Curtain rises on music of night

Brett Budgeon as the Phantom and Allison Farrow as Christine. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

THE Phantom of the Opera is here, with the curtain going up on the big-budget Tasmanian premiere at Hobart's Theatre Royal tonight.

With bigger box-office returns than Titanic or Star Wars, Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of The Phantom of the Opera is the most successful piece of entertainment of all time.

It has been seen by an estimated 130 million people around the world, and more than 10,000 patrons from across Tasmania and interstate are expected to attend the Hobart production over the next two weeks.

The spectacular show -- which involves 130 cast, crew and orchestra members on any given night -- is expected to pump an estimated $2 million into the local economy.

Directed by Ingrid Ganley, the show stars Brett Budgeon as The Phantom and Allison Farrow as Christine, plus a cast of almost 40 Tasmanian singers, dancers and actors including Andrew Short, Lisa Roberts-Scott, Nick Monk, Andrew Hickman and Christopher Thomas.

Craig Wellington Productions and The Tasmanian Theatre Unit Trust present The Phantom of the Opera at the Theatre Royal until August 24. Tickets are $92-$99, phone 6233 2299 or go to the Theatre Royal website.

kane.young@news.com.au

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Abbott pledges jobs incentive

Tony Abbott, centre, with State Liberal leader Will Hodgman, left, and Braddon Liberal candidate Brett Whiteley announces his jobs plan for Tasmania. Pictures:CHRIS KIDD

TASMANIAN jobseekers are being targeted by the Coalition, with Tony Abbott unveiling a plan to hire long-term unemployed.

As new figures revealed Tasmania's unemployment at a decade-high 8.4 per cent, with 21,000 people out of work, the Opposition Leader yesterday announced a $6.5 million pilot scheme to create 2000 jobs in the state, by paying businesses $250 a fortnight for six months if they employ a long-term dole recipient.

Campaigning in Devonport, Mr Abbott said his plan would be available to Tasmanians who had been on the Newstart Allowance for six months or more. He said the employer would be paid $250 a fortnight after the first six months, giving workers greater job security.

"We don't want them just to be taken on and dumped once the subsidy ends," said Mr Abbott.

"That's why we have said you have got to employ them for six months before the subsidy starts and then the subsidy will continue for another six months."

"By the time they have been employed for 12 months ... they are fully trained, inculturated and part of a team in a particular business."

The national unemployment rate was stuck at an almost four-year high of 5.7 per cent.

Earlier in the day in Launceston, at a function with State Opposition Leader Will Hodgman, Mr Abbott raised eyebrows when he said Tasmania needed to be made a "special economic zone".

"Will and I know that Tasmania really needs to be made a special economic zone, because we have got to lift this state from being one of the economic also-rans to being an economic powerhouse in our nation," he said.

The statement was interpreted as meaning the introduction of tax advantages and the relocation of Federal Government departments, as Mr Abbott proposed when he announced his plan for a northern Australia special economic zone in February.

By mid-afternoon, however, Mr Abbott was back-pedalling, saying he had meant a "special effort to recognise Tasmania's special circumstances".

"When I say that I want to put a special effort into boosting Tasmania's economy, it has got nothing to do with anything which might have been proposed for northern Australia," he said.

Labor yesterday described Mr Abbott's Tasmania plan as a "Band-Aid", saying the Federal Government's Wage Connect scheme would offer more money and more opportunity for long-term job creation.

Regional Australia Minister Catherine King queried Mr Abbott's commitment to Wage Connect and initiatives such as the forest peace deal.

Braddon MP Sid Sidebottom accused the Coalition leader of trampling on the state's reputation.

Mr Sidebottom said references to it being an economic also-ran were insulting.

"The Rudd Labor Government understands our state faces economic challenges and is already working hard to help diversify the local economy and help to create jobs," he said.

"This state has a great future as an equal member of the Commonwealth of Australia."

Economist Saul Eslake said last night Tasmania's latest jobless figures indicated the state was in recession-like conditions.

Mr Eslake said the participation rate -- the number of people in work or actively seeking a job -- at 55.4 per cent was the lowest since November 2004.

"The position is not good but the decline in the currency may be of some assistance to trade-exposed manufacturing, agriculture and tourism," he said.

