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Friday, March 19, 2010

TIMES2: JOHN CALE LONGS FOR THE HOMELAND – LIFT-OUT MAGAZINE | BUSINESS: FOXTEL
TAKES SWIPE AT ABC – PAGE 17

Calvary sale waits for higher authority
By Ewa Kretowicz Assembly Reporter

Sorry it had to end this way

SKY BAN
NO HOT-AIR BALLOONS NO PLANES (including models) NO PARACHUTES NO GLIDERS NO ULTRALIGHTS

Anger on Obama’s no-fly zone
By Chris Johnson

Little Company of Mary Health Care supports the ACT Government’s new offer to buy
Calvary Hospital, but Catholic Church approval remains a stumbling block to any sale.
Health minister Katy Gallagher revealed yesterday that negotiations to buy the hospital
recommenced two weeks ago following the collapse of the first agreement in February.
Chief minister Jon Stanhope wrote to the Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn
Mark Coleridge on Friday outlining a deal to buy the Calvary buildings while LCM
continued to provide heathcare services. Clare Holland House is not part of the discussion.
Chairman of the Little Company of Mary Health Care Tom Brennan said he supported
the fledgling proposal. ‘‘We’re happy for this to go ahead. Because of the
Archbishop’s position on the earlier proposition it couldn’t go ahead. If he
agrees to this, then I expect that it would go ahead and go ahead very quickly,’’
Mr Brennan said. Ms Gallagher laid the blame for the collapse of the $77 million
sale to the ACT Government at the feet of Archbishop Coleridge. The Vatican, which
has carriage over the final decision, would seek Archbishop Coleridge’s advice
before endorsing the proposal. The Canberra Times was unable to contact Archbishop
Coleridge last night. Ms Gallagher said the Archbishop was cautious when the Government
approached him with the new proposal.

If [the Archbishop] agrees to this, then I expect that it would go ahead and go ahead
very quickly.
Chairman of the Little Company of Mary Health Care Tom Brennan
PENINSULA THINKING: Craddock Morton leaves Canberra hoping the National Museum will
not return to being used as a political football. Photo: MELISSA ADAMS

‘‘This was actually a model that he had proposed to us earlier, when we were
discussing us owning and operating it. He drew our attention to an arrangement like
this in Victoria. I think the Mercy Hospital . . . the Victorian Government own the
hospital but the Sisters of Mercy run it,’’ Ms Gallagher said. The Government
would entrench the role of the Catholic provider in legislation to guarantee its
position. ‘‘We would essentially have legislation that said Little Company of
Mary operates the hospital on the north side of Canberra,’’ she said. Opposition
health spokesman Jeremy Hanson said he was considering the plan but claimed Ms Gallagher
could have resolved the issue earlier but had failed to embrace all available options,
despite saying there was only one way of doing the deal. Ms Gallagher said the Little
Company of Mary had the right to run a public hospital on the Belconnen site until
2070. The Government still wanted to buy the hospital, ensuring a $200 million investment
into infrastructure at the hospital remained on the territory’s bottom line.

EXCLUSIVE
By Sally Pryor Cultural Institutions Reporter

CAPITAL CAREER
■ 1960: Arrives in Canberra. ■ 1970: Bachelor of Arts from ANU. ■ 1975: Joins
public service, works for Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. ■ 1994: Director of Australian
Foundation for Culture and Humanities. ■ 1995-2003: Various high-level positions,
including chief general manager on the Acton Peninsula Project (National Museum construction).
■ 2003: Acting director of museum. ■ 2004: Director for three-year term, reappointed
in 2007.

There are plenty of things Craddock Morton will miss when he leaves his position
as director of the National Museum of Australia next week. But living in Canberra
isn’t one of them. The outgoing director, who is retiring and heading for Adelaide
after more than six years at the museum’s helm, reflected yesterday that Canberra
had changed over the years in ways he found disappointing. ‘‘I have to say Canberra
is not the place it was when I was younger. I find Canberra increasingly disappointing
as a place to live. In terms of the environment, it’s increasingly run down, including
the infrastructure, and in terms of public life.’’ But Mr Morton would miss working
in an invigorating environment. ‘‘Every day has a new challenge and a new pleasure,
the people I work with are fantastic, so it will be hard to leave that.’’

Mr Morton arrived in Canberra 50 years ago, and spent almost 30 years in the public
service, including in the prime-ministerial departments of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating,
before being appointed acting director of the museum in 2003, and director in 2004.
He arrived during the museum’s turbulent early years under its first director,
Dawn Casey, and was later credited with boosting staff morale and reinvigorating
the museum’s focus as an institution.

His decision last year to retire before the end of his second term, which is up in
June, came as a surprise to many, but was made on his own terms. Speaking to The
Canberra Times yesterday, he had few regrets about leaving, but would hate to see
history repeating itself in terms of the museum’s perceived purpose. ‘‘What
would disappoint me would be if we went back to the days when the museum was used
as a tool to fight political battles,’’ he said. ‘‘I don’t think we need
that, I don’t think that’s the function of a museum, and it treats the museum
with disrespect and with a lack of seriousness in relation to what museums are about.
I think it’s very unlikely that that will happen, but were it to happen, it would
be a very sad thing.’’ But Mr Morton was pleased at what he had achieved during
his time at the helm, especially in the amount of indigenous material that had been
brought into the museum during his time, and the level of cooperation the institution
had with indigenous communities. ‘‘I think we really are a paradigm about how
that should be done, and

that’s developed quite a way, I think, while I’ve been here, and I’ve been
enormously proud of that.’’ Mr Morton was also unequivocal that the museum’s
10-year-old building, while architecturally impressive, was not ideal for a museum.
‘‘It’s not the architects’ fault. They were given a brief, they were given
a budget and I think within the limitations of the budget and with the speed at which
it had to be designed and built to make the deadlines, [they] did a terrific job,’’
he said. ‘‘If I were allowed to design a museum of my choice, would it be this
building? No.’’ Although he had managed to do most of what he set out to do,
one of the issues he had been unable to resolve was the museum’s lack of space.
‘I’m not saying that size alone makes a great museum – it doesn’t,’’
Mr Morton said. ‘‘Clearly there are many museums which are very large which don’t
have great content and don’t treat their content well. But there is a size that
you have to get to, I think, and we’re not there yet.’’

