18 November 2008

Are we getting our fair share of local government largesse?

| trevar
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So, according to the Canberra Times, local governments are getting some money to spend on themselves. Great; so where’s ours? Yet again, those of us who live in the territories are being ignored (actually I don’t know whether the NT has local councils or not) by these state-based ministers. Not only are we not worthy of an equal say in Federal Parliament, but we’re not worthy of being stimulated…

Actually, some of us here on RiotACT are overstimulated anyway, but that’s beside the point!

Now, I would never suggest that we need more politicians in Canberra, but our under-representation on Capital Hill is starting to bite. Am I the only one who thinks that our representation is in contravention of the UN Declaration on Human Rights (Article 21, part 3; “universal and equal suffrage”)?

UPDATE: It should be noted that the ACT is getting $2 million of local government loot for rapid spending.

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pug206gti said :

Yes, the NT has councils…and tin pot affairs they are too!

Occasionally mayors go to gaol for disappearing fridges, although reality writes better stories than authors.

Pug, the fridge lifter was the Lord Mayor of Darwin, no less. He even had the class to turn up to that year’s NYE dressed as a fridge. Hilarious.

All the attention goes on the fridge, but what about the Darth Vader mask (with voice changer!), the women’s underwear ….

Yes, the NT has councils…and tin pot affairs they are too!

Occasionally mayors go to gaol for disappearing fridges, although reality writes better stories than authors.

I can’t wait for the “Sonic’s Hair” sculpture going up in Gungahlin ….

*sigh*

“UPDATE: It should be noted that the ACT is getting $2 million of local government loot for rapid spending.”

Oh goody. More dodgy “art”.

How about we have a statue of that delicate young flower, Katy; that way the pigeons can say what we all think!

Lots! Now that some of our local MLAs have dropped off the twig, we can can even make statuary of LOCAL politicians.

UPDATE: It should be noted that the ACT is getting $2 million of local government loot for rapid spending.

I think we should spend the lot on public art. Are there any high-ranking mafiosos we haven’t yet commemorated with a bronze statue?

The point is that we’re not being excluded from consideration for this stimulus package – we have a seat at the table, because the ACT Government is considered both a state-level and local government authority (as it should be).

The Parliamentary representation issue is a seperate one, and one I agree with. It’s not the case that we get two lower house MPs regardless of population, though; all lower house divisions are assigned based on making the populations as even as possible – the only exceptions are that the Original States are guaranteed at least 5 seats and the ACT & NT at least 2 (the current beneficiaries of these arrangemnts are Tasmania and NT). We did in fact have 3 seats for a short while, and are currently sitting just below the quota we’d need to get them back. As long as the NT is being gerrymandered 2 guaranteed seats, I reckon we should be getting 3.

I’m not sure that the entire article is based on a single premise! I’m not that intelligent!

I had no idea that the ACT Government was a member of ALGA, but nonetheless, the question really is whether we get pork from this particular barrel.

The representation issue is the same. The states get a member in the House for every 80,000 residents, but we get 2, regardless of our population (which works out at 1 per 125,000). The states get 12 Senators regardless of their populations, but we get 2. That is by no means the same as Balmain or Yarra. I maintain that it is not “universal and equal suffrage”, so it’s a little embarrassing that we have a PM with the guts to stand up to China for its human rights abuses, but who hasn’t recognised stye in his own eye (pardon the ongoing pig references)…

Well said caf.

This entire article is based on an incorrect premise.

The meeting referred to is a meeting of the Australian Local Government Association with the Federal Government, and the ACT Government is a member of ALGA.

So whether or not we get any pork from this particular barrel, we’re just as represented as other well off boroughs, say Balmain or South Yarra.

Were you here for the last recession? Canberra was devastated.

I think you’re missing the point. The council money is intended to stimulate the economy in an attempt to stave off a recession. Canberra is a middle-class town with an abnormally secure workforce and higher than average socio-economically. Put very simply: we don’t need it as much as other areas of Australia.

Yep – it annoys me that TAsmanian votes count for so much more than ours.

And the same article about stimulating the economy via half-million grants for local mayors says that our shopping economy has dropped the most at -3%, to a national average of +0.1. We still won’t get anything tho.

If our govt has any sense they’d be desperately lobbying for fund to complete the GDE urgently – or any other infrastructure project.

Canberra has a council. It just pretends to be something more important than it really is.

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