public transport

The draft Yarra Strategic Plan claims to deliver the first Victorian integrated river corridor strategy and to identify immediate actions for the river corridor, enabling long-term collaborative management between agencies and Traditional Owners. It is intended to guide local planning. We publish here a critical submission to this draft plan. Summary of submission by candobetter editor: Climate Change and human failure to interact safely with the natural world. Plan fails to adequately factor in transport interaction with Yarra. Lack of proper transport interconnectivity. Higher density depends on high quality public transport. Private car still dominates. Forecast population growth and new constructions will inevitably cause major environmental damage. North-East Link Freeway will comport massive land-fill problems, hardly referred to in Draft Plan. Likely potential for destabilisation of groundwater in the Yarra Valley in the Bulleen and Rosanna area as a consequence of the North-East Link Freeway project. Substantial areas of public open space is threatened by the project, together with about 25,000 mature canopy trees. Adverse human health effects of the project would include increased air pollution and heightened road noise. Lack of cycling provision on roads in cities of Boroondara, Banyule, Manningham and Maroondah and the Shires of Nillumbik and Yarra Ranges. Proposal in Plan to increase lanes capacity on the Eastern Freeway to cater for the North East Link project by over 40%, from 802,000 square metres to 1,127,000 square metres. Adverse environmental effects would include increased run-off of polluted stormwater into the Yarra River and elevated ambient temperatures as a consequence of the large increase in concrete and asphalt surfaces. Report of the Commissioner of Sustainability, State of the Yarra and its Parklands (2018), concluded that the status of the Yarra river was poor for 18 of its 25 environmental indicators. This can only deteriorate if planned stressors go ahead.

Submission on the Draft Yarra Strategic Plan

Introduction

The draft Yarra Strategic Plan rightly identifies climate change as a threat to the Yarra River. In this regard, climate change is neither more or less than a register of the failure of the human species to interact properly with the natural world. COVID - 19 also falls into that category.

Transport and the Yarra

The draft Plan gives too little attention to the relationship between transport and the health of the Yarra. This is a major flaw. The functionality of large cities is decided more than anything else by the dominant modes of mobility deployed in them.

The draft Plan declares (p. 16) that the Department of Transport "plans, builds and operates an integrated, sustainable and safe transport system across Victoria. It does not, actually, as little effort is made to integrate the various modes. Within the public transport sphere in particular, insufficient effort is made to ensure the connectivity of the network.

Even more importantly, the concept of integrated transport and land use planning has pretty much been abandoned by the Victorian government, and has done so since Melbourne 2030, with the concept of the poly-centric city at its core, was all but forgotten.

The idea (p. 12) that higher density residential development should be the sole province of inner areas is flawed. There is significant demand for higher density residential development in locations well removed from inner Melbourne. The central problem is that the government has abandoned the key enabler of this, which is high quality public transport across the whole of Melbourne.

The reality is that the modal mix for personal travel in the City of Melbourne is little different from what it was 50 years ago. The private motor car dominates. And it is very space-inefficient.

The draft Plan anticipates that Melbourne's population will grow to nearly 8 million by the year 2051, and with an extra 140,000 dwellings to be built in the Yarra River corridor by 2041.

There are no grounds, within current policy settings, that these "milestones" would be reached without damaging the environment very seriously. The central issue is that the Victorian government does not have a transport plan for Melbourne.

North East Link

The Victorian government's North East Link freeway project is hardly referred to in the draft Plan. It should be. It was developed in the absence of any consideration by the government of other forms of transport, and especially public transport, which would have a relatively benign effect on the Yarra River corridor.

It is understood that the extensive tunnelling proposed for the project would require the excavation of about 1.5 cubic metres of rock and soil, which would go to landfill (see Timna Jacks and Benjamin Preiss, "Warning over toxic soil from 'big dig,'" Sunday Age, December 1, 2019). It is not known whether any of the material is toxic and there appears to be insufficient landfill capacity to take it.

There appears to be potential for destabilisation of groundwater in the Yarra Valley in the Bulleen and Rosanna area as a consequence of the project.
Substantial areas of public open space is threatened by the project, together with about 25,000 mature canopy trees.

Adverse human health effects of the project would include increased air pollution and heightened road noise.

Paved surface area

One of the dysfunctional elements of the dominance of the motor car is the increase in paved road surface that is required to cater for ever-growing motor vehicle numbers. For instance, it is proposed to increase lanes capacity on the Eastern Freeway to cater for the North East Link project by over 40%, from 802,000 square metres to 1,127,000 square metres. The adverse environmental effects would include increased run-off of polluted stormwater into the Yarra River and elevated ambient temperatures as a consequence of the large increase in concrete and asphalt surfaces.

Local government and transport

It is not only at state government level that we have major policy failure in transport. For instance, if one is to consider the land area of the City of Boroondara, it is comprised of about 6,022 hectares, of which 1279 hectares, over 20%, is comprised of road reservations. About 80% of the land devoted to road reservations is controlled by the City of Boroondara, with the balance controlled by VicRoads. The reservations controlled by Boroondara contain about 560 kilometres of local roads.
Significantly, very few of these roads have been developed to provide for safe cycling traffic. They are designed, with few exceptions, exclusively for motor car traffic. Apart from the City of Yarra, the other councils with a direct interest in this project (the cities of Banyule, Manningham and Maroondah and the Shires of Nillumbik and Yarra Ranges), also appear relatively uninterested in increasing the mode share of space-efficient, and therefore environmentally friendly forms of transport.

Conclusions

The Status Assessment contained in the report of the Commissioner of Sustainability, State of the Yarra and its Parklands (2018), concluded that the status of the river was poor for 18 of its 25 environmental indicators.

These measures will continue to deteriorate unless substantial reforms are made to transport capacity in Melbourne, and especially in the Yarra River corridor, to preference space-efficient and less carbon polluting transport modes.

Ian Hundley
29 March 2020

An article in yesterday's Herald Sun newspaper pointed to a sleight of hand by the North East Link Project in its recent appearance before the North East Link Inquiry and Advisory Committee. (See https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inner-east/golfers-tee-off-at-controversial-proposal-either-reduce-or-alter-freeway-golf-course/news-story/386681c74b5e0151a62c2107f2943f78 - this article is hidden behind a Herald-Sun paywall. - Ed).

Documents tabled as the Committee proceedings were concluding countenanced a substantial reduction in the area of the Freeway Golf Course which is located near the Yarra River in North Balwyn. The president of the two clubs located at the course attacked the Committee process that left them unable to respond to the material.
That the Freeway Golf Course should be reduced in size sits nicely with the Victorian government's plan to substantially increase the lanes capacity of the Eastern Freeway, and to build a quite massive "spaghetti junction" to cater for the proposed North East Link. It is a threat always posed by major roads projects, which are inherently space inefficient relative to public transport. The Victorian government is not proposing any enhancement of public transport capacity in the corridor to be served by its proposed North East Link. If the North East Link were to be built it would, like all freeway projects that have preceded it, provide no more than temporary relief from current traffic congestion, and eat into a lot more green open space than the golf course in North Balwyn. The public transport services that do exist in the corridor can be truthfully described as no better than miserably inadequate.

The attached photograph is of the Eastern Freeway taken from the Yarra Bend Road bridge in Fairfield, about 10 days ago in the morning peak travel time. This is a delightful part of the world of extensive parkland except for the fact that it has a freeway bisecting it. If the Andrews government gets its way it will deteriorate markedly. The median strip, shown on the left of the photograph, was assigned to a rail service to Doncaster. The Andrews government now threatens to take it over for additional traffic lanes to cater for the North East Link. The photograph also shows four lanes of bumper to bumper traffic. A single train service can cater for about the same number of commuters as a freeway lane carries in an hour. You will also see that the left hand lane was unoccupied at this point. This is the T2 lane which is provided for vehicles with two or more occupants. Most vehicles driven in Melbourne have just one occupant, the driver.

In the last few days two quite significant things have happened. Melbourne City Council signed off on its new 10 year transport strategy, which proposes to remove on-street car parking in central Melbourne and to provide additional space for pedestrians, and active transport generally, as well as to facilitate public transport. The Grattan Institute has called for the introduction of a congestion tax for central Melbourne. These two initiatives demonstrate that central Melbourne is now full (of cars) and the situation is quite intolerable in social, environmental and economic terms.

The Andrews government is out of time. It is living in the 1960's, when the car was king. Things are different now, and the fight to defeat the North East Link, and for sustainable transport, is a necessary one for the present and the future.

VicRoads recently closed down Hoddle Street for a week to work on streamlining the corridor. The project is expected to continue for the rest of 2018.

"Streamlining" in this case is a euphemism for increasing the capacity of Hoddle Street for higher volumes of vehicle traffic every day. Whilst dedicated bus lanes are part of the project the Andrews government intends that the overwhelming future growth in traffic movements will be passenger cars.

The project was previously under serious consideration by the Brumby Labor government which lost office in 2010. It was sidelined by the incoming Baillieu government which, at least initially, sensibly "parked" the project with a view to, at last, building a rail line to Doncaster Hill instead. That did not materialise in the wake of an inadequate analysis that contemplated a rail line from Melbourne CBD, not to the major passenger destination of Doncaster Hill, but to the "Park and Ride" at the intersection of the Eastern Freeway and Doncaster Road in Doncaster.

The fact is that increasing road capacity at the expense of public transport, as the Hoddle Street streamlining project does, is far less space efficient than increased public transport capacity. One fully loaded train carries about as many people as one freeway lane occupied by passenger vehicles in a whole hour. The successor Napthine government's favourite, if critically flawed infrastructure project, the proposed East West Link, would have sacrificed significant open space, including much of the priceless parkland of Royal Park for a "spaghetti junction" with the Tullamarine Freeway in Parkville.

Importantly, it would have also absorbed the median strip on the Eastern Freeway between Hoddle Street and Bulleen Road for additional vehicle lanes. As this space has for years been earmarked for a rail line to Doncaster it would have dealt a severe, if not terminal, blow to the promise of an acceptable public transport service for residents of Melbourne's north eastern suburbs who have no tram or train services.

As we head into this 2018 election year we have a deep obligation to put a stop to this freeway madness and the serial sidelining of public transport by the major parties. There is no sign yet, though, that they have heard the message. If the status quo were to be maintained we also face the future threat of further "streamlining" of Punt Road to the south of the current Hoddle Street project. Existing residential properties in South Yarra would be the victims of that exercise, if it were to see the light of day.

In addition to resurrecting the discredited East West Link project, the coalition also wishes to build the so-called North East Link from Greensborough to the Eastern Freeway. The Labor government, if re-elected, would also build the North East Link as well as the West Gate Tunnel, a cosy deal which it hatched with toll road operator Transurban but did not declare in their election campaigning in 2014. The West Gate Tunnel is proposed instead of the adequate public transport desperately needed by western suburbs residents who the Andrews government claims to serve.

