In which the pond continues its travels ...

 

Bitterly cold. Tried stepping outside the tent but was too frozen to move ... or, the perils of a travel blogger.

As well as being a gigantic fridge, Melbourne is mystifying. Thus when catching a tram you're required to tap on but not to tap off. If you've been brought up on the Sydney system, if you fail to tap off you lose your house.

The pond watched a splendid performance as one young woman tried to tap on. Each stop, when the doors opened, she'd ritually wave her phone in front of the device and get no result. 

What looked like her father anxiously advised her all the time, no doubt fearing the inspectors. She had two phones - barely enough in these troubled times - and looked like she was transferring money into her tram account (the mystically meaningless, apparently soon to be abandoned Myki).

Then it was back to the attempts to tap on, though strangely she'd only lean over from her seat and try the one device, which reliably failed each time. The pond abandoned the tram before she managed to log on ... though she probably kept up the theatrical performance until she reached her stop.

The pond emerged in Smith street Collingwood, where it's trying to shelter from the passing blizzard. 

Back in the day, when the pond lived in north Fitzroy, Smith street was the pond's shopping centre. It was full of junkies, who apparently in recent times have headed off to Victoria street in Richmond. You could also reliably spot a group of (sometimes homeless) Aboriginal men on one corner, including Uncle Charles, the subject of the 2008 documentary Bastardy ...

None of that now, the street has been cleansed, a bit like Redfern. There are still some tatty sections, old school down market shops, but particularly down the Victoria Parade end, it's gone full hipster, with a gay tinge, the sort of turf that would terrify the reptiles at the lizard Oz.

It was a relief to see that 3CR had survived, and they'd even spent money on a couple of steps inside the building, though the outside was the same as it ever was ...

Zoom in for sign ECU ...

Not so far along across the other side of the road came the odd juxtaposition of sex worker and violin maker ...

Naturally the pond knows what sells ...

There were signs of the times ...

And there were ancient wonders ...

A wider view ...

There was another sight, designed to terrify the reptiles at the lizard Oz ...

There were no people in the street because they'd fled to the South Pole to enjoy the warmth, but there were signs in the window designed to strike fear into the hearts of Murdochians ...

This isn't News Corp turf, and having established the pond's credentials as a travel writer with an eye for the deeply political, the pond couldn't help but notice and mention a story in Crikey featuring a former reptile, now gone wild ...

‘I’m not being political’: ABC chair criticises Coalition’s approach to nuclear policy, Kim Williams’ remarks about the opposition's approach to policy come just weeks after ABC political correspondent Laura Tingle was counselled in relation to her comments around Coalition policy on migration. (possible paywall)

It was too fragrant, and at another time, the pond would have been diligently observing reptile reaction to the yarn ...

...Williams appeared on the After The Fact panel alongside Vivid festival director Gill Minervini and IndigenousX CEO Luke Pearson at Barangaroo House. An audience member told Crikey the panel discussed “soundbite politics” as earlier that day Nationals leader David Littleproud had said that under a yet-to-be-revealed Coalition nuclear plan, nuclear reactors would be built in Nationals electorates. 
At one point in the discussion moderator Tom Wright referred to the Coalition’s nuclear plan, saying “in some ways this might not be palatable but at least it’s visionary?”
Williams responded: “Look that’s an interesting point Tom, except that it’s absent any of the normal fabric of policy formulation.”
“I grew up at a time when governments published green papers, which were deliberate discussion papers, and then they published subsequent to a green paper and people responding and all the interested parties … and then they published a white paper, which is an announcement of intended government direction from which debate would follow in the Parliament, and then legislation would appear,” Williams said. 
“That was the traditional process for public policy formulation, particularly on critical matters such as energy policy, I think it’s a pretty good system.
“To announce something as a sound bite, with no detail, no detail as to emissions targets — and look, I’m not being political, I’m not being in any way - speaking for the ABC. I’m speaking as an Australian citizen, and I’m entitled, like any Australian citizen, to have a view as to the necessity of good public policy in our nation. 
“And [the Coalition’s nuclear plan] would seem to be absent many of the constituent elements that are absolutely core to the announcement of and execution of important policy initiatives.” 

As well as doing the Tingling thing again, there was more Kim ...

...Sources in the room on Wednesday night told Crikey that Williams had stressed throughout the night that he was not speaking on behalf of the ABC, and instead was speaking as a private citizen. Speaking on a podcast earlier this year, Williams warned journalists: “If you don’t want to reflect a view that aspires to impartiality don’t work at the ABC.”
Williams is not a journalist and is not subject to the broadcaster’s editorial guidelines. 
Williams stood by the remarks, and said he “came from a time when the formulation of policy followed very strict guidelines and I think that’s a good system”. 
“I was trying to be as careful as I can be but still answer the question,” Williams told Crikey.
Williams noted the context surrounding the ABC at the moment, offering the point that “the role of a chair is very different from the role of a journalist”. He then said, in apparent reference to Tingle, that “the role of senior political correspondents is not to give anodyne summaries of ‘he said, she said’, but rather go into some assessment of analysis of what’s been said and what it might mean.”
“I think that’s a perfectly legitimate part of being a professional journalist,” he said
Williams said the criticism he made was not a partisan one, but instead a reflection on a modern world of policy formulation.
“It wasn’t said in a sort of vigorous ‘I’m taking on the opposition here’, it was said as a commentary about public policy and public policy formulation and public policy process.” 

