My Politics #101

Labor Australia, Labour UK, Democrat US, Liberal Canada.

All of the above have manual worker beginnings, as downtrodden and abused workers came together and demanded decent pay and rights. The right for workers to strike became entrenched, and I must say abused at times. But the only thing protecting basic workers rights was that they collectively would decide on a course of action against their exploitive employers, and it worked. Pay increased, working conditions improved, and best of all safety for workers in their workplaces improved immensely. From this arose the above listed political parties. 

Liberal Australia, Conservative (Tory) UK, Republican US, Conservative Canada.

These are parties built by rich people and wealthy business people. They are anti worker, anti union, anti progressive society, such as gay and trans rights, no care for the disadvantaged in society, anti free public health care and public school education, anti taxation of rich people to improve society, anti big government control, anti regulation of safety in all kinds of areas. Anti tech regulations, anti public transport.  Also anti environment over profits, and anti renewable power. Anti brown people, unless they are factory fodder. These parties are anti everything that makes modern society better. 

But then we now have far right parties, so much worse than the conservative parties. In the UK, Reform Party, in Australia, One Nation. The US Republican Party has crossed over from being conservative to extreme far right, up there with One Nation and Reform. 

To quote the leader of Australia's One Nation, "There are no good Muslims". This from she who said thirty years ago, "We are being swamped by Asians". She has also been heard spouting anti African immigrant comments.

I have my opinions on immigration and how it could work better for Australia, one being don't take too many at once from one country. There are refugees all over the world, and many well educated possible immigrants. Many of our successful immigrants are those who came here as students and received permanent residency before becoming citizens, my hope for Phyllis and Kosov.   

I could never vote for conservative parties simply because everything they stand for goes against my values. And OMG, voting for the felon, war monger and pederast, the Orange TACO, aka the 47th President of the United States. You just can't.

I'll try to be less ranty at the weekend.   

The beautiful game

It is World Cup time, football, or soccer as we, NZ and north American know it. The World Cup is this time spread over three countries, the US, Canada and Mexico. I suppose it was the US who bid to host the Cup. Our male team is known as the Socceroos. 

The last World Cup was held in Qatar, and was criticised for its exploitation of migrant workers and anti gay laws, with this Socceroo bloke Jackson Irvine who I just found out about today, being very critical at the time, and stood up and said so. Note his rainbow armband. 

Because of #47's antics, tourism to the US has dropped significantly. Canadians were the main tourists to visit the US and the numbers of them have dropped anywhere between 20% and 50%, depending on your biased source. The so called Snow Birders, that during the Canadian winter fly to Florida and other warm states, has tumbled, and they are selling their US properties. The threat from #47 to make Canada a state of the US rather upset Canadians, as it would. Imposing and increasing tariffs upset them further. 

I could go on, but I'll hand it over to Jackie in Toronto, where some games will be played. Some will played in Vancouver too. Montreal wisely said no to the games, and won't incur the huge cost of hosting games. 

Jackie posted this. 

Astonishingly, people who have been granted ESTAS, an agreement to be able to enter the US, somewhat like a visa, have subsequently been denied entry, either when arriving or a day or two before they were due travel, having paid for tickets to the game, accommodation and of course flights. I hope they have good travel insurance.

 

Over to this post by Jackie in Toronto. https://junkboattravels.blogspot.com/2026/06/fifa-world-cup.html

The price of fagging

Like it not, I will use the US currency for the price of a packet of 20 fags from around the world.

US, $8 to $12

UK, $15 to $18

France, $12 to $14

Japan, $4 to $6

Indonesia $2 to $4 

Portugal $6 to $7

Australia, $28 to $35

As you can note, cigarettes are very expensive in Australia and over 70% of the cost is government taxes, that increase often and has acted as a disincentive to smoking, a good thing. Australia's rate of smoking is around 10% of the adult population is one of the lowest in the world. 

That is until the illegally imported cigarettes arrived that sell for around US$9, which is close to what the rest of the world pays.

That came the stand over tactics, 'buy our illegal cigarette or you business will be firebombed', and mayhem arrived, with many many outlets firebombed, with flats often in the same building.

The sale of vapes has been banned unless by doctor's prescription, yet vapes are readily available in the cigarette shops that sell illegal cigarettes.

It is a protection racket, which has now extended to nail salons, dance club venues, gyms, and new car businesses, one close to the dealership where I bought my car.

