The M7 Opening

This is Prime Minister John Howard with NSW Premier Morris Iemma and all the various M7 dignatories and operators. There were beams all round. It was Australia's first major clover like complex "engineering masterpiece". We're getting used to talking billions of dollars of infrastructure now. But it just keeps getting more and more costly to get around your own city; as if it was a luxury rather than a working necessity. Howard was still chipper and as upbeat as I have ever seen him.

The times will suit me, Howard once said, and perhaps it is a case that time has suited him. Unflagging courtesy. He gave his speach with professional aplomb, but with it now a grandfatherly twist. The M7, 40 kilometres of which were being opened up in one swoop, was an example of what could be achieved when Australians worked together, public private, bosses and workers. It was coming up Christmas and what was needed was a steady hand at the keel. Arrests and charges continue over the riots. We could see across the ribbons of roads to the flat hot plains, the colour draining in the heat with each minute that passed. He railed against injustice, but couldn't see the perpetrator. The Prime Minister remained in very good form. You should never leave yourself vulnerable.

Eight hundred extra police on the beaches this.year. There was absolutely no source of comfort in it. Christmas Eve. The kids are away now, visiting their mum in the Moree.