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Roderick

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Sun.4.7.21 Metro Twitter
Aircraft: No ramp access to platforms until late 2021 (pedestrian-underpass works).
Flinders St: still with a lane closed for tunnel works.
Buses replace trains South Yarra - Sandringham until the last train (maintenance works).
Buses replace trains on sections of the Sunbury line until the last train of Thu 8 Jul (works).
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: All trains run direct to/from Flinders St all day (maintenance works). From loop stations, take a train from pfm 4 to Richmond.
Frankston line: Outbound trains depart from platform 3 between Glen Huntly and Moorabbin from 9.50 to 17.50 (Steamrail special traffic).
Buses replace trains North Melbourne - Upfield from 20.35 until the last train (maintenance works).
Werribee/Craigieburn lines: All trains terminate/originate at Southern Cross from 21.00 until the last train (maintenance works). From Flinders St, a take train from pfm 1, 2 or 3 to SC.
Frankston line: All trains will terminate/originate at Caulfield from 21.00 until the last train (maintenance works).  Change to/from a Pakenham/Cranbourne train, stopping at all stations.
Buses replace trains Ringwood - Lilydale from 22.30 until the last train (level-crossing works).

The 8.04am to Flinders St: will we ride the train the same way again? Tom Cowie July 4, 2021
Every weekday, for more than 20 years, Chris O’Neill put on his work clothes and caught a train from Melbourne’s outer suburbs to the CBD.
He was like tens of thousands of office workers across the city in skirts and suits whose daily commute was simply part of the deal in earning a wage. And then it all changed.
Chris O’Neill took the train to the city every day for 20 years, now he works from home.CREDIT:LUIS ENRIQUE ASCUI
“You just did it, you didn’t question it. It was the way things were always done,” the 51-year-old policy officer says.
For decades, the veins and arteries of Melbourne’s rail network pumped people in and out of the city with a familiar rhythm. From Monday to Friday, in the morning and afternoon peak, the commute seemed eternal.
Habits formed around a return trip that could take several hours: the same carriage, the same faces, the same scenery. Housing choices were based on proximity to train stations. Often, the busiest lines strained under the load.
“It was lucky if you got on at the end of the line because at least you could sit down – some of the inner suburbs wouldn’t know what a seat looked like,” says Mr O’Neill, who used to take the train from Belgrave to Parliament but now lives in Officer.
If you boarded a metropolitan train recently, even the busiest service on the timetable, there’s a very good chance that you weren’t standing up no matter where you got on.
Remote work has done away with the commute for white-collar workers, as technology has allowed businesses and organisations to function without funnelling people in and out of the city’s office towers.
For the employees, there have been some obvious benefits: more time in the day, less money spent on train fares.
“Because this experience has never been undertaken at scale, there was a lot of uncertainty around whether it would work or not,” says Professor Jago Dodson, director of the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT.
“It’s been shown in many cases to actually be workable for people and have advantages.”
As with much of the pandemic, this shift has not been universal. Those in the hospitality, construction or retail industries have not been given the option of avoiding their workplace.
Nevertheless, it’s a radical change for a city that has made several assumptions around how its transport system will operate in the future – a key one being that the CBD will continue to be the centre of employment.
That hasn’t been the case for almost 18 months now, with office occupancy rates and transport passenger numbers reflecting the lack of people commuting.
In times gone by: Commuters board a home-bound train at Southern Cross Station.CREDIT:PAT SCALA
“From what we know at the moment, the five-day office week is not going to return in the short term,” says David Bissell, associate professor of geography at the University of Melbourne.
“Projecting forward, I doubt that most people will go back to that.”
Last Tuesday, metropolitan train patronage levels were 48 per cent of those pre-pandemic, according to Public Transport Victoria.
That was an increase from the most recent Victorian lockdown, when it was just 12 per cent. Passenger numbers have not gone higher than 50 per cent of “normal” levels this year.
Southern Cross station on a Monday morning during one of Victoria’s lockdowns. CREDIT:LUIS ENRIQUE ASCUI
Professor Graham Currie, chair of public transport at Monash University, is researching how people will move around after COVID-19.
He expects that public transport use will increase when the pandemic is over but it won’t go back to what it was before.
“It’s going to go up to 80 per cent [of pre-COVID levels] but it probably wont go back to 100 per cent of what it was,” he says.
