14 November 2014

State of the Capital – Weekly Political Wrap 13/11/14

| John Hope
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Pork barrelling: the Feds hit Canberra again

250 public service jobs will be pork barrelled off to Victoria to help Premier Denis Napthine maintain his first-term government. Within a month of the state election it was announced that, in spite of the Australian Bureau of Statistics already losing 350 staff due to redundancies, the 250 ABS staff will reallocated to Geelong. As the ACT Government sticks by the light rail project and deals with the Mr Fluffy crisis, the ACT’s economy is being pushed to the brink.

While 6500 public service jobs are to be cut from the ACT’s economy by 2017, politicians from Tasmania and Queensland are also calling for public service jobs to be relocated to their electorates.

Fraser Labor MP Andrew Leigh commented that ‘apparently there’s jobs and funding to spare when one of their state Liberal mates needs a quick election goodie.’

But the pork barrelling isn’t limited to the Coalition.

It seems that whenever a light bulb appears above a politician’s small head to create jobs in a struggling electorate the Australian Public Service is treated as a golden goose instead of, well, the Australian Public Service – Bob Katter and Andrew Wilkie come to mind.

E-cigarettes in the ACT

The ACT Government will release a discussion paper which will consider the regulation of the so called e-cigarettes. Currently, individuals under the age of 18 are not banned from buying the devices in which vaporising mechanisms mimic the action of smoking a cigarette. Chief Minister Katy

Gallagher said, ‘the ACT Government is keen to ensure that non-smokers, particularly young people, are not encouraged to start using personal vaporisers.’ As states and territories across Australia scramble to deal with an ever-changing drug environment, the ACT will deliberate on regulations where the vaporisers can be used and how they can be sold. If you want to have your say, members of the public have from this week until

December 24 to contribute to the discussion.

Burch defends Labor’s pokie addiction

Opposition gaming spokesman Brendan Smyth has accused ACT Labor of funding campaigns from the misery of people addicted to gambling. The accusation comes in response to Ms Burch’s defence of the government’s decision to desert the target of 4000 poker machines in the territory in favour of a new population ratio. The Australian Bureau of Statistics projects that the adult population of the ACT may reach approximately 332,000 by 2020. These estimates would allow for 4982 machines in the ACT. Currently, the ACT has the most poker machines per capita out of any jurisdiction in Australia.

According to the ACT Gaming and Racing Commission ACT Labor has traditionally been the largest recipient of direct donations from the pokie sector. Perhaps Labor could endear itself to some small businesses for donations for 2016…

On the Federal Note…

Jacqui Lambie. Remembrance Day. Need I say more?

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HiddenDragon5:56 pm 14 Nov 14

HenryBG said :

rosscoact said :

dungfungus said :

“But the pork barrelling isn’t limited to the Coalition.”
So, how about three paragraphs of details on what Labor/Green did?

We have the Coalition telling us on a daily basis what the previous Government did. I’m considerably more interested in what the current government is doing at any point in time.

a – defunding science
b – continuing John Howard’s work of creating an ever-expanding structural deficit
c – defunding education
d – closing down the RET, which was on track to save Australia $1billion/year in energy costs.
e – denying climate change, see a. & c.
f – allowing mining companies to pay significantly less tax than their overseas counterparts. See b.
g – increasing subsidies to coal companies. See b.
h – reducing subsidies in renewables. See b.
i – ensuring the prosecution of a person blowing the whistle on an undeclared financial benefit accompanied by political lobbying offered to the PM’s family.

Just on “b” – structural deficits are truly now bipartisan policy. Whether it’s Labor’s lame “saves” or the Coalition’s clumsily conceived and presented “hard yards” (or whatever other dismal cliche either side wants to use) no one in power or near it is yet facing up to Australia’s fiscal facts of life.

HenryBG said :

rosscoact said :

dungfungus said :

“But the pork barrelling isn’t limited to the Coalition.”
So, how about three paragraphs of details on what Labor/Green did?

