Men behaving badly

'The men with $30 million to spend on a big opener' (29/2) reveals the gross extravagance with Victorian taxpayers' money by the "men" running the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Also sickening is that the contract for opening and closing ceremonies has gone to an American "Emmy award-winning" company.

Nigel Jamieson's language is reminiscent of the role men are playing in determining the appropriation of economic resources for this event. Describing the Games as a "singularly massive undertaking like a military operation" doesn't sound like entertainment to me.

This open-handed largesse with our money is not only a billion-dollar blow-out in the Games budget comes when the Bracks Government is rejecting the pay claims of teachers and nurses.
Kirsten Holt, North Melbourne

Brunswick black spot

The revelation in 'Countdown to the Games' (29/2) that a new access road for the Games village site is planned and will disgorge traffic directly onto Brunswick Road at the exit and entry points of the City Link/Tullamarine Freeway might shock some residents of the northern suburbs.

This arrangement will be in place until 2006 and during the Games. Afterwards, the access road will serve the 4000 or so residents of this "new suburb", one of the biggest private property developments ever in inner Melbourne. Residents there will be entirely car-dependent because of the absence of handy public transport.

It is not hard to imagine the traffic chaos on one of Melbourne's major arterial routes. New traffic lights will jam up the flow even further. While the mayors of Moreland and Moonee Valley are busy minimising the problems, it is clear that this intersection will be a black spot.
Geoff Pollard, Brunswick

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/06/1078464693475.html