In the beginning, the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) was responsible for the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity over the entire state of Victoria.^*

(Well, *almost* all of it.)

SECV annual report 1972

But then in the 1990s Jeff Kennett carved up the SECV into a web of different generation, transmission and distribution business – ready for privatisation.

The responsibility for the distribution of electricity to individual consumers was split into five geographic regions – CitiPower supplying the Melbourne CBD; United Energy and Jemena the middle suburbs; and Powercor and SP AusNet from outer suburbs of Melbourne and into the Victorian countryside.

Essential Services Commission diagram

But how do you draw the line between the different electricity distribution businesses?

Map from www.energy.vic.gov.au

You follow the power lines.

Based on how the SECV originally structured their distribution network.

Essential Energy diagram

Zone substations convert electricity at 66kV down to 22kV, and you can hide one on a suburban street – there would be about a hundred of them scattered around Melbourne alone.

But zone substations need to be supplied with power, which comes from much larger terminal stations. You can see their massive 220 kV transmission lines from a mile away, so there are only a dozen around Melbourne.

Which leads us back to the “this pole belongs to [power company]” signs…

Turns out some zone substations have 66 kV power lines that pass pass through areas that belong to other distribution companies on their way to the nearest terminal station, so the signs are needed so the two companies know who is responsible for maintaining a given pole.

And another mess

In the Victorian electricity industry the 1990s reforms there is a second market subject “competition” – multiple energy retailers all competing to sell you the exact same electrons to you, but at wildly different prices.

All electricity retailers in Victoria are required to give consumers a “Default Offer” – a fixed price set by the government which is considered to be reasonable to both parties.

Unfortunately there is one part you don’t get a choice in – each of the five energy distributors set their own ‘daily supply charge’ which all retailers have to pass on to you.

As of 2023 people living in the United Energy region only pay $1.0753 per day to have an electricity connection, while those in the Powercor area get slugged $1.3102 per day.

You’d hate to be right on the boundary of two distributors, and living on the side that has to pay more!

As for a real solution?

The other solution would be to ditch this whole charade of “competition” and just nationalise this mess of separated distribution and retail electricity utilities.

When I first tweeted this back in mid-2022 I was hoping we’d eventually see a political party with the guts to do that, and a few months later, one came close – promising to deliver “government ownership of energy generation”.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post “This power pole belongs to” appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

Photo by Marcus Wong (Wongm), via Wikimedia Commons

Let’s take a tour

Today covered by the City of Greater Geelong, Geelong used to be part of multiple local government areas – the City of Geelong, City of Geelong West, City of Newtown, City of South Barwon and Shire of Corio making up the urban areas, with the urban fringe managed by the Rural City of Bellarine, and parts of the Shire of Barrabool and Shire of Bannockburn.

VicPlan map, Local Government Areas pre-1994 amalgamations layer

Ballarat was similar – today’s City of Ballarat was once the City of Ballarat, Shire of Ballarat and Borough of Sebastopol covering the city, with parts of the Shire of Bungaree, Shire of Buninyong, Shire of Grenville and Shire of Ripon covering the outskirts.

VicPlan map, Local Government Areas pre-1994 amalgamations layer

Today the City of Greater Bendigo, Bendigo was once governed by former City of Bendigo and Borough of Eaglehawk, with Shire of Strathfieldsaye, Shire of Huntly, Rural City of Marong and parts of the Shire of McIvor covering the outer areas.

VicPlan map, Local Government Areas pre-1994 amalgamations layer

Gippsland was a little different – what is now the City of Latrobe was split between the City of Moe and City of Traralgon which governed the cities of the same name, the City of Morwell governed both the city and surrounds, and the Shire of Traralgon, Shire of Narracan and Shire of Rosedale managed the rest.

VicPlan map, Local Government Areas pre-1994 amalgamations layer

North East Victoria was another part of Victoria subject to “double barrelled” LGAs – both Benalla and Wangaratta had a City covering the urban area, and a Shire of the same name covering the surrounding districts.

VicPlan map, Local Government Areas pre-1994 amalgamations layer

Maryborough had some odd boundaries – they just drew a square on the map and called it the City of Maryborough.

VicPlan map, Local Government Areas pre-1994 amalgamations layer

Castlemaine is another box drawn on the map, the City of Castlemaine having since been merged with the Shire of Maldon, Shire of Metcalfe and Shire of Newstead to form today’s Shire of Mount Alexander.

