Notes on a trip: Singapore, Paris & Melbourne
In May Andrea and I spent two weeks in Paris. Breaking our flight going and returning, we stayed for several days in Singapore. As Paul Keating once famously said, Australia is at the arse-end of the world. To get to Paris we had to undertake three seven to eight-hour flights (Melbourne-Singapore, Singapore-Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi-Paris). Here are a few thoughts on what we saw.
Hard rubbish collection: Endpoint of consumerism
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It's the biannual municipal hard rubbish collection!
I don’t know what it’s like in wealthy Toorak, but here it’s always a source of great local interest and amazement. This time there seems to be a lot more stuff and, along with the usual crap, some of it looks to be very good quality.
Development issues
[The following short presentation was made to a meeting of Moreland Socialists on February 28, 2013 to kick off a discussion on developing our policy platform.]
Scope of the question
What are 'development' issues? 'Development' concerns housing and all the issues of liveability associated with it: transport; urban environment; sustainability; green spaces and parks; schools and other facilities; jobs; and food (how and where it is produced, the cost to the consumer); and many more.
Hands over the city: Towards an urban nightmare
In this talk I want to give an overview of the crisis of our cities as I see it. The city I focus on is Melbourne, where I live. But I doubt that the broad situation is much different in the other states.
Are livable cities just a dream?
[The following talk was presented at the Climate Change | Social Change Conference in Sydney, April 2008.]
When one sees a modern city from the air, especially at night, it is a truly awe-inspiring spectacle. What always strikes me is the immensity of the project, a testimony to the power and creativity of human beings. However, on the ground and actually living and working in this wonder, things are quite different and the social and ecological problems crowd in and fill one's view.
Make public transport free — for everybody
[Green Left Weekly, #689, November 3, 2006]
Public transport issues continue to feature prominently in the November 25 state election as both major parties trawl for votes. First, Victorian Liberal leader Ted Ballieu pledged to make public transport free for all primary, secondary and full-time tertiary students in the state (at an estimated cost of $285 million). A few days later he promised to abolish metropolitan transport Zone 3, a move which would give significant savings to commuters travelling in to the city from the outer suburbs. And only hours after that, Labor Premier Steve Bracks promised to do the same and, furthermore, to reduce V/Line (country) fares by up to 20%.
[Green Left Weekly, #668, May 15, 2006]
For the past two months Melbourne's Age newspaper, owned by the Fairfax media group, has been energetically campaigning for free public transport in the city. Former Victorian Liberal premier Jeff Kennett — who privatised public transport in 1999 — revealed in an interview that he argued within his cabinet for a simple universal gold-coin fare system. He said his biggest regret in public life was that he failed to stick to his guns in the face of bureaucratic opposition. Kennett's cabinet colleague Robert Maclellan canvassed the idea of making public transport completely free until leading officials talked him out of it.
[Green Left Weekly, #608, December 1, 2004]
Waiting for the tram at the busy Melbourne Central stop on Swanston St., I look across at the State Library. It's a lovely building and very easy on the eye. A classic Victorian construction (it was built in the 1850s), one enters it through a row of neoclassical columns; and behind the roof line rises the great dome of the celebrated reading room.
EPA: 'Emission Permission Authority'
[Green Left Weekly, #404, May 10, 2000]
WOLLONGONG — Since its reopening in February, emissions from Port Kembla Copper's smelter here have made life miserable for residents in nearby suburbs. For those with health problems, it has often been life threatening. The main culprit is sulphur dioxide, although it is far from the only one.
Cancer fear in the Illawarra
[Green Left Weekly, #282, July 23, 1997]
WOLLONGONG — The recent release of a long-awaited government report on leukaemia clusters in the Illawarra will do little to allay community concerns.
Urban nightmare: The restructuring of Melbourne
[Green Left Weekly, #189, May 31, 1995; based on a paper presented to the Marxist educational conference Campaigning for Democratic Socialism, held in Melbourne at Easter 1995.]
The view of a modern city from the window of a plane as it descends is often breathtakingly impressive. The panorama is truly a miracle of social and technical organisation. Taking in the endless pattern of roads, houses, buildings and the night-time latticework of street lights can be a moving experience. The spectacle seems to say: this amazingly complex artificial environment we have created, all this is what human beings are capable of.