GhostWhoVotes reports tomorrow’s Age will feature a Nielsen poll showing state Labor with a handsome 53-47 two-party lead, with both parties’ primary votes believed to be in the high thirties. More to follow.
UPDATE: The primary votes are 38 per cent for both Labor and the Coalition and 16 per cent for the Greens. John Brumby’s approval rating is 51 per cent, down a point on the last Nielsen state poll in January, and his disapproval is up four to 41 per cent. Ted Baillieu is up on both approval (three points to 43 per cent) and disapproval (one point to 46 per cent). Brumby holds a 52-37 lead as preferred premier.
Rod
and who would report this?
Sorry, Rod, long version.
What is there to refute?
The H-S article doesn’t pretend that Labor has been running the attack. It puts forward the proposition that what Walters did is hypocritical.
So what’s the party going to refute there?
The H-S makes it clear that it approached the MPs and then prints their comments.
What’s there to refute there? Obviously the MPs made the comments.
The H-S has simply let people take it from there.
With ‘The Age’ story, what is there to refute?
I have no doubt that senior ALP figures have talked to the Jewish community. It would not surprise me if, when doing so, they were encouraging them not to vote Green and using a range of arguments and insinuations in doing so.
But that’s not, as ‘The Age’ suggests, a campaign against the Greens.
There’s nothing that can be refuted, because there’s nothing to refute.
The rest of the Age article is a rehash of the H-S.
Seriously, guys, step back and look at what’s happening here. It isn’t very pretty.
Sorry, a minor adjustment – add ‘concerted’ in the phrase ‘a campaign against the Greens’.
Greens candidate Walter is a hypocrit on actual evidense
”So we have a (GREENS) candidate who’s out there preaching the evils of brown coal, (PLUS) preaching the evils of our industrial relations system that he says is unfair on workers but while doing that he takes a brief working for a brown-coal company … basically having a go at an injured worker’s family.”
When a candidate is seeking electon from Public ON anti Coal and anti abuse of workers rites polisys as Greens candidate IS now at this very moment , and represnts a Coal Company itself and there potental pro abuse of workers rites , that is grossly hypocritacl
it is th dual complicity that is th Greens candidate’s hypocracy , and not normal issue that any Lawer (NOT seekning public office) of couse under legal ethixs takes cases for clients whose views they may well find in contemptable
and indeed this same Walters guy seems to hav defended a Nazi in th past , but that is quite diff and ok to do as a Lawer because Naziism is not a State public polisy issue Greens is fighting on , nor is labor fighting Naziism as a State public polisy issue so defending a Nazi therefore simple becomes a normal Lawer defendin a client whose views prob think is contemptable as Lawers often do need to
so clearly Walters is hypocritical , and that News Ltd or anyone else who then brought i Nazi issue has over reached , therfore has confused th issue with Lawer rites and Nazi stuff making Walters appear a victum totally when Walters is hypocriticol
but then Lawers generally not got good reputaion with th Public , for many good reasons
Any radio station that any senior state government member happened to give an interview to, zoomster
If no one else really would run it then I’m sure Brumby or Pike could get something up on http://www.vic.alp.org.au/news-events-media/news/ 😉
[Guys, you are all being manipulated by the media. This is not an attack on the Greens by Labor as a whole (at most, a couple of individual memebers made ill considered responses to media inquiries) but an attack on the Greens and Labor by the media.]
Zoomster you position makes sense, the trouble is you have the likes of GG and Paul Nash who aren’t bright enough to work out why.
And it would seem Ron isn’t bright enough either.
fredn
my #254 is too logical for you to rebut
And i did not need to ALSO add Zoom’s excellent point FROM which one can see that News ltd also runs anti Labor naratives by (correctly) pointing out Greens Party’s hypocracy , to tarr Labor (by associaton with th Greens) to influence swing voters
that Greens people here incl you , rod and la , reely think News ltd is trying to help Labor Party (in this current State electon camiagn) by helping Labor to prevent Greens pinching 4 inner city safe Labor seats with Lberal prefs , shows your complete naievty of News Ltd’s ovall anti Labor pro Lib Agenda
255
Rod, as I explained, there is nothing to refute.
