All Liars are Liars

I hate to say "I hate to say I told you so", but: 'Madden attended meeting over Hotel Windsor sham'
I told you I hate to say I hate to say I told you so.

Things I've learned in the past week or so...

(Or how I learned to stop writing long blog posts and just get this stuff out there, short-stuff Twitter-style)

A few things I've learnt this week:

• Alberto Cheatador got nailed (and I got to see Lance many, many times up close and personal at the Tour Down Under -BAM!)
  
• Apparently I'm to blame for Angus and Julia and Stone getting the No.1 spot in the Hottest 100, even though I did not and would not vote for them (my No.1 song of the year was "Tighten Up" by the Black Keys, but I consistently have my thumb off the pulse of what the general public like, as evidenced by my failure to watch a single episode of Masterchef, combined with my constant ability to watch shows that get cancelled or placed at weird times or on weird stations (Community, 30 Rock, even Buffy), plus predicting that no-one liked John Howard or (heaven forbid) that Peter Costello would be better than Howard...and so forth. Come to think of it, my inability to see eye-to-eye with the public-at-large could be why I rant...)
  
• Ricky Gervais is an hilarious atheist
• Douchebaggery
• Privatising our public transport has meant we've paid a billion dollars for worse service (but of course if you read this blog, and the fact you just read that previous sentence indicates you do, you already know that)
• By putting the maintenance of the surplus above climate change reform (and, indeed, common sense, by taxing people a small amount for a lot of grief), Julia Gillard really doesn't know what she's doing there.

That last bullet point of learning is very disappointing. I (and an entire country, besides) have given her a chance, but it's just getting worse. The right-wing crazies were already howling for her blood, but the progressives don't seem too keen on what she's been doing either.
Some bold decisions need to be made - the flooding we've seen this year is likely to become a frequent occurrence (as early as next week apparently, with some cyclones bearing down on a Queensland that must be full to the brim with homosexuals, assuming you're into the whole Wrath Of God thing), and we've already seen other evidence of extreme weather events with not just the bushfires in Victoria, but events all over the world. Ian Lowe, president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, has some good suggestions in his article "Drowning in a hothouse", mostly to do with acknowledging there's a problem and putting a price on carbon pronto, as well as investing in public transport, phasing out multibillion-dollar subsidies of fossil fuel production and use, and investing in clean energy. Y'know, obvious stuff. Also, I'm no engineer, but I also wonder if there shouldn't be some kind of huge nation-building program undertaken to divert water that would otherwise cause flooding through the Great Dividing Range and into the Murray-Darling river system - #twobirdsonestone. Twitter-style!
Plus the ongoing debacle that is the resource rent tax (or the "Some minerals extraction tax", or "Oil-and-coal-companies-can-you-lend-me-a-fiver-scheme", or whatever it's going to end up as) really sticks in my ... anyone? Anyone? "Craw" - That's right - its sticks in my motherlovin' craw. To add insult to injury about our Government's limp-wristed approach to this issue, an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, Peter Christoff, decided to rub our noses in it a bit (with good intentions), telling us that:

"Mesmerised by the short-term benefits of successive mineral booms and shackled to their revenue flows, Australian governments have become both increasingly reluctant and increasingly politically terrified to regulate the pace of exploitation of these resources or to seek their full worth. And because returns to the state have been spent immediately, governments have become addicted to the income stream and unable to slow the exploitation of resources that have no future, such as coal and, eventually, gas, if we are to take climate change seriously.
We have been told over and again that this development path was the only choice for Australia, which doesn't have the public capital base to invest in exploration and exploitation of its non-renewable natural resources.
Strange, then, that a small nation such as Norway - population 5 million - should have had the capacity to do so. Stranger still that Norway could use revenue from its oil and gas windfall to establish a national fund that is now a major investor in economic development both in Norway and overseas, guaranteeing a revenue stream to fund the very robust Norwegian welfare state - its health, transport, public housing, and social security system."

Ahhh, jeez. I'm just gonna go to the Big Day Out and watch the Black Keys, to calm my nerves.

Speaking of which, here's that favourite song of mine from last year:

What's that? The Black Keys have cancelled their Australian tour?
Motherfuck!
All right, I'll just watch Ricky Gervais being funny again:

The Decline and Fall of the State Labor Government's Empire

Well - it's over.
For the ALP's Victorian Government, that is. Wa-hey!!
And I hate to say "I told you so" but ...
Actually, I think I enjoy saying it. What I really hate saying is "I hate to say "I told you so"" (because I have to say it so often, you see...)
Anyhoo - I told you so! Here, and here and here. And also here quite forcefully. Plus I already mentioned here.
I was half-way through another post railing against the Government that I was going to call "On the Nose" (an enormously witty reference to the former Victorian slogan "On the Move") but they went and got themselves kicked out before I could finish it.
The surprising thing for me was not the result, but the fact that everyone else seemed surprised about the result. I thought I was alone in predicting the Labor Government would go down this election, but to be fair, a few other commentators (or "professional journalists", if you want to get accurate about it) also recognised the danger signs, like Paul Austin of The Age back in February ("Labor's tide begins to turn") and David Rood in March, after the Altona by-election ("The Sorry Factor").
I'm not saying I'm jumping for joy about it - I'm just being self-congratulatory for picking it.
One of my biggest sore points was the Hotel Windsor debacle, which involved the leak of a plan by the Minister for Clowning - Justin Madden - and/or his staff to have a sham consultation into the development of the hotel, followed up with an immediate approval of the project after the leak, and a refusal to allow any of his staff to testify at the subsequent inquiry. As stated in the article "Arrogant executive should be brought to heel in Windsor case":

"DEFIANCE of the law by the government is one of the most serious things that can occur in any democracy. It is a breach of the rule of law, the most fundamental value on which our constitutional arrangements are based. It is precisely this sort of dangerous defiance that the Victorian government is engaged in with its refusal to co-operate with a parliamentary inquiry into the Hotel Windsor planning processes - and it is doing so under the cover of a bogus "parliamentary convention".
"The time has come for the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house of the Parliament, to take severe action against the executive and to establish the point once and for all that the Parliament's legitimate role must be accepted."

