Melbourne’s latest Transport Disaster – a Tram Jam. 3 Transport Modes severely impeded. People walking (again). The City clogged again in 2 directions. Fix!

Victoria, Australia makes the decision to support local innovation.

COMMENT. Melbourne — A colleague of mine, of mature age, a professional director, told me he does not understand one thing about Melbourne’s directors.
How so many directors keep getting roles with less than stellar performance.
As a competent, good Director, he is mystified.
Shhh…
Of course no-one in the community says this publicly. I am a member of peak body AICD, and never heard it there! Truth begone! Top-down folk there.
With some Directors, often I get the feeling they want to investigate, interrogate you, and pick your brains. That’s if they can’t …

COMMENT, Melbourne — The Rudd Government today announced $6 billion in life support for the local Australian car manufacturing industry.
Manufacturing skills, infrastructure & cars are important.
Rudd’s $6 Billion on the Amex.
The Rudd plan is broadly positive, however it has a large cost. $6 billion to be precise.
One of the problems with Government intervention in the economy is that Governments see costs, and not opportunities. Costs not revenue increase.
It’s unimaginative.
But when I’ve worked for Government that’s what I normally find. Lack of imagination.
Most farsighted ideas will be killed. Or implemented in …

COMMENT, Melbourne — It seems politicians at the State Level in Australia are determined to destroy local manufacturing.
Consistently the Victorian Government in Melbourne, & NSW Government in Sydney import trains & trams rolling stock.
According to The Age, $3.6 Billion dollars of import orders in the last 18 months.
For citizens.
The imported trains & trams often have problem working in different climates, on different rails, and with different power requirments.
Furthermore, the seats in imported trams provide less effective seating, being often too small for the Australian market.
For local manufacturing.
If the Governments do …

COMMENT, Australia — A German doctor & his family have been refused a visa for his family to stay in Australia, because his son has Downs Syndrome.

Source: Wimmera Times
Dr Bernhard Moeller was on Channel 9’s Today show with his family. There is an ABC version of the Doctor’s story here and The Age here. The Australian has an excellent piece on it.
This Doctor is the sole source of specialist medicine in Wimmera, a country town. He has been providing medical care for 2 years. Australia has chronic Doctor shortages.
The Doctor …

COMMENT, Melbourne — John Brumby’s Victorian government has tabled over 200 reports in one day according to The Age.
>  Avalanche of reports ‘a joke’
> 300 reports in 24 hours
The back-story is that Brumby complained about Kennett’s lack of transparency. And now he ‘one-ups’ Kennett.
Something to Hide?
Sure. Grand Prix losses. Failed environmental targets. Massive Treasury losses.
And bear in mind these reports are retrospective.
Immediately following a boom, such mediocre results indicate incompetence and a lack of management.
I’ve worked on government & corporate financial reports, so they’ll bury all the bad news in …

From London, to Singapore to Berlin and Melbourne a Ferris Wheel was the city ‘must-have’ in 2008. and yet, no city has ever branded itself by copying others so intensely – read why in this piece from the vault.

COMMENT, Australia – The International Monetary Fund have just said that property prices in Australia, like the UK, are so intrinsically overpriced as to be a high risk to fall.
Long-time readers will know that I have been predicting this fall for some time. Friends will recall I have held the belief that Australian property has been strongly overvalued in recent years.
Why will house prices fall in Australia?
Property in Australia is globally overvalued. It is simply more expensive to purchase or rent an equivalent home here than most other cities …

COMMENT, Melbourne — Yesterday, April 2nd 2008, the Eddington plan for Melbourne & Victoria was released. Like many before it, he calls for more freeways and roads and more money.
$18 Billion Australian dollars, (about USD $16 billion) before the inevitable incompetence, corruption and budget overruns at the implementation stage.

And like so many large projects, political jockeying may lead to a White Elephant. Yet we do have a choice…
Eddington ran airline BA, and is a respected business figure, but perhaps the questions he was asked do not reflect the questions he …

ANALYSIS, Germany — Train travel, after an unfashionable period in the 1970s-80s, is emerging again as an environmentally-friendlier, and practical way to travel to and from work.
Well, this is true, in Germany, and much of Europe.