As part of the North East Link project the Victorian government proposes to add seven extra lanes to the Eastern Freeway between Bulleen Road and Springvale Road. The North East Link Authority, the government body established by the Andrews government to "spin" the project to the public has so far been mum on how this is to work. However, one thing is certain: Substantial public parkland would be lost, including much of the Koonung Creek Reserve. This Reserve, even in its current condition is a remnant of the extensive open space in the valley that was lost to the Eastern Freeway when it was opened in 1977 and then progressively extended eastward. Now they want more of it. The Reserve would be reduced to a "buffer zone" between the bloated Eastern Freeway and ever closer residential areas along the Eastern Freeway from Bulleen to Nunawading.

For its part, the West Gate Tunnel would feed more motor car traffic from the western suburbs into the inner suburbs and the Melbourne CBD in much the same way as the government's Hoddle Street "streamlining" project and the East West Link, if it were to materialise, will feed more traffic into inner suburbs and the CBD from the north and the east.
All in all the Victorian government seems set on filling up Melbourne CBD with cars every day in the same manner as the trainless Melbourne Airport.

(Submission inside) Plans for the proposed underground railway from north west to south east of the city are not yet finalised. On Friday the 13th the Minister of Planning said the location of the proposed Domain station may be moved and yet the Age announces 14th Jan that work would begin on Monday the 16th. This is clearly vandalism. They are going to start destroying trees and moving gas and sewer lines at the Domain. Remember that St Kilda Road is heritage listed and Heritage Victoria have received thousands of objections and Heritage Vic have not yet made a determination. One has to wonder how much pressure they are under by this State Government in their determination to start digging. We are sick to death of hearing them say they are 'shovel-ready'. How dare the government say that the damage to St Kilda road will be worth it for the advantage the rail will give. The necessity for this rail is being questioned by respected planners in Melbourne. There are far more important road and rail projects that are needed first.

Hard to believe that they are intent on wrecking one of the most beautiful boulevards in the world. One of the most picturesque parts of Melbourne. Compare this to what London are doing right now - putting in 42 kms of underground from west to east called Crossrail, without disrupting anything up on top. This took years in the planning before one shovel was put in the ground so that they got it perfectly done. Please Minister ask for their help. (Mary Drost, Convenor, Planning Backlash.) [Candobetter.net Editor: Illustrations inserted by candobetter.net editor. See also Submission from the National Trust of Australia. and this Port Phillip Council information about its trees which include the historic St Kilda Road historic boulevard.]

December 2016
Re: Heritage Victoria – VHR: H2359; P25649, St Kilda Rd

Submission regarding heritage controls on St Kilda Road, The Domain and the Trees and the Gardens

Introduction

This in relation to the damage by the proposed Metro Underground Railway to the wonderful Boulevard known as St Kilda Road. I write to object to the granting of this permit.

The Route

First point to be made is that the routing must be changed. More sensibly the route should be from the north of Melbourne via Southern Cross Station to Docklands and then to Fishermans Bend and from there across South Melbourne and crossing under St Kilda Road in the vicinity of Toorak Road and coming right through and linking to South Yarra Station.
The proposed route does not make sense in that there would be a station at the north of the city and then at the southern end, really duplicating the existing city loop, totally unnecessary. On the other hand it makes much more logical sense to be on the west of the city and include Docklands and Fishermans Bend.
However I really believe that this concept of an underground in that location, using that route, is not going to help Melbourne at all and it will be detrimental to the beauty and heritage of the city. This connection between north and south already exists using Southern Cross Station and Flinders St Station and connecting into the loop. There are far more important railway extensions that should be made first e.g. to the airport and to Doncaster. Why not require MMRA to submit costings and details of alternative routes for public consideration?

The Tunnel

It is hard to believe that they would even for one minute contemplate not tunnelling deep enough to avoid any damage on the surface that can be avoided in this significant heritage area. The idea of any cutting and filling rather than using deep tunnel mining throughout from the Arts Centre down Toorak Road and in South Yarra is absurd to the point of stupidity. Why is deep mining tunnelling not being used right through? It should be.

It is thirty plus years since the City Loop was put in. That is deep and I think no cutting and filling was done. The idea of cutting and filling to save money is short sighted in the extreme.
When Singapore want to do something new they send a team around the world to see where it is done best and get them to help. We believe our government needs to re-think this whole plan and route. They should immediately get in touch with authorities in London and ask their help and advice. They are the world’s best, having started their underground in 1863 and have an incredible underground network and only recently tunnelled out 42 kms from Heathrow airport to Canary Wharf and even further east without disrupting anything on top in such a devastating manner as this proposal from MMRA/Lovell Chen would. Or the government could ask Switzerland for help. They dig tunnels through miles of mountain.

(See Switzerland, longest tunnel in the world: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36423250 “Gotthard tunnel: World's longest and deepest rail tunnel opens in Switzerland”, 1 June 2016; http://www.houseofswitzerland.org/swissstories/environment/construction-world-s-longest-environmentally-friendly-tunnel, “The construction of the world’s longest environmentally friendly tunnel.” See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel ).

But we talk of cutting and filling down one of the most beautiful boulevards in the world. Try doing this in Paris and you would be sent straight to the guillotine.
In contrast this proposal is for cutting and filling down one of the most beautiful boulevards in the world – and that is unacceptable loss and destruction of cultural heritage and the defining character, identity and beauty of Melbourne.

St Kilda Road must not be damaged. It would a tragedy to have all the threatened trees knocked down. It would take many years for them to grow again to maturity. These are mature elms that have been there for probably 100 years. How dare they damage them in any way.

The tunnels should be deep enough to prevent any damage or vibration to anything up on top whether buildings or trees as was done recently in London. (see: the Crossrail project, http://www.crossrail.co.uk/, “A world-class new railway for London and the south east,” with integrated transparent planning and design up-front and the project planned around heritage protection as a priority, including protection of the setting and visual amenity of protected heritage squares in London as a result of either the permanent or temporary works). We believe this application for a Permit should be refused. More time, planning and consideration for protecting and maintaining heritage and the defining landmarks, gardens and monuments of the city should be the starting and guiding principles around which transport and underground railway tunnels are planned.

The Shrine

What is planned in the area of the Shrine is a total disgrace and a disregard of the importance and history and location of this beautiful Shrine in memory of the men and women who have lost their lives in wars defending Australia. It was superbly planned and located in relation to St Kilda Road and the city and the surrounding gardens, and these visual lines and vistas are part of its heritage significance registration, and they should be maintained and left undisturbed. How dare any government propose to turn this into an excavation site wrecking the parks and gardens and trees surrounding it at least for years, possibly damaged forever. This must not be allowed. We, the people of Victoria, rely on you at Heritage Victoria to protect these heritage sites.

The Domain

This beautiful area of parks and gardens and trees must not be touched and damaged in the dreadful way proposed in this plan and application. In fact there is no need to have a train station in that position, at ‘Domain’, at all. Other locations and routes should be considered, costed and submitted, ones that are not on heritage sites, places and gardens and do not propose to do such dreadful damage to the whole precious heritage, gardens and monuments precinct. The current St Kilda Rd trams and tram stops and the current number 8 tram in its present route are sufficient. As said earlier the underground must be rerouted and avoid this whole area and come under St Kilda Road to link up with South Yarra Station. The plan and proposal is misconceived and would fail the people of the State of Victoria and cause loss of irreplaceable cultural heritage and civic identity and pride.

There are alternative routes that are not on heritage lands and places and that is where MMRA should focus its planning and transport routes, tunnels and hubs.

Whilst we support the development of transport infrastructure, this proposal, shockingly, is situated entirely in heritage sites and lands (St Kilda Road, the Shrine of Remembrance and Shrine reserve gardens and trees, the Domain Gardens, the South African Soldier’s Memorial, and adjacent affected trees, gardens and sites) and the costs of the proposal is heritage devastation, a far-too great a price to pay. It is an unnecessary and completely undesirable destruction of the entire area that is and should be heritage protected. Heritage Victoria should protect this heritage gardens and monuments precinct as a whole, and require MMRA consideration and costings for alternate routes that are not on and through heritage places be made available to the public.
Is that protection not what Heritage Victoria and heritage registration is for?!

South African Soldier’s Memorial

The plans to dismantle and store this borders on an insult to the sacred nature of this cherished memorial. It must not be allowed to happen. Is nothing sacred? Like the Shrine, it is a sacred memorial to the fallen and must be totally protected. Do not allow this to happen to the South African soldiers’ memorial.

Heritage Victoria

This entire area is under Heritage Victoria protection and they would be derelict in their responsibilities if they approve such terrible destruction under their watch, even if they are at odds with the Government Department under which they operate. Their duty must be to protect these important heritage sites of State significance which this area most certainly is even if it means preventing the Government from following their plans.
I and the coalition of 250+ resident groups (representing at least several thousand people of the State of Victoria; some groups have hundreds of members e.g. my local group has 600 members) strongly request this permit application be denied. The proposal is out of keeping with the values and heritage rights of the people of the State of Victoria. We ask that Heritage Victoria acts to stop this proposal and protects our heritage. We rely on you to act in accordance to protect this entirely-heritage registered area and to refuse this permit.

Mary Drost OAM
Convenor
Planning Backlash Inc
Coalition of 250+ resident groups

Note: Candobetter.net has removed Mary Drost’s home address and email contact for privacy and to prevent spam. You can contact Mary via our contact link at top left corner of this site.

Protectors of Public Lands Victoria has issued an invitation to concerned Victorians to attend a short but concentrated rally scheduled for 12:45 pm for a 1 pm start to 2 pm on Thursday 16 October 2014 on the steps of Parliament in Spring Street.

The last day of the term of the 57th Victorian Parliament has been chosen before the 29 November 2014 election. The subject is "The Future of Public Transport in Victoria under an Incoming Government." We are of the view that the East West Link project should be abandoned.

Below is our "Charter on Public Transport" which includes our demands. (The President of the PTUA has cleared it.)

Labor and Greens Members of Parliament will speak, also the Mayors of Yarra and Moreland and the President of the Public Transport Users' Association. Representatives of community groups will be invited to speak on open mike. Please attend this rally - we need your support at this crucial time in the State's history!

