Friday 29th of March 2024

mediocre perrottet wants to change your city with his mediocre thinking and a few outdoor cafés...

nsw...nsw...

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has said Sydney’s Harbour’s iconic beauty is holding the city back as he called on people to shun mediocrity in reshaping the metropolitan landscape.

In a speech to the Sydney Summit, hosted by the Committee for Sydney, Mr Perrottet said the series of crises endured in 2020 were a “wake-up call” and that the state’s prosperity meant more now than just getting back to normal.

...

 

“But our harbour is so beautiful, it is so iconic, that I believe it’s actually holding us back,” Mr Perrottet told the conference of planning industry figures on Monday morning, adding that other great cities around the world were not able to lean on their natural beauty.

“Melbourne’s grandest hotels are on the banks of a brown creek. London’s river Thames and the Seine in Paris have a similar ambience. The great city of New York is built on a swamp, yet without a harbour to fall back on, enormous efforts have gone into making their cities the great places to live, work and visit.”

 

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-s-natural-beauty-holding-city-back-nsw-treasurer-20210208-p570g5.html

 

Please Dominic, DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING! Go away... Paris stinks in summer, Melbourne is where those who can't live in Sydney go to get buried in, New York is a rat infested Covid-dead city that is awaiting for the next hurricane to flood its subways, London is a bad one-view movie set for Midsommer's murders or such, Copenhagen is full of anti lockdown protests and somewhat very uninspiring when there is no revolution, etc...  

Please Dominic, DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING! Go away... 

Please Dominic, DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING! Go away... 

Go AWAY!!!!!!

 

The heritage listed buildings you hate so much are not for you to dynamite. Go away in your little church hole...

 

See also: https://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/10075

please make up and fight the real enemy: dominic...

feud

A nine-month-old feud between two of the biggest egos in national journalism reignited spectacularly last week when Stan Grant executed a revenge attack on Peter FitzSimons.


Previously warm relations between the pair have been up and down since their opinion page fisticuffs last year over FitzSimons’ book on Captain James Cook. Grant took to this paper’s opinion pages to label some parts of the book as “ludicrous”.

Fast forward to last week when Grant contributed a chapter to The Australian’s progressive murder mystery novel (progressive in its publication schedule, obviously not in its politics), an attempt by the boring broadsheet to liven up the silly season.

Grant set his chapter at “Fitzy and Lisa’s Australia Day barbecue at their grand house overlooking Sydney Harbour” - the home of The Sydney Morning Herald columnist and his wife, The Project presenter, Lisa Wilkinson.


“What a woke leftie love-in that was: journos, actors, writers, a couple of ex-Wallabies (well it was the north shore), a few washed up politicians, even a couple of Liberals (small l of course) and a former managing director of the ABC for good measure.

“Everyone there voted yes for same-sex marriage — the year ­before last, they’d all tearily ­applauded their first gay married couple guests — they hated the Catholic Church and had cried when Kevin Rudd said sorry.”

Grant’s takedown appeared without the decency of a warning. The pair didn’t speak in the aftermath but did exchange angry texts. Both sounded nonplussed when CBD called.

“It’s fiction, it’s satire. Have a laugh. I mock myself as much as anyone else in it,” Grant said, before hastening off the phone.

“I will leave it for others to judge,” FitzSimons said before hastening off the phone.

Clash of the titans or clash of the titanic egos?

 

 

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/true-crime-as-stan-grant-hits-out-at-peter-fitzsimons-20210207-p570bz.html

 

meanwhile, on sacred gambling land...

 

By Michael Pascoe

 

As expected, the final report of the NSW inquiry into the suitability of James Packer’s Crown Resorts to run a casino – it isn’t – has set multiple hares running, including massive embarrassment for the Victorian and West Australian governments, the end of several individuals’ careers as directors of credible public companies and the inevitable sharp reduction of Packer’s shareholding and effective control.

We won’t be calling it “Packer’s Crown” much longer. He had been trying to sell down anyway.

But, also as expected, Commissioner Patricia Bergin has left the door wide open for Crown Resorts to yet have a casino in its Barangaroo tower. A little housekeeping, a few rolled heads and, voilà, a “conversion to suitability”, to use the Commissioner’s words.

Well, this is Sydney.

Before that, standby for much huffing and puffing and “well I never” from Premiers Andrews and McGowan. The Victorian and West Australian governments have long been rolling over for the Packer empire, begging to have their tummies tickled, whenever the Packer crew whistled.

Well, they are Melbourne and Perth.

Now premiers past and present will be “shocked, shocked to find gambling is going on in here” – or rather that there’s been money laundering and high roller junkets via dodgy partners with Asian crime syndicate connections. Cue cleanouts of the relevant watchpuppies.

Some players in the Crown saga have been fortunate.

Long-time Packer functionary John Alexander has already taken a golden parachute from the building after running it and denying all – “sensationalist and unproven claims” he declared.

Pro tem chairman Helen Coonan wasn’t collared as someone who has to immediately go, despite being on the board for a decade without apparently noticing much.

“Some observers may expect the Authority to require the purging of the whole Crown Board before it would be in a position to regard Crown as a “suitable” person under the Casino Control Act,” wrote Commissioner Bergin.

