Unlike many of my peers, I didn't have to beg my mother to have my ears pierced.

At the tender age of five, I was taken one Friday night to the local shopping centre, whereupon two nice ladies at the chemist kindly performed the "double gun" approach on my kindy-aged earlobes.

At 12, I decided it was time for a second go and, once again, mum was unperturbed. Contrast this to some of my friends who had to beg, bargain or bribe their parents, or, in an even riskier move, don't ask permission and just apologise later, hoping their parents didn't make them remove the "safety" studs they make you wear for the first six weeks.

Ask around and many women (and a few men) will have a story about how they got their ears pierced, as well as some graphic recollections of their first ear piercing infection (supposedly getting them done with a needle was considered safer in this regard but also way more scary/badass).

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Of course, there are many women, including some of my friends, for whom getting their ears pierced was never a rite of passage. Either they weren't keen or their parents were so strict they never bothered asking. "When you're 18," was so common a cry in the kitchens of some of my friends that many of them came of age and just never bothered (although some of those same friends wasted no time running to get their first tattoo. Different strokes, I guess).

The good news off the back of last week's Fashion Week Australia, as well as overseas catwalks is that not having your ears pierced is no barrier to rocking some fine ear bling, such is the trend for ear cuffs this summer. Already we are seeing them on the red carpet: Taylor Swift wore one to the Billboard Music Awards; and model Anja Rubik sported one less than a week ago in Cannes.

Jeanette Maree, who worked on the Thurley runway, says although those designs were more intended as show pieces for the runway, ear cuffs are becoming popular with bridesmaids.

From delicate fine hoops to intricate floral pieces, there is a cuff for all tastes and budgets. But despite its size relative to the rest of your outfit, it is a trend that takes a little styling, and a lot of confidence, to rock.

So, how do you do it? Jackie Damelian, creative director of Jackie Mack Designs, says it's all about balance.

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"Small earlobes look best with fewer pieces of jewellery," she says. "Larger earlobes can get away with more than two pieces."

To achieve a subtle, cohesive look, Damelian suggests a "huggie" with a dangling piece, followed by a flat stud, and a touch of sparkle with a dainty ear cuff.

Hair styling is particularly important when choosing an ear cuff as there's no point in wearing one if no one can see it, right?

Damelian likes how The Voice's Kelly Rowland has styled her hair with many piercings by creating a hairstyle that frames the face. "Create volume and sweep hair to one side," she says.

Get the look

Make an ear cuff pop with a subtle high neck or a sexy blazer.

Stockists

Camilla and Marc: camillaandmarc.com

MATCHESFASHION.COM: matchesfashion.com

Cue: cue.cc

Luxe Deluxe: luxe-deluxe.com

Jackie Mack Designs: jackiemackdesigns.com

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Brad Fittler will wait until early in camp before outlining a plan for Tyson Frizell's return to the training paddock as a heavy concussion for the Dragons enforcer added one final dramatic twist to his nightmare State of Origin selection.

Fittler pinned his faith in embattled halfback Nathan Cleary to lead the Blues at Suncorp Stadium after naming five rookies for the series opener next month.

Fittler had already lost halves certainty Luke Keary to concussion only 48 hours earlier and dashed to the St George Illawarra sheds at half-time of their 22-9 loss to the Sharks at WIN Stadium on Sunday after Frizell was involved in a sickening head clash with ex-teammate Josh Dugan.

"I went down and talked to Friz at half-time and he wanted to go back on," Fittler said. "He had that silly smile on his face and I didn’t know if he was talking to me. I think he’s OK. We’ll just follow protocol and I’m not sure when he can train. But we’ll work that out [at the start of the week]."

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It was just another blow for Fittler after a horror injury weekend as he lost a slew of halves contenders fell by the wayside.

Cody Walker will partner Cleary in the halves while Nick Cotric, Payne Haas, Jack Wighton and Cameron Murray will all make their NSW debuts – just a year after Fittler blooded a record 11 players in the opening game of last year's series.

Mitchell Pearce (groin) and Adam Reynolds (leg) were injured during the weekend's round and Fittler acknowledged Reynolds' leg problem on Saturday night finally tipped the halfback scales in Cleary's favour.

Reynolds was cleared of a lower leg fracture on Sunday.