Contact Julianne Bell Secretary PPL VIC Mobile: 0408022408 jbell5[AT]bigpond.com

Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc. (PPL VIC)

CHARTER ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT FOR INCOMING VICTORIAN STATE GOVERNMENT

Presentation of Charter on Public Transport for Incoming Government at Rally 16 October 2014
This Charter on Public Transport for the incoming Government will be presented to the public and to present Government and Opposition parties at a rally scheduled for Thursday 16 October 2014 on the steps of Parliament at 12:45 pm for a 1 pm start. The rally has been timed for the last day of the term of the 57 th Victorian Parliament before we head for the 29 November 2014 election. (We are circulating this document beforehand.)
Overview/ Context of Production of a Charter on Public Transport
According to Plan Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Strategy May 2014, which “sets out the government’s vision that will guide the city’s growth to 2050”, public transport should play a much greater role in future than it has in the past, with reliance on public transport needing to increase (i.e. a greater proportion of all trips will need to be taken by public transport). (Plan Melbourne, p. 84)
In spite of this telling observation in Plan Melbourne, Melbourne is at crisis point because of the failure of successive governments to provide for integrated transport and land-use planning.
Charter Requirements to be fulfilled by an incoming government:
1. Extension of heavy rail services to areas currently un-serviced or under-serviced, including Doncaster, Melbourne Airport, Rowville, Mernda and Clyde.
2. Abandonment of the Napthine Government's discredited East-West Link project.
3. Dedicated funding for public transport on a priority basis by the Victorian and Commonwealth governments, not just "what is left over" after commitments to roads projects.
4. The progressive grade separation of 50 level crossings to facilitate higher frequency services on the heavy rail network.
5. The introduction of high capacity signalling as a priority on the whole heavy rail network to improve rail services productivity by up to 50%.
6. Higher frequency train, tram and bus services to be timetabled to connect with minimum waiting times.
7. Expansion of bus services, especially in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, to improve local economic performance, enhance employment and social connectedness.
8. More effective demand management of the road network by state and local roads authorities, including walking to school programs that work and expanded cycling networks.
9. In the west of Melbourne, an effective roll-out of the Regional Rail Link in April 2015 with high frequency connecting buses at the new Wyndham Vale and Tarneit Stations and additional connecting buses for the Werribee line and major transport destinations in the cities of Wyndham, Maribyrnong, Brimbank and Hobsons Bay.
10. The early introduction of truck ramps on the Westgate Bridge to facilitate access to the Port of Melbourne and the enhanced use of rail for container movements between the Port of Melbourne and freight terminals.
11. A start on the Melbourne Metro Rail project on the alignment proposed by the previous Labor Government, serving locations in the CBD and in the Parkville medical and university precincts. (The Napthine Government’s recent plans for an alignment designed to serve the Fisherman's Bend development has not been subjected to the necessary scrutiny.)
12. Elimination of tax concessions for private passenger motor vehicle use which are a major cause of road congestion.
13. The establishment of an independent and effective public transport agency to prioritise, plan, fund and deliver all public transport services, thereby maximising the social and economic return to the Victorian community from investments in public transport infrastructure.
14. Guaranteed provision of properly maintained public toilets at railway stations meeting health and safety regulations and designed to improve the amenity of travellers.
15. An end to government secrecy in the provision of transport services, including the non-transparent contractual arrangements for the provision of train, tram and bus services, which are not able to be properly scrutinised and assessed because of the "commercial confidentiality" hoax; the opaque funding and provision of major roadways, for example CityLink, EastLink and PeninsulaLink; and the unacceptable constraints imposed upon the Auditor-General in discharging his responsibilities to report to the Parliament on transport contracts.

Signed:
Julianne Bell, Secretary, Protectors of Public Lands Victoria. Mobile: 0408022408. jbell5[AT]bigpond.com
Ian Hundley, Advisor to PPL VIC on Public Transport. ianhundley[AT]hotmail.com

Video added inside. Headings in this highly informative paper include: How people get to Frankston Station, Social needs and mobility, The household transport cost burden, Peninsula Link, East West Link, The VicRoads Point Nepean Road Study, The Container Port at Hastings, The Cranbourne/Pakenham rail corridor project, and remarks on Road Spending. Only about 0.6% of Frankston residents who travel to work, work in locations that would be accessed by the Napthine government's proposed East West link, if they chose to drive. Poor frequency of service is a major issue in Frankston and on the Peninsula for bus services. The Stony Point train service is in danger of death through neglect and indifference if its service frequency is not improved and locals do not mobilise to support it. Local government can and should play a major advocacy role in this space.

Original title of this paper by Ian Hundley was, "The Transport Crisis in the Frankston Area: Issues of Economy, Ecology and Social Connectedness." It was presented to a meeting of Victoria First about overpopulation in Victoria, and Frankston's specific burden, at the Frankston Lifesaving Club on Saturday 2 August 2014. A video of the speech plus comments and questions will be uploaded to youtube soon.

Introduction

I am here to discuss some of the things that are going on and what needs to be done to improve the public transport outlook for residents in the Frankston area. What we will find, I think, is that there are both local and larger issues that are having major consequences for the residents of Frankston. And they do raise issues about economy, ecology and social connectedness. The influences that local people are able to bring to bear will be very important in how things pan out.

So, firstly, how do people use public transport in Frankston and in the rest of Melbourne?

Travel to work

In Frankston and on the Mornington Peninsula about 80% of trips to work each day by residents are taken by motor car alone and relatively few by public transport. [1] For Frankston residents, only about 5.6% of trips to work involve public transport and on the Peninsula only about 2.3% of all such trips.

Where public transport is of higher quality, such as in the City of Yarra, for example, nearly 30% of trips to work by local residents are made by public transport.

Where do Frankston residents work?

Both of the major political parties say their transport policies will make it easier for people to travel to and from work, thus providing them with more time with their families. Unfortunately, in outer Melbourne these projects are predominately roads projects, not improvements to public transport.

However, it is typical for most people who live in the Greater Melbourne Metropolitan area to work in the local government area in which they live or in relatively close proximity to where they live. About 60,000 Frankston residents travel to work every day. About 63.5% of all these residents work in Frankston itself or in an adjoining local government area (i.e. Greater Dandenong, Kingston, Mornington Peninsula, or Casey). About 5.5% of Frankston residents work in Melbourne. A large proportion of those taking the daily commute to Melbourne each weekday would do so by train.

Based upon the most recent Census data, only about 340 of these 60,000 Frankston residents who travel to work, or about 0.6% of the total, work in locations that would be accessed by the Napthine government's proposed East?West link, if they chose to drive.

These are Frankston people who travel to work to such far flung locations as Brimbank, Hume, Hobsons Bay and Moonee Valley.

Interestingly, in other eastern suburbs of Melbourne, including Boroondara and Whitehorse, the pattern is the same. Relatively few of their residents too would benefit from the East? West link because they work in the CBD or closer to home. From an economic planning perspective it should also be a primary objective of planning and transport policy to generate jobs close to home.

Public transport within Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula

So, what are the public transport options for residents travelling within Frankston and the
Peninsula each day? By and large it is the local bus network.

One measure of the quality of the bus network is the numbers of train patrons that rely on connecting buses to take the train from Frankston. As shown in Table 1 a mere one in five of train passengers connected by bus at Frankston station, whilst about 45% connected by motor car. At Box Hill station, which has higher daily patronage than Frankston station, about 28% of train travellers connected by bus and 43% walked to the station. Only about one in six travelled by car.

It is the network capacity of public transport systems that is so important. The local bus network around Box Hill is much more effective than it is in Frankston. Connecting services have to be frequent and they have to be timetabled to provide good intermodal connections. There is nothing worse than seeing the train disappear around the corner as your bus arrives at the station.

Poor frequency of service is a major issue in Frankston and on the Peninsula. The 788 bus service between Frankston station and Portsea/ Point Nepean National Park, for example, runs about every 45 minutes on weekdays and about every 75 minutes on weekends. Who is going to use this as a commuter service in the morning and the evening? And who is going to use it on weekends and public holidays?

We would almost be forgiven for thinking that the government is trying to put the service out of business. However, despite the government inertia that has left the 788 service about as unattractive a proposition for patrons as it could possibly be, you might be surprised to know it is one of the most heavily patronised route bus routes in Melbourne. This clearly demonstrates the latent demand for effective bus services on the Peninsula and in
Frankston which remain unmet. And it also demonstrates the capacity for a good public transport service to get cars off roads and out of car parks.

Another horror story is that of the 787 route bus service between Sorrento and Safety Beach. This service runs disjointedly on week days and just twice on Saturdays. If you travel from Rye, for instance, to Rosebud Plaza to do some shopping you could easily find yourself waiting up to an hour and a half for the next service to return home.

Frankston gained very little from the timetable and network changes that were introduced last Sunday 27 July. Late night changes were made to scheduling for the 770, 771, 775, 782 and 785 services to improve co?ordination with late night train services. However, when I checked on Wednesday morning, the updated timetables for the 775, 782 and 785 services were still not available on the PTV website. They did bob up a bit later.

These services at least have the virtue of running seven days a week. But they are far too infrequent, typically with a 30 minute headway during week day peak times, hourly for the rest of the day and hourly on Saturdays and Sundays with severely reduced service span from first bus to last.

We all need to bring significant pressure to bear on the major parties to commit to upgrading local bus services in the lead up to the state election in a few weeks time.

We also have one train service that serves destinations south of central Frankston to Westernport Bay, the Stony Point line. It operates seven days a week but only every two hours in the middle of weekdays and on Saturdays and Sundays. A previous state government attempted to close it. Service frequencies must be increased and this could be done relatively easily with the introduction of passing loops and a couple of extra vehicles. In my view, the Stony Point service is in danger of death through neglect and indifference if its service frequency is not improved and locals do not mobilise to support it. Local government can and should play a major advocacy role in this space.

Social needs and mobility

A report by Dr Belinda Robson for Crossroads Youth and Family Services in the Salvation Army,[2] and based on interviews with 100 residents of the new suburbs of Craigieburn and Roxburgh Park on Melbourne’s northern fringe, highlighted the importance of public transport for social connectedness.

Summary findings of the report showed that costs of travel as well as practical issues with transport mean that many young people were not able to participate in different activities and that many new households are at risk of mortgage stress and many face problems juggling financial demands.

However, a very high value was placed by respondents on the new stations incorporated into the metropolitan rail network in 2007, Roxburgh Park and Craigieburn, and the direct rail connection they provided to the city. Service providers also felt it had made a very big difference to residents’ ability to get around, and for their community pride.

The findings and observations in this report could be very readily translated to the transport issues now faced by Frankston residents.

The household transport cost burden

Now, to look at car dependency in outer suburbs and what the lack of public transport means for household budgets.

In the City of Melbourne only 30.7% of households have 2 or more cars. In the Shire of Mornington Peninsula a whopping 74.9% of households have two or more motor cars. A large part of this difference must be attributed to the relative ease with which inner urban residents can travel by public transport, cycling or walking, rather than having to drive a car.

Cars are expensive things to run in absolute terms and relative to the cost of public transport. Annualised operating cost for a small car may be in the order of $8?10,000. For a Frankston resident who works in the Melbourne CBD clearly the cheapest option is to pay $2210 annually for a Zone 1 + 2 MYKI. But this does not work as well for local travel because the bus system is so poor.