(And I have no doubt that individual members of the ALP are campaigning against the Greens. I have no doubt that there is a concerted ALP campaign against the Greens, either. What I’m saying is that this isn’t it).
[Ron
Posted Monday, November 1, 2010 at 2:54 pm | Permalink
fredn
my #254 is too logical for you to rebut
…..
that Greens people here incl you , rod and la , reely think News ltd is trying to help Labor Party (in this current State electon camiagn) by helping Labor to prevent Greens pinching 4 inner city safe Labor seats with Lberal prefs , shows your complete naievty of News Ltd’s ovall anti Labor pro Lib Agenda]
Then show a little sense Ron and don’t repeat the crap. In a couple of days you, GG and co have convinced me to put the Greens first and Labor second.
Diog
you need to run as a Dr candidate , having in thoery done abortions , and seek election publicly advocating a anti Abortion polisy , hypocracy it would be …ditto Walters
that peoples can not SEPARATE that Waltes hypocracy pro Coal Co’s intersts advocacy from th ridiculous unlogical claims against Walters for defending a Nazi in normal Lawer role (with pro Naziism being not a Greens or any partys public policy issue , is amazing
that News Ltd THEMSELVES highlited Greens party candidate Walter’s hypocracy is a truthful fact of what he Walters had hypocrit done VS his anti coal Co’s electon stance , & Greens hav to wear that truth
trying to avoid such an inconvenient truth by (falsely) asserting Labor initiated such a truthful exposure of Walters is a red hering , News ltd did ! , wear truth of Walters hypocracy
(Why News Ltd did it as an anti labor tactic thereefore is quite an irelevant issue as is muddyin Labor for News Ltd telling th truth for there own anti ALP reasons)
[Rod, as I explained, there is nothing to refute.
(And I have no doubt that individual members of the ALP are campaigning against the Greens. I have no doubt that there is a concerted ALP campaign against the Greens, either. What I’m saying is that this isn’t it).]
And, of course, zoomster, I wouldn’t suggest for the moment that Labor shouldn’t campaign against The Greens (or vice versa). That is what political parties are there, in part, to do.
THis one smells though, and I don’t think you can really wash it away with a bit of “it is all media games”. It will be interesting to see how senior Labor campaigners respond to questions about the matter over the next few days.
what smells is Greens candidate is a hypocrit as Labor’s Bromwyn Pike has already factualy said ,
apparently fact and truth against Greens candidate Walrtrs is unsettling
244
I am more optimistic about the Greens chances in Northcote because of the opinion polling and the Batman result. The results of the Commonwealth Election have the gap at only 1% according to a table in the age weeks ago and the Green vote is generally higher at state level as is the Green showing in the opinion polling.
Last time I voted Green, not this time
Tje Voct greedns are not wahtr they seem. God help Victoria if they secure a seat on the Green Leather. Not much talent in the upper house. Not much down below.
[”So we have a (GREENS) candidate who’s out there preaching the evils of brown coal, (PLUS) preaching the evils of our industrial relations system that he says is unfair on workers but while doing that he takes a brief working for a brown-coal company … basically having a go at an injured worker’s family.”]
Except, Ron, that it seems no one is actually challenging the dead (not injured) worker’s family. What is actually under challenge, from what I can gather, is the division of responsibilty between the various companies involved in his death. There is no challenge to the circumstances of Rick Gauci’s death, and liability has already been accepted for this by the company that actually employed him, the maintenance company “Silcar”.
Quote
“But (Vic LABOR) Treasurer John Lenders
stepped up the attack, describing Mr Walters’s representation of the coal company as ”typical” of the Greens.
