As a proud soon to be ex-Sydneysider, this is the hardest column I will ever write.
Queensland is now officially ahead of NSW, specifically when it comes to transport, specifically when it comes to ticketing. Like some surly middle child, we are now reduced to accepting Queensland’s hand-me-downs.
NSW is now running out of:
- Buses
- Ferries
- Trains
- Water
- Electricity
- Hospital Beds
- Did I miss anything?
This is what the Carr/Iemma decade-and-a-bit has brought us to. If Barry Bostwick would care to reprise his role as Mayor of Spin City, he could not possibly do a worse job than this lot.
Attention Kevin Rudd: Morris Minor and his lot are doing serious damage to Labor’s brand in this state. Ignore us at your peril.
Attention Liberals: Please, can we have an Opposition in this state? We have lost NSW’s god-given right to lord it over the rest of the country about how much better we are than the rest of youse.
OK, we New South Welshpersons give up. We are no longer the best. Please send blankets, canned food and torches to :
The People of NSW
c/- Nobody in Macquarie St
Sydney NSW 2000
*sniff*
And a few tinnies. Don’t forget the tinnies.
Carr delivered the Olympics in 2000. They were really good.
You might be waiting a long time.
The exact same contractor (I believe) has fucked up Brisbane’s new ticketing system after years of promises. A limited trial on some train routes has been a disaster. The state government are now talking about sueing the contractor.
You’re welcome to the “coming in 2006″ signs on the train stations, though. I think they’re redundant.
“NSW is now running out of:”
Land / Houses
“Please send blankets, canned food and torches to :”
How about Beattie?
Fixed 4 year terms are a disaster. The opposition is irrelevant for 3 and a half years and are then supposed to get their act together and take their mind off internal bickering to run an election campaign. Who would want to do that? We’re stuck with incompetent Labor and no matter how bad things get I still have to vote for them (on 2PP) because the NSW Lib’s have turned into a poor imitation of the American Christian right. Bring back 3 year terms. Bring back early elections.
and the bad news is..?
Wow, I can’t wait to see what great things Labor has in store for us federally!
Ah, the shadowy world of NSW Labor politics.
The man who should be Premier is the deputy. The woman who should be deputy has retired to the back bench, supposedly to spend more time with her kid.
Bob Debus, popular and a good Minister, went to the Feds. Virtually all they have to hang on to of the senior ministers is the affable Ian Macdonald, Agriculture Minister.
Tripodi is still there, mores the pity, I was hoping the Pasha Bulker might have squashed him while it was moving off Nobby’s, and there’s a swag of other time-servers, thanks to a long legacy of Mayor Richard Daley-type preferments and backroom and branch deals which go back even before Wran.
Costa is still there too. Never figured out why. He has no crucial local factional bloc (he grows grapes in Cessnock) and he’s Upper House. I would have thought Della Bosca would have been a better Treasurer.
He did famously state in 2000 “The problem we’ve now got with the GST is that it’s going to be a bit of a Y2K, a big shock horror, lots of grizzling, then the people saying, ‘Oh, so what?’”. But he was correct in his prediction.
There is some hope. Watkins could still become premier, thus losing his constraints for action, Carmel Tebbutt might change her mind, Nathan Reese is looking like good potential leadership material and John Hatziergos may yet surprise. Verity Firth is a cluey lady. Linda Burney seems to be managing her portfolio well.
But change has to happen soon. There is no choice for me personally ever, and there is no real choice for the people of NSW.
The Liberals never recovered from the Brogden business. Barrie O’Farrell is the almost acceptable public face of a party mired in religious politics and a shattered branch structure, thanks to the likes of the truly dreadful Alex Hawke and his Brownshirts, ably propelled by his father-in-law David Clarke.
The Greens cannot govern in their own right. Not in NSW. Full stop.
Sorcerer;
K’n yeah. This I think is the only point on which we agree.
The former statement implies the latter.
Never, will not happen. He’s in the Left.
He’s in the Left.
About what? She’s in the Left.
Never. He’s in the Left.
Yes, but so? She’s in the Left.
[snark] in the Left [snark]
OK this is one point on which you and I agree. They might deal themselves into a Liberal Coalition though, especially if the Hale crew get their way.
My option: push Amanda Fazio into the Lower House, preferably into a Left seat in the Hunter, and make her Leader. Hatz, as you said, into Deputy. Sack Paul Gibson, then give him a dozen lashes somewhere nice and public in the Rocks, as a tourist attraction.
