Some of the news that’s fit to print

It looked for a while as if Roy Morgan had returned to its weekly polling schedule, but that may have just been a short-term response to the stimulus package kerfuffle. In any event, there was no poll today. That being so, this week’s news nuggets will have to survive on their own:

• Alicia Bowie of the Campbelltown Macarthur Advertiser reports on Labor aspirants for Macarthur, whose Liberal member Pat Farmer has long since stopped behaving like a man who cares if he gets re-elected. The narrowly unsuccessful candidate from 2007, local carpenter Nick Bleasdale, is again in the running, but faces competition from Camden councillor Greg Warren. However, “the ALP will wait until the new boundaries are decided late this year before selecting its candidates for local electorates”.

• Col Allison of the Hills News reports that David Elliott, former Australian Hotels Association deputy chief executive and staffer to John Howard – or as Allison would have it, “the ambitious Liberal Party stalwart lusting for a parliamentary career”, – has denied he will stand for preselection in Brendan Nelson’s seat of Bradfield. However, “insiders say he will try to win preselection for a State Liberal seat in the North-West at the May 2011 elections, upsetting the ambitions of other card-carrying right-wing conservatives, or even a sitting MP”. The seats mentioned are Riverstone, which is reasonably safe for Labor, and “even Baulkham Hills, in the unlikely event Wayne Merton, decides to step down”. Allison reports that Elliott “has the support of MLC David Clarke, controversial leader of the so-called Christian Right of the party and a back-room wheeler-dealer”, which is odd because he was put forward as the moderate candidate against Clarke protege Alex Hawke in Mitchell before the 2007 federal election.

• Peter Tucker at Tasmanian Politics reports that Michael Ferguson, defeated in Bass at the 2007 federal election, will run for the state seat at the March 2010 election.

• Matthew Franklin of The Australian reports that “Kevin Rudd has renewed his backing for four-year, fixed parliamentary terms but refused to criticise Queensland Premier Anna Bligh’s decision to call a state election six months before it was due”.

• Alex Mitchell in Crikey tells us we should “forget the nonsense written in The Australian about an early election being impossible”, because “the advance of Costello has spooked Labor which is now quietly preparing for an early election later this year”. We’ll see.

• There is a Queensland state election campaign in progress.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

1,256 comments on “Some of the news that’s fit to print”

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  1. Should also mention that Infrastructure Australia doesn’t have much money left.

    The original $20 billion has been cut to $12.6 billion and $4.7 billion of this is for the national broadband network – also to be announced later this month.

    That leaves $7.9 billion for a whole swathe of projects.

  2. No 1050

    The Westlink M7 in Sydney is not in a National Party electorate. The Roads to Recovery project was not solely for National Party electorates. Please get over yourself.

    Because of interal Labor Party politics, Sydney will miss out on at least two vital infrastructure projects that is has been crying out for, for more than 10 years.

  3. [by which time any “cheaper” light rail line would have surpassed its useby date.]

    Not really. Berlin is almost twice as dense as Sydney and has a brilliant light-rail network.

    The solution is not to say “Ok Sydney should have a metro network/light-rail network/heavy rail network”. It’s to figure out which forms of transport suit which areas the best and then integrate them.

    You’re suggesting that the same form of transport (metro rail) is the best option for long distance travel to relatively sparsely populated areas and also for shorter distance to denser suburbs. This is not correct.

  4. No 1050

    Funny that when a leak is not to your liking, you discard it as unimportant. I’m sure if a leak embarrassed the Liberal Party, you’d be quick to exaggerate it.

  6. Agree with those saying heavy rail is the only solution for the NW. Metro just wouldn’t be suitable. The original plans that had a heavy rail line going out through the Hills from Epping would have been ideal. Maybe when Labor gets turfed next state election the Libs might consider it (as they are all Lib electorates out there)… but I very much doubt it.

  7. [Funny that when a leak is not to your liking, you discard it as unimportant. I’m sure if a leak embarrassed the Liberal Party, you’d be quick to exaggerate it.]
    No, I don’t think you should base your criticism on leaks before the Federal government has even responded to the report.

