Update 20 June 2022
Today is a momentous day when events have come together to “out” the head of the Australian Treasury as revealed here:
Dr Jim Chalmers who has his own crosses to bear
Last weekend I posted “Jim’s Apologies” as a means of breaking through the concrete barriers Kennedy helped to create. These are typical:
For keeping my mate Stephen Kennedy on at $1 million p.a after he assassinated Western Sydney for the most corrupt Libwits of all – Turnbulls, Baird, Berejiklian, Taylor, Gaetgens and Staples. The effects paralyse population redistribution, Nancy Bird airport, Aerotropolis and climate/social improvement – see other apologies. Then he wrecked the March 26 “dinner” – $60 billion error + anti-stimulus to SMEs + loan and rent balloons + pension drawdowns + apprentice layoffs +++ falsification of reporting of results and especially fighting “him
For helping Stephen to sterilise wise advise from 2015 to 2022 to proactively review infrastructure budgets to take account of climate change, demographic and migration change and unsuccessful wasteful projects, therefore denying me a proper Budget foundation, I am truly sorry
The first point is comprehensively explained in this document which became the basis of various website and corresponsence discussions
The degradation of Australian democracy has a long history, many parties and turns and twists, old flow charts and new ones even today as PM Albanese and his Ministers show difficulty in coming to grips with “integrity”. They seem to have confined it to the long-term prospect of “NSW ICAC’ while running roughshod over the values and mores of integrity RIGHT NOW! The accumulated detritus and damage caused by the LNP and RTBU precedents are growing in severity which is completely contrary to the promise to implement integrity which is defined this way:
Compare that with this forensic analysis in May 2020 of the disastrous position Morrison, Cormann and Frydenberg, with ALP appeasement, undermined the safety, health and strength of the Australian economy and social infrastructure (of heroes):
the Premiers and Chief Ministers on National Cabinet refused logical reforms.
It is repeated at the bottom of the Kennedy section to make a very real point.
What is the Rogues Gallery? it is a template for display of the qualities of the people who detracted from democracy due to inability but too much ego to allow insight (Iemma and Rees with their advisors Richmond, Chalmers and McGregor et al), malice – the metro lobby headed by Staples, and the exploitative cronyism of the Turnbulls, Morrison and Frydenberg, Angus Taylor and especially a nominal public servant but in reality an ideological mercenary Dr Stephen Kennedy, killer of Western Sydney and of the bushfire and coronavirus responses:
The purposes of this page are to try to repair offences against “rule of law” and “due diligence” protocols in major respects including treating me as a citizen instead of the LNP’s harassment and vilification; and to contribute to the avoidance of future such offences. The first subject is perhaps the most significant but under-recognised Stephen Kennedy. Here are this morning’s efforts following which is draft text which I invite comment on:
Case Study 1
| Dr Stephen Kennedy Secretary Australian Treasury 2IC in various agencies then Secretary of DITC&RD 9/2017 to 8/19 Associate: Dr Jim Chalmers, Treasurer, former advisor to then Premier Morris Iemma (see right) | Theme: receives nearly $1 million a year for no discernible positive value but disastrous distortions of policies (e.g. WS City Plan, Covid-19 compensation & “stimulus”) and Budget and Parliamentary timetables with Treasurer Frydenberg. prejudicial bias – blocked my email at first contact in 2017. Started as a nurse and Ph D in Health Economics, when appointed to this position was described by SMH’s Rodd Gittins as a noted macroeconomist. Oversaw with Gaetjens such “appointments” as failed Nev Power NCCC to “cabinet-level status” (NCCC was disestablished after my analysis was circulated) and the National Cabinet as a Cabinet Committee, both desecrations of Constitutional law and custom. WS City Deal Gave new PM Turnbull special service when I was critiquing the abysmal planning performance of the Greater Sydney Commission (consequently GSC stole my planning approach). The consequences were unprofessional and dysfunctional. When it was demolished, Turnbull got iA to do a biased report on rail planning context, also demolished. Kennedy distorted the UK City Plan model (critiqued by Prof Richard Tomlinson – “This is an extraordinary assertion of power over planning for, and infrastructure investment in, cities. It has no constitutional foundation.). Effects