Australian news and politics.

[tsf]

mmmmmmmm

 

[Football us life]

large parts of NSW became a middle eastern crime shithole under libs

Vic is nowhere near that

Yeah, there’s a fair bit of truth in that.

And the problems Melbourne and Victoria are actually dealing with are the same problems everywhere else...

The high state debt, housing supply and affordability, youth crime and organised crime groups, and the bottlenecks in infrastructure delivery and the visible disorder is sues tend to be structural and long-running.

They don’t lend themselves to quick political fixes from either side.

Both major parties tend to manage symptoms rather than dig into root causes.

The way politics in Australia currently operates just isn’t set up to deliver the harder, longer-term changes needed. Maybe because each 'fix' carries political costs.

 

[LFC]

large parts of NSW became a middle eastern crime shithole under libs

Vic is nowhere near that

large parts NSW ?
You mean Western Syd is large and it no matter the party in that’s the whole immigration big picture scenario.
I beg to differ, Melb cbd has caught up very well post covid.

 

[LFC]

I know it's fashionable to bash Melbourne but it’s not completely gone to shit — the last time I was there, I thought well, the food, coffee, and especially the cultural stuff are still strong — but I did think some of the fundamentals felt a bit off....

The visible side, there seems more people sleeping rough, rubbish building up in parts of the CBD and inner suburbs, trains and stations feeling a bit less ordered....

But the cultural side still has real energy.

Music venues, galleries, theatre, the food scene, festivals.....that part of Melbourne hasn’t collapsed. You can still find proper late-night gigs, strong independent art, and restaurants that punch well above their weight. All sorts of people might be upping sticks and fucking off but lots of the creative class is still around and still producing.

For instance I like jazz and thw jazz scene in Melbourne is as good as anywhere....

It's easy for me to say mind!

As a visitor you can drop in, catch some good jazz, eat well, and leave before the daily friction starts grinding. The culture is still delivering for short stays. It’s the people who live there full-time who feel the weight of the housing pressure, the safety issues, the general sense that basic competence has slipped.Every city has its rough edges. The difference is usually in the trajectory — whether the problems are being managed, ignored, or actively getting worse

But to be fair, that's the same for any major city.....

Some places just hide it better or deal with it more effectively!

Hum, like I asked about your USA summary/observations how often you frequent Melb ?
I have been a regular visitor for years.
10min times a year.
I have enjoyed copious nights of entertainment and dining - from finest to street food.
The city has/had always had its "own" great vibe yes as you've mentioned every major city does, I frequent them all here in Oz.

Hello, the CBD is nothing like it was pre covid - sure it still ticks over has to.
Countless small biz have closed.
Over the past five years, tens of thousands of Victorian businesses have suffered distress or closed, highlighted by a sharp 48% spike to 4,242 corporate insolvencies in Victoria during the 2024–25 financial year alone. While exact figures isolated exclusively to Melbourne city small-business closures are part of broader state data, national surveys show nearly 30% of small business owners worry about closing.
Some areas are baron what they once were.
I hardly used to care which street I walked pissed back to my hotel - nowadays you watch your back heaps, the small gangs around late, yep countless homeless thats very sad.
More than in Syd CBD.
Mind you that’s cities today but it ain't anywhere as it was pre covid.

I like visiting believe me, infact I have 3 trips scheduled next 2mths - but its not the same never is in time.

 

[Football us life]

Hum, like I asked about your USA summary/observations how often you frequent Melb ?
I have been a regular visitor for years.
10min times a year.
I have enjoyed copious nights of entertainment and dining - from finest to street food.
The city has/had always had its "own" great vibe yes as you've mentioned every major city does, I frequent them all here in Oz.

Hello, the CBD is nothing like it was pre covid - sure it still ticks over has to.
Countless small biz have closed.
Over the past five years, tens of thousands of Victorian businesses have suffered distress or closed, highlighted by a sharp 48% spike to 4,242 corporate insolvencies in Victoria during the 2024–25 financial year alone. While exact figures isolated exclusively to Melbourne city small-business closures are part of broader state data, national surveys show nearly 30% of small business owners worry about closing.
Some areas are baron what they once were.
I hardly used to care which street I walked pissed back to my hotel - nowadays you watch your back heaps, the small gangs around late, yep countless homeless thats very sad.
More than in Syd CBD.
Mind you that’s cities today but it ain't anywhere as it was pre covid.

I like visiting believe me, infact I have 3 trips scheduled next 2mths - but its not the same never is in time.

Yeah......but it's still in Australia isn't it?