VicPlan map, Local Government Areas pre-1994 amalgamations layer

And finally, South West Victoria – Camperdown and Colac were their own little islands in the Town of Camperdown and City of Colac.

VicPlan map, Local Government Areas pre-1994 amalgamations layer

So how did they all come from anyway?

The short answer is “history” – for the rest I’ll just crib from the Wikipedia page on Local government in Victoria.

Local government had existed in Victoria since before its separation from New South Wales in 1851. The Town of Melbourne was established by an Act of the NSW Governor and Legislative Council in 1842 and the Borough of Geelong was established in 1849. Both bodies continued after the creation of Victoria as a separate colony, and both later became cities.

Road districts were established under legislation passed in 1853. From 1862 many road districts became shires pursuant to the District Councils Bill 1862. To become a shire, the road district had to be over 100 square miles (260 km²) in size and have annual rate revenue of over £1000. Promotion to town or city status was dependent on the gross revenue of the council.

The 1989 Local Government Act eliminated administrative distinctions between cities and shires, introduced the category of rural city and removed the possibility of declaring any further boroughs or towns. Five shires became rural cities.

An example of this evolutionary process is the local councils that once covered Geelong – established in the 1800s as either a “Road District” covering a small township or a “Borough” covering a young suburb, and growing in the years that followed to become a “Shire” or “City” respectively.

1849 – Geelong incorporated as a Town
1853 – Barrabool Road District proclaimed
1853 – Portarlington Road District proclaimed
1856 – Connewarre Road District proclaimed
1857 – South Barwon Municipal District proclaimed
1857 – South Barwon Road District proclaimed
1858 – Newtown and Chilwell Borough proclaimed
1860 – Portarlington Road District renamed as Indented Head Road District
1861 – Corio Road District proclaimed
1862 – Bannockburn Road District proclaimed
1863 – Meredith Road District proclaimed
1863 – Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale separated from Indented Head Road District to form Queenscliffe Municipal District.
1863 – South Barwon Borough created by amalgamating South Barwon Municipal District and South Barwon Road District
1864 – Bannockburn Road District redesignated as Shire
1864 – Corio Road District redesignated as Shire
1865 – Indented Head Road District redesignated and renamed as Bellarine Shire
1874 – South Barwon Shire created by amalgamating Connewarre Road District and South Barwon Borough
1875 – Geelong West Borough proclaimed
1910 – Geelong proclaimed a City
1915 – Meredith Shire added to Bannockburn Shire
1922 – Geelong West proclaimed a Town
1924 – Newtown and Chilwell proclaimed a Town
1929 – Geelong West proclaimed a City
1959 – Newtown and Chilwell proclaimed a City
1967 – Newtown and Chilwell City renamed as Newtown City
1963 – Queenscliffe Municipal District redesignated as Borough
1974 – South Barwon proclaimed a City
1989 – Bellarine proclaimed a Rural City

And where did they go?

Ian Tiley from the University of New England Centre for Local Government has the answer to this one, in his paper Evolution of Council Amalgamation in Victoria Tasmania and South Australia. The proliferation of local governments had been seen as a problem for some time.

Progressive investigations into local government reform have been undertaken since the 1960s, when Victorian local councils numbered 210. In 1962, a Commission of Inquiry into Victorian Local Government recommended reduction in the number of municipalities to 42, but the Inquiry was not acted on. A 1979 Report to government recommended establishment of a Municipal Commission to restructure local government. In 1985, the Victoria Grants Commission undertook a statistical analysis of economies of scale in local authorities of varying sizes and predicted a financial crisis in smaller units unless they were amalgamated.

The Cain Labor Government deciding to take action in 1985, but failing.

In September 1985, Victorian Premier Cain announced a strategy for state-wide amalgamations of local government. There was pressure for amalgamation in some economically-depressed, manufacturing reliant Victorian provincial cities, which had a relatively large number of local authorities in their urban areas, such as Geelong (four), Bendigo (five) and Ballarat (six) councils.

However, a year later, because of a combination of community opposition, bypassing of existing local government power structures, failure to establish majority support, conflicting aims, and lack of restriction in scope, the Premier announced that restructuring would only occur on a voluntary basis and attempts to reduce the 210 local authorities in Victoria at that time failed.

With the Kennett Liberal Government reopening the issue on winning government in 1992.

The local government reform implementation process took place in two stages. The first phase occurred during the initial Kennett Government term of office and entailed a radical agenda that fundamentally altered local government. The second reform phase from 1996 onwards consisted of consolidation of central direction of the local government sector through a variety of means including threats, contempt for some local government representatives and ad hoc interventions by the Minister.

