| MARCH 2009 Pages - Page 4 |
| THIS IS PAGE 4 OF MARCH 2009 PAGES - MAR0904 |
MORE NSW LABOR "STUFF-UPS"
The Epping to Chatswood Rail Line will not have a life expectancy of 100 years, because of stuff ups in plannng, design and construction.
see: Linton Besser, New $2.3b rail line shows a few cracks, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 March 2009.
The reform of the 'demerit points system" will not occur in the manner it was promised, and will occur much later than promised.
see: Miranda Devine, Fairness stuck in the slow lane, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 March 2009.
AN EXAMINATION OF NSW's "CLASS ACT" PREMIER
Andrew Clennell in the Sydney Morning Herald of 21 March 2009 in an article titled Rescue me: Rees stumbling, examines the first six months of
the class act premiership of NSW by Nathan Rees.
Simon Benson in the Daily Telegraph of 20 March 2009 writes:-
Only six months after premier Morris Iemma was dumped for taking the same fight to the unions over electricity privatisation, Mr Rees
said he would push to have the entire policy revisited.
and
PREMIER Nathan Rees wants to scrap the NSW Labor Party's anti-privatisation policy, suggesting it is archaic and doesn't reflect the
modern economy.
and
Mr Rees also said he had no intention of backing down on prison privatisation plans and said if he had to take on unions and his own
party bosses, he would.
and
Key Labor MPs, however, are still agitating for a leadership spill against Mr Rees by mid-May before what they are now told will be a
"disastrous" June Budget.
But Labor Party officials have also embarked on a campaign to quell the unrest, warning that head office will refuse to support any
move against Mr Rees.
For the first time, they have unequivocally backed the leader until the next election.
see:Rees fights for privatisation in the modern economy .
NSW EMPLOYMENT "BASKET CASE"
HOPE FOR REES
Those NSW Labor supporters taking comfort out of the Queensland poll, where Labor suffered a minor 3.5% swing against it, and arguing that a
similar swing in NSW in 2011, will see Rees elected are clutching at straws. Completely understandable - if one is on a sinking ship, one will clutch
at anything that might appear to keep one afloat.
Andrew Clennell in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald discusses some of the differences between the Queensland situation and the NSW
situation: Rees hoping for his share of beginner's luck, 23 March 2009.
There are some additional differences:-
1. The long term opinion polls leading up to the polls.
2. Rees was appointed Premier as a result of divisions within NSW Labor over the question of privatisation. The anti-privatisation clique was led
by John Robertson. Now 6 months later, in a remarkable about face, Rees has vowed to change party policy to allow privatisation and John
Robertson is in charge of privatising the NSW prison system.
3. The NSW government is basically corrupt.
MERGER IN QLD - COMPETITION IN NSW
In the run-up to the 2009 Queensland state election, the Opposition parties, the Liberal Party and the National Party merged to form the LNP.
They lost the election, gaining only a 3.5% swing from Labor.
However, Tamworth MP, Peter Draper has announced that in NSW, the situation will be vastly different. There will be no merger between the
opposition parties here. Instead they will be competing head to head, in Sydney seats according to Draper. In a media release Draper has
announced:
....rural and regional communities would watch closely to see if the National Party rekindled their waning interest in country areas, and
pulled back from their recent strategy to contest Sydney seats at the 2011 State election.
Peter Draper then went on in his media release to tell the community how well he was achieving for Tamworth with :
....a steady stream of State Government Ministers visiting and announcing some very important initiatives, with tens of millions of
dollars flowing in....
As Labor's man in Tamworth, it is not surprising to see Ministers of the corrupt NSW government visiting Draper.
However, Draper should be a little more transparent in his media releases, and disclose the full facts, so that the community can judge for
themselves how successful he has been in attracting "investment". The League Table from the 2008/09 budget shows that Draper's performance
has been mediocre to average, with the spend in Tamworth being 12th from the bottom in the League Table of 25 seats. Interestingly, Draper,
either because of ignorance of, or with full knowledge of the League Table but in a deliberate attempt to mislead the community, likens his
performance to that of the seat of Wagga. The seat of Wagga sits 4th from the top (Tamworth 14th) on the League Table. Wagga had a spend
of $240 million (Tamworth $129million). It is remarkable in the circumstances that Draper would seek to claim that his performance has been
similar to that of the member for Wagga.
