Minister, show some heart

PRESSURE is building on new Immigration Minister Tony Burke to move teenage asylum-seekers out of the Pontville detention centre as soon as possible.

Labor senator Lisa Singh yesterday wrote to Mr Burke, urging him to place the centre's young unaccompanied detainees in the community.

Her comments added to a growing chorus of concern at the length of time the boys were being held in the detention centre outside Hobart.

National Children's Commissioner Megan Mitchell also said she had written to the Department of Immigration about the need for community-based detention.

Tasmanian Asylum Seeker Support spokeswoman Emily Conolan noted that young asylum-seekers were being removed from the offshore detention centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and she urged Mr Burke to do the same at Pontville, which holds up to 300 boys aged 13-18.

"I don't think the recreational areas and schooling are problems," she said. "The management is trying hard to improve things.

"The primary concern is the length of stay. It contributes to depression and the disturbances and upsets we've been hearing about."

Ms Conolan said the boys needed clear information about what was happening to them and a definite time limit on how long they would be kept in the detention centre.

"It is time to make some demands that the minister acts on that," she said.

The Mercury this week contacted Mr Burke's office numerous times for comment on the situation at Pontville, but received no response.

He did give an interview on ABC TV's Lateline on Wednesday night in which he discussed Pontville and the issue of children in detention.

"I've put a very direct focus on this from the day I got the portfolio," he said. "I become by law their legal guardian from the moment that I become the minister and I take the responsibility very seriously.

"The information that I'm getting hold of now is not how many are there but how long they have individually been there. If you have children being held for a longer period of time, then you have a very different welfare issue.

"But what I also want to make sure of is I don't deal with it in a blanket way that creates a different problem of creating an incentive so that the smuggling operations think, 'OK, what we need to do now is put unaccompanied minors on the boats'. If I did that, it would be fundamentally against the welfare of children."

Up to 1000 Tasmanian households have offered to accommodate the young detainees but Ms Conolan said this was a complex issue.

"The home-stay program was never intended for children," she said. "The responsibility of putting a child into a home is similar to foster care and it takes effort and time and is difficult to organise."

philip.heyward@news.com.au

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Crime up amid cuts

TASMANIA Police is predicting a jump in public place assaults and a drop in the number of crimes solved this financial year.

The service's Operational Performance Targets report for 2013-14 reveals police management has lowered benchmarks in several serious crime categories.

Police sources say this is a new low for the service, which is battling cutbacks to staff and resources.

The new targets allow for an extra 180 people to become victims of public place assaults this year. The target for crime-solving has dropped from the 75 per cent achieved in 2012-13 to 71 per cent.

And despite a recent crackdown on serious drug dealing, this year's benchmark allows police to catch 40 fewer offenders than last year.

"This is unheard of," a senior officer told the Mercury.

"It basically says we're giving up on crime and doing the minimum to comply with the department's budget requirements.

"There's a fundamental breakdown in the management of this organisation that many are finding hard to live with."

Police management stands by the new performance targets, with Acting Deputy Commissioner Donna Adams quick to dispel the suggestion that Tasmanians should expect more crime in the year ahead.

"The operational performance targets have been set to reflect our allocation of 1120 police officers," she said.

"Tasmania Police recorded a strong performance in several areas, including public place assaults and clearing crime last financial year.

"Some of the targets are lower than the 2012-13 performance because they are set against a three-year average -- not just the previous year's performance."

Deputy Commissioner Adams said this allowed for "trends and fluctuations".

Sources railing against the lowered benchmarks say police morale has dropped in line with the department's budget, which lost $16 million in savings measures over the past few years.

zara.dawtrey@news.com.au

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Public sector pay talks begin

NEGOTIATIONS begin today to decide the pay and conditions for 15,000 of the state's public sector workers for the next three years.

With the State Budget predicting consumer price index increases of 2.5 per cent a year, unions have signalled that their members expect increases of at least that amount to avoid real wages going backwards.

The enterprise bargaining negotiations have the potential to put further pressure on Tasmania's already tight finances.

An overwhelming majority of union members employed in the public sector have endorsed a log of claims that will form the basis of negotiations.

Community and Public Sector Union general secretary Tom Lynch today said the two per cent wage increases of recent years could not continue forever.

"Members have acknowledged the difficult financial circumstances Tasmania has been through by exercising wage restraint over the past two years," he said.

Health and Community Services Union assistant secretary Tim Jacobson said unions would work with the Government to try to achieve a satisfactory result without blowing the budget.

"In the claim they are saying that wages can't continue to fall in real terms but are also putting forward the measures that will make the savings needed to deliver decent wage outcomes," he said.

