Canberra - what's happening to this place???

pezza said :

Sigh. This is what happens when we don’t have a robust opposition and viable alternative government. There’s no real debate, no need to compromise, no need to inform the voting public of the what and why, no need to take key policy changes to an election, and so on.

Party politics in the ACT are deader than at the Federal level. It’s a glorified town council, and should be full of people representing their local communities, not this shambles.

Do your part in making the change. Don’t vote Lib/Lab/Grn, vote for someone you’ve spoken to face to face that actually understands the issues facing people who live in the Territory, and will actively try to do something about them when they get elected – not what their party tells them to do.

I think u are right pezza, about no debate, no need to inform the voting public, etc. That’s probably because that same voting public don’t seem to, or are able to, hold pollies to account. Both sides – at least at the federal level, just seem to break “promises” at will these days.

That, coupled with what is clearly fiscal and economic mismanagement by the ACT Gov’t (IMHO anyway) – which leads to increased revenue raising including the tripling of Annual Rates, causes a severe loss of confidence in politicians generally. The state of politics and economic management in Oz has probably never been worse than it has been over the past 10 years or so – again, just my view.

But, in some sort of defence of the ACT Gov’t, Canberra isn’t really like a town council (apart from acting like one that is !). I think expenses like cost of maintaining nature reserves for example, are met from ACT Govt revenues. At the State level, the State Gov’t would contribute to, or meet that, I believe.

rosscoact said :

rommeldog56 said :

rosscoact said :

Well, I’m pretty optimistic that we are not going into a deep deep recession like the mid to late 1990s when the ACT government bent over and took whatever the Feds told them to take. Doing something is better than that for everyone.

What’s your alternative to doing something?

I’m actually with you re being more optimistic. The CBR economy has diversified a lot since the 1990s so should be much more resilient to the impact of the Fed’s cutbacks. But never the less, they will hurt the CBR economy and have at an impact on jobs for a while. Thats why I don’t quite understand the need for the ACT Gov’t to roll out an infrastructure stimulus package right now.

It might be necessary down the track – but right now ? The ACT economy will get over this and bounce back stronger as history shows.

My alternative would be to redouble efforts to attract industry here and so further diversify the employment base – that will help to sustain economic development in the medium-longer terms. Maybe keeping the cost of electricity comparatively lower (a major cost to industry employers) instead of artificially increasing its price by rolling out solar farms with higher feed in tariffs and so throwing away a competitive advantage of lower electricity prices that the ACT enjoys ?

Certainly NOT projects like Light Rail that, apart from a few jobs for a year or so, will have no substantial economic advantage to the Territory. Rather, it is likely to be an economic millstone around all residents/Ratepayers (including commercial Ratepayers) for decades to come – more so if it (as seems to be the case, inevitably) runs at a loss. + The borrowing of the $ and repayment of principle/interest. Ouch.

Certainly NOT increasing commercial Rates for industry – those are going up a lot too.

In the interim, the Gov’t certainly has to increase some charges and stop wasting $ – but stop pandering to the whinging and unlimited wants/needs of it’s constituents – and cut their cloth to suit their budget. When things come good again, and they will, the ACT will be much better positioned to recover and sustain that into the future.

This Gov’t is overplaying this IMHO.

Great response, I don’t necessarily agree with all your points but a great response.

I believe that the increase in infrastructure spending is only marginal when looking at spending over the past decade. Major infrastructure needs about 2-3 years planning under the current planning regime so unless you commit to a project and spending money in the out years it will never come off.

It could do nothing and the ACT would bounce back, nothing surer. However, I believe history shows that that tack would mean that we would be in a deeper and longer recession and it would be about 2012 before things were looking good again. I’m not sure that the town has diversified that much to make a major difference.

The problem that the ACT has always had with attracting industry is there hasn’t been a strategic view applied. It would seem that the digital economy policy of the current government goes a way to addressing that but and it’s a big but, the competition is fierce. Larger states have more land, revenue and assets to attract big business and frankly, Sydney and Melbourne (and even the venality of the Gold Coast) are more attractive to startups and big business alike.

So, we are behind the the eight ball on that front.

The renewable energy bit is a bit of a furphy. The contracts are written in a way that the ACT government makes money out of the solar projects and until peak electricity prices drop massively, will continue to do so. The big losers out of renewable energy are the established fossil fuel energy suppliers who are looking at their business model, particularly their major profit source of peak energy demand, be eroded. This is why they pay the Coal-ition (see what I did there?) to oppose renewable energy. There’s sources for all this but I don’t have the time to go looking at the moment.

I’m of two minds with the current expenditure V revenue thing. On the one hand they must increase and diversify revenue. It’s affecting me personally and I wasn’t that happy when certain measures were announced but it’s got to be done and spread as evenly as possible. Rates isn’t a big cost centre for commercial or residential leases so I’m not seeing that lowering commercial rates (comparative to residential) is going to tip anyone’s hand one way or the other.