”It’s not what you do but what you say that matters to them,” he said.
”So we have a (GREEN) candidate who’s out there preaching the evils of brown coal, preaching the evils of our industrial relations system that he says is unfair on workers but while doing that he (a GREEN) takes a brief working for a brown-coal company … basically having a go at an injured worker’s family.”
Vic Labor (Lenders) is quite entitled to (corectly) call Greens candidate Walters a hypocrit
as also did Vic Labor’s Educ Minister Pike
So 2 senior Vic Labor peoples already has said so in public , responding to News Ltd’s true story re Waters and a COAL Co
so what rod Hagen is trying to do is avoid this truth about Walters own hypocracy , and instead blame Labor as a red hering for iniating th (factual) story , when News Ltd initiatd th truthful story
It does not change fact Walters is a hypocrit tho , as Labor’s Lenders and Pike said with Walters involved with Coal Co but seekin electon as anti coal co’s
(nor change that News Ltd ran strory as an overal anti Labor tactic to swing voters !
Tom
#264
unfortunate i hav had to blogg repeat here and elsewhere that safe Labor seat Northcote is at great risk of Greens poinchin it using liberal prefs , so sorry to hav to agree with you tho you prob quiet happy at prospect
..I should have added that not only did Newnham assist the election of the Rev Fielding to the Senate…but in the state upper house last election..
.He organised a deal with the DLP which saw Kavanagh elected in western Victoria on Labor preferences,ahead of the Green candidate,,,,you have to ask why he supported the election of religious based candidates,instead of the Greens.
Kavanagh is the nephew of Bill Barry,one of the founders of the DLP and a man who helped to destroy the Cain Labor Government in 1955.on the floor of the Victorian House of Assembly
Ask John Cain,the former Premier , what he thinks about people who destroyed his father’s Labor Government. He had a very sharp rebuke for Newnham when these events occured in 2006,saying that Labor should not collaborate with the DLP under
any circumstances
Water and Trains
i posted last nite about Labors briliant polisy to build a Desal Plant and N/S pipeline so Melb & Country towns do not ever run out of water Not seen a proper case against that
since 2006 electon labor switched to this as there was more knowlege of dire MRB position , more knowledge of climate change and that water never always falls where you can it , longer droughts a bigar chnace , so quite wise of John Brumby’s Labor Gov
with Trains i always wondered in EVERY State why trains (and double ones as well) never get built cross linking ciys and al;so not go rite out to its borders as they extend
I’m sure burocrats got a finance answer and luv charts and km calcs and may all look sweer professional done , tho I reckon if i was chief honcho I’d look outside of square & alos overseas , at both econ and enviro and sosial benefits cause even on $’s basis alone my $’s calcs ma be diff to theres
I’m a generic bus skeptic excl where absolutely unavoidabel , and often complex of such issues requirin so many beurocrat xperts involved to make a recommend results
in a problem for any minister to challenge whole concept , but i do
Ron,
Julian Burnside, for example, led the legal fight for the Maritime Union of Australia in the 1998 waterfront dispute against Patrick Stevedores. On the other hand he also represented Alan Bond in his fraud trials. Does this make him a champion of fraudulent business men? Of course it doesn’t.
Jim Kennan represented Abdul Nacer Benbrika and Jack Thomas, and also campaigned for the release of David Hicks. Did this make him a “campaigner for terrorism”. Of course it didn’t.
I could name you dozens of “Labor Lawyers”, including those who have represented Labor in Parliament at one time or another, who have worked at one time or another for the “other side” on just the same basis that Walters was doing here. Don’t you think any hypocrisy here might just be coming from the other side?
268
Because Northcote has such a chance of Going Green it is not a safe ALP seat.
