Seven Days

SEVEN DAYS What’s with Labor luvvies’ hammers and sickles?

ONE of the inescapable election themes is that the Canberra Liberals are being pasted by their opponents as being lip-curling conservatives.

What makes them so, muses the Labor member for Fenner Andrew Leigh, in a mischievously timed forensic op-ed piece we publish on Page 12.

And the Liberals-as-conservatives call was jarringly helped by this past week’s short, sharp candidacy of Peter McKay in Kurrajong. Announced one day, he was quickly bundled under the campaign bus the next by leader Alistair Coe. The ex-army parachutist was ousted over controversial comments from a couple of years ago when he condemned the “Welcome to Country” ceremony and alleged the ACT’s “homosexual chief minister” influenced a police investigation.

But if conservatism is the ugly face of the right it must follow that Communism sits on the far left.

And it would seem Communism might be beating deep in some of the young hearts fighting for the Labor Party’s re-election in the ACT.

There’s nothing that says Communism like the hammer and sickle, symbols of the industrial worker and the peasant used as the emblem of the former Soviet Union and of international Communism.

And lo, while Labor’s red army kicks the blue shins of the Canberra Libs, here’s a glimpse of the other side. Labor candidate Maddy Northam… what’s that above her smiling face? A hammer and sickle.

In a Facebook post, Maddy Northam, Labor candidate for Kurrajong is pictured at her campaign HQ saying her team made hundreds of calls into the electorate and inviting others to join her. But what’s that on the wall above her smiling face? A hammer and sickle.

Elsewhere on Facebook, comrade Henri Vickers, who is running the campaign for Labor’s Tim Dobson in Murrumbidgee, poses wistfully with a hammer and a sickle captioned “Ironically unironic gardening mood”, whatever that means.

IN a press conference tra-la-ing Labor’s never-ending Canberra Hospital expansion promises, a journalist asked Chief Minister Andrew Barr: “The government’s been facing ongoing criticism from a former chief minister, he says you’ve underspent on health and that this project will be underdone and won’t cope

Campaign apparatchik Henri Vickers poses wistfully with a hammer and a sickle. with the city’s needs in the future.”

A former chief minister? Hmmm. Let me think. Gary Humphries? Naw. Jon Stanhope maybe, through the columns of “CityNews” perhaps?

Mr Barr then took the bait: “Former chief ministers obviously have contributed a lot to our city, but I don’t think there’s a great deal of value entering into those sorts of discussions and debates with heroes of the past.

“What I would say is that in the development of this project we’re very consignate of our city’s health needs but also of our future population growth.

“I would note that at this point in time our rate of population growth is going to be but a fraction of what it was for obvious reasons of the shut down of international migration and severe limitations in relation to movement within this country.

“So I think some of what the former chief minister has written about, and his assumptions about future population growth, are just not correct and certainly not based on current circumstances and might reflect a world view from about 2000.”

But no matter the ageist backhander, Jon wants to know: “What are the population forecasts you’re relying on?”

RESIDENTS around Watson and Downer aren’t holding their breath, but the PM’s comments that border restrictions may not be over by summer holidays has raised hopes of no Summernats in January.

My inner-north snout says residents are pondering the perverse outcome of COVID-19 being clean air, quieter days and nights, being able to walk around without being harassed and sleeping at night with windows open.

NINE out of 10 Canberrans believe that the territory should have laws that enforce truthful political advertising, according to unsurprising new research from the Australia Institute. What worries me is the 10 per cent who don’t.

On the Labor side, 91 per cent chose truth; 94 per cent of Greens voters, but only 84 per cent of Liberal voters. According to the research, the ACT Electoral Commission is the preferred adjudicator of truth in political advertising laws (37 per cent), followed by the legal system (31 per cent). Only 9 per cent select an industry body as their preferred adjudicator, 8 per cent select a special panel of former politicians.

UNTRUTHS in political advertising caught the eye of Leon Arundell, of Downer. He reckons the ACT government is spending money on a misinformation campaign that coincides with Labor’s announcement of its election policy on food waste.

“Sponsored Facebook advertisements link to an ACT government web page that includes false claims such as ‘ACT households waste up to $3800 every year by throwing away food that could have been eaten,’” he says.

That figure comes from the 2017 National Food Waste Strategy and includes nonedible food waste such as bones and coffee grounds. It also includes waste from primary production, processing and manufacturing, distribution, retail, and hospitality and food services.

Ian Meikle is the “CityNews” editor and can be heard on 2CC’s “CityNews Sunday Roast”, 10am-noon.

