released from durance vile
A day of high drama. Mohamed Haneef, seen here with his wife Firdous Arshiya, has been burped out of the oppression machine in a victory for bureaucratic common sense and the rule of law. Proving that the system is a good deal less stupid than its leaders. I bet there have been some interesting conversations between the federal police and the commonwealth prosecutor, of the Dear Dickhead variety.
Our premier, Steve Bracks, resigned for no apparent reason. John Thwaites, our treasurer, then did the same, thus removing two parts of the triumvirate that ran Victoria until today.
I think high political office in this day and age is a bit like being a jetty in a storm. The waves just keep coming at you until something breaks inside. Then you go or buckle. If you don’t, you wake up one morning to discover you are old, sun-bleached and covered in barnacles.
The Bracks government is said to be boring, staid and conservative. I am no supporter of its attitude to the S11 demonstrations, or its policies on old growth forests, or its inability to articulate a long term policy about water.
But my partner Susie was in the The Alfred Hospital today for some physio, and she says the staff were shocked and despondent. One staff member said it was as if someone had died. That reminds me that the Bracks government has been about the slow, unspectacular provision of decent services to Victorians.
As Susie said – she stood in the new wing of The Alfred and thought “This is not a casino.”
July 27th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
As a gormless youth in Australia whilst-on my state sponsored studies, I would sit at the feet of Mr Tiley asking about various mysteries of political machinations of the day: he would opine to me, “join the dots, oh grasshopper, join the dots.”
So, using this analytical framework I am drawn to ask what massive stuff-up has surfaced that they are buggering off from with such indecent haste before it all hits the fan?
Brumby, clearly the defacto boss throughout the whole Bracks reign, will now be able to comfortably side-step the looming mess as the mistakes of predecessors.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
[...] David Tiley has a more qualified but still benign view: The Bracks government is said to be boring, staid and conservative. I am no supporter of its attitude to the S11 demonstrations, or its policies on old growth forests, or its inability to articulate a long term policy about water. [...]
July 28th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Lei Feng , why so suspicious? Maybe it is about fairly passing on the seat of power to the next one in line; rather than hogging it.
David, I absolutely agree with your observations about S11 and old growth forests re: big downside for Bracksie. I think it fair to take him on his word with regard to water policy, though…. that he does not trust Howard/Canberra.
They will continue to privatise the whole Australian waterway system if there is a buck in it and the public who need this most basic commmodity can get stuffed. Overall , compared to Jeff , Bracks has been been a gentle , polite giant.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Bracks has seemed preferable in most ways to our local man for all seasons, Peter Beattie. Loved the casino comment – it’s that kind of stuff that gives you hope.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Joe – I agree. It’s just that I think we have a hundred years at least of water politics in Victoria, stretching back to the original dam constructions, and that the ALP needs to articulate a very clear plan which shows how both the bush and the city win and lose.
Otherwise the bush will retreat to a “we is robbed” meme which is electorally dangerous. Interesting that the NFF is standing by the ALP here – something that needs to be emphasised by the party smarties.
In some ways, I think we have just lost the Bob Hawke of state politics – a great chair of cabinet meetings, and a public conciliator. Brumby is more of a tuffy, which could be a bad image. (cheers to N. Gruen esq for his observations on Hawke which underly this theory).
July 30th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
I stumbled into St Vincents emergency wing last week for what wasn’t really an emergency as such, but was worth having a quick look at.
Hadn’t been there for 15 years, and found it all modern and swizzed up, was initially very leery after all the bad news health system stories that abound.
Took a little while to be seen too, but the service was absolutely cracking when it came. One junior took care of immediate business, noticed something odd on an ear, called on a senior staffer to double check. I left with some good advice, a swathe of follow up attention, and two days later, received all the details I had been promised.
I’m giving it 5 stars.
And then I went to see “Sicko” later that night.
How lucky we are.
July 31st, 2007 at 12:07 pm
“This is not a casino.” – yes, that pretty much sums it up for me, and people I know have said good things about the redeveloped Austin in the Northern suburbs too. But, we’ve got money woes in the Women’s, which spill into the Children’s, and waiting lists are still too long.
And while we didn’t see the grand splurging on a central casino under Bracks, nearly every corner pub, RSL and bowls club in some suburbs is a casino, with no signs of the state govt taking its finger out of the pie.
This is indeed a government of contradictions – how do you measure up the brilliance of establishing marine parks with the ongoing channel deepening fiasco, or the strong measures to encourage households to save water but the poor commitment to long-term water policy?
How do you puzzle through the bastardry where they promised us, at the last election, recylced grey-water for industry use and lambasted the Liberal’s desalination push, but now turn around and push desalination onto us?
Phil, if the bright side to Bracks compared to Beattie is that he hasn’t foistered a dam onto us, or spun pipedreams out of pumping water from the tropical north to the scorched south, I could agree with you, but many a times I wonder…