Dear The Hon Bronwyn Pike MLA,

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Yours sincerely,

The People of Kensington

The Greens are holding a wine tasting night to help raise funds for our campaign to elect Australia’s first Green Lord Mayor. It’s on Wednesday July 16th 2008 from 5:30pm to 8:30pm, upstairs at Acquum, 364 Victoria Street, North Melbourne. Entry is $20, which includes wine-tasting from four eco-friendly Victorian wineries as well as nibbles. Please RSVP to events@makemelbournegreen.com. Read on for details of the four wineries follows:

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Public Forum

6pm Thursday July 10th, Welsh Church Hall, 320 LaTrobe Street Melbourne.

Please come along! Click “read more” for more details and the flyer…

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http://www.wrongway-goback.com

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As late as Monday, Lord Mayor John So was telling reporters that he supported an East-West freeway.

Twenty-four hours later, with the four members of his team all indicating on the floor of the council chambers that they would uphold the sentiment of the original Planning Committee motion moved by Greens Cr Fraser Brindley to abandon Council’s support for any East-West road tunnel, the Lord Mayor decided to save face.

The public galleries were filled beyond capacity with concerned residents, mostly from North Melbourne and Kensington, all waiting to see which way the Lord Mayor, and their Council, would vote.

The Lord Mayor offered no contribution until the very end of the lengthy debate. With a few quick words about the need to satisfy public demands for sustainable transport options, he voted with 8 of the 9 Councillors to support Cr Brindley’s amended motion.

Only Cr Shanahan, the sole ALP member on council, voted against, arguing that council needed to go further and state that they were “horrified” and “terrified” at the prospect of any East-West tunnel engulfing public spaces. As it was an argument over language, rather than of support for a tunnel, the State Government must now come to terms with the fact that 9 out of 9 Melbourne City Councillors have voted to strongly oppose any East-West road tunnel.

A firm political obstacle now stands in the way of the pro-tunnel State Labor Government…

Wednesday July 16th 2008 from 5:30pm to 8:30pm, upstairs at Acquum, 364 Victoria Street, North Melbourne (Restaurant is just up from Queen Victoria Market). $20 Entry: includes wine-tasting from 4 eco-friendly Victorian wineries and nibbles - please RSVP to events@makemelbournegreen.com.

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As rising fuel costs squeeze more and more people onto Melbourne’s existing public transport system, commuters boarding at South Kensington station are hit hardest. The last station for city-bound trains coming from the Werribee and Williamstown lines before the two northern lines are added at North Melbourne station, commuters are all too often stranded on platforms as trains are too full to take on any more passengers.

Monday the 16th of June was such a day: commuters stood on the platforms at South Kensington station for forty minutes before a train arrived that could just squeeze some more passengers in.

Melbourne City Council candidate and Kensington local Donna Lancaster, who frequently uses South Kensington station, explains that some city-bound commuters find that it’s more time-efficient to take trains or buses back to Footscray to board trains coming from the Sydenham line (which has not stopped at South Kensington station for years to relieve pressure on the system!) than it is to wait on the platform.

“It’s not an option to go to Kensington Station as the Craigieburn line trains are full as well, and for some people, that’s a 25 minute walk” says Donna.

“The biggest insult to locals using South Kensington station is that they walk across JJ Holland Park to get there; the park that the Eddington Report recommends digging up to facilitate the building of the $10 billion East-West tunnel.”

For Kensington residents, the choice is clear: Public Transport, not roads!

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The Melbourne Times today suggests that some councillors may be second-guessing their own support for the Planning Committee’s decision on June 3rd (see the prior post).

Bianca Hall reports on Page 3 that despite the Planning Committee’s unanimous decision to overturn council’s original support for the East-West Tunnel, “the council’s political resolve shows early signs of wavering. Several councillors were later oscillating about how they intended to vote when the matter goes before the full council.”

Of particular concern is Deputy Lord Mayor Gary Singer who, it seems, had no qualms in telling Ms Hall that: “I haven’t made up my mind… I can see the arguments on both sides… I’ll be making up my mind closer to the date.” Might his vote on June 3rd end up being totally meaningless? And which other councillors might yet let the residents of the City of Melbourne down?

Click “read more” to see where the councillors stand and find out what you can do to ensure that council upholds its opposition to the tunnel.

