The quest for policies
Some of the letters in the papers (particularly the local paper) are obviously from cranks, but many are worthwhile, and this one in this week’s Moorabbin Glen Eira Leader just perfectly enunciates what I suspect a lot of people are thinking:
Libs need to state policies
IN RESPONSE to the letter by the Liberal candidate for Bentleigh, Elizabeth Miller (Opinion, February 2), I would like to point out the following.
As a public transport user I am well aware of the quality (or the lack of it) of our public transport system.
As an IT professional I have known all along the myki system would be a disaster.
However, what I do not know is who I should vote for in November. The Labor government was unable to improve public transport, or public health services, despite being in power for more than a decade.
The Liberals, on the other hand, haven’t proposed a single real alternative on any issue.
I haven’t even heard about a Liberal candidate for Bentleigh until now.
Stating the obvious and simply saying, “they are bad”, is really not enough.
What do you propose, Ms Miller?
How exactly is your party going to improve our transport? Will you have the courage to say that myki was a horrendous disaster and, yes, the money was wasted but we should just stop it now before we waste even more? What steps will you take to improve the health system? Will you look into the ridiculous stamp duties on property purchases before you announce some other grant?
What is the point of giving with one hand and taking with the other?
The list of issues is long and as a voter I would like to see some definitive answers.
Anna Heifetz,
Bentleigh East.
The opposition has stated one clear policy in the realm of public transport: that of security on every railway station, every night, which while expensive, would certainly go a long way towards alleviating fear of crime on the train network.
Other than that — well let’s hope that before too long they announce what else they’d do if elected, in that portfolio and all the others.
Tags: Liberals, local media, Moorabbin Glen Eira Leader, public transport, state politics, Transport
1 comment
Which MP’s fridge magnet is better?
It must be an election year — in the past few weeks we’ve got fridge magnets with emergency numbers, from both our federal Member of Parliament Andrew Robb (Liberal) and also from state MP Rob Hudson (Labor).
So, you know how I like to treat political issues seriously. Which fridge magnet is better?
| Rob Hudson (Labor) | Andrew Robb (Liberal) | |
|---|---|---|
| Style | Cardboard with small magnet | All magnetised |
| Orientation | Portrait | Landscape |
| Colour picture of candidate | Yes | Yes |
| Type of numbers | “Handy numbers” | “Emergency numbers” |
| Number of numbers | 17 | 12 [1] |
| Numbers listed not on opposition | Local councils, Consumer Affairs, Gamblers help, Metlink, Monash Medical Centre, local police, Quitline | Beyond Blue, Kids Helpline, Crime Stoppers |
| Environmental credentials of magnet | Yes: 55% recycled/45% sustainable plantation card, elemental chlorine free | Unknown |
| Parliamentary seal | Yes | No |
[1] Plus space for more, but you’d need a whiteboard or permanent marker to write them in, and the space is likely to be inadequate.
So which is better?
Andrew’s is the nicer magnet, definitely, and more useful as an actual magnet, eg for sticking things to the fridge. But Rob’s has more useful numbers on it.
I’ll probably keep them both, until something better comes along.
And of course, one always has the option of trimming them to remove the MP’s details, and just keep the phone numbers.
(Andrew Robb took time off for depression late last year. I hope I’m not trivialising what is obviously a very serious condition, but I couldn’t help pondering whether he looked at one of his own fridge magnets when seeking help.)
Healthy debate needs truth
My view, as I’ve expressed before, is that healthy debate is important, but it relies on the participants sticking to the facts, and not just making things up.
Otherwise you get stuff like this, which concerns a Bacchus Marsh resident who apparently misinterpreted what he read and contacted Leader (newspapers) with concerns about seniors ticket pricing doubling from $3.30 one way to $7.
I suspect Myki spokesdroid Jean Ker Walsh was probably correct when she said some seniors may be confusing a one-off cost with ongoing senior fare prices.
That is, to buy a re-usable Myki card will, once all the free offers are gone, cost $7 for a concession.
Many people also seem to be assuming (incorrectly) that tourists and others will be forced to shell out for a card. They won’t — short term (non-reusable) tickets will be available: Short term tickets (for occasional users such as tourists) will replace the single-use 2-hour and Daily tickets available now.
I know it’s easy for people to assume the worst, but these sorts of false “the whole thing is totally crap” arguments don’t really help the debate, and help obscure the truth: that Myki is incredibly expensive, late, and badly implemented.
So it goes too for climate change.
Lord Christopher Monckton has been doing a speaking tour of Australia in the past few weeks, and doing a fair bit of media along the way. He’s an extremely eloquent, apparently very knowledgeable and intelligent climate change sceptic.
But, as MediaWatch found, he makes stuff up. He comes out with unsubstantiated claims which (as MediaWatch showed) many in the media let him get away with unchallenged.
I think the United Nations Climate Panel is now a busted flush. For instance, Rajendra Pachauri, its chairman, Sir John Houghton, its former chairman, and a number of other people associated with it, are now under formal criminal investigation in the United Kingdom for filing false accounts of a charity known as TERI Europe of which they are all trustees.
