Simon Overland should go immediately

It looks as if even more evidence has emerged read it here of the slimy Victoria Police Chief Simon Overland being involved in even more intrigue. As can clearly be surmised from the news article, Overland is more a professional political operative than a law enforcement officer, and to allegedly arrange to have a respected figure like Sir Ken and his family bugged (on the way out mind you) for something as trivial as suspected leaking to the media is just an appalling abuse of power (in the ethical, not legal sense).
The Baillieu Government which clearly wants the tainted Overland gone, is now trapped like a dear in the headlights, because it didn't have the guts to just sack Overland when it had the chance, instead setting up the Rush Inquiry to slowly kill off Overland via a thousand cuts. So now it looks like they'll have to wait for the Inquiry to run its course, which means political paralysis for the next few months.
But if we can look to the bright side, at least the awful Brumby creation - the OPI - is set to go the way of the dodo, to shortly be replaced by a REAL anti corruption commission. Every major expert and commentator said at the time that the cardigan cops OPI creation was a bad idea, but the previous Government just wouldn't listen, they just wanted to sell that they were doing SOMETHING about police corruption, as they very well knew that a real anti corruption body would create non stop bad publicity for the Government, as they haul in bent coppers  before the star chamber.
But it would be ironic in the extreme if the new anti corruption body's first victim was the Chief Commissioner? Ironic indeed.

Vic Transport projects put on ice

I see that the new State Govt has sensibly put the previous Govt's unfunded transport policies on ice read here , pending review. One of the things that really used to stick in my craw about the then Govt was the way they'd spend millions of taxpayer dollars to promote themselves, and of course public transport being such a disaster for them (as it always seems to be with State Labor Govts?), they NEEDED to spend big to try and pull the wool over our eyes.
The absurd (unfunded) Footsgray to Caufield metro tunnel has sensibly been put on the back burner pending "review". Maybe I'm just stupid, but I've never really understood the theory between linking these two points (at MASSIVE expense)? Surely a rail line extension to Rowville and Doncaster are of much greater immediate urgency?
While the creation of the "Victorian Public Transport Development Authority" - inspired by the Perth and Zurich models - as the central planning authority for transport in this state is undeniably a good idea, it remains to be seen how much of a genuine "planning authority" it will end up. There are already a number of permanent stakeholders (the franchisees) with long term contracts, who will be potentially fighting the govt tooth and nail to keep their control and influence over the network. I just hope (yet fear) that the authority doesn't become a marketing department like Metlink? It needs to have real teeth, and bite the operators when required. But the operators have binding contracts, so any attempts to get them to co-operate will almost certainly result in additional payments to their (foreign) bank accounts.....but money usually makes for-profit corporations co-operative.
Whether the model works or not, at least on the upside career duds like Transport Department secretary Jim Betts will probably get the sack? He's furiously opposed the concept, taking the untenable position that the current arrangements are just fine. I mean give me a break, this Department is second only to the Dept of Human Services (DHS) in its level of incompetence and disfunction. Their record of incompetence is so great, I don't even need to provide examples to prove my point, just google anything to do with trains and you'll see for yourself.
But the great shame in all of this is that the Baillieu Govt got elected on a public transport platform which very much sounded like something an incoming Labor Govt should be delivering. The previous Bracks/Brumby govts fell into the trap (not unlike their Labor predecessors) of paying too much attention to the rationalist bean counters in Treasury and Transport, and paid the price accordingly.

goodbye and good riddance to Brumbles...er..Brumby

While most of us on the progressive side of politics were thrilled with the election of the "accidental Premier" Steve Bracks in October 1999 after the savage cost cutting and contemptuous Kennett Government, the longer the Labor Govt stayed in office, the more and more disheartened I became with their performance. And that revulsion only intensified after Bracks "retired" and Brumbles took over (I've always referred to him as "Brumbles" since Kennett mocked him and pretended he couldn't remember his name).
I've often (half jokingly) said that the only things this Labor Govt achieved during their whole time in office were;
restoring the powers of the Auditor-General
instituting proportional representation in the upper house
invoking a human rights charter
and banning smoking in restaurants (and to a lesser extent in night clubs)
I guess the first thing that really started to cheese me off about them was the covert revenue raising by restricting the tolerance levels on speed cameras to a ridiculous 3 kms, which of course meant when the inevitable camera faults occurred, people essentially had to cop it sweet because they really had no way to disprove the reading, as the onus of proof was on the victim, not the state! And what did the Govt do every time their cameras were embarrassingly exposed as faulty and innocent people getting booked?......they'd come out with that infuriating pre scripted line about "we don't apologise for trying to save lives etc".....I mean for f*ck sake, you should be down on your hands and knees apologising for the needless stress you've put honest citizens through!! And behind the scenes those of us in the know knew that the real reason for lowering speed tolerance was to subversively increase state revenue without publicly increasing taxes. Then this cheeky thought process led to the other brilliant idea of indexing all state charges and fines every year, to once again raise more revenue without having to tell the public you're making unpopular tax increases.
There's a whole list of other reasons why Brumby had a "shock" election loss, but it's probably summed up best by Labor apparatchik George Droutsas in this op-ed piece see here .
But as for me the final straw in abandoning this Govt was its cynical attack on State institutions, after being elected on a platform of transparency. The use of tax payer funded tv ads to cynically glorify itself used to really just get my blood boiling, and using the "commerical in confidence" to pay (what is essentially) slush money to Bernie Eccelstone to keep that f*cking awful Grand Prix in Melbourne. I mean how much does that race cost? Sorry I can't tell you coz it's a secret! Perhaps one day this State will follow California's policy of no "commercial in confidence" agreements, and make ALL financial transactions will private companies a matter of public record!
But I think today's revelation see here pretty much sums up the former Govt perfectly. Once again attacking State institutions by being "prepared to disadvantage two public servants because one of them had performed her duties in compliance with the act".
Some of my friends in the lead up to the election asked me with bewilderment why I was supporting the conservatives? I guess apart from the reasons mentioned above, I believe strongly in transparency, and state institutions, and a government's responsibility to uphold them. But over time all we got was slick cynical spin and what I can only describe as a contempt for the electorate. So yeah, I guess it's a case of goodbye Brumbles....and GOOD RIDDANCE!