It's not like a Beirut.....its not like a Mogadishu!!

It’s not a failed city. It still functions. You can walk most areas, catch a train, go out for dinner or a gig, and leave without any major drama.

The institutions, the rule of law, the basic infrastructure, and the day-to-day order are still in a completely different category from places that have actually collapsed.

That’s the useful distinction. “Worse than it used to be” and “actually dangerous or dysfunctional” are not the same thing. Melbourne is in the first category for a lot of regular visitors.

It’s still a great city in a great country!!

 

[tsf]

large parts NSW ?
You mean Western Syd is large and it no matter the party in that’s the whole immigration big picture scenario.
I beg to differ, Melb cbd has caught up very well post covid.

Yes that is a large part of NSW

Melbourne cbd is a ghost town. But that’s due to shitty landlords and lots of factors around transport etc rather than crime.

 

[Football us life]

London another big city many of us will probably know well has clear problems....

There's a lot of knife and drug crime in certain areas, more visible street disorder than a decade or two ago, and pockets where you do have to stay more alert at night. You could cherry-pick a plethora of issues that are happening.

Plenty of people who live there or visit regularly will notice the change. At the same time it remains one of the most culturally dense, economically powerful, and interesting cities on the planet. The history, the theatre, the food, the museums, the sheer variety of neighbourhoods and their street life still deliver strongly for a lot of people.

That’s the same trade-off many will make with Melbourne. The decline from its own recent past is noticeable (especially to regular visitors who remember a cleaner, more ordered CBD), but it hasn’t crossed into the territory where the cultural upside stops being worth it for everyone. Different cities and different people just have different thresholds and different types of friction.

 

[LFC]

Yeah......but it's still in Australia isn't it?

It's not like a Beirut.....its not like a Mogadishu!!

It’s not a failed city. It still functions. You can walk most areas, catch a train, go out for dinner or a gig, and leave without any major drama.

The institutions, the rule of law, the basic infrastructure, and the day-to-day order are still in a completely different category from places that have actually collapsed.

That’s the useful distinction. “Worse than it used to be” and “actually dangerous or dysfunctional” are not the same thing. Melbourne is in the first category for a lot of regular visitors.

It’s still a great city in a great country!!

talking Oz.
Other end of the scale Beirut and just doesn't apply talking home moot.
Past/present - future yet to be written
I said it all keeps ticking over Has to that’s cities.
I also said times change, sure we still enjoy freedom/infrastructures but it changes the institutions as said, (past/present) - we have OTT rules/laws that’s besides the point but its has contributed greatly changing our landscape and day to day life.
We have top cities in a good country, not great (was in the past/now present) though still better than many others.
You posted before I could respond sooner, dam work interruptions.

F u l - see TSF's response re Melb CBD, thats where I'm coming from.
Ghost town - see you got to see it regularly to get the feel and even being a casual visitor today you'd whats the big deal about here.
Thanks TSF, a real shame for I have enjoyed Melb CBD countless times pre covid.
Still will today but its just not the same and as mentioned - you can't trust whos hanging around the streets now more than ever.

Do wish for my brief review of your beloved Brizvegas haha
Couldn't be bothered, try hard hick town catching up to the 2000's finally - its getting there but keep paying the southern states exxy brekkys mate lol.....

 

[Football us life]

talking Oz.
Other end of the scale Beirut and just doesn't apply talking home moot.
Past/present - future yet to be written
I said it all keeps ticking over Has to that’s cities.
I also said times change, sure we still enjoy freedom/infrastructures but it changes the institutions as said, (past/present) - we have OTT rules/laws that’s besides the point but its has contributed greatly changing our landscape and day to day life.
We have top cities in a good country, not great (was in the past/now present) though still better than many others.
You posted before I could respond sooner, dam work interruptions.

F u l - see TSF's response re Melb CBD, thats where I'm coming from.
Ghost town - see you got to see it regularly to get the feel and even being a casual visitor today you'd whats the big deal about here.
Thanks TSF, a real shame for I have enjoyed Melb CBD countless times pre covid.
Still will today but its just not the same and as mentioned - you can't trust whos hanging around the streets now more than ever.

Do wish for my brief review of your beloved Brizvegas haha
Couldn't be bothered, try hard hick town catching up to the 2000's finally - its getting there but keep paying the southern states exxy brekkys mate lol.....

Yeah....Eh??

