Can the Victorian government get any worse?

[red750]

It's about time they got on to solving nthe problems like police strikes, hospital crowding, ambulance ramping instaed of worrying about renaming 6000 places across the state. Wokism gone mad,

 

Outrage as Melbourne lake renamed Guru Nanak after Indian religious figure

 

Furious residents are up in arms after their community lake was named after an Indian religious figure without their input,

 

Berwick Springs Lake in Melbourne south-east has been renamed Guru Nanak Lake after Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of the Sikh faith. 

 

Read more here.

[facthunter]

Sikh's are OK. There's plenty worse.  We are not an ANGLO country now whether you like it or not. Do you only eat Meat pies, Steak and eggs with chips salt and tomato sauce with Beer?  Nev

[Litespeed]

For once I agree,

 

That's a shit decision but has nothing really to do with wokeness.

 

 

More pandering to a community religious grouping, which should never happen.

 

We should either rename to a traditional indigenous place name/ person or to honour a Australian that beyond reproach ie not a politician or mate.

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

We are not an ANGLO country now whether you like it or not.

That is a hard fact for those born before 1970 to come to terms with. But a fact it is. Sure, we seem to have lost the Bronzed ANZAC image, but the Nation hasn't disintegrated. 

[Jerry_Atrick]

If that is as bad as the Vic government can get, surely, it's not that bad?

 

However, I do understand the public angst... Quite what a 15th c. religiou head has to do with the lake is beyond me. May want tp provide a grant to build a shrine or something for prayer.

[facthunter]

Sikh's get persecuted in their Country. It's only big news IF you make it so..  Nev

[nomadpete]

9 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

If that is as bad as the Vic government can get, surely, it's not that bad?

Long term?

Well last time Vic was going broke, Kennet sold off every asset he could.

 

Back again going broke, but this time there isn't anything left to sell off.

 

That looks like Victoria is only slightly worse off now than they were 40 years ago.

 

They just have to stop trying to build infrastructure they can't afford.

[facthunter]

Dear Jeff left  us a situation we still. suffer from.  Growing modern cities need Rail Road Tunnels and water, sewerage  drainage works.   Labor tends to do more of that when in  and it has to be paid for.. Nev

[nomadpete]

Just now, facthunter said:

Dear Jeff left  us a situation we still. suffer from.  Growing modern cities need Rail Road Tunnels and water, sewerage  drainage works.   Labor tends to do more of that when in  and it has to be paid for.. Nev

Not arguing the importance of infrastructure.

 

But ......

Spending exceeding income always equals misery.

[facthunter]

Big items Have to be paid for when built but save over the Long term with better efficiency. It's like putting in more modern tooling or pressing on with what you have. Nev

[red750]

Massive cost blowouts leads to massive interest bills. Either their estimates were w-a-y off, or they mismanaged the whole thing. 

 

But renaming 6000 places is hardly a priority. Think of all the things where those names are used. The cost of changing all those maps, signs, documents, etc. 

[facthunter]

. When ANY Party, Groups or Individuals do good things I applaud it..Cost blowouts with tunnels are because of the unpredictable and specialised nature of the operation.. Sydney Harbour bridge The Opera House and various tunnel projects and roads in Sydney have similar problems  They have ongoing water supply and sewerage issues. as well as COST of living there with inner city Property rebuilding  costs  Sydney has one of the worlds finest Harbours but I don't see how I could afford to live there   I DID Teach and LIVE there once but in the Western Suburbs and never owned property. On a few occasions My only Transport was a Motorbike. and I was as poor as a Church mouse. Not helped by  flying clapped out Austers etc from Bankstown to finish off my Commercial. .Nev

[nomadpete]

Obviously infrastructure is a long term investment.

 

The fact that everyone expects cost blowouts on every major expenditure, shows that as Red sed, "Either their estimates were w-a-y off, or they mismanaged the whole thing. "

 

Successful builders do their contingency plans to protect themselves from all known possible unexpected blowouts. Such things as tunnel geological holdups should be reasonably scoped out by geologists. They claim they do this but are repeatedly caught out.

 

The poor track record of most government projects suggests that they consistently fail to do comprehensive professional planning and contract writing.

[facthunter]

In Inflationary situations and long projects they will ALWAYS go over budget.. On some of these projects the "Builder" goes insolvent. there are plenty of unknown unknowns. NEWS/ Views papers are not going to cover that aspect when they can spin a more SINISTER story are they? Especially when it's a Murdoch paper.   Nev

[nomadpete]

I'm not so kind, Nev.

 

In my work life I have repeatedly seen foolish contractual conditions on multi million dollar projects. In those cases, really costly over runs were due to binding contractual conditions that the business allowed a supplier to put into the deal.

 

Hindsight is one thing but falling for the same clauses in the next contract smacks of incompetance, whether it is a government or private project.

 

In these cases I don't blame merdok.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Incompetence or corruption?

[spacesailor]

One factory I worked for spent $ 5,000, 000 .yes 5 million.

Just to replace one worker at $ 30,000 PA .

you do the maths . 2 workers now doing 12 hour shifts instead of 3  worker's 8 hour shifts .

That 5mil upgrade lasted , 5 years before it was scrap'd .

Should have paid the workers more .

spacesailor

 

[nomadpete]

33 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Incompetence or corruption?

I often wondered.

There were some suspicious free trips to europe for 'product training' by engineers connected with the product selection  - operational techs didn’t get invited.

[nomadpete]

Not all my experience involved curious decisionmaking. Some was just corporate inexperience (I hope).

 

One engineer got a company award for 'on time on budget' while we ground dwellers were still frantically trying to iron out the bugs to get it all working. Then he took his wife on a trip around the world on the frequent flyer points he got from comany funded travel.

 

That was a $5 million comms project that used cutting edge unproved wonder electronics.

For a GOC.

 

Edited Saturday at 09:12 AM by nomadpete

[Jerry_Atrick]

I've mentioned it before; one one contract I did for a Vic statutory authority, we put together a RFP and tender for a complete systems overhaul. When the responses came in, we diligently graded them on technical and commercial criteria (ESG wasn't around then). Curiously, a well known German software provideer in the integrated applications space (think ERP, EAM and the like) put in a quote that was by far the most expensive and they actually didn't have the functionality to meet requierments - in other words, all new build. They were competing against well established operators in the space that were significantly cheaper. So, naturally, we put them last in the assessment. The Cheif Information Officer came down to see us, furious we didn't rate this company first. But, even as contractors, we stood our ground and were supported by our immediate management. There was no basis in which commerically and certainly technially this company were in the mix. Sensing that it  could cause him trouble if he took it further, he took off in a huff.

 

A couple of days later, ha canned the project, citing the need to cut costs. They paid out our ocntracts.

 

This firm is well known for offering lucrative consulting jobs to client executives after the implementation is completed. They are rumoured to have been done in corruption with Telstra execs, and I see on the BBC News website, they have been fined $220M in bribery charges.

 

[facthunter]

TIME wounds ALL HEELS.  Nev