"I wanted to pick Nathan – I wanted to pick all the team from last year – it doesn’t seem to be the case," Fittler said. "It was hard not to look at the Souths combination how well they’ve been playing.

"Nathan, what he did on Thursday night, was an awesome effort considering what they’re going through. I think Nathan’s game’s sometimes easier to play because it’s all based on effort. He just tries so hard.

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"Sometimes it gets a bit complicated out there and it has at different times as the team is not working together every well …. but the backbone of him is chasing every kick, making every tackle and just trying to do what he can. That can’t be said about every player. He’s quite rare being like that.

"Any chance I get to pick him in a footy team I’m very glad."

The 21-year-old has been far from his best this season for the struggling Panthers, but produced a man of the match display in Penrith's turgid win over the Eels last Thursday night. It was just Penrith's third win of the season.

The host of 11th hour withdrawals weren't enough for Cleary's halves partner James Maloney to preserve his place, falling down the pecking order behind Keary and Walker.

Maloney, James Roberts, Tariq Sims and Tyrone Peachey were all axed from the side that played for the Blues in game three last year.

Jack de Belin is unavailable after being sidelined under the NRL's no-fault stand-down rule as he faces an aggravated sexual assault charge. He has pleaded not guilty.

Fittler's stress-free build-up to last year's series hasn't been replicated in 2019 with a host of incumbents struggling for form before a nightmare weekend on the injury front which ended with the Frizell scare.

"We definitely have to win the series," Fittler said. "We’ve got a lot of ground to catch up so anything other than a win will be failure."

Sharks veteran Josh Morris, 32, earned a recall after last playing Origin in 2016 and will man the right centre spot alongside Cotric, who will play on the right flank.

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Broncos teenager Haas, 19, will train throughout the entire NSW cap during Ramadan, the annual Muslim observance of fasting during daylight hours. It will finish just a day before game one.

NSW team for Origin I

1 James Tedesco (Roosters)

2 Josh Addo-Carr (Storm)

3 Latrell Mitchell (Roosters)

4 Josh Morris (Sharks)

5 Nick Cotric (Raiders)

6 Cody Walker (Rabbitohs)

7 Nathan Cleary (Panthers)

8 David Klemmer (Knights)

9 Damien Cook (Rabbitohs)

10 Paul Vaughan (Dragons)

11 Boyd Cordner (Roosters)

12 Tyson Frizell (Dragons)

13 Jake Trbojevic (Sea Eagles)

14 Jack Wighton (Raiders)

15 Payne Haas (Broncos)

16 Cameron Murray (Rabbitohs)

17 Angus Crichton (Roosters)

Infamous helicopter escapee John Killick, currently fighting a raft of charges relating to a fraud racket, met the co-accused and fraud ringleader Dean Ryan when the pair both appeared on the ABC TV series You Can’t Ask That.

Killick, famously plucked from Silverwater prison in a sightseeing helicopter hijacked at gunpoint by his Russian lover Lucy Dudko, and Dean Ryan – previously convicted of fraud-related charges – appeared on an ex-prisoners' episode of the show in 2014.

Ryan told ABC viewers that prison had rehabilitated him.

"For me it worked. It was me coming to the realisation that I needed to change my ways, I was away from my loved ones," he said.

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Five years later, Ryan awaits a prison sentence after pleading guilty to presiding over a fraud syndicate that stole over $2 million through a sophisticated identity theft scam.

Killick was charged with three counts of dishonestly obtaining property by deception and one count of possessing suspected stolen property in relation to his alleged role in the scam.

He has entered a plea of not guilty, and remains free on bail awaiting trial. He will return to court in July.

Ryan and co-director Joseph La Hood, 56, have both pleaded guilty to their roles in the syndicate, and will be sentenced in August.

Court documents seen by The Sun-Herald show that the group spearheaded by Ryan and Mr La Hood created 388 fraudulent customer profiles, opened 846 bank accounts, secured 185 credit cards and procured 15 personal loans that stole over $2 million over a period of several years.

Stolen mail including Medicare cards, drivers licences and bills provided the information to create bank accounts from the stolen identities of hundreds of innocent Sydneysiders.

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Once the bank accounts were established, the fraudsters would apply for credit cards and personal loans, ordering them to "convenient" addresses close to their Wiley Park and Mascot homes and stealing the mail with letterbox master keys.

The group would withdraw cash in $1,000 allotments and transfer money to transactional accounts to then spend.

