Australians should not get on their high horse too quickly about steel protectionism in the US stimulus package. It’s not so long since the Victorian Government unveiled an infrastructure investment package that proudly featured a “Made in Victoria” requirement. Crikey has repeatedly asked the Department of Foreign Affairs — responsible for the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement, which specifically prevents governments from imposing such requirements where they harm US or Australian companies — if the Victorian requirements breach the AUSFTA, and they have failed to respond. Without reading too much into silence, presumably if they were clearly not in breach of the AUSFTA, DFAT would have said so quick smart.
With a big oil refining strike looming in the US with the US Steelworkers Union and Shell failing to reach agreement on a contract expiring at the end of Saturday, watch for similar developments here. Refinery operators who are members in Sydney of the CFMEU and Shell are miles Apart on a new enterprise bargaining agreement to replace the old one that expires at midnight Saturday. Some elements of the union membership want to bring on a dispute to back claims for big pay rises, others are not so sure, and prefer to remain working during the financial crisis.
Approximately 500 people have been made redundant from Cook’s Construction over the past three months all over Australia, head office’s last day is fittingly February, Friday the 13th.
The gossip is that a prominent Melbourne private school educator has just run off with the mother of a student. She’d be a she too.
I thought the Victorian State Government announced free travel today because all of the service interruptions due to the extreme weather … not Connex. This was taken at Ascot Vale station this morning (don’t you love the professionalism?):
Well, they didn’t get around to all stations, even with a handwritten sign. People weres till buying and vaildating tickets while of course the majority of us travelling on weekly/monthly/yearly tickets did not travel free today.
and no points for Connex finally extending the ‘compensation’ for not meeting their performance targets to holders of weekly tickets. Should have happened from the start.
BTW depending on you ask (or get fined by) weekly and monthly tickets can’t be used across zones on the weekend – except according tothe rules on the website which states:
Weekly Metcards allow for seven consecutive days of unlimited train, tram and bus travel within selected zones. Weekly Metcards can be used for weekend travel across Zones 1 and 2 irrespective of selected zones on tickets.
Available from: Premium Station ticket windows, train station large Metcard ticket machines, Metcard retail outlets, the MetShop, online, and the Metcard Helpline.
Wonder how many people have been fined for being inthe wrong zone ‘without a ticket’?
Will you Melbourne people stop pretending to have a sucky public transport system? Sydney wins the blue-ribbon-platinum-record-gold-medal-plate-cup-trophy hands down. Try major service disruptions every single day and inspectors who fine you for not having a ticket when you board the train at a station that doesn’t have a ticket office or vending machine. We have the b-stard love child of Kafka and Monty Python, and your pathetics attempts to out-incompetence us will come to nought!