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

3 THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD FRIDAY MARCH 7 1997 When it came to the crunch Sydney lost a driving force in road safety Last fatality on the Harbour Bridge left the Quick Change barriers being moved from one lane to another in time for rush hour on a Montreal highway above and on the Tappanzee Bridge in New York Each head-on accident on the Sydney Harbour Bridge saddens IVfr John Quittner more than most people His design for movable concrete barriers to separate oncoming traffic on the bridge was rejected by the Roads and Traffic Authority in 1984 It said there was not enough room for a 60-centimetre-w ide barrier Mr Quittner disagreed saying 60 centimetres could be taken from the median strip beside the Cahill Expressway lane After trying unsuccessfully to sell his idea in Australia its patent was bought by French and American companies The Quick Change barrier system is now used on about 50 bridges and highways around the world His barriers are one-metre sections of concrete linked with chains A specially designed machine picks them up and lifts them diagonally to the next lane Mr Quittner says lanes on most bridges could be swapped in 20 minutes could be shifted before rush hour and put back after the rush he said The system including concrete sections and machinery would cost between $4 million and $5 million depending on the length of the bridge he said Mr Quittner now managing director of a Botany company Quick Steel says he is sad when he hears of a bad accident on the Harbour lanes Last week a man died after his car veered across three lanes into a line of oncoming traffic Quick Change barriers are used on the Auckland Harbour Bridge New Tappanzee Bridge and are being tested on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco were like the Harbour Bridge they were shying away from it but then they had all these fatalities and they decided to put a trial section Mr Quittner said happened two months ago and they crashed things into it and the barrier withstood everything it moved out six to eight inches after some of the crashes but that is fine because it keeps the traffic ADAM HARVEY Bondi facing lam drinking curfew Efficiencies save hospital service NSW demands health dollars By MARION DOWNEY Health Writer comes as no surprise Prince of Wales is State ministers preparing for the next round of negotiations on hospital funding paid to the States under the Medicare agreements have already warned of a health crisis by 2010 unless there is substantial change Dr Refshauge said hospital funding would be the number one issue on today's agenda Federal Government has no clear direction It is cutting in every nook and cranny he said MARION DOWNEY The NSW Minister for Health Dr Refshauge (pictured) will demand that the Federal Health Department repay $240 million to the State hospital budget to make up for the extra costs of treating patients who have dropped out of the private hospital system An extraordinary meeting of State and Commonwealth health ministers to be held in Sydney today is expected to spark heated debate between State ministers and their Federal counterpart Dr Wooldridge he said is a big problem not only in terms of violence but also antisocial behaviour of drunken patrons and disturbance for residents premises in residential areas should not be able to operate all hours of the night firmly believe that a solution would be to encourage late-night drinkers to go to the Cross or the city where they can be An AHA spokesman Mr Paul Childs said the curfew proposal was ridiculous is an international city How can you shut down Bondi at 1 he said The AHA last night rejected calls for a on alcohol sales to help meet the rising costs of compensation A parliamentary committee on compensation was told yesterday that the tax would be one way to curb the liquor intake among males aged between 16 and 24 the group largely responsible for alcohol-related violence Figures in a written submission from the Department showed expenditure on compensation had blown out from $5 1 million in 1992-93 to S89 million last year However income received from offenders in the form of restitution levies and confiscation of assets was only $35 million in 1995-96 By ROBERT WAINWRIGHT Local Government Writer Bondi one of most popular tourist destinations is facing the prospect of a 1 am curfew because of council concerns about drunken violence and neighbourhood disruption Waverley Council wants the State Government to alter licensing laws and strip more than 100 hotels clubs restaurants and cafes within its boundaries of their licences to trade into the early morning hours The proposed change would damage reputation in the lead-up to the Olympic Games and encourage street drinking leading to worse violence the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) said The AHA revealed that it was lobbying for unlimited 24-hour trading for NSW hotels Waverley Council has written to the Minister for Racing and Gaming Mr Face who is reviewing late trading hours for licensed premises The Racing and Gaming Department has said an investigation into the social impact of late-night trading introduced in 1989 was a matter of the highest priority Councillor George Newhouse of Waverley Council said a curfew was the only way to prevent violence are most concerned about beachfront violence particularly after the death last year of the English tourist Brian that the considered more expensive than other he said is the problem of looking at old inaccurate data The 1995-96 comparisons will show that the Prince of Wales and Prince Henry hospitals are far closer to the But he conceded there had been problems have to go behind the figures to examine why you are not getting value for money There is room for improvement but everyone