By P Francis

HATTRICKS are an achievement usually scored by strikers on a football field. So when a city is named the most liveable city in the world by an independent panel for three successive years, then that city must be doing something right to receive such a rare accolade. Melbourne scored 97.5% for stability, healthcare, culture and infrastructure.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) latest rankings of 140 cities, the best ones to live in are Australia, Canada, Austria, Finland and New Zealand – except for Austria and Finland, it is no surprise the other three are huge immigration targets.

Following closely on the heels of Melbourne, were Vienna (97.4%) in Austria – the home of The Sound of Music –Vancouver (97.3%) and Toronto (97.2%), both in Canada, completing the top four. It is significant that four other Australian cities were in the top 10: Adelaide (96.6%) was 5^th again (jointly with Calgary in Canada), Sydney 7^th and Perth 9^th. It is also remarkable that Canada has three in the top 10. Helsinki in Finland was 8^th, while Auckland in New Zealand rounded off the top 10.

In Asia, Osaka in Japan managed 12^th; Tokyo, Japan 18^th; Beijing, China 74^th; Mumbai, India 116^th. So where was Singapore? Research, unfortunately, could not unearth anything on the island republic, which was ranked by Business Traveller Asia-Pacific last year as “the most livable city in both Asia-Pacific and the world. Within Asia-Pacific, the Lion City is followed closely by Kobe and Hong Kong.”

As expected, prominent Melbournians waxed lyrical about the city’s latest achievement. They pointed to the heritage architecture, lovely gardens and parks, hub of arts and culture, beaches and the string of major events hosted by Marvellous Melbourne. Often dubbed the ‘Sporting Capital of The Word’, it is home to Formula 1 motor racing, Australian Open Grand Slam tennis and the Melbourne Cup – a horse race that stops the nation on the first Tuesday every November.

Add to that the multicultural precincts, such as Carlton, Richmond, Springvale and Boxhill, which offer distinct flavours in cuisine and shopping. The friendly people living in harmony, well-planned streets and expressways, trams, trains and buses are vital ingredients in a success story.

Jumping on the bandwagon were an exuberant Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, Tourism Minister Louise Asher and former premier Jeff Kennett – all singing a litany of praises in rare accord about how easy it was to sell the attractions of the Victorian capital that they love: from the fine hotels to the exhibition venues and sports stadiums.

The Herald Sun reported that Lord Mayor Robert Doyle had said continuing to drive down crime and an underground rail line linking North Melbourne to Domain on St Kilda Rd were crucial to retain liveability status. “Overall it is a remarkable testament to our remarkable city,” Cr Doyle said. “That doesn’t mean there are things we can’t improve.”

Meanwhile, The Advertiser in Adelaide trumpeted that the South Australian capital has overtaken Sydney as one of the world’s most liveable cities, with recent major infrastructure boosting its international profile. Economist Intelligence Unit survey editor Jon Copestake said from London that just 1.6% separated the five Aussie cities surveyed. “’Australian cities continue to thrive in terms of liveability; not only do they benefit from the natural advantages of low population density, but they have continued to improve with some high profile infrastructure investments.”

The release of the EIU rankings has been criticised by the New York Times for being too anglocentric in that “The Economist clearly equates livability with speaking English.” This view may have been goaded by the fact that the best US cities in the survey were far down the list with Honolulu 26^th and Pittsburgh at 30^th!

The rankings also had the worst city as Damascus (Syria), followed by Tehran (Iran) and Douala (Cameroon). Obviously, cities with war and acute poverty scored very poorly in the survey.

Make no mistake about it, the EIU assessments are not geared to find heaven on earth. On the contrary, they source the ideal places where there is an array of goods and services easily available, effective infrastructure and low personal risk. What is not included is the cost of living.

Yet, more immigrants are arriving Down Under, particularly in Melbourne. Asad Sheikh, of Indian Spice Pavilion in Scoresby Village, was born in India. He moved to Singapore from 2002 to 2008 before emigrating with his family to Australia and is in the process of taking up citizenship. He said that, despite working as a chef in Singapore’s four- and five-star hotels, the lure of Australia was too much to resist: “I wanted better education for my children and a peaceful lifestyle, so I came to Melbourne. I am now building a new house for my family.”