The welfare impact of lack of access to reasonable public transport is shown in sharper relief when one examines family household income. In the City of Melbourne (2010) only 26.8% of family households have weekly incomes of less than $1,000. In Rosebud 42.7% of family households have weekly incomes of less than $1,000.

Thus lower income households on the periphery of Melbourne are basically compelled to incur substantial additional transport costs and own more cars because they do not have reasonable access to public transport.

Peninsula Link

A number of you here today may have been involved in the campaign against Peninsula Link, which was originally characterised as a traffic bypass for Frankston. The project precipitated environmental losses, most conspicuously at locations such as The Pines Flora and Fauna Reserve in North Frankston and Westerfield in Langwarrin. Peninsula Link connected EastLink from Carrum to Dromana, at a cost of about $750 million. No serious attempt was made to assess any alternative approach which would see an increased focus on sustainable transport, especially public transport. It was simply a case of "predict and provide" based upon forecasts in motor vehicle traffic without regard to potential alternatives, including public transport.

The project was later criticised by the Auditor?General,[3] particularly in relation to the procuring of the project through a Public Private Partnership, the likely overstatement of economic benefits, and the dismissal of longer term negative effects, including induced traffic.

The only positive employment effect of the project I've seen in official propaganda has been the trumpeting of the opening of a new road house on the Peninsula Link reservation.

The VicRoads Point Nepean Road Study

You may know that in June 2013 VicRoads concluded this study to further increase road capacity on the Peninsula. It can be seen as the natural consequence of the induced traffic on Peninsula Link identified by the Auditor?General.

The study report recommends even further increases in road capacity in the southern Peninsula.

We know that one certain outcome from this project, if it goes ahead, is that it will generate more traffic in the area. The terms of reference for the study were deficient because they did not take account of the potential for modal shift to public transport rather than simply catering for more cars. I rang VicRoads and asked them if it was in their terms of reference. They said no, but what a good idea! I understand that some people who made formal submissions to the study also put the view that modals shift should have been reflected in the study. But it wasn't. It is always difficult to teach old dogs new tricks.[4]

I see that the Southern Peninsula Indigenous Flora and Fauna Association has concluded that if the proposed Mornington Peninsula freeway proceeds, as contemplated in the report, it would damage the biodiversity values of the Tootgarook Swamp as well as having hydrological impacts through bisecting the swamp with a major embankment.

East West Link

According to Denis Napthine, the East West Link is supposed to solve all our problems, with the possible exception of the common cold. The reality is, however, that there will be nothing left for the timely introduction of necessary transport projects in Frankston or elsewhere if the East?West Link goes ahead. The two sections have been estimated to cost in the order of $20 billion.

In September 2013 the Premier and the Treasurer, Michael O'Brien, announced three short? listed bidders for the project, the East West Connect, Inner Link Group and Momentum Infrastructure consortia. However, by June this year the Momentum group had evidently lost necessary momentum when the Treasurer reappeared, this time with the Roads minister, Terry Mulder, to announce that only the East West and Inner Link groups remained in the contest.

What was not made clear by these two ministers of the Crown, but which was subsequently reported in the press, is that the Momentum group gave up on the project. Leighton Contractors, a major partner in the Momentum consortium, reportedly found the project to be too risky for them due, they said, to unacceptable geotechnical risks associated with the tunnelling required for the project.[5]

This raises serious questions about the bona fides of the bid process. Robust tender processes rely on the presence of a substantial number of genuine and able bidders. What we have here is a classical case of monopolistic competition ? limited sellers of a product. What is worse, the final shape of the product remains unclear and it is backgrounded by a business case that remains undisclosed. This is extraordinarily fertile ground for plundering the public purse.

I had my own experience of government secrecy on this project when I wrote to the minister for roads in February 2014 to request traffic volume data for CityLink and for EastLink to assist in the preparation of submissions to the Assessment Committee that reported earlier this year to the planning minister. I was denied the information by the minister on the grounds that "..the terms of the contractual arrangements between the State and the toll road operators prohibit the State from disclosing confidential or unpublished information without the consent of the relevant road operator". The letter was signed on the final day of public hearings by the Assessment Committee.

Just prior to Leighton's declaration that the project was not for it, the Sunday Age reported that "The Napthine government will use the East West Link and other major projects to leverage donations from big business as it builds up a war chest before this year's state election".[6]

The Napthine government is determined to sign contracts for the project prior to the prorogation of the Victorian parliament in early November. It is in the best interests of the state that this not occur.

The Labor opposition has repeatedly declared the East?West Link to be a "dud" project. Notwithstanding this it says that, if elected to government, it will continue with contracts if they are signed. The Labor Party needs to have a hard look at itself and decide whether they are prepared to govern in the interests of the state or a select group of contractors.

One of the excuses that Labor is using to evade a commitment to drawing a line under the East?West Link project is that it would cause the price of public debt to increase. However, as Kenneth Davidson rightly pointed out in The Age on Monday [7] the potential for the ratings agencies to do damage to Victorian public finances in the event that government debt is downgraded from AAA to AA is relatively minor relative to the colossal costs that would be inflicted on the Victorian economy if this calamitous project is permitted to stumble on.

On the face of it it would be absurd if the credit rating were to decline in the event that the ALP in government or the current Napthine government had the gumption to pull stumps on a project which has negative rather than positive consequences for the economy at large.

To my mind it should strengthen the belief that the credit rating agencies don't know what they are doing. In fact, their abject performance in the lead?up to the Asian financial crisis in the late?1990's and their inability to assess the consequences of the accumulation of sub? prime debt which triggered the Global Financial Crisis in the last decade inspire little confidence in their credentials.

Container port at Hastings

As you know, the Victorian government has been trumpeting the virtues of Hastings as the location for Victoria's second container port. They say it is to retain Melbourne's status as the freight and logistics hub of Australia. The Victorian opposition was very keen on Hastings at one stage but has now gone cold on the idea. It is now directing attention to a location in Port Phillip Bay but west of Melbourne. I won't go into the debate about whether we need a second container port and, if so, where it should be but I do suggest that the following are important factors:

I understand that prior to the introduction of containerisation, the Port of Melbourne employed about 6,500 waterside workers in general freight. I understand it now employs about 200 in the container terminals.

Despite the fact that political parties implicitly assert the employment creating capacity of a new container port it is sobering to realise that new container facilities are likely to be highly automated, which would further reduce the demand for direct labour.

It is understandable that people should be seeking new sources of employment growth when traditional employment sources, such as Bluescope Steel, have been static or declining.

However, labour replacing automation is increasingly common in the transport and materials handling industry. For instance, Rio Tinto is in the process of removing drivers from its iron ore trains operating on 1,500 kilometres of track in the Pilbara region of Western Australia through its Autohaul driverless train program. The trains will be run from an operations centre in Perth.

Analysis recently completed at Victoria University suggests Hastings may not be a very bright idea for a container port, for a number of reasons.[8] There are significant environmental concerns including the future of the RAMSAR Convention ? protected wetlands. It may also jeopardise local tourism?based industries, and the location is sub? optimal having regard for the land?based distribution task once the containers are landed.

The Cranbourne/Pakenham rail corridor project

The Napthine government has accepted an "unsolicited bid" for the upgrade of the Pakenham/Cranbourne rail corridor which is to include moving block signalling, rail duplication and grade separations. The proponents are MTR (METRO), John Holland Construction and UGL Rail Services. The project is to cost $2?2.5 billion according to the government which also claims it will provide a 30% capacity boost on the corridor, the equivalent of two lanes of traffic on the Monash Freeway, and will facilitate increased freight from the proposed container port at Hastings.

New stations are to be built at Carnegie, Murrumbeena and Clayton. Significantly, the Cranbourne?Pakenham rail corridor project is described by the government as a supporting initiative for the container port at the Port of Hastings. When a committee chaired by former deputy prime minister, Tim Fischer, reviewed the Victorian rail freight network in 2008, he recommended that 90% of freight from Hastings be dedicated to rail.[9]

However, it appears that the concept plans released recently for each of these new stations show only the two existing tracks. There are no tracks shown to cater for the proposed Rowville rail link, nor for the government's proposed container port at Hastings.

This is starting to sound like the East?West link. Secret bids, secret processes, no costings, no business case worth the name. Another one of the Napthine government's "game changing" infrastructure projects.

A concluding remark on roads spending

The recent draft industry consultation document prepared in Infrastructure Australia noted that most of the economic infrastructure projects submitted in recent years for Commonwealth funding for assessment by the agency were road projects and that they lacked any cost?benefit rigour whatsoever. The report said in part "... road project proponents...spend next to no effort examining what problems their projects and plans are trying to solve, other than the perceived problem that they do not have enough road funding. In other words, the answer is almost always 'I just need more money,' regardless of the question."

The Victorian Auditor?General also concluded recently that our road system in Victoria is operated inefficiently, in part because "Trams and buses are not currently able to provide accurate and reliable reference data to VicRoads traffic signals systems, and thus more efficient public transport traffic signal prioritisation is not available to these high? productivity vehicles".[10]

This is certainly the case with the East?West Link where Tony Abbott has been happy to turn over $3 billion of our hard earned money. No business case. No comparative analysis. No questions asked. It was the mentality behind the Peninsula Link project, and now threatens in relation to the Point Nepean Road Study where VicRoads hopes to tack some more freeway onto Peninsula Link, effectively. And without any regard for more effective public and active transport solutions that don't contribute to the further environmental degradation of Frankston, the Peninsula and surrounding areas and keeping local residents poor through continuing car dependency.

FOOTNOTES

[1]. See Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011 Census of Population and Housing

[2]. Building Lives, Building Community in Craigieburn and Roxburgh Park: Report to the
Community (University of Melbourne 2009)

[3]. Auditor?General of Victoria, Management of Major Road Projects, June 2011

[4]. VicRoads, Point Nepean Road Study Report, June 2013

[5]. Jenny Wiggins and Adam Carey, "Link project too risky for Leighton," The Age, 29 July
2014

[6]. Farrah Tomazin, "Libs use major projects as fund?raising bait, Sunday Age, July 27, 2014

[7]. Kenneth Davidson, "The case against East West Link gets ever stronger," The Age, July 28,
2014

[8]. Dr Hermione Parsons and Mr Peter Van Duyn, Build it ? but will they come? A pre?mortem analysis of the Port of Hastings Development Project to encourage alternative integrated planning (Institute for Supply Chain and Logistics, Victoria University, 9 July 2014).