Let me draw a parallel. Extortion at cigarette shops that sold illegal cigarettes and vapes was ignored by governments, just as cops ignored manic ebike and electric scooter riders speeding along footpaths. Eventually authorities were forced into action, but had they clamped down on all before they became so big, Australia would be a better and more law abiding place.

The illegal cigarettes come in by container load from China and the Middle East, the latter via Singapore, I believe. I've seen and in a minor manner used AI. Surely can't technology detect the illegal cigarettes? 

At best I suggest there has been a lack of political will, at worst, some very powerful people, and I don't mean gangs, have a vested interest.

This is mayhem that has never been seen before in my lifetime. Changing your vote on polling day will make no difference. A chilling statistic is in Victoria, nearly all Melbourne based, between mid year 2024 and mid year 2026, there has been 300 fire bombings, a shocking statistic.                                                                             

Leadership women

This post probably needed more work, but I am sick of looking at it. 

This is Heidi Alexander, Secretary for Transport in England. At the launch of unveiling a livery for trains taken back into public ownership after years of private operation has been proven to be a failure, she was at Brighton Railway Station to launch the new livery of Great British Railways.

If you are in the US, Canada or Australia, this is not how a woman in public office would appear in public. That's perhaps so for most countries.

Politicians and spokespersons need to be super groomed, with tailored clothing, good hair and good makeup, men and women both. It's not that Alexander can't glam up if she wants.

Heidi was none of those at the media occasion. She is a good speaker, clearly passionate about her role and spoke sensibly. In the US #47's leading women, past and present are super groomed but frankly talk a lot of crap, spitting out lie after lie. Yes, Leavitt, Bondi, along with dog killer Noem.

I care more about the spoken honesty from Alexander rather than how she is dressed or made up.

Later edit: Just as the press do, I used an incorrect photo for Ms Alexander. I have removed the photo and replaced it with a correct photo. Thank you YP for pointing out the error. 

A scandalous building disaster

I remember when this building was constructed and I didn't like it much. The developer breached the height limit by over one metre above what was shown in the plans and was fined a small amount with the appropriate government minister Robert McClelland quite untroubled. He was a  shocker of old school arrogant conservative politician. Shame on him, and he is still alive at the age of 91.This was at the time when evil Victorian Premier Kennet in the 1990s had privatised building inspectors roles, and it was signed off as ok, even though it clearly wasn't.

It is in a very dominant location at the corner of Commercial Road and Punt Road, South Yarra, and is called South Yarra Square.

I don't know of any other similar building in greater Melbourne being as bad as this. I feel so bad for the innocent and naive who may have bought into this building, and the original buyers. The apartments are clearly unsaleable, with them being only good for tenants, if tenants don't mind the fire risk and the risk of building collapse. The next time you hear anything about deregulation of  building inspections, be afraid.

From the blog of Rohan Storey.

My photos, taken very quickly between trams.

Deer, oh dear

Some very unfortunate political play has happened over deer hunting. Let's begin with the fact that before white people arrived in Australia, there were no hard hooved animals in Australia. Cattle, horses, sheep, buffalo, pigs and deer were introduced by white people. While cattle and sheep are managed as farm animals, wild populations of horses, buffalo and deer exist. Horses and buffalo are partly controlled by government contracted exterminators, the others are not generally except by private hunters.

Hard hooved animals do terrible damage to our fragile environment and should be eliminated. 

Deer have no protection in Australia beyond cruelty to animals laws, except for in my state, Victoria. They are able to be shot by hunters, but otherwise they are a protected species. They are often hit by cars, causing terrible damage to cars, and I should think danger to those who run into them,  and aside from dingoes and wild dogs, they don't have a natural predator. Why has this protection nonsense just be reinforced by our state government? 

In my view it is solely down to the hunting lobbyists. They don't want to see the pest species eliminated because they won't be able to hunt them. The Labor(sic) state government has caved into pressure from the hunting lobby, over the environment and motorist safety, and it is a disgrace. 

With our preferential voting system, I've always voted Labor, or directed my preference to Labor after voting for The Greens. It will be a pointless exercise, but I will inform the Labor Party of my disgust and disappointment. If enough people do as I do, maybe it could make a change. 

My apologies if I've upset your Bambi feelings, but it is an important environmental and road safety matter, and we don't want to end up like Debby mentioned in her post referring to deer. 