“However such an approach would be inappropriate if there is an available realistic alternative to accommodate due regard to the commercial imperative of the viability of a public company whilst achieving such conversion.”

So, not all at once, but maybe not for too long.

The former deputy leader of the coalition in the Senate concurrently chairing a gambling company and the Australian Financial Complaints Authority wasn’t a good look before the inquiry.  It is a worse look now and anyone’s guess which job will go first.

And there are other shoes to drop if the NSW government takes Commissioner Bergin’s broader recommendations seriously.

In theory, NSW has one existing casino and one pending “conversion to suitability”. In reality, NSW is rolling in casinos – the mega-clubs that are major gambling destinations with multiple gaming machines of all descriptions. They are likely to come in for greater scrutiny.

In light of the many ructions, the funny thing about this inquiry is that it turns out Crown Resorts doesn’t really need the casino licence to make its Barangaroo monster work and Sydney doesn’t need a casino to make the northern end of Barangaroo work either.

The tower that now dominates the Sydney skyline is mostly a block of flats, albeit expensive flats that have substantially paid for the building.

The hotel is off to a roaring start without a casino, the restaurants and bars enjoying good business, the rooms and facilities well reviewed.

The casino money making machine would of course be rich cream on top of that if our borders open to international high rollers at some stage, but not having a licence won’t send the Sydney Crown broke.

And the excuse Barry O’Farrell gave for agreeing to the casino has proven to be false.

In conversation, the then NSW Premier told me the government thought a casino was needed to bring some “life and excitement” to the northern end of Barangaroo, that otherwise it would be dead.

That is demonstrably not the case.

(Mr O’Farrell, now Australia’s High Commissioner to India after a spell as CEO of Racing Australia, didn’t use the word “casino” though – it was part of the farce of the Packer machine blitzing both sides of NSW politics to get what it wanted that the thing was termed a “VIP-restricted gaming facility”.)

The tower, whether admired or hated, will remain a testimony to the shoddiness of NSW politics, of the weakness of both the main parties so easily owned by James Packer’s machine, so easily convinced to surrender such a prize without a competitive tender.

It represents a massive failure of governance in plain sight, applauded and egged on by most Sydney media. Peak Sydney.

Giving Packer whatever he wanted was both unnecessary and a wasted opportunity.

The original concept for Barangaroo was to have an excellent hotel built over the water, thus leaving more open space and bringing a touch of Venice to the Harbour City. It could have been a brilliant building without a tainted casino licence.

The world’s great hotel chains would have fallen over themselves for the opportunity to have such an iconic site. They would have competed to provide more “life and excitement” and style than the often rather trashy clientele that is attracted to casinos.

Or even VIP-restricted gaming facilities.

 

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2021/02/10/michael-pascoe-crown-casino/

 

Read from top. See also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/10189

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/17418

https://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/38162

and

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34031

 

 

and if you did not know:

 

NSW’s outgoing top transport bureaucrat Rodd Staples will receive a payout of more than $800,000 after he was sacked without reason six weeks after a positive performance review with the Premier.

Mr Staples, the secretary of Transport for NSW, will leave his position on February 19, three months after he was told his contract would be terminated with “no stated reason”.

 

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/nsw-transport-boss-to-receive-more-than-800-000-payout-20210208-p570j4.html

 

See also: next station: zetland...

Mr Staples might have leaked the report?...

 

perrottet's mediocrity to prevail?... blah...


Unruly scenes as removalists arrive for Premier Gladys

 

 

By ALEX MITCHELL | On 12 February 2021

 

Recent actions from NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet would suggest an imminent reshuffle aimed squarely at the Premier’s office. Despite asserting she is not leaving in March, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been elbowed out of the way by her current Treasurer, who is behaving as if he has been sworn in as the State’s 46th Premier.

In the polls, Empress Gladys is still the preferred Premier, particularly among women voters, right-wing feminists and the upwardly mobile among the people called millennials. However, they don’t have a vote in the party room where the Premiership is decided.

Up until a year ago, Ms Berejiklian commanded around 80% of the vote of Coalition MPs. But today it has fallen to about 15%, and if she called for a confidence vote, the “No” votes and abstentions would be massive.

These embarrassingly poor numbers have persuaded Ms Berejiklian it is time to go. However, she wants her departure to be conducted on her own terms. Can she do it? Probably not. Senior politicians can only partially organise their exits, but their colleagues pull the lever of the trapdoor.

Keep in mind that politicians like taking the top job with a unanimous party room vote,  which means the current arm-twisting and backstabbing is all about “persuading” leadership contenders to stand down. This allows the new leader to declare at the first press conference, “I have the total support of all my colleagues. The vote was unanimous.”

Perrottet has fashioned a “dream ticket” to replace her; he has recruited Cabinet Minister Matt Kean as his running mate. As a piece of political architecture, it is dishonest, impractical and bound to fail. Perrottet is a right-wing politician with connections to the Roman Catholic sect known as Opus Dei, while Kean is a “wet” (moderate) Liberal, who believes in gay marriage, abortion reform and combatting climate change.