Premier Lara Giddings said the Government would negotiate with the seven unions involved in the process in good faith.

"The State Government is committed to working constructively with the CPSU to progress the broad range of issues contained within the log of claims," she said.

Ms Giddings has promised a memorandum of understanding to enshrine shared values and principles to guide the development of a modern and productive public service

"A number of these issues are also relevant to the separate discussions we will be having with public sector unions to progress the memorandum of understanding I outlined at the Labor State Conference at the weekend.

"It is my intention to sign a MoU before the next election that enshrines a shared set of values and principles to underpin a modern adaptive workforce and the delivery of high quality services."

Negotiations over the public sector agreement are expected to take up to three months.

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Sick walker flown to RHH

THE Westpac Police Rescue helicopter has airlifted a sick walker from the Overland Track.

Tasmania Police Sergeant Paul Steane said the 21-year-old Launceston woman became ill while walking the 65km-long track in the Cradle Mt-Lake St Clair National Park.

Together with her partner, the woman was picked up from the Kia Ora Hut in the Cradle Mountain region earlier today.

"She was treated at the scene by Ambulance Tasmania staff and then flown … to the Royal Hobart Hospital in a satisfactory condition," Sgt Steane said.

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Bid to catch wood thieves

THE Parks and Wildlife Service has enlisted some high-tech help in the fight against the age-old scourge of illegal wood cutting.

People engaging in the practice of illegally taking wood from the state's parks and reserves have been put on notice: beware, the trees have eyes.

Dozens of carefully hidden remote cameras are watching areas where wood thieves have felled trees -- heedless of the habitat destruction, erosion and property damage their unlawful activities cause.

PWS state compliance co-oordinator Justin Helmich said the seasonal surge of wood theft was in full swing and covert surveillance was already showing results as a dozen cases worked their way through the courts.

Mr Helmich said hundreds of trees had been removed from reserve land in recent years, causing great damage, cost and inconvenience to the parks service as well as landholders.

Among the areas hit by wood-hookers were the Meehan Range nature recreation area, the Gravelly Ridge conservation area and Seven Mile Beach public reserve.

Mr Helmich said some thieves were taking trees to fuel their own fires, but others were dodgy commercial firewood sellers.

"With power prices increasing, we've noticed an increase in it in the last 12 to 18 months," he said.

"We get a large amount of what we consider to be commercial wood theft from within the reserves as well, but that's usually noted by the fact that people are returning again and again.

"We use cameras fairly heavily. A lot of reserves have neighbours as well, so we get fair bit of information and intelligence from neighbours and we have people out doing patrols."

Environment Parks and Heritage Minister Brian Wightman said cutting down a tree in a reserve carried a maximum fine of $65,000 or two year's jail and having or using a chainsaw in such an area attracted a fine of up to $2600.

"Taking wood from a reserve not only threatens the natural and recreational value of the area but impacts on habitat for native animals," he said.

"It is that classic situation where, if everyone who wanted firewood simply plundered their local park or reserve, the very values that make them such popular recreation areas would be totally trashed."

Mr Wightman said Parks officers would be patrolling known wood theft hotspots as well as conducting joint operations with Tasmania Police to ensure roadside wood sellers' supplies were legitimate.

david.killick@news.com.au

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Carey passes on life lessons

FORMER AFL star Wayne Carey has warned Tasmanian high school students of the dangers of giving in to temptations.

Carey, who threatened to become as famous for his off-field scandals as his performances for North Melbourne, confessed to Kings Meadows High School students yesterday that he was far from perfect.

"I was like Peter Pan the little boy who never grew up," he said.

"There are temptations, you will make mistakes."

Carey and retired Geelong star Ronnie Burns visited Kings Meadows, the only Tasmanian school to hold an indigenous sporting round to celebrate NAIDOC week. The celebration was seen as an opportunity to forge closer ties between indigenous communities and Australians of all backgrounds.

Carey, a co-host of Marngrook Footy Show, said when he went to school in Wagga Wagga, NSW, he had been "a shy kid" who loved sport.

"I was a skinny, scrawny kid, but I was always one to stick up for the kid who was picked on, who did not look the same, or not as trendy," he said.

Carey said if you recognised and accepted your mistakes, you could move on and become a better person.

bruce.mounster@news.com.au

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Crochet has Tassie hooked

CROCHET is making a comeback.

A growing number of Tasmanians are taking up the hobby, keen to make blankets and clothing the way their grandmothers did and create the trendy crocheted toys, high-fashion outfits and designer homewares they see in up-market boutiques and magazines.