[9]. Switchpoint: Victorian Rail Freight Network Review (Department of Infrastructure Victoria
2008), p. 58

[10]. Auditor General of Victoria, Using ICT to Improve Traffic Management (June 2014)

If you are concerned about 457 visas, local unemployment and population growth, planning issues, over-development, and the loss of wildlife and residents rights in Frankston and the Peninsula, please come along to this meeting of Victoria First. Special Guest Speaker will be Public Transport advocate Mr. Ian Hundley. Ian Hundley will speak on "The transport crisis in the Frankston area: issues of economy, ecology and social connectedness." This public meeting will be from 2-4pm at the Frankston Life Saving Club, on Frankston Foreshore. (More details of location inside article.) There will be opportunities to make statements from the floor if you let the organisers know in advance. Contact 03 9350 5777.

The Hon Kelvin Thomson, Federal Member for Wills, invites you to come and join Victoria First Inc. Public Meeting. Mr Thomson received the most votes of any Labor Minister in Australia at the last election. He is very popular in a very multicultural electorate of Wills, where he has a lot of support for his pioneering and courageous stance for the environment and peoples' rights against overpopulation.

What is Victoria First?

Victoria First is a new not-for-profit NGO, established to safeguard and enhance Victoria’s way of life. Victoria First is fighting to halt rapid population growth, over-development, reduce traffic congestion, stop the increasing cost of council rates, rising utility bills, and seeking to protect Victoria’s unique animals and plants.

You do not have to be a member to come.

Meeting details

When? Saturday 2nd August, 2pm – 4pm.

Where? Frankston Life Saving Club, Frankston Foreshore, end of Wells Street, near the intersection with Nepean Highway. (McDonalds is on the corner.)

Melways 102 C2. Nearest railway station is Frankston.

Disabled parking available. Metered parking at the venue 2 hour maximum. Free parking available short distance away in the shopping centre carpark.

Please note this is a non-smoking venue. As residents live nearby, please respect noise restrictions in and around this venue.

Moreland residents seeking to divert funds for the East West Toll Road and Tunnel into public transport initiatives will gather together with groups and individuals from across Victoria for Saturday's 1pm Trains Not Toll Roads rally outside the State Library at La Trobe and Swanston streets.

This is Moreland Council's second endorsed rally for public transport and residents supporting the Moreland Community Against the East West Tunnel (MCAT) campaign will underscore the 24-hour noise threat the project poses to endangered animals at the Melbourne Zoo and the denuding of Royal Park through the loss of more than 5,200 trees.

"There are so many better uses to be made of $8 Billion that would actually get vehicles off the road by putting people onto public transport," said MCAT spokesperson Moreland Cr Sue Bolton. "In Moreland alone, a small percentage of those dollars could extend the Sydney Road and Melville Road tram lines, install dual rail tracks north of Gowrie Station, build additional bike paths and improve bus services including into areas where there are none."

Cr Bolton said that Moreland supporters would be gathering at 12.30pm by the library sculpture at La Trobe and Swanston streets and include a reprise by children in costume and their parents who participated in the Children's March for the Animals to Melbourne Zoo on 4 May.

For additional information contact:
Moreland Council: Councillor Sue Bolton, mobile 0417 583 664
Moreland Community Against the Tunnel (MCAT): Michael Petit, mobile 0417 354 169

A report released by the Federal Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics underlines just how inadequate and incompetent Melbourne’s recent planning has been.

The report analysed population growth, jobs growth and commuter flows in Australia’s four largest cities. It found:

1) Melbourne was the only city in which jobs growth in the outer suburbs had failed to keep pace with the population boom. Parts of outer Melbourne now have less than one job for every three working people, forcing residents to commute further for employment.

2) Eighty-four per cent of outer Melbournians drive to work, the highest level among Australia’s biggest cities, and just 9% use public transport.

Monash University Professor of Public Transport Graham Currie said any city growing in population without expanding public transport was planning for decline. He said “the future cupboard of public transport projects is looking bare” and that “If population grows by 25% but services remain essentially static, we have a per capita decline of 25 per cent in service levels. We are not responding to growth. Rather we are going backwards”.

This report reveals as a fraud the idea that Melbourne’s rapid population growth is okay. Jobs are far removed from homes, and workers are not using public transport, leading to traffic congestion, long commutes, and reduced quality of life for everybody – a planning debacle.

It’s all very well to say that what is needed is better planning, but expanding the urban growth boundary and high rise and urban consolidation have both given us the outcomes we have today. The better planning never happens, and it won’t as long as Melbourne’s population continues to grow by 200 a day, 1500 a week, 75,000 each year.

Originally published at http://kelvinthomson.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/melbourne-planning-debacle.html

Flyers will be handed out at various public transport venues tomorrow. It is suggested that you use their template to write to your local member and State ministers. They are protesting the Inner Melbourne Toll Road proposition and the neglect of public transport.

To download a pdf file of the "Fix Public Transport Now" document, click on it.

PTUA Public Transport Community Forum, Newport, Thurs 8 August

Community Forum:
The 2013 Federal Election and Public
Transport in Melbourne’s West
Thursday 8 th August 6.30pm doors open 6pm, food and drinks available from the bar
Newport Bowls Club, 4 Market St Newport

The Public Transport Users Association is hosting a community forum looking at public transport issues in Melbourne’s Western Suburbs. With a federal election imminent, residents are concerned about how transport policy will impact on access to jobs, education and services, as well as household transport stress.

This community forum is an opportunity to hear from transport planning experts alongside local Members of Parliament, Councillors and federal candidates. Come along and ask your questions and learn what they plan to
do to solve public transport in Melbourne.

Guest Speakers will Include:
Dr Sophie Sturrup, University of Melbourne
Janet Rice, Greens Lead Senate Candidate
Tim Watts, ALP Candidate for Gellibrand
Lisel Thomas, Maribyrnong Truck Action Group

Any questions please contact
Cait Jones: 0412 549 589

Article originally published: 2013-05-29 01:10:20 +1000

Plans to build the east-west link tunnel Melbourne's Royal Park are commencing. The tunnel, which is to cost from $10 billion to $12 billion, is to use vents protruding from the ground to pour motor exhaust fumes into the park. Some of the park will have to be dug up to build the entrance to the tunnel. On Page 8 of the Melbourne Age it was reported that, for the project to commence, eighteen boreholes will have to be drilled into the Royal Park as part of the assessment by the Melbourne City Council as recommended by the city of Melbourne management. If voted for by the council "on Tuesday" (28 May or 4 June?) drilling will commence.

On page 6, in the article Risks of east-west tunnel face assessment, it was reported:

Last week Mr Guy said the comprehensive impact statement was "a clear, transparent planning and assessment process that involves community feedback on this important project for all Victorians".

The state government has begun the formal planning process for the project and will hold a series of community meetings in coming weeks.

We urge concerned residents to attend and will convey any information on candobetter about the venue and times of the public meetings as information is made available.

The following was one of four letters against the east-west tunnel published in the Melbourne Age of Tuesday 28 May.

Stand up for public land

Did you visit a park this weekend? Use a sports ground? walk around a lake? Picnic with Friends? Or just enjoy the peace and the wildlife? Best capture those memories before become a think of the past. Royal Park, Melbourne's largest bush Park, and all it's sports facilities are about to be trashed. It's my park, so I care a lot about its demise -- but it's also your park. Royal Park is the lungs of the city -- vital in offseting the pollution of its rapidly growing population. My park, neighbourhood and perhaps my home will be ruined. Yours will be next. Stand up for public land before it, too, becomes extinct.

Margaret Jungwirth

"The utterly biased and relentless Murdoch press in Melbourne, Sydney and nationally through The Australian has played a big role in destroying Julia Gillard's standing with the electorate, such that Tony Abbott is well placed to win control of both houses in the coming September 14 Federal election."

This article is an extract from Stephen Mayne's newsletter, The Mayne Report, Monday, April 22, 2013, 11:13am

Sure, there have been plenty of own goals and the government's anti-business, union-driven, big spending philosophy doesn't lend itself to long-term success.

And with Tony Abbott positively fawning over Rupert Murdoch at the recent IPA 70th birthday dinner, it is clear the Murdoch press will have substantial influence over an Abbott government, just like the way New York-based News Corp effectively forced John Howard to blindly back the folly of George W Bush's Iraq invasion.

This would be fine if News Corp used its unprecedented media reach in Australia to argue for good policy prescriptions, but too often they use this position of power to become partisan political players who turn a blind eye to bad policy.

For instance, News Corp has never really done anything to improve Australia's campaign finance disclosure laws which are still the weakest in the western world after John Howard's disgraceful changes.

Another classic example was Tony Abbott's refusal to get behind funding urban rail infrastructure when he recently declared that the Commonwealth has ''no history of funding urban rail and I think it's important that we stick to our knitting''.

The Age suitably demolished this position in a strong editorial but the Herald Sun has been silent, not even reporting the comments in a meaningful way.

State Liberal governments all over Australia are hanging out for federal funding of urban rail projects. Tony Abbott's road bias is utterly ridiculous and unsustainable and it should be consigned to the dust bin of history by a short sharp News Ltd campaign.

Bizarrely, the Herald Sun launched a page 1 campaign for infrastructure funding today but still haven't made the point that their man Tony Abbott is the biggest problem.

Without Federal funding for the all important Metro 1 rail tunnel between South Kensington and South Yarra, we won't get the network benefits that would allow subsequent rail additions to Doncaster, the airport and Rowville.

Both Infrastructure Australia and the Victorian Government have Metro 1 listed as their top project for Melbourne.

Abbott should untie his $1.5 billion promise for the East-West road tunnel and leave it up to the Victorian government to decide where to spend this Federal grant.

How the Herald Sun can run an advertising campaign saying "We're for Victoria" and not hold this Sydney-based politician to account on his rail funding ban is just extraordinary.

To Herald Sun editor Damon Johnston and his boss Peter Blunden, please stop this madness and get your man Tony Abbott on the Metro 1 train before it is too late.

Good news! The Federal Budget did not provide funds to Premier Baillieu for the East West Link. Julianne Bell thanks those 16 community groups for supporting PPL VIC and the Royal Park Protection Group for Ian Hundley's and her mission to Canberra on 27 March 2012 to present their submission to Infrastructure Minister Albanese in which they requested the Federal Government NOT fund the EW Link but support public transport projects. Ian Hundley and Julianne briefed staff. Thanks also go to the Greens "for their principled stand against the East West Link and for their advocacy for Doncaster Rail Link."

Article by Julianne Bell of Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc.

I. Good News from Federal Parliament Budget - No Funding for EW Link!

See below the message from Adam Bandt, Federal Member for Melbourne, with the good news that the Federal Budget did not provide funds for the East West Link, as requested by Premier Baillieu. We thank Adam and the Greens for their principled stand against the East West Link and for their advocacy for Doncaster Rail Link. We again thank those 16 community groups for supporting PPL VIC and the Royal Park Protection Group for our mission to Canberra on 27 March 2012 to present our submission to Infrastructure Minister Albanese in which we requested the Federal Government NOT fund the EW Link but support public transport projects. Ian Hundley and I briefed staff - the Minister's Chief Advisers on Transport - on the history of the extension of the Eastern Freeway/EW Link and on the public transport needs of greater Melbourne.