The biggest change will be among the office commuters, he says, who will have the greatest opportunity to work from home. CREDIT:MATT GOLDING
However, the shift may not be as significant as some expect. Professor Currie says his research suggests that one in five CBD jobs will be remote in the future.
It raises interesting questions about projects such as the $13.7 billion Metro Tunnel, billed as the first major upgrade of CBD rail infrastructure since the city loop in the 1970s and ’80s.
In 2016, the business case for Metro Tunnel forecast that weekday boardings on metropolitan trains would more than double to 1.5 million by 2031. It is expected to open in 2025.
Last Monday, Premier Daniel Andrews made his first public appearance since March 9 at the site of one of the new Metro Tunnel stations, highlighting the government’s focus on its infrastructure record.
video Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews returns to work. Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has returned to work after several months off following a serious back injury
“We were building Metro because people were falling out of the doors of trains,” says Professor Currie.
“When we come out of this pandemic, I still think we’ll need the infrastructure. It will still be valuable but we’ve bought some time.”
What is yet to be thrashed between bosses and workers is how many days people will spend in the office in the future. Some have already shown a resistance to going back to how things were before.Office administrator Megan Brown said she would factor whether or not she could work remotely when looking for a new job.
She recently started commuting into the city two days a week from Newport after previously travelling to Flinders Street every weekday before COVID-19. “I think going back it’s quite exhausting,” the 44-year-old says.
“Working from home you’re not having to get up as early, you’re basically taking two hours off your day on the train.”
Many commuters would agree with Ms Brown’s assessment that it’s been nice during winter to not have to leave and get home from work in the dark.
“It’s such a waste of time, it can be better spent at home with our families and exercising,” she says.
But not everyone wants to bid farewell to the commute entirely. Chris O’Neill recalls studying for his masters on the train and also catching up on sleep when he had a new baby.
He also misses the nice cafes and restaurants in the city, as well as the shifts in the landscape the further you travel along the line. A couple of days in the CBD would be a good result, he says.
“Working from home has really blurred the lines between home life and work life,” he says.
“I think the thing about the commute is it really clearly defines those things. It’s my time to read. It’s almost like a pause, the thing that breaks the day.”
RELATED ARTICLE Pellegrini’s owner David Malaspina. ‘Look around, the city’s dead’: CBD businesses on the brink after lockdown
RELATED ARTICLE Despite a number of eased restrictions, masks remain mandatory for office workers. Indoor mask edict a ‘handbrake’ on workers returning to office
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-8-04am-to-flinders-st-will-we-ride-the-train-the-same-way-again-20210701-p5861d.html>

Yallourn coal mine flood repairs to cost tens of millions Benjamin Preiss July 4, 2021
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/yallourn-coal-mine-flood-repairs-to-cost-tens-of-millions-20210704-p586nx.html>

Car park scheme signed off without any promise of extra spaces. Shane Wright July 4, 2021
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham has defended the federal government’s under-fire $660 million commuter car park scheme as a necessary boost to productivity despite projects being approved without any promise they would actually deliver extra park spaces.
As Labor ramped up attacks on the scheme, labelling it corruption of the political process, Senator Birmingham said the program was justified because the Coalition had won the 2019 election.
The government is facing a Senate inquiry into the program after a scathing report by the Auditor-General found it was opaque and failed to award funds based on merit.
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham has defended the government’s car park scheme on productivity grounds even as the Auditor-General found some projects would not add extra car spaces.CREDIT:ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and then-urban infrastructure minister Alan Tudge used the program to promise 47 car parks and upgrades near train stations. The car parks overwhelming favoured Coalition-held seats, especially across suburban Melbourne.
Senator Birmingham said local MPs were entitled to advocate on behalf of their electorates and in the case of the car park program that is what they had done.
“That’s what electorates expect, that’s what they vote on and governments are expected to listen and work to some of those advocacy points where need is genuine and where it is well argued and that is precisely what governments will continue to do so,” he told ABC television on Sunday.
“The Australian people had their chance and voted the Morrison government back in the next election and we are determined to get on with local infrastructure, as we are nation-building infrastructure.
“We are going to continue to deliver infrastructure projects for the nation because they lift our national productivity, they help Australians in terms of whether it be their access to public transport, the time it takes them to get home.”
But of the 47 projects promised in 2019, two have so far been constructed and several have been abandoned.
The Auditor-General also found while the government promised the car parks would take “tens of thousands” of cars off roads, it actually did not know if the program would work.
It reported 22 completed proposals put to government ministers failed to outline how many extra car spaces would be provided.
