The Sydney Morning Herald du lieu suivant : Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • 7

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 19 1997 'No quotes' for $4m work to ex-Coles chiefs home Hepatitis toll from oysters may hit 1000 CM Hi Gloucester -Dungog SwjFJ Multi-million-dollar renovations on the home of former Coles Myer chief Brian Edward Quinn were never costed and work went ahead without prior quotations the Supreme Court heard yesterday The supervisor of the renovations told the court that up to 30 tradesmen worked on the job at Quinn's home in Melbourne The work included a six-metre bridge over a swimming pool a floodlit cricket pitch and guttering costing more than $38000 Quinn 60 has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to defraud Coles Myer of $446 million with most of the money being spent on the renovations Former building supervisor Robert Edward Lockhart told the court the renovations were done on a "do and charge" basis Asked what "do and charge" meant Mr Lockhart said: "That is just do the work and charge it That was the procedure we did It wasn't costed It wasn't quoted" Mr Lockhart said he worked as a building supervisor on renovations to the house for six years from 1983 He said he received instructions on the renovations from Work on the Melbourne home was never costed wmmm that half the infected Queens-landers had eaten raw oysters from Wallis Lake where harvesting has been suspended pending further investigations The Queensland Health Department's communicable diseases manager Dr Linda Selvey said that with a hepatitis A incubation period of two to six weeks an unusually large number of new cases was expected for several more weeks Dr Selvey said that because the disease was highly contagious people may contract it from others who have eaten contaminated oysters Those with the disease should practise strict hygiene such as washing hands before and after meals Family members at risk can be immunised against infection A major Queensland seafood distributor Sam's Seafood has returned about 700 dozen Wallis Lake oysters because of the outbreak The company's sales manager Mr Jason Simpson said an estimated 50 per cent of oysters eaten in Brisbane restaurants come from the area By GREG ROBERTS More than 300 people in NSW and Queensland have contracted the debilitating hepatitis A disease in an epidemic in the past month traced to eating raw oysters from the Wallis Lake area of the NSW mid-north coast About 15 cases of hepatitis A a day are being reported in the two States and the final tally could be as high as 1000 Health authorities have warned people to be wary of eating raw oysters at least without determining their origin The most likely source of the epidemic is believed to be faecal contamination from sewage overflow running into water where oyster beds are grown in Wallis Lake In NSW 237 hepatitis A cases have been reported in the four weeks since January 21 compared with 28 cases in the first three weeks of the year The Health Department has established through interviews that 71 per cent of 127 people who fell ill recently had eaten raw oysters this year with 40 per cent of those being able to pinpoint Wallis Lake as the source of the oysters A Health Department Quinn's wife Trenna and that Quinn sometimes gave him instructions The Crown alleges Quinn used false invoicing to get the company to pay for work on his house while making it appear it was done at Coles Myer properties Mr Lockhart said that before building the 70-square-metre first-floor extension a brick fence was built around the one-acre block Mr Lockhart was questioned about some of the features of the renovations They included: a six-metre wrought-iron bridge over the swimming pool on which the marriage service of Quinn's daughter Michelle was conducted a cricket pitch with floodlights a tennis court with marble-floored pavilion a pergola made of western red cedar and painted with five coats of gloss paint and $38392 worth of guttering The court had earlier heard that 300000 bricks were used in the renovations The trial is continuing spokesman Mr Mark Gold said there was little doubt Wallis Lake was the source of most of the new cases and people should avoid eating oysters unless they were confident they did not come from the lake "Our advice generally is that seafood of any kind should be cooked and not eaten raw" Mr Gold said In Queensland 87 hepatitis A cases have been reported in the past two weeks including 20 cases since Monday Surveys have established Brian Quinn outside court denies conspiring to defraud Farmers turn anger on health officials 4 We have never had a hepatitis A outbreak before 9 Hepatitis A is the least dangerous of the viruses known to cause hepatitis or liver inflammation but it still can produce a nasty illness capable of keeping people away from work for months The virus is usually spread when faeces from an infected person are transferred to another person's mouth through poor hygiene eating infected food or drinking contaminated water oral sex or handling infected nappies Shellfish which have become infected by sewage-contaminated seawater have been responsible for many outbreaks with more than 300000 cases in Shanghai in 1988 being traced to contaminated clams Unlike hepatitis and it does not cause long-term liver disease Symptoms include aches and pains fever nausea tiredness and jaundice and tend to be more severe in adults Vaccination is recommended for those at high risk of exposure such as travellers to regions such as