The group also bought $187,346.53 worth of goods at various shopping centres across Sydney, and transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to their own, legitimate bank accounts.

Ryan used the money sent to his personal account to make the final payment on a Mitsubishi Outlander, while Ryan’s partner Linda Loriz – charged with participating in a criminal group, dealing with the proceeds of crime and dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage – allegedly use the $100,000 allegedly sent to her account for the mortgage on her mother’s home infertility treatments and private school fees.

Ms Loriz has not entered a plea, and will return to court on July 4.

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The ABC was contacted for comment.

When one of my daughter’s birthday presents turned out to be clothes with the tags cut off I wondered if they’d been cheekily regifted.

It turned out they had. Without a hint of embarrassment, the mother told me that she’d bought the clothes for her own daughter who didn’t like them. So, the mother decided to give them to my daughter instead.

At first, I was a little shocked at her honesty. And then I was super impressed.

My daughter wears the clothes often and couldn’t care less that they had been regifted.

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It’s strange that regifting is taboo given that it fits perfectly with many of our values about reducing consumption and limiting waste. The speed and volume at which so many must-have kids’ presents end up in landfill would surely make even the most ardent Ayn Rand-reading fan of capitalism pause a moment and wonder if there wasn’t a better way.

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Surely our love for our kids would be far better expressed in preserving the environment they’ve inherited instead of giving them another piece of plastic they don’t need and will only play with for 10 minutes before they move onto the next environmentally-disastrous fad.

But the social rules around gift-giving are so strong that many of us not only go along with the environmental disaster that is a children’s party, we have also unwillingly ended up in an arms race that we can scarcely afford.

In my early years of parenting, when I was still learning the conventions of children’s birthday presents, a more experienced mother told me the present rule: the financial value of the gift should be equivalent to the per-head cost of the party.

That equation put an end to any pretense that presents are spontaneous acts of kindness. Things only got worse once I discovered that the days of party pies, Sara Lee cakes, and unsupervised playing in the backyard are long gone.

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We now have professional fairies and superheroes that cost $400-plus each, venue hire costs, catering that cost more than my wedding, French bubbles for the parents, and gift bags that rival the Oscars.

Even the humble game of pass the parcel is expensive now that our every-kid-is-special-and-gets-a-prize culture dictates that we have to cough up for a present for all the guests.

When you then factor in the time spent in party planning and event management, the per-head party cost that determines the present value can almost make you wish your kid was a Nigel No Friends.

Social media influencers including reality star Maria Di Geronimo have added fuel to the bonfire, posting pictures of extravagant children’s birthday parties consisting of balloon art, custom decorations, and more LOL dolls than Kmart.

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Supporters have defended these mothers by pointing out that most of the merchandise came from sponsors and that it’s their kid so it’s their business.

But is it really that simple? There is a reason these people are called “influencers”. Companies don’t just shower them with free products because they think their kids deserve it.

No, these companies have made a careful business decision based on the assumption that these women are effective at “influencing” the purchasing behaviour of rest of us.

In the process, they’ve lifted the bar for children’s birthday parties, thereby increasing the expected present value other parents now have to cop.

Even if we are able reject the ever-increasing party cost per-head present value, we bump up against another unspoken, but rigidly enforced, children’s present giving rule: reciprocity.

You spend the same amount on the birthday kid that their parents spent on your kid. But I’m now starting to see the occasional $50 gift card in kids’ present hauls. And I’ve heard stories of some kids receiving close to $100 (from a single guest) in present value.

If we keep going on this path, we’ll be spending a small fortune and going into debt just to ensure our kids aren’t ostracised as social pariahs.

With family budgets tightening and our landfill crisis mounting, it’s time to rethink the social conventions around present giving. And we need more mothers like my regifting friend to show us how it’s done.

In 83 years of trading, the family behind Ted’s Cycles shop in Footscray have seen more ups and downs than a Tour de France rider.

They have held on through some rocky times, from the opening of Highpoint Shopping Centre in 1975 to the rise of cheap online competitors, and computer games that divert kids from riding bicycles.

Co-owner Trevor Hope says that with the boom in commuter and mountain bike riding Ted’s sales figures are actually healthy.

It’s soaring land tax that has forced the clan — including Trevor, 63, his brother Geoff, 78, and Geoff’s children Gerlinda Gibbs, 52, and Garry Hope, 48 — to close one of Footscray’s last old-time family shops.

