I wholeheartedly agree with what you have undertaken over recent months Tristan. You need to seriously consider running for Mayor at the next election so we have at least one pro-public transport candidate we can trust and put an end to money always going into road infrastructure! Us "pro-public transport" people are the TRUE silent majority. Please run for Mayor Tristan!

Don't make the same mistakes that we made in Sydney, NSW. The NSW Government curses they day they signed a contract like this. Yet you in QLD go along for the horror-ride-of-a-lifetime in secret contract anyway, promising that it is not going to be like the NSW disaster. This is the first time another ALP State has admitted so blatantly that the CCT and other tunnels in Australia, particularly in NSW, have been a disaster. But even Premier Eimma know's that, he is Panadol's best customer. He is honestly trying to clean up Bob Carr's mess, and it is not easy, is was a bloody disaster. Almost the same deal Brisbane wants.

Why can't the Government build it, and why can't the people of Queensland own it? After they pay it off in tolls, the tolls will logically disappear. This should surely be for the people, not for profit, greed, deception, in a sleezy contract. In any case, why hasen't Brisbane looked more seriously at the option of light rail to move many people around the city, rather than having a city for cars and tunnels. The Sydney City Council is kicking itself now that it didn't make that move at least 5 years ago, when all the tunnels were being planned.

A living city is a city for people, not for private contracts, corruption, profit, greenhouse gasses, and pure ignorance. Besides, the tunnel will only shift the traffic jams from one side of Brisbane to the other. The middle bit will get little relief, if any, as it will all be "funnelled" into the tunnel, and this causes chaos. It will just be a dispictable mess. We hate our tunnels in Sydney. Brisbane, just say no! Prove that you are better than Sydney.

It didn't take long for Campbell Newman to go elbow deep into the long suffering motorists pockets.He could have funded these projects through the time honoured system of open tenders resulting in accountable projects, or borrowed money to fund his dreams. Meanwhile, the Ipswich motorway becomes more profitible for the panel beaters every day.

There is something very prissy about the Australian psyche where we deliberately vote for Labor state governments and a Liberal Federal one. It's the old Don Chip keeping-the-bastards-honest I guess. Put them all in a glass jar and let them fight it out so we get the best deal sort of thing.

I wonder if Mr Newman realises he and his dirty little PPP (aka Governmet Private Dictatorship or GPD) will go down in infamy from this moment forth as the Man who destroyed every state Labor government in the Commonwealth of Australia. Mind you this means that Beasley will be our next PM. We can't have Liberals everywhere can we?

Beasley can't do too much damage to the economy in one term and this changeover in governing polarity is sorely needed so I have to say ""Thank you Mr Newman"", you jerk.

If Australians are as canny as I think, we could see federal/state parties swap back and forth every 4 years and make the bastards work harder for people and not their own personal post-ministerial-dream-retirements. This swap over could occur at least till politicians learn that we don't elect them with a mandate for BETRAYAL. It doesn't take an Einstein to see that this 10 year and forever state labor and federal liberal gig has become a big BUST.

PS If Kim Beasley can promise to ensure FAIR PLACEMENT of immigrants all across Australia and not just in the current 4 overcrowded, underserviced, gridlocked and overcorrupted metropolitan areas he might get the nod for a second term.

BTW I want the betting odds on which Private enterprise Iemma, Sartor, Costa, Tripodi and Della Bosca will go to work for when NSW Labor gets the BOOT at the next election in March.

Pro-toll tunnel Newman wins city election in Brisbane Oz
Cambell Newman campaigning to move congested traffic by sponsoring toll tunnelways has won election in Brisbane, the third city of Australia. Newman, the Liberal Party candidate handily defeated Labor which expressed skepticism about the tunnels idea.

Mayor-elect Newman said after his election that advancing the five tunnelways he proposed will be the major concern in his four year term of office. He says the first tunnel - a north-south link under the river and the central business district - will be open by the time of the next election in March 2008.

"I have the mandate, I am the boss of the Brisbane City Council," Newman is reported by the AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW as saying in response to the point that he faces a city council with a Labor majority.

The five tunnelways are estimated to cost some $3b (A$4b) and Newman wants them built over 10 to 15 years. The state premier Peter Beattie (Labor) has said the complete Newman plan is financially non-feasible but that he will work with the city to see what can be achieved.

Can't Do Cambell is a liberal elected on a single issue that he cannot deliver. The quicker he goes the better.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't roads the domain of Councils and Public Transport the domain of State Governments. If so, it stands to reason that a City Council would have no interest whatsoever in promoting public transport because there is nothing in it for them.

I can see the Sydney tollways, having been organised by the NSW State Government as a comparative dream compaired to the potential nightmare of a Municipal Council spending billions on tunnells.