Draper, it seems is not concerned about allowing the true facts stand in the way of a good media release in order to claim credit for things
unjustifiably.
Which brings us to the piece de resistance of Draper's 2007 election campaign, his promise to build a new hospital in Tamwoth with construction
to begin by 31 December 2010. The cost of the construction of the Tamworth Hospital has not been included in the forward estimates of the NSW
government out to 2016. Apart from that, the class act Premier Nath Rees promised in 2008 to "sit down" with Draper "early in the New Year" to
discuss the construction of the Hospital. The first quarter of 2009 is just about to end. There has been no report of "the sitting down" or of
whether the construction of the Tamworth Hospital has been brought forward from beyond 2016. Either the meeting did not happen as promised,
or the construction of the hospital will not take place as promised. The community would like an answer, Yes or No, to those questions.
Perhaps Draper should spend less time reading the Sydney based North Shore Times and being a contributor to the Sydney eastern suburbs
based Wentworth Courier, and more time working on the Tamworth Hospital.
Draper's behaviour in 2009 so far, has been peculiar.. It seems he is losing the plot. It was topped off when he sided with Labor to vote down the
Vanessa's Law bill and then bizarrely sought to justify his behaviour by saying:
1. He did not vote in accordance with the wishes of the community, but according to the dictates of an elite group of health care professionals.
2. In any event, his vote in the parliament does not matter.
SOURCE:
Peter Draper MP, Draper Welcomes Nationals Choice of Tamworth for 2010 State Conference, Media release, 22 March 2009
PERSONALITY POLITICS - HAS DRAPER BECOME UNHINGED ???
When people start playing the politics of "personality", rather than concentrating on the issues of the day that are important to the community, it's
a sure sign something is amiss.
Now Peter Draper MP (Tamworth) seems to have descended into "personality politics" with his most recent attack upon Tamworth based MLC,
Trevor Khan, rather than concentrating on the real issue facing the Tamworth electorate, namely the construction of the Tamworth Hospital. One
wonders if Peter Draper has become unhinged.
In a media release dated 25 March 2009, titled Mr Khan Should Stop Wasting Resources In Attempt To Become Relevant To Political Process
Peter Draper has written:
Member for Tamworth Peter Draper today urged National Party MLC Trevor Khan to stop wasting taxpayers resources on frivolous
investigations, and start developing policies that could benefit the local area should the Coalition win office in 2011.
Mr Draper said that Mr Khan was again trying to turn good news into bad by criticising the funding in a negative media statement about
the Gunnedah communities endeavours to obtain money for a new hall, instead of congratulating the school and the community on its
success in securing the commitment.
“Instead of wasting time and effort on this sort of activity which will have absolutely no impact on the final outcome of the project, Mr
Khan could have rung me and I would have happily advised him that the campaign had been a success,” Mr Draper said.
“I actually sat opposite Mr Khan and his Leader during the flight to Sydney on Monday, but neither of them mentioned the project.”
“In fact they never attempt to work positively with me on achieving anything for the electorate, preferring to continually paint pictures
of doom and gloom without revealing any policies to address issues of concern to the community,” he continued.
“When I was advised that the NSW Government would fund the hall recently, I immediately contacted Gunnedah High School and
conveyed the good news to the Principal,” he said.
Mr Draper pointed out that he had been asked by the Ministers office not to make any public comments on the Government’s decision to
provide funding for a hall until the Minister had announced her approval of the construction.
“It appears that Mr Khan is now trying to gazump the Ministers announcement in a rather transparent attempt to claim credit for a
project that he has had nothing to do with,” Mr Draper said.
“All Mr Khan is doing is publicly demonstrating his irrelevance, while highlighting ‘how far out of the loop’ he and his colleagues are, in
the process of achieving outcomes for the people of NSW.”
“Sadly, he is yet again attempting to turn a very positive result, achieved through overwhelming public support in Gunnedah, into a
negative.”
“I would suggest Mr Khan needs to adapt to the reality of being a Member of Parliament, and realise his job is to develop and debate
policy, not to waste the Parliaments time and resources on unnecessary investigations that he used to undertake when practicing as a
lawyer,” he said.
