Watershed submerges Bracks
From the murky depths has emerged a story that developed prior to the November State Election. Bracks secretly
considered building a dam over the Mitchell River, despite publicly announcing his opposition to any form of investment in dams. A report predicted ecological harm to the river.
The double speak does not end there. Bracks also made moves to establish a desalination plant at Westernport Bay, despite criticising the plan on environmental damage grounds. The plant, used to generate political capital, has been hijacked by the Premier, and is now at the feasibility study stage with the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
"The Government is proceeding with investigations into desalination despite dire environmental warnings in the study, including: damage to seagrass in UNESCO-listed Westernport Bay; damage to fish stocks in the bay; and problems disposing of salty brine."
Independent MP Craig Ingram comments:
"It's a shock to me that they would be considering the comparison when up to now they have used it politically and ruled it out. My view is that it's not negotiable and environmental damage would be disastrous."
P.S. The Premier of Victoria does not have an official residence.
Labels: Election, Rural, Water
Lower House Swing
When results are released for the lower house, Steve Bracks is expected to have lost six seats, five to the Liberals and one to the Nationals, after a 4.6% swing against the government. Ferntree Gully is the closest, with Nick Wakeling getting over the line by 27 votes. Although the increase in primary vote for the Liberal Party was minimal, the preference votes of Family First have come into play, especially in those outer eastern Melbourne suburbs where seats have changed hands.
Steve Bracks must be prepared to face more scrutiny from all parties for his decisions from now on. It Begins.
Labels: Election
Hubris?
Days after the election, Steve Bracks
announced a rejuvinated Cabinet, which included the number two candidate for the Southern Metropolitan Region;
Evan Thornley.
So confidant of Thornley's eventual election (which has been validated only today) Bracks made him a Parliamentary Secretary, with special responsibility for
National Reform Agenda.
If this is how overconfident the Premier is now, we can only until next year to see how he turns out, for the worse no doubt.
Labels: Cabinet, Election
An Upper House to Watch Bracks
Reports in
newspapers today suggest that the Victorian Legislative Council will not be controlled by a Bracks Labor Government. Instead, the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and the Greens will hold the balance of power in the upper chamber, something that can only be good news for those wanting to see scrutiny of government. In addition to a revitalised Opposition, we can only hope that Steve Bracks is exposed for what he has done, or more likely, failed to do for Victoria despite having served as Premier long enough to have a Bronze statue outside Treasury Place, with John Cain jnr, Rupert Hamer, Henry Bolte and Albert Dunstan .
Labels: Election, Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council
Brackswatch BIT
Due to pressing commitments relating to the State Election itself, Brackswatch has not been updated in a long while. This said we intend to continue until 2010 to keep Steve Bracks accountable, regardless of the anonymous quips that flood our comment sections.
The battle has already begun.
Labels: Brackswatch, Election
Bracks Listens, Denies, Does It Anyway?
Brackswatch received the following submission from a member of the public:Some weeks ago when the Opposition suggested rail cars parks would become fee paying there where immediate denials from the Bracks government.
Seems however that exactly such a development may now be in the works for after the November election.
You will find this in the Connex contract via www.contracts.vic.gov.au
Franchise Agreement - Train - Public Release.docSection 10.6 Car parking page 93
a) Upon completion of the works in accordance with the Car Park Security Design Brief, the Franchisee may charge a maximum of $2.00 per day escalated by the CPI Multiplier each calendar year for use of a car park at the Stations where security works have been completed in accordance with the Car Park Security Design Brief.
(b) The Franchisee may submit a proposal to the Director to charge passengers intending to use the Passenger Services a reasonable charge (which shall be no more than the maximum charge set by the Director) for car parking spaces in addition to those required to be upgraded under paragraphs (c) to (g) where:
(i) the Franchisee can establish to the reasonable satisfaction of the Director that those car parking spaces are in excess of the number of car parking spaces at that Station at the Franchise Commencement Date and in addition to those required to be upgraded under paragraph (c) to (g); or
(ii) the car parking spaces comprise up to 50% of the car parking at a Station at the Franchise Commencement Date (provided that that Station is not the subject of an upgrade under paragraphs (c) to (g)) and those car parking spaces are:
(A) situated within a fenced area that has a boom gate controlling the entry to and exit from those car parking spaces; and
(B) staffed at all times on Weekdays when trains are scheduled to stop at the relevant Station (including for a reasonable time before and after the first and last scheduled train);
or satisfy other security requirements agreed with the Director.Labels: Election, Guest Post, Transport
Bad Boys, whatcha gonna do when they don't vote for you?
Lose marginal seats in the south eastern metropolitan region it
seems.
Paul Mullett, who always has an opinion, will lobby the Bracks Government for a 15% pay rise over the next three years. Should this fall through, or if Tim Holding decides to play the dangerous game of industrial politics, Michael Davis suggests that the effect could be significant.