Fuck, I’d pay to see that.
The obvious omission from your list is education. How’s NSW doing for schools?
Well, the NSW HSC is well respected internationally, and NSW schools contribute their fair share to Australia’s consistently strong international performance rankings. But all that has got nothing to do with Carr/Iemma, hence the omission from the list.
I’d say NSW schools are doing better than elsewhere in Oz. But then, I would say that
For all the religious crazies in the Liberals, there are people who are just as nuts in Labor. Crazy is crazy, and we shouldn’t say that Labor are better just because their crazies aren’t in Opus Dei or whatever David Clarke is into.
I’m going to be preferencing the Liberals in 2011, just as I did last year.
At least Sydney and Brisbane actually HAVE some public transport system for politicians to stuff up.
Here on the Gold Coast we have a single train line that goes nowhere near the beaches, or the business district, or the tourist hub.
And we have a fleet of yellow buses that don’t go anywhere you want to go in a hurry either. The only people who use the system are plebs who are too poor, too young or too old to drive.
And don’t get me started about the local hospital, where Dr Haneef used to work.
And did I mention this is now the Liberal’s “heartland”? You should see all the glossy Liberal advertising going into the local council elections! Just don’t ask the new council, whatever it’s makeup, to provide some real public transport infrastructure: that’s been in the too-hard basket e’er since governments decided that only private industry can do anything worth doing.
Leaving Sydney in a huff? Be careful where you go, and what you wish for!
Ghandi.
“..And we have a fleet of yellow buses that don’t go anywhere you want to go in a hurry either. The only people who use the system are plebs who are too poor, too young or too old to drive..”
Isnt that straight from the “idiots guide to public transport”, you know, the one every state uses to plan public transport?
Brisbane used to be nearly as bad. Hardly any buses on Sundays, none after 5pm, very few on weekdays outside peak hour, badly planned and illogical routes. It’s enormously better now - buses every 15 mins on busy routes all week, late night buses, airconditioned buses, busways. The CityCats are great too. Trains still have a fair way to go, and much more could be done, but it’s a huge improvement on what was.
Ticketing sux though.
We’re also benefiting probably from our local government structure in the sense that the BCC takes in about a million odd people - and the current divided control (Liberal Mayor and Labor Council) has led to something of a who can claim credit for more buses race. Which is good! State government runs the railways - and they’re not so flash.
There’s a point about scale here, I suspect - you need enough critical mass to plan properly and a big enough tax base, but if you get too big, neither can be guarenteed.
Liam, the old factional warrior thing went out the door years ago. Neither Wran nor Carr belonged to a faction as such. They were both identified with the Right, but were not of it if you get my drift. They were both pragmatists, not ideologues.
It was at its height during the Split, but even the late Senator Tony Mulvihill, former Leftie, then Steering Committee member, said to me some years back that he thought factionalism was on its last legs.
The Party plays pretend games with it every now and again to impress and enthrall the lower ranks of the Party membership, but outside the branches and electorate councils it’s really more deals between a variety of groups clustered round a single figure or two figures.
You see, it does not matter what faction you are in…Tripodi and Gibson would be arses no matter whether they were closet Santamarias or subscribers to Green Left Weekly. Unfortunately they are our arses.
And you are far too kind to Gibson. Send him to a crocodile infested remote community
Case in point - the Ferguson family - none of whom is anything the politician their old man was, but all of whom hold either senior Party/union positions or seats. They are nominally Left too, but Laurie was awfully quiet when refugees were being monstered and banged up in Baxter. Especially since his seat of Reid is full of former refugees and asylum seekers.
I didn’t even consider the factual alignment of anyone I named except for Watkins, (mainly because everyone always says the same thing as you did) ;).
But have you considered that there’s a new ballgame now with the Ruddster, and it can’t be all that long before he casts his eyes on NSW. And a Prime Minister with a 70% approval rating gets a lot of people listening at Federal Executive meetings.
OK how’s this? If I am correct you owe me a beer at the Ashfield Hotel. If I am not correct, you still owe me a beer.
Mercurius can come too.
Globally underfunded compared to the rich privates of course, and an alarming inconsistency in resources (some disadvantaged schools are well-resourced as far as equipment but have old poorly-maintained buildings, and vice-versa). But Mercurius is quite correct about the HSC and the international cachet it has.
You enjoy the harsh whip of Clarkey on your naked bits then?
