Land Grabs and Budgets

It is almost as if every level of ALP government is fighting to show how bad they can be. Federally, The Rudd team released a budget with tax reform built in, a reform based on a report they sat on for some six months. In State news, Keneally's administration released a budget with a surplus, which was applauded by those who detest conservatives as being conservative. Turns out it is also fantasy too, with a promise of spending austerity less than half that delivered in recent years, and this is less than a year to the next election. But in local government news, the Fairfield Mayor and state member Lalich has been found with his snout firmly in a pork barrel, offering a deal not approved by council which would benefit a donor some $425k, and take park space from Fairfield. Quizzed about this, Lalich responds ''My preference for the land swap … is because the financial outcome to the ratepayers of my city is massively in their favour compared to the cost of only acquiring the property'' which is to say that they don't lose money, only a recreational area and the possibility of future value.
The federal issue relates to several failed election promises made by Rudd. Rudd's term in office has been notable for policy failure and backflips. To date, no election promise has been satisfied. It is acknowledged that an apology was made to Australian Aboriginals, but the promise was that conditions would improve for that community, and in fact they have deteriorated under Rudd, as Rudd has moved to repeal emergency actions taken to protect the community in the top end. Also, politicized pork barrels for the ALP have been put in place which siphon money from those in need. Similar failures take from other trumpeted successes of Rudd and the ALP. Boat people have returned to Australia after a hiatus due to conservative policy. With an estimated one person killed for every boat person to reach Australia, over six thousand have died for ALP's allegedly compassionate policy. One might prefer it were Australia to take in more refugees by plane, and plan for more infrastructure. Also Rudd signed Kyoto agreement on global warming, only to be greeted with the news that the scientific lobby spruiking global warming terror was not legitimate. Rudd succeeded in getting the Liberal party to dump Mr Turnbull in favor of Mr Abbott, and so the Liberal party has risen to be electable again.
The ALP had a big tax on everything planned with the ETS. It would have allowed them to promise much in the run up to an election which the opposition could not use if they didn't embrace it. But clearly it was going to have to be dumped because it turned out the population didn't believe it either. So the ALP used the much vaunted Henry review into taxation to raise another, different tax. The Henry Review did not suggest the tax, but the Rudd government did not seem to mind not using what the review suggested, as less than 3% of the review was actually used in their budget after their six month private review. The tax was justified by a Colorado student's paper which was never intended to under pin government policy. So a new mining tax was introduced and made retrospective so as to grab some $8 billion dollars and provide a revenue stream for a series of election promises which again the conservatives would not be able to use if they didn't embrace. This allowed Rudd to shelve the less popular (and increasingly ridiculous looking) ETS. Only Rudd had never discussed this tax with those he was taxing. Apparently the ALP knew that the tax would be resisted, and so they broke another Rudd election promise to fund a campaign promoting the tax before the industry knew it was being taxed. All to get Rudd re elected when he would have been under the normal course of events, but maybe not now. Further, underlying the division within the ALP, none are volunteering for the poison chalice of the leadership position.
In state matters, the NSW budget is seen to be like everything else the NSW Government touches. NSW does not have something worthwhile to point to in terms of ALP government. From Carr's first term in office when he promised a free m5 and low waiting lists for hospital care, everything has been worse under the ALP. It is in the area of corruption that the NSW ALP seems to excel, with outstanding issues including the outrageous cover up of the death of school boy Hamidur Rahman and the blaming of his parents for the apparent school negligence, through to claims of paedophilia and cover ups going back decades. Kenneally has a strong Catholic background, but it is apparent that she is merely a puppet, and not even her closest colleagues can rely on her, as her former youth justice minister found, prior to resigning. It is remarkable that electricity, which NSW could have sold for upwards of $60 billion in 1995 is now an ongoing liability which desperately needs $8 billion to maintain as the government has moved to ban coal fired power stations. The NSW Budget was applauded as being a conservative one, showing NSW would enter budget surplus this year. But then it turned out the assumption was that NSW spending would have to be restricted to 2.7% when the government has averaged 6.2% for the last four years. Nothing the government has done suggests they are capable of that, and so expect the budget to actually be a deficit of upwards of $2 billion. The financial world does not look as positive as the budget assumed, and so things could look very sick indeed just before the next election when Keneally will be promising more spending. To date the government has been gifted at spending, but no project has been delivered that seems worthwhile, most not delivered at all
The local issue is priceless. Not long ago, Lalich was voted in on first preferences, despite a substantial swing against him. He was kind of local, being mayor, although maybe not residing in the electorate. He had the ALP contacts, although there is no record of him doing anything worthwhile. He was pushed into promising car parking for Cabramatta, but he plumped for a different plan to that of Dai Le, even though his plan does nothing to improve traffic flow and congestion, it isn't someone else's. Because of the lack of transparency of ALP process in government, we only occasionally hear how things are done. The outrageous trade Lalich wanted despite council rejection is an example. Lalich apparently instructed the town planner to explore an option whereby a person who had paid money to the ALP might be able to get the ALP to support a deal where they might benefit $425k and the people of Fairfield would lose a park. That in a local area where kids cannot go to movies if their parents don't drive them or of they don't catch public transport.
As the king (paraphrased) asked his advisers, "Won't some voters rid me of these meddlesome pests?"