"There are some signs that the falling interest rates may be filtering through to the housing sector."

Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Michael Bailey said measures proposed at this week's Jobs Forum would help employment if immediate action was taken.

"We require long-term strategies that will make it easier to do business and ensure we are productive," Mr Bailey said.

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Campaign to get Lily walking

LILY Parremore has only the 12th known Australian case of the rare Pallister-Killian Syndrome.

Because of her chromosomal disorder, 22-month-old Lily is only able to sit and play for short periods. She is unable to walk, crawl or roll over without help.

Lily's family is trying to raise funds for a Kid Gait Walker to help teach her to walk.

Parents Amy Males and Tim Parremore have been told Lily has the brain capacity of an eight or nine-month-old child. She was not diagnosed with PKS until she was about three weeks old.

"One of the hardest things is not knowing what to expect. Some children with the same thing learn to walk, some don't. You can't predict it," Ms Males said.

"The Royal Hobart Hospital have been great but in her short life Lily has had four different paediatricians which makes it difficult especially as what she has is so rare.

"There have been countless paediatrician visits. She has regular EEG [brain activity scans] because of seizures."

The young family is being helped by family friends who have set up a Facebook page Luv 4 Lily and are running a charity auction to raise funds for Lily's walker.

"We are grateful for the generosity of many local businesses and people. We also sold some fund raising chocolates to purchase a 'second skin' to help her development," Ms Males said.

To donate an item or voucher to be auctioned for Lily call 6230 0443.
The online auction will be on Sunday and details can be found at The Luv 4 Lily Facebook page.

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Cuts raise business hopes

HOME loan customers are celebrating after the big banks passed on the Reserve Bank's 0.25 per cent cut to official interest rates yesterday.

Three of the four major banks shrugged off recent tardiness to announce they would cut their standard variable home loans, after the RBA slashed the official rate to a record low 2.50 per cent.

The savings provided a sweetener for Tasmania's ailing economy, with the building industry, small business and the retail sector welcoming the move.

NAB and the Commonwealth Bank passed on the full 0.25 per cent cut, but Westpac went further, with a 0.28 per cent reduction.

The ANZ is expected to announce its move on Friday.

NAB's new standard variable home loan is 5.88 per cent, the CBA's 5.90 per cent and Westpac's 5.98 per cent. ANZ's current rate is 6.13 per cent.

The latest cut -- the eighth RBA reduction since November 2011 when the official rate was 4.50 per cent -- will deliver a monthly saving of $45 on the average $300,000 home loan.

Hopes were also raised by analysts' predictions of a cut before the end of the year.

Premier Lara Giddings said it would give households the confidence to spend more and help to stimulate job creation.

"Cutting interest rates is a proven way of stimulating the economy," Ms Giddings said.

The Housing Industry Association predicted the latest cut would kickstart a fledgling residential construction recovery.

HIA senior economist Shane Garrett said borrowers had enjoyed significant savings over the past 2½ years.

"On a $500,000 mortgage with 30-year term, the monthly repayments have fallen from $3300 in January 2011 to $2679 today," Mr Garrett said.

Real Estate Institute of Tasmania president Adrian Kelly said the cut would boost confidence in the property market.

"Our March quarter showed the largest increase in volume of sales for some time, so a reduction in interest rates will reinforce that," Mr Kelly said.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said he expected business confidence to rise.

"Businesses will be looking for further falls in exchange rates to help lift competitiveness," Mr Willox said.

Master Builders Tasmania executive director Michael Kerschbaum said it was good news for people building or renovating and was hopeful of a boost to the subdued building approval figures of 2012-13.

"We think it could help bring about a pick-up across the broader property sector and lift construction in 2013-14," Mr Kerschbaum said.

Tasmanian Small Business Council executive officer Robert Mallett called on the banks to pass on the savings to credit card holders as well.

"There are a significant number of businesses which use credit cards instead of overdraft and they are paying 20.5 per cent," Mr Mallett said.

"It is important credit card interest rates are cut."

The rate cut was not good news for self-funded retirees.

"For those living on interest income, it will not be welcome," said Association of Independent Retirees national director Rob Cleary.

"In general terms people have recognised the downward trend and have taken any action they can."