[since 2006 electon labor switched to this as there was more knowlege of dire MRB position , more knowledge of climate change and that water never always falls where you can it , longer droughts a bigar chnace]
Ron, the 2006 Victorian election, at which Labor opposed the construction of a desal plant, was held in November 2006. At that time Victoria had just been through the most serious collapse in water supply in a decade, falling nearly 20% (from 60% to 40% in a twelve month period). Labor’s change of heart on the matter was announced just a few months later. There was no major change in either Melbourne’s water position or in knowledge about climate science in the brief period in between the two (climate change and its implications have been known about for decades, not just the last few years, and there was certainly no major ” breakthrough” in that time).
As I’ve said , I think there was (and still is) an arguable case for the desal plant, although I think Thwaites earlier proposals were actually a slightly better option (less problems with dealing with salt disposal, greater focus on reduction of waste, etc) even though the energy use problem in reality existed with it too (as it does with The Greens current policy).
But lets not “guild the lily” by suggesting that there was some sort of revolutionary change between late 2006 and mid 2007 with respect to such matters. There wasn’t.
Rod
I explained earlier (perhaps on another blog, I’m getting lost) what the changed circumstances were between the election in 2006 and the decision about the desal plant.
To recap:
1. Wangaratta nearly ran out of water, despite being regarded as having one of the most secure water supplies in the state, due to human error.
2. The fires of 2006 (after the election) threatened the Thompson Dam. If it had, Melbourne’s already stressed water supply would have been further restricted.
Both of these events, coming close together, led Brumby and Thwaites (to my certain knowledge, as in I discussed the issue with both of them) to the realisation that no town – let alone a city like Melbourne – could afford to have all its eggs in one basket water wise.
That was the revolution (more a revelation).
Desal’s big attraction is that it is one of the few alternatives that don’t rely on it raining. Almost all the others do.
Rod Hagen
Rod Hagen , none of your eg’s show anyrhing but lawers taking a client not matter what they perosnaly think What you ignore is Walters is seeking public OFFICE now in defianse of what he done with Coal Co’s
So your post is a red hering to get away from fact that Greens candidate Walters is a hypocrit as per correct claims on evidence made by Labors Treasurer John Lenders AND per Labors Educ minister Pike for Walters seeking office on a anti Coal platform & workers rites contrary to his actions They’re both rite about Walters hypocracy
so i’ll take logics of Vic Treasurer and vic Educ Minister (apart from my own same views) over your biased Greens views lamely & selectivly protecting your Greens candidate’s hypocray
that you can not see such blatant Walters hypocracy is a surpise therefore Unlike you I initiated my view blogged here that on th SEPARATE issue of semitism charge made against Walters I thought it a total unlogical critics of him
(You seem to think all of your Green Party candidates is all free of being a hypocrits)
I should add to the last, on water policy, that I think there are other aspects of Labor’s water policy that I also think are very good. Extending the pipeline network, enabling transfer of water from one area to another, and improving efficiencies through measures to modernise irrigation and the like, can make a lot of sense.
Labor’s “no new dams” policy, like the Greens similar policy, and unlike the coalition, who are silent on the matter, is also worth commending. There are serious issues that need addressing still, though, concerning environmental flows, support for maximisation of domestic collection and minimisation of domestic usage, additional rationalisation of irrigation schemes, ground water policies, etc.
I’ve spent a lot of time on the Murray in both Victoria and South Australia in recent years. Victorian Labor are clearly way in front of SA Labor when it comes to water efficiency from what I can see. Nevertheless there is still a long way to go in both places.
Rod Hagen
#271 to my #270
re Desal Plant , you continue to nuance a shot at Labor for building th Desal Plant
my arguments in #270 stand ie After 2006 with more events occuring Labor was not going to risk eith Melb or Country towns ever running out of water !! , which those events indicated was a reel risk
that you can not unqual suport such a sensible Desal polisy is in defiance of logical reasons of a Govts PRIME resonsibility
Zoom
@274 , yes to all your reasons also re why Desal Plant (and N/S pipe line) was critical important to do then as a reseve so people had water to consume
[ Greens candidate Walters is a hypocrit as per correct claims on evidence made by Labors Treasurer John Lenders AND per Labors Educ minister Pike…]
Oh come on Ron! Even you don’t think that “evidence” from two major “players”, one of whom has a huge personal interest in sliming her opponent to avoid almost certain electoral defeat, counts as real “evidence” in such a situation!