The Kennett government quickly introduced the Local Government (General Amendment) Act 1993 to enable transformation of the Victorian municipal system. The Act established a Local Government Board to provide a process for reviewing local government structure and specifically precluded the Victorian Supreme Court from hearing any proceedings brought against the Board, its staff or the Minister in respect of such review.

The Board adopted a forceful “top-down” style (and community of interest was not considered a relevant issue, except where it could be used to suggest that existing local government boundaries divided communities as strong commercial area.

But merging local government areas wasn’t the only outcome of the Kennett-era reforms.

There were three key features of the municipal reforms.

Firstly, councils were summarily sacked in successive stages so that local government was effectively suspended and communities disenfranchised as Government-appointed commissioners assumed administrative responsibility under strict oversight of the Local Government Board.

The second feature was the ultimate reduction in the number of local government councils from 210 to 78 and allied reduction in staff numbers, buildings, plant and equipment, services and capital reserves.

The third key feature was that an increasing proportion of council budgets were required to be subject to Compulsory Competitive Tendering. The management tools of CCT and the consequent privatisation of services created a more “entrepreneurial” government and reduced the role and function of local government in favour of the private sector.

The hollowing out of local government capabilities following the introduction of Compulsory Competitive Tendering is still seen today.

Footnote 1 – the one that got away

There was one local government area that escaped the forced amalgamations of 1994 – the tiny Borough of Queenscliffe. Covering an area of just over 10 square kilometres and with a population of almost 3,000 people, it is the smallest local government area in Victoria.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Queenscliffvic-airview-0508-2601-63.jpg

Labor Party MP for Geelong North stating at the time.

…we are not sure why it was omitted. The Minister for Local Government said it was because Queenscliffe is unique. The Premier said it was because of the council’s effectiveness. Some people suggest the uniqueness of Queenscliffe has a lot to do with the number of influential Liberal Party members living at Point Lonsdale who have exerted pressure

Footnote 2 – the mysterious Yallourn Works Area

Out in the Latrobe Valley west of the City of Moe was the mysterious Yallourn Works Area.

VicPlan map, Local Government Areas pre-1994 amalgamations layer

I knew Yallourn was a company town run by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria.

Photo by , via Wikimedia Commons

Which was eventually swallowed up by a coal mine.

But I didn’t realise Yallourn was also an unincorporated area subject to the almost total control of the SECV.

Yallourn was a company town, which meant that the State Electricity Commission was simultaneously landlord, employer and governor. The Commission decided who lived there, and exercised control over public and private space in the town.

The establishment of the Yallourn Town Advisory Council in 1947 curtailed the SEC’s autocratic administration of the town. But resident action groups were no match for the SEC or the Victorian Parliament once the decision was made in the 1960s to get rid of the town.

Footnote 3 – Kennett complains about ‘woke’ names

In 2021 the Moreland City Council was in the news for wanting to change its name due to links to slavery, and Jeff Kennett weighed in by saying that councillors who voted for the name change should pay the cost of the changeover. One small problem there Jeff – you created it back in 1994 when you amalgamated the former local government areas of the City of Brunswick, the City of Coburg and the southern part of the City of Broadmeadows.

Footnote 4 – PTV’s local area maps and local government areas

Public Transport Victoria doesn’t publish a full map showing all models of public transport in Melbourne – they stopped updating it back in 2009 – but does have a series of local area maps broken down by local government areas.

As someone who grew up in Geelong, it has taken me years to work out which local government areas cover which part of Melbourne, and I still don’t know the borders between most of them – just rough mappings to suburbs.

So perhaps I shouldn’t be so hard on the people I’ve met who didn’t know that Victorian towns outside of Melbourne are big enough to be divided up into named suburbs.

Further reading

• Evolution of Council Amalgamation in Victoria Tasmania and South Australia by Ian Tiley.
• Local Government Areas for Victoria prior to the 1994 amalgamations dataset at Data Vic.
• Controversial council amalgamations redesign Melbourne, The Age, 1994,
• State Electricity Commission (Yallourn Area) Act 1947

Plus the former local government areas in regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne are listed over at Wikipedia.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Forgotten local government areas of Victoria appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

I found a good example of this in the Spring 1996 edition of the Hansard for the Legislative Assembly, where backbencher Robin Cooper moved a motion:

Mr Cooper – I move:

That this house, while regretting the lack of general policy commitment by the Labor Party to transport issues, congratulates the government on its transport achievements during its first term in office and applauds the commitments to further improve the transport system in Victoria during the coming four years as outlined in the public transport policy of the coalition published in March 1996.