Dom and Matt won’t be a happy couple!

This week Perrottet has been glad-handing his way around Sydney doing what Premiers do – making major speeches on taxation, the economy, the arts, planning and infrastructure. For a man noted for grim reticence, it was a stellar performance. The SMH devoted almost two pages to his unfunded “thought bubbles”. It was written by Angus Thompson, “Urban affairs reporter”, whose future career will be followed with interest.

Speaking at a “Sydney Summit”, Perrottet laid out plans for Sydneysiders to “shun mediocrity” and embrace his dreams [delusions?] for “a world-class city”. He praised Paul Keating, former Labor PM and adviser to billionaire Frank Lowy, and Lucy Turnbull, wife of former Liberal PM Malcolm Turnbull, as visionaries for their plan to make Macquarie Street a “cultural precinct”. Perrottet wanted overseas students allowed back into NSW because, he claimed, they contributed $13.6 billion to the economy. The concept of an Asian student-led recovery is bizarre.

Greater Sydney Commissioner Geoff Roberts joined the “dream-on” by supporting the division of Sydney into three cities –

  1. Parramatta, Penrith and the Sydney Olympics site;
  2. Sydney’s second airport at Badgery’s Creek and its adjoining business hub called “Aerotropolis”; and
  3. the “Eastern Harbour City” (the CBD, Darling Harbour, Opera House, Harbour Bridge, SCG, Roosters NRL and Randwick racecourse).

Ms Berejiklian and Mr Perrottet both have good reason to want a transfer of power.

  1. Gladys is facing the re-opening of an ICAC inquiry into land deals masterminded by Liberal Minister Daryl Maguire whom she intended to marry. And Cabinet’s dodgy approval of James Packer’s Crown casino at Darling Harbour has now engulfed Ms Berejiklian;
  2. Perrottet will be called before an official investigation into the apparent rorting at iCare, the workers’ compensation scheme.

In a clear sign that deck chairs are being re-arranged, Upper House president John Ajaka suddenly resigned from his $309,621-a-year job. His announcement was slipped out very late on a Friday afternoon and was therefore scarcely reported. It triggered a frenzied discussion among MPs about the imminence of regime change and Ms Berejikian’s departure.

As Ajaka’s parliamentary pension is calculated on his final salary, his golden handshake will be immensely richer by going now and not in the months ahead when he may be sacked and replaced and thus be reduced to an ordinary MP’s basic salary of $169,192. Does Ajaka prefer the gravy to the gruel? We shall see.

In late news, Ms Berejiklian is reported to be thinking of staying in office until mid-year to salvage some of her tarnished reputation. Dom, aka “Mr Pair-of-Tits”, will be furious with this turn of events: he doesn’t want any delay at all. Like Prince Charles, he’s waited long enough.

 

Read more:

https://johnmenadue.com/unruly-scenes-as-removalists-arrive-for-premier-gladys/

 

Read from top.

 

Perrottet is an Opus Dei operative with no sense of aesthetic beyond that of a statue of the virgin Mary at Sydney's Cathedral... Like all good catholics he is a good accountant that can shift pluses and minuses with moral contrition and redemption. 

selling the bridge...

Motorists would pay tolls in both directions on Sydney’s Harbour Bridge and Tunnel, transport documents for the NSW government’s controversial Northern Beaches Link reveal.

Transport Minister Rob Stokes has also not ruled out privatising the bridge and tunnel crossings, two of the last publicly owned toll roads in Sydney, insisting a decision would be made next year.

 

“Decisions in relation to the future of these routes will be provided in time,” Mr Stokes told question time on Thursday. “This is what governments do. They make decisions through an appropriate process.”

The 30-year tolling regime for the Sydney Harbour Tunnel is due to expire on August 31, 2022, which will force the government to reveal its plans for tolls on the crossing.

 

A new Transport for NSW document, responding to community submissions to plans for the Beaches Link and Gore Hill Freeway connection, released this week suggests tolling in both directions will be necessary.

“The decision to apply tolls to roads is a NSW government decision and is not made at the project level,” it says.

However, it says there is an assumption that “tolls would apply to all north and southbound trips on all harbour crossings in the future, including two-way tolling on the Western Harbour Tunnel, Beaches Link tunnel, Sydney Harbour Tunnel and Sydney Harbour Bridge.”

The seven-kilometre Beaches Link will extend from the Warringah Freeway at Cammeray to Balgowlah and Seaforth in the north-east. The tunnels will be three lanes in both directions.

Premier Dominic Perrottet was asked by Labor in question time: “will you finally admit what we all know, that you will be putting a two-way toll on all crossings,” Mr Perrottet responded: “no”. However, he later said that no decision had been made about future harbour tolling concessions.

 

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/new-tolls-on-horizon-for-harbour-bridge-and-tunnel-documents-reveal-20211111-p5986f.html

 

TRANSLATION: WE WILL SLEDGE YOU WITH HIGHER TOLLS — AND SELL THE HARBOUR CROSSINGS (BRIDGE AND TUNNEL) TO OUR CAPITALIST MATES — AS SOON AS WE CAN.

 

Read from top.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWTTTTT†††††††!!!!