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Their final day of trading is this Friday.

‘‘There was no light at the end of the tunnel,’’ says Trevor, who says land tax has gone up by 50 per cent in four years.

‘‘With insurances, superannuation, wages, [business taxes] … it’s so hard to keep up, to make ends meet.’’

Gerlinda, Ted's Cycles' front-of-house and accounts person, expects to ‘‘cry all day’’ on Friday.

She started selling toys as a teenager and has been full time for 34 years.

Since her late, charismatic grandfather, Ted Hope, aka Ted the Toyman, started the shop in 1936, it has cannily morphed from a focus on hardware, to toys to bicycles, although it has always sold bicycles in some form.

‘‘I’m devastated and shattered,’’ said Gerlinda, who will miss her chats with locals.

One couple – ‘‘lovely old souls’’ – were hoarders and the man was obsessed with bikes. ‘‘He’d say he wanted to buy another one and we’d say, ‘You don’t need one.’ ’’

Another cyclist pedalled her elderly mother around Footscray. The mother would sit in a rocking chair on a trailer and knit.

One man treated his bike like a horse, complete with saddle and bridle, kicking it if it misbehaved.

The interaction hasn’t always been nice. One day in the 1980s Trevor ran after and tackled a drug addict who had pinched $500 from the till. The thief bit Trevor on the shoulder and said he had AIDS. In fact, he had hepatitis B.

Geoff Hope remembers Footscray in the 1950s and `60s, as a thriving community with at least three cinemas; the Forges and Coles department stores; cafes, pharmacies and clothes, fruit and butcher shops.

Remnants include Cooper’s jewellers, and barber Joe Squatrito, who have both traded for more than 50 years.

Customer Andrew Filippone, 41, of Maribyrnong, who stopped by Ted’s on Friday to buy a tyre, a cleaning brush and pedal clips for his racing bike, said he bought his first bike here – a BMX – at the age of seven.

Ted's hangar-like size meant ‘‘it was one of the only bike shops you could test-ride your bike around’’.

He idolised Garry Hope, who was known for his stunt jumps on the Spotswood half-pipe.

Mr Filippone's own IT business went from a physical shop to online three years ago, but he was ‘‘gobsmacked’’ and saddened to hear Ted’s was closing.

Sky News political editor David Speers is expected to take a significant pay cut after accepting a role with the ABC replacing Insiders host Barrie Cassidy, fuelling speculation about why he would leave the 24-hour news channel after more than a decade.

Canberra-based Speers, who is still contracted to the Rupert Murdoch-owned cable network, is on a salary in excess of $500,000 at Sky and is among its highest paid hosts, media sources said.

The ABC did not pay any employee outside the leadership team more than $500,000 in the last financial year, with one staff member paid $482,705 including bonuses and superannuation. Out of 145 staff paid more than $200,000, nine were on a total remuneration of more than $350,000.

The taxpayer-funded public broadcaster is preparing for an $84 million budget cut beginning from the next financial year onwards.

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The expectation Speers has accepted a pay cut has stoked speculation in media industry circles about his motivations for deciding to step away from Sky, particularly because the ABC has previously tried – and failed – to lure him away from the News Corp business.

Speers, 44, is described as a "straight shooter" by those in the media industry who said he may not have felt aligned with the increasingly conservative-skewed "after dark" hosts’ commentary.

One media executive said that on Sky it was increasingly the case that "opinion rates and straight news doesn’t" and the new path for the network may have left Speers looking for opportunities elsewhere.

Another reason could be the larger audience available on the ABC compared to Sky, which is predominantly watched on Foxtel and Bruce Gordon's WIN TV network.

Sky’s average audience during the daytime is in the tens of thousands on average compared to hundreds of thousands on Insiders, which competes with Seven’s Weekend Sunrise and Nine’s Weekend Today. (Nine is the owner of this masthead.)

A well-placed source said it "wouldn’t be the first time" a media personality had taken a pay cut for increased exposure and a clearer career path at the public broadcaster.

There was still uncertainty about the timing of his move to the ABC. Cassidy finishes up on Insiders on June 9 and Speers' two-year agreement is believed to be expiring at the end of the year. It's unclear whether there is a non-compete clause that would affect Speers' starting time after this point.

