18 December 2012

Your budget ideas wanted!

| johnboy
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Andrew Barr is hoping you can help him out with next year’s budget:

The Budget consultation process provides an important opportunity for the community to submit their views on what they believe the Government’s revenue and resource allocation priorities should be in 2013-14 and future years. A formal invite and Budget information paper can be found at the Budget Consultation website www.budgetconsultation.act.gov.au.

The information paper provides advice on the Budget context and consultation process, including information on the budget position and the parameters of the Budget Plan. It also contains details of major revenue and expenditure lines of the Budget.

Submissions close on 28 February 2013. They can be emailed to budgetconsultation@act.gov.au and submitted via the consultation website. Submissions provided via email or the website are preferred.

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Hurrumph, hurrumph.

They did this last year and perhaps before. Some community items got up some didn’t.

Pretty sure the suggestions by the more swivel-eyed members of the public don’t get past first base.

PantsMan said :

Here are some ideas:……

Lots of ideas worth thinking about there, but I think

PantsMan said :

* Close ACT Health (after the Royal Commission) and pay NSW to provide all healthcare in the ACT.

is about as good as selling/leasing back our public art.

Here are some ideas:

* Sell our public art collection to Macquarie Bank and lease it back for 50 years. (What this would achieve, I don’t know, but it would be the final ridiculous cherry on that public expenditure disaster.)

* Close the Commerce and Works Directorate. Contract with a big four accounting firm to perform their functions.

* Close ACT Health (after the Royal Commission) and pay NSW to provide all healthcare in the ACT.

* Take sports funding out of Andrew Barr’s hands and place it under the control of an expert advisory board.

* repeal the Human Rights Act, close the Human Right Commission, and refer our powers in this area to the Commonwealth.

* Repeal the Heritage Act.

* Split ACTION into two companies, privatise one. Then offer government subsidies on a competitive tendering basis. If ACTION cannot make a profit in five years, close it.

* Hold a commission of inquiry into what “Transport Officers” do. If they do noting more than talk to their mates-who are actually driving the buses-at the Civic Interchange, sack them.

* Sell ACTEW. Or at least ban any expenditure by ACTEW sponsorships and corporate hospitality. (I never though about buying water until I saw an ACTEW ad on TV.)

* Increase land release until housing prices fall 50 per cent. Remove all planing restrictions that prevent high density housing.

* Close the ACT Public Library system, and give people free bus tickets to the National Library.

* Close any school that is not 80 per cent full.

* Enter into a MoU with NSW to have the NSW Auditor-General and the NSW ICAC oversight the ACT.

markus_k said :

Duffbowl said :

Damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.

Ask for community input on budget spending – ridiculed for not knowing how to budget, etc.
Don’t ask for community input on budget spending – ridiculed for spending on things that aren’t important to the community.

It’s not “damned if they do…” at all. It is that if after 12 years of government they still have to ask the public the difference between an essential service and a giant waste of money, then surely questions need to be asked about their aptitude for the role.

As for “ridiculed for not knowing how to budget”, I’d say that they are pretty much broke would have more to do with that.

So, assume I’m a politician. How do I know what you think is an essential service without asking you? I know what I think is an essential service and I know what my friends and work colleagues think. But (for example) I am middle class with a degree working in an office. I dont know what tradies want – I dont even know any tradies.

Duffbowl said :

Damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.

Ask for community input on budget spending – ridiculed for not knowing how to budget, etc.
Don’t ask for community input on budget spending – ridiculed for spending on things that aren’t important to the community.

It’s not “damned if they do…” at all. It is that if after 12 years of government they still have to ask the public the difference between an essential service and a giant waste of money, then surely questions need to be asked about their aptitude for the role.

As for “ridiculed for not knowing how to budget”, I’d say that they are pretty much broke would have more to do with that.

Damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.

Ask for community input on budget spending – ridiculed for not knowing how to budget, etc.
Don’t ask for community input on budget spending – ridiculed for spending on things that aren’t important to the community.

Run the town like a council, and DON”T even THINK about more MLAs. Case in point, Brisbane City Council, which has 27 councillors, has a local governance responsibility (by population) roughly equivalent to the populations of Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory combined.’ – see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Brisbane

For our comparatively miniscule population, 17 MLAs is more than enough, even factoring in a few extra for the State level portfolio areas (health, education, housing).

Time to get more efficient at the top end of the bureaucracy. For starters, how about MLAs pay for their own car travel and parking?

markus_k said :

Less money blown on consultations, discussion groups and feasibility studies might be a good start.

^ Hire this man! 🙂

markus_k said :

Less money blown on consultations, discussion groups and feasibility studies might be a good start.

In this town? Get real.

Less money blown on consultations, discussion groups and feasibility studies might be a good start.

What’s the point wasting the precious effort? People affected by autism spectrum disorders (ASD) previously made submission to this “consultation” process started … and were ignored (see http://sofasd.org.au/sofasd/node/31). The ALP and the ACT Government thinks that building wheelchair accessible bus stops and providing more wheelchair accessible taxis somehow helps people with autism/ASD. Nationally, the result of existing disability policy and services is that outcomes for people with autism are abysmal (see http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4428.0). Due to the ACT Government’s failure/refusal to recognise people with autism/ASD have distinct needs, outcomes in the ACT are likely to be worse than the abysmal national averages.

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