At The Stash Cupboard in Hobart, crochet classes now outnumber knitting classes two-to-one, with many of the students aged in their 20s and 30s.

Sites like Facebook and YouTube are overflowing with how-to guides and forums, making it easier than ever to take up wool crafts.

The Stash Cupboard owner Penni Castellana said there had been a resurgence in knitting in the past decade, but crochet had boomed in recent months.

"Recently crochet has become more popular ... it's taking off all over the place," she said.

Howrah's Rebecca Spry, 30, was taught to knit as a child by her grandmother and rediscovered knitting and crochet as an adult.

She said it was a social hobby - enthusiasts get together weekly to crochet and chat at craft stores and cafes around Hobart, while others enjoy book clubs or dinner dates while they knit.

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Gourmet taste of cruising

AWARD-winning tourism operator Rob Pennicott is expanding his business to offer intimate luxury cruises to show the best of Tasmania's scenery and fresh produce.

The first of three new yellow boats, each costing $450,000, has arrived in Hobart, with custom charters now being offered for groups of up to 12 people.

It is the first time Pennicott Wilderness Journeys has run tours from the Hobart Waterfront. Currently, tours are run using two boats based on the Tasman Peninsula and four on Bruny Island. They carry a maximum of 43 passengers.

The new 11.3m Naiad rigid inflatable boats, which have a cruising speed of 50km/h and a top speed 90km/h, feature an enclosed cabin, leather seats and large awning windows.

A fold-down platform at the bow enables passengers to step on to the beach without getting their feet wet.

Mr Pennicott hopes to run seafood and champagne cruises featuring local produce and circumnavigations of Bruny Island, among other trips.

The boats were bought with the help of a Tasmanian Innovation and Investment Fund grant, enabling the project to be brought forward by three years.

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Brrr-other it's cold down there

COLD COMFORT: Maya Taylor, 12, and her brother Michael, 8, from Ferntree Gully, Victoria, try out some Antarctic clothing. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

FAMILIES rugged up to sample life in the freezer at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery's midwinter celebrations yesterday.

Visitors dressed in a selection of clothes worn by people who live and work in the extreme cold of Antarctica, as well as traditional outfits worn by the Inuit people of North America, made from arctic fox and caribou fur.

Learning and discovery manager Andy Baird said TMAG's third family open day encouraged people to engage with the exhibits.

"The cold weather clothes are real and were used in Antarctica," Mr Baird said.

"Now, after the $30 million redevelopment, the new museum is multi-generational for all the family with interactive displays."

The day attracted more than 3000 visitors who took in a variety of exhibits, including learning about the Tasmanian Aboriginal cultural tradition of mutton-birding.

Visitors chatted with award-winning children's book author Coral Tulloch, and a mobile puppet show delighted younger children.

Graeme McCormack brought his hurdy gurdy to life, playing Renaissance and medieval music.

The instrument originates from Central Europe with a history going back to the 11th century.

Richard Hale did experiments to show how sea ice melts at different temperatures to fresh water ice.

TMAG's family days will be on the last Sunday of every month.

roger.hanson@news.com.au

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Frank's birthday bonus

JOYOUS: Frank Gunn hangs out playing a Wii dancing game with his sister Rowena, 16, right, and her friend Tess Nettlefold, 17. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

TODAY is party time for Hobart's Frank Gunn.

The New Town teenager, born with Mowat-Wilson syndrome and its associated heart disease, epilepsy and bowel problems, turns 15 and will spend the day ten-pin bowling with friends and family.

But July 1 also means the start of the the National Disability Insurance Scheme trial, which Frank's mother, Megan, said could be the gift that lasts a lifetime.

Ms Gunn, who spoke to the Mercury in April about her hopes for the NDIS (since renamed DisabilityCare Australia), said she was confident the scheme would provide Frank with the quality of life most Australians take for granted.

"The difference is that Frank and I are now in the driver's seat," she said, after recently learning what the scheme would mean for them at a conference in Melbourne.

"No longer are we dictated to by what is available. Now they are asking us, 'what do you need to have a reasonable life'. And that's a very different way of thinking."

Ms Gunn said she and Frank were particularly encouraged by the scheme's flexibility, which gave clients the opportunity to tinker with their plans to find the option that best suited their needs.

The mother of three said she was realistic, not expecting overnight miracles from the scheme introduced earlier this year by then Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

But she said that long-term, her intellectually disabled son would have the substantially increased quality of life he deserved.

"I know he won't be going to the skate park, but he loves music, and would love to go to Salamanca to listen to the buskers or see a band with people his own age," she said.

"I want Frank to have as normal a life as he possibly can."