II Policy of City of Melbourne Re EW Link

On Tuesday 8 May 2012 at the City of Melbourne (CoM) Future Melbourne Committee meeting the City of Melbourne Transport Strategy was tabled. Under City of Melbourne Transport Strategy 2012 were the headings - Flexible and Adaptable - Private Transport - City Driving Page 52 of the attachment Objectives and Actions - East West Link 28. The text read: "Priority Action: Consider the Government’s proposed East West Link when details are known to make sure that it achieves the City of Melbourne’s transport plan for access to and through the central city hub." In 2008 in response to huge community opposition Council totally opposed the EW Link. It looked as though the Council was fence sitting last night. The Transport Strategy was, however, amended, to include reference to Council's resolution of 2008, which includes: That Council: 1.1. oppose the Eddington East West Road Tunnel and the use or reduction of any parkland and disruption to the community 1.2. oppose the use of parks for any works associated with an East West Road Tunnel...etc (This is only second hand information, please check it.) The City of Melbourne is certainly not going all the way to oppose the EW Link.

Unjustified complaints from Ted Baylieu

Ted Baillieu, the Liberal Premier of Victoria, is already complaining about underfunding for transport. Huge funds have already been given to Victoria by the Federal Government for the Regional Railway Project, however, so it is difficult to see what his problem is here.

III Media

See Age article Wednesday 9 May 2012 "Doncaster Rail Link may lead to more buses."
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/doncaster-rail-study-may-lead-to-more-buses-20120508-1yb0e.html

Julianne Bell
Secretary
Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc.
PO Box 197
Parkville 3052

Subject: Congratulations - a blow to Ballieu's East-West toll road.

Dear friends,

I am writing with some good news fresh from the federal budget lock-up.

The Federal Government has heeded our call and refused to fund Ballieu’s dirty and expensive toll road. It’s a great win for our campaign – congratulations!

We know the State Government is ready to start drilling but it’s going to be a lot harder and take a lot longer without federal backing, as Baillieu said himself tonight.

It’s a boost to our campaign to bring smarter and cleaner transport infrastructure to Melbourne.

We know there is a problem with transport in our city but the last thing we need is a private toll road from Hoddle Street right through Fitzroy, Carlton and North Melbourne to the Kensington, Docklands and Footscray area. Whether it’s above or below ground, it will disrupt our communities without relieving the congestion.

Building the Doncaster rail link would go some way to alleviating the congestion coming in from the East and help transform Melbourne into a world-class public transport city. That’s where I want our federal infrastructure dollars being spent and that’s what I’ll continue to campaign for.

We’ve still got a lot of work to do to win this campaign but I wanted to share this great with news as soon as I could.

Looking forward to continuing to work with you to keep Melbourne liveable,

Adam Bandt MP
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 8:10 PM

Adam Bandt MP

Federal Member for Melbourne

Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens

That the Baillieu government is to embark upon a study for a possible freeway extension on the Mornington Peninsula is not much of a surprise in the wake of the catastrophic decision of the predecessor Labor government to construct the $760 million Peninsula Link freeway between Carrum Downs and Dromana. Absent sensible policy intervention, freeways provide impetus for ever more freeways.
Written by Ian Hundley
30 July 2011

Baillieu government to embark upon a study for a possible freeway extension on the Mornington Peninsula

On 14 June The Mornington Peninsula Leader reported Nepean state Liberal MP Martin Dixon to say that the Baillieu government is now to undertake a study which would examine three road expansion options south of Dromana to further increase the capacity of the road system. These included extending the Mornington Peninsula Freeway on the current reserve to Blairgowrie, creating an arterial road on the freeway reserve or upgrading Browns Road.

When the successful construction bid for Peninsula Link was announced in January 2010 by the then roads minister, Tim Pallas, he asserted that it would allow people to make the 27 kilometre trip from Carrum Downs to Mount Martha in 17 minutes. This is an average speed of about 95 kilometres per hour and no doubt a source of immediate appeal for many local residents resigned to continuing car use in the absence of any alternatives. He even had the cheek to say that it would be of benefit to the environment.

Government agenda hidden from public view, but the proposed roads study under the Baillieu government raises serious questions about the future of the Peninsula and the ability of successive state governments to run agendas hidden from public view. It remains a puzzle why the Brumby government should have outlaid over three quarters of a billion dollars of taxpayer's money on a freeway heading towards the pointy end of a peninsula, much of which is designated as a "green wedge" whilst it continued to deny worthwhile funding for public transport and other measures to reduce car dependency in the area.

That Peninsula Link, now under construction, would inevitably induce substantial increases in road traffic on the Mornington Peninsula was a major concern for the many residents and transport policy experts who spoke out against the project in submissions to the Environmental Effects Statement inquiry process that ultimately rubber stamped the project in April 2009.

Auditor-General slams Peninsula Link decision Concerns about the questionable origins of Peninsula Link were further validated recently when the Victorian Auditor-General tabled a highly critical report in the Parliament(1)

The Auditor- General found that the estimated economic benefits of the project calculated by the Linking Melbourne Authority (known as the Southern and Eastern Integrated Transport Authority until July 2009) were unreliable. The Auditor-General also criticised the analysis provided by the Linking Melbourne Authority for its analysis of whether Peninsula Link should have proceeded as a public sector project or (as ultimately decided) a public-private partnership (PPP). Specifically the Auditor-General found that there were flaws in the way the Linking Melbourne Authority estimated the cost of state delivery as represented by the public sector comparator (PSC) and because it did not test the sensitivity of the relative costs of the PSC and PPP bids to small changes in the PPP discount rate.

In forecasting traffic for Peninsula Link by assuming that drivers responded to the improvement by changing their travel routes the Auditor-General found that the Linking Melbourne Authority ignored the potential traffic growth from journey destination, mode and time of travel, and the additional journeys generated where Peninsula Link stimulated new development.

According to the Auditor-General, ignoring these factors underestimated traffic and overestimated the economic benefits of the project.

The audit also unearthed the fact that the wider traffic impacts of the project had been included in the Linking Melbourne Authority's traffic estimates which meant that the traffic forecasts for the "with" and "without" Peninsula Link scenarios both included the higher demand expected once the project was in place. The Auditor-General concluded that applying the demand generated by Peninsula Link to a network without the project exaggerated existing congestion, thus overstating the scale of the problem and consequently inflating the congestion relief, travel time savings and economic benefits of the project.

Importantly, The Auditor-General also found that the Linking Melbourne Authority did not consider as part of its analysis the amount of induced traffic that would be generated, as required by the Department of Transport's guidance material. Nor, by averaging road performance across a 24-hour period had it properly measured benefits to be gained from the relief of peak period road congestion. All in all a very sloppy effort by the Linking Melbourne Authority.

A shovel ready project: is that what Peninsula Link was about?

The revelation by a senior transport authority source (2) that the Brumby government was looking for a "shovel-ready" project as an economic stimulus measure in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis was also damning. Whilst the Auditor-General found that the Linking Melbourne Authority's estimate of the economic benefits of the project were unreliable and did not adequately communicate this uncertainty to government decision-makers it is questionable that this would have stopped a state government seemingly hell bent on proceeding with the project. It gives some credence to the cynical adage that it is often more difficult in government to misspend $50 in petty cash than hundreds of millions of tax payers' dollars on a misconceived capital project with its attendant imposts on the community for decades to come. 2

The fact that Peninsula Link also proceeded despite the fact that the Commonwealth government declined to provide the matching funding requested by the Brumby government should have also called into serious question the effectiveness of the project.

In any event, if economic stimulus was the primary motive for the project, it also started far too late to be useful as a local counter-cyclical employment generator in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. It has also been speculated more recently that much of the workforce on the project had been recruited from interstate.

What is to be studied and by whom?

In the wake of this mess the Baillieu government is seemingly preparing to spend additional taxpayer dollars to attract more motor traffic onto the Peninsula, and especially south of Dromana.

Not much is known about the proposed $200,000 study. When, in response to the recent article in the Mornington Peninsula Leader I asked VicRoads, who are apparently to be in charge of the project, they were pretty tight lipped. There are no media releases, I was told, and its scope had not yet been determined, nor had timelines been considered for the report.

Road safety was an issue, but it was not known whether particular routes would be targeted.

And it was not known if the study would be conducted "in-house" by VicRoads or by consultants.

I asked whether the existing poor capability of public transport for residents and visitors would be addressed in the inquiry, and I also noted that the public transport service that does exist is particularly unsuited to meeting seasonal patterns in demand on the Peninsula. The idea that public transport capability should be addressed as part of the study might be
considered a novelty , I deduced, which is well outside traditional patterns of thinking. This is despite the fact that dealing with seasonal congestion on the road system during summer is reportedly to be a significant part of the project.
All that is known with certainty is that the study has funding in 2011-12 and, I was assured, there would be "community consultation."

A job for community activists

There is clearly a major job of work required to be undertaken by community activists and others concerned to see that this study does not gain traction as a vehicle to validate the further unnecessary asphalting of the Peninsula at the expense of a model of human habitation and mobility that heeds the environmental constraints with which we are now faced. This includes gingering up the Shire of Mornington Peninsula to improve upon its customary half-hearted attempts to advocate and facilitate improved public transport offerings.

In this regard, it is especially important to acknowledge that approximately 60% of the Peninsula is dedicated to green wedge areas (according to an estimate I received on request 3 from the Shire of Mornington Peninsula). A review of Melbourne's green wedges also recently announced by the Victorian government which might lead to additional environmentally burdensome uses in green wedges is potentially troubling. There now appears to be some prospect that the green wedges will take upon a sickly yellow or brown hue as Melbourne's undisciplined expansion towards the horizon is permitted to continue.

This process has already been given major succor on the Mornington Peninsula with the construction of Peninsula Link.

We should also be mindful that property industry lobbyists and freeway advocates are both in the same cart. And as recent newspaper reports show their political affections and cash are effortlessly transferable. (3)

Recent Peninsula transport inquiries biased towards road transport and against sustainable transport and planning
Apart from the Frankston Bypass EES Inquiry there have been other inquiries undertaken in recent years concerning transport policy issues on the Mornington Peninsula and in Frankston. Like the EES Inquiry none of the other inquiries considered the desirability or measures required for any significant increase in public and active transport and a reduction in car dependency on the Peninsula.