    At least we now have a government with a proper infrastructure policy. Other than the Alice to Darwin rail (which the Feds only spent $200 million on), the Howard government spent bugger all on infrastructure.

  8. [You’re suggesting that the same form of transport (metro rail) is the best option for long distance travel to relatively sparsely populated areas and also for shorter distance to denser suburbs. This is not correct.]

    The NW is one of Sydney’s fastest growing areas. I’m saying, let’s have some vision and think about the likely future makeup of the area. It is highly likely that the NW will be far more dense than it is today, but it is currently being held back by a lack of appropriate infrastructure.

    That said, I’m not fixed on metro for the NW – heavy rail, providing that it was rapid and not slow, would be fine. I’d argue that it’s much needed in the south. For example, UNSW is the busiest bus stop in NSW and would greatly benefit from a metro rail service.

  9. No 1056

    If O’Farrell was smart he would make the NW Rail link a central policy plank of his election campaign.

  10. No 1057

    Hah – a “proper” infrastructure policy in your book is one which decides upon the validity of a project based on whether Anthony Albanese and his wife are likely to retain their seats at impending elections.

  11. It doesn’t appear that you’re listening to me regarding the cost/service ratio of different transport systems for different areas.

    For long distances metro is not feasible – it doesn’t matter what the density could be at the end destination at some point in the future.

    For the Eastern Suburbs a metro line *could* be feasible but you have to understand that the feasibility of such an expensive system is a direct function of population AND population density. Metro systems around the world that are often held up to be something Sydney should aspire too are located in cities with populations AND population densities many times higher. While density will increase in the inner-city and Eastern Suburbs, it will be many decades before it becomes comparable and while “looking to the future” has some merit, it has to be within reason.

  12. GP 1052

    I must agree – Sydney transport (or lack thereof) is not the fault of the former Liberal federal government, but State labor must squarely take the blame for underfunding, waste of what was allocated, and politicised choices of projects that proceeded.

    What Sydney PT urgently needs to do is focus on firts fixing the heavy rail spine, removing capacity blocks, and completing the major links liek to the NW, then putting in Metro or extended light rail to handle demand in the higher density inner suburbs. Outer suburbs coudl be serviced by bus priority measures connecting to higher speed heavy rail stations. An express heavy rail line to Parramatta would form a rational part of such a scheme; a NW Metro would not.

  13. [If O’Farrell was smart he would make the NW Rail link a central policy plank of his election campaign.]
    He’s not smart.
    [Hah – a “proper” infrastructure policy in your book is one which decides upon the ]
    Rubbish. we how have an INDEPENDENT body to advise the government. Face facts, the Howard government never had anything of the sort because it couldn’t care less about national priorities.

    I also note you are talking about this leak instead of all the stupid things Ronald Reagan said.

  14. [He’s not smart.]

    Nathan Rees is? For goodness sake, ShowsOn.

    [Rubbish. we how have an INDEPENDENT body to advise the government.]

    The government is not obliged to listen to the advice. The government retains control of the relevant purse strings.

    Your inability to recognise that NSW Labor has ruined infrastructure policy in that state is the reason why you deflect attention to the National Party.

  15. No 1061

    [It doesn’t appear that you’re listening to me regarding the cost/service ratio of different transport systems for different areas.]

    I am. Hence why I’ve retracted from being hard line on the need for a NW metro and expressed interest in heavy rail, providing it was fast and not hampered by silling 40km/h speed limits.

    [While density will increase in the inner-city and Eastern Suburbs, it will be many decades before it becomes comparable and while “looking to the future” has some merit, it has to be within reason.]

    Demolishing huge parts of Anzac Parade and Bronte Road is hardly reasonable when a metro fulfils current and future demand.

  16. [Your inability to recognise that NSW Labor has ruined infrastructure policy in that state is the reason why you deflect attention to the National Party.]
    I wasn’t talking about state politics, I am interested in federal government reform so we have a national approach. The Howard government did absolutely nothing, instead of spending on infrastructure they just cut taxes and increased middle class welfare.

    Also, I don’t think the average punter could care less who pays for infrastructure in a state, out of state or federal government. They just want things that they need.

