The Stanhope Government doesn’t generally like to talk about why they gagged public warning of the impending 2003 fires.
Here at RiotACT we suspect that the stubborn resistance to all independent calls for Emergency Services to be run by an independent statutory authority is for fear such a move would be a tacit admission of the political interference in the lead up to the fires hitting.
We don’t think there was any evil plan with maniacal laughs to see the city burn, more mediocre political hacks who’ve seen too many episodes of the West Wing and think owning a mobile phone makes them Josh Lyman. So we imagine simple things like issuing warnings got micromanaged to a standstill and minute political considerations became more important than genuine operational issues. Be that as it may Mr. Stanhope thinks it’s him and his staff against the world and will stand by them no matter what sins of ommission or commission they may commit (the tale of Aidan Bruford is instructive in this matter). We suspect that’s what was going through his head when he famously announced we should blame him. He wasn’t thinking about the firefighters, he was thinking about his staff who’d intervened disastrously in the planning meetings.
So, that’s what the available evidence leads us to infer. Today three very interesting things happen which in a decent polity would have been very surprising to see on the same day.
–Debate is starting on the no-confidence motion arising from the coroner’s finding.
— This morning we learned [ABC] that the same public servants who tried to de-rail the coroner are going back to court to argue the same old thing and presumably lose. Watch to see who finally picks up the tab for this. It’s no more likely to succeed than their challenge last time around but it muddies the water nicely while the Government tries to discredit its own coroner.
— Then miraculously the Government released [Age] its response to the coroner’s report. The cost of HR and IT is deemed to be too expensive to allow for independent bodies (bodies beyond the immediate control of the Stanhope cabal) despite this capability being within the grasp of even the smallest and meanest small business in the ACT.
So, faced with discussion of their actions, whatever they do, a wannabe West Winger decided to take out all the trash and hope the public gets too confused to understand the issues.
Simon Corbell has now declared himself the arbiter of what matters are political and which are not. Conveniently political matters can only be dealt with by Mr. Stanhope’s majority assembly.
All Power To The Great Leader!
It makes me sick. Obviously a bill of rights doesn’t run to transparency, accountability, or checks and balances in Government.
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