14 FEBRUARY to 23 MARCH 2011 14 Collins Street EDITORIAL Melbourne, 3000 Victoria, Australia Our new government settling in. P 03 9654 1300 Architects are planners. They bring together many issues. F 03 9654 1165 Modern issues. And some history. The architect premier [email protected] of the newish Victorian government has the professional, www.letterfrommelbourne.com.au business, personal, and political and government experiences to design good things. Editor Alistair Urquhart 27 February. One hundred days of the new government. Associate Editor Gabriel Phipps Reviews continue for transport ticketing systems, the Sub-Editor RJ Stove Subscription Manager Camilla Orr-Thomson Healthsmart project and other spending projects of the Advertising Manager Eddie Mior former government, the latter will be more fully explained Editorial Consultant Rick Brown to us all in the Budget on 3 May. Design Richard Hamilton Several ministers are being kept busy in the budget Letter From Melbourne is a monthly public affairs kitchen, slicing and dicing their way through departmental bulletin, a simple précis, distilling and interpreting demands and dreams, and the government’s own public policy and government decisions, which affect business opportunities in Victoria and Australia. election promises. An important distraction from their own specific portfolios. Written for the regular traveller, or people with meeting-filled days, you only have to miss reading The budgetary process is bringing strong focus on industrial relations. Teachers, police, community The Age or The Herald Sun twice a week to need workers, other civil servants, to date, are perhaps looking towards less pay than the (newish) Letter from Melbourne. It’s more about business opportunities (or lack of them) than politics. It’s not government promised before the election. Watch this space. (continued next page) Crikey.com. We keep words to a minimum. Letter from Melbourne is independent. It’s not party ABOUT THE EDITOR political or any other political. It does not have the ALISTAIR URQUHART imprimatur of government at any level. For context. It includes events and people and society, Alistair Urquhart graduated from the Australian National University and the weather if that is important. in Canberra, in Law, History and Politics, was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria, and remains a (non- Increasingly, Letter from Melbourne is developing a practicing) member of the Law Institute of Victoria. Before that, he federal and national coverage and also an increasing graduated from high school in Bethesda, Maryland, and had many synopsis of national business isues. opportunities to become aware of the workings of Washington DC. The only communication tool of its type, Letter from For 30 years, he listened every Sunday evening to the late Alistair Melbourne keeps subscribers abreast of recent Cooke and his Letter From America. His early career was mostly developments in the policy arena on a local, state and in the coal industry, where he became involved with energy, federal level. environmental and water issues, and later in the SME finance sector. You can read it on a flight from Melbourne once a month, or with a good cup of coffee. His public affairs firm works with many engineering and information technology firms, other professional association and industry groups, on a wide range of issues, in Victoria, Canberra and overseas. Urquhart visits Canberra regularly. He may hold the record for miles rowed on ADVERTISE WITH US Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin. The perfect platform to attract the attention of the who’s who of Melbourne’s public INDEX and private sector. IN APPROXIMATE ORDER OF INTEREST OVER THE PAST MONTH for a copy of our media kit or information regarding STATE GOVERNMENT & POLITICS 3 ARTS 10 advertising with LETTER FROM MELBOURNE EDUCATION EVENTS please contact Alistair Urquhart 4 10 [email protected] +61 3 9654 1300 ENVIRONMENT. CONSERVATION 4 THE HIGH COUNTRY 15 WEATHER 6 PLANNING & BUILDING 16 Published by A.B Urquhart & Company Pty Ltd trading as Affairs of State. Disclaimer: Material in this publication is general ENERGY 6 LOCAL GOVERNMENT 17 comment and not intended as advice on any particular matter. WATER 7 SPORT 18 Professional advice should to be sought before action is taken. Material is complied from various sources including newspaper GAMING 7 TRANSPORT. RAIL 18 articles, press releases, government publications, Hansard, trade HEALTH ROAD journals, etc. © This newsletter is copyright. No part may be 7 19 reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or INVESTMENT. BUSINESS 8 AIR 19 transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written AGRICULTURE 8 PORTS 20 permission from the publisher. Affairs of State respects your JUSTICE 9 THE WORKPLACE. JOBS 20 privacy. While we do believe that the informastion contained in Letter from Melbourne will be useful to you, please advise us if TALES OF