Labels: Election, Police
Citizen Brackswatch
Team Brackswatch made a trip into the Lion's den on Sunday, visiting the
State Parliament as part of its open day, coinciding with the 150 Years Celebration. Arriving promptly at 11am, we found an orderly queue of the electorate waiting for their chance to enter. Having cleared the very light security detachment, and the annoying VEC fellow who tried a little too hard to explain the new upper house boundaries,
To the green house, where we sat in the seats of do-nothing backbenchers like George Seitz "is mine for life", we did run into Judy Maddigan in the corridors, looking very proud.
Brackswatch was very suprised at the size of the ministerial offices, as Tim Holding and Co have little room to swing half, let a full cat, aroudn their workplace. Afternoon drinks at the Imperial Hotel followed.
Labels: Election, Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council, Parliament
Bracks Anointed Syrian Conspiracy Theorist, Informer, Polygamist For Legislative Council
The Herald Sun revealed today that Khalil Eideh, an ALP candidate for a safe upper house seat, is a Syrian informer (that's a polite word for spy), conspiracy theorist (he informs his government of the "Zionist" threats in Australia), and polygamist (he has a second wife in Syria). [See Herald Sun:
Labor man admits support for tyrant].
[More at
The Other Cheek]
Labels: Election, Legislative Council
Bracks 1999 Giveaway Could Cost Taxpayers Millions
Crikey has the scoop on how Steve Bracks' promise to increase the flows in the Snowy River to 21% by 2012 could cost Victorian taxpayers millions.
Bracksy had to make the promise because he didn't actually win the election, he only won 42 seats in the 88 seat lower house, compared to 43 held by the Coalition. As a result, 3 independent MPs, one of them Craig Ingram, held the balance of power. And Steve needed that balance of power. He really needed it. How else would people learn to remember his name, than if he became Premier? Destined otherwise to a life of anonymity, Bracks needed those votes to become Premier.
So he made the proverbial deal with devil and promised Craig Ingram, a new Independent MP from East Gippsland, to increase the flows in the Snowy to 21% by 2012. It didn't seem hard, it wasn't going to cost money, it wasn't going to make anyone angry, and it did establish some very nice shiny new Greenie credentials. So why not? 21% by 2012. After all, it's just water, isn't it?
Steve Bracks isn't the rain man though, he couldn't just get that water from thin air. It had to be taken from somewhere, or someone, or more particularly, Snowy Hydro, the generation part of the Snowy Mountain Scheme.
The same Snowy Hydro that today, Steve Bracks
wants to sell. The same Snowy Hydro that tomorrow, might be suing Steve Bracks's bum in court for the millions of dollars it has lost. All because Steve Bracks didn't really win the 1999 election . . .
Labels: Election, Rural, Snowy Hydro, Water
The Age Goes To Town: The Undemocratic Premier
Normally, Team Brackswatch tries its best to paraphrase, and sum up articles to make a point, because, like most, we think long diatribes are boring and drawn out. But Paul Austin's effort in
The Age today has us collectively nodding our heads.
(Our
Bold)
The contempt with which the Bracks Government treats the Victorian Parliament is something to behold. Trouble is, so few Victorians actually do behold it that the Government seems to believe it can get away with it.
The list of this Government's offences against the Parliament is long: it ensures the Parliament sits infrequently; when Parliament does sit, the Government seeks to ensure that the political "news" of the day happens elsewhere; and the one period of each sitting day when the public and press galleries are likely to be well populated, question time, is treated by the Government too often as its plaything and too rarely as a means of seriously reporting to the people on the activities of their representatives.
The list is hardly unprecedented, but the point is that Steve Bracks promised something better. During the 1999 election campaign, Bracks, taking the usual licence of opposition leaders, said of Liberal premier Jeff Kennett: "If he could pass a law to outlaw elections, the premier would do it . . . If he could close down the Parliament completely, rather than the least number of sitting days he has now, he'd probably do that as well. Imagine if he is re-elected with a big majority and what he'll close down next - not only no debates, probably no Parliament." A year into his term in office, Bracks was still talking up the ideal of a rigorous Parliament. Issuing a policy in October 2000 on "ensuring openness and probity in Victorian Government contracts", Premier Bracks said: "We believe that government is only doing its job properly if it allows the Parliament, the community and the auditor-general to scrutinise its activities and hold it to account."
But, as so often with this Government, the fine words were not matched with firm actions. In the election year of 1999, when Victoria was ruled by that anti-democratic Mr Kennett, the Parliament sat for 37 days. In this election year of 2006, with Victoria ruled by that champion of democracy Mr Bracks, the Parliament will sit for 38 days. Opposition Leader Robert Doyle, unsurprisingly, accuses this Government of paying lip service to parliamentary democracy. But his argument is backed by figures showing the Parliament sat for 15 fewer days during the first six years of Bracks than it did during the last six years of Kennett.
