Friday 22 March 2013

Our Labor Government - Chaos stood and was re-elected unopposed

An apt summary of yesterday's three ring circus in Canberra from Senator Barnaby Joyce:


Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Water

 

Leader of the Nationals in the Senate

Regional Development and Local Government left unrepresented

Yesterday the Labor party caucus called a ballot. Chaos stood and was re-elected unanimously.

Former Labor party leader, Simon Findlay Crean, Member for Hotham, said things had to come to a head and instead he lost his.


Cartoon by Broelman

The problem we have now is that I am Shadow to a person that does not exist. There is no Minister for Regional Development. And this toxic amalgam of Green, Labor party and Independents, far from looking after regional areas, has left them completely and utterly disenfranchised.

The person who said he was going to drive through constitutional recognition of local government is now gone. The Labor party has sat on the Spigelman review, which recommended a referendum on constitutional recognition of local government at the 2013 election, for over a year. Now less than six months from an election we have no response, no legislation and no Minister.

Is this the sort of stability that the Member for New England, Mr Windsor, and the Member for Lyne, Mr Oakeshott, were requesting when they decided to support the Green-Labor-Independent government?

Who is now representing Regional Australia? Who is now representing Local Government? For that matter, who is now running the country? Who is preparing the budget?

It has taken me exactly ten minutes after walking down the street this morning to find out what the Australian people think of all this. They are appalled, they want it all to be resolved and soon.
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Posted by Unknown at 08:50
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9 comments:

  1. Unknown22 March 2013 at 11:29

    Three ring circus is correct, all clowns & an inept ringmaster. I added a cartoon above to Mikko's posting; it contains a punch line that is unfortunally far too true.
    "The leadership tension is a welcomed distraction to the work of the government."
    Look at the Orwellian type legislations that fortunally have bit the dust. The Anti-Discrimination Bill and more recently the Media law changes.
    The only consulation that I can find to be a citizen of a country where such laws are even considered is that we aren't in Cyprus where the EU tried to dictate that a tax be imposed upon bank deposits.

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    Replies
    1. Unknown22 March 2013 at 16:09

      Cyprus might have gotten rolled on the move to tax everybody's bank deposits but we got far worse than that.
      We got legislation to seize the total amount in every bank account that has not been active for 3 years.

      Many older people have a special bank account where they keep some money for when they eventually pass away to cover their funeral expenses and so not impose on the family and they apparently mistakenly believe that the money is safe until it is needed because it is in the bank. How wrong they are. Swan and Gillard have now legislated to seize that money which is the hard earned money belonging to the people who own the accounts.

      In Cyprus they were only proposing to take a percentage. Here Swan and Gillard are intending to take the lot.
      It would only be a matter of time before they extend the seizure of the private monies to other accounts or even the lot in they are not stopped in their tracks.

      Delete
    2. Unknown23 March 2013 at 11:28

      Sobering food for thought, Peter.

      Delete
  2. Unknown22 March 2013 at 15:38

    Thanks Dale. I still think Julia is Tony Abbot's best asset so I'm pleased she is still there which may be just what KRudd wanted all along. He obviously didn't want to be seen as captain of a sinking ship and is quite happy to stay on the sidelines and watch the sinking. Gillard and her key supporters have painted themselves into a corner with no safe way out now and the polls seem likely to reflect even more badly on all this.

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    1. alan mikkelsen22 March 2013 at 17:25

      I've been away, but now I'm back to this mess. The Labor / Greens / Very Dependent govt has sacrificed some good, capable and honest people, with whom I might not often personally agree on ideological grounds. But I am neither totally biased or blind.

      I think it is very sad that Martin Ferguson, Richard Marles, Joel Fitzgibbon, Chris Bowen and yes, even dreary old (but honest and steadfast) Simin Crean and Kim (il) Carr have fallen on their swords. MF in particular stood out, IMHO. The sorry lot they leave in charge, up until the election, is now a lot sorrier.

      Cheers al

      Delete
    2. Unknown23 March 2013 at 11:27

      Totally agree, John and Al.

      And Al, welcome back!

      Delete
  3. Unknown24 March 2013 at 01:51

    Interesting development with the Qld State Govt Dept of Valuations.
    All in the Gladstone Regional Council area will by now have received their new valuation notices.

    In Mt Larcom there is an increase of just over 50%. That is over 100% in 2 years.
    What is most interesting and also disappointing is the fact that the 50% increase in Mt Larcom is based on the sale of 3 HOUSES IN MT LARCOM.
    This is in spite of the fact that the Govt under advice from the now defunct Gladstone Economic Industry Development Board froze our town in 2008 claiming that " The proposed development (a proposal by a prospective developer) is incompatible in our view with the gladstone State Development Area and if approved WILL SOW THE SEEDS FOR IT'S DEMISE and with it, THE LOSS OF SKILLS TRAINING AND SOLID EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR THOUSANDS OF GLADSTONE REGIONAL RESIDENTS".

    The present Govt have recently stated that they will not lift the freeze on Mt Larcom but refuse to give a reason in spite of the fact that Mt Larcom does not even share a boundary with the Gladstone State Development Area.

    Now they come and increase our valuations by 50% based on the sale of 3 HOUSES in the last 12 months being sold in the town. How can they freeze our town and then keep jacking the valuations up. There are a number of houses in town that are for sale but cannot get a buyer. There has been verbal advice from Real Estate Agents to buyers that financial institutions will not lend money for housing because of the freeze on the town.

    The average for the entire GRC area is about 7.2%. The people who do these valuations must live in law law land or maybe they don't have a clue what they are doing.

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  4. Unknown24 March 2013 at 01:53

    Laa Laa land.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown27 March 2013 at 07:53

    What a crazy paradox, Peter. Can empathise with your frustration but unfortunately we can't blame Julia for that :0)

    ReplyDelete

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