Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Links

Two and half centimeters of rain and Melbourne trains fail
The sort of infrastructure projects that the local government is interested in Vic East West Link contract signed:
"The $5.3 billion contract for the first stage of Melbourne's controversial East West Link project has been signed, but the deal could be torn up in just two months.
The Victorian government and the East West Connect consortium signed the contract immediately after a resident failed to get a High Court injunction to stop the deal on Monday.
Premier Denis Napthine refused to say how much Victorian taxpayers would contribute to the 25-year deal, a public private partnership the consortium said was worth $5.3 billion.
He would also not reveal if there was a penalty clause in the deal - reportedly $500 million - if Labor won the November 29 election and tore up the contract."
"Napthine signed away his right to make laws that tackled gambling and smoking in an extraordinary deal waved through Parliament days before the election campaign. The law not only restricts the actions of the Napthine government should it get back, but the actions of every future Victorian government for the next 36 years.
Should a future government decide to impose a $1 betting limit on poker machines (as recommended by the Productivity Commission); should it decide to enforce the use of precommitment technology on poker machines; or should it require automatic teller machines to be further away from poker machines, it'll be up for a $200 million payment to Crown. The size of the penalty will climb with inflation. By the time the provision expires in 2050 the penalty will be $480 million."


and Occupy Democracy and media by David Graeber "We need to ask ourselves what it means that police suppression of democratic assemblies is no longer considered news."

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