Privatisation is good?

Aren't we told privatisation leads to competition and a better customer experiences, along with cheaper prices?

Hey, cheaper prices really happened with the UK railways when the system was privatised! No? Certainly not. It also lead to some terrible train crashes as the system became poorly maintained by Thatcher's private companies. Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey, railway companies in England and Scotland are being returned to being government operated.

Essential services should be run by governments, who own, operate and are responsible for what happens. Governments need to put the right people in positions of power to operate the services, along with adequate funding. 

Australia's government owned telecommunication department, Telstra, was privatised and its major competition became Optus. Optus is on the back foot at the moment because of the failure of its 000 emergency call system, where some people may have died because of the failure of the system.

So Telstra is now a private company, and Optus is ostensibly a private company, but is it? It is owned by Singtel, a telecommunication company owned by the government of Singapore. So, was it a great idea to privatise Telstra and allow a foreign government owned company to become its major competition? Now our private company competes against, effectively the full resources of the government of Singapore.

In the last financial year, Optus earned AU$8.4 billion in Australia. There will be allowed deductions from the earnings, but what would you think was a fair corporate tax on such earnings? $2 billion? $3 billion? 

Try zero!

Netflix in Australia, earning $1.2 billion, no tax.

Tech giants pay a very small amount of tax in Australia.

Murdoch's corporation, owner of three major daily newspapers in Australia, and with Fox streaming, Foxtel, Sky TV, Sky News, along with the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, paid no corporate tax in Australia  

I don't blame these companies. They have complied with legal requirements. Tax is not a voluntary contribution. 

There is something seriously wrong with Australia's tax laws.

Many of Australia's major companies are US investor owned, including our big four banks, one of our major two supermarket, Woolworths and the mining company BHP. They are private investors who own so much in Australia, and not governments. I don't think that is ideal, but it is the way of the world now.

Also there is another foreign government investor in Australia, Canada's Pension Plan. While it is managed at arms length, it is still owned by the government of Canada.

Then worse, a Chinese company connected the government of China has a 99 year lease on the Port of Darwin. No one was happy with this, but it happened under our conservative party in 2015. Unbelievable. Darwin is probably Australia's most strategic port should there be trouble, and is used by the US defence force. 

Whatever your thoughts are about the merits of privatisation, I do not like Australian government assets privatised, only to be owned by foreign governments. 

And what kicked this rant off? I discovered a prominent player in Australia industry, especially public transport, is Keolis. The company is owned by SNCF, the French national government owned railway company.

The real point of this post is that Australia removes essential services from public hands to private hands, only to have our privatised assets being bought up by foreign governments. 

Scandals

It is remarkable how similar the English Post Office scandal is to our own Robodebt scandal.

I've just watched the first of a series of a tv programme The People versus Robodebt. It is probably geoblocked if you are a foreign type. As I understand it our social welfare government department, Centrelink, took payment beneficiary information from the tax department of annual income, whereas Centrelink payments are based on fortnightly income. 

In both situations, it soon became apparent that there were issues. The Murdoch media in both England and Australia both ignored it, both supporters of the conservative governments of the time. It was left to other media to tell the story in Australia, as pure logical information came spewing out. Yet, no one acted. The government buried its head in the sand, only occasionally popping up to say welfare cheating was wrong and it was committed to stop it.

Some media kept fighting, along with advocates for social security recipients, legal people, and those within the system, who would bob their heads up, to have them quickly cut down by their seniors.

Even now with hindsight, like the Post Office scandal, it is hard to understand how long it went on when it was clearly wrong. In both cases, there were suicides by some of those affected. Houses were lost, marriages and partnerships broke. 

I am angry that I didn't do more. I am angry that our media didn't do more. I am angry that our common garden variety politicians didn't act. I am most of all angry with then Prime Minister Scott Morrison's conservative government. 

And in another parallel, no one has had their head chopped off, and someone's damned well should have been severely punished, in both cases. 

Let's see what happens with extraordinary Grenfell Tower inquiry, still ongoing eight years after 70 odd people died in the fire, in one of the most important and richest cities in the world, one that couldn't provide people with basic building fire protection. 

Never stop complaining

I heard it on the radio, so it must be true.