Sydney chose the super size me option. And now you have to suffer the consequences, Mercurius. Blaming today’s crop of pollies is idiotic.
But don’t worry, Brisbane is sure to make an even bigger mess of itself in the long run. The frontier mentality still rules up there.
How so, wbb? I don’t know what that means but it doesn’t sound good!
Two myths to be busted:
Land/House prices
Driven largely of course by our old friends in the Property Council, developers and the real estate industry and fuelled by some speculation a couple of years ago from overseas which did not come to much, but which led to a state of frenzied Skinner box building in Sydney.
Not helped much by the Minister. Sartor really needs to get some new mates. It’s getting soooo patently obvious.
Hospital beds
Gah get over it folks. I said in one of my first posts here that hospitals are institutions of last resort That’s how our ancestors sensibly regarded them.
Hospitals are horrible germy places and as such are best suited to those with life-threatening illnesses, or suffering from some acute physical trauma. They are also obviously the places you go for serious surgery.
Now everyone fondly thinks of them as something like credit card rewards. To be given out to all for whatever. So if your Emergency waiting room is full of otherwise fit people with colds, minor allergies and minor football injuries, the Opposition bean-counters translate that into the number of “beds” your hospital does not have.
The problem is not “beds”. It’s staff shortages, it’s a lack of 24 hour medical centres which bulk-bill and which have X-ray facilities and the means to immediately transfer patients if necesary, and it’s a lack of aged care and community nursing. Get it right.
No, not good at all, Mark! It’s the period when city planners still believe that just one more freeway and a coupla more tunnels will see the place right. When citizens’ hearts still swell with civic pride at the completion of another skyrise to block in the cityscape of their world class metropolis. Very C20.
I think we’re done with freeways, wbb, but yeah, tunnels and high rises. One reason I won’t be voting for “Can Do” Campbell Newman’s re-election on March 15.
(3) >> “The exact same contractor (I believe) has fucked up Brisbane’s new ticketing system … The state government are now talking about sueing the contractor” …
Speaking of publicly funded fuckups, courtesy of very large and very profitable private contractor and consulting firms, look up current stories on the Bathurst and Orange Hospital situations:
” What has been delivered by the builder was not what was asked for in the tender… Ms Meagher yesterday dodged questions on how the Department of Health or the builders or project managers of the new $98 million Bathurst Base Hospital got the redevelopment so wrong that it failed to meet national patient safety guidelines…. some areas in such acute services as intensive care and emergency were too small to function adequately, ….The building company, the John Holland Group, and the project manager, Capital Insight, refused to comment.” etc .
Oh yeh Ghandhi, the same cutely named “Capital Insight” is being given a cool $1.23 billion to project manage the Gold Coast University Hospital down your way. Be afraid (to get sick), be very afraid.
I wonder what proportion of health spending goes to these firms, as opposed to more directly therapeutic services? Never have so few been paid so much to deliver so little and so badly to so many to such dangerous effect.
Does anyone remember when Governments had Departments of Works? When did the outsourcing fetish get a complete stranglehold on the processes of public policy implementation?
The supreme farce, IMO, is the ex-DG of Qld Health picking up a sweet gig with the consultants to go after such publicly funded contracts for them after her record of previous failure at her public duties. Talk about turning problems into opportunities.
Sorcerer -
A hospital bed is the physical spot combined with the staff to run it, hence including at least part of the staff shortage within it’s remit.
I am not sure what happened precisely in NSW but in Vic we certainly managed to engineer an acute bed shortage at the turn of the millennium and are still recovering. Bracks won by accident. Failed to have a health policy so adopted the Nurses Union’s 1 to 4 staff ratio as their big idea. Except they couldn’t count. Going from 1 to 6 on average to 1 to 4 needs 50% more nurses, right? Not if you’re Thwaites it didn’t. Hospitals pottered along on double and triple time via agencies for a year or two and then were forced to close beds. Alot of beds. How many? No-one seems willing to count.
The upshot is discharges are earlier and dodgy-er while the inpatients are, on average, much sicker.
As to the 24hr bulk-bill and X-ray I am not convinced that a properly run Emergency Department isn’t as cost effective. I am very convinced they will diagnose the uncommon nasty stuff more rapidly.
Mind you, the really vile crisis is in psychiatric care. Waits in ED for acute psychosis of over 24 hours are unpleasantly common. Sedated, guarded, often screaming and intermittently tied up.
