The non-elected Premier of NSW, Gladys Berejiklian, has finally been exposed at the Wagga Wagga by-election. So have the lies and misinformation which are the hallmark of this woman’s Government.

REMEMBER? This is the Liberal politician who, on taking over from retiring Premier Mike Baird, famously said that as Premier she

“... will be working hard for everyone, listening to everyone and governing for everyone.”

Everyone? As long as it’s corporations, developers, foreign investment and, basically, anyone who isn’t a voting member of the public.  

“I know how to get things done,” she proclaimed in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald on her rise to the state’s top political job. She sure does. She knows how to really piss off an electorate fed up to the back teeth with the lack of access to the Premier, her ministers and her ongoing refusal to listen to the public.  

At a time when the environment and wildlife of NSW is groaning under the weight of development at any cost – destroying ecosystems, riparian zones, old growth forests, coastal forests and, in particular, the remaining koala populations – Wagga Wagga has spoken for many voters across the state.

Ms Berejiklian doesn’t have an environmental bone in her body.

Her priority, in terms of the environment, according to the Premier's Priorities website, is to downsize the amount of litter.

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/gladys-bereji...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-16/defqon-two-dead-after-music-festiv...

According to the latest Essential Research data, conducted in May of this year, a solid two-thirds of Australians want less heavy-weight legal action on drugs and a more health-based approach. Only about 17 per cent still think the answer lies with the law.

The broad mass of the sensible electorate does not want the “war on drugs” continued, we want to sue for peace.

I really would like a world free of drugs, and if I could press a button to make it happen would do so in a heartbeat. But I am a realist. They are here, they are everywhere, and they are here to stay.

I have heard about “the war on drugs” for at least 30 years. And yet I live in a city where it is common knowledge you can have drugs delivered quicker to your door than pizza!

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/my-child-goes-to-music-festivals-but-i-don-t-want-them-shut-down

See toon at top.

Australia's peak infrastructure body rejected a $500 million funding request for the Sydney light rail, saying the project would increase congestion and did not stack up economically.

• Sydney's light rail line has been plagued by projects and delays 
• Infrastructure Australia had concerns about it as early as 2013
• However, the NSW Government pushed on with the project 

A leaked assessment, delivered to the NSW Government in April 2013 and obtained by the ABC and Fairfax media, revealed Infrastructure Australia (IA) had major concerns about the project.

The NSW Government asked IA — which independently assesses the national infrastructure projects — to help fund the light rail, which has since been plagued by problems and delays.

The assessment reveals IA thought the line from Circular Quay to Randwick was poor value, and would be overcrowded and increase congestion on city roads.

It was sent to Transport for NSW officials.

Despite the negative findings, the State Government pushed on without federal support, funding the project with $220 million grant from Sydney City Council.

A Transport for NSW spokesperson said the light rail would have 15 services per hour between 7am and 7pm.

"Since the start of construction in 2015 we have already seen a 12 per cent drop in traffic entering in the CBD in the AM peak," they said.

"This is due to the traffic arrangements put in place to prepare for light rail. At the same time public transport use is up by 11.4 per cent."

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-18/nsw-government-was-denied-light-ra...

One of the major problem of this project has been the destruction of many businesses along the route — and that on average it will far far FAR slower than efficient buses... This project is dumb by trying to emulate what some (flat) cities in Europe have done (or flat Melbourne), but the problems in Sydney are very very VERY different. Electric buses (charged from solar and wind turbines power) would have been the best and the least costly. But Ms Gladys and her predecessor annoyed people by wanting to make their mark on the city. 

In a letter to the Privy Council, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, wrote about "playhouses" on the 28 of July, 1597:

They are a special cause of corrupting their youth containing nothing but unchaste matters, laviscious devices, shifts of cozenage and other lewd and ungodly practices...

They are the ordinary places for vagrant persons, masterless men, thieves, horse-stealers, whoremongers, cozeners, coney-catchers, contrivers of treason and other idle and dangerous persons to meet together...

They maintain idleness in such persons as to have no vocation, and draw apprentices and other servants from their ordinary works...

In the time of sickness it is found by experience that many, having sores and yet not heart-sick, take occasion thereby to walk abroad and to recreate [entertain] themselves by hearing a play. Whereby others are infected...