  17. Vera.
    Bet Therese will invite the Lib women to meet The First Lady when she comes out here – there will be no smallmindedness there as with Mrs Bucket and the Clintons’ visit.

    thats because she’s a real lady, natural and gracious, she makes a wonderful first lady. 🙂
    i wont say anything about the plaigarist from here, actually she comes from roughly the same area as Lord Downer—BH. are you sure he’s the only one you took swimming that day????

  18. [I wasn’t talking about state politics]

    How convenient. It is state politics that has hindered infrastructure for so long and you think IA is going to be the panacea for internal ALP squabbling.

  19. GP,

    I was going to ask you the initial cost of a metro system, the expected passenger utilisation and growth projections to gauge why you suggest it is the best option but this is not really a blog about transport in Sydney so I reckon we’ll leave it.

  20. [It is state politics that has hindered infrastructure for so long]

    GP, lack of money from the Feds hasn’t helped. Takes two to Tango.

  21. [How convenient. It is state politics that has hindered infrastructure for so long and you think IA is going to be the panacea for internal ALP squabbling.]
    It is the LACK OF A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WILLING TO PLAN AND SPEND MONEY that has hindered infrastructure projects for so long.

    When the states DID invest in infrastructure, dick heads like Peter Costello just stood up in federal parliament and made fun of them for taking out loans to fund the projects.

  22. Re the broader discussion of infrastructure and politics, there is no doubt NSW Labor has been completely backward on the issue. But I don’t really trust the NSW Liberals when it comes to infrastructure either. If the Labor Party had made infrastructure spending a cornerstone of it’s election campaigns and actually delivered (instead of constantly announcing and scrapping projects) they’d be far more popular, and rightly so.

    Infrastructure Australia is a good idea – have the experts decide where money should be spent. At least this way, even if the politicians do control the purse strings, we can see via the transparent process whether there were legitimate reasons to a projects scrapping or was it purely political. I still think the missing thing is not so much Infrastructure Australia vs. another system but a lack of MONEY. Why $30 billion for submarines when transport, health and the education sector are not only going backwards on our own benchmarks but we’re slipping further and further behind the OECD averages.

  23. [At least this way, even if the politicians do control the purse strings, we can see via the transparent process whether there were legitimate reasons to a projects scrapping or was it purely political.]
    Exactly, and if I.A. reports to a government saying there is a definite #1 priority, then it would take a brave government to spend money on something completely different instead.

    So it increases transparency, and it makes it harder for governments to make PURELY political decisions. Of course politics will still be a factor, but at least now there will be OTHER factors given as much consideration. The fact people like G.P. can’t see the benefits of this is just astonishing.

  25. Oz

    I agree money has been the problem with transport for a long time. PPPs gave politicians and others the illusion that urban transport could be solved without government funding but it can’t. Even in places where they have road pricing it is not self funding. Public expenditure on transport in Australia has been low, and so private expenditure has gone up. The problem is that government has saved $1 by forcing private motorists to pay the likes of Macquarie Bank $2. Our overall (public + private) spending on transport is relatively high as a result, due to costs of congestion.

    You can call me biased on this one because I work in this area and so I suppose I have an interest in more work being allocated to it. But Australia’s transport funding record is really quite poor, at both State and Federal level, except for Qld and WA. Compared to other OECD countries, we spend a lower % than average on public transport infrastructure, even though we are growing in population.

  26. If Australia lost the cricket tonight to South Africa. The whole team should be sent to the Robben Island and stay there for 27 years.

  27. Judith, thanks if it isn’t too much trouble (and if it isn’t screened in NSW) I’d like a disc of the program 🙂
    I think Therese is lovely, no airs and graces there, a warm affectionate woman. I don’t know where I read this but when the Clintons came to OZ, Hillary apparently thought Hyacyth was a joke. She arranged a womens get together which bored the heck out of Hillary, probably a 50s style do where the women sat around and talked fluff) and the woman telling the story said to Hillary don’t worry we aren’t all like that.