There are plenty of Labor lawyers who have acted in an identical fashion, perfectly legitimately and ethically, BEFORE seeking public office.
The big danger for Labor, and I’m sure it is not something that is lost on those of them who find themselves in this position today, is that Pike, Newnham, Lenders et al have opened a can of worms that will let the opposition crucify them if they choose to do so. It is an insane, unnecessarily desperate, electoral strategy that has far, far more potential to harm Labor than help it.
I hate to think what John Cain would have to say about it if he chose to speak freely about the matter!
Rod
it’s such an insane strategy that Labor wouldn’t be silly enough to go there.
Which is why it didn’t.
Just step back and look at the situation with the blinkers off.
Ron
The Libs said the same thing about Rick Sarre’s legal career which helped Chris Pyne get back in. Labor complained bitterly.
You are on a similar level to Chris Pyne.
[e Desal Plant , you continue to nuance a shot at Labor for building th Desal Plant]
No Ron. I think , as I have said in every post about the matter, that there are arguments for and against. I’m not having a “shot” at anyone, and I’m not saying it was a wrong decision. I just don’t think you should introduce fake arguments about changes in either circumstances or climate change science to justify it. Let it live on its merits, of which there are undoubtedly many, as well as many problems.
Spinning such things as “brilliant” solutions, as you try to do, when there are clearly pluses and minuses, on the basis of false claims about changed circumstance, just gives credibility to the notion that when it comes to politics is nothing more than spin. If you want to really slow the shift of the Labor left to the Greens then this is the sort of image that you have to overcome. You won’t do it with junk information. You have to start to be honest and up front about both the positives and the negatives.
[Rod
it’s such an insane strategy that Labor wouldn’t be silly enough to go there. Which is why it didn’t. Just step back and look at the situation with the blinkers off.]
I suggest you don’t listen to Bronwyn Pike’s follow up comments on the matter if you wish to maintain this illusion, zoomster.
Pike has certainly backed Walters on the anti-Semitism smear.
[“One thing I think is very important for me to say is that I know Brian Walters and I think it’s very unfair to say that he’s anti-Semitic and I completely reject that,”]
It was more Pyke’s comments along the lines that:
[Ms Pike said lawyers were able to refuse a case if they felt “ethically compromised”, and she cited Labor lawyers who had declined to represent Patrick Stevedores during the waterfront dispute in 1998.
“So people do have choices, and I think that when people are so prominent in their criticism of a particular industry then it does seem somewhat hypocritical that then that becomes the industry that they are representing and supporting,” she said.]
Either Pyke has little understanding of legal process or of what the terms “representing” and “supporting” mean in these situations.
Whoops! “Pike” not “Pyke”
Ron writes:
[unfortunate i hav had to blogg repeat here and elsewhere that safe Labor seat Northcote is at great risk of Greens poinchin it using liberal prefs , so sorry to hav to agree with you tho you prob quiet happy at prospect]
If Northcote really is in play, then it makes Stephen Newnham’s role in this little game even more suspect and personal, Ron.
One of the real dangers for Labor federally with the Pike/Newnham affair is that Julia Gillard may be drawn into it when she returns to Australia. Gillard is a lawyer, knows exactly what the real story is here, and would have very great difficulty indeed running with the “spin” that some in Victorian Labor seem to be wanting.
If this looks like occurring I don’t think there is much real doubt that Brumby will feel obliged to cut Pike loose (especially as she is an unlikely survivor anyway). Federal Labor must be looking at this stuff like it its a turd wrapped in plastic explosive. It is the very last thing the lawyers in the ALP , the PM included, will want to see being played out at a time when the Federal situation is as delicate as is it currently is, even ignoring the current Federal dependence on the vote of the Greens member for Melbourne and the Indis.