-----------------------

Yep... Mylady Premier... Lucky. The Privy Council under Queen Elizabeth-Number-One's wishes refused to shut down the "playhouses"... The Queen loved her own court plays and the "actors must have practice before appearing before her." At least the Queen had more sense that our modern Gladys...

The shiny Northern Beaches Hospital (NBH) in Frenchs Forest has been open for only 17 days, but the Herald's investigation on the dire state of affairs has prompted a large wave of stories from staff at all levels and patients in all age groups.

A senior doctor at the hospital said his concerns about patient safety were not being taken seriously and he had begun advising friends and family on the northern beaches to travel the extra 20 minutes to Royal North Shore Hospital.

"I know the hospital is fundamentally under-prepared to open and provide services it's supposed to be offering," he said on condition of anonymity.

Josephine Blogg's frail 100-year-old mother was one of the patients transferred in the highly publicised ambulance convoy from the now-closed Manly Hospital to the new facility the day it opened.

...

Her mother's GP later struggled to get hold of discharge papers or get hold of someone at the hospital who knew what medication had been given.

"The place was chaotic," Ms Blogg said. "As a full time carer for my mother I can only say she is much better off at home."

Young mother Sarah Doyle also used the word "chaotic" to describe her experience at NBH. Her seven-month-old daughter - "projectile vomiting, limp and feverish" - needed urgent attention.

She said staff sent a urine sample to the wrong laboratory and ultrasound results did not come through while they waited in hospital.

She noticed the hospital lacked basic medicines, computers kept shutting down and staff were visibly stressed.

"We left the hospital without being discharged and were told a discharge summary would be sent to us once they received the ultrasound results and urine results," she said.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/chaotic-what-northern-beaches-hospit...

Meanwhile:

One of Sydney's leading teaching hospitals has lost accreditation to train urologists because it has failed to provide trainees with enough surgical experience.

The last trainee urologist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Camperdown will be transferred to Westmead Hospital on Monday. Last year Royal Prince Alfred's only other urology training post was withdrawn.

A spokeswoman said last night that the hospital would appeal against the decision.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/rpa-loses-right-to-urology-training-2004...

Read from top.

Thousands of passengers were left stranded after the Sydney Trains network fell into chaos overnight.

Delays of up to three-and-a-half hours were felt across the grid, with many New Year's Eve revellers taking to social media to vent about the havoc that occurred after the midnight fireworks.

...

After originally being told there was no congestion and only large crowds this morning, a Sydney Trains spokesperson later thanked employees for their efforts overnight.

"Trains have been operating throughout the night and into this morning at least every 15 minutes to get people home safely," she said. "Most of all, we thank our customers for their patience while vital repair work due to the storm cells was undertaken."

Sydney Trains has also recommended those wishing to use rail services today to consider "alternative travel arrangements" or "delaying" your trip.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she “completely accepts the frustration” of the thousands of people who were stranded by Sydney Trains last night.

She says it was a “freak lightning storm” that brought down the system but ruled out any refunds or compensation for revellers.

Ms Berejiklian said the government was working to untangle the lines of the train system and that Sydney Trains would provide her with a full briefing on last night's chaos.

“I completely accept why commuters trying to get home felt frustrated but a freak thunderstorm did bring down rail lines," she said. “At the moment, if one rail line goes down, it affects the whole rail line.”

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/204-minutes-late-sydney-trains-desce...

Read from top.

This morning, an "economist" (probably right wing) was telling Fran Kelly that New South Wales under the Gladys government had the best economy in Australia and things should be rosy... He did not understand why some voters did not see this...

In my humble simplistic view, this is easy to explain... With the NSW government selling many PUBLIC ASSETS to private rich enterprises and dudes, the state has lost far more than it has gained in road tunnels and even dare I say "employment", where most of the workers are on contract and not unionised. As well, the veil of secrecy around most of the building projects which are touted as the engines of this economy hides a lot of possible deals and counter deals "in confidence" between government and private enterprise. With the Gladys government, the public has no right to know how things are paid for. Further more, even some of the workers, who work on the WestCONnex have no idea whether they're digging a hole for an exit, an entrance or a vent for the project — unless they have been told NOT TO SAY.

But what has hurt Gladys more is that her government, in a push to build more apartment blocks, more roads and more little trains going in circles is that she DESTROYED the sense of community. 80 per cent of the people object to the destruction of a perfectly good stadium to get it rebuild with more elephants, because Melbourne has got bigger ones. Silly ARROGANT Gladys. 

