Focusing just on the Axing of School of the Air debacle its very clear that the WALabor party is firstly "PerthLabor Party" and secondly it had a bit of a plan to win the very unlosable election but still has no plan on how to govern the state for the benefit of the state.
In the case of School of the Air, its not really a "merger with SIDE" its an axing of school of the air with people forced to use SIDE...or is it? We're not 100% sure because the Minister is AWOL & there's no detailed plan for everyone to pour over. Yet. So far we have not seen a properly set out plan of how this will work, what it will look like and exactly what duplicated services are being amalgamated. We do know there's plenty of remote parents not happy.
It gets worse and is a serious indictment on a Government in disarray. Mark McGowan visits Broome, does a photo op presser with local Labor MP Josie Farrer but no mention at that point of School of the Air going on the chopping block. In fact when it finally did get announced there was the usual or expected disgust was compounded when Labor MP Kevin Michel coughed up that he was actually in Parliament when he heard it announced.
A northern WA government MP & he wasn't consulted or briefed. Nor was Josie Farrer. In fact despite there being a hugely heralded 14 or 15 Labor MPs, (depending who you talk to) more than any other party we've yet to find a single Labor MP say they were involved in the decision making process. They're all playing dodgeball.
Labor's Darren West MLC did come out and say that parents involved would be able to speak with the government for input. Thing is, the decision was already made. No community nor stakeholder consultation prior to the announcement at all. Seems the decision was made, the decree delivered to the subjects outside Perth with no ability to add their experiences to find the best solution for the kids. I have no problem with changes being brought in...IF the kid's education improves and there's generally improved outcomes AND the stakeholders are part of the changes being assessed.
Not so here.
Darren West did say that they could get involved and possibly even help rename the new entity "School of the Air" if they so chose. I wasn't alone in being stunned.
Still no proper plan what the new entity will look like, how it will operate, what is lost & what is gained. With no sitting of Parliament until February and now the Dec/Jan holiday period I suspect PerthLabor thought best drop the bomb and the dust will settle long before Parliament resumes.
Its not looking that way. Into January as I type and in the bush, the rage is being maintained and is growing. Mark McGowan is missing in action. Sue Ellery has a puff piece in the Newspaper, no detailed plan & one regional Labor MP is running around (well now & then) dropping one liners on Twitter to try & address all the spot fires breaking out.
Mark McGowan took nearly three weeks to not deal with Mr Urban and the "stolen valour" medal saga. It was so serious a situation that Mr Urban resigned from PerthLabor Party but not from Parliament. If it was so serious why did McGowan not sack him from the party?
For a person who served in the Royal Australian Navy our Mr McGowan is looking more like Mr McGoo being unable to plan, lead, instruct, discipline nor govern.
There is no Governance of Decency.
School of the Air gets axed in the pursuit of savings, meanwhile in Perth one Labor held seat will get a $4,500,000.00 Performing Arts Centre, another gets $5,000,000.00. Another school gets a new school bus whilst rural Dumbleyung gets a bus run cancelled.
There's been much loudness about the problems being a Liberal/National thing but the last government wasn't a coalition, it was a Partnership Government. The Nats were able to cross the floor on legislation and oppose government policy. Indeed they did. They crossed the floor on the City of Perth Bill (which would have forced country shire amalgamations). Among other things they opposed the sale of Fremantle Port.
They applied strict provisions on the possible sale of Western Power which would have benefited WA if it went ahead, but the Liberals were in no mind to accept them. The sale of Western Power really was a non issue. It wasn't going to happen. Labor tried to appear opposed to the sale of State Owned Assets, now not so much as they look to sell of Landgate. If LandGate's data entity is sold it will have no competition, the Labor Government will be creating a market monopoly...as they said they wouldn't. But they said they would never bring in a Gold Tax and then tried unsuccessfully after winning Government.
Twice.