The Croydon railway station in Melbourne is one of the car parks promised to be upgraded as part of the government’s program.CREDIT:PAUL JEFFERS
By March this year, the Infrastructure Department estimated that of the 47 projects, 23 would provide an extra 7696 spaces of which 1700 depended on extra funding. For another 19 sites there was still no estimate of the extra spaces while five sites would not provide any added spaces.
“It was common for the department to not analyse information such as the number of car park spaces expected to be provided,” the Auditor-General found.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese described the program as a disgrace, saying the proper process of government had been corrupted.
“This pork and ride scheme included commuter car parks where there’s no train station near where the car park is,” he said.
“This was a corruption of proper process. The government made decision to provide taxpayers money on the basis of submissions from political candidates who weren’t elected members of Parliament, as well as members of the coalition.”
RELATED ARTICLE Ringwood railway station car park in suburban Mellbourne. One of the projects promised funding in 2019, still to be upgraded. When 47 car parks, $660 million and one election collide
RELATED ARTICLE Prime Minister Scott Morrison with Michael Sukkar (centre) and then-urban infrastructure minister Alan Tudge (at right) at a campaign event in Mr Sukkar’s electorate during the 2019 federal election. ‘Really bad practice’: Car park project chosen by Morrison press release
<www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/car-park-scheme-signed-off-without-any-promise-of-extra-spaces-20210704-p586oa.html>
* Simon Birmingham's attempt to blame voters for the Governments car park rorts saying voters "had their chance and voted for the LNP Government" is flagrantly erroneous. Voters would not have been aware of the secretive nature of the allocation of car parks before they voted. For Birmingham to now blame voters for the LNP flagrant pork-barrelling should be taken for what it is - keeping voters in the dark about how the LNP Government allocates our taxes to advance their own interests.
* Pork barreling, in allies forms, is the direct result of the Single Member District electoral system. In Proportional Representation systems, used in 89 countries, it is simply not doable because the multi-member electorates are much larger. Quite apart from that these PR systems are much more democratic and result in majority government as well as a much more cooperative culture than the negative adverserial two-party culture. High time to start this debate in the media SMH!
* You know what's really funny, people keep voting for them.
* The same people who thought that it was ok to cause grief and stress to individuals and families by relentlessly pursuing people through Robodebt in the interests of protecting taxpayers money thought that it was ok to throw the same money about to buy themselves back into power. The arrogance of Mr Birmingham and co is sickening. How about the Coalition try something different and provide good and efficient government as a way of winning the next election? After the stuff up with the vaccines the next election is going to cost the taxpayers an absolute fortune in pork barrelling.
* Scotty is good at getting his face up front with the big announcements, aka pork-barrelling, but nowhere to be seen when it hits the fan…
* Morrison allegedly refused an offer of 40 million doses of Pfizer because it was too expensive. Think about that for a moment. He didn't have enough money to purchase the vaccine that would now have the risk of lock downs well and truely behind us, but he had hundreds of millions of tax payers money to splash on a shambolic car park pork barrelling scam - the day before the last election. Surely enough is enough of this ..........I was going to say government.
* "Pork'n'ride" - love the phrase, not the rort. Thanks. So now we can say Simon Birmingham is spielmeister for carporking.
* Sadly all will be forgotten in the marketing of the LNP come the next election
* The Commuter Car Parks was Labor's idea and policy at the 2019 federal election. It was a well thought out and fiscally responsible policy. The Coalition purloined it from Labor, threw need and fiscal responsibility out the window and then proceeded to promise a car park for every electorate they wanted to win off Labor or hold. That is just politics at its most cynical and venal. No doubt they will do it all over again at the next election. It worked.
* The Liberals greatest strength is their ability to play politics all the time and hoodwink so many voters. Their greatest weaknesses are lack of moral integrity, lack of ideas and no understanding of the concept of governing for all Australians. What a hopeless mob they are.
* Most sadly their lack of morality and integrity does not seem to be a weakness. Did you hear Birmingham justify the rort by saying, well they elected us? There is no shame, no regrets. Come on Australia. Where is your moral compass? We must bring back integrity and honesty to public service.
* These guys believe pork barreling and self interest are legitimate forms of government…. Everyone involved should be dismissed for such a gross lack of integrity and for selling out the Australian people.
* No wonder the LNLNP are so shy of a corruption commission, they would be spending most of their time giving evidence that pork barrelling is a legitimate form of funding to keep them in righteous power.
