source : the age
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Time to go, premier
Reading Premier Jacinta Allan’s letter of contrition in The Age (3/7) apropos what happened on the Big Build and how to ensure it never happens again, one is immediately struck that this was the Clayton’s apology you give when you are not really giving one at all.
Instead it became a panegyric – a chance to list her government achievements. To avoid direct questions on the Big Build costs she tried to use global events such as inflation to smooth over the extraordinary high costs of these projects. Finally as a sort of incidental, came the admission that some malfeasance took place on the building sites and rounded off with the usual “how shocking and unacceptable” this was.
Nowhere is mentioned the part her government and, in particular she as the minister directly responsible, played. Sorry, premier. This sleight of hand, poorly thought out prestidigitation just does not cut it with the public and through your constant self-exculpation and failure to take complete responsibility you should resign.
Tony Davidson, Glen Waverley
Counting the costs
Premier Jacinta Allan says about the Big Build that “10 years ago, delivering infrastructure on this scale – and in such a short period – was thought impossible”. The Labor government has indeed delivered on that. Credit, then, where credit is due.
But all those projects on top of other government expenditures, have resulted in a Victorian net state debt projected to soar to $199billion. Interest payments are in the region of $24 million a day. Looming now as the actual Big Build impossibility is the task of finding money to pay for it without cuts to vital state government services such as public health, education, transport and law enforcement. In the long run, it’s hard to see those cuts being avoided.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills
Working on a theory
Jacinta Allan is working on the theory that you only call for a royal commission if you can anticipate its findings.
Michael Brinkman, Ventnor
Commission defects
Royal commissions come and go in Australia. Although they are the highest form of inquiry, with broad powers including the power to summons witnesses to appear before them, there is no obligation for governments to accept a royal commission’s recommendations. After more than 100 royal commissions in Australia, there are countless recommendations sitting in bottom drawers gathering dust.
Take, for example, the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. More than 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody in the 30 years since the royal commission’s final report. Successive governments have failed to fully implement the 339 recommendations that aimed to prevent Indigenous deaths in the justice system.
Similarly, recommendations from the banking, superannuation and financial services industry royal commission have not been fully implemented. And five years after the royal commission into aged care quality and safety’s final report, we are still reading of an “aged care crisis”.
Sarah Russell, Mt Martha
No to hi-vis, Labor MPs
I never want to see a Labor politician in a hi-vis vest again (″Big Build rorting adds 30% to costs″, 4/7 ).
David Cayzer, Clifton Hill
The Boomers’ effect
The article “Falling house prices” focuses on tax and government intervention. But there are also societal changes. The Baby Boomers have kept housing prices high by staying in their homes longer than earlier generations. Lucky Boomers also funded the “bank of mum and dad”, which also helped to sustain prices.
Now, the Baby Boomers are finally coming in on the sell side of market and this will have a long-term impact.
Gerry O’Reilly, Camberwell
Empty cupboards
Columnist Niki Savva (Comment, 2/7) perfectly illustrated why Angus Taylor is incapable of leading the Coalition to government, and why Pauline Hanson and One Nation should never be considered.
In her recent address to the National Press Club in Canberra, Hanson put on display her divisive agenda, which has typified her time in politics for decades; at least she’s consistent. She obviously believes that by fomenting division and mistrust, as Trump has done so successfully in America, she can garner enough support among disenfranchised voters to find a pathway to success in the polls.
While she has certainly rallied in recent months, Australia and the US are different animals politically.
At some point soon, she will need to produce policies to back up the rhetoric if she wishes to maintain her poll numbers, and in this area the cupboard is empty, just as the Coalition’s was at the last federal election.
Taylor, on the other hand, is crippled by his inability to take a stand on anything substantive.
His refusal to condemn Hanson and her appalling agenda disqualifies him as a serious contender, and Labor will be delighted if he is still the opposition leader at the next federal election.
Gary Warren, Eltham
Dangerous potholes
Last Thursday, my wife and I drove up the Hume Freeway to Wangaratta. Between Beveridge and a bit past Euroa, the potholes were horrendous, many definitely dangerous, potentially lethal. Avoiding them with little visible notice was like driving dodgem cars. And only one repair crew were working. Beware.
Whichever organisations have responsibility to maintain the freeway and to keep motorists safe are clearly not doing their job.
Ray Cas, Ashwood
Alliance of denial
What a collection of Australian luminaries attended the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London (“Forget climate change, Moira and mates stoked British heatwave”, 2/7). If the worst European heatwave on record cannot change their climate denial, Western civilisation has a lot to answer for.
Ray Peck, Hawthorn
This is civilisation?
The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship’s recent conference’s primary concerns are supposedly a “defence of what it calls Western civilisation and the fight against climate action” (″As Europe swelters under record heat, the right gathers, mocking climate action″, 4/7). Scapegoating migrants, whitewashing history, and ridiculing scientific consensus seem destined to destroy the very values of the civilisation they claim to be defending.
Tim Wright, Point Lonsdale
Wake up, Australia
For more than 20 years, I co-ordinated the Adult Migrant English Program in the Latrobe Valley. I found it a privilege and an enriching experience to have regular contact with students from a variety of countries and linguistic backgrounds, including many Muslims who had escaped genocide in Bosnia. I find it beyond appalling that so many Australians are rallying behind a political leader who has such negative, intolerant and simplistic views about the whole issue of multiculturalism. Wake up, Australia – be proud of our successful multicultural nation.
Janine Ochsenbein, Croydon
Headless, and in front
One has to question the policies of the two major parties in Victoria when One Nation, without a state party leader, tops the latest opinion poll.
Peter Cooke, Warrnambool
Cry from the heart
Ban the shootout!
Paul Murchison, Kingsbury