State Labor will still be in power after this election anyway, as Ron has regularly said. They would be insane to harm Labor federally by keeping up this charade for the sake of trying to save the unsavable seat of Bronwyn Pike.
zoomster
Posted Monday, November 1, 2010 at 6:04 pm | Permalink
” Rod
it’s such an insane strategy that Labor wouldn’t be silly enough to go there.
Which is why it DIDN’T. (go to silly anti semitism which was a SEPARATE allegation)
Just step back and look at the situation with the blinkers off.”
Zoom agree
in fact Bromwyn Pike has said
“One thing I think is very important for me to say is that I know Brian Walters and I think it’s very unfair to say that he’s anti-Semitic and I completely reject that,”
so Rod Hafgen still got blinkers on STILL abov trying to tie Bromwyn Pike to th anti semitism claims , a separate claim altogether Bromyne Pike and Labor Treasurer John lenders is saying Walter’s (Greens candidate) is being hypocriticol over Coal Co connection plus worker problems when standin to be elected on reverse platform
Rod
yes , Labor’s Desal Plant and N/S piprline is a btillant polisy as i said , so that melbourne and country towns do not run out of water for its humans to consume !
a reel risk given recent history of events of droughts , CC , MRB , fires , and Vic towns close to brink of no water ! No spin , truth
what you not see , is there were many neg factors that had to be taken into considerations incl cost , debt and enviro effects for such a huge prohect of over 3 billion dollars to supply 150 billion litres of water a year , thats big time money and big time water supplys …..and Govt made rite call on those plus’s and minus’s as a net brnfit to Vic State , hence my praise
So if people wish to nit nit and highlite negs (that were LESS than positives then they is short sited nit picking
There is nothing particularly novel or brilliant about opting for a desal plant, Ron. It is the standard response these days, the world over, and much as I hate to say it the Libs actually suggested it for Victoria before Labor (though their own proposals were grossly underfunded, far too unimaginative, and clearly simply knee jerk stuff rather than any sort of real approach to deal properly with the needs).
It is not the only solution, however, and there are real questions about the specific implementation in Victoria. 150 billion litres, by the way, is less than 10% of Melbourne’s current full storage capacity – about the same amount held in Sylvan and Sugarloaf – two of the ten Melbourne storages and less than currently held in one of the upper middle sized ones, the Upper Yarra dam alone. Certainly nothing to be sneezed at, but not really a game changer except at times of most desperate need.
Yep, we need the safety from one source or another, but this simply isn’t “game changing” stuff, and it comes at a significant cost. If I was ‘the boss” would I reckon it was worthwhile as a political and hopefully practical solution, given a bit of luck and rainfall? I probably would. Would I see it as the answer to everyone’s aquatic prayers? Nup.
[Which is why it DIDN’T. (go to silly anti semitism which was a SEPARATE allegation)]
Glad to hear it Ron. Let’s hope no-one is mad enough to try to take it any further! 😉
Rod
why are you ignoring what I have said about the change in circumstances after the 2006 election?
I can only assume because it doesn’t suit your agenda.
I was very intimately involved in the policy process at the time and can assure you I was sitting there with Brumby and Thwaites discussing it and could almost visibly see the shifts in their thinking about water.
They seriously contemplated almost every option you can think of (as some of the articles in the local Wangaratta paper reflected at the time).
[There is nothing particularly novel or brilliant about opting for a desal plant]
Which is why Labor initially rejected one. They were well aware of the arguments against.
[It is not the only solution, however]
No, but it is one of the few that don’t rely on rainfall.
[Certainly nothing to be sneezed at, but not really a game changer except at times of most desperate need.]