“Mr Khan received just 33 primary votes from residents in the electorate of Tamworth in the 2007 NSW election. That followed his
unsuccessful Federal campaign for New England in 2004, when he took the National Party vote from 39% to an all time low of 19%, yet
he was parachuted into Parliament by the National Party,” Mr Draper said.
“Instead of continually carping, criticising and campaigning for his masters, Mr Khan should actually start representing the community
by developing policies and nailing down commitments that would benefit local residents should the Coalition succeed in winning the
Treasury benches in 2011,” he said.
“I call on Trevor Khan to publicly release a list of Coalition promises for the electorate of Tamworth instead of continually denigrating
any good outcomes the community achieves,” he concluded.
To be engaging in this base politics of personality, Peter Draper either as too much time on his hands or has become unhinged.
A wise person once said:-
"Say it in diamonds, say it in mink, but never say it in ink......"
It might be wise for Peter Draper MP to listen to those words.
Other sources:
Khan 'announces' news of new gym, Northern Daily Leader, 26 March 2009.
Alysia Ferguson, Tamworth to host State conference, Northern Daily Leader, 24 March 2009.
NO MORE WAR - MR RUDD - PLEASE BRING OUR TROOPS HOME
There is no such thing as a just war. There is no such thing as a moral war. There is no such thing as a war when "God is on one side and
against the other". As Barack Obama and Kevin Rudd begin to ramp up the war in Afgahnistan, a war which in their own estimation will be for a
prolonged period, it can be reasonably expected that more Aussie blood will be spilled on foreign soil, isn't it time that peace loving people stood
up and said "No more war!".
Thankfully some community members can see the absurdity of the Rudd policy and are starting to speak up. R Kitching of Queensland wrote to
the Northern Daily Leader on 20 March 2009 and said this:
THE news tells us that Stephen Smith, Minister for Foreign Affairs, is among those whose decisions will decide whether or not to send more
Australian troops to Afghanistan.
Why is it that these absolutely dumb politicians have no consideration whatsoever for our defence forces, turning them into offensive forces in
every stinkhole on the planet?
This political adventure is like all of the other political disasters that cost young Australian lives.
They are wars that can never ever be won.
It is high time to immediately bring all of our troops home from all of the stinkholes they are forced to endure by political fools.
In the meantime, PM Rudd is already forecasting more Australian casualties.
Anybody who gets you killed is the enemy.
The Epping to Chatswood Rail Line will not have a life expectancy of 100 years, because of stuff ups in plannng, design and construction.
see: Linton Besser, New $2.3b rail line shows a few cracks, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 March 2009.
The reform of the 'demerit points system" will not occur in the manner it was promised, and will occur much later than promised.
see: Miranda Devine, Fairness stuck in the slow lane, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 March 2009.
AN EXAMINATION OF NSW's "CLASS ACT" PREMIER
Andrew Clennell in the Sydney Morning Herald of 21 March 2009 in an article titled Rescue me: Rees stumbling, examines the first six months of
the class act premiership of NSW by Nathan Rees.
Simon Benson in the Daily Telegraph of 20 March 2009 writes:-
Only six months after premier Morris Iemma was dumped for taking the same fight to the unions over electricity privatisation, Mr Rees
said he would push to have the entire policy revisited.
and
PREMIER Nathan Rees wants to scrap the NSW Labor Party's anti-privatisation policy, suggesting it is archaic and doesn't reflect the
modern economy.
and
Mr Rees also said he had no intention of backing down on prison privatisation plans and said if he had to take on unions and his own
party bosses, he would.
and
Key Labor MPs, however, are still agitating for a leadership spill against Mr Rees by mid-May before what they are now told will be a
"disastrous" June Budget.
But Labor Party officials have also embarked on a campaign to quell the unrest, warning that head office will refuse to support any
move against Mr Rees.
For the first time, they have unequivocally backed the leader until the next election.
see:Rees fights for privatisation in the modern economy .
NSW EMPLOYMENT "BASKET CASE"
HOPE FOR REES
Those NSW Labor supporters taking comfort out of the Queensland poll, where Labor suffered a minor 3.5% swing against it, and arguing that a
similar swing in NSW in 2011, will see Rees elected are clutching at straws. Completely understandable - if one is on a sinking ship, one will clutch
at anything that might appear to keep one afloat.
Andrew Clennell in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald discusses some of the differences between the Queensland situation and the NSW
situation: Rees hoping for his share of beginner's luck, 23 March 2009.
