The new cabinet unveiled!

I agree with thetruth actually. I am certainly waiting for something more than what we’ve got so far.

Sorry for being part of a “lunatic fringe” – I am a bit perplexed as to how that post was so out there (but maybe being fringe and thinking you are pretty much mainstream is what makes you a lunatic) – but this cabinet looks very familiar and very unchanged. A swing that big would indicate to me that some bigger changes could have been warranted.

There may be changes in the way the government acts, but that is untested so far.

We will see how it unfolds, especially as cuts to expenditure are required.

The fact of the matter is that a 9% swing resulted in very little change – Stanhope stared down the greens and out negotiated them. Given the result of the election, he has come through relatively unscathed. I think most greens voters (I would be interested to hear from them) would have envisioned much more change than this. I think in their quiet moments most hoped that Stanhope would be punished and ditched (still maybe labor but with new blood and a fresh approach)

Your just making stuff up to suit your argument now. The Assembly has changed dramatically. Labor lost two seats the Libs lost one and the Greens gained three. Every single piece of legislation will now have to be negotiated through the Assembly which will require compromise on the part of the Government, which they didn’t have to do last time round. Ideally it will result in better legislation. If that’s not change I don’t know what is.

All in all I think the Canberra community knew exactly what it was doing.

This is good news for light rail policy in the ACT. The previous minister was so anti-light rail it was breathtaking.

There’s only been a single sitting day, which lasted (according to the Official Assembly Minutes) less than an hour, in which nothing much happened except formalities and nominations, and you call it an unscathed win for Stanhope with not enough change?

You -are- part of the lunatic fringe, thetruth.

caf said :

Those who voted Greens were voting to have a government that relied on the Greens for support.

This may or may not be true – the Greens did not make a statement of support pre-election (ie how they would formulate such a decision). I suspect the nature and level of that support is debatable.

Only the voters know what a vote for the greens actually was for them (ie was it to vote for an alternative government, an independent third force, as a coalition party to one or either of the majors, a protest vote against the Government knowing that the greens are really labor, a protest vote for the one or more of the issues that they championed or for a quasi-coalition like we now have with a speaker role and a list of policy demands)

The fact of the matter is that a 9% swing resulted in very little change – Stanhope stared down the greens and out negotiated them. Given the result of the election, he has come through relatively unscathed. I think most greens voters (I would be interested to hear from them) would have envisioned much more change than this. I think in their quiet moments most hoped that Stanhope would be punished and ditched (still maybe labor but with new blood and a fresh approach)

emd said :

So when do we find out who are the Shadow Ministers for Wotsit?

Given that the Liberals have failed to issue a media release since before the election I wouldn’t hold your breathe.

The laziest opposition in Australia won’t give up its title lightly.

So when do we find out who are the Shadow Ministers for Wotsit?

They’re only allowed to have 5 Ministers due to federal legislation, so someone else would have had to be canned to get Porter a gig.

Mary Porter is definitely being under-utilized.. from my understanding she used to head up Volunteers ACT so I think she would have been great with Hargreaves’ portfolio.

I guess she’s just not quite part of the clique yet.

thetruth and housebound are going off somewhat halfcocked, since we haven’t really seen anything much put to the Legislature yet. That the makeup of the Executive hasn’t changed is only part of the story – each and every decision of that Executive will be subject to serious and ongoing review over the next four years, which is a seachange from the last four. In the end, the Legislature has the power to disallow and overrule the decisions of the Executive Government.

And to be frank, I think that’s the change a lot of Canberrans were hoping (and perhaps voting) for. Silly statements equating a vote for the Greens with a direct vote for Labor are humbug. Those who voted Greens were voting to have a government that relied on the Greens for support.

Surely Mary Porter would be in Hufflepuff, Jakez – “Where they are just and loyal/Those patient Hufflepuffs are true/And unafraid of toil”

jimbocool said :

I wonder if the Portfolio Hat is related to the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter? If it is then we should respect its decisions, counter-intuitive as they may be. I wonder if has a song too…

Speaking of the sorting hat. If we had the sorting hat for the Legislative Assembly, would there be a single politician NOT put into slytherin?

thetruth said :

the greens REALLY ARE the left wing of the ALP … Seriously put partisan comments aside this is the cabinet that bought about a 9% swing against the ALP. All we got as a change is the speaker and a ransom list of demands – it was like a 9% swing resulted in Stanhope being put on probation (as if he really cares because he WILL retire within the next two years).

+1

Quite sad, really. So much for the greens being a third force. More like a rear guard for a flailing first force

Something like ‘I’m a Minister and I’m OK, I like to make the electorate pay’ (to the Lumberjack tune) perhaps?

I wonder if the Portfolio Hat is related to the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter? If it is then we should respect its decisions, counter-intuitive as they may be. I wonder if has a song too…

Skidbladnir said :

Katy still has Health?
Stanhope has TaMS, and still has his pet Arts portfolio?
The Minister for Corrections has a DUI history?
The Minister least likely to ever have any himself received Children?

Do we get to find out what led to these decisions, or can we at least see the Portfolio Hat they plucked them out of?

LOL

Compare this ministery with the potential Liberal / Green coalition. This was never going to happen, because the greens REALLY ARE the left wing of the ALP. The Lib’s were dead wrong – a vote for the Green’s was always a vote for Labor and always will be. The greens will never form government and will always enjoy the 15% to 17% third party vote that they has always occurred in the ACT (except for 2004 when it went to the labor party to form the first majority government)

Which one best represented the change that Canberra actually voted for?

Seriously put partisan comments aside this is the cabinet that bought about a 9% swing against the ALP. All we got as a change is the speaker and a ransom list of demands – it was like a 9% swing resulted in Stanhope being put on probation (as if he really cares because he WILL retire within the next two years).

Now we can have the “Stanhope Memorial Pothole”

It is interesting to see who Stanhope considers to be politically expendable.

He has left the poor, the disabled, the aged, prisoners, unionists, and ethnic groups with Hargreaves.

There was a time when these groups would have been priority concerns for a Labor party.

When it was a party that claimed to be concerned for the poor and maginalised.

And doubly interesting, the exit polls identified a coalition of roughly these groups as being key to the Obama victory.

It looks like Obama and Stanhope now have a very different view of progressive politics.

I wonder who is right.

Ummm, is this really any different to what we had before?

John is still on the Bridge of the titanic and there has been some minor repositioning of the deckchairs…

Katy’s on the Bow singing How Great thou Art with the other doomed souls, Hargreaves is chipping ice off the berg for another pink gin, Corbell and Barr are on damage repair armed with a tac hammer and some 3 ply.

Go team…

Katy still has Health?
Stanhope has TaMS, and still has his pet Arts portfolio?
The Minister for Corrections has a DUI history?
The Minister least likely to ever have any himself received Children?

Do we get to find out what led to these decisions, or can we at least see the Portfolio Hat they plucked them out of?

Katy’s still got health? Good thing the Greens get to directly liaise with her in that case, I hope she gets a hammering.