A Sky spokeswoman said their statement released last week that Speers "is under contract with Sky News" was still correct.

She would not answer additional questions. Speers and the ABC declined to comment.

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Brussels: Mainstream European Union parties are holding their ground against the assault from populists in elections for the bloc's Parliament, according to the first set of exit polls.

With voting still going on in some countries, the parties who rally against foreigners, want to rein in the EU and despise the cozy relationship between centrist groups, aren't performing as well as some establishment politicians feared.

Instead, it's the Liberals and the Greens set to post the biggest gains in the first EU-wide test of public opinion in five years. Turnout looks set to be the highest for two decades as voters respond to the populist threat.

The big exception looks to be France where President Emmanuel Macron talked up this election as a straight choice between those who are for or against the EU. His party has been defeated by Marine Le Pen's euroskeptic National Rally, according to exit polls.

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"The French people gave a lesson in humility" to Macron, far-right candidate Jordan Bardella said.

With full results from across Europe filtering in over the next six hours, the focus will be on whether the mainstream postwar centre-right and centre-left alliances will have a majority in the European Parliament as has been the case since direct elections began 40 years ago.

According to the first official EU projection based on the exit polls, the two big alliances will make up 43 per cent of the seats, down from 56 per cent in 2014. Populist parties look set to win 29 per cent of the Europe-wide vote, slightly down from 30 per cent in the current Parliament, according to official EU projections. The pro-business Liberals and the Greens look like the big winners with 14 per cent and 9 per cent respectively.

That would mean that the EU is likely to broadly continue current policies: distancing itself from US President Donald Trump's protectionist trade strategy, gradually integrating the euro area, seeking a way to share the burden of non-EU migrants and holding firm against any UK attempt to reopen the Brexit deal.

While Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc is a clear winner in Germany, with 28 per cent of the vote, according to exit polls, that's less than the 35 per cent recorded in 2014. The Social Democrats, Merkel's junior coalition partner, slumped to 15.5 per cent from 27 per cent, while the Greens surged to second place. The nationalist AfD is set to record 10.5 per cent, according to the indication, lower than forecast but up on 2014's 7 per cent.

"This election result is not a result that meets the ambitions that we've set for ourselves as a mass party," Merkel's chosen successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, told party members in Berlin.

Across Europe, it's a similar picture of euroskeptic parties failing to make breakthroughs:

• In Denmark, exit polls show the nationalist Danish People's Party will get less than 12 per cent of the vote, after getting 21 per cent in the last national election
• In Slovakia, the far-right party is set to finish third
• In Finland, with 21 per cent of the vote counted, the far-right Finns party is getting 13 per cent — more or less in line with its 2014 showing
• In Greece, the opposition centre-right New Democracy is on course to beat Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's Syriza

Turnout across the 28 countries is the highest in 20 years, according to official EU estimates, and has risen for the first time ever.

Results from the UK are due later on Sunday night, local time. The UK was obliged to participate in the election because it didn't leave the EU on March 29 as scheduled.

Bloomberg

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On election night I was swapping messages with a good friend, a passionate, smart, generous advocate for Indigenous people who was now despondent. She said she feared for the future of the First Peoples under three more years of a conservative government that had already said no to the hopes and aspirations in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

It isn’t a view I share. The Australian people had rejected Bill Shorten, a leader they had never warmed to and did not trust; they rejected Labor’s ambitious agenda for change; they rejected more taxes and class warfare; in parts of the country they rejected a climate change policy they thought threatened their jobs. But they did not reject the Uluru Statement.

Whenever Australians have been asked, they have overwhelmingly supported the idea of Indigenous constitutional recognition. Polling numbers consistently show more than 80 per cent in favour. Many of those people would have voted for the Coalition.

There is a challenge for Indigenous leadership, to work with the Morrison government and reframe the argument for recognition, rights, justice. This is not government interested in symbolism, it is going to prioritise real outcomes: jobs, education, health. It is a government that’s going to be big on personal responsibility. Forget about changing the date of Australia Day or treaties; this government’s mantra will be fairness not difference.

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So what is the pathway for constitutional change? It is highly unlikely this government will take the question to a referendum in this term. There are those inside the government who will outright oppose the idea. The Nationals Barnaby Joyce said the Uluru Statement’s call for an Indigenous representative body enshrined in the constitution – a "voice" – would constitute a "third chamber of parliament". Then prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said Indigenous people could have no rights that other Australians didn’t enjoy.

