The coffee is good, but Federation Square needs to be fixed – those are the first takeaways from former New York mayor Bill de Blasio and world-leading city planner Carlos Moreno after hitting Melbourne’s sunny pavements.
The two international authorities on urban growth are keynote speakers at the Melbourne Assembly civic forum at Federation Square this week and got their first look at the city on Monday. While they spotted room for improvement, they still liked what they saw.
De Blasio had his first Melbourne coffee, in the form of a flat white at Duke’s in Flinders Lane which he described as “excellent but not unprecedented”. He said it reminded him of the coffee in Italy.
Urban planning expert Moreno, noted for his 15-minute city concept, described the Yarra River as beautiful, but Federation Square drew mixed reviews from the pair for its lack of shade and greenery.
“This seems a little severe, a little too modern, a little cold,” de Blasio said.
Moreno observed Federation Square would be improved with some water or a fountain.
“We want a contract to fix this square,” de Blasio joked. “This is going to be one of those home fix-up shows, Carlos and Bill will fix your civic space.”
The pair toured St Kilda, the Docklands, the Botanic Gardens and Degraves Street, finishing at the Town Hall, outside the newly revamped City Square. They thought the City Square might need a little more work too, expressing concerns about the digital artwork that replaced the Mockridge fountain.
“Why?” Moreno asked.
Ben Carroll intervenes in messy Labor factional drama
In a year when a sitting premier was rolled, one would think the intense factional manoeuvring to replace Jacinta Allan would be the wildest internal drama Victorian Labor could cook up in 2026.
Not so, say some parts of the party who argue the effort to nominate upper house candidates for the November state election was actually more bonkers and resulted in Ben Carroll having to intervene to settle the ructions.
A quick recap. The ticket for Victoria’s upper house is usually sorted months out from the election, but it wasn’t settled by Labor until Friday.
A key issue was the prized No.1 spot for each Victorian region. In an election year in which Labor’s primary vote is low by its standards, not many people want to be second fiddle.
The Socialist Left, who have the majority in the party but at times have their own internal dramas, were united in wanting more No.1 spots, and it was agreed things would be divided evenly – four for the Left and four for the Right.
But it took months to negotiate. It was eventually decided the Left would be top of the ticket in Western Victoria, but the second region was very much undecided as recently as Thursday night, hours before the ALP national executive was due to meet on Friday.
All that was known was that either Southern Metro, currently topped by John Berger, was in play or North East Metro, which is being vacated by outgoing upper house president Shaun Leane.
Some in the Right just wanted North East Metro to go to the Left, but the spot is meant to be controlled by plumbers union boss Earl Setches, who was pushing his own candidate, James Gan.
Things were so uncertain that Ryan Batchelor, of the Left, nominated for both seats as a precaution!
Merri-Bek councillor Lambros Tapinos nominated against MP Tom McIntosh for Northern Metro, and Gan nominated for Southern Metro, against Berger.
Late on Thursday, the premier intervened. In a letter provided to the national executive, Carroll asked that incumbent members be protected in cases where consensus can’t be reached.
In plain language, don’t roll sitting MPs like Berger and McIntosh if the vote is close. Doesn’t hurt that they also come from Carroll’s Right grouping.
While some Labor Party figures didn’t appreciate the premier’s interference, it may have helped because there was peace in our time when the candidates were decided, with Berger and McIntosh holding their spots.
Batchelor is now the No.1 candidate for North Eastern Metro, with Kate Maxfield to run in Western Victoria after running for Labor in the seat of Morwell in 2022.
The end result, Labor finally has its upper house candidates but has left the experience bruised internally.
Buckley’s private prosecution struck out
The latest chapter in the legal to-ing and fro-ing between former couple Sean Buckley and Jennifer Cruz Cole has played out quietly in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.
On Monday five charges against Cole of alleged blackmail were struck out.
In an unusual twist, Buckley, the executive chairman of automotive servicing and repair business Ultra Tune, had taken the novel approach of laying criminal charges as part of a private prosecution against his former partner and mother of his child.
The alleged incidents, according to the charges, occurred in various locations between October 2019 and December 2020.
Cole, a former Ultra Tune “rubber girl” model, was served with the charges on April 12.
A private prosecution allows ordinary citizens to bring criminal charges before the court, as opposed to authorities like Victoria Police or the Office of Public Prosecutions doing so.
In this case, the OPP took over the prosecution and then decided against proceeding, after which the court ordered Buckley to cover the cost of the proceedings.
Buckley and Cole, who dated between 2017 and 2020, before their relationship ended acrimoniously, have a history of legal disputes.
CBD reached out to them both for comment, but is yet to hear back.