has a unique The chairman of the medical staff association of Prince of Wales Hospital Professor Graham Macdonald said people had been talking about inefficiency at Prince of Wales Hospital for some time but new figures comparing with showed the hospital was the as other hospitals is part of the culture of the Department of Health and an ingrained attitude that the Prince of Wales is he said adding that the 1994-95 figures for the hospital group did not take into account extra costs such as the Hospital Mr Brian Johnston the managing director of Prince of Wales Hospital who also resigned last month was not available for comment largest area health service and one of the largest teaching hospitals have come in for damning criticism in a review of hospital costs and efficiency The Prince of Wales Hospital Group in Randwick and the South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service could treat the same number of patients for far less money or provide many more services for the same amount of money according to draft figures presented to the Government The figures in the report are so contentious and recommend such efficiency savings that the government body which commissioned the report has asked for it to be rewritten and for the figures to be reworked The report written by the Dean of Health Sciences at La Trobe University Professor Stephen Duckett and commissioned by the Council on the Cost of Government last year reveals huge variations in how much it costs to treat patients in hospitals of a similar type Using 1994-95 data the report concludes that the Prince of Wales Hospital Group could either treat the same number of patients for $41 million less or by spending the same amount could provide est average cost $2519 and Nepean the highest $2799 An early draft of the report emphasises that efficiencies should not be taken out of the health system gains should often be used to achieve improvements in access to hospital services in some it says The chief executive of the South Eastern Area Health Service Dr Stuart Spring who is leaving next week to become national chief executive of the Sisters of Charity said the report was based on old data is common knowledge and costs to treat the same patient at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital It says costs for the average patient treated at the Prince of Wales Hospital Group are 11 per cent higher than in the next most expensive teaching hospital Royal Alexandra (now the New Hospital at Westmead) and 12 per cent more than the third most expensive St Variations in the cost of treating patients are much narrower among the big metropolitan hospitals lllawarra Regional Hospital has the low more services for patients It also concludes that by improving efficiency the NSW health service could find an extra $400 million which could be used to improve health services substantially more than the $190 million which the health service has conceded could be found from efficiencies According to the report the average cost of treating an inpatient in the Prince of Wales Hospital Group which includes the Hospital and Prince Henry Hospital is $3348 nearly 30 per cent more than it Life for man who burnt Tjandamurra Clubs to get share of gambling cash with mini-casinos By MICHAEL SHARP NSW registered clubs are striking back in the battle for the State's multi-billion-dollar gambling industry by opening minicasinos offering roulette blackjack and horse-race machines with payouts of up to $500000 The move is permitted by a new regulation gazetted by the NSW Government that allows registered clubs to operate gaming from April 1 These machines are interactive and create a casino-like atmosphere by allowing up to 20 players to compete in the same game roulette blackjack or betting on an electronic horse race Sydney Harbour Casino is expected to experience strong competition when the clubs introduce electronic casinos Expansion by clubs into electronic casinos defies recent comments by the Prime Minister Mr Howard that gambling in Australia was saturation Only the largest clubs will be able to afford to install the new machines which are mostly manufactured in Japan and cost up to $1 million Mr Tony Young a stockbroking analyst with First Pacific Stockbrokers estimated a five-station roulette table would cost about $150000 a six-station horse-racing machine $500000 and a 16-station horse-racing machine $1 million Mr Young said that while the machine prices were high running them was not nearly as expensive as operating a labour-intensive gaming table in a casino Canterbury-Bankstown Leagues Club and Panthers in Penrith had already placed orders he said The machines must first be cleared by the NSW Liquor Administration Board A spokesman for the Minister for Racing and Gaming Mr Face said yesterday the Government did not expect any problems in the approval process The gazetting of the Registered Clubs (Gaming Machines) Regulation last Friday was a significant victory for the clubs Many commentators concluded the clubs were comprehensively outwitted by the pubs last year after the Government introduced laws to allow each pub to operate up to 1 5 gaming machines and 1 5 card machines after April 1 this year It seemed the clubs had achieved no return from their multi-million-dollar campaign to fight the increase in pub gaming machines But it is understood introduction of the new regulation benefiting clubs resulted from negotiations with the Carr Government during the battle over pub gaming machine numbers The Government is expected to obtain 1 1 per cent of its revenue from gambling this financial year and will tax revenue on the multi-terminal machines at 30 per cent A total of $17 billion was raised by all States in gaming taxes in the 1995 financial year and Mr Howard recently criticised the increased reliance on