but also as part of wider corruption of rail planning started by Premier Iemma: Cut-off heavy rail transit connections between Illawarra to South West and West, ditto freight and Aerotropolis, with serious regional consequences and strategic bar to relocation of jobs westerly to reduce metropolitan congestionForced wasteful expenditure on unproductive metro train lines and Harbour Crossing (associated dynamics) after I pointed to the avoidable dysfunctions including sterilisation of excellent airport connectivity from a balloon loop at Badgerys Creek, following Greiner’s 2012 upgrading of the Main West to 40,000 passengers per hour both directionsPolitical pillow to soften Turnbull disgrace way beyond professional duty. The City Plan approach by-passed prudential safeguards and pre-allocated $100 million to 2 favoured consultants to prepare a PR brochure. Berejiklian had over-committed promises by more than $80 billion and scraped every possible cent from line budgets for her beloved metros, the strategic context required lowest possible risk but Kennedy went with extreme high risk. The recent iNSW SIS opted for my smaller, faster and lower risk, the metros were incompletely planning in every dimension. There is no guarantee that the City Plan was the best or even fifth best option or that the Governments and local government can plan sophisticated infrastructure and land use planning. The Grattan Institute reviewed the dreadful level of waste in Sydney and proposed that politicians be divorced from planning-to-project cycles. The City Deal was a prime example of complete stupidity. The legendary head of Infrastructure, Mike Mrdak, said publicly that if you wanted to have a good idea killed, send to the PMO (Kennedy) – kaput. Kennedy replaced him then was appointed to Treasury, where he’d worked before. Golden Boy of the worst decisionmaking governments in history. I gave Turnbull an infrastructure cycle repair approach in December 2015 and subsequently which was killed by Kennedy, the consequences are demonic. That has continued to date under the “Integrity” ALP Government. |
| Bushfire & Coronavirus Response Disgraces The 2017 bushfires made headlines around the world because PM Morrison acted like a demented goat, was accused by fire chiefs of ignoring warnings and preparations for over a year (which led to a torrent of PM deceit), and compensation went to advertising companies with victims bereft for more than two years since. The scared and disorganised PM/Treasury approach continued with Coronavirus from early 2020. After being peppered with better ideas and forthright criticisms by me (as recounted contemporaneously on websites), Frydenberg and Kennedy postponed a budget, cancelled a formal Mid-Year statutory review, deferred Parliament, cancelled 2 weeks of Parliament, snuck in a faux mid-year review and then butchered-up a budget, all because he could not face my progressive and intensifying criticisms and better options. Morrison and Frydenberg increasingly dressed up their 2020 in hallucinogenic terms: 1) they started with a sound economy; when the economy was faltering through 2019 and the need for “stimulus” was openly debated from the middle of the year 2) they acted decisively; when they dithered, made mistakes, had no plan – indeed, the three waves of “stimulus” (misnomer) came on 12, 20 and 30 March, the media not noticing the inherent confusion, but I did in real time and Frydenberg obviously panicked 3) the big tranche on 30 March was obviously disorganised; it quickly fell apart as the authors had eschewed the broader roadmap and gave appearance that there was no coherent logic to the Morrison Government’s meanderings, a characteristic of the behaviour during the bushfire and rorts imbroglios. It was $60 billion out and a corrections package had to be announced Because they refused to listen, the authors also did not refer to this analyst’s webmails to the PM, the saga set out stage-by-stage at www.sydneybetrayals.me and stimulus-stupidity.com, and the in-depth critiques of the Budget and MYEFO refusals by Morrison, Frydenberg and Kennedy to apply “budget repair” to the wider range of previous blunders, at sydneyimprovementpolitics.com. Everything that could go wrong, did. By comparison I produced a world-class adaptation of OECD principles (The Murray/Gibbons Template) which was ignored by both sides of politics and journalists., and forced Berejiklian back on malevolent boundary constrictions and “stimulus” payments that increased business failures. NCCC stole my earlier Principles of Recovery with “The more we can develop predictable, reasoned and carefully considered closure processes to lock down outbreaks as they occur, then