BUREAUCRACY 10 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS 20 you do not wish to receive any further communications from us. MELBOURNE 10 COMMUNITY 21 2 2 LETTER FROM MELBOURNE seems acute. And to make matters worse, STATE GOVERNMENT & POLITICS Ryan is a study in smug. He smiles smugly, EDITORIAL (cont) swings his chair smugly, he even manages to Just last week, a new chief of staff arrived at First 100 days cross his arms smugly… Labor is grumbling the Office of the Minister for Health, a deputy Looking back on his first 100 days in office, about Smith, who has an impressive record for secretary from a Commonwealth department Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu says he is being evicted from the chamber by previous in Canberra, all part of a wider gene pool for proud of his performance and confident that speakers. They say, rather predictably, that he choosing ministerial staffers than the former the government is ‘moving in an appropriate is partisan… Which leads us to the quality of debate. It hasn’t improved at all.’ government. This edition includes a draft manner’. Commentators at The Age had list of senior staffers. Still some important described Baillieu as looking relaxed. Perhaps Promises evaporate staffers to arrive. A fuller hard copy Victorian that’s because at the 100-day mark the new The state government has been criticised by the government has not changed a single law. He Government 2011 Chart will be sent out to Herald Sun for abandoning a commitment to has, however, promised numerous reviews. subscribers in about three weeks. And will transparency after all its policy promises were As one Liberal MP put it, Baillieu is extremely removed from the Liberal Party’s website. The also be available for a few dollars to others. cautious about making decisions, and he likes 98 press releases spelling out the Coalition’s to go into detail. election pledges were nowhere to be found Acts of parliament are starting to flow Parliament floor online. Affairs of State has the full policy through the system, with many first and State politics reporter for The Age wrote a good guide, which includes much more detail than second readings of bills, which in due wrap on the mood of the floor in Parliament was on the website originally. Call us on 9654 course will become acts of parliament. Not House: ‘The opposition is trying to work out 1300. The second change to a costly election flood gate stuff, but activity. how to be an opposition government and the promise, announced in The Age, was a warning government is getting its head around… well, of possible job cuts and reduced services if The ‘high country’ features on our cover, governing. Rob Hulls presently sits across the the government had to fund a large pay rise in the main text and also in a piece from table from Peter Ryan in State Parliament… as part of a landmark women’s pay case for Hansard. Cattle in the High Country provides After 11 years of bully-boy dominance over community workers. Before the state election, the Coalition had committed to funding the a clear focus for those closely involved, on the former opposition, Hulls’ loss of power both sides of the fence so to speak, including the editor who spent much his early years BAILLIEU GOVERNMENT ADVISERS Based on our currrent information. Corrections welcome. on farms in Gippsland. Another federal/state Name Minister Portfolio stoush on the way. The editor took the photo, Peter Poggioli Asher CoS inset here, on 9 June, 2005 for our 104th Brett Hogan Asher Innovation, Services and Small Business edition. The main cover photo was taken by Julie Baird Asher Major Events and Tourism a friend in 2005, when the cattle were being Michael Kapel Baillieu CoS driven into the High Country for the last time, Tony Nutt Baillieu Director-General, Cabinet Office last time. Zoe McKenzie Baillieu Arts, Education and Skills Douglas Campbell Baillieu Health, Tourism Paul Price Baillieu Media Prince William flew in from north of the David Vorchimier Baillieu Planning Murray into Kerang in central Victoria to visit, Richard Clancy Clark CoS and cheer up the local community, and then James Copsey Clark Political Adviser onto Tullamarine for the trip home. No calling Rosemary Calder Davis CoS Bretty Barton Davis Adviser in to M for Melbourne. This old editor reckons Nathan Robinson Davis Adviser that we need more reminders of the history Katherine Walsh Davis Adviser of our country, of reasons for it’s stability -- Delahunty CoS of government and society. Naturally, this Tony Parkinson Dalla-Riva CoS includes the emotional republican debate. Duncan McGauchie Dixon Adviser Lucy Toovey Dixon Acting Adviser Meg Bartel Guy CoS The fourth estate, the media, sometimes get Damien Farrell Hall CoS emotional when reporting financial matters Con Allimonos Kotsiras CoS outside of the financial pages, so as to place Anthony Moate Kotsiras Adviser Nitin Gupta Kotsiras Adviser less emphasis on accounting reality.