Having lived in the world’s No. 1 city for 23 years, I have seen the Melbourne sprawl extend from a radius of about 30km from the CBD to about 40km. Outer suburbs in the south-east, such as Ferntree Gully, Boronia, Wantirna, Rowville and Dandenong were considered in ‘the sticks’ (rural). Today, property in these areas have more than tripled in price as the newer suburbs of Berwick, Narre Warren, Packenham and Skye are not so desirable because of the peak hour traffic snarl.

Medical facilities, including hospitals and research are well established. Monash, Melbourne and Deakin universities spearhead tertiary education here. Various types of cooked food originating from different immigrant source countries are easily available, while most of the ingredients and spices are sold at the local supermarket and Asian grocery outlets.

Housing affordability is debatable within local circles, but when compared to overseas houses they are reasonable. Singaporeans could buy a house in the outer suburbs for less than the price of a HDB flat.

As for weekend leisure trips or week-long holidays, there are many places on the fringe of Melbourne, including the Mornington Peninsula and its seaside towns, the famous Philip Island and its Penguin Parade, the Bellarine Peninsula on the other side of Port Philip Bay and the coastal towns of Portarlington, St Leonards, Torquay on the Surf Coast, Lorne, the Twelve Apostles and Apollo Bay to name a few. Add the historic regional towns of Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong; the Dandenong Ranges; country attractions in Nurmukah and Lakes Entrance to widen the choice. These enjoyable trips are only a few hours away. For those who have Lady Luck in their pocket, the Crown Casino Complex offers a myriad of food and shopping besides the cards, dice and poker machines.

To be honest, much more can be done to improve Melbourne – from the frequency and quality of the trains and trams to the congestion and high parking costs in the CBD. Perhaps that is the hallmark of a popular metropolis, which also has a very busy container port on its doorstep. With the high frequency of international and domestic flights zeroing in on Tullamarine Airport and the smaller Avalon Airport, perhaps the ‘earmarked’ land for a Frankston Airport in the south-east – to ease the load – should be seriously considered now and work started within the next two years.

Anyone out there fancy a wager that Marvellous Melbourne could steal the coveted crown once again in 2014?

P. Francis is an English tutor in Melbourne, who has more than 20 years’ journalism experience with newspapers, books and magazines in Singapore and Australia.

By P. Francis
Melbourne

RHODES scholar, swimmer, runner, cyclist, ex-seminarian, journalist and politician are just some of the threads weaved into the many-coloured coat of Tony Abbott, leader of the quietly-confident Liberal opposition Down Under as D-Day 7 September approaches.

No, he is not exactly like Joseph – the favourite son of Jacob – who was given the unique coat by his father as a sign of future leadership over his brothers, as related in Genesis.

Abbott is married to Marg and has three lovely daughters. He had to work very hard in opposition against two different PMs and now, some critics claim, it is his election to lose as the weekly polls have swung Abbott’s way. (Some polls have even dared to say – and newspapers have published the prediction – that PM Kevin Rudd could lose his Brisbane seat of Griffith.)

This Rhodes scholar, who studied at The Queen’s College in 1981, is one of the high achievers in the Australian political arena. Other Australian products of the premier scholarship, which has strict criteria, sharing a special ‘thread’ are Labor PM Bob Hawke (1983-1991), Kim Beazley (deputy Labor PM) and former Liberal opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull.

Even Singapore has its share of Rhodes scholars. Former Singapore Sports Council chairman and senior minister Dr Tan Eng Liang won the scholarship through Malaysia in 1981. The rumour mill had it in the late 1970s that “this man was being groomed to be the next Singapore PM”. History shows his career went a different way. Today Singapore has two serving MPs of that calibre – Raymond Lim (PAP) and Chen Show-Mao (WP), while Malaysia has MP Sivarasa Rasiah of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party).

Among Abbott’s plans for the future is integrating further into Asia by building from the ground up.

