Keating people should remember after losing in 96 got involved with Frank Lowy’s Westfield approval at Bondi Junction. A development I voted against as a local councilor. Why? because it’s a regional size facility in a sub regional location. Which can only suck economic life out of all the village style strip shops from the rich burbs to the north to the struggling ones in the south east.

And that’s what has happened. Even breaking Double Bay’s general viability, but not just. As you say somethings never change. It’s looking increasingly like Frank sold his soul for instance to shoe in the Port Botany expansion complete with super tankers services - check this story: The Mega Containers Invade - WSJ.com http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123292489602813689.html 26 Jan 2009.

Then afterwards he didn’t even get the pay off - the devilish ALP are like that. They screwed Frank and then they tossed him aside anyway. When he tried to rebuild his credibility it was too late, they knew he was tainted goods. Their polling showed it.

As for the giant container ships with dredging in Botany, and Port Phillip Bay. All that grief and then with the recession arriving:

“Shippers are eager to avoid partially filled vessels at almost any cost. “To fill their big boats, these guys will cut their price to any level for customers,” said Dirk Visser, an analyst at Dynamar NV, a Dutch consultancy.

“With overcapacity and a drop in trade, the bottom recently fell out on shipping rates. The rate for shipping a container from Asia to Europe, the world’s busiest trade lane, has fallen to around $300, one-tenth the cost of a year ago, even as some shippers cancel regular runs. Some ships have gone so far as to take containers free. The only cost to the shipper is roughly $500 in fuel and transit fees, which are assessed on all containers.”