A "sitting week" for the Victorian Parliament means Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday only. A "sitting day" can be so short as to leave you wondering whether it was worth turning on the lights: on April 4 this year, the upper house convened at 2pm and adjourned at 5.23pm.
On the days when the Parliament does sit before lunch, Bracks often absents himself from the building during the morning to make the Government's good-news announcement of the day at a TV-friendly location. Then, during question time from 2pm, he arranges for a Labor backbencher to ask him a "Dorothy Dixer" question about said announcement so the Premier can bring the Parliament up to speed.
As for the idea that ministers should account to the people via the Parliament for the allocation of public money and the good governance of their portfolios - well, sometimes the very concept appears foreign to this Government. Space permits only one example, but readers inclined to trawl through Hansard (www.parliament.vic.gov.au) will quickly find others.
During question time in the lower house on April 4 (the same day as the upper house sat for a little over three hours), Opposition health spokeswoman Helen Shardey referred minister Bronwyn Pike to "reports that the Wangaratta area manager of Rural Ambulance Victoria was allowed to resign after it was discovered he had forged signatures to get jobs for unqualified mates". Shardey specifically asked Pike: "Why has this man still got a car owned by Rural Ambulance Victoria, and why are Victorian taxpayers still paying to put petrol in it?"
Pike's "answer" occupied several minutes, but not once did she mention the area manager, or his car, or who was paying for his petrol. Even the (Labor) Speaker had to ask Pike after she resumed her seat, "Has the minister completed her answer?" Pike: "Yes."
It did not seem to occur to Pike that, while giving a brief summary of the recent history of the RAV and talking up the investment her Government had made in the service, she might have also said words to the effect that the questioner had made an allegation about serious misuse of public money and the minister would have her office or department investigate immediately and would report back to the Parliament at the first opportunity.
Perhaps we should not be surprised that the Bracks Government is happy to belittle the Parliament. After all, this Premier has shown few signs that he regards the lifting of standards in public life as part of his brief.Last month, when The Age revealed that Police Minister Tim Holding (among others) had been using his taxpayer-funded, chauffeur-driven ministerial car in a Labor Party preselection battle, some political observers thought this might be the subject of a rebuke, or worse, from the Premier. Not a bit of it. Asked his response,
Bracks said through his spokeswoman, Alison Crosweller: "Ministers, along with opposition leaders and their deputies, have access to a driver and a car which can be used at their discretion. This is the case in all other states and the Commonwealth Government."
In other words, don't expect the Bracks Government to seek to set a good example on the use of ministerial cars, and don't expect Bracks to enforce higher standards on his ministers.
Steve Bracks doesn't lament the declining relevance of the Victorian Parliament. He contributes to it.
Update: WeekByWeek gives a mathmatical explanation of sitting daysLabels: Brackswatch, Election, Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council, Media Commentary, Parliament
Bracks Rorts Bush Of Representation
In yet further proof of the disregard in which the ALP holds country Victoria, preselections for the three country upper house regions (Western, Northern and Eastern) have resulted in
all winnable positions being allocated to Melbourne based ALP hacks [See The Age:
Danger flagged for ALP in bush.
The six urban Laborites sent out to colonise country Victoria are Melbourne-based union officials Jaala Pulford and Gayle Tierney in Western regionl; the Housing Minister and Member for Broadmeadows Candy Broad and the member for Melbourne West Kaye Darveniza, in Northern Region; and the members for Chelsea and Monash, Matt Viney and Johan Scheffer.
The sitting member for bayside Chelsea, Matt Viney is the only one who has had the tact to at least become a nominal country Victorian, moving a few kilometres outside the urban growth boundary to Tonimbuk (20 km north east of Pakenham). The other five haven't even bothered to do that.
Housing Minister Candy Broad won't even open an office in her prospective new electorate until she has been elected [See ABC:
Minister rejects regional representation claims].
The voice of country Victoria, The Weekly Times, is censorious in its editorial (22/3/06):
Labor's Upper House Insult
The Labor Party has insulted country Victorians with its decision to stand Melbourne-based candidates in Victoria's Upper House country seats. [...] It seems the Victorian Labor Party has abandoned country people in favour of factional deals. Dropping city-based candidates who have no involvement in rural Victoria into safe country seats shows contempt for country Victorians. Is Mr Bracks really suggesting that these candidates will spend most of their time outside Parliament in country Victoria? Or is he relying on the party's argument that half these candidates -- like himself -- grew up in the country? [...] Labor's latest decision shows the party's contempt for the country people who in 1999 put Mr Bracks in power.
Dianne Hadden, the former ALP member and MLC for Ballarat East, has said she is not surprised:
"Well, I think they will be and they certainly need to be [upset]," she said.
"The proposal by the Labor Party is to have their factional deals done, so that their union puppets are ensconced in the Western Region for the Labor Party and the two Labor Party union hacks will be ensconced in Melbourne." - ABC: Claim
ALP faction 'puppets' moved into country seat
Labels: Election, Legislative Council, Rural
