So, for those who call New South Wales their home, you’ll probably notice that the state election is being held next month.
Those who know me well also know that I follow (for some reason) state and federal politics (because I’m a glutton for punishment). Heck, I like to know where my (high) tax dollars get spent. We all should, I think… unless you don’t pay tax.. then, you’d probably not care? Or if you’re not eligible to vote – although you should care, since the government is ultimately responsible for the quality of your drinking water, air, roads, hospitals – you get the picture.
Following politics is like punching yourself in the head.
It hurts your brain, and you shouldn’t do it and those who have done it repeatedly are probably running for a seat in parliament. I like to think that politicians are just really good used car salesmen, although that is really doing an injustice to used car salesmen as we had a very pleasant experience buying our last car – we got a very equitable deal. The dealer financing was a little bit sketchier though.
Anyhow, back to the state election. In Australia we have basically two major opposing political parties who form government; the Labor party and the coalition (in theory, comprised of two parties, the Liberal and National parties who form government by way of a coalition, although Liberals appear to be the power brokers). Then there are the Green party, the Democrats, various self interest groups and various independent candidates.
In New South Wales, we have had the Labor party in government for about twelve years. It’s probably about the same time you’d serve in jail for fraud, which is basically what the whole NSW Labor government should be charged with (on a good day).
The NSW government has turned NSW into, I believe, the most undesirable state in Australia to live in.
They have all but destroyed Sydney – it is now the ugliest, meanest city in Australia. I don’t mean ugly in the sense of the harbour or skyline (which is world-class) but in terms of planning, the property market, urban development, transport and other important factors like education, hospitals, social integration; in fact anything you would gauge when deciding on a city to live in.
The Liberal party (or coalition) really should be able to walk into a victory next month.
In fact, I’d almost be willing to wager that an inanimate object would have a decent chance of winning if it were simply nominated to run for a seat in the NSW parliament.
This would be true if the Liberals had half a brain between them.
In a move which leaves me almost agog, the Liberals came up with what I almost consider to be the absolute worst pre-election campaign platform I’ve ever had the displeasure of hearing. You have to hand it to them, it takes an awful amount of stupidity to so comprehensively destroy their chances in an election that humpty dumpty could win *after* falling off the wall.
All the kings’ horses and all the kings’ men will have trouble deciphering this political strategy.
Instead of coming out and attacking the Labor government in any one of the many, many, many areas of governance that they stink at (health, education, transport, treasury, environment, planning you name it; seriously it’s faster to name something that the NSW government has done right than wrong) – the Liberals come out with an astonishing radio ad campaign that tells the general public to ignore Labor’s (fictitious) claims that the Liberals will send the bogeyman into their households to scare the kids.
I’M NOT JOKING.
As one infamous political operator used to exclaim in federal parliament: please explain?
The Liberals could choose to attack Labor for any one of these fine faults – caused by Labor’s inability to master complex problems, let alone deal with them:
– Tollways, in particular the Cross City Tunnel – tell me there isn’t a hoard of graft, collusion and corruption there! Is it simply a coincidence
that the Lane Cove Tunnel opens the day AFTER the election? How do you spell V-O-T-E-R B-A-C-K-L-A-S-H?
Additionally, ask yourself how does a freeway get built in this day and age as only two lanes east and west?? (I am referring, of course, to
the hideous M2).
– Health. Hospitals here might kill you and it isn’t the fault of the nurses or doctors who are overworked, underpaid and under resourced,
– Education. We’ve the worst ratio of teaching professionals to students (in the public system), the lowest tertiary entry rankings (ever) for
students to enter teacher’s college coupled with the lowest morale levels in teachers and with the working conditions they suffer who could
blame them?
– Transport. Sydney has the worse public transport in any first world country I’ve been to (or heard of). The amount of capital expenditure
on roads over any other type of transport (rail, ferry, bus) is border line criminal.
The nixing of the Parramatta to Epping rail line is a perfect example of poor planning, but the M7, cross city tunnel (possibly the biggest
blunder in Australia’s planning history) and Lane Cove tunnel are perfectly fine??
– Environment/Urban Planning. Water crisis, you say? Is there any possible excuse for not seeing that coming from a mile
away??? What planning? Labor thinks the solution (anyone else think this was wasn’t well thought out?) is simply throwing in a water
desalinization plant which nobody wants, and we can’t afford to power it anyway. Which brings up renewable resources and ‘clean’ energy
which the government has ignored for decades. Coal is fine, right?
– The Cronulla riots/racial tension. The tension between ethnic groups (in "The Shire", in particular) has been bubbling away under the
surface for years. The sitting government has done absolutely nothing to address what has been an obvious issue for as long as I can
remember, and their treatment of the whole debacle was appalling. The only upside of the riot is that people are now allowed to actually
discuss the issue in public (and in the media) since it is no longer politically incorrect to acknowledge that it is actually a problem.
This is about half an hours’ worth of thoughts. Imagine what somebody could come up with if they were paid to do so!
The sitting government (and the immediate past state premier, Mr Bob Carr as well) has a lot to answer for and Labor does not deserve to win the election next month.
The truth is that nobody does. All the options suck. The Liberals are unbalanced and poorly led. Labor have displayed that they are hopelessly incompetent and probably guilty of gross negligence.
Both parties have completely failed the electorate. That means you, whether you vote or not, and whether you voted for them or not. They have failed you.
The Liberal party is not a decent alternative to Labor, however I am forced to agree with them – Labor is atrocious and must go. It’s lunacy to vote them in again. It’s worse than negligent; it’s inhumane to subject human beings to their governance again. It’s against the UN’s declaration of Human Rights.
When you vote next month (if you’re eligible, it’s compulsory in Australia/NSW) if you can’t vote for "None of the above" (as in the movie Brewster’s Millions) vote for anyone else but don’t vote for Labor!!
The basic premise is that if you are unhappy with the government (and you probably are), fight back by voting intelligently.
