Melbourne's black crime problem

Victorian police are being urged to set up a special taskforce to tackle gang violence and lawlessness among young African migrants living in Melbourne's inner-city housing commission estates. The push - led by rank-and-file police and terrified neighbours - is backed by the state's powerful police union, which claims sections of the African community need to be "properly educated" in Australian values.

"The Sudanese are very difficult to deal with - they come from a lawless background and they really have to be properly educated about Australian society's standards," the Police Association secretary, Senior Sergeant Paul Mullett, told The Australian. Police in Melbourne's inner north and social workers are demanding resources to help deal with the problem.

"What's actually emerging in Victoria is the establishment of in particular youth gangs and ethnic gangs, and our members just don't have the resourcing support to proactively police these gangs," Sergeant Mullett said. Police union members who worked around the high-rise public housing blocks in areas such as Flemington and Fitzroy were worried about their safety and becoming more reluctant to work there, he said. He called for a special taskforce or for departments to "establish taskforces of their own" to tackle gang activity.

Sergeant Mullett warned that more proactive police programs were needed to build better communication with African communities and prevent group violence from escalating to the levels seen in Sydney's Cronulla riots. "A core function of policing is to connect with the community and to connect with different races," he said.

Victorian Community Council on Crime and Violence member Bob Falconer said yesterday some police and academics had failed to acknowledge the existence of street gangs because they did not want to be seen as singling out the ethnic groups involved. "Invariably there are ethnic-based issues and often visible minorities involved, and political sensitivity of that seems to frighten them off the issue," said the former Victorian deputy police commissioner. He said while a taskforce would not be a "silver bullet" in overcoming all of the problems, it would improve the cultural and social understanding between the community and the authorities.

Youth worker Les Twentyman said while there were African gangs involved in crime and violence, there were also gangs from other ethnic origins such as Pacific Islanders and Lebanese. He said gangs were an escalating problem that would eventually lead to "no-go zones" in Melbourne if they were not properly addressed by police.

Inspector Scott Mahony, who handles multicultural policing issues in Melbourne's western suburbs, said Victoria Police was working on improving its rapport with the African community. He said a DVD was being produced "in their own language presented by people in their own community that will explain to them what is the role of police in the situation". Inspector Mahony said while he did not believe there was a problem with gangs, police needed to improve their understanding of African culture.

Jesuit Social Services chief Julie Edwards said her organisation, which has worked with the African communities in Flemington for more than two years, had seen no evidence such gangs existed. While boredom and unemployment affected some young Africans in the area, she said, "I haven't seen that translated to violence".

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Another unused government medical facility

A private business that acted like this would quickly go broke

An operating theatre in one of Queensland's busiest hospitals sits idle four years after being built, while waiting lists for surgery grow. The purpose-built "E1" theatre has never been used since the new Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane was rebuilt in 2002.

The State Government is considering a bid from the Australian Medical Association Queensland to set up a brokerage system to cut waiting lists by arranging for patients to have publicly-funded surgery at private hospitals. Meanwhile, the operating theatre on the fourth floor of the hospital in Woolloongabba continues to gather dust.

After being contacted by The Sunday Mail, a Princess Alexandra spokesman said the "E1" operating theatre would be brought into use next month. But Opposition health spokesman John-Paul Langbroek said it was "a travesty" that it had taken so long to begin operations in the theatre while thousands of people were on waiting lists. "It seems to be a recurring theme with certain areas within Queensland Health that there's inefficient use of expensive resources," he said. "This is a classic example. There are people writing to my office and contacting me - people whose parents have had operations cancelled three or four times."

The latest available figures for the June to September 2006 quarter showed the number of people waiting for elective surgery had grown in 12 months from 34,641 to 35,665. Those needing urgent operations had blown out 45 per cent and the list for semi-urgent surgery grew by 65 per cent. Health Minister Stephen Robertson argued that the system was more efficient than in the past and that any growth in waiting lists was due to the large number of people moving to Queensland.