Not so. A public figure made a statement on radio that I instinctively knew was wrong. I immediately sent a detailed message to the radio station pointing this out, but after he had left the studio. The station called me and asked if I would like to go to air to speak about what I had I messaged. I declined. I am not a great speaker and I would have needed time to think. I checked a couple of websites and I was right, the public figure wrong. 

There was some doubt on the radio about the validity of what the public figure had said, but the broadcaster has more important things to focus on than small detail.

Let me tell you, I was cross as patch. The station dropped the matter and I stewed on it for a couple of days. The public figure is an ok guy, and has similar political views to myself, but that makes it worse. It is harder to hate and attack someone on your political side.

It became too much and I sent him an email. I know some of you will have guessed who I am talking about, too bad. Here are some excerpts from my email and his response, which I was quite surprised to receive. I consider his response was very decent and honest. There was a bit more that I am not displaying. So people, when public figures get it wrong, call them out. Just maybe not #47, who is immune to criticism. Misspoke in his response is as good as a mea culpa you will normally receive from a public figure. 

Me: 

I am very disappointed at your spruiking of misinformation about the closure of Bourke Street to trams on the 8th of August. You clearly stated the reason for the closure was for Yarra Trams works in Bourke Street, when it has become clear that the closure is for the opening of Mecca. 

It is very odd that Myer window Christmas crowds of a hundred people or more can safely be in Bourke Street with trams running, yet the opening of a shop needs to have trams stopped. If there is disruption to Bourke Street trams, they are normally rerouted to Latrobe Street. This may well cost Yarra Trams but if it happens for an event, I expect Yarra Trams wants compensation, and it seems obvious that Mecca was not prepared to pay.

The whole matter stinks...

Response:

I’m really sorry for the disappointment caused by my earlier communication regarding the Bourke Street tram closure. My intention was never to mislead or obscure the facts. I was just back from leave and invited to discuss the Mecca opening.

At the time, I was not across the detail on tram disruption and misspoke.

and when commercial interests appear to influence decisions that affect many. Your point about past events (like the Myer Christmas windows) proceeding without tram closures is a fair one, and raises valid questions.

Thank you again for holding me to account. I value thoughtful, constructive criticism like yours, and I’ll aim to do better in future.

I read it in the newspaper so it must be true

Another old draft post completed. 

There is a Melbourne local government area called Glen Eira. It is one of Melbourne's expensive south eastern suburbs and a rather nice area to live. It has a high Jewish population and in some parts a high Indian immigrant population. 

Long have I known it has the least amount of parkland of any local government area in Greater Melbourne, however unlike Melbourne's western  and north western suburbs, it in common with most of the inner to middle eastern to south eastern suburbs, had good tree cover, known as one of the 'leafy green suburbs'.  

Truly disturbing, there has been a reduction of of tree canopy covering in the local government area of roughly, between 2010 and 2020, half. Like 50%. No doubt this is a result of older houses with large gardens and trees, being demolished and the resulting blocks of land covered with housing and paving, almost edge to edge, without room for large trees. 

Yes, we need higher density in these spacious areas to cater for population growth, rather than expanding the outer areas, but it really needs to better managed. Many free standing houses fit for a family are demolished for luxury apartments for wealthy older downsizers and cashed up Asian immigrants. The area of land probably houses no more people, in spite of the land being covered over and trees cut down. 

As long as historic areas are respected, the state government is doing the right thing with higher rise buildings near train stations. But allowing tree cover to be so reduced is not the right thing. This also applies to City of Stonnington, City of Boroondara and a couple of other local areas too.  

Bits

My newest Mondegreen: I wasn't really paying attention to the tv and when perhaps Gardening Australia was being broadcast, my ears pricked up, as I heard 'To bully him'. What??? It was so out of context. Fortunately the Fetch box allows me to go back, even though I am not actively recording. It was the single word 'tabouli'. Yes, I did have my hearing aids in my ears. 

There was a cool new show on ABV TV last night where piano players (I could have used the word pianists, but I am not sure they all are) play in a public space and they are listened to by Australian pianist Andrea Lam and the internationally known, Harry Connick Jr. The 103 year old pianist competitor probably doesn't have much of a future in the music industry. 

Well, the Australian election result was a shock. The Labor Party won with a landslide. The last time I tuned in, the state of Tasmania has no conservative party Liberal/National Party members. The conservative Liberal Party was pretty well wiped out in all Australian capital cities. 