The Australian newspaper reported on 25 Feb this year: “The business community has swung behind Tony Abbott’s pitch for a new Colombo Plan, which would see thousands of Australian undergraduates undertake a semester of university work in the Asia-Pacific. Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop has been the driving force behind the new policy for scholarships paying travel, tuition and living expenses for Australians to study in Asia.”

Ms Bishop, a former education minister in the Howard government, had said that the scholarships would require recipients to work one day a week as interns for Australian businesses and non-government organisations in Asia. She said it was crucial to link the scholarships to career prospects for the students selected. Business Council of Australia president Tony Shepherd gave a big tick to the opposition’s plan and called it “a great idea”. “The original Colombo Plan (which brought Asian students to Australia) was very beneficial to Australia,” he said. “It formed fantastic alumni links to Australia.”

Brighton Secondary Year 10 express student Evelyn Lieng, of Melbourne, gave the plan an emphatic nod and said: “It would be a good opportunity to work in Third World countries and developing nations in Asia because many of us take what we have here for granted.” Lieng, who has a grasp of conversational Japanese and French – learnt in Years 7 and 8 at school – also had the impression that “Locals think the immigrants work too hard at school and employment, but just can’t be bothered to match the pace.” Perhaps that is why Australia lags behind some Asian countries in the academic stakes.

Meanwhile, Isabelle Weston, a Year 10 Student at Fairhills High in Knox, has hosted three different Japanese students in her home and will go on a study trip to Japan in mid-September. She said: “Guess it is a good plan to experience the culture, lifestyle and learn new ways of working. The Federal Government should select suitable students and teach them to pay their way.”

A Malaysian teacher, enjoying his retirement in Melbourne but wanting to remain anonymous, commended the plan: “Good idea.  What is needed now is to identify the Australian businesses and NGOs willing to host the interns and to participate in the programme. While the Aussies might be willing, I doubt if the Asian businesses or NGOs would give their full support. They might have reservations. Asian businesses, in particular, rely very strongly on personal commitment and loyalty, as you know. Their business culture especially, is very different from that of the West.”

Abbott has another plan – announced in a White Paper on 21 June this year: “With Asia’s real GDP expected to grow from US$27 trillion to US$67 trillion by 2030 and Northern Australia’s proximity to the tropical region, Northern Australia is well placed to capitalise on the significant economic, strategic and environmental macro-trends that will shape both the Asian and tropical regions.  We are determined to break the ongoing development deadlock that has held Northern Australia back for so long.  For too long, families have been reluctant to move to Northern Australia because of the absence of adequate infrastructure; and governments and the private sector have been reluctant to invest in major projects because of insufficient population.’’

Abbott’s vision is to use the north of the continent as a springboard for trade into Asia, where many countries are rapidly developing under the shadows of the economic giants, such as China, Japan and Korea. Highly-populated India could be called the sleeping giant, closest neighbor Indonesia has a huge market, Thailand is popular with Aussie tourists and Myanmar is slowly opening its doors.

In the past, Australian military forces have served in Singapore, Malaya, Borneo, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, Korea and Vietnam to help maintain peace and freedom.  It is a well known fact that Asian countries, including Singapore, Indonesia and the US have ventured Down Under and used the vast and rugged terrain of Australia for military training exercises.

Today, many people accept Australia as part of Asia. Even in sport, the Socceroos, Australia’s national football team, has paved the way into Asia by playing in the Asian Group for the past two World Cup qualifying rounds. They have been great ambassadors for the country. Melbourne, regarded as the sports capital of the world, will be in the limelight once again when the Aussies host their inaugural Asian Cup tournament in 2015.

The links are already there laid in stone and Abbott’s plan to further strengthen the bonds with Asia is another step in the right direction. The changing face of Australia is mirrored in the number of MPs with Asian heritage, who are involved in government at federal and state level. It is only a matter of time, maybe decades, when – just like President Obama in the US – a Prime Minister with Asian heritage is sworn in by the Governor-General of the day!

P. Francis is an English tutor in Melbourne, who has more than 20 years’ journalism experience with newspapers, books and magazines in Singapore and Australia.