  28. [we’re trying to find out whats in the water]
    Judith we know what’s in our water , bloomin’ big man eating sharks that the NSW govt has unleashed on the unsuspecting public 😉

  29. The solution to the shark problem is easy, eat more flake.

    We have a lot to thank Pauline Hanson for, we now know that the silent majority is a sad 10% of the population.

  31. Socrates, I think calling transport engineers “biased” because they advocate greater spending in public transport is as stupid as calling doctors and teachers biased for wanting greater spending in health and education.

    It’s not as though an extra $30 billion in transport spending is going to simply line the pockets of engineers. The social, health and medium-long term economic benefits of a properly planned and maintained transport network are too great to mention.

  32. Interesting tie in to the earlier discussion about NSW:

    [The New South Wales Government has appointed a new head of Treasury.

    Michael Shur has been acting Treasury secretary since the resignation late last year of John Pierce.

    Prior to joining the department in 2006, Mr Shur spent five years at the World Bank advising on infrastructure reforms.]

    If you aren’t aware of the World Bank’s views on infrastructure it’s privatise everything, the market will deal with it.

  33. [Socrates, I think calling transport engineers “biased” because they advocate greater spending in public transport is as stupid as calling doctors and teachers biased for wanting greater spending in health and education.]
    That’s essentially what G.P. did last night! 😀

  34. HAH, this is awesome.

    [An online poll conducted in the past week found about a third of voters (34 per cent) believe Mr Costello should quit parliament.

    The Essential Research poll of more than 1,100 people found only 15 per cent think the former treasurer should stay on the backbench for as long as he wants.

    And only 17 per cent thought he should challenge Malcolm Turnbull for the Liberal Party leadership, while 14 per cent thought he should take on a senior role on the frontbench.]

    http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25127300-5007133,00.html

  35. Vera, we’ll have your sharks if you promise they’ll come inland and eat the federal pollies that our water has foisted on us.
    no probs about the DVD i’ll get it copied for you. 🙂

  36. As one famous Hollywood director (I forget which one) said: “No, no, no – Jimmy Stewart for President, Ronnie Reagan for Best Friend.” Except Stewart was a conservative Republican as well so it wouldn’t have made any difference.

    My favourite Regan line: “I came home from the war expecting a better world.” Came home from where? He spent the war in Hollywood!

  37. Oz and ShowsOn

    Thansk, I was just trying to be impartial. I certainly don’t feel guilty doing my job. Engineering planning and design typically only costs 4% to 6% of the cost of large projects which then generate a large number of jobs and (if done right) community benefits. Most of the projects I have worked on had BCR ratios of 2 to 4, NOT COUNTING secondary economic benefits in economic activity and (for rail projects) health and environmental benefits as well. This is why it irks me to see what has happened to my industry with PPPs in the past few years. So many $ wasted.

    I am afraid though that in one respect I think GP is right. Regardless of my disdain for Howard, in my experience NSW State Labor government is a major problem for good planning in Sydney. Even when they had the money earlier this decade they didn’t spend it, and every Sydney resident is paying for that now.

  39. Dio, it’s a start, i agree there should be more shown the door, actually they should be encouraged to retire completely and let some fresh blood in at the next election, they’ve had their time and now should go gracefully.

    their day is done,
    all that could live, lived,
    all that could pass, passed,
    all that could be, was,
    all that was now is then,
    the day is done.

    that was written by a lass i never had the luck to meet but it always stayed in my mind, maybe i should sent it in to the dead wood.

