overcome a poor public response. To boost low attendances, the original $30 limited-ride adult entry price has been cut to $20 after 5 pm on weekdays, with unlimited rides. According to one source, Sega has flown in a top executive from Japan, executive vice-president Mr Noaki Hayashida, for three months to try to fix the problems. "They're cutting back staff. They're just not getting the numbers," the source said.

"They had promised to spend $750,000 on a marketingmedia promotion within their first three months, but that's just not happening." Mr Kevin Bermeister, Sega-world's general manager, said the venue hoped to draw 800,000 people a year. He said that in the complex's first full month of opening, Patron-free zone a deserted Segaworld. Photo by quentin jones women on the list, she is worth about $80 million. Before the float she was only moderately wealthy, said Ms Hooper. Mr Thomas Tiong and Mr Kar Wai Chan, property developers, are the highest new entries in the list.

They are an example of how April, it had attracted just under 70,000 people. Most of the supporting retail units on the ground level of the two-level complex remain vacant, despite a long-running leasing campaign. Two restaurants One World Sport and the Rainforest Cafe have opened, but a deal to incorporate film director Steven Spielberg's Dive! themed restau rant into the park has fallen through. The only other tenants to have stores open on the ground floor complex are a tobacconist and a confectioner. The tobacconist has shut its doors over the winter until other tenants open.

The $95 million Sega-worldDarling Walk project plans a grand opening in July, but this will depend on whether ambitious, wealthy developers took advantage of the real estate slump in the early '90s, Ms Hooper said. ftcpet'y wo would live Introducing BcoSound 9000. In one stroke of genius, it renders all other multi-CD players obsolete. It has the capacity to display 6 CDs and play them in any sequence you want. Moving the laser, not the CD, the mechanism flies across the surface at phenomenal speed, selecting your choice of individual discs, tracks or random selections for up to 12 hours at a time.

It's a performance of futuristic precision which uses new digital technology so revolutionary, it's been patented. With an ingeniously concealed AMFM radio, it is also a complete system in its own right. A system which can be placed in 7 different positions, from flat on a shelf to up-right on its optional stand. See it for yourself in our showroom now. if "They di'dr waste fo Jaws for 2000? Not in our harbour, sport aid iex- The partners of A Was Hs ury- I'm off SOLICITORS AND A TTORNEYS and BLAKE DAWSON WALDRON SOLICITORS By GLENDA KORPORAAL in Monte Carlo The threat of a shark attack in Sydney Harbour during the swimming leg of triathlon events at the 2000 Olympics has forced Australian Olympic officials to defend the waterway's safety.

Australian International Olympic Committee (IOC) member and secretary-general of the International Triathlon Union, Mr Phil Coles, explained to the international media on Wednesday that the traffic in the harbour had increased so much that "any self-respecting shark" would be a long way from the area where the triathlon event would be staged. The women's triathlon will be the opening sports event of the Games with the swim starting from the steps of the Opera House. It will be the first time that triathlon has been held at the Olympics. Answering a question from a Japanese journalist, Mr Coles said Sydney had hosted a World Cup triathlon event or an event of similar size in the harbour for the past 10 years. "It has been quite safe and it is safe," he said.

"One of the reasons for that is that the traffic in Sydney Harbour has been increased so much with the hydrofoils, the jet boats and so forth." Australian Olympic organisers have attempted to make light of the shark issue, but the subject is one which many foreign Olympic observers have queried, even before recent reports of a shark attack in the area. Mr Coles said the recent attack on a rower had occurred in Iron Cove, in Parramatta River, not in the harbour itself. He said Sydney Olympics organisers would provide a safety unit of rubber rescue boats "as we always do" when the events are held in the harbour. The president of the Australian Olympic Committee, Mr John Coates, will move to increase the number of women on the AOC board after the IOC raised questions about the low representation of women in last weekend's elections. The IOC noted that only one woman was elected to the AOC's 13-member board despite the fact that the IOC has called on all sporting federations and Olympic committees to increase their female representation and that the AOC was the host Olympic committee for the 2000 Games.

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