Elections
I have to say I’m disappointed about the weekend election results. South Australia’s Mike Rann seems to have fallen over the line and in Tasmania the Libs may have to negotiate with the Greens to form a coalition.
Sure, there was 12.1% swing away from Labor in Tasmania and 7.4% in South Australia but that’s simply not enough.
Anthony Green’s piece on why the ALP won in SA has some hope for us anti-labor types with mostly double digit swings against the ALP in all but two seats.
A part of those stats has to be as a result of Australians waking up to Rudd’s shallowness and fiscal “throw another few billion at ’em” policies.
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In Tasmania many of the Green votes were more a vote against the major parties (who are seen to be both owned by Gunns ltd), than a vote for the greens.
I don’t believe that there is much direct crossover between the state and federal issues, but state Labor in Tas has been as inept, as corrupt and as spin obsessessed as federal Labor, so if you were Rudd you’d have to be wondering.
I agree there isn’t any quantifiable crossover between Fed and State but Tony Green’s percentage swing figures do give hope for some crossover. At the very least Rudd should be more disappointed than I am.
Kev
The fascinating element of the Tasmanian result is that in order to govern, either the Libs or Labor will have to negotiate with the Greens. This presents a major and novel challenge to partisan politics, the cancer that has, over time, almost destroyed our parliamentary system and has resulted in the spin, two-minute media grabs and meaningless point-scoring that now characterises Australian politics.The practice whereby the head of government is the leader of the largest elected party in parliament is a convention only.
The architecture of or democratic system has voters electing a representative who advocates for the interests of his/her constituents, not for the party. These representatives meet in parliament and debate legislation. When they reach a consensus, legislation is amended and passed. Party politics developed as part of the mix, but it is not mandated. The “Independent” is essentially the only valid representative with loyalty to constituents, not party.
Government through our parliamentary system is essentially a boring, deliberative process, and the media hate it because it doesn’t sell papers or improve ratings. It’s not an entertaining spectator sport. The end result of media barracking and the eternal quest for power is destructive partisanship.
The architects of our democracy would be turning in their graves. Possible non-partisan consensus in Tasmania provides a ray of hope.
I’m a party man and hold little respect for independents only striving for their electorate as government should be about the country, not just an individuals electorate. Mate, if they were all independents it would be shit-fight and nothing would be done.
I vote for a party that will mostly follow my idea of politics accepting that some individuals or decisions will not gain my approval, but that’s politics.
But Kev, when Howard was winning there were swings to the ALP in state elections??? Go figure that one out. Keep wishing but the mad monk won’t be PM anytime soon.
I’ll keep on wishing for the sake of the country and if you still think Rudd et al is doing a good job you aren’t reading enough. There are hundreds of millions being rorted in Julia Gillards BER scheme and we have only looked at NSW so far.
“we have only looked at NSW so far”
Kev
Let’s get a bit of balance into this discussion. There’s an enormous amount of orchestrated smear around BER. In a scheme of this magnitude there will always be a few problems, but on the whole (in the part of Qld I know at least) it’s made a real positive difference.
Leave the partisan politics out of it for a minute and consider this.
I work in over 50 schools – state and private – from Thargomindah to Chinchilla, north to Augathella and south to Thallon, and can see the results of the initiative everywhere I look.
I was in St George last week, and the new air-conditioned library and gymnasium BER has built there provides great respite from the mossies and sandflies generated by the floods. The library in St George has state-of-the-art facilities that those kids would never have had a hope of getting access to without the Federal money. People in St George are happy and there aren’t too many rabid socialists in that neck of the woods..
In Cunnamulla – Roma – Miles – Goondiwindi – the school communities aren’t complaining. In the little one-teacher schools, they’re getting facilities they’d have waited decades for without BER. The architecture in these bush schools is not disability friendly. A great spin-off is that anything built under the programme must be wheelchair accessible. BER has improved access for the kids in wheelchairs in these schools.
The projects have been well handled in Queensland state schools because Facilities Branch of EQ got on top of the programme early and insisted principals and communities got their money’s worth. The best part of it is that everyone has a look in. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a one-teacher school back of Cunnamulla, or in a wealthy metropolitan Toowoomba boarding school.
If the Mexicans down South have been ripped off, that’s their fault, not the Commonwealth government’s. Many of the southern metropolitan principals have never been anywhere much but their own schools, and wouldn’t know their collective arses from their elbows.
BTW many of my local principal mates report getting cold calls from coalition operatives asking them if there are any hassles with the scheme – it’s a well orchestrated smear campaign.
I’ve got no time for Rudd’s spin – but fair’s fair.
I’m not disagreeing with the idea and I see schools and kids better off because of it but I am critical of management. You might call it a smear campaign but my nephew that is in the office that is releasing the cheques and pursuing the contracts says it is a rort. My builder mate at the local college who has just rejoined the workforce as a builder says the middlemen are making millions over and above what is reasonable and the industry are treating it as a goldmine.
Neither have a political bone in their body and One for the price of three is the common heard catch-call.
I have always acknowledged that Labor has good intentions, it’s just that they never link them with fiscal responsibility.
As you yourself have noted, you are seeing the upside. the downside is the insane costs being routinely run up because the Govt is too incompetent to manage the program (as per the insulation fiasco).
Once you realise the scale of this financial disaster, then you need to ask yourself how much good the amount of money wasted could have done in the education sector had it not been pissed away by a Govt that is leaking idiots.
By the time this farce has ground to its inevitable end, I’d say that we will find that we have paid, on average 3 x the normal cost of the facilities delivered. In the long run that is a lot of kids going without a lot of educational funding for a long time.