* When you draw an arc from where government used to be, and ministers accepted responsibility for their oversights and transgressions, to where we are now and where the logical future lies if this continues, it really doesn't instil confidence in our future...
* We are not a democracy we are a Kleptocracy…vote them in again and it will be more of the same on steroids!
* Is it any wonder Morrisons LNP has to be dragged kicking and screaming to support a federal ICAC. And meanwhile over in Murdochs media land, nothing but crickets.
* Remember the term 'public monies'. It used to be about appropriate use and the avoiding waste in the allocation of public monies. Transparent processes of scoping, evaluation and tendering were the accepted STANDARD. This tricky mob don't care and they are determined to keep pushing these boundaries right into the next election. The process they are using is based upon their BORN TO RULE mantra and their belief they 'own' the Treasury benches. Really so like the Republicans in the US. We must have a Federal ICAC to examine such things and reinstate the standards they have chosen to diminish or ignore. Perhaps key miscreants could spend a week or two in the pillory.
* Of course these are the 'rorts' that we know about - Morrison and his government are well ahead of Billy McMahon's government in terms of incompetence and John Howard's in terms of venality
* What's the point of an Auditor General's department if its findings are, once again, ignored and treated with contempt by this arrogant, disdainful government.
* This is shocking Liberals must go but would lobor be any better?
* Yes Labor would be better - also they have committed to a proper ICAC as well.
* I'll take that risk.
* "Senator Birmingham said local MPs were entitled to advocate on behalf of their electorates and in the case of the car park program that is what they had done." Going by that statement, one could conclude it was mostly Liberal MPs pushing for new carparks. Or did requests from MPs of other parties just fall on deaf ears?
* He failed to mention candidates as well. I'd like to know how many of those car park promises disappeared when the candidate failed.
* We know from the Auditor's report that only Coalition MPs and candidates were able to nominate projects for funding. The flip side of what Minister Birmingham said is that the Coalition believes that Labor electorates did not deserve carparks or the opportunity to apply for project grants because the voters in those electorates did not in the majority vote for the Coalition. The problem with the Coalition is that they always play politics and never act as a Government.
* I used to have some respect for Birmingham, but attempting to shut down discussion by reference to election results is a little disingenuous. Th e announcements were made purely from the politicians with no input from bureaucracy as to whether these carparks were proper use if taxpayer money is no more than vote-buying, especially as most of the promised car parks haven't been built and some cannot possibly ever be built; that is the promises were falsehoods to win votes. ... and now, Birmingham uses such perversion of democracy as justification? My respect for the man has been diminished by his disrespect of the processes of responsible government.
* He's just a good talker.
* Surely they cannot continue to claim to be better financial managers anymore. Nor can they claim to govern for the whole country when they only govern to get themselves reelected.
* Mr Birmingham, given that MPs are expected to advocate on behalf of their electorates, were Labor and Green MPs given the same opportunity to do so in this scheme?
* No.
* Birmo is all spin and no substance. Never answers a question honestly. Master of spin and manure.
* "we are nation-building infrastructure.". More like an episode of Utopia. That show is looking less like a comedy and more like a documentary. I read an estimate that this "political" allocation of funding costs each and every Australian about $15,000 per year. That seems high but I would love to hear from anyone with a better estimate.
* LNP definition of our nation: liberal electorates only. The rest is just nuisance. The government as part of parliament should make laws to be executed by the public service. In this case, morè car parks are needed, make the finance available, let the PS do it. Any interference by representatives of electorates is a conflict of interest; you can't serve two masters (your electorate and the party) at once.
* Simon Birmingham has dismissed criticism of the Coalition’s discredited commuter car park fund, declaring that “the Australian people had their chance and voted the government back in”.
So, isn't that a massive "Up Yours!" to the electorate?
Australia voted for these clowns who won - just - the last election.
So all ideas of accountability, Commonwealth Procurement Regulations, honest and open tendering processes etc. are out the window.
This is not the first time the Auditor-General has found this government's grant processes and procurement procedures to be deficient.
No wonder the Auditor-General's funding has been cut.
"Senator Birmingham said local MPs were entitled to advocate on behalf of their electorates and in the case of the car park program that is what they had done."
Local MPs are fully entitled to lobby for their electorates.
But Liberal Party CANDIDATES in marginal and targeted Labor seats? REALLY??
But, from Birmingham's own statements today, don't expect anything to change.