Perception is everything in politics, and Indigenous leaders have a big task to to turn things around. It is going to require pragmatism and a campaign that reaches across the political divides of left- right or city-country. But there may never be a better time.

Next year marks the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s arrival on this continent and claiming it for the British Crown. This is a personal passion project for Prime Minister Morrison, who has already earmarked nearly $50 million to mark the occasion including a replica of the Endeavour circumnavigating Australia and a new monument at Botany Bay.

Of course many Indigenous people feel the weight of 1770, that began dispossession and colonisation. But 2020 is an opportunity to begin to tell a new story of this country for a new century. Two hundred and fifty years ago the world was coming; Captain Cook forever changed the history of this continent and its people. No one can deny the destruction that was wrought, but it is also possible to acknowledge that Cook planted in the ground not just the British flag but the traditions of democracy and Enlightenment liberalism that have made this country among the most free, prosperous, diverse and cohesive on earth.

2020 is a chance to merge two great traditions, the old and the new: the Indigenous and the British. 2020 is not 1770, the myth of terra nullius – that this was an empty land free for the taking – has been demolished. Indigenous people have fought for two centuries at the ballot box, on the streets and in the courts to make this a better country.

There are three great moments: the 1967 referendum that technically counted Indigenous people in the census and allowed the federal government to make laws for Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders but more than that spoke powerfully to fairness and citizenship; the 1992 Mabo High Court decision that acknowledged the prior and enduring rights to land of the First Peoples and led to Native Title; and the 2008 apology to the stolen generations.

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Together these three events have shaped a new nation not one irredeemably stained by settlement and violence and exclusion but a country that has wrestled with its past and sought reconciliation. Three events: the vote for fairness; the power of the law; and the healing of history. They set the stage to finish the unfinished business and put Indigenous people finally at the heart of our nation’s founding document: the constitution.

This is not a radical idea; indeed it is deeply conservative. The father of conservatism, the 16th century British politician and philosopher, Edmund Burke believed a constitution was a compact between the government and its people. Society, he said, was a contract between the living, dead and the unborn. Today all Australians seek to honour our past and look to safeguard our future.

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This is precisely what I read in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. A people historically locked out of this democracy are saying they want in. What a profound statement of faith in our country that a people for whom the constitution was written to exclude were saying that same constitution can hold their dreams. The Uluru Statement blends the ancient sovereignty of First Peoples with the lived reality of the political sovereignty of the Commonwealth.

Consider its words, that the Uluru Statement "can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood"; "We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country". The Uluru Statement promises a brighter future for Indigenous children who will "walk in two worlds" and whose culture will "be a gift to their country".

The Uluru Statement kept faith with the Australian people’s most resoundingly successful referendum, 1967, when Indigenous people were finally counted. Now, it says, "we seek to be heard". This has never been about dividing people but in the closing words of the statement, extending an invitation "to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future".

We hear the Indigenous voice on the streets in protest: it is loud, it is angry and insistent and it is necessary. Then there are voices we don’t hear; quiet voices far greater in number. They hold their families tight; they value their culture and communities. They are people of faith, they are your neighbours, your mates, sometimes your family. These are Burke’s "little platoons". I know them, they are my family, the people I grew up with and without whom I would be nowhere.

Indigenous people have fought in this nation’s wars, have built the roads and worked the railways, picked the fruit and drove the cattle. Indigenous people have represented this nation in sport and sit on the benches of our courts, mend the sick in our hospitals and serve in our parliaments. Everyday, Indigenous parents ready their kids for school, work hard and share the daily joys, struggles and ordinary virtues with all other Australians. A people so small in number, a tiny fraction of Australia who hold the heritage of this nation for all. They are people who have overcome so much, still have so much to give.

In the Uluru Statement the quiet voices ask other Australians to join their voices with them. Prime Minister Morrison pledged his election victory to the "Quiet Australians". He has the chance now to give a voice to the quietest Australians.

Stan Grant is professor of Global Affairs at Griffith University. He is a Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi man.

It’s the rail line that even some of the Premier’s colleagues and advisers did not want her to build.

