MONTAGE: ANDREW TAYLOR
ODD SPOT
A 2000-year-old Roman coin redis-
covered in a British vault has
shown that the Egyptian queen
Cleopatra was not the fabled
beauty of legend. The 32BC coin
shows her with a pointed chin, thin
lips and sharp nose.
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WEATHER
Melbourne Late showers. Top 31
Tomorrow Fine 36
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Details NEWS 24
Channel project faces massive cost blow-out
Future tense: A dredger at work in Port Phillip Bay in 2005.
PICTURE: CRAIG ABRAHAM
By LIZ MINCHIN
ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
EXCLUSIVE
Continued NEWS 2
LINKS
www.channelproject.com
www.bluewedges.org
THE cost of deepening Port Phil-
lip Bays shipping channel could
blow out to almost $1 billion,
more than double the original
estimate made three years ago.
Sources have told The Age
that they expect the projects
costs to balloon following a new
environmental impact study sub-
mitted to the State Government.
One industry source who has
been briefed on the new report,
and who supports deepening the
bays shipping channels, told The
Age he believed the final cost of
the project was likely to be closer
to $1 billion. If they get away
with $1 billion theyll do bloody
well, he said.
Liberal
ports
spokesman
Denis Napthine went further,
saying that based on his dis-
cussions with industry contacts
he now believed the project
would cost more than $1 billion.
Industry groups have long
argued that the project is vital for
Victorias economy to enable big
ships to reach Melbourne. But it
has run into fierce opposition
from bayside residents and
environmentalists.
In July 2004, the Port of Mel-
bourne estimated the project
would cost $400 million, but by
September that year it had
climbed to $545 million. The
most recent official estimate is
$580 million.
But several sources have told
The Age that the extra costs
outlined in the supplementary
environment effects statement,
now being assessed by the Gov-
ernment, will be far higher.
The editor of shipping indus-
try newspaper Lloyds List DCN,
Sandy Galbraith, said: There is
not a snowballs chance in hell of
this costing $575 million. The
supplementary environmental
effects statement alone has cost
$70 million and we havent even
touched the project.
Responding to those claims,
Port of Melbourne chief execu-
tive Stephen Bradford denied a
blow-out to $1 billion, but would
not comment on how much
higher the revised cost would be,
other than to say it was a man-
ageable figure. He added: The
port is not secretive. We will put
all that before the public.
It is unclear who would bear
the brunt of any cost blow-out.
The project will be largely funded
by the Port of Melbourne, a
statutory corporation, which will
levy shipping companies. There
is a danger that if the levy is too
high, business could be forced to
other Australian ports.
Port users also want the State
Government to help fund what
they argue is essential public
infrastructure.
Plans to dredge the bay were
put on hold in early 2005, when
an independent panel ruled that
the Port of Melbourne had failed
to answer basic questions about
INSIDE
New US
military
base in
Australia
By BRENDAN NICHOLSON
FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT
EXCLUSIVE
Continued NEWS 2
AUSTRALIAS close military
alliance with the United States is
to be further entrenched with the
building of a new, high-tech
communications station in West-
ern Australia.
The Howard Government is
set to give the go-ahead to the
base after three years of secret
negotiations with Washington.
To be built on defence land at
Geraldton, the base will provide
a crucial link for a new network
of military satellites that will help
Americas ability to fight wars in
the Middle East and Asia.
Other new Australian bases to
support the US satellite network
could also be built at various
locations, the Government has
confirmed.
The Geraldton ground station
will be the first significant new
US military installation to be
built in Australia in decades, and
follows controversies over other
bases such as Pine Gap and
North West Cape.
The deal has come to light
amid heightened political debate
in Australia over the military
alliance with the US, sparked by
the Iraq war, and in the same
week that the US finally told Aus-
tralia it would not allow it to buy
its best fighter aircraft, the F-22
Raptor.
The new base, about 370 kilo-
metres north of Perth, will
control two of five geostationary
satellites those with the high-
est priority parked over the
Indian Ocean to monitor the
unstable Middle East. Building
may start within months.