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State's hospital horror

ALMOST four patients a day on average waited for more than 24 hours to get a hospital bed in Tasmania's public emergency departments, new figures reveal.

The Mercury last week revealed 169 Royal Hobart Hospital emergency department patients a year waited more than 24 hours to get a bed -- but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

New figures for the state's four public hospitals show 1348 patients had to wait a day or more during 2011-2012. The Launceston General Hospital was clearly the worst, with 1152 patients waiting 24 hours or more for a hospital bed.

The figures from 2011-12 were the most recent available but the department said work was being done to improve the hospitals with major infrastructure upgrades at the LGH and RHH under way.

The most recent statistics follow figures, reported by the Mercury last week, that showed the longest time that patients in Tasmania's four public hospitals waited to get a bed last year was between 30 and 159 hours.

The statistics again prompted calls from the Australian Nursing Federation and Opposition health spokesman Jeremy Rockliff for more hospital beds to be opened up to cater for demand in the emergency department.

The latest figures released to the Mercury yesterday show that of the 48,394 presentations to the LGH emergency department, 29.5 per cent were admitted to the hospital.

But about one in eight of those patients waited more than 24 hours for a hospital bed.

Figures from the North West Regional Hospital in Burnie (where 16 had to stay in the emergency department more than 24 hours before admission), the Mersey Community Hospital (where there were 11) and the RHH (169) paled in comparison to the LGH.

The chairman of the three Tasmanian Health Organisations, Graeme Houghton, said emergency department performance was improving.

"All ED patients are in safe hands receiving appropriate clinical care while waiting for admission to a hospital bed," Mr Houghton said.

"The LGH has always provided appropriate care in an appropriate clinical environment.

"Waiting for admission to a hospital bed is regrettable which is why we are working to further improve ED performance with significant investment from both state and federal governments, including at the Launceston General Hospital."

matthew.smith@news.com.au

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Robbery at TOTE

A 38-YEAR-OLD Glenorchy man has been arrested by police after a brazen daylight robbery at the TOTE agency at Moonah yesterday.

The bearded man was captured on CCTV as he had a conversation with an attendant.

Police say the man threatened a female attendant at 10.40am before fleeing with cash.

The man was held in custody overnight and will appear in court today charged with one count of robbery.

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Taking the plunge for charity

GOING over the top in the name of charity is all in a day's policing for Commissioner Darren Hine.

Next month, Mr Hine will join 60 others to abseil down Wrest Point Casino's 60m tower to raise funds for Royal Hobart Hospital's Research Foundation.

Although it had been three decades since his last rappelling experience, Mr Hine looked like an old hand as he descended the casino's 17 storeys at yesterday's preview of The Edge fundraiser, to be held at 11am on August 25.

"I usually prefer my feet to be firmly on the ground, but this is a great opportunity to do something different while raising money for a very important cause," he said, before approaching the tower's rooftop ledge.

Also taking the plunge yesterday was Hutchins principal Warwick Dean, who invited sponsors to come forward and help "heave the headmaster".

RHH Research Foundation CEO Heather Francis said all funds raised from The Edge would directly support medical research projects undertaken by doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.

"The foundation is supporting 10 projects this year, but if more funds had been available, an additional 20 worthy projects could have been supported," she said.

For more details, rhhresearchfoundation.org

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Hatchet attacker paroled

A SCHOOLBOY who tried to kill a fellow student in a hatchet attack is set to be released from youth detention four years after being imprisoned for attempted murder.

The 19-year-old, who has served half of an eight-year sentence, has been granted parole and will be released on Monday.

In 2009, when he was 15, he repeatedly hit a Bridgewater High student on the back of the head with a hatchet and left her to die in bushland by the River Derwent.

Then Chief Justice Ewan Crawford said it was a chilling and horrific crime.

The boy -- who cannot be named as he is a youth offender -- boasted he had killed the girl.

His victim, who was not found until the next day, was in hospital for three months and will suffer the effects of the attack for the rest of her life.

The boy was sentenced to eight years in jail with a minimum term of four years -- which expired on March 18.

He recently applied to the Parole Board for release.

"I was 15 years old when I committed the crime of attempted murder," he told the board.