When the Sydney Metro Northwest line opened on Sunday, to the delight of tens of thousands who queued for a free ride, it delivered rail services for the first time to the burgeoning suburbs of Cherrybrook, Castle Hill, Kellyville, and Rouse Hill.

But the opening also capped a tumultuous eight years for Gladys Berejiklian and those who worked with her on the project – a group that faced criticism for the decision to build the $7.3 billion line in the first place; and later, for decisions about how the line should be built.

"It's satisfying beyond words to deliver something that is so significant to NSW," the Premier said in an interview. "Of course it is easier building a toll-road. But it is much better for the community of the north west to build the north west rail line."

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It is hard to overstate the significance of the opening of the line – a 23-kilometre addition to Sydney’s rail system, but which operationally incorporates the 13km Epping to Chatswood line.

It is the first major piece of public transport infrastructure conceived and delivered by this Coalition government. The contract to deliver the Opal Card project had been signed under Labor; construction of the South West Rail Link had also started prior to the 2011 change in government.

The line also represents a major change to the way rail services are run in Sydney, in a manner that will affect the operation of trains. Using single-deck trains operated without drivers, the line is a stand-alone metro system that will aim to deliver services with greater reliability than Sydney’s regular train system.

The completion is a world away from the situation that faced Ms Berejiklian when, under former premier Barry O’Farrell, the Coalition was swept to power in March 2011.

As well as promising to build the line – a project first committed to but abandoned by the former Labor government in 1998 – Mr O’Farrell also pledged to create a new body to advise on where and how to spend significant money on major projects, Infrastructure NSW.

And though the first chairman and chief executive of Infrastructure NSW – Nick Greiner and Paul Broad – were careful not to criticise the government’s endorsement of a multibillion-dollar rail line in public, in private they were less deferential.

"There were quite a few comments at the time … from Nick Greiner and Paul Broad, about the investment of money,” said Les Wielinga, the head of the state’s main transport agency between 2009 and 2013. “I think they favoured more of a road basis rather than a rail basis.”

It is part of the achievement of Ms Berejiklian, Mr Wielinga, and others including the secretary of Transport for NSW, Rodd Staples, that they played the internal politics well enough to push the project past the powerful infrastructure advisers.

"In terms of government, if I didn't have Barry's support, I wouldn’t have been able to convince my colleagues," Ms Berejiklian said of the former premier.

"There wasn't a culture in NSW about spending money on public transport," she said. "The Labor Party built toll roads, but there wasn't a culture of public transport and that's what I wanted to change."

But Ms Berejiklian also confronted significant choices about how to build the line. Prior to the 2011 election, she had promised to construct the line to Rouse Hill as a regular extension of the train network.

Had Ms Berejiklian delivered on her promise, it would have meant commuters on the new line would have been able to get direct services to the CBD. It also would have meant the line would have run Sydney’s regular double-deck trains, with plenty of seats.

But in June 2012, Mr O’Farrell and Ms Berejiklian announced a break with that pre-election promise. Releasing a 50-year transport "masterplan", they said the line would be built as a stand-alone metro. The result would be fewer seats, and the requirement for commuters to change trains at Chatswood if they wanted to get to the city – at least until a connection through the city was opened by 2023 or 2024. (That line is now under construction).

But the expectation was that metros would ultimately deliver a more reliable and frequent service.

Last week Ms Berejiklian told the Herald she made the decision to build the north west rail link as a metro "within weeks" of becoming transport minister in 2011.

"From the day I became the Minister and I started having access to all the expert advice and all those reports it was apparent to me that the metro was the best way to go," she said.

"Do I stick to my guns and do what we'd promised, with the double-deck system? Or do we embark on a brand new metro. And I knew that there was absolutely no question we had to embark on the metro. History will show that was one of the most important decisions made in this state as far as infrastructure is concerned, because it started us off on this metro journey."

When that decision was announced, however, it was subject to criticism that the benefits of introducing a metro-style operation might not outweigh the negatives.

Transport experts such as the former director-general of rail in Sydney, Ron Christie, criticised the focus on the metro system as coming at the expense of operational improvements to Sydney’s existing heavy rail network, which will continue to move the vast majority of commuters.

Another concern was the government’s decision to dig tunnels for the line too small to accommodate double-deck trains would limit the future flexibility of the rail system.

And transport bureaucrats highlighted the potential overcrowding problems at Chatswood Station when commuters disgorged from the metro onto full north shore trains. (This issue remains to be managed).

