Tunnel Trouble

The news in the harbour city this week continues to be dominated by the continuing debacle of the new cross-city tunnel, which opened at the end of August. Of course not owning a car the tunnel has had absolutely no effect on my life, but a lot of people in Sydney have been up in arms over the emerging details of the contract which the NSW state government signed with the owners of the cross-city tunnel to build and operate it. The accusations and counter-accusations made by various politicians and executives of the tunnel operating company have provided plenty of amusing moments over the past few weeks - it would now appear that the contract not only required that local roads around the tunnel entrances and in Woolloomoloo (great name for a suburb!) be closed or narrowed in order to force traffic to use the tunnel (which of course requires a toll!) but that there is also a clause which prohibits the state goverment from improving public transportation that would lead to a decrease in traffic volumes! Another shocking example of capitalism gone mad. Sydney is now a city of tolls. I have nothing against tolls being used in order to discourage people from using their cars, but at the same time I don't see why major changes to what is after all public infrastructure should be made in order to prop up some private company, which is no doubt paying its executives obscene salaries. The private sector and the 'market' have way too much control and power - used all to often to the detriment of the public.

The other big news at the moment in Australia are the federal government's proposed changes to the industrial relations system, which as far as I'm concerned is functioning fairly well. With control of the senate John Howard wants to push through major changes to working conditions, which will only result in employees having even less rights and less recourse should there be problems. In yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald (which for those of you non-Sydney people is Sydney's main broadsheet) there was a 4-page spread 'informing' the public of how John Howard's changes will give us more 'choice' - all of course paid for by taxpayers! I've never liked John Howard and I can't believe that so many people still voted for him in the last election. Since he came to power Australia has become a much meaner place where people only seem to be concerned about themselves and how much money they can make. Very sad!

Despite all of this I'm doing very well and have had a very busy and social week so far. Will have an even busier weekend as my Mum and Dad are arriving from Hawaii tomorrow afternoon and are staying in Sydney for 2 days before heading back to Perth. Will definitely have to remember not to bring up politics because if that happens my Dad and I will end up arguing and all hell will break lose!

Tuesday evening I had dinner with Qurban and his lovely wife Munazza. Originally we'd planned to meet up on Sunday, but because of Ramadan we decided meeting up during the day made no sense and I suggested that I go out to Auburn (about 19km west of central Sydney) to see them. One of my housemates - Gayle - went with me as Munazza was making biryani and Gayle was dying for home-cooked biryani. I hadn't seen Qurban and Munazza since I got back from Sri Lanka so it was great to finally catch up with them. While I was waiting for Gayle to finish work I decided to go across to Observatory Hill - one of Sydney's best-kept secrets. I love the views from the park on Observatory Hill and since it's only a 5-minute walk from where I work I often go there after a work. I had my camera with me on Tuesday, so I took some shots of the Harbour Bridge - including the picture at the beginning of this post.

Yesterday I left work pretty much straight after my class finished and went over to Bellevue Hill to see Anina and Mia. Both are doing well and we had a very pleasant afternoon. We had thought about going to the park for a picnic, but yesterday was a bit grey, so Anina and I made do with a cup of tea and and a piping hot muffin straight out of the oven. Anina can always be relied on for yummy afternoon tea snacks!