 

[LFC]

Yes that is a large part of NSW

Melbourne cbd is a ghost town. But that’s due to shitty landlords and lots of factors around transport etc rather than crime.

well NSW does cover the whole State so I took it that way originally.
Hey no argument from me re can I say, the Leb types, drug lords I hear you.
I keep well away from those those burbs.

Rather than crime Melb ? - I seem to recall the countless ram raids of 711/illicit tobacco trading type of estabs the last year or so, the fires - due to crime syndicates hassling their tenants, in some case's forcing them out broke.
I know this happens everywhere not just there.

 

[LFC]

Yeah....Eh??

trust me - I luv youse all even where your from haha

 

[Football us life]

well NSW does cover the whole State so I took it that way originally.
Hey no argument from me re can I say, the Leb types, drug lords I hear you.
I keep well away from those those burbs.

Rather than crime Melb ? - I seem to recall the countless ram raids of 711/illicit tobacco trading type of estabs the last year or so, the fires - due to crime syndicates hassling their tenants, in some case's forcing them out broke.
I know this happens everywhere not just there.

Been happening around my way...Brisbane bayside/eastern suburbs.

Normally a tobacco shop will open and then the bikies will start hassling them, standing over shops, demanding protection money, forcing them to sell illegal product, or just firebombing rivals and non-compliant operators. There have been dozens of arson attacks, raids seizing tens of millions of cigarettes, and repeated efforts by the authorities to shut places down.....

Next.week they open somewhere else.

Illicit tobacco shops have become a major organised-crime playground. High margins, relatively lower risk than drugs in some ways.

 

[LFC]

Been happening around my way...Brisbane bayside/eastern suburbs.

Normally a tobacco shop will open and then the bikies will start hassling them, standing over shops, demanding protection money, forcing them to sell illegal product, or just firebombing rivals and non-compliant operators. There have been dozens of arson attacks, raids seizing tens of millions of cigarettes, and repeated efforts by the authorities to shut places down.....

Next.week they open somewhere else.

Illicit tobacco shops have become a major organised-crime playground. High margins, relatively lower risk than drugs in some ways.

bit different to the 70/80's days of Fortitude Valley lol.......
Bikies have moved with the times lol and Joh/Hinze used to get their kickbacks and turn the eye.

 

[Football us life]

bit different to the 70/80's days of Fortitude Valley lol.......
Bikies have moved with the times lol and Joh/Hinze used to get their kickbacks and turn the eye.

I'm afraid Fortitude Valley has been well and truly scrubbed for the mainstream....

It feels less like a living, breathing redlight district and more like an open-air mall with a sanitised nightlife permit attached.

 

[LFC]

I'm afraid Fortitude Valley has been well and truly scrubbed for the mainstream....

It feels less like a living, breathing redlight district and more like an open-air mall with a sanitised nightlife permit attached.

they done the same to legendary Kingscross.
It is polar opposites what it once was.

 

[HonestSpursFan]

large parts of NSW became a middle eastern crime shithole under libs

Actually no, they got better. Look at how much development came through places like Liverpool and even Blacktown. If you mean Bankstown, it’s always been a crime shithole.

Vic is nowhere near that

There’s far less Middle Eastern immigration to Melbourne than there is to Sydney. Melbourne has African gangs instead, is that really much better? Anyway, immigration is a very serious issue, but it’s a federal one.

 

[HonestSpursFan]

FWIW I don't know who I would vote for - most likely none of the major parties

Well given the two major minor parties are the Greens and One Nation, you’re kinda fucked.

 

[JS96]

Actually no, they got better. Look at how much development came through places like Liverpool.

If you mean Bankstown, it’s always been a crime shithole.

Sydney got the ME, Melbourne got Africa. Remember when it was denied that crime gangs existed but we've seen a more machete fights, shop bombings and murders moving ever more public in broad daylight?

 

[HonestSpursFan]

they done the same to legendary Kingscross.
It is polar opposites what it once was.

The lockout laws in Kings Cross are over now and have been since 2019 but they were put in place cause of the murders that were happening. Did they go too far? You could argue so. But people literally died in Kings Cross, and while it hurt businesses there it helped ones elsewhere.

 

[HonestSpursFan]

Sydney got the ME, Melbourne got Africa. Remember when it was denied that crime gangs existed but we've seen a more machete fights, shop bombings and murders moving ever more public in broad daylight?

Funnily enough I just added that to my reply lol. But yeah, I don’t really care who’s doing the crime, I just want it to stop. Saying “Sydney is a crime shithole because of the Arab gangs” is like the pot calling the kettle black given that Melbourne has Sub-Saharan African gangs.