In a "great" economy as such, the total shows that there is more wealth in NSW, but when looking at it, the spread is seriously flawed. Gazillionaires are richer, the little bourgeois are making less of a buck than before and the workers are worse off. As well, people who had a "community" have been shafted out by apartments of the unknowns as well as paid shit for their home that either suffer damage from tunnels or completely demolished to make way for MORE CARS... More cars mean more pollution, more CO2. And unless the little trams are powered by windmills and solar panels then the entire exercise which has now destroyed parts of Sydney for the last five years would have been a waste of time, while being borderline in solving Sydney's transport woes anyway. 

Economics is okay as long as it is beneficial to all people. The Gladys economics have lined the pockets of developers and destroyed communities. Many people are angry.

There I have said it. It will be a long road to rebuild COMMUNITIES but I know that Daley can do it as well as manage a more responsible economic benefit.

Read from top.

And apparently, Gladys' people have released a video of her "bloopers" to show that she is a fun woman. A long way to go, if she wants to join the team of SNL... 

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has told a corruption inquiry she had been in a “close personal relationship” with Daryl Maguire.

The Premier gave evidence at an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry on Monday investigating whether former Member for Wagga Wagga Mr Maguire used his position for personal gain.

Ms Berejiklian told the inquiry she was in a close personal relationship with Mr Maguire from around the time of the 2015 state election up until a few months ago.

“When I was asked to support this inquiry it became apparent to me that I should have absolutely no contact anymore and I ceased all contact,” Ms Berejiklian told the inquiry.

Ms Berejiklian said their relationship wasn’t generally known among MPs and they sought to keep it private in part because it may have been awkward.

“More substantially, I’m a very private person and I didn’t feel the relationship had sufficient substance for it to be made public,” Ms Berejiklian said.

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/nsw/2020/10/12/gladys-berejiklian-icac/

Read from top.

The premier should sack herself.

History is littered with women brought undone by the actions of men, women who have seen their lives upended when their partners behaved like scoundrels.

But Gladys Berejiklian?

Will she become the third premier of New South Wales whose career is ended by events before the Independent Commission Against Corruption?

It seems likely.

The revelations of Berejiklian’s “close personal relationship” with the former MP for Wagga Daryl Maguire, who is before the commission over allegations of corrupt conduct, have come as a bombshell.

Even more astounding is that the relationship, begun in 2015, continued until August this year. This was after Berejiklian sacked Maguire from the Liberal party, forced him to sit on the crossbench and prevailed on others to get him to resign as the member for Wagga Wagga.

The allegations against Maguire are in the public domain and in substantial detail.

In her press conference on Monday after giving evidence to the commission, Berejiklian said she continued the friendship because Maguire was in “a very dark place” and he had lost everything. She is appealing to the desire of all of us to support friends.

But she is the premier, and she sets the standards of her government.

Among the conduct under investigation is whether Maguire ran a business, G8way, out of his parliamentary office, offered visa services to Chinese business partners and was involved in paid lobbying for various landholders, including one at Badgerys Creek, the site of Sydney’s second airport.

Over several hours on Wednesday Berejiklian, a notoriously private person, had her personal life laid bare, as the counsel assisting, Scott Robertson, played telephone intercepts of her personal calls with Maguire during 2017 and 2018.

Berejiklian is single. Maguire is now separated. This is not a question of morality. It is one of judgment: whether Berejiklian deliberately limited what she knew of Maguire’s business dealings in order to keep the relationship going – for years.

On the tapes, Maguire can be heard talking about his business plans and concerns about his debt levels – he had a $670,000 mortgage on his house and $1.55m in debt associated with his business.

On the rambling calls where Maguire outlines his indebtedness and how he plans to tackle his financial position, Berejiklian at times sounds distracted, as though she is multi-tasking.

“Perhaps I was bored and busy and wanted to move on,” she told the commission.

“He was always talking about deals, and they always fell through, they always seemed quite fanciful to me,” Berejiklian said.

“It was known among colleagues that he always talked big. But they never seemed to come to fruition.”

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/12/personal-tragedy-public-dissembling-gladys-berejiklians-days-seem-numbered

Read from top.

"Unfortunately", Gladys has to sack herself... Look, the media and the Libs crucified whatiszname of Labor for far less indiscretion... He went. He was not a "bad guy" either.