New NSW Premier Nathan Rees

[Tale]

ABC 702 reports the best-known thing about his personal life is he's a keen cyclist. Promising start.

[sogood]

If he is keen, Clover Moore is keen, then we should have something to look forward to!

[Tale]

Holy crap, it gets better. He is a genuine HTFU champion A-grade cyclist: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sta ... 56859.html

Nathan Rees was an accomplished long-distance runner, known to cycle up to 1000 kilometres a week, and had finished third in a state triathlon....
..
"He was a very, very good rider, an A-level rider and very tough in the head," Smith says. "Nathan never got to the professional level but he could have, given the right circumstances and opportunities."..Smith said Rees was several times club champion at the Parramatta Cycling Club and won open events across Sydney.

Also someone comments about him in this thread: http://forums.transitions.org.au/index. ... opic=30815

Geez, I recall Nathan Rees now.

He was THE hard man of Parramatta-Holroyd cycling back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I did a lot of training with him in Parramatta Park in 1990 and 1991. He was also a 15 minute 5km track runner and did very well in duathlons - even though he did them on his road bike without tribars... I don't think he could have turned pro as a cyclist - although one of the 5 toughest athletes I've ever trained with and pretty talented he just wasn't talented enough.

[Cyclaholic]

Yeah, it's great he's a keen cyclist, but it sounds to me like he rides for sport not transport.

There's a huge difference between doing laps of Parra or Centenial parks, or driving to the meeting point on a sunday morning for a group ride on quiet semi-rural roads, and trying to make it home alive on Sydney's roads in peak hour every day.

I might get a bit more excited if he rode to/from the office at least a couple of times a week.... anyone know if he does?

[Wollemi]

Cyclaholic, surely you do not expect a person trying to (and expected to) represent the interests of almost 8 million people to cycle to the office?


From the SMH link that Tale put up; 'As a ministerial adviser he would ride from Bullaburra in the Blue Mountains, where he lived for a period, to the city'.

[sandman]

Cyclaholic, surely you do not expect a person trying to (and expected to) represent the interests of almost 8 million people to cycle to the office?


From the SMH link that Tale put up; 'As a ministerial adviser he would ride from Bullaburra in the Blue Mountains, where he lived for a period, to the city'.

Be interested to see what route he took as heading east, once you get to Parramatta it all turns to poo, well relative poo anyway.

Pete

[wombatK]

Cyclaholic, surely you do not expect a person trying to (and expected to) represent the interests of almost 8 million people to cycle to the office?'

Good enough for Della Bosca wasn't it ?

[Insomniac]

I read in today's SMH that he doesn't drive - maybe, just maybe he will be cyclist friendly. Saw him being interviewed on Stateline and I thought he came across quite well, certainly better than most of the other NSW Labour pollies, not that that's difficult.

[Cyclaholic]

Cyclaholic, surely you do not expect a person trying to (and expected to) represent the interests of almost 8 million people to cycle to the office?

Sure, why not? (or did the sarcasm go over my head? )

From the SMH link that Tale put up; 'As a ministerial adviser he would ride from Bullaburra in the Blue Mountains, where he lived for a period, to the city'.

Thanks, I missed that..... it sounds like quite a commute!

[Cyclaholic]

Be interested to see what route he took as heading east, once you get to Parramatta it all turns to poo, well relative poo anyway.

Pete

You know about the cycleway (shared path) from Parra that runs under the M4?... you can get comfortably to Rhodes pretty much off road almost all the way from Parra, but then it really turns to poo until you get to Canada Bay.

I alternate my commute between catching the train from Central to Rhodes and riding to Parra then along the railway to Canley Vale, and sometimes getting the train from Central to Tempe and following the Cooks Rivre to Homebush bay, then to Parra, etc. either way my on-road riding is absolutely minimal - call me chicken but I like getting home alive and therefore avoid Sydney roads as far as possible... anyhow, I'm getting off topic here.

[scotty72]

Reese has form.

He was the water minister who killed the proposed cyclepath on Sydney Water land through Ryde (Shrimpton's Creek).

He is a politician. He will do as the factions / polls tell him.

Don't get too dreamy

SCotty

[Kalgrm]

Why don't you guys write to him and find out what his plans for cyclists are?

Cheers,
Graeme

[mikesbytes]

http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=24902402859

[Cyclaholic]

Why don't you guys write to him and find out what his plans for cyclists are?

Cheers,
Graeme

We're not short on plans, we've had a couple launched with lots of fanfare and photo ops only to be quietly killed off with absolutely nothing in them ever implemented. I'll wait and see what actually gets implemented.

[mikesbytes]

Where does he live?

[barefoot]

Yeah, it's great he's a keen cyclist, but it sounds to me like he rides for sport not transport.

It would be pretty hard to race at a high level without putting in quite a few training hours.

So whether or not he rides to work, he's most likely had his elbows grazed by passing utes and had bottles thrown at him from fish-tailing Commodores.

Don't expect too much, but I think he'll be a whole lot more sympathetic to cyclists than most politicians.

tim

[scotty72]

Where does he live?

North Parramatta

[Boognoss]

I caught the tail-end of an interview on talk back today. He has never held a full license (got his learners a few times but never bothered to go the whole way). His fiance does drive though. Interesting I thought.