The ease of implementation of the Deutsche Bahn (D-Bahn) system, allows for the enquiry into, and booking of complex train routes.
Whilst no mechanical system is perfect, those with some human knowledge of conditions on the ground in Germany, can plan and map routes across Europe using the German website for D-Bahn.
German Trains Worldwide Benchmark
In public …

VIDEOS, Youtube — From the Anglican Bishop of Ballarat, a regional centre of Victoria, Australia, not far from Melbourne.
Although I am not Anglican, this is a very accessible Easter message.
It is the sense of ethics, of Judeo-Christian ethics some say, that is missing to various degrees from around this commercial world.
And this well-spoken, accessible, message reminds us of how much Christian ethics are fundamental to the function of a society. And how, long-term deviation from ethics results in the inevitable decline of given societies.
It is ethics that make, build and …

ANALYSIS, Sydney — Property prices in Sydney (and other Australian capitals) are more expensive than almost any city in the world.

New York? Paris? Boston? Vienna?
In general, better value than Sydney, as has been reported in numerous media stories today. Property prices are at 7.5 average median earnings.
And we’re not talking Park Avenue property here, more like Queens.
Sydney suburban Bondi is a sleazy second rate suburb, not comparable to Park Avenue. Yet property is priced in the millions of dollars.
There seems little doubt that Australian capitals of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and …

COMMENT, Australia — Call centre workers are an unloved occupation. But industry practise, and individual behavior are at least partly responsible.
The reality is basic infrastructure and services no longer work in Australia, which by Western standards has approaching the worst service ethics of any English-speaking country. Even worse than England, and that is saying something.

I still remember the Telstra monopoly float, wasn’t that supposed to improve telecommunication industry service?
Now to the latest debacle…
Primus Telecommunications: a herd of slovenly telecommunication cows wandering across the ‘fibre-optic’ dirt-track of Australia
To connect a single …

REVIEW, Melbourne — Who said theatre was dead?

Last night, in Melbourne, my wife and I sat in the Royal Botanic Gardens with between 500-800 people (a quick approximate headcount) to enjoy Shakespeare.
What struck me was the size and average age of the gathering.
50% or more of the people there were under 25. Most were under 35.
At least 10% were school age children, mostly pre-teens.
Sitting next to us was a group of around 25 10-13 year olds. Who rambunctiously enjoyed the performance with a few bags of Doritos, some bottled water …

COMMENT, USA, Australia – Let’s start with the USA economy.
US sliding into a chasm
The debate on whether the US economy is in recession or not seems to be over.
The bear is among us.

For months people have been standing up that the US economy is not as bad as first believed. The US recession was predicted by 2thinknow in December 2007, using our innovation models.
Before Christmas, many were sitting on the fence. I called this recession, in this journal, in straightforward terms before Goldman Sachs, or UN made their announcements.
Of course …

COMMENT, Melbourne — Let’s face it privatized public transport has failed.
It’s not the same elsewhere in the world — where Public Transport is clean, reliable and safe.

Public transport succeeds in similar towns in Germany.
But not in Australia. Public transport can work, but does not now work in Melbourne & Victoria. There are issues in the approach of the State Government, private contractors and the various ideologically-driven desperadoes on this issue.
The biggest issue is the ideological gunfight set-up by far-Right gunslingers like Alan Moran, of the disingenuously-titled ‘Institute for Public Affairs’.
And …

Rudd’s 2020 summit is a good idea, but will it fulfil its promise?

REVIEWS, Global – The T-Shirt Collectors scene is potent globally. And yes, it now has a magazine. T-World.
Like sneaker-collector and custom sneaker decoration scene in Melbourne, another scene. With a local, but soon to be even more international, vertical-niche magazine.
The magazine, created by and crafted for T-shirts enthusiasts, T-world highlights global T-shirt culture.
T-world is a new niche publications with a cult status already, after only the 3rd edition.
It can be ordered online, or via MagNation in Melbourne or New Zealand. Try this link to have a look and order.
What’s the …

REVIEW, Mag Nation, Melbourne & New Zealand — One of my favorite magazine shops, in late 2007, won a prestigious retail award in Melbourne.

You can often find me browsing the magazines, and occasionally spending more than I planned on European or US magazine titles. I like to support small or independent businesses so I also often grab a coffee here and browse.
Chief Magazineologist (sounds like a 2thinknow title!) for Mag Nation, Sahil Merchant commented:
“There is something about magazines that makes them worthwhile and approachable for all.
“Most of the …