What’s with the Iemma government? About the only time they seem to hit the national news apart from scandals and stories about the collapse of public services is when some new height of absurdity is reached in their apparently obsessive desire to fence everything off from anyone bar dignitaries. Yesterday, Morris Iemma unaccountably locked the public out of a ceremony to unveil a statue of a New Zealand soldier on Anzac Bridge. Today, the charges against the Chaser boys for their APEC stunt are dropped, and ABC tv news reports the government warning ominously that it might send the wrong message to people contemplating something similar for the inordinately expensive Popefest in July - where all the usual panoply of exclusion zones, special police powers, fenced off areas of the city, redirected roads and so on will be in place for what looks set to be a spectacular flop, at least as far as frustrated Sydneysiders are concerned it would seem.
Please enlighten a puzzled Queenslander. Is it that they only get the illusion of power in a state they’ve made ungovernable when they can erect fences and restrict civil liberties? Is this the reductio ad absurdum of Bob Carr’s law and order campaigns? A distraction from electricity privatisation? Would they be happier with the North Korean style of staging a public event? Puzzled minds want to know!
Mark, I think you’ve covered most of the theories.
But at the base of it I don’t know if anyone knows what that bunch are thinking anymore. They’ve been in so long and gotten so clueless and up themselves it’s a wonder they can still arrange a cabinet meeting. In the absence of having a serious plan to fix their various messes in Health, Infrastructure, Education etc fencing shit off and bossing people around is closest they’ve been to governing in a long long, time. At least this way they can feel they’re in charge.
Mark:
I was disgusted by the way the Kiwi visitors were treated.
Security concerns? What a load of utter bollocks!!! Isn’t there a law about public officials masturbating in a public place?
Kevin Rudd said Sorry to the Aborigines …. so who is going to say Sorry to our New Zealand friends and neighbours for this insult?
Arrogance, incompetence and massive corruption would seem to cover the bases with repect to the Iemma government.
They have it all in NSW, including astounding and blatantly wrong behaviour by the vile Frank Sartor over development at Catherine Hill Bay (see http://www.catherinehillbay.org.au/save_the_bay_campaign/save_the_bay_campaign.htm).
Sartor is even proposing a new law whereby he can strip you of your private property on application from a developer or other party able to ‘prove’ that THEY can obtain a greater ‘public benefit’ from your property!
MarkL
Canberra
New federal Intervention in the making. Close the governance gap!
MarkL, eminent domain hasn’t exactly been the most successful idea in the United States so it’s ready to be imported and foisted on the Australian public.
I hope the people of NSW can kick Iemma, Costa, Sartor, Roozendaal, etc. out of their seats at the next election. They can all piss off to Macquarie and use their skills of ripping off the people of NSW to great effect there.
As bad as the Iemma government is - and it’s utterly atrocious - they’ve remained in power because, inexplicably, the NSW Liberals are even worse. I mean, how is that even possible?
Police state?
Oh yes, Morry has plans to change the N.S.W. numberplate motto to “State of Siege”.
Just jokin’.
The truth is, he managed to get a “job lot deal” for a bucketload of barricades from a bloke in Newcastle, before APEC, who knew a mate in Berlin with impeccable credentials, who sealed the deal and sent them via Italy.
You wouldn’t want the bloody things to go rusty.
So, they were sent down to Canberra to save us from the pending Olympic Torch Crisis.
They could not be brought back in time to stop some smarty kiwi to doing a De Groot on the bridge. So ban the bastards. But they will be available, at hardly any extra cost, for Popefest.
Bargain for sure.
Explaining Sydney to a Queenslander
You know how the people in the North of Queensland always complain the state government only ever pays attention to the South East corner?
Well 2/3 of Sydney (everyone east of Glebe) feel the same way about the NSW government, except our expectations aren’t high enough that we actually complain.
Two thirds of sydney swio?
How about the entire state outside of Bondi, Double Bay, Paddington and the city itself. I’m surprised Iemma was even at the unveiling himself, it’s the furthest west he’s ever been since his election. I’ll bet he couldn’t find Lakemba on a map, let alone drive there himself, despite being the local member.