"I committed the crime out of adolescent stupidity, a troubled frame of mind and a narcissistic personality. I had a complete lack of emotions, a serious lack of empathy and I had an unhealthy sense of self-worth.

"Since coming to Ashley Youth Detention Centre I have attended extensive sessions with a psychologist, these sessions have spanned over my entire detention period to date.

"The time spent with a psychologist has been the major turning point, not just in my life, but in my entire attitude and thought process."

In his report to the board, clinical psychologist Damien Minehan said the risks of the boy reoffending were offset by good family support, plans for further study and the extensive psychological therapy he received during his sentence.

In its written determination, the board said: "At the time of his offending the applicant was young, with the majority of his life still ahead of him. In the last four years of his sentence he has been able to mature, access significant psychological therapy and improve his prospects by engagement in education."

david.killick@news.com.au

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More forest action ahead

ENVIRONMENTAL groups have vowed to continue protests despite calls from Greens Leader Nick McKim to give forest peace a chance.

Green groups have rejected Mr McKim's calls, in the Sunday Tasmanian yesterday, to stop protests in the lead-up to a final tick of approval from the state's Upper House for new forest reserves under the Tasmanian Forest Agreement (TFA).

Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson Miranda Gibson said environmentalists could not afford to stop protest action.

"For years Tasmania waited for a promised moratorium on our forests and in the meantime lost significant tracts of irreplaceable world heritage and high conservation value forests," Ms Gibson said yesterday.

"We question why Nick McKim is calling now for a moratorium on protests, instead of calling for an end to the destruction of Tasmania's native forests.

"The real risk is that if we allow this legislation to silence us, if we stop campaigning for the forests, Tasmania is poised to lose vast tracts of native forests while the taxpayer-funded industry is given free rein."

Ms Gibson said community campaigns have always provided checks and balances, "holding the industry to account for destructive practices".

Huon Valley Environment spokeswoman Jenny Weber said Mr McKim and environmental signatories to the agreement had been "greenmailed".

"If secure legislated protection is not granted to forests, it will be the fault of those legislative councillors who designed the Bill to fail, the politicians who supported that mutated Bill, wherein protection to forests is granted if campaigns are silenced, among other 'greenmail' clauses and the signatories to this Agreement."

Opposition Leader Will Hodgman said Mr McKim's "panicked calls for a temporary ceasefire in the forests ... have zero credibility".

"If Nick McKim was genuinely committed to 'peace' in the forests, he would be calling for the protests to end, full stop," he said.

Tasmania's Upper House will need to be satisfied that a number of conditions, including a halt to serious market attacks by protesters and promised wood supplies, have been adhered to before ticking off on the first of 392,237ha of reserves to be created under the agreement.

matthew.smith@news.com.au

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Waste boss blasts scare tactics

UNOFFICIAL: One of the signs warning about water quality due to the Copping C Cell waste facility. Picture: KIM EISZELE

PROPONENTS of the proposed Copping C Cell waste facility east of Hobart have asked that signs making claims about it be removed from local beaches.

Signs have been placed close to the water in the Dodges Ferry and Carlton Beach areas in recent days claiming it may contain heavy metals.

The signs say the presence of any heavy metals would be "due to a controlled release of stormwater from the Copping landfill site during recent high rainfall".

Southern Waste Solutions chief executive Christine Bell said the signs appeared to be another attempt at scare tactics to thwart the Copping C Cell plan.

"I can't see they have got any thing to gain by it," she said.

"It is just another in a string of stunts based on incorrect information.

"It strikes me as counter-productive."

Ms Bell said she had contacted Sorell Council to have the signs removed.

Mayor Kerry Vincent could not be contacted for comment yesterday.

Southern Waste Solutions, a joint authority for the Sorell, Kingborough, Clarence and Tasman councils, has been granted Environmental Protection Authority and development approval to build a 300,000m³ Category C landfill cell at Copping.

The cell, the first of its type in Tasmania, will take hazardous materials from places like Antarctica and the old railyards site on the Hobart waterfront.

The plan has angered residents, who say the project has been rushed through without adequate consideration of the environmental impacts and alternatives.

Ms Bell said yesterday a detailed plan would be drawn up in January in preparation for construction of the facility by about the middle of next year.

matthew.smith@news.com.au

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