  40. [As one famous Hollywood director (I forget which one) said: “No, no, no – Jimmy Stewart for President, Ronnie Reagan for Best Friend.”]
    I’ve read this attributed to George Stevens.
    [Except Stewart was a conservative Republican as well so it wouldn’t have made any difference.]
    I thought Stewart was a moderate Republican? He was moderate compared to john Wayne. Oh, and he enlisted during WWII, while Wayne didn’t.
    [Thansk, I was just trying to be impartial. I certainly don’t feel guilty doing my job. ]
    This is what G.P. quoted in post 853, which says essentially what you argued against:
    [The bigger imperfection is government itself. Here the conflicts of interest are huge, and no amount of campaign finance legislation or constitutional reform can entirely fix this problem. If you are teacher, your job prospects are better when there is more ignorance. More ignorance means more calls for smaller class sizes and more special education instructors. If you are a police officer, high crime means more job security, more opportunities for advancement. If you are a welfare case worker, poverty is your source of income. This does not mean that all government workers are bad people. Far from it! That most government workers are good people is why government works at all. But you don’t have to be very bad within to cause great harm within government. Look at the actions of the National Education Association, defending inefficient practices and opposing accountability. Or far worse, there have been instances of prison guards defending outrageously long sentences because it provides jobs for guards.]
    Of course this is just anti-government nonsense. It makes one wonder how people so virulently anti-government can actually like their countries, considering without government there is no State. As David Brooks once wrote:
    [In sum, national-greatness conservatism does not despise government. How could it? How can Americans love their nation if they hate its government? ]
    http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:Qk3QoRILYfMJ:www.opinionjournal.com/extra/%3Fid%3D95000513+david+brooks+wall+street+journal+september+1997&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=au&client=firefox-a
    The same applies to Australia.

  42. [I am afraid though that in one respect I think GP is right. Regardless of my disdain for Howard, in my experience NSW State Labor government is a major problem for good planning in Sydney. Even when they had the money earlier this decade they didn’t spend it, and every Sydney resident is paying for that now.]

    This.

    No amount of anti-Howard indignation from ShowsOn will change the fact that the NSW Labor Government is one of the worst state governments on record.

  43. ShowsOn 1090

    Thanks I missed that; very interesting.

    In my field there is a major shortage of experienced transport engineers Australia wide at present, so there is little in the way of job-fear to motivate false calls for more funding. Most states went through most of the 1990s not training any new engineers. Of course, the situation in public transport is especially grim as far as skills shortage goes, with a large rise in demand due to climate and oil price concerns not translated into an increased supply of people who can deal with those problems. With the money engineers could make in mining instead it has been difficult to attract peopel with the right maths skills into this field until recently.

  44. [It makes one wonder how people so virulently anti-government can actually like their countries, considering without government there is no State.]

    That’s rubbish. You can love one’s country without liking the government. It’s not a zero sum game.

  45. JB

    Looking at the blog, I’d say JLo is the one the public wants to go with Maywald a close second. I don’t think he’ll sack any other ministers. I hope he does a decent reshuffle and promotes Weatherall to Health, but that’s just wishful thinking on my part. I think it will be window-dressing not Change We Can Believe In. 😉

  46. [That’s rubbish. You can love one’s country without liking the government. It’s not a zero sum game.]
    Countries – as in nation states – don’t exist without a Government.

  47. [It makes one wonder how people so virulently anti-government can actually like their countries, considering without government there is no State.]

    Yep. That’s complete crap (although the zero sum game doesn’t apply, dunno what you were thinking there GP). The Repugs made the same argument about Mike Moore and Glenn Greenwald and said they didn’t love America because they criticised the government so much. It was BS then too.

  48. JB – have just been able to come back on.

    By the sound of things I must have taken most of the SA Libs swimming that day!! I hate to admit it but I am 70 now and yet I can remember Downer still as I saw him that day. Very much aware of his socalled ‘position in life’. His father was completely different and I liked him.

    Saw Southcott on telly the other day. I think his father was my Dr when we lived at Panorama (South Rd Surgery).

    I couldn’t make head nor tail of what Andrew Southcott was saying – someone else must have taken him swimming in peasoup!!

    Vera – real story of Hillary and Hyacinth is quite said. Hyacinth had do for Hillary and invited only Lib women. Hillary asked to meet some of the Labor women so they organised themselves to meet her in a back room or somewhere away from Hyacinth.

    Hillary was escorted out to them. That was not my first inkling that Hyacinth was truly the ‘power behind the throne’.

    But well and truly confirmed in Oct 07 when ‘the family’ would not let him hand over to Costello.

  49. [The Repugs made the same argument about Mike Moore and Glenn Greenwald and said they didn’t love America because they criticised the government so much.]
    Well that is completely different, because Mike Moore wants MORE government, not less.

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