Who do you trust in an election campaign? Not the pollies

OUR politicians spurt so much bullshit in an election campaign, we should know not to believe either side, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM

It’s hard to know who to trust in an election campaign, with all pollies spouting so much bullshit Picture: AAP

IN the early noughties there was a racehorse called Honest Politician. She was no Winx. From 36 starts she won eight times before finishing dead last in a trial at Kyabram and being put out to pasture.

But despite her modest record, Honest Politician often ran at short odds. Mug punters were attracted by the mare’s name and laid their bets accordingly. The bookies odds - especially at tracks away from the big smoke - are determined more by the amount of money put down, than any real knowledge about a horse’s chances of winning.

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Two weeks ago, the CLP’s candidate for Solomon, Kathy Ganley, was paying $9.50 with Sportsbet.

But there’s clearly been a flood of money for Ganley, for as of yesterday her odds were in to $2.75.

Whether that rush has been based on informed information, or just some big bets from CLP supporters, is hard to say. But people down south have clearly started to take notice.

How else do you explain the conga line of federal politicians who are now rushing to the Top End?

The number of federal politicians here is usually inversely proportional to the relative humidity. But while the cool of the dry season is yet to really arrive, the suits from Canberra certainly have.

This would normally mean good news for Territorians as there’s nothing like a marginal seat to grab the attention - and money - of our federal pollies.

But it also means we have to put up with their bullshit, and that was flying thick and fast this week.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrived in town hellbent on taking the Territory Government to task. He told us the Gunner Government was the worst in Australia and started banging on about youth crime being out of control.

Of course Morrison’s comments fail to acknowledge the reason we’ve landed in this mess, and no-one in the Canberra press pack would have the local knowledge to challenge him.

But Territorians will remember it was Morrison’s predecessor, former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who called a Royal Commission into youth justice in the NT less than 12 hours after watching a TV show.

No questions asked, no time to consider what had really happened, just a panicked decision from a Prime Minister prone to making bad decisions under pressure.

It was the Turnbull Government that appointed an activist as one of the Royal Commissioners, and its been the Turnbull and Morrison Governments that have since walked away from any sense of responsibility on this issue, with the NT Government left to deal with more than 200 recommendations from an inquiry that paid scant concern to victims of crime.

So if youth crime is an issue in Darwin, Scott Morrison’s Government bares as much of the responsibility as anyone. I

f Morrison is genuinely concerned about people’s homes being broken into and youth justice officers being assaulted, perhaps the first place he should look is in the mirror.

The CLP’s strategy to make this federal election a referendum on the Gunner Government is a good one. But using the brash Morrison as the attack dog was a mis-step.

We know what’s happening in the Territory and we don’t need to be lectured about it by some blow-in from Sydney. Especially one whose own government has hardly been a pillar of stability.

That’s not to let Labor off the hook, particularly over its handling of the economy.

The Territory’s current Budget crisis has been the making of several governments, mostly Labor, over more than a decade.

But that hasn’t stopped the ridiculous spin that’s flowed from the mouths of Labor’s federal politicians during their visits to the Top End this election campaign.

Take these comments from Labor’s deputy leader Tanya Plibersek on Wednesday. “We know that the Northern Territory Government has inherited a very difficult set of books from the CLP and they are doing their very best to get on top of the mess that they inherited from the CLP,” she said.

“It’s pretty extraordinary that you had a government here in the Territory who managed to flog off a whole lot of taxpayer assets … and still managed to set the Territory on a path to higher debt and deficit.”

Now let’s consider a few facts. When the CLP came to office in 2012 the NT’s net debt was $3.5 billion.

By the time it left office four years later this figure had been reduced to $1.97 billion. Projected debt over the forward estimates had been reduced from $5.5 billion in 2012 to $3.3 billion in 2016.

Forget the spin, just look at the numbers and ask yourself whether the lines being dished up by Plibersek - and Bill Shorten a week earlier - hold water.

The former CLP Government deserves criticism for much - division, in-fighting, sex scandals and more.

And it’s true they wasted some of the bounty from the sale of TIO and the lease of the Darwin Port pork barrelling in their final year in office.

But lectures about fiscal irresponsibility are laughable when they come from Labor.

Remember the CLP put $200 million from the sale of TIO into an infrastructure development fund that Labor has since wound up, with most of the money already squandered.

“What steps did they (the CLP) take to create the jobs of the future?” Plibersek asked on Wednesday before answering her own rhetorical question, “absolutely none”.

In fact, they adopted former Labor Chief Minister Paul Henderson’s plan to turn Darwin into and oil-and-gas export and manufacturing hub; a plan that was stopped dead in its tracks when Labor put a moratorium on fracking in 2016.

And what was federal Labor’s big ticket announcement for the Top End this week? You guessed it. To turn Darwin into a gas export and manufacturing “powerhouse”.

Hendo must have choked on his Weet Bix when he read that.

With the odds tightening in Solomon we can expect the influx of federal politicians to continue ahead of next month’s election.

And as the nonsense flows from their mouths it might pay to remember that the best place to find an honest politician is at the racetrack.