For those who don’t know, Newman is an engineer. The people who are obtaining the bulk of work for the current BCC are… engineers! See a connection? It would be more than interesting to know the connections between Newman and the ‘winners’ of the contracts to build all the tunnels in this city of ours.

Oh well, at least we’ll have somewhere to shelter our horses and pushbikes from the rain when the fuel runs out… oh that’s right, it doesn’t rain much here anyway! Perhaps we can use them as underground storage tanks for storm water run-off then?

That might be true in NSW narcisist, but you have to understand that the State of QLD has a completely different system. Firstly, they don't have an upper house. This really pisses off the Greens, as they have never managed to get a foothold in QLD in the upper house to expose some of this sleaze. Secondly, councils have more responsibilies in QLD than in other states. That is why the City of Brisbane, in a way, is the largest city in Australia, once the largest in the world, in terms of sprawl rather than population.

Brisbane City Council does run a bus service, and they do have more powers over planning in the State of QLD. So in a way, the arguement that "Can or can't do Newman", as the Liberal Mayor, is responsible, is partly true.

Even in Sydney, Independent Lord Mayor Clover Moore has to take some responsibility in her part in traffic funneling, cooperating in the plan to close at least 4 different major arteries.

To ALP NSW Premier Morris Iemma's credit, he has ended some of the traffic funneling, re-opened some of the roads that should never have been closed, admitted a dreadful mistake, but now the State of NSW has a multi million dollar legal challenge from the Company, mainly funded by the Maquarie Bank, against the people of NSW. Lets not mince words here. The corporations are just as wicked against the people here as the governments. Boycott the Maquarie Bank is you believe in a fair deal. If you wan't to punnish Premier Beattie, fine, but there are other alternatives other than the coalition who might listen more, tell less lies, and expose more scandals.

I wholeheartedly agree with Tristan - and I'm ALSO worried about my super funds disappearing into this deep black hole. In fact, I'm just about to email the Queensland Investment Corporation again, re their gross arrogance in ignoring my legitimate questions (19th May 2006), on just this point (my phone call to them last week, as a reminder, still hasn't moved them). I'm a member of Q Super:-

www.kimspages.org/qsuperletter.htm

In fact ANYONE in a super fund should be worried about this, as these very pointed warnings from ASPO Australia show:-

Extracts

"Monday, 17 April 2006
Will your Super be risked in the Tunnel?"

"Ever-increasing oil prices will mean serious risk for investments in the Brisbane North-South Bypass Tunnel."

"Superannuation fund managers who do not closely assess the risks that Peak Oil will bring will have more than retirees' incomes at stake. ASPO-Australia will be approaching regulatory authorities to increase the level of oversight of high-risk investment options like the Brisbane tunnel."

Full piece by Bruce Robinson here:-

http://www.aspo-australia.org.au/content/view/100/1/

Just who do they think is going to use this tunnel for $4.10 a pop? I know I certainly won't - why would I pay $8.20 to go from Woolloongabba to Bowen Hills and back? In Sydney they had to close off streets to shoehorn drivers into their tunnel, and people still boycotted it on principle. Why would they want to enrich Hong Kong's richest tycoon, the owner, any further? It will be a matter of honour for me not to use the tunnel.

When it is finished I urge other Brisbane drivers to participate in a mother-of-all boycotts of this outrageously expensive toll tunnel. Let it become an costly white elephant that they ever regret was built. Sydney has shown that boycotts work, let's gear up for one in Brisbane.

What amazes me is that a huge scheme like this can be started without any real public scrutiny.

Most important are the various assumptions which formed the basis of the favourable feasibilty decision. For example actual traffic estimates based on various fuel cost scenarios.

I sought this type of information from the State Government re, the new Gateway bridge and was given the same answer as BCC is giving now, namely confidential because of PPE.

Thus the Public have to trust the elected officials. My experience of many senior Council officials, elected and unelected, is that mostly they cannot be trusted. They will lie when it suits them or go to extreme lengths to obfuscate and manipulate the truth.

Tristan, I support you 100% in yor request to BCC, but what can be done to get the information and public scrutiny?

Before the last Council Election didn't C Newman say he would resign, if the toll for The North South Tunnel that was force on the Brisbane Community by the previous Labor Lord Mayor goes up?

So with the tunnel cost to the community going up all the time, it is not if C Newman will resign but when.

PS I didn't vote for C Newman as Mayor, so I wouldn't waste my time calling him Mayor.

PS If people and community groups are really concerned about what Council and Brisbane council Mayors are doing to the Brisbane Community especially with not only the North South Tunnel, but the proposed The Peel St Road Bridge.

Then how come in 2005, I got a very poor response from community groups especially in the West End area in my call for The Queensland State Government to launch an inquiry into Local Council in Queensland especially Brisbane?