Ironic really is the key point, the PerthLabor Party is actually a coalition government. It is because it has 2 factions, "the Left" and "the Progressives" which is merely the Unions and non Unions. They're really a coalition because of the rules of Labor preventing anyone speaking against Party policy at any time. If they don't fully support & sell the party line they are expelled from the party.
Its like Dark Ages Catholic Church excommunication.
Note this, the regional Labor MPs ARE supporting the axing of educational services in the bush, the axing of the country towns sewerage projects, the axing of renos of country hospitals like Laverton and the closing of residential college services (and more) whilst a $125,000,000.00+ Marina Playground in Labor held Joondalup is built. It means the regional Labor MPs are completely useless tokens. They support totally the party city centric line and are "regional" only due to their electorate, not their representation.
This is why I don't refer to them as WALabor but use the more accurate PerthLabor Party.
In a normal universe Sue Ellery would lose her ministry. She may yet but with Mr McGoo at the head of the PerthLabor Party maybe not. He has no plan and no clear indication who actually is running the Party that's steering the Government.
I'm expecting more policy decay. In contrast, the NatsWA delivered Royalties for Regions which will now sadly suffer massive cost shifting to allow more plundering to pay for Perth based election sweetners. In the election, NatsWA were down but a few hundred votes down state wide. Opposition will add a new dynamic to the Nats and will in the long term greatly add to them and help them mature even more policy wise. We're starting to see this already. We haven't seen this in PerthLabor Party for all their time in the opposition wilderness. In fact since returning to Government, their party has gifted a lifetime achievement award to controversial Union thug Joe McDonald. Now its gets weird because McDonald was actually expelled from the party in 2007.
There is no reason why the very questionable Mr Urban cannot end up with a honour award from PerthLabor. In fact its probably very heartening for Brian Burke as well.
To borrow from an older Labor movement "Maintain the Rage"
Sadly there'll be much to fuel that against PerthLabor. The government is city centric, country blind with no rural representation.
Below I'll add some of the Pre-election promises that PerthLabor is looking to deliver whilst the bush suffers. Check back later, it's going to take a long time to list just the prominent ones.
Late Edits...apparently the axing of School of the Air will save the state $14million dollars over 4 years. Lets compare that suggested saving with other Perth Labor Initiatives.
#1 Perth Labor MP Sabine Winton MLA happy her old school gets $5,000,000 in upgrades. Well that leaves $9Million in savings from axing school of the Air & Wanneroo Students are better off remote students not so much
# 2 Well that's $9,500,000 savings gone to Perth...Another PerthLabor MP getting the glory for their electorate.
#3 Build a fence? I'm sure that's important...so important it needs Political Spruiking.
#4 - A local P&C Committee gets $140,000? I'm sur ethey have a great project or two in mind...Not sure if many rural, regional or remote P&C committees got a cheque for $140,000 whilst School of the Air was axed(?)
#5 - Kinross College got a new school bus & I'm sure it was sorely needed as they navigate the bustling traffic of the Perth Metro Area...whilst Dumbleyung got a school bus run cancelled & School of the Air was axed.
#6 Gosnells & Southern River probably need the money, all $8,400,000 of it whilst School of the Air was axed. WOW I haven't include the cost of Currumbine's Fence or Kinross's brand new school bus & we've hit $18,040,000 in Education outcomes whilst School of the Air is axed. If axing School of the Air saves $14Million (does it really?) then the savings have already been exported to the Perth Metro Area, mainly to Labor Held Seats. And we haven't touched the other expenditure in other Perth Schools below...
#10 - Harrisdale School gets $220,000 to provide shade? OK that's probably very important...but its a lot of money when we somehow can't find any to keep School of the Air open.
#11 - Ahhh another new primary school in Perth. Its probably needed, I don't begrudge them that but note it's happening (cost not sure) whilst WA's School of the Air for remote WA students is being axed.
#7
No comments:
Post a Comment