Fasten your seat belts...

The Minister for Transport and the Deputy Director General of Transport for NSW, Chris Lock, attended the Public Meeting at Sydney High School on Tuesday, 15th April. Since then the Minister has refused to answer any Questions on Notice in Parliament and has refused "Freedom of Information" requests on the Light Rail Project. Chris Lock attended the Randwick Burghers Breakfast later that week and since then he disappeared in his bunker and all attempts to obtain more information have been met with the line he used at the meeting: "Alignments are still being determined - you will see surveyors in your streets".

The Government is trying to suppress any informed discussion of the Project until the EIS is released. Then it will be able to present the Project as a fait accompli and Infrastructure NSW can do what it was set up to do and rubber stamp the Project before the Public has had a chance to make an assessment of what will be happening to their City.

However there has been a Wiki Leak! Gareth and WWGB put names to the dots along Anzac Parade in their article in Wikipedia. With this information we will be able to commence an analysis of the consequences of the Project for businesses, residents and suburbs affected by the Project with all the rest of the information that is available. The consequences are dire for just about everyone in the Eastern, South Eastern, Southern and Inner-western suburbs of Sydney. As more information is released we will refine the conclusions.

So little information has been released we have to make deductions about the Government's plans. We will lay out the grounds for making these deductions so you can make your own assessments as to the validity of the arguments. Google Earth was developed in Sydney and the intellectual property rights are still in Australia. Without these rights Google would pay hardly any tax in Australia despite having 90% of the search traffic, but that is another matter. Google Earth is a magnificent facility that is available for free the every person in the world. I will be using screen shots from Google Maps, such as the one below, to develop the arguments, but you can use the facilities provided by Google to dynamically assess the validity of the arguments (or otherwise).

NIDA  / University of NSW

We live in an age where everyone has an opinion no matter how ill informed, and you can find an "Expert" to tell you anything you want to hear. It is important for every citizen to take the trouble to make up their own mind. Traditionally with the Westminster System of Government you elected someone to be fully informed and make decisions on your behalf, but the political processes in NSW have become so debased that it is a duty of citizens to follow arguments and become well informed on matters that affect them and their communities.

I came to grief downloading Google SketchUp. The site came up ahead of Google in a Google search but the warrant had expired. Mac OS X would not open the App as it was outside the security settings but a trojan escaped none the less, don't ask me how. The password of my administration login was changed, evidently by a Chinese hacker. This is remarkably easy to do - U-Tube is awash with videos showing how to do this with a few lines of java script. Mac OS X picked up that the password had been changed without using the old password, bless them, and transferred my files to a guest login, and I was able to trash the recent downloads and the virus. I had bought one of the first of the new iMac Air to reach Australia and the administration password is in firmware so only an Authorised Reseller can reset the password.

But I am back on the road and can put rubber on the road as Chris Lock is fond of saying.

"Fasten your seat belts you're in for a demolition derby."