There are some additional differences:-
1. The long term opinion polls leading up to the polls.
2. Rees was appointed Premier as a result of divisions within NSW Labor over the question of privatisation. The anti-privatisation clique was led
by John Robertson. Now 6 months later, in a remarkable about face, Rees has vowed to change party policy to allow privatisation and John
Robertson is in charge of privatising the NSW prison system.
3. The NSW government is basically corrupt.
MERGER IN QLD - COMPETITION IN NSW
In the run-up to the 2009 Queensland state election, the Opposition parties, the Liberal Party and the National Party merged to form the LNP.
They lost the election, gaining only a 3.5% swing from Labor.
However, Tamworth MP, Peter Draper has announced that in NSW, the situation will be vastly different. There will be no merger between the
opposition parties here. Instead they will be competing head to head, in Sydney seats according to Draper. In a media release Draper has
announced:
....rural and regional communities would watch closely to see if the National Party rekindled their waning interest in country areas, and
pulled back from their recent strategy to contest Sydney seats at the 2011 State election.
Peter Draper then went on in his media release to tell the community how well he was achieving for Tamworth with :
....a steady stream of State Government Ministers visiting and announcing some very important initiatives, with tens of millions of
dollars flowing in....
As Labor's man in Tamworth, it is not surprising to see Ministers of the corrupt NSW government visiting Draper.
However, Draper should be a little more transparent in his media releases, and disclose the full facts, so that the community can judge for
themselves how successful he has been in attracting "investment". The League Table from the 2008/09 budget shows that Draper's performance
has been mediocre to average, with the spend in Tamworth being 12th from the bottom in the League Table of 25 seats. Interestingly, Draper,
either because of ignorance of, or with full knowledge of the League Table but in a deliberate attempt to mislead the community, likens his
performance to that of the seat of Wagga. The seat of Wagga sits 4th from the top (Tamworth 14th) on the League Table. Wagga had a spend
of $240 million (Tamworth $129million). It is remarkable in the circumstances that Draper would seek to claim that his performance has been
similar to that of the member for Wagga.
Draper, it seems is not concerned about allowing the true facts stand in the way of a good media release in order to claim credit for things
unjustifiably.
Which brings us to the piece de resistance of Draper's 2007 election campaign, his promise to build a new hospital in Tamwoth with construction
to begin by 31 December 2010. The cost of the construction of the Tamworth Hospital has not been included in the forward estimates of the NSW
government out to 2016. Apart from that, the class act Premier Nath Rees promised in 2008 to "sit down" with Draper "early in the New Year" to
discuss the construction of the Hospital. The first quarter of 2009 is just about to end. There has been no report of "the sitting down" or of
whether the construction of the Tamworth Hospital has been brought forward from beyond 2016. Either the meeting did not happen as promised,
or the construction of the hospital will not take place as promised. The community would like an answer, Yes or No, to those questions.
Perhaps Draper should spend less time reading the Sydney based North Shore Times and being a contributor to the Sydney eastern suburbs
based Wentworth Courier, and more time working on the Tamworth Hospital.
Draper's behaviour in 2009 so far, has been peculiar.. It seems he is losing the plot. It was topped off when he sided with Labor to vote down the
Vanessa's Law bill and then bizarrely sought to justify his behaviour by saying:
1. He did not vote in accordance with the wishes of the community, but according to the dictates of an elite group of health care professionals.
2. In any event, his vote in the parliament does not matter.
SOURCE:
Peter Draper MP, Draper Welcomes Nationals Choice of Tamworth for 2010 State Conference, Media release, 22 March 2009
PERSONALITY POLITICS - HAS DRAPER BECOME UNHINGED ???
When people start playing the politics of "personality", rather than concentrating on the issues of the day that are important to the community, it's
a sure sign something is amiss.
Now Peter Draper MP (Tamworth) seems to have descended into "personality politics" with his most recent attack upon Tamworth based MLC,
Trevor Khan, rather than concentrating on the real issue facing the Tamworth electorate, namely the construction of the Tamworth Hospital. One
wonders if Peter Draper has become unhinged.
In a media release dated 25 March 2009, titled Mr Khan Should Stop Wasting Resources In Attempt To Become Relevant To Political Process
Peter Draper has written:
Member for Tamworth Peter Draper today urged National Party MLC Trevor Khan to stop wasting taxpayers resources on frivolous
investigations, and start developing policies that could benefit the local area should the Coalition win office in 2011.
