Whilst I commend and admire Victoria’s ex-Premiere Jeff Kennett for his involvement in BeyondBlue (a truly worthwhile organisation that deals with that silent but all too real plague of our times – Depression), I cannot put out of my mind the fact that he was instrumental in weakening the health services of this state during his reign.

Each day I spend in Melbourne I am reminded that the mental health services in this state have still not recovered from those times. There is a multitude of people living on the streets and in commission housing receiving nothing but a Salvation Army or Wesley Mission visit when their stretched and independently funded resources can manage it.

Unfortunately I have had first and second-hand experiences with people who have been let down by the fact that there are too few beds in mental health wards. There was one man in particular, in the early 2000s, who had to be escorted by police to a clinic to be administered his medication. Not only a waste of the cops’ time, but they weren’t trained for such duties, and their ranks were thinned by the same government that caused the mental health crisis in the first place. The man in question was the father of a close friend. He could barely care for himself, and had had a number of violent episodes, one of which may or may not have led to (more…)

I used to catch a taxi a month at most, and thought that I must be a really unlucky person to be getting all of the taxi drivers who either didn’t know their way to my destination, hadn’t showered, had no manners, or just couldn’t hide the fact that they simply hated their job.

Now that I travel weekly to Canberra and catch at least three taxis a week, I know that it wasn’t just bad luck. I even had one fall asleep at the wheel recently. My favourite though, was the one who was on a loud speaker mobile phone call when I got into the taxi and continued the conversation throughout the journey, obviously having missed my destination over the sound and taking the wrong direction to get me there when he realised and had to ask again. The conversation was not in English, but I knew enough of the lingo to know he was also taking the piss out of myself and my colleague.

At least half of the drivers I have had this year have taken a phone call whilst I have been in the cab. A few of those used loudspeaker, the rest using wired or Bluetooth headsets.

So far only one has text messaged.

Melbourne’s Taxi drivers are the worst, followed closely by Sydney (but they seem to know how to get from A to B), Adelaide’s are quite disgruntled and Canberra’s are quite nice.

I have most experience with Melbourne drivers, and of them all, only two seemed reasonably happy and were talkative beyond a grunt and “are you flying virgin or qantas?”

I had to argue with two about my destination as it was too far for them. One stopped and took off as I opened the door as my destination was not far enough away.

At least four have needed me to direct them all the way to my destination, which on two of those occasions was St Kilda, an obscure and unknown suburb of Melbourne.

This shouldn’t be accepted. Imagine the Taxi drivers in London or Tokyo behaving this way. It just wouldn’t happen.

I was going to do a breakfast review, as I go out for the first meal of the day every Saturday and Sunday unless something bad has happened to prevent me from doing so. It’s a Melbourne institution, and one I have enjoyed for as long as I can remember.

Sitting down this morning however, I was forced to endure a phenomenon that is becoming more and more common, not only in the mornings, but at any dining out experience. (more…)