A catalogue of disasters

Less than a week out from the NSW State election and the electorate is in need of anti-depressants.The Galaxy poll conducted in five marginal seats last week for The Daily Telegraph indicates that the Carr-Iemma Labor government will be returned virtually unchanged by disgruntled voters.

Not that it hasn't given the people of NSW scores of reasons for dumping it and, on form, in all probability, will continue to do so until the 24th. It would take too long to list the failures of the Carr-Iemma government over the past 12 years, but the Cross City Tunnel fiasco must come close to the top of any count. The tunnel was meant to solve a traffic problem. It created one. It was meant to save NSW residents money. It will cost them. The contract signed by the Carr-Iemma government ranks as one of the worst ever agreed to by a state in Australia. Unwinding its dubious provisions will leave taxpayers liable for compensation to the private companies who thought they were onto a sure thing. One of the many problems, however, was that there were no accurate projections about the volume of traffic which would use the tunnel, even if all surrounding routes were closed and motorists were effectively bludgeoned onto the toll road. And the ALP's wizards signed off on it. Those with their snouts in the trough were buying a pig in a poke. As it stands, parts of Sydney Harbour are closed to fishing because of dioxin poisoning, the health service remains a shambles, public transport is a health hazard except when it's at a standstill, the teachers' unions run the schools and its members attempt to infect kids with their archaic ideology, while the police struggle with a management that failed in the Redfern riots, Macquarie Fields, and Cronulla and its violent aftermath. In just the past few days we have seen the Labor State Government's attempt to cover up the chronic toxic pollution problem which it has been aware of in East Darling Harbour, corruption in the public housing sector with a cash-for-accommodation scam being revealed, and the trade union movement has made a sleazy attempt to take over Sunday's family walk over the Harbour Bridge for a political protest. Premier Morris Iemma has embraced a nauseating preference deal with the soft-on-drugs Greens, and co-ordinated an ongoing smear campaign against Liberal leader Peter Debnam. Not surprising, really - he was apprentice to former senator Graham "Whatever-it-takes'' Richardson, cut his teeth ethnic branch-stacking in Lakemba, and follows the Richardson play book. He is a knee-jerk leader. There is not a decision he has taken which would indicate that more than 30 seconds thought had been devoted to the problem. As with the Cross City Tunnel, the solutions are, often as not, worse than the original complaint. Iemma's treatment of accused sex offender former Newcastle MP Milton Orkopoulos showed what little value he places on natural justice. No matter what Orkopoulos was charged with, Iemma condemned him without any evidence and cast him out. Then he hurriedly helicoptered over the Hunter Valley to promise the punters a dam they don't need, to be built on land compulsorily purchased from productive farming families, in an area which already sells surplus water. Madness, but the electorate doesn't seem concerned. Or, it cannot bring itself to embrace Debnam, a former naval officer and businessman. Unfortunately, Debnam lacks the essential intangible persona. His campaign path has been strewn with pitfalls which could have been avoided with a little more forethought, he has attempted to be the sole voice of the party on too many issues, and he has taken on far too many talking points for the electorate to concentrate on. In politics, less is more. Keep it simple means that. As some old southern preacher once said: "I'm goin' to tell yer what I'll be tellin' yer, then I'm goin' to tell yer and finally I'm goin' to tell yer what I told yer, and then I'll tell yer again.'' Labor has played gutter politics at the state level - US politics, it claims, but it is really nothing more than mud-slinging and false accusations. Truth in advertising legislation doesn't apply to political campaigning. The truth is that Labor has failed to manage the resources of NSW. The people are over-taxed and under-employed with a vast and politicised public service. There isn't a person on Labor's frontbench with any real business experience, let alone an individual who would be likely to be given a job on merit in a major corporation. Union hacks and factional bosses, and the State's accounts, reflect this dire lack of managerial skills. ICAC is investigating claims of political bullying at the most senior levels in the public sector, though its investigators seem to be doing their best to find excuses for the thuggish behaviour of the minister involved. It is also looking into a raft of extremely serious complaints involving a core of top-level officers in NSW Health. The chooks may be coming home to roost but, sadly, for the long-suffering people of NSW, it may be too little, a week too late. [e-mail]