we don’t need to fall back to what is an ultimate sledgehammer squashing an ant by closing the border completely” (Nev Power on 21 August ’20 in SMH) – he was the problem. Even now, with Kennedy there all through the chaos (notes from early 2021): there is still no recognition of community resilience in the context of “local solutions to local problems” – a combination of local cordon/s with supporting arrangements in transit pathways is likely to be effective in disease terms the “green zone” around the Murray was hit for the THIRD MAJOR TIME which should have been a last resort but which was a casual imposition, note the NSW/Vic economies there are interlinked especially through employee/job access the “national cabinet” is clearly seen, again, to be a failure: the premiers and chief ministers have acquiesced in the suppression of my work and still have “no plan”, still do not listen, and still act singly instead of collegiately with shared financial support from the Feds including quarantine (NB the crisis in nursing homes seems to have been overcome through the application of SOPs (standard operating procedures manuals) which is what the Feds should have arranged before predictable recrudescences of coronavirus as I urged from Day 1). | |
| Approx. value of negative externalities $145 billion | Notes: the Gross Regional Product of Western Sydney alone is about $170 billion so over a nominal 10 years $100 billion in lost opportunities and extra costs is about 12 percent. Before Corona intervened, the City Deal was a disproportionate brake so Kennedy can come back with a contra case if he can to $100 billion avoidable cost through a Christie/Greiner/Gibbons development of the Bradfield system the impact of malicious decisions on the Murray and Queensland borders and on the whole SME tourism and accommodation, arts and recreation sector was dramatic and is to be established through update to LG databases, maybe. The avoidance of “local resilience” methods and recourse to closedowns has been publicised as costing about $100 billion excluding waste in JobKeeper which Kennedy was responsible for (it should not have been taken over by Frydenberg). A nominal $45 billion is postulated and can be addressed by Kennedy. |
Kennedy’s role in three phases is regarded as a significant contributing factor to the mess Australia is in. I organised the response to the announcement of closure of steelmaking in Newcastle in 3 days and subsequent 3 weeks to PM and Premier. Look at the delays and confusion Kennedy caused in the comparable “managing” role:
The examples show that personal aberrances can have profound long-term costs including loss of productivity. Baird and Berejiklian showed no understanding of real-life economics beyond sloganeering. This websites is replete with examples but bring places and system together, these notes were written on 1 August 2017:
NSW already had an international record of failure of PPPs due to poor planning and deceit in traffic projections, with more than three tranches of private capital lost to investors, largely institutions; while in other places over-densification has seen low to negative returns to landowners engaged in transit-oriented developments (TODs), which affects the prospects of value capture.
That risk is seen in major parts of Sydney such as Wolli Creek, Harold Park, Parramatta Road, Erko/Ashmore, Central Park, Green Square/Alexandria, the Bankstown line, Penrith and Blacktown, the southern beaches zone including Malabar, Macarthur South, and soon one suspects the Northern Beaches Peninsula, with a lack of regard to balancing demand and supply in quantum, place and time.
Similarly there are risks in the pattern of densification that the Metro, the Planning and Transport Ministers and MTR have presaged, with community dissatisfaction and adverse health effects already seen in China, and the probability of heightened congestion on local and district roads here due to the inability of metros to carry higher passenger loads and in the directions needed by households and businesses. Global investment trends might well be less sanguine as well.
The shape of Sydney and issues associated with the cost of infrastructure have been major topics of dissent and debate in Sydney since the Second World War.
Since 1968 State bureaucracies have grappled with alternative means of “planning” Sydney’s development so that the State’s limited infrastructure budget can achieve greatest benefits. Not one significant effort was made to convince the public of the benefits of consolidation – which is the concentration of population growth within existing areas, as opposed to the expansion or sprawl of population into undeveloped areas.
