On George Brandis
Vincent Burke writes: Re. “The hunt for diary Brandis’ diary” (Tuesday)
It appals me to think that, despite George Brandis having been a total failure in his various ministerial roles, he seems destined to be rewarded by getting the important role of High Commissioner in London. I’m not a Liberal Party supporter, but I believe Alexander Downer has done an excellent job, for which he has worked hard to maintain a balanced relationship with the UK.
If Brandis gets the job, he will almost certain preen and posture and undo all the good work that Downer and his predecessors have achieved over the years. We should all protest about the seeming inevitability of his appointment, simply to get him out of the political frame. There’s another perspective. Let’s beat the poms on the cricket pitch, but they don’t deserve to be inflicted with Brandis in Australia House.
On Mark McGowan
Jeff Ash writes: Re. “The one election promise Mark McGowan should break immediately” (Tuesday)
I expect a high standard of accuracy from articles published in Crikey.
John Menadue’s missive from the East is so typical of the scant attention that is normally paid to WA from those in the east.
Mr Menadue exhibits a total lack of understanding in how the GST share is calculated.
In the current method of GST distribution any increase in mining royalties is immediately taken off any GST allocation from the Commonwealth Grants Commission as it is classed as state revenue. In simple terms – make another $2B, lose $2B. If it was as easy as raising the royalty rate in the manner that Grylls proposed then it would have been done years ago.
The real problem here is the way the GST is carved up. Mining royalties are counted as revenue, but gambling revenue from pokies is not. That can’t be solved by some primary school level solution.
On Coopers
James Burke writes: Re.“Boycott Coopers all you want, it won’t end homophobia” (Tuesday)
“Putin’s reported homophobia”, Helen Razer?! Will “Pope’s reported Catholicism” be next?
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Re Ian McAuley’s piece on privatisation: the real problem is ideologues who have never read any writing about economics, or if they did start on Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, stopped after Chapter 2 where they found the view that the community benefits if individuals follow their self-interest. In later chapters, Smith qualified this simplistic view. In particular, he warned that private organisations that have monopoly control of essential services will over-charge to increase their profits. It was always obvious this would happen when private companies were allowed to buy airports, since there is no prospect even in principle of competition. In practice, there is also no real competition in electricity supply, water supply, running ports etc, so in every case the consumer has suffered from the Liberal Party’s ideological obsession with privatisation. Of course, the policy also tips money into the pockets of their benefactors, but it would be cynical to suggest this influences their decisions…
Ian Lowe
Sir Alex Downer, Neale Blewett, John Dauth, Alexander Downer, George Brandis – the tradition continues