Another week, another scandal in the New South Wales government. This time, the media are the ones guilty of over-reach. But the overwhelming impression voters still get is that our political system is broken.
The meme that "our politics is broken" is often a meme that politicians run. At times, it isn't necessarily true, or the claims are exaggerated.
But if you were to ask about the state of politics in New South Wales, I doubt you'd find many people who disputed it. Of all the governments in Australia, the NSW state government stinks the worst - and you probably wouldn't find much in the way of honourable or saintly conduct in local government either.
Local governments are regularly mired in corruption scandals. Influential people are able to get planning approval for all sorts of major projets with little active community consultation. When developers can't get what they want, like with the Coogee Bay Hotel redevelopment, they beef it up to exploit part 3A (the "state significant development" section) of state government planning rules to bypass all council involvement, and all community consultation.
The hotels lobby actively lobbies the government to kill arts, culture and live music and allow them to introduce more poker machines that take money away from the elderly, the poor and the addicted.
Property developers donate money to political parties (especially the incumbent one), and then lobby furiously to get land rezoned for development. Ironically, this is a product of the state government's own making, by neglecting to release enough land, thus pushing up house prices. They regularly win friends and influence people in the labor party. Some have stopped bothering trying to conceal their connections.
As many as four government ministers have been sacked or resigned over the past 4 years over sex scandals. Milton Orkopolous was defrocked for sexually abusing teenage boys. A second was accused of domestic abuse. Less than a week into Rees' reign, Matt Brown allegedly sexually harrassed people in his office. A vindictive journalist then exposed David Campbell visiting a gay sex club. That journalist was later exposed by Crikey of having a vendetta against the Labor Party for his poor treatment as a short lived spin doctor under Iemma - and for the poor treatment of Reba Meagher - a rare case of someone being sacked for genuine incompetence.
The New South Wales government has had 4 premiers in the past 6 years. Bob Carr resigned with an impeccable sense of timing. Morris Iemma resigned and took a number of discredited ideologues with him. Nathan Rees was ousted for few other reasons apart from coming from the wrong ALP faction. Kristina Keneally has surprised many with her competence, my included, but she is struggling to drag the very dead, very heavy weight of her colleagues to the polls. At each leadership change, two catholic men, one of them very rich, have effectively had the biggest say. The media now blatantly make up stories - and yet even the fake ones sound plausible.
And where has the opposition been? Well, in a similar state.
Kerry Chikarovski led the liberals to a decimation in 1999. John Brogdon was thrown to the wolves far too early in 2003. Two years later, some right wing religious crazies in his party spread rumours that he had sexually assaulted a woman at a party. He went back to his office and attempted suicide. Three weeks later he was replaced by a dribbly guy who was more frequently spotted in his red budgie smugglers than a suit.
As recently as last year, when they were virtually unassailable in the polls, the liberals were still having internal factional wars between two subfactions of the extremist hillsong/opus dei right. During the fight, Federal MP Alex Hawke stated that "nobody joins the liberal party to decriminalise homosexuality". And who is their leader? Barry O'Farrell.
Compared to everyone else, he looks like a saint, for the sole reason that he is a weak man who has done absolutely nothing and hasn't been brave enough. Which compared to anything else...
And all through this - where's the good policy in the public interest? What has the government actually done in the last 5 years that merits applause? MyZone? They nearly buggered that one up too. The Lane Cove Tunnel? The operator nearly went broke recently. And they still managed to build it without enough lanes.
Public Transport? A new plan every year, and hundreds of millions wasted on the Metro, but still no north west or south west metro. Public hospitals? Shortages of doctors, nurses, and funding have led to bed shortages and high waiting lists. The environment?
Well, there was one win recently - they stopped building a coal mine in the hunter. Why? Was it because the government decided it was bad for the environment? Well, no. It was because Alan Jones, John Singleton and a few other high flyers had friends up there who convinced the government that it was a major horse ranch area and furiously lobbied the government for 5 years. Thank you, racing and gaming industry, for your wonderful environmentalism!
Meanwhile, coal mines damage the environment north west of wollongong.
Gay marriage? the catholic right in the ALP have vetoed that over and over again. Abortion is still technically on the statute books as a crime for the same reason.
Karyn Paluzzano? Busted for corrupt use of her office. Nobody in the Labor party believes it's an isolated incident, me included.
The Michael McGurk scandal? We had the farcical parliamentary hearings into tapes that turned up nothing. Graeme Richardson even turned up and basically said "it's ok guys, I checked this one out, and it's not corrupt. Because believe me, if it was corrupt, I would know about it."
Seriously.
Is it any wonder that people in new south wales are keeling over in agony?
They are desperate for something, anything. The polls show the liberals way out in front. But it's not with any enthusiasm that they endorse Barry O'Farrell, but more of a resigned "well, it's the only thing we can do, but I doubt it'll change much". They've actually taken more of a liking to Kristina Keneally on a personal level. But yes, even she owes her career to questionable tactics by the Tripodi faction in the preselections for her seat of Heffron in 2003.
And the political parties themselves - what an awful mess. They ceased to be mass-based political organisations many years ago. The Liberal moderates have been comprehensively routed by the extreme right wing crazies in recent years. The only reason Barry is the leader is that some of these right wing crazies were politically savvy enough to stick a moderate in front of the camera. But you only have to look at the Young Liberals to see what the future looks like. The poor old young liberals only ever read two books when they join - the hillsong bible, and Atlas Shrugged. Whenever they have a debate with young labor, they literally walk across the road from Macquarie Bank, or from their father's law firm, and walk in the front door of macquarie street.
In 20 years, these guys will be running the government.
Young Labor isn't quite as bad. There are some very good people. But somehow, none of them get promoted to good positions. I wonder why? The senior party uses it more as an employment agency for MP and ministers offices. Come March 2011, all of these men and women will be out of a job.
The ALP is an empty vacuum of talent. All the sensible people went to work in federal politics or the union movement long ago. Most have given up trying to even save it. Many party members I speak to think that a loss would actually be good for the ALP. Bad for the state, perhaps, but good for the ALP. What a shocking thing to even think. Most of these members have been through the pain of watching someone parachuted in over the top of them by the executive, or having their views on policy ignored by factions.
Does anyone doubt that the moment labor loses the next election, a whole number of labor MP's will be exposed as corrupt frauds? Curring favour from business? Stabbing each other in the back? Selling government to the highest bidder? In the late 19th-century, if the founders of the labor party saw what was to become of their creation 100 years later, they would have been appalled. Is this supposed to be the party of the workers?
But does anyone seriously think the liberals will do any better? They're just as likely to be worse.
Who's going to save NSW?
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