12 July 2012

100 things the Greens have done

| johnboy
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The Greens’ Meredith Hunter is celebrating the 100 day countdown to the election by letting us know what they’ve been up to in a handy 100 point list of achievements.

(Lucky they didn’t do anything else or this thing totally wouldn’t have worked!)

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Point of style (sorry JB) Greens’ not Greens’s (because of the soft s)

Far more pertinent and relevant if the Greens posted on how many days they rode/walked/caught buses to work, and how often they drove cars. I suspect they always drive.

I had a visit from Caroline a few weeks back. I wouldn’t mind a visit from her again later this week so I could quiz her about a few things on this list.

56. Charter of walking is hilarious. What benefit has that actually provided the community. Wouldn’t having a proper bus service on weekends be much more beneficial to the community? And claiming that teachers/emergency services are better equipped to deal with people from mental health is a joke. I know a teacher who does not understand the difference between depression and bipolar disorder. Or the police officer I saw last year who handcuffed a person sitting at Belconnen interchange who was talking to the voices in his head (I had been there the whole time and he did not appear a threat to anyone). They didn’t even try to speak to him first. Oh, and most of the psychs at PSU don’t listen to their patients and fail to gain patients trust. They keep them in hospital a few days then chuck them out on the street. The guys at Calvary are a lot better (and a lot better equipped also).

The Park and ride one is a joke. Hardly anyone uses the mitchell one and I’ll assume that Mawson, Calwell and Erindale are the same (someone correct me if I’m wrong). And what about ‘fair traffic fines for vulnerable people (#78). If you don’t speed, you don’t get fined. Why should someone deemed ‘vulnerable’ get off the hook? Unless they are delivering a woman in labor to hospital, there is no excuse for speeding.

There are too many ‘Pushed for’, ‘Secured a study’ and ‘Lobbied for’ on that list. Very few solid achievemnts. And a lot of those “achievements” are lies or not of benefit to the community. Out of the 100 things on the list, I’d say 20-25 are actually genuine projects that are finished and have benefitted the community. I’m tempted to go through the entire 100 but I might save that for when I am really bored. I might send it back to the Greens also and let them know of what I think.

Chop71 said :

Oh My, so in the last 4 years (getting close to1460 days) they did “one thing” every 14 days AND came up with a list to tell us about it.

God bless their cotton socks

So what? Labor doctored 57 health records per week over the same period.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

[So a more accurate description of the achievement would be “made one additional dwelling available to those in need”.

Add “Becasue we were forced to do so by public outcry”.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back2:41 pm 12 Jul 12

Mysteryman said :

Spiral said :

Number 33 is fairer procedures for people waiting to get on the public housing priority list.

Wasn’t it a Green pollie that reamined in public housing even after elected until a public outcry made her give it up? Doesn’t sound like she was interested in fair.

Perhaps her departure from the house is what they are describing with number 33?

So a more accurate description of the achievement would be “made one additional dwelling available to those in need”.

Spiral said :

Number 33 is fairer procedures for people waiting to get on the public housing priority list.

Wasn’t it a Green pollie that reamined in public housing even after elected until a public outcry made her give it up? Doesn’t sound like she was interested in fair.

Perhaps her departure from the house is what they are describing with number 33?

Number 33 is fairer procedures for people waiting to get on the public housing priority list.

Wasn’t it a Green pollie that reamined in public housing even after elected until a public outcry made her give it up? Doesn’t sound like she was interested in fair.

PantsMan said :

100 things they’ve done = 1,000 thing you can’t now do.

Nannies!

Well said.

They are the most authoritarian brain-dead scaremongerers we have had in this city.

HiddenDragon said :

The following excerpts from Alexis de Tocqueville’s ‘Democracy in America’, published more than 170 years ago, have some relevance to this, and similar posts on the RiotAct. Those who would like to hear and read more – whether for confirmation, or provocation, or both – may care to read or listen to Niall Ferguson’s recent Reith Lectures; here is a link to the transcript of the final lecture, given earlier this week, which includes much of the quote from de Tocqueville:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jmxsk/features/transcript

From – Chapter VI – What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear

“The first thing that strikes the observation is an innumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike, incessantly endeavoring to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. Each of them, living apart, is as a stranger to the fate of all the rest; his children and his private friends constitute to him the whole of mankind. As for the rest of his fellow citizens, he is close to them, but he does not see them; he touches them, but he does not feel them; he exists only in himself and for himself alone; and if his kindred still remain to him, he may be said at any rate to have lost his country.

Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?

Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things; it has predisposed men to endure them and often to look on them as benefits.

After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

I have always thought that servitude of the regular, quiet, and gentle kind which I have just described might be combined more easily than is commonly believed with some of the outward forms of freedom, and that it might even establish itself under the wing of the sovereignty of the people.”

