ACT Budget 2005

Spiny, I don’t now nor have I ever worked for the ACT government or the as a staffer for an ACT politician.

Ralph, I’m not even a big fan of Stanhope let a lone a groupie, I think he’s somewhat full of himself, overbearing and doesn’t seem to take criticism well. I’ve met him on occasion and (obviously) know who he is, he may even have a vague knowledge of my existence. If this was a Stanhope fan site I’d probably be attacking the fan boys, but the riotact is so one eyed in its hatred of him and the local government in general that I feel compelled to speak up (plus I generally like what the government as a what is doing). As to Corbell’s trip I’m not commenting because it’s a non-story, sure it looks bad if you’re already that way inclined, but in reality it’s just a necessary part of the process.

Personally I’m a functionalist despite indulging myself in idealistic flights as to the nature of governance.

So, lets take an outcomes based view of budget policy?

Despite what we may wish to achieve, there is only so much money with which to achieve it.

In good years we have more money. But in good years less people need government help.

So perhaps a government that wasn’t a pack of wankers would restrain their exuberance in good years, lower charges to grow the wider economy, and give themselves room to provide assistance when times get tougher?

Because the world is still waiting for a society that can deliver the perfect justice Our Brave Leader craves.

And that’s where the Government’s ideology has lead us all astray. This is a decent budget, but it would have been a better one if in the previous good years they hadn’t spent every penny available to them.

To suggest, as the CM did today on 666, that there are no cost savings to be made is ludicrous.

If compatability with NSW is a be all and end all then we can dismiss our assembly and make do with a city council.

The CM says he is a good economic manager.

But all he did was put food on the table through the summer.

Sadly he did it without regard to the coming winter.

And winter is always coming.

(yes been reading George RR Martin lately, still a good way to think)

I suspect its one of the Stanhope groupies. Funny how he/she has been deathly silent regarding Simon Corbell’s travel junket.

I hope anonymous isn’t being paid by me(act rate payer) to sit in his office and attack comments entered on a blog…..I have my suspicions tho ……

You’re right these responses meandering and unfocused, so I’ll jest deal with a couple of issues (not saying that I don’t have countepoints to other arguments).

Industrial Manslaughter. There is indeed OH&S legislation, but that would give big fines to the companies involved, under the industrial manslaughter legislation the bosses can be criminally liable and go to jail if they purposely had practices that they knew were illegal and putting workers in undue danger. It’s an important differentiation.

Stanhope and foreign policy. I’d say that on average his slightly more progressive view on foreign affairs is representative Canberra opinion. Now wether it’s his place to comment on that or not I doubt that it’s affecting the governments ability to deliver services.

Fact and figures. In truth you can find facts and figures to back up most any opinion, but here are a couple that I alluded to but didn’t go into detail about in my last post: 21 is now the average size for public lower primary classes, record numbers of people are undergoing elective surgery (the reason the waiting lists are longer is because the numbers of people trying to get elective surgery has doubled), after this budget there will be funding for 100 more public hospital beds, 40 more police officers and over 20 new nurses, compared to the a Liberal years. While you may not agree with everything they’re doing, it seems obvious they’re not sitting on their hands.

Blaming Carnell is like me blaming my ex husband for the fact I’m still poor, when it’s been over for 6 years! (Only worse, because no-one expected Kate to pay child support).

There comes a time when you have to say, “Hey, you know what? I spend too much money on shoes!” – changed to whatever is appropriate in Govt (assuming that Jon HASN’T been spending tax dollars on shoes) but ultimately accepting responsibility for fucking up your budget.

Wow, what a witty comeback

you say i say.

i couldnt give a shit about staying consistent with NSW that place is a debacle anyway.

just because you are a softhead doesnt mean that its carnells fault.

Bonfire, I agree that the bill of rights is a waste of space, but for the rest of the list:

industrial manslaughter = so a boss who kills someone due to highly negligent work practices shouldn’t be charged with manslaughter?
50km in streets = just because we don’t like doesn’t mean the community didn’t want it, plus NSW was going there anyway, we’re just staying consistent.
paid parking in belco/woden = encouraging public transport (see higher patronage rates for ACTION) and equalising with how civic works
dragway = waiting for the Fed to work out what they are doing with the land in Majura.
GMC400 = It was costing (and losing) a huge amount of money, tried to shift it to a less freezing cold time, they wouldn’t so ACT government funding was withdrawn.
PTFFS & STP = That’s why it’s called an investigation because it investigates all the options then lay out solutions (again see increased ACTION patronage).
Budget surpluses = They haven’t been spending money unwisely (I’m sure you could find some tiny stupid things, but you could do that in any big budget) they have been increasing public service pay to competitive levels and a projected downturn in income from the housing market ate up the rest of the surplus.

Thumper, how are any of the thing you’ve listed to do with their “social agenda”. You claim is that there is some big over-riding policy of the government pushing it’s own wacky social policies with which Canberra community disagrees while neglecting services. You haven’t listed a single social policy that the canberrans in general hate that stanhope and co have been pushing. You also claim that the departments of health, education urban services and the ESB are totally useless and directionless without showing any numbers as proof to back up your claim. If you look at the results from school test scores, class sizes and school funding education has improved in the last four years. There are more Doctors and Nurses, more elective surgery is getting done, and there are more hospital beds. Does more need to be done? Of course it does. Does this make the government directionless and useless, I don’t think so. Now if you look at waiting lists maybe they aren’t being as effective and you (or me) would like, but they are trying. Apparently you were a teacher, maybe you didn’t have a good time or felt out of your depth but I know a number of teachers, in both public and private schools, who don’t feel as lost as you did. I guess my point is that your arguments seem very subjective without much fact to back them up. Obviously you don’t like this government, but you seem to be selecting the things they are doing that you don’t like and using them to assignin a larger ulterior motive and agenda that I just don’t think is there.

In relation to land release, if your talking about massive divisions of greenfields land the Government has always been the only one who can release that land. If conversely you’re talking about the LDA they are most certainly not the only one release blocks to consumers, Majura Rise in Watson for example is not managed by the LDA.

And I’ll add that controlling land releases gives their social climbing, sorry, aspirational, party members nice (paper) increases in their property prices.