Mr Draper said that Mr Khan was again trying to turn good news into bad by criticising the funding in a negative media statement about
the Gunnedah communities endeavours to obtain money for a new hall, instead of congratulating the school and the community on its
success in securing the commitment.
“Instead of wasting time and effort on this sort of activity which will have absolutely no impact on the final outcome of the project, Mr
Khan could have rung me and I would have happily advised him that the campaign had been a success,” Mr Draper said.
“I actually sat opposite Mr Khan and his Leader during the flight to Sydney on Monday, but neither of them mentioned the project.”
“In fact they never attempt to work positively with me on achieving anything for the electorate, preferring to continually paint pictures
of doom and gloom without revealing any policies to address issues of concern to the community,” he continued.
“When I was advised that the NSW Government would fund the hall recently, I immediately contacted Gunnedah High School and
conveyed the good news to the Principal,” he said.
Mr Draper pointed out that he had been asked by the Ministers office not to make any public comments on the Government’s decision to
provide funding for a hall until the Minister had announced her approval of the construction.
“It appears that Mr Khan is now trying to gazump the Ministers announcement in a rather transparent attempt to claim credit for a
project that he has had nothing to do with,” Mr Draper said.
“All Mr Khan is doing is publicly demonstrating his irrelevance, while highlighting ‘how far out of the loop’ he and his colleagues are, in
the process of achieving outcomes for the people of NSW.”
“Sadly, he is yet again attempting to turn a very positive result, achieved through overwhelming public support in Gunnedah, into a
negative.”
“I would suggest Mr Khan needs to adapt to the reality of being a Member of Parliament, and realise his job is to develop and debate
policy, not to waste the Parliaments time and resources on unnecessary investigations that he used to undertake when practicing as a
lawyer,” he said.
“Mr Khan received just 33 primary votes from residents in the electorate of Tamworth in the 2007 NSW election. That followed his
unsuccessful Federal campaign for New England in 2004, when he took the National Party vote from 39% to an all time low of 19%, yet
he was parachuted into Parliament by the National Party,” Mr Draper said.
“Instead of continually carping, criticising and campaigning for his masters, Mr Khan should actually start representing the community
by developing policies and nailing down commitments that would benefit local residents should the Coalition succeed in winning the
Treasury benches in 2011,” he said.
“I call on Trevor Khan to publicly release a list of Coalition promises for the electorate of Tamworth instead of continually denigrating
any good outcomes the community achieves,” he concluded.
To be engaging in this base politics of personality, Peter Draper either as too much time on his hands or has become unhinged.
A wise person once said:-
"Say it in diamonds, say it in mink, but never say it in ink......"
It might be wise for Peter Draper MP to listen to those words.
Other sources:
Khan 'announces' news of new gym, Northern Daily Leader, 26 March 2009.
Alysia Ferguson, Tamworth to host State conference, Northern Daily Leader, 24 March 2009.
NO MORE WAR - MR RUDD - PLEASE BRING OUR TROOPS HOME
There is no such thing as a just war. There is no such thing as a moral war. There is no such thing as a war when "God is on one side and
against the other". As Barack Obama and Kevin Rudd begin to ramp up the war in Afgahnistan, a war which in their own estimation will be for a
prolonged period, it can be reasonably expected that more Aussie blood will be spilled on foreign soil, isn't it time that peace loving people stood
up and said "No more war!".
Thankfully some community members can see the absurdity of the Rudd policy and are starting to speak up. R Kitching of Queensland wrote to
the Northern Daily Leader on 20 March 2009 and said this:
THE news tells us that Stephen Smith, Minister for Foreign Affairs, is among those whose decisions will decide whether or not to send more
Australian troops to Afghanistan.
Why is it that these absolutely dumb politicians have no consideration whatsoever for our defence forces, turning them into offensive forces in
every stinkhole on the planet?
This political adventure is like all of the other political disasters that cost young Australian lives.
They are wars that can never ever be won.
It is high time to immediately bring all of our troops home from all of the stinkholes they are forced to endure by political fools.
In the meantime, PM Rudd is already forecasting more Australian casualties.
Anybody who gets you killed is the enemy.