I know a lot more about the ticketing system fiasco in NSW than I can discuss publicly, but suffice to say that the now-cancelled system was ready to be given trial runs quite some time ago but nobody was willing to say “yes, let’s go”: the upgrades died a slow death due to organisational paralysis.
In the meantime, no new passenger barriers have been constructed for years, in the expectation of the new system which would need different barriers, which means that major stations such as St Leonard’s have no barrier system in place at all now. How many fare evaders do you think that adds up to?
Hey, at least you NSWers and QLDers don’t have Connex…
We have religious madmen in the Liberal Party who still think they’re fighting the Crusades or the Spanish Civil War. Maybe somebody could wise up the Pope about them when he comes out for World Youth Day in the hope he’ll have a quiet word to them to butt out.
As for the ALP. Bully-boys is the only way to describe the NSW Right. But they’ve always been a bunch of thugs.Both sides bend over for property developers and always have done. As for the privatisation mania, I look forwaed to higher prices very soon. (Ie4mma’s sending a note round to disabled pensioners saying there’s no truth to the rumour they’re going to swcrap pensioner concessions on electricity. Wondere where the rumour came from? Maybe from Kleenheat giving a 1c -yes, 1c annual concession for pensioners - those privatised cowboys from the West.
PB. NSW. Disgusted.
Land/house prices is a myth? Have you tried to buy a home in Sydney lately, sorcerer?
I think part of the malaise of the NSW Labor government stems from a phenomenon which I commented on a few years ago. In addition to the failings which I identified at that time, people whose formative experience in politics is as anti-left bomb-throwers in student politics and Young Labor, and whose basic reason for being in politics is to throw bombs at TEH LEFT, are not likely to have or to develop a strong desire to use their eventual position in government to remedy injustices and improve the quality of people’s lives, and are not likely to be especially good at or interested in delivering high-quality transport, health, education, environmental, etc., services for the public. Reba Meagher, Joe Tripod and the like are paradigm examples of this phenomenon.
If people think I may be exaggerating the reactionary proclivities of Labor Right student politicians, I can do no more than link you to this blog run by a recent AWU-aligned President of the Bjelke-Petersen Memorial University Student Representative Council.
You enjoy the harsh whip of Clarkey on your naked bits then?
Oh baby baby. A metaphorical whip on my genitals will be just as fun as the literal flogging Tripodi, Costa, Meagher et all have given NSW. Often makes me want to go back to Brisbane!
It’s not as if NSW Labor is actually left or worker-friendly so they’ve thrown away the trump cards they have over the Liberals in winning over bleeding-hearts like me. Though if they made Linda Burney leader I might reconsider. She’s great.
Nobody has seen to fit to mention that here in NSW we are over regulated and over taxed (land/property taxes and the like) and we are seeing a steady steam of population and investors going North to QLD with their money. I love this state but the last million years under a corrupt Labor bunch is depressing. What’s more depressing is the level of dysfunction in the Liberal party has made them incapable of providing adequate opposition. Meanwhile the NSW govt. is selling off anything that isn’t nailed down. So we are left with crumbling infrastructure and fewer state assets. Anyone who believes the cash injection from the sale of the electricity is going to solve the state’s woes wasn’t paying attention to Vic when they privatised (shortages, higher prices)…Maybe I should think about moving!
I own one. So does the eldest kid.
Read my post. The myth has been created and fed by real estate agents and developers positing a “crisis”, then talking up the market over a period of years. Myth then becomes reality. The reality then has a ripple effect.
For instance, housing prices in the areas of outer Newcastle near the freeway have tripled in four years. And I am talking old miners’ cottages and weatherboard bungalows, not MacMansions.
Developers riding on the back of this “crisis” can then lean on Councils (or bribe them?) to allow through ghastly and inappropriate developments.
After all, developers had to shift those hundreds of hitherto empty apartments built round the Olympic precinct somehow.
Take a look at the gimcrackery round Strathfield Station. Strathfield was once a nice suburb with leafy streets and Californian bungalows. Unit blocks did not exceed three storeys.
A corrupt Council made sure it became an unsustainable eyesore, whose buildings will probably collapse in 20 years’ time.
Today’s SMH
Jovial Joe strikes again. And the backstory
Sorcerer, I don’t think I can put this any nicer.