Visiting fellow at the Austra-
lian Defence Force Academy
Philip Dorling said that once the
base was operating, it would be
almost impossible for Australia
to be fully neutral or stand back
from any war in which the US
was involved.
The network will be the
By MICHELLE GRATTAN
POLITICAL EDITOR
CANBERRA
Continued PAGE 11
OPPOSITION Leader Kevin Rudd
has for the first time spelt out his
preferred strategy for an Ameri-
can military withdrawal from
Iraq, adding to pressure on Prime
Minister John Howard as the two
leaders battle for ascendancy on
the issue.
Mr Rudd, having previously
declined to be drawn on what
policy the US should adopt, said
a staged withdrawal was the best
way to ensure Iraq did not turn
into
a
strategic
defeat
for
Washington.
Responding to Mr Howards
claim that he lacked the guts to
say what would happen in the
event of a withdrawal, Mr Rudd
sought to turn the attack back on
the Prime Minister.
While acknowledging that
military defeat of the US would
be not good for the United
States global prestige, Mr Rudd
said: Guts and courage lies in
telling the Australian people
whats his (Mr Howards) strat-
egy for winning the war.
There is now a parallel politi-
cal divide in Australia and
America, with Mr Rudd sharing
the position of many Democrats
in the US urging staged with-
drawal, and Mr Howard dug in
behind President George Bush.
Mr Howard declared that a
US withdrawal in circumstances
depicted as a defeat would be
catastrophic, a sentiment also
put strongly yesterday by the US
ambassador to Australia, Robert
McCallum.
The Howard-Rudd battle over
Iraq raged through the day inside
and outside Parliament, as the
Government tried to turn it into
a character test of Mr Rudd and
each man questioned the others
courage.
Mr McCallum declared a US
withdrawal before the Iraqis
could provide for their own
security would have dire conse-
quences. The current sectarian
violence would likely turn into a
bloodbath with increased retali-
atory violence and loss of life,
he told the National Press Club.
Additional
adverse
conse-
quences outside Iraq, including
the Asia-Pacific island region,
also have to be considered.
But the ambassador refused
to buy into the row arising from
Mr Howards weekend attack on
Democratic presidential aspirant
Barack Obama over his advocacy
of a US withdrawal by March
2008. That triggered this weeks
wider debate, as Mr Howard
under fire at home and in the US,
sought to turn the heat on Mr
Rudd.
As soon as Parliament con-
vened yesterday, Mr Rudd tried
to move a motion condemning
Mr Howards lack of guts and
courage in rejecting his chal-
lenge for a televised debate on
Iraq. The Government immedi-
ately gagged him.
In the US, a body of opinion
said a staged withdrawal of US
troops was the only way to bring
pressure on rival Sunnis and
Shiites who are currently ripp-
ing each other apart and ripping
the country apart, he said.
Challenged by Mr Rudd to
spell out his Iraq exit strategy, Mr
Howard said: Our strategy is to
create the circumstances of stab-
ility by staying until the job is
done so that the Iraqi security
forces can look after the security
of that country without foreign
assistance.
And our strategy is also to
avoid a precipitous withdrawal
and a withdrawal of American
forces in circumstances depicted
as defeat.
A humiliated, weakened
America . . . would be bad news
for the world and it would be bad
INSIDE
FEDERAL POLITICS
Hicks a ruthless fanatic, says
US ambassador NEWS 11
OPINION
Letters NEWS 16
Michael Gordon; Leslie Cannold;
Michael Gawenda NEWS 17
ONLINE
Has Kevin Rudd proved he has
the measure of John Howard?
Vote at theage.com.au
GRAND PRIX COST HIKE
The Grand Prix could cost
Victorian taxpayers an additional
$5 million this year, with sales of
corporate hospitality packages
falling because of the absence of
the V8 Supercars from the event.
NEWS 3
CHILDREN FARING BADLY
Australian children grow up in
poorer households, are more
likely to die in their first year of life
and suffer more fatal injuries than
children in many of the worlds
other rich nations.
NEWS 6
TEAMS REFUGEE VOW
Tanzanian swimmers in next
months world swimming cham-
pionships will have to commit to a
contract guaranteeing they will
not try to gain refugee status.
NEWS 9