For the most part, the implicit official agenda has always been thealleviation of road congestion by the simple expedient of increasing road space. These other reports include:

• the Mornington Peninsula Access and Mobility Study Final Transport Plan (MAPMS)(November 2007) undertaken for the Frankston City Council and the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council by Booz Allen Hamilton. The report was supported by the Department of Infrastructure, the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Vic Roads. The Frankston Bypass EES report (April 2009) quoted the MAPM report with approval to validate its own finding in support of Peninsula Link;

• the South Eastern Transport Strategy (March 2010) completed for the South Eastern Integrated Transport Group, which includes the Shire of Mornington Peninsula as a member. This report flagged the construction of a road by-pass to Rye as a means to
manage peak tourism demand in the area. Funding support for the project was received from VicRoads and technical assistance was provided by AECOM Australia Pty Ltd; and

• the Frankston/ Mornington Peninsula Bus Service Review report completed in November 2009 for the Department of Transport by Connell Wagner Pty Ltd. The review recommendations do not meet the public transport needs of people who live or visit the areas of the Peninsula covered by the forthcoming study to be conducted by VicRoads. There have been no worthwhile mprovements to bus services on the Peninsula in the wake of the review. 4

Putting things in perspective

As noted above when Roads Minister Tim Pallas announced in January 2010 that the Labor government was to commence construction of Peninsula Link he effectively claimed it would permit road users to travel 95 kilometres per hour between Carrum Downs and Dromana, which would shave up to 40 minutes off travel time on the route. To put this into perspective
this compares with an average travel speed in the morning peak in 2009-10 of 35.4 kilometres per hour on the whole of Melbourne's monitored road network. (4)

Recently, traffic speeds during peak periods have been measured to be as low as 7 kilometres per hour on Warrigal Road near the Chadstone Shopping Centre. This is often the case on major arterial roads such as Warrigal Road which also has about 400 route bus services using it every week day. In 2008 average weekday traffic volumes on this segment of Warrigal Road near Chadstone was about 57,000. According to data tabled by the then Southern and Eastern Integrated Transit Authority (now Linking Melbourne Authority) in support of the application to construct Peninsula Link average weekday traffic volumes on Moorooduc Highway between Mornington-Tyabb Road and Bungower Road was in the order of 37,000 vehicles. (5)

It takes little imagination to conclude where the greater public benefit lies: getting travel times off the floor in inner Melbourne or spending three quarters of a billion dollars on a project for the ostensible purpose of "bypassing" Frankston which permits speeds over ten times greater.

Seen in this context the $760 million dollars expenditure on Peninsula Link by the Brumby government is outlandish. Any government that provides just one route bus service (the 788 from Frankston Station to Portsea) on Point Nepean Road with a headway of 45 minutes on weekdays (including peak times) and 75 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays cannot be taken seriously. It is not a public transport service in any meaningful sense. It's a bad joke. It is useless for commuters, school kids, university students and for doing the shopping or visiting friends. But that is what is happening at the moment. Issues of social exclusion have been effortlessly dismissed.

Notwithstanding this mediocre service, in 2008-09 1962 passengers took the 788 route bus service each weekday, and 1454 on Saturdays and 1040 on Sundays. Therefore the average occupancy rate per service is probably between 40 and 55 passengers and it could be expected that a large proportion of the passengers travel between locations south of Safety Beach and Frankston.

Meaningful increases in service frequency would result in more than proportionate increases in patronage and relieve pressure on road space on Point Nepean Highway and other roads on the Peninsula.

However, to compensate the new government is evidently willing to develop plans to spend millions of dollars on more road space! It should wrap some simple arithmetic around the 5 problem before it repeats the mistakes of its predecessor. And it is simple: one road lane is capable of moving about 1,000 people per hour if they are sitting in cars whilst it can accommodate 8,000 people per hour if they are on buses. Of course trams and trains are even more space efficient. In fact, according to VicRoads in 2008-09 only 687 persons per lane were carried on average each hour on the Melbourne arterial and freeway network (6)

This state government is at the point where it needs to decide whether it is in the same business as its predecessor of building more expensive road space for pieces of metal to fly around on the Peninsula or whether it will construct a transport system that focuses on the travel needs of the local and visiting populace that also respects enduring principles reflected in the establishment of Melbourne's green wedges four decades ago.

written by Ian Hundley
30 July 2011
Footnotes
(1) Victorian Auditor-General's Report, Management of Major Road Projects, June 2011
(2) Clay Lucas and Royce Miller, 'Auditor hits $2 b road project,' The Age, June 25, 2011
(3)
See for example Royce Millar, 'Driving a wedge between the locals,' The Saturday Age, July 30, 2011 (4)
Traffic Monitor 2009-2010 (VicRoads May 2011), p. 27 (5)
Maunsell/ AECOM, Frankston Bypass Strategic Transport Modelling Technical Report
(SEITA 3 March 2008, p. 21 (6)
Traffic Monitor 2009/2010, p. 30.
6

Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc.:

General Meeting on "Population Growth and Car Usage in Melbourne"
Saturday 22 May 2010

Members and friends welcome.

Ever wondered why you are increasingly being trapped in traffic jams and gridlock on Melbourne's roads? Ever wondered whether construction of monster freeways/tunnels will alleviate the problems ? Then come to hear our speakers and ask questions.We really need your support in holding a public meeting on this important topic.

Time: 1:45 pm for 2 pm start.

Date: Saturday 22 May 2010

Venue: City of Melbourne Bowling Club, Flagstaff Gardens, Corner of Dudley and William Streets, West Melbourne. (Opposite the Queen Victoria Market Car park)

Transport: Tram - William, Peel or Victoria Streets and get off at the Queen Victoria Market. Parking in Queen Vic Market metered car park opposite or on street parking in the neighbourhood. (Melways 2 F A2)

Speakers:

Dr Ernest Healy, Research Fellow of the Centre for Population and Urban Research, Monash University will speak on

"Population Growth and Car Usage in Melbourne."

We will follow up with short reports from PPL VIC representatives on advisory committees on freeway/tunnel road projects planned for Melbourne. I [Julianne Bell] am on the Community Reference Group for WestLink and Ian Hundley for the Hoddle Street Development. We are committed to getting feedback from the community to take back to the Community Reference Groups so would like comments about your concerns, either by email or at the meeting.

Note that in the Victorian Transport Plan (December 2008) the rationale given for construction of these major projects is to cope with unprecedented population growth.

A number of people have criticised PPL VIC for appointing representatives to these committees. We are of the view that it is essential to find out what's happening. If need be we can withdraw at any stage in the proceedings or write a dissenting report at the conclusion of the projects.

Afternoon Tea: All are welcome at the meeting. Stay to afternoon tea.

Contact:

Julianne Bell
Secretary
Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc.
PO Box 197
Parkville 3052

Email:jbell5[AT]bigpond.com

. . .

. . .

Environmentalists might expect Green MLC Greg Barber, to back another environmentalist, Kelvin Thomson, rather than supply quotes that could make him out unfairly to be racist. Wedge Politics we don't need from Mr Barber MLC who represents the Northern Metropolitan Region of Melbourne in the Legislative Council at State level, which Kelvin Thomson represents in the Lower House at the Federal level. What's going on? Are the Greens for real?

Population and Environment and the Greens

Over the years I have had conversations with people about the riddles in the Greens' strangely contradictory environmental policies and their mysterious priorities. Yet there is something of the hearty gym mistress and the scout master about them that inspires us, Charlie-Brown-like, to trust them again and again at the polls. We think, they must mean well, or that they are better than the rest, or ...

Lassie come home

Recently someone said to me that maybe they are just out there to confuse us. Are they, he suggested, really working with the Libs and Labs and Big Media, as a kind of border collie, to keep us sheep from straying too far from the farm? The dog looks friendly and competent. It's cute. We tend to trust it because it doesn't actually own the farm. But it works for the farmer.

During the past two weeks my uncertainty has been overtaken by a feeling of déjà vu.

Wedge Politics we don't need; Mr Barber plays the race-card

Firstly, I read an article in the [growthist] Melbourne Times (Fairfax media), "Welcome to Australia - Now that's enough," by Bianca Hall, (Wed.3 Feb, 2010, p.4.).

The logic of this article is amazingly contrived and reads like an excuse to cite Greg Barber of the Greens apparently slurring the motives of Kelvin Thomson's 'Population Reform' as racist in a most unfair way:

'Mr Thomson argues net overseas migration should be dramatically cut from 2007-08 rate of 213, 461 to 70,000 migrants. To slow down the birth rate, Mr Thomson would cut family tax benefits to new recipients who had more than two children and redirect the money to education and workplace training.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows fertility rates are higher for Australian women born in largely Muslim countries, including Turkey and northern African countries. Almost 30 per cent of people in Mr Thomson' electorate were born in non-English-speaking countries.

State Greens MP Greg Barber said the plan threatened to target Muslim families.

"Whether Kelvin understands it or not his policy selectively targets predominantly Muslim people and punishes them for having that third child," Mr Barber said. "We know what gets birth rates down - the empowerment of women, with contraception, access to education and participation in the workforce."'

Frankly I was gobsmacked and furious. You might expect the developers to try something like this, or the Libs, but a Green? You never know, however, when there is a logical explanation, so I decided to write to Mr Barber himself and ask for it. I sent the following on 24-2-2010:

"#LetterToGregBarber" id="LetterToGregBarber">Dear Greg,

I must congratulate you on your statements in parliament about water reproduced here about bulk water entitlements as well as on your stand against disempowering councils.

I have been a little shocked however to read you as quoted in the article I have reproduced below from the Melbourne Times.
It looks like the worst kind of wedge politics.

1. I would like to know whether you were correctly cited in this article.
2. [name withheld] tells me that you may have been cited out of context - if so, could you explain a little please?

3. This is what the article makes you look as if you are doing, in my opinion:

- trying to knock out ALP competition
- or doing the ALP a favour by playing the race card against someone who is leading the battle for the environment and democracy against overdevelopment, overpopulation, by tagging them with an unfair race-card where the (extremely corrupt and unfair) ALP may not dare to do so itself
- playing to a voting sector which is identifyable as muslim
- stimatising muslims specifically as overly productive of children, uneducated etc
- playing wedge politics
- maybe preparing a seat in the Labor party for yourself

I hope to hear that none of this is true and that you are instead cooperating as much as possible with Mr Thomson, who has shown great courage and leadership.
By the same token, if there is something unfair going on between the two of you and you were reacting, I am sympathetic to an explanation there.
I am trying not to make judgements without full inquiry.
I know how fraught politics and environmental movements are with this kind of thing.

Yours for reform in democracy, environment, population, land use planning and energy policy,

Sheila Newman"

Strange silence from Mr Barber

I never received a reply from Mr Barber, although I spoke to a person at his office several times and exchanged emails with that person, and was led to assume I would at any moment receive a reply. (See #comment-4310">below for a very brief response to another voter.) I made it very clear that I was dead serious in seeking an explanation and also that I was absolutely furious that someone was apparently trying to pull the racist card to shut up Australia's perhaps single most courageous, ethical, effective and environmentally literate politician - an ALP long-stayer who was standing up for democracy, despite his party. I said that I would write an article on the subject and so it was important for him to defend himself.