We have the Coalition telling us on a daily basis what the previous Government did. I’m considerably more interested in what the current government is doing at any point in time.

a – defunding science
b – continuing John Howard’s work of creating an ever-expanding structural deficit
c – defunding education
d – closing down the RET, which was on track to save Australia $1billion/year in energy costs.
e – denying climate change, see a. & c.
f – allowing mining companies to pay significantly less tax than their overseas counterparts. See b.
g – increasing subsidies to coal companies. See b.
h – reducing subsidies in renewables. See b.
i – ensuring the prosecution of a person blowing the whistle on an undeclared financial benefit accompanied by political lobbying offered to the PM’s family.

Can’t see any pork barrelling there Henry. Have another go please.
BTW, are you aware that Glencore Mining are suspending all coal mining operations in Australia for three weeks from today? This should please you and your peers.

HenryBG said :

rosscoact said :

dungfungus said :

“But the pork barrelling isn’t limited to the Coalition.”
So, how about three paragraphs of details on what Labor/Green did?

We have the Coalition telling us on a daily basis what the previous Government did. I’m considerably more interested in what the current government is doing at any point in time.

a – defunding science
b – continuing John Howard’s work of creating an ever-expanding structural deficit
c – defunding education
d – closing down the RET, which was on track to save Australia $1billion/year in energy costs.
e – denying climate change, see a. & c.
f – allowing mining companies to pay significantly less tax than their overseas counterparts. See b.
g – increasing subsidies to coal companies. See b.
h – reducing subsidies in renewables. See b.
i – ensuring the prosecution of a person blowing the whistle on an undeclared financial benefit accompanied by political lobbying offered to the PM’s family.

And that’s just the tip of a giant iceburg

rosscoact said :

dungfungus said :

“But the pork barrelling isn’t limited to the Coalition.”
So, how about three paragraphs of details on what Labor/Green did?

We have the Coalition telling us on a daily basis what the previous Government did. I’m considerably more interested in what the current government is doing at any point in time.

a – defunding science
b – continuing John Howard’s work of creating an ever-expanding structural deficit
c – defunding education
d – closing down the RET, which was on track to save Australia $1billion/year in energy costs.
e – denying climate change, see a. & c.
f – allowing mining companies to pay significantly less tax than their overseas counterparts. See b.
g – increasing subsidies to coal companies. See b.
h – reducing subsidies in renewables. See b.
i – ensuring the prosecution of a person blowing the whistle on an undeclared financial benefit accompanied by political lobbying offered to the PM’s family.

rosscoact said :

dungfungus said :

“But the pork barrelling isn’t limited to the Coalition.”
So, how about three paragraphs of details on what Labor/Green did?

We have the Coalition telling us on a daily basis what the previous Government did. I’m considerably more interested in what the current government is doing at any point in time.

I don’t see any reports of what you are claiming on this thread or indeed, this blog.
Perhaps you could bring me up to date on what the Coalition said yesterday on this issue.

dungfungus said :

“But the pork barrelling isn’t limited to the Coalition.”
So, how about three paragraphs of details on what Labor/Green did?

We have the Coalition telling us on a daily basis what the previous Government did. I’m considerably more interested in what the current government is doing at any point in time.

HiddenDragon said :

“Currently, the ACT has the most poker machines per capita out of any jurisdiction in Australia” – interesting that a Government which is so fond of regulating everything that moves (and much that doesn’t) apparently has a somewhat more permissive approach to this issue.

But the casino is still banned from getting them. I am not even sure if the casino is still open, actually.

HiddenDragon5:48 pm 13 Nov 14

“Currently, the ACT has the most poker machines per capita out of any jurisdiction in Australia” – interesting that a Government which is so fond of regulating everything that moves (and much that doesn’t) apparently has a somewhat more permissive approach to this issue.

“But the pork barrelling isn’t limited to the Coalition.”
So, how about three paragraphs of details on what Labor/Green did?

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