Oh the state of NSW politics! It is truly appalling!!! This current government is incredibly inept! Unfortunately their opponents don’t look a whole lot better. Sack the lot of them I say!
I think it’s been suggested before on this site that NSW could cement its stake as the Premier state by abolishing its government altogether and coming under the direct reign of Ruddy. But on the other hand… you’d then have even more NSW Labor veterans in the federal government trying to run the show than now… bit of a worry that.
But I thought Alan Jones was the actual Premier of NSW ??
It seems when “Gloria” says jump, the NSW says “How high”.
What, and be governed by a Queenslander?!? Proud New South Welshstralians would rather secede and join NZ as their West Island before we’d let that happen!
The Anzac Bridge is an 80 kmh elevated bridge. If the commemoration ceremony had been open to the public, there would have been safety issues and huge costs for extra police and road workers to ensure the roadway was clear after the ceremony. The commemoration of a statue did not justify those costs or risks.
Second, as to the World Youth Day, there is a huge undercurrent of preparation building for that in the community, and I see no signs of it being a flop. The Catholic Church has a more restrained approach to publicity than does the Olympics Organising Committee. As to security, the Police have stated it won’t be as strict as for APEC. I’ve seen no signs that anyone is concerned about this.
The Tower of Juche Idea (Pyonyang) - gee, that’s worked out well for them, hasn’t it!
yes, yes, yes and yes.
When an irresistable force (public exasperation with a hopelessly incompetent government) meets an immovable object (public dread of an unelectable opposition controlled by religious crazies) something has to give. Perhaps it will be the two-party system in NSW.
Everyone in the state who believes in competent, honest, accountable, democratic, non-extremist government needs to consider the option of forming a kind of popular front to contest the next NSW State election with the aim of gaining sufficient representation in both Houses to play a decisive role in determining who forms government and the terms on which they govern. And if I can offer some gratuitous advice to my comrades in the NSW Greens, I would suggest that they seriously consider, at least for this one election, becoming involved as either a component or an ally of the popular front. I hope Lee Rhiannon won’t mind my saying that she has the political pedigree to understand the arguments for such an approach.
Tony Healy @ 14,
Indeed. my son, but that was before the Chaser threatened to get in on the act.
Everyone,
On a slightly more serious level, I think the Popefest is a serious waste of time and money and a massive inconvenience to the Sydney public. OTOH as a democratic Socialist, I have no objection to the people having their opium and I support freedom of religion and separation of church and state. So far as the Iemma Government is concerned, the tighes will get forgiveness for their sins (maybe) and the Proddies will get buckets of money in the economy. (Ya can’t lose, maaaate!
For those of you concerned about the stench emanating from the Iemma Government, its the NSW Right for Chrissake. They’ve been like this since before the Great Split. And in the 50s, they didn’t split down here because the Catholics had the factional power. (And Bluey [Cardinal Gilroy] wouldn’t let them.)And even at trheir worst, they’re probably better than the current crop of NSW Liberals. Y’know, the Howardistas. Opus Dei. How can one even consider it?
I hope the Chaser do get in on the act, and I hope they do it in such a way as to highlight the disaster that is the Catholic church with regard to reproductive rights. (How much are the young female followers being brainwashed about contraception and abortion, I wonder?) They could all dress up as pregnant schoolgirls or something perhaps.
I concur, and I’m picturing Chas in that role!
Paul Norton wrote:
Vote for independents and get your neighbours to do the same thing. Research them first, of course. A loose alliance of centre oriented independents might be a worthwhile development in state politics.
Paul and David, I’m sure you haven’t forgotten that NSW is actually the only state where there has been a post-war minority government. It wasn’t a great success.
Iemma, puppet of Obeid, Costa, Sartor, Roozendal. The whole edifice is the logical result of the collapse of the ALP at grass roots level, partly by design of the above, partly as a result of the collapse of mass politics altogether. Carr’s incredible conservatism and self regard, left the NSW ALP to rot, so long as he could go on enjoying himself, and finally retire, and the machine tied itself into knots over deals that by now, nobody knows how to unravel.
I suspect that the result of the failure to persuade the ALP Conference next Saturday, that its policy making powers should be outsourced to the deal makers that infest the NSW government, will be a close result on the floor of the Parliament, and a possible loss of control of the Legislative Assembly on this issue.