Save the Bush Rally on 24 February

The same morning I wrote to Mr Barber, I travelled to the Save the Bush Rally which took place on the steps of Melbourne Parliament. It was here that I finally lost patience with the Greens.

Speakers included Sue Pennicuick, Greens MLC, Rosemary West, of the Green Wedges, Colin Long, Greens Upper House Candidate, Damon Anderson, of Coomoora Reserve, and Gillian Collins, of the Pines Flora and Fauna Reserve. (Were all of them prospective candidates?) All made speeches about how development was being pushed through by Mr Brumby's government and how this was threatening bushland and how the Greens would provide more public transport.

Complicit Silence on how Overdevelopment has been politically contrived

No scheduled speaker mentioned why more roads or public transport are necessary. The silence on how their necessity had been politically contrived was absolutely deafening. The Greens' failure to expose how the Government is driving the overpopulation it is using as an excuse to force undemocratic development only protects this gigantic dystopic rort.

Sadly, not one Green said anything to the effect of, "We will expose this dishonesty and try to stop the overpopulation of Melbourne."

I know that Gillian Collins and Rosemary West are fully aware of the population growth corporate connection. Yet only one woman, Mara from Banyule, even mentioned that the bush is threatened by population growth. All the honour of the day for honesty and relevance goes to her. She was not even on the written Agenda. She should have been writing it.

The 'green' silence from the rest of them on the government elephant-in-the-room push for overpopulation seemed nothing short of shameful cowardice or cynical complicity. The population cat is well out of the bag, yet it seems that the Greens, of all parties, want to stuff it back in again - at the peril of our wildlife and democracy.

Why? What have they got to gain by protecting the bad guys?

I was furious that I had travelled from an outer suburb and ruined my day for more profitable pursuits only to hear a line-up of wanna-be-politicians using a captive audience to monger motherhood statements which would mostly sit happily on the billboards of new estates and the websites of corporate water-speculators. Many of those assembled in support of the speakers were battle-scarred environmental fighters who remained quiet while the glorified clichés were trotted out for the television cameras. Some dedicated naturalists and ecologists held banners and filmed the event, all of them waiting for some leadership.

They got nothing.

A trial of patience; an abuse of supporters' time

When Sue Pennicuick self-congratulatingly asked the crowd who they were going to vote for (meaning the Greens), an angry spectator called out, "Kelvin Thomson!" There was a murmur of approval from the long-suffering audience.

When Sue Pennicuick self-congratulatingly asked the crowd who they were going to vote for (meaning the Greens), an angry spectator called out, "Kelvin Thomson!"

Another spectator handed round stickers with "Say No to Melbourne at 5 Million" and someone else was distributing leaflets exposing the identities of organisations that push population growth, which included numerous developers and the Victorian Government with its site, "www.liveinmelbourne.com.au". The audience gratefully accepted the leaflets.

There was no-one else there, apart from the speakers, who wanted to keep the lid on the scandal of the population-growth lobby and the government's role in it. A brilliant opportunity was lost to educate the press on the steps and the pedestrians watching from the other side of Spring Street about why the government is corrupt and how the government pushes population in cahoots with the developers, then makes laws to force Victorians to accommodate the interests of this group. (See the Brumby government's links with the Property Council of Australia and the Live in Victoria Government website to attract immigrants at "Living in a Destruction Zone" and Minister Justin Madden's increasingly barefaced attempts to overturn any democratic restraint on the government's development despotism.)

Political corruption in Australia

I rode home on the same train as one of the wildlife activists. On that train there was also a man who had just published a dictionary of Australian political terms. He was a born and bred ALP member and I asked him if he had ever heard of Labor Resources or Labor Holdings. He hadn't. I told him about them. It seemed to me that a faint glint of horror animated his misty eyes for a moment, but he quickly suppressed it.

"They all do it", he replied, like a long-suffering adult on the antics of teenagers. I half expected him to add, "But they will grow out of it."

Yes, all the parties do it. "It" is the use of holding companies for donations which are then declared as coming from the holding companies rather than from their many corporate donors. This is a problem but it is the amount and the kind of assets that the ALP holds at state and Federal level plus their political power and their demonstrated abuse of it which is frightening even to the Liberal-National Party.

I tried to describe how the scale of the corrupt system was beyond any before and now grotesquely magnified by the ALP's dominance over every parliament in Australia. "They are nothing like the Labor Party is supposed to be anymore," I added.

"Oh, but they're better than the alternative," he intoned, reciting his true believer catechism, with a smug smile.

"It's like a religion," said the onlooking wildlife activist. "They are brainwashed from birth."

Politics as religion

She is right. For many people, politics is the same as a religion. You just don't question the church that you were born to: Labor or Liberal: each is better than the alternative.

Or, if you're a bit rebellious, there is the alternative alternative religion - The Greens.

But it seems to me now that they are all different brands selling the same thing. They are all selling overpopulation to the masses, but each of them is selling a different brand. The Labor Party is selling overpopulation as economic growth. The Liberals would be selling it this way but they cannot out-do the ALP at the moment. The Greens are selling overpopulation as Public Transport and the Socialist Alliance is selling it as bicycles. But they are all trying to sell it to us. Like Mr Madden and Mr Brumby and Mr Rudd, they aren't really interested in democracy and what we, the electorate think. They are all seeking niches within the territory defined by the corporate growth lobby.

Mainstream Media role in our loss of democracy

For many years now the extent of this collusion has been kept safely away from public knowledge by the commercial and the public media in Australia. Indeed it looks to me as if the commercial media - notably the Murdoch media, but including the Fairfax media - have been able to shape the policies and and promote the people who have come to form our useless political parties and the corrupt ideology of material progress.

The structure of print, television and radio media has permitted ownership in a few hands which have dominated public information and allowed the entrenchment of corporate interests over democratic rights. For me it is frankly impossible now to see the difference between the Government and the commercial Property, Banking and Media groups (all interchangeable themselves), especially with Stephen Mayne's uncovering of Labor Party investments cultivated with Wayne Swann and Kevin Rudd working for Wayne Goss whilst in opposition in Queensland. Yes, Mayne's investigations were published in the mainstream, but the mainstream doesn't connect the big dots and it won't effectively publicise any alternative parties or changes to the system which might combat the rot.

The situation is like the one in the 16th century, where the Holy Roman Empire had evolved from the Roman Empire and controlled kings, public ideology and institutions. The situation seemed utterly hopeless until the rise of a new technology - printing.

Who will fight the Evil Empire again?

In the 16th century Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the Church door at Wittenburg. Soon copies were printed and spread all over Germany.

Unfortunately, with the discovery of technologies for smelting iron directly with coal, new kinds of institutions arose - those of capitalist corporations. The corporations built towns and re-organised people as anonymous cogs, with loyalty to employers overwhelming loyalty to family and friends, isolated from any true community or personal independence. Gradually the corporations were able to dominate human institutions all over again, under the ideology of 'Progress', (See for instance, "Courier-Mail beats up on public for complaining about cost of 'progress'"), ironically taken from protestant values.

Things may be changing again, however. Today the 'common people' - as long as they can read and write and have access to computers - may be able to take back power from the Dark Towers (to use Tolkien's ever-useful terminology for the rise of corporate control) via a new technology - and that is the Internet.

It seems however that we should not rely on the Greens to challenge the dark commercial hegemony of the overpopulation and development lobby.

If Australians cannot place their faith in the Greens, recently some real dissidents have arrived and posted something new on the church doors of the Internet: Kelvin Thomson - a brave leader in waiting for the Labor Party or for a new party or a man who may lose ALP-preselection for his courage and hence could eventually run for the Senate on Mr Barber's turf; the Stable Population Party, the New Australia Party, and the Animal Justice Party.

I will be happy to be shown to be wrong and anyone who feels misrepresented by this article is very welcome to post an article in reply or to comment. I am happy to publish any response from Greg Barber. I will be more than happy to eat every word of criticism here of Greens and speakers at the rally if only I receive an explanation. Candobetter.org is a free press and we welcome true debate.

See also: Greens support Madden's Bad Law VC 71 in black week for Victoria, Australia of 11 Oct 10, "Tasmanian Greens and the terror of coalitions" of 24 Mar 10 on Online Opinion and related discussion forum.

These are dark times for Australia and Victoria is one of the darkest places in the country for democracy. There are, however still some good people in parliament and we must support their efforts. The Greens and the Opposition need the electorate's help to have this bill stopped in the upper house. They have done it before, so they can do it again. See for example, "Coalition, Greens & DLP vote Tim Holding's North South Pipeline enabling regulations down!".

If passed, the new proposed Major Transport Projects Facilitiation Bill 2009, will create an Act of Law tol override existing planning and environmental approval processes under the 11 other Acts listed below. Like the Repco rally law in NSW it will overturn laws for the protection of democracy, the environment, and the public.

This Bill is bad because:

- It will exempt the State Government from its own laws and concentrate decision making power into one or two Ministers, raising the risk of corruption and 'influence peddling'.

- You will not be able to appeal to the Supreme court except to appeal the final decison by the Planning Minister, but the law will be biased against the appeal because they will have to favour "cost and efficiency" of the project rather than environment, heritage, or democratic agreement by the community.

This bill is bad for democracy and is not needed or wanted - except by big business and developers.

Greg Barber of the Greens has asked, "What public transport projects have ever been delayed by following proper processes?"

Labor is determined to ram this through.

He says, "Labor is determined to ram this through. Only the Liberal-National Coalition, by voting with the Greens, can stop this bill in the upper house. You are urged to email Liberal, National, DLP Upper House MPs and tell them that if they really care about stopping corruption they will vote to make state government decisions subject to the law."

Copy of the legislation and explanatory info
http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubPDocs.nsf/ee665e366dcb6cb0ca256da400837f6b/eb658cee32cafe23ca2576100014d381!OpenDocument

Coastal Management Act 1995
Consent under section 40(1)
Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987
Comment under section 66
Environment Protection Act 1970
Works approval under section 19B(7)
Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988
Permit under section 40
Licence under section 53 to take and keep fish
Forests Act 1958
Licence or permit under section 52
Permit under section 59(1)
Authority under section 77
Heritage Act 1995
Permit under section 74
Permit under section 113
Consent under section 129
National Parks Act 1975
Permit under section 21(1)(a)
Approval under section 23
Consent under section 25
Planning and Environment Act 1987
Preparation, approval and adoption of a planning scheme or an amendment to
a planning scheme under sections 8, 29 and 35
Granting and issue of a planning permit under section 61
Road Management Act 2004
Consent under clause 1 of Schedule 2
Decision under clause 2 of Schedule 2
Consent under clause 16 of Schedule 7
Water Act 1989
Licence under section 51
Licence under section 67
Wildlife Act 1975
Authority under section 21(1), (2) or (3)
Licence under section 22(1)
Authorisation under section 28A

Partial source for this article was