My opinion is the leader of the opposition party, the Liberals, has an ugly character and came with so much baggage as he was a member of a former ruling conservative government. Once he announced his policy of the sacking of a huge number of public servants, DOGE like, and a stupid member sprouting Make Australia Great Again, he was a goner. How to scare the voters #101. Then he sprouted off about the first nation welcome to country speech used at many public ceremonies, suggesting it may be overused. I don't think it is. My sister had a brief welcome to country speech at the wedding to her wife. Mother later remarked, was that really necessary. In my mother's mind, aborigines were trouble. She was a person of her time and quite racist, conflicted by her lovely and kind Filipina neighbour, and the medical staff from wherever in the world who looked after her for so many years.

The Murdoch media, and its newspaper editorials suggesting to vote for the conservative party would be a good thing to do, was clearly out of step with the Australian populace. As for the execrable Sky News, my god, what a fuck up this also Murdoch media tv station is. 

The fallen leader of the conservative party went down the road of nuclear power, on a long time line. Nuclear power is great and perfectly safe, until it isn't. Even one of most technically advanced country, Japan, could not ensure nuclear safety. 

As I type, Phyllis and Kosov are making my dinner. My Meals on Wheels, technically three days worth were delivered today. 

I did something wrong on my desktop and screen shots can no longer be found in Pictures/Screenshots, after pressing Windows+Print Screen. The pics are saved, but I cannot find out where. It took me some time, but I found out that I can press Windows+Control+S, and that works for me as they are saved to Clipboard, a place in the Windows tree I'd never heard of. Is it a new name for Notepad? 

Back to politics. I stayed in accommodation with my ABI (Acquired Brain Injury) Brother in Ballarat for a family gathering. More later about that later, but we were back at our digs and were watching the election results on the Saturday night as we drank a wee dram. I was astonished when he said he voted for Dutton, the conservative party leader. I expressed something that indicated I was mega surprised. He replied, I voted for Jason Wood. I know him and he is a nice bloke.  After hearing Mr Wood interviewed on radio yesterday, he seemed like a decent person and not one of the hard right members of the conservative party. He seemed like a reasonable person and that is how the conservative Liberal Party, that seems to have become a party of extreme #47 like policies, needs to rebuild itself to recover from its devastating loss of popularity, full of reasonable people. 

Dutton was a government minister who could have stood up and spoken up about the disgraceful Robodebt scandal. I can never forgive any of the party at the time for Robodebt that led to suicides. Beyond the failures of men in the party, it certainly in the future should not be led by woman who was also Robodebt compliant. Yes you, Sussan Ley. You cannot be a part of an invigorated refresh of the conservative Liberal Party. 

My neighbour HH is driving me in her motor car to a Buddhist cafe I know not where for lunch on Wednesday. What on earth is Buddhist food like? One may not like surprises, but one lives for them. 

Outraged Penguins

The almost sole inhabitants of Australia's territories, McDonald and Heard Islands, are outraged and mystified about why their exports to the US have had a 10% tariff imposed.  The penguins have a hard life in the extreme cold and are very busy surviving. They don't understand why their non exports have been hit with a 10% tariff.

I think it was back in the 1700s when it was established that the tall and straight trunk of a Norfolk Island Pine tree was unsuitable for use as a ship mast, in spite of the tree's appearance. 

The trunks just broke when used as a mast. Aside from the  proven failure as ship masts, and not demanded by any country, the Australian territory Norfolk Island has been slapped with a 29% tariff, quite a bit more than the general 10% tariff for Australia. No one can imagine what the 2,000 people who live on the island can be exporting to the US to have such a penalty imposed. 

Not only is #47 incompetent in his role, so it seems is his administration. 

Could #47 run for a third term? I understand not by law, but #47 has little respect for the law. Aside from a courage of a few, the Democrats seem fairly silent. This may be a good idea politically, let #47 destroy himself. But you know, I don't even know who the Democrat leader is? 

Ok, Hakeem Jeffries. Youngish, not bad looking but I've never heard of him. Is he the person put in place before a proper leader of the Democrats is found? 

It is sad that such a competent person, Kamala Harris, was not elected. Fuckin' rich old white men are such a problem in the world. 

We have free trade with the US

Yep, in 2005 Australia and the US signed a free trade agreement, that seems was not worth the paper it was written upon. 