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The government’s response has been to say that it should be judged on how things turn out.

"I have great respect that there are lots of different views on how the money should have been spent," said Mr Staples, who as project director for Sydney Metro can be credited as the architect of the scheme.

"The judgment of that is probably five, 10, 15 years away when people reflect back on the way the city is running and how the systems are working together. Personally, I am really confident we will be judged well."

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For Mr Staples, the line’s opening marks the culmination of a difficult journey.

Under Labor he was responsible for delivering the so-called CBD Metro – a project cancelled by former premier Kristina Keneally at a cost of about $400 million. He admits to questioning whether he would see this project through.

"I was very doubtful that we would be here today. But nonetheless I and many others were determined to give it our best shot," he said.

When Ms Berejiklian and Mr Staples, as well as Transport Minister Andrew Constance, talk about the Northwest Metro, they tend to state that it is the start of a program.

The second stage, which is due to open by 2024, comprises a line from Chatswood, under Sydney Harbour to the CBD and Sydenham in the south, and Bankstown in the west. Another metro line from Westmead to the CBD should also be built next decade.

The complex system controlling Metro Northwest is the next generation of technology from Hong Kong’s South Island line, which opened in 2016 and is operated by MTR, the company running Sydney’s newest addition.

Engineers also drew on lessons from fully, or partially, automated lines around the world such as Paris’s Métro Line 1, Singapore’s Mass Rapid Transit system, and parts of London’s Jubilee line.

The new metro line offers commuters the latest in modern railway design and technology – from driverless trains, to glass-screen doors on station platforms. Unlike the city’s existing suburban trains, commuters can gaze out the front of the metro trains onto the rail tracks, or out a window at the back.

Yet it will require commuters to adjust their expectations of riding on trains, and how they navigate the city’s public transport network. More people will have to stand.

A metro carriage has seating for about 63 passengers, compared with 110 on a Waratah carriage, the newest in Sydney Trains’ fleet. (In all, the six-carriage metro trains have seating for 378 passengers, and standing room for 774).

Mathew Hounsell, a researcher at the University of Technology’s Institute for Sustainable Futures, said Sydney under went a significant change when its population ballooned from 3.5 million to 4 million, and road speeds dropped to similar levels as those on the public transport system as they became more clogged.

That encouraged more people to travel on buses and trains.

Now, he said, the metro line offers another big change.

"If the government operates it at high frequency, and for long hours of the day, it will be transformative," he said. "As soon as the second stage is built, the entire city will reshape itself around the metro services. If you are a 24/7 city, then you have to have a 24/7 transport system."

For many of those who hopped on the first services, the line could not have opened soon enough.

"I know the growth that has occurred out there in the north west," said Tony Williams, who grew up at Castle Hill. "I never thought it would happen. It was promised every election when I was a kid."

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The chief executive of Suncorp, Michael Cameron, is stepping down after nearly four years in the role, with the board declaring now is the "right time for change."

Chairman Christine McLoughlin said in an announcement to investors that a change in leadership would give the financial services group an opportunity to lift its performance.

She said Mr Cameron had overseen major changes to the banking and insurance company's technology systems, an increased focus on customers, and he had led the business during a period of major regulatory change.

“On behalf of the Board I would like to thank Michael for his leadership in accelerating our digital capability and in driving a customer-first culture,” she said.

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It is understood Mr Camreon's departure was mutually agreed to by him and the board. Ms Holgate said the board had "robust" internal succession planning, and it would also conduct a domestic and international search for potential candidates to fill the job.

Suncorp's shares have risen about 15 per cent over Cameron's tenure, which began in October 2015.

The change comes  at a challenging time for financial services companies, and Suncorp earlier this year cut its dividend as it announced weak results for the six months to December, after being hit hard by natural disasters in the half.

It also warned of higher regulatory costs from the royal commission, and its banking division later revealed a soft start to the year, amid fierce competition in the mortgage market.

Mr Cameron, who will remain employed as an advisor until the company's full year results in August, said he was proud of what had been achieved during his time as CEO.

“Suncorp now has the digital foundations in place to enable it to be nimble and to seize opportunities. I believe
the business has great potential and will continue to enjoy success,” Mr Cameron said in a statement.

The company said its profits were in line with market expectations, and it will deliver its full year results on August 7.

More to come

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