Economist.com Cities Guide: Sydney Briefing - August 2006

News this month

Staying put

John Howard, Australia's prime minister, ended speculation about his political future on July 31st, when he declared that he would contest a fifth election as party leader in the general election, due in late 2007. Liberal parliamentarians had been pressing Mr Howard to declare his intentions following an embarrassing public spat with Peter Costello, the treasurer (finance minister) and deputy party leader, over the top job.

Earlier in July, Mr Costello confirmed a press report that Mr Howard had agreed in 1994 to hand over the leadership to him after one-and-a-half terms of a Liberal government. Mr Howard, a 67-year-old Sydneysider who became prime minister in 1996, denied he had made any such arrangement. Since he has led the party to four successive victories in ten years, most Liberal members of Parliament applauded his decision to run again. A downcast Mr Costello subsequently pledged to stay on as treasurer, but added pointedly: “I don't think I will be entering into any more agreements.” Even if Mr Howard wins the 2007 election and then retires, Mr Costello will probably face challenges from ambitious colleagues.

Looking up

An interest-rate rise on August 2nd spelt bad news for Sydney's heavily indebted homeowners and rocked Mr Howard's conservative coalition government. The rise of a quarter of a percentage point, to 6%, was passed on to borrowers by Australia's main retail banks within two days. Ian Macfarlane, the central bank's governor, said the rise was needed to dampen inflationary and debt pressures.

The rise was the second this year and the third since 2004, making a mockery of Mr Howard's election pledge to “keep interest rates low”. This was a rash promise: since 1996, when Mr Macfarlane became governor, the bank has operated under a charter of independence from the government.

On August 4th the bank forecast underlying inflation over the next two years of around 3%, the high end of the range in which it wants inflation confined. It also said that household credit in June was growing at a yearly rate of almost 15%, compared with 11% at the end of 2005. Some commentators believe another rate rise is in the offing before the next election, due in late 2007.

Falling down

Hyde Park, Australia's oldest park, is a much-loved spot. Beginning as a “common” in 1810, it served as a racecourse, boxing arena and cricket pitch before evolving into today's tranquil space. So Sydneysiders were upset by news that its iconic fig trees—which form a canopy along Central Avenue between the Archibald Fountain and the Anzac war memorial—will be chopped down. On July 25th Clover Moore, Sydney's Lord Mayor, said that all 102 trees were threatened by disease and would be replaced over the next 15 years. A total of 230 sick and dying trees will be replaced in the park as a whole.

Experts have blamed poor soil quality and drainage, problems which date from the 1920s when much of Hyde Park was dug up to build the City Circle line on Sydney’s underground railway. Although most trees still look healthy, their trunks and roots are decaying from the inside. The City of Sydney council plans to spend A$37m ($28.3m) upgrading the park, renewing soil and replacing the damaged trees.

Resurrection

The rail service connecting central Sydney and the city's airport has long been dubbed the “ghost train”. Rushed into service ahead of the Olympic games in 2000, the line has struggled to attract passengers due to its high fares (A$13 one way) and haphazard timetables. Airport Link Company (ALC), the line's operator, went into receivership just six months after the service began in March 2000.

But now there are hopes that the train will spring to life. Westpac Banking Corporation, one of Australia's biggest banks, announced on July 27th that it had agreed to buy ALC from its receivers for an undisclosed price. The agreement gives Westpac the right to operate the line and its four stations until 2030. Pending regulatory approval, the deal could transform the moribund line into a money-spinner: passenger numbers at the airport, Australia's biggest, are forecast to double by 2023.

Another resurrection

When the Chauvel cinema shut down in September 2005, cinephiles bemoaned the loss of one of Sydney's few venues for independent films. Named after Charles and Elsa Chauvel, two pioneers of Australian film-making, the cinema prided itself on showing features, documentaries, classics and other films that multiplexes ignored. But like some of Sydney's bigger cinemas, it fell victim to declining patronage in an age of DVDs and home cinemas.

On July 27th, however, the Chauvel reopened under the management of Palace Cinemas, one of Australia's leading arthouse exhibitors. Under a deal struck with the City of Sydney, the local government authority from which it leases the cinema (housed in the 19th-century Paddington Town Hall), Palace has spent A$500,000 refurbishing the Chauvel's foyer, bar and two screens. The revamped venue's programme is similar to that offered by the old Chauvel.

Catch if you can

August 2006

Alberto Giacometti

August 18th-October 29th 2006

Alberto Giacometti, a Swiss-born sculptor (1901-1966), is best known for his bronze sculptures of human figures that seem to be wasting away. He worked for most of his life in Paris, where he mixed with the likes of Pablo Picasso, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. This is Australia’s first show dedicated to the artist. Edmund Capon, director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, describes Giacometti as a man who searched for “a reality beyond the physical reality, which is indeed the spirit of existentialism”.

The 79 pieces, including 35 sculptures, stretch from Giacometti's surrealist period in the early 1930s to his post-war period, when he developed the spidery statuettes. Highlights include nine bronze figures in the “Women of Venice” series and the “walking man” and “standing female” sculptures he created for the Chase Manhattan Plaza in New York.

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Rd, The Domain, Sydney. Tel: +61 (0)2 9225 1744. Admission: A$10. Open: daily, 10am-5pm. See the gallery's exhibition information.

More from the Sydney cultural calendar