In the early 1990s significant steps were taken by the then Greiner Government to impose broad urban consolidation targets on councils. Freedom was given to developers to use larger sized existing residential blocks as the basis for medium density developments (with additional concessions for ‘aged housing’), with limited grounds for councils to reject such development.
There was widespread dissatisfaction with the measures as they were seen to be crude, allowing an unreasonable degree of freedom to developers and producing local developments that residents thought were excessive in terms of scale and intrusion on privacy, views and traffic standards.
The new Carr Government reviewed the guidelines, adopted a more consultative approach where councils were required to develop residential strategies with a balance of suburban medium density and town centre higher density as suited their circumstances. The council strategies are stand-alone and not based on sub-regional or catchment bases, and therefore do not match ‘new urbanism’ thinking based on higher densities around transport nodes (as one concern).
At about the same time in Victoria the Kennett Government introduced new housing standards and requirements which gave developers significant freedom to build medium density developments through Melbourne suburbs. A popular movement called Save Our Melbourne Suburbs emerged which had a high political impact. This raised the awareness in New South Wales of the risks of over-liberalising planning rules.
In the NSW 1999 local government elections a new group called Save Our Sydney Suburbs, based on the Melbourne model, emerged and had a disproportionate influence on the outcome in areas such as Sutherland. The same elections saw anti consolidation candidates elected in Ku ring gai and other places including Blacktown, Willoughby, Hurstville, Woollahra and North Sydney, with a significantly stronger influence than the French nuclear tests at Muraroa had in the previous local government elections in 1995 (when Greens were elected in many councils). The views were well-expressed at a major Save Our Sydney Suburbs rally held in Circular Quay on 22 March 1999.
Newly elected councillors are now leading the anti consolidation movement at both State and local media levels.
The State government is committed to urban consolidation outcomes and is supporting higher density developments around a number of new railway stations and town centres. The influence of such developments on overall patterns in Sydney will be significant over time. However residential strategies are still developed on an LGA basis, without cross-border co-operation and integration, while the need for suburban medium density is still important in the popular eye – as it must be, but for how long? (The Government has listened to the Urban Task Force’s objections and may move in this regard.) Despite DUAP’s defence of its published plans, those plans have good words not data, sensible thoughts not actions.
Since 2011 a number of informal policy and commitments have been put in place which will present a challenge to any evidence-based urban strategy process, including:
- The Metro Strategy was changed from a 70:30 infill/fringe population growth split to 50:50 then back to 70:30; but fringe releases were announced in the NW and SW which will have adverse implications for congestion
- Lease-out of 49% of electricity poles and wires are expected to return $13 billion over two years or so; but incremental announcements about the acceleration of the metro train program led to commitments of up to $30 billion without a substantive examination of options and scenarios against accepted criteria
- Operational Performance Indicators have been reduced in scope and number
- Commitments have been made to introduce betterment capture but Greiner’s iNSW warnings about practical difficulties were forgotten
- Implications of decisions were not explained up-front but became apparent including forced standing on long-distance metros, no rail or low-standard suburban rail to the Badgerys SSA as well as to the KSA, closing suburban lines for up to a year each to allow re-fitting to metro standards, and questions about metro train lengths and capacities against (false) claims that metros will increase capacity.
The Association of Consulting Engineers Australia issued Sydney Towards Tomorrow – 10+ million people by 2050: how to make Greater Sydney the world’s most liveable city in 40 years, in November 2009. It pointed to a situation in Sydney that is leading “to a range of inefficiencies and lost opportunities that are less than ideal in the context of a city such as Sydney”, including:
- Poorly identified needs, visions and aims;
- Projects and outcomes of lower value delivered less efficiently;
- Negative impacts on investor confidence;
- Slowed development, diminished quality of development; and
- Short term decision making.
Berejiklian’s cant is shown in this small quote:
… renewal areas such as Green Square and Waterloo where we want to provide a greater mix of social and private housing so that our communities are mixed and cohesive. As the District grows, we need to plan upfront to support new residents with the right mix of schools, health services, community facilities, walking and cycling connections. This needs to be achieved in a way that creates safe, engaging places for everyone.
Sydney's Betrayals 
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