[Wollemi]

Hey Barefoot - I notice your profile box over there < says you are a Ballaratian. As a Reeslander, I can tell you that I saw on TV last year Mr Brumby emerge from the water at a major fun-swim/Bay-to-Bay event
held annually in Victoria. To his credit, he swam about 3km!

[Dial]

Its a long bumpy up hill climb to the next election so I'm not expecting anything from him until after that. He'd be a brave man to upset the rev-head bogan Labor voter.

After that its game on

[Wollemi]

Let's all go bush on the MTB this weekend and net Nathan a panther...

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/nat ... 70878.html

[wombatK]

Let's all go bush on the MTB this weekend and net Nathan a panther...

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/nat ... 70878.html

Effective if not strange way to stop us talking about the rat (dilemma) deserting the sinking ship today. Maybe snorted one or two too many fictional books while doing that lit degree . Still like the guy, but there is a limit to what kind of lunatic I'll tolerate to run the asylum.

[Wollemi]

Dear Mr Premier

Several letters in yesterday's AND today's SMH against the car race to held at Homebush Bay. With the share market in jepardy, are people going to spend to watch noisy racecars go around and around and around?

I thought we were all going green and encouraged not to burn so many fossil fuels.

Pathetic decision making there - why must we do the showy stuff instead of planning better for our hospitals and rail transport needs?

[rob e]

Dear Mr Premier

Several letters in yesterday's AND today's SMH against the car race to held at Homebush Bay. With the share market in jepardy, are people going to spend to watch noisy racecars go around and around and around?

I thought we were all going green and encouraged not to burn so many fossil fuels.

Pathetic decision making there - why must we do the showy stuff instead of planning better for our hospitals and rail transport needs?

1. yes they will. your bias is very clear......this is the same kind of small mindedness that doesnt understand the interest in the TdF or other big events. I am not a V8 Supercars fan but a hell of a lot of people are.

2. no, people will not stop having an interest in motorsport because "we" are supposedly going green. Seeing the site at homebush has far better public transport access than Eastern Creek or Bathurst the environmental foot print will be less than other venues. The true environmental impact is really bugger all and is just a small minded whinge.

3. let me guess, you were against the Olympics too? this is what Homebush is for, big events. We are not getting the Olympics back in this lifetime so its good that it will be put to use.

[Wollemi]

3. I have stated that I was against the Olympics, and I am 'sporty' myself
a) I paddled a sea-kayak over 3 months from Tweed Heads to
Townsville during the Sydney Olympics, in part to disassociate
myself from them.
b) I have previously stated on this forum the absurdity of cheering
on someone who can run or swim from here to there faster than
you or I. We had not heard of these people prior to the event.
Guess it is not dissimilar to car racing drivers.
c) We were told prior to 1993 (when Sydney was granted the right to
host the Olympics) how great it would be for the economy of the
state. Many times since, we have heard of the slow continued
growth of NSW when compared to other states.

2. It is in the premiers interest to generate debate, if not tell off the people as a whole, locally and world-wide for the absurdity of the fascination in motor-sports. Accelerated road-rage to industrial deafness to atmospheric pollution. Certainly motor-sports gave some useful innovations, such as the disc-brake, but it is likely wars contributed innovations to our lives as well.

As the dominant species on planet Earth, we should not assume a greater force over those that went before us. Here I would like to cite one of several letters in today's Sydney Morning Herald...

The decision to bring V8 street racing to Homebush Bay is wrong and unfair. The V8 crowd has been lobbying for it because the venue is "under-utilised". For them maybe, but what about everyone else?

Even if no one went to Sydney Olympic Park, it is used by birds and animals whose habitat it is. The wetlands, mangroves and bushland left there are a jewel in Sydney's crown.

There are birds at Homebush Bay that you cannot see anywhere else in Sydney. For migratory waders that come from Siberia, the Arctic, Asia and North America each summer, this is where they come to as they fly 26,000 kilometres across the world. There is no choice for them to move to Eastern Creek.

There are only five or six white-fronted chats left in Sydney, and they are hanging on at Olympic Park. The white-bellied sea eagle is also nesting there, one of only two known Sydney locations.

It is ridiculous that greedy corporations and TV executives, who think Homebush Bay would make a nice backdrop, always get their way. Most have no concept of the damage they are doing, nor of the environment they are encroaching upon.

1. Oh, man - I just love the TdF. Such a colourful spectacle through medieval European villages. Man as machine. Not mechanics maxed out.


The letters editor of the SMH reminds the reader in their Saturday summation, letters reflect the general voice of letters overall. Here are excerpts from two letters in yesterday's SMH.

a. No money to support the computers in schools program, but $90 million can be found to stage a motor race that is waning in popularity, is environmentally questionable, is not suitable for a suburban area and is not wanted by the Olympic Park Authority or local residents. What makes this worse is that there already is a facility at Eastern Creek which will lay idle if this proposal goes ahead. The people do not want circuses, they want services that work. Mr Rees, you have no right to commit such vast sums of taxpayers' money on such flippancy.

b. Since when did NSW have $90 million to spare to subsidise a wretched car race? I thought we were just about broke. What mandate does Nathan Rees have to approve (in principle) the use of Olympic Park over Eastern Creek for such an event, when everyone else is up in arms about it apart from the V8 Supercars people, and presumably Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid? And as for the projected removal of 500 established trees to accommodate this nonsense, words fail me.