You’re completely, painfully, wrong about the factions in NSW Labor. The whole point of having a Centre Unity alignment is to make sure nobody from the Left ever gets to be Leader, State Party Secretary, or Secretary of Unions NSW (the old Labor Council). There’s literally no other reason for it to exist. Carr and Wran were certainly factional, however they might have stroked their post-Cold War nether regions in public.
Rudd will do nothing, nor will any Federal Executive. The NSW Right will continue to gleefully crush the spirit of the NSW Left, which loves the punishment and begs for more, long after I’m in my grave. Factionalism has more last legs than a drugged greyhound.
If any of the people you’ve mentioned ever become Premier or Opposition Leader without ratting from the Left, I’ll not just buy you a beer, I’ll shout the bar.
BTW, is that Rodney from the Southern Highlands Branch? If it is, good to see you comrade, brother, fellow-worker.
John Watkins would be a crap premier. His performance as transport minister and his pathetic excuses have been woeful.
If myth has become reality, how is it possible to still speak of it as a myth? Your anti-development position would be well and good if population growth in Sydney and surrounds was at zero. It isn’t. While I don’t disagree that developers have been acting inappropriately, that there is bad planning and ugly/shoddy building going on, the fundamentals of supply and demand in this situation suggest that the longed-for terrace-house utopia of three stories or less could only ever be the preserve of the wealthy, if it were allowed to come into existence at all. Those units in Strathfield mean that people can live close enough to transport and their workplaces to give themselves a life outside work and travel.
I’ve got to say I agree with Klaus, Sorceror. I live in Strathfield, and I can afford to rent a reasonably nice apartment that gets me to work in under an hour.
I couldn’t afford to rent one of the house, let alone buy one. Whilst I feel the apartments are largely overpriced, and least most of them are in the realm of possibility, and sure, our building has some cracks in it, but I don’t think it’s on the verge of collapse…
How about nation-wide FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORT then?
Just a thought. It would sure help with greenhouse emissions, but I can’t see the auto industry or Big Oil being very supportive. And we wouldn’t want to piss THEM off, would we?
Tony D - spot on. All this going on about Sydney and Brisbane public transport woes - come to Melbourne, the true Australian public transport backwater.
The growing gridlock on the roads, combined with a lack of decent public transport (and a ticketing scandal that sinks to high heaven) are all in the news right now.
And if NSW Labor is hurting the brand, I hate to think what Brumby is doing to the brand down here in Victoria. He is dead set useless.
I’m sure we in the west can dig out a few of the old magnetic strip readers that were junked here a year ago.
The new Smartcard system is not perfect but it (generally) works, although they underestimated the number of card readers need for passengers disembarking at non-closed stations quite badly.
Perth DIDN’T go with the local WA company that has stuffed up so badly over East - surely that must have sent warning signals?
Meh, I lived in Melbourne until 18 months ago - you southerners are whingers!
Connex is not without its many faults, but seriously, compared to what Sydney has, it’s light years ahead.
And you’ve got trams. They may be slow, but at least they a) show up and b) have a sensible and easy ticketing system.
Trains in Melbourne are double what Sydney’s are in terms of any performance metric, and I defy anyone to live in both cities for a year and say otherwise.
Carr reminds me of Howard (and Carr manifested the Labor right’s Howard envy often enough, like David Burchell) both effective politicians by an impressive exercise of will, both with a ‘true believers’ devotion to their respective parties, but pretty unimpressive overall.
Peter Beattie for NSW!
Brisbane has given me the best first, second and third impressions of public transport in the Australian capital cities. All of my visits have been in the last couple of years, so it may be a recent development, but the bus services in particular were reliable, fast and were never too crowded even at peak times. I didn’t use the trains much, although the train services from the airport left a little to be desired.
As a visitor to Melbourne the trams are fantastic! They take you where you want to go with a minimum of fuss and have a practical and efficient ticketing system.
And also they have managed to devise a system that tells you how long the next tram will be at most stops. It can’t be that hard these days, the buses in Christchurch NZ have a similar system.
Really, Sydney is getting more and more dysfunctional. From the appalling public transport and traffic to the standard of architecture and public buidings, it’s going down the toilet faster than Frank Sator can say ‘what heritage controls?’.
We shall see about that
Start saving for the beers, mate 
Rodney Cavalier of course agreed with you when he asked whether Chifley would get pre-selection today. I daresay however that Julia Gillard would not have been pre-selected in Chifley’s day, or for a long time after it.