ONE UNIT AVAILABLE - ENQUIRE TODAY 6288 0198

• Nursing Care • Personal Care • Independence • Safe home-life environment • Multicultural • Friendly • Family orientated • Quality in-house kitchen • Variety of quality activities

Set amongst landscaped grounds, Adria Care is a warm and welcoming community of people from all around the world. We pride ourselves on cultural diversity and celebration, and offer a wide range of activities to cater for all interests. We provide care for Croatian and all other nationalities. Adria Care fosters individuality and independence, providing support and assistance to enable residents to live in a comfortable and secure environment. Adria Care in Stirling offers residential care for 42 residents, incorporating 2 respite rooms, and Special Care. The village also contains 36 independent living villas. All villas have 2 bedrooms, a courtyard and a garden, and residents enjoy a peaceful and welcoming community lifestyle. Our aim is to provide a caring, safe, home-like atmosphere, reflecting your rights to dignity, respect, privacy, safety and the best quality of life. Contact our friendly staff today to arrange a personal tour.

• Phone: 6288 0198 • Fax: (02) 6288 7635 • Email: admin@adria.org.au • Website: www.adria.org.au • Address: 89 Fremantle Drive, Stirling, ACT 2611

ELECTION 2020 / the Budget mess ‘Stuffed’ Budget has ACT on road to bankruptcy

THE ACT’s Budget is the sickest in Australia and has been so for most of the last decade.

This becomes apparent in the published chart from my colleague and friend Dr Khalid Ahmed, which is based on data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, on the Government Finance Statistics (GFS) measure of all state and territory budgets in Australia.

When Andrew Barr became Treasurer, just under a decade ago, he inherited from outgoing Treasurer Katy Gallagher a Budget with negative net debt of $736 million and a GFS net operating balance not only in surplus but higher than the average of all other states and territories.

A decade later and net debt is approaching $4 billion (a dramatic turn-around of more than $4.5 billion or approaching $500 million a year). That is, mind you, before the advance of COVID-19. Because of the exigencies of the pandemic, it is conceivable that the ACT’s net debt will climb to $5 billion.

Net debt of $5 billion would, depending on how long it may take us to get there, likely equate to more than 75 per cent of our operating revenue.

A quick look at any of the other major Budget metrics will tell you that there is no joy to be had there.

To take just one example, a couple of months ago Barr tabled the General Government Sector Operating Statement as at April 2020 that revealed at that time, i.e. before covid had settled in, that based on the nationally agreed measure of budgets, namely the UPF operating balance, that the ACT Budget was in deficit to the tune of $543,718,000 or an amount equivalent to almost 10 per cent of operating revenue.

I am not an economist and have never pretended to understand the detail of economic theory or principle, but I understand enough to know that the ACT Budget is, as they say in the classics, stuffed!

Which brings me to my point, which is, I would have thought that with net debt conceivably on the road to $5 billion and with a Budget deficit of more than half a billion dollars and growing that the three main parties jockeying, in the lead up to I am not an economist and have never pretended to understand the detail of economic theory or principle, but I understand enough to know that the ACT

Budget is, as they say in the classics, stuffed!

the imminent election to be granted the honour of governing us, namely the ALP, the Liberals and the Greens, would by now have set out how they plan to address the parlous state of our finances, pay down our debt, continue to meet all of the primary needs of the community and avoid the ACT becoming bankrupt.

I do not think it is alarmist to suggest that if the Budget trajectory we have been on for the last six or seven years continues over the four years of the next term of the Assembly, then the only way to avoid going bust will be by further major cuts to the central and essential services of government namely health, housing and education.

My concern, of late, has been triggered by the lack of detail, particularly in the costings, of the “election” commitments which are beginning to flow from the parties.

I think it is revealing that the ALP and the Greens are being unusually coy about the cost of the promises they are rolling out. I assume because they know the true state of the Budget and are aware that whatever it is they are promising isn’t affordable.

I note for example media reports in the last week that the commitment by Labor and the Greens to proceed with the reclamation of West Basin was “not costed”. The fact is the Chief Minister has advised the Commonwealth that the works will cost $100 million.

It is fair to ask: where will that $100 million come from? In light of the state of the Budget there are three possible sources of funds for a capital project such as this, namely: defer a competing project (say) the renewal

dose of dorin

and expansion of Canberra Hospital or a social housing initiative; hit ratepayers with the cost of servicing extra borrowings or pass on the $100 million in the price of the land to be sold to developers for the construction of apartments. What’s your guess?

The people of Canberra deserve to be treated with respect in relation to the costing of commitments. They also have a right to be told where, with a Budget already burdened by massive debt and a frighteningly large deficit, the money will come from. This should include being open about which existing services will be cut, or whether extra charges will be imposed, noting that while the major parties have promised a rates freeze the promise has not extended to a freeze on other taxes or charges.

However, the bottom line is whether any of the parties seeking election have a plan for getting us out of this mess.

Jon Stanhope was chief minister from 2001 to 2011 and represented

Ginninderra for the Labor Party from 1998. He is the only chief minister to have governed with a majority in the Assembly.