#47 slapped a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imported from Australia. While that will affect Australia, we are not paying. The citizens of the US will ultimately pay. In the US, people on the street seem to have no understanding of this. They think Australia will be paying. No, it is US companies who import steel and aluminium that will pay, and US citizens will ultimately pay. 

The is a day coming soon where Australia can expect more tariffs over some rather tenuous matters.

He does not like the ban, as I believe is also in place in Europe and Great Britain, on the importation of American beef. Given we export beef to the US, this is puzzling. The reason we and the aforesaid areas of the world won't import US beef is that it is full of anti biotics and growth hormones, with the cattle often grown in an intensive farming manner. Nah, we don't want that. Aim for clean and green. 

Prescribed medical drug prescriptions are subsidised in Australia. At the moment the cost can not exceed around $31 and if the current government is re-elected, this will drop to $25. For poor old age pensioners like me, it is capped at around $7. I don't understand what the issue is here, but I guess it is about US drug company profits. The drug companies are lobbying the US government very hard to punish Australia. 

Our government is pressing for pay to view companies like Netflix to include some local content. I don't think that is unreasonable, but again, it is problematic for the US. 

Nor is it unreasonable for Meta and other large US tech companies to pay the content producers for direct copies and links to their sites. Will be hear of a tariff slapped on us for that? 

Where there are joint US and Australian research facilities here, #47 wants to know effectively about Australia's diversity policies etc. I assume funding would be cut if the expectations are not met. 

Many of the above are direct interference in Australian domestic policies. 

I read somewhere today that the world needs to show a bit more appreciation for the money US has spent around the world, more than compared to say Europe. Bah, America has only spent money where it sees there is an advantage in funding countries, people and organisations, so save me from 'What we have done for the world'. That is just what countries, including my own, do. 

Let's end with a laugh. 

Thoughts about words

I am not sure where I was going with this old post draft. 

About twenty years ago while driving Mother somewhere on one of our motorways, a driver did something bad in front of me and in the presence of Mother, who had slapped me as child for saying bloody, I dropped the c word. You c***. It is not a word I normally use. I can't remember using it since. I immediately apologised to Mother, who continued on telling me about her medical woes without seemingly to notice. Nearly twenty years later, Mother was correct and her medical woes proved to be fatal, with a lot of medical woes along the way.

While I've never mixed among the lower classes in England, apparently they use the c word without abandon. The word becomes boring with overuse and loses its effectiveness. But like gay men embraced homophobic terms, so too are women embracing the c word. I recall a beggar calling me a fucking old poof. He stated the obvious. His insult was a fail.

I am never sure if is appropriate to describe a black American as being black. I think the preferred term is African American. That's fine with me. Whatever. But I laugh when I hear stories of Americans who visit England describe black English people as African Americans, even though the black English have no connection to America. In Britain, you are British, and your colour and racial heritage is not so publicly important. You are British first. The plight of disadvantaged African Americans in the US is the equivalent in Britain of the plight of the disadvantaged British. 

It is a queer thing that so called African Americans, many who have been in the US for far longer than their British counterparts have been in Britain, yet they need to be distinguished as Afro Americans, and not just Americans. 

Whatever, black American, black British and black Australian, they all face discrimination. It is just not so in your face in Britain and Australia, and there are programmes to promote an inclusive workplace. That has just disappeared in the US. This Afro American term is very queer. The first black slaves arrived to America in the early 1600s, yet they need to be name qualified beyond just an American by the colour of their skin. I am not naïve enough to suggest your best mate is a black person, yet here, I do see socialisation between the Indian immigrants and white Australians, through work, neighbours and of course food. 

The leader of Australia's His Majesty's Opposition Party is one Peter Dutton, an extreme conservative, and he would like to do many of the things that #47 has been doing in the US. I gave some thought to a insulting adaption to his name and the best I could do is Duttrump. Yes, the wrongly named conservative Liberal Party leader is Peter Duttrump. 

Train excitement is building

In 2025 a new underground railway line in Melbourne will open. We have a station nearby and yesterday was an open day for local residents, although not all were so local. My neighbour H booked us tickets for 10.40 but we were there early and I guess we were on the 10.20 tour. 

What we didn't know was that there would be food vans and food and coffee were free. I ate a Bunnings type sausage (in bread with onions and tomato sauce), followed by bahn mi pork belly slider, and ice cream and then coffee. But that was after the tour. We ran into two neighbour couples from our building. One was complaining about a lack of rubbish bins on the station platform and there not being enough seating. Given trains will come through every ten minutes or better, seats aren't such a big deal. 

