Grappler Racist Filth wrote on May 24^th, 2025 at 10:17am:


Any link?

While not yet a failed state, Victoria is sailing close to the wind. Leaving aside the Allan government’s spin and obfuscation, this week’s budget told a sorry tale, but not a surprising one.

If there is one constant in Australian fiscal affairs, it is that the Victorian Labor government will spend excessively, mismanage major projects, swell the ranks of its public servants and – notwithstanding punitive tax assaults on investors and other unfavoured classes – further inflate the state’s debt.
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Why the fall from grace?

The most obvious reason is that since the election of Dan Andrews in 2014, Victoria has effectively been a one-party state. The state Coalition parties – at least until the recent elevation of Brad Battin to the Liberal leadership – have been an opposition in name only.

This has been justified as political expediency, but when put to the electoral test in 2018 and 2022, it signally failed.

The result? The Andrews and Jacinta Allan governments have faced no challenge to their hard-left policy agenda. This has allowed them to commit to the most ambitious – read economically costly – emissions targets in the country and bet the house on intermittent wind and solar power.
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In a scathing 2023 report, the Victorian Ombudsman found that the integrity, competence and professionalism of the state’s public service had been compromised by its “creeping politicisation”.

It reported “growing pressure to tailor official advice to the preferences of the government”, particularly on politically sensitive infrastructure projects; “decisions made in echo chambers not subject to the scrutiny of expert career officials”, and; a “culture of fear in the upper echelons of the public sector” that “does not support frank and fearless advice”.

With a public service unable to fulfil its traditional role as a trusted, arm’s-length and credible adviser, another potential check on the government’s mismanagement of the state has been removed.

The third, and perhaps most significant, reason Victoria has gone off the rails is that Canberra has not only allowed it to do so, but rewarded it into the bargain.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/failing-oneparty-state-an-ominous-warning-for-nation/news-story/7ae3cec6862fa58eeaecfdb10382daec