Asia the Pacific Islands Africa Central and South America and for staff at child-care centres MEUSSA SWEET wmmmmm By ANTHONY HOY Rural Editor NSW Health Department officials were under fire from a beleaguered oyster industry last night amid claims that the department had forced the closure of the SI 3 million Wallis Lakes oyster fishery Australia's largest without adequate proof it was a source of hepatitis A infection Oyster farmers in the For-sterTuncurry area said they had been directed by department officials not to speak to the media The farmers yesterday resolved to make the department more accountable for damage to the image of "the good old oyster the unproven culprit for the State's food safety problems" Wallis Lakes farmers have voluntarily stopped picking oysters pending resolution of the hepatitis issue Suppliers from the Port Stephens and Georges Hawkesbury Manning and Macleay river systems had quickly filled the nationwide supply gap Annual oyster production in the Wallis Lakes district totals 30000 bags each containing 100 dozen The peak production period is from September to Easter with 250 local residents employed in the industry Initial testing had yesterday failed to confirm suspicions of e-coli contamination of Wallis Lakes waters and representatives of the NSW Shellfish Quality Assurance Program were last night rushing fresh Forster oyster samples to Sydney University by car for further epidemiology tests The Great Lakes Council Mayor Councillor John Chad- ban last night spoke of industry disquiet at whether or not "small and inconclusive evidence" warranted the extreme reaction resulting in closure of an industry with "a very important $35 million flow-on effect to this small local economy" There had not been one local infection from swimming or eating oysters Cr Chadban said The State co-ordinator of the quality assurance program Ms Kerry Jackson yesterday cited "some form of contamination of the lake during the Christmas-New Year period" as the source of the hepatitis outbreak The delayed clinical symptoms of the disease were the result of the two- to six-week incubation period for the virus she said "We have never had a hepatitis A outbreak before Oyster food safety concerns usually stem from gastrointestinal problems associated with Norwalk virus This is a different virus with different clinical symptoms including a two- to six-week incubation period" In the face of inconclusive tests the Health Department had last night closed ranks on the issue of proof of oyster infection Ms Jackson referred questions on the issue to NSW Health epidemiologist Mr Phillip Bird who said he had been instructed by "head office" to refer inquiries to the department's media unit which was not returning calls Unfazed diners still shelling out were asking about the origin of oysters but were still ordering them once they were reassured Mr Peter Doyle the manager of Doyles at Watsons Bay said his oysters were from the South Coast He had not noticed a decline in sales which usually ran at about 1000 dozen a week The manager of the Rock-pool restaurant in The Rocks Ms Narelle Kellahan said: "No-one's even mentioned the oyster scare" ADAM HARVEY ally got their oysters from Wallis Lake but management decided several days ago to stop selling the oysters until more was known about the hepatitis A outbreak At Rose's at Rose Bay manager Nick Lazaris has had to throw 1 0 dozen Hawkesbury River oysters away because customers were not ordering the shellfish and he will not be ordering any more until the scare is over Diners at The Cove at Manly One restaurant has taken oysters off the menu because of hepatitis A fears and though some others say demand for the shellfish has declined it's business as usual at most Sydney restaurants Oysters from Wallis Lake near Forster one of the State's premier oyster-growing areas are suspected of causing more than 200 cases of hepatitis A in NSW Mohr Fish in Surry Hills has taken oysters off the menu A spokeswoman said they usu Burke denies taking ego trip by spending political donation cash The former West Australian Premier Brian Burke yesterday denied he made an "ego trip" of spending political donations as if the money were his own Burke intended to present as a personal gift to the ALP a valuable stamp collection he had bought with the party's own money the Crown Prosecutor Mr Brian Martin QC told the West Australian District Court yesterday Burke's $44000 sponsorship of a junior soccer club in his Balga electorate was again regrettable that that sort of statement would be made" Burke said he told the soccer club the $44000 gift "was sponsorship" but never mentioned who the sponsor was He denied that when he had the Brian Burke Collection of stamps mounted and framed he intended to present them as a personal gift to the ALP "I don't recall thinking that far ahead" Burke said Burke has pleaded not guilty to charges that he stole $122000 in ALP donations while he was Premier in 1984 and 1985 to finance his personal stamp collection Burke has told the court that he could use donations to his leader's account which were separate from the State ALP's funds at his own discretion fprtm AT amnomn fiinc Will 1 1 I VUllipUllI UUUJ ERGON ENERGY Brian Burke told court "I didn't need my ego stroked" It was not an ego trip I achieved the highest status the party could honour me with I didn't need my ego stroked "It's absolutely wrong and Martin said Mr Martin: "It was an ego trip wasn't it Mr Burke?" Burke: "I would say I devoted iujt nuun 1111 um M-iawi ain ffiB 2.