The underground station is all but complete, as is the external area. Now, we just wait for trains. 

A few photos from the day, starting with the entrance from Domain Road. There was one escalator coming up, which we used at the end of the tour, but why wasn't there a down one? There was a lift. However, there are multiple stairs, escalators and lifts to down and up from the station.

The main concourse is huge.

These coloured fabrics give people way finding. The are white on the other side. This is repeated at all of the new stations. From what I saw, the signage within the station was good. 

To and from the St Kilda Road tram platform stop.

Once on the platform, the colours changed to orange. 

Just ahead of Melbourne, Sydney has platform doors where by there are platform doors that open with the train doors.

These glass panels were just stunning.

Food time, and there was plenty. Very satisfying. 

A three piece fruit band greeted us. A banana, watermelon and grapes. 

We chatted with neighbours for a bit and then wandered home. It was a nice experience. Unfortunately a neighbour of my neighbour was out with her aged dog as we walked home, who my neighbour wanted to avoid. We tried to sneak past her, but failed and H and she had a bit of a chat, while I walked on further and looked back like an impatient and annoyed person. That worked with only a two minute chat between them. H praised me for saving her from a long chat. The woman is loopy.

At 5 Phyllis and Kosov arrived and cooked up a storm. They came and went at times into the living area, they had big laughs and so did I. They are incredibly nice to me, and want to hug me all the time, even though I am not really the hugging type. It is like they are grooming me, but as I will tell them, Uncle Andrew is a nice person, but when he changes to the mean Aunty Andrea, you will need to look out. I should not be so cynical. They are both nice guys. 

I bought a punnet of blackberries this week. They tasted nothing like the blackberries we picked in my kiddie years. Phyllis said they tasted of chemicals. They were a little sour but didn't really have a taste.  I was so disappointed. 

Da Boyds

The artistic Boyd family were very famous in Melbourne from the early 1900s to the later mid 1900s. Martin Boyd was a wonderful author (read My Brother Jack), and among them were painters, poets and potters. 

The family settled in the then new suburb of Murrumbeena and owned numerous properties in Wahroongaa Crescent. I must take a walk there to see if there are any blue plaques. Generally the houses there are Californian Bungalow style, Calbungs or Cowbungs, as we call them.

I travel to Murrumbeena by train fortnightly to pick up four frozen meals and we/I have for a number of years bought meals there. It is a pleasant and quick journey but somehow I'd never noticed the brick tribute to the Boyd family. I snapped away. While Melbourne Blogger Hels has referenced the Boyds many times, I can't find that she has directly written about them. 

To give some credit, this is part of Melbourne's train level crossing removal project by our state Labor government. Well done it. 

My grandmother's ash tray by Guy Boyd. The cost of an invisible repairs to the crack is about what it is worth, the last quote being about $100.

Water and War

I listened to the podcast linked below and if our ABC is similar to the BBC, you should be able to listen to it anywhere. The podcast is is made by the RN radio programme Rear Vision and discusses the disastrous privatisation of the water and sewerage system in I think, England and Wales. I am not sure about the other countries in Great Britain. 

The privatisation was initiated by late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (she without empathy) and has been an utter disgrace, so if you want your blood to boil in fury about sewerage flowing into fresh water and governmental permission to rip off the people of the aforesaid countries, take half an hour to listen to the podcast. It is very enlightening. 

Sadly ABC no longer allows direct downloading as it wants everyone to use the ABC app, which I believe you can use overseas. You can listen online though. 

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/rearvision/water-privatisation-in-england-and-why-it-s-failed/104238770

In other matters, for months the Australian government has been warning its citizens against visiting the Middle East and over the past several weeks, it has been urging Australians to return to Australia before things really kick off in area. Well, it seems kicking off is pretty close to being underway. 

Now the government is talking about emergency evacuation flights and ferries. If my government was urging me to return home, I damn well would have at the first serious warning, promptly. I suppose there are some citizens of Australia in the Middle East who would be reluctant to uproot their established lives there, but at least they know the situation and can make educated judgements. Wouldn't it to be better to be safe than sorry? I do not like the idea of Australians or anyone being put at risk to evacuate those who were too stubborn and could now be screaming help. Of course down the track our government will receive bad press, by leaving all those, 'innocent and desperate people overseas who are innocently caught up in a war'. 

