Bracks must fix gambling sector
Ellen
Whinnett comments on the history of the gambling shambles that has beset the
Bracks government, reminding us it is not a problem that has emerged recently.
As previously noted, the extension of the
Tattersalls license features large, and the potential legal action originating from
Intralot for due process failure is also noted. An extended corporate law case, bringing sensitive documents into the public domain will be avoided at all costs by the
Bracks government. Even if this means dealing
Intralot in for a larger percentage than previously assumed.
A second action of note has been brought by a director of
Tattersalls,
Julien Playoust, who is claiming that former trustees (and now shareholders) who helped package the company for its float should be due a share of $35
million. There are damaging revelations emerging from this case, such as
the lunch Steve
Bracks had with David White, a former ALP health minister and consultant for
Tattersalls through Hawker-
Britton. Indeed, he apparently
informed a meeting of
Tatts representatives that the wheels of government could be greased in their favour.
This is above and beyond the issue of poker machine operations, separate from the lotteries monopoly discussed above, yet also involving
Tattersalls, with
Tabcorp joining in a cosy duopoly. Obviously involving other companies erodes profits, so the
Tabcorp lobbyists will no doubt be working overtime to see things stay the way they are.
An Upper House enquiry would be a good starting point so that the entire process can be reviewed.
Note:
Have also included Blogger Labels for the most recent fifty posts to assist in navigating. So, if you want to read about a subject area, click on the corresponding word and the relevant posts will be displayed.
Labels: Gambling, Legislative Council, Tattersalls, Treasury
Parliament, we hardly knew ye
The Bracks government has opened the new parliamentary session by announcing that it will sit for "at least 50 days". As Paul Austin
opines, this is subject to the Legislative Council sitting a number of Fridays "as required", and at a minimum will be 48 days, in the Legislative Assembly. The reforms make it very difficult for a Government to answer questions about its policies, behaviour and progress.
The other incident relates to the failure to release a report, detailing plans for a water exchange between the Latrobe Valley power stations and Melbourne. Although John Thwaites had proclaimed it released on the Stateline
episode on the 11th November 2006, just over a month later the Deputy Premier admitted releasing only details:
At the time we released our central region strategy we released details of that project — details from the feasibility report. We indicated at the time that certain matters were commercial in confidence and were not appropriate to be released. This is a very positive proposal that deserves proper investigation, and that is what we will do.
Assembly Hansard 19/12/06 P.10
Team Brackswatch is very happy with the efforts of parliamentarians keeping the Government accountable, going as far as using their Maiden Speeches to attach Bracks Government policies. These include the Bernie Finn, former member for
Tullamarine and now representing the Western Metropolitan Region, and Matthew Guy, representing the Northern Metropolitan Region. Greg Barber from the Greens is also worth watching, attacking a Bracks government on different issues.
Labels: Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council, Parliament, Water
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
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
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