So - their lack of respect for democracy stuck in my craw somewhat.
Plus there was all that stuff they ignored or tried to hide about public transport (and myki), and smart meters, and the desal plant and the Port Phillip Bay dredging and BAD PLANNING and...
You get the idea.
It's unlikely that Baillieu will be able to fix many if any of these problems. But a democratically elected Government that fails to abide by the central tenets of democracy deserves to get democratically kicked in the ar$e.
Baillieu - you're next in the cross-hairs on my boot. Get to work.

What’s good for the goose…

A little while ago, I was involved with www.thinkliar.com, a website dedicated to highlighting the...how should I put this...non-core truths perpetrated by John Winston Howard, with the catchy catchphrase 'Think John Howard. Think Liar.'(1)
Set up in 2003, the website was obviously an unqualified success, with John Howard and his Liberal-National coalition romping it in at the election in 2004, winning both houses of Parliament for the first time in over 20 years. It was a success, that is, assuming the purpose of highlighting the slippery nature of John Howard was to get him re-elected. Which, on further reflection, was not our intention.
Maybe the website was a slow-burner, since Little Johnny lost the 2007 election in spectacular fashion. If the website (and domain name) still existed, I would like to take some credit.
Nonetheless! What I'm saying is, whether or not I was personally responsible, I was glad to see the end of Howard.
And now his successor, Kevin Rudd, seems…pretty good. We’ll see. But now that we have the Labor Party governing at the federal level, it looks like his State Labor counterparts might not be so lucky at the next election.
And this is what I was trying to get at.
Australians generally like having a balance in politics – we don’t want any one person or party having too much power. This is another theory for why, after Howard won both the Senate and House of Representatives in 2004, and abused the power, he convincingly lost the election a little over 3 years later (the other theory being the influence of thinkliar.com).
Now with a Federal Labor Government, I think a lot of people, myself included, won’t be so reliant on having Labor State Governments, and I think their situation is looking more and more precarious. NSW has been a basket-case for a while, now, and that affair with apparent corruption in Wollongong can’t help (though the fact that the Opposition in NSW is a complete rabble may help the ALP for some time). Tasmania has also now joined in with a recent fiasco, which can’t help matters: Shredded note brings down Tasmania's Deputy Premier.
And though the Victorian ALP seems strong, I’m not so sure. Below is some of my recent correspondence sent to John Brumby, Gavin Jennings and Peter Garrett in relation to, primarily, the channel deepening project in Port Philip Bay (sent on 5 February 2008):

Dear sirs
I am writing to give you fair warning of what I think may happen at the next State election.
I have been voting (2) Labor a long time (and was actually quite active in trying to get rid of John Howard), but even I am tempted to vote AGAINST Labor at the next State election.
In doing so, I would be voting for the same reasons I wanted to get rid of the Coalition federally, and Jeff Kennett in Victoria. Both of those Governments became arrogant in office, did not consult with the community, and seemed to be making deals that were not for the benefit of the majority of Australians/Victorians (John Howard also had a problem with being honest with anyone, and in my opinion was pretty ordinary economically, but that's for another day).
These accusations could also be made about the Victorian Government today. There is a hell of a lot of dissatisfaction out there, and even though the election is quite a long way away, there is a possibility that your Government will be voted out for the growing raft of poor environmental decisions it appears to be making.
I urge you (and Mr Garrett) to reconsider these issues of vital importance to our environment - there is still time to make new plans, to hold your heads high and take on board the criticisms of the electorate.
We don't really care how much power the Port of Melbourne thinks it needs, or how much profit Connex wants. We do care about our bay and the Yarra, about traffic congestion, about increasing pollution, about spoiling natural areas like the Gippsland Coast.
To us, the public, it seems there are good alternatives to these problems - start developing Western Port NOW, invest in adequate rail infrastructure (for both passengers and freight) even if it means a trade-off with less investment in roads for a while (I know how much governments love roads), encourage all homes to install water tanks (or even provide them free - I've heard this would be cheaper and better than building the desalination plant), get alternative energy sources up and running straight away.
Some bold initiatives like these would re-invigorate support for your Government. To be honest, off the top of my head, I can't think of anything bold that the Labor Government has done since attaining office.
If, however, these ideas are not feasible, then tell us why. Engage with the public. That is what democracy is all about.
Don't make me vote Liberal. I really don't want to. But for the sake of our democracy, I may have to.
Yours faithfully
Riley Jones

You heard it hear first. And you heard it here second.
Let the betting begin.

PS Yes, the title is saying that John Howard is a goose.

(1) A line based on the classic 'Think Squirrels. Think Nuts.' from The Office (apparently): “What does a squirrel do in the summer? It buries nuts. Why? Cos then in winter time he's got something to eat and he won't die. So, collecting nuts in the summer is worthwhile work. Every task you do at work think, would a squirrel do that? Think squirrels. Think nuts.”
(2) Or at least preferencing…