Ted Baillieu’s Liberal-National coalition has been in power in Victoria for over a year.
After promising a great deal, Ted Baillieu is proving to be an even bigger disappointment than expected.
There can be no doubt that Baillieu has upped the stakes on former Prime Minister John Howard’s now infamous ‘core and non-core promises’ statement.
The Victorian Government has spent the past year completely lost in the wilderness.
It comes down to a lot of promises but no policies. While some may say this is an harsh assessment since they’ve only be in power for a year, it is the first year of government that the agenda is laid down.
There is no agenda and no direction for Victoria.
That is not, however, to say that this government hasn’t done anything;
the problem is what they have done is pretty pathetic.
As soon as Baillieu came to power he showed Victoria that the Nationals are the real power behind the scenes as the government allowed cattle back into the sensitive Alpine regions. This was done, we were told, in the name of science. Yet when grilled about the science, the response was to refuse to release details and when they were they were found wanting scientific merit. In fact even the scientist employed to undertake the study of the impact of cattle in the sensitive Alpine regions questioned the basis for the project.
But despite the significant amounts of research that says cattle in the Alpine region destroys the fragile ecosystem, the state government insists cattle don’t do that much harm, and will be letting them back into these regions.
However this is only one aspect of the Baillieu government’s anti-environment agenda.
Coupled with repeated efforts to smash the green wedge around Melbourne to allow inappropriate and over development, the Baillieu government is well and truly failing our state’s environment. Then one has to question the economic strategy of the Baillieu government when they’ve implemented such harsh restrictions on the placement of wind farms; that they’ve effectively crippled the industry before it could even get going.
There are no plans by the government to see an increase in renewable energy use with the solar plant in Mildura continuing to flounder.
For a conservative government they’ve illustrated a complete lack of regard for future economic growth and opportunities; especially the economic growth that will come from the transition of the Australian economy to one less reliant on carbon-based energy sources. (The recent announcement that NSW and Victoria will create a domestic economic bloc is reminiscent of pre-federation times.)
And while the Baillieu government has illustrated scant regard for the sensitive environments of Victoria, this is only part of the failings.
While promising to get tough on crime, the Baillieu conservative government has done very little to get tough on crime. In fact the only thing that Baillieu has achieved in the area of law and order is making it illegal to swear in public.
The release of details around the anti-corruption commission is commendable, but the details reveal a less-than-acceptable independent statutory authority giving the commission significant powers. The details also reveal the commission authorising its ‘officers’ to carry some pretty heavy duty military style weaponry – talk about weaponizing the bureaucracy.
But how can I forget the other triumph of the Baillieu government on law and order – making it illegal to upset the Gaming Minister. Even on a bread-and-butter issue like law and order, the Baillieu Government is shown wanting for direction.
One of the big issues in the last state election was the state of public transport in Melbourne. It is argued by many that the media position taken by Baillieu was a significant factor for his victory last November. Yet it has failed to improve public transport. Over-crowding, delays and reliability remain significant problems for the beleaguered metropolitan rail network. And this is coupled with the lack of connectivity with the bus networks and light rail networks, making for a frustrating experience for commuters.
There is no way I can forget the Government reneging on promises to teachers, nurses and fire fighters about pay and conditions.
We have seen an escalation in rhetoric from the government about productivity yet has no plan for achieving ‘increased productivity’ from teachers and nurses; or fire fighters for that matter. However, the government did manage to give the police, who do a dangerous and often thank-less job, a very generous offer on pay and conditions.
Now in the last fortnight Victorians have been slugged with increases in public transport fares without subsequent improvements in frequency and reliability and car registrations have also been increased. This is coming from a government that promised to deliver reductions in the cost of living. And he’s also laid off 3,200 public servants at Christmas time.
The government’s own Ministers seem to lack any real knowledge of the relevant laws and statutes for their portfolios. It is not only embarrassing, but frightening that the government does not know the rules. Victorian voters should very concerned with this government’s complete lack of policy direction; it is having a profound impact on the direction of Victoria.
With the repeated failures of the Ted Baillieu government I think it’s befitting to rename our Premier to Ted Fail-you. It seems to me to be a more accurate description of the Premier and his conservative government.
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