27 August 2024

Barr's 'utterly' failed Tuggeranong: Independents for Canberra candidate takes the long handle to Chief Minister

| Ian Bushnell
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Dr Vanessa Picker wants to hit Chief Minister Andrew Barr for six. Photo: Independents for Canberra.

Independents for Canberra candidate for Brindabella Vanessa Picker won’t have a bar of the Chief Minister, but she won’t say what party she would support to form government if elected in October.

The former Labor Party member and campaigner for gender equality in cricket is hardly on the right of politics, but she says the people of Tuggeranong have spoken, and Andrew Barr should go.

“I wish to make it unequivocally clear: I do not, and will not, support Andrew Barr as Chief Minister of the ACT,” she said at the weekend.

“It’s also time for broader change after 23 years of the same government.”

Ms Picker said Mr Barr had failed Tuggeranong “utterly” and had turned a blind eye to the stories of neglect and harm in the community.

She described the recent $20 million package of promises for Brindabella as “last-minute, hollow gestures”.

He had “brazenly” admitted that it was motivated by his desire for Labor to reclaim the seat narrowly lost in the last election.

“This is not the conduct of a leader who genuinely cares about the people he serves; it’s the behaviour of someone clinging to power,” she said.

Ms Picker accused Mr Barr of blatant disregard for accountability, breaking a 2020 promise to step down as Treasurer.

She also resurrected rumours that Mr Barr would not last the full four years and was looking at federal politics, something he has denied.

“Labor must explain why they continue to back Mr Barr, despite the strong public sentiment against his leadership,” Ms Picker said.

“I urge my fellow independent candidates to join me in making this public commitment.

“We have a unique and critical opportunity to bring real accountability and meaningful change to the ACT. Let’s stand united in putting our communities first, above the vested interests and the influence of entrenched politicians.”

But she won’t commit to supporting any party before the election, saying that would “severely compromise my independence and my ability to respond to the evolving needs and views of our community”.

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Mr Barr said on Monday that at least Dr Picker had been honest, and now Brindabella voters would know that a vote for her was a vote for a Liberal Government.

“That is the only way the Liberals have ever governed in the ACT, through the support of independents,” he said.

“So that risk is clearly there.”

Mr Barr said that people running for the crossbench who had no intention of seeking to actually form a government needed to be clear about which side of politics they were going to support.

“That’s the honest thing to do,” he said. “That’s the thing that independents with integrity would do, just indicate what they would do in that circumstance.

“Voters deserve to know where candidates stand on policy issues, and also on that pretty fundamental question because in our parliament, unlike any other in Australia, every single member on that first sitting day votes who the Chief Minister will be.”

Dr Picker’s comments come after the Canberra Liberals confirmed they were seeking a Barr lookalike to feature in campaign ads targeting the Chief Minister, adding to the perception that Labor’s opponents believe Mr Barr is on the nose with voters.

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You can spin Dr Picker’s comments all you like Thomas Emerson but the fact is she has been out there and quite clear in the media during the past week exposing your party’s hostility towards the CM and his government. She has also highlighted your party’s anti-government agenda by refusing to support Andrew Barr as leader should you win balance of power.

You do not demand who should be party leader, the party decides!

Again you are revealing your naivety and lack of understanding of democracy and our parliament’s decision-making processes. You are also disregarding the clear will of the people who have voted for Labor should the party win government.

Dr Picker has revealed that a vote for IFC is a vote for the Liberals, with your party justly earning the title “Stooge independents”!

Barr is totally on the nose. He hasn’t delivered jack sh** in tuggeranong. We’re still waiting for Athllon drive to be duplicated and that $20 million is more of an insult than anything. Fix the roads mate. Kill the weeds growing out of the gutters, duplicate Athllon, fix the parks and water quality. Your integrity is shot and I do hope he goes into federal politics so he can take selfish with Albo and get voted into political oblivion.

Barr stoops so low as to attempt to smear a former Labor party member because she no longer supports him. Pretty gross! He claims that she is now a Liberal supporter when she’s made it clear that she’ll be supporting her constituents rather than a particular party. That’s how she’s able to be independent. Barr relies on his party, dominates it and drags them down with him. They’re all tainted as a result.

@psycho
Very fair observation

Interesting that Barr says “… the only way the Liberals have ever governed in the ACT, (is) through the support of independents”. Yet the only way Labor, under his stewardship, has governed is with the support of the Greens.

Do we have to keep carping on about Tuggeranong all the time? There’s a lot of other areas in Canberra but there seems to be a squeaky wheel thing going on here and TBH the whining is getting a bit tedious.

It’s pretty much the opposite of a squeaky wheel, in that the government has knowingly disregarded the area for years because it’s not where ACT elections are won and the government knows they can rely on getting at least 2 seats regardless of what they do. Throwing a few scraps and repeated project announcements in the leadup to each election and then forgetting those promises afterwards.

It’s almightily ironic that you call this “whinging” whilst on these very pages you promote the exact projects that highlight the differences in funding and services provided across Canberra.

That’s the key point Chewy. When Tuggeranong Labor MLA’s leave politics, they are suddenly open to commenting about how hard it was to get any funding or support out of Barr for Tuggeranong and Woden.
There’s a strategic political approach to winning the key electorates that helps keep Labor in power (directly or with a Greens coalition).

It will be interesting to hear Joy Burch’s comments a year after the October election.

That’s the key point Chewy. When Tuggeranong Labor MLA’s leave politics, they are suddenly open to commenting about how hard it was to get any funding or support out of Barr for Tuggeranong and Woden.
There’s a strategic political approach to winning the key Canberra electorates that helps keep Labor in power (directly or with a Greens coalition).

It will be interesting to hear Joy Burch’s comments a year after the October election.

Thomas Emerson10:59 am 27 Aug 24

Dr Picker quite clearly stated that she wanted to see a change of Chief Minister but was not committing to supporting either prospective governing party at this point in time. Mr Barr’s comments in response, suggesting anyone unwilling to support him as Chief Minister must be intent on supporting a Liberal government, indicate that he can’t conceive of Labor being in power without him at the helm. In other words, he IS the Labor Party. If Mr Barr believes he and ACT Labor are one and the same, that only gives credence to the concerns we’ve voiced about there being too much power concentrated in Mr Barr’s office.

No Mr Barr, it is you who needs to be clear with the people before the election.

Will you form another alliance with the Greens to get the votes required to continue as Chief Minister?

How are you going to fix the budget you broke? The Pegasus Economics review of the ACT budget projects interest payments will be $832 million in 2027-28, which is $2.3 million every single day.

Barr talking about integrity is hilarious. He wouldn’t know what it was.

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