This is a disgrace. An utter, absolute disgrace.
* Liberal MPs are just better at advocating, that's all. No pork barrelling, of course not. Well actually it looks a lot like pork barrelling, but its not illegal so what's the problem?
* Pork barreling is not illegal. It should be.
* It seems that Minister Birmingham has become the go-to spokesperson on all matter of LNP controversy of late. I would suggest that his calming and softly speaking demeanour is a strength meant to quell the masses as he drops statistic after statistic every time he is asked a question. His appearance in any interview is laden with percentages and statistics and long winded verbal back fill, even if is unrelated to the original question.
A true politician that gives the impression that he is honest and has the best interests of the voting populace. while his language is verbose and flowery. He manages to keep a straight face as he waffles on intending to confuse the listener into believing that somehow they need to know 5% have been vaccinated or there are so many more people able to have parking spaces but never explaining why 95% are not vaccinated, or how many drivers will never be able to find a parking space.
It is like listening to pre-programmed robot who cannot be deviated regardless of the thrust of the question as he recites and verbalises the PR spin cycle, just like in an episode of 'utopia'.
* The ROBOTIC reference is SPOT ON. Whole process disgraceful.
* And soon he'll understand we're adults!
* Birmingham also reminded us that almost half of us re-elected his government after the car parks were approved. Either he's conveniently ignoring the fact that on polling day the only voters who knew about the rort were the beneficiaries or he's thumbing his nose at Labor and saying "We don't care, we won and you didn't - outsmarted you yet again."
* Let's hope it all comes home to roost.
* Carpark rorts, sports rorts etc etc Good examples of how the Morrison government does business. No process, no plan, no transparency, no accountability. No wonder the covid vaccine roll-out is such a mess.
* So it looks like Morrison's 2019 election win wasn't so much a miracle, just a result of good old fashioned pork-barrelling and rorting of tax-payers money, which according to the Finance minister is perfectly ok as long as you win.
* There were some minor deceptions about Labor policies thrown in too.
* How did the federal government come up with a car park scheme ? Wouldn't local government and state government be the controlling bodies for these car parks ? Why on earth was the federal government bending over backwards to identify where car parks could be upgraded while aged care facilities were rotting ? Representation requires clear responsibilities and priorities.
* Seems like Birmingham is using the Glady's playbook - the electorate expect us to make our own choices, that is part of the process. I say the thin edge of the wedge is long past, what is next in this partisan approach with no rules, denying health services because the 'electorate' says so? Very dangerous game the Liberals are playing.
* The trouble is 'Nozzle' when you have most of the MSM 'happy-clapping' you there is not much risk of electoral defeat

JULY 4 2021 Labor wants answers on car park rorts. Colin Brinsden
Andrew Giles says Prime Minister Scott Morrison needs to offer an explanation.
Labor continues to apply pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to explain why hundreds of millions of dollars were spent building car parks in coalition seats, which is being described as an industrial scale rort.
A scathing auditor-general's report has found the $660 million coalition scheme was not effective or merit-based.
Not one of the 47 commuter car park sites promised by the coalition at the 2019 election was selected by the infrastructure department.
Labor spokesman for cities and urban infrastructure Andrew Giles said the damning report points directly to the involvement of the prime minister and his office, in a troubling echo of sports rorts.
"Now that Scott Morrison has emerged from his stay at the Lodge, he must take responsibility for the train-wreck that is his car park rorts scandal," Mr Giles said in a statement on Sunday.
Mr Morrison completed 14 days of isolation after his official trip to Europe last Thursday.
His ministers continue to defend the scheme.
"We are going to continue to deliver infrastructure projects for the nation because they lift our national productivity," Finance Minister Simon Birmingham told ABC's Insiders program on Sunday.
"The Australian people had their chance and voted the government back in the last election and we are determined to get on and deliver those election promises that we made in relation to local local infrastructure."
<www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7325178/labor-wants-answers-on-car-park-rorts>

Sun.4.7.21 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' Cyclist killed by train
A CYCLIST was killed after being hit by a train in Melbourne's north on Saturday morning. Police are investigating after a train struck the cyclist in Campbellfield, near Upfield station, at about 10am. Emergency crews were called to Augusta Ave. They attempted to revive the rider but the person died at the scene. The cyclist is yet to be formally identified. Major disruptions affected the train line and roads in the area as police carried out their investigation. Buses replaced trains on the Upfield line between Coburg and Upfield stations.