I’d like to begin this post with a short quote from an episode of the cartoon, Futurama:

That 80s Guy: Gutsy question. You’re a shark. Sharks are winners and they don’t look back ’cause they don’t have necks. Necks are for sheep.

Today the Victorian Treasurer Michael O’Brien has demonstrated that he’s clearly a shark and is not willing to turn back from contract negotiations. And by turn back, he means of course, to take more time. No no, we wouldn’t want to take our time negotiating a $9 billion project. That’s sheep thinking.

In an article in The Age, (East-West Link Slowdown Looms, August 1 2013), Josh Gordon reports that the Napthine Government is looking at new laws that would prevent industrial action on the tollroad. He also reports that under the terms of the public private partnership  – the same one that’s currently preventing closer scrutiny of the cost-benefit analysis for the project – taxpayers will bear the cost of any industrial action.

The show rolls on.