“Paul and David, I’m sure you haven’t forgotten that NSW is actually the only state where there has been a post-war minority government. It wasn’t a great success.”
So! Another minority government might turn out to be great. That would make it fifty-fifty. Something surely has to be done to break up what is surely a choice between crap or crapier.
And Mark i was kind of hoping that The Chaser team ALL dressed up as Popes and came from various diections towards the venue.
I think maybe the Chaser should adopt an open source approach to their disruption of the Popefest, joe2!
Liam wrote:
Like the current one is going gangbusters Liam. Basically, everything the RWDB’s say is bad about the Labor party is currently being personified in these NSW creeps. Now, there is no way I’m going to vote for the crackpot wing of the Liberal party in NSW, but Labor need a real shake up / shake out in NSW and there are very few avenues open to make it happen. Our local indie is tolerable (Richard Torbay), surely others can be found.
“Paul and David, I’m sure you haven’t forgotten that NSW is actually the only state where there has been a post-war minority government. It wasn’t a great success.”
This must be a bit of NSW history I don’t know (or my brain isn’t working properly today). I can only recall the 1991-5 Greiner/Fahey Government, which on the face of it is a good example of how a small group of members not aligned to one of the old parties can enforce some standards on a government.
And I don’t see how that post-WW2 minority government was different from those in Qld, Vic, Tas and SA (which has had minority governments in four parliaments since 1959), except that in NSW a Premier was forced to resign over ICAC finding that he had acted corruptly.
d
A Liberal Premier, which sort of demonstrates both major parties are as bad as each other.
Qld arguably had better government when Beattie was in a minority.
Yes, Darryl, that’s the period I was referring to. As you said, it was the ICAC which brought down Greiner. I don’t agree that independents are necessarily good per se for standards, especially considering the history of micro-party rorting in the NSW Legislative Council. For every Richard Torbay there’s a David Oldfield, for every Peter Andren there’s a Malcolm Jones, for every Clover Moore there’s a Fred Nile.
I’d forgotten entirely about the minority governments in other States, which are of course, since you mention them, quite common. The sound you can hear is my neck retracting as I pull my head in.
“it was the ICAC which brought down Greiner.”
ICAC made the finding of corrupt activity, but if I recall correctly, Greiner said he was going to stay on and fight the findings in court. It was only when the independents said they would withdraw support for the Government that he resigned.
d
Quite so, Kim. Peter Wellington kept the government accountable without obstructing progressive reforms. At the same time Liam would probably point out that this outcome was a consequence of the integrity and competence of the independent in question. To this valid point I would respond that my proposal was for a popular front comprising a range of people with a shared commitment to democratic, accountable, honest, competent, non-loony government, and that such a coalition should be aiming to be elected in both Houses in sufficient numbers to have the resources, person-power, and breadth and depth of knowledge and experience, which would normally be associated with a party.
Erm, wasn’t that the role of the Democrat’s at one stage? Why on earth did Meg think she’d come out smelling roses with Howard on the GST? I can still remember that stupid smirk on Howard’s face when they came out to announce the deal and thinking “he’s not happy because of the GST - he just realised that he’s killed off the Democrats”.
And sure enough …
The only explanation I have for the behaviour of my state govt is found in Luke 16:1-9, commonly called the parable of the unjust steward.
As for Popefest, I’m not sure who the Chaser team could dress up as that would be instantly recogniseable *and* funny. Dressing as giant condoms isn’t very sophisticated, though I’d say it would play well with the masses; no, not *those* masses, the other ones…
Tony Healy [14]:
Just on that international incident at the unveiling of New Zealand ANZAC Memorial:
No. You are wrong.
All that was needed was Planning - careful, purposeful, intelligent planning.
The so-called “Security[wtf?]” codswallop stinks to high heaven of an excuse for a lack of proper planning.
Everyone:
Given that Sydney has been “the biggest city in New Zealand”
for more than a generation [and possibly a lot longer], excluding so many local and visiting New Zealanders from such an important event might have severe electoral consequences …. and not just from Kiwis enrolled to vote in NSW either.