Ms Gunn described the introduction of the DisabilityCare Australia trial as exciting and empowering and said she and her son would no longer feel like second-class citizens with their increase in access and life choices.

And she described Frank turning 15 -- the eligibility age for the scheme --

"It's kind if exciting because now we have extra reason to celebrate," Ms Gunn said.

"Hopefully it is the start of a whole new way of living for Frank, and for us as a family."

duncan.abey@news.com.au

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Lotto luck pot of gold for Tassie

GOOD LUCK: Derwent Park Newsagency assistant Colleen Eyles and co-owner Glenn Commane at one of the luckiest places in Tasmania to buy a lotto ticket. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

IT was one of the biggest TattsLotto events of the year, and newsagents across the state yesterday reported they were flat out with customers hoping last night's $30 million Mid-Year Megadraw would make them instant millionaires.

And why not? Five Tasmanians have scored Division 1 prizes in TattsLotto so far this year, equating to more than $2.9 million in prizemoney.

According to Tatts, two Tassie suburbs share the Mid-Year Hotspot title -- Claremont and Devonport having both sold entries worth $832,269.66 in winnings this year.

Devonport has had the state's most winners since 2009, having sold four entries worth a total $3,756,819.45. The largest was $1,428,571.43.

In the south, Derwent Park ranks second, also with four winning entries. The largest was $1,363,636.37.

Last year 24 Australians began the new financial year as new millionaires after scoring an amazing $1.25 million each in the Mid-Year Megadraw.

Despite the large number of Tasmanian winners, many are reluctant to be identified. But they have wise words for those who get lucky.

John* was in his early 20s when he won $1.36 million in 2009 after buying a ticket at the Derwent Park Newsagency and says buying a house with his partner was his first priority.

He said the money had made everyday living easier and allowed him to be a stay-at-home dad.

He also bought a classic car but advised winners to lock their lump sum away in a bank for at least a month before spending any of it.

Derwent Park Newsagency struck gold in June last year when the Jones* family won $707,000. They have paid off their house, taken a few holidays and might retire early.

Stephen* described his $1 million win in 2009 as life-changing. From the proceeds of a ticket he bought from the Salamanca Newsagency, he travels every year, has invested in property and uses 10 per cent to spoil himself while living off the interest.

Caroline* won just over $380,000 in 2011 after buying a ticket at the Cove Hill Newsagency at Bridgewater. She invested it and cautions others to be careful who they tell.

Geoff* is still coming to terms with winning almost $970,000 18 months ago on a ticket bought at Winnings News and Lotto in Hobart. He warns others they will be overwhelmed by the options available to them.

* names changed

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Paddock to plate

MODERN FARMERS: Daniel Leesong with his wife Melanie and children, from left, Eleanor, 8, Noah, 4, Flynn, 7 months, Charles, 7, and George, 4, at his Cambridge property which he plans to develop. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

A HANDS-on farm tourism experience showcasing artisan cheese and chocolate makers, farm gate and pick-your-own stone fruit and berries is set to enhance the Coal River Valley's gastronomic reputation.

Leading Tasmanian tourism and hospitality players Daniel Leesong and Simon Currant plan to develop the boutique Coal River Farm, which Mr Leesong said would tap into a burgeoning worldwide demand, especially from Asia, for paddock-to-plate experiences.

"We want to celebrate the rich heritage of artisan production that Tasmania, and historically rural communities, have been known for," Mr Leesong said yesterday.

"We are proud residents of the Coal River Valley and love the community and its world-class produce. Bringing together people with traditional skills is what Coal River Farm is all about."

A development application for the small-scale, family-run operation is before Clarence Council.

Mr Leesong, a former Tourism Industry Council Tasmania chief executive and state director of the Australian Hotels Association, hopes to turn the first sod on the project within 12 months.

Features of Coal River Farm, which is being backed by local tourism figure Simon Currant, the man behind Cradle Mountain Lodge and Peppermint Bay, will include a restaurant, a 0.4-hectate hydroponic strawberry farm, peach and apricot orchards, a cheese cave incorporating private dining facilities, and family picnic areas.

Mr Leesong said the proposed farm was a major opportunity for tourism growth and would have particular appeal for Asian tourists.

"One of their key drivers is being able to see what is being produced and to pick it themselves and feel at one with that process," he said.

Tourism Industry Council Tasmania chief Luke Martin said the scale, location and innovative nature of the proposal represented a potential boon for the economy.

"If there was one particular development concept that captured where we want to go with food and wine from a tourism perspective in Tasmania, this is it," he said.

duncan.abey@news.com.au

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