Yes, I am in a bit of a grump tonight. 

Tram undulations

I've tried a few times to capture this but either the tram driver was driving slowly or a passenger stood up and blocked the view. 

I got it this time, route 58, in Kingsway to West Coburg via the Zoo.

It is an E class tram, built in Melbourne by local and imported ingredients and built in the suburb Dandenong at the Bombardier factory, formerly COMENG, the government owned Commonwealth Engineering. E class trams are quite long, at over 33 metres/108 feet, have three articulated sections and sit on four swivelling bogies. They are quite a good tram in my opinion, even if the creak and groan. And some of the seats with their fibreglass backs, can pop forward and back depending on acceleration and braking. 

Our next new tram will be shorter and hopefully even better. They will be known as G class. I wonder why F class was skipped?

While I am talking about trams, with Melbourne having the largest tram system in the world, the private operator, not owner, is Yarra Trams, a consortium between the French company Keolis and a large local rail engineering company Downer Rail. In my forty one year career in public transport, my final employer was Keolis Downer. 

Come December a new consortium will take over the operation of Yarra Trams made up of the French company Transdev and the Chinese company, John Holland. Transdev did have a contract to operate part of Melbourne's bus system, and were run out of town by the state government for dreadful performance. That does not bode well. 

I hope the clip doesn't make you sea sick. 

The Age Pension

I contacted the company Ray used that for quite a bit of money will take away all the paperwork pain of applying for the old age pension in October when I turn 67. 

Details were provided to the company over the phone with a document to sign and return, and a couple of other matters. 

It was easy, except I needed a Centrelink CRN, a Customer Relationship Number? I know nothing of this. I haven't had any Social Security contact since 1979 when for a couple of months, I received dole money. 

It didn't take too long for the call to Centrelink, our government social services department, to answer but I was not visible on the system. For the hour and a half I was on hold, with the pleasant lady checking in every five minutes to reassure me I was in her queue to identify me, eventually, it happened and I had my brand new CRN. 

As I was on hold I dusted most of the lounge room.

The good news is I will receive a part age pension and best of all, the concession card, giving me considerable reductions for so many things. Medications will all drop to about $6 per month, instead of the the maximum of $30 I now pay. Most of my medications are around $10 but one does cost $30. The savings by having the card are huge. 

I was feeling financially insecure but now, I feel a whole lot better now I know I can get the concession card. 

"Phyliss, why are you washing that crockery by hand?"

"I have the time Andrew and it will save you money by not using the dishwasher so often."

"Phyllis, the dishwasher has to operate every second or third day. Your crockery can go in the dishwasher. There is plenty of crockery in the cupboards. The constantly running hot water sink tap as you hand wash dishes costs me money". Lordy, I've experienced this before with an Indian friend who would not use a dishwasher. I feel dishes are cleaner if they have been washed in a dishwasher, rather than hand washed in a sink and then dried with a tea towel, or in the case of Phyliss, paper towel. My goodness, how he can go through paper towel and tissues. Neither cost much, so no real problem.   

Miss Harris goes to not Paris but Washington

An attempt at humour involving the film Mrs Harris goes to Paris. 

This Harris person seems like she might be a good fit as President of the United States. I wondered why as Vice President, she kept a lowish profile. Ha, she was saving and accumulating her ammunition. She remained a respectful junior to President Biden until he retired. Look at her big....forehead. There is a lot of brain in there. 

Her or the party's choice as her Vice President running mate seems to be a good one, a decent fellow with a lot of experience and perhaps better at connecting to Hillary's accurate but unwise phrase, the basket of deplorables. 

OK, I'll put my brave hand down with my left foot and call it. Harris will win. Surely Americans are over the god awful orange and hysterical #45 who brought such terrible division to the country, as the world watched wide eyed and gobsmacked. Sadly many in the world lost respect for the US. It just seemed too crazy to comprehend. 

You know one really good thing about the US is that behind the scenes, administrative government goes on. At times fraudsters will be caught out. Corruption will be rooted out. Dodgy companies will be called to account. Large and powerful companies will be questioned about their practices in a public forum. #45 will go down in history as a shocker. 

Seems kind of like my own country really, reactive rather than proactive.