this source of revenue Expenditure on all forms of gambling as a share of household disposable income in Australia has grown from 19 per cent to 3 per cent over the past decade No regret Paul Streeton and his victim Tjandamurra had 12 operations needing cultured skin grafts because his wounds would not heal on their own During treatment his lungs collapsed he lost up to three-quarters of his ears 70 per cent of his sweat glands and part of his head is bald The judge referred to self-centredness which was evident in two sections of a statement from him It said: wanted people in society to feel the pain that I was going through I wanted to punish people for ruining my It went on to say that he felt upset about what he had done to society and what people had done to him He was upset with teachers who had not recognised his abilities of the most disturbing features has been your the judge told Streeton showed not the slightest interest in that child not one moment of remorse or Justice White said the case was odd: was no drugs or alcohol involved You did not take refuge in mental She said Streeton indicated no interest in rehabilitation but might change his mind in time All requirements would be taken to ensure safety while he was in prison she said A Corrective Services spokesman said he would be jailed at the Moreton facility in Brisbane and kept in a special protection cell The man who poured a can of petrol over six-year-old Tjandamurra in a Cairns schoolyard last October and set him alight had shown one moment of remorse or and still referred to his victim as a judge said yesterday Paul Wade Streeton 27 of Adelaide was given the maximum life sentence for attempted murder with no recommendation for parole Streeton had pleaded not guilty to attempted murder but had admitted dousing the boy and setting him on fire as a form of revenge on those who had made his own childhood a misery The bespectacled Streeton presented a pathetic figure in the dock of the Cairns Supreme Court yesterday as Justice Margaret White sentenced him is as bad a case as you can get in attempted she told Streeton whose actions caused horrific bums to 70 per cent of the body and caused him months of agony in hospital He will spend up to two years wearing the pressure suit that will help heal his horrific bums He Mai does the job in whirlwind fashion 66 Cut 17 years off your home A Without making any extra repayments No strings attached Citibank can show you how to pay off your home loan sooner As find out on the Citibank HOMECREDIT Simulator you could save over 17 years off a 25 year mortgage without extra payments Simply by depositing your salary and any savings you have into your HOMECREDIT account your money actively works to reduce the principal of your home loan and the interest normally pay could save interest every You may even save the application fee if you apply right Plus you keep control of your money as you can deposit and withdraw whenever you want To see how much you can save with the Citibank HOMECREDIT Simulator call now on 1800 678 967 THE CITI NEVER SLEEPS Terms and conditions apply All loans and security are subject to Citibank credit criteria normal establishment and where applicable legal and valuation fees The rate is 71)9 pa for new customers This rate is subject to variation The $300 application fee is fully rebated at settlement if the loan settles within 60 days of application date Full details of the relevant Terms and Conditions are available on application Fees and charges are payable Citibank Ltd ACN 004 325 060 HCSMH20x473 Committee men senators Mai Colston and Bob Collins committee travel expenses This was made clear last year by the Clerk of the Senate Mr Harry Evans under questioning in a Senate Estimates Committee hearing Asked by Labor Senator Robert Ray whether a chairman of a committee could claim travel allowance even if he was not attending a committee meeting Mr Evans said is Asked to define what it meant to be committee Mr Evans said: if the senator certifies that they are on committee Senator Ray: You do not have to apply any check on that before the money is paid out? Mr Evans: Not really no It is a matter of the senator certifying that Meanwhile Senator Colston now has until March 18 to respond to a Senate investigation into alleged rorting of his travel allowances By TONY WRIGHT Senator Mai Colston one of champion international travellers has also distinguished himself for claiming travel expenses for trips within Australia as chairman of one of most obscure parliamentary committees Some chairmen of committees such as the Senate Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances manage to carry out their duties without making a single travel expense claim for the task from year to year On average such claims tend to be around two or three a year The Northern Senator Bob Collins who as chairman of the committee known as Regs and Ords several years ago never made a travelling allowance claim said most of the work checking regulations and ordinances was done by officials and there was no reason a chairman could not complete all required work during a sitting week In 1995-96 Senator Colston found cause to claim 36 nights away from home most of them in Canberra on business he claimed was related to his chairmanship of this committee It included seven nights in Darwin for a three-day committee hearing These claims for which he never had to provide evidence he was actually working earned him $4935 tax-free which formed part of the total of $23100 in tax-free travelling allowances the whirlwind senator totted up during that financial year This of course was on top of the $8000 extra annual fee he also earned for winning the chairmanship of the committee in the first place There is no requirement that committee chairmen provide any material to justify their 2D.