Remains one of my favourite reads. Fantastic book, I picked up a compact travellers edition whilst in the states, was very illuminating when touring around, especially the North East.

Mysteryman said :

Chop71 said :

I’m surprised “came up with list of things we did” wasn’t on the list.

$10 says it was discussed. These guys are off with the faeries. but then again ACT LAB/LIB…. what is the least worst option?

HiddenDragon12:27 pm 12 Jul 12

The following excerpts from Alexis de Tocqueville’s ‘Democracy in America’, published more than 170 years ago, have some relevance to this, and similar posts on the RiotAct. Those who would like to hear and read more – whether for confirmation, or provocation, or both – may care to read or listen to Niall Ferguson’s recent Reith Lectures; here is a link to the transcript of the final lecture, given earlier this week, which includes much of the quote from de Tocqueville:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jmxsk/features/transcript

From – Chapter VI – What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear

“The first thing that strikes the observation is an innumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike, incessantly endeavoring to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. Each of them, living apart, is as a stranger to the fate of all the rest; his children and his private friends constitute to him the whole of mankind. As for the rest of his fellow citizens, he is close to them, but he does not see them; he touches them, but he does not feel them; he exists only in himself and for himself alone; and if his kindred still remain to him, he may be said at any rate to have lost his country.

Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?

Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things; it has predisposed men to endure them and often to look on them as benefits.

After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

I have always thought that servitude of the regular, quiet, and gentle kind which I have just described might be combined more easily than is commonly believed with some of the outward forms of freedom, and that it might even establish itself under the wing of the sovereignty of the people.”

I’m surprised they didn’t take credit for breaking the drought and filling the dams. At least that would be something people actually wanted.

They’ve forgotten a few:
* talked about integrity, but then selectively leaked the not-really-that damming report into Zed’s timesheets.
* after the Health Stats Scandal, just rolled over and supported Katy because “now things are obviously fixed” and no one really should be blamed for massive systemic fraud.
* done nothing about the policy they took to the 2008 election about increasing transparency and integrity in government, and generally rolled over on every element of their agreement with Labor just to stay in power and not give the Liberals any chance.

Ah yes.
So the jostling for the press coverage in the lead-up to the ACT election begins in earnest.

I think Caroline Le Couteur of the ACT Greens was loitering just below the Eagle’s Nest this morning with two cameramen and a reporter in tow.

I think Amanda Bresnan was around too and Shane Rattenbury, also I hallooed Al Kerlin. Basically if I hadn’t been on a bike getting to work without being thoroughly entangled by Greens would have been impossible.

Thank god for bicycles!

Chop71 said :

Oh My, so in the last 4 years (getting close to1460 days) they did “one thing” every 14 days AND came up with a list to tell us about it.

God bless their cotton socks

It seems to me that many of the things included on the list weren’t actually Greens initiatives, just things they were a part of…? A large number are also proposals, inquiries, or reviews with no actual outcome.

There are some real gems, like:

30. Better law around solariums – seriously? Stop trying to be our parents.

44. A new scheme to prevent the illegal dumping of trolleys in pulblic place – thank goodness for that. That was becoming a HUGE problem.

49. Phase out of lightweight plastic bags – because the community desperately wanted that.

56. ACT signed up to the International Charter of Walking – Wow! That’s a relief. All this time I’ve wanted to walk but our lack of inclusion in a charter (preferably of international status) has always concerned me.

75. Moved the light rail transport agenda forward – that’s code for “we haven’t actually done anything with this. It’s as unlikely as ever”.

78. Legislated a fairer system for traffic fine payments to protect vulnerable people – bludgers with bad driving habits now have even more time to pay their fines. The old system of “if you can’t afford it, don’t do it” was already fair.

80. Legislated to improve privacy safeguards for P2P speed cameras – too bad they were sensible enough to realise that the cameras won’t make any positive difference for road safety.

83. Proposed legislation and pushed initiatives to reduce wood smoke pollution – Effectively made it harder for people to use sustainable and renewable methods of heating and justified it with poor reasoning. Great work on that one.

97. Proposed legislated minimum standards for rental properties – oh great, mum and dad are now telling us how we need to keep our homes. Here I was thinking that all this time the market had been regulating itself with regards to “getting what you pay for”. And you know who is going to end up paying for the cost of the upgrades…

I’m surprised “came up with list of things we did” wasn’t on the list.

Will we get a x things the Libs have done x days before the election?

Only Liberal and Labor can answer that question!

neanderthalsis11:07 am 12 Jul 12

Inquiries, reviews, discussion papers and targets (no matter how ambitious) are not really successful outcomes, are they? They’re just stuff that they have thought about doing.

100 things they’ve done = 1,000 thing you can’t now do.

Nannies!

Oh My, so in the last 4 years (getting close to1460 days) they did “one thing” every 14 days AND came up with a list to tell us about it.

God bless their cotton socks

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