http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/melbourne/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Bullies-in-suits-unleash-their-uniformed-henchmen/ I’d like to thank the Occupy Melbourne protesters, from the bottom of my heart. They’ve opened my eyes. It’s not about their message. I’m pretty sure I already knew about the all-too-cosy relationship between banks, corporations and the media. Hell, I was told that money was the root of all evil fairly early on at Sunday School. Nothing new there. No, they’ve shown me, through their treatment at the hands of Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, the City of Melbourne and Victoria Police, that for all the talk of freedom of political expression and peaceful demonstration in this country, if you antagonize the wrong person in authority you can expect harassment and intimidation. If you show up a puffed-up, red-faced bully, no matter the elevated position of responsibility, they’ll reach down and thump you. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Bullies-in-suits-unleash-their-uniformed-henchmen/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Bullies-in-suits-unleash-their-uniformed-henchmen/#item7322 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 The Occupy Wall Street movement’s Australian offshoots in Melbourne and Sydney were ejected from their places of gathering on Friday and Sunday respectively. There were bloody scenes in Melbourne and in Sydney protestors awoke at 5am to find themselves being dragged away by police. That’s not the biggest problem the Occupy movement is facing though, writes Lauren Rosewarne.  About five or six students from my year level at high school ended up at Melbourne Uni. Most of them I spotted in the first week or so; it took a year and a half for me to eye the only one I really wanted to see. And there he was. Mid-1999. Crouched down on a footpath, scrawling out in huge letters: “Students for Chalk”. He didn’t stick around too long after that. I was thinking about him and his postmodern protest the other day when 40-odd Occupy protestors crossed my path in Amherst, Massachusetts, where I’m currently working. One kid, probably all of nineteen, waved a giant “Fuck da Police” placard at me. A cheeky grin on his face. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-occupy-movement-needs-a-point-not-kanye-west/ The Occupy Wall Street movement’s Australian offshoots in Melbourne and Sydney were ejected from their places of gathering on Friday and Sunday respectively. There were bloody scenes in Melbourne and in Sydney protestors awoke at 5am to find themselves being dragged away by police. That’s not the biggest problem the Occupy movement is facing though, writes Lauren Rosewarne.  About five or six students from my year level at high school ended up at Melbourne Uni. Most of them I spotted in the first week or so; it took a year and a half for me to eye the only one I really wanted to see. And there he was. Mid-1999. Crouched down on a footpath, scrawling out in huge letters: “Students for Chalk”. He didn’t stick around too long after that. I was thinking about him and his postmodern protest the other day when 40-odd Occupy protestors crossed my path in Amherst, Massachusetts, where I’m currently working. One kid, probably all of nineteen, waved a giant “Fuck da Police” placard at me. A cheeky grin on his face. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-occupy-movement-needs-a-point-not-kanye-west/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-occupy-movement-needs-a-point-not-kanye-west/#item6983 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 The Occupy Wall Street movement’s Australian offshoots in Melbourne and Sydney were ejected from their places of gathering on Friday and Sunday respectively. There were bloody scenes in Melbourne and in Sydney protestors awoke at 5am to find themselves being dragged away by police. That’s not the biggest problem the Occupy movement is facing though, writes Lauren Rosewarne.  About five or six students from my year level at high school ended up at Melbourne Uni. Most of them I spotted in the first week or so; it took a year and a half for me to eye the only one I really wanted to see. And there he was. Mid-1999. Crouched down on a footpath, scrawling out in huge letters: “Students for Chalk”. He didn’t stick around too long after that. I was thinking about him and his postmodern protest the other day when 40-odd Occupy protestors crossed my path in Amherst, Massachusetts, where I’m currently working. One kid, probably all of nineteen, waved a giant “Fuck da Police” placard at me. A cheeky grin on his face. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/fear-and-loathing-on-the-pakenham-line/ In the wake of yet another tragic level crossing accident in Melbourne, a Melbourne train driver gives his perspective on the often frightening view from the driver’s seat… Express running is the worst, or running empty cars back to a depot because you are not scheduled to stop but the punters are attuned to the stopping of trains at platforms. They assume you’re going to stop and if they quickly duck under the safety barrier they can still catch your train! A couple of my fellow drivers have hit small children at level crossings. Imagine pulling the train to a stand still, getting out of the cab and being confronted with the grieving parent. One train driver even had the mother screaming at him and physically hitting him. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/fear-and-loathing-on-the-pakenham-line/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/fear-and-loathing-on-the-pakenham-line/#item6897 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 The Occupy Wall Street movement’s Australian offshoots in Melbourne and Sydney were ejected from their places of gathering on Friday and Sunday respectively. There were bloody scenes in Melbourne and in Sydney protestors awoke at 5am to find themselves being dragged away by police. That’s not the biggest problem the Occupy movement is facing though, writes Lauren Rosewarne.  About five or six students from my year level at high school ended up at Melbourne Uni. Most of them I spotted in the first week or so; it took a year and a half for me to eye the only one I really wanted to see. And there he was. Mid-1999. Crouched down on a footpath, scrawling out in huge letters: “Students for Chalk”. He didn’t stick around too long after that. I was thinking about him and his postmodern protest the other day when 40-odd Occupy protestors crossed my path in Amherst, Massachusetts, where I’m currently working. One kid, probably all of nineteen, waved a giant “Fuck da Police” placard at me. A cheeky grin on his face. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theres-nothing-more-melbourne-than-afl/ I was never really an AFL fan.  Until last year’s final I was not able to confirm with confidence if, when a ball struck the outer post, it counted as a point or not.  Yet I was surprised that the Grand Final tie did not produce as much buzz or excitement around town as I would have expected.  The city should have been brimming with football fever during the week’s interlude between matches, but instead I found most talk of ‘footy’ sneered at as almost an embarrassing interruption to the weekend.  Though I might not have been much of a fan, I always had time for the role AFL played in the city’s spirit.  Thus, almost in defence of the game’s apparent decline in popularity, I feel obliged to pay homage to this most definitive affirmation of Melbourne’s identity. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theres-nothing-more-melbourne-than-afl/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theres-nothing-more-melbourne-than-afl/#item6836 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 The Occupy Wall Street movement’s Australian offshoots in Melbourne and Sydney were ejected from their places of gathering on Friday and Sunday respectively. There were bloody scenes in Melbourne and in Sydney protestors awoke at 5am to find themselves being dragged away by police. That’s not the biggest problem the Occupy movement is facing though, writes Lauren Rosewarne.  About five or six students from my year level at high school ended up at Melbourne Uni. Most of them I spotted in the first week or so; it took a year and a half for me to eye the only one I really wanted to see. And there he was. Mid-1999. Crouched down on a footpath, scrawling out in huge letters: “Students for Chalk”. He didn’t stick around too long after that. I was thinking about him and his postmodern protest the other day when 40-odd Occupy protestors crossed my path in Amherst, Massachusetts, where I’m currently working. One kid, probably all of nineteen, waved a giant “Fuck da Police” placard at me. A cheeky grin on his face. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punch-on-open-thread-30-08-2011/ A big happy birthday to the city of Melbourne, which is the ripe old age of 176. Melbourne started as an illegal settlement in 1835. It was set up by a bunch of sheep farmers from Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen’s Land). The Governor in Sydney declared the settlers were trespassers. The town grew too quickly for him to stop it, although Sydneysiders never quite got over it. Somewhere along the way the town became the cultural capital of Australia, scored the 1956 Olympics and developed a funny way of pronouncing the word “castle”. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punch-on-open-thread-30-08-2011/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punch-on-open-thread-30-08-2011/#item6597 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 The Occupy Wall Street movement’s Australian offshoots in Melbourne and Sydney were ejected from their places of gathering on Friday and Sunday respectively. There were bloody scenes in Melbourne and in Sydney protestors awoke at 5am to find themselves being dragged away by police. That’s not the biggest problem the Occupy movement is facing though, writes Lauren Rosewarne.  About five or six students from my year level at high school ended up at Melbourne Uni. Most of them I spotted in the first week or so; it took a year and a half for me to eye the only one I really wanted to see. And there he was. Mid-1999. Crouched down on a footpath, scrawling out in huge letters: “Students for Chalk”. He didn’t stick around too long after that. I was thinking about him and his postmodern protest the other day when 40-odd Occupy protestors crossed my path in Amherst, Massachusetts, where I’m currently working. One kid, probably all of nineteen, waved a giant “Fuck da Police” placard at me. A cheeky grin on his face. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/trams-might-fly-melbourne-gets-the-jump-on-sydney/ This is the third and final piece by Penbo for the Herald Sun about what Australia really thinks of Victoria. When Melbourne hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2006 its opening ceremony was hailed as delightfully whimsical in its hometown and ridiculed as laughably provincial elsewhere. In our coverage in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph we ran a double-page spread of flying trams and Leunig ducks under the deliberately annoying headline “And the winner is…still Sydney”, an obvious reference to Juan Antonio Samaranch’s declaration of the 2000 Olympic host city and its much more majestic and ambitious opening ceremony. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/trams-might-fly-melbourne-gets-the-jump-on-sydney/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/trams-might-fly-melbourne-gets-the-jump-on-sydney/#item6359 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 The Occupy Wall Street movement’s Australian offshoots in Melbourne and Sydney were ejected from their places of gathering on Friday and Sunday respectively. There were bloody scenes in Melbourne and in Sydney protestors awoke at 5am to find themselves being dragged away by police. That’s not the biggest problem the Occupy movement is facing though, writes Lauren Rosewarne.  About five or six students from my year level at high school ended up at Melbourne Uni. Most of them I spotted in the first week or so; it took a year and a half for me to eye the only one I really wanted to see. And there he was. Mid-1999. Crouched down on a footpath, scrawling out in huge letters: “Students for Chalk”. He didn’t stick around too long after that. I was thinking about him and his postmodern protest the other day when 40-odd Occupy protestors crossed my path in Amherst, Massachusetts, where I’m currently working. One kid, probably all of nineteen, waved a giant “Fuck da Police” placard at me. A cheeky grin on his face. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-sport-that-transcends-race-class...and-humility/ This is the second instalment of Penbo’s series of columns for the Herald-Sun on what Australia really thinks of Victoria. In his first year as prime minister the rugby league-loving St George Dragons fan John Howard was the unlikely winner of the 1996 parliamentary press gallery AFL footy tipping competition. The rules required the winner to put a sizeable amount of cash on the parliamentary bar. Before a boozy throng of journos, Howard gave a terrific off-the-cuff speech which belied his league pedigree and offered some thoughtful and charitable insights into the place of Aussie Rules in our national identity. Even though Howard doesn’t care for the game – he refused to barrack for the Swans in that year’s grand final because he didn’t want to seem a bandwagon-jumper – the PM said Aussie Rules was the only football code in Australia which transcended class and ethnicity. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-sport-that-transcends-race-class...and-humility/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-sport-that-transcends-race-class...and-humility/#item6309 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 The Occupy Wall Street movement’s Australian offshoots in Melbourne and Sydney were ejected from their places of gathering on Friday and Sunday respectively. There were bloody scenes in Melbourne and in Sydney protestors awoke at 5am to find themselves being dragged away by police. That’s not the biggest problem the Occupy movement is facing though, writes Lauren Rosewarne.  About five or six students from my year level at high school ended up at Melbourne Uni. Most of them I spotted in the first week or so; it took a year and a half for me to eye the only one I really wanted to see. And there he was. Mid-1999. Crouched down on a footpath, scrawling out in huge letters: “Students for Chalk”. He didn’t stick around too long after that. I was thinking about him and his postmodern protest the other day when 40-odd Occupy protestors crossed my path in Amherst, Massachusetts, where I’m currently working. One kid, probably all of nineteen, waved a giant “Fuck da Police” placard at me. A cheeky grin on his face. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/melbourne-the-club-we-secretly-wish-we-could-join/ Like my fellow South Australians, I’m still upset about the poaching of Stephen Kernahan and John Platten, irritated about the theft of the Grand Prix and annoyed that the only body of water in Australia more fetid than the Yarra is the glorified drainpipe we call the Torrens. Despite a lifetime of hard-wired antipathy towards the Vics, I’ve been kindly invited by Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper to fill its opinion page the next four Mondays. Rather than filing ad hoc pieces on issues of the day, I’ve decided to attempt a themed series about all things Victorian, through an outsider’s eyes. My equally well-balanced Adelaideans who also have chips on both shoulders might disown me for not entitling the series Why Everyone Hates Victoria. Instead, I’ve stumped for What Australia Really Thinks About Victoria, with four pieces looking at Melbourne’s personality, the nation’s love-hate relationship with the AFL, why Melbourne has won in its rivalry with Sydney, and the 10 things which make Victoria what it is and which all Australians should know. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/melbourne-the-club-we-secretly-wish-we-could-join/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/melbourne-the-club-we-secretly-wish-we-could-join/#item6208 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 The Occupy Wall Street movement’s Australian offshoots in Melbourne and Sydney were ejected from their places of gathering on Friday and Sunday respectively. There were bloody scenes in Melbourne and in Sydney protestors awoke at 5am to find themselves being dragged away by police. That’s not the biggest problem the Occupy movement is facing though, writes Lauren Rosewarne.  About five or six students from my year level at high school ended up at Melbourne Uni. Most of them I spotted in the first week or so; it took a year and a half for me to eye the only one I really wanted to see. And there he was. Mid-1999. Crouched down on a footpath, scrawling out in huge letters: “Students for Chalk”. He didn’t stick around too long after that. I was thinking about him and his postmodern protest the other day when 40-odd Occupy protestors crossed my path in Amherst, Massachusetts, where I’m currently working. One kid, probably all of nineteen, waved a giant “Fuck da Police” placard at me. A cheeky grin on his face. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Dont-blame-the-nightclubs-blame-lunatics-on-the-streets/ Hanging upside down at the top of a pole, wearing nothing but a black G-string, the skinny, brunette dancer has no problem attracting the attention of everyone in the venue. With eight inch heels she then twirls down the pole – still upside down – to flip and finish with the splits at the bottom.  Looking around, there is not one person in sight who appears to be over-intoxicated, no one throwing punches and no one who appears to be off their face on drugs either. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Dont-blame-the-nightclubs-blame-lunatics-on-the-streets/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Dont-blame-the-nightclubs-blame-lunatics-on-the-streets/#item6197 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 The Occupy Wall Street movement’s Australian offshoots in Melbourne and Sydney were ejected from their places of gathering on Friday and Sunday respectively. There were bloody scenes in Melbourne and in Sydney protestors awoke at 5am to find themselves being dragged away by police. That’s not the biggest problem the Occupy movement is facing though, writes Lauren Rosewarne.  About five or six students from my year level at high school ended up at Melbourne Uni. Most of them I spotted in the first week or so; it took a year and a half for me to eye the only one I really wanted to see. And there he was. Mid-1999. Crouched down on a footpath, scrawling out in huge letters: “Students for Chalk”. He didn’t stick around too long after that. I was thinking about him and his postmodern protest the other day when 40-odd Occupy protestors crossed my path in Amherst, Massachusetts, where I’m currently working. One kid, probably all of nineteen, waved a giant “Fuck da Police” placard at me. A cheeky grin on his face. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/traffic-jams-no-jobs-ghettoes-blame-poor-planning/ Ask any poor wage slave trapped in rush hour traffic or crammed like a sardine into a sweltering carriage on their hour-long daily commute and my guess is you’ll find no shortage of strong opinions on Australia’s less than terrific track record in urban planning. As our major cities have grown in population over recent decades the unimaginative response of state governments has largely been to drive new housing towards our metropolitan fringes. But as many of us experience daily, on the whole they’ve done so without putting in place the economic and social infrastructure to accommodate such expansion – public transport, training and employment opportunities and access to essential community services such as childcare. piotrowskid@newsltd.com.au (Daniel Piotrowski) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/traffic-jams-no-jobs-ghettoes-blame-poor-planning/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/traffic-jams-no-jobs-ghettoes-blame-poor-planning/#item5260 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:13 +0000 The Occupy Wall Street movement’s Australian offshoots in Melbourne and Sydney were ejected from their places of gathering on Friday and Sunday respectively. There were bloody scenes in Melbourne and in Sydney protestors awoke at 5am to find themselves being dragged away by police. That’s not the biggest problem the Occupy movement is facing though, writes Lauren Rosewarne.  About five or six students from my year level at high school ended up at Melbourne Uni. Most of them I spotted in the first week or so; it took a year and a half for me to eye the only one I really wanted to see. And there he was. Mid-1999. Crouched down on a footpath, scrawling out in huge letters: “Students for Chalk”. He didn’t stick around too long after that. I was thinking about him and his postmodern protest the other day when 40-odd Occupy protestors crossed my path in Amherst, Massachusetts, where I’m currently working. One kid, probably all of nineteen, waved a giant “Fuck da Police” placard at me. A cheeky grin on his face.