MediaWatch asked Sir John Houghton, who said “I am not and have never been a Trustee of Teri Europe.”
They also spoke to the UK Charity Commission which said it’s evaluating Monckton’s claims, but is not running a criminal investigation. And they asked TERI Europe, who said that “Neither TERI Europe nor its trustees have received any complaint from the Charity Commission about its activities, let alone any allegation of criminal conduct.”
Another of Monckton’s claims: The Barrier Reef Authority has established that sea temperatures in the region of the reef have not changed at all over the last 30 years.
MediaWatch checked this too. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says it doesn’t measure sea temperatures itself, and doesn’t know where his figures come from.
It really does appear that he’s just making stuff up — and not for the first time, either.
I suspect to anybody with an open mind, it all just casts doubt on the rest of his arguments, and it doesn’t help us have a serious, healthy debate at all.
Giving a hand-up
Was having a chat to somebody the other week when Liz, a fellow Bentleigh resident and fellow troublemaker, wandered past and said hello. Liz has got active in the debate over social housing, following the furore over a proposed development in the very SE-corner of Bentleigh to accomodate disadvantaged women. (In my book given it’s across the street from Moorabbin Town Hall and Moorabbin Station, it’s really Moorabbin, not Bentleigh, but I digress.)
While it’s been approved by planning minister Justin Madden, some local residents remain vocal in their opposition. I heard one ring into 3AW last week, trying to make out that the 4-storey development was a “high-rise”, thus trying to paint it in the same light as the old 1960s-70s housing commission megablocks you see in South Melbourne and Prahran and Fitzroy (all very desirable suburbs these days; at the time they they were built they must have been run-down and cheap).
I’d have a problem with it too if it were a real high-rise. Building huge tower blocks and filling them with disadvantaged people is probably not going to give you good outcomes. But providing them with housing and spreading them through the suburbs in small-to-medium-sized developments (especially in a spot like this that already has buildings that high) I think can work well. This is particularly the case in a spot like central Moorabbin which is adjacent to the station and closeby to shops and other services, so many will have the choice not to blow large portions of their meagre incomes on being car-dependent.
Like other forms of welfare, subsidised public housing gives people a hand-up to help them get their lives together. In my case, my family were not well-off when we were growing up. During my early-teens, we moved a few times due to rising rents, but eventually settled in public housing not too far from the “Bentleigh” development.
Together with Austudy funding (now called Youth Allowance) and the Higher Education Contributions Scheme (effectively a loan of university fees, paid back when I started earning a reasonable amount of money), this hand-up from the government allowed both my sister and I to work part-time as we studied, and to enter the workforce with university qualifications. The result is that our working lives, we’ll be paying lots and lots of tax.
Of course I know this is not always how it works, but I reckon the government (and the country) made a nice tidy profit on us. Helping when it mattered has helped my sister and I reach our potential.
And that’s why it makes sense to give people a helping hand.
Tags: activism, social housing
3 comments
KRudd quoting Twitter
Nice to see the Prime Minister quoting a Twitter post in parliament, but jeez — reading it off a printout? Surely his staffers could have sent it to him on his Blackberry or something so he looked at least a little tech-savvy.
(via Mumbrella)
Tags: Kevin Rudd, parliament, Twitter
1 comment
Why yes, I have done that
Ever tried to do a press conference at Southern Cross station and compete with a locomotive for the microphone? Don’t try. Locos 1. Me 0.
– Kevin Rudd PM on Twitter
Amusing.
It occurred to me that there’s not very many people who would be qualified to reply in the affirmative to that, so even though I know the man himself probably won’t read it, and it was a rhetorical question, I thought I’d pipe up:
@KevinRuddPM Yes actually, I have done that. Speak loudly and clearly and hope the microphones pick you up!
– danielbowen on Twitter
I’m sure he’d already figured that out for himself.
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3 comments
Speaking of…
A few quick things…
This Daily Show segment about Obama’s inauguration was mucho funny.
Speaking of Obama, as with Rudd before him, I’m still getting used to the words “President” and “Obama” in one sentence.
Speaking of Rudd, clearly he needs to do more on education, as the misused apostrophe in one of his Twitter posts proves: KevinRuddPM Join Australian’s in 1 minute twitter silence @ 4pm today in memory of those who lost their lives in Vic & QLD #bushfires
Speaking of, erm, things from the last few days, this is the favourite card design I’ve ever given for St Valentine’s Day (to Marita last year, I think):
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3 comments
Free at lunchtime?
Free at lunchtime and not too far from Parliament House?
WHAT: Stop the Brumby Government riding roughshod over our rights.
WHEN: Tuesday 3rd February Arriving at 11.30 am. Speakers begin at Midday.
WHERE: Parliament House, Bourke + Spring Sts, Melbourne.
WHY: Bring back democracy.
A joint protest on water, climate change and public transport for the opening of parliament.
If it doesn’t put you off, they’ll be handing me the loud hailer for a few minutes.
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11 comments