After attacking the Labor Party on their failings on public transport while in government, Cooper then pulled out a list of of every transport improvement that the government had made over the past four years.

Mr Cooper

I now move to the period 1992 through to now to outline what has been done in public transport. And an enormous amount has been done; far more than I will have time for today, because I know the honourable member for Thomastown will also want to say something about the motion. I hope I will be able to get through the mountain of material I have in support of my motion, but if I read out all the things–

Mr Batchelor interjected.

Mr Cooper

I am not going to do that; I am going to give you something to talk about. If I went through every public transport achievement of this government from October 1992 to March 1996, I would still be talking at around 10.00 p.m. -but I am quite prepared to accept a motion for an extension of time.

Some changes were positive, no matter what side of the fence you sit on:

• February 1993 agreement was reached between the Victorian and federal governments for the standardisation of the Melbourne-Adelaide rail link at a cost of $153 million.
• Continued operation of V/Line rail services at international best practice to Albury-Wodonga, Swan Hill, Stony Point and Sale.
• 15 May 1993 one of the great successes that can be testified to by members living in outlying areas was the commencement of Melbourne’s Nightrider bus service.
• In May 1993 the notorious Southern Aurora Hotel in Dandenong was demolished in the first step of a $5 million redevelopment of the Dandenong railway station.
• Also in May 1993 it was announced that 10 improvements would be made to the Flinders Street station, with a police booth on the concourse – which is now in place – new and upgraded food, newsagency and retail outlets, and improved customer waiting facilities on platforms.
• July 1993, due to increasing patronage of the Nightrider buses – this is a quick endorsement of the service – the service was improved with the addition of an extra departure time at 4.30 a.m. from the City Square each Saturday and Sunday morning.
• July 1993 the new $6 million, 1.7 kilometre extension of the East Burwood tram route was opened.
• Again in July 1993 the weekday coach services from South Gippsland and Phillip Island began operating direct to Melbourne for the first time.
• V /Line’s new Goulburn Valley super freighter service began transporting containers to and from Melbourne docks on 2 August 1993.
• On 8 August 1993 trams were back on all Sunday services for the first time since 1961. Trams replaced buses on routes 3, 82 and 57.
• On 12 August 1993 the new $330 000 Moonee Ponds modal interchange was opened.
• On 16 August 1993 construction was commenced on the $6.3 million City Circle tram loop, which was the first tram extension in the central city for nearly 40 years.
• new, faster, larger XPT trains commenced overnight services between Melbourne and Sydney in November 1993, in cooperation with the State Rail Authority in New South Wales and in so doing reduced the travel time between the two cities by 3 hours.
• November 1993 $150,000 upgrade of the Sunbury railway station.
• December 1993 the frequency of the Nightrider bus service was doubled to a half-hourly service on New Year’s Eve. That marked the return of public transport on New Year’s Eve.
• February 1994 new Elizabeth Street tram terminus was opened.
• February 1994 public transport brochures translated into 13 different languages were released.
• April 1994 V /Line freight was to expand its operations into southern New South Wales with the reopening of the Strathmerton-Tocumwal railway line.
• May 1994 The facade of Flinders Street station was to be cleaned, repaired and painted in heritage colours by the end of 1994.
• May 1994 abolition of the fee charged by country bus operators for the carriage of prams, pushers and shopping jeeps.
• May 1994 further extension of the Nightrider bus service – this time into the new areas of Craigieburn, Melton and Bacchus Marsh.
• June 1994 the $20 million program to upgrade suburban rail commuter safety and security was announced. The main features included the establishment of 51 premium stations and the appointment of 330 customer service employees and more than 200 Transit Police to regularly patrol the Met. All stations were to be monitored by closed-circuit television.
• September 1994 there was the opening of the new $2.5 million V/Line wagon maintenance depot at Geelong.
• October 1994 $36 000 covered walkway between Belgrave’s Met station and the Puffing Billy station.
• January 1995 the Met’s first premium railway station at Mount Waverley was opened.
• March 1995 there was the announcement of a $62,000 grant to restore and repaint the facade of the historic Hawthorn tram depot.
• March 1995 A $50,000 grant to refurbish the former Seymour railway station refreshment rooms.
• March 1995 $27 million electrification of the Dandenong-Cranbourne railway line took place.
• April 1995 it was announced that a new $10.3 million tram depot would be constructed at Montague to replace the existing South Melbourne tram depot.
• April 1995 the government announced its intention to retain the Upfield railway line and to seek $23 million of federal funding for a long overdue upgrade.
• April 1995 $22 million going to upgrade 200 suburban railway stations.
• April 1995 $6 million for new railway station car parking.
• April 1995 $1.5 million for bus-rail interchanges.
• April 1995 $1.4 million for the new Melbourne University tram terminus.
• April 1995 $5 million of which was going to the standardisation of the Ararat-Maryborough and Maryborough-Dunolly railway lines.
• April 1995 $1.5 million for the purchase of Australia’s first road-transferable locomotive.
• May 1995 there was the announcement of $49 million being allocated over four years for the overhauling of the Met’s entire Comeng train fleet.
• May 1995 $36 million already being spent to upgrade the Hitachi train fleet.
• May 1995 also announced that the PTC would spend $360 000 in the 1995-96 financial year to install state-of-the-art digital clocks at 63 suburban railway stations.
• May 1995 $6.2 million is allocated to eradicate ozone-depleting gases and PCBs from the PTC’s equipment and facilities.
• May 1995 a new $4 million train-washing plant was opened in North Melbourne.
• June 1995 that year there was an announcement of the beginning of work to upgrade the Broadmeadows railway station to premium station status, with the work estimated to cost more than $400 000.
• June 1995 new $9 million railway station and South Side Central development were opened at Traralgon.
• July 1995 that year there was an announcement that the Werribee railway station was to become a $750,000 premium station and the site of a new $250,000 bus rail interchange.
• August 1995 it was announced that Victoria’s public transport patronage had increased by more than 10 million boardings, or 3.6 per cent, in 1994-95.
• September 1995 of that year it was announced that all the 53 W-class trams would have heating installed.
• October 1995 that year the Bundoora RMIT tram extension was opened.
• January 1996 we saw the opening of the upgraded Footscray bus depot.
• February 1996 there was an announcement of increased services on the Sandringham, Dandenong, Pakenham, Cranbourne, Frankston, lilydale and Belgrave lines.
• September 1996 Sprinter trains introduced to Echuca, no service before.