Ca n berra ’ s h o t- a i r b a l l oon operators are furious at being forced to
shut down operations late next week to observe flying restrictions over the capital
during President Barack Obama’s visit. Following a disastrous Canberra Balloon
Festival earlier this month, resulting in huge financial losses due to bad weather,
the operators say they now stand to lose tens of thousands of dollars more because
the President is dropping in. The Australian Defence Force has issued an order restricting
flying in the 45 nautical miles (83km) of airspace surrounding Canberra airport.
The two-day ban includes hotair balloons, gliders, ultralight aircraft, parachutes,
and even model aircraft. But while the model aircraft clubs say the ban won’t affect
their members too much, the balloon operators say the decision is unfair. Adding
to their stress is uncertainty over whether they will have to shut down on Thursday
morning as well as Friday, even though the President doesn’t arrive until later
Thursday. Balloon Aloft managing director Ewan Roberts said the no-fly orders would
be a ‘‘huge cost’’ to his small business. ‘‘We’re just wondering who
to send the bill to,’’ he said. ‘‘There is nowhere else we can fly so we’ll
just have to shut up shop. We have lots of bookings following on from the balloon
festival. ‘‘We had a lot of bad weather for the festival and we will lose $15,000
every day we can’t fly.’’

Continued Page 2 Business as usual, sort of – Page 2

Election battle opens with health debate
By Danielle Cronin Political Correspondent

WEATHER

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has effectively launched the federal election campaign,
calling the first of three debates with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Mr Rudd and
Mr Abbott will face off at the National Press Club for a debate on health – routinely
ranked one of the most important issues for voters. The agreement was reached after
a raucous question time in which two Labor and three Liberal MPs were suspended for
one hour for disorderly behaviour. The stiffest penalty was handed out to a fourth
Liberal MP, Paul Fletcher, who was suspended for 24 hours. In the final question
time before the May budget is handed down, the

HEAD TO HEAD: Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott will both be after an early knockout.

Opposition opened with a challenge to the Government to ‘‘revoke the permanent
protection visas granted to the three individuals found to be part of a plan to cripple
SIEV 36’’. Five Afghan asylum-seekers died and 40 were injured in a blast aboard
the fishing vessel – referred to as Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel 36 or SIEV 36.

The Prime Minister countered with a two-pronged attack on Mr Abbott based on his
record as health minister and for remaining ‘‘stoically silent’’ on the Government’s
plan for a new National Health and Hospitals Framework. The Commonwealt h would become
dominant funder of public hospitals and Local Hospital Networks would run small clusters
of hospitals under the plan. ‘‘My question again today – two weeks into this
debate, plenty of time to review its content – is does the Leader of the Opposition
support this plan or oppose it?’’ Mr Rudd said. Mr Abbott made a point of order,
saying ‘‘if the Prime Minister wants to give me leave, I am happy to speak on
health and hospital policy in this Parliament’’. The Government obliged, suspending
question time so

Mr Abbott could speak for 15 minutes about health. He started with a complaint about
the Government telling ‘‘grotesque untruths’’ about his ministerial record.
As some Opposition MPs banged on their desks and cheered, Mr Abbott described Mr
Rudd as a ‘‘fraud’’, ‘‘phoney’’, ‘‘complete fake’’ and ‘‘disgrace
to the great office of the prime ministership of this country’’. ‘‘I question
all of the [health] policy and I oppose much of the policy because, just as his climate
change policy is a great big new tax on everything, his hospitals policy is a great
big new bureaucracy,’’ Mr Abbott said.

Aust ready to ratify treaty to sell uranium to Russia
FIRE DANGER: Low-moderate

CANBERRA: Mostly sunny, 28

Chance of rain: 5 per cent Wind: Variable, 10km/h UV index: 9 (very high) Outlook:
Dry, mostly sunny SYDNEY: Fine, 28 MELBOURNE: Shower or two, 29 DETAILS: PAGE 14

By Philip Dorling National Affairs Correspondent

Continued Page 5 Rudd springs trap – Page 5

Vol 82

No 27,348

68 pages

The Federal Government is set to ratify a treaty to allow the export of Australian
uranium to Russia. In a response to a report by the Federal Parliament’s Joint
Standing Committee on Treaties, the Government yesterday dismissed concerns about
Russia’s nuclear industry and affirmed it was fully satisfied with the giant nation’s
preparedness to meet its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
‘‘The Government is confident that Russia takes seriously its obligations under
the NPT,’’ the document tabled in Parliament said. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith

and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said careful consideration had been given
to the committee’s report on a bilateral nuclear safeguards agreement signed by
the Australian and Russian governments in September 2007. In September 2008, after
Russia’s military action against Georgia, the committee recommended the Government
not proceed with ratification of the treaty until it had obtained assurances in relation
to a range of security and safety issues including the possibility that Australian
uranium could be diverted to weapons production or else come into the hands of terrorists.

Continued Page 2

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