The Sunday Mail first revealed 17 months ago that the "E1" operating theatre was being used as a storeroom. Hospital officials said at the time it was not needed. After being contacted by The Sunday Mail last week, a hospital spokesman said: "The theatre is due to have cases put through it in February this year. "It will be used mainly for liver surgery." The spokesman said it was the last operating theatre to be brought into commission and any further growth would require the construction of new facilities.

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Greenie dam-hatred imposes huge costs on householders

Melburnians are drilling bores in their backyards to pump groundwater for gardens and lawns. As stage 3 water restrictions enter the second week, desperate Melburnians are paying up to $20,000 to drill bores into aquifers to secure water. Drillers have received hundreds of phone inquiries since the restrictions came into force on January 1.

Gardens can be watered only twice a week with a dripper system or hand-held trigger-nozzle hoses at limited times, while watering lawns remains banned.

Melbourne's groundwater is managed by Southern Rural Water, which has been inundated with requests for bore licences across the state during the past year. To drill a bore for domestic use, residents must apply for a licence, which costs $510 and can take up to a month to receive because of the demand.

Thomastown bore driller Barry Scriven said people were willing to spend whatever it took to secure water. "We have had to stop answering the phone because it's too busy," he said. It costs about $200 a metre to drill for a bore. Water in some areas can be 10m deep, but others are 50 or 100m down. "If you asked people 10 years ago to spend $15,000 on water for the garden they would have thought you were crazy," Mr Scriven said. Not all areas of Melbourne would be able to access good quality water with salinity a problem in some areas of Melbourne, including some eastern suburbs.

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Standards being rediscovered in West Australian schools

Apparently a response to great public dissatisfaction with previous "postmodernist" policies

The WA Government could banish unruly public school students to special units, under tough new discipline measures. Education Minister Mark McGowan said he would look at setting up the units later this year as part of moves to improve order in state schools. He also wants students to wear traditional uniforms, including blazers and ties.

The Minister insisted he was not trying to be heavy-handed. But he said he was concerned that one or two disruptive students could spoil a classroom. "I just want to ensure that parents can send their kids to government schools which have pride and offer a safe, disciplined learning environment,'' he said. "I think that's what parents want. "I don't want to expel students. Every student has a right to an education and I want kids to go to school until they're 17.

"But, certainly, we can look at alternative education options for seriously disruptive students where they won't be able to disrupt classrooms. And I would want to do this later this year. "We can look at having special reintegration units, where we take the most difficult students out of classes and make sure they are intensively managed by professionals trained to deal with such problems.'' He said that in regional areas the units could be on school premises. In the metropolitan area, there could be separate facilities. "It's also not fair on students who don't fit into a normal school environment to have to continue in a place where they don't learn anything,'' he said. "So this would help those students, as well.''

Mr McGowan also said he did not want state schools to emulate their US counterparts, which had poor quality uniforms, causing image problems. WA schools can choose their own uniforms within certain parameters, such as restrictions on wearing denim, which started this year. "But I would certainly encourage schools, particularly at a high school level, to go for more traditional styles of uniform,'' he said. "This would be button-up shirts, blazers and even ties for boys. And for female students, proper dresses and skirts and blouses. "I won't force schools to do this because I know one size can't fit all in WA because of different weather conditions, but they should do it where possible. "I think a decent uniform shows that the students have pride in their school. It represents to parents a sense of discipline and it helps teachers identify any intruders in the school. "And it's often a cheaper option where you don't have the fashion contests that have sometimes gone on when we've had a bit more of a liberal uniform policy in the past.''

He said presentation was "incredibly important'' in encouraging parents to send their children to public schools. "The appearance of young people is an important part of that overall presentation,'' he said. "And just having pride in your appearance and your school would improve the behaviour of students. "I want public schools to be excellent and I want them to be able to compete with private schools and attract parents on the basis of choice.''

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