The political landscape has changed somewhat since Cavalier wrote that piece. And don’t underestimate the Rudd factor, given the clear undertaking he made about ministerial appointments. I think it has sent a strong message to NSW Labor.
Not necessarily. You can have sustainable low-rise medium density development on relatively small blocks. They knew that way back at the beginning of the 20th century with projects in the UK like Port Sunlight and some of the Housing Association projects in London. There’s one near Wembley whose name escapes me, but which has been heritage listed.
They knew it in Adelaide too. 90 year old maisonettes in cluster developments are not unknown there.
In fact Adelaide with over a million people is way ahead of Sydney on this. From what I have seen their newer stuff is much better constructed too, with the sort of building standards that were once mandatory here in Housing Commission dwellings.
Hope for your sake you aren’t there in 10 years when the badly sealed bathrooms start growing mould and the concrete cancer sets in. And I hope it’s not a Meriton…you can then expect that to happen in five years.
Yes, what’s missing from housing design in NSW and many parts of Australia is intelligence, innovation and imagination. Meriton is among the worst offenders, but the governments and councils that let them get away with these blights on our landscape are the real villians.
Indeed, there are probably better ways of doing higher density than some I’ve seen in Sydney.
I can’t say I’m unhappy with all of what they’ve done in Kogarah, where I live at the moment. The centre of town has a six floor limit (I think), and the main development there was designed to use less energy than conventional apartment designs. It was also built with a town square and library building in the centre. At first I was doubtful about its viability, socially speaking, but there are now restaurants along one side of the square, and children playing there in the afternoons and on the weekends, and it just has a kind of community feeling to it that I never got living in the more typically suburban.
Yes, the ministerial appointments under Rudd was an interesting demonstration of the importance of factions. Caucus didn’t vote, but the factions remain represented in the Cabinet at about the same level as before. Laurie Ferguson remains a minister. That’s not a new political environment, it’s just a different way of arriving at the same old result. Left member Gillard, even though she votes with the national Right, has as much chance at Leadership as Watkins, ie. none.
Every single MP in the NSW and Federal Governments owes their preselection to factional considerations. Even “non-factionals” like Garrett and McKew do; he got his in a Right seat because Laurie Brereton had his revenge, and she got hers in a Left area because Faulkner said so. They know about bread-sides and butter.
Cavalier’s argument is wrong. Chifley would have been preselected easily, as he was just as capable and well-trained a political operator and faction-man (Federal ALP against Lang) as any apparatchik today. And your point about Julia Gillard is well made: the factions’ own rules on affirmative action have been a lot more successful putting women candidates forward than any Party decision.
I’m sorry, but the factions defy any death through wishful thinking.
…
Small-scale sprawl works in Adelaide because Adelaide is sprawled and small. Adelaide-style low-density housing in Sydney would stretch halfway to Yass.
…
Adrian, fare evasion is certainly a practical and efficient ticketing system.
It’s true, Melbourne still has a very good PT system.
But it appears to be very much despite the actions of the government and operators, rather than because of them. It’s hard to think of any of the major decisions that have been taken that have come out well.
They have introduced a few new cheaper tickets (Sunday Saver, and soon to be released weekend tickets). But they make up for it by not advertising them or actually selling them from the machines at stations.
Brisbane (and surrounds), on the other hand, has made great improvements since I last lived there.
patrick g @41
yes melb trains are ok, but we had a sadly amusing sight a year ago - following the petrol price jump, suddenly extra tens of thousands of commuters went to railway stations, trains very overcrowded, platforms bursting - think japan. we had sold some old rolling stock to a rail enthusiast COLLECTOR in NSW. there they were sitting in a paddock. he made a handsome profit by selling them back to victoria. good on him.
I put a different interpretation on some of what you have said. The minute Rudd started a radical and bloody overhaul of the Federal factional status quo the media would have been howling about splits. Stealth is a much better weapon.
Whitlam, Hawke and Keating did not and could not have pulled that one off…remember Gough and the “twelve faceless men”?
Rudd will have no hesitation in booting anyone not performing, whatever faction they belong to. He’s already split up portfolios both to give inexperienced but promising performers a chance to show what they are made of and to warn the old guard that there is new blood coming up behind. That’s why Ferguson is still in for instance, but with a much-reduced area of responsibility. That’s why an old hand like Bob Debus has the two most sensitive and controversial segments of the old Attorney-General’s portfolio.
Translate that over to the NSW situation. It’d be refreshing to see John Watkins given the same opportunity.