Absolutely. What the government realised was that you couldn’t say “Oh look, the Thompson’s nearly full, we’re fine” (or whatever) because the unexpected can come along and cruel your pitch.
Wangaratta nearly ran out of water, when it had one of the most reliable water sources in the country. The Thompson nearly had to be closed down for some months.
[Would I see it as the answer to everyone’s aquatic prayers? ]
No one’s saying it is. In fact, I know (from briefings I’ve had) that the government sincerely hopes that it doesn’t have to turn on the desal that often.
It’s an insurance policy – and no one wants to cash them in.
Trouble is, all the projections say we will be doing so.
John Brumby clearly reads PB , and unlike Rod Hagens thinks building Desal Plant a great idea and Greens canndidate Walters is a hypocrit
“Dear Diog
Today I delivered the election writs to the Governor General in preparation for formal commencement of the State Election tomorrow.
Over the next four weeks together with my Labor colleagues we will present our positive vision for Victoria’s future.
Central to that vision for Victoria’s future is to keep the jobs coming by maintaining our AAA rating and locking in budget surpluses for the next four years.
We are committed to making sure our children get the very best start in life and that is why we are employing more teachers and will keep building and upgrading schools across Victoria.
We offer Victorians strong leadership for the times ahead.
John Brumby – You Tube Video
This will be a tough election. We face a negative opposition. They are big on problems, but small on solutions. That is why we need your help and every little bit counts.
Five Ways to help out in this campaign :
(i blanked out this bit)
Only Labor has the vision that will ensure that Victoria remains the place that we would all rather be.
Regards
John Brumby
Premier of Victoria “
Ron
From what I can gather, Brumby is the best premier in Oz at the moment. Rann, KK and Bligh are detested by many Labor followers but Brumby doesn’t seem to have that.
zoomster,
Great post and puts the earnest twaddlers in their place.
One other factor not mentioned is that in the lead up to the decison on the desal plant, elcectoral offices were bombarded with calls from worried voters about the water plant. All of them urging the Government to do something. I know for a fact that the calls stopped the day the desal plant was announced.
A couple of years on the narks can all whinge, but it was definately the right decision at the time.
Zoomster, I’m not sure what you are trying to say but it seems to me as if we are in furious agreement.
My only reservation would be that it took until the Wangaratta event for Labor to realise the needs. Water issues should have been on the table for years before this. I’m sorry but this stuff was actually “on the table” at least as early as 1990 when I was studying for a grad diploma in environmental science at Monash Uni. It wasn’t really something that a well informed government should have been surprised by in 2007!
[What the government realised was that you couldn’t say “Oh look, the Thompson’s nearly full, we’re fine” (or whatever) because the unexpected can come along and cruel your pitch.]
That would , indeed, have been a foolish approach to continue with , zoomster, given that the Thompson dam was only 28% full on election day 2006! It was already a long, long, long way from full!
I have said time after time here that either a desal plant or a major waste water treatment program were arguable alternative approaches to dealing with the problem, even as it was at the time of the 2006 election.
I have said that both the 2006 Labor approach (which is similar to the Greens current approach) and the 2007 Labor approach, have some merits, though both also have problems.
I have also said that people (Labor and Green) should be up front and honest about the problems (energy impacts etc in both cases) as well as the benefits. I have also said that the Libs have no policy of any value whatsoever in place to deal with such things.
What is it that you think I’m “ignoring”!!! 😉
diogs,
The only person detested in Labor circles is you.
Big call, GG.
[and unlike Rod Hagens thinks building Desal Plant a great idea]
Absolutely fascinating that you can read that from a statement that says nothing whatsoever about a desal plant, and in a situation where I have actually said, time after time after time, that an arguable case can be made for a desal plant in Victoria, Ron! 😉
Not sure what you have “blanked out” Ron, but could you point to the place in your quotation where Brumby claims that “Greens canndidate Walters is a hypocrit”?
William,
We had a meeting and passed the motion. Must be true.