the power and the inglory

I had to laugh when I heard John Brumby and Peter Batchelor claim on the news tonight that moving power lines underground would be too costly, and 'would cause an increase in power bills'.

Since when has any Victorian government in the past 15 years cared about increasing power costs for consumers?? When they virtually gave away electricity for free to Alcoa to power its highly polluting aluminium smelter at Portland? When they privatised the SEC and gave away our power creation and retail ownership to private companies?? When they decided to foist unnecessary and ineffective new meters on everyone, like it or not?? When they decided to build an unwanted and highly-polluting water 'putrification' plant in Gippsland??

Give me a break, Brumby! We already pay far too much for electricity, thanks largely to your government and the Kennett government, but I'd gladly pay a little more if it meant helping to remove a major cause of summer bushfires, removing the threat of summer blackouts when power lines are burnt out, and improving the aesthetics of the whole State by hiding these ugly and dangerous power lines underground.

It already happens by default in new communities, and it's time that you stopped hiding behind lies and implement it across the rest of the state.

another Brumby transport fraud

Free rail travel on Friday to compensate for today's rail meltdown, says the Age. What a shameless con!

A day's 'free' travel does nothing to compensate the people who most subsidise this shambles of a train network, by buying weekly, monthly or yearly tickets! One 'free' day doesn't get accounted for in long-term tickets, so only a fraction of those affected by today's trouble, and most likely, people who don't use the trains regularly and may not need to use them on Friday, will actually benefit from this 'magnanimous' gesture.

Another show of insincerity from Brumby and Pakula to the public transport users of Melbourne. Roll on November...

derailed

I feel so stupid.

I read yesterday's announcements from the State government about the new transport projects, and foolishly assumed them to be election 'promises'.

I was so excited about the new metro system that I jumped online to the Dept of Transport website, and completed a survey about the metro, complimenting them for finally proceeding with this vital, long-overdue public transport initiative.

Today, I read the story in more detail, and realised what had actually happened.

There is no new metro. There's just a 'plan' for a new metro. The plan has no funding behind it, and is therefore 99% likely to never happen. It's yet another lie from the oil and vehicle industry-controlled State government to make it appear as though they have an agenda to support public transport, and mask their ongoing plans to extend the road network to encourage more cars and trucks.

I'm disgusted with them, and disappointed that I didn't realise sooner. No ALP or conservative candidates will get my votes at the next State election; I just hope that enough people will vote away from all of them to send a message about what we really want for Melbourne.