Not necessarily. Go and look at the upper North Shore, round St Ives. They have managed to do attractive and non-intrusive medium density (mainly retirement complexes) in their suburban streets, and St Ives was originally developed as late as the 40s and 50s.
They can still do that in Blacktown and other older areas of Western Sydney.
The really ugly North Shore stuff is in Chatswood, which used to be quite pleasant. I’ve not yet figured that one.
They should have done that in Auburn, which has similar block sizes. But instead the Councillors took the bribe money and you ended up with a cavernous, cold and unwelcoming stack of undersized Build-a-brick units hunched over a tiny central square.
Then again the locals didn’t realise they were being shafted. They were probably more cluey in St Ives.
That’s when you bother to get proper architects to do your design instead of using boilerplates like the Meritons of this world do.
The Presidio development in Newtown is supposedly like your Kogarah development. I have driven past it and not been excited, but I’ll take the architect’s word for it.
Nothing like that in Strathfield. I assume any kids unfortunate enough to live in those apartments are hung up in the cupboard after school.
Well that’s one way of describing nothing happening. I’d quite like to see democratic socialism ushered in by the same stealthy method, but so far my Fabian hopes have been for nothing. A hundred and twenty years and waiting, Labor Party: keep it any longer and I can’t rule out peaceful agitation for moderate social reform.
…
When Sydney begins to resemble leafy St. Ives, that’s when I’ll start hunting for petrol and matches. That’s all I have to say about *that*.
But you look so young, Liam. What’s your secret? Who is your beautician?
Maybe he’s Dorian Grey….
The elderly Liam Grey is right about SnIves though. Dreadful place.
Yeah boring as batshit and snobs to boot. But my point was about medium-density cluster developments. They do reasonable looking ones there on conventional-sized blocks.
A much better solution to urban consolidation in older parts of Western Sydney like Blacktown or Seven Hills (which have similar large blocks) than either high rise or MacMansions.
I can’t speak for St Ives - haven’t been there (and how ‘Sydney’ is it to have never visited parts of your own city!) - and my impression of Strathfield has only been gained by very occasionally driving through it, but I get the sense it’s been a bit gutted by being a transport hub/intersection of main roads, and having lots impersonal high-rise. Closer to where I am, I would cite Hurstville as a parallel, but it is the Westfields that has given Hurstville it’s particular quality. I am a little reticent to judge places I haven’t lived: it is the quality of life of residents that needs to be served first, not the feelings of passers-by.
Some older Kogarah residents would almost certainly disagree with me about the town centre development as well. That’s another issue worth considering: what different sections of the community are seeking.
It has always been one of the main hub stations in both the CityRail and Countrylink system (the others being Redfern, Lidcombe, Hornsby and Granville) but the high-rise is of relatively recent vintage. It is also adjacent to where the M4 terminates on Parramatta Road.
Or lack thereof. Hornsby, Burwood and Chatswood suffer somewhat from Westfielditis. They also have problems with high rise and cosy relationships with developers and Councillors. Strange that.
Bless me father for I have sinned. I did preference the Liberals *shudder* before labor at the last election. Immediately only after voting Green, Socialist Alliance and Democrats before them.
A pox on both their houses I came close to voting informal the only difference is that Labor is possibly marginally more competent than the Libs.
I should know better than to expect a focus on public utility from the NSW Labor party - which is really for all intents and purposes a centre right party. Especially as it was the labor party that destroyed the Tram network in Sydney and started the development of the motor way system but really I did expect more from them.
“When Sydney begins to resemble leafy St. Ives, that’s when I’ll start hunting for petrol and matches. That’s all I have to say about *that*.”
Do you hate the trees or the residents of St Ives Liam ? Couldn’t be the people could it ?
Surprisingly no, murph. I’ve never met anyone from St. Ives so I’ve no opinion there.
The North Shore pattern of houses set back from the street and fenced away from each other, treed right up to the kerb and without a footpath, is the pattern I object to. I also object to the lack of local pubs north of the Parramatta River, but that was their fault for voting that way in the local option referenda. So, fuck them and their children can drive drunk to each others’ houses.
Have I mentioned my plan to solve Sydney’s water problems, by the way? Dam Middle Harbour at the Spit Bridge. It’s a social and economic plus!
But part of Sydney’s ineffable charm is that it’s always been staggering from crisis to crisis - starting with the complete collapse of discipline when everyone aboard the First Fleet finally and gratefully hit the dirt at Botany Bay.