On the other hand, for example I will benefit personally from the light rail in that I live in Gungahlin and work in town much of the time and despise bus travel whether I’m inside or outside them. There’s no point in responding to any more mis-information on the other threads because people have made up their minds.

The political perspective from my position is that Labor as a fourth term government has to be seen to be doing something otherwise it would be accused of being a ‘do nothing’ tired Government. Ironically, the Opposition is taking this position. I do appreciate a government that follows through with it’s promises rather than either flip-flopping at the first sign of opposition or just blatantly lying to get into power.

I haven’t re-watched it, but I think some of the comments in this story are completely in line with what you have said about digital economy businesses:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-13/mind-our-own-businesses/5523412

The impression I was left with is that Canberra is, and will likely only ever be, a niche player and a good incubator, but once scale is achieved, or even approached, other locations in Australia or overseas become increasingly logical from a business perspective. If that’s the cold hard truth of it for digital and other private sector knowledge economy businesses in Canberra, I really do wonder about the wisdom of big ticket ACT government spending which is justified, at least in part, by a vision for a burgeoning private sector ACT economy which is just as likely to be a mirage.

Mysteryman said :

pezza said :

Sigh. This is what happens when we don’t have a robust opposition and viable alternative government. There’s no real debate, no need to compromise, no need to inform the voting public of the what and why, no need to take key policy changes to an election, and so on.

It’s what happens when voters allow blind partisanism to guide them. We all end up with a proven failure, instead of a possible one.

Its the system that is at fault. Plenty who vote on both sides of politics with blind partisanism and it wasn’t like Labor, Greens or Liberals were really offering a huge choice last election. Liberals in Canberra probably need to be less conservative socially to gain more support. It my main gripe with the Liberal party in general is their social policies are generally so far right that it is offensive to many. Financially every state/territory/country government benefits from having both progressive and conservative governments in cycles, because too much to one side is a bad thing.

rommeldog56 said :

rosscoact said :

Well, I’m pretty optimistic that we are not going into a deep deep recession like the mid to late 1990s when the ACT government bent over and took whatever the Feds told them to take. Doing something is better than that for everyone.

What’s your alternative to doing something?

I’m actually with you re being more optimistic. The CBR economy has diversified a lot since the 1990s so should be much more resilient to the impact of the Fed’s cutbacks. But never the less, they will hurt the CBR economy and have at an impact on jobs for a while. Thats why I don’t quite understand the need for the ACT Gov’t to roll out an infrastructure stimulus package right now.

It might be necessary down the track – but right now ? The ACT economy will get over this and bounce back stronger as history shows.

My alternative would be to redouble efforts to attract industry here and so further diversify the employment base – that will help to sustain economic development in the medium-longer terms. Maybe keeping the cost of electricity comparatively lower (a major cost to industry employers) instead of artificially increasing its price by rolling out solar farms with higher feed in tariffs and so throwing away a competitive advantage of lower electricity prices that the ACT enjoys ?

Certainly NOT projects like Light Rail that, apart from a few jobs for a year or so, will have no substantial economic advantage to the Territory. Rather, it is likely to be an economic millstone around all residents/Ratepayers (including commercial Ratepayers) for decades to come – more so if it (as seems to be the case, inevitably) runs at a loss. + The borrowing of the $ and repayment of principle/interest. Ouch.

Certainly NOT increasing commercial Rates for industry – those are going up a lot too.

In the interim, the Gov’t certainly has to increase some charges and stop wasting $ – but stop pandering to the whinging and unlimited wants/needs of it’s constituents – and cut their cloth to suit their budget. When things come good again, and they will, the ACT will be much better positioned to recover and sustain that into the future.

This Gov’t is overplaying this IMHO.

Great response, I don’t necessarily agree with all your points but a great response.

I believe that the increase in infrastructure spending is only marginal when looking at spending over the past decade. Major infrastructure needs about 2-3 years planning under the current planning regime so unless you commit to a project and spending money in the out years it will never come off.

It could do nothing and the ACT would bounce back, nothing surer. However, I believe history shows that that tack would mean that we would be in a deeper and longer recession and it would be about 2012 before things were looking good again. I’m not sure that the town has diversified that much to make a major difference.

The problem that the ACT has always had with attracting industry is there hasn’t been a strategic view applied. It would seem that the digital economy policy of the current government goes a way to addressing that but and it’s a big but, the competition is fierce. Larger states have more land, revenue and assets to attract big business and frankly, Sydney and Melbourne (and even the venality of the Gold Coast) are more attractive to startups and big business alike. So, we are behind the the eight ball on that front.

