When parties trade places in decades-long dance
There was a startling hypocrisy in the rhetoric around development in northern Australia yesterday. Both sides of politics were caught opposing their own history.
Feb 8, 2013
There was a startling hypocrisy in the rhetoric around development in northern Australia yesterday. Both sides of politics were caught opposing their own history.
"There is little doubt that the Australian people desire a faster rate of development. For many it is an uneasy feeling about an empty and defenceless north ... Australia can make a unique contribution in the settling and development of a huge tropical area by an advanced people of European origin. "The increased export earnings which the north can provide are necessary to raise the productive capacity of the south ... what happens in the Fitzroy Basin in Central Queensland or on the Fitzroy in the southern Kimberleys is important to the people who live in Fitzroy, Melbourne. "We will establish a Ministry for Northern Development. Mr Chifley regularly conferred with the premiers of Queensland and Western Australia on northern development. Sir Robert Menzies, Mr Holt and Mr Gorton never did. I shall."So let me end with the wisdom of David Bradbury talking yesterday on Sky News:
KIERAN GILBERT: As you've heard, this is just a discussion paper at this stage, a collation of submissions that the Coalition has received. It's good to have these sorts of debates isn't it? DAVID BRADBURY: Look, I'm not surprised that Tony Abbott is walking away from this at a million miles an hour. What is set out in this policy proposal would be an absolute disaster for so many people across this country. Let's be clear about this. This is a proposal to divide Australia in two and what that means for people in regions like western Sydney, in my part of the world, is that there will be higher taxes for people in western Sydney, we will see jobs that people currently have in places like western Sydney relocated to the far north of Australia. People will be given the option of either packing up your bags and your family and go to the other side of the continent to keep your job, or else, stay where you are, we're going to jack up taxes and, wait for it, we'll review immigration laws to see whether or not we can allow cheap foreign labour to come in and fill the jobs that we've taken. GILBERT: You say it's a policy proposal but it's not a policy proposal, it's a collation of submissions that the Coalition's received. It's not even an options paper that they're putting out there yet. BRADBURY: Like I said, I can understand why they're trying to walk away from it. If the report in the paper is correct, Mr Robb, who's overseeing their policy development process -- which he's already told us, Kieran, he and Mr Hockey have told us they've got all these policies in the bag, we're yet to see. Well, we're beginning to see them and when, all of a sudden, in the full glare of scrutiny, the Australian people see what's on offer, it's no wonder they're walking away from it. Let's be clear about what we're talking about in this proposal. We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars -- have a look at what they're proposing -- hundreds of billions of dollars of white elephant infrastructure projects in the far north, funded by increased taxes on people in places like western Sydney. You're going to have gold-plated footpaths in Karratha while people are stuck in traffic gridlock in places in Sydney.
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Yep, Labor had some whacky ideas about Northern Development too…now Tony’s plan to reduce a certain mining billionaires tax bill is the next off the rank. I reckon there is a roughly a 7 to 13 year cycle for the recycling of dumb, expensive development ideas for Northern Oz. Lets just recognise it for what it is, a government sector dominated economy, always was, always will be (with the exception of a few mega foreign owned mines busily shipping their profits overseas to investors) and try to get that bit right without stuffing up the environment, aboriginal culture and quality of life and everything good about it in the meantime. We’ve subsidised mining and huge agribusinesses like AACO enough surely. Here’s a radical idea. Lets privatise the private sector in Northern Australia…that’s right, mining and agribusinesses. Lets stop showering subsidies on their fuel, roads, infrastructure, dams etc and then giving them taxbreaks till the cows come home (literally). With the dead hand of government off them they would then be free to flourish in the liberating world of the free market (shock horror. Privatise the Northern Australian private sector. Its catchy, maybe the free market coalition types will even back it!
well, there’s relentless negativity for you.
The idea of transferring Wingeing-Wendy-from-the-West to the NT is so appealing I wish this solution to the problem could be taken seriously.
Let us not be negative.
Go Wendy go.