Whereas Melbourne, founded by hard-nosed yet noblesse oblige Victorian capitalists goes into a complete neurotic tizzy the moment anything doesn’t work as advertised. It’s not quite Japan yet, but Melbournians do write letters to the paper if their tram is eight minutes late.
Brisbane? At least they’ve got the RiverCats, which yes are very cool and effective.
I understand there may be other cities in Australia but why concern us with irrelevant details now.
“I also object to the lack of local pubs north of the Parramatta River, but that was their fault for voting that way in the local option referenda.”
What you don’t like cavernous beer barns with hoseable floors and plastic chairs ?
Well next time Mr Bahnisch is in Sydney I recommend you all meet up The Family Hotel at Rydalmere. North of the river , nearly in the newly expanded Bennelong and not a tree in sight. Haunt of Dundas locals and we always walked there as we were too young to drive.
The Clock is a fine pub but the experience of taking the family to The Family can’t be missed.
Go a few kilometres east along Victoria Road to the West Ryde Hotel.
Nice food there, gigs with local bands on Sundays and not too noisy either.
No trees there or views, sorry Liam, but you’ll have to go to The Oaks or The Newport Arms…I know now how you love the North Shore
Unfortunately The Clock is uber-trendy and you can’t have a conversation above shouting level in the front bar. The stools are (literally) a pain in the arse too.
Paul,
what you fail to mention there is that you were aligned with the extreme left at Griffith uni yourself. You know, the ones who think that everyone who disagrees with them are racist, sexist and homophobic and who want a return to Communism?
I can also say that most of my colleages in the SRC were quite centrist. In my three years as a student representative, I only knew of one pro-lifer, and most people believed in strong public hospitals and education.
As for my blog, it certainly does challenge left wing opinions, and I make no apologies for this. But what I write does not reflect on those who now aspire for careers in the Labor party.
Also, my blog often does advocate ideas and policies, and I think that most are quite moderate.
Leon, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll agree to take all of the blame for everything done wrong by the “extreme left” at Bjelke-Petersen Memorial University if you agree to take one-tenth of the blame for everything done wrong by your political and ideological soulmates in the NSW Labor government.
Dear Paul,
what an interesting offer.
On one level its tempting. But due to our political differences, I may consider to be wrong by the GU ultra-left may be something you consider to be good, and vice-versa in respect of NSW Labor.
I also have difficulty in accepting NSW Labor’s undisputed foibles, as I have cricised them on my blog: http://leonbertrand.blogspot.com/2008/01/nsw-labor-recieved-millions-from.html.
And, in any event, its probably unfair for me to ask you to take full responsibility for the GU left’s wrongs, even if I believe its fair to criticise you for actively supporting them. Under my group, students at least had some money spent on them, rather than seeing it spent on flying activists around the country.
I’m certain however that you disagree with me there, otherwise you would not have supported them.
Leon, you may be interested to know that this thread is not about you (or about me, for that matter), and in hindsight it was probably a mistake on my part to link to your blog as it has obviously tickled your self-importance bone.
“in hindsight it was probably a mistake on my part to link to your blog as it has obviously tickled your self-importance bone.”
*oof*
*socko*
Yes, discussion about the “GU-left” is way off topic.
Intrigung things happening in NSW. Sex scandals involving “bribery” and property developers. When are these guys going to learn if you lie down with dogs (oe proprty developies” you don’t just get up with fleas. You contract a serious skin disease. While its highly entertaining to watch, I feel sorry for the innocent pollies caught up in this (Ministers for Police and Tourism?). A similar thing has happened before. Remember the Love Boat scandal. Trouble is, the NSW Libs are usually even worse.
Correction. (eg “property developers”
Paul,
you were the one trying to equate myself, and members of Student Unity at Griffith with the NSW government, as well as a lack of concern or compassion for social issues.
I don’t think I’m being a megalomaniac by pointing out that the brush you have swiped me with is a little unfair.
It’s dissapointing that, like John Faine, Alex Mitchell and Guy Rundle, you appear opposed to having non-left commentators dissenting.
Tough. You’ll be seeing more of me on this blog now. Your insult has ensured this.
*dramatic music*
His appearances will be very fleeting if they’re going to be discussions of boring student politics shit from years gone by of no interest to anyone.
And, and, and, your spelling shows a great want of accuracy too!