The renewable energy bit is a bit of a furphy. The contracts are written in a way that the ACT government makes money out of the solar projects and until peak electricity prices drop massively, will continue to do so. The big losers out of renewable energy are the established fossil fuel energy suppliers who are looking at their business model, particularly their major profit source of peak energy demand, be eroded. This is why they pay the Coal-ition (see what I did there?) to oppose renewable energy. There’s sources for all this but I don’t have the time to go looking at the moment.

I’m of two minds with the current expenditure V revenue thing. On the one hand they must increase and diversify revenue. It’s affecting me personally and I wasn’t that happy when certain measures were announced but it’s got to be done and spread as evenly as possible. Rates isn’t a big cost centre for commercial or residential leases so I’m not seeing that lowering commercial rates (comparative to residential) is going to tip anyone’s hand one way or the other.

On the other hand, for example I will benefit personally from the light rail in that I live in Gungahlin and work in town much of the time and despise bus travel whether I’m inside or outside them. There’s no point in responding to any more mis-information on the other threads because people have made up their minds.

The political perspective from my position is that Labor as a fourth term government has to be seen to be doing something otherwise it would be accused of being a ‘do nothing’ tired Government. Ironically, the Opposition is taking this position. I do appreciate a government that follows through with it’s promises rather than either flip-flopping at the first sign of opposition or just blatantly lying to get into power.

Another great tick in the box for Queanbyean.

What’s happening is . . . self-government. But, worse, we have a form of self-government that doesn’t work for anyone except professional politicians. Oh for a nice, normal city council with a sensible, practical mayor, so we can be a Tidy Town and actually get standard, proper services for our rates, like, I don’t know, green bins and a council collection! Then, State matters could be run separately in one efficient directorate; we would need far fewer politicians; save a fair bit of money; and we wouldn’t have these precious, arrogant fool MLAs with aspirations way above their *actual* pay grade, that keep wrecking the place with stupid unrealistic ‘visions’ such as light rail for the privileged few. It frustrates me to tears how sh!t Canberra is compared to when I was growing up here.

rosscoact said :

Well, I’m pretty optimistic that we are not going into a deep deep recession like the mid to late 1990s when the ACT government bent over and took whatever the Feds told them to take. Doing something is better than that for everyone.

What’s your alternative to doing something?

I’m actually with you re being more optimistic. The CBR economy has diversified a lot since the 1990s so should be much more resilient to the impact of the Fed’s cutbacks. But never the less, they will hurt the CBR economy and have at an impact on jobs for a while. Thats why I don’t quite understand the need for the ACT Gov’t to roll out an infrastructure stimulus package right now. It might be necessary down the track – but right now ? The ACT economy will get over this and bounce back stronger as history shows.

My alternative would be to redouble efforts to attract industry here and so further diversify the employment base – that will help to sustain economic development in the medium-longer terms. Maybe keeping the cost of electricity comparatively lower (a major cost to industry employers) instead of artificially increasing its price by rolling out solar farms with higher feed in tariffs and so throwing away a competitive advantage of lower electricity prices that the ACT enjoys ?

Certainly NOT projects like Light Rail that, apart from a few jobs for a year or so, will have no substantial economic advantage to the Territory. Rather, it is likely to be an economic millstone around all residents/Ratepayers (including commercial Ratepayers) for decades to come – more so if it (as seems to be the case, inevitably) runs at a loss. + The borrowing of the $ and repayment of principle/interest. Ouch.

Certainly NOT increasing commercial Rates for industry – those are going up a lot too.

In the interim, the Gov’t certainly has to increase some charges and stop wasting $ – but stop pandering to the whinging and unlimited wants/needs of it’s constituents – and cut their cloth to suit their budget. When things come good again, and they will, the ACT will be much better positioned to recover and sustain that into the future.

This Gov’t is overplaying this IMHO.

“….As a self funded retiree, I won’t be living in CBR in about 3 years – Annual Rates will be just too expensive….” I doubt if you’re alone in looking at other options, but if one of those is Queanbeyan or thereabouts, last Friday’s Stateline on the asbestos tragedy was a sobering reminder that there might be some nasty, collective financial liabilities lurking there, as well. There’s also, of course, the possibility that NSW and other States will start pushing up recurrent taxes on residents as boom-time revenues from other sources subside.

Well, I’m pretty optimistic that we are not going into a deep deep recession like the mid to late 1990s when the ACT government bent over and took whatever the Feds told them to take. Doing something is better than that for everyone.

What’s your alternative to doing something?

Grail said :

So when is rommeldog56 announcing their candidacy for the ACT Legislative Assembly?

I’ll take that as a “vote” of confidence. Thank you.

But, unless you join a party political machine like Labor, Lib’s or Green’s and so have to tow their corporate line, what hope is there of getting into the Legislative assembly ? Then if you did, unless its a hung parliament, what good could you do ?

If people feel strongly enough about issue(s), people power can and probably will make a difference.

If not, then I suppose we get the Government (no matter what party) and the future we deserve.