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Hundreds of The Greens’ “No Road Tunnel” triangles made their way to Melbourne City Council’s Planning Committee meeting last night, in the hands of angry Kensington, North Melbourne, Carlton and Parkville residents. (Above: residents in the council chambers building foyer queuing to get into the meeting)

The Planning Committee met in the packed-out Yarra room at the council chambers building, after having moved from its initial location due to the size of the crowd, to consider the city’s response to Rod Eddington’s East-West Link Needs Assessment (EWLNA) report.

The outcome of the meeting was hard to predict: all councillors, apart from Greens Cr Fraser Brindley and Cr Brian Shanahan, had previously given their in-principle support to the East-West tunnel. But the 400-strong capacity crowd made it abundantly clear that they expected council to overturn its original support for the tunnel.

Disappointingly and unsurprisingly, the Lord Mayor did not attend the meeting.

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The Greens’ Lord Mayor candidate for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, addressed a crowd of over 5,000 on the steps of Parliament House on Friday evening.

Protesters from across the city attended to voice their dismay at Premier Brumby’s bandaid ‘2am lockout’ solution to the problems of alcohol fueled violence around Melbourne’s late-operating bars and clubs.

Bandt pointed to the failure of the Brisbane lockouts to curb violence in that city, and defended Melbourne’s special position as the cultural capital of Australia.

“I don’t want to be Lord Mayor of Brisbane,” he said. “I want to be the Lord Mayor of a vibrant, safe, thriving Melbourne that is known for its vibrant nightlife”.

Mr Bandt told the crowd what effective measures Brumby could be taking if he was serious about nighttime safety on Melbourne’s streets. Watch the speech here; click “read more” for some photos.

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It’s hard to go too far in Kensington without seeing a No Road Tunnel sign up - sometimes you can see five houses in a row, all proudly proclaiming their opposition to the project.

Greens MP Greg Barber and Greens Lord Mayor candidate Adam Bandt have also released a YouTube video talking about the campaign against the tunnel - take a look. You can find more information on the campaign for better transport options for Melbourne at http://www.wrongway-goback.com/.

Location: Debneys Park, Mt Alexander Rd, Flemington (just North of the Freeway Entrance). Melway ref Map 29 B12
Description: Rod Quantock, Paul Mees, Greg Barber MLC and Cr Rose Iser will be speaking.
Start Time: 1:00 pm
Date: 25th May 2008
End Time: 2:30 pm

Location: Kensington Community Recreation Centre (YMCA Pool) – Cnr Altona St and Kensington Road. Melway ref Map 42 J3.
Description: Greens MLC Greg Barber will be speaking at this public meeting.
Start Time: 2:00 pm
Date: 24th May 2008
End Time: 3:00 pm

The Greens are excited and proud to publicly announce their Deputy Lord Mayor candidate for November’s elections.

Introducing Melbourne’s next Deputy Lord Mayor… Councillor Kathleen Maltzahn.

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Please consider coming to the Melbourne City Greens trivia night, for an evening of socialising and fun, and of course trivia and fundraising — with your help the next Lord Mayor of Melbourne will be Green!

Contact events@makemelbournegreen.com for more information or to book a table or seat.

… or ‘How to stuff up Kensington, North Melbourne, Clifton Hill … the planet.’ For a copy of the Eddington report together with an explanation about why it’s disastrous for inner-city Melbourne, follow the link to our Eddington page, and add your comments to the blog.

The Melbourne Times, Page 3, March 12 2008:

So, can a Green grab the lord mayor’s job?

By Bianca Hall.

Industrial relations lawyer and Greens candidate Adam Bandt will today launch his campaign to unseat lord mayor John So.

The 35-year-old is no stranger to politics. At last year’s federal election, he made the long-held ALP seat of Melbourne marginal, losing to Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner by just 4.71 per cent.

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Stop Labor’s rent rise

The Victorian Labor Government plans to increase rent for public housing tenants by taking more from the Family Tax Benefit. The amounts taken will rise from 11 to 15%. The rise is scheduled to begin in 2008.

According to calculations from the Victorian Council of Social Services, by the time the plan is fully implemented in 2011, the rise will be up to $20.79 for some families.

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While this site is being built, this article from The Age, Liberal and Labor, make a call: how much heat can you stand?, by Adam Bandt and Richard Di Natale, is unfortunately still relevant.