Others could be considered necessary examples of cost cutting.

• November 1992 : removing conductors from restaurant trams, who spent their entire journey twiddling their thumbs in the rear cab.
• September 1993 there was an extension of driver-only trams to four more routes on weekends after 8.00 p.m.

But some of the quoted ‘improvements’ are on shakier ground, depending on your opinions on outsourcing and privatisation.

• Luxury road coaches replacing rail services to Mildura, Leongatha and Dimboola.
• In May 1993 the cleaning of Transport House was contracted out to Security Cleaning Services with savings of $160 000 per annum.
• In May 1993 the Geelong and Bendigo railway station refreshment rooms were contracted out for a combined savings of nearly $200 000 per annum.
• In July 1993 V /Line’s freight trucking fleet was contracted out to TNT with savings of $650,000 over three years.
• On 22 August 1993 Hoys Roadlines commenced operating the Melbourne-Shepparton rail service, Australia’s first private rail service.
• September 1993 West Coast Rail commenced services between Melbourne and Warmambool, the second private rail service in Australia.
• October 1993 cleaning and graffiti removal for trains was contracted out to the private sector with savings of $910,000 annually.
• November 1993 the Public Transport Corporation contracted out 21 major activities at a saving of $20 million annually.
• May 1995 new competition legislation for the bus industry and the setting up of two new transport corporations, with both V/Line Freight and Metbus to be established as separate corporations with their own boards independent of the PTC.
• December 1995 there was also an announcement of the deregulation of rail freight from 1 January 1996.

Cooper did boast about increased patronage.

In 1995-96 patronage on all modes of public transport increased. Patronage increased on Met trains by 3.7 per cent. That was the highest patronage on Met trains since 1976-77. Patronage on Met trams also increased 4.9 per cent, the highest patronage since 1989. Met buses received a 3 per cent increase in patronage. V/Line had more than 7 million patrons in 1995-96, which was the highest V /Line patronage since 1954-55. The average patronage in 1994-95 increased by 4 per cent, with a further increase in 1995-96.

And increased operational efficiencies.

