Economist.com Cities Guide: Sydney Briefing - July 2005

News this month

The right track

Sydney's railway system is to undergo its biggest expansion since the 1930s. On June 9th Bob Carr, state premier of New South Wales, announced plans to spend A$8 billion ($6 billion) expanding the system over the next 15 years. The project's showpiece, scheduled to open in 2018, will be a new subway line beneath Sydney's central business district (with a new station at The Rocks), continuing below Sydney Harbour and finishing in the northern suburbs. Two further lines will extend the railway into Sydney's vast suburbia.

The scheme follows years of piecemeal development that has failed to keep pace with Sydney's rapid population growth. Mr Carr's announcement caught many by surprise, including the Sydney Morning Herald, the city’s leading newspaper, which has been calling for a strategy to fix Sydney’s water, power and transport systems—all of which are under stress.

A warmer welcome

Australia's policy towards asylum-seekers is showing signs of softening. John Howard, the prime minister, announced on June 17th that families with children will no longer be detained while the government reviews their cases, and that decisions on asylum applications, which can drag on interminably, will speed up. Mr Howard's change of heart came after pressure from rebels in his own Liberal party, who had threatened to introduce reformist legislation unless the prime minister eased the trauma for detainees (some of whom have been incarcerated for years).

Australia is holding about 900 asylum-seekers in six detention centres, almost half at the Villawood centre in Sydney. The immigration service has come under increasing pressure over the past few months. Mick Palmer, a former head of Australia’s federal police force, is conducting an inquiry after a series of scandals in which officials wrongfully detained—and, in one case, deported—suspected illegal immigrants who turned out to be Australian citizens.

The wisdom of Solomon

Australia's largest telecoms company got a new chief executive in June. Solomon Trujillo, a 53-year-old American, was appointed to run Telstra. His previous jobs include running US West, an American regional operator, and Orange, a French-owned mobile telecoms provider. His new job is regarded as Australia's toughest corporate challenge. Telstra's core fixed-line business is suffering, and it faces stiff competition in the mobile and broadband markets.

Most importantly, Mr Trujillo needs to prepare Telstra—once entirely state-owned—for the eventual sale of the remaining 51.8% share owned by Australia’s federal government. The estimated A$33 billion ($25 billion) stockmarket float will be the biggest in Australian history (it is unlikely to happen before 2006). This is the third stage of the company's full privatisation, which started in 1997. Since then, the process has been hindered by political resistance, and the company's share price is languishing. Still, John Howard's government remains committed to its plan. Because it gained control of both houses of parliament in last October's federal election, it faces no further obstruction.

To the rescue

Douglas Wood, an Australian hostage in Iraq, was freed on June 15th after being held by insurgents for 47 days. Mystery surrounds the exact circumstances of the 63-year-old engineer's release. The Australian government said he was freed in a raid by Iraqi and American troops on a house in Baghdad, where he and another hostage were held captive.

The rescue operation was challenged by a leader of Sydney's large Muslim community. Sheikh Taj el-Din Al Hilaly, a Mufti employed by the Sydney-based Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, flew to Iraq in early May to negotiate Mr Wood's release. In an interview broadcast on June 19th, Sheikh Al Hilaly said he had been on the verge of success before the rescue operation took place. He claimed that Mr Wood’s captors were unarmed and awaiting a pre-arranged handover when they were raided.

Time for a showdown

Sydney could become the flashpoint in a battle between Australia’s six state governments and the federal government over reforms to the country’s labour relations system. Each state currently sets its own policy, but Mr Howard plans to use his conservative coalition government's majority in both houses of parliament to ease the regulation of worker contracts. Business leaders have welcomed the reforms. But the state governments, all controlled by the opposition Labor party, have vowed to fight the plan.

The lead has come from Bob Carr, the Sydney-based premier of New South Wales, Australia’s oldest and most populous state. Mr Carr has said New South Wales may mount a constitutional challenge in the High Court if Mr Howard persists. The states see Mr Howard's move as a further attempt to erode trade union power, even though only about one-fifth of Australia’s workers are now covered by union “awards”, or working agreements.

Catch if you can

July 2005

“Boomerang”

July 15th-August 6th 2005

An acclaimed indigenous dance company returns to Australia to give its first performances at home since winning accolades in New York and Washington, DC. Under the direction of Stephen Page, a choreographer, the Bangarra Dance Theatre has become more than a showcase for the vibrancy of Australia’s aboriginal culture: it is now among the country’s leading companies.
Inspired by the legends of north-west Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, this new work draws on the ancient and modern themes driving—and sometimes dividing—indigenous culture.

Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney. Tel: +61 (02) 9250 7777. Performances: Tues-Sat 8pm (Sat 2pm also). Admission: A$52. See Bangarra's website.

More from the Sydney cultural calendar