The pond didn't bother to log reptile responses, but the oscillating fan went full-blown hysterical populist at the Daily Snail. (The pond wouldn't normally link to the Snail, but it's such a degrading sight, this time made an exception - with the pond wondering yet again how the oscillating fan still holds down a position at a university). 

The OF went into full bitch mode ...

If having been appointed to the chairmanship by the current Labor government Williams can't help but offer opinions on one of the central policy issues likely to dominate the next election campaign, he should only do so over a beer amongst friends. 
Or more likely in the case of the former head of the Sydney Opera House Trust, over a nice glass of chardonnay. 

The pond hasn't seen chardonnay slagged off in yonks, and that populist contempt for the y'artz and opera, and the notion of the oscillating fan settling down for a manly beer amongst chums was the perfect substitute for swilling down a serve of reptiles. 

Maybe the OF should spend a little more time in Smith street, or with his academic chums and 'fess up. Does he really despise chardonnay? Is he only a beer man? Is that a VB in his hand? Does he prefer time dowt pub to enduring y'artz?

The pond has some fair contempt for Williams, but even fairer contempt for posturing boofhead beer bully boys.

Even more amusing there was another Daily Snail yarn announcing that it had started, Lithgow mayor SLAMS Peter Dutton's plan for nuclear power plant in her town.

A mayor whose town is rumoured to be earmarked for a nuclear power plant if Peter Dutton wins the next Federal Election, slammed that plan on Friday - despite some locals being in favour of it.
On Wednesday, Shadow Energy Minister Ted O'Brien did not deny that the central western NSW town of Lithgow was one of the sites where the Coalition plans to place a nuclear plant. 
But fired up Lithgow mayor Maree Statham has shut down speculation that her town could go nuclear if Mr Dutton becomes prime minister in an election to be held within a year. 
'It is my intention to invite Peter Dutton to visit Lithgow and explain to this community why they should welcome a nuclear power plant in their backyard when no other community across Australia would do this.'
Ms Statham also pointed out that her district is also responsible for supplying water to Australia's biggest city. 
'I will suggest that he also then speak to the more than five million people in Sydney who drink water that is sourced from the catchment where he would like to place nuclear power plants,' she said.
Another Lithgow councillor, Stephen Lesslie, told Daily Mail Australia that he opposes having a nuclear plant in the town because it would be 'Expensive, unsafe (and there are) no waste solutions.'
But he said he does not expect much support from people in other parts of Australia for keeping Lithgow nuclear free. 
'If this means that the power plant won't go where they live then the rest of Australia probably won't give a damn,' Mr Lesslie said. 
Voters will pass judgment at a coming election in the next year on Mr Dutton's vision for a nuclear Australia and Anthony Albanese's government pursuing a renewable-led energy transition.
Until this week, the Coalition had been very coy about where it would put nuclear plants, but Mr O'Brien let the cat out of the bag by not denying a suggestion from radio host Ben Fordham that Lithgow was a prime target.
'Whether it be (in Lithgow) or elsewhere in Australia, one of the things we've learnt along the way is communities that have experience hosting coal plants, they have high energy IQ, they get it,' Mr O'Brien said.
'And they understand the importance of 24/7 base load power.'
Fordham called Lithgow a 'dying town' that would welcome the jobs that would flow from having a nuclear power station, but the council said there are other ways to regenerate the area.

The NIMBYism has begun ... and that's just the first signs of NIMBY life ... as Ted wakes the Kraaaken ...

Why Lithgow? Why not Smith street?

Having done a diligent inspection, there's plenty of room and the hipsters would love the futuristic frisson ...

Meanwhile the Germans had chipped in ... Germany's top climate envoy says 'this is the critical decade' after Dutton ditches 2030 target ... and so had Karen Middleton ...

...“The Labor party can try and please people in Paris – my job is to take care of the Australian people,” Dutton said on Tuesday, adding that Australians faced higher costs “just so that Mr Albanese can rub shoulders with leaders in Paris”.
He calculates that those enlivened by this rubbish rhetoric aren’t for turning on climate issues anyway.
This week’s frolic sets up two key themes of Dutton’s election campaign: that there is a risk of the lights and power going off by relying on renewables, but he could make it different; and that people can depend on him to be straight about how he would do it. Never mind that “transparency” doesn’t include revealing a 2030 target before the next election.
In short, it’s “who do you trust?”. We are back in 2004.
So, will this work? Some traditional Coalition constituents are alarmed. Already unsure about the government’s ability to meet existing medium-range targets, big business is extremely concerned at the Coalition’s sudden allergy to setting any at all. Certainty, this ain’t.
And nuclear power is a hard sell too, both on safety and on cost. Detail of that comes in stage two.
All in all, it’s pretty high-risk. This week confirms that Dutton’s is a scorched-earth strategy, with un peu – just a dash – of je ne regrette rien.

Back in 2004, and the reptiles gone 60 years back down memory lane, and the pond stuck in a blizzard ...

Meanwhile, the pond has been keeping up with the reptilesm only indirectly via the Weekly Beast ...

Poor Polonius, he couldn't even beat Bluey ... and tomorrow will be the pond's first Sunday meditation without the Polonial presence in yonks ...

And so to conclude with a catch-up of the infallible Pope and the immortal Rowe ...