In July the Age published a report from the Industry Commission which commended the Public Transport Corporation because it carried 61 per cent more rail passengers per employee in the city and 30 per cent more in the country and passengers were paying 10 per cent more in real terms, which has doubled the cost recovery ratio from 35 to 71 per cent

Followed by a list of transport improvements the Liberal/National coalition would introduce during a a second term in government:

• The current Met Summer timetable which reduces train and tram service during December /January will be abolished.
• There will be only two timetables for Met train and Met tram, weekday and weekend/public holiday, thus providing customers with greater certainty and a better overall level of service.
• For the first time, City Loop rail services will run every Sunday.
• The Upfield Railway Line will be maintained and upgraded.
• The railway line at Boronia will be lowered to alleviate the problems which currently exist at the Boronia rail crossing..
• An additional 10 premium stations will be established.
• All bus operators will be required to gain accreditation which allows the government to ensure that only competent operators enter the industry and provide services to the public.
• There will be a $23.8 million upgrade of amenities at Flinders Street Station..
• A study will be commissioned to assess the costs and benefits of further standardising Victoria’s remaining broad gauge rail network.
• A ‘one-stop-shop’ for all public transport service inquiries and bookings to be known as Victrip will be set up.
• A new station will be built at North Shore in Geelong to serve passengers using the interstate standard gauge line.
• A $400 000 program will be implemented to expand the network of secure storage facilities for our cycling customers throughout the metropolitan area by constructing new storage facilities at 30 premium stations.
• Expressions of interest will be sought from the private sector for the establishment of a world-class transport museum at the Docklands.

As well as the ‘improvements’ that the Kennett Government is better remembered for.

• The Public Transport Corporation will be disbanded with Met tram and Met train established as totally separate organisations and Met Bus to be divested, with a preference for an employee/management buy-out.
• Met Train and Met Tram will contract out their infrastructure and vehicle maintenance requirements.
• V/Line freight will be separated from the PTC and established with its own Chief Executive and Board, thereby placing it in a more competitive position.
• Current V/Line coach contracts will be put up for tender upon expiry with the option for tenderers to nominate either rail or coach modes.

So what did the rest of the chamber think of this Dorothy Dixer? Fellow Liberal MP Inga Peulich couldn’t take any more.

Mrs Peulich

You must be getting tired.

Mr Cooper

No. I am prepared to go on for hours.

While Shadow Transport Minister Peter Batchelor was more blunt.

We have just heard more than 2 hours worth from the honourable member for Mornington. And what a tragic and pathetic performance it was! A former and failed shadow minister was brought into the house by the current Minister for Transport. No doubt the minister and his staff have provided him with reams of written material which he has taken the time of this house to read out in the very patronising, rabid and hysterical way that is par for the course with this member.

He spent hours a week for weeks practising his routine, trying to learn it off by heart, going over it time and again and practising the two jokes he delivered in more than 2 hours which went over like a lead balloon. It is horrible to imagine the honourable member for Mornington working himself into an absolute frenzy while practising in front of a mirror for hour after hour, going through his histrionics and practising his jokes until he couldn’t see himself.

I recall that about an hour into his speech we had the pathetic vision of one of his loyal colleagues and luncheon partners, the honourable member for Bentleigh, not being able to stomach it anymore and leaving the chamber. It was even too much for her! He failed to make any significant point in his contribution, which began with events back in 1986. From memory, that was one of the first dates he mentioned. He systematically went through and highlighted dates over that long period, quoting from written material and completely missing the point.

Peter Batchelor then pointed out that the government was taking credit for projects they didn’t fund.

A number of points need to be made in response to the honourable member for Mornington. He claimed a number of initiatives on behalf of the state government that were funded by the federal Labor government.

It is clear from his comments that he did not know that a number of initiatives claimed for the state government were clearly not initiatives of that government.

The honourable member for Mornington mentioned the upgrading of the Sunbury railway station. We know that was federally funded. He also sang the praises of the City Circle tram service. That was also federally funded.

Earlier I talked about a number of initiatives that were paid for by the federal government. Another was the electrification of the train line to Cranbourne.

And projects conceived under the previous government.

The Nightrider bus service was developed under the previous Labor administration. Steps were taken to finalise the sponsorship and the routes were selected. It was, for all intents and purposes, an initiative of the previous Labor government.

And services provided by other states.

He claimed the passenger service to Sydney as a great initiative of the government, whereas the service is actually provided by the New South Wales State Rail Authority. It is not provided by V/Line.

So did the Kennett Government do anything good for public transport in Victoria? The short answer is yes – but their single minded pursuit of privatisation has seen them consigned to the dustbin of history.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Did the Kennett Government do anything good for public transport in Victoria? appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.