The PM AND Lappy, page-36

Sypaladin, cheers!

I think Labor MPs erred in fast-tracking Bill Shorten into the top job. Tony Abbott's three word mantras are insulting to our intelligence but Shorten is unable to get much of a message across as he appears to struggle on both language and delivery. Of greater concern to me though is his failure to address Labor's vision for our future under his leadership.

The proposed East-West Link just doesn't stand up to any sort of scrutiny. It is not a solution to Melbourne's congestion problems, will require massive changes along Punt Road as well and carries huge risk with heavy volumes of vehicles stuck underground due to grid lock at connecting points or collisions.

But it's being pushed through without a business case with estimated costs of $1b per km [ie. $12b and rising] - compare that to Switzerland where tunnels even include rail and are through solid rock but cost just $200m per km [one FIFTH of what is proposed]. Having criticised Labor's NBN from one end of Australia to the other for not having first made a business plan Abbott has now backed a much less sensible and expensive project.

Sadly for us, even my Telstra mobile service is at best intermittent - that's in a large regional city like Wodonga! Our copper landline service fails whenever it rains and as recently as last Friday week; we were disconnected without notice as essential repairs were being done.